Chapter 6: The Horse is Right

The morning brought a wonderful, dull headache with it. Marion brought a hand up to push the hair out of their face as they pushed themself into a sitting position. Eris was still asleep, arms wrapped around a pillow. Jacket had gotten out of his grasp during the night, now likely crawled up somewhere out of sight.

The elf could not help but lay on their side and admire the prince for a long moment. Before this situation, they had only ever seen him from afar and Marion was enamored by him. There was the faintest spattering of freckles on his face, adding a certain delicate nature to his otherwise regal face. His raven locks were mussed by sleep, curly and wild, but somehow still beautiful. His lashes fluttered after a moment, a soft whine escaping his pale pink lips.

There was something dread invoking by the way his eyes shifted to find Marion’s beneath half-hooded lids. For just a moment, and the knight was sure it was just a trick of the light, Eris’ pupils had been thin slits. Draconic, even. The elf furiously rubbed at their eyes and when their hand came away, the prince’s eyes were just as they had always been. Pearl-hued and gentle. It was only a trick of the light.

Eris turned away from Marion as he sat up on the bed, his hand brought up to gently rub his temples. He cradled his head as he began to stand, only to flop back into the bed. He made a pathetic noise and the knight felt pity for him.

“I suppose you should’ve listened when I said slow down last night,” the elf tutted softly, sliding off their side of the bed.

“But I don’t remember you saying to slow down,” the prince whined as he dragged a pillow over his head.

“Perhaps I only thought about telling you to slow down then,” Marion jokes.

“Perhaps you should’ve told me to slow down. I’d have appreciated it a lot more if you had.”

“I apologize then, Your Highness,” Marion offered in a teasing apology. Eris huffed slightly, picking up the pillow beside him to chuck it at the knight. It hit the elf with a soft thud before falling to the floor.

“That’s for being a smartass,” Eris huffed, not yet moving from beneath his own pillow. “Now, how do I make my head stop hurting?”

“Water usually helps.” The elf watched as the prince wriggled about on the bed, trying to remain comfortably in the dark. Their eyes drifted across his body, admiring the dip and curve in his hips.

Marion surely hadn’t fallen in love with him, had they? He had spoken so gently of the world and the true nature of being seen, but they had only known Eris for a short time. Affection, perhaps, was the better thought. The knight wanted to hold the prince closer to their chest, to play with his hair and assure him things would be alright, even for a little while.

“Well. Uhm… Anyways. We should probably get on the road by this evening, if we can manage that?” Marion said, trying to shake their inappropriate thoughts away.

Eris held up a hand, offering a singular thumbs up at the question. His hand fell back to the side and Marion eyed him a moment. They opted to sit down for now, going through the saddlebags, the contents of which having been strewn across the table the night before when they went to find their card deck.

The elf watched Eris for a while, keeping a close eye on him for a time. There was certainly something odd about everything that had happened so far. Ganymede’s absence at the lair was strange, now that Marion really had the time to think about it. It was unsettling, even, to consider it. Where could Ganymede have gone? Could the dragon have gone back to terrorize the Crownlands of the country? How had Eris even survived the tower collapse, given the sheer volume of damage wrought upon it? Not even beautiful princes were immune to death in the wake of such destruction.

Eventually, Marion was able to rouse the prince from his hungover napping to corral him out the door. Jacket was close at heel, pushing lightly at Eris to keep him walking in the right direction.

“Wait till you’re back in the saddle and you’ll fall right back to sleep, promise,” the elf murmured, handing the key back to the innkeeper as they departed from the inn. It was still early enough in the day that there were few folks present. A small blessing in a small town.

It was left behind in due time, a dusty road greeting them with the midday sun. Eris was comfortably seated behind Marion in the saddle, his head pressed into the elf’s shoulder. A glance was spared back to the prince, blue eyes near betraying every inquisition of the knight.

“Might you like to talk about what we talked about last night?”

“What do we have to talk about, in regards to it?” Eris mumbled.

“You talked an awful lot about the matter of being seen by the world, and being loved in it… Though that’s likely on me for asking about being an heir and what that’s like.”

Eris was quiet for a long moment, as if considering what to say in response. “It is best to forget that I said anything, yeah?” he finally spoke, his breath brushing against the shell of Marion’s ear. The elf shuddered as the prince pulled his face away, their face turning red. They almost considered protesting at this request to simply just forget, but otherwise fell silent.

A tugging whisper pulled at the back of Marion’s mind. The small, fleeting otherworldly noise of a fey creature long bound to the knight. “You know you’re lucky he can’t see your face, right? You’re giving too much of your emotions away, Mar.”

The elf shifted the reins in their hands to push their bangs out of their face. “Shut the hell up, Jacket. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m in your head, you know that, right? I can hear your thoughts loud and clear. You seem to always forget that when it's most important.”

“We’ll worry about it later, please? We should be focusing on the road and keeping Eris safe. My feelings do not matter at all right now.”

“Whatever you ask for, Marion, you shall receive.”

They hated when Jacket was right. Marion did not have a chance to hold, let alone love, Eris. He was a prince and they were a knight of a lower noble house. What chance did they have to be loved in return?