Once Upon a Faerie Tale

Chapter Sixteen

Fifteen:

Throughout the night, Darby could not find sleep. Instead her thoughts turned to the stories her grandmother told her. The pain caused by the West kingdom had been unbearable then, and after speaking to some of the servants in the castle, there were still constant threats from the West. Riada had been living in peace for the thirty-six plus years since her grandmother and her father had left this place. The statue of Analee still stood, a sentinel against danger and all that which was damaging. In fact, Riada had fared better than the East Kingdom whose outlying areas were poor and rarely looked after. They had been subject to more frequent raids, while no one from the West Kingdom dared enter if they intended harm. 

Josanu, Analee’s lover still reigned and it was said that he visited her daily, taking the trek from the castle by himself to see the woman he loved. He was aging now, one of the servants, whose sister had married a nice farmer in a village on the border of Riada and the East, said. Her sister had gone to market in the heart of the kingdom and had seen the aging king walk with a cane to the statue of his beloved. It was said that he discussed all of the problems of the kingdom with her, even though she never spoke back. But the story was well known, and all the children knew it, which would hopefully ensure the continuation of Analee’s bravery.

But here, in the East Kingdom, the king still mourned the loss of his brother, his first love, Cleo, and his wife and son. It made him bitter and difficult to reason with. Rumors around the castle, that had been whispered even before Darby’s arrival, but were now spoken loudly, suggested the king was ready to step down. Darby had felt an immense sense of pressure when the servants addressed her with reverence and awe. They viewed her as their next leader, which made her uncomfortable. She was not fit for leadership-at least not in this capacity. She wanted to get another degree and teach history at a college, not rule a country in a mythical land that she grew up hearing about. She was not fond of this idea and she had no intention of following in her grandfather’s footsteps. Instead she wanted to go home, but there were people suffering in the West Kingdom and, though she knew it was foolish, she made the commitment to do her best to help them until she left this crazy world, if she could ever leave. 

***

After a restless night, Darby donned a gown that looked like something from the middle ages with the simple lines and the mesh sleeves that hugged the arm until the elbow when it plunged into a loose triangle. It was a dress made for a princess.

Sighing as she looked at herself in the mirror rusted and dirty she realized that she was living a childhood dream. All she had wanted back then was to be a princess. She had dressed up in frilly pink dresses, plastic crowns, and her mother’s heels, forcing her parents to call her ‘Princess Darby’. Little did she know that she really was a princess. But that had been a wistful dream, merely a desire to escape into a magical land that could not exist anywhere but in her imagination and her grandmother’s stories. The ‘fairy tale’ wasn’t so magical or wonderful as she thought. Instead it was dangerous, full of even more difficult decisions and there seemed to be so much personal contention. She preferred to stay in the real world where she was just a normal girl, dealing with normal problems of a recent college graduate. Like trying to find a job and a place to live, not international problems, if she could even call that. 

Suck it up girl, you’re here now, and you need to deal with the problems at hand. She was desperate to speak to the West Kingdom’s king. Slavery was still in full force there and she wanted to see what could be done about building bridges between the two kingdoms. Her grandfather had done nothing but engage in battle with them over land and the occasional prisoner, never had there been any semblance of an attempt at a peace talk between the two kings. In fact, neither of the kings had been near each other unless it was with a  sword.