The Princess and the Toymaker

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Kyra, the youngest Princess of Northwood, decided she wanted to go into town alone and explore without any guards or hand maidens around her. She knew she wasn’t allowed to go unless she had an escort, but Kyra found a way out of the castle and went anyway. When she arrived in town, she noticed the local blacksmith was offering classes so she signed herself up.

A few weeks later, the day finally came. Princess Kyra was dressed as a peasant girl and rode Peanut Butter. She pulled back her blond hair into a bun, put one of Malinda’s scarves around her head, and snuck out through the tunnel to arrive early in town. She stopped about five shops down and tied her to a post in the shade where she had easy access to water. As she walked to class she saw Sandy, one of her handmaidens, approaching her. Princess Kyra pulled down her scarf further over her forehead and turned to look into the General Store’s window. Sandy walked past her. Then a few steps later she looked back, but Kyra had quickly walked away. All Sandy saw were two men exiting the General Store.

When Kyra reached the Meeting Hall she peered through the large front window. She didn’t see anyone inside, but she heard voices. Following the voices to the back of the hall she saw about eleven people of all ages sitting on crude wooden benches beneath a large oak tree. The princess walked to one of the benches and sat down next to a young lady about her age. “Hi, my name is Sarah. What’s yours?” The young lady asked.

“Uhh, hi,” replied Kyra, very startled. She was always recognized and in control, but had never had a conversation with anyone outside the castle before. So she had to remember she wasn’t a princess, she was a peasant girl and had to act like one. Kyra had to always watch what words she used and how she spoke so as not to give her identity away. “Uhhm, they call me PK.”

“PK this is Alex,” Sarah said, as a young thin man about their age with shoulder-length golden brown hair and a plaid shirt with canvas pants, turned around and with a quiver in his voice squeaked out, “Hi.”

Soon a big lumberjack of a man walked in and said, “I’m going to teach you how to shoe a horse in this lesson. Now everyone, divide up into groups of four.” Alex, PK, Sarah, and David were all in one group.

After class ended Alex and PK talked for a short while then PK left. She knew she couldn’t be gone too long or the guards might start looking for her. Kyra was so happy she skipped to her horse, all the time she was thinking about the class and her new friend Alex. “He’s so cute and so polite too. Ahh.”

When Alex returned to the bakery he told Arie all about PK. He simply couldn’t get her off his mind. He described every little detail, leaving nothing out. “Her beautiful green eyes were, were so beautiful, and her blond hair, it shimmered in the sunlight.” At least the few strands he could see poking out from under the scarf. “And her voice, it was so soft and, and refined. Did I mention she was beautiful?”

After about five minutes of not really listening to Alex going on and on, Arie finally said, “Okay I got it, you like her. Now tell me about the class in case my father asks.” He explained all about how to shoe a horse. Then he started talking again about PK.

For the next five and a half months PK and Alex talked before and after class. They talked about riding and the class and the horses. They talked about the sky and the colors in nature. Alex wanted to ask her to go for a walk and show her his carvings, but he was too scared. One day before class, while they were talking, he pulled out his carving knife and scratched “xox” into the bench where they sat. PK simply smiled. Each day Alex went home and told Arie all about PK, “Ohh, she smelled like, like and she was wearing, and we just talked.” He even told her about her horse Peanut Butter. He was beginning to feel they had a real connection. But he was too afraid to ask her for a simple walk.

“It’s not like she’s a princess or anything. Ask her!” Arie, a trusted friend, said as she kept trying to encourage him, but his words never came.

Princess Kyra liked Alex more and more each day too. She would go home and dream about what it would be like to walk with him or hold his hand. There was something about him that brought immense joy to her heart. “Connie,” she said to her favorite doll. “He makes me so happy and we laugh when we talk. What? You say it’s a girlish giggle? No, it’s not a he, he, he kind of laugh. He really makes me laugh out loud and forget about being a princess. He makes me so so happy.” Kyra said as she stood up and looked out her bedroom window onto the lush green castle grass. “I love his quirky smile and his elvish ears. I don’t even care if he’s a woodcarver. I know Mother wants me to marry a person of royalty, but to me it doesn’t matter.” Then turning back to Connie, her porcelain doll, Kyra asked, “I wonder if Alex would still like me if he knew I was really Princess Kyra?” She wanted to ask him, but she couldn’t because to him she was a peasant girl. It wasn’t her place to ask him to walk with her either. Besides, she didn’t want to expose herself as Princess Kyra. So, she talked to him during the day and dreamt about him at night.

***

Three days before the last class Alex was walking through the town before sunset. As he looked down a side alley, he noticed someone lying on the ground. Alex ran to him and saw the man had been severely beaten. He knelt down to see what he could do. “Hold on, I’m going for help,.” Alex said. As he looked up he saw three huge prison guards were running toward him. Quickly Alex jumped to his feet and began running away from them.

“Get him!” shouted one of the guards stopping at the man on the ground. The other two rumbled after Alex. Then looking at the man on the ground the guard shouted “It’s our captain! Get that kid!”

Alex kept running as fast as he could into the forest and eventually hid amongst the trees and bushes. I’ve got to get out of here, he thought. “I didn’t do it, but they won’t believe me. And I can’t lead them to Aire.” Just then he heard.

“Now where did that kid go?” shouted one guard only a few feet from Alex.

“I don’t know, but we have to get back to the prison,” replied Toyal second in command of the prison. “We’ll get him! He can’t hide. Come on, let’s get back. We’ll make a plan and search tomorrow, besides it’s too dark to keep looking.”

“You’re right,” replied the other guard. So, they returned back to help their captain.