Author Note:

Redoing this A/N.

Links to Quotev and AO3 in comment box. ➡️

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[ Etho Point of View ]

Upon stepping into the chariot, he saw the king using his moss cape as a blanket. Etho assumed the king did so because of the fabric's soft texture, not because the weather was chilly. The silvernette sat across from the ravenette, who refused to make direct eye contact with his wide eyes.

"Uh, welcome to the Moss Palace," The king awkwardly smiled, glancing out the chariot's window. "You've probably seen this palace thousands of times before, so there's no need to introduce you to it."

"Actually, I'm new to this part of the continent," Etho mentioned. "Today is the first time I've ever seen the palace."

"Really?!" The wide eyes of the king lit up and a wide grin fell over his face.

The silvernette nodded in reply.

"Your name is Etho, right?" The king quickly asked for confirmation, bringing his legs into his seat and sitting with them crossed on the seat padding.

"Yeah, I'm Etho," The masked man confirmed.

"I'm glad to have you in my kingdom, Etho," The royal cheerfully stated. "Where are you from?"

"The tundra," The stranger answered reluctantly. He spoke more quietly than he had previously.

"You traveled far to get here," The moss wearing royal replied.

"I did," The silvernette lightly nodded. His mask hid his expression of discomfort. "So, you're the king I've been hearing about?"

"Obviously," The ravenette replied. "No other king is as handsome as I am."

There was a slight chuckle from the silvernette, though his mask muffled most of the noise he made. Etho still didn't understand how the king was a great leader, but he didn't need to know that. All he needed to do was protect him from any harm that would come his way.

"Do I need to call you King Bdubs?" Etho questioned the ravenette with the long cape of moss.

"Hmm," The royal thought aloud. "I suppose not. Most people in the castle just call me Bdubs."

"Should I call you Bdubs, then?" The bodyguard asked.

"Yeah, that's fine," The king agreed. "But call me 'your handsomeness' when we are around citizens."

"I'm not doing that," Etho was quick to dismiss the idea.

The carriage soon came to a stop and the two males stepped out. The silvernette stood taller than that of the ravenette king, though not by a drastic amount. Etho messed with his small moss hood that barely went down his back and was quite short in comparison to the royal's moss cape. The moss articles of clothing were the only outward resemblance between the two men.

"How would you like a tour from the king himself, Etho?" Bdubs turned to the light haired male with a wide smile. "I'm usually too busy to give palace tours myself, but my whole schedule for today was cleared for the tournament."

"I'd be honored to get a tour from you, Bdubs," Etho smiled under his mask. "Plus, I think I'm supposed to be with you all the time to protect you."

"Oh, right," The royal seemed to have forgotten. "I have a bodyguard now."

Etho followed Bdubs throughout the wooden palace, making note of all the important locations. (Such as the kitchen.) The tour was rather short, despite how excited the king seemed to be about giving it. The last place on the tour was the hallway containing the king's room, which had his name neatly carved into the door's wood.

"Why did we come up here?" Etho questioned, glancing in the direction of the stairs.

"Your job is to protect me at all times," The ravenette with wide eyes explained. "Even when I'm asleep."

"What are you getting at?" The silvernette titled his head in curiosity.

"In the unlikely case of something happening to me during my sleep," Bdubs began to explain. "Your room is right across from mine."

The king pointed towards a wooden door covered in thousands of scratches that were directly across from his own. The royal stepped before the warrior, opening the door to showcase the room. The inside of the room was considerably neater than the door. Neither was a trace of dust nor dirt amongst any of the furniture.

Etho admired the room for a few seconds before he carefully let his bag drop to the floor. With the king still standing there, he started unpacking everything he had. He made sure to fold off his clothes before putting them away in the dark oak dresser, the silvernette wanting to keep the neatness and newness of the room for as long as possible.

"How will I know if you need my help in the middle of the night? Or when I'm in another room?" Etho turned to question the royal, having put away all his things.

"I'll scream or yell your name," The king answered.

"Alright, then," Etho moved on from the topic, the response good enough for him. "Now that I know where everything is, what now?"

"We eat dinner," The king quickly answered. "Do you have any allergies I need to tell the chef about?"

"No," The silvernette. "I don't have anything."

"What about anything that you don't like to the point where you physically can't bring yourself to eat it?" The royal questioned.

"I'm not picky," Etho stated, a bit confused by the questions. "I'll eat anything."

"That's great. I'm sure the chef will be pleased to hear that." Bdubs grinned.

The royal placed hand on the back of the silvernette, then they walked together to the grand dining room. When traversing down the staircase, the royal made sure to hold his cape up off the ground.

Upon entering the dining room, a few familiar faces were seated at the table. The orange haired woman with the sling was seated there. As well as the two men who ran the eatery both, except they were dressed in long purple robes.

Two other people were also present, though Etho hadn't properly met them yet.

"Etho, meet my inner circle," Bdubs told Etho, picking up on his confusion. "And my friends."

"Hi there, Etho!" Scar was the first to greet the king's royal guard.

"Hey," Grian followed in the wizard's fashion.

"Hello," Etho lightly waved to the two.

Etho examined the people at the table, realizing the oddity that came with them all. None of them appeared to be royalty, which made it weird for them to be sitting at the same table the king would be at.

"Do you always eat with all these people?" The silvernette quietly asked the king.

"Not usually," Bdubs explained, glancing towards the table. "Today was special, so I invited them to eat with us."

"Right," Etho gave a slow nod. "What do they all do?"

"I'm Captain of the Royal Guard," The orange haired woman stated. "You can call me Cleo."

"Hi, I'm Skizzle!" A man with dark, fluffy hair brightly introduced himself. "I guess I'm the Co-Captain of the Royal Guard or something along those lines."

"Tango," The blonde beside Skizzle gave his name. "And I'm the doctor."

"For everyone who doesn't know, this is Etho," Bdubs then introduced the silvernette standing beside him. "He won the tournament, so he's going to be my personal protector now."

Etho didn't say anything, as he didn't know what. He simply followed the king with a moss cape, sitting beside where the royal sat. They hadn't been seated for long when a few chefs came out with a few players of food. Everyone's face lit up at the sight of the meal.

'That's a lot of food.' Etho thought to himself as he observed the proportions of the meal.

"Is there chicken in this?" Grian looked up, as he poked the food with his fork.

"No, it's pork," The blonde doctor dryly replied. "Can't you tell?"

"I just wanted to make sure," The winged boy stated. "It's better to be safe than sorry."

There was a silence that followed, as the king and his company expected words to come from the protector's mouth. Yet, the noise that came from his direction was the sound of him eating the evening meal at a rather fast pace.

Remembering it was rude to stare, everyone at the table looked away from the foreigner. Cleo, in particular, took a drink from her glass when she faced the other direction. As the fluids of her grape colored drink went down her throat, a realization dawned on her. She wasn't one to judge someone's behavior unless that someone was bothering her, but she couldn't help noticing the unusual mannerisms of the king's new bodyguard. The most obvious was his style of fighting. It wasn't anything like any of the kingdom's the orange haired woman had been to.

"Etho," The lady broke the silence. "What part of the continent are you from? I don't recognize your combat style and I was wondering where you learned it."

"I'm from the tundra," Etho answered the question, pausing his pace of eating. "And I learned from an old friend of mine."

"Wow, the tundra?" Scar reacted in shock. "That's about two weeks of travel from here."

"How are you liking the greenlands so far?" Skizzle asked next.

"It's definitely not as cold as the tundra," The light haired man answered.

'Nor as lonely.' Etho thought to himself.

"It gets a bit chilly in the winter," Grian added. "But I doubt the cold will bother you, since you're used to it."

Etho soon finished his meal. Instead of leaving, he waited for the king to finish so he could keep an eye on him.

"What are we doing after this?" Etho asked, then looking to Bdubs for a response from him.

"Probably going to bed," The royal in moss answered, before finishing his glass of water.

"Going to bed? Early?" Skizzle was shocked by the man's words. "I know you like sleep and all Bdubs, but the sun hasn't even set yet."

"You know what they say, Skizz," Bdubs widely grinned as he stood up. "You can never go to bed too early and you can never wake up too late."

"I don't think anyone says that." Cleo mentioned. The ginger couldn't help but crack a small smile as she gave her response.

The king made sure his moss article of clothing was not caught by any chair or table legs as he walked away from the table. He looked like he wanted to say something in his defense, but he couldn't quite think of anything. Etho quickly joined him on the spiraling staircase, as the silvernette had been finished eating for some time now.

"Goodnight, you guys!" Skizzle called out to the king and his guard from the lower floor.

The wide eyed ravenette then continued his way up the staircase, holding up his moss cloak like it was a dress. He was very cautious not to let it be stepped on by either himself or Etho.

The two soon split off to go to their rooms. Though, not before Etho wished the king he now protected a good night. 

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Author Note:

Fun Fact! This is actually a repost of Protector from my other account. I also reposted it on my new AO3 account.