Friendship in the Kingdom

This was a sociology project that we had to do recently where we write a fairy tale meant for kids that teaches a lesson. Mine had some references to aromanticism and other things like that.

There was once a little boy named Christopher, he lived in the far far away kingdom of Columbia and was the son of the King and Queen there. He spent most of his days outdoors in the gardens with his mother, watching as she walked around and occasionally picked a few flowers that she ended up putting on their large dinner table that night. When his mother was busy with his father, Christopher would go into the small village that laid just outside the castle and walk around and talk to the people and merchants there. He had a pocket full of silver and gold coins to get some things if he wanted anything. One of the first things he had bought was a piece of bread that was warm where it sat on an older mans cart. It didn’t cost that much, only one silver coin. He had eaten a few bites off of it, but found it was much too large even for him. So with what was left after he had picked around the parts he had eaten off of, he gave it to two little girls who seemed a few years younger than himself. They thanked him and ran back to their mother who was waiting quietly for them to return to her. Christopher ventured farther to the other side of the village and went to his favorite place in the entire place; the horse stables. He loved all the horses and the owner of the stables was a younger man and his wife. They were kind to him and let him help them feed the horses and ponies. But today when he walked into the stables there was already a little boy petting one of the horses on the muzzle. He was slightly taller than Christopher, had curly dark brown hair that fell into his eyes, and pretty copper colored skin. 

Christopher walked over to the boy and smiled softly and picked up a small handful of grains in one of his hands and held it out for the horse to eat. She whinnied and ate the oats out of his hand, Chris giggling at the small whiskers that tickled the palm of his hand. The other boy looked over at him with wide bight blue eyes. 

“Hello,” Christopher says softly, smiling nervously at him. “I’m Christopher.” The other boy’s cheeks turned a light shade of pink and he smiled back shyly. 
“I-I’m William. Yo-you’re the prince!” He says, his voice high pitched as he looks at the other boy in surprise. Chris chuckles and nods, biting his bottom lip. 
“Nice to meet you,” He pauses for a moment. “How old are you?” He asks, tilting his head to the side. 

“I just turned 10! That’s how I’m allowed to be here, my mom and dad said that I had to be at least 10 before I could help at their stables.” 
“So am I! That’s amazing, I’ve come here a few times before and really like your parents. They let me help a lot.” 

Through out the day the two of them feed the horses and groom them, making sure their manes are soft and free from tangles. 

Now Christopher was 10 years old, but looked years younger than that, he was small and frail looking, but never seemed to back down from a single challenge. He had fluffy dark hair that always seemed to stick up and dark blue eyes that never really seemed to be humanlike. He also didn’t look much like his parents, but at that age he didn’t seem to care. 
William and Christopher after that moment on had become very good friends and were always together, they were basically attached at the hip. When the mean kids in the village picked on Chris because he looked slightly like a girl, William would yell at them to stop then pull Chris away because the other boy was turning a bright shade of prink from anger. William mostly kept to himself and liked being in the company of his parents or Chris because none of them made fun of the baby fat that was still on his stomach and thighs. 

Christopher was at home sick one day, laying in his bed burrowed under two thick fur blankets his father had brought in from his room. He was curled up under the bed, sweat on his forehead and he cried out quietly at the pain that he was feeling. His mother sat at his side and pressed a cool wet cloth against his fevered forehead, stroking his hair with her other hand, whispering that he was going to get better soon. 

“My sweet little boy, you’ll be better soon. You will feel better and then you can go outside once again and play all day long, where do you go everyday, little one?” 

Chris presses his face into the pillow under his head and sniffles softly, bringing one hand up to rub his eye with. 

“The nice man and woman who own the horse stables, I go there every day and help them and play with their son who is the same age as me. He- He’ s my friend.” The little boy sniffs again and curls up more into himself, realizing how much he misses his best friend. They hadn’t seen each other in a few days since there were people from another kingdom visiting and he had to stay around the castle to be a good little prince, as his mother said.  He was very sad because he wouldn’t be able to see his friend until he felt one hundred percent better, and he really misses him. 

The teenage daughter of the visiting king quietly came into the room and stood at the closed door with her hands behind her back. 

“Queen Novak, my father has asked for you and your son to come to the meeting chambers.” The queen looks at the girl and frowns.
“My son is ill, he will not be able to make the journey, it will just have to be me, if that is okay.” The girl simply nods and walks back out after bowing slightly to her. 

As the next two days came and went Christopher got more agitated about being cooped up in his room since he felt a lot better now. He had asked his mother if he could go out and play again, but she said that he could not. He pouted and rolled over onto the bed, his back faced away from his mother. That was a few hours ago. 
His mother comes back in after lunch and sits down on the edge of her sons bed and smiles when she can tell he had just woken up from a little nap. 

“Sweetheart, would you like to go outside? Go into the village before it gets too late?” Chris sits up quickly and smiles brightly. 
“May I?!” 
“Yes, but I have to go with you. You are still weak from your illness and I wouldn’t want you to fall when I or your father am not around. Is that okay?” Chris nods his head fast and gets up, changing out of his bed clothes into something that he can wear outside and get dirty. 

Christopher was practically bouncing all the way to the stables, hoping that that’s where William and his parents were that day, they usually were. His mother was smiling politely to all the people she passed by and happily accepted the numerous pretty flowers that some children and adults gave her. Chris held his mothers hand all the way there and soon darted away from her because he saw William at the other end of the stables, brushing one of the ponies. 

“William!” He calls happily and hugs his best friend tightly, nearly knocking down the other boy who was more than surprise at the sudden appearance of his friend. He soon recovers and hugs him back, laughing just as loudly as Christopher was.
“I was so scared that you weren’t going to come back!” He says when the two of them part. Christopher’s mother comes in, smiling softly at the two of them. 

“I wasn’t feeling well for the past few days so I had to stay home.” William nods and grabs his friend hand and pulls him over to a foal, babbling about how it was born a few days before and the two of them were petting it softly, making small noises of happiness to the small horse. 

“What a pretty foal.” Chris’ mother says, coming up behind the two of them and smiling down at the baby horse. William blushes deeply, having not noticed the Queen there with her son this time. He bows nervously, almost losing his balance and falling. 
“Q-queen Novak, I didn’t see you!” His voice is high and he bites on his fingers nervously. The queen simply smiles and pats Will’s head, chuckling sweetly. 

“You don’t have to apologize, William. I see why my son loves coming down here nearly everyday, It’s very peaceful and I can see he has an amazing friend.” 

The two of them spend nearly an hour longer in the stables before they go out and walk through the village to sit by the lake that surrounds the castle and village. They sit down at the edge of it, taking off their shoes and rolling up their pants so they can put their feet into the sun warmed water. William is quiet and nibbling on the corner of his thumb, every once in a while he looks over at Christopher sadly. 
“When we grow up do you think that we’ll still be friends? Because some of the other boys in the village were talking about how when you start getting older you will have other things to do and have no more time to spend with me like you do now.” Chris looks down at the water and splashes his feet, he’s thought about this before and he never wanted to leave his best friend but he did know that he will have a responsibilities when he gets older. 
“I always want to see you, and no matter what I will see you as much as I can! I’ll make sure of it!” He puffs out his chest and starts giggling, which causes Will to laugh as well. Soon the two of them are laughing on the warm grass, smiles that could outshine the sun on their faces. They settled down after a few moments and Chris yawned and curled up and closed his eyes, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he was getting sleepy but he didn’t want to leave just yet. Maybe he would just rest his eyes for a lithe moment.

When Christopher opened his eyes again the sun was going down and William was a foot or two away from him still sleeping as well. The little ten year old yawned and rubbed his eyes, looking around he saw that there were still people out and having fun, and a little ways away he saw his mother talking to William’s mother, the two of them smiling and laughing with one another. From where he was he couldn’t hear what they were talking about and he really wished he could. But he remembers his mom telling that listening to other peoples conversations was wrong and he should not do it because he could get into trouble. After a moment William woke up and made a grumpy noise in the back of his throat as he sat up. He moved over and sat beside Christopher on his knees and smiled at his friend. 
“Looks like we took a nap.” He says softly and smiles when his mother looks over to the two of them and smiles softly. Christopher dosen’t say anything, just nods his head and smiles at his mom and William’s mother. Chris’ mother looks over at them a few moments later and gestures for the two of them to come over. They’re both still groggy and kind of grumpy from their nap and William grabs his mothers hand when he gets close enough to do so, and Christopher does the same thing with his own mother. 
“Well it looks like we have two very tried little boys on our hands, I say it’s time to get back home and go to bed.” Chris’ mother says, running her free hand through her sons hair. Chris nods against her silky dress, pressing his face into the soft fabric. He looks over at William and smiles sleepily, letting go of his mothers hand to give his best friend a tight hug before they have to leave for the night. 

As time goes on the two boys grow closer, their friendship blossoming anew each year. Their mothers also become close, either going to the others home to spend the day talking and doing things mothers do that little boys don’t understand. Soon the two of them have passed their 13th birthday and soon are 14, and the year when they are fourteen are nothing very good. Christopher gets very hurt when he falls from a horse that was going too fast, he fell off and rolled down a small hill, hurting himself badly. He spent many months in a deep sleep where he was constantly watched over by the medicine people that lived in the castle for moments like this. There were many vials of medicine at the small table beside his bed, it was nearly filled with them. The king and queen were very scared that their son would not wake up and even called the magical elves to their kingdom to see if they knew of any way to wake their son up from this long sleep. The elder seemed sad when she said that only time will tell what happens with their son, but she could tell that with every day that he slept, he was growing stronger and getting better. His body healed from where it was broken from the fall and when he woke up he could be running after another few days of rest. 
William, during this time when his best friend was hurt and laying in bed, he was helping around the castle, helping the queen with anything she needed. Which was mostly company while her son was sleeping, so he gave her just that. He was very sad that his friend was hurt and hated that he seemed in such pain. While William was at his friends bedside he drew with the parchment and charcoal the queen gave him. He drew his friend and drew the queen. This was something he was very good and at really enjoyed doing. When he was told to go outside by the queen when she wanted to be by herself he would draw the beautiful green trees and the blue water. Every time he would sit alone for a long time, his mind would return to his best friend and how he was hurting. He would cry softly, his knees to his chest and prayed to the gods in hope that they would help Chris. 

Chris woke up after nearly five long moths of being in a deep sleep. The first thing he said when he woke up was if he could have a glass of water and something to eat. He drank nearly two entire pictures of water and ate a large plate full of vegetables and potatoes. During the first few days when he woke up he spent that time with his mother and father and the few healers that checked over him to see if he was still suffering from anyone. After nearly a week and a half of being in bed he asked if William could come around to see him, because he missed his best friend more than anything. When William finally was able to come visit him the first thing that he did was hug his friend. He started crying because he was so happy to see his friend again when he thought he would never ever see him. As Chris recovered the two of them spent most of the days in the gardens because Chris didn’t have the energy anymore to go much farther than that. William, using his artistic abilities would make pretty flower crowns for the younger children and even made one for Chris, laughing softly when he put it on. Christopher’s was made out of pretty multi colored flowers that were all around them.

Nearly two years later nothing much has changed, they still spend nearly each day together. They had grown into handsome young men; Christopher had a sharp jawline and high cheek bones, his dark blue eyes had taken an even darker shade and his black hair seemed always handsomely messy and his ears had a slight point to them, like that of an elves. He was tall and had broad shoulders and could write poetry and stories amazingly. 
William was handsome in a different way, he was just as tall as Christopher and still retained some of his baby fat in his stomach and thighs, but people all over still found him to be a very pretty young man. His hair had grown in length and was still very curly. He painted and drew amazingly and could paint things that seemed amazingly realistic. Together Christopher and William were two young men that the entire village knew as a pair, they knew that if you see one, then you shall see the other trailing after them. William’s family about three years before had moved into the castle, William’s mother was the Queens handmaiden and William’s father was now hand to the king. 
William and Christopher were attached at the hip from the moment they had met each other 6 years before. 

A few months into the new year, a king and his family came from the north to see if they could have their kingdoms become one through an arranged marriage. Christopher and the other kings daughter, Natalie. At dinner the night when this was brought up, Christopher went very silent from where he was making conversation with the visiting queen. His face went red and he shook his head. This isn’t something that he wanted, he had no romantic interest in this girl, as pretty as she was. He wasn’t one for romance, as far as he knew he wasn’t very good. People from around the castle seemed smitten with him, but he had no interest in them. When he was speaking to his mother and father about it that night he kept saying and saying that this isn’t something he wanted. Marriage was something he never thought about as he was growing up, he liked friendship and close platonic relationships with people he was close to. He loved his friends more than anything in the world and always thought that friendship was so much more important than anything else, because that’s what his mother had always told him when he was younger. 

The visiting King was angry at the fact that there would be no marriage between the two kingdoms, but his daughter had talked him down from doing something horrible, saying that she didn’t very much want to be married at this moment. 

William, Christopher, and Natalie that night before she was to leave to return home all spent the hours remaining in the garden outside of the castle, talking in hushed voices and promising friendship for the rest of their lives, because the way they saw it, friendship was more of an alliance than an arranged marriage could ever be. 

And this is why, everyone that friendship is very important. No matter what should happen your friends will always be there for you and will always be at your side. They are the ones who will follow you into battle and will go on amazing adventure with you. We should always value friendship because it is one of the most important relationships you will ever have in your life and will follow you forever.