Dramatis Personae
The Royals
King Azuma- Ruler of the kingdom of Denaria.
Princess Kaorin- Only daughter of The King eager to marry Princess Sakaki.
Chiyo the White - Sorceress and an advisor and friend to the princess. Narrates the story.
The heroes
Princess Sakaki- Princess of a nearby kingdom attempting to win the marriage test and marry Princess Kaorin.
Kagura the Courageous- Royal knight and friend to the Princess Kaorin.
The fair folk
Queen Yukari-Queen of the west half of the forest who jealously opposes Queen Nyamo.
Queen Nyamo- Queen of the east half of the forest who opposes Queen Yukari.
Osaka- Queen Yukari's eccentric henchwoman and jester whose duty it is to foil the efforts of Nyamo. She also falls in love with Kagura.
Tomo- Yomi's lover who works with her to try and solve the destructive conflict and keep Yomi's affections.
Yomi- Tomo's slightly exasperated lover who works to save her home.
The incidentals
Fairies of the forest and citizens of Denaria who appear as they are needed.
Act I
Greetings gentle friend! It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Chiyo the White, a young Mage and Scholar hailing from the kingdom of Denaria. Today I am tasked with the duty of relaying to you this story of romance and the fantastic. I am the perfect candidate for this duty in that I am the most well learned in the land and I also have the benefit of being a player in this tale. I can not promise to you, dear reader, that I shall be the most ideal narrator. I do promise that, to the best of my ability, both me and my playfellows shall present to you the best quality story we can deliver with the resources on hand.
Our story takes place many moons ago in the kingdom of Denaria where lived a beautiful young princess with a gloomy face. She and the rest of our people faced a serious dilemma. An ancient law, unchangeable by any, including our king, stated that no one in the land was allowed to wed until the king's children were married to a royal. Thankfully the king only had one child. Many of us presumed that child, a dainty brown haired maiden whose soft speech and fancy attire hid her passionate nature would marry quickly. She was a perfect bride after all.
Our King Azuma, an imposing man who spoke with power despite his aging, is what one may call overprotective. He had all potential candidates partake in a quest to prove their worth as a husband to his daughter. Unfortunately the king wanted someone as skilled as he which is daunting when one considers he is a war hero who slew dragons and defeated Sorcerers. So none who came could match his level.
On the day our story opens ,the prince vying for our Princesses hand had just failed the quest. The worst of it was that he was the last prince from all of the neighboring kingdoms so we all feared we would have to wait for their younger brothers to grow old enough and that would take at least five years. A solution was needed.
Our story opens as Princess Kaorin wandered the castle grounds in search of her friend. After a short while she found her conversing with her fellow knights.
An introduction may be in order. Her friend is the brave lady Kagura the Courageous, lone female knight in the king's elite knights of the round. She was an athletic (and considerably curvaceous) woman tanned from all of the time she spent outdoors, fighting terrible creatures ,saving damsels , laying siege to castles and all of the standard knight fare. On her person she carried her armor and her longsword.
She had been a friend to the Princess since they were children and was a trusted consult, So it was a great pleasure to see her friend.
"Greetings Lady Kagura," Kaorin said to her friend with a bow.
"Aw c'mon Kaorin, you don't have to go through the motions with me. No one expects you to be a proper lady around a bunch of rough and tumble knights" She responded as she left the company of her fellow knights to greet her old friend with a handshake.
Kaorin gave a weak giggle "okay then Kagura."
Kagura immediately sensed something wrong in her friends giggle. "Something troubling you m'lady?"
"It's just the marriage trial. The last candidate failed today."
"Oh no!" Kaorin ran to her friend and gave her a tight hug.
"Now what will I do? What will my people do?"
"It's alright. just wait. I think I've got a friend who can help us." She lifted the tiny girls face and gave her a friendly kiss on the cheek." You just have to keep a stiff upper lip and give us your beautiful smile.
Kaorin gave a large, trusting smile.
"attagirl! I better get on it! You're prince won't come if I take my sweet time!"
"Good luck Kagura!"
Kagura ran off the castle grounds on foot, forgetting that she has a horse that would be perfect for this task. She ran to a nearby house and knocked on the door of a nearby hut.
"Hello! How may I help you today!" The girl at the door said.
This girl was me. I will refrain from using phrases such as "I said" and "She said to me" during my narration. That would be confusing considering I am not the main character of this story. You may think it to be odd referring to oneself in the third person but one gets used to that sensation quickly. So as a quick description of the character, Chiyo the White was a small girl who wore a pointed hat and a matching white robe. She carried a wand because Apparently no one knows how to make a staff for a girl only slightly over four feet. See if I ever shop with them again...
So they bowed in greeting to each other as the kind sorceress invited Kagura in and sat on her table.
"I take it you are here concerning Kaorin's failed marriage test?" Chiyo asked.
"Yeah. I need your help. The poor girl is on the verge of a breakdown."
"You sound awfully concerned."
"I am. We've been friends since the days we first learned to talk. I lived life as an only child of a busy knight so kaorin was my only playmate. She's the reason I became a knight at all actually. She told me I was braver then any knight she had ever met and that when she grew bigger she would want someone like me on her guard. " She gave a sigh. "So that's why I need to help her with this. But I can't do it by myself."
"Do not worry Lady Kagura. I already have a simple solution." She pulled out a wrinkled book and flipped through the pages. The book was one of the only copies of the set of ancient unchangeable laws for our kingdom that remained. "Read the law for me."
" 'Be it here ordained that none may wed in this land so long as the kings children remain unmarried to one of royal blood.' I know that. We all know these laws by heart. What's your point?"
"What are the exact specifications of the law?"
" the king's kids must marry a royal. That still means she needs a prince."
"Actually it doesn't."
"What doesn't?"
"The law doesn't say she needs to marry a prince."
"But she needs to marry a royal!"
"but not a prince!"
"So what do you wanna marry her to a princess or something?"
"Precisely!"
"That was a joke!"
"But does this law or any others say she can not do it?"
Kagura thought for a moment. It was true. No one had made a law forbidding same sex marriage in the history of the kingdom. It actually grew more commonplace once a special kind of magic developed.( I will not divulge what magic. That is a secret to be kept until later).
"But if a prince can't pass the king's test how can we expect a princess to?"
"Well you're a knight. What's stopping a princess from being as worthy as a Prince?"
"But princesses don't get the same kind of training princes do. Just look at Kaorin."
"Where there's a will, there's a way! And that way can be found," Chiyo reached under her table and pulled out a crystal ball (which she really needs to remember to clean later) "With this! This will show us any answer we seek if it is in my power to see."
"Why couldn't you use this to find a worthy prince?"
"I tried, but I couldn't find anyone. Thankfully if there is a worthy princess, this should find her!"
"I hope so..."
They both gazed into the ball as they prepared for it to provide them with the answers they sought...