The Prince

Chapter 1 ♔ The Meeting

Chapter 1

  As I walked the streets, I made sure to keep my head, covered with a fleece hood, tucked inwards, towards my chest. No good would come out of me being recognized. I wasn't supposed to be out this late at night; this time was for all the merchants that came to the parade every year to sell their goods. The vendors were setting up stalls and men were all over the streets, hanging up banners and decorations.

  Everyone was getting ready for the Parade of Irlandia. It was a holiday that all looked forward to. The royal family partook in this parade as well. Annually, on the fifth of April, school would get cancelled, and spirits would go up. The parade celebrated all aspect of Irlandia—from the roaring oceans to the east and west and the mountains that bordered the north, it even celebrated the people. 

  Every year my family would go to the parade. My father would always take me and my little brother, Zachary to the concession stands. There, he'd ask us what we wanted. Me and Zach would follow our yearly routine, I'd ask for cotton candy and my brother would get a giant sugar cookie in the shape of a crown, covered with a royal blue icing. The vendors would smile at us as we left the stands, hands filled with sugary-goods. We would go to the area along the sides of the streets where my mother would always be waiting for us at the sign that read our family name.

  First would come acrobats, wearing shades of blue and green. When they moved to music that sounded like waves crashing, their bodies seemed to be made of water, flowing like the currents in the ocean breeze. The Parade of Watered Paradise. After that, came dancers on stilts, dressed in elegant grays and icy whites, that seemed more like skyscrapers personified, and baton twirlers with astounding coordination, and outfits that looked as if they were spun from gold. The Parade of Mountains and The Parade of Abundance. They had such focus in their eyes, it was a wonder how they managed to smile at the crowd in front of them. I remember trying to twirl a baton once, I wound up with two stitches on the back of my head from falling over. 

  Each segment in the parade was given a special name. For many, the most important was one. The Parade of the Young Maiden.

  A girl's seventeenth birthday declared womanhood in Irlandia. The "young maidens" would now be eligible for marriage. The newly-turned seventeen year old girls would walk in a straight procession through the streets, wooing the young bachelors that gathered in the seats set out just for them. In other words,The Parade of the Young Maiden was like a coming out festival where the girls were shown off. 

  A boy became a bachelor on his 17th birthday. Each bachelor would receive a booklet, the thickness depended on the amount of girls that turned 17 that year. Each girl had a page dedicated to her. On her page, there would be a picture of her, her name, birth-date, and family history.

  After the parade was over, there was a three day ball, where the only invitees were the bachelors and bacherlorettes, that was held in the castle. It was a televised event.

  The girls who walked the parade usually wore very revealing dresses to catch the eye of future potential husbands. For the past two years, the dresses seemed to become more revealing and less modest. This was done all for one man. Prince Mason Thomas Alexander Valencia I, of Irlandia. He had become an eligible bachelor two years ago. All the girl's wanted him to pay attention to them, ask for their hand, and make them queen of Irlandia.

  Personally, I didn't give a shit. 

  After the girl's came the royal family sitting in an ivory colored carriage that was decorated with colorful roses. King Thomas Alexander Valencia III and his wife, Queen Cathleen Rosaline Valencia would sit in the back and Prince Mason and his brother, Prince Adam, who was four years his junior, would sit towards the front.