Trying my hand at high fantasy.
In the Fifteenth year of Grass, the Rex died, leaving four sons.
The eldest ascended to Rex, and was assassinated by the Tigers within days. The second, expected to become an aesthetic, took the throne.
Lionus Rex he was titled, as was his brother and father before him. He looked around at the felini and decided that he should make some reforms. No longer the expected aesthetic, the quiet book-loving student of history; he soon became well-loved of the felini. The guard of the Rex became doubly loyal to him, as he raised peasants to military men based on their grade, not their family.
This caused much consternation within the aristocratic families. The Black Tigers within allowed these reforms to continue, as their coffers filled based on people freely paying their taxes to the state and the church.
It was good. To most.
——————
Mailio the Merchant growled low in his throat as he watched the ships come in. They weren’t as low in the tide as he expected. Did this mean they were waylaid before coming in?
He swept his cloak behind him dramatically, so quickly that his own cougar bounced back and almost fell off the balcony. “Siree! Where is my carriage.”
Siree, a mixed breed of cougar and jaguar, announced from the bottom of the stairs, “A moment, Lord.”
Mailio again growled. He should have ordered it before. he turned to the cougar and said, “Run to the captain to tell him I am on my way. I want to know what is going on -myself-.”
The cougar, sleek and fast with the message ringing in his ears, bounded down the stairs and literally flew out the open door. “Siree! Tell Ses I’ll be late tonight.”
“You have visitors tonight, Lord,” said Siree, as Mailio negotiated the stairs down. He hated stairs. Whoever thought they were fashionable when they built these houses he had hoped would have been killed by now. So much better to have ramps like the older palaces above the wall. “Gentlemen of the Realm.”
“Hells to them,” Mailio snapped. “Ses can entertain them or tell them to leave.”
“Yes, Lord.”
“Ses can what?” called a woman’s voice from the room next door. A sleak full-blood jaguar looked over from the scroll she was examining.
“Gentlemen from the Realm. I need to tend to my ships. Three have returned instead of five, and the three are not laden.”
The female jaguar rose. “Go, my husband, and attend to that. Of course I will entertain any visitors in your stead. Shall I keep them here until you return?”
“I will not be in the best of moods when I do return,” Mailio muttered.
“When are you in the best of moods?”
Mailio glared. Usually, he would smile at her and take her barbs lightly. Right now was not the best of times to do that. She lowered her head, as Mailio stormed out the door to his waiting carriage.
==================
Year of Grass (Marking of time comes later.)
Mailio (Mah-eye-leye-oh) – a Head Merchant in the main town of Johenbat (Johen = John; bat = city, similar to “burg”)
Cougar = cougars were well known as excellent clerks and messengers.
Black Tigers = Tigers with white and black stripes, considered clerics. They dyed their fur to match these requirments.
Blue is the color of royalty.
Feathers are considered symbols of royalty – feathers are often strewn on the ground when they walk.
Ramps are considered old-fashioned and used in the formal palace still. Other old houses from aristocratic families are called “palaces”, though aristocratic families keep apartments in the official “Court Place” where the Rex hands down the law and does the work of the realm. He has a schedule that is constantly changing.
Johen has its back to a mountain range and its front to the sea. There are two sets of walls, the Outer wall, where merchants, knights, and other men not of aristocratic stock (yet) live; and the Court Place.
Above the wall is in the mountains, where it’s cooler and sometimes drier. The High Palace (Rex’s home) is here.
Gentlemen of the Realm = Euphemism for councilors. (Governmental structure later)
Hells to them – “Let them get cursed by the evil gods.” (Religious structure later)
Words, 709, and most of them definitions and notes!