Kenton let out a soft chuckle ‘certainly looks like it, doesn’t it? A lot of the people you see live in the three villages at different distances from the capital and come here to work two to five days a week except on the four royal birthdays and of course, Easter and Christmas. The actual population of Síosa is only eight hundred and fifty’ he answered as we passed through a street of market stalls.
Only eight hundred and fifty citizens? I thought, surely that isn’t normal for a kingdom’s capital?
‘How many people exactly live outside the capital, and travel here to work and shop?’ I asked, returning the smiles and waves of some children stood in front of a fruit and vegetable stall.
‘With the population of each village added together, I’d say almost nine hundred’ Jaron replied as we passed a shop whose plaque had an open book etched into the wood.
‘Jaron, can we stop here for a moment? I’d like to have a look in the bookshop’ I called, pulling Perseus around and tugging gently on his reins before telling him softly to stop- though I don’t remember speaking out-loud.
‘Of course, Your Highness’ he answered, then he and Kenton pulled their horses round alongside Perseus as Harry dismounted from behind me before lifting me down.
‘Kenton and Harry, can you mind the horses?’
The two of them nodded, and I turned to Jaron.
As we entered the store, a bell above the door announced our arrival and pulled the attention of a short bald man with a relatively thick white moustache sorting through a crate of books over to us.
‘Your Highness! I am delighted to be blessed with a visit from you’ he exclaimed, bowing his head as he came over.
‘Thank you for the warm welcome, kind sir’ I replied with a smile, sweeping my eyes over all the book spines around the room.
‘What type of books do you sell?’
‘Oh, I have a great selection of different genres milady. Romance, myth and legend, crime, and mystery. All sorts’ he replied ‘please, have a look around and choose one you like - even two!’
Thanking him, I started walking around the cute little store; pulling out and looking at the cover and first few pages of a few books that caught my eye before putting them back and continuing my browse.
Fifteen minutes later, judging by the clock above the counter, I was skimming the spines of some books on a shelf against the far wall of the store when one of them, a book of purple velvet with a silver trimmed spine, attracted my attention.
Pulling it out, I read the front cover.
The Elf Kingdom of Feldar and Its Short History.
I stared at it for several seconds, and then opened it to see if it would interest me. I was barely a minute into the first paragraph when I closed the book again, satisfied, and headed over to the counter.
‘Thank you for letting me stay and look for so long, I’ll be taking this one’ I told the shop owner, placing four gold coins from the pouch my father gave me just before I left with the others this morning, which was concealed within a secret pocket in my dress.
‘Thank you, Your Highness, for your generosity’ he replied with a smile, pulling the coins towards him before depositing them into a pouch hanging from his belt. ‘Do come again, Princess Oraelia.’
I smiled at him and waved him goodbye, leaving the little shop with Jaron following close behind me.
***
‘Have you had enough of your tour yet?’ Kenton asked Harry and I two or three hours later, following a visit to several other shops and a few stalls.
‘I think I’m about ready to fall into bed, and take a nap’ I replied, stifling a yawn.
Harry released a small yawn himself, ‘me too.’
‘Then, I believe it is time to head back to the palace.’ Jaron received three nods of agreement, and so we turned the horses about and headed home.
Once we’d arrived back at the palace, and returned our horses to the stables, I told Harry I was going to visit my father in his study and would catch up with him after we’d both had a nap before going to my room to change into some leggings and a blouse and then headed down to my father’s study.
Upon reaching the end of the corridor, I knocked lightly on the door and when the deep reply of ‘come on’ came from the other side, I turned the knob and stepped inside.
‘Oraelia my dear, how was your trip into town with the boys?’ he asked, as I came in and sat down in one of the chairs on the side of his desk, as he finished writing something in a little brown book with one of his quills.
‘It was great, I bought a few things with the coins you gave me’ I replied.
He nodded, smiling, and then leant back in his chair. ‘So, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?’
‘Jaron told me that the population of the capital is only eight hundred and fifty, and that the combined population of Ledoran’s three villages is around nine hundred. He also said that half of them have to travel a long distance to work, and shop for their families,’ I replied.
‘Father, I’d like to do something for our people, so that those living away from the capital who have to commute don’t have such a long distance to travel. Is there any way you and Mum can extend the magic barrier surrounding the main town? If we can move those who don’t work at, or own stores and farms in the three villages close to Síosa, they won’t exhaust themselves travelling to work or going shopping for supplies. With the extra four hundred inhabitants Síosa’s population will be more befitting of a city.’
He sat silently for a few moments, pursing his lips in thought, and then leant forward. ‘The magic barrier can be expanded with no problem; it can do so on its own thanks to the way it was created when the kingdom came into existence, as for your proposal I think it’s a splendid idea but - do you think you’ll be able to handle the pressure of re-locating the people you’d like to move on your own?’
I felt elated at his reply and suppressed the urge to squeal with happiness as I replied. ‘I’m sure I’ll be able to handle it, though I know once I tell him Harry will be eager to help me out, as will Jaron and Kenton, since the three of us have become close.’
‘Very well then, draw up a plan of how you will go about this, and we’ll go over it with Aiolos, your mother and the other three young men tomorrow afternoon.’
I grinned at him, got up from my chair, and went around to his side of the desk to give him a big hug before opening the door and leaving the study, heart leaping with joy as I headed back to my room for a nap before I told Harry and the other two my big news.
Part Two: Harry
A Memory
Following our return to Síosa Palace, I awoke from the nap I had taken almost as soon as I got into my room, and headed straight down to Ellie’s - I have known her as Ellie since we were kids, so I’m not about to start calling her a name I’ve never known her by, just because everyone else does - to wake her and see if she wanted some late lunch.
‘Ellie, I’m heading down to have some late lunch, are you hungry?’ I asked, knocking on the door. When there was no reply after a minute or so, I gently turned the handle and went inside.
Closing the door behind me as quietly as I could, I turned to the bed and saw Ellie asleep on top of the covers with her hands tucked beneath her head and her legs stretched out towards the end of the bed. Walking across the room to Ellie’s bed and sitting on the edge, I smiled gently as I gazed affectionately upon her face as she slept.
She was as beautiful asleep, as she was awake. This is what I have thought ever since I was twelve years old – sure I’ve known her since we were barely a year old, but I didn’t even know the meaning of the word “beautiful” until I was about eight and asked Mum after hearing my aunt use the word to describe a field of flowers we were passing on a day out.
Her exact words were:
“Beautiful, means anything you want it to honey but generally, it’s a way of describing something appealing to the eye – or the way someone might be within as well as out.”
>
I didn’t fully understand her words until Ellie found me in the crowd of new students on the first day of high school only a few days after my twelfth birthday. For the first time in the years that I’d known her, I noticed how long her eyelashes were…the everlasting sparkles in her eyes, and the shape of her lips, but over the next few days I realised it wasn’t just her looks that made her beautiful to me. It was the way she talked about the things she loved like books and wolves, and the way she’d tuck the one strand of hair that always seemed to fly free behind her ear, her caring personality and smile, and the fact that she always came to the aid of those being bullied or in peril without giving a thought to her own safety or wanting anything in return.
The list grew over the following weeks and I soon realised that I had developed a crush on my best friend. Though I loved her I knew I wasn’t quite in love with her at the time because I didn’t have the so-called “symptoms” (not being able to think of anyone or anything but her, trouble eating and sleeping etc.) – that is, until Ellie and her parents left less than halfway through the school year and moved to Ipswich.
After that, she was all I could think about. Even when I was studying or with my friends from basketball club. I had trouble sleeping most days, and I ate half the amount of food I did before she left. It was then that I knew I was properly in love with her, and I was only twelve and a few months but then, I guess you never know when love will hit you with all it has. Ellie and I already professed our love for each other back in Ipswich, but she thinks I love her like a sister. I still haven’t told Ellie that I love her romantically, and don’t know if I ever will. I know she only loves me as a close friend, or an older brother…
‘...Harry?’
Ellie’s voice pulled me back into the room, and I smiled fondly at her as she blinked up at me, rubbing sleepily at her eyes, ‘hey, I just came to check whether you wanted some late lunch.’
She stretched her arms toward the ceiling and smiled back at me, ‘I could eat.’
‘All right then, come on’ I replied, waiting over by the door while she slipped off the bed and pulled a comb quickly through her hair, and then the two of us headed downstairs for our late lunch.
Later, after we’d had soup and buttered bread kindly prepared for us by the surprisingly young palace cook with Jaron and Kenton, whom we had bumped into on the way down, I was heading back to my room when I heard someone call me and turned around to see Kenton jogging towards me.
‘Hey man, can I ask you a question while we walk?’ he asked, falling into step beside me.
‘Sure’ I replied, wondering what Kenton had to ask me.
‘What’s your relationship with Oraelia?’ he asked out-right, glancing sideways at me.
I glanced back at him in surprise. ‘Well, we’ve been best friends since we were children and are very close - why do you ask?’
‘Just wondering’ he answered, breaking eye-contact and looking away from me as we stepped out of the way of some maids, but not before I saw the look in his eyes. Hope, embarrassment, and even a hint of triumph.
‘Harry! Wait up!’
Ellie’s voice echoed around the hallway, and I whirled around to see her sprinting towards me. I stopped and waited for her to catch up to me, and wasn’t surprised that she wasn’t out of breath since I knew she was part elf.
‘What is it, Ellie?’ I asked as Kenton realised I had disappeared from his side, and came over to join us.
‘We need to get some training in before the sun sets’ she replied.
‘You mean archery training?’
She shook her head, a sly smile spreading across her face. ‘Nope. Horse riding lessons.’
I gulped. By horse riding lessons, I knew Ellie meant teaching me how to ride on my own – and I hadn’t done that since year four of primary school.
‘Come on.’ Grabbing me by the wrist, she pulled me in the direction of the doors of the palace and the stables.
‘See you later, Kenton’ I called over my shoulder as I let Ellie pull me outside, and into the fading daylight.
Her First Gift
Shifting around in the saddle secured around the belly of a tall grey Lusitano mare named Kila, I turned to Ellie as she adjusted the stirrup straps so that they were level with my feet; which she then slipped into the stirrups.
‘Ellie, I’m really not sure about this.’
‘You’ll be fine babe, I’ll be right there with you the whole time’ she replied, checking everything was in order with my saddle and Kila’s bridle, before going over to a Half-Arab Palomino with a black mane and tail called Poseidon, so-named for his love of water, and mounted him. Lysander was in a large field with the other horses, enjoying a well-earned rest after carrying Ellie around all day.
‘Okay, let’s get started. Just squeeze Kila’s sides gently with your knees and click your tongue twice to get her walking’ Ellie instructed, spurring Poseidon into a trot.
Pushing the nerves swimming inside of me to the bottom of my stomach, I did as I was told and gently squeezed Kila’s sides with my knees while clicking my tongue, and to my relief she broke into a walk at a gentle pace…maybe she could sense that I was nervous, and had decided to take it slow, until I got used to her.
‘That’s it, take it nice and slowly. Get used to the feel of the saddle, and the movement of her muscles beneath you.’
Ellie’s encouraging words helped put me at ease a little and, as the lesson continued, I soon found that my nerves had completely vanished.
***
By the time daylight had faded to twilight, thanks to Ellie’s constant help, I had become more comfortable in the saddle.
‘You did very well today, given that you haven’t ridden on your own for so long. I’m proud of you’ she told me after we’d tidied the horse-tack away and brushed down the horses and left them with some fresh hay and water in their respective stable boxes.
Blushing I replied, ‘I wouldn’t have managed it without you encouraging me the entire time.’
She smiled as we entered the palace ‘encouragement is only half the reason you did so well today, and it’s always a good sign when rider and horse understand, and take a liking to one another, and Kila has definitely taken a liking to you.’
‘Do you really think so?’
‘I don’t think so, I know so. She told me.’
I stopped dead in my tracks. ‘How is that possible?’
‘Do you recall my dad saying that I would soon develop gifts, both common in our kind and unique to me?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well I think I’ve already discovered one of them. Being able to speak to animals – although, I don’t know yet whether that’s a common gift or not.’
‘Either way it’s a good gift to have,’ I told her as we headed upstairs to change for dinner. ‘You’ll be able to calm agitated horses and dogs that have gone wild.’
She chuckled as we reached her door ‘I’d replace The Horse and Dog Whisperer.’
I grinned ‘not to mention every other animal whisperer in the world.’
A short silence followed with me shifting from one foot to the other, and then I asked, stammering a bit ‘do-do you want me to come and get you for dinner, or-or will you meet me down there?’
Ellie’s eyes seemed to light up as she replied, ‘I’d love to walk to dinner with you, Harry.’
‘Great, I’ll-I’ll come by in about half an hour then’ I answered, fumbling yet again over my words.
She nodded after a little giggle, leant forward to kiss my cheek, opened her bedroom door and slipped inside.
Angel Wings
I lay in bed that night completely wide awake. My mind was still plagued by the look I had seen in Kenton’s eyes just minutes before Ellie came to get me for my first riding lesson. A sudden noise from one of the other rooms along the hall made me sit bolt upright in bed.
A moan of pain.
It sounded like it came from Ellie’s room.
; There was another moan of pain, louder this time, which soon turned into a scream that sent me running right out my door and down the hall.
Without stopping to knock, I hurtled into Ellie’s room and found her on her hands and knees, shoulders shaking, on the floor by her bed.
‘Ellie!’
I rushed to her side, placed my hand against the back of her neck, and gasped. She was hot and drenched in sweat.
Shuffling round so I was kneeling in front of her I considered her face, and saw it contorted in repressed pain.
‘What’s the matter, sweetheart?’ I asked, concerned.
She had some trouble replying, but after a few failed attempts she managed to say, ‘my-my shoulder blades. I-I think it’s my wings coming through.’
I glanced down and saw Ellie’s hands, balled into fists; her nails visibly digging into her palms.
‘I’ll go and see if your dad’s still up, and in his study’ I told her, leaning down and kissing her on the forehead as she continued to shake with pain, and then ran out for King Thäro.
King Thäro lifted his eyes form the old scroll he was reading as I burst into his study, a slightly annoyed expression spreading over his face at being disturbed as I stood, panting, in front of him.
‘Forgive me...Your Majesty but it’s Ellie. Her...wings are coming through and she’s in terrible pain’ I told him, getting my breath back as I spoke.
The moment the words left my mouth, Ellie’s father was out of his chair and out the study door; running down the hall to his daughter.
When Thäro and I entered Ellie’s bedroom less than five minutes, we found her on her feet with Queen Pheonala at her side, eyes closed, just as a pair of beautiful pure white wings – for lack of a better word – sprouted from between her shoulder blades.
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