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( ni no kuni ii ) a good fortune
Title: a good fortune
Fandom: Ni No Kuni II
Universe: Summer Camp AU
Relationships: Evan Tildrum / Tani
Summary: Li Li's fortune this year predicts that Tani will befriend a boy king (or possibly be even more) - and predictably, Tani is having none of it. Not even when he ends up being the nicest person on the planet.
Notes: Part of the AU Yeah August challenge! Like some other stories, this grew too long to be one comment - so I've decided to make it its own post.
Every year, Boss shipped Tani off to Camp Monster for two weeks. The annual tradition had begun out of a desperate need for a babysitter while the Sky Pirates “bartered” with the neighboring kingdom of Ding Dong Dell – and somehow, against all odds, camp had become Tani’s favorite summertime activity.
Mornstar, nestled in the edge of the Heartlands, was just far enough that Boss couldn’t surprise her with a visit, and yet close enough to the rest of the world that kids from every kingdom attended.
Prior to Mornstar, Tani had never met anyone from Goldpaw or Hydropolis, let alone befriend them and consider them her closest friends and confidantes. Now, she couldn’t - no, she wouldn’t dare to imagine life without them.
“Not even a proper kiss good-bye?” Dad had teased her when their plane descended on the edge of the campground. “I see how you really feel.”
“Blimey, Dad!” Tani laughed, leaning over and planting a huge, sloppy kiss on his forehead. “You know I’ll miss you like crazy! See you in two weeks, okay?”
With that, she slung her overstuffed duffel bag across her shoulder and tugged on her camp t-shirt. The sooner she headed to the Heartlands, the faster she could race her friends on the kayak, or show them how to properly wrestle a Duebill, or mine the sunset and dream prisms nestled underneath the camp’s fertile soil.
More importantly, the sooner she arrived, the sooner she could smother her favorite camp counselor Bracken Meadows (the second coolest person in the universe!) with hugs and questions.
As Tani gathered underneath the pink flag that also served as Cabin Mystral’s designated meeting point, she couldn’t help waving after her dad’s plane as it disappeared into the clouds like a puff of smoke. Camp Mornstar - and her home cabin, Mystral - wouldn’t know what awaited them this summer.
After each cabin oriented themselves (and okay, after Tani smothered Bracken with affectionate hugs and kisses), the entire camp gathered in the dining hall. Camp always began with a welcoming speech and major announcements, usually led by Head Counselors Henny and Yu Kan.
Tani's heart swelled with pride as she glanced around at the full tables, the all-too familiar faces, and the friends and acquaintances she had made over the summers. Table 10, Cabin Grimwit, had her favorite martial artist friend Hoi Den, and when Tani waved her arms out wide, Hoi Den waved right back. Table 8, Cabin Swellhorn, had her favorite craftsmen, Fai Do and Nu Bi. They were sitting at the very edge, pouring over old, dusty blueprints (no doubt from a bygone era).
No matter what projects her friends undertook, they always succeeded. Tani couldn't wait to blaze her own path and embark on her mining adventures. Maybe she could barter with Cabin Grimwit and “borrow” Bao Wao and his metal-sniffing nose for a little while...
“–be kind and polite to each other always,” Henny was saying, over the roar of the crowd.
Tani snapped to attention.
“Thank you, Henny,” Yu Kan called, applauding her colleague. “Whether you're a king, or a miner, or a craftsman, or whatever your heart desires, you are welcome at Camp Mornstar, and we can only hope you will have the time of your lives this summer. Now, without further ado - let's eat!”
The rest of the camp didn't need to be told twice, though Tani couldn't help furrowing her brow at the wording. Never before had Miss Yu Kan mentioned a king. It didn't make much sense, either; King Leander and Queen Nerea of Hydropolis would have sent princes and princesses, not kings. King Mausinger of Ding Dong Dell had no children, Lord Pugnacious of Goldpaw's puppies were full-grown, and President Vector of Broadleaf spoke of the campers here as if they were his own.
“I think she's talking about the new king. The one from Evermore,” her tablemate piped up, resting a hand on Tani's shoulder.
“No way, Moggie May.” Tani shook her head, standing up and reaching for the plate of food in front of her. “This place is too rough for a pish-posh king to waltz in and consider Mornstar his home.”
Besides, the new king – the one ruling over the new kingdom on the other side of the Heartlands – couldn’t be their age. He had a kingdom to run, and important meetings to attend, and things far more important than throwing a wrench in her summer plans. They couldn't compete against a king. Not without the rest of camp swooning over him (whoever he was).
“I don’t know,” Moggie May had patiently said, raising both eyebrows as a young grimalkin walked in with the rest of his cabin. “When there’s smoke, there’s usually fire.”
“Right, right,” Yung Mein chimed in, holding up a couple of fingers. “Li Li even saw it in her tarot cards. This year, things are really gonna be different - and not just ‘cause Miss Yu Kan is shaking up tradition.”
“Oh, if Li Li saw it, then it has to be true.” Tani sighed, finally munching on her fries in the vain hopes her friends would never, ever bring up the specifics of that dreadful fortune.
See, Li Li considered herself an expert seer and a master of divination, and for all intents and purposes, she probably was. Problem was, she kept foisting her predictions on everyone around here, whether or not they wanted to know their futures. No amount of firm politeness or niceties could shake the girl off either. Bleh!
“We haven't even told you the best part.” Yung Mein rested both elbows on the table and leaned forward, peering right at Tani. Her eyes twinkled with mischief as she whispered, “Li Li said she saw you with the king. Multiple times.”
“Tani and the boy king, sitting in a tree…” Another tablemate hummed, grinning from ear-to-ear. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G…”
Now that was garbage, and everyone at the table should know it.
“Yeah, right.” Tani scoffed. “I don’t like anyone that way, much less an actual king.”
Moggie May’s expression softened. “We know. It’s just… Li Li’s cards said otherwise.”
Those stupid cards again. Tani gritted her teeth together, reaching for her nearest spear and thinking about the best place to aim it… Maybe right at Li Li’s shoulder…
Then the spear was yanked from her hands as her head counselor gripped it with an uncharacteristic strength.
“Tani!” The glare could’ve killed a lesser woman. “What did we say about spears at the dinner table?”
In perfect unison, all four girls recited, “To never take them into the cafeteria, Miss Bracken.”
“Good.” Bracken pocketed the spear, carefully placing it in her belt loop and eying Tani with suspicion (and maybe even a little concern). “I’ll let you off with a warning this time, but if I see it again…”
Then Tani could probably kiss her piloting sessions good-bye, and she knew it as she groaned into her dinner.
“Why couldn’t this summer just be boring?”
Moggie May’s sources (read: her boyfriend Filippos) said that the boy king resided in Cabin Snickersnarl. By now, Tani knew most of the boys through shared competitions, cabin activities, and late-night bonfires.
Filippos was her favorite Duebill wrestling companion; Norbert knew the answer to every obscure trivia question; Rumpel could soothe even the most dangerous of wyverns; Hansel planted flowers worthy of the fanciest kingdom; Long Mein won every duel he challenged his friends to; and Chip could invent anything from a pile of scrap metal. The only new kids were the white-haired merkid and the blond grimalkin, and honestly - both held themselves in calm, collected, and regal confidence.
They were even laughing to each other about something as they tugged on their shirts and gestured to the logo right in the middle. Tani couldn’t hear them from her vantage point, but she had a sneaking suspicion it wasn’t very funny.
“I don’t see why you had to drag me all the way out here,” Li Li sighed, lying down on her stomach beside her cabinmate. “We’re not even that close.”
“No, but your fortune predicted that I would know this stupid king.” Tani didn’t even miss a beat, holding out a bag of popcorn for them to munch on. “So by extension, it’s only fair that you get to spy on them with me.”
“Uh-huh.” Li Li sighed, accepting the popcorn. “But if Miss Bracken asks, you told me to come.”
Tani snorted. “Fine by me.”
“So… what’re we watching them for?”
Good question. Tani wasn’t exactly sure, given that this entire recon mission had happened on a whim, but she had to give Li Li a satisfactory answer. That prediction had gotten under her skin, yet if she voiced that prickly fear out loud - she would only fuel the flames that were Li Li’s fortunes. She couldn’t entertain such a notion.
“I want to know more about the boy king,” she settled on saying, reaching for a pair of binoculars she had borrowed from Moggie May. “Boss doesn’t keep me informed about important things like this.”
“It’s possible your dad didn’t know much about him,” Li Li murmured, stretching her legs.
“Well, yeah. He’s not a Mornstar expert like we are.” Tani flashed Li Li a cocky grin. “I was thinking more, he didn’t tell me the Heartlands had a new kingdom.”
Then again, even if Boss had, Tani might’ve tuned him out. She had been doing that a lot lately - and not even on purpose. Part and parcel of being a child, the other Pirates told her.
“It is fairly new,” Li Li countered. “Even my parents hadn’t heard of it until we were preparing to leave, so I’m not too surprised.”
“You’re also a fortune-teller.”
Li Li pouted, “Fortune-teller, not psychic. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t know everything.”
Tani wanted to laugh, right as the young grimalkin re-kindled the bonfire with his own magic. He waved his hand, closing his eyes and - and the fire crackled under his hands, growing and feeding off the kindling the other boys had gathered. From this point, she couldn’t make his words, let alone the incantation he must’ve recited - but she couldn’t mistake the others’ sheer joy for anything else, let alone the kid’s excitement at the growing fire.
She swallowed, feeling pangs of regret at her decision to spy on them. “So which one’s King Evan?”
“He’s right in the middle.” Li Li pointed to the grimalkin. “Kind of hard to mistake him for anything else.”
“What do you mean, it’s kind of hard?” Tani squinted, turning her full attention back to Li Li. “He doesn’t look very kingly.”
Li Li frowned at that, “Really? He feels kingly enough to the rest of us.”
He stood tall, sure, but so did everyone else at Mornstar. He wore the same uniform of every camper – Mornstar’s branded yellow t-shirt and jeans, and sneakers that were starting to come untied. His shoulder-length hair had been tied back in a small ponytail, no doubt to prevent it from getting singed. Judging from how he reached up to hug Rumpel, the grimalkin (Evan? King Evan?) was also about her height. Yet he lacked the tiara she expected of a king, just as he lacked the regal grace and presence of a king - he felt like any other kid here.
Maybe that was why she couldn’t reconcile the idea. Evan didn’t stand tall like King Leander, nor did he exude confidence like President Vector. He didn’t maintain physical distance like Pugnacious, and he sure as heck didn’t prefer one group of campers over another like Mausinger. He was different in every single way imaginable, and different for the better.
Tani was really regretting this decision. She shouldn’t have spied on them, much less from the treehouse the campers had collectively built for other purposes.
She sighed, swinging her legs over the edge, intent on sneaking down while their attention was on the bonfire and Rumpel’s guitar and –
And she was falling.
Tani swore, reaching up towards Li Li for support. “Hey! Help!”
She slammed into someone’s arms, feeling their steady hold on her as their hands gripped her waist. Tani fell limp, holding onto them and wrapping her arms around their neck in turn for dear life –
“Are you okay?” King Evan was asking her, with wide, startled eyes that better suited a child than a king. He rocked her, careful to hold onto her as he adjusted his grip, “That looked really scary.”
“I’m fine,” Tani insisted, avoiding his gaze. “I swear, I’m okay!”
She could feel her cheeks burning, just as she could hear Chip shaking his head and Rumpel sighing and - god, the other boys knew she was up there the whole time, didn’t they? They knew and they hadn’t said a word indicating otherwise.
(They really were too good to her.)
“You’re only okay because King Evan got you,” Chip sighed, with all the exasperation in the universe. “You could show him a little more gratitude, Tani.”
“I’m just glad she’s okay,” Evan insisted, his shoulders slumping with relief as Tani steadied herself onto the ground. “A fall from that height would’ve been bad.”
Norbert gave her - and in turn, the treehouse - a quizzical glance. “What were you doing up there, anyway?”
“Fortune-telling,” Li Li called as she descended the stairs on the side of the treehouse. She gave the boys a tired, yet warm, smile. “Tani wanted me to tell her something in private. Away from Counselor Bracken, if you catch my drift.”
Rumpel’s, Hansel’s, and Chip’s faces burned a bright red, right as Norbert and Filippos sputtered on their own breath and Long Mein fell off the log he had been sitting on. Of all the lies Li Li had to tell, she had to mention her stupid fortune? Her stupid fortune that had gotten them into this mess to begin with?? The nerve!
King Evan, bless his naive soul, turned to face Li Li and tapped his chin. “What do you mean?”
“King Evan,” Filippos coughed. “Sweet, naive, innocent King Evan… there are some things between women that we will never, ever know. Things best left unsaid.”
“Like fortunes about love,” Hansel explained, his poor face growing redder by the minute.
“Oh.” King Evan blinked back surprise, staring up at the treehouse. As he gave the sturdy structure another scrutinizing look, understanding dawned on his face and his face burned a bright, tomato-red. “Oh. I - I’m sorry! I’m sure that must’ve been really important for you to hear.”
“Important enough for them to sneak out,” the new merman nodded with sage wisdom. “We’ll cover for you if Counselor Bracken asks.”
“Forget Counselor Bracken,” Rumpel interrupted with a frantic glance over his shoulder at their cabin. “If Counselor Thaumas sees you, we’re all going to be in trouble.”
“We can just ask him about his own love fortunes. He’s always got girls around him back home,” the merman pointed out. “That should distract him long enough for you to get away.”
Their (frankly dumb) plan decided, the boys pumped their fists and turned their attention back towards their cabin.
“Thanks. We owe you one,” Tani mouthed to King Evan as she and Li Li turned back towards the trees and in turn, towards her home cabin.
To his credit, the young boy-king simply smiled back at her with a bright wave.
Bracken grounded her for two whole days.
Tani should've seen it coming from the spear incident alone, but she and Li Li had rushed back into the cabin to Bracken sitting at the foot of their bunk bed, menolith in hand.
(“I swear, you two are going to be the death of me," she had groaned, right before pulling them into the tightest embrace either had ever experienced. "If you're going to be stupid, please tell me beforehand, okay?”)
Thanks to Tani’s incessant arguing, Li Li had been spared the same punishment. This burden would be Tani’s and Tani’s alone to bear – even if Li Li’s fortune had sparked this whole sneaking out business. Instead of partaking in shared cabin activities like mining or Duebill wrestling, Tani would stay inside and help Counselor Bracken sort through old menoliths.
She brought this on herself. She completely, totally brought this on herself – and yet she couldn’t help groaning as she sifted through old, dusty boxes.
“This is the worst,” she frowned, pulling a few menoliths out per Bracken’s instructions. “I just wanted to see what he was like.”
There was a tap at the window next to her. Tani reached for the latch and opened it to see King Evan smiling down at her.
“Hello, Tani. Sorry that you have to miss all the fun today.” He held up a basket full of dream and nightmare prisms. “I thought this might make your punishment go by a little faster.”
“It was my own fault,” she found herself saying, peering down at Evan with curiosity. “Did your cabin find all of that today?”
“Uh-huh.” King Evan grinned, his ears relaxing. “Bao Wao taught me some really neat tricks! I had no idea that mining could unearth such pretty gems - and then he told me you were a master at this kind of thing. I wish I could’ve seen it for myself.”
“You and me both.”
The minute such regrets escaped her lips, Tani frowned - she hadn’t meant to show such weakness to someone as posh and positive as King Evan. For all she knew, everyone else was holding his hand as he experienced camp life; he might’ve taken their cabin’s finds as his own.
She didn’t know a single thing about him, except that he had rushed to catch her last night, and that she had thought of her all while throwing himself into camp life. He was unusually sweet - a little too sweet. Like he wasn’t genuine.
Yet King Evan’s frown was too minute, too nuanced to really be fake. “Maybe later this session?”
“Maybe,” Tani conceded, motioning for King Evan to come inside. “Thanks for stopping by to see me.”
“Of course.” King Evan paused, his cheeks burning a bright red as he looked back at Tani. “Did Li Li…. Did Li Li tell you a good fortune?”
Did Li Li - Oh. Right. That lie from last night. Tani shrugged, setting the menoliths aside for the time being.
“It was okay?” She admitted, noting how easily words still fell off her tongue. “I didn’t hate it, but I sure didn’t love it either.”
“Oh no… Everyone here says Li Li’s fortunes always come true.”
Tani had to laugh, not unkindly, “It wasn’t that bad, King Evan. It was… how do I put it? The kind of fortune that gets under your skin because it’s not what you want to hear.”
King Evan sat on the edge of the floor, setting his basket down and crossing one leg under him. “Doesn’t that mean it’s even more important that you do hear it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean… it may not be a good fortune, but maybe it makes you think more about the kind of person you want to fall in love with or um -” He paused, ignoring the heat rising to his cheeks. “The kind of person you’ll become because of that relationship?”
She had to nip this in the bed, lest not because this poor king couldn’t stop blushing through their entire conversation.
“It wasn’t a love fortune.” Tani sighed, sitting down near the basket King Evan had prepared for her. “We lied about that.”
He tilted his head to the side. “Then what kind of fortune was it?”
“The typical kind of fortune, I think.” Now that she stopped to think about it, Tani hadn’t really asked Li Li why such a fortune had been predicted. If she had to guess, it must’ve been… “Every summer, Li Li tries to see how this summer will go - and we see if her fortune’s right or not. This one was just - it was the kind that got me super annoyed.”
She reached into the basket, rummaging around until she felt the familiar edges of a dream prism. As rare as these gems were, Mornstar had no shortage of them. They were comforting, with an inner warmth that reminded her of home and the Sky Pirates that awaited her. In two weeks, she would be home - and in two weeks, she would know, deep down, that Li Li’s fortune about her friendship with the king had come true.
After all, he was here with her, rather than wrestling a Duebill or canoeing at the very edge of the Heartlands. He could’ve been anywhere else, yet he chose to comfort her over what he believed to be a love fortune.
(What that said about him, she wasn’t sure - and what that said about her that she didn’t mind his company, she didn’t know.)
“How come?” King Evan must’ve known he was asking a lot of questions, because he coughed. “I mean, it’s not like Li Li predicted you doing badly, right?”
“It’s not that kind of fortune,” she agreed. “She was just - she was teasing that I’d have a a crush on someone because she saw me with him a lot.”
Silence was going to fall over them. At this hour, they could hear the shrieking of campers enjoying a swim in the ocean, or wrestling birds bigger than them, or tie-dying t-shirts for next year. The stark, chilly silence of indoors was suffocating, especially because King Evan wasn’t pressing her further.
Instead, he scooted closer, setting another prism in her other hand.
“You know, you don’t have to fall in love with someone because the fates foretold it,” he admitted, when she wouldn’t speak. “We’re too young for that. My Counsel told me that when someone else gave me a love fortune. So… I think I know where you’re coming from. It’s a kind of future that doesn’t feel like you, or the kind of person you want to be.”
A kind of truth - when he put it like that, a few gears shifted into place. Tani didn’t want to befriend the king because he shifted the precarious balance that Mornstar provided: he added an aspect of political intrigue that no one could ignore for too long. He was the King, a ruler that wouldn’t like people like Boss. A ruler that wouldn’t like people like her, who pillaged and plundered and survived on scraps to build their territory. At camp, she could forget that life, and at camp, she could pretend she was a normal girl.
King Evan’s balance brought all of that to a screeching halt, and she didn’t want to ask - she didn’t want to know what he really thought of her.
She swallowed, resisting that fear. “What if your fortune said you were going to be with someone you didn’t imagine you would be?”
“Hmmm…” He stared up at the ceiling, furrowing his brow in deep concentration. “Why wouldn’t I be with them?”
“Because they’re too fragile or soft, and you don’t think they’d be strong enough to handle the rough-and-tough nature of Mornstar.”
“Then I would wonder why I underestimated them to begin with,” Evan shot back, flashing her a grin. “If they can handle this place, they can handle anything.”
Tani nodded, peering down at the prisms and thinking hard about the dirt and grime that had been left on more than a few of them. Weird - Bao Wao wouldn’t have unearthed anything less than pristine.
“Did you… find all of these yourself?”
King Evan nodded, his ears twitching. “Yeah. Was it – did I do okay?”
“You did fine,” Tani reassured him, her expression softening. “You just left a bit of dirt on them, that’s all. See, all you have to do is polish them up a little and they’ll be shinier than ever.”
King Evan beamed.
In this light, he seemed more than normal. Almost regal, if she could call him that - maybe this was the person Li Li and the others saw on a regular basis. He wasn’t posh; he hadn’t demanded any of the camp traditions to bend to his will. He was like them, in almost every aspect.
“I don’t know what I was worried about,” she continued, giving King Evan a warm smile. “You’re a lot kinder than I thought you’d be.”
King Evan snapped to attention, staring at her with newfound surprise, “Wait, your fortune was about me?”
“Yeah.” Tani cringed, bracing for impact. “She saw you with me, multiple times apparently. She said we’d… we’d be really close, and I just couldn’t…”
I couldn’t imagine it, she wanted to say, except those words lodged deep in her throat.
He was staring at her with all the horror in the universe, as if she had just kicked someone’s pet lizard, or as if she was - if she was -
“Wow.” King Evan’s face was redder than a tomato. “I… you - Li Li predicted our friendship? She saw it in the cards?”
“Or something more, in case you’ve already forgotten,” Tani reminded him.
King Evan swallowed down his own fear and trepidation before he rushed over and wrapped both around her in a tight hug. “Well… I don’t know about more, but Tani, I’d like to be friends. Everyone says you’re amazing, and I - I wanted to say hi because I felt like last night was my fault somehow.”
“No, it wasn’t. You shouldn’t feel bad about my sneaking out, you big dummy,” she found herself saying as she returned his embrace. “I’m - I’m sorry, King Evan. You’ve been nothing but nice, and here I am, feeling sorry for myself over something so nice.”
“Evan.”
She pulled away, peering at him, “Hm?”
“Evan. My name’s Evan.” He laughed, again ignoring the slight flush in his cheeks. “I know I’m a king back home, but when it’s just us at Camp Mornstar… I’m just Evan, and you’re just Tani. Can we keep it that way?”
“Only if you keep being friends with me, just Evan.” Tani extended one pinkie. “We can prove Li Li’s fortune wrong later.”
“Deal.”
As King Evan shook her pinkie, Tani couldn’t help laughing at his exuberance - and even though she had a punishment waiting for her, even though she had suffered enough by sneaking out to meet him, she couldn’t help wanting more.
So she turned towards the window, “So what’re we waiting for? Let’s get going.”
Fandom: Ni No Kuni II
Universe: Summer Camp AU
Relationships: Evan Tildrum / Tani
Summary: Li Li's fortune this year predicts that Tani will befriend a boy king (or possibly be even more) - and predictably, Tani is having none of it. Not even when he ends up being the nicest person on the planet.
Notes: Part of the AU Yeah August challenge! Like some other stories, this grew too long to be one comment - so I've decided to make it its own post.
Every year, Boss shipped Tani off to Camp Monster for two weeks. The annual tradition had begun out of a desperate need for a babysitter while the Sky Pirates “bartered” with the neighboring kingdom of Ding Dong Dell – and somehow, against all odds, camp had become Tani’s favorite summertime activity.
Mornstar, nestled in the edge of the Heartlands, was just far enough that Boss couldn’t surprise her with a visit, and yet close enough to the rest of the world that kids from every kingdom attended.
Prior to Mornstar, Tani had never met anyone from Goldpaw or Hydropolis, let alone befriend them and consider them her closest friends and confidantes. Now, she couldn’t - no, she wouldn’t dare to imagine life without them.
“Not even a proper kiss good-bye?” Dad had teased her when their plane descended on the edge of the campground. “I see how you really feel.”
“Blimey, Dad!” Tani laughed, leaning over and planting a huge, sloppy kiss on his forehead. “You know I’ll miss you like crazy! See you in two weeks, okay?”
With that, she slung her overstuffed duffel bag across her shoulder and tugged on her camp t-shirt. The sooner she headed to the Heartlands, the faster she could race her friends on the kayak, or show them how to properly wrestle a Duebill, or mine the sunset and dream prisms nestled underneath the camp’s fertile soil.
More importantly, the sooner she arrived, the sooner she could smother her favorite camp counselor Bracken Meadows (the second coolest person in the universe!) with hugs and questions.
As Tani gathered underneath the pink flag that also served as Cabin Mystral’s designated meeting point, she couldn’t help waving after her dad’s plane as it disappeared into the clouds like a puff of smoke. Camp Mornstar - and her home cabin, Mystral - wouldn’t know what awaited them this summer.
After each cabin oriented themselves (and okay, after Tani smothered Bracken with affectionate hugs and kisses), the entire camp gathered in the dining hall. Camp always began with a welcoming speech and major announcements, usually led by Head Counselors Henny and Yu Kan.
Tani's heart swelled with pride as she glanced around at the full tables, the all-too familiar faces, and the friends and acquaintances she had made over the summers. Table 10, Cabin Grimwit, had her favorite martial artist friend Hoi Den, and when Tani waved her arms out wide, Hoi Den waved right back. Table 8, Cabin Swellhorn, had her favorite craftsmen, Fai Do and Nu Bi. They were sitting at the very edge, pouring over old, dusty blueprints (no doubt from a bygone era).
No matter what projects her friends undertook, they always succeeded. Tani couldn't wait to blaze her own path and embark on her mining adventures. Maybe she could barter with Cabin Grimwit and “borrow” Bao Wao and his metal-sniffing nose for a little while...
“–be kind and polite to each other always,” Henny was saying, over the roar of the crowd.
Tani snapped to attention.
“Thank you, Henny,” Yu Kan called, applauding her colleague. “Whether you're a king, or a miner, or a craftsman, or whatever your heart desires, you are welcome at Camp Mornstar, and we can only hope you will have the time of your lives this summer. Now, without further ado - let's eat!”
The rest of the camp didn't need to be told twice, though Tani couldn't help furrowing her brow at the wording. Never before had Miss Yu Kan mentioned a king. It didn't make much sense, either; King Leander and Queen Nerea of Hydropolis would have sent princes and princesses, not kings. King Mausinger of Ding Dong Dell had no children, Lord Pugnacious of Goldpaw's puppies were full-grown, and President Vector of Broadleaf spoke of the campers here as if they were his own.
“I think she's talking about the new king. The one from Evermore,” her tablemate piped up, resting a hand on Tani's shoulder.
“No way, Moggie May.” Tani shook her head, standing up and reaching for the plate of food in front of her. “This place is too rough for a pish-posh king to waltz in and consider Mornstar his home.”
Besides, the new king – the one ruling over the new kingdom on the other side of the Heartlands – couldn’t be their age. He had a kingdom to run, and important meetings to attend, and things far more important than throwing a wrench in her summer plans. They couldn't compete against a king. Not without the rest of camp swooning over him (whoever he was).
“I don’t know,” Moggie May had patiently said, raising both eyebrows as a young grimalkin walked in with the rest of his cabin. “When there’s smoke, there’s usually fire.”
“Right, right,” Yung Mein chimed in, holding up a couple of fingers. “Li Li even saw it in her tarot cards. This year, things are really gonna be different - and not just ‘cause Miss Yu Kan is shaking up tradition.”
“Oh, if Li Li saw it, then it has to be true.” Tani sighed, finally munching on her fries in the vain hopes her friends would never, ever bring up the specifics of that dreadful fortune.
See, Li Li considered herself an expert seer and a master of divination, and for all intents and purposes, she probably was. Problem was, she kept foisting her predictions on everyone around here, whether or not they wanted to know their futures. No amount of firm politeness or niceties could shake the girl off either. Bleh!
“We haven't even told you the best part.” Yung Mein rested both elbows on the table and leaned forward, peering right at Tani. Her eyes twinkled with mischief as she whispered, “Li Li said she saw you with the king. Multiple times.”
“Tani and the boy king, sitting in a tree…” Another tablemate hummed, grinning from ear-to-ear. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G…”
Now that was garbage, and everyone at the table should know it.
“Yeah, right.” Tani scoffed. “I don’t like anyone that way, much less an actual king.”
Moggie May’s expression softened. “We know. It’s just… Li Li’s cards said otherwise.”
Those stupid cards again. Tani gritted her teeth together, reaching for her nearest spear and thinking about the best place to aim it… Maybe right at Li Li’s shoulder…
Then the spear was yanked from her hands as her head counselor gripped it with an uncharacteristic strength.
“Tani!” The glare could’ve killed a lesser woman. “What did we say about spears at the dinner table?”
In perfect unison, all four girls recited, “To never take them into the cafeteria, Miss Bracken.”
“Good.” Bracken pocketed the spear, carefully placing it in her belt loop and eying Tani with suspicion (and maybe even a little concern). “I’ll let you off with a warning this time, but if I see it again…”
Then Tani could probably kiss her piloting sessions good-bye, and she knew it as she groaned into her dinner.
“Why couldn’t this summer just be boring?”
Moggie May’s sources (read: her boyfriend Filippos) said that the boy king resided in Cabin Snickersnarl. By now, Tani knew most of the boys through shared competitions, cabin activities, and late-night bonfires.
Filippos was her favorite Duebill wrestling companion; Norbert knew the answer to every obscure trivia question; Rumpel could soothe even the most dangerous of wyverns; Hansel planted flowers worthy of the fanciest kingdom; Long Mein won every duel he challenged his friends to; and Chip could invent anything from a pile of scrap metal. The only new kids were the white-haired merkid and the blond grimalkin, and honestly - both held themselves in calm, collected, and regal confidence.
They were even laughing to each other about something as they tugged on their shirts and gestured to the logo right in the middle. Tani couldn’t hear them from her vantage point, but she had a sneaking suspicion it wasn’t very funny.
“I don’t see why you had to drag me all the way out here,” Li Li sighed, lying down on her stomach beside her cabinmate. “We’re not even that close.”
“No, but your fortune predicted that I would know this stupid king.” Tani didn’t even miss a beat, holding out a bag of popcorn for them to munch on. “So by extension, it’s only fair that you get to spy on them with me.”
“Uh-huh.” Li Li sighed, accepting the popcorn. “But if Miss Bracken asks, you told me to come.”
Tani snorted. “Fine by me.”
“So… what’re we watching them for?”
Good question. Tani wasn’t exactly sure, given that this entire recon mission had happened on a whim, but she had to give Li Li a satisfactory answer. That prediction had gotten under her skin, yet if she voiced that prickly fear out loud - she would only fuel the flames that were Li Li’s fortunes. She couldn’t entertain such a notion.
“I want to know more about the boy king,” she settled on saying, reaching for a pair of binoculars she had borrowed from Moggie May. “Boss doesn’t keep me informed about important things like this.”
“It’s possible your dad didn’t know much about him,” Li Li murmured, stretching her legs.
“Well, yeah. He’s not a Mornstar expert like we are.” Tani flashed Li Li a cocky grin. “I was thinking more, he didn’t tell me the Heartlands had a new kingdom.”
Then again, even if Boss had, Tani might’ve tuned him out. She had been doing that a lot lately - and not even on purpose. Part and parcel of being a child, the other Pirates told her.
“It is fairly new,” Li Li countered. “Even my parents hadn’t heard of it until we were preparing to leave, so I’m not too surprised.”
“You’re also a fortune-teller.”
Li Li pouted, “Fortune-teller, not psychic. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t know everything.”
Tani wanted to laugh, right as the young grimalkin re-kindled the bonfire with his own magic. He waved his hand, closing his eyes and - and the fire crackled under his hands, growing and feeding off the kindling the other boys had gathered. From this point, she couldn’t make his words, let alone the incantation he must’ve recited - but she couldn’t mistake the others’ sheer joy for anything else, let alone the kid’s excitement at the growing fire.
She swallowed, feeling pangs of regret at her decision to spy on them. “So which one’s King Evan?”
“He’s right in the middle.” Li Li pointed to the grimalkin. “Kind of hard to mistake him for anything else.”
“What do you mean, it’s kind of hard?” Tani squinted, turning her full attention back to Li Li. “He doesn’t look very kingly.”
Li Li frowned at that, “Really? He feels kingly enough to the rest of us.”
He stood tall, sure, but so did everyone else at Mornstar. He wore the same uniform of every camper – Mornstar’s branded yellow t-shirt and jeans, and sneakers that were starting to come untied. His shoulder-length hair had been tied back in a small ponytail, no doubt to prevent it from getting singed. Judging from how he reached up to hug Rumpel, the grimalkin (Evan? King Evan?) was also about her height. Yet he lacked the tiara she expected of a king, just as he lacked the regal grace and presence of a king - he felt like any other kid here.
Maybe that was why she couldn’t reconcile the idea. Evan didn’t stand tall like King Leander, nor did he exude confidence like President Vector. He didn’t maintain physical distance like Pugnacious, and he sure as heck didn’t prefer one group of campers over another like Mausinger. He was different in every single way imaginable, and different for the better.
Tani was really regretting this decision. She shouldn’t have spied on them, much less from the treehouse the campers had collectively built for other purposes.
She sighed, swinging her legs over the edge, intent on sneaking down while their attention was on the bonfire and Rumpel’s guitar and –
And she was falling.
Tani swore, reaching up towards Li Li for support. “Hey! Help!”
She slammed into someone’s arms, feeling their steady hold on her as their hands gripped her waist. Tani fell limp, holding onto them and wrapping her arms around their neck in turn for dear life –
“Are you okay?” King Evan was asking her, with wide, startled eyes that better suited a child than a king. He rocked her, careful to hold onto her as he adjusted his grip, “That looked really scary.”
“I’m fine,” Tani insisted, avoiding his gaze. “I swear, I’m okay!”
She could feel her cheeks burning, just as she could hear Chip shaking his head and Rumpel sighing and - god, the other boys knew she was up there the whole time, didn’t they? They knew and they hadn’t said a word indicating otherwise.
(They really were too good to her.)
“You’re only okay because King Evan got you,” Chip sighed, with all the exasperation in the universe. “You could show him a little more gratitude, Tani.”
“I’m just glad she’s okay,” Evan insisted, his shoulders slumping with relief as Tani steadied herself onto the ground. “A fall from that height would’ve been bad.”
Norbert gave her - and in turn, the treehouse - a quizzical glance. “What were you doing up there, anyway?”
“Fortune-telling,” Li Li called as she descended the stairs on the side of the treehouse. She gave the boys a tired, yet warm, smile. “Tani wanted me to tell her something in private. Away from Counselor Bracken, if you catch my drift.”
Rumpel’s, Hansel’s, and Chip’s faces burned a bright red, right as Norbert and Filippos sputtered on their own breath and Long Mein fell off the log he had been sitting on. Of all the lies Li Li had to tell, she had to mention her stupid fortune? Her stupid fortune that had gotten them into this mess to begin with?? The nerve!
King Evan, bless his naive soul, turned to face Li Li and tapped his chin. “What do you mean?”
“King Evan,” Filippos coughed. “Sweet, naive, innocent King Evan… there are some things between women that we will never, ever know. Things best left unsaid.”
“Like fortunes about love,” Hansel explained, his poor face growing redder by the minute.
“Oh.” King Evan blinked back surprise, staring up at the treehouse. As he gave the sturdy structure another scrutinizing look, understanding dawned on his face and his face burned a bright, tomato-red. “Oh. I - I’m sorry! I’m sure that must’ve been really important for you to hear.”
“Important enough for them to sneak out,” the new merman nodded with sage wisdom. “We’ll cover for you if Counselor Bracken asks.”
“Forget Counselor Bracken,” Rumpel interrupted with a frantic glance over his shoulder at their cabin. “If Counselor Thaumas sees you, we’re all going to be in trouble.”
“We can just ask him about his own love fortunes. He’s always got girls around him back home,” the merman pointed out. “That should distract him long enough for you to get away.”
Their (frankly dumb) plan decided, the boys pumped their fists and turned their attention back towards their cabin.
“Thanks. We owe you one,” Tani mouthed to King Evan as she and Li Li turned back towards the trees and in turn, towards her home cabin.
To his credit, the young boy-king simply smiled back at her with a bright wave.
Bracken grounded her for two whole days.
Tani should've seen it coming from the spear incident alone, but she and Li Li had rushed back into the cabin to Bracken sitting at the foot of their bunk bed, menolith in hand.
(“I swear, you two are going to be the death of me," she had groaned, right before pulling them into the tightest embrace either had ever experienced. "If you're going to be stupid, please tell me beforehand, okay?”)
Thanks to Tani’s incessant arguing, Li Li had been spared the same punishment. This burden would be Tani’s and Tani’s alone to bear – even if Li Li’s fortune had sparked this whole sneaking out business. Instead of partaking in shared cabin activities like mining or Duebill wrestling, Tani would stay inside and help Counselor Bracken sort through old menoliths.
She brought this on herself. She completely, totally brought this on herself – and yet she couldn’t help groaning as she sifted through old, dusty boxes.
“This is the worst,” she frowned, pulling a few menoliths out per Bracken’s instructions. “I just wanted to see what he was like.”
There was a tap at the window next to her. Tani reached for the latch and opened it to see King Evan smiling down at her.
“Hello, Tani. Sorry that you have to miss all the fun today.” He held up a basket full of dream and nightmare prisms. “I thought this might make your punishment go by a little faster.”
“It was my own fault,” she found herself saying, peering down at Evan with curiosity. “Did your cabin find all of that today?”
“Uh-huh.” King Evan grinned, his ears relaxing. “Bao Wao taught me some really neat tricks! I had no idea that mining could unearth such pretty gems - and then he told me you were a master at this kind of thing. I wish I could’ve seen it for myself.”
“You and me both.”
The minute such regrets escaped her lips, Tani frowned - she hadn’t meant to show such weakness to someone as posh and positive as King Evan. For all she knew, everyone else was holding his hand as he experienced camp life; he might’ve taken their cabin’s finds as his own.
She didn’t know a single thing about him, except that he had rushed to catch her last night, and that she had thought of her all while throwing himself into camp life. He was unusually sweet - a little too sweet. Like he wasn’t genuine.
Yet King Evan’s frown was too minute, too nuanced to really be fake. “Maybe later this session?”
“Maybe,” Tani conceded, motioning for King Evan to come inside. “Thanks for stopping by to see me.”
“Of course.” King Evan paused, his cheeks burning a bright red as he looked back at Tani. “Did Li Li…. Did Li Li tell you a good fortune?”
Did Li Li - Oh. Right. That lie from last night. Tani shrugged, setting the menoliths aside for the time being.
“It was okay?” She admitted, noting how easily words still fell off her tongue. “I didn’t hate it, but I sure didn’t love it either.”
“Oh no… Everyone here says Li Li’s fortunes always come true.”
Tani had to laugh, not unkindly, “It wasn’t that bad, King Evan. It was… how do I put it? The kind of fortune that gets under your skin because it’s not what you want to hear.”
King Evan sat on the edge of the floor, setting his basket down and crossing one leg under him. “Doesn’t that mean it’s even more important that you do hear it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean… it may not be a good fortune, but maybe it makes you think more about the kind of person you want to fall in love with or um -” He paused, ignoring the heat rising to his cheeks. “The kind of person you’ll become because of that relationship?”
She had to nip this in the bed, lest not because this poor king couldn’t stop blushing through their entire conversation.
“It wasn’t a love fortune.” Tani sighed, sitting down near the basket King Evan had prepared for her. “We lied about that.”
He tilted his head to the side. “Then what kind of fortune was it?”
“The typical kind of fortune, I think.” Now that she stopped to think about it, Tani hadn’t really asked Li Li why such a fortune had been predicted. If she had to guess, it must’ve been… “Every summer, Li Li tries to see how this summer will go - and we see if her fortune’s right or not. This one was just - it was the kind that got me super annoyed.”
She reached into the basket, rummaging around until she felt the familiar edges of a dream prism. As rare as these gems were, Mornstar had no shortage of them. They were comforting, with an inner warmth that reminded her of home and the Sky Pirates that awaited her. In two weeks, she would be home - and in two weeks, she would know, deep down, that Li Li’s fortune about her friendship with the king had come true.
After all, he was here with her, rather than wrestling a Duebill or canoeing at the very edge of the Heartlands. He could’ve been anywhere else, yet he chose to comfort her over what he believed to be a love fortune.
(What that said about him, she wasn’t sure - and what that said about her that she didn’t mind his company, she didn’t know.)
“How come?” King Evan must’ve known he was asking a lot of questions, because he coughed. “I mean, it’s not like Li Li predicted you doing badly, right?”
“It’s not that kind of fortune,” she agreed. “She was just - she was teasing that I’d have a a crush on someone because she saw me with him a lot.”
Silence was going to fall over them. At this hour, they could hear the shrieking of campers enjoying a swim in the ocean, or wrestling birds bigger than them, or tie-dying t-shirts for next year. The stark, chilly silence of indoors was suffocating, especially because King Evan wasn’t pressing her further.
Instead, he scooted closer, setting another prism in her other hand.
“You know, you don’t have to fall in love with someone because the fates foretold it,” he admitted, when she wouldn’t speak. “We’re too young for that. My Counsel told me that when someone else gave me a love fortune. So… I think I know where you’re coming from. It’s a kind of future that doesn’t feel like you, or the kind of person you want to be.”
A kind of truth - when he put it like that, a few gears shifted into place. Tani didn’t want to befriend the king because he shifted the precarious balance that Mornstar provided: he added an aspect of political intrigue that no one could ignore for too long. He was the King, a ruler that wouldn’t like people like Boss. A ruler that wouldn’t like people like her, who pillaged and plundered and survived on scraps to build their territory. At camp, she could forget that life, and at camp, she could pretend she was a normal girl.
King Evan’s balance brought all of that to a screeching halt, and she didn’t want to ask - she didn’t want to know what he really thought of her.
She swallowed, resisting that fear. “What if your fortune said you were going to be with someone you didn’t imagine you would be?”
“Hmmm…” He stared up at the ceiling, furrowing his brow in deep concentration. “Why wouldn’t I be with them?”
“Because they’re too fragile or soft, and you don’t think they’d be strong enough to handle the rough-and-tough nature of Mornstar.”
“Then I would wonder why I underestimated them to begin with,” Evan shot back, flashing her a grin. “If they can handle this place, they can handle anything.”
Tani nodded, peering down at the prisms and thinking hard about the dirt and grime that had been left on more than a few of them. Weird - Bao Wao wouldn’t have unearthed anything less than pristine.
“Did you… find all of these yourself?”
King Evan nodded, his ears twitching. “Yeah. Was it – did I do okay?”
“You did fine,” Tani reassured him, her expression softening. “You just left a bit of dirt on them, that’s all. See, all you have to do is polish them up a little and they’ll be shinier than ever.”
King Evan beamed.
In this light, he seemed more than normal. Almost regal, if she could call him that - maybe this was the person Li Li and the others saw on a regular basis. He wasn’t posh; he hadn’t demanded any of the camp traditions to bend to his will. He was like them, in almost every aspect.
“I don’t know what I was worried about,” she continued, giving King Evan a warm smile. “You’re a lot kinder than I thought you’d be.”
King Evan snapped to attention, staring at her with newfound surprise, “Wait, your fortune was about me?”
“Yeah.” Tani cringed, bracing for impact. “She saw you with me, multiple times apparently. She said we’d… we’d be really close, and I just couldn’t…”
I couldn’t imagine it, she wanted to say, except those words lodged deep in her throat.
He was staring at her with all the horror in the universe, as if she had just kicked someone’s pet lizard, or as if she was - if she was -
“Wow.” King Evan’s face was redder than a tomato. “I… you - Li Li predicted our friendship? She saw it in the cards?”
“Or something more, in case you’ve already forgotten,” Tani reminded him.
King Evan swallowed down his own fear and trepidation before he rushed over and wrapped both around her in a tight hug. “Well… I don’t know about more, but Tani, I’d like to be friends. Everyone says you’re amazing, and I - I wanted to say hi because I felt like last night was my fault somehow.”
“No, it wasn’t. You shouldn’t feel bad about my sneaking out, you big dummy,” she found herself saying as she returned his embrace. “I’m - I’m sorry, King Evan. You’ve been nothing but nice, and here I am, feeling sorry for myself over something so nice.”
“Evan.”
She pulled away, peering at him, “Hm?”
“Evan. My name’s Evan.” He laughed, again ignoring the slight flush in his cheeks. “I know I’m a king back home, but when it’s just us at Camp Mornstar… I’m just Evan, and you’re just Tani. Can we keep it that way?”
“Only if you keep being friends with me, just Evan.” Tani extended one pinkie. “We can prove Li Li’s fortune wrong later.”
“Deal.”
As King Evan shook her pinkie, Tani couldn’t help laughing at his exuberance - and even though she had a punishment waiting for her, even though she had suffered enough by sneaking out to meet him, she couldn’t help wanting more.
So she turned towards the window, “So what’re we waiting for? Let’s get going.”