Author Note:

I was very much in a rush to post this chapter.

Also sorry for no updates for a month. Consider this a Valentine's Day gift before I disappear again for another month.

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[ Etho Point of View ]

"Etho, get up." The voice of a stylish royal could be heard on the other side of the door.

Etho was thrown off by the king waking him, since the silvernette managed to wake up on time yesterday. He found himself even more confused when he looked out the window to see that it was still dark. His mind went on to assume the worst was happening, leading to him grabbing his sword and opening the door.

"What's wrong?" He asked the king, tiredly scanning the hallway for a problem.

"Nothing." Bdubs answered, smiling at the taller man's behavior. "I just came to tell you that we're going out today, so we're eating breakfast earlier than usual."

"Oh..." The king's protector slowly walked back into his room, embarrassed by his jump to assumptions.

"Also, would you rather have turkey or ham sandwiches for lunch?" The royal questioned him.

"Turkey." Etho replied, just before closing his door to get ready for the day.

"Turkey it is then!" The ravenette stated aloud on the other side of the door.

* * *

After breakfast, Etho expected to pick back up on his training with Cleo. When the king brought him outside to a stagecoach, he was certainly surprised. He assumed that himself and the king would be taking soil samples again.

'I could have sworn that Bdubs told Scar and Grian to handle the soil research, though...' Etho thought, looking around curiosly. 'Why would we be going to get samples then?'

Upon stepping into the carriage, the silvernette noticed a picnic basket sitting beside the king. The king was also not wearing his crown anymore and he had downgraded to a shorter, shoulder length moss cape. With a smaller cape that didn't go past his hips, the royal's detailed and laced clothing was now visible and no longer obscured by the moss imitated fabric.

"Are we taking soil samples today?" Etho finally asked.

"Nope." The ravenette answered with a grin. "We're going shopping."

"Why?" Questioned the protector.

"Because you've been wearing the same boring of outfit everyday." Bdubs did not hesitate to point out. "There's no sense of style whatsoever."

"Are you saying I'm not stylish?" Etho didn't pick on the comments' frame of reference.

"A little." Bdubs shamelessly admitted with a grin, puffing out the ruffles on the ends of his sleeves.

'I feel like you could be spending your time on something much more important than this, Bdubs.' The silvernette leaded back on the cushioned seat, starring out the carriage's window.

"Don't you have you have to worry about the soil problem?" The foreign man realized a little too late what he had said, fearing that he upset the king.

"...Scar's still working on that." The ravenette gave a delayed reply. "And it'll take Grian most of day to deliver the letters and return with all the follow ups from the other kingdoms."

"Right." The armed man nodded. "I guess you have things covered."

"Plus, this also gives you more of an extended tour of the Moss Kingdom." The king avoided acknowledging the comment, adding onto his previous explanation. "And it gives us some time to chat uninterrupted. That's good have every now and again."

'It sounds like he just needs a break from everything that's going on at the palace recently.' The silvernette concluded. 'I haven't paid that much attention to it, but I can make an effort to make this break enjoyable for the both of us.'

"Do we have limit?" Etho shoot up, turning to the king.

"A limit for what?" The wide eyed man asked.

"A limit to how many aqua pieces you're willing to spend shopping today?" The protector clarified.

"Not particularly." Bdubs answered. He pulled up a full bag from under his seat in the stagecoach. "There's quite a few in the bag, so we should be able to purchase whatever you want, Etho."

'Whatever I want...'

* * *

Upon entering the shop, the king and the protector were greeted by the owner and a few of their family members who helped run the small business. Since the king had a made a change in wardrobe (and taken off his crown) for the day, he was unrecognizable by any of the common citizens. This left him and his protector to shop as if they were typical people living within the kingdom.

Etho was unsure of what he wanted, as the clothing that surrounded him was so drasticly different from what he used to. It was mostly warm weather attire, that he still was not used to seeing.

"Bdubs?" Etho turned to the royal, seeking fashion guidance.

The call of his bodyguard, brought the royal back to reality. He had allowed his mind to wonder while he examined various facial cosmetics that were of the highest pricing. The ravenette put the case he was opened back where he found it, a small puff of its containments getting on the king's hand. He wiped it off on his on his small cape, most likely having an extra or two in his closet at the palace.

"Whatcha need, Etho?" He asked the taller male as he walked over.

"I don't know what is and isn't considered fashionable in yo— err, this kingdom." The silvernette corrected himself, in case anyone was listening in on their conversation.

"How about I pick out some things for you try on and get whatever your favorite is?" The king suggested.

"That works." The taller of the two agreed.

The first thing that the royal had selected for Etho, was a soft aqua blue hat. It was on the long side, making the man appear taller when he put it on. The clothing felt like it had good installation and would be able to keep the wearers head warm. More than likely, the hat was one of the shop's few cold weather attire.

"Stylish, right?" The small ravenette looked to the silvernette for his approval. "It's based on a rare mushroom that grows in dark caverns under the kingdom."

"I don't think it's for me..." Etho tried to reject the hat as kindly as possible. He took it off and handed it to the king. "I'm not really at hat person."

"I see," The moss loving royal took a mental note of that statement. "How about this?"

The king held up a red outfit with large white dots. The outfit resembled mushrooms in a sense, even coming with a small attached cape that favored a mushroom's stem.

"Red is the color of life and courage," Bdubs informed the graynette.

"And blood." Etho added.

"The mushroom outfit goes with my fabulous moss cape," The wide eyed royal smooth out his cape as he spoke.

"I don't really like red, Bdubs," The male with mismatched eyes explained.

"Oh," Bdubs tossed the outfit back on the shelf, trying to seem unaffected by the rejection. "I don't really like red either."

When glancing around for something else, the king's eye lit up. He made his way towards a dark blue hood that came with some matching finger gloves and boots. The rest of the fit was black and gray, even coming with armor that blended in with the cloth materials.

"That one is nice," Etho stated, noticing the royal's admiration.

"And it would be even nicer on you," Quietly said the king.

* * *

After a successful purchase of clothes, the king insisted that Etho change into them immediately. The outfit fit the protector almost perfectly, aside from the pants being a little too long. The graynette decided to just scrunch them up around the part of his ankle where his boots stopped.

The two were now leaving the shopping district of the kingdom, going off to a location unknown to the protector.

"What now?" Etho questioned, looking into the carriage at the king.

"We eat sandwiches for lunch," Bdubs replied, holding up the picnic basket he had brought. "The chief prepared them specially for us."

The king outstretched a hand to the graynette—the gray haired male took it, not wanting to be rude towards the king.

"Is this why you asked me if I wanted turkey or ham?" Etho inquired once he was seated.

"Yes." Bdubs nodded. "Since the shopping trip was for you, I figured you should be the one to pick what we ate as well."

"Where are we going to eat lunch?" The taller of the two questioned, looking out the window. "It's definitely not the castle."

"It's a surprise," The ravenette grinned.

[ Grian Point of View ]

"I have a letter for—" The winged man had just pull an envelope out of bag, only for it to be immediately snatched up.

"My sister. I know." The letter-snatcher held the envelope under his arm. He then pulled out a pink envelope with various fish textures decorated on it. "Give this to your king."

"Shouldn't you at least look at the letter before sending out a reply?" Grian questioned, hesitating to take the letter from the prince.

"This has nothing to do with your last letter." The blonde royal explained, stretching his arm out further. "It's a request for more food."

"More?" The brunette talked back, stepping back from the envelope. "How was what we gave you not enough?"

"It was only enough for about a fourth of the population," The prince explained with a said expression. "Please deliver this letter to your king. We need more food, otherwise people are going to die."

'Does the Moss Kingdom have anything else we can give?' The hybrid wondered. 'We've given a lot of our extra food to the other kingdoms already.'

"Right..." Grian took the letter and stretched out his wings. "I'll deliver this and get back to you shortly."

"One more thing," The prince of the Coastal Kingdom stopped him. "Take care of yourself. You've been delivering letters back and forth from the Moss and Coastal Kingdom, and probably most of the others. You need to make sure not to push yourself too hard."

"I'm alright, your majesty," The hybrid in red insisted. "Farewell."

The hybrid took off from the closest open window, flying off into the sky.

* * *

Grian flew through the window, as he didn't care to use a door. He needed to deliver the letter to the king as soon as possible. When he entered the dinning hall where he assumed the king would be, he nearly dropped his letter in shock.

"Do you have any twos?" A blonde man asked.

"Go fish," Replied an orange haired woman.

Grian was shocked to see the doctor and the royal guard captain, instead of the king feasting with his protector. He walked towards the table, setting down the pink envelope at the king's seat.

"Where's Bdubs?" The winged brunette questioned the two.

"Not here," Tango answered.

"Where did he go?" Grian specified.

"He took Etho out into town to go shopping," Cleo explained, before refocusing on the game. "Do you have any eights, Tango?"

"How did you know?!" Bellowed the blonde, sliding three cards across the table.

"Lucky guess," She gave a cheeky smile.

Cleo added her full set of eights to her collection. In comparison to Tango, she had a greater chance of winning considering her card matches. She also seemed much more patient about the game.

"When he be back?" Grian asked, looking down at the pink letter with worry. "This letter from the Coastal Kingdom is pretty important."

"How so?" Cleo curiously inquired.

"They're requesting more food," The hybrid explained. "The prince delivered this letter to me himself."

"Was the food we sent over to them not enough?" Tango questioned.

"I guess not," Grian replied. "I think the other kingdoms are requesting more food as well."

"We could run out of food for ourselves at this rate..." The royal guard captain muttered.

'Yeah.' The hybrid silently agreed with her. 'That's what I'm worried about...'

"When do you think he'll be back?" Grian pressed on with his questions.

"My guess would be around sunset," Cleo stated, glancing out the window. "You've got a few hours until then."

"I guess I have some time to kill." The hybrid concluded. "Do you two have room for one more?"

"I have stitches to give," Tango stood up, avoiding looking at his defeat from the card game. "A lot of them."

Tango left quickly, leaving the royal guard captain and the winged hybrid to chat alone in the dinning room.

"Cleo?" The short male turned to her.

"I have to check on how Skizz is handling training on his own." She explained, standing from her chair.

"What?" The hybrid's head turned.

"I'm letting Skizz do a lot more of my job, so when I retire he can be the royal guard captain." The ginger elaborated. "He's training the recruits right now."

"Retire?" Grian's eyes widened from shock. "I didn't think your were that old, Cleo."

"I'm not old," The woman shot him a glare. "I am, however, less reactive and a lot weaker than I used to be. Being a solider isn't the most content of occupations. Once you get hurt bad enough, you can't do much on the battlefield anymore."

"I see," The hybrid nodded. "Have you told anyone else about your retirement plans?"

"Skizz and Bdubs know I would like too, but I don't know when I'm going to." She said.

"I won't mention this to anyone then."

"Thank you."

* * *

Rather than flying, the winged hybrid decided to take the stairs to Scar's tower. He never good at flying in confined spaces, and believing it was not worth the risk of a potential nasty crash. Walking for a long period of time felt weird to him, he figured it was worth it to check up on his wizard partner.

Upon entering the room, a red cloud obscured the hybrid vision. He used his wings to clear the smoke, seeing some dirt on the ground and a brown haired wizard in the floor with a broken magnifying glass in his hand.

"Grian?" A pair of green eyes locked with the hybrid's. "You look terrible."

"Thanks," He nonchalantly replied.

"Maybe you should take a nap," Scar suggested.

"There's not time," Grian replied. "I have to be ready to deliver the next letter to the Coastal Kingdom when Bdubs gets back."

"You could sleep until then, though," The wizard in purple told him. "I think I've gotten to the bottom of this soil stuff."

"How does it work?" The hybrid asked, taking a seat on the floor.

"There's no one way for a wizard to use magic," Scar began to explain. "Most wizards use magic from a book of spells, occasionally making potions that can heal or allow you to breath underwater for a set amount of time."

"Is there a spell that makes crops die?" The short brunette asked.

"No." Scar shook his head. "This was caused by a crystal being purposely planted into the ground."

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Author Note:

I hope you guys are enjoying this high quality dirt plot.