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She sat on the floor, her once pristinely pink dress flared out on the thick red carpet. Toys and books were sprawled out all around her and in her hand she had a wooden doll of a cowboy with a large brown hat. She was moving it around as if it could fly, the dolls tiny limbs flailing through the air.
“You need to listen to the law!” she said in a mockingly low voice and she pointed the doll to some toys she had lined up in front of her. One of those toys was that of a pirate, the other was supposedly a witch or magician of some sort. The princess reached for the witch and gently lifted the toy from its place.
“I do!” she said in a higher pitch. The big floppy hat of the doll was not stitched to the head and it fell off. The princess immediately dropped the cowboy to put the witches hat back in place with utmost concentration before continuing the adventure.
“If I catch you, witch, you go to jail!” she said as she shook the cowboy, indicating that it was speaking.
“Please Jimmy!” she made sure not to shake the witch to hard, as her hat might fall of again. “I make potions so you can catch the bad guys!”
“Alright, but – Lizzie, no!” the princess was rudely interrupted by a furry animal that walked right through her pile of toys. The calico cat looked up but the angry scowl she got from the princess didn’t impress her. The animal had been a stray when the princess found her, but she had convinced the household and her father to keep it. She had called the cat Lizzie and to be honest, the animal was a real menace to everyone but the princess herself. But she loved it, so everybody tolerated the cat.
It was only because of the interruption of the cat that she noticed she was being watched all this time.
“Bdubs!” she promptly forgot about the toys around her and her cat that had disturbed her playtime. She let the cowboy and the witch drop on the carpet, the hat once again falling of the doll. The princess got up and before the royal architect could move a muscle, she had wrapped her arms around his legs. She was only four, but she was strong.
“Hi there, little sunshine of mine,” the architect said with a chuckle as he grabbed the young princess under her armpits and hoisted her up. “What were your dolls up to today?”
“I want a story!” she said, completely ignoring the question that had been asked to her. She always did that when she was with Bdubs, especially when it was just him and the King wasn’t around. Bdubs was a busy man, but the young princess could not yet comprehend something like that. She just wanted to hear his stories of the world, stories he had heard long before he joined the court of the Sundrop King.
“I’ve told you all my stories, dear,” he tried, but the princess was having none of it. She gave him those big and pleading eyes of her, something Bdubs had not yet mastered to resist and with a sigh he gave in. He carried her back into her room, where she had apparently been all alone and sat down on one of the comfortable chairs. The princess settled into his lap, looking up in anticipation.
“Were you all alone?” Bdubs asked to stall some time, as he had to think of stories he had not yet told the princess. He could retell a story, but the princess was already keen enough to know when he told her an old story. Bdubs glanced around the room but there was no sign of her royal guard or her teacher.
“Yes,” the princess said shortly, once again not interested in his questions. “Do you have a story about… princesses?”
“I have plenty of stories about princesses,” Bdubs said with a smile as he put the strange occurrence of the princess being alone to the side. He was here now, he could probably make some time to wait for the teacher or the guard to return. It was not as if the princess would let him go before he finished a story.
“Tell me, tell me!” the princess was bouncing up and down with anticipation and Bdubs had to laugh once again. Sometimes he forgot that she was the Kings ward and not his actual daughter. The princess was still young, of course, but they were already so much alike in Bdubs eyes. The princess had the same eye for detail the King possessed, which was something the architect highly appreciated. Their excitement of the simplest of things was also incredibly similar.
“Alright, calm down you,” Bdubs said. “I have a story, a story about a princess just like you.”
“There is no princess like me,” she immediately argued. “Ren says I am one… one kind.”
“Do you want me to finish or not?” Bdubs asked as he raised an eyebrow and the princess went quiet in an instant. “There once was a Kingdome much like our own, far far away from here. It was called GlimmerGrove and its riches were grant. Their fields were filled with crops, each barn was filled with animals and all the people lived in peace. The Kingdom was called GlimmerGrove because of the amazing architecture of the region, their buildings built in such a way that the sunlight reflected of them as if emitting light on their own – ah, but I digress, let’s keep to the story.
One day, a princess and heir to the throne was born and the whole Kingdom came together to celebrate the new life of the beloved royal baby. Her name was Katherine and she was a wonderful little girl. Celebrations were held in the streets of the Kingdom until late at night and all citizens danced and laughed. Then, a sudden earthquake hit the middle of the city and made large cracks in the ground and buildings, leaving the citizens in fear and confusion. Half of the Kingdom was cast in darkness, its reflecting light no longer spilling through the streets. Some citizens believed it was the arrival of the new princess that had brought this misfortune upon them, said that she was cursed!
As the princess grew older, she was determined to prove them wrong. She was to rule this land eventually, she wanted her subjects to love her, not fear her. She had a strong urge to defeat the darkness that had taken upon her lands, but she was always turned away from doing so. She was to be a princess, and her parents thought princesses did not fight monsters. She was to wear pretty dresses and dance with princess at royal balls. But Katherine wanted to help her people, even if they were afraid of her. At night, she became a monster slayer.”
The young princess had been so intrigued by the story she had not made a sound the entire time, but at the mentioning of a monster slayer she gasped in surprise.
“I want to be that,” she whispered in awe. “That is cool, why do her parents hate her?”
“Because that is not what they envisioned her to be,” Bdubs said calmly. “She hid her secret identity, only going outside in the dark to slay the monsters that tormented her kingdom. It was however to no avail: the crops died and animals became scarce. The villagers started to truly believe that Katherine had brought a curse upon their land and they fled Glimmergrove. The royal family, who was supposed to rebuild their kingdom, went along with their subjects leaving their daughter behind in a hope to get rid of this supposed curse.”
“That is mean!” the princess immediately responded. “She just wants to help!”
“I agree that it was not very nice to do, indeed,” Bdubs agreed. “But the princess was determined, she would restore her home on her own if she needed to. At night, she slays monsters and during the day she rebuilds the village and makes pretty dresses, because despite her parents forcing her to wear them she does like to create beautiful outfits.”
“How does it end?” the princess was leaning into Bdubs’ chest, looking up at him.
“It doesn’t,” Bdubs simply said. “She is rumored to still be out there, fighting monsters and building her new kingdom.”
“I want to meet her,” the princess said, blissfully unaware that most of this story had no truth to it. “She seems like a cool friend.”
“She does,” Bdubs said. “You liked that story?”
“Yes,” she said after a short silence in which she genuinely seemed to consider if she did. “But the story about the man from… with the magic in the land and the animals and stuff, that is your best one.”
Bdubs repressed a chuckle, as that story was one with the least amount of truth to it. He had made that one up on the spot some months ago when the princess had gotten a bit of a fever and couldn’t sleep. Bdubs had come up with the most magical story about a man and his lands of magic, where buildings sprouted from the earth as he asked for them and the princess had been so incredibly intrigued by it. It had worked, she had fallen asleep quickly and she had never forgotten about the story.
The young princess held a special place in Bdubs’ heart. She might not be his responsibility but he sure was glad she seemed to like his presence as well. She was the light in the life of a lot of people in the court, the apple of King Rens eye. He had taken her in when she was not even a year old and despite him not knowing a thing about raising a child, he had done a great job so far. He had had plenty of help from maids and nanny’s, of course, but his gentle ways reflected in her already. The King, Bdubs and the entire court would move mountains to get what the princess wanted, they would do everything in their might to make sure nothing would ever happen to her.
Princess Gem would be safe in this Kingdom.