The King's Collie

Part III, Chapter 4: Enduring Piety

"Eugh. No," Iago shook his head and scoffed, furrowing his brows, when hearing the question presented to him.

"Come on, the children are bored," Felix pleaded, with the rabbit duke from Venetia behind him. He was over for the Christmastide, with the joyous day in question being only four days in the future. Venetia, aside from Aragonia, was one of Valentia's most treasured allies.

"I preach to the masses, not to a bunch of spoiled bunny-lets," the cardinal said.

"They aren't spoiled," the rabbit then objected, crossing his arms. "They're bored, Your Holiness, simply bored. Isn't it your specialty?"

"To competent adults!" the avian countered. "I am a priest, not a puppeteer."

"We're just asking you to keep the children busy for a bit—" the hare chattered, disgruntled.

"I'd rather keep myself busy with much more important affairs!" the cardinal said, then turned his head and walked out of the meeting-room.

"How kind of a Cardinal you have, Valentia," the bunny duke sighed sarcastically.

"Pay no mind to him, he's a bit stranger than most in his position," the King tried to explain. He looked down a little, though, and knew that such cold behavior the bird displayed was not fitting for such a visitor. Ophelia had told him of his misconduct with the new sparrow in the castle, too, which had greatly disheartened him. A King was in no position to get rid of a Cardinal, but something had to be done about this, even if that meant heading to the heart of Rome and trying to persuade the holiest of all on the matter.

"I'll try to sleep," the duke then said, groaning. "It has been such a long couple of days for me. I hope the kids don't wake me up. Where are they, by the way?"

"Lord knows," Felix rubbed his paw against his temple. "But I'm sure they're safe inside the castle, with all the guards and whatnot. I'll head to sleep, as well," he then stated, and parted ways with the fatherly rabbit duke.

—

Cameron was, all of a sudden, in the middle of a nightmare, one he wasn't all too sure of how to handle. It was of a small figure standing over his bed, the silhouette it produced looming over him. A demon? His eyes widened. He was paralyzed.

Now, though, he realized this was no dream, with one dead giveaway: the little "demon" sprouted a pair of horns... except, no, they were much too long and straight to be horns. They were the ears of a young hare.

"Who are you?" the child's voice asked.

"You scared me, you know! Waking me up at this hour! Was my door open!?" the collie suddenly lurched up in his bed.

"Ahha! Sorry!" the rabbit giggled, not sounding at all as sorry as he said.

"What time is it?" Cameron asked the young rabbit.

"Uh... eleven o'clock," the young rabbit said. Another peeked around the corner. Then another, and another, and a final one.

"Christ, quite the lot of little ones you are," Cameron remarked, squinting his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing double.

"We're all bored," one of them said.

"Have you got anything to do?" another asked.

"I want a bedtime story," the youngest squeaked.

A bedtime story. This gave Cameron quite the flashback, and he suddenly knew exactly what to do. "...It is a bedtime story you shall get," he suddenly said, and then leapt out of bed, in his sleeping-clothes. He picked his lute up, then, along with it, the Bible, which regularly found its residence on his nightstand.