The Duke

Political event

Fenneck learns he is to be the next Lord of Glitterfjell.

Natalya brushed Leesa's thick snow-white fur out on Fenneck's balcony as the two of them looked out over the beautiful city below them. The afternoon sun shone brightly on the snowy mountains and the air was surprisingly warm for as late as it was into the year. Fenneck had been meeting with Baegla for a few hours now and Natalya was starting to worry about him. Leesa was being surprisingly sweet with Natalya though and she didn't want to upset her. Normally the little fox was stand offish toward her and very defensive of Fenneck. Natalya thought she was a bit annoying at times but Fenneck loved Leesa like a child so she tried to be patient with her.   "So you can be sweet?" she asked the fox. Leesa just let out a soft gekker and nuzzled down against Natalya's lap. At that moment, Natalya heard the door open in their room and Fenneck came out and joined them on the balcony. He walked straight to the railing and looked out over Flottenheim, looking deep in thought.   His beautiful pure white hair gently blew in the soft breeze and his eyes seemed pensive and thoughtfully as he looked down below them. Natalya carefully picked up Leesa and stood up next to him. When she was close enough to Fenneck, Leesa scrambled out of her arms and jumped up onto his shoulders before wrapping herself comfortably around his neck like a scarf. Fenneck looked as if he didn't realize a giant puff ball had appeared around his neck as his gaze continued looking over the city and out towards the eastern mountains.   Natalya gently put a hand on his waist. "What's wrong? Fen?" she asked him, concerned by his pensiveness. He slowly started to lower his gaze. He looked like he was struggling with something. "Would you like some privacy?" she asked him politely. After a few moments passed, Fenneck finally looked at her as if he had just realized she was there.   "What?" he asked as if he hadn't heard her. "Would you like some time alone? Are you okay?" she asked again as she gently rubbed his back. Fenneck thought for a moment before mouthing words to himself under his breath. Natalya couldn't understand him though and continued caressing him comfortingly.   Fenneck opened his mouth as if he was about to speak before closing it again and shaking his head. This continued for a while and Natalya tried her best to comfort him. She wondered what on earth Baegla had told Fenneck to summon such a response. Finally as the afternoon sun started to set Fenneck looked at Natalya.   "Baegla has chosen her successor," he said bluntly. Natalya wondered who it could be that would cause Fenneck to be so upset. He continued slowly. "You love me right?" he asked with fear in his eyes. Natalya moved into his arms, confused by his odd behavior. "Of course, Fen." She reached up and gently kissed his smooth, rosy cheeks. "What's wrong?" she asked again. His green eyes were full of bewilderment as he whispered under his breath. "It's... it's me."   It took Natalya a moment to understand what he meant as the information settled in. Fenneck was the next Duke of Glitterfjell. Fenneck. Her Fenneck. Her archer. Her tailor's apprentice. Her mountain companion. Her thiramin. Her best friend. Her... duke? She took a deep breath. It was a lot to process. She now found herself at a loss for words.   They held each other in silence for a long while as they both processed this new card the gods had played on them. Finally, Natalya broke the silence. "How... how do you feel about this?" Fenneck thought for a moment before answering her. "I... I'm not quite sure. I... I'm... It wasn't supposed to be me," he said, his voice cracking as tears built up in his eyes. "I'm not... I'm not a... I don't know..." he trailed off as he tried to collect his thoughts.   "I want to help my people, Nat," he said as he started to become more resolute. "This would give me the opportunity to do that. To protect Flottenheim. To protect our people. I just... I... I'm not good enough for this. I want to believe that I am, that I have to ability to lead an entire fiefdom but..." he trailed off and his gaze turned back to Flottenheim.   "Of course you're good enough," she assured him. "You're the perfect choice. Baegla knows what she's doing." She leaned against him to comfort him. Fenneck sighed and shook his head. "It wasn't supposed to be me, Nat," he told her sadly. "It was supposed to be him." He looked off into the distance. "He was her first choice. He would have been perfect. He..." He glance down nervously at Natalya and shook his head. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I'm not trying to upset you," he told her.   She took a deep breath. "I'm not," she assured him. "I'm just worried about you. What about the election system?" she asked him. "I thought she had you write it up for this very thing?" He sighed in annoyance. "She says we're not ready," he said, clearly disagreeing with the halfling. "She said that when the time is right I can introduce it but she said the people aren't ready for that much power yet," he said sadly. "Look, she has plenty of reasons to believe that, but we've also come a lot farther than she thinks we have," he said, growing passionate about the subject.   Natalya giggled at him as she caressed his strong, perfect chest poking out from his tunic. "You really will make a perfect Duke," she teased him. He rolled his eyes and kissed her forehead. "You're not upset about this?" he asked. She shook her head. "It's a lot to process but... I'm not upset. It makes sense now that I think about it. I've always assumed you had a higher position here than you let on anyway, you are a prince after all," she teased him.   He smiled with relief. "I know it's not what you signed up for when we... well." He thought for a moment. "Does this change that? Look, you've tried to run away for far less significant reasons, Natalya. I just... being a duchess comes with it's own new way of life. When we get married you'd be signing on for more than being my wife."   Somehow the idea of marrying Fenneck sent more of a jolt through her than the news of him being the next duke. They hadn't really talked about marriage or when that would happen. These last few years had been a whirlwind of blissful moments in the mountains and warm cozy winters in Flottenheim.   She knew they were waiting to have sex but she had never really allowed herself to think about marriage. Before she had met Fenneck, settling down and having a family had never been a feasible option for her life. Fenneck held her tighter, clearly noticing her hesitation as she struggled to come up with a response to this question.   As Fenneck leaned down into Natalya, Leesa made a sudden yelp at being squished between them. He laughed and moved back to not hurt the silly fox as she started gekkering loudly. "Hush hush!" Fenneck started cooing her. She eventually settled down and Fenneck, careful to not upset Leesa, wrapped his arms around Natalya and faced her toward him.   "I know this is a lot," he said sadly. Natalya looked into his eyes and felt her fears melt away as she looked into his strong, caring eyes. "About... marriage..." she said, the word marriage sounding foreign coming off of her tongue. Fenneck kissed her forehead and pursed his lips.   "I guess I have just assumed that we would when the time was right," he said. "Are you... you do want that don't you? Me becoming a duke aside... you do want to get married don't you?" He started to get worried as he sensed her hesitation.   "I... I don't know," she admitted. "I haven't really thought about it. It was never an option for me before I got here," she said, fearful of scaring him. They were in such a good place and she didn't want to ruin things again like she had all those years ago. Fenneck pondered this for a moment.   "Look," he finally said. "I love you. I've actually been considering... proposing... soon. I... I guess I never really considered that we should talk about it considering the fact that we're thiramin but I guess we haven't exactly had the easiest go of things," he said, clearly starting to freak out. "I'm sorry I haven't asked you about this before." Natalya reached up and caressed his face as she saw his fear creeping into his pretty green eyes.   She loved that he wanted her. That he cared about her this much. That he would commit his beautiful life to hers in such a way. "I... I think I do want that," she told him as she felt a wave of butterflies flood her stomach. "I just... I haven't allowed myself to dream about such things, Fen. About marriage or kids or really anything other than living in the mountains with you these last few years. I didn't think I would make it this far in life and when I did I didn't let myself think about the future. About what it actually means to be with you like this."   He took her head in his hands and gave her a sad look. "I'm sorry to put all of this on you at once," he told her. "Look, marriage can wait," she assured him. "You becoming the next Duke of Glitterfjell... what does that mean? What's going to happen now?" she asked him, worried about how much their lives were about to change.   "Well," he said, taking a deep breath. "Baegla wants me to slowly start taking on more responsibilities here for an easy transition and so she can show me ropes." He hesitated and sighed guiltily at Natalya. "I won't be able to go into the mountains with you as much," he admitted. "I'll still be able to!" he hurriedly assured her. "Just less. She suggested we start training some more rangers to be able to take our places up there."   He saw the disappointment in Natalya knowing this change would be hard, "It won't happen all at once love." He pulled her face close to his own. "I know change is hard, but I... I have to do this, Nat." His forehead softly hit her own and she squeezed his hand. "I know," she said. "I love you, Fenneck." He closed his eyes. "I love you so much, Natalya."   He kissed her and pulled her into his arms and Natalya leaned into him and went to wrap her arms around his neck. Leesa moved to allow her hands to find Fenneck's neck and attempted to climb onto his head instead. "Ow! Hey!" he exclaimed as her claws dug into his head. She slipped and fell onto Natalya who caught her gracefully.   Leesa started gekkering loudly as Fenneck and Natalya started to laugh. "Silly fox!" Fenneck scolded her. Natalya smiled and sat Leesa down on the ground where she ran back inside the room, tired of Natalya and Fenneck for the evening.   Natalya giggled and fell back into Fenneck's warm embrace and felt his lips kiss the top of her head. "So, your grace," she teased him with his new title. He scoffed at her and picked her up by her waist and she laughed as he carried her into their room and plopped her onto his desk. He started undoing the ties on the front of her dress as he kissed her breasts that were poking out of her corset.   Suddenly he stopped and looked up at Natalya and swallowed. "Shit," he said. She laughed at him. "It's okay," she playfully consolled him. "I hear it... happens to... some guys." He glared at her jests. "It's not that," he said, rolling his eyes as he straightened back out. "It's you," he said, becoming worried. Natalya nodded understandingly.   "I don't want to hide you through this," he said. "It's hard enough as it is and frankly I think most people in Flottenheim see through it anyway, but I can't do this if I'm a duke and you're... well, my partner," he said. Natalya nodded. "It could ruin your reputation," she told him. "It could destroy your political career before it even starts. It could cost Baegla and everyone else in Flottenheim their reputations as well," she realized sadly.   Fenneck sighed and plopped himself into his chair and started rubbing his head. "You should tell Dimitri," he said. "See what he thinks about it," he decided. "See if he knows if Pufuktin knows." "I haven't spoken to Dimitri in months, Fen," she told him at the hopeless idea. "He still needs to know," Fenneck said. "If word gets out he could get taken in for questioning."   Natalya sighed. "So you think..." she tried to understand what he was thinking. He shrugged in very unhelpful way. "I don't know," he admitted. "Baegla isn't ready to announce it yet. We still have time to decide how we wish to go about this. I think we should sit with it a bit," he decided, leaning back in his chair.   Natalya climbed off the desk and walked over to Fenneck and sat down in his lap. "I'm sorry I've made your life so difficult," she told him sincerely. He shook his head at her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "You've done nothing wrong," he assured her. "I proud of the things you've done. I just worry he'll come after you," he said sadly.   "I know," she said. "I just don't want to open up you or Flottenheim to his rage and anger." Fenneck nodded. "There's nothing we can do at the moment," he decided. "Let's just rest for the night and we can figure this out tomorrow or... at some point." Natalya nodded and leaned into Fenneck's comforting arms.