62.2 An Awkward Question by Michelle-Bound on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Empress Sophia calls Damien into her office.

"Good Morning Your Majesty. Can I help you with something ?"

"Earlier on I looked out on the early morning parade."

"That will be the latest cadets. They seem to be coming on well and should be ready to serve Your Majesty if we ever have any hostilities again."

"That's good to know. But one other thing caught my eye."

"Oh ?"

"There appeared to be a girl dressed in black on a lead."

"That's correct Your Majesty. She's the regimental mascot."

"Does every regiment have a mascot ? Even those on your planet ?"

"Of course Your Majesty."

"So why do we have girls as mascots ?"

"Well ... we brought goats with us when we left Earth, but for some reason whilst most human babies are female, most baby goats are male. So eventually they all died out."

"So we use girls instead ?"

"Well there is a surplus of them Your Majesty." Damien giggles, raising one of Sophia's famous looks of death.

"So we treat them the same as we would a goat ?"

"As near as we can Your Majesty. They get constant washing and grooming from their handlers."

"So how long do they do this for ?"

"Same as most roles Your Majesty. Six months training and then a year on Empire Service."

"Oh I see. So do they choose this role ?"

Damien laughs.

"That would be a little too easy Your Majesty. They are all girls identified in school as being a little too headstrong to ever be good maids."

"I thought we sent girls like that to join the military ?"

"We do. And the worst behaved one of them gets chosen as regimental mascot and gets special training."

"Oh I see."

"Your Majesty doesn't want to change this, do you ?"

Sophia grins. "No I can think of a long list of ladies this would have been good for so I think we should let this tradition remain."