The last weeks have been pretty hard for Violet, representing the voice and needs of an entire country was a pretty stressful job and negotiations had been pretty slow. Violet was overwhelmed and frustrated, she had almost to no time to study the zebra culture or visit touristic landmarks. That, coupled with the constant presence of zebra soldiers watching her every step, made her stay a lot less exciting than she expected it to be.
But nothing mattered anymore. For now, she was a ball of pure energy and excitement, she was invited to the traditional masked ball at the royal palace tomorrow!
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I can’t believe it! We’re going to the masked ball tomorrow!” Violet screamed, jumping up and down on her hotel bed. She was doing it for about ten minutes, and her volume and pitch made sure that everyzebra at the hotel know it as well.
“It sounds fun!” Ink Spots said, also holding her invitation.
“Fun? FUN? IT’S AWESOME!” Violet shouted once again, almost deafening her assistant. “Did you know that this ball is in celebration of the marriage of the first high shaman with her husband? And that the masks are enchanted to create gorgeous patterns and designs on the stripes of the wearer?”
“Really? That’s really interesting! But we don’t have stripes...” Ink replied with a coy smile, happy to see her friend so cheerful after her stressful weeks.
“Don’t worry, the mask only creates an illusion on top of the wearer’s actual coat so it’ll work on us too!”
“Ugh, what a waste of time, they took a whole day we could spend finally getting our coal back and decided to throw a party,” Sharp Spear said. He wanted to simply throw his invitation to the trash can, but it had the Caesar’s seal, so if he did that, it could mess up the whole diplomatic operation.
“Move, move, move!” Romelus ordered from the side of the race tracks. His soldiers were running on a muddy track full of obstacles, climbing walls, zig-zags, up hills, barb wires, and other things stood between his troops and the finish line, a finish line that promised a day off duty to the first who crosses it.
“Captain Romelus?” his superior called him from outside the training grounds, holding a red envelope with his right hoof.
“Keep running recruits! I’ll be right back,” Romelus ordered one last time before walking away toward his general. “Yes, sir?”
“You know that tomorrow is the night of the masked ball at the Caesar’s manor, right?” he asked with a grin, knowing that Romelus tried to avoid it every single year.
“How could I forget sir…”
General Tullius passed him the envelope, “Well, this is your formal invitation coming directly from the Caesar himself. You know what it means, right?”
“That I cannot avoid it…” Romelus replied, ears down in disappointment.
“Exactly, I expect to see you there with your usual punctuality. Dismissed.” He saluted and excused himself.
Romelus saluted back and returned his attention to the envelope, then proceeded to open it and read its contents.
“Captain Romelus Montaqueus,
due to your excellency and loyalty in the services you provided to the legion, I cordially invite you and a companion of your choosing to the annual Grand Masked Ball, tomorrow at eight past midday at the imperial manor.
Yours truly,
The Zebra Legion’s Caesar III.”
As Romelus was concentrated on the letter, he didn’t notice a newly arrived recruit approaching him.
“It must be hard to be an official of your caliber, right cousin?”
Romelus identified the voice immediately, turning to confirm who it was. It was his cousin, Xul Montakeus. He lived a block away from Romelus’ parents’ home in the countryside, where they grew together. Being the youngest, Xul always looked up to Romelus and always strived to be as diligent as his older cousin.
“Xul! It’s so great to see you! How have you been?” Romelus asked, giving his cousin a tight hug.
“I’m doing fine cousin, our family misses having you around,” Xul replied, letting go of the hug.
“And I miss them, but what are you doing here cos’?”
“What do you mean? I’ve joined the army, just like you! So we can protect our country together,” he said with a prideful smile on his face.
The thought that he dragged his cousin to the army troubled Romelus greatly, not wanting this path for himself, he much less wanted to be responsible for another life on the battlefield.
“It’s good to see you again cousin, but I don’t know if you should do this…”
“Why not? I can prove that I can be a valuable agent of the legion’s will, right guys?” Xul asked the other recruits at the running tracks.
Romelus completely forgot about them and was surprised to see all of them standing together side by side, giving the last step toward the finishing line. The first one to cross the finish line would have the next day off. A sly smile crossed Xul’s face, he coordinated the recruits knowing that Romelus would never go back on his word. Clever.
“Alright.” With a small smile, he said, “I promised the first one to cross the finish line would have a day off, and you chose to cross the line together instead of competing for it, showing that union is the strength of the legion’s army. I’m proud of you, dismissed!”
All the recruits cheered, charging Xul, thanking and welcoming him to the troops.
The clock on the Caesar’s manor showed 8:00 pm, the grand masked ball has begun! All the nobles hurried inside, all hoping to grab the attention of the great Caesar himself.
Among the sea of stripes two figures stood out, Sharp Spear and Ink Spot. Sharp Spear was wearing his formal Equestrian military uniform, a red coat with crossing white bands displaying his medals. Ink Spot wore a long blue dress alongside some traditional golden zebra earrings and an unenchanted mask, trying to blend in with the crowd. Right beside them was Violet, wearing a traditional zebra dress with elegant red and golden patterns, her front legs portrayed traditional zebra emerald jewelry which contrasted with her usual violet amulet she always wore around her neck, and her mask, its intricate runes and glyphs covered her coat in white fur and black, beautiful stripes, their design so carefully crafted that even the most renewed zebra historian couldn’t tell her apart from a real priestess.
“Hmmm, I’m so nervous! We’re drawing too much attention!” Ink Spot said, her ears glued to her head in apprehension.
“Don’t worry, we have a reserved seat alongside the Caesar and the other high nobles, if you’re too uncomfortable, you can stay there,” Violet reassured her friend with a calming hoof on her shoulder.
“Let’s get inside, shall we?” Sharp Spear interrupted them, scouting them to their seats.
At the end of the wave of nobles and other aristocrats stood Romelus and his cousin Xul, both wore their formal military uniforms, red coats with golden details. Romelus’ mask turned his stripes into a single, horizontal set of glyph-like signs while Xul wore a unenchanted, simple mask.
“I told you to search for an enchanter yesterday, but nooo, you were sure that you could find one today when everyzebra is doing the same thing,” Romelus mumbled, rolling his eyes in annoyance.
Xul flinched at the remark. “I’m sorry! The masked ball was never so busy back at home!”
The two kept in line until they finally managed to enter the manor, saluting their general as they passed by him.
The general was waiting patiently for Romelus’ arrival, wanting to make sure that he didn’t dodge the party this time.
The night began with a big feast, an enormous table filled with delicious zebra dishes kept Violet and Romelus distracted as each sat at one end of the table, a wall of snobbish nobles proudly chatting about their recent accomplishments between them.
Time passed by, out gone the food, in came the desserts, Violet appreciating the opportunity to try some of the exotic dishes while Romelus was almost dying of boredom, eager to call it the night and hit the bed.
After the desserts were gone, all guests proceeded to the main hall where an orchestra composed of the most talented musicians of the empire played the ball’s traditional music, a mixture of classical music and tribal drums.
Most of the guests got up and went to the center of the hall to dance to the slow rhythm of the drums and the sweet notes of the piano. Couples slowly circled each other with their chests leaned against the other crossing their necks and swaying to the song.
Violet took the opportunity to put her knowledge of this traditional dance to the test while Romelus just wanted to try and have a bit of fun while he was stuck there, both would dance for a few minutes before switching partners at the beats of the drums, not satisfied with the partners they ended with.
‘One more dance.’ They both thought, switching again.
Spinning around along the sound of the cello, they blindly extended their hooves in search of a new partner. They could feel each other’s hooves before they turned around, their eyes met and their hearts jumped. They were stunned, lost in each other’s gaze.
The slow tunes of a violin signaled the beginning of a new song as they instinctively closed the distance between them and leaned their chests together, feeling the warmth of the other’s body.
Crossing their necks to rest their heads comfortably behind the other’s, they closed their eyes and began to dance. Left, right, left, right, their bodies swing back and forth to the rhythm of the song, every swing they would feel more comfortable with the feeling of their touch.
Opening her eyes for the first time for what felt a millennia, Violet saw the patterns on Romelus’ stripes and identified them as an ancient Zebrican dialect, her inquisitive mind getting the better of her, she asked, “Excuse me, your stripes portray some kind of tale, don’t they?”
Romelus opened his eyes wide, caught by surprise by her question. “Y-yes… it is the tale of how the zebra warrior Kain befriended a dragon and brought peace between the two species…”
Violet was staring in wonder, trying to memorize the glyphs so she could study them later when she mindlessly muttered, “Fascinating…”
The word echoed in Romelus’ mind as he inspected her stripes as well, so carefully crafted. “Amazingly well-crafted stripes.”
Violet smiled from ear to ear. “Thanks, I’ve made the glyphs myself!”
Now that was something completely unexpected to Romelus. “You did?”
“Well, I had to ask a shaman to activate the glyphs, but I crafted them,” she answered proudly.
‘Fascinating indeed.’ Romelus thought.
Silence returned for a couple of minutes, their minds racing with questions they wanted to ask each other but were afraid to ruin the dance.
This time, Romelus broke the silence, “So, you seem to be interested in ancient zebra history…”
They both crossed their heads to the opposite sides, following the song, taking the opportunity to gaze into each other’s eyes.
“Oh yes, I love to study history and culture, in fact, I plan on visiting the national museum of ancient relics next week.”
The museum of ancient relics, the home of hundreds of shamanic artifacts and enchanted items, a favorite field of study for Romelus. “I see… m-maybe I could serve as a guide... if you’d like me to of course.” Romelus offered, stumbling on his words in nervousness.
Violet took a step back so she could look into his eyes again, feeling almost light-headed. She was eager to visit that museum, but now, she could barely wait for it. “I-I would love to…”
Their conversation was interrupted by an increase in speed on the drums, most of the zebras left the dance floor, for they knew that this moment would come.
Romelus balanced himself on his hind legs, offering a hoof to Violet. Using his hoof as support Violet struggled to do the same and stood straight up, they held each other’s hooves and began to follow the drums.
As Romelus and Violet danced around the dance floor, other zebras would stare in amazement, this kind of dance was difficult and required perfect synchronism and absolute trust of your partner, not something that most zebras there had.
The rhythm of the drums rose more and more as Romelus and Violet synchronized with each other, and them with a final beat on the drums and a final note on the cello they were one, their hearts unwilling to be apart no more.
Like the High shaman and her husband did thousand of years before, the couples that manage to finish the dance a partner would remove their masks and reveal themselves to their partner. Romelus removed his mask, showing Violet his real stripes and handsome face.
A bit of red could be seen under the blue eyes of Violet as she blushed, a bit nervous about taking her mask off.
Romelus was getting worried, his brown eyes fixed on Violet who hasn't taken her mask off yet. Did she rejected him? What is he supposed to do now? That and a million other questions flew across his mind as he waited for her.
Noticing his worry, Violet threw her nervousness to the wind and removed her mask, her striped fur slowly returning to her usual violet fur.
Romelus was shocked by the surprise, she was a pony! His shocked expression made Violet uncomfortable but he quickly recomposed himself and asked, “Would you be willing to grace me with your name?” in Equestrian, surprising Violet. His Equestrian was good enough that he didn't need to rhyme, but his heavy accent was evident.
His question, made her heart skip a beat, he didn’t avoid her for being a pony! “I-I’m Violet Amulet… and you are?”
Romelus brought her hoof to his lips and kissed them, “I’m Romelus Montakeus…”
Footnote: Level up! (3)
Character: Romelus Montakeus
Skills Raised:
Speech: 30
Companion Perk:
Word of Wisdom: While you have Violet as a companion, all speech and science checks in conversations are lowered by 25!
*** *** ***
Character: Violet Amulet
Skills Raised:
Survival: 27
Companion Perk:
Ancient Knowlege: While you have Romelus as a companion, all survival based crafting recipes are twice as effective!