*DISCLAIMER: I own nothing; characters belong to their respective owners.
I really wanted to make another chapter for Showgirl before I wrote this but I just needed to get this one out of my head, when I have what I consider a good idea and let it rest it always decays and turns out not being great so now I'll have to juggle with two stories at the same time but it will be worth it.
I-oOo-I
Blaine's POV
People always think that the life for members of the royal family is easier, specially if you're the prince, a title that not only gives you a renewed status among the masses but also means you don't have the burden or full responsibilities that the king or queen do. You want my take on it? It sucks, big time.
The "official" way other nobles should refer to me and during royal events or important galas is "Prince Devon of Dalton", and I despise that title. While it's true that I'm the prince of the kingdom of Dalton as well as my second name being Devon I don't like neither of them separately and when combined the sound of it makes it a lot more cringe worthy, at least for me.
Few people actually refer me by my first name, the one I actually like, Blaine. The reason my first name gets overshadowed by my second one is because it belonged to my grandfather, King Devon of Dalton. He did many incredible deeds and the citizens of Dalton loved and admired him dearly. Ever since he passed away and my father took over things haven't changed much but he has my grandfather's legacy on his shoulders and I know it's a whole lot of pressure for him. Thing is, I carry his name and to be honest, everyone has high expectations of me due to it and I don't want all that pressure on me and, even if I wouldn't dare say it out loud, I don't really want to be king either.
I've always felt as if I'm the black sheep of the Anderson linage, one that has held many important, powerful and wise men through each generation. While many of my ancestors have ruled this land before, none of them have ever been described as being like me. While my brother Cooper was the pride and joy of my family, ever since he was killed in combat during a munity on the castle, all responsibilities that where supposed to go to him have been carried on to me. Maybe the real reason I don't want to be king is because I know I won't be able to be as great a king as Cooper was destined to be.
Another reason as to I feel like the black sheep of the family is because, while he was alive, Cooper gave me that nickname. The reason being that I was born with dark, unruly curls, which as something people associated with bad luck. Not a single person in my family had hair as wild as mine and to an extent it made them embarrassed and that got to me at a pretty early age. While Cooper always had his flowing brown locks, I had to get mine cut short. Until recently that was my life, Cooper was the good looking guy everyone looked up to while I was the scared kid with the bad haircut, but some of the best alchemists my father could find where able to find a way to get rid of the curls, at least momentarily. A sticky substance they found on the bark of trees was strong enough to hold the hair in place prolonged amounts of times when applied, and ever since I've been using this so called "gel" to conceal the curls on a daily basis.
Another aspect of my life that gets a lot of bad responses from my family is the fact that music, singing and dancing have been my passion for as long as I can remember. While the royal family has always been fond of these activities in the past, no one has actually performed them. When my father, the king, first found me singing on my room a few years ago, he flipped out. He told me singing, dancing and other art related practices were done purely for entertainment purposes and that no one on the royal family would serve as entertainment for other people. He said that peasants and buffoons where the ones who did those kind of stuff.
I know, pretty depressing right? Well it gets worse. While I'm one of the few privileged people to get an education at the Dalton Academy, which is where all the sons of the nobles and wealthy people of Dalton go, I'm not comfortable being there at all. While most guys there are nice and friendly towards me, some others want to make my life a living hell. One of them being Hunter Clarington, that guy's son of one of the most important noblemen in Dalton but he mocks me on a daily basis over the fact that I'm not proper king material, which I don't find offensive at all because I know I'm not and I wouldn't really want to but he always throws the Cooper card at me. If there's something I can't take is being compared to Cooper and he knows it. I think he secretly wants to become king but I would rather become king myself than let that guy take power over Dalton.
Another annoyance at Dalton is Sebastian Smythe. Sebastian is son of a wealthy merchant and he knows it. In a way I'm grateful to him for helping me find myself in a more… intimate way but to be honest he's really just as nasty as Hunter. During my second year at the Dalton Academy, Sebastian confessed to me that he felt an attraction towards me, I myself had never thought about liking other guys but looking back it was always there. The idea of getting a wife always seemed like something pointless to me, specially considering I never felt attracted to any of the suitors my mother picked, which where actually really beautiful girls but none of them really "pleased" me. Going back to Sebastian, I never saw him as more than just cute looking and once he confessed his attraction towards me, and while flattered, I declined. Ever since that day he's been really snarky and bitchy toward me, and takes any chance he can to humiliate me, which sadly happens rather often.
That being said, I really couldn't care less about being the laughing stock of the whole academy. What really got to me, once again, where the daily comparisons with Cooper that Hunter shot at me. I asked my father on letting me train with the royal guard to get better at self-defense in case it was needed and, while hesitant at first, after remembering what happened to Cooper my father agreed. I've been training for a few months now and, while I doubt I'll ever get as buff as Hunter any time soon, I've gained enough muscle to hold my own, which actually came in handy as of recently.
A regular day, Hunter was once again saying how I was a disappointment to my grandfather's name and legacy and to Cooper as a brother which I had about enough off. Without even thinking I lunged at him and we had a fight in the middle of the class. Our tutor reported this to both our families and once my father knew about it, he persuaded my mother to get me a whipping boy, someone who I could grow attached to, kind of like a friend, who would get punished instead of me for everything I did wrong. I knew some boys at the academy had whipping boys but I always found that method to be rather brutal. Seeing someone getting punished for someone else's fault was something I could not bear but apparently that was the purpose behind the whipping boys.
My father sent some scouts to the village of McKinley, a small town at the outskirts of Dalton, in search for one. From what I've heard, McKinley wasn't as wealthy as Dalton in any way but my mother always had scouts bring people from there to Dalton to work as servants or maids to the royal family because she knew people there needed the money we could provide their families in exchange of their services, which would be the case for the guy the scouts deemed worthy for being my whipping boy. In a way it was a good method to help out the needed but it also separated families and in this case, would have someone suffer for all of my mistakes, which isn't really fair.
Today was the day the scouts would arrive with the whipping boy. I really didn't want it to happen, especially since we where practically separating a young man from his family just to teach me a lesson. Ironically, time passed by in a rather quickly manner and in what seemed like a couple of minutes, which were actually hours, the scouts had arrived.
"Master Devon? Your father is requesting your presence in the foyer."
"Thanks for letting me know Stephanie, I appreciate it. I'll be there in a second."
While most people would typically thing that the royal family would be quite snobbish, I tried to be as kind to the maids and servants and treated them as equals. They where persons just as me, why would a simple title that I did nothing to earn make me superior to them? Besides this people had sacrificed a lot to be here, it was only fair. Same thing would happen with whomever the persons picked to be my whipping boy; we would be equals no matter what. As I walked into the foyer I noticed the scouts where all waiting for my arrival and both my parents where sitting on their thrones waiting as well.
"Son, we where expecting you. The royal scouts found the person who will be your companion and whipping boy for the remainder of your time as a prince." My father said in the typical serious tone he used whenever he announced something. My mother was just smiling, as if she hoped it would make the situation less awkward for me. "Now scouts, present to us the person you chose."
"It's our honor to present to you, the royal family, the best candidate the village of McKinley had to offer to serve Prince Devon of Dalton.." Damn it, there's that stupid title again. "… as his loyal companion as well as whipping boy. Come on forth Samuel from the house of Evans."
The scouts all made way to this so-called "Samuel from the house of Evans" guy they announced. It always bewildered me how imposing the scouts made everyone's name sound. What appeared in front of me wasn't something I actually expected to see, and honestly I could describe him completely with only one word.
Beautiful.
I-oOo-I
A/N: So here it is what you get when I listen to Pearl's version of the title track of the NeverEnding Story soundtrack in a loop, hope you liked the first chapter to this new story I had brewing for you all. I haven't really dwelled into the fantasy/medieval portion of writing much so I'm fairly new to it but I do hope to please at least a large portion of you with this and honestly its was really fun to write, specially adapting some canon stuff in medieval format. Hope I was able to pave enough ground with it as well. Next chapter will have enough Blam interactions to make up for the lack in this chapter. Reviews are love, and I certainly want to know what you people thought of this, since it's a far cry from what I normally write, at least thematically. Finally, thanks to my awesome beta!