Phalces and the Beast

The Lonely Prince

A long time ago...

The ratty man behind the desk shuffled in his seat again. His beady eyes tried desperately tried to stay on the page in front of him, but to no avail. They kept returning to stare at the prince flipping through pages of a textbook at the long table in front of him. The rat man licked his rapidly drying lips.

No one in the entire kingdom could blame him; The prince was a gorgeous young man. Around 21 years of age, the prince had a prominent jawline, yet, somehow, his face looked soft and gentle. His platinum blond hair was curly, but cut short so you only saw small waves. However, on a scarce occasion he showed himself in front of a crowd his eyes was what drew everyone's attention. His eyes were the color of ice, and the frozen blue glittered in the sun similar to it. His blue tunic was made to compliment his eyes, and it did it's job quite well.

"Y-y-your Majesty?" The rat man stammered out.

The prince tilted his head towards him, but his eyes lingered on the book for a couple of seconds longer before reluctantly looking towards the rat man.

"Is something the matter, Sir Nicholas?"

"Ah! Uh well... I was wondering if you needed some assistance finding a new book. You've been reading the same one for quite a while now... N-n-not to say you're reading slow or anything!"

The prince chuckled, "I'm quite alright, but thank you for your concern Sir Nicholas. I'll be taking this book back to my room. That is, if you don't mind?"

"N-n-no! It's all yours!" Sir Nicholas hurried. He tried to ignore the churning his stomach had done when the prince had announced he was leaving.

The prince, on the other hand, had noticed all the looks Sir Nicholas had given him while he was trying to study. With a heavy sigh, he crossed off the library as one of the few safe places he had left. Currently, the only room left on his list was his personal chambers, and even then the window in his room had to be blocked off because of all the projectiles that had been thrown up to it. How people could throw all the way to the top of his tower, he had no idea. He just knew because of that he rarely got any sunlight. Going outside was always a nightmare because people would always swarm him. No matter how many bodyguards he had they still found a way to get to him.

Striding down the hallway, the prince headed for the secret garden. It wasn't really called the secret garden, but he and his maids didn't know what it was called and lacked the creativity to name it. It was one of the few places that no one, except for a few maids he hadn't had contact with in years and the gardener, knew about. It hedged out the world, and that was what made him keep the name 'the secret garden'.

His few friends as a child vanished as soon as he matured.

'Your simply too gorgeous', his parents tried to reason, 'People can't control themselves around you'.

He was certain if they were given a chance to prove themselves, his maids would've acted the same as they always did. However, he couldn't tell his parents why he knew this. He just was certain the two of them were more interested in each other than him, and this is even with his newfound gorgeousness.

While mourning the loss of his two only friends, he had found himself at the entrance to the secret garden. Moving aside the potted plant that blocked its entrance, he revealed a tiny hole in the hedge. He had asked the gardener to widen it as he grew and make sure the hedge never grew to cover the hole.

"Is it another bad day, Phalces?" A familiar face said behind him.

The prince, Phalces, turned around with a grin on his face. He quickly checked that no one was around before shaking the gardener's hand.