I could pinpoint the moment the royal family vacated the castle- it was as if the whole world came to a stop. While the working class was still here, we immediately fell into a quiet relaxation, having very little to maintain and enough time to catch up on sleep.

Prior to this morning, I had no idea our country had annual gatherings for mages in late winter and again in late summer. A festival to show off wealth and ability, merge powerful families through arranged marriages, and rest from their government-appointed jobs. This week-long event is viewed as a vacation for them, but it’s also one for us. My condolences to the poor souls who will be working around the clock for all the mages in the country.

After a bustling morning, mostly just stuffing suitcases into the carriage for the royal family, I retreated to my room in the servants quarters for some afternoon reading. With such an extensive library in the castle, I discovered and fell in love with romance novels. It was easy to curl up in my tiny bed, which touched walls on all four sides, to read. Until now, I’ve had the luxury of light magic, shining through the bedroom window all day as if we lived in the arctic circle during an endless summer. But with all the light mages away, the blinding nightlight will be replaced with the comfortably dull light of a candle. Though I have to wonder if the castle will look beautiful or eerie bathed in nothing but candlelight. 

I was devouring my first novel of the day when someone knocked on the door. Luckily, I didn’t have to get out of bed, just stretch out to turn the door handle and swing it open. 

“Prince Leo?” I said in a tone more startled than I intended. “I thought you had left already?”

“No, I stayed behind,” he replied, looking down and bouncing the top of his shoe off the ground.

“Oh. Is there anything I can help you with?”

He took a deep breath, and looked me in the eye. “Would you consider teaching me to take care of the Earth?” he asked, he genuinely asked.

I sat back down on the bed, and rubbed the back of my neck. “It's not really something I can teach... It's more of an experience.”

“Oh,” he deflated. “Well, sorry for interrupting you,” he said, turning around already and pushing the door closed.

I don't know why I offered, but I did. “Did you want to come by my farm to learn there?”

-

We're sitting uncomfortably in a horse-drawn carriage, on opposite sides, looking awkwardly out the window. You could easily put a country between us. Until now, I hadn’t realized how much of our interactions relied on Camilla and Eva. What do I say, to my rival in love? 

I peeled my eyes off the window, and cleared my throat. “So, what’s your farm like?”

Happy jumped at my voice, and shifted in his seat. “Oh, it’s… hmm, how do I describe it? It’s kind of like a forest.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Like a forest?”

“Yeah. Between fruit and nut trees, we grow grains, legumes and vegetables. We have a few animals as well, some undomesticated animals wander onto-”

In other words, it isn’t much of a farm at all. What kind of farmer rids themselves of fencing, opening up their livestock to the wilderness? I shivered at the thought, reminded of the horror stories my mother told Camilla and I as children. Carnivorous creatures sneaking into villages and eating unprotected children, megafauna trampling hunters, and the worst of all, the fictional creatures who were human during the day, but turned into wolves on the full moon, and feasted on naughty children in Safina hills. 

I loudly gulped down, and adjusted the collar around my neck that was starting to feel like a noose. Does Happy befriend such creatures? Or perhaps, is he one of them?

At some point, Happy stopped his rambling about his farm, and took to silence again, allowing me to chastise myself for trusting someone I barely knew. I whacked my head against the window repeatedly, agonizing over a children tale.

“So, why do you want to learn about stewarding the land?” Happy asked, as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat again. I shifted in my seat as well, beginning to feel the numbness in my legs too.

As if I’d tell you the reason. “No reason in particular, I was just curious.” His stare lingered, seemingly unsatisfied, or maybe confused with my answer, but I turned to look out the window again. The truth is, I need to connect with the earth. No matter how hard I’ve tried, I’ve never been an earth mage. All I’ve mastered throughout the years is how to fake my talent, using the energy from my body and pulsating it into the earth, then hiding my exhaustion. Even then, the talents I exhibit as an ‘earth mage’ are pathetic, barely elevated from my childhood abilities. 

But I want to use earth magic. I don’t want to lie to Eva, to my parents, to everyone who expects me to be more than I really am. Happy’s unconventional farm has attracted the attention of nearly everyone in the country, so maybe, just maybe, it’ll help someone like me too.

After sunset, my vision went with the sun. The full moon was hidden behind murky clouds, so the outside world looked like an inky black void, absorbing even the light from the lanterns hanging off the carriage. Luckily, both Happy and the coachman seemed to possess superhuman powers, since they could navigate the dark without a problem; “We're here!” Happy announced, and the coachman slowed the horses down into a stop.

I'm certainly not a wimp. Rather, I'm a prince, to be guided. I clung onto Happy as we exited the carriage, lest there be a wild animal attack or a murderer hiding in the darkness. To my unease, the front door of this house was unlocked.

“Ma?” Happy called out as he slowly opened the door.

“Happy?” a delicate voice responded. A tiny shadow of a person popped up from the table in the living room/ kitchen. They giggled with joy and ran over, becoming a clear image of an older woman when they pulled Happy into a hug. “What are you doing here?”

“Um, well I'm here to show Prince Leo the farm,” he said in a stiff, almost rehearsed voice, stepping aside to expose me.

The older woman gasped, and bowed. “What an unexpected surprise! I apologize, your highness, I did not prepare for your arrival.”

“Oh, no! There's no need to apologize, Ms. Bells, I came unannounced,” I said, but was mentally hung up on the unhygienic living conditions. Dirty clothes and unkempt hair, strong offensive smells of feces and ammonia that made my nose wrinkle, all melded together in a tiny house that gave off a frosty chill. My body promptly shivered from the overwhelming sensory input. I looked to the coachman, and silently begged him to be a telepath. 

“Well, please come in!” she said, stepping off to the side. “I'll get supper started right away.”

After unloading my luggage from the carriage, Happy single handedly brought them indoors and stuffed them into a room that looked like a closet. “Prince Leo, when shall I come back to get you?” the coachman asked, as he quickly fixed his sweaty hat hair.

You made it this far, Leo. Don't back down now! Think of Eva and how impressed she'll be with your earth magic after all of this! “Pick us up in exactly one week, early in the morning so we return to the castle before nightfall.”

The coachman bowed to this request. “I will be staying in town, at the closest inn. Please do let me know if you'd like to return home sooner, or visit elsewhere during your stay.”

I watched the coachman retreat from my sight into the darkness, standing in the doorframe like a parent watching their child off. I took in a deep breath and resigned to the fate I set for myself, inhaling the strong scent of hot wine in the process.

“Come sit, my Prince,” Happy's mother said, pointing to the tiny wooden table in the corner of the open space.

I stumbled on my way there in the dim lighting, cursing their nocturnal vision under my breath. How can people see with a candle alone? If I become King, I will assign light mages to every town and village.

Happy placed a chipped mug filled with a spicy concoction in front of my face. “Drink this, it'll warm you up until the fire gets going.”

The scent of wine, oranges, and cinnamon tickled my nose, while the steam brushed against my face, providing me the first bit of warmth of the night. Happy tended to the weak fire inside of the mass heater, throwing in palm-sized disks of fuel.

“Those are strange logs of wood,” I commented, and took a sip of the strangely delicious beverage.

“Oh, they aren't wood! They are dung cakes, my Prince,” Ms. Bells explained.

I let the spicy wine spill out of my mouth.

Happy fidgeted with his hands, and hesitated to speak in response to my reaction. “Um, but it doesn't smell, does it?”

Perhaps it didn't emit any odor, but to touch and use feces for fuel... Coachman, come back! It's not worth it anymore!

As if the first hour of my stay couldn't get any worse, supper was a pathetic stew of tubers and leaves. Not a morsel of juicy, flavourful meat in sight, despite the disturbing amount of animals certainly just outside of their house and on their property, based on the noises alone. The stew wasn't particularly bland, but far from delicious and filling. It's no wonder Happy can't fill out his uniform, with this kind of food, I’d wither away too. What I wouldn't give for a bowl of ice cream to soothe my worries now.

Nighttime was even worse; I was given Happy's room for the time being, expected to lay in a dusty bed with musty sheets, and concrete walls with more cracks than the worry lines on my forehead. The walls were bare except for metal pans full of hot rocks, supposedly to keep the room at a comfortable temperature for me. Yet, it was so cold I couldn't even remove my coat, and miserably crawled into bed wishing death would take me before I awoke to another nightmarish day.

What felt like years after being put to bed, I was still awake thinking of the family of spiders watching me from their webs on the ceiling, when I heard clanking noises coming from inside the house. In fear, I grabbed the teddy bear from Happy's night table and pulled the covers over my head. Did someone break in? A robber? A murderer? Or, gods, maybe they are wolf-hybrids ready to eat my flesh! I was the meat missing from dinner!

The house fell into a silence for a few moments, but soon followed with footsteps, creeping closer and getting louder with each heartbeat. They came to a halt outside my door, and my breath caught in my throat. Don't come in here, don't come in here! Alas, the doorknob turned, and the door slowly opened. 

As the panic built in my chest, the murderer lifted the blanket from my feet slowly. Oh gods, he’s a bloody-thirsty monster with a foot fetish! I recoiled my feet and held myself in child's pose, expecting a fatal blow, but it never came. Instead, something was gently placed on the bed, and the blanket was carefully put back. The intruder left quietly, and when they shut the door behind themselves, I could breathe again.

I ripped the blanket off of me, and exposed the heated water bottle at the foot of the bed. I slid my feet across it, and instantly relaxed from the comforting warmth it was giving off. Did... Did one of them really wake up in the middle of the night to replace it for me?

As my body came down from the internal panic, a warm feeling in my chest replaced it. I stared out the window at the now-exposed full moon, until the warmth of the heated bottle lulled me to sleep, where I dreamt of sheep.