The Princess's Feathers

The Ringtailed Princess stared at the paper, her tail lashing.

"Fucking hell," Lucy mumbled to herself. "It says here, '98% of Lemurs are still threatened with extinction, and 31% are critically endangered.' Those numbers are unchanged since last year's World Lemur Day. It seems none of you have done enough to save Lemurs."

An uncomfortable murmur rolled through the crowd of Sarlanians. Despite none of them being present to witness last year's World Lemur Day special bonus chapter in Ellyntide, they nonetheless felt a pang of guilt. Their Princess was upset, after all. And the Lemurs from the miserable human world were no more safe.

It was a bright, sunny day in autumn. Across the Chateau, a crowd had gathered to—

"Now, just wait a darn-tootin minute!"

…Wait, what?

Princess Asha, now reunited with her Lemur form, rested her hands against her hips and glowered. "The Chateau? Do you mean the one in Sarlain? We haven't yet reached that part of the story, omnipresent narrator voice!"

Oh.

Well, it's going to be a little while until the novel starts up again, ya' know? So, what I thought I'd do was—

"But that's a spoiler," Calypso interjected. "Nobody clicked this chapter to see spoilers about what happens next. They came here to find out how to save Lemurs!"

The main characters of The Princess's Feathers, gathered today at Ť̴̺̟̫͇̻̙̏̆̆́̚͘͝ͅH̶̡̛͉͓͉̜̘̞̙͚̝̘̐̓̊̅̓̀͒̈́͋̋̕͘͝Ẹ̵͉̱̲̩̭̻̲̠̈̿̑̒́̌̀͑͆͐͛̈́͝ ̸̧̫̬̤̦̩̺̠̦̟̜̜͆̌͂̈̈́͑̏̀̃͘͝C̵̞̳͈̜̲̣͈̣̫̳̯̫̦̱̝͛̅̄̇̇̌̂̌̍̐̃͆̚͠H̷̗̙̗͐͐A̵̡͇̦̪͊͂̑́̂̈́̈͐͌̈́͘T̵̨̡̢̞̫͉̺̤̘̹̖͕̭̫͔̗̃͂̈́̈́́̌͊̓̈͑̕̚͝͝Ę̸̟̩̰͕̬̙̣̯̘͐̄̈͆̉̈̓̂́̿̉͊͘̚Ą̴̜͎̈̎U̷̦͕͖̝̓̊͋́ͅ and all quite sure of themselves, nodded and passed around a murmur of agreement. As it were, the setup of the chapter was quite similar to the setup of the last Lemur Day chapter, wherein Queen Kelani compelled a crowd of Ellyntidians to learn about Lemurs (in the garden of the Lordanou Palace, no less!) This chapter WAS going to take place at the equivalent location in Sarlain, but it seemed none of the main characters of The Princess's Feathers were interested in learning about all of the cool new stuff happening in the next phase of the story. What a shame!

"That's not to say we aren't interested," Duncan clarified. "I would rather like to know if, like, I'm still alive after that blow to the head. But this isn't the time for that. This is the time for Lemurs."

"Yeah!!" Kuro said, fluttering her wings in excitement. "Did you know Lemurs get high by rubbing millipede secretions over their bodies? I didn't! That's pretty neat!"

"HEY!!" a voice squawked. "Did you peek at the script? Kuro, you miserable cunt! That's a spoiler!!"

At once, everyone assembled turns their attention to the area just beyond your mind's eye, a space where a gathering of characters who hadn't yet appeared in the story were watching with guarded expressions.

"Eh?" Asha croaked, staring at the feathered character. "Is that really a spoiler? I don't become addicted to drugs, do I?"

Another unseen newcomer joined the conversation, this one more soft-spoken. "Well, no. But it does get brought up a few times in your presence."

"Can we please get on with our presentation?" Lucy asked, speaking into her microphone.

"No objections from me," another unseen character rasped. "We are quite good on time."

"Alright, then." Lucy rearranged the papers at her lectern, situating herself back in her prepared presentation. Lucy opened her muzzle and spoke into the microphone at the capital city of Sarlain, which shall not be described in any more detail lest we receive a verbal berating from the cast of the Princess's Feathers. Look, I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to use your imagination on—

"Cut it out," Keuvra growled.

…

…

…

Oh, fine.

"Right," Lucy said, tapping her papers impatiently. "Lemurs are members of superfamily Lemuroidea. They are small primates, ranging in size from the diminutive mouse Lemurs to the noisy, singing Indri. Some fun facts about Lemurs include the toothcomb they possess for grooming," The Ringtailed Princess paused, opening her muzzle to display the toothcomb along her lower row of teeth. "A second tongue called a sublingua is used to clean the tooth comb." The Princess paused again to demonstrate the fact to the audience. "Additionally, Lemurs are efficient distributors of seed, which helps the rainforest in light of illegal deforestation."

"It would seem Lemurs are quite peculiar creatures," Grith mused, standing alongside the other characters from Rowan Silver's Wyrmrealm.