ooc: ha, I made up for it with a super-speedy reply X3 oh, that Jac of yours! *growls*
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Oh, the joke was on her alright. She could see the humor glowing in his dark gaze, felt it prickle on her nape. Her pride had suffered a fatal blow, but still it lingered, and the melted-chocolate laughter that oozed from him now served to flush her cheeks once more, her spine stiffening even though her ivory hands remained clasped subserviently together.
How she longed to scathe him with words, but they would not come, not for the life of her. Shame blossomed in her breast. So he would let her stay, then, but at the price of what? Becoming some form of amusement? Alas, but that was worth a roof over her son's head, Alaine mused with dull repent.
His gratitude was mocking, and anger flickered in her still.
But she moved away to do as he bid; Jac was, after all, the king of this hell-bent place. An easy retreat that would make - She'd feed him, organize a room for him, and ha! Peace and quiet once more. But more words spilled from his poisonous maw, and the hair on the slender arch of her neck stood erect, a chill trickling down her spine to set all muscles to stone. Of course, he wasn't done toying with her yet. Inwardly cursing the hope she'd felt, Alaine bristled silently, gracing the Monarch once more with her oddly beautiful inverted eyes.
Though voiced as a question, Alaine knew that it was nothing short of a command. Her small ivory teeth ground irritably against each other as the young healer forced them into a pretty, fake smile.
" If you wish it, my lord..."
The words tasted stale on her tongue, and no doubt that Jac would be able to see the bitter resentment growing warm in her feisty gaze. She gestured to a doorway on his right, where a long wooden table stood starkly alone in the middle of the room. A few candles had been lit, their pleasant little flames flickering lightly in the center, and somewhere a warm fire in the stone fireplace banked slowly, emanating it's dying heat. Though it filled her with disgust to act so homely to such an impossible, intolerable, arrogant... Well, though it did, she saw no other option but to play along till he grew tired of her. Perhaps, it would be as easy as that.
Without speaking, for she felt to open her maw again would be risking another gush of insults, Alaine brushed past him into the open kitchen. She worked with irritable, jerky movements, her natural grace barely visible beneath the obvious air of disapproval. How had one such as he, a pompous ass no less, managed to become King of a whole pack? Surely, mutiny should have purged him from the throne already! Perhaps, she considered absently, letting the flames of anger die down to coals of agitation, perhaps he was actually a good ruler, regardless of his chauvinistic personality. It would surprise her, but it was always a possibility.
She swept back out, bringing a pleasant flush of warm from the kitchens with her, balancing the pot of stew and two bowls in either hand. There had been other, strange little things in the kitchen - Minuscule silver pitchforks that had been too slender to grasp properly, and tiny daggers that looked as if they couldn't even cut through hide. So she'd left them in favor of eating directly from the bowls, as if they were giant mugs. Setting the objects briskly on the table, the healer ladled out a large serving of the stew to the King's bowl, and slide it frostily down to one end of the table. Then, taking the other, smaller serving as her own, she considered how offensive he would find her sitting as far away from his entrancing ebony eyes as possible to be.
Speak think walk
Table code, image, and Filler © Jacoby
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