majestic prince
Legacy Name: majestic prince

Once upon a time, there was a Prince. The Prince was young and inexperienced, but had a very kind heart. The King expected the Prince to take over for him once he grew old and feeble to lead the kingdom, but the Prince wanted nothing more than to pursue his artistic desires. You see, the Prince was not interested in diplomacy, or war, or leading an army, or protecting a castle; the Prince was interested in fiber arts. Ever since an even younger age, the Prince had fallen in love with knitting and crochet. The handmade creations his mother, the Queen, had left him before her untimely passing him were his most prized possessions, and the only thing in the Prince's head was the creation of more and more Little Guys, made of yarn and string, buttons and bows, stuffing and silks.

One day, the Prince was forlorn, for no matter what he created, even going so far as to making a crocheted replica of the castle, it never failed that the King remained disappointed in the Prince. For while his fiber arts were no doubt impressive, they would not help the Prince lead a kingdom, and the Queen had died in childbirth bearing him, so there was no other heir. In his anguish, the Prince set out to make something, anything to soothe himself. What he ended up with was an otter-like creature in fancy clothing, the same type he might wear. But upon looking at his finished creation, he burst into tears and placed his face in his hands, sobbing. The creature reminded the Prince of himself, and all of the obligations and expectations as the heir to the kingdom hit him at once. The small creature doll he had created became soaked in his tears as his head slowly slid to the table, and the young Prince cried and cried, shed tears for his past, present and future, wishing things could somehow be different.

Someone, something, somewhere, heard his plea. As the Prince mourned his life, head down on the table, suddenly someone jostled him very, very gently. At first, the Prince looked up, and saw no one else in the room, and thus was confused. "Down here!" a small, shrill voice cried out. The Prince looked down, then, only to see that his creation had sprung to life, and was now attempting to console him! "Sweet prince, o majestic prince, do not fret!" he squeaked. "Please do not mourn your life before it has begun! I have a solution to your problems."

"What solution could you have, little one?" the Prince asked. "For you are but the toy of a spoiled child, who can't face up to his father's expectations!" He started to cry again, sniffling miserably.

"What if I face them for you?" The proposal was met with no response from the Prince at first, as the gears turned in the young boy's head.

"You are but a toy," the Prince repeated, confusion evident in his voice.

"Well... that's true... but what if I told you that I have the power to bring other creations of yours to life, like me?"

The Prince was once more stunned into silence. "What proof do you have?"

"I'm talking to you, aren't I?" the otter-like creature doll replied, its eyes glinting, and the Prince had to admit that it had a fair point.

"What must I do in order for you to do this?" the Prince questioned, wiping his tears as he leaned in to listen to the toy's response.

"First," the toy started, "you must make me another body to inhabit, once that looks like you. I can work my magic upon it once it's completed, but that's the first step. There is another complication, however: the next step must be done at the full moon, so you have until then to complete it. Once it's complete, I will let you know what we must do next. But please, heed my warning: you must not let anyone else know about me. The fact that I'm alive."

The Prince thought everything about this whole situation quite odd, but what other choice did he have? Hiding the doll in his room amongst his other creations, and the ones left to him by his mother, the late Queen, the Prince slaved away at creating another him out of yarn and fabric and threads, working day and night in addition to the rigorous schooling the King subjected the Prince to. He was exhausted all the time, but this was the only way out he could see. He worked, and worked, and sometimes he talked to the small toy who'd set him upon this path as he did so. The Prince's attendants were worried; why was the young boy talking to himself, alone in his room? The Prince begged them not to tell his father, the King, and so, for now, they did not. And the Prince continued to slave away, the life-sized creation slowly but surely taking shape, and at last, one day before the full moon, it was complete.

The Prince's work was impeccable, it was gorgeous, stunning, nearly life-like... but it was still, after all, a toy. A large toy, but a creation of cloth nonetheless. Upon seeing the fruits of his labor, the Prince began to cry again. What if he was being lied to? What if all of it was for naught? The otter, whom he'd dubbed Your Majesty, was quick to assuage his fears. "Worry not, majestic Prince, for I know what to do. Tonight, before the full moon tomorrow, I need you to gather a few ingredients: a sewing needle, some scraps of the fabrics you used to make the body, ginkgo leaf, vervain, and... blood. Your blood, specifically, with the needle. But don't worry about it until it's time. I don't need that much, after all."

The Prince was... perturbed, to say the least. Blood? Blood magic? Goodness gracious! He was sorely tempted to blow the whistle on all of this, but... with escape so near, what else could he do but continue on. The Prince dried his tears and gathered the ingredients requested of him. He did not sleep well that night.

At last, the dawn of the final day had arrived. The full moon was that night, and the Prince, despite his lack of sleep, prepared everything dutifully. That night, the Prince took everything requested of him, along with Your Majesty and the new woven form up to the tallest spire in the castle, where the moonlight poured in through the window. The toy began to talk him through the steps of... whatever it was they were doing, this, this ritual. To begin with, he sewed a small heart-shaped pouch out of the scraps, tucking the ginkgo and vervain into it before sealing it. This would be the 'heart' of the new body, Your Majesty explained, imperative for new life. Where one had been tears, this would be blood. It just made sense to the young boy.

The penultimate step... was to prick his finger with the sewing needle, draw blood, and press his finger to the newly-formed 'heart', imbuing it with life. The Prince, young, avoidant, hesitated. Your Majesty very gently put a paw on his hand, and something in the Prince found the strength to continue. He stabbed himself in the meat of his thumb with the needle, and then held into the 'heart' for a few seconds. "You must put your hopes and dreams into it, for it to work," Your Majesty told the Prince.

Finally, the Prince sewed the heart inside of the chest of the lifesized likeness, dragged it into the middle of the room where the moonlight beat down onto it, and waited. At one point, he stopped breathing, because what if he made noise and spoiled the moment? What if he made noise and it didn't work?

As it turned out, he needn't have worried: the moonlight suddenly began to shimmer around the likeness, eventually engulfing it in its embrace, and when the room lit up like a firework a few moments later... sitting in the middle of the room was a carbon copy of the Prince. They looked absolutely identical, down to the Prince's little cowlick that stuck up in the back. The Prince reached out a hand toward his doppelganger, and the doppelganger reached back. "It worked!!" he crowed, and turned to face Your Majesty... who was simply sitting there, like a toy should. "Your Majesty...?" he asked quietly, but there was no response.

background by castorly stock @ pexels
side photo by rocknwool @ unsplash
yarn pixels by pixelgalaxy @ tumblr
fonts by google fonts
portrait by cerpin
thank you to yoongi for letting me adopt him!! ;v;
writing by silas