The Boy From The Forest

“Wedding preparations are coming along.”

“They had better. The wedding is the day after tomorrow.”

The King and The Queen had a quiet moment to themselves. This did not happen very often.

“King Beauford, welcome. Have some Concordian Wine.”

“Thank you. I actually do not have that much to do in preparation for the wedding. That is Queen Margaret’s job, of course. She is with Icelandia, helping her to prepare for her wedding.

“And I am sorry my daughter Princess Vixania climbed one of your pear trees and broke off a branch.”

“Do not worry yourself about it. I have a great many pear trees.”

The Queen spoke. “I have arranged with the Ornithologist to have snow-white doves released right after the wedding. At our wedding, we had butterflies, and that was nice too.”

Princess Icelandia was kind of bored. The wedding was two days away. One of her Mother’s ladies in waiting was telling a scary story about a new bride who found an Orc hiding under her bed. Icelandia could not work up any interest in this story. They were in the North Tower of the castle, which would be given to her and Prince Eric after they were married. When The King passed away, Prince Eric would be The King, and she would be The Queen. Everything a ways in the future. Including the end of this silly story.

Eric sat in his quarters with some friends. They were drinking. His friends were teasing him about the very pretty girl he was going to marry. Yes, Icelandia was very pretty. The one time they had been actually together, she kept pinching him. He did not understand that, but then again, he did not care. Just two more days.

Johanaston sat alone. That was the usual thing, since he creeped everyone out. That was alright, he was busy and really did not need to be interrupted. He concentrated, trying to establish a connection.

[Hello. Is someone trying to contact me?]

[It’s me. I have a question, and I want you to answer, yes or no. Agreed?]

[I can do that.]

[The Shadrachians. Are they real?]

[Yes.]

Johanaston was afraid of that. He did not ask for advice on how to handle them, since her project had ended in disaster. He needed to cope with this unexpected development without ruining the whole planet.