X.
Franklin can't pronounce the name of town they finally reach. It was small and unfairly untouched by the madness of the world. A farm stood intact, with horses that Auntie MJ led him away to see. Behind him, Uncle Peter was arranging something, maybe a job. "This one is a Pinto horse," his aunt explained. "The one next to it is a - a Palomino." A bright, golden horse with a white star and white full white socks on its hind legs was pulling hay from a large pile.
"How'd ya know so much? Did you have pony dolls to play with when you were a girl?"
"Something like that. But not really." Used to sleeping on the cold ground, she let her legs give in beneath her, plopping her to the dusty ground. Their clothes were long since ruined, dirty and their pants often ripped. He had been through every piece of clothing in his backpack too many times now. Pity he didn't have any toys packed away.
"Then what'd you do for fun?"
"I read, mostly. Grand stories of places that never existed, of big cities paved in gold and times so many years ago…." She patted her lap and he scrambled over to her, settled over hers legs as he leaned against her. Her arms were small compared to what he thought he remembered Uncle Johnny's were like and her hugs were nothing like Daddy's hugs which doubled as a bed to fall asleep in but this would do. "I played pretend, all the time, even if it was just by myself. Sometimes I would go over to talk to Pete and his Aunt May."
(Aunt May could not run fast enough.)
"Can you tell me a story? P-please. I think I used to get bed time stories..." Or he might have dreamt it back when he remembered how to. He snuggled in closer against her chest and blinked up. "Please? You didn't kiss my cuts yesterday when I fell out of that apple tree." Truth be told, she was too busy keeping him from wailing and screaming to fuss over cuts. The ground had started to shake, ever so lightly, and she thought in the distance she had caught sight of a large metal head. But that didn't matter now that they were safe.
"I..." Auntie MJ looked from him, back over her shoulder to Uncle Peter who had already been tricked into carrying some large trunk up on one shoulder, as if it was hollow and made of paper.
"... Once upon a time there was a very young man who, since he had been a child, dreamt of being a knight. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of his idol, who had been a great hero of their country though he started off as a nobody – a skinny thing destined to push pencils if he was lucky. But this young man, he was a very good person, just like his idol. He was brave and shier than a doe. But he was great. Everyone else had just yet to see that, so everyone loved to stick out their legs and trip Puny Parker as he passed by..."