AN: Hey! I'm not dead! Yeah, nope. For those of you wondering about the almost month of inactivity it's because I just wanted get through some of my huge backlog of games. Anyways, I wasn't completely out of commission during the whole winter break. I did a bunch of practice, and I also have quite a few prototype ideas for stories. This is one of the prototypes in fact. Well, this is mostly just used for a status update for now as I work on DRE and my other stories.
"Grandpa, grandpa! Please tell us another story!"
Yep, right on time. Chuckling to myself, I put down my mug of steaming hot coffee before leaning back in my rocking chair to wait for the little pair of Devils that are currently thundering up the stairs to my room. They certainly have taken a liking to this old bag of bones.
"Grandpa!"
A small red blur blew open the door and shot across the room at breakneck speed before grinding to a halt right in front of me. A couple of seconds later, another red head peeked around the doorway. I gestured for the boy to come in as his twin sister plopped herself on my lap.
"Well now, Lilli, Zef, it's nice to see you two again," I greeted as I stroked their heads.
"Ehehe~. Lilli was super excited to come visit you again! Right Zef?"
"R-right."
As Lilli chattered onward about how good she had been over this past week, a knock on the door drew my attention away from the little chatterbox.
I smiled as I saw the young couple standing in the doorway.
"It's nice to see you two as well," I said. "Leo, Tabitha."
"Sorry, dad," my son sheepishly scratched at his wild, red hair. "Lilli ran off before we knew it."
"Hahahaha! Don't worry about it, kid. I'll watch over these two rascals."
"Jeez, father. You're always spoiling them so much," Tabitha complained with a huff.
"I can't help it! I finally have some grandchildren to play with. Isn't that every dad's dream?"
Leo sighed and shook his head exasperatedly with a defeated smile. "Well, we'll leave them to you, then. Be good, you two, okay?"
"Okaaay!"
"Right..!"
And with that, they left us alone to our devices. Ah… Sure reminds me of when I was young. Mhm. It's good to see that once stupid son of mine got himself a nice, beautiful wife.
"Well, kids. What story do you want to hear today?"
"An amazing story about magic, princesses, and love!" Lilli exclaimed excitedly.
"Um… I'm fine with anything."
Hm… If that's the case…
"Then," I began. "How about I tell you an old story about a foolish, young jester who fell in love with an equally as foolish princess?"
A long, long, long time ago, there was a princess with the most vibrant red hair in the world. She was cheerful, and had almost everything she could ever want, but one day, she lost her favourite toy: A little teddy bear named Pierre. She searched and searched, all over the massive castle. In her closet, under her bed, in the kitchen cupboards, under the dining table, around the garden, and the list drags on, but she just couldn't find him. He was her most precious friend, you see? So it broke her heart to not have been able to find him. She looked around for the entire day, but she still couldn't find him.
That's when the jester showed up. When the young princess was lying alone, and crying in bed, the merry, merry, jester appeared in front of her, donned with a white porcelain mask. At first, the princess was scared, terrified, of the strange man that was in front of her. That is until the jester stretched out his hand and made pretty little flowers sprout from it. Without uttering a word, the jester urged the little princess to take the flowers. She was hesitant at first, but she did as she was told.
But! When she pulled on the flowers, the jester's entire hand came off! The jester danced around the room clutching at the stump like a headless chicken as the princess tried to register what just happened. The young princess was horrified and was about to scream, but seeing this, the jester simply waved his arm in front of a face and a new hand popped up out of nowhere.
At first, the princess didn't know how to react, but then she began giggling. That giggling soon turned into a full-blown laughing fit. Now, you may be thinking that it wasn't really that funny, but that isn't why the princess was laughing. No. Not because it was funny, but because he made her forget about her sadness.
That was the day where she met her new best friend whom she called, Pierrot. He played with her and entertained her every day from that day on. However, the little princess was the only one who could see the jester. The maids and butlers couldn't, and nor could her family. The little princess was the only one who could.
Why you ask? Well, the jester never told. He kept it a secret from her for a very, very long time. In fact, he never even said a single word for a very, very long time.
So, as time went on, the jester stayed by the princess' side, never leaving her for anything. Of course, as the princess grew older, she began to question his existence. She wondered if he was really real, but every time she asked, he simply shrugged off the question with that permanent smile of his. Day, and night, they stayed together having all sorts of fun. They would play games in the day, and when night fell they would quietly dance around like a pair of fools until the princess could not keep her eyes open any longer.
Ever since she had met Pierrot, the princess had never been sad ever again.
"Really? That's amazing! Did he cast some kind of spell on her?" Lilli interrupted.
I shook my head. "Oh, no, no, no. None of the tricks Pierrot used ever involved magic. It was all done through his own skill. Now, back to the story."
But… when the once little princess turned into a beautiful young woman, she started having feelings for this mysterious jester known as Pierrot. Having spent every waking moment with him caused her to care for him more than anybody else. This made the jester's job complicated. After all, he was a mere clown. How could he ever hope to stand on the same pedestal of a princess? He couldn't stop, though. He had to keep making the princess happy, and prevent her from being sad, but he also couldn't return those feelings she had for him.
No matter how much she pleaded him, he would always respond with a single, silent shake of his head with his ever present smile. This made the princess frustrated and angry.
"Why?!" She yelled. "Why don't you talk?! Please! Just give me a reason!"
Once again, he responded in the same way.
"You… You… You jerk!"
Grabbing a nearby vase, she threw it as hard as she could at the jester before storming off.
The jester did not move out of the way of the flying projectile. No, it was more like he couldn't. The vase smashed against his head, cracked his spotless, beautiful mask, and sent him to the ground in a crumpled heap. Flower petals were scattered all around his body along with shards of the broken vase. A thin trickle of blood seeped out of the crack in his mask and ran down the side of his face, mixing with the water that had splashed all over him. The water made it seem like tears were running down his mask, but the smile had not shattered.
Picking himself up and dusting himself off as much as he could, he produced a new mask from out of thin air and quickly swapped the cracked one with the new one. It was just as immaculate with the same details as the last one, but there was a slight difference to it. The grin was no longer as wide as before, but it was barely perceptible to the naked eye. With himself fixed up as well as he can, he went off to search for his princess.
"Kids! It's time for lunch!" Tabitha's voice called up from downstairs, interrupting our little story session.
"Well, run along now, then. Don't keep your mother waiting."
"Aww… but we wanna hear more, grandpa!" Lilli complained, her small pigtails bouncing up and down as she pleaded for some more time.
"There, there. Lilli. Your grandpa's not going anywhere. Come on. I'll tell you more after you eat. Okay?"
"Alright…"
Although dejected, the little girl complied and ran out of the room at full speed while her twin brother followed silently along. Once again, I relaxed backwards into my rocking chair before taking a sip of my untouched coffee.
Hm… It's cold.