Focus on Fantasy Romance Podcast
Flash Fiction Challenge
The ladies of the podcast were challenged to write a 500 word flash fiction piece based off three cards drawn from the Once Upon a Time game deck:
Focus on Fantasy
Romance Podcast Mixer Flash Fiction #1
Cards:
Two people fell in
love
An old man
They ate it at the
feast
The land of Popswitch
rejoiced when their prince announced his upcoming nuptials. He was nearing
twenty and the people had begun to worry that the heir to the kingdom would
never marry. The villages surrounding the castle set up a festival in
celebration of the wedding. A white cow was slaughtered especially for the
feast, and the prince himself had promised to attend the midnight toast with
his new fiancée.
Word of the prince’s
visit spread far and wide, and people were coming from all over to join in the
festivities. The prince’s guards were worried for his safety and wanted to
limit his interaction with the people as much as possible. Determined to be the
best ruler he could be, the prince naysayed the idea and chose to walk among
his subjects as one of them. He knew they would be surprised when they realized
that his choice for a mate was not a woman, as anticipated, but a man of his
own age named Prince Davin of the neighboring kingdom of Rusk. His people were
not opposed to same-sex couplings, but it was unusual for the ruling class to
publicly announce a joining in this manner. There would be no children, and he
would need to name an heir from outside his own bloodline as his successor.
Despite the obstacles, the prince knew that Davin was the perfect mate for him,
and that together they could rule the kingdom honestly and justly.
The night of the festival
arrived, and the prince and Davin dressed in their finest clothes. The prince
made sure the wagons were loaded with gifts for the village children and they
set out with their guards to the village. On the road, they passed an old man
who was nearly thrown into the ditch by the passing carriage.
“Hold!” the prince
called. He jumped from the carriage and approached the old man. He was bent and
frail, wearing only a ragged cloak over his mud-spattered clothes. “Are you all
right?”
The old man bowed low,
recognizing royalty. “Well, Sire. Pardon me walking in your way.”
“Nonsense,” the prince
declared. “Are you on your way to the festival?”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Come inside the carriage
and ride with us, then.” The prince assisted the old man into the carriage and
Davin handed him a warmed lap blanket to put around his shoulders.
“You are very kind,
Sires.” The old man nodded to them both in thanks. The prince was proud of
Davin for being kind, and he knew that Davin approved of his decision to allow
the old man to ride with them when many would not. It was why he had fallen in
love with the other man in the first place.
At the festival, they
invited the old man to eat at their table, and they made sure he had the
largest portion of meat, vegetables, and wine. As the night wore on the crowds
grew merrier and the prince felt loved and whole among his people. He and Davin
danced slow in the light of the bonfire as the bard sang a love song.
They paused when the old
man approached. He held out a package wrapped in paper. “This is for you,
Sires. A gift for your wedding, and a thanks for your kindness this night.”
They thanked the old man,
and they unwrapped the paper to find a fine pastry inside. The prince broke it
in half and gave half to Davin.
“This cake was my
mother’s recipe,” the old man told them. “For every bite, good fortune and
happiness will follow you for a decade.”
Together, the prince and
Davin each had five bites of the pastry. They thanked the old man, and he
disappeared into the firelight.
“Do you think we have
fifty good years ahead?” Davin whispered to his prince.
“And many more.”
Fifty years later the
kingdom of Popswitch had grown into the most prosperous land in the region.
Davin and his prince ruled with fair kindness and were beloved by their people.
They adopted a boy named Arthur to be their heir and changed the name of the
land to Camelot. As Arthur grew, they taught him how to be a good ruler, and
they died together on the morning of the fifty-first year of their reign. A cry
rose up from the village when the people learned of their deaths, but they
quieted when Arthur came to the balcony to address them. In the crowd below, an
old man watched with a spark in his eye, a wily grin, and a paper-wrapped
package in his pocket.
THE END
If you liked this story, please leave a comment below. You can also hear me read the 4 stories on the air during the podcast, and hear as the other hosts guess who wrote the stories and why.
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