A princess story

About Mewda

Authors note: This is a first part of a two part story. It is sort of a generic crummy romance. I hope to later hone my writing to be effectice in this area as well as others, but for now, what you see is what I've got.

Told by Tiko

'Not many people know this, but once, Mewda was a princess named Bekki. She would sit around on big gold chairs and eat little powder covered sweets from silver boxes. She had so many servants, two to make her bed, which was larger than three of yours and had fifteen feather quilts, and one to make sure they did it right, and a servant to put her slippers by her bed just right, and many other servants to do many other things. She liked to sit on a patio and watch people dance in the courtyard for her, and if it was raining, she would lie in bed all day and not get up and people would bring her gifts to try to make her happy.

The only thing Princess Bekki didn't have was a boyfriend. All her princess friends had princes to dance with, but Bekki usually had to hire a knight to take her to royal balls. These balls always left her grumpy and sad, and she would go home and sulk and not eat her dinner. This always made the court very distressed, and they would try to cheer her up, but it wouldn't work.

One evening, Bekki couldn't sleep. She decided that someone should read her a story. She rang a dainty little bell she kept beside her bed and waited for a servant to come read to her. No servant came. She rang it again, and still no servant came. She decided that she should go give her head servant a piece of her mind. She stepped out of bed and her bare feet touched the cold stone. She jumped back into bed and looked for her slippers. They were pushed up to her bed on the other side, quite in the wrong place. She got them and put them on, then she left the room, heading for the servant's quarters.

That's where she had meant to go, but she didn't entirely manage to find the way. She got lost by the royal dining room, decided that she would go through the kitchens, found herself in a gigantic pantry, went through to the other side, and was in a courtyard. The moons were shining brightly, and Bekki was surprised to see how beautiful things were at night. She strolled through a gate into a garden where a half dozen fruit trees sat around a bubbling fountain. There was a broken flagstone pathway leading around the fountain to another gate on the other side. There were some low bushes with red flowers along the pathway, and walking beside the bushes was a young man with a knife. Bekki stood and watched him for a short while. As she watched, the young man took his knife and cut off a branch from one of the bushes and tucked it into a large bag that he had slung over his shoulder. Bekki flew into a rage.'

'Tiko,' yelled Mewda, 'What kind of story are you trying to tell?'

'A real one, as is my custom!' Tiko shouted back. 'don't interrupt! Anyway, back to Bekki.

"How dare you?" She cried. "Stealing the plants of the crown!"

The young man looked up, perplexed.

"Begging your pardon, miss," he said, "but I am only pruning the bushes like I have been paid to do."

Bekki was embarrassed. She had heard of pruning once, a long time ago, but she thought it was a quaint foreign habit.

"Show me how." She demanded, and walked up to the young man.

"If you say so."

The man handed Bekki the knife, handle first. It was heavy and clumsy. The handle was rough and pricked her hand. The young man lifted a branch from a bush.

"This should be cut here." He said, pointing.

Bekki took the branch in one hand and touched the blade against it. Nothing happened. She struck it again, this time a bit harder, and the blade nicked the wood, and a couple leaves fell from the bush. She gripped the knife tightly, then hit the branch again and again. Leaves rained down to the ground, and most of the flowers fell off the bush, but the branch came off the bush.

Bekki held the knife and the branch triumphantly, then she turned and saw the young man.

"That's a job of raking you've got for me there." He said. "But, no matter, I trust that was enjoyable. If I may have my knife back, I would greatly appreciate it."

The princess handed him the knife. He took it, and she noticed, that she had passed it to him blade first. He turned it around and once again began to trim the bushes.

"What's your name?" Asked Bekki.'

Mewda interrupted again.

'Is this supposed to be some romance? It is isn't it.'

Tiko continued as if he had not heard her.

'"I am Troven. Who are you?"

Bekki was taken aback. She was always recognized. She realized she must look very different than normal. Her hair was messy, she didn't have on any makeup, and instead of her usual gowns and jewelry, she only was wearing a normal robe. She decided to make up a lie. If he knew she was the princess, he might start acting just like a servant.

"My name is Mewda." She said, taking the name of one of the servants who had recently left.

"It's good to meet you."

They chatted for most of the night about trivial things. Once Bekki mentioned that she thought the stars looked like her diamonds, but Troven didn't seem to notice the slip. She followed Troven as he worked, and he let her do some of the jobs. The rake puzzled her at first, but soon she had a respectable pile of leaves and flowers that she had knocked down.

Towards sunrise Troven wished Bekki good morning and said goodbye. He stepped between a couple bushes that were set just slightly farther apart than the others, ducked under a low limb on a tree, and was gone. Bekki found her way upstairs to her room to find her servants completely distraught. She told them to be quiet and not tell anyone, then she slept until noon.