(click for better quality)
These are some designs for an original retelling of the King Midas tale! I hope I’ll be able to show you guys my ideas for it soon.
modelled on the 1890s for fashion and just about everything else
the cats look like housecats, but they're roughly the size of tigers
Liesa's kingdom is pretty hilly and forested (even some mountains in the southernmost part)
Ross's kingdom is in the approximate location of Brandenberg, so... not hilly. at all.
Lukas and Elisabeth are twins
This is set when Elisabeth is about 14 and Ross is about 15. Imagine, if you will, that Elisabeth has just graduated to adult clothes the summer immediately beforehand.
-
Ross's eyes widened when he saw Princess Elisabeth step outside. Her coat, muff, and mantel were all jet black, with some grey trim. Her cat walked beside her, as always. She blushed when she saw him. “It's getting colder here... it does that, I think, earlier than your kingdom.”
“Um, yes...” he managed to get out. “I have never seen a lady of your status wearing a wool muff and mantel before.” God, what an incredibly stupid thing to say.
She shook her head. “Oh, they aren't made of wool,” she said. She took her hands out of her muff and handed it to him to feel. He removed a glove and felt it. “The inside, too,” she prompted, so he did so. The outside was felted, like wool often was, but the inside... it felt like angora. He'd never seen anything like it before.
“Do you have any idea what it's made of?” she asked, petting her giant cat.
“Um... it feels like angora rabbit hair, although I don't quite see why you would make a coat out of that. Your coat is... made of the same material, isn't it?”
She nodded. “It is.” He played with the muff for a few more moments.
“I must apologise... I have no idea.”
Elisabeth smiled. “That's quite all right,” she assured him, “No foreigners really do.”
He offered her her muff back, and she took it. As she slipped her hands through, he saw Prince Lukas grumbling in an orange coat, his cat behind him. He came up to Elisabeth. “Is your new coat itchy?”
She shook her head. “No. None of it is.”
Her brother grumbled some more. “I am convinced the seamstresses all hate me.”
She reached out and petted his cat. “I don't think you groom her enough,” she said, instead. “And you need to take it right off of the brush and put it into the bag, like Vati taught us.”
“She's a cat; she can groom herself,” he said. “I don't see why I have to spend an hour each night grooming her. Her fur looks fine.”
“She looks scruffy,” Liesa argued, scratching the giant orange cat under her chin. “And I'm not sure I'd put it past you to hastily collect stray hairs when Vati asked if we had the bags ready.”
She looked to meet his eyes, and to her credit, Prince Lukas did look awfully guilty.
“If you brush her and make sure to save that fur... your coat won't be itchy next year,” she told him. “But you need to start right after the first thaw.”
He rolled his eyes. “Right. Great.” He scratched behind his cat's ears. “I am going to go change into something which does not itch,” he told his sister. He gave her a kiss on the cheek before turning on his heel and returning to the palace.
Elisabeth turned back to Ross, who was very confused. “What did you mean by grooming?”
“Well...” she said. “Cats like Mr. Whiskers are so big that they shed so much. You have to groom them every night, really, and some nights in the spring it could be hours. So generations ago, one of my ancestors had the idea to use the fur to make yarn, and use it as a wool substitute.” She scratched her cat's shoulders. “However, big cats are rare, especially outside of our kingdom, so it's considered an ultimate luxury... but most foreigners don't even know we have it. It feels like angora, but it's warmer, and more personal, when it's all your one cat.”
“So it's a status symbol... like ermine?”
“Ermine is cruel,” Elisabeth said, pursing her lips. “This never hurts the cats, and they would actually be worse off if we didn't groom them. Anyone who kills a cat like Mr. Whiskers gets hanged, and anyone who intentionally hurts any animal, except for hunting for food, is imprisoned. It's only fair.”
Ross nodded, although he wasn't quite sure he agreed. If you did away with everyone who ever hit an animal... well, commoners were often crass, so how many would there be left? Still, he really liked her, and she was so sweet. “But you have enough fur to make coats?”
“Oh, we have a lot left over. It's all spun, and then the servants who work exclusively with the fur get a bit, and the servants who help get a bit, and sometimes we keep some extra, but a lot of it is sold to merchants and tradesmen.”
“I see...” he said.
“But... I think I have enough of Mr Whiskers's yarn left to make a scarf...”
His eyes widened a bit. He hoped she mistook it for pleasant surprise. “For me?”
She smiled. “Of course. You are going to be my fiancé aren't you?”
With her last sentence, Ross didn't even have to force a smile.
-
Princess Elisabeth came to him first thing on the morning he was due to depart. “I have a present for you, for after breakfast,” she told him.
Ross nodded. He knew it would be the scarf, and he'd already practised his grateful speech... although, really, the idea of wearing something made out of a cat's fur – and Mr. Whiskers's fur, at that – made him uneasy.
When she pulled him aside after breakfast to give him his gift, he noticed that the package was a bit... large for a scarf. He unwrapped it as she eagerly watched to find not only a scarf, but mittens and a sweater.
“Mr. Whiskers's fur isn't in very high demand, because people still think black cats are bad luck... but he's brought me nothing but good luck!” she insisted. “So I had enough to make you a few things.”
Despite the creepy nature of the fabric, Ross was touched. “Thank you so much, Elisabeth.”
She smiled. “Liesa. Our parents solidified the engagement, didn't they?”
