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“Henrik! Wait for me!”
Henrik’s shoulders hunched at the shrill voice of his little sister. She was so annoying at times, claiming that she, too, wanted to learn how to be a knight, and how unfair it was when swinging a sword looked like so much fun.
Annoying though she may be, as her older brother, it was up to him to keep her out of mischief – something she was prone to doing if left unchecked – so he stopped and turned, crossing his arms across his chest and waiting impatiently.
“You’re supposed to be in the castle,” he reminded her.
Leia rolled her eyes. “Embroidering,” she said, distaste evident in every syllable.
“Mother will be cross with you when she sees you left your pillow unfinished.”
His sister crossed her arms, mimicking her brother’s stance. “Mother will be cross with me when she sees how awful my stitches are,” she said, blowing a lock of hair out of her face.
“You’ll never get better if you don’t practice,” he said smugly.
“I’d like to see you do it.”
“My time is better spent on training.”
Leia snorted inelegantly. “Training,” she said. “All you do is watch the knights while they train.” Her eyes lit with mischief. “If a sword is too heavy for you, maybe you should take up embroidery. A sewing needle is much lighter than a sword.”
Henrik knew she was teasing, but it still irked him. He had picked up a sword, giving it a few practice swings. He hadn’t accidentally launched the sword into the brush because it was too heavy; it was just that his fingers had a bit of butter on them from lunch.
Leia noticed his frown, and she patted him on the head as if he were a child. He was just a week shy of his tenth birthday – nearly a man now!
“I’m just teasing, Henny, don’t be mad.” Leia gave him her best contrite expression, one that he didn’t trust for a moment.
“If you were sorry, you wouldn’t call me such a childish name,” he said. He turned his head, his eyes closed and nose in the air. If there was one thing Leia hated, it was being ignored.
(He supposed they had that in common, but he would never admit it to her.)
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Leia clasp her hands and bow her head. “I am sorry, Henrik. I just wanted to visit the pond. To see the frogs,” she added.
Henrik opened one eye and turned his head slightly toward her.
“Why?”
“I want to catch one!”
He opened both his eyes and stared at his sister, his nose wrinkled in disgust. “Catch one? Even if you caught one, what would you do with it?”
Leia huffed in exasperation. “Kiss it, obviously.”
There was no obviously about it.
“To see if it turns into a prince,” she added.
This is what happened when she got her nose in a book, especially one with such fanciful tales. Even if they found one, he certainly didn't want to see her kissing it!
“Did you hit your head?” Henrik asked. “Perhaps I should take you back to the castle and have Nurse examine you.”
Leia’s eyes widened. “No!” she said. “I don’t really want to kiss one. Ew,” she added for good measure. “But I am curious what would happen.”
“You’d get warts,” Henrik retorted.
“You’re thinking of toads,” she said.
“You’re both wrong,” a quiet voice said, startling them both. Henrik reached for a sword he did not carry, but it was merely a dirty young urchin, crouched near a bush. His hair (a much duller shade of gold than Henrik's!) was tied back with a frayed bit of string, and there was what looked like a twig sticking out of the sloppy queue.
“You’re trespassing,” Henrik said.
The young boy’s eyes widened, revealing their unusual hue.
“I am sorry,” he said. “I didn’t realize I’d-”
“What do you mean?” Leia interrupted. “That we’re both wrong?”
“Toads do not cause warts,” the boy said. “Nor do frogs. That’s a myth.”
“How do you know?” she asked, placing her hands on her hips and staring down at him.
“I’ve handled many of them, and not a single wart,” he said before turning his attention back toward the bush.
“What are you doing down there?” Leia asked, crouching down next to him.
“Trying to coax a baby rabbit out of hiding. It’s injured, and I wanted to-”
“Poaching?” Henrik shouted. “All game on this land is ours!”
“What?” the boy asked, his mouth dropping open in shock. “No, no, I don’t want to eat it! It wouldn’t be honorable to take advantage of its weakness.”
Henrik resisted the urge to roll his eyes, but just barely.
“Besides,” the boy said with a smile. “It’s so tiny, there wouldn’t be much meat on it.”
Leia reached out to the bush, but the boy held up a hand to still her movement.
“It’s afraid of us,” he said quietly. “But… if we are patient, it will soon realize we mean it no harm.”
He reached into a small pouch tied around his waist and pulled out a small, malformed carrot. To Henrik’s surprise, he broke off the leafy top and handed it to Leia.
“Here,” he said, tucking the rest of the pathetic vegetable back into his pouch. “Hold this steady.”
“Not like when you ply a needle,” Henrik couldn’t resist needling.
Leia looked over her shoulder and glared at him, then turned her attention back to the bush. Henrik kept his eyes on the urchin. It was awfully convenient that the boy just happened to be there at the same time that Henrik and Leia approached, but he was a slight young boy, a little undernourished. Henrik could easily pound him into the dirt if he posed even the slightest threat.
“Shh,” the boy shushed him, giving a slight nod to Leia to indicate she could extend her arm a bit more.
Henrik was ready to inform this trespassing brat just who he was trying to order around, but then the leaves rustled, and a small creature peeked out to nibble on the carrot top. Leia was enchanted, and as irritating as she could be, he couldn’t bring himself to interrupt.
He’d give them her a few more seconds. She would surely owe him a favor after this. Perhaps giving him her share of dessert at supper.
(And if she later forgot that he’d allowed her to crouch in the dirt like a commoner, he’d be sure to remind her.)
“Oh!” Leia breathed. “She’s eating it!”
“Yes,” the boy agreed. “She is.”
Henrik didn’t know how Leia had decided the rabbit was a girl, but it was weak and helpless.
(The fact that it was just a baby, and that weak and helpless did not come close to describing his sister, was not the point.)
The rabbit came a little closer, sniffing at Leia’s fingers and causing her to suppress a giggle. The boy carefully picked it up and waited for Leia to turn her hand over so he could set it down. Gently, he used a tattered but clean scrap of fabric to swab at a bit of blood on its ear, while Leia held her breath, as if afraid even a slight exhalation would disturb their patient.
The boy removed a tiny jar from his pouch and dabbed a little bit on the wound.
“There,” he said with a smile. “That should do it.”
“Are you sure?” Leia asked, turning her head toward the boy.
As luck would have it, the boy had turned toward her as well. They were so close, their noses brushed against each other, and the boy jerked his head back suddenly.
“I am sorry!” he said. “I didn’t mean-”
“It’s fine,” Leia said quickly. “I didn’t mind.”
“Oh,” the boy said, looking as confused as Henrik felt.
Reluctantly, Leia lowered the rabbit to the ground, and it disappeared back into the bushes. The boy got to his feet and held his hand out. Henrik frowned as Leia accepted his offer of assistance – she’d nearly bit Henrik’s head off the last time he’d tried to help her up.
(She claimed it was Henrik’s fault that she’d fallen in the first place, but she hadn’t needed to be so stubborn about it.)
“Thank you,” the boy said. He tipped his head toward the shrubs. “For helping with the rabbit.”
Leia had started reaching toward him, as if to pluck the twig from his hair, but she froze when the boy spoke. The boy seemed oblivious to Leia's attempt, and to her slightly flushed cheeks, and Leia recovered quickly, lifting her head in a haughty manner as if she hadn't been caught in the act.
“It was nothing,” she said airily.
“Well, I think it was something,” the boy said with a warm smile. He gave Leia’s hand a squeeze before releasing it.
(How the blazes had Henrik missed that this commoner was still holding her hand?)
“Thank you, too,” he said to Henrik, finally acknowledging the great favor that he’d been granted. “For your forgiveness. I vow, I had not intended to venture so far as to cross onto your lands.”
There was something so earnest about him, Henrik waved a hand magnanimously.
“See that it doesn’t happen again,” he said sternly.
“I promise,” the boy said, bowing deeply.
(At least someone knew when and how to show respect.)
“Thank you," he said again. "Both of you." He bowed again, and then ran into the woods, disappearing swiftly in the shadows of the trees. He would still be on Istovan land for a while, but at least he was making haste to leave.
Henrik glanced over at his sister. She slowly turned her hand over, the one that the urchin had grasped when he helped her to her feet. There, in the palm of her hand, rested a few scraggly bits of the carrot top. She lifted her hand to her nose, as if she held a pressed flower instead of leaves and rabbit spittle.
“Don’t eat those,” he said, knocking her hand away from her face and causing the leaves to drop to the ground.
Instead of protesting or arguing that she hadn't been doing any such thing, Leia looked toward the wooded area.
“We’ll see him again,” she stated confidently.
Henrik revised his earlier opinion. He would much rather see Leia kiss a frog than see whatever this was.