The World of Rhune

Sharley woke up a little after dawn. He knew his family would still be sleeping, when would those lazy people ever have the need to wake, especially before eight? Sharley stretched, yawning, and pressed his head back into the cool goose feather pillow before he would go. Today was Friday, in the land of Xirra, therefore it was the day he always went to ‘help’ upon the ranches of Rijo. The ranches were a good three hour’s walk from his true home, so none of his family would search for him there. Sharely threw back his covers, and felt like falling to the floor from exhaustion and soreness. Today was the day where he set up a week’s worth of activities for himself, and slowly accumulated during the day objects that he could bring back. He’d help his older brother do some type of work, visit Augustine’s wife Sapphire, spar about in his private ring with Santiago, help his father with anything that didn’t pertain to peasants, and maybe mess around with his ‘friend’ Justin and play some Circle with him. He stepped into his closet and pulled on the most comfortable (but uncomfortable compared to his normal street-boy clothing) tunic and pants. His boots slid on easily, already laced since he never unlaced his boots when taking them off. He walked through the small living area adjacent to his bedroom and opened the door to a side hallway in the west wing of the castle. He liked it in the west wing, and preferred sunset to sunrise, so he always received a nice show before night came over the sky. That was, when he actually stayed for the night. Sharely strutted through the halls, smiling to himself as his boot steps echoed off the stone walls. He passed numerous servants, mostly women, and let then cower under his intensive air of self-confidence. But being a prince who could do anything to them helped too. He stepped into the main kitchens, and the instant sweet and salty smell of bacon and danishes hit him. The kitchens were one of his more favorite spots of the castle, he loved the rush of the chefs and how perfect they were at each step they completed, whether it was perfectly chopping an ingredient to the warm brown of a baked dish. Not a light brown, not a chocolate brown web snaking about the dish, but a deeply colored, all around gold. The head chef immediately came over to him, wiping his brow from a new sheen of sweat that had broken upon his brow. “My prince, your request?” the fatter chef bowed quickly, his fingers seeming to fly about an invisible dish. “What you have cooking before me is fine enough, Chef Rien,” Sharely smiled, hoping to calm the master chef. It seemed only breakfast could shake the man’s confidence. He watched as the chef started to spread orders about his male sous chefs, and then went back to caramelizing some sauce upon the open flame. Less than a minute later a hot, but not steaming to where it burned dish was put before him. “Thank you,” Sharely immediately bit into the hot dish, and sucked in air as the thinly cut meat burned his tongue. It also burned with flavor, but it always did. Sharely quickly finished off the rest of the plate, and accepted the coffee offered after. The servant had offered tea before the coffee, but Sharely would never be womanly by accepting a cup of it.

“Ah, Shark! Where have you been lurking, feels like I haven’t seen you in a week!” Justin called as Sharely walked outside onto the Circle court. The prince caught the heavy, but bouncy leather ball as Justin chucked it at him. “Yeah, no joke. I’ve been…just kind of out of it lately. Finding that the library with Augustine has been strangely compelling.” Charlemagne dribbled to the nearest painted line and shot. He watched as the ball bounced off the circle ten feet away, but was instantly caught by a waiter. Justin sighed next to him, “You always like to wig me out, don’t you?” Sharely smiled at his friend. “You betcha, buddy. C’mon, I don’t have much time today. I’m just surprised you’re up.” Sharely grabbed a new ball, and tried from the other side of the court. He smiled as it swished, but he had spent so much time that if he’d missed, it would have been a complete fail on his part. Besides all the shooting with Justin, he liked versing Fritz street-style. It was more interesting with less rules and fouls completely allowed. But playing against Justin helped him work on his skills, and earn easy self-confidence, so he put up with it. Justin whistled, “Gods, Shark you really need to quit your shots like that. You’re killing me and we haven’t even started the game!” Sharely grinned, “Well that’s better than wigging you, right?” Justin smiled, “I don’t even know, now,” he walked over, ready for defense. It was the unspoken rule that Sharely always started offensively. The prince realized that really wasn’t completely fair when his skill was well above Justin’s, but he didn’t exactly care for Justin, or the fact that he needed to use him as a cover up for only being true friends with Santiago. Sharely played the game, allowing Justin shots when he’d never allow that for Fritz. He happily left, and didn’t pay attention to the score, though it was nice and white against the green board at the end of the court. He left Justin fuming at his lost, chucking the ball at the metal circles at the end of each court.

Sharely walked around the south wing where his brother’s rooms used to be. Now they’d been converted into guest bedrooms, and naturally that was where Augustine was assigned to stay. He’d searched though, and hadn’t found a trace of his brother. Sharely assumed he was still in bed. He did find, though, Sapphire, and decided he might as well spend some time in the company of his sister in law. He’d found her sitting and chatting with a lady-in-waiting. He noticed the girl was about his age, so he might as well take that to his advantage in forcing the conversation to include himself. “Ladies, have you seen my brother Augustine?” Sharely walked up to the women, smiling. He watched as the blonde lady-in-waiting seemed to have her voice caught in her throat, and Sapphire was slightly stunned. Sharely sighed inwardly as he looked at a shadow, not a woman. His brother was to be king, and sadly lived out the morals of what women were compared to men. Sapphire really hadn’t exactly been a stronger women before her marriage to Augustine, but now she just was…empty. A person reacted with preprogrammed movements to anything. Her shock, Sharely figured, was because there were no real preprogrammed reactions for when a man should address her in the way he had. “Augustine is still asleep, Prince Charlemagne.” Her response didn’t have much feeling beyond shock, and a slight hint of love when she said Augustine. Sharely nodded, and pulled a stool up to where the women were chatting. He assumed the better adjective would be gossiping, atleast for the blonde. “I hope then you wouldn’t mind company while I wait for my brother then?”. He hoped his smiles would chip at Sapphire’s hard soul. “How could we refuse such company? Might I…we…” Sapphire seemed to have the need of her companion as moral support just for getting him something. “Offer you something?” Sapphire immediately stood up, her companion seeming to obey only because of loyalty and her status. “I actually would be interested in a small snack, Justin played hard today at Circle.” Sharely’s lie came naturally to his tongue, Justin was a wimp who needed to learn to control of himself. He was an okay guard, were they playing fully, but without a team to support him, he was just a waste to play against. “Of course, Augustine demanded I bring some of the treats from our side of Xirra, if they would be okay.” “Of course, why wouldn’t they?” Sharley instantly pitied her, he’d tip his brother about how his wife was a shadow who was a shell. He watched as the girls left to the other side of the room, and grabbed himself a cup of the brew they’d been enjoying before he had interrupted. “Oh Sapphire you are so lucky to be married to a prince! And then to know Prince Charlemagne! Oh, how dashing! But I still like Richard, and he was such a gentlemen last time! I told you about it, right? Well, I’ve heard from my family of Sien-ra that being a gentleman is taken much more strictly there but he wasn’t rough or anything!” Sharely took a sip of the drink, and was disappointed to find it was just a very heavy tea. He still drank it though, it would be rude to leave a full cup. “No and I swore his lips tasted so sweet! I honestly could have—” Sharely choked on the tea as he listened in on the girl’s report to Sapphire, and immediately drew notice of Sapphire who seemed to smile slightly, but then rushed over to his side. “Charlemagne, I…” Sharely tried to smile as he coughed, “I…erm…its…lovely to have stayed with you but I think that you and your companion may like privacy.” Or me. Sharely felt his cheeks burn slightly, and a quick, light chirp of laughter came from the blonde until Sapphire glared at her. Sharley quickly exited, thankful his brother had not been there, or who knows how much ‘brotherly love’ he’d have received about his squimish reaction to the natural side of women. “Oh Charlemagne, what am I going to do with you?” Sharley imagined his brother smiling at him, some type of manuscript tucked under his arm. Perhaps a couple ink stains upon his hands from writing.