The Daydream

My submission for IronAge Media's prompt "The Vista."

          A maiden, fair and lovely, yet who had her faults, sat by a window in a cozy cottage. She lived with her grandparents and cared for them in their old age, doing all that they asked, while they did what they could. Often they scolded her, telling her not to waste her life daydreaming. They knew that, while she did her work well and took care of the house, and that she was beautiful and gentle, she would ruin and waste her life by dreaming.

          She was preparing dried leaves for some purpose or other, when she saw the mountains in the distance, and smelled the smell of freshly cut grass on a cool, summer’s day. How much grander it would be if it were a palace in the clouds instead of a mountain. And flowers instead of fields and farmland.

          It would have a great king, and a wonderful queen, but no princess. They would have children, all sons. Several would be strapping lads, a couple dull certainly not handsome, while one would be pure evil. It would be filled with servants, both men and women, attending to the needs and cares of the castle and of those who dwelt within. Everywhere one looked, one would see strong, handsome knights who would go to the ends of the earth and fight the eldest of dragons for a beautiful maiden, were they but to see one. 

          She of course, would be the center of their thoughts: the princes and knights to have her as their wife, the king and queen to have her as a beautiful daughter, and the servants thinking how much better it would be if they were her. All of the young men would fight for her attention and boast of their feats, challenging each other to gain her affections.

          Her daydreaming was interrupted by a young man, whose name was Galin, walking along the road in front of the cottage in the day’s dying light. He was whistling a merry tune, and holding a bulging sack that jangled and clinked when it bounced. What it contained, the young woman dearly wished to know. The man would have fallen instantly in love with her, and taken her to his home to be his wife, where she would live happily and in abundance till the end of her days, if she but ran out to greet him.

          However, all the foolish young woman saw was a young man walking home. He was without a doubt no king, nor prince, nor knight, nor did he appear to be anyone of significance, so she spared no thought for him, though he was not ten yards away. Why should she, anyway, when she was sure that one day, someday soon, the one to be her true love would come riding up and sweep her off her feet onto the back of his mighty steed, and they would ride off to a castle and live happily ever after. No, this man was just another person who she would never know nor remember. And he was forgotten entirely as she heard her grandmother’s voice calling that supper was ready.

The End,
God bless