Make Your Move Katherine

Dinner and... A Fall?

The two most important rooms Kat had come to notice, in the months she’s been here, were the Throne room; where important meetings with his officials from Parliament took place and the Great Hall; where mostly dinner was served. The Royals were all gathered there daily whether they wanted to or not- for Kat had sensed some resentment towards Oscar by some.

This evening she chose a simple pants suit with a closed-toe sandal.

Even Kat couldn’t avoid it. The only times she was excused is when Oscar was absent himself, or if he gave instructions for her to be kept away- which he has not done in weeks.

“She’s in the ‘boudoir’ Your Majesty,” she heard Oni saying and Kat looked around her. Yes, this is what castle folk called a makeup room. Boudoir, she mouthed looking at her reflection and took one look again at her hair before giving herself a wink, wondering if she would ever get used to saying the alien word. Boudoir she repeated to get a better feel to it.

'Nope.'

“Katherine,” she heard behind her and turned around to see Oscar in a dashing charcoal grey suit. Too bad with all his good looks he lacked a good personality and charm, she thought.

“My King,” she mocked as she tilted her head. The sight of him, both irritated and frightened her and she couldn’t help but wonder where Yeon was, for he normally escorted her to the dining hall, now.

Oscar had grown accustomed to her ways by now and dismissed what he knew was her way of making fun of him and instead smiled. “You look ravishing. I’ve come to take you to dinner,” he stated and she raised an eyebrow. He sometimes did that now. Ever since he first bit her, he’s been acting bizarre.

But then again…she did not know his habits from before.

Kat had come to learn that Oscar was not a ‘foodie’ like her and preferred to stick to the same dishes which included many foods that Kat refused to put into her mouth. Peacock? Swan? Heron and other coastal birds, wild boar, deer… While she was not a vegetarian, she still refused to eat most of the meat’s served here.

It gets worst.

Kat was not permitted to take pictures of her food either. Crushing blow as Miss Moon plainly said that royals did not partake in social media and their ‘wild behavior’, to be liked. Why, Kat had obviously asked for she was on perhaps on all the popular social media accounts- back home anyway.

“Image,” Miss Moon was stern in her reply. Almost glaring at Kat in disapproval with her question. “Public declarations of political affiliations. The royals simply do not have time to invest in such trivial matters. With so much of their lives available for public consumption, do you think it wise to add speculation?”

No, Kat had shaken her head, side to side understanding that was the only correct answer. They were to be proper at all times and leave no chance for any speculations or assumptions.

Katherine eyed Oscar’s cousins, aunts and other royals that were taking selfies- yes, of their plates too and looked back at the stern woman who added, “Queens don’t. They are too busy running a country.”

Katherine wanted to argue back that she was certainly not running this country and was just another hired prop but one look from princess Shancai, Yichen’s half-sister and she held her tongue. The girl was barely sixteen but seemed to be the only level-headed one seated at the table. She seemed to not be interested in the lavish lifestyle as her other family members, so obviously, Kat had taken quite a shine to her.

Unfortunately, they only met at mealtimes and her mother, the beautiful Princess Fen, always ushered her back to study. Kat could only imagine the weight that was placed on the young girl’s shoulders with all this royalty and responsibility that came with it.

Today, she was not looking forward to eating as usual but Oni had hurried her saying she was looking too pale and too thin. She was a bit taken by surprise however, for the table showed promise. For the first course, they served and she loved the Gleneagles pâté, which is smoked salmon, trout and mackerel. She had grown to love the German wine they served there too. The wine was the most loved part of her day, but these past weeks she tried to limit her intake.

Also, she could never enjoy her meals when she was in this room. Royal guards were always plentiful, surrounding them and even standing erect at the back of them while they ate- like who exactly is going to attack them while they ate? Unless they were placed there to prevent the royals themselves from attacking each other, and to keep the royal peace. The air was always thick with tension for Kat always felt the hostility between the royals and knew it had something to do with her and Oscar. She could sense that she was disliked by maybe all here, except Oscar’s father and Shancai. Drago was the only one who spoke to her really but even he was curt.

This also seemed to be the only place that Oscar was out-ranked also, and by his own father. For while on the outside Oscar was ruler above all, here he respected his father’s words. The entire roomful of royals, only took their seats after Drago was seated and ate when he did first. She noticed that everyone also waited until he left the room before they retook their seats and continued their meals.

Miss Moon had informed her that previously everyone had to end their meals once the king had stopped his meal but since King Drago became ill, and didn’t want anyone to starve because he hardly had an eating appetite, he gave his royal decree to continue their meals. When Oscar became king, he had left it as it was.

He was staring at her- Oscar, hardly touching his own food and Kat was unnerved.

She excused herself as soon as the meal was over, getting up. Drago's completion of the meal anyway, for Kat's plate still contained food and she was impatient, in her wait for him to be guided out by his guards and nurses. Without waiting for Oscar’s permission, she walked away, seeing that all were already standing and lowering their heads. Yeon and Anthony were absent and so another guard followed her out.

“Katherine,” she heard behind her and hurried her steps, wanting to maintain a distance between herself and Oscar. “Stop,” she hears again, then a different voice that she knew belongs to one of the guards, “Yes, My King,” but continued on, knowing Oscar would send one of them after her.

“Katherine, please wait,” Oscar calls again.

But she did not slow her steps, in fact, it fueled her to hurry on faster, that was until she heard the guards running steps behind her. That caused her to run and even Kat didn’t even know why she was running. Her hand went instinctively up to the base of her neck, covering the huge plaster there- it still burned or maybe it was her fright making her think it was- she didn’t know nor did she care to know.

She saw Yeon ahead of her and yelled out to him. The startled man saw the queen being chased by a guard and held his hand out as she ran past him. The previous guard’s footsteps slowed and she heard him telling Yeon, “The King gave the order to stop her.”

“Why?” she heard Yeon question him but she didn’t stop to hear the reply, footing it until she reached her own quarters.

‘Was Yeon actually questioning the guard and not chasing behind her too?’

“Anthony!” she called out when she saw him and Ju, exiting the elevator below her, and she ran to the railing, almost hanging over as she called him again. The pain in her neck was so pronounced now that she could feel the pulsing of it. So sharp that she could feel the teeth sinking in and drawing her blood.

“Yes, my Queen?” he answered modulated, looking up, a slightly concerned frown on his forehead.

Not bothering to answer she changed the direction from straight ahead to the staircase on her left, running down hurriedly, as she looked back behind her. Anthony’s frown deepened and he did not wait for her to reach him, Ju, quick at his heels as he covered more than two-thirds of the flight up, skipping over three steps with each leap, reaching out, taking one of the queen’s outstretched hands.

Kat flew into his chest, closing her eyes, wrapping both her arms around his neck and Ju froze. But Kat took no notice for her eyes were brimming with tears and her words incoherent. Just then Yeon and two other guards broke the corner, entering her hallway and Anthony pushed her off him as soon as he spotted them. The king was behind them less than a second after Ju pulled the queen into her arms.

“Your Majesty, are you alright?” Anthony orotund voice reached her ears and Katherine looked up to the railing to see Oscar on the far right looking down at them with a stricken expression and she couldn’t help but think out loud, “Oh God, he’s gonna bite me again.”

And pushing Ju aside, she continued on down the stairway, hearing shouts coming from above. Kat had no idea where she was heading but she needed to get out. Away. Far.

‘Distance. Distance. Distance!’

“Your Majesty,” she heard Anthony and Ju’s cries as her ankle twisted causing her to almost slide off the step but quick thinking, or maybe it was panic that had her grabbing the huge banister, to balance herself.

Hearing the sounds of clicking shoes rushing behind her, Kat once again tried to run but one step forward had pain shooting up her calve and she howled in pain as her body went down.

“Katherine!” she heard as flew over a few steps down, “Your Majesty!” Ju’s frightened tone reached her ears, before rolling down another step but saw the blur of someone over her and knew she would have gone down a couple more had they not grabbed her.

Her body felt heavy yet light and floaty and she knew someone was picking her up. Anthony- she smelled his clothing but she couldn’t see him. Her vision was shadowed and blurred. Everything was upside down she realized for her head was hung back.

"No, no, no Katherine," she heard Anthony's low murmur and she likes the sound of her name on his tongue, So familiar, and so deep yet soft. "My Queen," he sounded scared now and she even felt his breath on her exposed neck. She remembered how he had used her first name casually before in the castle’s parking lot and smiled.

'Nice, I can endure this pain if he holds me like this.'

“Katherine, what is wrong with you?” she heard Oscar shrill out and she blinked, trying to turn her head as if she could convince her body to get up and run again.

"Is she hurt?" she heard another set of running heels and knew Oscar was coming down to her.

“Get me out of here,” she mumbled as Ju’s face came into her view, distorted in front of her before everything went black.