A couple of years ago, in the land of Melromarc.

  Malty was leaving the castle. She did this because her mother decided that seeing the countryside would be best for her, as she had been fighting with her younger sister a lot. Malty, however, was very displeased with the notion of having to live in the filth, far away from the bustling of the town. The ride was a long two days, but when she got there, she saw something that would change her world. It was the most beautiful guy she had ever seen; he looked to be her age. Seeing that the country bumpkin was looking at her, she decided that now was the perfect time to work her charm. She tried to act like she, too, was from the farmlands, but her clothes gave her away.

  “Wow, you’re awful pretty,” the farmhand told her, inflating her ego to a height that was still not yet perceptible to anyone within the vicinity.

  “T-thank you.” She replied, her face gone as red as her crimson hair.

  “The name’s Thom. What’s yours?” The farmboy asked the princess, trying to figure out where she had come from and where she was going.

  Malty thought for a while of what to say. She had only been to the countryside for a few minutes, and she was already feeling enamoured by the young man in front of her. She took a deep breath and answered his question. “My name’s Malty.” Her status was the most important thing to her, but she felt like this guy could be a close second.

  “Would you like to go to the festival with me?” The farmboy asked her. His face was beet red. He tried to look away, knowing she had noticed he was blushing. To his dismay, however, there was no escaping the princess’s astute gaze.

  Malty didn’t have to think about the answer for a long time. She didn’t even have to question it. She looked at the farmboy with his golden curls and bright blue eyes and said, “I’d love to!” Keeping her chipperness at bay, trying to portray a cool, calm persona.

  She thought to herself. Surely, they were able to have a good time, but as good a time as she had in the castle? she continued thinking to herself. She thought this might not be such a good idea after all, but she still found him incredible when she first saw him.

  “How old are you anyway?” She asked the farmboy.

  “I’m 18. Have been for the last few months. You?”

  “Same!” She exclaimed. Her excitement was starting to show, so she tried to play a cooler character than the one she'd just projected. She shook her head, trying to compose herself in her usual princess demeanor and told Thom, “I mean, what time is the festival?” She had hoped to get a better assessment of the event itself.

  “It’s tonight, around the start of sundown.” He chuckled, his smile radiating genuine warmth and generosity that was far greater than any witnessed in the castle. Malty told the farmhand that she was going to be staying in the area for the next few days.

  “Oh? Where ya from?” He asked enthusiastically. His ragtag overalls and straw hat were a dead giveaway that they were not from the same social standing.

  Malty thought for a second, feeling chipper just from the mention of being from somewhere that most people would perceive as grand. She wanted the world to know the greatness of her life, but she didn’t want to give herself away to the guy just yet, so she kept it at that.

  “Oh, shoot! I gotta harvest the taters. Sorry for botherin’ you, Miss Malty, but I gotta get goin’. It was a pleasure meeting ya.”

  “You, too!” She replied, her voice raised the way she believed a princess should sound, tonally. She questioned herself. She decided that it didn’t matter. She had just met the man of her dreams and skipped off to the carriage.

  There were a few men standing at the carriage, weapons at the ready, should anyone try to attack. One of the guardsmen came forward and said to the princess, “Excuse me, princess, but who was that young man you were talking to?”

  “His name’s Thom, and we have a very important date tonight.”

  The guards muttered gasps in unison. The queen and king would surely not be happy that their daughter was seeing a farming peasant rather than the nobility they intended to offer her hand in marriage to.

  After Malty got into the carriage, the driver riled the horses up with a quick snap of the reigns and they were off to the inn that Malty was told would be her resting spot for the next few days.

  Later that evening. Malty was trying on her favourite dresses. There was a really pretty pink one that she was dying to wear when she heard a knock on the door.

  “P-princess? Are you still getting ready for the festival?” The voice asked shakily on the otherside. Malty was becoming annoyed by the guard's blatant disrespect. She took one last look in the mirror and, with a sigh, left the quarters.

  When she got to the lounge of the inn, she saw the guards all sitting around the tables, eating their respective meals, and overall just having a good time.

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  “Well? How do I look!?”

  The guards looked confused. She had never deigned to ask them their opinions on anything before. However, they decided that they would rather flatter her than earn her ire.

  “Very pretty, princess Malty!” The guards told the princess hesitantly, for they knew that one wrong word could have her flaring up and sending them to the dungeon.

  The guards then followed Malty out to the carriage and joined her on the way to the festival.

  Once the carriage arrived at its destination, Malty asked the guards to help her down. There wasn’t much going on, but she was excited to see the man she was so infatuated with. So much so that when she saw him coming to greet her with a smile on his face, she took off running.

  The evening was grand, and the couple were enjoying their time together. Thom was trying his best to win prizes for Malty, who was trying her best to compliment him on everything he did. The farmhand, however, was not really one for gestures of the kind. He found the flattery to be irksome and heavy-handed. Still, though, the date continued until the festival was almost over, but there was one last thing to see.

  “Hey, can I show you somethin’?” Thom asked Malty; his golden curls gleamed in the moonlight, just right to sweep the princess off her feet.

  “Sure, what is it?” She questioned, feeling a little dumbfounded.

  “This way.” He signalled to her to follow him, and she did. They went up to the top of a hill, to the best spot to see the fireworks show. The show was glorious. There were multicoloured fireworks, some were as fiery as if the sun itself had blown up in the sky. While others went up into the air with a small whistle that dissipated into nothing.

  “Whatcha think?” He asked her, his blue eyes reflecting the fireworks explosions back into the night sky.

  “I think it’s great, though not as good as the ones back in Melromarc.”

  “Melromarc!? Whatcha talkin’ about that place for? Dontcha know that Ther’ the reason for all the suffering in this village? They steal money from us that we don’t have, and they never even check on us to make sure we’re okay! Why, our readin’ skills ain’t the best, but even we know better than they do half the time.”

  Malty was taken aback by the hostility that Thom was showing her. Not being one to back down from a fight, though, she retaliated.

  “Please. Like you country bumpkins would be anywhere without our support.”

  “Oh, a country bumpkin, huh? Well, if that’s how you truly feel, then I’m gonna head back home, and I think you should do the same.”

  Not being one to leave a woman stranded in the middle of nowhere, Thom walked her back to the carriage. A face of distrust was apparent on both of them. When Malty got into the transport, she started thinking about how she would tell her parents about this. She couldn’t let them know that she had been on her first date with a peasant.

  The ride back was tumultuous. . She was then lost in thought about the storm. About the clapping of thunder after the flash of lightning. How they came together to form something so dissonant and yet coherent in its design. She thought about how it could be applied to her own life. Then she knew a way to make her parents see things her way.

  When the carriage arrived back in Melromarc, all eyes were on her. She was not due back for another couple of days, so the townsfolk knew that something must have happened. The eyes just stared, waiting for her to say something… anything. All she could do was cry from the embarrassment of their gazes.

  When Malty entered the castle’s throneroom, her father could see that her eyes were red from sobbing.

  “Malty, what’s wrong?” He asked, not sure what to make of the situation. It was his wife, the queen, who decided that sending their daughter off to the countryside would be best for her, not him.

  Malty couldn’t look her father in the face for what she had done. He had protected her for her entire life, and here she was doing things behind his back. She decided to do the thing she knew best… She lied.

  “Father? No, Dad? I’m so sorry, Dad.” She used her swollen eyes to her advantage. She didn’t want to get into trouble or have her father see her as anything less than the perfect daughter, so she blamed the circumstance.

  “There was a man, about my age, who worked on a farm. He invited me to the festival in the village… I-I accepted, not realizing that it would be a date, and…”

  “And what!?” The King, Aultcray, replied to his daughter. He knew what she was about to say, but his face was becoming a fiercer version of itself.

  “Dad, he… he… he used my body for his sick desires! He told me that I was too beautiful to pass up.” Malty then slumped her shoulders as she ran into his arms, hugging her father in a vice grip.

  “Scum… He shall pay for this with his life.” Aultcray exclaimed. His booming voice was both therapeutic to his daughter and disarmingly terrifying to his enemies. “Guards! Bring that piece of shit here, immediately!” He bellowed.

  “Yes, sir!”

  —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  After a few days of avoiding her father, Malty came back into the throneroom to see the look on the young man’s face.

  “Whoa there! What’s all this ruckus about?” Thom exclaimed, his voice cracking a bit, feeling like a fish out of water.

  The King was having none of it. He shouted at the young man before him. “You filth! You know exactly what you did!” and as he shouted at Thom, Malty was standing there, looking at the man’s face filled with fear, which brought her a feeling of satisfaction that she never expected.

  “What are ya talkin’ about?” Thom continued, genuinely having no clue as to what was going on, but that didn’t matter. The King was furious and started shaking the whole castle with the boom of his yell.

  “Guards, bring this young man out to be executed immediately!”

  “Wha-what’s goin on? Where’s my folks? My ma and pa?” Thom felt a tear trickle down his cheek. He fought back the guards who took multiple men to drag him away.

  “Leave me alone!” Thom screamed, his voice at its paroxysm of excruciating pain.

  “I ain’t done nothin’ wrong, I swear!” But it was too late. Before Thom knew it, he was being dragged to the execution platform. All the onlookers were staring directly at him with disdain in their faces. Thom still tried to fight the guards, but it was to no avail. The last thing he could do was dig his feet into the ground, trying, hoping for a stay of execution. He started to cry. “Ma! Pa!” He looked up to see his parents. They, too, wore a look of disdain. One of the guards saw this and whispered to Thom,

  “Your parents aren’t going to save you, boy. They hate your guts, too, just like everyone else. Why do you think we brought them here?”

  Realizing that there was no hope left for him, he let out one last whimper, “ma… pa…” He laid his head down on the chopping block and waited for the end.

  After the execution was over, Malty looked around and saw the people all cheering for her, calling her a ‘hero’. She loved every second of it. The fame, the adoration, the gratification. She looked down at the young man, whose body lay lifeless on the ground. Tears of happiness filled her face. She then looked back up to the crowd, still with teary eyes, and smiled.