“Calm yourself and tell me what’s happening.” The king put his free hand on the lord’s shoulder to try and calm him. He wouldn’t know how to “escape” if that was his only instruction. He could tell that time was of the essence, but panicking wouldn’t help anyone.
“S-Some of our hunters spotted a monster in this area! A very dangerous species too! You need to run, or your life will be in danger, Your Highness!” The lord spoke as quickly as he could, wanting to get them out of there even a second sooner.
Once that monster had been spotted, it was already too late. When the hunters had come to report it to him, he knew the camp would likely be a sea of blood and guts. However, he was thrilled to find that not only were the campgrounds safe, with no signs of turmoil, it didn’t seem as though anyone had been attacked either. The lord thought it was nothing short of a miracle, and he looked up to the heavens to thank them for his luck. He would not let that blessing go to waste. He swore he would get the king to safety.
“A monster appeared, you say? And it’s one dangerous enough to send you into such a panic?”
The Skyte hunters behind the lord paled as they kept watch of their surroundings. They’d been riding their horses at top speed, and their shoulders heaved with their breathing as large beads of sweat rolled down their foreheads. Even the young lord’s son in the back had the face of a man resolute. Just seeing their panic was enough to make everyone in the camp realize that their lives really could be in danger.
“Y-Yes, Your Majesty! It’s a birdlike monster called a roc! They fly so high in the sky that it’s near impossible to see from the ground. They swoop down to prey on humans in a split second! Everyone, keep your heads down and hide under the cover of the trees! Make it as hard as possible to be seen from the sky! Wh-What’s wrong with you all? We have to get to safety!” the Skyte lord desperately shouted, but the whole camp just stood around looking perplexed. Nobody was trying to run. Were people in the capital really this clueless when it came to their own safety? The lord couldn’t even be angry about it. He just felt pity.
“A...roc?” Shockingly, the king also stood there agape before asking his question.
“Y-Yes, Your Majesty! A roc! Once they’ve caught someone, it’s near impossible to retrieve the body, and even if it can be retrieved, it’s in no state for a funeral! So please, run!” Rocs would take humans far into the sky and drop them over and over until they were tender enough to eat. Even if he and his hunters were able to retrieve the bodies, they’d be nothing more than gore and shattered bones. The lord was absolutely desperate. The king could never be put in such a state. Yet, for some reason, the king wasn’t taking even a single step forward. He’d just frozen with his head tilted in confusion. “Your Majesty!”
It was a miracle that the king was unharmed. The lord couldn’t wait any longer. Just as he was about to give the hunters behind him the signal and drag the king to safety by force, the king spoke again.
“A... A roc?” The king wore a disturbed expression as he dropped his gaze down to the meat in his hand. Then the king turned to the Stewart family, who all had poked their heads out of the tent to see what was happening, to ask them as well. “A...roc?”
“Yep, a roc!” the whole family replied with a big nod. The king gave them another look, as though to ask, You’re completely sure? And they all nodded again. After getting confirmation from the family, he turned back to the lord with an awkward expression.
“Er... Baron Skyte? This is the roc.” The king held up the meat in one hand, and pointed at it with the other.
“What?”
“This is the roc.”
“What? That’s...the roc?”
“Yeah. The roc.”
“The roc?”
“The roc.”
A few moments after the lord and the king had their roc exchange...
“Wait... The roc?! What?! Huh?! Hah?!” The lord couldn’t understand what in the world the king was trying to say.
Why was the king standing there holding meat in a time like this?
Why was the king showing him meat at a time like this?
Why was the king pointing at the meat at a time like this?!
The lord couldn’t understand any of it whatsoever.
“Heh... Ha ha... Aha ha ha! No more... Hee... Hee hee! I can’t, man... Ha! He he he! My sides! He he he... Aha, aha ha ha ha!” After a long while, Arthur was unable to contain his laughter.
“Arthur, quit laughing! It’s rude!”
“B-But, Your Highness... Hee! They’re just...! Pfft... How are they still not figuring this out?!”
“Quiet this instant, brother!”
Both the prince and Marion scolded him for it, but Arthur couldn’t stop. He’d been barely holding it together this whole time. But the Skyte lord and the king were dead serious, saying roc over and over again...and the more they did it, the less Arthur could handle it. No matter how much the prince yelled at him or his sister told him to be quiet, this roc conversation was too much for him.
The prince sighed and stepped before the lord of the Skyte region. His father was clearly at a loss for words. The king tended to get ahead of himself, and it was always the queen, Edward’s brother, and his own job to step in to fill in the details for other people. “Baron Skyte. I’d like you to remain calm and listen. I believe the roc that your watchmen spotted was the one that Dr. Arven Stewart shot down. George and William Stewart retrieved the body, while Melsa and Emma cooked it for us. The meat in His Majesty’s hands right now is the cooked roc.” The prince calmly and politely explained the situation in simplified terms, from start to finish, so the lord of Skyte could understand exactly what had happened.
“What? He...shot it down?” The lord couldn’t believe his ears.
The prince looked the lord right in the eyes and nodded. “That’s right.”
“They...retrieved it...and...cooked it?”
“Yes, that’s correct.” The lord simply couldn’t process the words he was hearing, but the prince once again patiently reaffirmed it. All the other people at the camp were nodding along. Of course, while the others had accepted it, even they felt it was an absolutely bizarre situation.
Finally, once the lord let the words permeate his mind...the very moment it all sunk in, he screamed out the largest protest of his life. “B-But that’s impossible!!!” That was a roc! One of the most fearsome monsters out there! There was no way!
“Well, we used to have trouble with rocs too, but then we switched our bowstrings over to Viol—to some special thread that let us fire arrows way farther than ever before. Oh, why don’t I give—”
“If you’d like, we can talk to the Rothschild Company and have them sell it to you for a fair price too!” William cut in before Leonard could say, “Why don’t I give you some?” He couldn’t let his father deal with this particular issue. If they did, Pallas would wind up footing the bill for all of Skyte’s hunting expenses.
“Wait... You did this with a bowstring? Just...using string? A roc? What?!” The lord couldn’t understand what they were saying. Once again, he was utterly bewildered.
Just then...
“Let’s all calm down a bit! Dinner’s gonna get cold, so why don’t we all sit down to eat? There’s plenty more roc to go around, so why don’t you all come have some with us?” Emma appeared with a plate stacked high with meat and spoke with a smile. “We managed to get all the prep done within a hundred and twenty seconds, so it’d be a shame to let the meat get cold now!”
This only served to further confuse the lord. “You’re...really going...to eat a roc?”
“Hee hee. Rocs are really tasty! See? Say ah!” Emma took some of the meat off the plate and forced it into the confused lord’s mouth.
“Wha... Ah? Hmmgh?!”
Everyone was shocked into silence at Emma’s sudden move.