Meet the Characters - Kyla

There's enough time in the year for one more blog post, and I always like to end on a positive note, so today's focus will be on one of my most likable (and personal favorite) characters, Kyla.  

While I will admit my stories mostly revolve around men, I try to come up with a good, strong woman here and there. I don't like women who are wishy-washy, nor do I care for so-called heroines who try a little too hard to be tough. 

I especially can't stand sex-hungry idiots who become hopeless martyrs in their "romantic" relationship; the relationship comes off as more of an extremely unhealthy obsession. It puts an extra sour taste in my mouth when their abuser is "so hot"; it would be a thousand times more disturbing if the guy wasn't such a hottie. Yes, I'm looking at you, Isabella Swann, Anastasia Steele, Harley Quinn, and Cersei Lannister. 

I prefer heroines who balance out the scales: they're nice most of the time, but when the occasion calls for it, they can (and will) kick your butt. While they sincerely hope to find true love someday, they can stand on their own feet and think for themselves. They can even get a little silly on occasion and contribute to the comic relief. 

On that account, I very much sing the praises of Princess Anna, Judy Hopps, Mulan, Rapunzel, Megara, and Belle. 

(Images property of their respective owners.)

So, I take some of the things I like best about my favorite fictional females (and leave out what I don't like about my least favorite) and put them into my own females, and at the risk of tooting my own horn, I feel Kyla is one of my very best creations yet. 

Kyla is the sort of woman who really defies everybody's expectations of her while remaining true to herself, and in the end, she gets what she honestly deserves and then some. 

She starts out as a very humble but well-behaved girl from the back country. Her family wasn't dirt-poor; they were able to provide for themselves and live in a little comfort. They always had food to eat, they always had a roof over their heads, they kept themselves and their home neat and tidy, and most importantly, they maintained good manners and fair treatment with each other and everybody else. Whatever they could spare, they were more than happy to share. 

As you may have guessed, a lot of people (particularly in the upper class) really looked down their noses at the peasants, and some peasants viewed their own low standing on the social ladder as an ignominious curse. 

Kyla's grandmother, Opal, was lucky to be quite attractive on the outside, attractive enough to where her parents hoped some rich man would fall in love with her and give them all the kind of life they "deserved." 

Unfortunately, they were so convinced that money was the solution to all their problems that they didn't even care what came at Opal's expense; they didn't care if a man was flat-out abusive toward her as long as his pockets were fat enough. Overall, they were treating Opal more like a piece of merchandise than a daughter.

Suffice it to say that, in the end, Opal made up her own mind: while money was important, she would much rather be "poor and happy" than "rich and miserable." So, she ended up marrying Lincoln, another peasant who barely had a penny to his name, who was a bit of a dork with a clumsy streak, yet he loved her for real (and not just for her good looks) and she felt a world of better around him. Even his parents were a whole lot more loving and taught her you didn't need money to be happy. 

All Opal's parents had left to say was, "You'll never be rich or happy with the likes of him." 

Only one of these two predictions came true. 

Working together, Opal and Lincoln managed to make a decent living for themselves, and Lincoln did his best to treat Opal like royalty without overdoing it. He never failed to make her laugh, intentional or otherwise. Though they only had one daughter, they took the greatest care of their Selma and she grew up to be sweet, honest, and hardworking as well. 

Furthermore, they showed mercy to a young orphan boy who came to their door in search of work. Of course, they couldn't pay Kerry much money, but they paid him generously in other ways: he was to eat all his meals at their table, he was to sleep in an actual bed all his own, and he was to be loved above all else. Opal would sew extra clothes for the boy and set an extra plate at supper, while Lincoln frequently called him "my boy" and "son." Even Selma took a bit of a fancy to him, as did he to her. 

When Kerry asked Selma to marry him, neither she nor her parents had any trouble saying yes. He was already like one of the family, so this just made it "official" in the rest of the world's eyes. 

Tragically, Lincoln's health went downhill in a hurry. He was on his deathbed when Selma gave him the news that she and Kerry were having a baby, and he got to feel the movement beneath her enlarged belly. Despite knowing he would never live to see this baby (he died that very night), the simple fact that another child was on the way brought him tremendous joy in those final hours. He went out with a smile and his granddaughter (you guessed it: Kyla) ended up inheriting his bright brown eyes. 

When Kyla was only four, Selma and Kerry died, too. They died together in a most tragic accident, leaving Opal to raise Kyla alone. Knowing both children passed away at the same time and were reunited with Lincoln, along with knowing Kyla was a part of all three of them, helped to soften the blow for Opal, while Kyla's final memory of them (she doesn't have many, given her young age) is a pleasant one: expressing their love for her and reminding her to behave herself for her grandmother. 

"Be good for Gran" really stuck with the girl through the years. Of course, she was a genuinely good girl for the most part (a little mischievous but nothing over the top) and her grandmother treated her well; Opal had the right balance of gentleness and firmness. You just knew she was the kind of lady who expected to be obeyed, and you found yourself wanting to obey her anyhow.

For all that, Kyla feels this is the best way she can honor her parents, even though she learns to be good for her own sake above all. 

Although she was proud of her heritage, her grandmother ready at any time to regale her with stories about her parents and her grandfather (there's no record of Kerry's parentage and he deemed Opal and Lincoln his true parents), you can bet she felt their loss, especially as she got older. She couldn't help feeling a bit envious when she saw other children with their mothers and fathers, and there were many nights when she couldn't hold it in any longer and broke down crying. At least her grandmother was always there to comfort her and talk it out with her, so it wouldn't be long before she was feeling better. 

For the most part, Kyla could say she was happy. She never fussed about not having fancy things, though her grandmother tried to indulge her whenever possible. Grandmother Opal would often save up for something nice for her granddaughter from the market, like a pretty necklace or a good book, or she would make her an extra nice dress from more expensive material.

Grandmother Opal was too poor to send Kyla to school, but she didn't let that stop her from giving the girl a decent education at home. She set aside a definite portion of the day each day for reading, writing, arithmetic, and other things; it helped that the old lady was literate and somewhat educated herself. Contrary to what her neighbors said, it was her firm belief that there should be more to a girl's life, even a peasant girl, than mere cooking and cleaning; she would do the same thing if Kyla were a boy. She managed to capture that balance between work and play, letting her little one know when the time was right to do this or that, that or this. Once Kyla got into her studies, she proved to be surprisingly bright, enough to turn some of the heads of her upper-class bullies.

If Kyla had a fault, it was that she could get just a little reckless, especially around water. 

When she was a toddler, she took an "accidental" tumble into a pond not far from her house. As soon as her frantic family fished her out, she proved to be surprisingly unfazed despite her coughing fit and being sopping wet all over. Then she "fell" into the pond a second time, then a third, and then a fourth, and that's when it dawned on everybody that it might be worthwhile to teach her to swim properly. 

As she grew up, she often took advantage of a swimming opportunity in whatever body of water she could find. Opal made sure to advise her to be careful, and even then, the girl did something of which her grandmother would never approve: throwing herself from the top of a high tree and letting her body float to the surface, as if she'd drowned. 

In fact, that's how she met the boy who would become her husband: Prince Romulus Lactantius. He caught her in one of these daredevil stunts with the tree and she just about gave the poor prince a heart attack. 

 

Romulus was kind enough to keep Kyla's little secret, while she learned to take a bit more care from then on. 

All the same, you could never keep her away from water for long. One of the perks of her friendship with Romulus was his ownership of a big lake and a fancy indoor pool, and she was welcome to take a dip whenever she liked for as long as she liked. This is where she really learned to fine-tune her aquatic skills. 

Many years later, you'll still find her performing laps or savoring a good soak. Sometimes she'll do an early morning workout, sometimes she'll unwind from a long and grueling day, and sometimes she'll jump in because she's in the mood. As much as she prefers the outdoors, she loves the indoor pool just fine, especially if the weather is a bit much. There's something to be said about a private swim while it's storming or cloudy outside, and the indoor water is quite warm, almost like a hot bath. 

All she cares about is getting good and wet; the wetter, the better.

When water masks are discovered, you can bet Kyla takes advantage of them. Now that she's got something to shield her eyes, she gets more soaked than ever, were such a thing possible. For a time, she holds the record for the longest breathhold; they might as well change the name to "dead woman's float." 

And it's no accident that her own children inherit this love for the water, especially her daughters (her youngest is named Opal, after you-know-who), and she helps Romulus rekindle his own aquatic passion. Romulus was once an avid swimmer himself, until something happened that scared him away from the water; Kyla plays a key role in helping him learn to embrace it once more. 

It's also no accident that Reid, her nephew through Romulus's side, becomes an even more avid swimmer because of her, which he ultimately passes onto Mason Wiles and Mason's own children. Quite the ripple effect, indeed. 

It may seem a little strange, given my own lack of swim talent and my slight drowning phobia. But I get an odd pleasure out of watching other people swim and swim art really helps to calm me down when I'm in a bad mood. 

Besides, I've grown tired of seeing "naughty" swim art everywhere, where the swimmers are in super-skimpy bikinis and Speedos, or seeing the super-cheap Microsoft Paint stuff where the water is really just blue paint (though, to be fair, water is hard to draw and not everybody has Photoshop), so I take it upon myself to create more wholesome swim stuff. The swimmers are properly clothed and they have good, clean fun in the water. 

I've even done this with Minnie Mouse, and I've done a couple of standalone pieces where a (currently unnamed) princess takes the big plunge in her good dress. This is how my Terence learns to swim so well when he becomes human; as a unicorn, he saw plenty of humans take a dip and he often joined them. So, long before he learns to use a knife and fork correctly, he's fairly enlightened in the art of swimming. 

Anyway, back to Kyla. 

She not only helped the Lactantiuses learn to love the water, but she also helped them learn to love again. 

After Romulus and Tallis lost their mother and baby sister, their relationship with their father all but hurtled downhill. Trent became a lot meaner and nastier, acting like everything would fall apart if he showed so much as the smallest sign of "weakness." 

In his defense, a king must be strong for his people as well as his family. Unfortunately for Trent Cadmus Lactantius, he took this much too far, treating things like crying as something criminal, and treating his dead loved ones like they weren't worth remembering. He practically flipped his lid at the mere suggestion that he wasn't as "okay" as he pretended to be. 

So, Romulus and Tallis were left to deal with their losses on their own. Romulus was able to help Tallis some, but Romulus needed someone to be there for him, too, since he was just a kid himself. No one else would help him, either out of fear of Trent or sheer ignorance of Romulus's emotions; in some cases, it was both. There was at least one friend who did try to help, but his parents forced him to stay quiet to avoid Trent's nastiness. That's a story for another time. 

When Romulus met Kyla and her grandmother, they gave him the friendship and support he needed so badly. Grandmother Opal got the honor of taking another young boy in need under her wing and making a second unofficial adoption. Like her grandmother, Kyla sincerely heard Romulus out and never made fun of him; she didn't hold it against him when he cried in front of her more than once. Both women understood just how he felt, if only too well. 

Of course, Romulus still had a long way to go; even as a grown man with kids of his own, he's yet to fully recover. But thanks to Kyla and Grandmother Opal, he was doing much better and handling his loss a lot more gracefully than he would have otherwise. They also helped him to stay mostly nice when he had every reason to become cold and mean, too. I think he would have been okay on his own, not as nasty as his dad, but not as warm. 

For all that, Trent had the nerve to get angry (or angrier than usual) when he found out. Despite refusing to talk to his son about their loss, despite all of Daire knowing the awful tragedy, it still hit a sore spot that Romulus had "spilled the beans" to someone else. Trent outright forbade Romulus from so much as speaking to Kyla or Grandmother Opal again, though Romulus had no intention of listening for once. Romulus had long since adopted the phrase, "Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission," and he felt this wasn't worth getting so upset about anyway. 

When Opal found out about Trent, she was every bit as furious, if not more so. She was livid enough to personally march into Trent's castle on foot, make him sit down, and chew him out in front of his whole court. Had Trent been a worse man, or any other kind of king, this violation would have warranted a prison sentence (or worse) in a heartbeat.

As it was, Opal was the kind of woman who could send a bear running for the hills. No one dared mess with her or her family if they knew what was good for them. She also managed to hit Trent's weak spot dead on target with the "mother card," telling him she was old enough to be his mother and Trent's mother had been a significant influence on him, too, though that happened to be sheer coincidence in Opal's case. 

In a nutshell, Opal told Trent, "How dare you punish your son for trying to heal from his wounds, for getting help that he wasn't getting anywhere else, certainly not from you. How dare you turn your back on your own children when they need you most, and how dare you place a taboo on your dead wife and daughter. In case it hasn't occurred to you, you're not the only person in this whole universe to suffer a tragedy. I lost someone I love, too. I may not know much about running an empire, but I know all about raising children, and I can tell you for myself that you are a terrible father, the absolute worst father I can possibly imagine. You should be ashamed of yourself. I'm sure your wife and daughter would be ashamed of you, too." 

Despite not laying a finger on him, the old woman's words left the young man with no room for argument; he couldn't speak at all at first when she was finally done. She left him and the rest of the court in a truly stunned silence. 

When at last Trent pulled himself together, the first thing he did was make his own trip to Opal's door, but only to admit that she was right and that he was sorry for his rashness. He not only begged the lady's pardon but granted her and Kyla permission to come and go in the castle whenever they pleased, and he gave Romulus no further trouble for the time being.

It wasn't until after Grandmother Opal's unexpected death that Trent had a true change of heart. 

When Kyla was 18, her grandmother fell ill. It didn't seem too serious at first, but as Kyla herself pointed out, Opal would claim to be all right even if it was an emergency. 

Since things at home weren't much better, Romulus started spending more time at Kyla's cottage than ever, helping out with chores, preparing meals, and coming home much later than usual. This led Trent to suspect that Romulus and Kyla were "doing things" behind his back; he only kept it quiet because he didn't have enough proof and he didn't want to get on Opal's bad side again. 

For all his respect for his father, Romulus had long since given up trying to talk to him, since it was almost impossible to have a conversation with the man that didn't end on a sour note. As it was, Trent was already giving Tallis enough grief; Tallis was even starting to rebel on purpose, if only so he could "earn" Trent's daily rebukes fair and square. 

Half of Trent's people didn't like him, either, since he was about as fair with his subjects as he was with his family. Old Beowulf had seen worse leaders than Trent, but he saw better ones, too. Trent didn't exactly live up to the grand legacy of his noble ancestor, Terence.

Besides, Romulus was already legal age; you're considered an adult at age 17, and he was 21, so at the very least, he didn't need Dad's permission anymore. 

Then one day, Grandmother Opal simply slipped away in her sleep. Though Romulus and Kyla wasted no time in getting her to a hospital, it was a lost cause. Due to the emotional intensity of the moment, caught up in trying to comfort Kyla and trying to take in the fact that he just lost another loved one (when his heart had yet to fully heal from past losses), Romulus failed to let his father know where he was or how late he was going to be. 

He didn't come home until the next morning, and there was no way he was leaving Kyla alone, so she came with him and she slept in the bed that they usually reserved for her. 

That's when Trent caught him. 

Tallis was practically giddy with the prospect of Romulus getting in big trouble for a change, whereas Trent allowed Romulus to say a few words in his defense. 

Cue the bombshell. 

After recovering somewhat from the shock, Trent decided not to punish Romulus after all. He only gave the boy a quiet, rather gentle reminder for better communication next time, which was fair. 

You can imagine how awful Trent and Tallis both felt, not only for their woeful misjudgment of both Romulus and Kyla, but also for the belated realization of how much Grandmother Opal did for them and how much she'd come to mean to them. That typical "didn't realize what you had until it was gone" epiphany. 

Sympathy for Kyla came in full flood. She had no family left, and she couldn't bear to live on the farm any longer. So, in an effort to make it up to her as well as her grandmother, Trent invited her to live in his castle from now on, with no strings attached. She accepted. 

Trent also saw to it that the farm was sold into good hands, after Kyla took her most valued possessions with her to the castle, and he paid for Opal's medical expenses and funeral costs out of his own pocket. He kept the ceremony quiet and low-key, with only a handful of guests, as Opal would have wanted. Later, he made arrangements for a slightly more elegant headstone to mark the grave. 

This time, death softened Trent and breathed new life into his more ideal traits. 

As aforementioned, he invited Kyla to stay with him from now on, and he let her go anywhere in the castle she liked at any time. He now knew for a fact he could trust her. 

The pinnacle of his character growth comes when he tries to help Kyla with her loss rather than make her suck it up. Kyla took it upon herself to "suck it up" and move forward without talking about her grandmother or letting anyone else (with the exception of Romulus) see her cry. It didn't help that she was already getting badly bullied because some people didn't understand why "a lowly peasant" was allowed into the royal household with open arms; she didn't even have scullery maid or stable hand duties. At least a couple of people knew (or at least suspected) why she was there, and they picked on her anyway. 

So, Kyla was really struggling under an increasing emotional load, which Trent himself couldn't help noticing. 

Kyla was the first person Trent had embraced in a very long time. You could say he saw some of his deceased daughter in her, which brought his paternal instinct to the fore. 

Seeing the poor girl try to "forget" her grandmother hit him where it hurt, too. Needless to say, it hurt all the worse upon realizing this was just what he'd done to his sons all this time. What Opal once told him was right: his wife and daughter would be ashamed of him, deeply so. 

To make matters worse, Tallis took it very badly upon seeing and hearing Kyla talk things out with Trent. The outrageous unfairness wasn't lost on Romulus, either. 

For a short time, Tallis tried to stay as far away from Kyla as he could, tried to hate her. 

But he couldn't hate her, not for long. Not when he realized the magnitude of her loss (at least he still had his dad and brother and few friends, whereas Kyla had nobody at all) and not when she came to him of her own accord and expressed her own heartfelt sympathy. 

Despite his still-bitter relationship with his dad, Tallis learned to like Kyla very much, even love her like a sister. 

Romulus remained as true a friend as any, supporting Kyla as best he could and telling her bullies (whenever he caught them) to hit the road. Princess Adela was among the nastiest of the bunch; she was not only unreasonably cruel to Kyla due to Kyla's peasant background, but she tried her hardest to get Romulus all to herself.

Miss Adela made an almost laughable effort to get Romulus much more interested in "a real princess" than in some "clodhopper" or "country bumpkin," but Romulus was never fooled for an instant and had but two words for the starry-eyed twit and her starry-eyed posse every single time: "Get lost." 

One nice thing about Trent is that he had zero tolerance for troublemakers, rich or poor, male or female. While he was a big believer in chivalry, he was as big a believer in respect, including respect for the lower class; he only got mad at Kyla and Opal in the beginning because Romulus was confiding in them about something extremely personal. Once he got over it, Kyla and Opal were as welcome as any guests. 

If there was one type of person Trent hated, it was someone who used their wealth, prestige, beauty, or their "connections" to get their way, regardless of the expense of others. So, he had his disapproving eye on Miss Adela Buchanan most of all. He let her know in no uncertain terms, "I don't care if you are a princess yourself. I don't care how pretty your face is, or how nice your clothes are, or how much everybody else kisses your feet, or who your daddy is. You better watch your step, little missy." 

Whenever Adela went whining to Daddy, Trent held his ground every bit as firmly with King Pert and Queen Ivy. They, too, got far too "curious" as to why Kyla was living with Trent, why someone like her was staying where she didn't belong, would never belong. 

It got to the point where Trent threatened to terminate the alliance between their kingdoms if they and Adela didn't back off. This wasn't a threat to be made lightly; total severance of such a long-lived and valuable alliance would deal both sides a harsh blow indeed, and Pert realized Trent could (and would) make good on such a threat. 

Amid Pert's vehement protests about going to such extremes for one girl, Trent was only too kind to throw the man's double standard right back in his face: is it worth losing your alliance because you can't keep your silly daughter under control, because you can't tell her "no" for once? Trent might have been a subpar father himself, but at least his boys knew better (for the most part) whereas Pert was teaching his daughter that she could have anything she wanted, do anything she wanted, treat everybody however she pleased with no repercussions. He and Ivy were spoiling her to the point where she was becoming spoiled rotten and everybody else was noticing the rancid smell.

Kyla might have been a poor farm girl, but she had something none of the Buchanans had: manners. She behaved herself loads better than Adela and many other upper-class girls put together, and to Trent, this makes all the difference. Trent will much rather keep company with polite beggars than royal jerks. 

Moreover, Trent dropped a few not-so-subtle hints about why Kyla was staying with him in the first place and gave Pert and Ivy the none-too-pleasant idea of their precious Adela being all alone in the cold, cruel world. Now neither of them had any room left for argument; you could almost hear their hot air going out like a deflated balloon. In the end, they took Adela home with their tails between their legs, and though she continued to be a bully, at least the bullying was toned down. Her parents even made a noteworthy (if somewhat clunky) effort to make her behave herself better everywhere else, to tell her "no" more often and mean it. 

Of course, Kyla was as amazed as the rest that Trent would go to all this trouble for her sake. At the same time, she was deeply moved that somebody had her back, and the king himself of all people. In time, she grew fond enough of Trent to start calling him "Dad." 

Just when things were starting to look up, tragedy struck once again. This time, Trent was involved in a horrific carriage accident that resulted in several casualties, though the casualty of the king raised the most noise by far. Rumors flew about Trent already being dead by the time they got him to the hospital, and poor Tallis and Romulus (and Kyla, of course) saw traces of his blood on the doctor. 

All three were absolutely crushed. Even Tallis was more affected than he would have thought possible. Now they only had each other.

Not long after the funeral, Tallis became Daire's next king even though Romulus had been Trent's successor for many years. It would have been all too easy for Romulus to be eaten up with jealousy if Tallis didn't raise such a loud protest all his own. 

It was Kyla's turn to be there for Romulus once more. Only she and Beowulf saw how affected Romulus really was by this dreadful turn of events, how badly he was hurting, how hard he could cry. 

As terrible as it was, this was the perfect opportunity for the "seed of romance" to sprout. 

Kyla and Romulus understood each other in a way that no one else did, including Tallis. They helped each other get through rough patches that would have snapped anyone else like a twig. They looked beyond their social boundaries: Romulus saw Kyla as more than a simple farm girl; Kyla saw Romulus as more than a popular and powerful monarch. They'd spent more than a decade together and proven their dependability time and again. They could laugh and have fun together as well as cry together.

And their looks didn't hurt, either. Kyla could no more deny Romulus's upgrade in manly attractiveness than Romulus could deny Kyla blooming into the full flower of womanhood. 

To me, this is how a love story should be done: falling in love over time (though an occasional "love at first sight" scene is cute enough) and learning to love each other for the right reasons. They should learn to prioritize each other's intelligence, kindness, and other worthy traits over their pretty faces and shapely bodies. 

If there was one valuable lesson Trent taught both his boys, it was proper treatment of the opposite sex. Romulus learned from an early age how to be courteous with women, while at the same time not putting up with any crap from them. When girls started ogling him and Tallis, the royal brothers tried to be as tactful in their rejection as possible. Some girls, like Adela, didn't take the rejection well at all, while others found themselves rather pleased with the "gentlemanly" fashion of saying no; that in itself takes talent. 

Fortunately for Kyla, she wanted Romulus for more than his wealth and good looks. Her grandmother taught her long ago that, even as a friend, she must value the boy for himself and not be another of those "fake friends," of which he's no doubt got plenty. 

Despite the ache of (seemingly) unrequited love, Kyla knew it wouldn't be fair to Romulus or herself to force him into anything, so she stood aside and let him make up his own mind. 

The truth was, Romulus had seen Kyla in a romantic light for quite some time. He couldn't see himself "settling down" with anyone but her. 

Unfortunately, he was too afraid to act on those feelings at first, and you can't fault his other reasons for dragging his feet. Besides his obvious fear of such a huge commitment, of dragging Kyla into the "royal mess," and of Kyla possibly not feeling the same way anyway, he harbored an understandable bitterness toward Trent for his "teachings" about love and marriage. 

Given the way Trent (mis)handled the deaths of Angela and Marena, Romulus and Tallis were left with the unfortunate implication that a spouse wasn't worth remembering after death, that loving someone only meant setting yourself up for a world of disappointment and grief. Trent himself almost cracked when old Beowulf asked him to his face, rather bluntly, "Would it have been better if Marena had never been born, if you and Angela had never met?"

Goodness knows how Opal suffered when she lost Lincoln, Selma, and Kerry, yet she never dreamed for an instant of "erasing" their memories. Kyla still has a few pictures of everybody in her possession, while a rare photo of Opal herself holds a place of honor in Romulus's office. Romulus rightfully considers Opal his hero(ine), hence his decision for his second daughter's name. 

Luckily for Romulus, Grandmother Opal was a deciding factor in changing his mind about marriage for the better. It became Tallis's idea first for Romulus to marry Kyla, and for once, Romulus is glad he took his dorky little brother's advice. 

But Beowulf played the biggest influence of all. 

While genuinely sympathetic to Romulus's feelings, Beowulf reminded the boy how fortunate he was to have someone to love right there, what certain people (like himself) wouldn't give to have what he had. The old werewolf told the young prince, "You can be like your father and be lonely and miserable, or you can take full advantage of the priceless gift in your possession. Love hurts, yes, but it's what makes life worth living."

So, Romulus finally worked up the courage to pop the question to Kyla, who already had her answer. I leave you to imagine the reactions of Romulus's nutty fans the moment word gets out; Adela practically bursts a blood vessel on the spot.

While Kyla may never be Daire's queen, she will always be Romulus's queen. She gets to be something far better than a queen: a wife, a sister, a mother, an aunt, and ultimately a grandmother, keeping the family tree growing in increasing splendor. A monarch can only reign for so long, after all, whereas a mother keeps the bloodline (and the human race as a whole) alive.

It's thanks to her as well as Romulus that their nephew Reid turns out as good as he does, along with their daughters and son. Reid sees Aunt Kyla more like a mother than his actual mother, which is both incredibly sad and incredibly sweet. 

This is why Ann, Adela, and the others are as nasty to her as they are: because she is better than them and they know it, whether they admit it or not. Regardless of her modest origins, she's as capable and elegant as any queen you could find. 

On the flip side, Adela spent her whole life in a shining castle and her own children, Mason most of all, can tell she couldn't lead a horse to water. Thus, we see a fancy pedigree will only get you so far; it's all about how competent you are, how much you actually care. 

Don't let Kyla's sweet, maternal nature fool you, either. Just like her grandmother, you most definitely don't want to get on her bad side if you know what's good for you. She's highly skilled in self-defense and anyone who tries to lay a finger on her (or her kids) will learn straightaway that she doesn't "hit like a girl." Or, rather, "hit like a girl" is their cue to start racing for the hills! 

Well, that's about all I have to say about Kyla for the time being. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it down. 

Here's to a good year, and to many more proper love stories and proper literary role models. Bye for now!