The King woke up this morning and kissed the Queen. She opened the window to see how far I had progressed with my project. Two days ago the King came into my room with a crude drawing of what he said was a castle. He wanted it to be built for the Queen to mark their three year anniversary. I could not see how it was a gift of romance if he had nothing to do with its construction, but I’m not the king I’m just a lonely night stuck in a crazy world of woe.
Immediately after she saw that only a few blocks had been laid, not even enough to be considered a foundation, the Queen stormed my room. I had come to expect this treatment from her. In her mind only perfection was accepted. That is not a bad trait but since she has had everything handed to her in bulk she feels perfection can be obtained overnight. I told her that my pickaxe had broken and that I had no wood or cobblestone left to craft one of efficient use so I stopped for the night.
“Have you lost your mind Knight? Do you feel like you deserve better treatment?” she shouted at me. I sat down with my tongue tied down; I would have rather bitten it off to save me from ever speaking again. The Queen tended to take everything as an insult, that’s why I am the last Knight left.
Jeffery was beheaded last week. Donald the Great isn’t so great anymore; he was burned alive for asking to have a warmer blanket last winter. “If you’re that cold then how about a nice flame to warm you up!” The Queen shouted. I’ve never heard screams as loud as Donald’s that night and I fought in the Minecraft wars. Sometimes when you’re on top like the King and Queen are, you forget how you got there; you forget that you were once a knight too.
“The King will have you beheaded for your lack of urgency Knight!” The Queen exclaimed. I kept my head down; I had taken those kinds of beatings before. Sometimes the Queens’s words were more painful than the whips the King used to enforce his will upon me. You never get use to feeling worthless.
After the Queen was finished yelling at me I went out to find supplies. After I had gathered enough to craft my pickaxe and begin my work I headed back to the crude foundation I had built.
But to my surprise sitting there on a cobblestone block I had laid the previous night was a frail man in red tights. His shoes jingled and his face was painted white. His lips were outlined in red, when he smiled he struck fear within me.
I readied my pickaxe to attack when he jumped up in an animated fashion to great me. I was knocked off guard. I felt as if I was trapped in a blur, a place void of any reason.
“Hello there, I am the Bard if you care; I have some words to share!” When he spoke music radiated from his body, from where specifically I am not sure. But his words calmed me; maybe they held me in some type of trance that had been buried within the syllables he used.
“Do you mind if I sit? My mind is in a fit. I lost my needles to knit.” As he spoke he moved from left to right, each step brought a succession of chimes from his belled shoes.
“You can sit if you’d like. I have to work though, I am already behind schedule.” I said in the gentlest voice I could muster. The Bard looked around at the area surrounding him.
“You built that for the Queen? The one I’ve seen.” He said while he pointed to the horrid structure behind me. The King and Queen wanted the tallest building in the land. But they wanted it built fast so it had many flaws in its structure.
“Yes I built it but they have asked for a castle now, a more elaborate one. So if you don’t mind could you keep quiet while I work? I do not care if you stay here or not but let me work.” The Bard took my words lightly, my tone was stern but he was too lighthearted to take it for the angry threat it was.
“Of course, this work I endorse!” The Bard sang as he jumped from the block he had been sitting on. He pressed his face close to mine, smiling at me. I felt intimidated and frozen with fear but he meant nothing bad from his actions, the Bard was simply childlike in every way.
Half Past Minecraft 