Once upon a time...
I was traveling to a far away land for a festival. My royal family and I were accompanied by hundreds of carriages belonging to the people in my land. It was a long, yet joyous journey. We traveled by day and would camp at night and eat food and sing music and dance.
During one of the dances I was paired up with a green eyed, brown haired, tan, muscular boy. He had a goofy smile. When he held out his hand for me to dance, I noticed that his hands were rough and calloused. "You don't have two left feet do you?" He teased after noticing my hesitation. "I'm a princess, of course not!" I responded. Much to my surprise, this boy was a fantastic dancer. He was delightful and we laughed and danced until the music ended. He bowed, I courtsied, and we changed partners. I realized I hadn't even asked the green eyed boy's name.
The following morning, everyone heading to the festival arose bright and early and we went on our way. We rode a couple of miles when we reached a river. The only bridge that we could use to cross it, was being guarded by a troll. He wanted far more money to cross the bridge than the people in our company could afford. The only other option was to cross through the river. As in walking. In our clothes. Through the river. Absolutely not. I sat on a rock and refused to move until someone paid the troll so we could cross on the dry bridge.
By the time most of the carriages and people had crossed the river, my parents were getting impatient with me. "Brailee, we need to be on our way. You're holding up the entire company," my father said. "Then pay the troll! I am NOT GETTING WET!" I snapped. "Sweetie, you'll dry quickly. And the water barely reaches your knees. You won't be completely wet," my mother reassured. Being my stubborn self, I still refused. My parents lost their patience and told me they were leaving me behind. I crossed my arm and turned my head, nose pointed in the air. They sighed and began to cross the river. I heard a voice say, "I'll carry you across." I looked up to see the green eyed boy. I raised an eyebrow and said, "No." He laughed and bent down to face me. "I'm assuming no one's paid the troll in a long time to cross the bridge, he's probably been too poor to buy food. You may not make it through the night if he decides he's hungry." He grinned to show he was teasing me, however I instantly knew my safety would be in danger if I stayed on the rock. "Fine. But only if you swear I won't get wet," I said. He smiled, "Not even a drop of water will touch you."
I wrapped my arms around his neck, he scooped me in his arms as if I were as light as a feather, and carried me across the river. When he set me down on the other side, I thanked him and asked his name. "Angus," he replied.
The rest of the day I talked with this boy named Angus. He was much more mature than any boy I'd been friends with before, but he had a funny side too. I invited him to ride with me in my carriage, and the rest of the day we sang silly songs and played chess. By the time nightfall came, I decided I kind of liked him; goofy smile and all.
On the following day of our journey, I wasn't feeling well. The last thing I remember was the sun beating down through the carriage window. Everything began to blur and go black. I felt myself lose all strength and soon completely lost consciousness. Every few hours I'd see blurry images of people around me, then blackness. When I started to come to, I could feel a wet rag around my neck. Someone was forcing ice into my mouth. And another person was holding me in a sitting position. When I regained full consciousness, I recognized my ladies in waiting, my sister, and Angus. Together they nursed me back to health and explained that I had been dehydrated.
Angus' kindness really touched me. I know I'm a princess, and that I had outgrown my relatively awkward stage, but it was more common for a boy to take notice of me than to spend hours helping me. After that, during dinner we would sit together, he rode in my carriage with me every day, and when we reached the festival, we spent most of the time together. He made me laugh and we would sing silly songs and he let me win every argument and game we played.
Our relationship changed however when we got back to our home far far away. We didn't go to the same school. We rarely got to see each other. The time we did spend together was wonderful though! We never had a fight and always left each other so happy. We weren't on the same page about the seriousness of our relationship however, and I was totally shocked when Angus presented me with a promise ring. I took the ring knowing that it meant I'd be devoted to him, but I knew that that wasn't how I felt. Sure, he was a knight in shining armor on our way to the festival, and he was charming, but was he my prince? In my heart, I knew he wasn't.
After much thought, and sleepless nights, I knew what I had to do. I had a carriage take me to him. He was surprised to see me and looked very grim when I told him we needed to talk. I took the promise ring out of my pocket and handed it to him. "So that's that?" he asked. "I'm sorry," I responded.
And we lived happily never after.
