When DG and Wyatt entered the medical tent where Azkadellia was stationed, in time to wheel her into the mess for the evening meal, they were surprised to her hear laugh while a male voice uttered a curse. DG frowned when she saw the man with her sister - she remembered him from somewhere.
It dawned on her as she bent to give her sister a kiss in welcome: he was the one who had made fun of Cain that first day they had met. He was also the Evil Witch of the Dark's right hand man in the memories she had of what never was. His name was Zero, if she remembered correctly. It took all of her will power to remember that this was not the same man her memories tried to tell her it was. That Zero never existed in this world without the Evil Witch of the Dark.
"How goes it?" DG asked her sister, eying the chess board with a critical eye. She spotted the reason for the curse almost immediately; Zero's king was cornered by Az's queen, rook, and knight.
"Marvelously," the princess replied, her eyes dancing.
Adrian Zero mock glared at her, "You cheated."
She turned to face him, a sweet smile on her face, "Prove it."
"You distracted me," he argued.
DG saw how her sister thrived under the easy banter. "And now we must distract you both again - it's time to eat."
Az frowned, "Already?"
Deej nodded, "I've been gone six hours, Az." She nodded toward the board, "You must have been having fun tricking him into surrendering up his queen."
Az's eyes twinkled mischievously as she replied, "All in a day's work, little sister. Now, I do believe you said something about food?"
DG laughed, "The stomach rules all."
Zero and Cain helped Az move to the wheelchair that DG brought close to the bed, settling Az in with her leg elevated to waist level.
"I just hope it's not that imitation mug lug again," Az shuttered at the memory.
DG grinned, "Be glad you didn't have to eat the standard rations, sis. You really must talk to the queen about that - even the goblins have better tasting gruel."
"I know it's not the best, but it's not that bad, is it?" Zero asked.
DG nodded, "It is."
"How does the goblin one taste?"
"Like chicken."
"How'd they pull that off?"
"Surplus of chickens."
--
King Jackson Le Monté paced the cave in a fury. How dare she castrate his men! With forks no less. Sharpened dinner forks. (Based on the description gathered by Azkadellia when she saw the weapons they were actually salad forks as opposed to the much larger meat forks that Jackson was thinking of when he was informed of the weapons used. The salad fork's handle is much easier for the lower caste of goblins to grasp in their smaller forms, and thus is more practical than the wider handle associated with the meat fork.)
He took a drink of his scotch before throwing the glass to shatter against the stone. Damn her!
The more he thought about the grievous insult paid to him by the Goblin Bitch, the less he thought about the land he had originally hoped to gain through tormenting Ozarian border farmers. Now his thoughts were filled with making the bitch pay for her actions.
And pay she would, if it was the last thing he did.
--
Devon Dugan, General of the Goblin Army, smirked at the expression on Coriander's face when he finally caught up with her in the mess hall. She poked and prodded her chicken, ruthlessly tearing it to shreds.
Devon slid into the vacant seat across from the guard, "Fiery got your tongue?"
She turned her glare on him, "No, but it apparently has your brains. What do you want, Devon?"
He chuckled, "Aren't you supposed to be watching the Princess right now?"
She started using her fork to violently spear pieces of the now finely shredded chicken breast, "Not with Colonel Cain acting like her watch dog."
Devon raised an eyebrow, taking a bite of the drum stick he was eating. "Jealous, much?"
Coriander put down her fork and looked at Devon in shock, "I am not jealous of that man."
The other man just snorted outright at that, "Sure. You're perfectly hunky dory with the fact that he's completely usurped your singular most important duty that you've had since DG came to live in the Labyrinth - one decade ago."
"Well, come on! It was my job. What I trained for since puberty. Now I might as well start mucking stables for all good my training is doing me," she moped.
Devon put down his piece of chicken and started outright laughing at his companion. "It's not funny!" she hissed at him, knowing that his laughter was drawing unwanted eyes.
"Yes, it is," he said, quieting down so that others would turn back to their own meals. "You're jealous of something neither of them can control."
"What are you talking about?" Coriander furrowed her brow in confusion.
He looked at her as if she was quite dense, "Did you not pay attention to the stories we were told as children? The bonding betwixt the Land and the Keeper?"
Realization dawned as she said, "The Guardian."
He nodded with a smile, "So you do remember."
"Between the Land and People there be
A Keeper in whom the power all see
Kept safe in the Guardian's embrace
With love, only to look upon his face
Land, Keeper, Guardian, three as one
Safe keep the People, the Darkness, and the Sun."
Coriander nodded, finally grasping what she was told, "He's her Guardian."
"And ours as well."
--
"It looks more like a pig to me." Az squinted into the sun, trying to clear the picture forming in her eyes.
Her companion looked at her in shock, "It's clearly a griffon."
She shook her head, "No, Zero, it's a pig. See the small swishy tail?"
He squinted at the sky, "You mean the griffon's back left paw?"
Az glared at him, one of her hands lightly smacking his arm. "Why do you insist on being so difficult?" Her smile and twinkling eyes contradicted her words and mock glare.
"Because it makes you smile," he replied simply.
This caused her smile to turn a little more shy as he returned it with a small smile of his own. He reached out a hand tentatively to push back a lock of her hair that had fallen into her face.
"I don't see why you're so hung up about this, Mr. Cain!" DG said as she walked with her companion to plop down beside Az, oblivious to the moment they had just ruined.
"I was just expecting something more like knives, not forks," he replied, exasperated. "They use dinner forks as hand weapons."
"Actually they're salad forks," DG replied smarmily. "And what's the problem? So what if the goblins castrated them - it wasn't like they were doing something worthy of a medal!"
"Castration just seems a bit extreme, Princess - it is, after all, permanent," he replied, taking a seat underneath one of the trees the blanket was spread out beside.
"So is the smell from the Bog of Stench," she replied unrepentant. "At least when a castrated man walks into a room he doesn't have all heads turning away from him as they gag from the smell that he can't wash off." Her tone lost most of its exasperation when she added, "Crime and punishment is taken very seriously in the Labyrinth - that's why the unwanted go there in the first place. Punishments must be permanent if they are to be effective on a larger scale."
"What about less severe crimes, like stealing a loaf of bread?" Zero asked, confused. "Do petty thieves get thrown in the Bog?"
DG shook her head, "There's a different system of punishments set up do deal with petty crimes like bread stealing and vandalism."
Az scowled prettily, "Can we not discuss something so depressing as crime rates?"
"Would you prefer we talk about the added security measures to make sure that King Jackson's men don't breach our patrols again?" DG asked, her eyes wide in mock innocence.
"Or how exactly you escaped from King Jackson," Cain added.
Az shrugged, "What's to tell? Ding got the collar off my throat and I teleported myself out while he was distracted with the returning soldiers. Apparently a group of castrated soldiers is a good distraction."
DG smiled as if satisfied with herself, "I aim to please."
The other princess moved her leg and winced, her hand moving to rest on the injured part of her body. The pain medication was wearing off rapidly.
"I think it's time to get you back to the infirmary, Princess," Zero said, moving to get the wheelchair for her to sit in.
"Actually, I need to speak with you, Captain Zero," DG said, giving the man in question a look that brokered no argument. Zero bowed his head in silent acceptance but his worried eyes turned toward Az.
"I'll take her," Wyatt offered, helping the other man pick up the princess up and set her down in the chair.
"Thank you, Colonel," Az said with a smile. "I really don't mean to be a bother."
"Nonsense," he replied as he began to roll the princess back to the main camp, "I need to have a few words with Lylo anyway."
When Princess DG was finally alone with Captain Zero she motioned for him to walk beside her as she rose. "Take a walk with me, Captain," it was no where close to a request.
The pair walked around the perimeter of the camp in silence for a while before DG finally spoke again. "You seem to be spending a lot of time with my sister, Captain."
"Yes, your highness," he admitted, uneasy about where the conversation was headed.
"She likes you," DG observed. "Quite a bit, actually."
"Your highness?" he asked this time.
She stopped walking and turned to face him, the heels on her boots bringing her close to eye level with the older man, "Just what are your intentions toward my sister?"
Zero stumbled at that, "I'm not sure that's any of your business, Princess."
DG raised her eyebrows at him, "Would you rather I make it Prince Ahamo's business?"
They stared at each other for a long while in a silent battle of wills. The Goblin Princess won out in the end. "I don't know, your highness," he finally whispered. "I have no intention of dishonoring her or sullying her reputation, if that's what you're worried about."
"Do you intend to court her?" It had to be spelled out so that DG could protect her sister - even from their own parents if need be.
"I suppose I intend to get to know her and become her friend before decisions of that nature are reached, your highness," Zero responded after a brief silence.
"I want to be clear about one thing, Captain," DG said, her face and voice deadly serious. "If you hurt her or break her heart, what happened to King Jackson's men will seem like a walk through the fields of the papay compared to what will happen to you."
A chill of fear swept across Zero's frame as he realized what she meant and exactly what she would do to him. "Understood, your highness. Rest assured that I have no intention of hurting her."
"Good."
A/N: I figured you'd like the slightly shorter chapter as opposed to waiting a few more days for this to be posted. We all knew that the DG/Zero talk was coming, and I hope you liked it. I just had a very, very stressful week and it's just going to continue through the next two weeks - and then classes start (I'm taking five).
Maybe if you ask nicely this plot bunny will decide to kick into overdrive before classes start.