I don’t know how interesting this is going to be to people who aren’t involved, so I’m going to try to ramp up your engagement.
- First we are going to have a competition:
- The first person to correctly guess what happened to the king will be right, which is very desirable.
- The first person to identify all my fellow writers and their ‘dreams’ will be the winner, a great prize isn’t it.
- And the person that can accurately discern all the characters based on real people will win the ultimate prize, they will be the ultimate winner.
Great prizes hey, realistic and no added postage.
- And second, let me tell you how it happened:
Five people, paper and pen (or device) at hand reached one by one into the dream box. A beautiful wooden box, carved and painted with a smiling moon opened to reveal hundreds of tiny slips of brightly coloured paper. Each slip revealed the role to be played.
The challenge, a Christmas story containing all the other writers at the table in their roles. The five writers consisted of two support workers, two of my precious demon spawn and lucky, lucky them, me.
Hintses: Keep in mind, I have managed to tease everyone I wrote about, but not to an extent that they haven’t enjoyed the story. Two non-writer real characters requested small changes which I included.
So with no further ado, the story.
Princess Tabitha felt strange, her body tingled in a way she had never heard of before. Was it her anxiety? After all Queen Catherine the Not Quite That Great was languishing in the Dungeon, Princess Natasha was travelling through the Northern Duchies rallying support for her rebellion. And the newly crowned (by threat of sword) Empress Alexandria the Insane appeared even further out of her mind than normal.
And it was getting close to Christmas.
Princess Tabitha had handled the coup in her own way. She baked some cakes for her youngest sister to take with her and made cheery chocolate deers for the deposed Queen. She had read some mystery stories, cuddled the family cat and remained silent while making no decisions at all. Tabitha had run out of ideas, so she had gone to bed. Perhaps things would be better in the morning, they never had been in the past, so, she thought, she was due for a break.
…
Georgie had been sent an urgent request from Princess Tabitha, to bring as many baby animals as was convenient to the palace as soon as possible. Georgie knew that Princess Tabitha rarely made requests, this must be very important. She filled her wagon with as many animals as she could keep comfortable, and set off for the palace with all haste. This was why she, uncharacteristically, hesitated to stop for the stranger on the roadside.
But when he ambled thoughtlessly into the path of her horses, she reined them in quickly. Georgie jumped from the wagon seat and ran to check if the stranger was alright. The stranger stood in the middle of the road apparently talking to his own hand, which he held close to his face. Georgie noticed the man radiated an unearthly beauty, tall, gangling with incredible, bewildered eyes; he was captivating.
“Are you alright?” asked Georgie.
The stranger jumped, he then carefully searched his hand. “Where has she gone?”
It was obvious the man had lost his mind, so Georgie decided he probably belonged in the palace, where he would fit in. She carefully guided him to the wagon. Although he seemed to be looking for something in the air he was confused and easily guided.
Georgie set back off on her important mission. Since the sudden, inexplicable disappearance of their Saint King, Gavin and his mysterious Queen, Lisa, politics was foremost in the minds of all the populous. While the princesses battled was anyone safe? And, most importantly, something had to be done before Empress Alexandria the Insane fulfilled her promise; ‘a bomb in every home’.
“Oh, there you are,” said the stranger.
“What?” asked Georgie.
“I found her, she’s back,” said the stranger.
“That’s nice,” Georgie did not want to overstimulate the man either way.
“Hey,” said the stranger, as he crawled towards the wagon’s seat. “Lisa here, is trying to get to the palace.”
The stranger showed Georgie there was a ladybug on his arm. Georgie couldn’t remember which symptom was more dangerous, hallucinating an entire being, or imagining something real talking to you.
Georgie worried about her animals more than her self, so she stopped the wagon. “Why don’t you and… ah… Lisa sit up here with me.”
“Okay!” instead of jumping down and climbing up again, as Georgie expected, the stranger swung his long gangly legs around in a graceful half circle to sit next to Georgie. “Oh hi, by the way, and is it appropriate to thank you for this conveyance. Oh and do you have a title, you know something you like to be addressed by.”
“Ah, Georgie, and you.”
“Nice Intelligence Charmingly Habitant,’ said the stranger.
The ladybug flew around his face.
“Oops sorry, Nich,” said Nich.
“Okay Nich,” said Georgie in her best calm voice.
…
Part 2 soon well now actually.
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