When I was Young

Chapter 1

    People talked and talked. Citizens clamoured  away at each other. They went on and on talking of their trustful, loving king who raised castles out of the ground and whose body is rent with the history of wars.

This noise filled the ballroom speedily. Golden arch ways towered over those who entered, dressed in shades and tints of ivory, gold, red, or dark blue. 

But the collective gaze of the citizens held no color scheme in exact; people came in dressed how they pleased.

   At the front of the room, the King and Queen announced some things, welcoming some of their friends who were “stopping by.” There was clapping. The musicians began, and so began the dancing.

The king and queen’s sons loitered aimlessly around the perimeter of the space, greeting guests respectably. They chatted with each other and sulked in their boredom.

Elden’s eyes followed his brother’s. He had seemed to be overviewing the entirety of general townsfolk at first, but now he saw the boy eyeing one person in particular. Someone who wasn’t glittering with riches of diamonds, but who strode gracefully to the song all the same.

   “Oh, my goodness,” Elden sang quietly so only Young could hear, “You are absolutely smitten with that girl…” Elden’s tone took on a haughty supristion, rarely used by him. Young snapped his gaze to his brother’s in one swift turn of his neck. He appeared calm and collected but his voice wavered with accusation. “So what if I am? What’s not to like?” 

    His dark eyes sparkled as he looked back to the flowing pink dress. Elden returned to a formal state, thinking to himself, It isn’t right to show interest like that in plain folk. We must marry other royals, but kept it in his own head because he knew his brother wouldn’t want to hear it.

The woman the little prince admired from afar danced on petite little feet, black flat shoes that had been recently polished for this event.

   “I wish to go talk with her,” Young said, with an edge of sweet mischief. Elden blinked slowly to refrain from rolling his eyes. “But I don’t want to intimidate her.”

Elden sighed, checking to see that his father or step mother would not see them. They were chatting with the visiting royal couples across the big room. 

“Then you’ll need to be a little lesser. More casual,” Elden explained, slightly loosening Young’s dark purple bow tie. Elden dropped the royal medallion under his brother’s jade striped collar so only parts of a glimmering chain could be seen against his tanned skin. Young held still and quickly looked to the right to see where the girl was. 

Elden pulled some of Young’s curly waves out of a styled mop of deep brown locks. Lastly, the older brother took a couple rings off his little brother’s prussianly dazzled hands and slipped them in his own pocket. 

    “Be a good boy, Youngin,” Elden said jokingly, patting his shoulder, mocking their father’s words when Young was tempted to behave improperly.

   “Never.” Young winked and took a deep breath, turned and left to find the fluffy dressed woman.