Three Beast Kings
Any Minute Now

Much like thegorillas themselves, the kings carriage was enormous, dark and brutallooking, completely clad in metal and pulled by great shaggy horsesdressed in armour to resemble mythical dragons. The inside of thecarriage was warm and close, but not in a good way, furnished in darkreds and browns in a heavy cut velvet material. The small windowsdidn't provide nearly enough light or ventilation, causing the wholething to smell of gorilla sweat and incense.

Junya tried not to lookat the Gorilla King, who sat opposite him, very obviously staring, but there wasn't much to see outside of the window besidestrees, fields, and the armed gorilla soldiers walking along besidethem. The king didn't speak, but was so colossal that the sound ofhis breathing reverberated through the thick fabric and metal of thecarriage. It wasn't at all what Junya would have expected of a royalcarriage – it felt more like something he would have gone to warin...

The king cleared histhroat, pounding his chest a little, causing Junya to flinch. Hecould feel himself shaking.

“Yousaid goodbye awfully quickly.” he noted “Were you and your fatherdistant?”

Shit. Shit, shit, hewanted to talk! Junya didn't have a girly voice at all (or at leasthe thought he didn't). He clasped his hands as tightly as he could inhis lap, but his shaking wouldn't stop.

“Wesaid our goodbyes last night.” he said as quietly as possible,staring at the floor.

“Isthat so?” the king replied.

Junya realised for thefirst time that the king wasn't wearing shoes. His stomach knotted inhorror when he saw that he had another set of misshapen hands on theend of his legs instead of feet. What kind of creatures werethese...?

“Inotice you walk with a limp.” the king went on “Is that a familyproblem?”

“N-no.”Junya admitted “I broke my leg very badly when I was young. Itdidn't really heal properly.”

“Isee. It must have made your father very protective.”

“Uh-”

Junya leapt out of hisskin when the king reached over to take his hands, easily prying themapart. He couldn't breathe from the terror as he ran his large greyfingers over Junya's palm.

“Oddlyrough.” he noted “Did your servants not wait on you?”

Flipping hell... whatcould he say? Of course his workers hands were rougher than the youngLady's! What lie could he come up with that sounded plausible?

“M-myfather encouraged me to do chores.” he settled on “He said it wasimportant to remain humble, and understand the hardships of thepeasants.”

“Hm?”

The king looked at himthoughtfully, distractedly rubbing his palm still.

“Awise philosophy.” he thought “But I hope he didn't work you toohard.”

The king continued tostare at Junya, taking in his tense, almost solid posture, hisquivering and his refusal to look at him.

“You'refrightened of me, aren't you?”

“Youdon't say!” Junya snapped.

Oh hell. The fear hadgotten too much, but that wasn't going to help matters. He literallybit his bottom lip to stop anything else coming out, not worriedabout hiding his shaking any more. The king seemed shocked a moment,then snorted in laughter. He released Junya's hand as he sat back.

“Youhave spirit.” he noted “That's good for a queen. What's yourname?”

Junya's mind wentblank. He wasn't good with names at the best of times, but now allthe girls names in existence ran away from him. He couldn't evenremember the real young Lady's name. Daring the peak around, he sawthe King waiting expectantly.

“Junya.”he said very quietly, hoping he would mishear him.

“Junya?”the king repeated, evidently having very good hearing “Isn't that aboys name?”

“Myfather wanted a son.”

The king made thatnoise again, the grunty huffing noise.

“It'scruel to give a girl a man's name.” he thought.

He paused, stilllooking at him.

“Don'tyou want to know my name?”

“Doesit matter?” Junya replied, an overload of fear loosening his tongue“Wouldn't you rather I call you 'your highness' or something?”

The kings brow knottedin displeasure. Junya knew he was going to die soon, it was thewaiting that was the hard part: maybe if he pissed the gorilla offenough, he wouldn't have to wait too long. The king went to cross hisarms, then thought better of it and scratched his stomach, gruntingunhappily.

“Ihave plenty of underlings to call me that.” he pointed out “Ihoped my wife at least would call me by my name.”

“Inever asked to be your wife.” Junya pointed out.

“Don'tact like this is such a surprise.” the king fired back “It's alady's duty to marry in the best interests of her people – surelyyour father taught you that much, if nothing else!”

The king huffed again,looking out of the window, clearly trying not to cross his armsagain.

“Justbecause it's all business doesn't mean we can't be civil.” hepouted.

He was pouting? Wasthat less terrifying, or more? As his hand was no longer being held,Junya sat properly, adjusting the uncomfortable gown. He felt calmer,but not because he was no longer afraid – perhaps he just couldn'tstay terrified forever. At least the king was trying to be civil,even though he looked like he could eat Junya without much effort.

Junya took a deepbreath. He had been wrong before – he shouldn't wish for death soquickly. He might yet replace a way out of this, if he could keep hiswits about him. He couldn't outrun anyone with his bad leg, but hemight be able to do something, hide somewhere. He tried to calmhimself down, sighing out his tense shoulders.

“Mindif I ask what it is?” he asked quietly.

The king looked back athim, one brow raised.

“Myname?” he responded.

“Yourreason for wanting to marry me. Your 'business'.”

The king huffed throughhis nose, still pouting.

“Havinga beautiful queen will be good for my peoples morale.” he explained“And in return you get anything you want. That's always been thedeal, hasn't it?”

“Won'tyour people care that their new Queen is a fox? That their royal lineis going to be full of mixed-race hybrids from now on?”

“Gorilla'shave low fertility.” he admitted “And our gene pool is gettingshallow. We need to let go of old prejudices if we're going toprevent inbreeding.”

“Howvery progressive.” Junya muttered to himself “Still, the wholething comes across as incredibly sad.”

“Howso?”

“Itnever really occurred to me that marriage was just a business deal,like a trade.” he said honestly “The idea of not falling in love,not going through the butterflies and the queasy stomach and the fearand the joy... it just makes it seem kind of sad. But I supposethat's the price for all your luxuries, isn't it?”

The king looked at himin a new light, brown eyes flicking up and down. His nose twitchedbefore he answered.

“That'swhy I say we could at least be civil.” he grumbled.

Junya never imaginedthat the young Lady had a burden like that. Not having anything thatwas worth anything, the notion of marrying for money or conveniencewas completely foreign to him. All he had to offer a woman was love.God knows he'd never be rich.

“So,what is your name?” he asked the king.

“Zuberi.”he told him.

“Zuberi?”Junya confirmed “I've never heard that name.”

“It'sa gorilla name.” he answered shortly.

“Hey,Zuberi?”

“What?”

“I'mnot as pretty without make-up.”

“Doesthat matter?” he retorted, echoing Junya's earlier tone.

For being so massive,he sure had thin skin. Zuberi... Junya snorted in laughter, coveringhis mouth as he imagined a black furry berry wearing a crown. Theking looked back at him, raising his brow again.

“Youjust imagined me as a berry, didn't you?” he knew.

“Yes!”Junya admitted, still trying desperately not to laugh at the image.

“Getit out of your system.” the king sighed.

Despite leaving atdawn, the sun was setting by the time they reached the outskirts ofthe gorilla city. While the fox village was nestled in a fertilevalley, hidden from the worst of the elements, the gorilla territorycovered a vast expanse of grassy lowlands. The huge size of thegorillas meant they needed much larger fields than other clans tokeep them fed, and their militaristic ways guaranteed they kept themwithout a fight.

It took hours for thesoldiers and carriage to drag themselves through the forest, alongthe almost forgotten paths that went around the towns and citiesrather than through them. Although a fox, even a troupe of foxes,would have no difficulty traversing the overgrown paths, the massivesoldiers had to hack their way through the undergrowth, making theirprogress even slower.

How far away was thegorillas territory? Junya had been as far as the rabbits village onthe Lords business, and that was over the mountain, past the badgersforge, the sparrows township, the sheeps vast grazing lands... It wasa very, very long way.

As the convoy cameclear of the dense forest, the gorillas were able to stand straightand use their full stride, speeding up significantly, and the ride inthe carriage became much smoother. After sitting so long, Junya's legstarted to pinch and ache again, and his uncomfortable shiftingdidn't go unnoticed by the king.

The biggest house thatJunya had ever seen was the Lords house, but no matter how grand itmay have been it was still just a fox's house, and couldn't compareto the necessary size of the gorillas housing. He started off seeingtool sheds standing beside fields, buggies parked by the side of thetrack and farmers wandering about with tools over their shoulders.Compared to the state of the farmers, King Zuberi was quaffed to anelegant perfection: had Junya looked so scruffy compared to the fancyman? He certainly hoped not.

After the tool shedsand fields came the farm houses and barns, enormous in scale to thepoint that Junya thought they must be great country estates, but no –they were working farms, complete with great beasts of burden. Junyadidn't notice the king watching him as he took in the scenery, amazedby the size of it all.

They stopped at one ofthe farms to change the horses, the great armoured stallions tiredout after a long journey through the forest. Zuberi took theopportunity to stretch his legs, the carriage lurching upunceremoniously as he stepped out of it. Junya would've liked to getup and walk around too, but his leg was pinching and pulling so badlyfrom sitting so long that he wasn't entirely sure he wouldn't fallover.

He did use theopportunity to slip off his shoes and put his feet up on the nowempty seat before him, stretching to try and warm up his muscles atleast a little. Now that he could see them in the light of day, Junyawas glad the long gown hid his shoes – his feet were almost twicethe size of the young Lady's, so her beautifully embroidered satinshoes had to be brutally ripped apart and stitched over his ownshoes. It was pretty crude looking, but Junya was sure the cobblerdidn't have a lot of time to fix them.

Junya startled as oneof the horses poked their snout through the window – he had beentoo focused on his shoes to notice, which was a little embarrassingconsidering how big it was. He hurriedly covered up his legs, pullingthe shoes back on in case someone came to fetch the horse away andsaw them. It huffed at him the way horses do, and flapped it's lipsabout. He laughed a little – massive as it may be, it was stilljust a horse.

He scratched its nose,which seemed to make it pretty happy.

“Sorry,I don't have any sugar.” he told it.

“Oi,you.” he heard Zuberi say “Get your nose out of there.”

The horse pulled itshead out of the window, shaking it up and down a bit. The kingslapped its neck in the way stable hands usually do before giving ita carrot.

“Youokay?” he asked Junya.

“Ofcourse.” he answered “It's just a horse.”

Zuberi looked a littlesurprised, as if he expected a horse to really bother him. Was theyoung Lady bothered by horses? Should he pretend he was? Little latenow... The gorilla handed Junya a carrot, watching him oddlycarefully as he fed it to the grateful horse.

“My,what long teeth you have.” the fox chuckled, scratching her noseagain “You're an old girl, aren't you?”

“She's24.” Zuberi confirmed “But she's strong and calm, so she's goodfor long journeys. Have you ridden many horses?”

“Notridden, no – they're all working horses back in town, they'd buckyou right off if you tried to ride them, even the sweet ones. One ofthe boys I grew up with got work as a stable hand, all he ever talkedabout was his horses. Until he got married.”

Zuberi 'hmm'dthoughtfully. Soon enough the fresh horses were attached to thecarriage, and the convoy got on its way again.

The farms graduallygave way to the towns, and the first thing that hit Junya was thesmell of molten metal – the gorillas prime export was metalwork:tools, building materials, nails... weapons. It made sense that theirtowns were industrial, criss-crossed with irrigated rivers turninggiant waterwheels and colossal chimneys as big as a foxes housesticking up through the tiled roofs. The further from the fields theywent, the less greenery and plant life they saw, giving way to pavedroads, factories and forges. Flowers and weeds still pushed defiantlythrough the cobbles and on the bottom edge of walls, as they alwayswould, but all the grass and trees had been purged from the townsstreets.

The architecture herewas odd – there seemed to be random doors half way up the toweringwalls, great logs sticking out of them, strange flat roofs... itwasn't until Junya remembered the grotesque misshapen hands on thekings feet that it occurred to him – maybe gorillas didn't havestairs? Perhaps they climbed up the outside of the building? Thoselogs would have to be pretty strong to take their weight day afterday. That would take some getting used to.

Except that itwouldn't. Junya's sheer terror may have grown so great that it hadburnt out, but that facts hadn't changed: when they discovered he wasa man, he was going to die. It made a tense shiver run down his spinewhen he did remember, but his body had had enough of trembling andrefused to do so any more.

Junya noticed somethingodd as they trundled through the towns – there were very fewchildren around. Not even a in a 'bad year for breeding' senseeither, but in a worryingly unnatural way. Junya kept his eyespeeled, carefully looking about the crowd after he noticed it, butnone revealed themselves.

“Whereare all the children?” Junya asked Zuberi “I've barely seen any.They aren't all in the factories, are they?”

The king made thegrunting huff again, finally giving in to habit and crossing his armsover his chest. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“Thereare no children.” he confessed.

No children? Whatmadness was that? There were always children! Was there some kind ofdisease? Looking at Zuberi's face, Junya saw a sadness cross him,eyes far away. He was almost afraid to ask.

“Why?”

The king glared at him,clearly unwilling to answer.

The Gorilla Kingscastle was an imposing, brutal structure, outer walls as thick asJunya was tall and higher than he thought he could see, topped with abarely notable black line – what was it? Tiles? Metal? It was oneof the few buildings with lime-washed walls, and beyond the greatiron gates was actually a garden. It was over manicured, full of sandand rocks and overly fussy trees, but a garden nonetheless.

A congregation ofoverdressed gorillas waited for the carriage at the bottom of thestairway that lead up to the castle (so they did have stairs...).Just from the way they were dressed and the pompous way they stood,Junya could tell they were retainers. There was also an unusualamount of guards around, just milling about – hang on, that one wasa gardener. Was that a washerwoman? The group at the far end lookedlike maids. Why was everyone armed? Not in a subtleknife-up-the-sleeve kind of way either, but very obviously, with allmanner of different blades and blunt objects strapped to their backsand belts. The washerwoman had a mace!

When the carriage cameto a stop, the king didn't wait for one of his soldiers to open thedoor for him, but threw it open himself, the whole vehicle once againrising on its axil by nearly a foot when he stepped out. Instead ofmarching off to his retainers as Junya expected, Zuberi stayed at thecarriage door, holding it open with his shoulder. Junya wasn'tentirely sure what he wanted, especially as he seemed to get confusedhimself. After a moment, he held up one great paw.

“Yourhand?” he asked.

“Whatabout it?” Junya replied.

“Giveit to me.” the King requested.

He really didn't wantto – his hand looked like that of an infant against the gorillas.He knew he shouldn't keep thinking about how much bigger than him thegorillas were, but it was far the most noticeable thing about them(other than the smell...). With notable reluctance, he gave Zuberihis hand, and the king proceeded to help him out of the carriage,lifting him clear off his feet to the ground.

It was most unusual forhim – he hadn't been assisted down from something since he was achild. As he was set down, a sharp pain ran all the way up his leg,causing him to wince noticeably: he had definitely been sat down toolong. Zuberi responded by putting Junya's hand on his gargantuan arm:Junya was confused a moment before realising that was the way theyoung Lady walked with him on the odd occasion they had strolledthrough town together, only reversed.

The realisationreminded him that he was supposed to be being the young Lady rightnow. A wave of panic hit him – when had he forgotten, and justacted like himself? Had he given himself away? The gorillas didn'tseem suspicious... He held himself straighter, holding his head upand pointing his ears down, remembering what he had been told aboutbeing elegant. He didn't notice Zuberi smirk beside him.

A clearly ageingretainer, hair almost completely white from his years, hobbled overto them, leaning on a gnarled cane the width around of Junya's arms.A young one accompanied him, board and paper in his hand.

“Yourhighness.” the old gorilla greeted “Welcome home.”

“Staarabu.”the king responded “How goes business?”

“Theskies are quiet.” Staarabu told him “It's a good omen.”

The old retainer turnedhis attention to Junya, who tried not to recoil: Staarabu was an uglycreature, large scar running from his brow to his collarbone, thewound having taken the sight of his eye and leaving him with apermanent snarl. No amount of fancy retainers robes was going to makehim look refined. Junya had to remember his manners – it wasn'tpolite to stare.

“MyLady.” he greeted, bowing his head civilly “Welcome to your newhome. We hope you replace it accommodating.”

“Yes,me too.” Junya replied.

Until the weddingnight, anyway. Wait, what should he call him? 'Sir'? Did a lady callanyone 'sir'? 'Oi you' felt unwise too.

“Allthe preparations are made.” Staarabu told the king “We canproceed with the ceremony at sundown.”

“Sundown?”Junya clarified “As in... today sundown?!”

“That'scorrect.” the old retainer confirmed “I'm afraid our rainy seasonhas passed. Poor planning on our part, I'm sorry. Since that is thecase, I see not point in putting the wedding off.”

“Isthat a problem?” the king asked.

How far away would theyoung Lady be by now? The tide wasn't high enough for the ship tosail until after noon. She would be on the fancy man's ship by now,but how far from the coast? They still have a few more hours...

“Notat all.” Junya assured, even as his heart beat erratically in hischest “As you say – why put it off?”