Three Beast Kings
In Good Company

The soldiers marched inrank and file all through the city. Despite it only being a day sincethe wedding, there were no bright signs or bunting across the streetsanymore, no grains or confetti fallen between the cobbles or to theside of the street. Instead there were shattered windows being sweptto the side, broken furniture being thrown into tinder piles andominous red smears here and there that Junya couldn't bear to lookat. The people gathered in the streets wearing grim expressions inplace of yesterdays bright colours.

They didn't cheer incelebration, but in the low, aggressive tones of 'go kill thosebastards' and 'show them what for!', handing the soldiers packets offood, extra clothes and weapons and a hearty pat on the back as theypassed. Junya felt self-conscious, being the only one on a horse, andcould feel eyes on him as they went through the streets. Many peopletold him to be brave, said how courageous he looked, called him theirqueen – all but that last one made him feel a little better.

They left the citybefore the morning was out, passing through a few industrial townsbefore coming to the wide, flat fields of the lowlands, a range ofdark mountains visible in the distance. The soldiers did a good jobof keeping rank this far, but started to fall apart as they gotfurther from civilisation, gathering in lines and groups and chattingwith their friends. The officers didn't seem to care, falling out ofrank themselves. Zuberi stayed at the front, using Junya as hiscompass whenever there was a fork in the road.

By nightfall they hadleft the gorilla territory entirely, assuring the nervous goats thatthey were just passing through their hilly grazing lands as theytraversed the stony paths and unpathed byways. Getting bored as theywalked, the soldiers started to sing – Junya supposed they calledit singing, but it was so deep in tone that his poor ears couldn'tpick up a single word.

After a long march,Zuberi came to a halt before the lonely young trees and stringybushes that sat on the edge of an old forest, examining the pathahead carefully. The sun was close to setting, so venturing into thewoods now would be unwise, and the king was clearly mulling over hisoptions. Junya could've leapt for joy when he ordered the company toset up camp for the night – he could finally get off this flippinghorse! His buttocks had gone numb, his lower back ached and he hadgotten so used to the smell of this thing that he couldn't even smellthe gorillas anymore!

Zuberi hoisted himdown, laughing when he hobbled around clumsily. The company had theirshanty town of great canvas tents set up in the blink of an eye,cooking their rations over camp fires, collecting tinder from theedge of the forest and getting comfortable for the night. The heartystew they were cooking up looked pretty good – nothing as fancifuland expensive as the wedding feast, but good all the same.

“Feelingbetter?” one of the soldiers chuckled, stirring the stewabsent-mindedly as Junya perched himself carefully on the log besidethe fire.

“Ithought the horse was supposed to be better for me.” he complained“My poor back.”

“You'renot very hardy, are you?” the solider noted.

“I'mplenty hardy!” Junya insisted “I'm as hardy a fox that everlived! No-one in the whole town could put up with the cold like me!Furthermore, there's no man alive who can keep up with the foundlingsthe way I can!”

“That'sgood to know for the future.” the soldier agreed “I'm sure theking will be thrilled.”

Eep. Maybe Junya shouldkeep his mouth shut about his proficiency with children: he didn'twant to go giving anyone any ideas, least of all the king. They weretechnically married right now... The soldier tasted the stew, addinga few herbs to it before stirring again.

“Youseem oddly at peace.” Junya noted “Considering we're going towar.”

“Iam.” they admitted “Thanks to you, we finally have some hope –I want to have children myself one day. It was impossible while theInsect King was around, but now we're going to burn his hive out mysisters and I can safely become mothers. Even if I die in the fight,I'm ensuring the future of my family, as well as my clan! Don't youthink that's something to celebrate?”

“Well,when you put it like that.” Junya agreed.

Hang on...

“You'rea woman?!”

Junya clamped his handover his mouth, realising just how rude that was the second he saidit. The solider was, luckily for him, good tempered, laughing at hisfluster.

“Itcan be hard to tell when we're all wearing armour.” she reasoned.

Junya didn't correcther.

“Don'tfox armies have female soldiers?” she asked.

“Wedon't really have armies.” Junya admitted.

“Youdon't?”

“Foxeslive in smaller communities.” Zuberi informed her, startling Junyasignificantly as he sat down beside him on the log “More than 150in one place and they tear each others throats out.”

“Ididn't know foxes were so violent!” the soldier admitted.

“Wearen't violent!” Junya defended.

“They'remore vicious.” Zuberi agreed.

Junya growled at him,but he just smirked. The soldier tasted the stew again as a few moregorillas plopped themselves down on the ground around the fire,pulling off their armour and sandals and throwing them aside withgroans and sighs.

“Foxwomen are not violent, nor vicious.” Junya defended, not willing tolet it go “And they certainly aren't soldiers.”

“Don'tbe naive.” the king chastised “When the fight comes to them, doyou expect your womenfolk to just roll over and die?”

“Ofcourse not!” he argued back “But what kind of man would allowthem to be in harms way in the first place?”

“Thefight comes to us all, in its own way.” the soldier insisted “Itmay not be in the form of war, but you can't rely on men to come andsave you when it does.”

“Thatisn't true.” Junya was sure.

“Uhyeah?” Zuberi challenged “So who came to save you?”

Ouch.

“Whenthe fight came to you, you defended yourself.” the king elaborated“No-one came to save you, and if you hadn't fought then you'd bedead, wouldn't you?”

Junyawanted to argue that, actually, he had saved the young Lady when theGorilla King and his troops came to call, thank you very much, butthat would almost certainly give him away. And besides that, someonehadcome to save him when his life was on the line... it had been theInsect King, but he decided to ignore that for now.

“Saywhat you want,” Junya pouted “I still have faith-”

“Inwhat?” Zuberi challenged again “The Lord who sold you down theriver to save his hide? The father who did nothing to stop you beingtaken away?”

“Myparents are dead!” Junya snapped “And don't you talk about theLord that way!”

“Whynot?” he responded “You don't honestly think he's going to comeand take you back to your village, do you?”

“Ofcourse not! I knew what I was getting into!”

“Please.”Zuberi taunted “A housemaid with no education, no family, no wealthof her own – that cowardly, conniving little Lord threw you to thetide. He probably made you believe it was your idea as well.”

“Itwas my idea!” Junya argued “And I was an ice seller!”

“Youridea? Really? If I had actually cared one iota about having a 'Lady'for a wife instead of a beauty, you could have been killed!”

“Iwas prepared to die!”

“Diefor what?! For the people who sold you down the river? For the Ladywilling to let you die rather than face a life with me?”

“Shehad a fiancé!” Junya told him “They were due to be married in afew days, 'til you came along!”

“Onearistocratic husband or another, what difference does it make?”

“Theywere in love!”

“Whata fairytale!” Zuberi snapped “That Lady knew full well she had tomarry for position – you honestly don't think her father set themarriage up long before they met?”

“No,I don't!”

“Andit's just a happy coincidence that her intended was a rich fox whosetrade or wealth or connections is going the benefit the town oncethey're married? Face reality, Junya, love is for commoners!”

“Well,you're very clearly wrong again, Zuberi dear, considering I MARRIEDYOU!”

Everything went a bitquiet after that. The gathered soldiers looked honestly lost, partlyfrom having witnessed a newly-weds quarrel, partly from one of thenewly-weds being their king. Zuberi snarled at Junya, clearly notused to being argued with, but the fox crossed his arms over hischest defiantly, not breaking eye contact with the silverback.Ignoring his soldiers, the king crossed his arms as well, making thatgrunting huff noise again.

“Youdidn't have to get personal.” he grumbled.

“Youstarted it.” Junya retorted.

“Howdid I-?!”

“Shooouldwe leave?” one of the (apparently male) soldiers asked, gesturingaway with his hand “Give you two a little alone time?”

“Shutup, Mijinga.” Zuberi growled.

“I'mjust saying,” he went on, holding up his hands “Your weddingnight was interrupted. I'm sure we can make ourselves scarce if youcrazy kids need us to.”

“Shutup, Mijinga.” Junya echoed.

“Hey,something you two agree on!” Mijinga laughed.

“Somethingwe all agree on!” the female soldier joined, banging her spoon onthe side of the stew pot “Let's all start up a rousing chorus ofour favourite song, 'Shut Up, Mijinga'!”

The soldiers fell aboutlaughing, breaking the tension in the air completely – clearly thiswas an old joke to them. Mijinga – by the looks of it one of theyounger soldiers – seemed to relish the attention, holding his armsopen in a gesture of glory.

“Thelove of my life, ladies and gentlemen!” he said, gesturing to thefemale soldier “Mpendwa, marry me!”

Junya jumped a littleas the whole group yelled 'shut up, Mijinga!' as loud as they could,including quite a few who weren't gathered around their particularcamp fire, before falling into laughter again, the gorilla inquestion drinking in the attention as if it were glory. Even Zuberiseemed to lighten up, uncrossing his arms and blowing air out of hisnose.

“Junya,this is Mijinga.” he introduced, a little too late “He's Hodori'sbrother. The one with the odd coloured fur next to him is Hudhurungi,her husband.”

“Apleasure to finally talk to you, your highness.” the husbandgreeted formally, bowing his head a little.

Junya wouldn't havecalled him 'odd coloured' himself (not to his face), but his nuttybrown fur did look somewhat out of place next to the thick blackthatch of his fellow gorillas, especially as the part the covered hisweird domey head was almost red.

“Pleasureto meet you too, Hudhoo... Hudhera... Huddy...”

“Just'Hud' is fine.” he laughed.

“Onlyhis wife calls him 'Huddy.'” Mijinga teased from behind his tincup.

“Shutit, you.”

“You'vemet Hodori already?” Mpendwa asked.

“Yeah,yesterday.” Junya admitted.

“'Met',she says!” Mijinga declared “While us mugginses were all over thecity trying to the save the good folk from the swarm, our new queenwas defending my sister and her unborn from the Insect King withnothing more than a letter opener!”

With a what?!

“Andyou say fox women can't fight!” Mpendwa complimented “You'rebrave as they come! If you were any braver, you would have been ashe-wolf!”

“Inever said 'can't'.” Junya mumbled.

“Isthat stew nearly ready?” Zuberi grumbled.

There were enough womensoldiers in the company that it took six tents (out of 15) to housethem that night. Junya was surprised, actually – if there were lessand less women each time the Insect King attacked, was it really wiseto take any of them into battle? It seemed like the Insect King wasonly interested in pregnant women, though, so it made sense that theywouldn't want to get married while he was still around.

He couldn't imagine anyfox women going into battle. Then again, he couldn't imagine any ofhis fellow villagers going to war – the blacksmith didn't haveenough swords...

Since this was amilitary manoeuvre, Junya wasn't expected to share a tent with... andthe thought made his spine go funny... his 'husband' (they did getmarried yesterday... good grief, he was married. He was married, andto a MAN. That hadn't occurred to him yet. What was he going to doabout that?). Instead he shared a tent with Mpendwa and a few otherfemale soldiers: it made him feel a little perverse, despite the factthat he wasn't even slightly attracted to any of them. He had thegood manners to turn his back when they removed their armour to go tosleep.

It didn't take thesoldiers long to go to sleep, drifting off after a little banter, butthey had been walking all day. Despite his sore buttocks and achinglower back and the stench of horse that had all but fused with hisclothes, Junya wasn't as tired, so lay on his back staring at thetent roof. Outside he could hear the guards shuffling around,chatting, changing shifts, a few other soldiers snoring, but nothingmuch else.

Whatthe king said had been weighing on his mind all night, and it pissedhim off. He hadn't been tricked by the Lord: it had been his idea tocome. Who did that gorilla prick think he was? Sure, foxes were knownfor being tricky, but Junya was a fox too! There was no way the Lordwould have tricked him. He wasn't even supposed to go to the Lordshouse, the priest was: did Zuberi suppose the Lord was going to tryand trick himinto dressing up as his daughter? Of course not!

That felt like a verylong time ago, stood there in that room full of retainers, the youngLady crying her eyes out. She wouldn't have cried if she didn't lovethat fancy man. If one 'aristocratic husband' was as good as another,she wouldn't have been so upset, let alone given Junya her weddingdress. The two of them had grown up together, been schooled together,and he knew for a fact that she wasn't smart enough to trick him!

Fuck Zuberi. Fuck allthe gorillas. Giant stinking beasts with freaky hands on their feet.Why was Junya going through with this? Why was he helping them replacethat living nightmare instead of running for the hills? He could doit, too: he knew the gorillas couldn't move easily through theforest, and if he left now he could be deep in the woods by the timethey all woke up.

From there, he couldgo... he could... fuck, he couldn't go anywhere. To one side was thegorillas territory, and there was no way to get through without beingspotted (and then, really, what was the point in escaping?). Not tomention any of the soldiers could catch up to him that way, even ifhe did take the horse. Even if he cut his hair and somehow got newclothes off the goats, he'd probably be recognised as the 'queen'when he went back across the gorillas grasslands.

And even if he did gointo the forest, he had no idea what was on the other side – itmight be something even worse than gorillas. It could be an endlessforest full of spiders, or he could fall off a cliff and break hisother leg, and heaven help him if he came across one of the fewpredators that ate foxes, or else he'd be someone's breakfast. Sure,the wolves were all but extinct, but there were still hoards of bigcats and bears and Junya had heard stories about lizards – theInsect King was supposed to be just a story too, and look how thathad worked out.

And what if he reallydid come across the Insect King? He had been bluffing his way aroundthus far, just trusting his instincts, he had no idea if it wasactually the right way, and what if it was? Would drinking thatmonsters blood really break his curse? And how exactly would heachieve that anyway? It took everything Junya had to cut his hand offbefore, he doubted he was going to get that chance again. He reallydidn't want to go up against the king alone again.

And now he needed topee. He sighed, feeling his back and leg ache as he threw back therough military blanket and struggled to his feet. Maybe he could replacea nice big tree to go behind without rousing too much attention fromthe guards – the last thing he needed was to have his cover blownbecause he pees standing up. His bad leg had gone to sleep, pinchingand pulling as he walked clumsily along the sea of tents, trying notto stumble into them as his foot started to tingle.

Naturally, his bumblingabout got the attention of the guards pretty quickly, and the poorthings nearly screamed the whole camp awake when they saw the greenglow of the firelight reflecting in his eyes. They seemed happyenough with his explanation of where he was going, even suggesting asuitably overgrown bush for his modesty once their hearts had stoppedpounding loud enough to wake the dead.

“Needa hand?” one asked cautiously as Junya limped away.

“Nope.”he insisted, even as his leg started to twitch “I'll be fine. It'sbetter for my pride if you don't watch, though.”

“Oh,right!”

The soldiers flustered,turning back around to their fire. Was the fluster really necessary?Oh yeah, he was supposed to be a woman. No way to be elegant rightnow, so fuck it. Riding a horse was really a pain in the arse.Literally, ha ha.

Junya yelped in a mostunmanly fashion as he was grabbed by the arm, catching the soldiersattention too, who pulled out their weapons. Zuberi grimaced at himspectacularly, hair an even greater thatch mess than ever as he heldJunya up. The soldiers, seeing what had caused the distraction, puttheir weapons away and sat back down.

“Whatare you doing out of bed?” Zuberi demanded grumpily.

“Notthat it's any of your business, but I need to pee.” Junya spat back“What are youdoing out of bed?”

“Youwere making so much damn noise, I thought we were under attack fromthe insect horde.”

“Likehell you did.”

Andfor that matter, how the hell did a gorillamanage to sneak up on him?

“Pissoff back to bed, I'm fine on my own.”

“Likehell you are – you'll wake up the whole camp, the way you'restomping around.”

“Nowsee here-!”

“Shutthe fuck up and go pee!” a female soldier yelled at them fromwithin one of the tents, making them both jump “You really willbring the horde down on us!”

Zuberi just gruntedvaguely in her general direction, practically picking Junya up andcarrying him through the camp to the edge of the forest, dropping himbeside the trees.

“Hurryup.” he ordered, albeit quieter than before.

“Idon't need a chaperone!” Junya hissed back.

“Don'twander off.”

“Don'tbe a creep! Turn around!”

Zuberi grunty-huffed,crossing his arms over his bare chest and turning his back to Junya,who hobbled behind the generously sized tree, ignoring the kinggrumbling about 'loud damn foxes' and 'flipping horse makes lessnoise.'

“Feelfree to go back to your tent.” Junya told him, feeling too awkwardto actually pee with him around.

“Soyou can wake up the half of the camp stumbling back that you didn'twake up already? Just hurry it up.”

“Don'trush me, I'll go when I damn well feel like it!”

Zuberi actuallylaughed, making Junya a little uncomfortable. He peeked around thetree, but the gorilla still had his back to him.

“What'sso funny?” he asked.

“You.”Zuberi answered honestly “I can't figure out if you're very braveor very stupid.”

“Why,what did I do?”

“You'rearguing with me.” he pointed out.

“So?”

“Yesterdaymorning you couldn't speak or stop shaking out of fear of me.” hereminded him “And today you're arguing with me. I'm a silverbackgorilla, not to mention a king, and you, a fox maiden, is arguingwith me.”

“Youwere the one who made it very clear that you 'would die before youlet any harm come' to me.” Junya reminded him “Last night,remember?”

Zuberi grumbled, backmuscles getting a little tense.

“Ivaguely recall I may have said something like that.” he mumbled.

“Andwe did get married yesterday.” Junya went on, sounding more assuredthan he felt “So that makes me a queen, not a maiden.”

“Itmakes you gobby.” Zuberi quipped.

“Aman who doesn't want a gobby wife should marry a mute.”

Zuberi laughed again,uncrossing his arms and wiping his nose, sniffing in the night air.It was colder than during the day, but since it was still summer thenight was quite warm, lit by a heaven full of stars and thefluttering zigzagging of fireflies. If they hadn't been on their wayto destroy a baby-eating insect hive, it would have been a nicenight.

“I'mglad you're not so scared of me.” Zuberi admitted “It's no way toconduct a marriage.”

“Ican only stay scared so long.” Junya figured “Other than beingmassive, you've not really done anything to make me scared of you.Y'know, other than taking me away from everyone and everything I'veever known against my will to a land I've never been to all alone forthe rest of my life, but other than that...”

“Yougot a smart mouth.” he laughed.

“Likeall foxes.” Junya reminded him “You want obedience, marry asheep.”

“Andend up with fluffy gorilla children?” Zuberi laughed “What asight they'd be!”

“Orburly sheep children.” he agreed.

“Goodness!”

They both laughed atthe thought – had there ever been a gorilla/sheep mix? It seemedunlikely, if only because the result would be hilarious!

“Isuppose I'll have sandy coloured little gorillas instead.” Zuberithought, voice wistful like he was already thinking what to name them“Or big, burly foxes.”

“Gorillaswith bushy fox tails.”

“Stopmaking me laugh!”

“No.”

Junya finished hisbusiness, adjusting his robes to properly conceal himself. Talking toZuberi without looking at him was much less frightening than havingto look at his massive hulking frame and great big fangs and gianthands while trying to have a conversation. His voice even seemed lessbooming from behind the tree, but maybe because he was keeping quietto let his soldiers sleep.

Junya leant against thetree, crossing his arms and watching the king. The phrase'silverback' popped into his mind as he looked at him – Hodori hadcalled him that before, and it was certainly descriptive. Why didthey lose the hair on their backs? Zuberi shuffled about, scratchingabsently as he waited. He really didn't have to wait, especiallysince he'd walked all day, and would be walking all day tomorrow.Junya supposed it was good husbanding, though.

“Youlike children, Zuberi?” he asked.

“Like?”he clarified “I guess. I've not known many.”

“Youdon't have any siblings?”

“None.My mother died in childbirth. My father had the son he wanted, so henever remarried.”

“That'scold.”

“Whatabout you?” Zuberi asked “Foxes are usually born in litters,right?”

“Usually.”Junya confirmed “I'm one of the rare single births. Mother raisedme alone.”

“Andyour father?”

“I'mwhat you'd call a 'foundling.'” Junya admitted “My mother heardme crying during a storm, found me all alone on the temple steps. Herhusband had just died and she couldn't have children of her own, soshe kept me.”

“Shesounds like a good woman.”

“Shewas. She was the young Lady's nursemaid: she was forever scolding mefor the trouble I got in and for eating so much. 'Stop growingalready, you're eating me out of house and home!'”

Zuberi laughed again.He had a nice laugh.

“Iwish I could have met her.” he said “What about you? You likechildren, don't you?”

“Ilove kids.” Junya admitted “I want to have as many as possible.Kids like me too: I used to help the priest with the orphans thatlived at the temple.”

He sighed through hisnose. He probably shouldn't be admitting such things to Zuberi,raising his hopes when he was just going to run away (or be killed,whichever came first), but talking to him like this wasn't so bad.The more he learnt about the Gorilla King, the less scary he was.

“Ialways thought that getting married and having children would be thebest part of my life.” he admitted “I'd be a part of somethingbigger than me, finally be able to contribute something to the clan.I'd be able to teach my children what I leant in my life, tell themabout their grandmother. All sorts of things.”

“Youtalk like that'll never happen.” Zuberi told him.

Because it won't, heknew. He would be discovered and killed by the angry gorillas, orfall foul of whatever curse the Insect King had put on him. Eitherway, he'd never be a father. He'd never fall in love, never set up ahome. He'd never measure his babies growth by carving notches intothe door frame. He knew that. A part of him wished he had beendiscovered on the wedding night and killed then, rather than let himlinger cruelly on all the 'never's.

“Gorillashave babies one at a time.” the king went on, bringing Junya out ofhis internal malaise “Rarely there's twins, almost never more. Theydon't grow up as fast a foxes either, but... if you want a lot ofchildren, I'll do my best. I'm not the worst person to have childrenwith. You can teach our children about the ways of the foxes, if youwant.”

What a surrealconversation. Had Junya actually been a woman, those words would havebeen reassuring. As it was, he actually did feel a little better, andhe felt silly for it. Zuberi wasn't a bad person, not really. MaybeJunya wouldn't hold it against him when the time came for hisexecution. Hell, maybe the king would even forgive him for hisdeception.

Maybe.

He could dream.

“Junya?”Zuberi called when he didn't answer.

“Justthinking.” he admitted “Life is pretty complicated, isn't it?”

Zuberi looked aroundcautiously, blowing air our of his nose when he saw Junya leantagainst the tree watching him. His posture relaxed.

“Yeah,it is.” he agreed “But don't worry – we'll break the curse onyou, and we'll defeat the Insect King. We'll be able to live apeaceful life then. Even if it's the last thing I do...”

The king trailed off,eyes distant like he was looking at his own death. Perhaps Junyawasn't the only one staring his mortality in the face. Zuberi shookthe thought away, turning back to Junya.

“It'slate.” he pointed out “I'll take you back to your tent.”