E R O S

2 - The Vineyard

Eros was getting ready for a busy day. Tomorrow was his mother's birthday and per tradition, a grand celebration will be held in the palace. It would be her 40th birthday and Eros wanted to make it one of the best and most important birthdays she would ever have.

The other kingdoms were aware of this yearly celebration; to maintain peace, they sent their gifts to keep it.

Zaraphina of the second kingdom was preparing a great gift, even though she hates the prince of the fourth kingdom, better known as the dark prince, the second kingdom was known for its great gifts and she wanted to maintain its reputation. Even though the second kingdom had second in its name, it wasn't a ranking but instead the order its creation along side the other kingdoms. The second kingdom was better known as Zaer, named after the creator and first king.

The gift was a medium-sized bouquet of flowers, which were carefully placed to look like a portrait of the former queen's face. Zaraphina had to admit the dark kingdom's former queen was one beautiful woman. She could see the resemblance in her eldest son.

The Zaer's main job when it came to traditional celebrations was to bring the wine. To get the wine you needed to go to a certain vineyard. Since the Zaer kingdom tried to keep the workload fair the princess was in charge of the wine preparation, which Zaraphina did not mind at all. Unfortunately for Zaraphina, the vineyard is a shared location by all the kingdoms. Not only that but since this celebration is for the queen she'll have to meet the king so he can test which wine he feels is best.

Zaraphina knew the prince before he became the king, when his father was still around. She didn't know why every girl fawned over the prince back then until she saw him for herself but his looks were immediately taken over once he showed his cocky arrogance and cold personality. As well as the mean jabs he took at her.

Since then she has disliked him and as king, he's even worse. He neglects his kingdom, he's known for causing fights in smaller countries, there were even rumors that he's planning to start a war. Zaraphina believed she had all the reasons to not like him but his mom was a completely different story. His mother may be stern and seem cold but in all reality, she was a sweet woman who was stuck being the queen of a cruel kingdom.

Zaraphina felt bad for the woman, she felt even worse knowing that the new king was no better than the old one. No one outside of the dark kingdom knows what happened to the old king, no one from the dark kingdom is allowed to even speak about him according to the gossip. One of the only good things the new king has done was allowing his subjects to move kingdoms as long as they had an official ID.

Eros was currently stressed out over the grand celebration, birthdays are one of the only celebrations that happen in the dark kingdom.

They were also one of the most special celebrations, so he wanted everything to be perfect just for his mother.

He sighed as he thought about how he had to meet the Princess of Zaer at the Vineyard today to taste the wine. But he was willing to do this since it was for his mother, everything today was for his mother. He grabbed his coat and put it on, it was the beginning of the winter season, which is why the wine had to be tasted today, waiting any longer and it would be too late as the plants in the Vineyard would start to wither.

Eros had cars but he much rather ride his horse today. He made his way to the barn and found his horse munching on freshly stashed hay, he smiled at the sight and softly called out his horse's name, 'River'. He remembered getting the horse when it was only a young colt and he was a young boy, he named him River because the horse had a black coat that resembled a dark blue, so a water related name seemed fitting. The river of the kingdom was his favorite playing spot as a child.