What Happened After Everything?

Dinner in the Southern Isles

In the horse's pens, there cleans the left over muck that had been left for days for the youngest prince, Hans, to pick up after.

"Look. He's at it again." Prince Alf said, gesturing to his youngest brother's vexation.

"Well, that's what happens when you fucking get caught in the act of taking over a bloody small country. Even such a simple thing like that, he couldn't do." Bjorne said, mocking the redheaded prince's big let-down to the kingdom. "All that's left for him to do now is to marry some ugly hag from a neighboring kingdom. But not just any ugly hag. A filthy-fucking-rich-ugly-hag that no one ever wants to marry! Ha!"

"Oh, please... he'll need all the luck he needs if he can even score a bag like that!" Alf said.

"I'm right here, you bloody mongrels." I said, very irritably.

"Does it look like we care." Bjorne said.

I didn't answer his rhetorical question and just continued shoveling horse shit from the ground. Upon hearing each of my brother's insults, I secretly sneered at them.

~

Atfer hours of plowing feces, finally, the sun had set and we were called in for our regular family dinner which mostly consisted of My father, my grandmother, Arvid and his wife, Erik and his wife, Ivar and his toddler son, Sindre and his fiance, Reidar, Bjorne, Alf, Kare and Kristoffer (twins), Kjetil, Henrik, Daq, and me.

The usual dinner courses were always unusually grand and over-the-top  for just the nineteen of us, we could even feed the food being served to us now to a small village nearby instead of always leaving leftovers for some of the royal servants to eat or be thrown away.

I headed for the dinner table after I'd changed into a new set of clothes as I reeked of animal poo and could easily stink up the whole dining room with my overpowering odor.

When I finally got seated, I heard my brother, Arvid, flirting with one of the maids serving food. He was very touchy with her. But she probably liked it as she knew his wife was indeed beside them, watching and listening but nevertheless, neither of them could give a damn about her feelings. It  wasn't unusual for him to do things like this, he'd sometimes even go for holidays without his family just to spend some time fornicating and drinking in some high-class brothel in some foreign country. His wife is very much used to these kinds of acts so now she has her own way of dealing with her raging jealousy and lust. She would hire men who were much much younger than her into her own private quarters in the castle secretly at night but since it was meant to be secret, of course the whole castle knows about these sexual acts. That is why Grandmother looks down upon their relationship but is still in love with the idea of both our nation and her's were united by just them marrying one another.

I looked around the table and noticed that Daq was not yet here. He's probably lazing around somewhere and sleeping in. I am sometimes quite jealous of his freedom in the castle, able to roam around aimlessly and wherever he wishes and does whatever he may please. What the life! But then again... I'd rather also not be in his place as the only reason why the family couldn't give any shits about him as he was caught courting a man and sadly, Grandmother found out about this and decided to hang the poor lad, leaving Daq brokenhearted. Shortly after that, he went through different phases in his life and soon everyone just gave up on him. Now, he just does whatever he wants without any purpose.

Now, enough about how dysfunctional my family  is as that is for another time for me to tell. 

I began taking bites out of my food. As I was about scoop up some of the soup from my bowl, my father called my name.

"Hans." he said.

"Yes, Father..." I said.

"I need you to go back to Arandelle for me and bring along one of their royal representatives with you to Dunbroch. Your journey starts three days from now so better tell one of the maids to pack all your things for you."

"What! You want me to go back there, to Arandelle and pick up their what!" I said, slamming my fists on the table.

"That is an order son. Do not fail me this time." he said.

That remark made me stay quiet for a moment before I said, "Yes, Father."

"Good." he nodded. "After you pick up the subordinates, both of you shall head over to Dunbroch and meet with their royal family discussing about our royal affairs and such. It's as simple as that. Do you think you can do it?"

"Yes, father." I said, slowly returning back to my seat.

"Then it's settle-" he said before being interrupted by Sindre.

"But Father, what if he decides to fuck this up again? He might even try to court and kill another princess! Like I don't know... The princess of Dunbroch!" Sindre protested.

"Oh, you mean, Merida? That young Las? If that's the case, sure he can try and court her! I've recently heard that she has bloomed into a fine young and beautiful young lady! But Hans, you must act quick! It was said that she has already fallen for some viking of some sort but surely a prince form the southern isles whom is most likely to be more eligible to court her than some dirty viking! Hans is a prince for heaven's sake!" father stated.

"But Father-" Sindre said, triyng to change his mind.

"No buts, Sindre. Now, quit yapping about your brother's mistakes and failures and eat your damn food!" He said.

"Yes, Father..." Sindre said, glaring at me.

My other brothers were trying to hold in their obnoxious laughter as in their eyes, this situation was freaking hilarious.

We continued eating our dinner and headed back to our personal quarters.