random snippet of fic Lovely said to share. He's twelve. And bossy. What can I say?...
Dear Diary,
Teacher says today we should write about our favorite story or book. Living above a bookstore I have read a lot of stories, but the one I like the most is one I am making up myself. It’s about a boy who lives on an island called Cyex. This is my special magic land and in it the boy has all kinds of adventures there. His father is dead, and his mother is busy being a Queen, and so the boy, who is a Prince, goes off and has adventures on his own. Would you like me to tell you one of my stories?
One day, Prince Lyan was riding on his horse though the country around the Castle Shiloh where he lived. With him was his page, on her pony. Page was holding the boy’s hawk and they were looking for weaslets to hunt. As they passed by a Holy House and its burying ground, they saw a girl, weeping over a grave with dirt on top of it. The boy prince liked to be helpful, so he slipped off his horse, and handed the reins to Page.
“Can I help you,” he asked the girl.
“No one can help me now that I am alone in this world,” she said, tears streaming down her face.
“I can do many things, girl. Allow me to assist you.” Lyan tried in his most grown-up voice.
“I must make my own way now, so go’n with you. Get going and leave me be.”
“Here now, Missie,” Page called from the edge of the burying ground.“You’ve no call to be speaking to my master in such a way. Show some ‘spect!”
“Hush, Page,” Lyan said.
“Look at me, girl,” he added.
The girl looked up from where she was kneeling next to the grave and to see the Prince standing here, green cloak thrown back over one shoulder, his red hair sparking in the sunlight, and she could do nothing but weep even harder.
“Please my liege Prince, forgive me,” she sobbed.
Lyan knelt down beside her saying, “never apologize for your very proper grief. I would like to help if I can. Perhaps my page can bring you some water and we can talk.”
He handed her a handkerchief, while Page went to get some water from the Holy House well.
“There’s no one can help me Sire,” the girl Adra said finally. “I must be the one to help myself. I must find some work that I can do and make something of this life while I can.”
“If you come with me back to the castle, I can introduce you to the steward, perhaps he can help.”
“Please, sir, I would rather make my way on my own, no matter how kind the offer. My poor Dad told me, on his dyin’ bed, ‘you make your life your own now Adra. Don’t ask favors from no man.’ Those were his dying words and I am going to try and make them my living ones. So begging your forgiveness, I will take a sip of this water brought by your servant, and then I will be on my way.”
Prince Lyan watched this girl gather up a small sack of belongings from atop the burying ground wall and walk away down the lane that led to the village.
He had no way of knowing that one day, the girl Adra would return to Cyex and become his wife.