#“oh no a goddess might murder me and my friends for losing her pets and my boyfriend's future is on the line but im an adopted mom of one🥰”

[demigods-posts]

i think it's hilarious that no matter how important the situation is. annabeth will stop everything to greet an animal. stuck in the underworld and trying to save your friend's mom's soul while simultaneously trying to prevent a war between the gods? pet the three-headed guard dog. trapped in the deepest pit of hell and on the brink of death while trying to prevent the rise of a goddess determined to harm everyone and everything you care about? cuddle the half-dead cat. trying to help your boyfriend get his second college recommendation letter so the two of you can begin living the safe and happy life you had always wanted together? adopt and share custody of a hellhound with a goddess.

[hateswifi]

Rising from the Ashes: Of the Past and Nightmares

So this is Part Eleven here is to my Master List and Part Ten.

------------------------------------------------------

"So how'd you get to Gotham from Paris?" Jason asks, plopping down on the couch in the living room.

"Oh easy the glasses, it's called a miraculous, this one is the horse miraculous that grants the power of teleportation," Marinette said, tapping her glasses. "I have a kwami named, Kaalki. The kwami that transforms me into Ladybug is Tikki the goddess of creation. My partner, Chat Noir, has the god of destruction, Plagg. We are balanced."

"Your partner, Chat Noir, is Adrien. Kagami is Ryuko. Luka is Viperon. Chloe is Queen Bee. I'm assuming at least, you don't seem like the type to pick people you don't trust," Damian asked. "But if Chat Noir is your balance does that not make you soulmates?"

"Yes and no. We're not the soulmates you might be thinking of. We are best friends platonic soulmates if you will. We are meant to be in each other's lives and we can’t live without each other," Marinette explained. 

"That makes sense, but who is Tikki and Kaalki?" Jason asks. 

Marinette lifts her hair and they fly out. "Meet Tikki and Kaalki. I have other kwamis as the guardian, but they are in the miracle box at the moment," Marinette explains, holding out their favorite food.

"Hi, guys!" Tikki chirps, landing on her head.

"Oh my gosh! They're adorable! They're so small and precious!" Dick cooed, standing up to move closer to them. 

"I can bring other ones out at different times. Kaalki is just the one I had out due to her transportation powers. I would show you Plagg, but they don't show up on camera," She explains, petting Kaalki's head.

"Miss Marinette, do you have the miraculous of the peacock? I wish to catch up with Duusuu," Alfred asks.

"You had Duusuu before she was taken?" Marinette asks, shocked.

"Ahh yes, is she alright?" Alfred asks.

"She was in the hands of an evil miraculous holder recently, Hawkmoth's partner Mayura, but I think seeing a previous holder would help. Tikki, is that true?" Marinette asks.

"That is correct Mari, it would help wit the cleansing," Tikki said. "Could you also take out Wayzz?"

"Of course I would be able to," Marinette said, standing up leaving Damian's embrace. She opens her bag and takes out the miracle box she takes out the turtle and peacock miraculous after she put the horse miraculous away. "Alfred, would you be able to wear the brooch? I wore all of them once and passed out afterward. Master Fu advised against wearing more than three. I'll need it back after."

"Of course, Miss Marinette," Alfred said, taking the brooch and pinned it to her jacket. Marinette puts on the turtle miraculous. 

"Hello Master Marinette, it's good to see you again," Wayzz greets, bowing.

"Wayzz, please call me Marinette," she answers.

"Wayzz I must speak with you," Tikki says, flying off. Alfred had already walked off to catch up with Duusuu.

"So those are some of the kwamis," Marinette said, snuggling into Damian's embrace.

"What do you mean you passed out after wearing all the miraculi?" Damian asks, kissing her head.

"During the akuma called Kwamibuster, every time Chat or I got hit we would lose our transformation. I went to Master Fu and asked to take all the miraculous so I wouldn't have to reveal my identity. I came up with this brilliantly over the top plan that worked. I'll show you the video Alya took some time. The miraculi are only supposed to be worn one at a time because of the power it holds," Marinette said.

Wayzz flew into the room saying. "But Marinette is the best guardian and holder of Tikki's miraculous that we've had and she somehow was able to pull it off."

"Diana's mother was a Ladybug," Alfred informed them, reentering the parlor.

"That's why she feels familiar," Tikki realizes, landing on Marinette's head. They all chat together, taking turns to ask questions to the kwamis. At the end of the night, Damian decides it's too late for her to go home. Damian leads Marinette to a guest room beside his room. They're standing by the door when he decides to give her the present he bought her.

"Angel, can you face the door for a moment," Damian asks. She turns away from him. He opens a small bow and takes out a necklace, a white gold infinity heart. "Can you look at me now?" She turns back around. "Beautiful," he breathed.

"The necklace?" Marinette asks her bluebell eyes sparkling.

"No, you," he leans down and kisses her softly.

"Prince, you're too nice," she said, breathlessly breaking the kiss. "Goodnight," She says, standing on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. She then entered the room and closed the door quietly behind her. She falls onto the bed lovestruck. Damina places his head on the door and happily sighs before walking to his room. She changed into her pajamas which is a Jagged Stone hoodie and leggings.

Not long after she fell asleep she woke up screaming from a nightmare. Damian rushes into the room as she is sitting up out of breath. "Angel are you ok?" he asks, sitting beside her rubbing her back.

"Ya it was just a nightmare," she whispers, into his shoulder.

"How often do you wake up to nightmares?" he asks, kissing her head.

"More often than I would like to admit," she whispers. "It has been worse since the fire."

"Want me to stay with you?" he asks.

"Please?" she asks looking up at him and blushes. "Umm... Damian, why are you shirtless?'

His face goes completely red looking down at himself. "I... I heard you scream, Ummm... kinda just ran into here, and normally I sleep shirtless," he explains. "Do you want me to grab a shirt?"

"No, please don't leave me," she says, yawning. He lays down and wraps an arm around her. She looks at his arm.

"What happened there?" she asks, tracing a scar.

"When I first moved in with my father, my mother got captured by my grandfather's successor. While father put mother into the Lazarus pool I chased after him, we got into a fight. At one point he put swords into both my arms to stop me from fighting," Damian explains, holding her closer. "Now go to sleep."

They fall asleep with her partly on top of him one hand in his hair the other over his heart. He has one arm around her, and the other hand was on top of hers. Damian didn't normally like touching but sleeping like this with Marinette. 

 "Oh my gosh!" Dick whispered to Jason, peeking in the room. 

"Come on leave them alone, remember privacy?" Tim whispered, pulling both of them away from the door by their collars. "If you wake Damian wake up, he will murder you. He won't care about Father's rule." 

Damian woke up to them talking, but couldn't move to murder them due to his Angel still peacefully sleeping on him. He fell back asleep waiting for her to wake up. After an hour or two, he's woken up by Marinette moving on top of him, she was trying to get out of bed without waking him up.

"No, Angel, please don't leave," he groaned, pulling her back into his embrace.

"Dami-- Damian," she stutters, trying to wiggle out of his strong embrace. "Alfred just called us for breakfast." She finishes trying to sit up again.

"Fine, but next time we're going to stay a bit longer," he says, into her ear, his chin on her shoulder. "I... I mean if there is a next time."

She kisses his cheek. "I would love that. Maybe watching a movie of your choice next time," she smiles, getting out of bed. He quickly follows. They take a seat on stools at the island where plates of waffles sat on the counter. 

"So you wanna tell me what woke you up last night?" Damian said, pouring him and her a glass of orange juice. 

"Well I have constant nightmares over the last standoff against Hawkmoth," she explains, taking a sip of OJ.

"What about the last battle?" he asks, sitting down beside her after he put the OJ back in the fridge.

"You know how Jon saw a healing stab wound?" Marinette asks he nodded in response. "Well, I took that stab wound trying to save Adrien from falling off the Eiffel Tower, he was grabbing Kagami. While I was trying to pull them up I got stabbed, Luka then knocked into Hakwmoth knocking him off the Tower. When he was falling he somehow made it on to a lower platform and ran back to his liar near the end of his transformation," Marinette sighed, taking another bite. "My nightmare was me trying to catch you, but I couldn't catch you, then everything she had said about me was becoming true." she hisses at the mention of 

"Who is she? What could she say to make you react like this?" Damian asks, taking her hand.

"Oh... Ummm... her name is Lila Rossi but it... it.. it isn't important," she stammered, wiping a quick tear that was threatening to fall.

"Marinette, Angel, she must have hurt you in some way if you're reacting this way to here," Damian said, wiping the stray tears.

"She turned all my friends against me with her lying ways. Adrien knew the truth but couldn't truly help me in any way due to his father's overbearing nature. After he found me crying on a roof during one of our patrols, he drew the line there and helped me with Lila's antics," Marinette explained.

"What did she lie about?" Damian asks, pulling her into a hug.

"What didn't she lie about is the real question," Marinette snickers into his still shirtless chest. "She always lying about connections, she is still currently ruining my ex-classmates' lives. She fell down the stairs and said I pushed her, I got suspended. She faked a couple of different disabilities to gain the sympathy of others. She stuck the answer key to a test in my bag and framed me for cheating. Gabriel the retired Hawkmoth, has admitted to Lila willingly let herself be akumatized multiple times. She threatened me and told me she would separate me from my friends until I was all alone." He is silent, but she can feel his heart rate speed up. She looks up at him, fury was spread across his face. "Prince, please say something," she whispered, placing a hand on his cheek.

He takes her hand and  kisses her palm and says, "Angel, no one plans homicide out loud."

"You can't kill her, sadly," she said whispering the last part. "Also one more thing you should know about, apparently you adore her and you guys have had an on and off relationship from childhood," she smirks, her bluebell eyes sparkling with mischief as he gags. They finish eating breakfast together and after cleaning up Damian escorts her home. 

When she arrives home she unpacks and washes her clothes, then starts Scarlette's bridal shower outfit. She makes a cornflower blue button-up blouse and a white high skirt with white sheer fabric on the top of the solid underskirt. She sent a picture to Scarlette and let her know she could pick it up on Sunday. She also recommended pairing it with a pair of pastel pink high heels and clutch. 

Life went on, she started building a name for herself with the help of Diana under the name of Nette. She told Diana that Marinette knows that she is Wonder Woman and that she is Ladybug. Diana laughed it off saying that she knew Marinette had Tikki from the moment she entered the store, part of the reason Diana hired her so quickly. She was intrigued by the holder of creation. Damian and Marinette continued to go on dates. Damian came home with Marinette for Chinese New Year, he also wore a disguised just in case. In March, Damian asked Marinette if she would move into the manor with him, she declined because she has a year contract on her apartment and she doesn't want to mooch off of him.

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Tag list (Open):

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[melzan-of-bregan-daerthe]

Adventures in Faerun

For weeks nightmares of shadow dragons and Thayans woke Melzan from his meditation. Finally, a clear image of travelers in front of a fire came. Eilistraee walked to him and smiled. Her naked form almost making Melzan look away. She came up to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek before looking in the direction of the figures at the fire. 

“One of them is open to me. You need to show them who I am. Bring him to have faith in me,” she purred and then the flames died out and the people were gone. 

A large dragon roared to the side and Melzan turned his head quickly and saw the dragon and a crystal clear image of a man. 

“You must kill that evil man. He’s done things worse than even worshipers of my mother. If you find them,” she motioned back to the campfire which existed again. “You will be in the right position to kill our enemy. Help them, rid this world of these evil people… Go now.”

Melzan gasped and came out of his meditation. Immediately, he got up and began to pack his bags to go on his journey. 

“Ellana, we have to go,” he said softly and she moved to lay inside his hood, curled up in his long soft hair. 

Completely covered he headed out. He only paused to eat, meditate, and also other necessary actions. Someone managed to transport him closer to his destination and soon he only had a few more days before he would meet these new people. No doubt they weren’t Drow. Realizing he shouldn’t just expose himself due to the mistrust it would bring, he stayed away from them for most of the night. 

Without trying to be stealthy, he approached. 

Sure enough, they spotted him. All of them tensed up and began to chat. Some appeared to ready their weapons. One of the shadowed figures disappeared, or maybe they weren’t even there to begin with? He tilted his head and focused more on them. Due to the campfire their faces and bodies were completely in shadow. Finally, they settled realizing he wasn’t whoever they were expecting. Melzan raised his hands to show he was not arming himself and meant to come in peace.

“Well met,” Melzan said softly. 

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” one of the men started. 

To Melzan they all looked skinny. He’d seen wizards with more muscle on them and it worried him. Could they really be the people his Goddess wanted him to help? 

“Will you remove your hood?” another to the side asked. 

“I’m here to fight. With you. To assist you in your fight against the Thayan wizard or sorcerer and a dragon. The message for me to come wasn’t really clear,” then he turned to the man who asked him to remove his hood. “You don’t want me to do that. It would be worse than me leaving it on.”

For a while, they appeared to think about it. 

“May I approach?” Melzan asked, his hands still in the air. “Sit with you by the fire?”

“It’s rude not to remove your hood,” the man to the side of the fire asked. 

“No.” Melzan stated. 

“Yes, come and join us. Jerky?” a man asked holding out a piece. 

Melzan held a hand up to pass on eating it. If he removed his lower face mask they’d all know who he was. 

“I”m iliad, this is milo, Samuel, and Igor,” iliad said motioning to each person as he introduced them. “We’re currently waiting.”

“W-we’re su-supposed to just be us. He w-wont like it if there are more here,” the stutter and fear in his voice almost made Melzan smile. 

He’d be so easy to fight and- No. Melzan can’t do something like that. He wasn’t Graz'zt’s anymore. 

“Yeah, you’re right. You three might need to make yourselves scarce.”

Melzan had no reason to argue so he nodded and wandered back to a tree where he came from. While waiting for the dragon Melzan observed them. The group appeared scared in general. Especially when the Thay finally showed up. 

“Hello, oh where’s your little friend, Nessa” The Thay asked approaching, but stopping about thirty feet away. 

“She got arrested. They thought she murdered someone,” was that one Milo Melzan wondered? Or was that Iliad?

“Good, it worked,” the man laughed. “Why don’t your new friends come out? You over there.” He looked directly at Melzan which made him shudder a little. Since he’d been spotted there remained no reason for him to hide. “Now I hope we can resolve this civilized. You don’t approach within five feet or I will consider it a threat. You should leave now, get out of here.”

“What do you mean it worked?” 

“Me, I took her form and killed someone. I’m glad. I had a little bit of worry that it wouldn’t work, but she’ll be there when we destroy that tribe now.” The man said. 

Melzan had no idea who this Nessa was. 

“We-we’ll le’leave w-when you all get the f-fuck out,” the stuttering man tried to be tough. 

“You all are weak. You don’t want to stay here and-” he lookd down at a little pebble that got kicked towards him. “Are you really going to do this? THreaten me? I can summon the dragon here if you want to die so bad.”

“We don’t want to do that. We’re not going to go unless you go.”

“No one has to die here,” the Thayan said. 

“Yes they do,” Melzan said and pulled out his sword. “You do.” 

“Come on, we can do this peacefully. You leave. We leave.”

Melzan turned to them. “You cowards.”

At around that point, the shambling gnome began slapping the image of the Thayan. 

“I told you any actions like that would be considered threats,” the image disappeared. 

So his new allies could see Melzan cast Dancing Light. Suddenly nearly fifteen shadows began charging at the group. Melzan managed to handle his own, and no one appeared to get too badly injured. A little red haired halfling also appeared. That must have been Nessa Melzan realized. 

A roar in the background was startling. Once the shades were gone, another roar sounded. Closer this time. 

Frost began to cover all of Melzan’s form. Everyone else prepared for the dragon. A glowing red gem fell from the sky and the moment it hit the ground a fire elemental roared loose. The blaze came up in front of Milo. The man reacted bravely and hit the elemental at the cost of his own skin. Everyone began to blast it, while also keeping their distance. 

A scream rang out “I GAVE YOU A CHANCE TO LEAVE! Now you will DIE”

The dragon pulled back before dark flames burned across the area, killing the the elemental and the human dropped down unconscious, burned even more than usual. 

Melzan and Nessa appeared to hurry towards the felled man. Magical chains refrained them, they couldn’t budge an inch. 

This caused  Melzan to turn and glare at the wizard. The man who offered the food stayed in front of the dragon barely breathing. It was a miracle he even stayed on his feet. 

Ellana hurried to Melzan and tapped him to dispel the hold magic and flew to Milo. She hugged his neck as best she could and Melzan felt his power drain a little. Yet the man opened his eyes. That’s what he’d intended. Turning back to the wizard he fired his eldritch blast. 

The wizard of the group began to fling spells at the dragon as quickly as they could. 

The Halfling continued to struggle. Ellana, the little pixie, held tightly to Milo as the man took cover behind a large rock. Iliad attempted to drink something, but the dragon took the opportunity to hit him. 

These people were useless and Melzan could hardly believe what he had to do. Rushing up he moved and spent his last large power to place his hands on Iliad and heal the man’s damage. Sure enough, he left Melzan to the dragon’s mercy. He cursed in undercommon. 

Melzan hurried to do his best to get out of the way. Those claws hurt even if they barely hit them. Each attack froze the dragon’s claws and when it placed it’s foot back down the finger would shatter and send a huge shock of cold up the dragon’s body. The dragon had a limp  now at least. When the blond, Milo? came back out from around the rock he took to one side of the dragon. Iliad even went to stand back in front of the dragon. 

Quickly, Melzan moved to the side of the dragon, out of the way of any sort of breath spell. 

The halfling finally broke free and a giant beam of light appeared pushing down the dragon and only grazing the Thayan’s shoulder. It continued to push it down, weakening it. 

Iliad got caught in a darkness the dragon exhaled and when it began to fade Melzan noticed him back on the ground dying. Ellana rushed to him and touched his cheek to heal the man. Sure enough his eyes opened and when the dragon got distracted Iliad rushed as far away as possible. 

Melzan continued to attack the dragon, hitting through the scales and breaking through. Milo began to hit the dragon some more as well. If they could kill the pet the wizard wouldn’t be difficult to kill at all. The dragon fell over dead. Once again the wizard attacked, chilling Melzan’s should to the core. He almost lost his footing as the skeletal hand dug its bony fingers into his shoulder. 

The thayan screamed. “LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS AND WALK SOUTH FOR A DAY”

THe order didn’t hit Melzan or Ellana, but the others dropped their weapons and began to walk to the south. He couldn’t help them, but Ellana could. 

He rushed to follow the Thayan as he tried to fly away. The mage hit him with a few more magic missiles making the man lose a bit of flying height. It allowed Melzan to hit him even harder, throwing spell after spell. 

Ellana managed to restrain Nessa and Milo before hurrying to go and try and prick Iliad to end the spell using pain. The man used his own spells to attempt to break MIlo out of the spell, but not Nessa. The halfling broke through the entangling roots and the human had to rush after her. The halfling began to dodge or stumble and the human just couldn’t hit her to snap her out of the command. 

The Thayan fell from the sky finally, landing and snapping his neck as his fly spell ended. Melzan panted a bit and pressed a hand against the rotting flesh he would have to heal from the Thayan’s spells but for now he needed to make sure the man was dead and if he had anything on him. 

A staff, didn’t need. A set of magical armor, but they might not be as good as his own. They felt very similar to his detect magic. A cloak he put on automatically. Then he found the other items, which he should share. They did act as physical shields for him a few times. They deserved something. Not the Grimoire though. Melzan took that and with his body aching, sat down and began to look through it. Ellana cooed a bit and flew back once she’d successfully brought Iliad out of the suggestion spell. She moved up under his hood and cuddled up in his soft hair again. 

It made him smile. 

[secretagentspydetectiveninja]

The Misadventures of Prince Kim - chapter 5

(aka the royalty AU story)

[1, 2, 3, 4] [AO3]

Saturday afternoon was warm and sunny, with barely a cloud in the sky. The large stained-glass windows cast a pale orange glow over the courtyard. It was still too early for the race and so no one had yet arrived – except for Alix and her snake, that was. Sitting down in the corner of the courtyard, she flipped open the top of her sceptre and dialled a number. After a few rings someone picked up.

“Hi Alix, what’s up?”

“Hey Jalil,” she said, happy to hear the voice of her older brother. “Sorry I didn’t call before, I kept forgetting.”

“It’s fine. I guessed you’d forget anyway. Are you having fun at school?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty nice here, though it’s really old-fashioned. People don’t even have telephones here, they’re always sending messages by letter! How do they even live?”

“With difficulty, I suppose! Anyway, have you met up with anyone you know?”

“Just Max, though he hasn’t really been talking to me that much…”

“And how much trouble have you been getting into?”

“None!” she said indignantly, before realizing that might not be entirely true. “Well okay, I may have got myself into a skating race later on today, but that wasn’t my fault, it was–”

“I know, Max already told me about it. Some kid with the same name as your snake challenged you to a race and you accepted.”

“Wait, what?! You’ve already spoken to Max?”

“You weren’t answering your phone when I last tried to call so I called him instead. I wanted to make sure my reckless little sister hadn’t accidentally gotten herself killed already, which I’ll be honest, is not unlikely. And the first thing he told me about was your newfound rivalry with some foreign prince!”

“Please don’t tell dad, he hates it when I do stuff like this.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell him,” Jalil laughed. “Since when have I ever told on you?”

“Too many times!”

“Well I promise I won’t this time. So anyway, have you made any new friends?”

“Not really,” she admitted. “I mean, I’ve been trying, but I’m not good with people, you know that. And loads of people here already know each other. I was planning to just hang out with Max but he just spends all his time with Kim, who seems to hate me and especially hates my snake…”

“Well why don’t you make friends with him too?”

“I wish I could. Apart from Max he’s the only one in my class so far who doesn’t just tiptoe around me all the time. Everyone else just… I don’t know what it is! Whenever I try and talk to someone they always act so weird! I don’t know if it’s the snake, or the pharaoh thing, or maybe I’m just bad at making friends, but everyone’s always intimidated by me even when I’m not trying to do that! Who the hell is scared of a 4’8’’ kid with pink hair anyway?!”

“I think it’s just your personality.”

“Great, not helping. So yeah, at least Max treats me like an actual person rather than just some fearsome goddess he doesn’t want to piss off, but that’s because he knew me already, and it doesn’t make a difference now since he’s clearly much better friends with Kim. Who, like I said, hates my guts.”

“Alix, there’s a difference between someone thinking of you as a rival and outright hating you.”

“I know, I know. I guess I’ll try and annoy him less and then maybe he’ll be my friend. But when he loses the race today he is not going to be happy, is he? Ugh, maybe I just shouldn’t have accepted his stupid challenge in the first place, I’m just gonna end up being a loner this whole year with only my snake to keep me company and you’re back at home so I can only talk to you by phone and…”

“It’s okay, things will fall into place I’m sure. For the record I’m not good at making friends either.”

“Yeah, but that’s because you’re a freaking nerd.”

“You have a point. Seriously though, I’m sure you’ll… oh wait, here comes dad, he’s asking if he can speak to you–”

“NOPE, I’m busy, gotta go, see you.”

Alix quickly ended the call and closed the sceptre. If she talked to her father she knew she would get told off for not calling sooner to say she was okay, and she definitely was not in the mood for that – even being a pharaoh couldn’t let her avoid her responsibilities without reprimand. In any case she had only wanted to speak to Jalil. Though it had barely been a week since she got here she already missed having her big brother to confide in, especially since Max didn’t seem to want to hang out with her anymore. At least she could count on her pet cobra to always be around.

Soon enough the other royals arrived in the courtyard, ready to watch the race. Marinette unfurled a cute little banner that she had created up in the textiles room.

“What do you think, Kim?” she asked as Kim entered the area, waving the banner at him.

“Nice!” he replied. “And you’ll make a celebration one for me when I win, right?”

“You mean like, a prize for the winner? That sounds great!”

“So where’s Alix, anyway? Don’t tell me she was too scared to turn up.”

Alix stood up from her little corner and skated over to where the others were. “I’ve been here for like an hour already! Me and Kim the First are ready.”

“I’ll be the one who’s first, but sure.”

Taking her snake off the sceptre and wrapping him around her arm instead, Alix went and put the sceptre on the ground a safe distance away. “Hey Alya, keep an eye on my sceptre okay?”

“Don’t worry, I will, Your Majesty,” said Alya.

“And don’t call me Your Majesty.”

“Um… okay, Alix.”

“Better. And I’m serious about the sceptre, okay? It’s a royal family heirloom and if anything happens to it then I will personally kill every single one of you in this courtyard without regret.”

Alya blinked a few times and didn’t say anything. Skating back to where the starting line would be, Alix realized that threatening to murder people was probably considered intimidating, and decided to try not to do that again. But still, that sceptre really was important, and she would rather everyone stayed scared of her than let anything happen to it.

“Are you seriously gonna carry that snake with you for the race?” Kim said.

“Yeah, he loves it when I rollerskate.” She unwrapped the cobra from her arm and put him around her neck like a scarf. “I even taught him how to skateboard and I bought him a little pair of sunglasses and everything so he looks cool while doing it.”

“I’m not even gonna ask what sunglasses are…”

She stopped herself before mocking him about that, remembering that if she wanted to make friends then she would have to actually try and be less annoying.

Lining them up at the starting line, Max explained the rules (the race would be two laps around the courtyard) and then counted down for the race to begin.

The race itself was fairly brief. Kim tried his best and was indeed a very fast runner, but he couldn’t quite match the speed Alix was going at on her skates. She reached the finish line of the second lap and was welcomed by a chorus of cheering from her classmates – though they did all sound somewhat subdued.

“Kim the First, you are still officially number one!” she said, giving the snake’s hood a gentle little stroke.

“That… that wasn’t fair…” Kim had reached the finish too by now and was leaning over to catch his breath. “The sun… in my eyes… I’m taller so I couldn’t avoid it and…”

Was he really trying to make stupid excuses for losing? Couldn’t he just admit he was slower?

“Maybe that’s why you need sunglasses,” Alix snapped at him.

“Yeah well I’m still taller so there’s more air resistance, so it was still unfair and…”

“Just shut up and admit you lost!”

She went and retrieved her sceptre and then skated out of the courtyard without speaking to anyone else. What was the point of putting effort into making friends with someone who was just going to be a sore loser? Maybe she’d just have to resign herself to being a loner this year after all. After all, since Kim clearly wasn’t trying to be civil, then why should she?

But no… she was a pharaoh. A ruler of a country. She couldn’t just go around making enemies with people, especially other members of royalty, that was a sure-fire way of starting unnecessary wars. Surely if Max, a fairly nice person, was friends with Kim then he must be at least alright sometimes? But then again it wasn’t her job to figure that out!

Well, if Kim was not going to treat her with respect then she just wouldn’t talk to him. And if he started being nicer to her then she would carry on trying to be his friend. Yes, it was as simple as that.

Meanwhile, back in the courtyard, most of the classmates were leaving while Max stood with his arms folded, looking at Kim rather sternly. “You lost fair and square, Kim, and you know it.”

“Her snake was distracting me.”

“Kim…”

“Okay fine, I guess I need more practice! I’ll beat her someday, I promise you.”

“That’s much better. And perhaps you should go congratulate her on her win.”

“What, so she can gloat at me over how much better she is?”

“No, Kim, gloating is your thing.”

“But what if she attacks me with her snake?”

Max tried not to laugh. “So that’s what this is about! You just really hate that snake, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Kim muttered, turning away. “Obviously I’m not scared of it, but…”

“It’s okay if you are.”

“I’m not!... Well, okay, kinda. But we’ve got cobras in my kingdom too and they’re always really hostile and they’ll attack you if you go near them, so I’ve always been told to stay away! It’s pretty much engrained into me! So of course I’m not exactly okay with my own classmate always dragging around some creepy reptile that could kill me painfully with a single bite!”

“I see,” said Max, resting a comforting hand on Kim’s arm. “Would it help if I told you that unlike many other species of cobra, queen cobras are very intelligent and well-behaved? If it wasn’t for their venom, they’d essentially be harmless. Owning one is still considered unusual but it’s more like having a pet cat or dog – just a sweet little animal companion to be your friend. I promise Alix’s snake won’t harm you on its own accord. She’s owned it for years and it’s been nothing but good-tempered the whole time, so it really won’t attack anyone unless she tells it to, and she’s certainly not going to do that.”

“But what if she does?”

“I’m sure she won’t. I know she seems almost as hot-headed as you are but she’s already a pharaoh and knows she has her country’s reputation to uphold, so she’s not going to be responsible for causing anyone’s death. Does that put your mind somewhat at ease?”

“Yeah, I guess… How are you always so smart, Max? I swear it’s like you know everything. It’s awesome.”

Max was not only surprised at Kim’s sudden compliment, but was also surprised at how much he felt his face heating up at hearing it. “Oh, I just… research a lot…”

“Huh. I wish I could be that smart.”

Max tried to say something in reply but his mind had gone completely blank. It must be because he wasn’t used to receiving compliments – most people seemed to pay no attention to his intelligence. But Kim, his friend, said he wanted to be smart like him…

It took Max several moments to realize that Kim had already wandered off. Whoops. He wasn’t sure why he kept getting so oddly lost in thought these days, though perhaps it was just that being in a new place with a lot of new people had given him a lot to think about. Anyway, he quickly went and caught up with Kim so that they could walk back to their dorms together. Having his best friend easily available to hang out with all the time was so nice. Even if they weren’t doing anything in particular, just spending time with him felt good. Joining this school had definitely been a good choice.