The Dragon's Kiss

"Oh look. This dumb kid dragged the spare tent all the way over here."

"Hahaha what a fool!"

"Once a stupid infantryman, always a stupid infantryman."

As hyena-like laughter from childish men was forced upon Kel's ears, she had a distinct thought.

Now that she had spent time among the Serin military as a soldier herself, the empire's soldiers…

Still sucked.

"I brought this for myself, actually," Kel retorted, lugging the poles to the space directly in front of a nearby tent.

".. a tent for yourself?" one of the hyenas barked. "And you're going to set it up right in the way of ours?"

It was pure luck that this tent happened to be yours, Kel grinned to herself, laying out the poles.

"Well, I can't possibly attend to His Majesty from aaaaallllll the way over there," Kel mocked, gesturing toward the infantry division. "And I wouldn't dream of sullying your sleeping quarters with the likes of a simple foot soldier."

The more Kel progressed in setting up the tent frame, the more the hyenas' laughter died away. By the time she was ready to lash the first two poles together, all of the officers were scowling at her.

"Alright, that's enough!" One of the men stepped forward, angrily grabbing the wooden beams out of Kel's hands. "Haul this back, and get out of our sight! Got it?"

"Oh, are you helping me set up? How kind," Kel provoked the man, ignoring his insults.

The man's face slowly became marred by an ugly red (sort of purplish) coloring. Gritting his teeth, he took a step even closer to Kel and grabbed the front of her tunic.

"Listen here, you little-"

"Go on."

The man's unsightly maroon face immediately became a sickly pale shade as he slowly released Kel.

"Your Majesty," all the other nearby soldiers bowed, crossing a fist over their chests.

Kel and the angry officer both turned slowly to see the Dragon Emperor, standing in the doorway of his tent with his arms crossed.

"I said, go on," the emperor repeated calmly.

The angry man glanced uncertainly toward Kel before bowing his head.

"Your Majesty, you see…this kid…" he began.

"Why are you talking? I believe I've ordered you twice already to continue," Calix glowered.

The man, completely panicked by this point, hesitated for a moment before reaching an unsteady hand out toward Kel's tunic again.

"And you. Don't just stand there." This time it was Kel the emperor spoke to. "Give those to him."

In confusion, Kel and the officer both looked to see the emperor motioning to the tent poles and lashings that had been discarded on the ground.

"Uh.. here?" Kel responded, propping two poles into the man's reluctant grasp.

"Haaaa." A loud sigh came from the emperor's lips, causing everyone to flinch.

"Why did you not understand me?" Calix shook his head, stepping out from his tent.

Tension fell over the entire group of onlookers (which had grown considerably since the beginning of the incident) as the emperor stalked toward Kel and the angry officer.

When he stood before the scatter tent poles and two dumbfounded soldiers, the emperor began raising one of his hands toward Kel.

As he moved, Kel scrunched her eyes shut, beads of sweat forming along her brow.

He had meant to give the ugly man the tent poles, right? That's what he'd been pointing at!

Wait.

Was he mad about her joke with the tent in the first place? And now he was punishing her?!

"The lashings."

Kel cracked a single eye open and saw the emperor's hand, inches away from her shoulder, pointing to something on the ground behind her.

"How can he possibly set up these poles without the lashings?" the emperor questioned.

"...Right, Your Majesty."

In an awkward half backward bend, doing her best not to bump into the emperor, Kel retrieved the ropes from the ground and shoved them toward the officer.

"That's better," Calix smiled and placed a hand on Kel's head, as if patting a dog.

"S-sire.." the man now holding both the poles and ropes stammered.

"You can continue setting up the tent." The emperor's grin quickly dipped into an icy frown as he turned to look at the man. "Go on."

"You want me to set this up? Here?" the man floundered.

"Of course not," Calix snorted, turning his terrifying glare to the rest of the group. "You'll all set it up."

A flurry of whispers instantly fluttered through the crowd.

"Unless…" the emperor raised his hand for silence, "you expect my attendant to do all the work?"

The dagger-like comment was met with a few audible gulps before the group saluted and went straight to work. When they were finished, a tent stood fully erected… right in front of the entrance to another tent.

"Turn in after your rounds," the emperor ordered, nodding approvingly at the final product.

"But, Sir.." a brave officer piped up. "How can we even get inside our tent now?"

Kel recognized him as the man who sent her to get the tent in the first place.

The emperor squinted an eye, pretending to measure the finger-length gap between the back of the newly erected tent and the entrance right behind it.

"It looks fine to me," he finally settled with a smirk, grabbing Kel by the wrist.

Kel tried to stifle a laugh as the emperor began pulling her away. Perhaps her strange newly anointed position wasn't so bad after all.

"Ah! And one more thing," the emperor whirled back around to his whimpering officers.

"I'm sure no self-respecting subordinate of mine would dare take over my attendant's lodging."

With that, the poor hyenas were left with two options.

They could squeeze their blankets and pillows into their tent and hope no emergency was called where they would need to exit their tent promptly.

Or.. they could set up sleeping facilities in the dirt.

Kel would discover the next morning that they had opted for the latter, under fear of the Dragon Emperor's wrath.

Though, after the night she'd spent at the mercy of the same wrath, she didn't give the dirt-sleeping hyenas a second thought.

Perhaps, being the emperor's attendant truly was as bad as she thought.

It all started the moment Calix dragged her away from the officers and into his tent…