Castle Tales: Collection of Short Stories

In a castle found in the kingdom of Agion a boy with gray eyes and dark hair is laying in a bed with his eyes focused on the ceiling. The surgeon meanwhile worked to clean and restitch his wounds. “You don’t have to always be here.”, he says to his friend on the other side of him.

“I know, but I want to.”, the blued eyed, blond haired boy replies.

“I am sure you have other things you could be doing.”, the grayed eyed boy retorts.

“No. Now silence Vincent before you mess up the surgeon’s work.”

“Prince Winston, I’m sure you are making the poor man nervous just being here every time.”, Vincent counters. He looks over to the surgeon who catches his glance.

“Nonsense. If anything I expect the prince’s presence now. He can help you cope with not being allowed to move.”, the man replies as he looks back to his work.

“Both during and after the check up.”, Prince Winston says triumphantly smugly. Vincent sighs.

“Well then help me by making the time go by faster.”, Vincent suggests.

“How?”, the prince asks.

Vincent looks over at his friend and focuses on his eyes for a moment. Winston avoids Vincent’s eyes slightly. “Take care of a question for me. How do you and your dad have blue eyes?” Vincent says finally.

“Huh?”

“You don’t find a lot of people with them, so I have wondered where do you and your dad get your blue eyes from? Actually not a lot of people have blonde hair either, yet you do and none of your parents do.”, Vincent explains.

“Oh well, hm…”, Winston thinks with his eyes closed for a moment. “Okay, I remember now. From what I know about my family and what I’ve learned about Agion history these lands were once controlled by powerful people. These people came from a city called Astra that is found past the Atlas mountains.”, Winston starts off.

Winston tells Vincent how the people from Astra conquered other people and their lands. As they did, one thing they would do is relocate a large number of people from one place and move them to another place inside the lands they controlled. This was so they could better keep control and did so for a long time.

“According to my tutor a group of people from the far north were brought down here south of the Atlas mountains. Some came as slaves and others came by choice based on the stories of their descendents.

Eventually the Astra got into a lot of wars and as the story goes got invaded by people from the west. One of those invading people were my ancestors. To be more specific my clan.”, Wisnton stops and thinks for a moment. The last word he used he said in a different language and lost Vincent who now had a confused look on his face. He then explains there are different words for it, and in the end uses the word in Regece for family.

“Then the nation your clan was a part of conquered the lands south of the Atlas mountains, but that nation broke apart and clans started claiming their own lands, right?” Vincent restates, making sure he follows.

“Right. There are different words that I’m not sure refer to the same thing.”, Winston admits frustratedly. “Anyway, keep in mind there were people from somewhere north here that most of them had blue eyes and blonde even more so than most people already living here. So my tutor taught me that as one power fell and another rose, people who could, took advantage and found their way into influential families. That includes the now royal family; my family on both sides.”

“So everyone with blue eyes and or blonde hair came from those people who were brought south during the rule of Astra?” Vincent responds.

“I don’t think so. Because I asked the same thing and my tutor told me that there are records of blue eyed people in certain parts of the kingdom that have been there forever. At least that is what they claim, so who knows.”, Winston replies. Vincent nods his head understanding.

Immediately after the surgeon announces he is done with Vincent’s treatment. Vincent and Winston thank him before he leaves. Afterward Vincent turns to Winston.

“So some of your ancestors were slaves?” Vincent asks in a tone that sounds like he can’t really see such a thing happening.

“Wait a minute some of them came by choice and other blued eyed people were already here, so that may not be true.”, Winston defends.

“But it came up while learning about the history of this kingdom and was connected to your family.”, Vincent points out.

“Well even if they were, their descendants have clearly risen above that, so it doesn’t matter now.”, Winston counters as hints of red appear on his cheeks. Then an idea comes to his mind or more so a realization. “It just shows that the ones who came after the ones that were slaves progressed in ways that they were able to build off of each other’s growth,” he says half to himself.

“Hmm, leave something better for those who will come after you. That is a lesson anyone can use; even a king.”, Vincent says. Winston turns his attention to Vincent and looks at his friend’s even rarer eye color.

“I wonder what story your eyes hold,” he says.