Reluctant Royals
by Michael G. Crawford
Chapter One
For he was a loved King. This was not the root of his problem. To find the root, one had to go back in time, back to when his one and only child, a princess fair to be sure, but also as sad as the King now looked.
The real story then begins some five years ago.
The King had heard of the tale from his daughter, but still didn't quite believe much of it, despite his having lived part of the strange happenings himself. But the protection of the sorcerer Leman had removed much of the horror and confusion from his mind, leaving only some vague lessons and the strange impetus to watch his borders and keep an eye out for certain signs.
Much like the legendary Merlin of another time and place, Leman visited when his calling required it, but rarely when the King thought it best or felt he needed the help of his old friend. Unlike the legendary Merlin, Leman was more a contemporary of the King when he was but a prince. The two had grown their separate ways, and only during that one incredible battle did the two meet again and continue their friendship. But that is another story for another time.
In THIS story, we have to go back to when the King's daughter pleaded with her father to let her go. Not forever, and certainly not unguarded. But just go, get away, abscond like the wanderer he knew she would be. For she was surely her father's daughter, the wanderer clearly embedded in her every pore. And despite the double standard that he knew existed for young woman in his time, the King also knew that if his only recently dead Queen would have had her way, the young Princess would have long been gone.
So he relented. He assigned old Turluk to watch over her, as an uncle should anyone ask, and of course the King trusted the old fart, his interest in women bordering on the hard and lustful, certainly not a young innocent like the princess. Besides Turluk was a loyal warrior and old enough to be her father as well as elderly uncle, and had grown to love the young girl like his own daughter. No, the King feared not any gross intentions of old Turluk. But he didn't trust the world with his priced offspring, and thus he also appointed another to follow and watch them both from afar.
The younger man chosen for this was known to Turluk, and the older man woudl certainly spy the spy, and recognize him for what he was sent to be, additional insurance in battle. Turluk, the King hoped, was also wise enough to undertand the gesture as just that, insurance, and not an insult to his own fighting ability. He and the King were close enough to dispel that thought, certianly.
But still the King fretted, his fair but not overly so daughter seemed so fragile just at this age, and like all fathers, worried endlessly what the trials and tribulations of her remaining youthful years would do to her soul.
But alas, he was a good King and a good father, realizing that to keep her pent up like a caged animal was even more stupid then letting her try her wings. Even if he was stacking the cards a little in her favor. What father wouldn't take that precaution, ehhh?
So it was that the story begins as the young princess, clad in simple but sturdy cloths, accompanied publicly by her uncle, and trailed by a simply clad mercenary armed with none too shiny but extremely adequate livery and hidden in his old scabbard, the finest steel the Kingdom of Nar Too Soon could provide. It was after all, not a spy's weapon, but certainly that of a recently independent soldier looking for an honest employer of his skills. And certainly respectful. And of course not a thief or a brigand, but rather one to be trusted for his honor and his loyalty should an employer so demand.
And thus this threesome set out, if not together, but certainly close in train, as the young disguised princess sought out to see the world for herself, and perhaps earn the right to rule as the queen, the people she knew so little about.