Today! Today. (Palace)

[earthking]

“Today,” Kuei, 52nd ruler of the entire Earth Kingdom whispered, still snuggled underneath royal bedsheets of varying greens atop an overly comfortable mattress dyed a colour declared as ‘imperial yellow’ by an ancestor who was a single digit rule of this vast continent. “Todayyyy.... what was to be done today?” Twiddling his toes and staring at the intricately patterned ceiling in recollection. The geometrically designed optical illusions were vision blurring on their own, but without his glasses on were even more so.

“I do know what today is,” his lowered voice chirpily drowned out by the conversation of birds gathered around a feeder at one of his expansive balconies. “And there is the time of week and month, placement of that much I can well enough recall,” finally sitting up then pouting. “But really now, there was something I wanted to do today after yesterday’s research.”

The Earth King began rolling away the blankets before him. “Oh, maybe you were right Bosco. Why, I should have wrote down a list before bed like you suggested,” slipping off the mattress and into a pair of spruce green slippers he often wore only during evening wear. “I can not even seem to recollect the mnemonic device I devised before bed either.”

[earthking]

“Sniff! Sniff sniff. Snork!”

Following Bosco’s lead, His Majesty, the 52nd Earth King held his head aloft as the scent of honeysuckle stroked his nostrils, bouncing upon the breeze and mingling with the taste of thick orange marmalade. Unable to remember what he originally wanted to do today, His Majesty continued onward with today scheduled activities. Earliest of which was a breakfast arranged two months ago with one of his many many wives in her garden.

“I most assuredly surmise that Spring is upon us, Your Majesty,” skimming her finger along the jade tea cup’s rim held between her palms.

“Indubitably,” opening his eyes. In total there were one hundred eighty known species of honeysuckle—remembering the fact from botanical texts in the royal library—with barely more than a third native outside the Earth Kingdom. “We think you have done amazingly well in tending to your garden,” which was the size of a small park actually. And though it was normal for His Majesty to speak in the first person plural, in this context he was including his ever companionable bear, Bosco, now at the moment wandering away from the natural forest green marble table beneath the wooden pavilion. In the garden’s stillness his paws could be heard slapping upon the segmented cobblestones that formed a walkway.

“Why yes, they have done well under my supervision,” referring more to her attendants assigned to the task of gardening rather than the plants themselves. “The results as you can witness for yourselves, Your Majesty,” gliding a hand over the grounds, “have exceeded beyond my—gzzket!!” She immediately curled up in mild horror, clutching at her emerald and marigold yellow rim dress, watching Bosco batting and reaching for a flutterby that thankfully guided the back onto the stone pathway rather than into the garden and over her new orchids. “…ehhhxpectations,” she exhaled in relief.

“You sound quite captivated,” he nodded. “I do believe Bosco agrees as well,” chuckling as the bear was now snuffling his nose through a bed of petunias and tossing them skyward. “We think we should join him after we finish here. We believe the sun would be quite helpful in returning colour to your countenance.”