Suzerainty

Beggared

Long long long ago, there was a quaint little kingdom full of all sorts of colourful characters. Toys of all shapes and sizes, buildings made of bricks and building blocks. This kingdom was a happy one, each subject adored their kingdom, and its rulers. These two rulers kept peace and tranquillity in the kingdom, treating it as their pride and joy and their subjects absolutely loved them for it. The subjects were never happier with their home, and the rulers were never happier with how well their kingdom was doing. It was wealthy, not too much so that the rich very clearly overpowered the poor. It was a healthy dynamic, that much was certain.

The rulers in question were a pair of chess pieces, known only as Kinger and Queenie. Ironically, they were a white kings chess piece black queens chess piece. What should be enemies, but lovers instead. Everyone in the kingdom agreed that the king and queens love was a love entirely special to them, their wedding was a spectacle to behold. Alas, tragedy would befall the happy couple in two ways, the first was that the couple had discovered that they are unable to have a child. The two were incredibly disheartened at this discovery, but all was not lost as a small eccentric wizard had approached them, holding a very small raggedy ann doll.

The pair of chattering teeth for a wizard had held out the raggedy ann doll to them with a smugness in his voice.

"Cherish this doll as your kin, you'll never know what might happen"

The heartbroken couple was confused at first, but did as they were told. Why? They didn't know, maybe they felt the need to nurture something , maybe their poor wounded hearts needed it. So, for a week, they nurtured the little doll. Queenie had mothered it so diligently, cradling the doll during a nasty thunderstorm and singing the doll a little lullaby every night. Kinger on the other hand had fathered it excellently, letting the doll sit and watch him as he took care of the roses in the royal garden, teaching the doll about all the little bugs that had resided in the gardens. Although he did panic when the poor doll was swarmed with a bunch of centipedes, spending a good hour scrubbing the dolly of all the dirt that the centipede's tracked on her.

Then, one lazy sunny morning, the king and queen all cosied up in a blanket were rather rudely awoken by something jumping on their bed. Groggily, the king opened his eyes and downright near screamed at the sight of a jumping ragdoll, the size of a small child instead of being able to fit in their pockets.

"Mama, Papa! C'mon wake up!"

She giggled out, waking the queen's chess piece also who did scream at the sight of the little dolly. But this wasn't a scream of terror, no this was a scream of absolute delight. She enveloped the little dolly in a bone crushing hug, if she had bones, and exclaimed in delight.

"Ragatha! You're alive my dear baby!"

The trio was a happy family for a while, emphasis on a while as the second tragedy befell the couple. Queenie had grown deathly sick, an incurable illness and had passed very shortly after diagnosis. The king and his beloved daughter, Ragatha, were absolutely heartbroken at the loss. The funeral was a very large turnout, everyone in the kingdom had mourned the loss of their beloved queen, tributes upon tributes were created and the day was declared a national holiday, a day of remembrance for their beloved queen.

After his beloved's death, the poor king had begun falling off the deep end throughout the years. Each year making him more senile, crazed if you will. Thankfully however, he still had his beloved daughter who had grown into a gorgeous young lady, she had been prepared to take over the throne and rule the kingdom with just as a diligent hand as her mother had. She made her father proud.

So that takes us to the present day in our story, Ragatha, a few months before her coronation, was strolling through the palace gardens with her best friend, though really she was just the court jester. A little jester known as 'Pomni'.

"Are you prepared to...rule an entire kingdom, Rags?"

Pomni had asked, using a nickname only used when Ragatha wasn't in the company of the social elite. She flowed into appearances incredibly well, but that didn't make it so that she hated how stuffy a few people were, she hated the snobs that sucked up to her dad. He was already going insane, he didn't need more prissy and prim socialites poking their noses in his business. Their last ball had him in tears because some snobby woman had decided to bring up her late mother, Ragatha saw that the woman was banned from future gatherings.

"Would you be prepared to run an entire kingdom, Pomni?"

Ragatha responded, stopping to bend down and sniff a particularly red rose. She adored roses, because her mother did. Her mother told her the best care for roses and she most certainly did take care of them, treating them with such kindness and delicacy that only a princess could have.

"You make a fair point...uh b-but i'm sure you will do amazingly! I've never seen anyone ace all their exams the way you have"

"You're too kind Pomni...but...ah I don't know.."

Ragatha began, walking towards the middle of the royal garden and looking up at a giant marble statue, covered in roses, of her late mother.

"I'm scared... I wont make her proud..."

Pomni glanced at her best friend worriedly, placing a hand on her arm and silently consoling her. The princess's eyes were broken, they had been ever since the death of her mother, but she was a strong princess. Pomni had seen it first hand, the torrent of tears before the mask of a perky and positive princess. The slew of degrading names she called herself in front of the mirror before delivering a speech so diligently that no one would suspect anything wrong. Pomni knew Ragatha would be an excellent queen, no one could hide their emotions the way Ragatha could.

"Your highness, the king requests your presence.."

Spoke a knight, kneeling down behind Ragatha, causing her to flinch and turn around before composing herself with a deep breath and a curt nod. The knight stood up, ready to escort the princess.

"Pomni, you go relax for a while...I'll be back soon"

Ragatha had told her best friend before walking off with the knight trailing behind her, leaving the poor jester to stare on worriedly. Yeah, Ragatha was strong. Admirably strong.

But how long can she last before breaking?





The king was in his study, rarely in the throne room. He couldn't bear looking at the empty throne beside him, it had been decades and he still was mourning the loss as if it happened yesterday. No one blamed him though, everyone adored the queen after all.

"Father...you summoned me.."

Ragatha spoke, politely curtseying to her father as he looked up from his desk. The two waited for a few moments as the knight left Ragatha's side and closed the door to his study, giving the two some privacy. Once that happened, the two dropped their uptight appearances immediately as Ragatha ran right towards her father and buried herself deep into his arms, her father returning the hug by squeezing as tightly as possible.

"Daddy! How have you been? How was your trip up north?"

She asked, pulling a stool up beside him and sitting on it, as she would if she were a child waiting for their father to tell a wacky story. She held her fathers hands with tender love and care, giving them a little squeeze as he told her about his 'trip'. Though...it wasn't a trip. He had imagined it, he tended to do that when he was silent for a few days at a time. Everyone in the castle knew it, so they humoured him and allowed him to ramble about the various 'adventures' he had supposedly been on. They all adored him too much to destroy his heart even more.

"Ohh my dear Ragatha, this one was the wildest adventure yet!! It had been a few hours on the ship before we were attacked by a group of rogue circus sea lions! I had wrangled each and every one of them off my ship, oh but it was a tough one. Sea lions are vicious, you know, and be careful of their razor sharp wings!"

The king had told Ragatha with such joy in his voice that she daren't ever tell him that sea lions don't have wings. She simply giggled along with him, squeezing his hands even more as she responded to his made up story.

"Goodness me, a group of rogue sea lions! Thank the heavens that the crew had you on board daddy, only you had the strength to do that!"

This caused the king to chuckle too, seeing her father laugh really did warm up Ragatha's heart. She would do anything to keep her father happy, he was her pride and joy as she was his.

"So...my dear...are you going to get married?"

Well she would do anything to make him happy, but not that