//------------------------------//
// 276 - Across Still Waters 
// Story: Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

The report had arrived to the Sultan. The mouse had last been seen fleeing into the crowds of the city, headed eastward, into the desert. Annoyance was the name of his grunt. Mice were only good for a few things. Running, as it turned out, was one of them...

"If she is spotted, bring her for punishment." That was all that could be done reasonably. He had a country to run that did not orbit the dealings of one treasonous, but also valueless, servant.





The ship separated from the dock, pushing out into the waters with the push of the winds behind its sails. Captain Fetch barked orders, as was the nature of a dog, and they were setting off without trouble and on schedule.

Silver could feel the ship moving beneath him, but there were other motions far closer to him. The Kirin watched him passively, as if so ready for an order to come, but making no move to hurry it. The cow was far more aggressive, already stroking along his back with a brush attached to her hand, playing off her stroking as grooming.

It didn't help that it actually felt nice.

"There you are." The mouse entered with a little frown. "I have questions."

"I have answers. With luck, they will match." Silver smiled softly at the mouse woman and her twitching tail. Even upset, he felt protective of her, not worried of her fury.

"What am I, besides stolen?" She put her hands on her hips. "I can't go back, that's obvious. So what am I?"

Silver patted the bed in front of himself, shuffling slightly in place, causing the cow to change the angle from which she worked, though she raised no complaint about it.

The mouse frowned before climbing up in front of him and glaring in a challenging way.

He was still smiling. He found it hard to feel threatened by the little lady. "You are, first, free. I do not want servants who do not want to be servants, and I will not turn away a person in need. You, at the least, want to be away from here before the Sultan finds you and decides to do something, uh, bad."

"Yes, bad... So... free? Just... good luck, bye?" She put her hands on her front, near her shoulders. "I don't know what to do! Don't you understand that? I didn't want to be his servant, I don't like him."

"So be mine, or find another way. I will help you either way. You're my responsibility."

"Responsibility?!" She bounced in place, almost toppling as a foot sank into softness. "You're not my father."

"No, I am not," he gently agreed. "But it was my presence that knocked your life out of alignment. I'd like to help, if you're alright with that. Or not. You can avoid me this entire trip and leave when we hit land and I won't hold it against you."

"You're testing me," she accused with a pointed finger. "I know people call you the kind prince, but this is too far!"

"Is it that hard to believe?" He perked an ear at her, examining her small frame. "Maribelle?"

The cow paused in her stroking. "Yes, My Prince?"

"I think she needs your attention much more than I."

Maribelle fixed the mouse with a smile. "With pleasure." She clapped her brush-equipped hands together. "Lay down and let me banish your worries for a time."

The mouse took an uncertain step back. "O-oh, I mean, wait! I'm a servant too. You shouldn't..."

"You just said you weren't, and he asked me to attend you." The mouse was easily caught by the confidently moving Maribelle. The cow laid the mouse down in her lap and began rubbing her belly to start. "You are overdressed for this. I'll fix that, you just relax..."

The mouse bit her bottom lip a moment, not resisting as her top was peeled free. "You don't hate me? I thought... everyone but maybe him hated me, for being here, and putting you all at risk..."

"I'll make you squeak. That will be my revenge." She began to work at the mouse with gentle fingers and soft bristles, robbing her of breath. "We have heard the story. You did not come here to spite us, and we are away. If the sultan were coming, we would know by now."

Silver watched the two with a mixture of affection and some lingering attraction. It was hard to be completely stoic about a busty woman casually rubbing down a smaller woman, the smaller of whom seemed to be enjoying the attention.

His wives would murder him.

His wife was dead. The remembrance was an icy blanket indeed, splashed over him and snuffing out the small fire of interest most cruelly. "You are welcome here, but you are also not held here," he emphasized softly.

The mouse's eyes closed most of the way, going more and more limp as Maribelle worked. "Tell me, you spoke to her by name... Is that normal?"

Silver perked an ear, confused a moment before it came to him. "No," he laughed out. "I'm actually awful at names, but I got hers to stick in there. I hope, if you hang around, yours will join it in time."

The mouse smiled gently. "Why name your servants? We are nothing, just tools."

Maribelle rolled her eyes, pinching the mouse and drawing a squeak. "There was a reason we were trying to join his court, stupid girl. He isn't the sultan, or did you forget?"

"Maybe... I did, a little." She sat up, but was still in Maribelle's lap, being worked over. "I had given up. I was... ready to accept that fate, just to have it snatched away. It was a bitter end, but one I had talked myself into believing was the right way. That isn't easy to just... I'm Whiskers." Her fine whiskers lifted at the mentioning of the name. "He never knew that name, nor did he care."

"Whiskers..." That was cute. "Whiskers..." He was trying to force the name into his mind. Magic he could learn quickly. Rules seemed to come easily and stay, but names... "Whiskers... Hello, Whiskers. I hope you'll forgive me if I blank a few times, but keep reminding me and it'll stay in there eventually. That is a cute name, I like it."

"You'll have to thank my parents for that." Whiskers smiled a little lopsidedly. "Now... I... can think of far worse places to be than serving a prince that is too nice." She moved to stand up, but strong soft hands pulled her back down.

"I'm not done." Maribelle abandoned her brushes and used her fingers, working at tense muscles. "There'll be plenty of time to greet your new master, if you're sticking around. He's a softie, but you knew that."

The kirin's ear lifted, breaking her stillness. "Silver, I feel something approaching."

"Down the hallway?" He sat up, looking towards the door.

"No, further." The kirin closed her eyes, looking thoughtful. "It approaches from the water... Two days."

Silver thought back to his dreams. They had proven prophetic in curious ways, hinting at what could happen, and what fate had in store for him. He had lost a precious female in Anugypt, even if it wasn't the same one he thought it would be. Terrors beneath the waves? He could remember that... He had won over it in the dream, and no one precious had been lost doing it.

"I will be ready." He willed his book out of his saddlebag and laid it in front of himself. "I'll be working on some magic." He would use the time he had been given. "Thank you... hmm..."

"Still Waters," provided the Kirin with a faint smile.

"Still Waters, right. Whiskers, Still Waters..." Why were names so hard to memorize? The magic he began to work on seemed so simple in comparison. That symbol indicated the curvature of a power. This one added pressure... Each one had a very specific meaning to a specific place. There would never be two spells with the same letters, but you could have three people named Joe, and one of them might prefer Joseph for no real reason.

Maribelle lifted Whiskers and set her on her feet. "You're looking far better."

"And feeling it. Thank you." She reached for her shirt. "I would ask that you not strip me without my leave in the future though, Maribelle. That is a nice name."

Maribelle smiled at that. "It is nice to share it, and to know one another more easily. Now, Whiskers, we are friends, and peers, not just servants that must ignore all differences. So feel free to complain that I am more than you."

Whiskers burst into laughter, almost falling onto the bed. "You are certainly larger than me, and I would have to be mad to not admit you certainly have more... there." She wiggled a few fingers towards Maribelle's top. "But that isn't the measure of a person."

"Says you." Maribelle snorted softly, crossing her arms under her bounty and eyeing Whiskers.

"I'm not saying you shouldn't be happy with them, go on. He certainly eyes them."

Silver blushed softly at being called out, but his eyes were on his book and his writing at that moment, and he did not join the conversation.

"Because he has good taste." She slid off the bed. "He looks at me as a grown cow. In you, he sees a calf, to be protected."

She went red in the face instantly. "Silver, tell her she's wrong! I am not a child and I do not need protection."

"We all need protection," he safely answered, avoiding the fact that he did indeed see her as cute and vulnerable. "I am sure at some point you'll have to protect me from something, and I will accept that with gratitude."

Maribelle shrugged softly. "Too kind, what did you expect?"

"Too kind," sighed out Whiskers with a quirk of a smile. "What a boss we've ended up with."

The Kirin's ear twitched just before the door opened, admitting the vixen into the room. "Are you stealing all his time to yourselves?"

Maribelle moved towards the same door. "You can have him. He's busy and I've done my duties. Good luck in your studies, Silver."

The vixen peered at Maribelle with mildly scandalized eyes. "Are you alright with her calling you by your first name, so casually?"

Silver glanced up as Maribelle departed, his eyes focusing on the vixen instead. "She asked, and I saw nothing against it. It's a name, and it works. I'll react to it faster than 'master', really, so why not use it?"

The vixen approached, casually patting Whiskers on the head when she reached the bed. "I see... I'm still getting used to you, Mas--Silver... I should use that name, yes?"

"Sure." He scrawled a magic rune onto the page and frowned at it in thought. "I'm, hmm..."

"He's busy," provided Whiskers, frowning a little. "And we're not on patting terms, sheesh. What has gotten into--"

The vixen tapped Whiskers on her twitching nose. "New master, new rules. Did I not just finish looking foolish for clinging to how the sultan would have preferred it? Silver prefers his servants act as friends, not co-workers, and I would not hesitate to pat the head of one I call friend, especially were they so small, which you happen to be."

Whiskers glanced over a the studious pony they were owned... hired... by. "This will take some getting used to."

"Do you not wish to be friends?"

Whiskers crooked an awkward smile at the larger vixen. "You sound like a pony."

"I work for one. It must be rubbing off." The vixen offered a hand. "He is clearly busy. Shall we entertain ourselves elsewhere?"

She considered that outheld hand for a quiet moment before one her her own, smaller, hands reached for it. Clasped, they quietly stepped from the room, leaving Silver to his studies.