“I’m so happy my children are playing together!” Queen Serenity beamed. “I was worried, but it looks like they’re getting along like a house on fire.”
“If you mean with all the running around, screaming, and general property damage, then, yes, you could say that,” Major Domo Luna sniffed.
“Boys will be boys,” Minor Domo Artemis dismissed.
“Crisis takes ‘boyhood mischief’ to a whole new level,” Luna countered. “He’s a little monster. He’s not an ordinary ten year old little boy; he’s a, a… a Force 10 Disaster Area! That’s what he is.”
“Oh, don’t exaggerate,” Queen Serenity chided. “So he accidentally destroyed the east wing last week. It wasn’t his fault it had such shoddy construction.”
“Shody construction? The palace is built to withstand direct comettary impact,” Luna argued. “Was built.”
“Well, if one little boy can knock down a supporting wall, it obviously wasn’t built to specifications,” Artemis observed.
“Quite right,” agreed the Queen. And that was that.
Actually, Serenity and Crisis got on like oil and water. Well, to be exact, more like sodium and water. They had an exothermic relationship.
Princess Serenity liked playing with dolls. She had an awfully lot of them; all in cute frilly dresses. Plus stuffed unicorns a plenty, toy pegasi galore, plushy griffins abundant, soft cuddly dragons, well, a few, and even a one or two fantastic creatures like catses, doggieses, and horsieses. Her favourite game was to hold tea parties for them.
At first, having a new brother to play with had seemed exciting. However, she quickly discovered that it really was exciting, but not quite in the way she had imagined.
She had soon found that tea parties and Crisis did not mix. He tended to cater the event with mud pies and things. Well, not so much cater as carpet bomb.
The wedding of Miss Jemima to Mister Humpity did not go as planned. It seemed that someone, who’s name shall remain Artemis, had told Crisis about something called a ‘bucks night’ and somehow the ‘groom’ wound tied up on the parapet of the highest wall.
The teddy bugbears’ picnic was an absolute shambles. There was a big surprise, as the forest glen made for a nice ambush. Water balloons and party dresses do not go together.
The less said about the dolls’ ball the better.
And that one time… no, best not to even mention that. Ever again.
Still, Serentity was one determined, spoilt little princess. Playing with Crisis might not be elegant, but it was certainly not boring. Despite the clash of personalities, the polite princess and uncouth barbarian did have things in common.
Well, they both liked to sleep in, and to eat. Serenity eventually found that she could persuade him to sit still and play nicely if they placed sweets in front of him (although since that also involved placing sweets in front of her, the success of this method was questionable).
However, Artemis and Prince Crisis got along famously. Or infamously, rather. They were natural partners in crime, as Luna would put it. Often.
“Naughty little boys put little froggies in beds,” Luna would complain. “That’s bad enough, but expected. Full grown bog nixies are another thing entirely!”
“He’s just a little rambunctious, that’s all,” Artemis would appologise. “At least we know he’s a healthy boy.”
Luna and Princess Serenity became natural, if uncomfortable allies. Luna wanted to encourage Serenity to be a proper little princess. Said princess had no objection to that –in theory– but it was just so much work.
When it came to learning how to be a proper prince, Crisis did not object to a little hard work. As long as being a proper prince involved martial lessons that was. Fencing, riding, seigecraft, dueling etiquette and all were absorbed like a sponge. Getting him to learn poetry, mathematics, art, diplomacy, and anything else not involving physical exertion, however, was neigh on practically impossible.
Which is how the real trouble began.
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(Posted Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:42)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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