[ × ] and then it was dawn

[juno.]

[ vignettes ] and then it was dawn.  

  a princess meets a farm boy.

[juno.]

moment i. beginnings ; unfinished and utterly pretentious of me

(view spoiler)[

    she comes to his village like a summer storm, fast, fleeting and gone too soon.

    he sees her eyes first, steadfast amber as she peers beyond the silk curtains of her carriage. the princess of all of khamal, they say. she has come to us for safety.

    when she steps out of the carriage her silk slippers touch the ground. he watches, silent, as someone rushes to her side, arms out to help her. in his village, nobody helps if a child falls, but he supposes the princess of all khamal is different.

    he guesses that she is not much older than him. perhaps, like him, fifteen summers, yet she is worlds away, surrounded by adults flitting about her. he has never seen her smile.

—

    he catches her alone for the first time in the paddy fields. her silk slippers are gone and her pale feet touch the ground like any other, her sampot a pale green against the lush jungle.

    "my name is teo," he says to her, extending an arm to her. "sovanna," she whispers back. golden.

    she is as beautiful as her name.

—

    she tells him all her secrets. her uncle intends to take the throne, and she, with her brothers, is scattered to the wind, to return when it is safe again.

    he tells her all his secrets. his mother is dead, his father gone a long time ago. he lives in a small hut with his elder brother, his wife and their grandfather, but he is more often away than home.

—

    she teaches him how to read. he teaches her how to love.

—

    the princess is as ethereal as she was when she passed by the village three years ago, but she is now crown princess, heir to the throne. this time her hair is decorated with gold and fabulous jewels, but he knows it is her.

    "come," she says to him, extending a gold-adorned arm. "to the capital." the amber of her eyes glows brightly as ever. (hide spoiler)]

[juno.]

[juno.]

change in plot: possibly based on the nepalese crown princes' murders (x) where the princess is the sole survivor, or one of the sole survivors