My Knight In Shining Rags

Prologue

It was a sunny day in the kingdom of Adraleseth and the young princess Alice was out in the village playing with her friends Clara, Piper, Frederick, and Peter. They ran around the village, danced, and sang before the sun started to lower in the sky. They laid there in the meadow in circle and vowed that they would always be friends. While Clara, Piper, Frederick, and Peter headed back to their homes in the village Alice headed back to the palace with her mother who had seemed to have fallen severely ill. They had reached the palace when the queen collapsed at the enormous, overshadowing gates. Several hours passed for Alice as she sat and waited for the diagnostics of her mother's illness from their family doctor, Michael. The king of Adraleseth, Edward, had emerged from the room where her mother was with a look of misery within his eyes. He was always a strong, harsh man who was rarely ever seen joyful or miserable, so Alice as anyone normally would, became frightened by this. Followed by the king was Michael, they both approached Alice with a miserable feel sifting through the air. They sat with her for a couple of minutes before telling her about her mother's condition.

"Alice, sweetie" the king trembled before breaking into tears. "I can't do this" he mumbled.

"Alice, your mother has a condition called Tachycardia, which in severe cases, like hers, results in death" Michael informed her regretfully as she fell to the ground and broke into tears. "You may go see your mother if you'd like".

He opened the door for the king and the young princess and they filed one by one into the room. As Alice stepped into the room the first thing she noticed was her mother lying in a bed, as pale as the moon, her eyes small and squinted unlike their usual large, wide shape in their beautiful ocean blue colour. She looked towards Alice through the gloominess covering the room, a faint smile appeared across the queens face as Alice ran towards her crying.

"mummy please don't die!" Alice cried out, the queen wrapping her arms around her daughter and her husband knowing that this would be the last time she would be able to tell them the most important thing she had ever told them. She opened her eyes slightly wider than normal to receive a last glimpse of her family while laying back down on her bed.

"You two, my king and my little princess" she stumbled the words out as she felt herself slowly slipping away "I love you".

"I love you too mummy" Alice managed to spit out through her tears seeing the light slipping away from her mother's eyes. her eyes which were once full of life were now blank and lifeless, the family doctor had announced her death to the king and his only daughter, who were then to announce to the kingdom that she had passed.

~~~several months later~~~

The king was distraught over the queens death although he refused to show any sign of emotion in front of his daughter and his subjects. He had forced himself to carry on raising his daughter and taking care of his people with or without a queen. He decided that it was best for everyone if Alice were to continue her training to eventually take over the throne.

Alice often thought of her old friends, who she had out of nowhere, stopped visiting like she had everyday up until the day her mother passed. Her old friends were fading to old memories as she spent every day cooped up inside the palace with her father and their many servants.