Tales From The Past

It’s been a hard day for Vane. He spent the entire day studying law books and addressing problems. His father, the King, tasked him with revising some old laws. Some last test of competency before he handed over the crown. Vane did a pretty decent job, even if he did say so himself. All that was left was to have the King look them over, and then Vane would put them in place once he was crowned King.

He sat back in his seat with a sigh and ran his hand through his raven-black hair. Everything he's ever worked for was within reach. The crown was almost his. Soon, he could take off the Prince's crown that basically put him in the same rank as his drooling, snot-nosed son.

Speaking of...

He got out of his seat and tucked his white shirt into his black pants. He made sure to always look neat. No Prince should've looked like he's just crawled out of the sewer lines.

He left his office, and climbed the stairs to his son’s bedroom. The nurses normally kept him entertained, but Ellah, his wife, insisted that Vane also make time for him, be a bigger part of his life than his father had been in his. Vane thought it a waste of time. If anything were to happen to Vane, he didn’t want Lex to waste time grieving. He wanted him to act. But Ellah twisted his arm – literally – and Vane agreed to spend an hour a day with the child if there was time.

He knocked on the bedroom door. The nurse opened and smiled at Vane. “Oh, good evening, Your Highness. It’s a bit early today, isn’t it?”

Vane had no idea what the time was. He worked until he was done, just like any other day. “Suppose it is,” he agreed. If it were up to him, he would’ve told her that the time didn’t matter, and he could see Lex whenever he wanted, but his father kept too close an eye on him. He had to be more agreeable, more open to others' opinions. At least until he had the crown. “Where is he?”

The nurse stepped to the side to let Vane into the room. It was a mess. She allowed Lex to spend the entire day playing with balls and wooden blocks. He left everything on the floor, including some books he had open to resemble tents for some toy horses. Looking at the state of the desk, she’d even tried to teach him how to use a pen. It went poorly.

“He doesn’t clean up after himself?” Vane asked, irritated.

“We clean up at the end of the day, Your Highness.”

“We?” Vane asked. “He needs to learn responsibility and that starts with cleaning up after himself. He can’t leave his mess for you at the end of the day. Don’t spoil him. He’s already got more than all the other kids in the kingdom. Where is he?”

The nurse knocked on the washroom door, waited a bit, and went inside. She was away for a few minutes, long enough for Vane to go over to the desk and take a look at what they’ve done. The tip of the pen was broken, there were ink smears all over the paper, but Lex managed to write his own name, and Vane’s name. The nurse wrote out the names of the whole family, big, at the top of each page, and Lex had to copy it. Ellah was illegible, Juniper too long – he gave up halfway – Lex and Vane were sloppy, but legible. Vane felt a bit of pride at that. Other kids his age had never even held a pen before.

The washroom door opened, and Lex walked on over to Vane. He was a small kid, innocent-looking. He had his mother's blond hair and grey eyes. He had a chubby face, like most kids had, and long, feminine eyelashes. He usually smiled, but he looked very meek when he approached Vane. He kept his eyes on the ground, and his hands behind his back.

“You know your room isn’t supposed to look like this,” Vane noted. The kid knew he was in the wrong, and yet he did it anyway because the nurse allowed it.

“I’m sorry,” Lex muttered, barely audible and still not even making eye contact.

Vane looked over to the nurse. “You can go home for today. Lex will take care of himself for the rest of the night.”

The nurse’s eyes went wide. “I uh… but Your Highness, he’s a baby.”

“He’s old enough to walk and talk, old enough to make a mess, and old enough to know when he did something wrong. That means he’s old enough to dress and wash himself, and it looks like the washing’s been done already. He’ll clean his room by himself, put himself to bed later, wake up on time tomorrow, by himself."

The nurse was still uncertain, but she bid them both goodnight and left for the day. Lex rocked back and forth on his feet. “Can I play with the other kids tomorrow?” he asked.

“No,” Vane said and put his hand on Lex’s shoulder to stop the rocking. “We can’t let the peasant kids get too comfortable around you. When they grow up, they’ll think they can do as they please because they know you. Come, I have to show you something.” He walked towards the balcony doors and opened them.

Lex followed him and stepped outside. He was still too small to see over the balcony railing, but he could see through the bars. Still, Vane picked him up and made him stand on the railing. He wrapped his arm around him so he wouldn’t fall off. From up there, Lex could see the curtain wall surrounding the castle, the gates, and some of the houses outside.

“You see those people by the gates?” Vane asked.

Lex nodded.

“Do you know what they do?”

Lex shook his head.

“Use your words. Are you an idiot? They’re guards, they guard the castle. Do you know what that means?”

“No,” Lex answered.

Any pride that Vane felt before vanished. “They protect us. They make sure that no bad people come in to try and rob and kill us. They walk up and down the streets to make sure the people follow the rules. They keep everyone safe. That’s their job. Do you know what he nurse does?”

“She watches me.”

“She’s supposed to teach you. Teach you how to take care of yourself, teach you how to count, and how to read. That’s her job. You know the people who work in the kitchen? What do they do?”

“They make food,” Lex answered.

“Yes, they also clean up after themselves. They do the dishes. But they also have to make sure the castle has enough food to feed everyone. They have to test everything to make sure it’s not been poisoned. They have to do all that every day, three times a day, and they have to be ready on time every time, especially when we have guests. That’s their job. What do the maids do?”

“They clean.”

“Yes, they sweep, and they mop, and they dust. Some of them take care of the laundry. They’re the least respected people in the castle, but their job is just as important as the guards. Imagine if the castle was dirty, rat infested, and we walked around in dirty, tattered, wrinkled clothes? Nobody would take us seriously. Nobody would listen to us, and in fact, we’d likely lose a lot of important stuff in the mess, get sick, and die. If the kingdom was a farm, the guards would be the scarecrows, the kitchen staff would be the soil, the cleaners would be the bees, the treasurers would be the rain. Everyone’s important, in their own way. If we lost just one of those, the crops would die.”

“Are the people the crops?” Lex asked.

“Yes,” Vane answered, happy that Lex could think that far.

“Are we the fertiliser?”

Vane’s smile vanished. “We’re the farmers, Lex. We’re in charge of all this. Our choices matter the most. We can remove the scarecrows, if we want, but we mustn’t. We must respect everyone’s jobs, consider what they bring to the farm before deciding if they’re necessary or not. We must constantly walk through our crops, make sure everything’s growing as it should, remove the bad crops so they don’t infect the others. One bad crop can rot an entire field, and once the rot starts, it’s difficult to stop. You can’t always get rid of the source and expect the rot to stop. Sometimes, you remove the source, and bits of it will fall on the healthy plants, and spread the rot even faster. Our choices have the biggest impact on our field, and we must keep it alive, because we depend on it. Without our field, we’re nothing. We must take care of it with our lives. If one crop dislikes the soil, we must get rid of it. If they all dislike the soil, we have a problem. We have no control over the soil we have, so we must do our best to keep them happy.”

Lex was silent for a while as he tried to look over the curtain walls. Vane thought he was thinking about his words, but then the child spoke.

“Why wouldn’t the people like the kitchen staff?”

Vane sighed. “The land, Lex. If the people don’t like the land, we have to try and fix it. We either have to get rid of those who are troublesome, or we have to do something to fix their situation. Our jobs are the most important. Our decisions have the biggest impact on the lives of the people. We have a lot of responsibility, Lex. So that’s why I give you the rules you have. You can’t live like the other children. You can’t spend your days playing games, you can’t have someone take care of you anymore. If you can’t take care of yourself, how are you going to take care of the kingdom?”

Vane lifted Lex off the balcony rail and put him down on the ground. “It’s time you start being more responsible, clean up the mess you made.”

Lex’s bottom lip trembled. “I don’t want to take care of the kingdom.”

“You have to.”

“Why can’t the people take care of themselves?”

Vane sighed. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“Why? You and mother can do it.”

Perhaps Lex was a little young for that conversation. “Lex. Not everyone can be the farmer. If everyone’s a farmer, there won’t be any crops, or bees, or rain. Do you understand? It’s just going to be a bunch of farmers on a barren field, starving to death. We’re the farmers, taking care of the crops is our job, and in return, they take care of the land. They need to be taken care of so they can do their jobs. It’s not difficult to understand. You have to be more responsible than the other kids, like it or not.”

“I don’t want to be a farmer!” Lex stomped his foot. “I want to play with the other kids.”

“Starting tomorrow you’re not playing at all!” Vane snapped. “No more toys. From tomorrow, you learn your letters and your numbers. If you get bored, you’ll learn to use a sword.”

Lex’s eyes filled up with tears, he sat down on the ground and started crying. Loudly.

“Stop that!” Vane scolded. “You can’t run a kingdom a spoiled brat. Toys and playing with the peasant kids will only hold you back. You’ll thank me one day, when it’s your turn to run this place. From tomorrow, you shadow me at work.”

Lex could think of a million other things he’d rather be doing, and he couldn’t even count that far.

Later that night, at the dinner table, Vane insisted that Lex was old enough to go with him to Beresford – some mining town in the woods. It was several hours’ worth of travel, but Ellah thought that Lex was too young for the trip.

“Vane, he’s four,” she reminded him.

“He’s five,” Vane told her. “His birthday’s in a few days. You can’t let him be a baby his whole life. The other children have already gone to school to learn their shapes and whatever it is those brats do.”

“Those brats don’t learn a single letter until they’re six, and even then, it’s only their names. They learn their letters at seven, and their numbers. You’re forcing Lex to advance too quickly. You’re skipping crucial steps in a child’s development. He doesn’t even know how to socialise with other kids his age.”

“I didn’t say they were learning their letters yet, I said they’re learning their shapes. And this is what this trip is about. We’re going to go meet the people of Beresford. Lex will learn how to deal with people who are different than him.”

Ellah nervously glanced at Lex, who was playing with the buttons on his shirt. He was so small. She was afraid that he would fall off one of the horses and get trampled. It would be so easy. There was so much that could go wrong during the trip.

“Lex can’t even deal with kids his own age yet. If he gets a single scratch on him-“

“He’ll be fine,” Vane took her hand in his. “We have several guards coming along. We’ll stop by the cabin so we don’t travel during the night. I’ll show him which plants are poisonous and how to catch a fish. He can learn to entertain himself on the road. This will be a learning experience.”

Vane was trying to teach him too much too quickly. He was an impatient man; he didn’t like having incapable children. They had to know how to walk, how to talk, how to bathe themselves, how to dress themselves, and how to feed themselves the second they fell out the womb. Juniper, Lex’s twin sister, was being taught by Ellah, at an average pace, and she was doing very well. She’s been picking up her own toys since she learnt how to walk. Lex refused. Some children were just fussy, but Ellah was certain it had to do with the fact that he was expected to do too much at such a young age. He couldn’t keep up, and was falling behind. This trip would set him back even more. He wouldn’t remember what plants were poisonous, wouldn’t be able to catch a fish, he’d be afraid of the people of Beresford, and he’d be wasting so much time when he could be learning social skills with the other children.

Ellah folded her arms. “When you get back, I want you to spend some time with Juniper, and then I’ll watch Lex for a while.”

Vane rolled his eyes. “Fine. I don’t see how it would help either of them, but if that’s what it’ll take to make you happy.”

“Nothing about this situation will make me happy. If anything happens to Lex, I mean anything at all, you can consider yourself the sole heir to the throne.”

Lex sat on a horse in front of one of the guards. He sat with Vane until they were out of sight of the castle, then he told Lex to move. It was much safer if they weren’t together, he claimed, but everyone knew that Vane just didn’t want to spend the trip watching a small child. The child that he decided to make and bring along.

Once they entered the forest, Lex got bored. There were trees to his left, and more trees to his right, and nothing more, for several hours. He looked around him, wondering when his father would start teaching him about the plants like he said. There was nothing better to do. The trip was mostly quiet, Vane and the guards spoke to each other, and when he tried to join in the conversation, Vane told him to be quiet. He was quiet for what felt like a lifetime, then he tried to start a conversation of his own.

“How much longer?” he asked.

“Lex, it’s been an hour. I told you, it’s sixteen hours there, and sixteen hours back.”

“But how do I know how long it’s been?”

“Look at the sun, Your Highness,” one of the guards answered, to Vane’s irritation. He was ‘His Highness’. The fact that a snot-nosed child was ranked the same as him was one of the most irritating things on the planet. “The sun is rising now. Once it’s directly above us, it will have been four hours. When the sky starts turning orange, it will have been eleven hours.”

“I can’t count,” Lex told him. “I can count to ten.”

“Eleven is ten and one more,” the guard explained. “Teen means ten. So sixteen means six more than ten.”

Lex looked at his fingers. He only had ten, counting higher than that was a challenge that his mind had a hard time completing. Numbers, the nurse had said, was not his strongest suit. Juniper learnt her numbers fairly quickly, but only when she was interested in the task.

Vane felt like he pulled the shortest straw with Lex. Juniper seemed to be the fastest learner, she was also much more mature than Lex, more responsible, more able. His father said that girls tended to be smarter and more mature than boys, but Vane had hoped that their situation would make Lex more willing to learn faster.

“Can we do something else?” Lex asked.

“If we stop to do something else, we’ll be on the road for longer,” Vane said. “Just wait until we get there.”

The next few hours of the trip were difficult for everyone, especially Lex. One hour was much longer for a child than for an adult. He constantly complained that he was bored, and asked if they were almost there yet, and how much longer they had to go. Vane got impatient, yelled at Lex to be quiet or he’d leave him on his own in the forest, but the threat went over Lex’s head, because he thought that sounded like an excellent idea.

The guards took to entertaining the child. They taught him how to play ‘I spy’, and that kept him busy for about an hour. He got bored of the game, and asked if they couldn’t play something else. He wanted to play tag. The guards didn’t think it was a good idea to let him run off, but Vane told them that they were much faster than him, and to just chase him through the forest until he got tired.

The first game went on far longer than anyone anticipated. Lex ran further and faster than they thought. The guards, and even the horses, took up a jog to keep up with him. It suited Vane, because Lex was tiring himself out, and they were moving faster. After an hour of running, one of the guards kept up with him while the others returned to switch places with the ones on the horses.

“C’mon,” Vane said. “You ought to be trained to run much faster for much longer.”

The guards were out of breath, but none would admit to being tired. “We shouldn’t wear ourselves out, Your Highness,” one of them answered. “We need to be ready for an ambush.”

“Hm.”

They moved forward and caught up with the guard who was supposed to be tailing Lex, but Lex was nowhere in sight.

“What’s going on?” Vane asked, not worried, or upset; his tone wasn’t accusatory either. He seemed perfectly happy with Lex being out of the picture.

The guard pointed up the tree he stood next to, and only then did everyone else notice Lex climbing up the tree. He pulled himself up the thin branches that wouldn’t possibly hold the adults’ weight. He reached for the higher branch, pulled himself up, and reached for the even higher one, and pulled himself up again.

“He got out of my reach before I could catch him,” the guard said.

Vane stared up at the tree. Lex wasn’t looking down at all. No doubt he’d be paralysed with fear once he reached the top. “Well, we’re just going to have to get ready to catch him. If he hits a few branches on the way down, he’ll learn not to do it again.”

“What if the branches break his neck?” one of the guards asked.

A flash of worry crossed Vane’s features, but it was replaced with his regular irritated indifference soon enough. “Nothing we can do about that now, can we? LEX!” he yelled upwards.

Lex stopped climbing and looked down.

“Get back here! We’re burning daylight!”

Lex looked back up the tree, then back down. “I see something!”

“Let it go, come here, or else!”

Lex looked up the tree again, and then slowly started to climb down. He didn’t seem afraid. Probably too stupid to be scared of heights. His climb down was much faster than his climb up. He was being reckless, jumping down from one branch to the next, until he landed with a thump on the ground. Vane was disappointed that he didn’t get hurt. The boy needed to be taught a lesson, and he didn’t feel like stopping everything to spank him.

“We’ll discuss this when we get back home,” Vane said and got back on his horse. “Now sit still and shut up. One more word from you and I’ll give you something to complain about.”

As it was, getting a four-year-old to sit still and be quiet for another five hours was near impossible. Three times, Vane lost his temper and smacked the kid in front of the guards. Twice, he dragged him into the trees, and then the guards could only hear the child’s screaming and crying. Then he wouldn’t stop crying, and Vane would lose his patience again.

By the time they made it to the cabin, it was long past sundown, and Lex was crying because he had a headache from all the previous crying, and that his father was near. He didn’t want to get off the horse or go into the house. He wanted to go home, and when Vane threatened to hit him again, he started screaming.

“WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS?” Vane yelled at him.

One of the guards took Lex by the hand. “I’ll see that he gets to bed, Your Highness. He must just be tired.”

“Then he needs to go to bed, not scream and cry like an animal!”

The guard didn’t have an answer. He took Lex off the horse, endured the child’s punches, and dragged him into the house, screaming.

“Your Highness,” one of the braver guards said. “You have to learn to be patient. He’s a child. Children don’t stop crying on demand. He would’ve been quiet hours ago if you hadn’t hit him several times more. All you’ve done is made him cry again from the start.”

“So I should just leave him to misbehave?”

“Crying isn’t misbehaving, Your Highness. It’s what children do. If you continue to treat him like this, he’s going to resent you, and the kingdom. I suggest you show a bit more patience in front of the people of Beresford. If they are how the King says they are, they won’t take kindly to your discipline.”

Lex was fed and asleep within an hour. He woke up several times during the night and tossed and turned in his bed, waking Vane and the other two guards in the room. He got out of bed the second the sun started to rise and went towards the kitchen to look for food. Vane tried to get some sleep while Lex was away, but he could hear the child talking through the walls.

“Father says I’m old enough to feed myself.”

Someone answered, but that someone was considerate enough to keep his voice down, so Vane didn’t hear what he said.

“Can I have cake?... My father said it’s okay.”

Vane sat upright. “Who taught him to lie like that?”

“Kids don’t need to be taught how to lie.”

“He said I can feed myself, so I can have what I want.”

Vane decided to let it go. He laid back down and tried to get some sleep. Lex must’ve found something sweet to eat, because he was quiet long enough for Vane to fall back asleep. He didn’t even realise that he’s drifted off until someone woke him up again.

“Your Highness, it’s getting pretty late. Aren’t the people expecting you soon?”

Vane sat upright and looked to the window. It was ten, maybe even eleven. “Why didn’t you wake me sooner?” He pushed the blankets off him and jumped out of bed. “I’ve never slept this late before.”

“You’ve never spent the night with a child before.”

Vane glared at the guard.

“Um… Your Highness.”

Vane sheathed his sword and went to the living room. The kitchen was empty, and the guards were reading books on the couch. “Where’s Lex?” he asked.

“Outside with Jared.”

Vane went outside and caught Lex outside the cabin, stacking stones. He’d made several tall towers, each taller than he. He was pretty good at balancing the stones, only stopping to build a new one due to his short reach. The guard, Jared, sat under a tree and kept a close eye on him. He had some bigger rocks scattered around him, probably taken away for Lex’s safety.

“Good morning, Your Highness,” he greeted.

Vane ignored him and walked on over to Lex. “Come on, we need to leave.”

Lex didn’t want to leave. Not with Vane. “No.”

“Lex, if you don’t do as I say, I’m going to hit you again, and this time, you’re going to feel it.”

Lex glared at him, then abruptly threw a rock at him. It landed at Vane’s feet, but the intention was still there.

“You little piece of-“

Jared appeared between the two of them. “Your Highness, please. Princess Ellah wishes for him to learn social skills. I think we can both agree that that’s what’s best for this situation, isn’t it?”

Vane knew that if he spanked Lex again, he’d start crying again and be difficult for the whole rest of the day. He’d rather drown the child than apologise, but they were running late, and he already told the people that Lex would be arriving with him.

“Fine. Lex, I apologise for hitting you. Now you must apologise for repeatedly disobeying me.”

“No,” Lex said.

Vane wondered how difficult it would be to change the laws so Juniper would be next in line.

“Your Highness,” the guard said, referring to Lex. “Why don’t you want to apologise?”

“He hit me when I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“And for that, he is sorry.”

“No, he’s not. He’s only pretending to be sorry.”

“Your Highness-“

“There are other children in Beresford,” Vane gave in. “If you come with me, you can play with them.”

Lex didn’t trust his father, but he desperately wanted to play with some other kids that weren’t Juniper. “Really?”

“Yes, there are two or three. Just stay inside the house, and you can play with them. Now come on, or we’re going to be late.”

Lex hesitantly followed Vane towards a horse that was already saddled and ready to go. The two of them were going alone. Once they were out of earshot of the cabin, Vane explained that the people of Beresford were different. Only their family knew where they were, and they had to be kept secret because if the people discovered them, they would kill them.

“Why?” Lex asked.

“They’re much bigger than us,” Vane explained. “Much bigger. Their skin is grey too, and they’ve only got one eye. People look at them, and think they're monsters. They're the sea God's children, so we must protect them."

They sounded scary. Lex was silent for the entire two-hour ride, to Vane’s surprise. They followed the river until it curved in front of them and blocked their path forward, not that it mattered, because there was a wooden bridge built over it, and beyond the bridge, towering red mud walls. It rose up to just beneath the trees. It was high. Nobody could get in or out unless they used the gate, which was made of entire tree stumps tied together and guarded by the biggest, ugliest men Lex had ever seen. They were clothed in fur and leather, and they had big heavy axes strapped to their backs. They were taller than any man Lex has ever seen, giants. They were bald, but they had hair on their faces. Their skin was pale grey, light purple. Both men had one single, big, wide eye in the middle of their face, where the bridge of their noses were supposed to be. Consequently, their noses were bigger.

When they saw Vane, they stepped to the side and opened the gates. They greeted as they passed, and eyed Lex, who started to tear up at the sight of the scary men. He sat closer to his father, and wrapped his arms around Vane’s waist, who told him to get off of him.

Beyond the gates were more of these horrible men, and women. Each as big and ugly as the last. They stomped around on bare feet and spoke a language that Lex had heard only a few times before. He was told it was a secret family language, and the people weren’t allowed to know that they spoke it. It was a game they played, but these people spoke it as well.

The people stopped to bow as the pair passed, and a few pointed at Lex and smiled at him. He again held onto Vane’s shirt to try and hide from the monsters.

The ground was dirt, and all the buildings were also made of mud. They had wooden support beams, and grass roofs, but most of everything was just red dirt and mud. They approached a large building and stopped the horse outside of it. Vane jumped off, and pulled Lex from the horse before he could make a fuss.

The man at the door greeted in that funny language that Lex only half understood. He knew ‘good afternoon’, but none of the words that followed.

Vane answered back in the same language. He mentioned Lex. The other man chuckled, and Lex caught a glimpse of the man’s big, sharp, sparkling white teeth. He stood behind Vane.

“Not to worry, Your Highness, we were expecting you to arrive a bit later than normal when you said you were bringing the little Prince,” the man said in Nixabar’s language. He put his hands on his knees and smiled at Lex. “I’m Suurb. What’s your name?”

Lex stared at the man. His one eye seemed to stare through Lex’s soul. He started crying.

“Ah…” Suurb stood upright.

“Not this bullshit again,” Vane said when Lex’s crying got louder. “He’s not going to hurt you! Stop this incessant bitching.”

“It’s quite alright,” Suurb said. “He’s never seen us before. He must be shocked.”

Lex cried into Vane’s shirt and left tear stains on the white cloth. He held onto his father for dear life or the monsters would snatch him and eat him.

“Well, he’s going to have to get used to you. I’ve brought him here so he can see the people. I thought he was old enough to join us in the meeting, but seeing as how this whole trip has gone, I doubt he’s even mature enough to be allowed into the room with us.”

Suurb looked towards Lex again, who scrambled to stand behind his father. “He’s not going to want to leave your side, Your Highness.”

“He’s going to have to. I told him he can play with the other children. Surely, he won’t be afraid of them?”

Suurb thought he would be. The humans tended to fear them. So much so that they had to live their lives in hiding so they wouldn’t be hunted or enslaved like their brothers and sisters across the ocean. “No, I suppose not. Eemah is watching the other children. I’ll have someone go get her.”

Suurb went inside the building and Vane dragged Lex in there too. He didn’t want to go in, he was afraid that they wouldn’t be allowed to leave. He held tightly onto Vane while they waited for Suurb to return. When he was back, he handed Vane a glass of wine, and he gave Lex a glass of juice, which he didn’t want to take.

“Don’t be rude,” Vane said. “Take it and thank him.”

Lex still didn’t want to take the glass. He was frozen to the spot.

“LEX!”

Lex started trembling. His eyes were wide.

“It’s alright,” Suurb said and put the glass down on a nearby side table. “He can take it when he’s ready.” He disappeared again.

Vane grabbed Lex and held him still and got to eye level before quietly threatening him. “We need these people on our side. They make our weapons. If you disrespect them one more time I’m going to leave you here so they can teach you some manners, do I make myself clear?”

Lex didn’t answer. He was scared.

“A lady is going to come here and you’re going to follow her. She’s going to take you to the other kids. You’re going to stay with them until I come get you. Understand?”

Lex still didn’t answer.

“Understand?”

A lady knocked on the door. She was just as big and ugly as everyone else, but daintier and wearing a bright orange dress. She greeted them with a cheery, high pitched voice, and gushed over Lex when she saw him.

“Please be careful with him,” Vane said. “He’s very afraid and we haven’t had much time to teach him Shilghnee yet.”

The woman took Lex’s hand, confirming his new worst fear. “Don’t worry, Your Highness. I’ll have him under control. You and your brother arrived here for the first time at the same time, and you were bigger than him and just as afraid.”

Vane seemed embarrassed at the memory, but he didn’t acknowledge it. “Let me know if he makes any trouble.”

The woman pulled Lex away from Vane. He was quiet for the moment he was in the building, but once he found his voice, he started screaming. He tried to push the lady away, dug his feet into the ground, and called his father, who didn’t come after him. He screamed, tried to twist his hand out of the woman’s grip, scratched her, told her to let him go, but she continued forward with an iron grip.

“Father!” he cried. “Father, help me!” But Vane didn’t come.

The woman took Lex to another building. A shorter, wider one. He could hear other voices behind the door. There were more monsters behind it. The woman opened the door and pulled Lex inside. He grabbed the doorframe to stop himself, but she easily pulled him away and locked the door before letting him go.

Lex ran to a corner and tried to hide from her under a side table.

She put her hands on her hips and smiled at him. “Your Highness, I’m not going to hurt you. You can stay under there, if you’d like, or you can go to the games room and play with the other children and have some cookies.”

Lex didn’t move. He was sobbing. Thick, hot tears rolled down his cheeks.

“Alright. I’ll bring you a cookie anyway. And some paper.” The woman turned to leave. Once she was out of sight, Lex ran out from under the table and tried to open the door. It was locked and he didn’t know where the key was. He ran for the nearest window, also locked. He picked up a small wooden statue on the table, smashed the window, and clambered out, cutting his hands on the glass as he did so.

“Your Highness!” the woman tried to snatch him, but he was already out of reach by the time she got there. He ran off while she scrambled to get the key into the door. She ran outside and looked around. He was nowhere in sight. “Your Highness!” She ran into the street. “Your Highness?”

“Seih rhad ôb!" a man called out and pointed to the roof of the building.

Lex grabbed a fistful of the thatch roof and pulled himself up, leaving blood marks on the roof. The woman shrieked and ran closer, ready to catch him if he fell. The thatch stayed in place, and Lex climbed up the slippery roof to the top, where he sat down and stared at everyone with tears still running down his cheeks.

“Your Highness! Please come down!”

Meanwhile, the only other human man who knew about Beresford was on his way in. He spent his whole morning in the mine. He smelled like sweat and dirt, looked the part too. He’d brought a bucket of shiny rocks – tin – as a bribe to be let inside. He wasn’t technically allowed in there, but he hasn’t told a single soul of the village yet, and he’s been unproblematic so far, so they were lenient, at times.

He just set foot on the bridge and was immediately denied entrance.

“His Highness is here for a meeting. Afraid you have to leave.”

The man, Gerald, grumbled a string of curses. He was young. He’d turned eighteen just a few months prior, been living in Nixabar for only two years now to take over his father’s mine, who was crushed by a cave-in. The family thought it was a horrible accident, some sandy spot, perhaps, but when Gerald and his mother came to inspect the mine, they realised it was carelessness. He dug too far and too wide without adding new support beams. Whether it was laziness or greed, they weren’t sure, but it cost him his life.

“C’mon,” Gerald said. “I jus’ came here fer a drink a water. Finished mine this mornin’.”

“Sorry, but we can’t risk you being seen.”

“Can ye go get me some?”

“What’s wrong with the river water?”

“Too fishy fer my likin’.”

Someone hammered on the gates and Gerald disappeared from sight almost immediately. One of the guards opened, and a frantic woman ran out. She wanted to know where that ‘other human’ was. She needed his help, before the Prince saw.

Gerald carefully stepped back towards the bridge. “What’s goin’ on?” he asked.

The woman was relieved when she saw him, but frantic all the same. “Gerald! We need your help. Come on, hurry!”

Gerald ran across the bridge and dropped his bucket by the gates. He ran into the village, and immediately spotted a crowd of people standing around the daycare. A child was stuck on top of the roof, screaming and crying, trying to get away from all the people.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “Who’s that?”

“The Prince’s son,” the lady said, beyond stressed. “I turned my back for one second and he ran off. He won’t come down. We tried to get to him with a ladder but he backed away and slipped, he nearly fell off the roof. We can’t get to him, I don’t know what to do. If the Prince sees…” Her eyes were brimming with tears. “Please see if he’ll listen to you. You’re my last idea before I have to go call the Prince and he won’t be happy with any of us.”

Gerald pushed through the crowd and put one foot on the ladder. He looked to the roof, then to all the people. “Everybody, go on about yer business, yer scarin’ the kid!”

“He’s going to fall!”

“Jus back away. I’ll handle this.”

The crowd didn’t want to leave Lex alone. Some hesitantly moved away, others ran to stand under the roof where Lex couldn’t see them. Once the crowd was cleared, Gerald climbed up the ladder. Lex got frightened when Gerald appeared. He was quite the sight to behold. Bright red hair, shaggy beard, hair all over his body. He was just as big as the cyclopes, and similarly dressed in leather, but he was human.

Lex didn’t try to get away from him, but Gerald didn’t try and approach him either.

“Now what’s got ye so afraid, kid?” Gerald asked.

Lex just continued to cry. He didn’t want to get off the roof.

“These people’re nice. Nicer than yer father, but that ain’t too hard, is it?”

Lex’s sobbing didn’t stop or slow down, but he kept his focus on Gerald, he didn’t seem too afraid of him, so that was a good sign, at least.

“Name’s Gerald,” Gerald said. “I ain’t from here. I’m from Kynsolus. Yer mother’s from there too, ain’t she? Big place. Much hotter there than here. Too many people, if I’m bein’ honest. But they’re more advanced. There’s a lotta people. A lotta people ta make things, and invent things. More money ta go around. Things are hard here, compared to there, but simpler. I like that. Cyclopes are free too. Think I like that more than anythin’. Din't really pay them too much attention at home. In fact, me family owned a couple. But... I feel bad fer it now.”

Lex was still sobbing. He had his knees pulled to his chest, and it didn’t look like he’s relaxed at all. Gerald was afraid that if he tried to approach him, he’d try to run off and hurt himself… more, judging by the blood on his hands.

“What are you doing?” someone from below asked. “Why aren’t you getting him?”

The hidden voice seemed to scare Lex all over again. He buried his head in his arms and started shaking as he cried.

“I can’t get him if he’s so scared. He’s gonna get hurt. Yer just gonna have ta distract the Prince ’till I get him. Could take an hour er more.”

They didn’t want to hear that answer. “Just get up there and get him.”

“I can’t! He don’t know me. He especially won’t let me near him if he thinks I’m gonna pull him down. Ye’ll have ta wait.”

The cyclopes started to have some kind of discussion, or argument, about who was going to tell Suurb. Everyone was in agreement that it was Eemah who lost him, but if she showed up to talk to Suurb, the Prince would be alerted immediately.

Gerald turned his attention back to the kid. Vane brought him there at the wrong time entirely. He had to bring him when he was younger, before he could even think of them as monsters, or when he was older. At the very least, he shouldn’t have left him alone. It must’ve been horrible, from his perspective. In the years Gerald’s been there, he didn’t think he’s ever seen the kids leave the castle. They were confined to those walls for most of their lives. The castle must’ve been Lex’s whole world. To suddenly be yanked from it, put in a strange new environment, with big, strange people, and left all alone at such a young age, he must’ve been terrified. Gerald had to get him to trust him with some kind of familiarity, but he knew nothing of the royal family.

He was stuck on what to do. He decided to wait until Lex was done crying. But it took a very long time. It was getting hotter, and he was afraid that the kid would faint and fall off. “Kid, do ye want ta play a game?” he asked.

Lex looked up to stare at him. He was still sobbing, but most of the crying has stopped. His eyes were bloodshot, and his face was wet with tears. There were some blood streaks on his cheeks from his hands.

“It’s a dice game,” Gerald took a pair of dice out of his pocket and showed it to him. “We have ta throw the dice and guess what number they land on before they stop rolling. Wanna play?”

Lex was still being very reserved, but Gerald just barely saw him nod his head. He didn’t think Lex would get off the roof just yet, so they had to try and play for a bit on the slope of the roof.

“Alright. Ye aren’t allowed to guess the number before I throw, only while the dice are rollin’. Alright?” He tossed the dice. “Seven.” The dice bounced off the thatch, rolled down, and fell to the dirt below. “Ye didn’ say yer number,” he told Lex. “T’s alright. We can try again.” He climbed down the ladder, picked up the dice, and climbed back up. Lex was gone. Gerald panicked for a second, climbed onto the roof and clambered to the top, but Lex wasn’t on the other side. He was gone. He stood on shaky feet on top of the roof to look around him. Sneaky bastard.

He saw some commotion on the other side of the road, slid down the roof and ran to it. He saw Lex running through a crowd of people desperately trying to catch him. He was probably looking for his father but running in the wrong direction.

Gerald tried to guess where he would end up and ran ahead. He stopped dead in his tracks when he heard bloodcurdling screams. Someone managed to grab him by the arm, and Lex screamed at the man, and tried to fight him off, but he was much bigger. Determined not to let him get away again, the man grabbed both his hands and lifted him off the ground to take him back to the daycare while Lex screamed and kicked to be let go.

Gerald ran towards them. “Wait! Yer scarin’ him!” he stood in front of the man, but he just walked around Gerald.

“He needs to be put somewhere safe. Scared or not,” the man told him.

The screaming child hurt Gerald’s heart, but the man was right. They could try to comfort him when he was somewhere safe. Gerald followed him to the daycare, and the lady, Eemah, let Gerald in. They put Lex in a room and let Gerald in too. Eemah gave him the key, and told him to lock the door. He turned his back to do so, and immediately heard a loud BANG! Lex was by the window, slamming on it with his fist.

“Is that how ye got out in the first place?” Gerald left the door unlocked and ran to get Lex away from the window.

“Leave me alone!” Lex yelled at him. “Leave me alone! I want my father!”

Gerald dragged him to the door so he could lock it, and put the key in his pocket.

“I WANT MY FATHER!”

“Why?” Gerald asked, frustrated, and let go of him. “So he can give ye a hiding? Ye think he’s gonna give ye a hug when he finds out ye broke a window, cut yer hands, and caused a scene by puttin’ yer life in danger?”

Lex started crying again. Gerald didn’t know what to do. All the kid did was cry.

“Kid. I know it’s scary. I’m not from here either. It’s a new place, wit’ new people. Everythin’s different, but different don’t mean it’s bad. Fer me, when I got here, t’was terrible. I didn’ know where anythin’ was. I didn’ know who anyone was. I had nowhere ta go. Didn’ know who ta ask. I was lost, an’ everyone was hostile. People didn’ like me, ‘cause I’m different. But different don’ always mean bad. I tried ta understand yer people. I met someone who’s also not from here. He showed me around, told me how the people are, who the people are, why ye always wear black and white in this kingdom. He helped me settle in. Helped me meet new people, make new friends. I feel at home now. I’m happy here now. I know the people, I know where everything is, I know the cultures, I have friends. All because I met someone who’s also different, who knew the way and wanted ta help me. Lemme help ye. I can show ye around, tell ye about the people, help ye understand this place. It’s not scary. These people won’ hurt ye, I promise.” He held out his hand, hoping that Lex would accept his offer.

“GO AWAY!” Lex yelled at him.

“Fuck ye too, kid.”

They were locked in that room together for over two hours and Lex wasn’t any more willing to talk to Gerald, but he did stop crying. Eemah stopped by to bring them sandwiches, cookies, and juice. She also gave them a basket of wooden blocks.

Lex didn’t touch anything she brought them, and Gerald entertained himself with the blocks but got bored rather quickly. When he felt like he was about to go mad with boredom, he took out his dice and started tossing them near him. He tossed them, looked at the results, and tossed them again. Over and over. To Lex, it looked like the man had gone insane.

“What are you doing?” Lex finally asked.

“I’m playin’ a game,” Gerald answered.

“What game?”

Gerald hesitated before answering. “I have ta roll these dice an’ hope they land on seven or eleven. That means I win. If it lands on two, three, or twelve, I lose. If it lands on any other number, I have ta roll that number again before seven and still avoid two, three, and twelve. If I roll that number again and then get seven, I win.”

Lex already forgot half the rules, but he was bored, and Gerald hasn’t caused him any harm yet, but he did eat his cookie. “Can I play?” he asked.

Gerald was going to ask him if he was going to run off again, but he didn’t think sarcasm was going to get the kid on his side, so he left it. “Aye.” He tossed the dice to Lex. “Just throw ‘em an’ see where they land.”

Lex picked up the dice, and threw them, hand over shoulder and against the wall.

“Not like that!” Gerald said. “Yer gonna break me dice.” He picked them up and tossed them lightly at the ground. “Like this, so they roll. See? Try again.”

Lex was hesitant to try again after Gerald raised his voice. He waited for the man to step away from the dice before picking them back up. He held them close to the ground, and very lightly let them roll off his hands to land on the ground without rolling.

It was cheating, but Lex was too young to know that. “Ye lose,” Gerald told him.

“Why?” Lex asked.

“Ye got three. That means ye lose. Two, three, or twelve is lose. Seven and eleven is win. It’s my turn.” He picked up the dice and rolled them across the floor. They landed on five.

“What does that mean?” Lex asked.

“Means it’s harder ta win now. I have ta throw five again before I can try ta win. Your turn.”

Lex and Gerald took turns tossing the dice, both losing several times. It wasn’t long before Lex got tired of the game. “Why do you play something that’s so hard to win?”

“Winnin’s much more fun if it’s hard ta do,” Gerald said and pocketed the dice. “Kid, I don’ know about you, but I’m gettin’ tired a bein’ stuck in this room. If we go outside, do ye promise not ta run off?”

Lex’s mood soured immediately.

“Nobody’s gonna hurt ye. We’ll wash that blood off yer hands and wrap ‘em up so they don’ hurt whenever ye touch somethin’. Then I gotta go pee. Then we’re gonna go get drinks. If yer father doesn’t pick ye up by then, we’ll play a game outside. How does that sound?”

Lex didn’t trust the man, but he was tired of the room. Plus, he also had to go pee. “You won’t take me to the monsters?”

“They’re not monsters, they’re people. And we’re in their village. Afraid yer gonna have ta deal with that, but ye don’ have ta talk ta them.”

Lex agreed to go with Gerald on the condition he wouldn’t leave him alone. They left the room and went outside. Gerald helped him wash the blood off his hands and face with a bucket of water outside, and then they went to the kitchen and asked Eemah where the bandages were. Gerald wrapped Lex’s fingers individually, and tied the knots at the back of his hands, out of the way. After visiting the privy, they went to a bar. Gerald asked for a table outside, away from all the people. He ordered ale for himself, and Lex got some juice and a small pie.

“What’s this?” Lex asked.

“Fruit pie. Worst thing in the world,” Gerald answered.

Lex thought it smelled really good. It had sugar coating the top, so it must’ve been good. He took a bite, and decided that Gerald was a liar who planned on taking the pie for himself, like the cookie, because it was the best thing in the world.

The sky was turning orange and there still was no sign of Vane. As promised, Gerald went back to the daycare to ask for a ball, and he and Lex kicked it around for a bit in the street in front of the building. When Lex got bored of the game, he asked if they could play tag. Gerald told him that he didn’t want anyone to think he was running off again, so they had to play something else. When it started to get dark, Eemah informed them that all the other kids had gone home, so there was nobody in the courtyard where all the toys were.

It was safer to have Lex inside the walls anyway. They went on through and stepped out into the courtyard. It was a very small space, not enough room to kick a ball around, but enough room to entertain a bunch of kids. Lex didn’t have so many toys at home, and eagerly pointed to anything and everything that was new to him. He’s never seen a swing before but decided to play with something else before Gerald could explain what it was.

He and Gerald played with the spinning tops for a while. Lex didn’t know how they worked and asked Gerald to wind the string around his each time. Then he picked up a wooden sword and told Gerald that he had to pretend to be a robber. Gerald played along, pretending to be sneaky in full sight of Lex, who was watching him and eagerly waiting for him to ‘steal’ a toy. Once he took something, Lex charged at him with the sword and hit Gerald on the hand, hard.

“Ow! Ye little fuck,” Gerald grabbed the nearest toy weapon he could reach – a tiny broom – and swung it at Lex. They went back and forth a while, swinging their weapons at each other, Lex trying to get a hit, Gerald trying not to get hit, until Eemah came in to let them know that the Prince ‘was in no condition to ride’ and that he would be spending the night.

“Are you staying, Gerald?” she asked.

Gerald looked at Lex. He didn’t want to stay. He’d rather go home. He still had things in his mine that needed to be packed away, but seeing the fear in the child’s eyes at the thought of being left alone made him make up his mind. “Eh, I guess,” he said. “If ye’ll have me.”

“Of course. All children are welcome. Even the big ones,” she said. “I’ll go prepare your beds. Lights out at nine.”

“Nine?” Gerald asked.

The second Eemah was gone, Lex hit him on the hand with his wooden sword again.

“Ow! Stop that or I’ll start hittin’ back.”

At nine O’clock, Eemah asked them to go to bed. Gerald wasn’t too happy with the enforced early bedtime, but when he looked out the window, he realised that everybody blew out their candles at nine. Even the street candles were blown out and the guards started to patrol the streets. It was dead silent.

Lex fell asleep fairly quickly, but Gerald wasn’t tired. He was worried about his mine. What if someone went in sometime during the night and stole something? He looked over to the sleeping child next to him. After nearly a full day of crying, he was calm, happy, even. Maybe that was worth a bit more than a pickaxe and a cart of tin.