Chapter 15: Nearly Sleeping Prince (16)

As prince Augustus laid his head on her lap, he noticed it was soft. It was so, unabashedly soft. It was like he was laying his head on a cloud. Aisling had sat down on the floor, and he had laid down on it, setting his head in her lap.

It was rather nice, the fact that he no longer stood took some pressure of the young lad. Then she started stroking his head. It was like when he had been a toddler. His mother used to do the same when he was sick.

He closed his eyes in happiness. This was nice, she was nice. He wanted her, very much wanted her. But his dad wouldn’t let him have any beastkin slaves. That in and of itself was rather annoying. He didn’t mind them, and they couldn’t hurt him. Miss Aisling wouldn’t hurt him even if she wasn’t a slave.

Of that fact he was certain. It was as if he had a mother again, or at least, a person that gave him care. It was so nostalgic. She even started to hum while she calmed him down. This was definitely curing his seasickness.

No, she wasn’t humming, she was purring. It was rather pleasant. He nearly started to drift off to sleep. But then again, why can’t he fall asleep on her lap. She wouldn’t hurt him. She was a nice slave, a nice person.

The young Prince had never understood why slaves were slaves in all honesty. He understood that people needed workers, but then again, why not hire some people. He understood that a lot of people needed work in Francia. He had heard some of the nobles in the royal court mumble something about the unemployment rate going up, whatever that was.

He rolled onto his side and nuzzled the side of his head into Aisling’s thighs. They were so nice. His stomach wasn’t even yelling at him anymore. He nearly started to sleep again.

…

This was bad, this was very bad. Aisling couldn’t help but panic. She was currently helping the prince with seasickness, and he had just started to bury himself in her thighs.

The young boy was rather forward in all honesty. He acted as though he had never seen the love of a mother or the warm pat on the back of a father. He seemed so lonely. She was lonely at one point in her past life, but she had wallowed in her misery, this Prince was still as happy as can be.

She was somewhat happy, somewhat jealous that he could be so happy now. But this whole situation was her doing. That was what was bringing her panic to her mind. But she was also breaking so many rules of slave conduct.

She wasn’t supposed to be doing this, but she was anyway. That was what was truly bringing conflict to her mind. She was going to be punished for this. She was going to be hit, and maybe branded and sold again. She didn’t want that.

She took a deep breath and noticed that something rather weird. She hadn’t expected her subconscious mind to enjoy this. She was purring. She had never purred once in all her slave-hood before. But here she was, purring away in enjoyment as her mind raced.

Then she noticed how much joy she gleamed from this. She was a slave, and if the racist slave owners were to be believed, a cat. She looked down at the half asleep prince and smiled. It seemed to her that the both of them needed some affection. After all, she was a slave, a living tool. Even farm animals needed some care and affection.

She closed her eyes as she gently caressed the young prince’s head. That was when she noticed that she was starting to actually feel something other than the panic of messing up as a slave. She was starting to feel a connection to this Prince.

Even though that was probably bad in the long run, she had started to feel as though that wasn’t the most important thing in the world right now. Right now, she wanted to make this child that obviously was started to be molded by that man. This young boy was without family, at least a true family.

As she continued to lull the child to sleep, there was a shift in his sleeping posture, and he opened his eyes. She looked down on him and let the smallest of smiles on her face show.

“Aisling, how old are you?” he asked.

She thought about whether her birthday had passed while she was a slave under her master’s ownership and responded.

“I should be turning eleven the next morning Prince Augustus,” she told him with a rather diminutive voice, “I may look fourteen, but all beastkin look three years older than they actually are until they turn thirteen. By that point the advanced ageing slows down and by sixteen they look the correct age. I look four years older than I am because of an accident.”

The prince had to do a double take. At first, one would think she was fourteen, but as one looked at her the more mature, she would seem. In fact, she had started to seem about a year older than she initially looked.

As the prince sat up, he felt as though the seasickness came back with a vengeance against him. He flinched as the gurgling of his stomach reached the ears of Aisling.

“Your highness, I think I know another way to remove seasickness,” she told him.

…

As Prince Augustus walked into the room, he noticed something. It was small. Now, that was quite normal for ships. It was rather important to save space after all. But the young boy thought that this ship was large enough for the servants’ rooms to be at least normal sized.

It kind of irked him to be honest with you all. He rather liked this slave. She seemed smart, could actually speak French, and could write. Well, he had asked the duke about her some and he had told the prince that she could write Irish and English.

Her penmanship could use some more work, but she was rather well educated. It made him rather mad to be honest. This slave was rather valuable, and they simply put her here. No, that wouldn’t do.

But his stomach telling him to shut up and keep quiet was something that he couldn’t ignore. She sat down on her knees and grabbed something from her luggage. It was a small box she pulled from which she held in her hands. She then stood up and sat on her bed.

“My Prince, could you lay your head on my lap once more?” she asked with an incredibly professional tone of voice.

He laid his head down on her heavenly soft lap once more. He felt kind of funny when he did this, but he thought it was merely just his seasickness. He peered up at her with the side of his face.

“Now my prince, have you ever heard of ear cleaning before? All beastkin have to clean our ears as they are much more important to us than a human and their ears. But surely you have heard of it before?” she asked with a tad bit of hope in her voice.

“No, I have never heard of it before; what is it?” he asked.

A slight smile danced on her lips as she spoke, “let me show you.”

…

As Augustus had his head upon the slave’s lap once more that day, he couldn’t help but smile. She had been very nice to him and his trust in this slave was only growing. The boy had thought that this may be a trick after he had gotten his head off of her lap.

But it turns out that she was simply kind. It was like she didn’t feel for herself, but rather for others, particularly him right now. He took in a deep breath and sighed in pleasure. She said she had another way of getting rid of seasickness.

She instructed him to turn to his side and he did so. He closed his eyes after he did so as she leaned forward. He could hear her breathing, and he could feel her breath on the side of his head, near his ears.

She then took in a shallow breath; and blew into his ears ever so softly. His spine tingled ever so lightly, and he shifted in the girl’s lap. He heard her quietly open her box and pull out something that sounded like a wool swab.

She brought it up to his ears and dragged it around the rim of his ears. It too sent shivers up and down his spine. He heard her breathing as she then took the thing away and he heard her rip the end of it a bit, making it fluffier.

She then brought it back to his ear and he felt it slide into his ear canal. She twisted it and began to clean his ear. She rotated the fluffy swab, pulling old gunk from his ear.

She took the swab from his ear and spun it in her hand, tearing at the end once more to make it fluffy. He felt shivers and tingles radiate throughout his body as she blew into his ear once more.

She put the end of it to his ear once more and began to clean again. She pulled it in and out of his ear, sending his mind into a bit of a tired place. Shivers ran into his body, making him sleepy.

He began to drift off, almost as if he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in months. To tell you the truth, he did kind of feel that way. He had been rather excited about his party. But then he learned of the fact that this party was really only so he could form political connections; his mood soured, and he hit a slump.

But that didn’t matter now. He wanted to see if he could have her, Aisling he meant. He really wanted her badly. She was fun, kind, and paid him attention how he wanted it.

The way she spoke so politely to him was nice. Whenever he tried to speak with others his age, they would run in fear of making a mistake with him. His dad was to blame for this misery. The fear he had and dread he amassed took its toll on the boy.

But the way she spoke with him was like he didn’t have a parent on the throne. It was like he was, he was a normal child, and they had been friends forever. It made him happy that they had talked, and he had met her.

He could feel her hands on his front and back as she rotated him while he lay on her lap. She needed to clean his other ear as well. She put away the dirty ear swab and pulled out a new one.

He could feel her breath slowly make its way to him as she blew in his ear. She then dragged the new swab across the rim of his right ear like she had done with his left ear. She closed her own eyes as she did this. She could hear the light breaths of the prince as he drifted into dream land.

She slowly and gently pushed the end of it into the rim of his ear canal. She twisted it around and then gently pulled it out. She took a deep breath and blew into and around the young prince’s ear.

She then tore at the end of the swap again. Making it fluffy like its now used brother. She gently pushed it into the ear and started to earnestly clean the ear. In and out she worked the swab until it became rather dirty.

The young boy had never had his ears cleaned before, and now he could hear the world ever so better. His unconscious form was rather pleased with this it seemed, and wrapped his arms around the slave girl’s waist. She was momentarily shocked by this action.

She stopped and looked at the young boy’s face burying itself in her belly and waist. She giggled lightly and resumed her cleaning.

She spun the swab in her hand and tore at the end of it similar to the other end. She then blew into the young boy’s ear once more, for the final time and started again. She slowly, but surely pushed the swab into the canal of his ear.

She pulled it in and out like before. She twisted the swab and only stopped when his ear was clean. She looked down at his ear and blew on it. The boy that had latched onto her waist shivered in happiness and loosened his grasp on her waist and belly.

She took a calming breath and pulled his arms off of her body. Putting a hand on his back and front. She tilted him onto his back and leaned over him more. She let a small smile bleed into her features as she gazed at the happy visage of the first and only heir to the Kingdom.

She brushed her hand through his hair and let the smile she had been hiding come into full bloom. She started to purr, much like when she had just let the first prince lay on her lap. Then she felt a strange idea shift to the forefront of her mind.

She whispered this out loud: “I think I’ve made a friend…”

…