The Broken Ring.(ch 1)

“You must be careful not to deprive the poem of its wild origin.” 

Stanley Kunitz  (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

This weekend, I spent most of a day with my nephews, Ezra(4?) and Josiah(6?). Their Grandma was sick, so I entertained the kids in the little hospital TV lounge so my wife and her siblings could visit in peace. I opened my full sized coil notebook to a blank page. Josiah said, "Let's write a story!" In bits a pieces I began to write as they told/acted out the story. When it bogged down, I would ask a leading question so that it was like 'choose your own adventure' For example, "where would they get the magic spell? A Gypsy woman, a wizard, a book..." one of them would blurt out, "from the magic shop!"  Be warned before you start reading it, we never got to finish it.

The Broken Ring

Prologue

   One day, Edmund Zyhow, the Prince of the Kingdom, was walking in the forest. He had on a Prince's ring he had inherited know as 'the Ring of Power.", but he could not make it work. It was just a royal seal to him. Not noticing that he had walked into a ring of broken stones, he absent mindedly played with it  as he often did letting it sparkle in the sun. Suddenly, it leapt out of his hands into the center of the stones. It began to spin, and then to glow. It began to hum, and slowly rose off the ground. In a blinding flash that drove the Prince to the ground, it cracked into three pieces. They separated in three different directions. With a high pitched squeal, they each streaked off in their direction and disappeared over the horizon.  

   I. The King's Table
1. Meeting in the Trees

   The Prince sat stunned on the ground. He rubbed his cheek where one of the pieces had hit him on it's way by. He was surprised to find blood on his finger. "I hope that doesn't leave a scar." ,he thought. Princes are renown for their flawless skin after all. He got dizzy as he stood feeling fevered and head achy. If he had seen his reflection, he would know that the magical explosion had burned off most of one of his eyebrows. 

   He began to slowly stumble towards the castle. He sensed a slight movement behind him and to the right as if someone's foot had disturbed some leaves. He leapt behind the tree he had heard the noise from. There he discovered a rock tied to a string. It was just high enough to disturb the dry leaves at the low point of it's pendulum arc. He saw a shadow on the ground, but before he could move the dark figure that had leapt  from the tree above the stone struck his back. He was knocked down and pinned down. "Well, if it isn't Prince Brat, the royal pain, the hideous 'mundster." his attacker sneered snidely. 

   Prince Edmund had been carefully maneuvering for leverage. He twisted his body, throwing his assailant off balance. As swiftly as a striking snake he had rendered his enemy immobile. "Now you're beneath me as you should be you smelly, wandering guttersnipe, you son of a tumbleweed. brother of the foul East wind, You, You.."
Before he could finish, they both burst out laughing and slapping each other on the back,

   The other young man threw back his hood revealing the garishly colored bandanna and gaudy jewelry, "Edmund, every summer, since we could walk under a wagon, you have come in disguise and seen your kingdom as only an honorary Gypsy could, yet I still have not taught you to curse out an opponent. I have failed!"      They helped each other up and began walking through the darkening woods. Edmund told his friend what had happened with his ring. They came to Casamir's camp and spent night laughing and telling stories.