King Of Hearts

.01

It's the end of the semester, meaning I finally have time to write. Really don't know where this story will go, but let's see how it goes. 

- bee x 

It was December 24th, which to many in the kingdom of Stonedance was just a regular day. To the rulers of this kingdom, however, it was a day of celebration. Their eldest son, Louis, has reached the age of which is appropriate to find a princess for him to marry. Louis dreaded the day he turned 19 and was unsure such an odd age was destined for him to find someone to wife. However, for the past five years, he has been 'prepped' for finding a girl to take as his own. 

As the boy sat in his bed, turning to look at the snow softly falling outside his window, he wondered what it would be like to have a normal life. A life that wasn't full of arranged marriages and ruling over masses of people who kiss the ground you walk on. He wished he was young again when his worries were only wondering who he would play with and what was for supper. 

When he reached age fourteen is when his days of playing were over. His parents had begun hosting lavish balls at their home, inviting royal families from far and wide. Louis hated being thrust into an atmosphere he was not comfortable in. All he did was say hello to the pretty girls his age and kiss the back of their hand, compliment them, just like his father had instructed. But every one of the girls he'd met, he didn't feel anything. His white cheeks didn't glow at the innocent beauty in front of him. His palms didn't sweat and his stomach didn't churn with anxiety as he had expected it to. He felt nothing. And this scared Louis because, what if, he never found the one? Surely he'd be a disgrace to his family and imagined his father banishing him from the kingdom for simply not being good enough. 

Louis was pulled from his deep thoughts as his younger sister, Lottie, burst into the room in a fit of giggles as she held a mewling kitten in her arms. She crawled up onto his bed, being cautious of the kitten as she scooted up beside her brother. 

"Lottie, mother and father aren't going to be happy when they see you with a kitten," Louis scolded as he placed the little girl in his lap, furrowing his brows at the trembling kitten. The kitten had little pieces of ice clinging to its matted brown and gray fur. The boy told his sister to stay put and rushed to his drawers to find some type of cloth to warm the kitten with.

"Found her in the garden, she was nearly frozen to death Lou," Lottie murmured as she held the ice-cold kitten as close as she could. Louis gathered a few rags and towels and hurried back to the bed, reaching out to wrap and swaddle the kitten up into what he had. His heart sank as its lifeless eyes blinked slowly up at the boy, letting out a weak meow. He couldn't let this kitten die, not right in front of his sister. 

"What if you do the mouth to mouth thing?" Lottie suggested except mouth came out sounding more like mouf. Louis just gently started to rub his fingers over the kitten to regulate warmth, panic starting to settle in his chest as the kitten's eyes fell shut. 

"See what I'm doing?" Louis showed Lottie the motions he was making with the rags to warm up the kitten, handing the frail being over to his sister, "I'm going to go get some cream, maybe she's hungry?" 

The little girl gathered herself and the kitten beneath Louis' blankets as the boy rushed out of his room and down the hallway toward the stairwell, hoping he would not run into his parents. 

"Good morning, Prince Louis" An older plump woman greeted the frazzled boy as she kneaded dough at the table. Her hair was wrapped up tightly into a bun, gray curls framing her chubby face. She glanced over at the boy with a raised brow as he rummaged through the bottles, "D'ya need something, love?"