Chapter 17. The Dining Room
Echoes of a sharp and shrieking scream had pierced through the chatter in the dining room. Both that of the adults and that of the young harpies this had been intended for; for them to be able to meet and get to know one another before possibly being mated for life.
"…Is…everything okay?" It was young Master Lucas who broke the silence to ask the question.
Lady Nox looked extremely embarrassed and mortified with a stabbing twist of anger that contorted her features. It looked very unbecoming for a lady of her stature but no one dared say anything else. Yet, everyone in the room wondered what was going on.
Young Master Fenn of the Tawny Harpies had looked inquiring and inquisitively at Seraphina for an answer.
She had just shrugged in response to the question which had been written all over his face… and his darling black eyes. Instead the elder princess had turned to look straight at her mother, to gage from her reaction and response what was going on.
Everyone in the room had copied Seraphina in doing this. The silent enquiry present on everyone's face and in their body languages.
Like a tense, coiled spring, Lady Nox leapt to her feet and pushed her chair back with the back of her long pale legs in an instant. The stress and tension in her had finally bubbled over, everything that had been accumulating since this morning finally pushed her over the edge.
"I'm going to go see what is taking place in my manor. Please, do remain. I shall not be too long." With that, she left the room as quickly as a flash and headed straight for the kitchen.
Young Master Fenn turned back to Seraphina; his owl eyes had seemingly gotten wider and rounder. A question was evidently posed in them.
Lord Fielder and Lord Easton, as well as young Master Lucas and Loris, also possessed the same expression and change in their eyes.
Up until now, the young Peacock male had been silent in conversation. Like his mother, he wore an expression of boredom at almost everything. It was he, Chaitav, who finally spoke up, "Is the Raven Queen always as uptight and overstrung as this?
Lady Charula gaped at her son's words and was about to reprimand him for such a poor commentary when Seraphina spoke up to answer him. "Yes, she is. Annoyance and irritancies are her defaults."
While the princess had no interest in Master Chaitav as a mate, she was interested when these were the first words he had spoken the entire time. She had known owls to supposedly be the quiet ones and expected the peacock to try to be the show off with his garish colours. To try to woo and impress with them.
'That's what they do, right?' Their tails turn into giant fans." She thought to herself, rather than out of genuine it was a morbid point of curiosity, around the harpy that had insulted her father.
Master Chaitav spoke up again, finishing his thoughts out loud now that he had "It looks like she needs to get laid… and badly. Where is the Raven King anyway? Will he not grace us with his presence?"
The room had begun to chuckle and laugh, although not only at this prince's boldness but at his obvious lack of knowledge regarding the Raven Kingdom. King Fielder Roultar of the Tawny Clan, answered the foolish prince, "The King is dead. He passed away many years ago. For that, I myself am glad that he will not grace us with his presence, as he would be largely decomposed by now and quite an unpleasant sight."
The owlet twins, Loris and Lucas burst into laughter at this, how unknowing Chaitav was and inappropriate at the same time. The mature and witty humour of the owls was more sarcasm and sophisticated knowing. Notions such as those uttered by Master Chaitav were derogatory humour that was considered taboo for owls to use.
Even Master Fenn, sitting on the other side of Seraphina, was chuckling lowly to himself. He really was a sweet prince, and his eyes were something else, and over the course of the first two meals, he and Seraphina had found that they had gotten on really well. Both were interested in the Peacock Queen's mention of the distant Harpy Clans in the Forrest of Eternal Rain. Their questions seemed to spur the other on, to ask another.
The princess even thought he was quite handsome. Even with his ruddy, bark coloured hair.
She chose her moment to speak up as the laughter softened, "Please, do not speak ill of my father while you are a guest sitting at the same table as I, King Fielder... Prince Chaitav." Her eyes glossed over both of them, without really looking at them. Her displeasure at the discussion being known.
However, Queen Charula Rajdevan wasted no time and was not going to hear her son utter such tomfoolery in the presence of Royals, many of whom they were trying to ally with. This time around, she raised her tanned bronze hand and whacked the young peacock harpy on the back of his head.
"OUCH!" He exclaimed, glaring at his mother for telling him off in front of one of the princesses. The thwack was audible from the other end of the table.
To some extent, it satisfied Princess Seraphina's feelings about what had been said about her late father.
All of the younger harpies began laughing when Lady Charula began smoothing over the back of her son's hair – the hair that she had messed up with her reprimanding smack.
"What made you, a peacock, decide you wanted to pursue wooing one of the Raven twins?" Lord Easton perked up, shifting his wide gaze to Prince Chaitav – starving with curiosity since the screaming and yelling had ensued.
The young peacock prince looked at him seriously. There was no humour and no messing around. "As a peacock, all day, every day, I see either fabulously handsome men or women as interesting as a brick wall." His mother recoiled slightly from him as he said those words, as she knew that he meant her, too, in this reasoning of his, "I want a mate who is not beige and bland." He shrugged at the end and poured himself more of the honey-brewed wine, exclusively made and from the Peacocks' valley.
"That was the reason I allowed my eldest to marry your sister," Lord Fielder countered Chaitav's complaint. "If I had a daughter wanting to engage in very real considerations to be mated with a male peacock… that would have been very different."
Lord Easton twigged something, "Are the relations between Ravens and Peacocks okay?" Placing more bass into his voice while trying to lower it.
With a wave of her hand lightly in the air, Lady Charula smiled. "Oh, everything is fine!" She grabbed her cup of honey wine before continuing, "Chaitav has always found female peacocks boring with their beige colours. Even those with the deepest hues and shades of brown don't cut it for him, I don't think my boy knows quite what he wants."
"I know what I want, mother." Chaitav interjected, "…and it is not a female peacock I want to be mated with. My brother was already mated to a flamingo… while I can see the appeal of their long legs, those unnaturally long necks of theirs put me off."
A glimmer of mischief entered a glance between the owl twins at Chaitav's mention of long legs, "What other herbivore harpy are there? Owls, Hawks, Eagles, Ravens… Meat and blood-loving," Loris raised his glass of raven blood wine, pointedly as he glanced at the honey wine in Chaitav's glass. "We don't intermingle with other herbivore species that much to know of them. The neck thing you speak of, I can only picture it with vulture harpy women, but… they reek of rotten meat and the food they serve is… well – you can imagine, I'm sure."
The peacock male looked ill at the very thought of this. His face went pale and then took on a strange hue of green as Master Loris kept speaking further on the subject.
It was then Queen Charula Rajdevan of the Peacocks stepped in to get the subject off Vulture Harpy very quickly, "Well, you know there is our clan, the Peacocks, and we are very close to the Flamingo Harpy of the wetlands. We had had a very good relationship with them for hundreds of years. We're both clans which appreciate abundance, sunshine and peace."
Young Master Fenn and Seraphina listened curiously. When talk of other, lesser-known herbivorous harpy clans was concerned. It was always something of an interest to all at the table.
Yet the Owlet twins didn't really seem to care too much about this. The curiosity in their round orange eyes had extinguished and been replaced with mischief, since Chaitav used derogatory humour.
Lady Charula continued, "Do you know of the Parrot Harpy Clans of the forests of eternal rain and the smaller, more unusual harpies which reside there?"
Seraphina replied, "No, I never have." With a dazzle of mystery and excitement at the mention of somewhere she had never heard of, never mind somewhere she had never been.
Master Fenn also shook his head, but his chaperone, Lord Fielder, spoke up. "I've heard of them, but we have never come into any contact with them."
"They're also a clan of peace and abundance, but their territory is hard to navigate, even with our wings. There's a bit of a remoteness to them, though their medicine doctors are some of the wisest harpies you may ever meet." The female peacock's eyes were glazed, she was clearly lost in a memory of hers, but she contained with some more information, "There's then the hummingbird harpy. They are the ones most in touch with the parrot harpy clan. They are far smaller than us. It is quite delightful… Maybe the same as a sparrow hawk harp... or perhaps even smaller than them! Their wings are inexplicably different, and they only drink nectar or honey." Breaking from her reverie, she smiled when meeting Seraphina's eyes, which were filled with wonder. "They're some of our clan's best trade for honey wine! If you ever wanted to be introduced to their Royals, I would be happy to."
There was a caveat in that, where Seraphina is mated to her Chaitav, for this to happen. While normally the princess would be aware of such things, she missed it this time and gleefully nodded.
Lord Fielder and Lord Easton didn't miss this trick, though and glancing at each other made mental notes on this.
The conversation on different harpy clans continued. The younger Harpies pressed questions to the female peacock about the three other herbivore clans she mentioned. Their setting and terrain and everything in between, to their culture and personalities and attitude.
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Eventually, Lady Nox did return.
She provided no reason for the disruption or even an apology for her abrupt exit of the room. Meaning, the older owl's couldn't have their curiosity scratched and relieved. They just had to stomach it.
The desert was served shortly after her return. The servants brought in a selection of different sweets, cakes and delicious treats.
They all tucked into Donivan's tasty work. Unaware that much of what was there had to be very quickly made up and was… to the chef's perfectionist dismay… very quickly made, thus falling far short of his high-tier standard.
It was the highest quality of food, though, and it was delicious.
With Lady Nox back in the room, the conversation dwindled back to embers. The tension she brought back into the room with her lingered uncomfortably.
The Owlet twins were elbowing and nudging each other, chuckling when they glanced at Lady Nox; thinking about what Chaitav had said.
Even Master Fenn had to battle a quivering smile which threatened to break to the surface of his lips. He was more content, talking to Seraphina, though, and the twins were… largely distracted.
Would they take the chance to fuck the Raven Queen if they got it? Both of them knew in their groins that they would never turn down such an opportunity.
She was a widow, and her mate was dead, never mind the strictest Queen among all the Harpies. Such a scenario would never happen. It was allowed, only if the queen desired it and despite her ferocity, the queen really could have anyone she chose.
Despite that, the Loris and Lucas couldn't help raking their eyes over her body. Her figure and looks were almost the exact same as Seraphina's; they couldn't compare Lady Nox or the older twin to the younger, since there was an unvoiced but accepted absence of the daughter known as Sephora.
Her breasts seemed to be slightly larger, but her black eyes and dark hair worn up in a strict style gave a very commanding and capable gleam to her beauty. As long as her face wasn't contorted with anger… the Raven Queen really was a beauty to behold.
They would be quite happy to... dine on her, if such a chance ever came up.
It was highly inappropriate and would constitute a scandal within any clan that such affairs would occur within. The young owls could imagine, couldn't they? There was no harm in that.
The Queen had noticed the looks from the owlet twins, but had also observed them comparing her daughter to her. She had deemed this as a good thing and had assumed this meant that they were interested in Seraphina… not that they were interested in her for any reason.
"Lady Nox." It was Lord Easton, "May I accompany you on a walk this evening? There are some things I would like to discuss."
Suddenly, the Raven Queen looked uneasy and uncomfortable; it wasn't obvious to anyone in the room other than Seraphina and Lord Easton. Her poker face assisted her here without a mass bombardment of querying interest.
"Of course," She replied, "I will get one of my servants to fetch you once I have seen to a few necessities required when ruling a kingdom as a widow."
Seraphina was curious about this interaction but said nothing. Continuing to eat dessert, and returning to her discussion with Master Fenn.