Chapter two: Around the castle.
"No, you will get a nice meal and a nice warm bed to stay in for the night in the castle if you come with us."
What a day.
Ron actually couldn't believe it.
He was now sitting on the King's horse, in front of the King himself; riding in through the gates to Uppertown (they had left the kingdom through Lowertown's gates and then urged the horses to go a little faster, but not too fast as the Queen was afraid the Princess ankle would get more hurt, and ridden around the kingdom's wall to get to Uppertown which had taken about twenty minutes).
He had never been in Uppertown as the people from Lowertown were forbidden to enter it in fear of them spreading deices to the people there. And when the gates opened and Ron saw it for the first time his jaw dropped down and he was almost blinded by all the colors.
The people that he had heard cheering behind the inner gates as the King and Queen rode through the town had now moved and was greeting them again with such a loud thunder of cheers Ron had to cover his big ears. He smiled though as he saw how happy they all seemed to be, but it fell quickly as he noticed that when their eyes locked upon him most of them went quiet.
Most of them looked shocked to find such a skinny and dirty boy from Lowertown sitting in front of the King on his horse. But some of them looked angry, even furious, of what they saw and Ron felt like he just wanted to slide down from the horse and melt in to the ground. He felt someone stare at him and looked up to see the Princess, who was riding a bit in front of them with her mother, was doing just that. Surprisingly though she didn't look like she was embarrassed or disgusted with him, she… she looked like was apologizing to him for how her people were treating him. He smiled a small smile at her to show her that he was fine which made her smile back and then turned back to watch the road.
Because he really felt fine. A little concern from the Princess with green eyes and red hair that looked like it was on fire when she swayed it and he had gone from wanting to dig his own grave to actually feeling happy. This wasn't a common feeling for a boy from Lowertown with no parent's.
I wasn't long before they reached another gate which opened as they came closer to it. Ron felt his jaw drop for a second time that day as he looked up on the white castle which he had only seen the brick-red rooftops of the highest towers before.
The guards and the counselors got of their horses hand handed them over to the stable boys for them to take care of them. Ron watched two servants come and help the Princess and Queen down from their mare and then help the Princess get in to the castle to probably see a healer.
"Mr. Lipsky!" King James shouted and a man with black hair in a ponytail, nice clothes in blue and white that showed that he was a high ranking staff member and what Ron thought was a slightly blue skin color approached them as they still sat up on the hoarse. When he got up close Ron saw that he also had a scar beneath his left eye. "Would you be so kind to show Mr. Stoppable here to the bath chambers and se too that he gets one and some new clothes?"
The blue man looked up on Ron with no emotion at all showing in his face. But something in his eyes made Ron almost shudder as he looked in to them but he managed to calm down before anyone could see it.
"Of course sire but may I ask why you have a boy from Lowertown with you back from the yearly market opening ride thru the town?"
"Because this young boy saved the Princess today from these men." King James said and pointed at the three men that were being lead through the gates to the castle by six guards as they spoke. "And he told us that he had no one to look after him so as a reward he will stay here as a guest until I'll find someone suitable."
"Understood sire."
"Oh and I want you to bring him to the throne room where I'll remain when he is ready."
"Yes sire."
"Ron" King James said and Ron turned around to look at him as they were still on the horse. "I want you to follow Mr. Lipsky and freshen up and I'll see what I can do to find that suitable one who can take care of you, all right?"
"Yes thank you your majesty." Ron said and hoped down from the horse and started to follow the blue man in to the greatest building he had ever seen. What the king had said about a warm bath and new clothes sounded nice but he really hoped there was some food there too.
Kim felt anger well up inside of her as she came closer the throne room where she knew her mother and father was. She was walking there leaning on a cane which she had gotten from the healer as he had bandaged her foot and ankle. He had told her that she was lucky and her foot had just been twisted and that the swelling around it should be gone by a week or two. She felt happy then but it was quickly disappearing now.
When the guards saw her approach they grabbed the handles off the door an opened it for her. She saw her father sitting in his throne and her mother standing beside him as they were discussing something. Kim didn't care about that right now and almost shouted angrily at them, or more to her father actually.
"How can you just sit there and do nothing?" Both her parent's turned to her as she walked as quickly as she could up to them. She saw her father sigh before he said.
"Kim please calm down." But Kim couldn't as she had finally understood why he hadn't wanted her or her brothers to come with them as they rode through the whole town.
"No I will not calm down!" she said. "How can you let half the town get food, clothes, medicine and, and everything while the other half gets nothing?"
"Kim please it's not what you think." Her mother said in a calm and reassuring voice.
"Oh yeah? Then why don't you enlighten me?" she was on her way to cross her arms but decided against it as she remembered that she stick she was leaning on were holding her up. Kim watched her mother turn to her father and nod at him as to show him that she wanted him to explain. The king sighed before he started to speak.
"The carts with food, medicine and silk for the people of our kingdom often come together from the Drone Kingdom. But they separate in half along the way as one half of them will go to the Uppertown's gates and the other will go to Lowertown's gates. But about ten years before you were born Kim the carts to Lowertown started to get robbed or even disappear on the way they were separated from the others and till the gates of Lowertown."
"Now we have tried anything we could to protect the carts. We have sent guards to protect them or suggested that they all enter through Uppertown's gates but nothing worked. Especially not the lather as everything from every cart was stolen that time and the kingdom didn't get anything that time. As there was nothing to sell, the customers couldn't by anything and for that the business went bad went bad and the businessmen couldn't hire people to help in the stores. And with no work the people in Lowertown didn't have the money to buy what was left to buy as the prices rose to almost extremely high. That's why the people there are so poor.
"We asked Uppertown if they were willing to share some of their food but they were reluctant to it as they were afraid that they were going to end up poor like the people in Lowertown. And they are afraid that they'll be sick if they are to be let in to their part of the town. And we need to keep them happy as they provide most income to kingdom. So we can only give what is left on the carts from Uppertown which often has the lowest of quality and rotten food."
"And the longer time that has gone the more the people of Lowertown has become to hate us and the rich people of the kingdom. That is why it is so dangerous for us to travel through there and why we would only let you come with us when we thought that you could ride good enough to get away if they were to attack us."
Kim stood there in shock. She felt rage build inside of her as she thought of the bandits and wanted to run to find out who they were so she could knock them down herself. But she calmed down and started to think about what her father had said as she wanted to help solve this.
"There was something suspicious about this." She thought to herself. "Why would they only go for the Lowertown's carts except for that one time when they took it all?" Then another question came to her mind.
"Father, why did we ride thru Lowertown if it is so dangerous to us?"
"Oh that is an easy one Kimmy-cub." Her father answered.
"Wow I really start to hate that pet name." She thought before her father continued.
"How can the people of Lowertown know that we still want to help them if we can't even face them? That's why we ride out, so we can give them hope. Because if we can't even face them they will think that we have abandon them and I think that wouldn't be pretty as there would surely start attacking us. They may not seem to be strong but they have a lot of anger and rage in their minds and hearts."
Kim was just about to as another question when there was a knock on the door any they all turned to see the scary looking Mr. Lipsky open the door and enter.
"Mr. Stoppable is ready to see you now your majesties."
"Bring him in Mr. Lipsky." Her father said and as Mr. Lipsky bowed and went out again to get the blond boy her father tuned to her again and said. "We'll talk about this later Kimmy." Kim just nodded and made a mental note to bring it up to him again as she had more questions. Kim turned around as she head the doors open again and smile as she saw her savior Ron Stoppable stumble in through them. "Please come forward Ron."
He started to walk forward, a little embarrassed about his almost fall through the door but recovered quickly as he saw that the royals were all smiling and not looking angry about him almost ripping his new clothes that they had given him.
He had gotten a blue shirt with silver seams in cotton and a white pair of pants and brown new boots. Even though they were a little bit on the big side for him he thought they looked quite well on him. But the most important was that they were warm, clean and without any tears. They also were a bit itchy but he guessed he would have to get used to them.
He stopped a few foots from the few steps that led up to the throne and after a few seconds bowed as he thought that that was probably something you should do when you are standing in front of the King, Queen and Princess of your kingdom. The Queen had now moved to sit on her throne beside the King and Princess Kimberly was standing beside her, leaning on her stick.
"The Queen and I have been talking and I would like to ask you a few questions." King James said to him. "Are you willing to answer them?"
"Eh… yes your majesty." Ron answered a bit nervous about what he was going to ask. If he was going to ask him of his criminal record Ron knew he couldn't lie and not tell them that he hadn't stolen a couple of times. Because he had stolen food from others a couple of times when he saw someone of his friends almost starve. But that was only when they were just hours from starvation and no sooner as he hated to do that too other people that may have been just as bad as they were.
"First off all, how old are you?" The King asked.
"T-twelve your majesty." Ron stuttered.
"Do you know why the carts with food won't reach Lowertown?"
"Eh… yes your majesty." Ron answered the King a little shocked at the question; he hadn't expected him to as that at all. "Because of the bandits."
"I assume that you don't know who these bandits may be?"
"No, sorry your majesty." Ron averted his eyes to the floor in shame.
"Oh don't worry Ron we didn't expect you to. I had to as though as I want to know everything about them so that we can stop them." Ron lifted his eyes again to the King to see him still smiling and Ron was glad he hadn't disappointed him. Ron nodded to let him know that he understood as he had always felt that the King and Queen had never stopped trying to save the carts to Lowertown, even though many people there thought so.
"I also want to ask, can you navigate yourself well through Lowertown?"
"Eh yes I know almost every street and ally I think." Ron said unsure where this was going.
"Good. And if you were given a few days to explore Uppertown, do you think you could navigate yourself there too?"
"Well yes after maybe a week or so."
"Perfect. Because believe it or not but we still have some allies in Lowertown and Uppertown that are still trying to figure this whole bandits mess out and sometimes we need to send messages to them. Normally the guards would do it but that is really not their job as that is to protect the Kingdom and the people in it. Not carrying around messengers to them." The King turned to his wife and grabbed her head before he continued. "That's why we ask you if you want to become the new messenger boy for the royal family?" Ron stood there in shock for a few moments before he wound his voice again.
"M-me?" he stuttered and pointed at himself as to make it clear for them that they saw who they were asking.
"Yes you Ron. As payment you will get a bit of money every week and you get to stay here and get food and clothes." At this Ron saw the princess turn as smile a great smile at her father. This must have been news to her too.
"I-I will stay here… in the castle?" he asked as he pointed at the floor.
"Yes." Was all the answer he got.
"Booyah!" He shouted and threw his fist in the air but then remembered who he was in front and quickly gathered himself again. "I mean yes, I accept. Thank you your majesties."
"No thank you Ron." The Queen said. "Without you today we don't know if Kim would even stand here right now." Ron noticed the Princess Kim turn and smile at him
"Well I was just glad I was able to help." Ron said and even though he spoke to the Queen he turned and smiled back to the Princess.
"Well let's get you someone to show you around your new home." The King was just about to raise his arm to call one of the guards when Princess Kimberly spoke up.
"Father I like to show Ron around if it is all right with you."
"Oh Kim I don't think that is such a good idea. I mean your foot…"
"Oh that's all right honey." The Queen said and patted her husband on his arm. "The healer said that she could walk around as much as she wants to as long as she has the cane with her."
"But I…" The King tried to say but the Queen interrupted him again as she turned to her daughter and Ron.
"Of course you can show him around Kim. I'm sure it will be more exciting if you tell him about the castle instead of one off our servants."
"Thank you mother." With that the princess walked down the few steps down to him. He noticed that he was just a few inches taller than her as she came to stand beside him.
"Please follow me Ron." The Princess said. Ron gave her a nod and then a small bow the royal couple before he followed the pretty Princess out of the throne room.
"So, what do you want to see first." She asked as the doors to the throne room closed behind them.
"Well if you don't mind Princess Kimberly, I would very much have something to eat." He said but saw her wave her hand at him.
"Please don't call me Princess Kimberly; I am sick of that everyone in this castle calls me that besides my family. Please just call me Kim; I really think you have earned it after what you did for mi today." She said and smiled at him.
"Kim." He said and made a face that would look like he was deep in thought. "I lake that, or KP as in Kim Possible." Now she looked like she was deep in thought but Ron could see that it was just as fake as his had been.
"Yes I like that, and you are very welcome to call me that too." They both started to giggle and couldn't stop for about a minute.
"Listen Ron I really wanted to thank you for what you did today and as I haven't had the chance I like to do it now." Ron started to blush and wished they would drop that soon as he didn't feel very comfortable with the praise he got from everyone as he had done what anyone would have done in that situation.
"Oh, oh well it really wasn't anything and… oh." He stopped talking as Kim threw her arms around his neck and hugged him and then kissed him on the cheek before she let go again. "You're welcome." Was all he managed to say as he touched his cheek at the spot where she had kissed him, feeling kind of dizzy.
"So food was it right?" Ron snapped out of his daze as his stomach started to growl in hunger. Kim covered her mouth and started to giggle once more as he attempted to quiet it down by throwing his arms around it.
"Yeah that would be great." He said a bit sheepishly.
"I'll guess we head down to the kitchen then. I'm sure we can get something to eat even though it's couple of hours to dinner yet." With that she started to halt down the hall and Ron followed half a step behind her.
"God his hair is even blonder then I thought when it was dirty." Kim thought as she and Ron were heading down to the kitchen. "And he has freckles too. Freckles, blond hair, brown eyes, skinny and ears he hasn't quite grown in to yet. Kind of dorky looking but in a cute way." She smiled at the thought but didn't notice that she was still looking at him when she did which made him turn and smile right back at her. "And that smile must be the biggest and goofiest I ever seen." She thought and yet she felt a little weakening in the knees when she saw it though she blamed it on her injured ankle.
"We are here." She announced as they had reached a door not quite as big as the one to the throne room but bigger than normal doors. Ron's face when she opened them and he got to see all the chefs running around with food in an amount he probably never had seen was priceless and one she would never forget. His jaw was down to the ground and Kim could almost see him drooling as his eyes grew to big blobs when he ogled every piece of food in the room. Kim went and put his jaw back up which made him snap out of his shock and smile that goofy smile again.
"Sorry." He apologized. "It's just that I'd barley seen a piece of bread a day so this-"he swallowed and motioned to everything with a wave of his hand "-was quite much to take in."
"It's all right I understand." She said before grabbing his arm and led him inside. "Come on; let's see if we can get something." She led him on to find someone but avoided chef Barkin, the top chef. Sure he was kind and all but he was always grumpy, jelling at people and stuck way too much to the rules. Therefor she already knew they would surely be kicked out of the kitchen if he saw them. She being the princess did not matter to him. Finally she saw who she was looking for and quickly dragged Ron along with her to her.
"Hello June." Kim greeted a well-built woman with short read hair with a few of grey stripes in it.
"Oh hello to you Princess. Are you hungry?" June said as she turned around to talk to them with a soup ladle in her hand.
"No but Ron here is." Kim said and pulled him forward so that he was standing beside her and then let go of his arm as thought that it probably hadn't been proper to drag him along. He didn't seem to mind though as he just smiled and waved at June when Kim presented him.
"Ah you must be the dirty boy from Lowertown that came on the Kings horse the servants girls gossiped about. Rumors travel fast here in the castle you see."
"Yes this is him, Ron Stoppable, and he will be staying here in the castle from now on. Father made him the new messenger boy for him as he knows everything about Lowertown and soon about Uppertown as well." Kim said while beaming at him as she was so happy that he would stay with them and that he was the same age as her.
"Another mouth to feed?" Chef June said frowning for about a second before she sighed. "Oh well what is that anyway? SO what do you want to have to eat? I'm doing some soup right now but when I look at you boy I think we need something to make you fill out those clothes a bit better." She said and poked Ron in his stomach with her ladle. "How about some slices of a newly cooked ham with gravy and some mashed potatoes huh?"
Kim could almost feel Ron's mouth watering and she knew it did as she saw him swallow deeply before he answered.
"That. Sounds. Absolutely wonderful!" June smiled and nodded down to him.
"You sure you don't want anything my Princess?" she asked Kim.
"Well when you make it sound that tasty I think I'll have a bit thank you." Kim smiled at her.
"You can sit yourselves down at the table over there. I know it's a servant table and not really proper for you my Princess but it's where you have the least chance to run in to Barkin as he is in the dining room preparing for dinner." June said and pointed to a table in the far corner of the room the servants use to eat in. Kim and Ron walked over and sat down to wait for their food.
"Do you really think it is proper for you to eat with me?" Ron asked sounding a little worried.
"No but it's worse that I eat down here than that I'm eating with you. But luckily my family doesn't care much. If they find out they tell me that it is wrong for me to eat here but nothing else. And that is mostly to make Lord Monty Fiske shut up as he is the one pestering us to follow the "royal law" as he calls it."
"Is he the one who asked the King if you should kill me there in the ally or hang me later?"
"Yes he's the one, I'm so sorry for that by the way." She said sheepishly.
"No worries, wasn't your fault. But I can tell you it didn't put him very high on my "Persons I like" list."
"Oh he was never on my "People I like" list. He had always looked too scary with those hairy arms and hands of his." With that they both laughed again and didn't stop until the food came. Kim was just about to take a bite when she stopped her fork in midair as she threw an eye at Ron. He was just sitting there staring down on his plate, like he couldn't believe it was actual food on it. "Ron the food is for eating, not just looking." She said in a soft tone that made him come out of his daze. He looked up on her as if asking if he was allowed to begin and Kim nodded after a couple of seconds as she was a little shocked by his behavior. She watched him take his fork to get a bit from everything like he wanted to taste them all together. She watched him take his first bite and his face was priceless.
He closed his eyes as the food slipped in to his mouth and his face showed pure bliss as she slowly chewed it. Then she watched his face turn in to worry as he opened his eyes that were almost looking panicky. They were darting around the room as if looking for someone and the he closed his arm around his plate and started to wolf down his food as if afraid someone was going to… Then it hit Kim and she started to reach out to touch his arm but he just yanked away from her and moved the food out of reach from her.
"Ron!" she tried to call him instead. "Ron calm down please! No one is going to take your food away." Ron stopped eating but was still leaning over his food as he looked up on her.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes I'm sure Ron."
"How sure?"
"A hundred present. No one has ever done that to anyone in here before and they are sure not going to start doing it now." She said calmly. It took a while but then Ron finally started to straighten himself up and place his plate back on the table.
"Sorry, I guess I had a bit of a panic attack there."
"It's ok. You couldn't have had that much food in Lowertown if you were to react like that when you had it huh?"
"I had to fight for every bit of it." She felt such pity for him but didn't want him to see it as she was sure he didn't want her to feel that way so she looked down on her food as they continued to eat in silence. When they were done June came and took their plates and welcomed Ron to come back to her anytime he wanted as she thought he looked too skinny for his own good. When they were out in the hallway again Kim asked.
"Hey do you mind if we go to the stables? I like to go and check out how my horse is doing."
"Sure lead the way KP." Ron said and they both walked on the way to the backyard.
When the guards opened the door to the backyard Ron gasped as he hadn't seen this much grass since his father had lived. He was almost afraid to walk out of the castle and touch it as he didn't want to destroy its beautiful layout. But soon Kim took of her boots which she had changed in to after she got exanimated and started to walk off out on the yard as fast as her wounded heal would let her. Ron looked at her as she did thin and decided to do the same. The grass felt so soft against his bare feet's and he soon started to run off in to the field with nothing but the feeling of joy inside of him.
Kim was heading towards a barn which he guessed had to be the stables and she was almost there when he cached up with her. The barn was red with white knots and a black sealing. The black doors were wide open and when Ron came closer he could see the stable boys working with several different horses.
"Let's go see Luke first." Kim said as they entered the barn. Ron just nodded and followed her as she seemed to know the barn by heart. This probably hadn't been easy to learn as there must have been over a fifty boxes in there, one for every horse. Ron was able to count to twenty three when Kim suddenly opened one of the doors to the boxes and he soon recognized her horse he had seen her on in the town. Luke as she called him had one of his legs taped and was not giving it much of his weight as of what Ron could se. The lady who had offered to take Luke home were still there but she was packing up her things which she had used to bind Luke's leg.
"How is he Lady Amy?" Kim asked and walked off too Luke to pet him on his muzzle. Luke snorted and buffed on his owner as if to say hello and that he was glad Kim was ok.
"Oh he's going to be fine my Princess. The cut is not that deep and if we clean it every other day he should be fine to ride in about two weeks." The woman whose name was Lady Amy said.
"Oh thank God!" Kim said and hugged her horse. "And thank you Lady Amy. Thank you so much."
"Oh princess it was nothing. I could never leave such a lovely cuddle buddy in pain when I know how to help them." With that she leaved them and Kim went back to speaking to her horse.
"Luke this is Ron, you remember him from the ally don't you?" the horse just snorted and buffed his owner again which made Kim smile and chuckle before she turned to Ron. "Do you like to ride? She asked him as she motioned for him to come forward and pet Luke.
"Oh I've never been on a horse before today." He said as he looked up on the magnificent creature in front of him and stroked him on his neck. "But I guess it was kind of fun."
"You really have never been on a horse before?" Kim said looking shocked. Ron just shook his head in response. "Oh… well I have another horse named Rufus. Maybe… I mean if you want too I could perhaps teach you to ride?" Ron looked at her and saw her looking nervous but yet hopeful.
"I… I don't know. I mean it looked a bit scary when yours ran off in panic. And I don't think I would be any good at it." Ron said a bit uncertain.
"Don't worry, Luke can be a bit feisty but I like him because he like speed just as I. But Rufus is his calm brother and don't like to run that fast. Let's just go and see him before you decide." They left Luke just to go to the box beside him and when Kim opened the door to it Ron saw a black horse just as magnificent as Luke but maybe a bit fatter. When they entered Rufus immediately came and buffed on Ron and sniffed his hair before he licked the side of his face and ear.
"I think he likes you!" Kim said between her laughs as half of Ron's face was now dripping. Ron frowned at the horse and Kim first but the started to laugh too.
"Ok I think I like him to." Ron said as he whipped his face. "And all right I will give riding a try."
"Really?" Ron nodded and was almost tackled to the ground as Kim hugged him. When she let him go she smiled at him and said.
"You know I only kept Rufus as I hoped that one day I would be able to give him to a friend so that we could ride together." After a couple of seconds Ron cached on to what she was saying and smiled right back at her.
"Oh well I would really love to be your friend." He said.
But they didn't become just friends that day, no they became best friends.
AN: Hope you enjoyed it; tell me what you think about it so far! And you are welcome to ask questions about it of course but some I won't answer as it will be too much of a spoiler. I will probably update it between two weeks and a month from now on but sometimes it can change to even longer or shorter. R&R
