A small, wooden coffin is lowered into the ground, sentencing a young girl to her dirt filled death. Her best friend watches tucked in the arms of the dead girls mother, sobbing. A young man with twisting goat horns stands behind them, watching with a solemn face, eyes puffed from crying hidden behind black tinted sunglasses. 

“Jackie. Jackie, no. come back to me.” The girl sobs, burying her blue haired head in the kitchen apron of the mother.

“Shhh. It’s alright. It’s okay. I’m right here love.” she murmured, stroking the girls head gently. Arizona howled at the unfair fact that, at the age of ten, her only friend in the world was dead, and it was the Queen's fault. Accusing Jackie of stealing from her and sentencing her to death was too cruel of a punishment for a child servant. Cozhlin, the goat man, frowned. He too thought this was wrong. He had been friends of Jackie and her mothers for a long time, and Arizona was like a sister to him. He wrapped his arms around Dr. Berd, Jackie’s other mother, listening to her rasping breath as she hiccuped from crying. 

“We won’t let this stand. I will make a wrong be righted.” He promised her gently. 

“No. Revenge won’t get you anywhere but back in the gallows, Cozzy. Just promise me you’ll watch over Arizona, no matter what?”

“I promise.” He said, and meant to keep it. The four looked on as dirt was shoveled over the coffin, sealing the job.

And so it began.

Arizona sat up in bed, gasping for air. Sweat clung to his chest, sticking his shirt to his back. He’d had a nightmare again, about the night he’d lost Jackie. His room was silent, Cozhlin sound asleep across the room, his bare back facing Ari. The warm wind blew through the open window, ruffling Ari’s Trans flag gently as it tousled Arizona’s bright yellow hair. He sighed, taking deep breaths, calming himself with words he’d used as long as he could remember. 

“It’s alright. You're okay. Your right where you're meant to be.” He muttered this mantra over and over again under his breath as he crossed the room to the window. His fingers fluttered to his hair, braiding and rebraiding the long strands of synthetic yellow. The sun was just barely rising over the walls of the kingdom, lighting the streets and granting vision to the people already awake. When his heart had ceased racing and he felt calm and whole again, Arizona dressed in his uniform, polishing his boots to perfection as he did every morning. The days went by in a monotone blur, but it was happy. As happy as one could be serving royals, that is. It was six years since Jackie had died, and today was her sixteenth birthday. Arizona himself was eighteen, officially a legal servant to the throne until he died. Which, he always hoped, was far, far away. He plucked the small black stuffed bird off his bed, clutching it to his chest as he sat by the window, waiting for the bells to summon him to his job. Cozhlin rolled over in bed, snuffling quietly in his sleep. Arizona sighed, nudging his ex-boyfriends shoulder. “Cozzy, wake up.” Cozhlin protested sleepily, grunting. 

“Shove off.”

“Get up dude. The sun’s already risen.” Cozhlin groaned, dragging himself out of bed, rolling  onto the floor. 

“It’s too early.”

“You say that every morning. Come on, Ladin wanted to meet up before breakfast, and the bells aren’t going to wait forever.” Cozhlin rolled his pitch black eyes, running long black clawed fingers through his light blue hair. 

“Fineee.” he hissed, grabbing his discarded shirt off the floor, accepting Arizona’s hand to stand up. “What does Ladin want anyways? She better not ruin my day.” He muttered, styling his hair in the mirror, self-centered as ever. 

“She didn’t say. Probably another one of her “Good ideas”.” Arizona said, emphasizing the quotation marks. Ladin was the friend with the ideas that most of the time got her, or mainly Cozhlin, in trouble. 

“Argh. no more ideas from her. Last time i almost got dumped in a pile of manure trying to help her spy on that stable boy.” Ladin’s obsession with boys was the root of her plans, that or trying to earn equality among the ranks. She was an equalist with a heart of gold for her friends, loyal until the very end. Arizona grabbed his bag of needles and thread, tucking his scissors among the rolls of fabric. 

“Let’s go, Narcissus.” He called to Cozhlin, using the nickname accurate for the goat boy, who loved to look at himself. 

“Coming. Yeesh.” The two stepped out into the servants main, threading through the couches, piles of laundry, and clusters of servants spending their few precious minutes together, out into the halls of Ashington Castle. The decorations for the ball were already under way, streamers and hangings lying around the courtyard and dancing pavilion, waiting for hardworking servants to waste their downtime hanging them. The Pride Ball was held every year, after Prince Searow had requested it after coming out to his mother, Queen Olane a few years back. How the evil Queen could have a son so sweet, no one knew. The sun bore down on the two boys, and Cozhlin snapped out his sunglasses, shoving them on his nose. 

“Aw, the sun giving your sensitive eyes a hard time?” Arizona teased, dodging the punch sent his way. 

“Arizona! Cozhlin!! Over here!” Ladin jumped up and down on her taloned feet, waving her feathered arms at the boys. Olivia, the sorceresses apprentice and her boyfriend/guard sat on a bench next to the overjoyed Messenger girl, heads bent together in conversation. 

“Morning Ladin!” Arizona called, waving his black nailed hand in return. “Hey Olivia. Bay.” Olivia smiled brightly, her bright pink ponytail bouncing in the air. Bay nodded, offering his own slightly twisted smile, the scars over the corner of his lips contorting. He didn’t speak, hadn’t for years since an accident that hurt his voice.

“Hi Arizona. Happy birthday to Jackie.”

“Yeah. Why aren’t you guys already at the school?” The school Arizona was referring too was the rich kid school. Olivia got in because she was an apprentice, and Bay tagged along. 

“Welllll…” Olivia glanced at Ladin. “I’ll let Ladin explain this one.” Ladin smiled brightly, linking arms with Cozhlin before he could walk off. 

“I’ve done something amazing. I’ve convinced Olivia here, who convinced her friend, our dear Prince Searow, to let us join the school for the month, as a sort of social experiment. We’ll go to the college for the first session, then after lunch we’ll return here and do our usual work. How does that sound?”

“Awful.” Cozhlin grumbled. 

“Aw, come on Cozzy, cheer up! There’s cute boys and girls at school for you to flirt with.” Cozhlin rolled his eyes, shrugging out of Ladin’s grasp.

 “So? It’s still school, and i have a lot of needlepoint i need to work on. And Laurel asked me to help her dye fabrics this morning.”

“It’s already been arranged Cozhlin. If you don’t like it, you can always drop out, but just try it for the first day?” Olivia pleaded, taking his hand between her own. 

“Fine.” He huffed, worn down by Olivia’s brown doe eyes. Ladin pumped her fist in the air, victorious. 

“Let’s get in line for the portal then.” Ladin said, dragging Olivia and Bay to the large portals that lined one wall of the castle courtyard. The portals transported people and goods between planets. Energii hosted the school, in the old castle there. Arizona gently punched Cozhlin’s arm. 

“Hey, it’ll be fine.”

“I haven’t gone to school since… well i’m not sure if i ever have.” Cozhlin sighed, trudging off after his friends. Cozhlin had lost most of his memories from his past, the last thing he remembered was waking in the forest to find a bunch of guards surrounding him, thinking he was one of the Goat-headed rebels that threatened the Queen. Arizona rubbed the back of his neck, following after them. The line for Energii was rather short this morning, but Gengi and Cicii were long as ever, royals and servants alike heading out to the markets. A few other royalty kids stood in the Energii line, chatting with friends and complimenting each other. 

“Isn’t this so exciting?” Ladin exclaimed, gaining a few odd glances. 

“Ladin, honey, i don’t want to squash your childlike love for school, but it’s nothing like those rom-coms you watch.” 

“I’m sure it’ll be great no matter what.” Ladin protested. “Right Arizona?” All his friends turned to him, searching his face for sadness or cracks that they thought they could fill. Arizona shoved his loss and nightmares further into the back of his mind, amping up his smile for the sake of his friends. 

“Yeah! For sure.”