Before Buck could ask what in the world he was talking about, Erson turned away from him and stalked up to the dais. He sat down on the throne Pires had positioned beside her own, slouching low with his ankles crossed. He glanced down at Buck.
“Well, let’s get on with it then,” he muttered. “Don’t we have a ceremony to co-ordinate.”
Pires opened her mouth to speak, but Erson burped far too loud for her to be heard. She gaped at him, with a low rumbling sound coming from the back of her throat. Erson just crossed his hands across his stomach and lay back with his eyes closed.
“Okay…” Pires said. “Well, I thought that Victane and another guard would carry in our thrones, with us following close behind. I intended for these two be two entirely unrelated guards but if the identities of your companions have been revealed then this is no longer necessary. Victane and Hilene would have been quite the picture, but I understand he has retired to become a farmer of some sort.”
Erson glared at her, picking his nose. Buck made a mental note to check in with Pires later and tell her not to take such a scornful tone towards Erson’s homeland.
“And will anyone else have a part in the ceremony?” Erson asked.
Buck glanced at the floor. He’d been working on a song with Myal all week about how glad the royal family was to team up with Resador. He had a feeling he wouldn’t be singing it.
“Buck will sing,” Pires said.
Buck looked up, as did Myal, and also Dorrea and Victane. All four of them shared glances between each other, though Myal was frowning significantly more than the other three.
“You hear that, Buckerino? Eh? Eh?” Erson shouted, loudly clapping his hands together until he had Buck’s attention. “You’re going to be the star!” Erson’s voice had a scratchy tone to it Buck had never heard before, and he kept flicking his eyes towards Pires – even if he did wrench them back as quick as he could.
Pires raised her chin and nodded at him. “Not the star, but he’s going to be there.”
Buck was glad at least Pires seemed to understand what was going on. Erson was too far away to read his body language properly.
“Uh, sure thing, I can do that,” he said.
“Well then, let’s go!” Erson exclaimed, springing up from his throne and skipping down the steps of the dais then out the door.
Pires swore and ran after him gesturing at Victane towards the thrones. Between Victane, Buck, Myal and Dorrea they managed to drag both thrones out of the meeting room by the back door. It was a fairly hidden door, but by no means a secret, as it opened onto the stage in the performance hall behind.
“With a flourish, remember,” Buck said, as they shoved their way through the door and brought the thrones to the centre of the stage.
From a brief glance the crowd looked still. It wasn’t the biggest shock, seeing people unexpectedly setting up a couple of chairs. But a Resadorian crowd was used to a routine, and they all seemed transfixed trying to figure out what was going on. A few people gasped as they met Buck’s eye, but he had no time to explain. He led the others in a quick bow and hurried off to the side. Just at that moment, Erson and Pires made it around the long way and Erson bounced up onto the stage. He flopped onto his throne, legs hanging over one of the arms – the one facing away from Pires.
Pires gritted her teeth and faced the crowd, who were truly stunned now, hands clasped tightly around the edges of the benches they sat on. “Your Prince, everybody! Quite the performer, isn’t he? A natural Resadorian, one might say. We hope you enjoy our opening performance ‘The Fool of Resador’. Bucket’s job’s in danger, I tell you.”
Erson slowly sat back up properly and wiped his excited smile off his face. Buck was starting to figure out what was going on – or at least, he could tell that Erson and Pires were having a tug-of-war over their credibility here, and he was probably going to be the rope. His bucket was still in the carriage as well.
Pires beckoned him forward. He paced back to the middle of the stage and faced the crowd, then took a deep breath and introduced his song, which was called ‘All One Family’. He shuffled his feet and hoped he wouldn’t sound too ridiculous.
Of course, as soon as he started singing, Erson started farting. The crowd chuckled at first, but once it continued into the third verse a few more frowns started to appear. Plus, there were only so many tiny little squeaks a man could let out before you really started to smell it. Maybe Buck could have sold whatever Erson was trying to do but his brain was full of confusion and stink and since when had chaos been thrust upon him? Eventually he started to cough in the middle of the word ‘pancake’. He’d been so looking forward to pancake mornings with Myal.
As Buck recovered from his burst of coughing, he looked around the room. He’d been hurrying too much to notice before, but Rydone and Misene were sitting right in the front row. Their eyes were so wide that they might have seem shocked, but Misene had little frown lines in the middle of his brow that Buck knew was a sign of great sorrow. Rydone was clutching his forearm, her concern clear to Buck in her tension. Buck summoned his pride and got through to the end of the song. The sooner he could reach the end of this, the sooner he could get back to basics and go for a drink with his friends.
By the time he was done, Erson had summoned a bowl of salad leaves, eaten it, and was wearing the bowl on his head. Buck glanced at Pires, whose arms were folded and she was staring resolutely away from Erson.
Buck stepped up to her. “Don’t we normally have betrothed couples sing epistles to each other now? Do, uh, do you have anything prepared?”
Pires reached into a pocket in her gown and produced some neatly folded, thick cream paper. “I sure do. If this fool thinks he’s going to embarrass me into getting rid of you then he’s going to have to recalibrate his scheme.”
Buck nodded, and stepped out of her way. He walked to the side of the stage, then down the steps. There was a space between Misene and the person on the other side from Rydone, a very Buck sized space, Buck thought. Buck slipped into the space beside Misene and put his hand on top of Rydone’s where she was still squeezing Misene’s arm. He squeezed too, and waited for this afternoon to be over.
End of chapter
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137,435 Literary Works • 672,020 Reviews
Hi again!
I'm determined to catch up with this story before you post too much more of it so here goes.
Should be a question mark after 'co-ordinate'.
Does she mean unrelated to each other? Or unrelated to something else? I couldn't quite follow this part.
It would have been nice if there was some previous mention of this (unless there was and I've missed it). That way we'd feel Buck's excitement before and share in how crestfallen he feels now.
Goodness, it's like he's drunk!
Except he's just noticed him flicking his eyes back and forth from Pires so he can't be that far away, right?
Quick thinking, Pires!
Also, how has he got this much gas inside him?!
I don't quite think I'd realised this was what he was trying to do! I thought he was trying to embarrass/annoy Pires into calling off the engagement and sending him home. Then he could claim she had backed out of the whole thing and be free and clear with his people (and more importantly, his mother).
Well I've gone from shipping Erson and Buck to being quite disgusted by him! I don't think we're really seeing enough of Buck's emotional response to the situation here though. I know he's frustrated but surely this also ruins any chance of his feelings being reciprocated?
Can't wait for the next chapter!
Icy.
aha I'm not actually sure Buck had got to the point of shipping himself and Erson so that last paragraph might not entirely make sense. *i* certainly feel crushed by this development though
Thanks for the review and for picking up on some logical gaps I'd missed!
Oh Buck, catch up
Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world)
Time to finish of Chapter 13 and my reviewing for the day. I will finish off Chapter 14 tomorrow. *takes off gas mask*
First Impression: Well that took a disturbing turn for the worst but of course it was still ridiculously funny.
Anyway getting right on with it,
*summons the gas mask back and puts it on* This is going to be a tough review
So Victane and Hilene were special in some way? It certainly didn't seem that way earlier. I mean she banished them and no one seems to have made any sad songs about them leaving.
Noo!! That was starting to be a really nice friendship.
I thought it was going to be Victane and another guard doing the carrying but okay.
This is a pretty interesting direction to take this in.
*tightens gas mark as much as possible and holds on for dear life*
Is it weird that I do this too? (Totally unimportant point I know. Sorry)
Good to see that he still has the support of his friends though like I mentioned earlier he really should've thought about them more when he was in the north. I did not see a single part in the earlier chapters with him in the north that these two were mentioned.
And that's it for Chapter 13 and this day. I will finish this off tomorrow.
Overall: Its a really fun chapter. And beneath all those funny layers there is some great character development too so great job.
And as always remember to take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.
Stay Safe
Harry
Omg Erson is insane.
I love all the goofy little antics you gave him in this segment. It felt appropriately hilarious and, eventually, uncomfortable. The balance was spot on! My favorite bit was the salad bowl as a hat. XD
But you could rEALLY feel Buck's increasing discomfort over time too, which is entirely necessary to help set the tone here. Plus the third dimension with Pires' reaction. All three of these characters are dealing with an uncomfortable situation with as much (or as little) grace as possible. And before a huge crowd no less and just. omg.
I like that Buck sees his friends out there. <3 Considering Rydone's brother was just outside, I wonder if Fusane just wasn't invited while Buck's closest friends were. (I almost expected Misene's husband to be there too.) If this is the marriage ceremony itself, I imagine they probably invited people with optional +1s, and maybe Rydone just didn't bother with inviting her little brother. This definitely felt a bit of a whirlwind ceremony considering they were just on the road a couple hours ago!
Pires is so freaking awesome. I love her presence, I love her strength and confidence. I have not cheered for her more than I have been now. She really believes in her dearest friend Buck and is doing anything she can to keep him safe from Erson's wrath, and she KNOWS the power and authority she wields. Let alone, we see her juggling all this nonsense today knowing her goal of marrying the prince is finally about to happen, and she ain't letting any petty fighting stand in the way of her dreams -- while Erson is clearly still trying to figure all that out.
Honestly, the picture of a dignified Pires and laidback Erson is almost the reverse of what we saw before! Erson was stoic and sure of himself while Pires was relaxed.
I'm overthinknig everythign at this point though and honestly, I think you really portrayed everyone's perspective extremely well here. It was SO amusing to watch -- Erson is just fantastic XD -- Buck is an innocent bystander, and gosh that tug-of-war metaphor was 100% appropriate. We can even see Buck trying desperately to behave and stay out of the way, very unsure of what to do and relying so much on his friends' support. Then, of course, Pires standing strong and carrying on without allowing Erson to mess with her head. She knows this is temporary and isn't going to let Erson bring her down with him.
Buck singing a song about family felt sO appropriate too, and I'd have loved to see some lyrics. Understandably, you might have plans to do that and just save it for after LMS, but I think it's a really good choice of theme for him to sing (and not just because it's a marriage ceremony).
I'm so sad, though, if Myal starts avoiding Buck too (and she might in support of her brother) but they were such good friends.