The Adventures of Jake and Isabelle "Chap. 1"

“Gather ‘round the campfire children. Dingo is goin’ to tell us a story.” The soft, sweet voice of the nanny echoed through the large stone hall. The giddy children all ran over to where an old man sat. Dingo was his name. Between you and me, his real name was Shawn, but he found that too ordinary, not fitting his personality at all. Dingo fit him much better, so that is what he went by. His silver hair and smiling, sweet disposition told you everything you needed to know about him. He’d been around for a very long time and was finally the oldest man in the castle. That being the case, he had a knack for fun, entertaining, and inspirational story telling. The children adored him.

“Hush, hush now children!” The woman spoke up again. All the children in the kingdom just adored Dingo, some even calling him Grandpa D or some variation of nickname.

As the fire began roaring in its stone prison, Dingo crept his large rocking chair forward. “Okay children! You have your choice of adventures today. Before I suggest some, any requests?” He gestured opening his hands towards the little children. How he loved them! Little did they know it, but he enjoyed their excitement for his stories as much as they enjoyed his telling of them. It was quite a sweet thing for a man of Dingo’s age to have in his late years of life.

A sweet little girl with a smile that could charm a lion spoke up in front, “Prencess Ishibull!” Her young age not quite giving her the quality of adult speech, but communicate, she sure did! All the girls in the audience giggled in giddy agreement. Princess Isabelle sure was a favorite among them.

One older boy piped up in defense, “But surely you would include Sir Jake in the story, wouldn’t you ‘D’?”

At the mention of Sir Jake, all the boys jeered and smiled. It appeared everyone would be satisfied by whichever adventure Dingo decided to take the children on.

Dingo rocked in his chair for a moment, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. The only sound heard was the roaring fire and the wood creaking under the old man. Clearly, he was thinking of which adventure would be best to tell. After two minutes of quiet reflection, Dingo snapped his eyes open and sat forward quickly with a broad grin on his face. “Oh kids! Have I got a story for you!” All the kids looked around in giddy excitement. Dingo had a way of radiating happiness to each of them. What a gift!

The story went on for hours. Oohs and ahs from boys and girls echoed around the stone hall. Later in the evening, as parents began collecting their kids, they began listening to the story as well. Soon enough, nearly the whole town was in the grand hall listening to Dingo tell his wondrous adventure. Little did they know, though, that this story was not a story after all! It was a history lesson.

Now, I bet you are wondering what Dingo’s story was . . . I guess it would be almost cruel not to fill you in on something that the whole town now got to experience. The hardest part will be to see if I can do Dingo’s adventure the justice that a story of its magnitude deserves. It is hard, being much younger than Dingo, to get all the facts and description correct that just comes naturally to him because he had lived it. None the less, I shall do my best . . .

Once upon a time, in this very land . . .

“Isabelle? Are you still in bed?” A woman in castle garb, knocked on the large wooden door. The sound echoed through the hallway, the very hall we sit in now, in fact!

Being annoyed and a rather impatient woman, if I do say so myself (she became my nanny later on so I would know), she barged into the Princess’ room. How rude right girls? Anyone knows you must wait for a girl to answer your knock. You don’t go barging in uninvited.

On this occasion though, disaster was avoided. Rather, that disaster was unnoticed. The Princess was not in her room! Now this woman, being prettier than a spring flower in her early years, was gradually becoming more and more distraught. Watching this princess had become her full time job, and it was proving to be more than she was up for. To be fair, the princess was too smart, too witty, and too beautiful for anyone in the castle to keep up with, let alone a woman with a full family of her own to worry about.

Ah, but enough about this poor lass ‘till later. All you need to know is that she alerted the king and queen after a few hours of searching that she had “misplaced” the princess. They, meaning the king and queen, were kind and understanding. They told her to go home and sleep, the princess was fully capable of handling even the most dangerous brute in the kingdom. She was always getting herself into sticky situations, but no permanent harm had ever befallen her, so all’s well. Even at the young age of sixteen she had acquired a reputation of being uncannily quick and witty.

Now you kids have heard many stories about both Jake and Isabelle, but this may very well be the earliest story, in their life, that I’ve ever told you. It was, in fact, about the time Jake and Isabelle had started becoming friends. Ah, but for the new listeners in the audience I will explain who Jake is for you, the experienced listeners feel free to ignore me and drift in your imagination to thoughts of the castle and adventure.

Jake had been born to a man of great respect, his name being Shawn. In fact, I was named after this man. I never did get to meet him, but the love the king had for this man was enough of a history lesson on his life as any story could have been. After growing up together, Shawn died in defense of his friend, the king. The king being a just and loving man, took Jake in as his own son, his only son in fact. Jake and Isabelle had always been acquaintances in the castle, but when Jake became her brother-of-sorts, they were forced to get to know each other.

Now, this is not like any of those nasty other fairytales. This family was in fact quite kind and loving to one another, that including Jake as well. If Isabelle had ever treated him as an outsider, the king would have quickly set her straight. He was family, for good, and no title should influence how you love or treat someone.

Jake was fifteen when his father died. Now being three years later, he was the age of knighthood. The king had been working with town officials to change the Joelville constitution to get him fully instated as a Prince of the Kingdom, but it had yet to be finished. For now, he is just Jake; fun-loving, lovable, kind, and charitable Jake.

He and Isabelle had grown up as siblings, loving and teasing just like you kids do. However, only recently had they begun taking adventures together outside the castle. They made a great team; journeying through the forest and farms, swimming through rivers, sailing on the ocean, climbing mountains, sleeping in caves. Their adventures became legends throughout the kingdom and the envy of friends and noblemen, alike.

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