Chapter One

The Castle glinted with the cheery glow that all proper castles should have. The lords and ladies all took pride in their King and Queen, just as they should. Most of all, the whole Kingdom was bewitched by the beauty of the young princess. Constance had always been a bit of a troublemaker, but she had the whole city of Oiah wrapped around her slender finger.

“Can’t catch me!” Constance giggled just narrowly dodging a cart while skirting down the street.

“Wanna bet?” Richard was not one to be outdone, especially not by a girl. The dynamic duo raced through the streets leaving mayhem in their wake. Chickens flying, vegetables falling from stands, carts running into each other, all in an attempt to not harm the princess and her playmate. Smiling and shaking their heads the people of Oiah went back to their work and picked up their things. Nobody minded much, and she never meant to cause any harm. All the people could hope for was a future queen that would keep her kind spirit and glint of mischief unlike her father before her who had come to shed such characteristics.  

“Connie!” Richard whined.

Grinning like a puppy who just stole a bone off the kitchen floor, constance stared down at Richard from her perch on top of the bell tower.

“Your dad is going to have me stoned if you fall!”

“Oh come off it Richard,” she smirked, “even if I were to fall, which I won’t, father wouldn’t blame it on you. I bet you can’t even make it halfway up the wall.”

Knowing that he was never going to convince her to come down until he proved that he could climb the wall too, Richard sighed and started up. About halfway up he saw the princess start off again. “Where are you going?”

Constance peaked her head around the corner, “You’ll see. Now hurry up… and that’s and order. I must be home in time to change for dinner.”

Richard rolled his eyes “You know you get bossier all the time.”

Sparing only a moment to stick her tongue out in Richard’s general direction, Constance began to feel along the wall for something. Hauling himself up over the edge of the wall Richard watched with rapt fascination. Giving him her winning smile, Constance pulled on a loose brick that Richard hadn’t even noticed before. “How did you even find this?”

“What? Haven’t you ever snuck out after bedtime?”

Speechless Richard followed her into the dark tunnel, and up a set of stairs that seemed to go forever. Once at the top it took Constance another moment to find the lever to open a second door. To his surprise, the door opened up into a room at the top of one of the guard towers.

The cluttered room stunk of dust and mildew, but Constance looked like she had just shown him a treasure hoard.

“What is all this stuff?” instantly cursing himself for sounding daft in front of Connie. Still beaming, Constance moved to her usual seat behind an old oak desk and began to pull rolls of paper from a drawer.

“I’m not so good with the large words yet, but from what I’ve been able to read I think this used to be the office of the captain of the guard. The other door is boarded up, but I’m not sure why yet.”

All Richard could do was look out the window mesmerized. Not seeming to notice his preoccupied state, Constance continued. “At first I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to show this to you, I mean after all, it was you who let that bit slip to Father about the secret opening in the wall that led to the woods. How I do ever so wonder how Edward is doing.”

At this Richard turned around to find that her face was bunched together in worry. “You do understand that Edward was a chipmunk right? He was born in the woods, I’m sure he’s fine.” He tried to give her a playful smile, but he really did feel bad about that one.

Constance looked out the window down to the people in the streets. Adults always seemed so tired. Not just the sleepy kind of tired that someone is before bed, but a deep kind of tired that makes someone give up on life. “Does it ever scare you?”

Richard nervously eyed the ground. “What heights? Only sometimes… When I think about it.”

Constance, giggling, play punched Richard in the shoulder. “No you dummy! Growing up! Having the weight of the world on you.”

“Need I remind you Connie, that I don’t have to worry about that. My father is only a noble, you’re the one that has to run the kingdom,” Richard teased.

“Yes,” Constance smiled, “ but you’ll always be here with me.”

“Yep,” Richard smiled. He couldn’t imagine not being friends with Connie.

Constance grabbed Richard’s hand and as they climbed out of the tower the duo felt secure in the thought that maybe the future wouldn’t be so bad if they were there for each other.