Knight Quests: Adapting

It all began, not too long ago, when two of Lunerest's moons started to wane in light and power. Everyxyn in the populace had noticed it- how could they not when their very lives depended on their moons?

It was a both wakeup call, and a call to arms, for Lunerest's Royal Knights to spring into action to discover out just what had happened. Pantalaimon's stepfather had instilled in them a deep mistrust of the Royal Knights into them, and very frequently in their teenage and young adult years, they frequently skirted the law with the Royal Knights to help themself and their family get by with what little they had in the Perilunal Plains. Their stepfather did little to acknowledge their efforts and begrudgingly accepted what they brought to the table, next to the food and currency he worked hard to support them with. Their mother had told them, for years, that their skills in thievery and would have been a wonderful asset for the Royal Knights; if only the Royal Knights were to be trusted at all...

Only now were the knights beginning to become desperate enough to recruit as many xyns as they possibly could. Troia, whose noblexyn family historically had trouble with the Royal Knights, only recently decided to allow her to enlist- and she obeyed their orders diligently, as almost any noblexyn would.

"I've been knighted," she recently told them. "Why won't you?"

Pantalaimon narrowed their eyes, furtively glancing at Troia just once. "After everything I've been through, you think they'll really want me in their ranks?"

Troia stared at them. "The world may be in danger. Even my family recognized it well enough to let me enlist with the Royal Knights. And you're not going to do anything about it?"

For one of the very rare times in their friendship together, it was Pantalaimon that had nothing to say to Troia.

They remained silent, and looked away. It took them a very long time to reconsider Troia's words for nights afterwards.

---

It wasn't too long after that Pantalaimon was reluctantly accepted as a trainee into the Royal Knights- but not without much consternation from their higherups who had heard rumors of their nature and previous encounters with the Royal Knights.

As one of their first forays into being a trainee, Pantalaimon had been assigned to carry out a task in...

"The Perilunal Plains?!" Pantalaimon stepped back, somewhat taken aback, once their Captain gave them orders. Their faerie halo darted behind their head, as if to hide it's own shock too. This didn't bode well for them- lest they see their estranged family there...

"Is there something wrong with that?" Their moxyn captain asked. They peered curiously at Pantalaimon.

Pantalaimon shook their head emphatically and flashed a confident grin to hide the fact that they nearly bit their tongue off with their fangs in shock. "Nope! None at all! It'll be a piece of cake- honest I'll be back before you know it!"

And with that, they bolted out of the room in a shower of their faerie dust, leaving their Captain and fellow trainees perplexed.

Adapting to life as a trainee of the Royal Knights was one they hadn't expected to get used to...

---

Pantalaimon arrived at the Perilunal Plains a few hours later. It would have almost been a peaceful, quiet night, were it not for the fact that two of Lunerest's moons had now dimmed ominously in the sky.

They looked about and sighed. So far, there was nothing concerning. As they- and in the distance the silhouette a surly Vexyn approached them, unhurriedly, yet wary.

Pantalaimon bit their tongue apprehensively but took care not to show it. As the vexyn came into view the phantom arrows lodged into his chest were unmistakable: it was their stepfather Raghnall; the last xyn that they wanted to see here.

Raghnall stared at Pantalaimon, sizing them up, narrowing his eyes in disgust once he saw the knapsack with the Royal Knights emblem that they carried. "You threw in your lot in with those xyns?" He didn't address the Royal Knights by name; Pantalaimon already knew why.

Pantalaimon stood their ground, staring back at him with equal intensity, and lowered their winged ears to their head. They had quickly learned as a xynlet that Raghnall was an especially difficult xyn to reasoned with in a logical, reasonable way; and gradually, as they got older, only did they learn that through manipulating him emotionally were they able to get easily their way. But Raghnall's brutish personality didn't make it any less difficult to bear with dealing with him.

It was always a war of emotional attrition trying to withstand Raghnall's words unless Pantalaimon ended it first.

"Don't forget about what happened to my first sons the day that those 'Royal' knights failed to save them," Raghnall pressed, baring his teeth. "How do you think I feel seeing you leave me for good just to grovel in front of them?"

Pantalaimon wanted- but instead, they exha. "Want to know how your sons felt when you couldn't save them yourself?" They stepped forward disdainfully. "I bet that, if they were still here, they'd wish they had me by their side. Because I bothered to do something about whatever's happening with the world right now."

Raghnall immediately went silent.

For several long and agonizing moments, He only fixed his burning red eyes straight into Pantalaimon's own, staring at them with loathing. He bellowed with a furious roar and stormed off, flying away towards the direction of his home.

Pantalaimon watched him fly off until he was only a speck in the sky. They narrowed their eyes and smiled dryly, ever so slightly, to themself. It never brought them genuine joy to treat Raghnall this way; nor were they sure that they even believed their own words when they stood up to Raghnall. They had only learned to become unfeeling, and remember that, sometimes, they needed to forget that they had to care for their treatment of certain other xyns.

It was easier for them to adapt to a lifetime of painful situations this way.