Fairy Tale Wedding (Book One: The Road to Ever After)

Chapter Sixteen

The air in Once-upon-a Time was beginning to nip and bite. It was not an overwhelming chill but every once and awhile the wind would strike a shiver into the citizens going about their business out of doors. The farmers noticed it first, out in the fields checking the summer produce for ripeness. It would be harvest time any day now. The ladies of the land were looking forward to all the pumpkin concoctions they would soon be able to whip up.

Along with the slight change in weather came a change in colors. Things once deep green were yellowing, oranging and reddening. A new crispness was shriveling the plants, even in the greenhouses. Flexible things were becoming brittle. This was not a common event in Once-upon-a Time. The seasons did not bring death in this province. Autumn was not associated with falling leaves. The sun did not sink out of a rosy sky, surrendering to night earlier than other times in the year. Yet the days were growing a few minutes darker in a subtle progression.

The citizens of Once-upon-a Time were slowly noticing a shadow creeping over their daily lives.

Prince Darrik tromped along the main road out of the capitol city. He held Knightley's reigns in one gloved hand, though a hard push of wind could have brushed it from his grasp. Darrik wouldn't have noticed. Knightley knew things were pretty serious the first time the prince chose to walk instead of ride. This dreary trudging had never before been part of Darrik's regimen. Now, drudgery was all he had time for. While Knightley saw the benefit of slowing one's pace for philosophical brooding, the habit was getting old. He wanted to race off over the hills, his molars rattling, his mane blustering, his heart thumping. But Darrik had lost his hunger for vitality. Once or twice Knightley's eye caught what seemed to be the faint glimmer of a graying hair upon his master's head.

Prince Darrik inhaled up to his neck and then heaved a sigh that endured for ages.

"Sire?" Knightley inquired.

"Huh? What?" the young man looked around, as if he had forgotten his noble steed's existence. Finally, he saw Knightley and said, "Oh, Knightley. Did you say something to me?"

Knightley shook his head, long lashes mournful over his brown eyes. "Merely making an observation, Your Majesty."

"Oh, really?" Prince Darrik reverted back into his dreamy trance of solitary guilt.

"Yes, sire. It occurs to me that your exuberance for Once-upon-a Time has soured slightly. Ever since the Ball you've been...hm, the right word eludes me. I only wonder why, under the sad circumstances, we linger on?"

Prince Darrik passed a hand through his mass of bangs. The gesture was not to accentuate his vanity and confidence. His fingers remained atop his head as his eyes stared ahead, a touch of gloom blinding his sight of the future.

"I don't have anywhere else to go, Knightley."

The white stallion snorted a gust from his giant nostrils. "Whatever do you mean, Prince Darrik? We can always go home to Happily, Ever After. Your parents will be wondering."

Darrik's mind careened down a tangent with the mere mention of his parents. His stomach washed its juices upside down. Oh golly, he thought, my parents! What are they going to say and do? Dad's going to be furious, though hardly surprised. And Mother, she'll be heartbroken. All she wants is a daughter to plan gowns and diplomatic tea parties with – and I've dashed that chance completely. I'm going to return home even more hopeless than when I left. I can hear the lectures already. Fabulous.

"No, Knightley," Darrik said with decision. "I can't go back there. Not yet anyways."

"Yet, sire? You have something still to do here, or so I gather from your phraseology. Is that correct?"