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A Bard's Tale,3rd Bar: Dinner Conversation (FFXI Love Story)Follow

#1 Oct 23 2008 at 3:26 AM Rating: Excellent
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Deciding how to do a royal dinner was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. In the older days, the king and queen would often eat in public, in front of all of their nobles. Dinner was a typically silent affair that was more often than not a show of might in front of the higher ranked people of the kingdom. A simple pouring of the drink would lead into a six-seven minute almost-dance and almost-song number (seriously!).

I decided to do away with most of it, if only to keep the focus upon the storyline and upon the characters. If I did too much, it would pull the attention away from the characters and what they were saying (not that they could talk anyways!) and towards the ceremony.

My first work, if you want to read it: Aish*teru (I Love You)

Comments, suggestions, etc are always welcome^^

*****
1st Movement

1st Bar, A Prologue

2nd Bar, Beautiful Music
*****

Begin 3rd Bar, Dinner Conversation

I placed the slender pointed end of my fork between my lips, tasting the supposedly-succulent flesh of a cockatrice upon my tongue. Tucking my teeth around the back end of the piece, I pulled it off the silverware piece and started to chew it silently.

It was two hours after the performance, and I still couldn’t get those eyes out of my mind.

Those crystal blue eyes smiling at me.

Those beautiful notes were still playing out in my ears, the sounds licking against my soul, drawing out for a brief moment my natural happiness.

"That was a good job that that bard did tonight, wasn't it my dear?"

At that I looked up in surprise at having my thoughts nearly read, and I saw my husband at the other end of the long and ornate table eating the same dish as me. As he said that, he dipped the edge of a freshly hewed piece of meat into a small bowl made out of alexandrite so he could scoop out a small portion of rolanberry sauce onto the bird. He then popped the piece into his mouth, swallowing it whole without seemingly tasting the food.

I finished chewing my own food, nearly choking it down to only feel it slide somewhat uncomfortably down my throat.

I hated eating with him, because he ate in such a disgusting way. He would devour whatever was put in front of him like he had not seen food in two and a half weeks, greedily slopping it down with glass after glass of that vile monkey wine. Crumbs would fall out of his lips at times, soiling the tablecloth and the silk napkin that he often only put on his lap as an afterthought. It was a striking contrast to the Elvaan that presented himself as the one most fit to rule over the kingdom everyday to his only-merely average subjects.

I quietly lifted my hand up, and with a slight curl of my white lace-gloved fingertips, motioned for the Elvaan servant to come towards me with the jug of Molvopolos water. He took my empty glass and poured the clear, sparkling fluid into my cup until it was back to being just over half full before setting it back down onto the table, juxta-positioned at an angle to my plate.

"That a 'no', then?"

I had forgotten that I had just been asked a question, and I could tell by the lines drawing themselves on my king’s face that he was starting to get annoyed with my slowness at responding to him.

"Yes, yes, I agree with you dear. I think the bard did a wonderful job at entertaining us tonight." I responded warily, not wishing to provoke one of his famous outbursts.

With that, the king picked up his soiled napkin from his lap, wiping both his lips and his beard clean with it before dropping it unceremoniously into a crumpled heap upon what little of his dinner remained.

He then motioned the waiting servants to clear off our dishes from the table, despite the fact that I had only managed to force down about a fourth of my own bird. I watched as the dishes were cleared, and then a plate of dessert was placed in front of each of us just as quickly.

I stuck the edge of my smaller dessert fork into the baked faerie apple pie slice, idly watching it break the flaky crust with great ease. The sweet scent of fruit filled my nose and I couldn’t help but smile as fleetingly happy memories of summers spent visiting my family who lived outside the walled kingdom proper in the apple orchards.

I cut out an awkward-shaped triangle of the dessert’s pointed tip with my fork before then eating it slowly, savoring the freshly cloven cinnamon rolling on my tongue.

I must remember to thank Drowsorez for making this...and see if I can get whatever might be left over to be delivered to my room for me to eat tonight.

With that mental note resolved in my mind, we continued to eat in silence for a couple of minutes, until only the edge of the crust was left on my plate.

"I’m glad you liked him...I’m going to have him stay here as my personal bard, so we will be hearing him every night from now on."

I only dimly recognized that my fork had fallen out of my hand at that, the racket from it crashing into the stone floor echoing the dining room as I completely froze in place. As my servant rushed over to clean up the mess I had just inadvertently made, my eyes widened for but an instant before I recovered myself.

"He’s...staying?..." was all I could manage to get out, in disbelief as my emotions started to race each other.

"I wish you wouldn't drop your silverware like that, it ruins the mood of the meal. And yes he is, why so surprised about that?"

As I nodded in slight apology, I quickly thought up a reply that I hoped he would believe...and that ultimately, I hoped that I did as well.

"You never said that about any of the other bards we've had play for you before. Normally, you just kick them out as soon as they enter, and call them incompetent. Either that, or you have them killed.," I finished with a bit hastily, but with a marked tone of dryness to my voice.

He gave a tight lipped smile, his eyes not changing to anything approaching mirth.

"This one is different. He will be staying, and I do not appreciate your tone of voice with me."

He paused for a moment before he continued in a tone that I had seen he use with his subjects.

"My dear, do remember I AM your husband, and you WILL treat me with respect. Otherwise, I can have you forced back into the life of poverty that you were so desperate for you and your family to escape from when I first found you noble-house namesakes begging at my cloak’s hem for me to wed you. Those type of comments only undermine my authority in this marriage."

He said as his chair was pulled back enough for him to get up and stroll out of the room, without even a glance backwards to see if I was following him.

"Yes, my lord..." I said quietly as the door shut in his leave.

I then allowed my own butler to pull my seat back to allow me to raise up as well, and I quickly followed in my husband’s stead.

I felt like crying, yet there was a small thought that I couldn’t banish from my mind.

He’s staying...

~fin 3rd Bar, Dinner Conversation
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