A Princess's Due

"Oh great Sadida," Princess Amalia Sheran Sharm quietly prayed, "is this a test for your most devoted follower, who followed the vision granted her to the village and boy who needed her help?" She then took a deep breath… "If so, I get the picture!" Despite the echo that had carried her voice across the field, no one seemed to notice.

"Amalia, could you keep it down?" Amalia heard Ruel Stroud's voice over the din of kamas in his head. "If anything taints the outcome, I won't be able to collect off them." And so he pointed at the very subject which had brought Princess Amalia Sheran Sharm such vexing irritation: Evangelyne, her bodyguard, surrounded by all the local boys of the village, each one putting forth their best efforts to woo her. Grovy was among them, eager to take his turn. "I have to tell you, these rubes and their Eniripsa festivals are definitely good for those who dabble in Ecaflip's domain." The old man laughed, and Amalia huffed with a pouty lip jutting out.

"Ami!" Yugo hopped out of one of his portals right in front of Amalia, his face dripping with yogurt while holding a large, untouched cup in his hand. "Isn't this village just the best?"

"Yes." Amalia groused as she saw Eva turn down yet another poor hopeless pathetic fool. "I can hardly imagine a more verdant field of fools existing anywhere else in the World of Twelve."

Yugo looked where Amalia was looking. "Huh, I never would have guessed that being a bodyguard meant having to protect you from that sort of thing."

"Oh Yugo." Amalia sighed; despite the nobility of the boy's heart, he was still just a boy. "Someday you'll understand that beautiful young maidens like myself expect and appreciate adoration like that."

"Really?" Yugo looked upon Amalia, one eye arched in confusion. "Eva doesn't seem to like it very much."

"Of course she doesn't!" Amalia fumed. "She is not the one who is supposed to draw crowds of hapless courtiers. I am! Eva has neither the bearing nor the training to handle such challenges. I do!"

Yugo was forced back a step by Amalia's outburst, but then he grinned in realization, something that plainly did nothing for Amalia's poor mood. He made his way up to her, up to her face. "You're jealous."

"What?" Amalia's doll leaped forward, pushing Yugo back. "Yugo, you don't know what you're talking about." She refused to let the redness of her face give Yugo any false impressions.

"It's okay, Ami," Yugo giggled. "If you ask me, it doesn't make much sense to me either." He flashed a toothy grin. "You're way prettier than Eva."

"Y-Y-Yugo!" Amalia's face turned a fiery red as she stammered. "Did Grovy tell you to say that?" She stood up, walked past Yugo. "I swear by Sadida, that Iop head's not going to know what hit him." Amalia was about to slam her hands against the ground to summon vines with which to attack Grovy, right in the midst of his efforts to hold the heaviest of Eva's suitors over his head as a feat of strength. But her hands met not the ground, but tough and nimble hands whose fingers had laced themselves between hers.

"Ami, Grovy didn't tell me to do anything. Besides, do you really think I'd follow his advice on this sort of thing?" Amalia looked down in Yugo's eyes, then over at Sadlygrove; he had just been crushed under the weight of the three heaviest of Evangelyne's suitors, and Eva could do nothing but rest her face in her palm.

"No, I suppose not, you are a very smart boy after all Yugo. But you're still just a boy Yugo, you don't really understand what you're saying." Despite what she'd just said, Amalia pulled her hands out from Yugo's with more force than was called for. She watched him get back up and retrieve the yogurt that he'd gotten for her, using his portals to reach through and grab it.

"Here; I'm not too young to give you yogurt, right?" He held it out to her, and Amalia had to admit that it did have a rather pleasant odor to it.

"No, I suppose not." She sat back down in her original seat and got started on her yogurt, which tasted as good as it smelled. Then she noticed that Yugo was still sitting next to her, kicking his legs back and forth as Az flitted from one foot to the other. "Is something bothering you Yugo?" It couldn't have been her repeated reminders that he was still a boy, Amalia was sure of that.

"…Do you remember how two weeks ago, you were bitten by that Red Demonic Rose?" Amalia nodded slowly. "If we hadn't been able to save you, I don't think I would have been able to keep going on this journey. So, I guess I just wanted you to know that someone cared."

"Yugo…" He looked so serious, so sad in that moment, like when she'd first met him and heard about what had happened to his father. Amalia wasn't sure what to make of that, that she'd become so important to him in so short a time.

"Oi!" Amalia and Yugo both looked up and towards Grovy at the same time, each having the same irked expression on their faces. Grovy himself was being supported by Evangelyne, no doubt the source of the elated grin on his face. "Just to let you guys know, we're going up there." He pointed to a nearby hill that overlooked the village. "Turns out that when the moon comes out, all the young couples go up on the hill and look at it. You know what that means?"

"It means that you're a good meat shield to keep away all the suitors who didn't get the hint before." But Amalia saw the look on Eva's face; she knew that her best friend was enjoying this, even if she'd never admit it. "Come on Grovy."

The two departed as Yugo and Amalia watched all the various couples made their way past them, and for a short time the two young friends shared silent jokes concerning some of the disparities that resulted from rushed pairings of those desperate to not be alone on this of all nights.

Then Amalia stood up and put down her empty yogurt cup. "Yugo." She turned around and extended her hand to the young Eliatrope. "Would you care to give this young Sadida princess her due?"

"Sure." He said it calmly and easily as he took her hand, and together they walked up the hill, and gazed up at the moon which shined down upon all those who'd joined together in the spirit of love.