I wish to apologize profusely for the lateness of this chapter. It was supposed to be finished last week, but Hurricane Sally knocked out my power and internet for a couple days. And then there was a mishap with my State Tax that had to be corrected immediately. It was just a whole ordeal. But everything is fine now and I should be posting regularly again soon. With that said, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is produced by Dreamworks Animation Television, and both She-Ra and He-Man are owned by Mattel. Enjoy.
Chapter 19: Boy Talk
Thankfully, the damage to Bow's face wasn't nearly as serve as it looked. Once the bleeding finally stopped, the doctor just had to realign his septum and put on one of those thermoplastic nasal splints to keep it in place. It still hurt like hell, but it could have been a lot worse.
Anyway, after the doctor cleared him to leave, the trio boarded their private air speeder and headed for home. However, once they'd reached the mainland, Adam realized that it was close to lunchtime, so he landed in a nearby town about a stone's throw away from the capital so they could all get a bite to eat.
Before long, the threesome had found a quaint little pub and secured a nice private booth in the far back, so as to avoid any unwanted attention.
"Hey, uh, I'm gonna head to the bathroom. BRB." Adora said, seemingly out of nowhere as she climbed out of the booth.
"Cool. Cool." Adam replied passively. "Say, if the waitress comes while you're gone, what do you want to drink? Strawberry Ale? Blackberry Ale? Raspberry…"
"No, none of that fruity stuff. Just plain old October Ale."
"You sure? Because for a while you were drinking…"
"I know, I know. It was a phase, but I'm over it. Just regular October Ale."
"Alright, if you insist." The young Prince said, not really believing his sister.
And rightfully so, for a few seconds later she returned and said.
"You know what, make mine a Raspberry."
"Ha. I knew it." He said teasingly as Adora left for real; leaving our two male adventurers alone for the first time. "Subtle as a flying mallet, that one."
"Huh?" went Bow confusedly.
"Adora. She doesn't have to use the bathroom. She just wanted us to be alone together. We're both important to her, so she wants us to be friends too. Obviously."
"Oh…" the noble archer said, clearly embarrassed that he didn't catch such an apparent detail. "Sorry, I guess I'm still trying to wrap my head around all this. I mean, you're Adora's brother. I wouldn't've believed it if I wasn't seeing it with my own eyes. You two look almost exactly alike."
"I know, she is quite lovely, isn't she." The Prince said jokingly. "You know, when we first met, before I knew of our relation, I was quite attracted to her. Of course now I realize it was just a healthy bit of narcissism on my part. Luckily she didn't return my feelings. Thank Heaven for small miracles, eh Bowseph?"
"Bowseph?" the archer repeated as if the word was bile on his tongue.
"Or Bowser. Bowman. Bowregard. What is Bow short for, anyway?"
"Nothing. It's just Bow."
"Oh… that's weird, but okay." The Prince said, shrugging it off. "Regardless, it all worked out for the best. Even before we learned we were siblings, Adora made it clear that there could never be anything between us, because of her feelings for the lovely Spinnerella."
"Wait, what?" Bow said disbelievingly. "Hold on, back up a sec. Adora likes Spinnerella? As in like likes?"
"Yes, did you not know this?"
"No. I had no idea. Why didn't she tell me?"
"I think she's a little embarrassed. It seems my Baby Sister has a rather strong weakness for the plump ones."
"And the married ones."
"Beg pardon?"
"Spinnerella's been married to Netossa for like… two years. Doesn't she know that?"
"Evidently not. She seems to be under the impression that they're merely girlfriends."
"Oh man… maybe it's better she didn't tell anyone back home. Netossa can get really jealous." Bow said uneasily. "But still, how could she not know they were married? I mean, she's seen their wedding rings."
"Well, from what I've gathered, Horde education is extremely limited. She might've seen the rings without realizing what they meant. And while my Sister is by no means stupid, her deductive reasoning skills leave much to be desired. Which is why I imagine she hasn't noticed another important detail."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, if both you and Adora were sent here by the 'First Ones' Tower, then it stands to reason that there may be others." The young Prince summarized before asking. "Who else was standing on a platform when the Tower went off?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure." Bow admitted. "Usually I'm pretty good with situational awareness, you need to be when you're an archer, but my memory of that day is really fuzzy. I can only recall bits and pieces. I don't even remember how we got to the Tower in the first place."
"Yes, Adora said the same thing. It's possible that the teleportation process affects short-term memory. The Tower was quite old after all. But really, anything you can remember could be helpful, so please try."
"Well… alright, I'll try." The noble archer said, before closing his eyes in concentration. "As soon as the tower lit up, everything went crazy. The Horde Soldiers all started to panic. A few of them even jumped over the sides. I turned my head to check on Glimmer and I saw her standing on another platform… but just before the beam of light struck me, I saw her using her powers to teleport away. So she couldn't have been sent here with the rest of us."
"You're sure about this?"
"Positive. That's the last clear memory I have before waking up in a fishing net."
"Well, that's one less person we have to worry about at least. But what about this Catra person, where was she when the Tower went off?"
"I… I vaguely remember seeing her fighting Adora on one of the platforms, but… I don't know if she got off or not."
"I was afraid you'd say that."
"Why?"
"I like to keep my ear to the ground for the latest rumors and scuttlebutt; helps to stay ahead of trouble. But over the last few months, I've been hearing stories about a couple of bandits raiding caravans over near Broken Edge; that's a town that runs along the border between the Light and Dark Hemispheres. And one of them has been described as a young female, about our age, with orange fur, cat ears, a tail and mismatched eyes."
"Catra."
"Possibly, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Eternia has at least three native species that fit that description, and amongst the Qadians, such an ocular defect is fairly common. So we can't say for certain that it's her."
"Does Adora know about this?"
"No, and I'd prefer it if you didn't tell her either. There's no sense in worrying her without hard evidence. So just keep this under your hat for now, alright?"
"Alright." The noble archer acquiesced. "Have it your way."
"I take it you disagree?"
"What? No, no, your plan makes perfect sense. I know how worked up Adora can get about Catra. No sense in letting her get all freaked out when this could just be a case of mistaken identity."
"Then what was with that tone?"
"I just… I guess I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about you." Bow admitted. "I mean, on the one hand, I'm grateful to you for saving my life. But on the other, I can't help but feel that maybe you didn't think your plan all the way through. That maybe there was a way to get me out of that mess without breaking my nose."
"Maybe, but we were on a deadline, and I knew your death would break my sister's heart. So I went with effectiveness over elegance."
"Hmm… Well, if nothing else, I can tell you genuinely care about Adora, so I guess that makes you okay in my book, but that doesn't make us friends. At least not yet."
"Fine by me, I have enough friends." Adam said jokingly. "And as long as we're being honest, I don't know how I feel about your either. You're important to Adora, so that means you're important to me, but personally I think you're kind of a wuss. I mean, one punch to the face and you're already in tears. You'd think with two fathers, one of them would've taught you how to act like a man."
"Oh, is that right?" the noble archer said, a small vein appearing on his forehead. "Well, as long as we're being honest, I think you're a smug, pretentious, egomaniacal jerk."
"You say that like it's a bad thing." The Prince replied in a tone so humorously blunt that it earned a laugh from his sister's bestie. "Ha-Ha. You smiled. I'm off the hook."
"Sigh. I can already tell hanging out with you is gonna be exhausting."
"Oh, lighten up, Bowseph. If you're gonna live on Eternia for the foreseeable future, then you're gonna have to learn to role with the punches. Life on this planet is in a constant state of flux. Hell, just a few months ago, this very town was under the control of a ruthless criminal syndicate. Until Adora and I drove them out."
"Seriously?"
"Oh my, yes. That was our first adventure together. Before we even knew we were related. Just the two of us, along with Orko, Battle Cat and Swift Wind, taking on hundreds of the Spider Guild's fiercest warriors, even slaying their heinous Commander. And in so doing, freeing this town and several others from their iron grip."
"Wow, that's impressive."
"Well, to be fair, we just drove the Spiders out. The Eternian Army did most of the real work. Purging the local governments and police forces of collaborators, executing them, establishing provisional mayors and whatnot."
"Yeah, sounds just like what a dictator like Randor would do." Bow said with disdain.
"Quite…" Adam said, before fully processing what his sister's friend had just said. "Come again?"
"Oh come on. Don't tell me you buy into that fascist's propaganda? I mean, even he calls himself a tyrant."
"You know, tyrants get a bad rep. Literally, it just means any leader who came to power in an irregular fashion." The young Prince argued. "And anyway, how do you even know about King Randor? I thought you spent the last four months dodging husband hunters."
"I had some time to read up on Eternian history while I was under 'house arrest' with Scamander. And I must say, I'm disgusted with the way people here can glorify a man who forced his way into power using tactics no decent person would ever use."
"My dear fellow, I do believe there has been some sort of miscommunication between us. Surely, you're not trying to make His Majesty out to be some sort of villain."
"Well what would you call a man who forced out the legitimate rulers of nine kingdoms and replaced them with his closest friends?"
"A pragmatist." Adam argued, this time a bit more sternly. "Those rulers were unfit to lead their nations. Sure, they were beloved by their people during peacetime, but the Great Unrest exposed their inability to handle a crisis. Hell, several of them actually tried to exploit the situation to enrich themselves; at their own people's expense, I might add. And their replacements were all decorated war heroes who had earned the trust and admiration of their respective peoples after years of service. The fact that they were all friends of Randor was merely a coincidence. Besides, more than half of the deposed kings and queens abdicated their thrones willingly when Randor's armies arrived to restore order."
"And what about the ones that didn't? Can you really justify the assassinations? Or the exterminations of entire royal families? Even the children?"
"Yes." The young Prince said bluntly; starting to become annoyed by the archer's self-righteousness. "Those royal families all had powerful allies who had profited during their reigns, and any 'legitimate heirs' who were 'rescued' would have been used as pawns by them to force themselves into power. Their could be no loose ends. Sigh. Look, I'm not saying I condone the slaughtering of innocent children, but it was a difficult time and difficult decisions had to be made for the good of Eternia as a whole."
"I can't believe what I'm hearing. How can you sit there and defend a man who forced his way into power by acting like a barbarian?"
"Because that barbarian is my Father." Adam answered acidly as he focused all of his controlled hatred into a glare that would scare the scales off a dragon.
Suddenly Bow grew very pale, but before he could come up with an appropriate response, Adora returned from the ladies room.
"Hey guys. I'm back." She said cheerfully, seemingly oblivious to the tense atmosphere at the table. "So, what did I miss?"
End Notes:
The notes at the top spelled it all out for you. Thanks for reading.
Peace.
