The Crown and the Bird

Dreams

Robin:
      As a young boy, I always dreamed of becoming a knight. Daring sword fights, epic quests, saving beautiful princesses from dragons, that sorta stuff. Those dreams led me to become a page at age seven (not to mention my family's declining wealth), and kept me going for a long seven years until I became a Squire. I'd like to tell you now that I am older and more mature, I've got better, slightly more realistic dreams. By more realistic, I mean something along the line of "I've lowered my standards". Princesses? That's not going to happen. The only princess I know of is the one who is destined to be a great ruler, and doesn't have time for froliking with poor ginger Squires who can't even read properly. Reading, I hope, is a fairly reasonable dream. Knights get to read, right? Or is that only nobility? I hope Knights get to read, otherwise I'm out of reasonable dreams. (The other ones include taming a dragon and owning my own castle made of cheese). I don't think Knight Garrett reads much. Then again, he's not the sharpest sword in the armory. Doesn't mean he isn't an excellent swordsman. That's pretty much why King Aleister still keeps him around. Or maybe it's because he has a cool mustache. That could be it. Either way, he's still a Knight, my Knight to be exact, meaning he gets to order me around regardless.
"Robin!" the mightily annoyed voice of Knight Garrett called.
"Yes sir?" I asked, exiting my small quarters to meet Knight Garrett outside. He strode up to me, in full armor mind you, and handed me a newly printed poster that looked as if it had been torn off a wall not long before. I glanced down at the poster, and noticed a very large number printed on it, next to a couple of words I could not read.
"We have a quest" Knight Garret announced. "We are to rescue crown Princess Katelyn from a mighty beast that captured her the night before".
"Mighty beast?" I asked. "Are we talking drunk tax collector mighty beast? Or something more ferocious?" Knight Garrett likes to exaggerate often. Just a couple days before he told me we had "A long, perilous journey ahead", when in reality, we were visiting the next village over to settle a riot about beetroots.
"No boy." he spat, "Think more along the lines of a Dragon". You know that feeling you get, when you finally found your purpose in life? (I received that feeling a couple of fortnights back, when I learned how to carve cheese into the shape of spearheads, which I then stabbed one of my fellow squires with). Well, I received that feeling, but much larger.
"So you're telling me, that we are going to save the Princess, from a dragon?"
"Yes. Yes we are. So come on boy, get your things and ready my horse. We've got a dragon to slay."