Chapter Text
In a vicious fit of irony, the weather over the Lugunican capital decided to be cloudy today.
"Hwoo–hwoo-ho~♪, hwoo–hwoo-ho~♪"
A lone collared dove sits above the head of an attic window leading to the Gunkerbinkle mansion. It flaps its wings majestically. Flap-flap.
Head swiveling from time to time, it looks down its beak at the humans below.
The dove observes a procession of brightly coloured noblemen carriages rolling down the street. It sees a maid with worn gardener gloves furiously stomping the ground, with a pecked-open bag of sunflower seeds in their hands. It gazes at a Sir and Madame strolling down the aforementioned street, arms linked on a romantic outing. How scandalous!
In outrage at the breach of public morals, the dove pecks at some sunflower seeds it has by its feet.
As it finishes dining, the avian sees the same— now shocked— Sir and Madame pointing towards the bird— no? At something behind it?
An incoming sound of boots rapidly hitting roof tile thunders towards the dove, forcing it to take flight!
“‘Fuck out the way, bird!”
A blur of blonde hair and shortness reaches the edge of roof that the dove had just occupied, and jumps!
For one picturesque moment, a slum rat and a feathered rat soar through the air, side by side.
They part ways, the slum rat continuing her flight over to the roof of the neighboring Mellomberg mansion, while the dove circles back and lands at its previous position. Upon landing, it sees that some of its seeds have been stomped into pieces.
"Hwoo–hwoo-ho~♪"
Sweat coats Felt’s forehead, drops running down her face. Her brow is furrowed, determined glint shining in her red eyes, and heart hammering harder than it ever has before. The thud-thud-thud of her leather boots rings across the rooftops of noble houses, rattling the walls and chandeliers inside, as she sprints and leaps from one immaculately maintained mansion to the next.
‘I gotta reach Old Man Rom, and then we have to get the hell out of the capital!’ Felt’s lizard brain screams internally as she flies over yet another hedgerow separating two noble properties.
Up ahead, Felt sees a wide gap between the blue roof she’s running on and the sloped red tiles of the next, considerably wider than for the previous houses. She doesn’t hesitate, picking up more speed, as she finally nears the edge and leaps across, arms and legs swinging forward instinctually to land safely and keep momentum.
She clears the jump and immediately tries to run up the roof she has landed on, only for it to be deceptively steeper than anticipated.
Blood rushes to her legs as Felt pumps them as hard as she can to reach the top, a couple of red tiles unfortunately getting kicked off and shattering on the street below in the process. Upon reaching the ridge of the roof, she stops to observe her surroundings and take a breather.
Huff, huff.
In front of her, she sees not the typically low tops of noble mansions, but instead sharp ups-and-downs of similarly built houses continuing on. To her left runs a stupidly wide street, with a row of neatly trimmed trees running down the middle. To her right, back alleys and what looks to be small warehouses.
‘One of the noble shopping boulevards.’ she recognizes.
A roar: “There she is!”
Felt looks further to her left, down one of the boulevard’s connecting streets, and sees a squad of knights running in her direction, one of them pointing directly at her.
She clicks her tongue, and starts to leap from ridge to ridge in quick succession. After crossing several stores worth of roof, she notices several more squads of knights coming from down the boulevard ahead of her.
“Shit!” she curses under her breath. The former thief decides to veer off to the right towards two small warehouses lying in the alleyways behind the shops, which are hidden from the view of the streets.
Instead of taking the shortest, straightest jump across, Felt instead opts to cut diagonally across the gap, giving her a longer jump but a shorter route towards her final destination: the slums. As she nears the jump-off point, an opening in the clouds lets the Sun pierce through, blinding Felt, making her misjudge the landing spot before she jumps.
This time the slum rat sails through the air slower than needed.
She impacts the wall of a warehouse, hitting her head, while her hands fail to clamber onto any roof ledge, and she crashes down onto a pile of crates— rolling off of them and onto the ground.
“Argh–hnf!” Felt whines as she immediately rolls onto her stomach to stand up.
Discombobulated and groaning in pain, she gets up slowly while holding her head.
At this time of day sunlight doesn’t reach these alleys, leaving Felt’s eyes struggling to adjust to her newfound darkness. She’s —ow, fuck— right where the corners of the two warehouses meet.
Suddenly, the furious clinking and clanking of armored boots grabs Felt’s attention. Standing in the middle of the threeway intersection, she peers down one alley to see knights barreling towards her. The same distinct sound can be heard from behind her— the direction she came from— and Felt turns to see more knights coming from the second alley. Growing desperate, she turns once more to check on the last and much narrower alley between the warehouses. Much to her relief, it is empty. Immediately, she bolts.
As she gets closer and closer to the exit, the sunlight reflecting on the cobbles of the street up ahead start to blind Felt, forcing her to squint as she nears, but it doesn’t help much. Just when she’s almost out, a very tall figure steps into view.
As if having materialized from the sunlight itself, in steps none other than the Sun Princess, Beloved by the World, and newly crowned King— Priscilla Lugunica.
Crimson dress swaying with her stride, Priscilla takes a few steps forward before planting her feet firmly, the final click–clack of her heels bouncing off the alley walls. Her penetrating eyes stare Felt down, her entire being exuding an aura that warns Felt’s primal instincts that you will go no further.
Collision imminent, Felt tries to backpedal and cancel her sprint, but—
Thud–step–schllk! She steps on something slippery. With her legs flying forward, she lands on her butt. In doing so, she unfortunately hits her tailbone too, the harsh sting of pain eliciting a grimace and sharp hiss from Felt. As the pain subsides, Felt opens her eyes.
Flaming red takes up much of her view. She has landed right in front of the Sun Princess. Felt’s gaze slowly wanders up towards Priscilla’s face.
A smile; smug, confident and predatory in equal measure is on her lips.
“Oh my, throwing yourself at mine feet already? After such a pitifully short chase?” Priscilla teases, as she slightly leans over Felt.
Felt spins around from her position on the ground and tries to break into a sprint, but kills her speed when she sees the wall of knights now blocking her path. Stunned and out of options; she looks to and fro, from knight to knight.
“It is futile. As you are no doubt already aware; All under the Sun belong to mineself.”
“You fuckin’—!” Felt spins back towards—
She gets chopped in the neck. The last thing Felt sees is the supremely victorious look on Priscilla’s face. The former thief’s eyes roll into the back of her head as her body slumps and gets caught by Priscilla’s waiting arms. Priscilla carefully lifts Felt up into a princess carry, silently admiring Felt’s cute face for a moment, before acknowledging the knights in the alley.
“Return to the palace” she commands sternly, herself turning around and proceeding away from the shadow of the alley. The knights bow, responding in a chorus of “Your Majesty”, and start to filter out of the alley.
Priscilla marches gloriously out onto the street and over to her waiting crimson-coloured carriage, newly emblazoned with the royal Lugunican coat of arms. Aldebaran, her jester, leans nonchalantly against the carriage. As the Sun Princess approaches he moves to open the carriage door for her.
“Let us be off, Al”. Without even sparing him a glance she ascends the steps onto the carriage.
“You got it, Princess” he replies.
Priscilla and her prize disappear from the world’s view, as Al closes the door behind them.
It swings shut with a final thunk.