Posted in Posted by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Alfred Lord Tennyson here, I just wanted to post the first few paragraphs of the first segment of my story (the limit is four or five paragraphs, right?).  Also, the rest of the first segment can be found at my story blog, Fountain Pen.

Chapter 1 - Part 1

“Cressida, can you open the shutters?  I can’t see anything in this darkness,” Faeryn told her maidservant as she tried to dress in the early morning.  Cressida pulled the shutters back, revealing the prairie below the southeast tower bathed in a golden-warm glow.  Faeryn paused in what she was doing and walked over to the window, gazing out at the beautiful sight. 

            Cressida observed her new mistress with interest.  She had been serving Faeryn for almost three months, but the princess still surprised her.  If one observed her when she appeared at court, one would think that she was already a woman.  Faeryn dealt with her father’s councilors with such a noble bearing that people often mistook her for the queen.  But in private she was still a girl.  Here she was now, standing at the south window in her white under-dress, her long, wavy light-brown hair falling free, craning her head to try to get a glimpse of the western mountains.  At a moment like this the princess did not seem to be all of her sixteen years. 

            “My mistress, the view of the mountains would be better from the northwest tower,” Cressida suggested meekly.  She couldn’t quite understand the princess’s longing for the mountains, but then, she still could remember trying to get a view of the castle whenever her family went to town when she was little.  Perhaps it was the same sort of thing with the princess.  After all, it hadn’t been so long ago that she herself had been a young girl, and she still remembered what it felt like.  “We could go there as soon as you are dressed.”

            Faeryn turned and smiled at Cressida, but the smile was immediately followed by a sigh, and the regal princess that she was returned to her face a little as she spoke:

           “I wish I could, Cressida, I wish I could, but I have a meeting with the chancellor today, and my father has made it plain that I must attend.  But perhaps another day.”  She sighed again, and the girl was back.  “You know, Cressida, I want to visit the mountains someday.  I want to see what lies beyond the first peaks.  I am tired of only looking at them.  But my father will not let me leave his court long enough to go anywhere near them.”

The rest is here.