The Test for Love
"Derek, come here! We have to get going! I need to be at the castle by this afternoon, so we can't wait here dilly-dallying all day for you!" Alden, the baker, yelled at his sixteen-year-old apprentice. The two were preparing the pack mule for a trip to the palace. King Eomer was hiring a new bakery cook. Derek, balancing several different loaves of bread, pastries, and cookies, hurried to do his master's bidding.
"Excuse me," A small voice said from behind him. Derek almost dropped the load he was carrying, but caught himself in time to load it properly into the cart before turning to see who the speaker had been. It was a young girl, about the same age as him, dressed in a common tan spring dress, light and springy. She looked delicate and dainty, for all she tried to hide it.
"Yes lady?"
"I heard that you were going up to the castle. I was heading up that way, too, and I was hoping that I could go along with you," she said shyly. "I wouldn't be much of a bother, and I could keep up pretty well."
"I'm sure that would be fine," Derek assured her. "Just give me your name and I'll clear it with the old baker."
"That would be great. My name is Kyla."
"That's the same name as our princess," Derek said, thinking out loud. Kyla just smiled feebly.
Alden was enthusiastic at the idea of having another companion on the trip to the castle. He was starting to get bored of Derek, charming as he was, but this new girl was smart, funny, and enchanting, not to mention beautiful.
All too soon it was time for them to part. Derek had to go with old Alden to set up his booth in the palace while Kyla went a different way around the other side of the castle.
When Alden and Derek arrived in the King's viewing room the next morning, where they were to show off the baker's culinary talents, they found him to be sitting with his daughter, Princess Kyla. Derek thought she looked oddly familiar, but with all her glittering garments on, he couldn't be sure.
Derek didn't even pay attention to what Alden and the king were saying. He was paying too much attention to a sign that had been posted on a column near where he was standing. It read: Whoever passes three tests set by the King and Queen shall have their daughter's hand in marriage. What an opportunity, he thought.
"Father and Mother just had to set up a test for who I will marry. It will probably be some perfectly horrid man who doesn't even love me for anything except my power and money. I wish I could marry the baker's apprentice, the one I rode into the palace with. He was so nice. Derek, I think his name was," Princess Kyla muttered to herself. She was sitting alone in her room. She sat there for a while, musing over the boy she had met, and finally fell asleep.
Derek also sat awake and alone, thinking about Princess Kyla. Behind all her fancy clothes, he could see Kyla, his Kyla. He would do anything to win that contest. It was tomorrow. He would have to try. Thinking up things that the contest might consist, he also began to doze.
The next morning was the contest. Derek was there, after having been given the day off from work. Kyla was also forced to watch. About 100 suitors from all over the kingdom were there. Kyla didn't like any of them. Some were too old, some too young, and some too mean. The only one that caught her interest was a common boy who stood in the corner. She recognized him as the one who had traveled home with her, Derek. If he was going to try to pass the tests, she was going to try and help him. If only there was a way…and then it hit her. She would use her fairy godmother. In that land, royally born ladies were sent a fairy godmother at the age of three. Her fairy godmother, Fayette, was short, plump, sweet, and would do anything for the little princess who was in her charge.
Fayette was sent to Derek to help him win the competition for Princess Kyla's hand.
The first task set to the hopefuls was to catch a snake and tie a ribbon around its neck in the time allotted of ten minutes. They were given ten minutes to prepare. About fifty of the contestants used those ten minutes to pack and leave. Derek spent those ten minutes learning about the fairy godmother, though not who sent her, and how to defeat the snake. Fayette gave him a large piece of cloth.
"Use this to cover the snake's head to he can't know that you're approaching until you're right on top of him. I did a spell so that he is temporarily blinded by sight, smell, and feel, even after the cloth is taken up. Use that time wisely to tie the ribbon around its neck," she advised.
All the suitors were given a different colored ribbon and all sent into a room filled with fifty snakes, one for each of the contestants. Derek easily captured his and tied the ribbon around its neck, then left the room. Only half made it past this test. The other twenty-five were sent home.
The next test was to climb to the top of a twenty-foot rope ladder, retrieve a flag, and be one of the first three back down to move on to the final round. Fayette did a spell on his shoes so that they would speed him up on his way to the top and back. With the help of the spell, Derek placed first and was able to move on.
The next test was supposed to be the hardest. Of the three that remained, there was Derek, a burly man who looked like he was well past his prime, and a young boy of about twelve. Kyla was glad to see that Derek was still there. The final test was to maneuver an obstacle course and be the first to arrive at the princess. There were obstacles along the way, some of which could only be solved be strength and agility, and others that could only be solved by power of the mind.
To help him along his quest was the fairy godmother. She sat on Derek's shoulder and told him how to solve the puzzles and how to use his strength and youth to outwit the physical challenges. Derek arrived at the princess first, but only barely. The burly man came up alongside him after the final obstacle, a maze, and they ran neck-and-neck for the longest time until, seeing that her love mightn't win, she began to throw apples from a basket that had suddenly appeared at her side. As soon as Derek touched Kyla's hand, they were both whisked away by magic to stand in front of the king and queen.
The king took to him immediately, liking the look of the boy from the moment he set eyes on him. The queen, however, was not so sure about the winner.
"Why, he's only a boy, and a commoner at that!" She exclaimed. "I've never heard of a princess being married to a commoner."
"Mother," Kyla interjected before she could continue ranting. "I love this man. He was the one that helped me home when I was lost during that hunting trip. The rules say that the winner will marry me, and Derek has won. Oh, please mother, don't make me marry anyone else." If that speech wasn't enough to convince the queen, the look of anxiety and hopefulness on her daughter's face was. She consented, answering with a nod.
Kyla and Derek were wed the very next day in the castle courtyard. Every one of the other contestants was there to see who had won, except for the two who had been with Derek when he had won. It was a wonderful ceremony, filled with love and happiness. That love and joy stayed with King Derek and Queen Kyla for as long as they lived…
…And they lived happily ever after…
…The End.