That Princess and That Reaper
It was a regular day in the kingdom. I was playing around with the children of the town while my mother was working, as usual. I was wearing a long blue dress with small puffed up shoulder sleeves with the arm sleeves a bit wavy. My uncle was coming over for the third time in 2 months. (He started to worry about me and my mother little too much after my father died. He sees more like a daughter than a niece.)
After a good 2 hours of playing with the children I decided to take a break. "I'll be back in just a bit kids, even princesses get tired." I said after sitting near a well, seeing the deep, dark hole of it. I wonder why each little bird has a mother that sings sweet things to, a happy little love melody. I wonder if my heart keeps singing, my mother will a love song to me. "Ha, no. That's not happening." Like I said earlier, my mother and I became distant from each other after my father's death.
My mother was most likely to show her love to me is just looking at me every single few months or on special occasions. The last time she noticed me (during the time) was on my birthday during a ball. She only said "happy birthday" and left minutes later to her office. Still, I understand being a queen is stressful and she needs time for herself. The only one who opposes my mother's actions was Vlad. Every time he comes to visit my uncle and my mother start arguing about me and my well-being. My uncle even considered of taking me to Wallachia to live for the rest of my days as his adoptive daughter since my mother was technically neglecting me. My mother ended up telling that he's over reacting and should take care of his own issues. Vlad did ask me to go live with him, but I respectfully said no since I still love my mother even if she never notices me much. (Thankfully he respected my choice.)
While I was thinking about that I heard someone walking towards my direction. I turned around and see him. William. He seemed lost trying to find someone. He looked 18 (even though he was 180. Close enough), wore a suit that I found odd (It looked like a regular suit and tie used in your day and age, my lord.), had regular human white skin, black glasses, and dark brown hair. He was quite handsome for such an old man. I turned around pretending to see something else. I was blushing too. By the gods, I've never seen such an attractive man. In fact, I've never seen this man in my life. Is he new here? Should I ask him who he is? Oh, dear, what do I do?! Stressed out, and kind of sweating, I didn't hear what he saying to me. I could only feel him poking me.
"Ma'am do you know a woman by the name of Catrina Blair Dean? I need to find her." He asked. Oh, my he has such a sweet voice.
"Um, yes I know her. I'm her. I'm Catrina." I answered nervously.
He looked at me with a concerned look. "You alright, miss? You look scared about something." No, I was not fine. Especially when I saw those beautiful green eyes. Those eyes are so beautiful. His face was a foot in front of me, waiting for my response.
"Well, are you?" after a few seconds I said, "Yes I'm fine I just didn't see you." William just accepted it without hesitation. "Can we talk, alone, please?" he asked. I was very confused, since I just this man.
"I'll explain if you agree to speak to me alone." I agreed. It was probably the worst mistake I ever made. "Alright. Let me just tell the children I was with that I have to leave." He nodded and waited for me to tell the kids that our play time was cut short.
"Ok sir I'm done. Um, I know where we could talk alone. I mean you can choose where we can talk too if you want." I said. "Oh? Alright. Please lead the way miss, I've never been to France so I'm not very familiar with the area." He said. I nodded and told him to follow me. I lead him into the castle.
"Why are we headed to a castle?" He asked. I looked at him with one of my eyebrows raising. "I'm the princess of France, sir. Did you not know?" His eyes widen and his cheek turned red.
"Oh god miss I'm so sorry I didn't know you were a princess! My sincerest apologies! It hasn't been even 5 minutes since we met and I already fucked up on my project! I should've done more research about you before meeting you!" he said. "It's fine, sir, let us just enter and go to the table room so we can talk. He nodded and followed me to the table room.
We sat down and I told one of the servant to bring some tea. "So, um, nice place you got here." He said. I may sound like a nice princess with manners and such, but I do like to be straight forward. "Who are you and why did you want to talk to me sir?" I asked a bit harshly.
"Oh, yes, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm William T. Spears. I'm a student in The Grim Reaper Academy in my realm. I was assigned to you send information to my teacher about you so that he can decide to let me either reap your soul in the year of your death, which is in 1472, or let you live until you become an elderly woman." I felt many emotions that day, some I rarely express, from confusion to anger, to even rage. My eye even twitched. He showed a poker face after seeing my eye twitch. "Um… do you need more clarification?"
"Look, Mr. Spears, my family has been known to encounter some immortal, mystical being in the past, I have encountered some as well when I was an infant, but, I don't think you're a 'Grim Reaper'. I don't think those being are human looking. Last time I heard, Grim Reapers where skeletons with a black cloak on and a huge scythe. Not, young adult males with glasses and a small scythe in side of their belt." I responded. William checked his scythe surprised. "You got a good eye, princess." I answered with a "thank you".
"I know that you don't believe me just yet but, I'll prove it you." William said.
"Oh, really? Alright. Show me, Mr. Reaper." I joked.
"You asked for it, Miss. Do you have a garden of some sort?" He asked. I nodded, then started to lead him to the palace garden. Once we got there, he went straight for the white roses. He grabbed one and walked up to me, about a foot away from my body. "Don't say I didn't warn you." He grabbed his scythe and lightly poked the rose, slowing taking away the rose's life, making it turn rotten and gray. Then, after a few more seconds, the rose turned to dust, and William blew it away.
"That… that was... incredible!" I said in amusement. "I can't believe it; you are a Grim Reaper!... But, wait a second…" My happy tone was beginning to thrift away. I remembered what he said about me dying in a few years. "I'm I really going to…die?" I asked.
"Yes and no. See, my job is just send information about you to my teacher. He'll study your life, actions, and interest until January 1,1472. Then he'll contact me personally and order me to either reap your soul on December 14th, or let you live until you turn into an elderly woman and die of natural causes." William responded. My eyes narrowed and started to tear up. "Oh, crap I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry! I know this is too much to handle, but hey look at the positive of this miss! I highly doubt I must reap your soul in 5 years! You seem like a person worth keeping alive. I'm sure of it. I'll make sure you live longer with my research!" He said, trying to lift my spirits. Back then I believed him.
"If you're right, Mr. Spears, then my life lies in your hands. Please, make sure I will long enough to have my own family and see my kingdom grow with my future children and their children." I said while holding his hands, seeing him blush a little.
"I will, ma'am, I promise" William said, making me smile.
Both of us decided to not tell anyone about the "Reaping" project.
I introduced him to my mother that day. She didn't notice him much either. My uncle did also meet him eventually that day as well. At first, Vlad worried that William might hurt me (thinking he was my lover), but I explained that he was only a friend. After a few months, my uncle was OK with him.
We became friends after that. William was such a confident guy with a thirst for human knowledge. He wanted to know everything about the human body and life. I tried to show him about humans as best I could, and he seemed satisfied. After 4 years, we fell in love in late December of 1471.
