IMPORTANT NOTE: I started this story because I misplaced my flash drive with all my stories on it. Yep. All. In any case… you people will be the first to know when I find it! Now, stop reading this and get onto the real author's note!
Nixiesocean: This is a fairy-tale redone. You can't tell what it is just yet, as a lot of fairy tales start with 'there once was a king and queen'. : - D. And no, this is not a 'the-princess-is-captured-and-forced-to-live-a-life-of-servitude-until-sheis-rescued-by-her-True-Love-or-brother' story. All I'll tell you is that it's a fairy tale I didn't know about until I read The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brother's Grimm – Translated by Jack Zipes. If by some miracle you have this book, I'll tell you what page it starts on. Page 695.
Hahahaa! For those of you who don't have it, you'll just have to wait until I finish the story. At the last chapter, I will tell you what the fairy tale is named, and it's story, which I hope to follow very carefully.
In any case, I give you…
Chapter 1: Laughter's the Best Medicine
The royal family of Hanor was, in fact, a very normal royal family. No fairy was in waiting to kill a princess. There were no long-forgotten curses. There were no special powers. So, when Her Most Royal Highness Princess Mercy Anna of Hessex decided to skip her writing class with her brother, no one really bothered them.
She ran gleefully after her brother, Prince Marcus Jonas of Hessex. She laughed and tripped. Her tightly braided black hair came undone and, seeing her dilemma, Marcus, all the while laughing, went to help her up.
Mercy had black hair that sparkled in the light. Her cheeks were rosy from the biting cold of winter. Her green eyes were like jade. Even at the young age of eight, the men of the Hanor decreed she would be a jewel in the royal court.
Marcus, the elder by a year, however, had golden curls like spun gold and eyes the color of a summer's day. He was nine, going on ten, and adored his younger sister. He turned and held out his gloved hand to her.
The princess was too well behaved to go to tears over a bit of snow covering her thick wool dress and some that seeped into her thick leather, ermine-trimmed, boots. Her brother teased her about air-headed women and girls while she laughed at her own folly. Under where she had slipped she saw a sheet of ice.
"Marcus! It was a sheet of ice!" The young princess exclaimed.
He gently tousled her hair. "Mercy, ice does not allow you to be an air-headed girl!" Annoyed with her brother, she quickly picked up a bunch of the white snow and threw it at him. In turn, he scooped up snow and threw it back. It hit her dead-on the forehead.
Blood appeared in Mercy's vision. She screamed. Etiquette lessons hadn't prepared her for this much blood. She cried and cried. Marcus nervously tried to clean the cut while his sister wept.
"Mercy Anna!" He scolded. "It's not that bad! I get worse during training!"
She took her ruined fur gloves away from her face. They were covered in her bright red blood. She cried. "I didn't know I bled so much!" Finally, the blood stopped.
They both heard a voice over the field of snow. "Mistress! How many times have I a-told you not to go a-playing in snow?"
Mercy turned at the sound of crunching snow and her nursemaid's voice. "Nurse, really, I'm fine-"
"God bless!" She hissed. "Young Prince, did you hit her with ice?"
Marcus looked down. "How was I supposed to know there was ice in the snow?"
Mercy's tears were beginning to freeze. "Nurse, will you help me in? I want a warm – no, steaming – bath when I'm done changing. Marcus didn't mean me any harm." She flashed her brother a smile who, at the moment, was blushing despite the rosy hue his cold cheeks already had. He smiled gratefully and headed inside just before the princess of Hanor. All the way home she had to endure the scolding remarks about men thinking princesses that played in snow were too unladylike and may not marry them.
Mercy only worried about the ice cutting her face might leave a scar.
- - - - - - - - - -
King Jonas Matthew of Hessex sat in his private parlor. His wife, Anna Lilly of Greyington - the queen of Hanor - sat across from him. Her daughter, Mercy Anna of Hessex, obviously got her dark hair and sparkling eyes from her mother. Although the queen's hair was beginning to betray silver lines of the elderly, her green eyes were unchanged by time. Her husband's golden hair and bright eyes had passed on to his heir and son, the prince of Hanor.
"Your turn," Anna murmured. Jonas moved a piece on the chessboard, his mind on other things. "That puts you in check, Jonas." Anna, the picture of beauty and grace, moved his piece back. "Choose again." He looked at the chessboard and moved a piece. "What's on your mind, dear love?"
Jonas finally registered her voice. "Nothing important, sweetheart." He replied. He saw her pale hand move a piece. "Where are the children?"
At that instant, Marcus and Mercy burst through the halls laughing helplessly. They heard Nurse's commands of Mercy to get into her bath and Marcus' loud voice carrying on about the snow. Anna gave her husband a knowing look and stood. She opened the door and poked a head out.
Mercy and Marcus' faces were rosy from the cold and Mercy had a small cut on her forehead. Nurse was red-faced with irritation about Mercy's lack of obedience and Marcus' urging her rowdiness. Nurse made the comment, 'what if your mother saw you?'
Anna was known for being a playful lady. She called out, "She would be very amused."
All three turned. Mercy burst into bouts of laughter and Marcus also began to laugh. Nurse's eyes bulged. "M – Your Majesty…" She stuttered.
Anna of Greyington laughed at Nurse's nonsense. "Mercy, get into a bath and wash that cut. Marcus change clothes. My lord and I will expect you in a half-hour's time." She shut the door.
The two child-royals had another bout of laughter before they obeyed their mother's command.
"They're your children." Jonas told her.
"If they're not yours then whose are they?" Anna replied mischievously. "After all, I was a virgin when we wed." Jonas rolled his eyes and Anna laughed helplessly.
- - - - - - - - - -
Mercy sat in her hot bath and felt the cold of the morning seep away and allowed the waters to warm her to the bone. She sighed happily and sunk deeper in her bath. Nurse tapped her foot on the floor.
"Young Mistress." She told Mercy. "Your mother wants you in ten minutes! Ten minutes to dress you and redo that hair of yours!"
Mercy pouted. "But the water… it's still warm!"
"I don't care! I refuse to be burdened with your tardiness!" Mercy groaned and gently lifted herself from the tub. Nurse was on her with a fluffy bathrobe and in less than a minute, the princess was seated at her vanity and Nurse was wringing out the water and braiding the dark hair into a crown of braids the princess normally wore. She was dressed and her corset tied tightly in another five minutes.
Nine minutes after Nurse's complaint, Princess Mercy Anna appeared in front of her mother with her dear brother standing next to her. Anna laughed.
"This is the fifth time this week you two have escaped your writing classes." Blushing the two children nodded. "I take it you think this will be tolerated?" The two royals were wise. They shook their heads. "Well," The queen replied. "That's very good. The next time you two wish to have fun outside, take your old mother!" Grinning they gave her a hug. "On a more serious topic," She added solemnly. "Princess Hannah of Bavar will be here within the week. I want you two on your best behavior, understood?" They nodded. "Jonas, do you have anything to add?"
The two children's father nodded and stood. "I want this talk with Her Highness Hannah to go well. She is not used to our colder climate. I do not want you two teasing her about the snow."
They nodded and chorused, "Yes, Papa."
"In any case, I want you two at your writing tutor tomorrow – no exceptions."
They nodded. "Yes, Papa."
"Good."
What King Jonas of Hanor didn't know was that the two children planned on skipping history class tomorrow anyways.
- - - - - - - - - -
I know this is all sort of odd and not going anywhere, but I promise that once Princess Hannah gets into the picture, the next chapter will be fun!