May 16, 754
(37 years ago)
.. .. ..
Mae sat on the rickety wooden step, laughing unendingly as her little brother danced a jig to her ma's harp music.
"Timi!" said her pa. "Why don't you get your drum and help her along?"
"Oh, Pa, can't I join, too?" begged Mae.
Pa laughed cheerily. "Go on, get your flute. I hope you've practiced."
Mae gave him a mocking smile. No one could go an hour without hearing Mae practicing her flute.
Pa clapped as Mae and her ma played, Timi beating on his drum nonstop, going off rhythm every other measure.
Everyone in Rokenville's inn clapped and sang along, until Darius, Mae's older cousin, climbed up onto the table and started to sing.
There is no day when we don't sing
For the baby prince the day he came
To a most fortunate queen and king
And their beloved son's outstanding fame!
It was Prince William's ninth birthday, and all of Rokenmeine was celebrating the date. Any day the king celebrated, Rokenmeine followed along. This was mostly because Rokenmeine simply loved celebrating: they loved the music and the shouting, the dancing and the extra food. Not that they didn't play music and dance any other day, but a celebration gave them a special reason to.
Mae particularly loved celebrations because she was able to play her flute for an actual audience. She'd been learning to play since she was five years old, and she was already ten, but her pa wouldn't let her play in the inn. She was instructed to help her ma in the inn's kitchen every night and day; stirring the stew and brewing the ale; sweeping the floor and wiping the tables. She didn't mind doing the work - every girl had to work to know how to live when she grew up and got married - but she did love the day when she could play for an audience.
"Vada, play us the one about the goose and the boy," exclaimed Lavie, Rokenville's florist, to Mae's ma.
Mae was thrilled. She knew this song! She could join along.
Vada smiled at the request, and started to strum while she sang.
The day the goose came flying, soaring
along June's summer sky,
the little boy with red hat brightest
pointed high at the sky, so high.
Mae blew softly, with radiant joy, into her flute as her ma sang.
"The goose!" he said, chanting, shouting,
"The goose, it flies so high!
So high it glides, the big black goose,
up high in the sky, so high!"
"Oh, no!" said the goose, laughing, mocking,
"No, no, I don't fly high!
YOU ARE READING
The Rugged Edge
Historical FictionPrincess Eloise grew up in a poor, spiritless kingdom under the reign of her step father. She knows that once, Rokenmeine was a beautiful place: abundant, rich, and always full of music. She wants to become queen so that she can restore it to what i...
