What Happened Once Upon A Time Ago

Once upon a time....

“Your Majesty, the peasants have come again!” The royal guard alerted. 

“What is it now,” asked Princess Audra of Kalpania, bored of this daily commotion. Yesterday was the raise in taxes. The day before was the drought and the week before that was the shortage of food. Never had any kingdom seen such ungrateful subjects.

“This time they’re complaining about each other!”

“I see...bring them over and we’ll see what we can do about it.”

The guards went and returned with an old man. His clothes were disheveled and his eyes were red rimmed. 

“Your Highness, please help me!” The peasant begged the princess.

“What do you need?”

“I’m in desperate need of money and my daughter is kidnapped!”

“Kidnapped!?”

“Well no, not exactly. You see your Majesty, last week this man came to me. He said he had a lot of money and offered to lend me some. I obviously accepted the offer... and gave him my daughter’s hand in marriage."

The princess's eyes widened in shock.

“I went to go collect the money and found nothing! On top of that, I have no idea where the man went with my daughter, my only daughter!” With that the old man burst into tears.

“You know nothing about this man, yet you wed your daughter to him?”

Between sniffles the old man said, “He seemed like a good man. It never struck me he was lying.”

The princess sighed. “Guards, go find and arrest this man… and bring back this man’s daughter to him.”

“Thank you dear princess, thank you. I’m-”

“No need for that, you may be excused. Guards, send in the next peasant!”

“Ugh...These peasants are hopeless,” the princess sighed.

***

The accused man gasped for air. He had been running from the guards for a long time now and he was exhausted. 

He was new to the kingdom. He previously was the king of the forgotten kingdom of Dermentine. After war overtook the land, he escaped and lived a nomadic life. He met with sorcerers and witches who taught him magic. Bandits who taught him to steal and lie. And beggars who taught him to survive.

These traits made him seem like an evil and dangerous man, although inside there was still something of a kind and softhearted man. 

After a while, he became tired of his vagabond lifestyle, and decided to settle somewhere permanent, which led him to the neighboring kingdom of Kalpania. 

He was managing pretty well. Each night he broke into a different person’s house and took a little bit of money. They never even noticed the money gone and he always paid them back with a favour or two. Everything was perfect until recently… 

Another man was profiting the same way he did - by stealing. Only this man was actually evil and dangerous. And worst of all, the other man looked exactly like him.

The ex - king had been blamed for the incident of the old man, even though he had nothing to do with it. It was the other man who was responsible. 

At last he had arrived to safety and made himself a makeshift tent to bunk in. Sleeping was impossible, so he instead began to think.

He was in need of money. I need a new scheme. Something that is sure to work.

That led him to the local healer next morning, whose name apparently no one knew. The man came to the healer’s house disguised as someone who wanted a job.

“Hello, Mr. Healer.”

The answer came as a grunt.

“Well, I came for a job. I’ve seen that the number of patients have increased. Maybe you need an assistant,” the man asked hopefully.

The healer gave his response by attempting to shut the door on the man’s face.

“No! Wait! I promise I’ll be useful.”

The healer finally decided to speak. “...Alright, I guess I could use a helper. You’re right, there are more people coming to visit me. Must be because of the new river fever…Well, anyway, what are your qualifications?”

“Ummm, I’ve been to the healer a few times...when I was sick.”

The healer rolled his eyes and sighed. “I guess we’ll have to start right at the beginning then.”

***

The man had been working with the healer for a few months now. He had been making good money, enough to buy himself a house and to have three meals a day. In short, it was a good life. Until it was disrupted again…

He was working on a late night shift, trying to revive a patient who had almost no hope of surviving. Suddenly, the healer came in with such an expression, the man knew that something was wrong.

“Is everything alright, Mr. Healer?” He asked.

The healer was enraged. “Is everything alright?! Is everything alright! No! Nothing is “all right!” YOU FILTHY THIEF!” 

“Me? A thief?... What was stolen?”

“What was stolen huh!? Of course you know, you were the one who stole it!”

The man’s eyes widened. “I swear, I don’t know what was stolen as I didn’t steal anything!”

“You can’t fool me! Of course you’ve done it, who else could have gotten into my room!” He paused for a second and pulled a piece of paper out from his pocket. “The princess’s guards are looking for this man in the picture. He apparently kidnapped someone’s daughter or something, And he looks a lot like you. If we pull off this moustache” he grabbed hold of the man’s moustache and pulled it off “he looks exactly like you!” The healer glared at the man.

Soon there was a knock on the door and in came the princess’s guards. “Mister, you are under arrest for making false statements, running away from us, and stealing the healer’s collection of precious stones.” The guards declared.

Yet again, he was accused of something he had not done. The man did all he could. He ran.

***

The man arrived at his makeshift tent again and began to think of his next big idea.

“Whatever shall I do,” he thought aloud. “Everything I do works for a bit, then just stops...Maybe I should go back to stealing…” A very recent memory came to mind. “No! I mustn't, the consequences are too great....”

 The next day, he found another disguise and headed towards town. There he met a farmer selling his goods. The overworked farmer was desperate and agreed right away when the man offered to work for him.

“You can come to the market to sell the crops,“ the farmer said.

The man began to work the next day, finding the job to be as beneficial as the job before. But of course, this didn’t last long.

“How could you!” The farmer shouted.

“What happened?” The man asked.

“I’ve noticed that you have been bringing only half of the money from the crops. Where is the rest?!”

This of course was the doing of someone else or in this case many someones. The villagers have been paying only half of the price, and the poor man who knew not a thing about marketing, noticed nothing to be wrong.

 The guards arrived at the door for the third time. The man braced himself to escape, but he was surrounded by guards in every direction. In his anxiety, he failed to notice at first, the princess who had come with them. 

“Your Majesty!” He said. Something about the princess seemed awfully familiar to him, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Way too familiar. But it should not be possible to forget someone that familiar. He tried to remember…

The princess spoke without facing him. “You are indeed, a very tricky criminal. Our kingdom doesn’t get many of them, but we sure know how to punish them. Guards! Show him the rock,” the princess ordered.

The guards led him to the rock. Simply being close to it gave him an odd feeling.

“Anyone who lies without a reason, steals for pleasure, and continually commits crimes is flung from this rock.”

These words were meant to frighten the man, but strangely it didn’t. The princess’s bluntness in matters of life and death seemed very familiar to him. Then he understood.

 “Audra!” The princess’s guards all glared at the man. Everyone knew it was illegal to speak the princess’s given name.

“Audra!” He said again, ignoring the guards views of him.

At this, the princess spun around to face the man. Upon glimpsing at his face, her jaw dropped. 

“Arion,” she whispered. The man was her long lost brother. What a surprise. “We all assumed you were killed, after Dermentine was conquered. What have you been doing all this time?”

“We’ll get to that soon, but will I still be flung off the rock?” He asked with a mischievous smile.

“Hmm, I’ll have to see, the peasants do want you to be punished.” She laughed. “Who is the person responsible for these crimes though? It couldn’t have been you; I’m pretty sure I know my own brother.”

“Am I free of all charges then, oh great princess?”

“I guess I’ll have to.” They shared a laugh.

“Ahem, Your Majesty, are we still going to punish the criminal…?” The guards asked.

“Haven’t you heard anything?” The guards shook their heads. The princess sighed. “No. Tell everyone that this man is innocent. And that my brother, the true king of Dermentine has returned.”

She turned to another guard. “You, tell the servants at the palace, to prepare a room for him. He will be living there from now on.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Good, now King Arion, you are welcome to live here forever. This is your homeland, after all. I suppose we could try to reclaim Dermentine -”

The man put out his hand to stop her and shook his head. Not now.

He smiled. Simply being with his sister in the kingdom he was born in was enough.

He finally had a home.

He was finally accepted.