Still Subject To Change Epilogue
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Cant believe its the epilogue already!
SSTC is really coming to an end almost cant believe it!
i want to thank everyone that has read my story so far!
and i promise im not done writing ;)
have fun reading!
and as always reblogs are appreciated!
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It had been a week now since we had started living at the castle, and the protruding rock on the cliffside had quickly become one of my favorite places.
It was a nice sunspot too, as confirmed by a cat that had showed up sometime and then refused to leave.
I liked the cat, it somehow had no fear of me and even tried to groom my fur.
At some point I even followed it for an entire day as lots of people had said I looked cat like I thought I'd go and see what an actual cat did all day, that had been fun,
and now I had a feline friend that sometimes showed up and tried to clean my fur.
While i had spent time with the cat Rikaad had found the papers that dictated how much taxes had to be paid by the citizens.
He was righteously angry at finding out that the wealthy people only had to pay two percent taxes while the poorer people had to pay up to ten or even more.
He immediately put it at five percent for everyone as he thought that rich people should not have to pay less than poor people who sometimes couldn't even afford to eat,
In the end he made it so that everyone had to pay the same percentage.
In his words everyone was worth the same,
and that poorer people had to pay for everything while the rich just kept getting richer was not fair.
Of course some of the rich fucks complained while the rest of the citizens cheered.
He then told the rich fucks that complained that they could leave if they wanted,
but they had to leave their stuff behind and were not allowed to take what was considered ‘kingdom property’ whatever the fuck that meant.
Sometime after that the funeral for the old king was held,
almost nobody attended and i had stayed behind with Robin while Rikaad and Arthur went even if they didn't really want to.
To be completely honest I really hadn't wanted to see the corpse of the old git that was majorly responsible for a lot of Misery, and not just my own at that.
Instead I had Worked to renovate the shed for my Ardua form with Robin, that had been fun.
Another day i had helped Barsen out in the garden,
He had asked for help in uprooting a tree that had rotted from inside out and was a safety hazard as it was near a frequently used pathway and could fall on someone.
I had ended up dragging the thing that was longer than i was tall to one of the walls where it was out of the way,
maybe they'd use it as firewood sometime.
And best of all was that now that it was warm again all the flowers had come back in full bloom.
I could only applaud Barsen as the Garden looked absolutely stunning with all the colors.
And Robin made flower crowns with whatever he was allowed to pluck, which meant he befriended Barsen on the basis of talking about plants.
Barsen had even complimented Robin's name as apparently he was named after his favorite bird which I found a funny coincidence.
While there were a lot of flowers in the garden,
not a lot of them were blue simply due to the fact the old king had not liked the color,
maybe because it reminded him of Maringand.
But there was one place where i had seen a speck of blue petals,
Which led to where I was now.
Standing in front of the cliff near the rock and looking at the spike with the tree on it.
I could see something blue right next to it and I wanted to get it.
Not for me of course, but I wanted to get them for Robin so he could make a blue flower crown.
He said he wanted to, so I'd try and make it possible.
“Mrow?”
At the sound I looked to my right where a cream colored cat with rusty ‘boots’ and tail sat,
she was looking as disapproving as a cat could.
“Don't look at me like that, i know this is a bad idea,
but i want to do something nice for my friend”
She just blinked and then walked away,
clearly signifying ‘not my problem’.
Eh, whatever, it would be fine, I had practiced jumping just for this and I wanted to get to the flowers before they wilted.
I didn't even know what kind they were so it was possible that they wouldn't bloom for long.
Taking a few more steps back until I felt a tree behind me,
I made myself ready to sprint like I had learned from the cat.
We should find her a name sometime.
Before I could start to sprint though I was interrupted by a now familiar voice.
“What are you planning to do?”
I looked over to Barsen and saw him standing there with a broken wheelbarrow on his shoulder,
he really should get that replaced.
“You already know that anyway,
i'm trying to get to the spike with the tree and get those blue plants”
“if you are sure you can jump that far,
just make sure to be careful,
and bring me a few with roots while you're at it,
i might be able to plant them somewhere safer”
I nodded at him and he carried on with whatever he was doing,
hopefully finally bringing that wheelbarrow to get repaired as he had it like that since i've known him.
Making sure there was nothing in the way,
I readied my muscles and pelted over the ground towards the abyss that was the end of the cliff and jumped at the last moment,
feeling the edge crumble under me,
and near flying through the air towards the spike with the tree.
I landed perfectly with all four legs on the little island right next to the tree.
The flat top of the spike itself was shaped like a malformed and bent teardrop with the tree in the larger part of it.
But now that I was finally here I could see all the blue flowers,
They were bluebells, pretty big ones too.
Robin would love these, so I shifted back into my human form and plucked as many as I could,
half of them with the roots still attached like Barsen had requested.
I still left a sizable patch of them so they could regrow next year.
Gathering the flowers in a bundle I went a few steps away to shift back into Ardua form.
As soon as I did that i encountered a problem though,
i had brought nothing to carry the flowers,
maybe the cat had been right about looking at me like that.
Well, maybe I could carry them in my mouth?
I've carried stuff like that before and as long as I was careful not to squish them it should be fine, right?
Welp, only one way to find out,
so i put them in my mouth and went to the edge of the spike opposite from the cliff face to get as much runway as i could.
Making sure that I wouldn't squish the flowers I ran across the limited space and jumped back to the cliff.
Landing with my forelegs on the cliff I tried to heave myself up before the rest of my body followed and failed as my hind legs tried to find purchase on nothing and almost fell down till I could put my claws into the wall of the cliff and hold on like that.
Well, that was really fucking close.
Climbing up the little distance I had slid down I was back onto solid ground.
Only to have the cat stare at me.
I just looked at her with an annoyed expression and walked past her,
making sure not to step on her,
she really was tiny compared to me so i had no idea why she wasn't afraid of me.
Well, at least I didn't have to worry about spooking her on accident with my size as long as I was careful.
Now to bring these plants where they belonged,
carefully getting them out of my mouth I shrank back into human form,
sorting the flowers by which ones had roots or not.
Finding Robin was easy,
there weren't many spots he hung out and I knew for a fact that he was currently at Oakleys tower planting some herbs that he found out the winged man liked.
No idea how he managed to though.
Oakley himself wasn't there at the moment as he was busy sorting through his old stuff in the run down hut he lived in before, throwing everything he didn't need away and bringing the useful stuff here.
Yep, there he was, making a little space for Oakleys plants and pouring new dirt in a neatly stone enclosed patch.
“Robin! Hey! Looks good, i bet Oakley is gonna love it”
He turned his head to me and I could see a very big grin on his slightly smudged face,
he probably scratched his nose with his dirt stained fingers.
“You think so? Oh wait, where did you get those?”
He had jumped up as soon as he saw the bluebells I was carrying and I held a bundle upside down in his direction which he gladly took only to sit down and immediately weave them into crowns.
Yep, as expected, and judging by the wide smile on his face he was very happy about finally having some blue ones to work with.
“Where did you find those?
Did you go out and search for them?”
Of course, he HAD to ask,
and now i had to tell him that i jumped over the cliff to that spike.
I couldn't lie after all, but maybe I could omit a few things.
“I got them from that spike with the tree, but don't worry i practiced jumping and as you can see im fine”
I would not tell him that I almost slid off when jumping back.
“If you are sure,
but you don't have to do something so dangerous for me!”
“Eh Barsen wanted some too, with roots of course, see?”
I held up the bundle that had the roots still attached.
“Oh, that's nice, but maybe you should bring them to him before they dry out and wilt?”
Looking at the flowers he was probably right,
some of them had bent a little too much while I had transported them and I had no idea which ones were good to replant and which ones weren't.
And continuing to stand here wouldn't make that any better.
“Yeah, you are right, I'd better bring these to him,
hey you wanna try planting one too?”
I separated about five of the plants and held them towards him as he nodded,
he gently took them and started putting his tools away.
“Well, i'll be off then,
good luck with the plants and see you later”
He waved and put a few more stones around the perimeter of the garden before continuing to put his stuff back in the toolbox he got from Barsen.
Speaking of Barsen, where was he anyway?
While he had the habit of finding everything in the Garden it was a nightmare to search for him as he sometimes just disappeared into the greenery.
Well, I still didn't want these to wilt so I'd better find him.
Going methodical might be best here,
so I would go back and see if he was near the rock anywhere.
He'd been there last i saw him,
and it was likely he'd go back there to collect the plants he asked for.
And I hoped that at this point he finally went to get the wheelbarrow repaired.
Ducking under a branch back into the unobstructed space next to the rock I could see him, so I had been right.
He did come back to collect the plants he asked for,
and this time he was not carrying a wheelbarrow on his shoulders.
He turned to face me before i could draw any attention to myself,
Once again a bit eerie but he was the gardener and probably knew what made the different sounds in the underbrush.
He smiled when he saw me and the bluebells I was carrying with me and I gently passed them along when I reached him,
but instead of once again disappearing like he did so often he looked at me with a serious face.
Uh oh, did I do something wrong?
Did I step on some prized plant as an Ardua?
But it appeared that I was wrong in that aspect.
“There is someone in the main hall that knows your name,
your entire name, and he asked to speak to you.
He’s waiting somewhere in front of the throne for you,
you better hurry i have no idea how long he’ll actually wait”
Someone that knew my name? My full name at that?
The only ones who I had told that were Robin,
Arthur and Rikaad.
So who the fuck waltzed in here with the knowledge of my name?
Well, there was only one way to find out,
and I couldn't deny that I was curious as to who this person was.
And also ask how they knew my name,
because that was very weird.
I knew I had not told anyone my name as there really wasn't much opportunity to since Fae blooded people were basically hunted for sport.
Maybe it was an estranged uncle or something? After all,
claiming to be related to a Fae Bastard was not something people would have freely admitted just a month ago.
Still wouldn't really.
But if the guy wanted to freeload on the fact that i lived in the castle i would tell him to fuck off.
I now had people that liked me for who I was and not because I was rich or whatever.
I wasn't even rich either, the only thing I got here was shelter and the occasional sweet treat from the kitchen.
Well, feeding something the size of an Ardua would get fucking expensive reallly quick so it was good that i could live off of sunlight.
But there were still things I could not resist,
like cinnamon bread.
The loaves made by the Castle were really good though.
Speaking of Castle there it was, including the,
at least in my opinion,
stupidly oversized door.
So the guy that knew my name was in there,
I briefly wondered what he would look like but since I was about to go see for myself that wasn't necessary.
Going in I could see that the room was almost empty, safe for Norrin who was talking to Rikaad and a few other Guards in one of the corners.
And of course the man Barsen had said that knew my full name.
He wasn't facing me, he was facing the throne instead and I could see he was tall and had long off-white hair.
Since I couldn't see his face I couldn't tell how old he was,
but he seemed to be fit, an archer maybe? Or a dancer?
Maybe the off-white hair threw me out of the loop a bit.
But I could also tell that he was tall, very much so,
taller than Rikaad even.
I'd guess he was at least six foot something and he was clad in a weirdly sewn green tunic that had leaves embroidered on the upper part of the sleeves and light beige pants with sturdy boots.
So that was the guy that knew my name and wanted to see me,
Well, I'd better greet him then.
“Hello, are you the one that wanted to see me?”
The man turned around and suddenly I wished Barsen would have told me beforehand that this was an Elf,
an actual one and not a Bastard.
His pointy ears were even longer than mine so there was no doubt about that,
and now it made sense why he was so tall too.
The strangest thing about him however was that he was the palest person i had ever seen and possessed a pair of red eyes that looked like dull rubies.
An albino then, huh, but on top of that he looked eerily like one of those expensive porcelain dolls that Noble children sometimes had.
Something was off about him though,
but I couldn't say what,
just an inherent sense that something was weird about him.
His movements were graceful, but seemed overly practiced and his face was like an emotionless mask even as he smiled.
A perfectly symmetrical smile that did not reach his eyes and seemed almost painted on with practice.
He opened his arms in what was probably meant to be a welcoming gesture but to me it still seemed strangely puppet like and practiced.
Then he spoke in a calm and melodious voice,
still smiling that weird and a bit unnerving smile of his.
“Hello little Brother!”
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Well, this concludes Still Sunject To Change (SSTC)
dont worry im not so mean as to end a story like this!
this is simply the end of arc one!
there wil be a second one after a Hiatus (i need a fucking break)
it will have a new name and will start story wise right after this one.
(the initials are B B lets see if someon finds out)
yes, there will be new characters including our pale Elf here.
Thank you all so much for reading,
every comment and reblog means a ton!
i wish you all a wonderfull time and see you for the next installment of SSTC!
ask are open if anything in the story has confused you
or just for general questions.
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ARC 2
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