The Knife's Case

The Scares End

The prince said I can go to the castle whenever I please. I please. I see the tip of the castle. I slow my footsteps down, as I approach the entrance of the castle. I have raced the sun. The sun has not even gone half way above the mountains. I stop before I get to the gate. I see a man dressed in royal blue at the top of a tree, watching the sunrise. He is the prince.

"Your majesty," I am shocked, he is out of the castle walls.

He looks down, looking just as shocked as me. "Ingred, when I said anytime, I did not know you meant at dawn."

"Are you going against your word?" I ask.

"No, no I am not. It is only that I am not supposed to be out of the castle walls. You must not tell a soul. Is there anything I can do for you?" He explains.

"I know I came a bit early, and I know I am not in proper attire. May I climb up?"

" Why would I mind? Do you need help?"

"No, I am perfectly able." I say stubbornly. I pull my dress up to my knees and put one foot on the first branch, testing it to make sure it will not brake. My father trained me well with survival and fighting techniques after my mother died. I do not need help with childish things like climbing trees. I climb up and up the tall oak tree, watching out for sap. I climb up to the top branch and watch as the beautiful sun arrives. My mother died when the sun rose. The sun rose when a soul sunk. Sunk beneath the mountains.

"What are your parents like?" Prince Koran asks.

It takes me a second to think of what to say. There is, and was so much. "My mother died. My father is a blacksmith." I simply say.

"If you do not mind me asking, how did your mother die?" He asked with caution.

My father and I had discussed what I was to tell people when they asked. "Imagine a beautiful flower that is swaying in the wind. But her roots are pulled out. She shrivels up and dies." I close my eyes thinking of her.

"Perhaps the rose hung upside down so she could become as a beautiful ornament. So that her words would not be forgotten."

"Yes. Her words were not forgotten." He understood. "Thank you."

"Why did you come so early?" His questions do not fade or waver.

"I am going through a lot right now." I say, not thinking about what explanation I would have to say afterward.

"Do mind if I ask what is going on? Is it the engagement?"

"No! And I do mind."

"I apologize, I did not mean to offend you."

I stare silently into his eyes. They are truly kind. "You didn't. It's not you." I think for a moment, "Why are you so kind to a person you do not even know?"

"If you are never kind to a person you do not know, how will you ever know the person."

I am silent for a while. I understand. I understand what the good words mean that people say, but if you give me words that are meant to be bad, deciphering is difficult. Because of my father telling me bad, with good intentions. "My mother died at sunset."

"What was she like, was she as beautiful as you?" He glances at me, he has a small smirk on his face.

I take advice from him; I need to smile, again. "My mother had blue eyes, the color of an angry storm. She had fair skin, and her hair was the color of a dried field of grass. Se was muh more beutiful than me. You could say I look like her on the outside. Her character though, I am nothing like; she was kind and gentle with everything she held. She had words like a sword. She used to tell me stories of places far away. She never told me of the castle, and though she knew one day I would live in it. She always told me that you can build a castle in your heart." I am silent, as if realizing something of my own.