The Boy King
THE BIRTH OF A CHILD
"Just hold me," Arthur said, and so Merlin held him, face screwing up in a pointless attempt to hold back tears. He clutched his friend to his chest, the cold from the chainmail biting into his fingers. Merlin couldn't stop the helpless sob rising up from his chest, a keening wail leaving his throat-
-and the tiny black kitten, still wet from birth, opened its mouth and cried out for the first time. Owen giggled at the creature, reaching for it with chubby fists before his mother gently stopped him.
"Let Beatrice clean him up before you grab him, dear," she chided him, and he pouted at her.
Smiling, she stroked his long, unkempt hair. As she moved her arm, her chains rattled, and Beatrice the cat looked up sharply from where she was violently swiping her tongue over her kittens. Owen turned to look back at the newborn kittens. There were five in total, but the last one was barely moving after its first wail. Beatrice had finished cleaning her first three, and they were suckling at her for their milk.
The child scowled at the smallest kitten, annoyed that it wasn't moving as much as its siblings.
"Get up!" he snapped haughtily, "You're lazy!"
As if to spite him, the kitten abruptly stopped moving and slumped to the ground. His mother made a small, sad noise behind him and tried to cover his eyes, but Owen resisted and pounded the ground of the cell with his feet.
"Lazy!" he chanted, steadily growing louder and louder, "Lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy, la-"
"Hey!" barked a gruff voice from down the hall, "Shut your kid up before the guards come down here!"
At the sudden shout, Owen's mouth snapped shut and he whimpered slightly. In the ensuing silence, he could hear a tiny growl coming from his left. When the boy looked over, he found the smallest kitten, eyes wide open, glaring at the origin of the gruff voice with a bright blue gaze.
Behind him, Owen's mother stifled a gasp and murmured prayers to a forgotten god. Though she knew little about animals, she had enough knowledge to understand that newborn kittens were supposed to wait at least more than a day to open their eyes, let alone five minutes.
Owen smirked proudly at the kitten, who had now turned his glare on the boy as if to say, Why'd you wake me up?!
However, before he could answer, a clanging noise emanated from the corridor outside of the cell. Instantly, all noise in the cells ceased, and Owen's mother pulled him tight against her chest. The boy froze, mouth clamped shut and eyes desperately seeking out the blue-eyed kitten. Beatrice attempted to draw the tiny creature to her teats with its littermates, but it resisted and instead moved determinedly towards Owen.
By the time the kitten finally wriggled over to the boy, the source of the noise was just about upon them. The bulky, muscular mercenary sneered at the prisoners as he made his way confidently down the hall. As he reached the cell of Owen and his mother, the man paused. Turning his gaze on Beatrice and her four unaware kittens still suckling at her milk, a cruel grin grew slowly across his face. Owen's mother realized what their jailer was going to do before her son did, and quickly covered Owen's eyes as the man unlocked their cell.
Owen scrunched his face up underneath his mother's palm, wondering with bated breath what the nasty man was doing in their cell. He could feel the kitten still squirming behind him, and he shifted a little so the man wouldn't be able to see it. In Owen's experience, any time the men came down to the cells outside of mealtime, it was either to take someone away or to put someone else in a cell. The man hadn't come with a prisoner, so it could only be assumed that he was here to take someone away. And while Owen was curious to why no one ever returned, he had no desire to be taken from his mother just yet.
But the man strode over to the cat instead of the humans, and Owen heard his mother inhale sharply. The sound wasn't enough to cover up the startled yowl that was abruptly cut off though, or the quiet mewling that was followed by crunching and then silence. The man snorted to himself with amusement, leering towards the tiny corpses with sick joy, and Owen was just about to surge upwards from his mother's grasp and charge at the man in rage, despite the chains that bound him to the wall. He had just tightened his hands into small fists when a sudden cry in his head froze him to the spot.
No! echoed the voice in his head, momentarily drowning out all the other sounds. Owen stiffened in shock, and the man exited the cell while he was frozen. Once he was gone, Owen's mother waited a few seconds before allowing the boy to wriggle out of her grasp. The mercenary had taken the corpses of the cats with him when he had left, and all that remained was a spot slick with birth fluids and blood.
With a sorrowful noise, Owen turned to the smallest kitten that was still tucked behind him. The kitten turned to look back at him, blue eyes brimming with tears.
I'm all alone, echoed a tiny, sad voice in Owen's head, I have no one left now.
Ignoring his mother's attempts to pull him over to her, the boy instead lifted his chin at the despondent kitten and announced aloud:
"I saved you, so you got me. Now you're not alone, and mummy's not alone, and I'm not alone!"
"Owen, dear, what are you talking about?" asked Owen's mother, but he ignored her.
But you're human, and I'm not, the kitten was complaining, I'm different, so you gotta burn me.
"What?!" cried Owen, "That's stupid! You're stupid! Besides, you're different 'cuz… 'cuz I'm your leader, that's why! You hafta do what I say!" The kitten blinked, but then relaxed.
But I thought… he began, but then changed his mind, I guess you're right. Who are you? Who am I?
"My name's Owen," Owen declared proudly, "And you're… you're…"
Suddenly, a chorus of shouts broke out from above them. The prisoners muttered to themselves and huddled together with those in the same cell. The walls of the cavern with their cages began shaking, and loose stones tumbled down from the ceiling. Owen's mother clutched her son tightly to her chest, and the boy just managed to do the same for the kitten before the rumbling abruptly stopped.
The world seemed to hold its breath for a brief moments, like everything was frozen in time, and Owen started to pull back his head from where it was pressed into his mother's tunic.
Then the next shakes hit, and they hit hard. Larger rocks dropped and cracked open when they hit the ground, sending sharp shards of debris flying through the air. Owen's mother cried out as one struck her in the leg, but she managed to twist around and curl her body over Owen and the kitten. The boy was crying loudly now, hugging the small, black creature as if it were a stuffed toy. The kitten itself was limp and shaking in utter terror, claws digging into Owen. Opaque dust filled the lungs of the prisoners, though not quite drowning out the acrid stench of blood and urine.
Owen screamed when he felt his mother go limp above him, and in raw, unthinking panic, pushed himself out from under her and dove for the now-decimated bars of their cage. Before he could even take two steps, though, the manacles on his wrists were pulled taut and he was jerked backwards to land hard on his back. Hyperventilating from both fear and lack of breath, the boy opened his eyes wide and stared upwards. A rock the size of a man plummeted down, heading straight for Owen.
Owen's breath caught. For a moment, the world seemed peaceful. The screams and crashes subsided. The air smelled more pure and clean than it ever had before in Owen's whole life. All of the boy's scrapes and bruises disappeared. He felt completely and utterly calm, he was drifting underwater, a feeling Owen had never experienced before.
NO! interrupted the kitten's suddenly strong voice in his head, and then everything came rushing back to Owen all at once. Owen's gaze snapped down to the bedraggled newborn that had grown so fast in a matter of minutes. There was no trace of the weak, trembling thing that had been there before. Now, the kitten stood atop the child's chest, shoulders squared and piercing gaze fixed on the large rock hovering above them.
His golden gaze.
All around the two, rocks crumbled and people screamed. But the kitten and the small boy were enveloped in the feeling of peace and safety. Golden feline eyes met tear-stained cobalt blue, and two sides of the same coin lived once more.