Glider
Legacy Name: Glider

WIFE'S STORY AS A PLACEHOLDER LOL:They gasped as they gazed upon her while she strutted along the stone wall, twirling a knife by its handle as if it were a baton. She loved their faces, their slackened jaws, bulging eyes, and lips pulled back from their fangs in looks of both fear and disgust. Breaking rules was fun, but shattering them to bits and sending their followers screaming in disgust was exhilarating.

The residents of the Cloudtreader Kingdom were bound to strict marriage laws, even noble women such as the woman herself. While they were permitted to be romantically inclined with one another, citizens with long tails were not allowed to legally wed citizens with short tails. It was so ancient (and so silly!) that no one remembered from whence it came, let alone why it was ever created in the first place. The kingdom’s denizens, however, blindly continued to follow it in the name of tradition.

After seven years of courting the knight who caused her already warm heart to ignite into a blazing inferno of passion, Countess Felicia had had enough of the kingdom’s rule. Felicia liked to defy the kingdom’s traditions simple for the thrill of defying, but this time it was different. This time, it was personal.

“All eyes on me, you rigid lot!” She stopped her pacing in the center of the wall, holding her arms out wide to give them a clear view of the silver knife she held, which glittered brightly in the sunlight. A light breeze ruffled the hem of her dress, causing her to smile inwardly. “I have had enough with this government’s ridiculous laws.”

She paused to listen to the crowd, to the hushed and nervous whispers that rippled through it like a wave. It was the most satisfying sound to have ever graced the Countess’s pointed, furred ears. They twitched in delight. Inside of her pink bodice, her heart pounded wildly.

“Yes. You heard me correctly. I’m through with this nonsense. I have courted my beloved for seven, and nigh on eight, years and yet I am not allowed to marry him because his tail is long, while mine,” she flicked the white appendage for emphasis, “is short and fluffy. But today, no longer shall I be bound to such a silly tradition.”

At this point she could still turn back, return to her life with him as an unwed couple, but she wanted this. She needed it. They needed it. The two of them wanted to stay together for eternity, so that only Death himself could pry them apart. They wished to be bound, and to do so, this sacrifice needed to be made.

Felicia slipped the blade behind her back, and with a quick flick of her wrist, banished herself from her fluffy curse. There was pain, oh yes, terrible pain. It was the most awful pain Felicia ever had the misfortune of encountering, but the mortified squeals from the crowd were a balm to her injury.

With a smile that was half grin and half grimace, she held the severed tail aloft over her head as a crimson waterfall surged down the back of her dress, saturating the pink fabric and coloring it a livid red. “If having this tail is what keeps me from wedding my love,” blue eyes glittered in brilliant triumph, “then I shall have none.”

She flung the bloody tail into the crowd, which sent them into a wild state of pandemonium. They ran in random directions like a pack of crazed animals, tangling their wings, stepping on each other’s tails, and tripping over one another in their desperate attempts to get away from this mad woman standing before them. They just couldn’t handle it. A noble woman – even one such as Felicia, who was infamous for testing the boundaries of tradition -- defying the ancient marriage traditions of their kingdom was simply an outrage! The onlookers felt as though they were living a nightmare.

And Felicia relished every moment of their torment.

Not caring who was still listening or not, or even if they could hear her above their own screeching, Felicia raised her voice again: “I, Countess Felicia Cloudtail claim Glider Skybreaker, Knight of the High Court, as my husband!”

As she said this, her heart caught in her chest when she spotted her Glider amidst the roiling crowd. At first she though he looked angry, and for a moment she regretted executing what she thought was a deviously splendid plan. But soon she found herself filled with joy that burst out of her in a fit of laughter, for it wasn’t a snarl that adorned her husband’s face at all; he was merely trying too hard not to smile.

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Artwork by Lin.