I am immortal
I have inside me blood
of kings
I have no rival
No man can be my equal
-Queen, Princes of
the Universe
April settled the crown from Burger King on her head, as the rest of the group watched, clad in a motley group of clothes pulled out of their parent's attics, and pots and pans from the kitchen of the huge house on the hill above them. A snicker came from her cousin, and she scowled, picking up the stick that was her sword, and smacking him over the head.
"OW! That hurt" Andrew scowled at her, pulling his pot-helm off to rub the top of his head.
"No laughing at me" April had her hands on her hips. "I bet no one laughed at Aragorn."
"I bet they did." Marcus yelped as that earned him a punch from his cousin, who had eschewed a stick in favor of her own two hands, and a slingshot.
"Shut up, Marcus" Kystrel rolled her eyes, moving away from Marcus to stand beside April as Jessica took up a position on the other side of the oldest girl. "No one laughed at him in the books."
"How would you know" Andrew crossed his arms, Marcus beside him, and Marcus's little brother Brian behind the two older boys. "You've never read the books."
"I have" April said, glaring at her cousin. "Nobody laughed at Aragorn. Not that I needed to read the books to know that."
Andrew snorted. "Why? Because you have dreams where you see him" A smirk was on his face, echoed by Marcus and Brian, and the girls growled almost as one, Kystrel loading the slingshot, as Jessica pulled out her stick-sword. April held out her arms to stop them from launching at the boys and beating the crap out of them.
"You shut up, Andrew. He was real, and he was a king, and I'm gonna be a ruler just like he was." April raised an eyebrow, daring him to challenge her.
"Hah." Andrew shook his head. "You can't be, April. You gotta be part of a royal family, and there has to be a country where you can be a queen without being merely a figurehead. It'll never happen."
A moment later, Andrew was running, yelling for his mother, with April chasing him, and Kystrel pelting him with mudballs from her slingshot. The other two boys scattered, and shrieks filled the yard, making the adults returning from lunch sigh, and wish they'd stayed out just a little longer.