Happy Ever After

Flashback

Bright was standing as straight and as tall as he could muster. He knew better than to hunch over or worse to sit on the grass. Anything less than perfect posture would embarrass his parents and by extension the Kingdom.

But the young Prince was hating every minute he had to stand ramrod straight. For one thing, his left leg was starting to itch. For another, he was deathly bored.

His eyes were the only parts of his body free to move and he was looking every which way in the hopes of seeing anything interesting.

That's when he sees him.

A young boy who was perhaps his age signaling for him to come over.

Bright very slowly looks around him to make sure that the boy was truly calling to him. When his eyes glance back at the boy, he was rolling his eyes and mouthing "YOU!"

Bright wanted nothing else but to run towards the young boy - he looked like he was the only person having fun at this gathering. His hair was tousled and blowing freely in the wind, his eyes filled with mischief, beads of sweat dotting his pink cheeks and in his hand a big blue kite.

But Bright wasn't allowed to just do what he wanted. His guards and advisers would have to be consulted and he doubted they'd approve.

So he shook his head no.
He did it with a heavy heart.

The boy shrugged and began running in an effort to raise his kite to the sky.

Bright held back a sigh of longing.
What he'd give to be as carefree as that boy.

But before he could wallow in his misery, something lands on his feet.

The royal guard nearest him turns, ready to attack. But all it was was a kite. A blue kite.

The guard motions to pick it up. But Bright stops him. "I will return the kite. I trust that if things go wrong , the royal guards can handle a twelve-year-old."

"Of course Your Higness," the guard says, giving a salute.

Bright picks up the kite and walks over to the boy who was grinning widely at him - and you could tell from the curve of his lips that he had tricks up his sleeves.

Finding out what those tricks were, was a very very bad idea. But Bright was too curious now to care.

He stretches his arm forward, kite secure in his fist - a motion of returning the kite. The young boy stretches his arm forward as well as if to receive what was being given - but in a blink of an eye, he grabs Bright's wrist and runs instead.

Bright is caught off guard and almost stumbles but he finds himself running to keep up, allowing the boy to pull him wherever he pleased.

He was giggling now, a sound he rarely makes. The boy glances at him briefly and starts to laugh as well.

They don't stop running until they are in the part of the gardens near the lake. There was a soft breeze here. And the tall trees around them cast big shadows, making the heat of the sun bearable.

They don't talk. Instead they wordlessly fix the kite together and take turns running to make it fly.  It takes them so many tries before they could get it off the ground.