🌟 CURRENTLY BEING REWRITTEN. ✍🏽📝💻📒
As crowned prince, much is expected of Mykal Lambora as his life is already laid out for him. But when he runs away with his true love to live a simple and normal life, leaving his royalty behind, everything s...
Hello. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. If there are any mistakes, feel free to point them out and I'll make the necessary changes. Let's dive in!
•••
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
•••
Mykal loved working at the palace. He showcased his culinary abilities in the kitchen. He worked with the royal blacksmith to forge swords for the soldiers of Lenanthia's army. He especially loved when he worked in the garden, planting flowers just the way Princess Johanna had first told him.
On one particular day, she paid him a surprise visit. He smiled at her and she smiled at him, awkwardness floating around in the air as the silence prolonged. He finally broke their gaze, slightly blushing, and went back to planting the flowers, and Johanna remembered that she wasn't there to ogle him as he delicately placed tulips and roses into the earth. She was there to tell him about the very important guests arriving in their kingdom.
Mykal's blushing smile faded immediately and he stopped planting flowers. What if his father was one of the guests? Panic dwelled within him at the thought of his father coming to Lenanthia and discovering him and his children under their feign identities, not that King Lambora knew the existence of his grandchildren, but he would eventually find out.
Johanna said that they'd need flowers set on the dinner table for when the time came to feast. They were supposed to be used to impress the guests. Flowers for guests? Mykal desperately wanted to know who the guests were, so he asked her. She told him that she wasn't at liberty to release information to the employees of the castle, and apologized. He didn't feel bad, but that only made him more nervous.
The princess reminded him about the flowers before she left the garden, once again glancing at him over her shoulder to see the tall, handsome elf covered in dirt, and then she went off to prepare for the guests' arrival.
Later that evening, the guests arrived and met the princess and her father in the entrance hall. Mykal was one of the butlers for the evening and had to collect the overcoats of each of the five guests that came.
As he stood by the palace's entrance, he overheard King Gaines introducing them to Johanna.
They were elves of the house of Bonaparte, the royal family of Gorrin - King Moavo Bonaparte, Queen Kira, Lady Zenna, Prince Dalton, and Prince Sylvester. They were all dressed in clothes with the same lime-green colour. The males wore leather jackets with long sleeves, jagged ends and cut-out holes, and green pants with only jagged ends. The females wore dresses made from silk, accompanied by gloves with a darker shade of green. All members of the family were topped with crowns and footed with green leather shoes.
King Gaines told his daughter that Prince Sylvester was the heir to his father's throne and that he was also the one she would be marrying soon.
Mykal almost choked on his saliva while swallowing, and glanced over to see everyone looking at him. He paled as he turned to hung the guests' overcoats in a closet. In the corner of his eye, he could see that Johanna wasn't all that eager to marry the prince, but she had to go along with it.
While seated at the dinner table, it was impossible not to look at Johanna. Mykal stared at her leafy, turquoise dress that stopped just above her ankles, and the necklace with embedded sapphire stones, and the blue bracelets she wore as accessories.
He was so glad his children weren't there with him, or they would have teased him the entire time. Luckily, they were with all the other children in the library having their own little party, hosted by Bella, the fairy teacher.
Johanna would smile a little when she looked Mykal's way, and he would blush and look somewhere else. Then, he would listen to her as she and the Bonaparte family conversed. Sylvester saw when he was looking at her, and scowled at him, and when Johanna wasn't talking, he noticed that she was looking at Mykal. Something was going on.
After dinner, he and Johanna went for a walk in the garden. He wanted to get to know the princess, to try and woo her. He talked about ruling Gorrin, and that it would be wonderful to have her as his queen. Johanna could feel a knot forming in her stomach as she listened to him go on and on about all he had in store for them and their future children.
Sylvester noticed that he wasn't making her feel any better, so he decided to change the subject. He told her how beautiful the flowers looked under the glow of the moonlight. Johanna couldn't suppress a smile and Sylvester was pleased with his accomplishment.
She told him that the palace's latest servant planted them and that they looked perfect. He asked if it was the butler she'd been staring at during dinner and she immediately stopped smiling. He was referring to Mykal.
The knots in her stomach came back, and this time they were moving up to her throat, making her hold her breath. She looked at Sylvester and laughed, telling him that she wasn't staring. He quirked an eyebrow at her and after realizing he wasn't sharing the same humorous feeling, she cleared her throat and told him that there was nothing going on.
But Sylvester already knew she liked Mykal, and he told her that if she didn't want to go ahead with the marriage, he wouldn't force her. They walked a little further in silence, passing a statue of King Gaines and his late wife, Faina. Sylvester finally broke the silence by saying he didn't want to marry her either. Johanna gasped, clasping a hand over her mouth. He revealed that his true love was someone as common as Mykal, but that his family wouldn't accept their union.
Johanna smiled and said that he should follow his heart, and find some way to convince his family to open up to the possibilities of marriage for love...and not duty.
The prince thanked Johanna for listening and giving him advice and placed a light kiss on her cheek. After they finished their walk, they met their families in the living quarters and told them the wedding wasn't going to happen. King Bonaparte was appalled and demanded to know the reason. Sylvester told him that they didn't love each other and that they shouldn't be forced into a union which would only make them miserable.
King Gaines and King Bonaparte exchanged a look before nodding at each other. The princess' father stepped forward and pleaded with her. She only shook her head and told him no. He spoke to her sternly now and told her that she must marry Sylvester and that there was no other choice. Johanna ran out of the large living room, everyone else watching her leave in tears. How was she ever going to let Mykal know that she loved him if her father wanted her to marry someone else?
◆□◆□◆□◆□◆□◆
*breathes out* I've spent all day trying to fixing this chapter up. I feel kind of bad putting Johanna through this, but...meh.
What do you guys suppose is going to happen? *suspenseful music*
