Working For The Prince (BxB)✔

Chapter 1 - The Castle

"Just a little further! You can do it!" Asher encouraged as his steed rushed forward at top speed.

It was midwinter and the snow was coming down hard. His vision had been obscured for most of the trip, but now it was starting to clear up and he could see the castle turrets coming into view above the treetops.

If he was quick enough, maybe he could beg for forgiveness and get away with a pay cut instead? Who knows, maybe the rumors about the prince were exaggerated and he'd be understanding?

He decided to hope for the best as he bowed his head to one particularly strong gust of wind.

 Asher had been accepted as one of the prince's new castle servants just last week. His first day was technically yesterday, but the man wound up late after stopping to help a poor traveler fix his cart along the road, and afterwards he got stuck in a snow storm.

If his grandmother found out he was a whole day late to his new job, she'd be furious with him. 

Finally the castle gates came into view. He noticed they were rather sinister looking with black vines creeping along the metal and gargoyles decorating the side pillars. The descriptions he had previously been given were very different from what he saw now, but maybe that was because the villagers liked to exaggerate? Undeterred, he shrugged it off and circled around to the servant's entrance. The gate was smaller here, but easier to access and he stood waiting for someone to let him in. When no one came, he hopped down and found that the gates weren't even locked. Just stuck closed by the ice and snow.

Kicking at the edges, he managed to free the hinges so he could guide his horse towards the stables. Once more he was hit by the odd atmosphere as the looming castle gave off a chilling sense of foreboding. He called out for a stable hand to help secure his horse, and when no one came, he realized the entire pace was empty.

Asher knew he had arrived exceptionally early in the morning. However, servants usually got up before this hour in order to stoke the fires and prepare meals for the day, so it was odd that no one was out and about, and even odder still that not a single light was on in the castle. 

Another cold gust had Asher setting his horse up in the stable himself as he tossed a few blankets over her back so she'd be warm. After rubbing down her muzzle and providing a bucket of feed, he wandered towards where he thought the servant's quarters should be. 

Upon finally entering the castle, he was struck by the sheer silence. 

"Hello?" Asher called, his voice echoing in the halls.

The place seemed abandoned, but that couldn't be right. Firstly, he had just applied for this job a week ago and had received an approval letter from the head of staff. Secondly, there was no dust or cobwebs. Everything looked spic and span as he wandered into the kitchens, searching for at least one servant to tell him where to go.

Fear should have taken hold of him by now, but instead, he grew more curious. He wanted to know what was going on.

His family ran a local bakery in town, and after the plague took his parents, his grandparents were all he had left. They raised him in the same trade, teaching him how to make delicious desserts and braid beautiful folds into bread loaves, but it was never enough for him. Asher often applied for odd jobs. He once went to work for the local smithy, then quickly found he didn't have the muscle to swing a hammer properly. He also couldn't handle the heat during the hot summer months and fainted on several occasions.

Then he applied to be a stable hand where he found his love of horses, but was promptly fired for starting a fight with his boss when the man tried to put one of the horses down after it broke its leg.