Fans

Fans Part 1

Fans - The Queens

Cast of Characters:

Queen Penta - Eldest queen of Kingdom. Administrator of business and taxes. Can teleport.

Queen Helga - Second oldest. The Marsh King's Daughter. Warrior. Has the ability to cure curses.

Queen Valencia - Third oldest. The Little Match Girl. Preference for the poor. Has good fortune.

Queen Cinderella - Fourth oldest. Organizes festivals and social events. Has the ability to charm.

Queen Snow White - Youngest. Negotiator and ambassador. Cannot be murdered.

AN: A short story in two parts told in two different perspectives. The second half is entitled Fans - The Fans Themselves.

Let me tell you a secret. I receive fairy tales from a mysterious author who I suspect lives in a fantasy world known as Kingdom, a world I know is real for I went there and completed a quest. I have no idea how to journey to this other world for a ghost transported me there. That's why, when periodically someone sends a story from Kingdom, I'm both puzzled and delighted.

I'm Harold Tray, and I'm the recipient of said stories. The tales—which come as letters—contain a detailed account of the people I met in the fairytale world known as Kingdom. Written as fiction, they are as precious to me as emails from a once close friend I haven't talked to in years. I wish more than anything I could write the unknown author back.

I received the last letter about a year after I returned home from Kingdom. The story detailed how my friends, the five monarchs of Kingdom (all sisters) were getting along while governing their world together. The fairytale queens anticipated many problems after they ascended to power, but they failed to foresee a major problem. Their fans.

In Kingdom after the queens ascended to power, the sovereigns settled into the business of ruling their land. They knew some of their subjects wouldn't immediately accept them, and reprobates would commit rebellious and other undermining acts. Base men would never accept an all-woman ruling party though having women leaders were a staple of Kingdom's history. The queens knew they would need to increase taxes to remove the extortion rampant around the land, and outlawing pixie scalping at the same time as hunting down child kidnappers, often used for ingredients in spells, resulted in certain merchants seeking new industries. To say "And they lived happily ever after" when the queens rose to power was not only a euphemism, it was an outright lie.

Despite the assassination attempt on Queen Cinderella for banning seal hunting, and the abandonment of Queen Helga in a battle with cloud trolls, the monarchs handled every issue handed to them forthrightly. They acknowledged each situation, discussed it at length in private, and if they disagreed, they portrayed a united front to the public...until the aforementioned problem. At first, the queens were flattered by their fans. They never expected the problems it would later cause.

Six months after their coronation, Valencia, also known as the Little Match Girl, entered the side entrance to the castle after two hours of distributing fruit to Town's beggars. She strolled inside and nearly ran into Snow White in a large chamber with a back staircase to the upper levels. Normally Snow White's pulchritude was without question, but today the fairest queen's hair stuck out in disarray. Sod smudged her pale left cheek and her plate armor, dented and scuffed, required some attention.

"Combat training?" inquired Valencia.

Snow White walked beside her. "Hate it!"

"Me too. But Helga is right. 'Tis necessary."

"Hmm..."

Valencia touched her sister's shoulder. "I thought I saw you in the marketplace while I shopped there, but it turned out to be a young woman who disguised herself to duplicate your countenance. I wondered if you sanctioned a decoy—a very dangerous idea, I thought. I stopped her and inquired why she made herself up to look like you. She said she admired you and wanted to look like you."