All The King's Men

All The King's Men-Chapter One

Amelia could hear her heart hammering in her chest as she ran through the woods. Faster, she urged herself. Lifting her skirts with one hand, she leaped over a fallen tree. She felt as though her lungs would burst. She heard a rustling in the bushes to her left and stopped. Panting for breath she stood quietly and waited. 

Finally, she thought, I've got him. She pulled an arrow from the quiver on her back and notched it onto the string of her bow. She waited. She could hear him coming. More rustling in the underbrush. Suddenly, a large male deer jumped out of the foliage and bounded across the path in front of her. She quickly pulled the string back and aimed. She let the arrow fly, and grinned when the deer fell with an arrow in its heart.  

"Nice shot. I'm surprised you got him with all that noise you were making." 

Amelia turned and glared at her friend and confidant. Micah came slowly down the trail towards her, leading a pack horse. Three young squires followed behind. "It will do." She shrugged. "I think I saw a rabbit over that way." 

Micah caught her arm, as she moved past him. "We need to get back to the castle."

"Just one more." Amelia grinned. She stood back and watched as Micah and the squires strung a rope over a tree branch and used it to lift the huge deer onto the horses back. "Very clever." 

"Thank you." He watched as she studied the forest around them. "Ame, we need to get back to the castle. The Baron will be livid that we are even out here."  

Amelia stuck her tongue out, and glanced at the horse. She had already shot three rabbits, and now a deer. "There will be a lot of mouths to feed for the banquet. This meat, combined with the two pigs from the butcher and we will have a grand feast."

"Is there any particular reason you don't want to go back to the castle?" Micah asked. 

Amelia groaned, "I am just making sure we have enough meat." 

"There are hundreds of men in the castle, who are more than capable of hunting enough game for the banquet." Micah finished tying the deer to the pack horse and turned it around. "It is not exactly the best job for a princess. The Baron didn't want you out here today. You know that."  

Amelia glared at him. He was right, she didn't want to go back to the castle. Reluctantly she followed him up the path towards the huge gray stone wall in the distance. They would get back in plenty of time for the animals to be skinned and the meat prepared before the banquet that was scheduled that evening.

"Do you wish to talk about it?" 

She shook her head, "Not really." 

"Oh, come, Ame. It is Mayday. You will have a day full of weaving wreaths out of flowers, and dancing around the Maypole. Do you not look forward to that?" 

Amelia trudged up the path, "I would much rather go fishing."

Micah laughed, "Oh, Ame, you should have been born a boy."

Amelia felt her spirits lifting. "Aye, that I should."

Micah handed the reins of the horse to one of the squires. He took her bow and quiver from her and handed it to the other squire and sent them back to the castle. He turned to Amelia. "How about a swim before we go back?"

Amelia grinned, "Yes, please." She turned and ran down the trail. After a few twists and turns they reached a tall waterfall, with a large pond below. The water was clear and blue, it pooled below the waterfall and eventually made its way through a stream that wound down the mountain and fed the moat that surrounded the castle.