The last mile
an excerpt

“Once upon a time…”

“… in a land far, far away from here, a long, long time ago when there were still dragons that guarded the mountains and the lakes, when Satyrs still came out of the woods to steal our daughters and silly young men of a certain age ventured into groves to get a glance of a Nymph*, there was a Kingdom. And that Kingdom had a King. That King had been happily married and had a child, a beautiful baby girl. The King and Queen loved their daughter very much, and she got anything her little heart desired. Toys, books, a small wooden palace of her own to play in, she got it. Then, one day, when the little princess was only five, her mother died. The whole Kingdom mourned the passing of the Queen, for she was well loved by both the King and her subjects. The King himself mourned for a year, and during that year the palace seemed a cold and lonely place.”

The story seemed to tell itself to Samuel in his own head. His mother’s voice was telling him the story as he lied there under his warm blankets. It seemed such a long time ago that it could have been a different lifetime.

“However, as these things go, the King had a duty that weighed heavier then his grief. He had only a daughter, and everybody knows that a King can only pass his throne to his son if he wants his bloodline to reign. The King needed a son, therefore he needed a new wife. And so it came to be. Many candidates visited the King and eventually one was chosen to be his wife. It wasn’t a marriage born out of love, but neither did the King and the new Queen hate each other. In the end the two would come to appreciate the other’s strengths and ultimately their friendship would turn into love, but that is a different tale for a different evening.”

*Later, when Samuel had asked his father what a Nymph was, he had been told to ask his mother. His mother had told him that he had been too young to know. It all seemed very unfair to the young boy.