#Guinevere is Alina's niece. Her mother is Alina's sister who purposely stays out of royal life. She does have a good relationship with Alina

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Guinevere is an up and coming fisher-cat. All of them were important to the trade of Harmonia, as since their seas were particularly blessed by Caspian, they'd never run out. Fish was their specialty, and by the Muses was Guinevere going to live up to everyone's expectations.

Her father was a proud captain in Queen Alina's armada (though he had more time now, considering the Taiga Wars between Desiderio and Monaxiá were over) and her mother was one of the most famous fisher-cats there was, always bringing in large hauls.

So yeah, no pressure or anything.

"Ah!" Guinevere hisses, quickly drawing her paw from the water and shaking it. "Sea's a prickly bastard today. Zenith must've hit ya, eh?"

She sighs and leans against her boat with a loud grumble. The sea further out had been ravaged by a storm the past few days, where all the good fish was. It was far too annoying.

Her keen ears pick up the sound of someone sputtering and coughing. She quickly stands, heart racing.

Oh no, don't tell her someone went out in the storm and got washed up!

She quickly rounds to the other side of her moderately sized boat-

And stops, body going slack.

"What.. are you?" She whispers, ears pinning back.

What lays on the sand, coughing and sputtering, is not a cat. It has a snout and fur like hers, their fur chocolate. But their tail was hairless, long and thin. Small round ears were atop their head, with smaller whiskers. Their snout was more pronounced than a cats, throwing Guinevere off. All that looks vaguely familiar was the fact that.. whatever this being was, they wore something fairly similar to a painter's outfit.

They sputter again, and Guinevere panics. "Ah, Muse-damn it! You're choking!"

She rushes over and kneels down, sand clinging to her wet pants. Now so close, she saw just how small this stranger was compared to her. Almost adorable, if not for the fact they were hacking up water.

She focuses intently and starts to sing softly, feeling the magic flow through her. "Water of ocean, blessed ye be.. follow my voice, please come to me."

Water soon streams from the being's mouth, Guinevere soon had it tossed back to the ocean. Quickly, the stranger sat up, and their head hits her chin.

"Ow!"

"Gah!"

The two cry in pain and quickly separate, with Guinevere rubbing her chin and the stranger rubbing their head.

They're the one to speak first, though they have an accent so thick to Guinevere that she can hardly make out what they say other than a 'sorry! So sorry!' from what sounds like a male voice.

"It's okay!" She opens an eye to look at them. "Uh, are.. you ok?"

The stranger looks are her quizzically and looks her over, and she isn't surprised. She's never seen one of them, and they've probably never seen one of her.

He nods. "What.. you?"

She pauses to think before pointing. "Uh.. Guinevere! I'm.. a Cat."

The stranger looks down, his eyebrows furrowing as he if he was figuring it out. Then he looks back up, speaking tentatively. "Guinevere? Cate?"

"Kha-t." She speaks slowly, making sure to sound it out.

"Cat." He nods, then points to himself. "Monet. Mouse."

Guinevere thinks her brain stops as she tries to figure out what Monet just said. "M.. Mise? Mouise?" Her own accent was not helping.

"Mous." Monet says slowly, and she nods.

"Mouse." She repeats.

"Yes!" Monet nods eagerly and then frowns. "Where.. I?"

"Harmonia." Guinevere answers. She stands up and offers a paw, which Monet takes, and she's taken aback by how he reaches up just to her waist. "Ethil kingdom."

Monet seems to understand and looks around. She then hesitates before speaking.

"Come.. to my home?" She asks carefully. "Help you?"

The Mouse pauses to think before he nods.

○●○

"Thank the Muses for pa being close to that mage in Cilcia." Guinevere sighs in relief, as she clips a bracelet around her wrist, as Monet did the same.

"The Muses?" He raises a brow.

"Mhm, they're the ones we worship! We follow Caspian, Muse of water and creativity." She smiles. "It was probably thanks to him you didn't die in the ocean out there."

He seems skeptical. "Eh.. I doubt that. It was probably our ocean Artistan, Arno."

Guinevere pointedly ignores that. "Right.. well, how did you even end up here?"

"Gah.." Monet groans. "I was part of a crew that was going out to the ocean to get some new painting supplies. The clay is quite good where I'm from." He frowns. "A freak storm hit the boat out of nowhere, and the captain jumped ship."

Guinevere fur bristles. "Cowardly bastard!" She hisses. "He'd be tried and jailed for that here, the Admiral as judge!"

Monet looks surprised. "You seem to take this type of stuff seriously."

"Of course!" The she-cat nods, striding over to the brick stove. She kneels down and grabs some nearby logs stored by the wall, setting them in. She grabs a flint and strikes it several times before it lights. "The sea is Ethil's way of life! I mean, for Muses sake, it's the backbone of our industry."

He thinks, then speaks. "Do you all have magic?"

"We do." She nods as a fire ignites under the brick stove. She then stands. "Do you?"

"We express it in art."

"We express it in music."

The duo looks at each other before Guinevere rubs the back of her neck. "Can I.. get ya anything to eat?"

"Do you have an fruits?" His ears lower a bit. "Just something to tide me over."

She winces a bit and scratches her cheek. "Uhmm.. I don't, unfornately. Cats don't.. we, uh, don't really eat fruits on their own. I might have some apples..? I think?"

"That'll do." Monet nods, though he does look perplexed.

Guinevere sets a kettle of water on the before moving to search around her small, quaint cabin before she manages to get some fruit. She sets it down on a plate in front of him and smiles sheepishly. "Sorry.. it's just.. us Cats, we eat purely meat. Fruits and vegetables are usually added just for flavor."

Menot nods in understanding, and she moves to the stove, where the kettle begins to whistle. She carefully lifts it off the hot stone and pours the water into stone cups, and then she sprinkles tea leaves, which quickly soak in. She sets the kettle down on the stone counter and walks over to the table where Monet sat. The Cat set one cup down in front of him as she sat across from him.

She pointedly doesn't make eye contact. She doesn't like how something primal was telling her leap at him. "So.. how.. does taking ya to see Queen Alina sound? I'm sure she'd be willin' to help you find a way home."

He perks up at that. "Oh! That'd be wonderful!"

She smiles nervously. "Just a fair warning. She can be.. intense, ya know?"

"Ah, it'll be fine." Monet chuckles. "I'm sure I can handle meeting her."

Guinevere sweats a bit. Muses, I hope you can handle meeting my aunt.