Jelly Donuts and the Great Feud

"Now princess," Rikkard began, opening the book. "Today we are going to learn about the great Feud."

"We had that last night," Lillillil replied, nodding slowly.

Rikkard blinked. "You are purposefully misunderstanding me again. I am not talking about the events of last night, but of five hundred years ago when our ancestors decided to part ways."

She tilted her head to the side. "I knew I was born in the wrong era."

"You wish to have been born during the great Feud?" He had asked the question before he had time to think about it. He honestly did not have time for any of her misdirection today.

"Oh yes," said she, seizing upon the opportunity. "You see, we have good food now, and I like it a lot, but back then, they had great food, and that must have been amazing."

"Princess, I am not talking about what they ate, but the argument that led to the decision to part," explained Rikkard, in effort to get them back on topic.

She stared wistfully out the window, her chin resting on the palm of her hand. "I wonder if the great food was jelly donuts."

"I believe that jelly donuts are a recent invention," said Rikkard. "We do not have the among the Alivocks."

"Must be why you're always so grumpy," Lillillil decided. "And that's probably why they were so grumpy back then. They never would have argued if they had had jelly donuts to eat instead."

"I do not believe that jelly donuts would have swayed anyone's opinion," said Rikkard, wondering if there were any way to get back onto topic.

"They would have swayed mine," she declared. "But, unfortunately, I wasn't alive back then, so my opinion doesn't matter."

"However, we can still study and learn from the people who were alive then. Take Terian, for example ..."

"The stuck up Alivock scholar who thought that people were only supposed to walk on their feet? He needed a jelly donut. Why'd you have to bring up food, Rikkard? Now I'm hungry, and we only just had breakfast. I wonder if cook has anything left over ..."

And before Rikkard had time to protest, she was out of her chair ... and out of the room. Rikkard darted after her, but since she was already disappearing around a corner at the other end of the hall, he slowed to a more dignified walk. Even among the illogical Silions, it was still unseemly for a man to be chasing after a young woman, especially if she were the princess. Besides, he was about ninety percent sure that he would find her in the kitchen.

Sure enough, he did discover her perched on a stool at the end of a long counter, with nothing other than a jelly donut in her hand. She grinned triumphantly. "Oh, are you hungry, too, Rikkard?" she asked. Without waiting for him to answer, she tore the donut in half and offered him the part that didn't have her bite marks in it.

Deciding that protesting would only bring more problems than it was worth, he accepted the half and meekly took a bite.

"Want to know something interesting about jelly donuts?" she asked, as the last bite of her half disappeared.

"I suppose I have no choice."

"Well you see," she explained, licking the jelly residue off of her fingers, "it's a Silivock legend that if a man accepts part of one that a girl has already started to eat, it means he likes her."

Rikkard's gaze fell to his half-eaten half, then he closed his eyes. He had just stumbled into another one of her traps. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that her father was threatening him with death ...

"But that's no where nearly as important as that great feud," she continued. "Back when Terian and Ligire, twin brothers, I may point out, decided that the only way to make Alivocks and Silions stop arguing was to separate them, is it?"

"Uh, no, I don't suppose it is ..."