The Crown Prince Thinks I'm a Guy

Killduck

"No," I wanted to say. "Absolutely not!"

Yet, this last bout of shocking news had taken its toll on my weary body, and just as I opened my mouth to utter my answer, I had already succumbed into sleep.

My dreams this time were a clutter of incoherent images. There was a moment when I was in complete darkness, and all I could hear was the flapping of wings. In another second, I saw a decrepit, but magnificent building with countless spires and barred windows. And lastly, my dreams took me back into the grass field where I had danced with the sleeping creature. I approached it, staring at its tenderly sleeping face, and when I had come close enough to touch it, it suddenly opened its mouth and shrieked.

I woke up with a start, only to find myself wondering if I was still in a dream. Right at my face was a white thing that kept moving around erratically. I screamed, and hastily moved back, and in the process, I had fallen right out of my bed and onto the hard floor.

"Gah!" I shouted, my heart still beating wildly from both dreams and reality. Perched on top of my bed was a white, fat, and quite ugly bird. It looked at me with judging and intelligent eyes.

"Did it wake you?" I heard someone ask from behind me. Tilting my head back, I saw the head assassin's face, upside down.

Remembering her last words to me right before I had embarrassingly fallen asleep, I felt my cheeks blush. I scrambled into a stand and bowed a greeting towards the tiny woman. She brushed my formalities off and crossed the room to sit on the bed, petting the fat bird with gentle hands.

"Umm... Might I ask where we are?" I muttered, standing there and shifting from foot to foot.

"Oh." She looked up at me, as though finally remembering I was still there. "Right. You fell into unconsciousness right after the ceremony. We had to bring you to our little sickroom to let you rest. I wouldn't live with myself if I'd let that old man bring you back home all dead-like."

"... Dead-like?" I uttered. "A-And what of Farseer? Does he know I'm here?"

Eva thought about it seriously. "Humm... I do recall having sent a message? Or perhaps I had simply imagined that..."

I wobbled on the steady ground. 'Should I even trust this clumsy headed assassin?'

She clapped her hands together. "Anyway! I'm here to give you this little one. You'll be taking care of him from now on."

"... The bird?" I asked dumbfoundedly. It was simply too random a request, especially since I had just woken up, that I could hardly process anything that the assassin had said. "You want me to take care of a bird?"

I looked at the specimen. It was about the height of man's foot, yet as wide as more than half of that. It definitely didn't look like those elegant doves I once saw in the palace aviary. In fact, although it was arguably white-colored, it wasn't the pure kind. It looked more like an off-white that made you think of dirtied rags. On its chest were two brown lines made out from soft downy feathers. It might've been cute, but with it squatting down like a round ball with angry, beady eyes... I couldn't feel any love for it.

"Uhh... It's..." I murmured, having a stare-off with the bird.

"Magnificent, isn't he?" Eva praised, making the bird stretch out its non-existent neck in pride.

"Umm... Sure," I replied.

The bird quacked much like a high-pitched duck. Eva looked at it adoringly.

"Then, that settles it!" she said. "You'll be in charge of him now. Give him a name and make sure he gets fed every two days."

"What?" I stuttered, and then remembered I could hardly complain to an assassin. "I-I mean, what should I feed it... him?"