Sunny down the main street, into the tranquility of the grove behind the palace’s gates, young Ennis breathed a massive load out of her lungs. “Haha!!!” She would scream from the bottom of her heart as her feet kicked up dirt and dust up to her robe. Brown stain and strips of greens would enrapture her in a mellow and pleasant dressing. 

          An older Henry of 15 would see the king scurrying around the estate with a valor by his side, looking out for a prankster of a princess bumbling around like a monkey. The corner of his lip widened naturally.

          A moment’s notice and it would be 2 years from here. Downpour from the sky rained down like hellfire of gray. The city’s outlook dimmed like the teary faces of poor farmers keeping up with the constant floodings on a regular basis. Henry stared at the window shield again, a man of 17. Only bullets of droplets and his reflection appeared before him. 

       Ever since the rain came, sorrow showered the city with its color. The hearth flame’s flares never seemed to put out the cold inside Henry, nor other guests around here. 

       The princess was far away, as far as he recalled this region’s borders along the seacoasts. It’d been 3 months since her departure. She’d brought with her nothing much besides her spare clothes and other essential needs she might use during the trek. Ah, why does it feel like yesterday every single day for him? Henry didn’t know how to answer anything. Any time it bothered him, he would use a paper, cloth, or whatever is within reach, to scribble the sentence and cross it in a book he was reading, threw said book away, and never came back for it again, whyever the reason to come back to was, political or for leisure.

        His personal study was stationed near the city’s gate for ease of travel, as he regularly did when assigned a quest. Books would tower in his room on busy days or planning layout days. Either he was too lazy to put them back or he was too invested in his contents to notice a humungous collection of books while he dumped his time on other matters. He usually started off skimming the “Almighty Book for Vagabonds and Stars Alike” on what terrain he might be passing by and, he could lay off the tiresomeness with a fiction he bought along the way.

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Although the preferred choices of books for him ranged from bland to emotionless sometimes, it was a good enough bunch that he can cycle through, considering what little number of recreational books he had the opportunity to buy.

  Usually, father would come pick up the mess and make sure it was clear of any possible infestations, but not now. He was off town on a mission. Not even Henry knew where the mission took place until days went by when he brought up a notion in a court meeting.

       Hitherto, all attempts to get back to reading were in vain. The questions he had been scribbling onto each book had piled up from the very day she left. He tried opening one to start, but soon found all the marks he left from maybe days, weeks, months ago. He couldn’t recall everything about it. 

“No.” He threw one book to the table on the side. “Not that…” He threw another. “Why?” He threw another back. His face was a blank page of a book. His fingers slipped through countless other books. “No. Not that one.” The rambling continued, muffling under the sound of the rain outside.

“Last one now.” He flipped through the first ten pages. The handwriting was awfully familiar to hers. “Hmm. No cross?” He muttered. “Interesting…” His eyes scowled through the room. Behind him stood a hill of littered books and pages and other documents. His lip pursed uncomfortably. He stood up, ran back, and began to gather the documents on a separate fold, holding it still while he managed the pried books around him. Fortunately, the stitches were intact. 

…

As he wistfully carried each pile back to the wooden-carved shelves, His eyes bounced up and beyond, through the shingle of his tiny home, off the window, out in the downpour and onto the hill above him, where the palace was, where a certain small tower beside it stood. He could feel the picture before him flicker and flutter like moth. He could feel his eyes locking him in. In a kneeling position, his body stopped for a long while. His breath straightened.

“No.” he thought to himself.

“No.” he said to himself.

“No… End this foolery…” He murmured in the complete silence of his room and turned a blind eye.