Chapter 21. A Drunken King Rouault
Now that Queen Nox had left the late lunch, bordering on dinner, social event to return to her work, as the sole ruler of her Kingdom. As well as Seraphina – the dazzling delight of the evening had taken her to leave – having left, one by one all of the remaining guests left the dining room in their respective groupings.
The first pair, chaperone and young eligible bachelor, to leave had been King Rouault and Prince Kavan. The former, staggered and wabbled in his pace. His young Prince supported his weight from his shoulder, hugging his side with one arm. Despite this, the King seemed to pay his son no mind.
"Honestly," The young owlet chastised, "You may have overdone it with the blood wine."
The older Tawny owl spluttered and slurred. Being drunk elongated his hooting accent to a comical degree, "Yooou knooow…" he began, "It shooould be me whooo tells yooo ooooff, yoooungster."
The younger peacock prince, Prince Caruso and Queen Cassandra (the Peacock Queen) snickered at the old owl's drunken state. Humoured by his distasteful lack of restraint and control.
Getting bold again, the Peacock Prince smirked and jeered, "Old owl… man you are just an absolute hoot!" His snigger resumed and at his words, Queen Cassandra laughed noticeably louder.
Clearly, she would be no help in telling her son off, as she had last time.
Did she agree with him? That was the thought that concerned Prince Kavan most.
Prior to this, she had been trying to keep her volume as low as she could. This had broken her restraint.
Young Prince Kavan scowled disapprovingly at the pair of peacocks, but they never noticed due to how hard both of them were laughing. Queen Cassandra even needed to hold the back of a chair for support.
"You should both consider, just who it is, that you are mocking." The disapproving tone he carried matched his expression.
Prince Kavan had never heard of their type of harpy being as disrespectful as they had been. Now it had been not just the Raven Queen, the peacock prince had dared to mock… but now also his own chaperon; a royal of the Tawny Harpy.
If he were honest to his own senses, particularly his ears, he would have addressed the fact that the Eurasian Harpy was also chuckling lowly under their breaths. King Easton, in particular, had a very low bass tone to his breathy laughter.
King Rouault did not seem to fully comprehend the social dynamic of the situation, caught up in his own drunken delight… or stupor if one were to ask young Prince Kavan his thoughts, "Why, thank yooou yoooung prince!" The owl King smiled a very wide and goofy smile. His lack of sobriety made his features and expressions that much more animated.
This caused all of those laughing to laugh even louder and even harder.
Young Prince Kavan's scowl deepened on his face; matching his sense of disapproval: Disapproval of King Rouaultr's drunken state and disapproval of the conduct of both the Peacock Harpy Royals present and the Eurasian Owl Harpy Royal's present.
"Come on you," Prince Kavan said stiffly to his father, who was also a royal and drunken chaperone, leaning on his shoulder. "Let us get you to the room to freshen up."
King Rouault agreed with his hooting slurs and smile goofily and appreciatively at Prince Kavan, as he all but dragged the King out of the dining room and up the hallways to their designated room for the evening.
On his way up to the room, Prince Kavan kept an eye out for any of the house staff to ask them for a bucket and a fresh, large, pitcher of water. This would help King Rouault's hangover later on, if not tomorrow. It would all depend on how long he would sleep after the amount he had drunk at that late lunch.
Usually, Prince Kavan would be able to keep notice and provide an additional breaker for the old tawny. This would almost always insure that his father, both had a good time and enjoyed his alcoholic beverages, but never succumb to his vices of overindulgence in tasteful beverages that were available in large quantities. However, this time Prince Kavan was largely and… quite satisfactorily engaged in conversation with the lovely Princess Seraphina.
She had really been a delight for the young Prince to speak with and get to know.
As the young owlet all but carried King Rouault on his shoulder, back to the room, he re-played some flashbacks of their conversations and questions in his mind: Her smile, her deep bell-like laugh… her pale and dainty fingers, embellished with beautiful black talons, worn in a human-like finger form that showed off her glossy black nails exquisitely… these matched her eyes… her black eyes like a deep abyss Prince Kavan could get lost in.
This broke his, rose-tinted, thoughts away from Seraphina for a moment.
No. He thought to himself, I did get lost in them. I got lost in her, entirely all evening. That is why King Rouault is in the drunken state that he is in now… because I got distracted and carried away he let himself go and was mocked by two other Harpy Clans.
Prince Kavan, knew that there would be repercussions, politically, for this humility on King Rouault's part. However, he also knew the Peacocks and Eurasians would also have their up comings for mockery.
Particularly the Eurasian Owl Harpy's… the Parliament of Owls would certainly have something to say about their behaviour. While Prince Kavan wasn't entirely sure about the Council of the Eagle Harpys, he was sure because of the proud and noble prestige that they prided themselves on, similarly, that they too would be unhappy about King Easton, Prince Lucas', and Prince Loris' behaviour. As he wasn't so sure about the process of the latter, he dropped the thought and focused on his father, King Raouault again, and getting him to the room.
Before long, they were at the door to their room. It was… unsurprisingly, black. After the first little while, the novelty in the taste of Queen Nox's décor really wore off fast. Black. Black. Gray. Black and another few varying shades of grey. The granite of the mountain itself made up the walls of the castle, internally and externally. With grey marble pathing the floors with a glossy shimmer… this was more tolerable since it felt like the light from the windows lightened them up.
Prince Kavan shifted the weight of his father on his shoulders so that he was able to twist the old grey door handle to open their room. It squeaked… all the ironmongery and mechanisms in this grand manor seemed to squeak and need oiled – he noted mentally at this.
This was something that owls did more often than the raven harpy, but ravens did do it too; make little mental notes on the smallest of details here and there. It could be something others, like the peacocks, would deem irrelevant and unnecessary to even consider mulling over.
"Right, we are almost in the room and we can get you settled and comfy for your afternoon nap." Prince Kavan had more authority in his voice now towards the King, than he had the entire late lunch. Which if he was honest, was closer to dinner.
Princess Seraphina had actually liked the boyish charm that this owlet carried. Seemingly more innocent than the other owlets – though she had never dared to voice this in front of the other two. She had taken an almost instant disliking to them, over their conduct and from there on out focused her attention on Prince Kavan. Who had noticed how little time and space she had given the Eurasian brothers, Prince Loris or Lucas in any of their conversations?
Prince Kavan blushed as Princes Seraphina's face and smile bubbled into his thoughts yet again. The look on her face as she had encouraged him to take another cup of the blood wine, how she had teasingly and lightly persuaded him into having a further third cup poured.
When he gave in, the eldest twin princess blushed. A light dusting of rose spanned across her fair cheeks. Causing her to don a sheepish and shy expression momentarily, until the blush went away.
At the time, Prince Kavan had felt quite bashful in response to her and this certainly was something that the young tawny was not used to feeling.
At the memory he licked his lips… he could almost taste the sip he had taken of the blood wine, while he viewed Seraphina's victory glee in response.
While not usually one who was partial to wines, tending to prefer water himself, even Prince Kavan could see the appeal in the taste of the Raven Harpy Clan's blood wine. From this, he also accepted just how easy it might be for someone to have too many cups before they realised that it was too late and they had lost control of themselves and their bodily functions.
However, he had mustered the restraint to slow down after three cups of the delicious red liquid. The meal had also sufficed, with the seared wild boar belly soaking up any of the wine that had been drinking prior.
In King Rouault's case, it had soaked up some, but he had continued drinking long after his own point of no return and submitted to his vices.
As the young owl, hauled his elder into the room and just about threw him onto the bed, he was glad that they were – for the most part – out of the public eye and he could concentrate on getting his father sobered up as quickly as he could.
He hadn't seen any of the house servants on his way up the hallway to the room, so he had already decided that when his father had finally passed out on the bed, which was moments after he landed on the soft cushioning, Prince Kavan was going to go in search of one of them. Just to request a jug of water.
Before he left the room again, he flipped his father over onto his front. This way he would be safer if he had to rush to the bathroom to be sick.
Prince Kavann had eventually resigned that this wasn't the worst option, with everything taken into account. It beat having to shower, clean, dry, and re-dress a drunken father, and King.
He would be back momentarily with water… or at least, that was what he had planned for.