AN: This is my take on Romeo and Juliet. It's not Shakespeare, but I wanted to give it a new dimension. Please don't crucify me!
The first time he sees her, he is protecting the Prince of the Kingdom. He is disguised as the simple manservant of young Prince Escales. The Prince is a target for assassination, mostly by trained assassins from the mysterious Guild, hired hands to do the dirty work.
Why would he be? The Prince is royalty. His father rules a large Kingdom, powerful and wealthy. He is the sole heir to the throne. If he dies, it will be easy to steal power from his ageing father.
That is why he is here. That is his job, protect the Prince. Easy as that. He is a Guardian. They fight for what is good and just. They keep the peace. Protecting the peace means protecting the King and his heirs, protecting the people and keeping the darkness from the land. This is what he was trained from childhood for; this is his duty, his sole purpose in life. He knows no else. He is a master of disguise, of covert arts, of moving and seeing without being heard or seen. He is skilled with the blade, the knife and the bow. He can ride like he was born in the saddle and he knows of poisons and antidotes. This, any Guardian can do. But he can do it better than any other, so they say.
Yet, a great Guardian is now packing the Prince's clothes, like the simple servant he wears the clothes of. Only the Prince knows his identity, the other servants believe him one of them. But if he had not been packing, he would have failed his duty.
There is a knock at the door of the Prince's rooms. A young female servant of the castle steps in, bearing a goblet of wine. She smiles at him, brightly, innocently, and sets the goblet down. He is of a higher rank than she, in the servant pecking order. He will bring the wine to the Prince. She, instead, gathers the basket of laundry lying next to him, kneeling down to gather a tunic that has fallen from the mound. As she stands to leave, she accidentally stands on the hem of her skirt and stumbles. Quickly, he is at her side and helps her up. She smiles her thanks again, shyly this time.
The girl leaves. The door swings shut behind her. He brings the wine to the Prince and returns to packing. Some time passes, perhaps half a candle mark. He hears the Prince gag. He rushes into the room, uninvited. The Prince has nearly passed out.
Poison. There must have been poison in the wine. The wine would have been tested by a food tester when it entered the antechamber of the Prince's quarters, so the only way that...
The girl. It was her. She somehow slipped the poison into the wine without me noticing. Impossible. But somehow she did it. She is good. She is a trained assassin, with the same skill as me. That I'm sure of. She could not be a servant, bribed to poison him, I'd have noticed. No, only a trained professional can slip under my guard, and only a good one at that.
Those thoughts are quickly wiped from his mind. The Prince is dying and he needs to do something about it. He strives to remember the antidotes he has been taught.
Meanwhile, a girl in servant's clothes delivers a basket of laundry to the washerwomen and disappears, not seen again.
Disclaimer: I'm not Shakespeare. What did you think?
