Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Of Courtesans and Corsairs ❯ The Real Prologue ( Chapter 1 )

<<I'm calling this book one because I hope to make a trilogy of this story. The title won't change, really, but the book number will. (And I use the term `book' loosely. *Grin*>>

Of Courtesans and Corsairs

Book One

Long ago in a faraway land I'm too lazy to name, there was born a son to the local alchemist. Sadly, the birthing took the life of the alchemist's beloved wife, and the alchemist grieved. Despite his sorrows, he did his best to raise his infant son to a healthy young lad, and he was no longer saddened.

One day when the alchemist's son was but five autumns into life, the little boy wandered too far from home despite the wishes of his father. Deep into the Bramble Forest he wandered, until he was so deeply in he could not find his way home. The little one cried in dread and uncertainty, wandering every which way and running from every small noise that the forest's inhabitants made.

His crying was heard by a mischievous pixie named Une, and she and her pixie minions led him to their home in a comfortable little cave just beyond the thorny thicket. Inside the cave was not a dreary cave, but a cozy little cottage with an appealing curl of smoke rising from the chimney! The boy was just able to squeeze through the door and inside, where another pixie named Sally fed him a large bowl of stew and some pixie bread.

The boy, now realizing how hungry he'd become, ate his fill at the insistence of the pixies. Between bites, he would try and ask the kind pixies to help him find a way home, but his winged rescuers only giggled and encouraged him to eat more. By his third helping of pixie bread and strawberry jam, the little boy was full and sleepy.

The pixies laid him down in one of their beds and tucked him in, and enchanted him to sleep with a pleasant lullaby of their own creation. The boy slept peacefully and long, unaware of the pixies whipping out their pouches of magic herbs and sprinkling him in a fine dusting of the shimmering iridescent powders. He never felt a thing as the charm worked its way into his body and bestowed upon him a gift; a gift so precious, it would lead him to great sorrows later on in his life.

The boy woke to the sounds of shouting, and opened his eyes to find himself lying alongside the dirt path leading back home to his village. The local baker had found him, and was calling to some other large men who must have gone out to find him. One among them was the alchemist himself, his face purple from worry and bellowing his child's name.

When the boy was returned to his father, the alchemist cried in joy and held the boy tightly. The boy hugged his father with all his might, grateful to be with his only family. Everyone put the trauma behind them and went to their homes, all of them grateful to have found the boy before the wolves had. The boy never told his father about the pixies, though he did try sometimes when his father could not find logical explanations for things. The pixies' gift lay dormant in his body for many years more, until the eve of the boy's twelfth birthday.

A local farmhand from a neighboring farm had become infatuated with the son of the alchemist, and had bought a strong love potion from the alchemist to trick the boy into loving him. On the eve of the Mayfair, the farmhand drew the alchemist's boy further from the protection of the village, and raped him soundly in the stables of their feudal lord.

The incident would have gone unnoticed had someone not heard the horses whinnying in dismay, coupled with the cries for the unfortunate boy. Many weeks were spent healing the ravaged lad, and the alchemist swore he would destroy the farmhand responsible. The feudal lord sent out search parties for the culprit, who had fled soon after he'd been discovered.

Nothing more was spoken of the incident for months. The alchemist's son complained of abdominal pains that the alchemist could not cure, for he could not get a proper diagnosis. By the third month after the incident, the alchemist knew; his son was pregnant. Thinking only for his son's comfort, the alchemist gave his son a potion certain to abort the fetus within him, and explained the situation as best he could to the bewildered youth.

The alchemist's son's plight was swift to hit the gossip chain, and in only a day the villagers had gathered to see if the myth was true. The littler ones were sure it was pixies, and even some of the elders agreed. Most, having grown out of such idle fancies, thought it to be the work of the Devil, and steered clear of the alchemist at all costs. One man even went to the High King himself and begged him to remove the evil from their land.

At this news, the High King made haste to see the medical marvel. He sent forth a messenger and a page bearing one hundred thousand gold pieces in a chest decorated with a jewel-encrusted lock to the alchemist, promising all of that money and more if he could only have the boy for his palace.

Greed clouded the judgment of the alchemist, and he agreed to the terms on the condition that the boy appear to be kidnapped, `to avoid suspicion'. The High King agreed and sent his four finest assassins to fetch his treasure home, and succeed they did.

The alchemist's son fought like mad not to be separated from his father, but the miscarriage left him terribly weak and unable to even holler once his brief struggle had ended. The High King reviewed the beauty from his marriage bed, and fell in love with him that very moment. Many times after the boy had healed he considered asking for his hand in marriage, but the laws would not permit such a thing, even if the boy consented.

The High King settled on seeing to the boy's recovery, and offering him every comfort he could think of. The boy fell in love with his King, and by that winter was carrying the future heir to the throne in his womb. In his joy, the High King named the boy his Highest Concubine, which was the highest and most honorable position he could bestow on him.

This did not sit well with the High King's betrothed: Relena, Queen of Sanq. For years the High King had put off their marriage, and all for a freakish boy that just happened to succeed where she had failed so many times! It was a blow to her dignity to be told she was infertile, and it stung even worse to find that a peasant boy had succeeded in bearing a son to the High King! But this would not go unpunished, she swore. She would be damned before that happened.

And so she plotted her revenge…

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