Artist Sveta or HarmonyBenderFreak!
The Mourning Moon had struck again. It had devastated Angara. If only they knew more about them. If only Isaac could get to Mt. Aleph.
That is why he and Garet are now trekking through the new land of Morgal, quickly becoming a refuge for Beastmen from all across Weyard. He needs to get to the Mountain Roc and acquire one of its feathers. Not an easy task, and one made more difficult by the Beastmen respecting it so. Thankfully, their status as heroes allows for some strings to be pulled and allows them to meet with the king of the Beastmen.
Isaac smiles to his son, whom he is carrying on his back. He had insisted young Matthew see some adventure, despite Jenna's protests. His big bright eyes are wide as he stares around the grand halls of the castle of Belinsk. The king does not meet them in the throne room, a message arrives asking for them to meet in another. Apparently the king does not like to be seen as a king.
Isaac pushes open the door the guards guided him too, greeted by a heart-warming sight. The lavender-furred king is reading to his two children. The larger, his son, is listening with rapt attention, while the little braided girl, no older than Matthew, was glancing back and forth between her father and a piece of parchment scribbling on it after every sentence.
"Ah, Sir Isaac! Sir Garet!" The king announces. Breaking from his story, prompting his children to look around in wonder and awe.
They quickly greet the king, exchanging a few pleasantries and introductions. Matthew and Tyrell are placed down beside the young princess, who shyly hides behind her father's leg before being eased and urged out by him.
Volechek is asked to look after the children while the three climb to acquire a feather of the Mountain Roc.
Matthew toddles over to Sveta who had retreated to her parchment once her father had left. He looks down at it, Sveta keeps her head resolutely bowed down and out of sight. It's a little drawing. Matthew studies it for a while, before he recognises the person she has drawn, it is his daddy and Uncle Garet when they were younger, with Uncle Ivan and Aunt Mia as well.
"This is really good." He says matter-of-factly, "You should make it a book."
The young princess 'eeps' quietly and glances up, her lavender fur having gained a distinct red tinge, "It… it is a book…" She suggests weakly, nodding to the story her father had been reading.
Matthew nods, his lips pursing out in thought, his mommy had the book too. It was about their journey when they were young. It didn't have pictures though.
"Maybe you should draw pictures for all of it!" He says enthusiastically.
The beastgirl's blush deepens, "Y-you think so?" She asks, her paw idly tracing over her little scribbles.
Matthew nods more, his tufts of blond hair bouncing along with his big smile, "Then, people could see it all too! Not everyone knows what daddy looks like."
Sveta smiles wide, her little cheeks puffing out slightly, pronouncing their embarrassed colour. She quickly picks up her pencil and returns to the drawing, Matthew encouraging her all the while, offering little bits of information and advice he would know.
Isaac returned several hours later with several of the giant bird's feathers. As they entered the room they had left the children in, all three men's jaws dropped to find the floor littered with pictures.
Matthew and Sveta run up to the men happily.
"Daddy, daddy!" The two call out to their respective fathers, "We're gonna make a picture book!"
The two hold up several of the drawings Sveta had done for their examination. Isaac chuckled happily as he saw the childish drawing of himself holding a sword high. A quick sentence accompanied each picture, obviously taken from some other source.
The children were applauded, while Garet picked up the lazy and snoozing Tyrell, who had given up on anything fun the moment the other two had taken to drawing. Before Matthew left, the young princess said a quick thank you to him, pecking him on the cheek. He blamed her fur for tickling him and turning his cheeks red. She handed him a picture she had drawn in secret when he was writing the words of the story down.
They left soon after, bright smiles and tired yawns coming from all of them, despite the king's insistence they stay the night.
Ten years later, before Matthew is to leave for a camping trip with his father, he fondly looks at the picture he received in his childhood. It is a picture of him and the Morgal princess. They were holding hands and little love-hearts were drawn around them. Above them were the big words: "Friends: Sveta and Matthew." The 'e's spelt backward in an unbearably cute way.
He softly touched the little drawing of the princess, before he hid it in his dresser lest Tyrell find it.
He would very much like to see his friend again.
Little did he know, that when he returned from the camping trip, Tyrell would set in motion a chain of events that would lead to just that.
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