Crowns ~ Smosh

One

A messenger was led into the throne room by one of the servants of the castle. He stopped before the king's throne, unrolling his scroll to give his message.

"The king and queen of Webren, herby invite the princes and princesses of the Kingdom of Straonia to the Webren Empire's Royal Ball." The messenger looked up at the king, as in to gage his reaction before continue reading. "The royal ball will be held in the Royal Webren Hall, and the best housing will be provided for you. The king and queen wish for you to attend the ball, and look forward to seeing your attendance."

"What is the occasion for such a ball?" King Ian questioned. "Webren is a far journey, I do not wish to send my children on such a long journey for anything less than a noble cause."

"Of course, the ball is to celebrate-" The messenger was abruptly cut off by the door to the throne room slamming open.

"Give it back!" Courtney yelled, as her brother raced into the throne room, holding her notebook triumphantly in the air. King Ian sighed.

"Shayne," He called exasperated. "Give your sister back her notebook." Shayne did so, and then raced off as his sister tried to attack him.

"As I was saying," The messenger attempted to continue, but was obviously very rattled by the interruption. But before the messenger could get out any other words, the door to the throne room swung open once more. This time a sobbing Olivia was being carried in by a soaking wet Wes.

"What happened?" The king lept to his feet and rushed over to his daughter, pulling the girl into his arms. Olivia was the most sensitive of his children, and he hated to see her cry. The girl was too distressed to answer, so the king turned to the prince.

"Keith pushed her into the lake," He answered, looking down at his younger sister. "I jumped in after her, but she's a little shaken up."

"Where is Keith now?" Ian looked around, still holding his sobbing daughter in his arms.

"I think that Mari might have gone after him, but I'm not sure," Wes answered and gently took Olivia away. "I'm going to take her to the infirmary to make sure she isn't hurt." And the two went off, and Ian returned to his throne.

The messenger who had watched the entire encounter, turned to speak once more to explain the message that he had originally came to explain, when once again the throne room door swung open.

"Just fighting through!" Matthew called, as David and Joshua followed him into the throne room, ruthlessly attacking each other with pillows they had stolen from their beds. Matthew was announcing it, speaking in his "announcer voice" and into a hairbrush he had stolen from one of his sisters.

Everything was seemingly going okay until Joshua swung his pillow and it slipped from his hands, smashing into the messenger who stood there impatiently waiting for the boys to exit the room. The pillow knocked the papers the messenger was holding out of his hands, scattering them across the throne room.

"Way to go, Josh," David said, giving his younger brother another whack, sending his glasses to the floor.

"Sorry," Matthew apologized for his two brothers, who were still squabbling.

The throne room door burst open again, this time it was Damien, holding a squirming cat in his arms.

"Dad!" He yelled, hoisting the cat up so the king could see. "Can we keep him?" The messenger sneezed, dropping all the papers he had just picked up.

"Get that cat out of here! I'm allergic!" He sneezed again, and the king quietly shooed Damien out of the throne room. And finally the throne room was cleared out.

"Those are your children?" The messenger asked.

"A few of them," Ian responded.

"Rambunctious aren't they? They are hardly proper royalty," The messenger turned up his nose. "Perhaps another ball, your highness." He turned to leave. "Royalty? More like wild animals," He muttered under his breath, and he left the throne room, leaving the king alone to his thoughts.

~*~

Like usual, the king was the first person in the dining room. Lunch was already served, the steaming soup was already set on the table, and the king had to continuously shoo some of Damien's cats off the table.

David was the first to arrive, as usual. Somehow his children always seemed to enter in age order, maybe they planned it, a small joke that they wanted to play on their father. So as usual, David was first, Mari was next, and they continued to go down the list until everyone was seated. But the second that everyone was seated, the room erupted into noise.

The king was left fighting for his children's attention. He first tried just asking them to quiet down, but the conversations that surrounded him were too loud for him to be heard over. He next tried tapping his spoon against his glass, while still asking his children to quiet down. It seemed like the feat was impossible, until finally someone heard him, and quieted down their siblings, and soon they were all paying attention to what the king had to say.

"It has come to my attention recently," The king started, awkwardly. "That you guys could be doing more to act more like proper royalty."

"Dad? What do you mean?" Ericka asked, concern knitting her eyebrows together.

"Well," The king started, stumbling over his words. He wasn't quite sure, he realized, but he knew that he would figure something out. He was about to explain this to his children this when the door to the dining room opened. One of their servants poked his head in, and the king sighed, but motioned for him to deliver his message.

"The royal cobbler has arrived," The man announced, and the king released a larger sigh as all of his children stood up excitedly.

"They're just shoes!" He called, trying to keep his children in the room, but he only got an offended gasp in return.

"Just shoes?" Some of them responded before exiting the room.

"Aren't they?" The king asked quietly, feeling tired and confused already.

"They're dancing shoes, Dad," Mari said, leaning over to kiss her father on the cheek. "You know how much they mean to us." And she left the room, following her siblings, leaving the king to finish eating alone.

"I love them," The king sighed to himself. "But sometimes I don't understand them." And he looked down to his soup, taking a bite of it, suddenly feeling very drained.