Hello everyone who is still reading my story. This is the last background chapter. After this one, the story's plot really gets going.
Spoiler alert: Kit meets Cinderella here and then again in the next chapter so stay tuned!
Disclaimer: I own nothing Disney related.
Please review and let me know what you think or ideas you have.
Two years, Kit was looking at a baby swan he found near the queen's private garden. He was imaging what the swan would say to him when his brothers surprised him and snatched the swan from him. They had grown curious about what their brother did all day and decided it had been too long since they had taught him his place.
Kit chased them down. He had seen them burning ants and poking the trapped rabbits with sticks and was scared they would hurt the little swan. He followed them to the kitchen where they tried to put it in boiling water. Kit managed to grab the swan and ran out, knocking down the trays of food for the royal lunch and Julius, the king's head advisor as he ran. His brothers chased him all the way to the pond where he ran in and released the baby swan.
He stayed in the water at first, afraid that his brothers would use him as a practice dummy for their punches, or worse, their weapons.
They had always shoved him or tripped him or knocked things out of his hands. After the queen died and they got older, their treatment had escalated.
One day after he did well in a class on negotiations and planning for a war, they grabbed his arms took turns holding him down while they punched him for an hour. Kurt had said he needed the practice on a real person while Kane had sneered and said Kit needed to learn his place as youngest and keep his head down.
Another time, after Kit had taught his horse to jump before they did, they tied him to a target and practiced their knife throwing skills (which fortunately for Kit were not good enough to hurt him yet).
Both times, Kit had been left alone and bleeding to be found by someone, who helped him get to the castle physician. Yet another time, they had caused him to trip down the stairs by holding a wire across the top. This time, Kit had broken his ankle and his brothers had pretended to find him and his father actually thanked them for taking care of their clumsy brother. While he was laid up in bed for one month, Kit read all he could find on nymphs and dreamed of meeting one someday.
Kit decided his best chance was to get out of the water to avoid drowning when he realized he was stuck in the mud. He cried for help but his brothers sneered and snickered at him.
Then, Julius came, following up on the chase.
"How dare you make a mess of the kitchen! That was my lunch the cook was preparing. You are such a reckless boy, careless, irresponsible, dum-"
Kit cut him off, "Please help me out, I'm stuck." He was hoping the advisor would help him get out even if he had to be yelled at the entire time.
"Oh oho, look who finally got what was coming to him." Julius taunted. "Why don't you stick in there a bit longer, until you learn to show resp-"
"What is this? What is going on?" The king had been out walking with his favorite dogs and saw them standing around the edge of the lake.
"Father, help! I'm stuck!" Kit cried out, glad at last to see his father. The boys were always careful to only hurt him a little in front of the king.
"Your majesty," Julius changed his tone to a subservient one. "Kit here upset the entire kitchen and disrupted the palace before running out and knocking me down. Your other sons showed respect and helped me up."
"Yes, yes but we must get him out of there." The king said with no room for argument.
"But ah ummm." Julius signed and took of his coat and shoes before wading out and pulling Kit out of the mud.
As soon as they were back on shore, Julius began spanking Kit.
"That's enough." The king said after a ten slaps. "Now, Kit, was it really worth it to upset the kitchen and Julius to set free the swan?"
Kit thought for a minute and then nodded his head firmly said "Yes".
His eyes were bright with humiliation and his lower lip trembled a bit from the spanking but his chin was set stubbornly and he squared his small shoulders.
The king looked surprised at this show of defiance from his youngest son and then thought of his wife, how she had taken pleasure in the simple things, like helping a spider get outside or feeding the birds.
He smiled softly at Kit, "My simple boy." And then walked away, remembered his wife.
Julius sneered. "Very simple minded indeed." before chasing after the king.
Kane and Kurt then called Kit "the simpleton," or dummy after that. Soon it had caught on with most of the palace.
Only George, Edmund, Marcus, and the king still called him Kit. Kit was forever branded as the simpleton prince, not fit to rule by the rest of the court.
As for the baby swan, she followed an enchanting melody through the woods until she found a handsome man playing a set of pipes. The baby swan then changed into a bunny and started hopping to the merry tune. A cherry tree appeared, seemingly out of nowhere and sway with the music too. The man smiled at both of their antics and kept playing.
Little did either the man or tree or the swan notice that a witch was watching them from the bushes.