Chapter 003: Royalty and Magic

A quaint ice cream cart rolled down the small sidewalk through the sandy beach. Carter ran up, remembering this vendor's great-tasting ice cream, and ordered a large cone. He remembered the salesperson because he was a little person with a big smile. He went to give him his money, but a demure hand reached out and said, "Your money is no good here."

A beautiful, buxom woman with the alluring face of an angel was staring back at him. She had copious amounts of red ringlets of hair that fell to her navel. Her breasts were large, and her skin was tan.

"Breasts?" thought Carter.

"She's naked!"

Carter had never seen a naked woman before. His face went flush with red, his pulse quickened, and he felt small pangs of what he thought was lust run through his entire body. He could only compare the feeling to wanting and getting a video game badly times one hundred.

"Why do I feel this way?" asked Carter.

"Here you go, handsome. Anything else your heart desires?" said the red-headed vixen as she leaned over the cart, giving him a better view of her breasts as they squished on the cold surface.

"No, I'm good," said Carter. He was definitely not good. He just didn't know what to say.

"Well then, handsome, wake up and start your journey," said the ice cream lady as she stood up and licked a small cone with her pink tongue and needy eyes.

"Wake up, water urchin!" screamed a girl's voice as she poked Carter in the chest.

He woke up to voices surrounding him, talking back and forth. His face was still flush from the dream, and he was mentally aroused.

“You do know what this beach is known for?” said a distinguished woman wearing expensive clothes and jewels. Her milky-coloured hair blew in the warm winds of the beach.

“I know! This is where they found the last three Earth humans,” said a younger voice, bending over Carter and looking into his face. He notices her first, a blue-haired woman with a big smile. She was very pretty, like his sister Ivy.

“She’s awake,” said the blue-haired woman, clapping her hands several times. She cradled Carter's head, lifted it off the ground and lowered it softly onto her lap. She petted Carter's head with her soft hand.

“My name is Princess Caroline,” said the blue-haired woman whose face was only a few inches from his. Her breath smelled like flowers and honey. Her eyes were blue like her hair.

“Human? I have my doubts. She doesn’t seem special to me,” said another woman’s voice snarkily. Carter slowly moved his head and looked over toward the snide voice. The woman had a grumpy face, light-black hair done up in braids, and her hands crossed.


Caroline grew a frown as she stared at the other woman. She looked back toward Carter and said, “That’s my older sister, Mary. Please don’t let her bother you. She's always mad!" Even though Mary was older, Carter noticed she was shorter than Caroline.

Caroline's voice was silky smooth. He resented her a little for talking to him like he was a baby.

A cane poked him in his chest. “We should just hand the girl over to the Elves as the law says to,” said a short, dark-haired woman with a red-hooded cloak. She seemed just as angry as Mary was. Her eyes were black as coal.

“Regent Blackmore, please refrain from poking and scaring the poor child. We don't even know where she comes from,” said a regal white-haired woman. She bent down and helped Carter to get up. The wonderful woman reminded Carter of his mother, and a small smile appeared. A small frown escaped Caroline as she released Carter to the other woman.

“My name is Queen Lorien, and this is my husband, King Dorian of Dale,” said the Queen, pointing to a happy-looking, older man standing beside her.

“You can just call me Lorien,” said Queen Lorien.

Regent Blackmore frowned, grabbed Mary, and walked back towards one of the carriages. "We will wait in the carriage," spouted Blackmore.

“Can we keep her?” asked Princess Caroline as she gave a happy smile to her mother.

“She is not a lost animal,” said Queen Lorien. The beautiful, white-haired queen looked at Carter for a long moment.

"She?" thought Carter.

“Come, young one. We will take care of you for now,” said Queen Lorien. The King had sat back and watched the stranger's interaction with his wife and children. He seemed pleased by the child's demeanor.

“What is your name, child?” asked King Dorian.

“Carter,” he said apprehensively, not knowing what to do.

“I’ll just go with it for now. It could be worse,” thought Carter.

“That sounds like an Earth name. Are you from Earth?” asked Caroline.

The King and Queen looked at each other like they would say something but held back and decided to hear the answer.


“Yes, ma'am,” said Carter softly. The Queen gasped and said, “With a name like Carter, I would assume so.”
"Ma'am? I'm not that old," said Caroline with pouty lips.

“Quiet!” said the King, grabbing Carter’s arm and lifting him. He bent down and whispered into Carter's ear.

“Carter, you can’t tell anyone you're from Earth. It could lead to dangers for you,” whispered the King as he released Carter’s arm.

“Yes, sir,” said Carter.

Princess Caroline grabbed Carter’s hand and pulled him from the water's shore towards a crude, two-track dirt road.

“You can sit by me,” said Caroline. Carter didn't say reply.

“You swam in that monster-infested water?” Caroline added.

"Monster-infested?" thought Carter to himself.

Carter looked towards the road. He saw two fancy carriages and a few dozen armored guards on horses, all women with mean looks on their faces. Carter felt a nervous twinge in his head and wondered if he was doing the right thing.

Caroline climbed into the second of two expensive carriages, pulling Carter up into the seat next to her, directly across from Mary and the Regent.

The King snuck his head into the carriage door and said, “We’ll be in the front carriage. If you need anything, tell your driver, and he'll relay it to us.”

“Thank you,” said Carter. The King smiled and exited the carriage. Caroline still had ahold of Carter’s hand. She kept looking over at him and smiling.

“Do you know where you are?” said Caroline.

Mary let out a little laugh and said, “This conversation should be interesting.”

“I am in a world called Thresh. The town to the west is called Dale. That’s about all I know”, said Carter as he looked out the little window.

“You're right! My family are the rulers of Dale,” said Caroline. Carter looked at Caroline and back towards Mary.

“Really?” said Carter.

“Humans are really stupid, aren’t they?” said Mary.

“Mary! Don’t point that out. She’s just overwhelmed,” said Caroline, not trying to be condescending.

Carter realized that his long blond hair made him look more feminine, but he was starting to get a little upset at being called stupid. He saw the horses through the window and felt the wooden wheels banging on the pock-covered road.

“Yeah, I’m the simple one,” thought Carter.

“Do you want us to tell you about Thresh?” said Caroline. Mary leaned over and whispered to Carter, “Can you learn?”

Carter didn’t answer either of the girls and stared out the little window in the carriage. Was this what his life was going to be like now? The boy from Earth, a rare oddity on another planet, a zoo inmate to be stared at through metal bars.

The princesses took his silence as Carter being unintelligent. They started to ignore him and talk to themselves.

“This is your life now, Carter,” mumbled Carter to himself.

After a few moments, he fell asleep and dreamed of being with his sisters on the beach. They played in the sand and swam in the ocean. Towards the road, a little ice cream cart moved back and forth, being pushed by a naked red-headed woman. She stopped for a moment and then waved at him. Her breasts waved back and forth as she placed her whole body into that wave.

“Wake up, imbecile! We’re at the castle!” screamed Mary as she hit Carter on the head with her hand.

“Stop it, Mary! You're going to hurt poor little Carter,” said Caroline, still holding his hand with a death grip.

This family was starting to get on Carter’s nerves. Escaping from this woman's clutches tonight would be too long to wait. Carter wiggled his hand away from the death grip that Caroline had on him and balled it into a fist so she couldn't grab it again. A small frown came to Caroline's face as she looked at Carter. He felt ashamed and relaxed his fist.

Mary and Caroline stood up, walked out the carriage’s door, and ran towards the castle. Carter got up to get out and was stopped by Regent Blackmore.

“Now, Earth human, you stay here until the King's carriage has gone to the back of the castle near the servant's entrance. You will wait in the carriage until I come to get you. It’s for your safety."

She looked Carter up and down and then added, "Plus, we can’t have some moronic buffoon running around like they owned the place.”

“I wouldn’t do that!” said Carter after being called ‘stupid’ one-to-many times.

“Oh, I know you won’t!" said Blackmore smugly.

"Now I want you to stay inside the carriage until you are called for!” said Blackmore loudly as she tried to push Carter back into his seat. Carter was holding the side of the door with his hand, which made Blackmore overexert herself with a loud grunt. Carter stood still.

“My sister Ivy has more strength than you!” said Carter as he started getting angry at being called names and forced to stay where he didn't want to be. He was headstrong that way sometimes.

“Freakishly strong child! How about you fight this!” said Blackmore as she started chanting in some language Carter didn’t know. Carter looked at her and frowned. If he was a violent person, he could punch her in the face and knock her out, but he waited to see what she was doing. Was she calling for guards?

When she stopped chanting, a small fireball flew out of her hand and hit Carter square on his chest. It had no force behind it and didn’t make him budge, but its heat burned his clothes and skin. He let go of the side of the carriage door and fell backward, and landed on his butt. He began patting his chest with both hands to extinguish the fire. When the fire was finally out, his shirt was burnt, and he had blistered burns on his chest. The wound hurt badly, worse than anything he had felt in his life before. He reposed on the floor of the carriage in defeat.

“You deserved that brat!” yelled Regent Blackmore with a contorted smile on her face. She looked tired all of a sudden and moved like she was drunk.

“You stay in here, or you’ll get a stronger cantrip of fire,” she added as she slowly stepped down from the carriage and closed the door.

Carter had a ringing in his ears from the pain in his chest. He heard voices from outside saying, “Leave our guest in the carriage until I come out. Do not let anyone from the Royal family near the carriage, do you hear?”

“Yes, Regent,” said a voice from the front of the carriage.

The carriage rode around back and stopped. He felt the movement of the driver departing, but he was in no condition to move.

“Magic?” said Carter. He was lying on the floor of the carriage, feeling the pain radiate out of his chest through his whole body, when he felt something else. A slight tingling of nausea foreign in his body. Almost a numbness within himself, a certain feeling he couldn’t place his finger on. Carter closed his eyes and concentrated on that feeling. The feeling grew until his little body couldn’t keep it inside. He opened his eyes as a fireball the size of a basketball flew out of his chest and through the top of the carriage, leaving a basketball-sized hole still burning on the roof. The fireball flew through the sky like a reverse comet heading into space. He smiled and then passed out.