Finding the Fourth Hill

Mr. Joshua Windsor and his lifes story

The bed is empty when I wake. Downstairs is fill with the smell of scrambling eggs and chrispy Bacon. There is no sign of Thomas anywhere.

"Would you like some eggs dear?" Ethel calls from the sink.

"Yes please Ms Munfreu, um have you seen Thomas at all?"

"No honey, Bacon with that?"

"Yes thank-you."

She slides a plate over the mahogany table and I take a seat.

"It's good you and Thom' are playing together again. I was getting worried because lately he hasn't been, well, he hasn't been like usual."

I nod, my mouth full of breakfast and let her ramble on about her many worries.

A lightbulb goes off somewhere in my head. "Excuse me Ms Munfreu but I simply can't be late!"

I abandon my Plate and sprint to my horse, who I find, conveniently, at the stable. I mount him and start off down the old muddy horse track that leads past the stream and deep into the valley.

***

An old tree hut sits in the high branches of a oak tree. I tie up my horse, the poor old fella is wheezing from the journey, and start on the metal rungs Thomas hammered in long ago.

We went through a faze where we were very 'Active'. We built tree-huts and cubbys with punga fronds. But only this one hasn't perished over time.

The boards are rotting and there is only one remaining window pane left out of the five but all of our furniture we grazed our knees beyond repair to drag down here is still roughly intact. But the same thing came be said for the now rotten apples and mouldy, stale bread.

My hunch was wrong but I can hear the distant snapping oc man's foot crushing twigs.

I duck below the window-sill and watch, as Prince Joshua rides under the trees. He's directly under the hut so I cannot see him. In my stupidity it seems like a good idea to lean out the window to see what's happening. Boy was I wrong.

The sound lf riding stopped abruptly. I can see his beautiful chestnut horse but not the prince himself. I am almost absolutely upside down when I fall but luckily it's autumn and the ground is littered, thick with leaves.

"Josephine!??"

Erggh I moan.

"Josephine?" Josh repeats.

"That's m'name!"

"Are you okay?"

"Yes Joshua, I just fell from the tree-tops but I'm fine!"

"I was just trying to help." He says sheepishly.

"I'm sorry," I apologise, he has this look that could make a pickpocket hang his head in shame. "I'm just a little sore on my spine."

He sits beside me and gently rubs the sore spot.

"What were you doing up there anyway?" He asks.

"Well," I begin. "I was trying to find Thomas and. I. Didn't..." I suddenly remember were he was.

Thomas was going to market today, to sell some duck eggs.

"Josephine?" Josh, who is usually quite calm had just a hint of worry in his voice.

"It's ok I know where he is now." I turn to him and smile to show I'm perfectly fine, maybe I end up looking like a phyco but what the hay!

"C'mon." He says helping me onto his horse, because mine is kind of dying.

***

We ride for a good half hour before we arrive at a cliff, Joshua helps me off the horse and we start retreating down the steep path.

I cling to the flax for dear life and the further we descend the less the plants become. One misplaced foot could mean a one way ticket to heaven but with the pain of hell.

Eventually my bare feet, I left my shoes up on the top. I face the water and all the air ks knocked out of me.

It's beauty beyond description. A small cave is carved into the rock bu the strong tide, golden sand bleeds into the crystal water. (I say BLEEDS because that's simply how to describe it.)

Josh is nowhere to be seen.

"Josh!" I call. "Josh?!!!"

"In here!" His royal accent hollers from inside the cave.

I peer inside the entrance. It's magnificent! Candles line the walls, wedged in the cracks. A few sun-chairs are placed accordingly to catch the light and breeze. It puts Thomas and I's tree-hut to shame.

"We built this. This is were my brother and I use to run away from the palace."

Well that shocked me. The royal family always seemed so, cooperative.

We sit on the flax mats and he explains.

***

"Ever since we were born we were brought up with expectations. Do this, Do not do this, stay away from there, talk like this. You know all that shit."

That was the first time I've herd him say anything like that, in fact that was the first time I've herd anyone except my father use any kind of language lime that.

"One day when my brother was fifteen and I was only four he ran away and took me with him. He took me here and we set this up. Our parents managed to keep it all hushed up and bribed me to come home. But Henry was stubborn, they banished him and I haven't seen him since that day."

I'm left dumbfounded.

***

I don't push any questions and I can tell he is grateful for it .

We sIt and make a sand castle. I guess I am still a little kid at heart. But Josh doesn't seem to mind.

The castle is grand, with a moat and tunnel and decorated with many shells.

By the time I look up again the sky is pink.  

"Pink at night shepherds delight." Josh whispers. "It'll be a good day tomorrow."

"I better get going." I say and stand.

"Please stay." He begs but all the emotion is in his eyes.

"I can't, really I have to go." I start on the cliff and from this point of view it looks almost vertical. Uh oh.

***

I emerge from the trees with my horse on my heels after demanding josh to let me walk up the rest of the way by myself to avoid anything 'nasty'.

For the first time all day I see Thomas collecting wood from the pile around the left side of the stable.

"Hello." I say tying up my horse.

"You've been with him all day, haven't you?" He accuses.

I'm taken aback.

"Haven't you?" Thomas says getting aggressive.

"Y-yes."

"That's it." He stomps off and I follow, I'm not fast enough. I should of taken of, ran away, but no I stood still and watched as Thomas reviled what I'd done today. To my father. And I watched my fathers face turn yellow. And Thomas storm off into the hill and leave me to clean up his mess.

"Sit." My father spat.

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Sorry if that was kinda crappy but my phone is at the repairs and this god damned temporal phone is just not COOPERATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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