Soon, the Captain and the twins were off to the castle. The captain was silent while he led them, but Eugene and Flynn were chattering back and forth excitedly.
"Flynn, can you believe we're really going to the castle? We get to see the palace horses and everything. I can't wait to see the stables. Won't that be neat? I love horses. Aren't you excited?"
"Yeah, this is gonna be great. I bet we get to see the throne room and the palace treasure. Maybe even get to try some of the food here. This is neat. Thanks for bringing us here, Captain." Flynn was quick to make sure he thanked him, not wanting him to think that they weren't grateful.
"Oh, yeah. Thanks for the party and everything," Eugene piped up. "It was really cool. And this is awesome. I can't wait to see the horses."
The captain smiled. "You're both welcome. Now come on, we're here. What would you like to see first?"
"The stables and the horses," Eugene said.
"The throne room," Flynn said at the same time.
"Boys, we can't go to both at the same time, and we aren't going to split up. How about we just start here and move on? I think we can stay here for a bit but be careful not to get too dirty. We don't want to track dirt into the palace."
"YAY!" Eugene yelled. "I love horses! I can't wait. Which one is yours?"
"The horses are this way. Follow me." Leading the twins down an aisle, he motioned to the stalls on either side. "Here are the horses that the palace guards use. If you look on the small plaque by the door, you will see the name of the horse. My horse is named Arion and he is the first one there on the right. The rest of the horses are used by the other guards. The mares that they breed them with are in the other barn. Would you like to see those as well?"
"Well, yeah, but I wanna spend more time here first. I want to look at these. Oh, wow, I never knew that your horse was all white. He is so pretty. What will happen when he's too old to ride?" Eugene responded as he walked down the aisle gazing lovingly at each of the horses in turn and stopping occasionally to nuzzle or pet some as he went along.
"That's when we breed them and raise new horses for the palace guards to use. Each of the guards have their favorites and most use just one horse unless he gets hurt or sick. Now, are you ready to go see the mares?" The captain led them to the smaller stable where the mares were located. The mares were just as beautiful to Eugene, although smaller than the stallions.
"Wow, these mares are beautiful. Do they have to stay in the barn all the time, Captain? Or do they get to go out and be ridden sometimes? I don't think they would like to be stuck inside all the time." Eugene was positive that the mares would want to be outside and ridden just as much as the horses that the guards rode.
"Of course, they aren't stuck in the barn or stable all the time. They are ridden for exercise and they get to go out into the pasture every single day unless it is raining. They eat the grass there. They enjoy fresh grass instead of just eating hay and oats all the time. Occasionally, we give them treats like apples."
Finally, the tour of the mares' stable was complete, and the boys were ready to see the palace.
"This is the reception room, boys. This is where the people come when they have problems that they need to speak with the king and queen about. They wait out here until they are announced and then they are escorted into the throne room so they can present their case." The captain explained.
"Wow, so if I was a grownup I could just come in and wait to be announced and just walk in and talk to them?" Flynn asked.
"Well, not exactly. First you have to make an appointment with his assistant. The assistant's office is over here. I don't think anyone is in there though. Take a look around though. You can see his desk and calendar is very full."
"It's just a regular room," Eugene and Flynn said at the same time again.
"We wanna see the real castle. Not this stuff. What about the portraits or the throne room itself or any of the bedrooms or the dining room and the KITCHEN? I want to see where they eat and stuff." Eugene was adamant that he wanted to see the rooms, but Flynn was curiously silent.
The captain noticed a look pass between the boys but couldn't interpret what it meant.
Eugene, I want to see the treasure room, but I don't want him to know how bad I want to see it.
I can make it seem like it's just that we want to see the whole castle, not just the boring stuff like the king's assistant's room.
That would be good. Why did you say the kitchen like that?"
I want to see how they eat. Maybe we can get a snack or something.
Whatever let's go. I want to see those other rooms.
"So what room are you going to show us first, Captain? Will it be the bedrooms or the portraits or what?" Flynn asked almost innocently.
Obliviously, the captain responded, "Why don't we go look at the portraits? After that we can circle up to the bedrooms that are open to viewing and then around to the dining area and the kitchen. Does that sound good?"
"Yeah," chorused the boys.
Trudging along, they headed up to see the portraits, as the kingdom was a small one, and somewhat newly created, the portraits consisted only of the king and queen. No other portraits were hung, although there was space for many more in the huge gallery.
"Eugene, Flynn, have you ever seen the king or queen before? Or even just their pictures?" The captain was quick to ask this before they reached the spot the pictures were hung on the far side of the gallery.
"No," the children chorused. "We've never seen anything about them. We only know what our mom used to tell us." Both boys were curious as to why the captain was asking them this but didn't have time to wonder long as they reached the portraits.
"Here they are, boys. The king and queen of Corona." The captain slid a nervous glance around, making sure the boys didn't see.
"I never knew they were so young. They look like they could have a kid my age." Eugene mused.
"They have no children yet. They have only been married for a short time. I'm sure in time they will have a child or two."
The boys weren't exactly thrilled with the portraits and soon were ready to move along and see other rooms in the palace. "This is nice and all but I wanna see the cool stuff. Where do they live? Come on." Flynn was bored with what he saw but didn't want to cause trouble. "Can we please go see the other stuff now?"
"Okay, okay, boys. I did get permission to go take you to see the bedrooms in the palace. Follow me." The captain led the boys down the hall and up a staircase. "The bedrooms are down this way. The king and queen's bedroom is here." The captain stopped in front of a door. "You can open the door, Flynn. Look. See where they sleep."
Flynn cautiously opened the door. He was curious, but almost frightened at the same time. He was almost scared of being disappointed. As he opened the door, he gasped. "They don't really live all that different from anybody else! They have a regular bed. They have fancy bedding, but it's just a bedroom. It's kinda hard to believe."
"I know. I thought they were gonna have a fancy bed and all sorts of stuff. Not like this. It's kinda weird." Eugene agreed with his brother.
"I thought you would be surprised by what you saw, but you aren't disappointed are you?" The captain asked.
"No!" chorused the boys. "We just didn't know it would be like this."
"Well, are you ready to see more? We still have the throne room, dining hall, and the kitchen. Ready to move on?"
"Yeah! Let's go!"
The boys followed the captain back down the hall and together they entered the throne room. There they saw the thrones, but they were both empty. Neither the king nor the queen was in the room. However, they got a clear view of the thrones and a beautiful skylight directly above.
"Aww, I thought we were gonna get to see the king and queen." Flynn said.
"Let's go see the kitchen. Do you think we could get a snack, Captain? I'm getting hungry." Eugene said earnestly.
"Why don't we go find out? Come on, boys." The captain led the way towards the kitchen. The twins trailed behind him, going much slower now that they were again getting hungry. The birthday lunch they had had was just a distant memory now. It had been almost 4 hours since they had eaten.
When they entered the kitchen, the boys couldn't believe their eyes, there was non-stop movement. The cook saw them and immediately came over to say hello. "Captain, are these the two you were telling me about? The ones who had a birthday not long ago?"
"That's us!" Eugene exclaimed. "You told her about us? Why would you tell her about us, Captain?"
The captain smiled. "I just told her that I would be bringing you two through here on a tour of the palace. So, Cook, do you think you could get a small snack together for these two hungry little boys?"
"I think that could definitely be arranged, Captain. Do you want to take them into the main dining hall? I can have the staff bring the food in there. Maybe I can find something for dessert as well. How does that sound?"
"Yay! Dessert! Come on, Flynn!" Eugene almost dragged Flynn along as he followed the captain out of the kitchen into the dining hall.
As the twins entered the dining hall, they realized that there were already people at the table. At first, they weren't sure who it was, but soon, they figured out just who was waiting for them.