Miscellaneous

Misc. Story Two

"Hurry up; the prince will be here any moment. We cannot disappoint him in front of his acquaintance." The stable master growled out to Stephanie. She meekly frowned as she slid the bit into the horse's mouth. She had to groom and prepare two of the King's best horse for the prince. He was going on a date. 

She was genially stressed out about this. She had her grumpy stable master breathing down her neck as she tried to do her job. Everything she did was apparently not good enough and everything she thought she knew was apparently wrong. This was also her first day on the job, and this was her first task. She knew if she screwed this up, she'd be fired from high above. And with all that she had to keep her identity as a girl a secret. She needed this job. Her family needed this job. All the “woman” jobs were in house jobs that were paid very little. Men’s work was paid a lot more, especially if physical labor was involved.

She swiped the back of her hand across her sweaty forehead as she went and got the saddle for one of the horses. Having never done labor intensive work she struggled with this job. She was surprised she even got it. She figured calming down a horse was good show stopper. She struggled with the heavy saddle, carried it back to the horse she was working on and hoisted it up on to its back. She began to strap the saddle on when her stable master yelled at her and yanked the straps out of her hands. As he was half yelling at her, half showing her how to do it, the prince and his acquaintance arrived. Their arrival was unnoticed until a high pitched giggled pierced the air and made the horses whine. Both the stable master and Stephanie popped their heads around the horse to see who were there, both of them responding in different ways to the Prince’s arrival. The stable master handed the straps back to Stephanie, giving her a death glare, before stepping out from behind the horse and greeting the prince.

“Sire, we’ve been waiting for your arrival.” His voice came out smooth and creepy as he bent over bowing to the prince. He then glanced at the maiden next to the prince and smiled before taking her hand and kissing it, “You’ve chosen a beautiful maiden, sire.” He didn’t greet the girl further though except for giving her a sleazy smile. All the while this was going on, Stephanie managed to do the straps under the horse’s belly. When she put her hands back at her sides she could feel them shaking uncontrollably. Calm. Stay Calm.

“M’Lady, May I help you onto your horse?”, her stable master asked as he took the horse Stephanie was standing behind, closer to the maiden. Stephanie swallowed drily as she looked at the Prince and dropped her eyes. She had to stay calm. She clenched her shaking hands into fists as she took the other horse’s reins. She watched as the maiden clumsily climbed onto the horse with the stable master pushing her up by her waist. Well she wouldn’t call it waist since his hands seemed to travel lower as she went higher. The other only giggled as the hands passed over her bosom before it was planted firmly on to the saddle. The maiden’s cheeks flushed a rosy pink as she looked down at the Stable master. Stephanie rolled her eyes at this and couldn’t help but think that that girl was the cliché stereotype of girl that every guy wanted: beautiful, gorgeously long curly hair, soft feminine facial features, and a very, very good figure. Unlike the lady that was going to ride with the prince, Stephanie had straight hair, sharp features and an uncurving, flat body with no definition of anything. This actually played well with her since right now she wanted to be a boy and boys have no curves what so ever. She did have to strap down the little of a chest she did have though just in case anything unexpected happen. As she stood there and watched her boss flirt with the prince’s date, the prince got onto his horse and held his hand out for the reins. Of course she didn’t notice because she was too busy thinking about her hatred for woman like the lady. Instead of yelling at Stephanie the Prince leaned forward and yanked the reins from her grasp. She gasped and looked up at him. He smirked knowing her had her attention now and hissed out, “You better keep your eyes on things that belong only to you, you never know when someone with a knife might come along a seek revenge.” Her eyes went wide as she realized what he meant and she stuttered out, “S-Sire, I- I wasn’t staring at her. I-I would never look at a woman e-especially like h-“, Before she continue and try to convince the Prince that she hadn’t been checking out his date, date gasped out exaggeratedly. She looked wide eyed over to her to see what was going on to only be met with four pairs of eyes glaring at her. “How rude! Apologize now to me?” Barked the lady on the horse. She looked at her stable master who only folded his arms and glared at her. What was she supposed to do? She dug herself a bigger hole how was she supposed to get out of it now if she couldn’t even get out of it before? But before she could beg for forgiveness, a voice behind her spoke. “I think what this lad is trying to say is that he does not favor any woman…”The prince snickered as he maneuvered his horse forward. He didn’t bother looking at Stephanie as he continued and said, “This lad doesn’t seek the company of woman though how fair you are, lovely Maria.” With the last words he picked up Maria’s hand and kissed it, staring into the lady’s eyes. She signed before giggling and blushing again. Stephanie only stood there dumbfounded as how this whole thing twisted into her being gay. She was not gay! She very much did like men?...She looked down at herself before realizing the untrue truth. She looked up, fuming now at what the prince had said. How could he just say things like that to people that serve him? Especially things that isn’t true. She grumbled as she watched him flirt with Maria, a brilliant plan taking place. She smiled, trying to keep the evil out of it as she approached the Prince. She had no problem walking past the stable master as she looked at her disgusted and stepped away from her, leaving the stables. She slowly reached under the horse and began to adjust the straps.