“What!” Queen Neticia gasped, pausing at playing with the hairs on her husband’s chest. “They’re engaged? When did this happen, did you approve of this engagement?” she asked, her eyes popping in their sockets as if she had just seen a ghost. Incredulity masked her expression yet she searched her husband’s face to see if this was all a prank.
The couple had just retired for the night, just like everyone else in the castle except for the guardsmen who fortified their patrols. King Nixon relaxed against the bed with two pillows propped against his back, Queen Neticia laid next to him in a way that from her midriff to the rest of her upper body rested partly on his trunk.
It was this moment King Nixon saw fit to announce to his wife their son’s engagement to the Nezmaian girl.
“Yes,” he re
