Of Princesses and Hunters p2

Prologue- Better Find that Horse!

Ryn sat on her family’s fence, her legs high off the ground. She was waiting for her dad to take her hunting again, now a daily ritual in the girl’s life. The six year old glanced at the ground, watching the different bugs skitter around in the dirt, going on with their lives, only thinking about surviving.

“Lucky buggies. They don’t have a Daddy that makes them go hunting early in the morning when they want to balance on the fence and jump out of trees.” She said, crossing her arms in mock anger. Cale soon walked out of the house, his face unhappy. Ryn looked at her father with a confused look on her face, the man had just been happy a few moments ago so why was he upset?

“Daddy? Why are you unhappy?” She asked.

“It seems Granite has gotten out.” He replied. Ryn gasped and turned to the stables behind her, jumping off the fence and towards the small building.

“Horsie? Horsie!!” She cried, trying to find her ‘horsie’.

“Daddy! Horsie isn’t here! He isn’t here!” She said, her face in a pout. Her father nodded, looking around.

“I’m going to go to the local farmers. Maybe they have seen Granite. Stay with your brother.” He said, walking towards the house. Ryn pouted again. If there was one thing worse than hunting it was not spending time with her daddy. Ryn was going to fix this if it was the last thing she did. She quickly ran towards the house and to her brother who was practicing reading and writing in their room.

“Hey! Julian!” She cried, startling him.

“What do you want, Ryn?” He asked.

“We need to find Granite or Daddy will be unhappy.” She said, her arms crossed.

“We don’t need to do anything. We’re staying home and that’s final.”

“Just because you’re two years older than me doesn’t make you smarter or better than me!”

“Ryn…I’m ten.”

“Yeah…isn’t that two years older than me?”

Julian shook his head in exasperation, closing the book he had been trying to read from.

“What do you suggest we do when Dad said for you to stay here with me?”

“Daddy only said I had to stay with you. Plus, I know how to find Granite.” Ryn said, nodding. Julian’s face soon sported a questioning look at his sister’s statement.

“Well there are two ways that I think I know where Granite went. First, I saw some fresh tracks leading away from the pasture towards town.”

“How do you know he even went to town? Maybe he’s grazing on the path.”

“Shut-up and listen! Second way I know is that one of the king’s horses is in something called ‘heat’…I’m not sure what that is, but I do know that all the boy horsies are gonna want to go to her. I bet Granite is heading that way.” She said. Julian stared at his sister in disbelief.

“You really want us to go to town and look for Granite?” He asked, receiving a nod in return.

“Well…Dad did say you had to stay with me…grab your cloak, we’re going to look for Granite.” Julian said, a slight smile on his face. Ryn squealed with happiness and went to do what Julian had told her to do.

Twenty minutes later, the two had the town and castle in their sights. Granite’s tracks had let them right to the castle town, meaning that Ryn’s conjecture had more than likely correct. The two had no trouble getting through the front gates of the town, the king’s way of saying that only humans were welcome in the town for as soon as the two entered there were tons of propaganda posters, defaming all creatures that were non-humans. Elves, goblins, trolls, orcs, fairies, spirits that could control the elements, halflings, golems, dragons, centaurs…all sorts of creatures had their faces strewn up on the walls of the town, telling all those who passed the horrors that these creatures did and why they couldn’t be trusted. The two children ignored these signs and passed through winding alleys and down streets, looking for their horse.

After searching all over, questioning everyone they came across, the two children stood outside the gate to the castle because a few cart merchants had said some castle guards had taken a horse matching Granite’s description into the castle.   

They tried entering through the front gates, but the guard wouldn’t let them no matter what the children said.

“What are we going to do?” The girl asked, looking up at her brother, a sad look upon her face. She unhappily folded her arms and pouted.

“How are we going to find Granite?” She whimpered. Julian let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, pacing as he tried to figure out how to get into the castle. Julian sat down, his back against a stonewall that connected to the castle gate. Ryn stood there staring at her brother, waiting for him to think of something.

“Sorry, Ryn, I can’t think of anything we can do. We should go home.” Julian finally stated, standing up as he said this.

“Julian.”

“No, Ryn, we can’t do anything.”

“No, Julian, look behind you!”

Julian did as he was told, turning around to look at the wall he had been resting against.

“I don’t see anything, Ryn.” He said.

“No! Look up!”

He did. There on the wall was a bunch of average, run-of-the-mill, vines. The kind found on any old house or in any garden.

“What’s the problem, Ryn? I just see a bunch of vines.”

“Vines on the wall of the castle, at your height.”

“So.”

“So? You could lift me up and I could climb up and over the wall, go to the stables, and rescue our horsie!” Ryn cried, thrusting her fist in the air to add emphasis on her idea. Julian frowned, and looked at the wall. The vines were slightly out of his reach and scaled the entire top part of the wall. He turned back to his sister, shaking his head.

“If you get hurt, Mom and Dad will kill me, hire a necromancer to raise me from the dead, and kill me again!” He said. Ryn’s face dropped and her expression turned into that of a wounded puppy’s.

“That’s why you have to be careful, okay?” He finished. Ryn’s smile grew again as she ran to hug her brother.

“All right, all right. I get it, I get it!” He cried, embracing his sister. They separated; Julian knelt down so Ryn could put her legs over his shoulders so she was sitting on his shoulders. Julian stood up once Ryn was on him securely. Using his head as an anchor, Ryn pushed herself up so she was standing on his shoulders. Once stable, she leapt at the wall, grabbing onto whatever vines she could find. Julian fell back in surprise, not expecting Ryn to actually jump onto the wall.

“Are you okay, Ryn?” He asked. Without answering, she quickly scaled to the top of the wall, standing up at the top. Julian swallowed hard, fearful for the fact that she could fall and hurt herself.

With the agility of a cat, Ryn started sprinting along the top of the wall, keeping her balance and not even stumbling once. Julian’s eyes widened in surprise, having not known that his little sister was so agile. Julian looked around, trying to find some way into the castle or something like that.

Ryn continued running on the stop of the wall, her eyes darting around every so often as she didn’t wish to be spotted by a castle guard. Everything seemed fine as she found the top of the royal stables. A grand place, larger than any other stable that Ryn had visited, and having gone to several circuses meant that she had seen quite a few. She judged the distance from the top of the wall to the top of the stables. With a growl, she saw it was probably too far, unless she crawled down a little ways. Then she remembered the vines on top of the wall and saw they went almost halfway down, leaving a fairly good distance from where she could jump to the roof. She nodded and climbed down, jumping when she reached the bottom of the vines.

“This is easier than I thought.” She whispered, jumping to the ground and rolling so as not to hurt herself.

“Time to find Granite.” She whispered, entering the building. There were several openings from which the horses could stick out their heads and the people to see them. Ryn went down the aisle of these openings, looking into each room for her horse. She found him in the last opening. He was grazing on some hay and seemed quite content to where he was.

“Granite!” She cried, gaining the horse’s attention. With a happy whinny, he walked up to the opening and started nudging and sniffing Ryn’s head, making her laugh happily.

“Time to get you out of here, boy.” She whispered, reaching up to release her horse.

“You! Don’t move!” A man shouted from the other side of the aisle. Ryn looked up in fear, her hand having already released the latch, causing Granite to walk out. The man was dressed in the garb of the castle’s guard and was holding a pole-ax in his hand, pointing it at Ryn. Granite snorted and stomped the ground as if to say,

“Get out of our way.”

“Mount, Granite.” Ryn commanded. Granite knelt down so that Ryn could climb up on his back with little difficulty, a trick her father had taught the horse long ago.

“I said don’t move!” The man growled. Granite neighed angrily and charged at the man, causing him to let out a cry of dismay and jump to the side to avoid being trampled by the horse.    

“Let’s go, Granite!” Ryn cried as they galloped out of the stables. Granite reared up as they exited, stopping short, making Ryn have to grab on to her horse’s mane out of sheer terror. There were several other guards surrounding the two, some having their pole-axes out, others had out their swords and shields.

“You are to release that horse, young lady! It is property of the king’s daughter!” A portly man said, running up towards the commotion. He wiped his brow with a handkerchief before he continued talking.

“You are to release Sir Donald Bear, the horse, at this very instance!” He cried out. Ryn had to hold in a snicker at her horse’s ‘new’ name. Ryn sat on Granite, staring at the men, waiting for them to make their move first. A trick that her father had taught her while hunting.

‘You are to watch for your prey to make the next move. This way, you can read what they’ll do next and even after that.’ He had said. Ryn sat as still as a stone upon her horse, only moving when she saw a girl about her age, maybe younger, run up towards the group.

“You leave my horse alone! You are making Sir Donald McShiny Chicken Blade Bear, the Horse, and Magnificent Grey Cloud of Sunshine, Happiness, and Utter Joy, all filthy with your dirty dirt!” She cried. Again, Ryn had to hold in a laugh, this time seeing that the name that the portly man had said was just a shortened version of this ridiculous name and title.

“Gregory!! Make the stinky peasant get off Sir Donald McShiny…”

“Lady Isabelle! I will get her off at once!” Gregory cried, cutting off the girl before she said the horse’s full name.

“Ah, excuse me…young lady. Please remove your body from Sir Donald Bear, the horse, immediately! We will be very lenient in your punishment and might even just let you go home without any punishment.” Gregory tried very nicely to say. Ryn was going to reply with a courteous remark, something along the lines of explaining the situation like a normal human but then Lady Isabelle spoke up.

“Are you stupid or something?! That means get your stinky face off my horse! Sir Donald McShiny Chicken Blade Bear, the Horse, and Magnificent Grey Cloud of Sunshine, Happiness, and Utter Joy or we’ll cut off your stupid, stinky peasant head!” The girl cried, sticking her tongue out at Ryn. Everyone shook their heads as they heard the horse’s name again. Ryn’s eye visibly twitched as she looked at the girl.

“Listen, little baby! This horse’s name isn’t Sir Donald McStupid. That isn’t even a real name for any horse or creature in this world! This horse’s name is Granite! Also, he’s not your horse! He’s my family’s workhorse! He helps plow our small garden and helps bring our fur cart to town! So shut up before I come down there and knock your stupid head off!” Ryn cried in reply. Everyone gasped in fear as the girl had just insulted Lady Isabelle.

“You did not just say that! I’m not a little baby! I’m four! I’m also the princess of this castle and land! Peasants do not insult me or they get their lowly little heads chopped off! Now get off my horse!” Princess Isabelle cried. Ryn’s face turned to one of disgust. She had read stories and her father and mother had often told her stories of princesses and how regal they were and how they exuded beauty and grace in everything they did. The people who wrote those stories had never met this princess, apparently.

“Stupid, spoiled brat! You better watch it! I’m very close to jumping off this horse and knocking you to the ground!” Ryn growled.

“I like to see that, Goblin girl!”

“What!?”

“That’s right! I said Goblin girl, as in a half-goblin, half-girl and half monster-freak! Your mom married a stupid Goblin and gave birth to you!” She cried, pointing at Ryn. Now, to Ryn, there were many things wrong with the sentence that the princess had just said.

First, no one calls her a goblin as if it was a derogatory term. Her mother had always tried to teach her equality in all races and what the princess had said didn’t mesh with Ryn had learned all her life.

Two, no one calls her a freak or monster. Last person that did ended up with five teeth knocked out and they were twice her age.

Three, this little spoiled brat had just called her father a goblin, again in a derogatory way.

So what Ryn did next was perfectly justified in her mind. She stood up on her horse and jumped down doing a single front flip and landed right in front of Princess Isabelle. She roared in anger as she tackled the four year old and the two started having a fight right there with all the guards watching in fear. They had never seen anything quite like it.

“Gregory. Please grab Isabelle.” A man’s voice calmly said. Gregory’s eyes widened in surprise and did as the man told him.

“What about the other one?”

“I’ll handle her.”

Ryn then saw Gregory pulling her prey away and soon after that two very strong hands were pulling her own body away. Ryn still struggled against these hands, trying to get to the stupid girl in front of her but the hands held tight.

“Stop, or you’ll end up hurting yourself.” A voice calmly said. Ryn froze up upon hearing this voice, having heard it on a few special occasions when she came to the city. She turned her head so she could see the man behind her and gasped when she saw who it was.