The Prince and the Garden

“Ok, Elijah, say bye.”

Elijah’s kingly father was done speaking with the royal messenger. The messenger had come a long way to deliver parcels of news from far away kingdoms. “Mail Man,” the king called him. As instructed, Prince Elijah bade him farewell with the traditional parting gesture of those in his kingdom. “Byeee!” The young prince waved an overhand wave; one full of joy, with a grinning smile. Mail Man waved back, his joyous expression reflecting the blessing that had been bestowed on his heart by the prince.

“Alright, buddy, I’ll be right back,” the king said, on his way into the castle. “I just gotta go put the mail in the house. Stay in the yard, ok?”

The prince responded with a smile and a nod, “Ok!”

The king raised a questioning eyebrow at the response. “Wait, what was that?” His voice was not harsh, but his correcting tone did demanded respect. It caused the prince to check himself. Had he forgotten the royal order of things? In his youthful excitement, he had overlooked proper protocol when addressing the king. Quickly, he recovered. “Yes sir!” the prince nearly shouted, even going so far as to give a two-fingered salute. It made the king smile and nod in approval. Satisfied, the king turned and entered the castle.

In the king’s absence, the castle courtyard was under the protection of Prince Elijah. This sworn duty to protect such a majestic realm made him far more than a normal prince. Indeed, he was a “Knight-Prince”. He had been sworn to duty at birth, and ever since day one he had been keeping the castle courtyard safe.

The first step in keeping the castle courtyard safe was to patrol. The yard was vast, but Prince Elijah knew exactly where the best vantage points were. As he marched to his first patrol stop he sang a song. It was a song in the secret language only he and his royal family understood. His voice would carry across the entire castle courtyard. The song announced his presence. It also struck fear into the hearts of those who sought to do evil within the courtyard boundaries.

“Du-du-du-duu-daaa-deee-daaaa, da-da-daaa!”

From the farthest corner of the courtyard, bordering the paved squares of the Trail of Side Walkers, the knight-prince could see everything. His keen eyes could see much more than any normal human’s eyes could. Prince Elijah’s eyes could see the everyday magic that most people simply ignored. He saw the peaceful denizens of the courtyard going about their daily lives, enjoying a type of peace that only he could grant them. A dragonfly family made circles of twinkle dust in the air. Blades of grass offered up their sparkles of dew like rainbow colored jewels. The flowers in the Garden District danced to the tune of his song. Their petals swayed in the slightest breeze as they giggled and flirted with the buzzing worker bees. Where normal people saw an average suburban front yard, Elijah saw it for what it truly was; a kingdom of magic and wonder.

“De-be-de-be-de-be-deeee!”

He was off to his next patrol stop: the concrete drawbridge. It was where the royal carriage arrived and departed. It was the entrance to the kingdom. He expected to see the usual; ant soldiers and foragers marching on a patrol of their own, fat bumble bee workers pollinating the bunches of flowers in the Garden District, and not much else. But what he did see made him stop singing his song. Something grew along the edge of the flowerbed. This horrible, foreboding sight even seemed to be creeping across the cracks in the drawbridge… Monsters! But not just any monsters. They were weed monsters! He had to act fast, or they would destroy the beauty and sanctity of the Garden District!

“Help us, brave knight!” the beautiful flowers pleaded. Their cry for help was Prince Elijah’s que to spring into action. The closest thing he could use as a weapon was a frail little stick, but when he picked it up it became a sword! It pulsated with blazing with magical power. Brave Knight-Prince Elijah, in all his princely majesty, held the sword above his head and bade the weed monsters a heroic farewell:

“Git oudda mah kingdum, yew evil weed munstas!”

Strike after strike, the weed monsters were cut to shreds. His swift attacks appeared to be working until he realized something.Those terrible fiends not only reached up above the soil, but their roots went deep down as well! That meant that they were stealing water from the beautiful flowers! The situation called for more barbaric measures to rid the Garden District of them. On his hands and knees, Prince Elijah began savagely ripping the weed monsters up with his bare hands. Their broken bodies flew over his head and landed everywhere, roots still intact. He felt victory come nearer and nearer with each mighty heave of soil and root. Frantically, he pulled and pulled. His little brown fingers became even more brown as dirt caked his knuckles. Excitement rose in his throat as he let out a shrieking yell.

“Yaaaaaaaa! You will never wiiiin, evil weed monsters!”

Only… a… few… more…! He could sense them crying out in pain as he ripped them up, but there was something deeper; something more powerful snaking its way toward him from deep below the soil. Was it their king? Had he come to the rescue of his evil soldiers? This could be Knight-Prince Elijah’s chance to defeat him once and for all! He could end the ancient threat of the Weed King and usher in an era of everlasting peace! All he had to do was just reach deeper… and deeper… Traces of soil eventually covered his arms up to his elbows. He could sense the Weed King getting closer… and closer…

“Hey, son, what are you doing, man? Don’t get dirty! We still have to go pick up the ladies from the salon!”

The king’s voice shocked him out of his frantic battle with the weed monsters. He tried to explain his cause to the king, but it didn’t seem like the king saw it as important as he did. Sometimes, it was such a bummer that the king didn’t share his ability to see the courtyard’s magic. It was as if the king didn’t know that an actual battle was taking place.

“It’s ok,” the king said upon seeing the urgency in the prince’s eyes. “We’ll weed the garden later. Here, let me clean you up a lil’ bit. We gotta go.” In a show of obedience, Prince Elijah allowed his father to brush some of the dirt and leaves off of his shirt and arms.

Then, Elijah boarded the royal carriage as instructed. As the carriage left the drawbridge, Prince Elijah stared out of the window, longing to finish the battle. There was a great measure of victory in his heart, but it was incomplete. The concrete drawbridge looked like a battlefield full of broken evil soldiers, but there was no trace of the Weed King amongst the defeated masses.

… Until a single, jagged-leaved weed suddenly sprouted taller than those that remained. It bore a sour face of defeat as it raised a stem high and shook its leafy fist in anger. As the carriage rounded the corner, Knight-Prince Elijah swore could hear its woeful cry.

“I’ll get you next time, Knight-Prince! Next Tiiiiiiiiime!”

“Oh no you won’t, evil Weed King.”

Elijah had his mouth poised to say it, but, surprisingly, the king had beat him to it. With his mouth wide in shock and awe, the Knight-Prince looked up at the carriage’s rear view mirror to see a knowing twinkle in his father’s eye.