Princess Over Time
Chapter 1
Memory Fragments
Romania, September 5, 1834 time-line b
Hayden was irked. He made sure the obnoxious girl who had shoved him was well aware of the fact. “Why’d you push me? Why are you being so irksome?”
Her blond curls bounced as she laughed at him.
He just felt more irritated. “Hey! You should act more like a princess and less like a little kid!”
She stopped laughing and leaned down over him with a sweet smile. “I don’t want a little kid like you telling me that. I’m eight, you’re like what three?”
Hayden quite clearly remembered his father telling him that was his age. He could hear his father’s voice in his head “if anyone asks you how old you are you must tell them you are three years old.”
“I’m thirty-three.”
She laughed even harder and sat down next to him. “You’re funny and cute, maybe I shouldn't have given my father such a hard time about marrying you.”
Hayden looked around the luscious garden. Her family’s castle grounds were so much nicer than his family’s property. He knew why of course. Her family was several times richer. “We won’t be getting married. My father won’t allow it.”
“Why not?” She seemed perturbed by his comment.
“I mean no insult to your family name but I just can’t marry you. Or anyone else for that matter.”
“Why do you say that?”
He shrugged. “Cause I’m different from you.”
“Hayden!” He looked up into his nanny’s mortified face. “I told you to stay at my side at all times.” She glanced at the pretty little girl beside him and curtsied deeply. “Princess.”
She grabbed Hayden’s arm and dragged him away.
The princess stood and watched him go. After a few seconds she called out after him. “Different is alright. I might even like it.
Sweden, December 4, 1834 time-line b
“Who did you tell!?”
Hayden narrowly dodged the ruby adorned chalice. “Father…I-I just.”
“Don’t give me that stuttering act! Who did you tell!?”
“I didn't mean to tell her. I swear it was an accident.”
“Her? Oh god. You don’t mean…? You didn't tell his daughter?”
Hayden dodged food, plates, and various cutlery. “Why does it matter? Why won’t you tell me what’s wrong with my body? What makes me so different from everyone else?”
Hayden didn't receive an answer. His father turned towards his ever present butler. “We have only one day. We need to be on our way to America by the day after tomorrow. Help the young master prepare his things. We’ll have to travel light.”
“Sir.”
USA, Virginia, July 5, 1845 time-line b
It was burning. Everything was burning. The whole world, his whole world.
“Kill the desecrator! Slaughter the blasphemer.”
Hayden pushed himself further back into the hay pile trying to hide his small body.
“Find the child! A talon of gold to the one who brings me his head!”
Why was this happening? Why did he have to undergo this sort of hellish treatment? He hadn't done anything wrong.
“Please…help me. Anyone…help me.” The smell of blood mingled with the smoke filling the air. He dared not look out through the hay and grass obscuring his vision. If he was seen, if he was found. A vision of Hector lying bloody on the ground flitted across his mind. His father’s loyal butler had died following the last orders issued to him.
“Protect him at all costs. He is everything we have worked for. The summation of all we have achieved.” Hayden blinked away the memory. He couldn't afford to think about his father at a time like this, if he didn't keep his wits about him…
The hay covering him was suddenly brushed aside. “Is this the head worth a talon of gold? I wonder what a little kid like you could possibly have done to earn yourself the enmity of the king?” The soldier wasn't expecting much of an answer as he leveled his pistol with Hayden’s forehead.
Hayden closed his eyes. He’d always hoped for a more serene death but a gun wound to the head was probably a pretty quick and painless way to go out.
There was a squelch of flesh and a dying gurgle.
“So it’s true. You grow at a tenth of the normal rate. You’re what forty years old?”
Hayden looked up into the piercing cold eyes. How could such a lovely shade of blue have so much steel hidden within? She could kill effortlessly. The bloody blade in her hand revealed that much.
“Give or take three or four years.”
She offered him her hand.
He hesitated.
“There’s no way you’ll be able to survive in the body of a toddler. You’re either going to come with me or die here.”
Hayden was still nervous about taking her hand. Long flowing chestnut hair, pale skin, slender frame, why in the world was a beauty like her in this war zone? Everything about her was suspicious. “How do I know you’re not just going to kill me? Or…give me to the king?”
“Do I look like the type of person who would kill you?”
Hayden glanced from her cold eyes to her stained steel to the solider bleeding out below. “Yes. I don’t think you‘d think twice of it.”
Her face softened. “It’s kind of painful to hear those words out of the mouth of a three year old. You’re just going to have to trust me on this one.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the hay. After a few murmured words the two turned invisible and worked their way off the--burning--mansion grounds.
USA, Boston, Massachusetts, July 7, 1845 time-line b
“Where are we going?”
“Oh someone’s finally started talking. I’m happy to see you’d at least ask some questions when boarding a ship.”
Hayden shrugged. “I figured that if you were going to kill me you could have done it a while back. Though at the moment I would almost be happy if you would.”
“Oh is that so?” She brought the back of her hand across his face in a heavy slap. “Don’t ever act as if your life is worthless.” She offered him her hand as if he were a small child. He accepted it--she had made it quite clear that a mother-child appearance was important to maintain so as to not arouse suspicion.
“Who said I was acting?
She tugged him up the gang walk. “You better have been. I’m going out of my way here.”
Hayden didn't respond.
“Look. Right now life may seem bleak. You've lost your standing, your father, your friends, just about everything. And as long as you’re in this land where you've lost everything you have ever known life will probably seem gray and tainted. But there are a lot of places out there. Lovely places. Don’t tell me you don’t like living until you've tried a few locations to live in.”
Hayden wasn't convinced but those eyes had him mesmerized. He nodded slowly, “yeah. I’ll give ‘em a try.”
Beijing, China, March 6, 1861 time-line b
“Kind of strange how you only celebrate your birthday once every ten years.”
Hayden shrugged “that’s just how I've always done it. My body only matures a year for every ten I live so why not?”
“ Wouldn't an annual birthday be more fun?”
“It’d be a waste of time.”
“Well. As long as you’re satisfied with the way things are than so am I.” Cass produced a small cake with six large lit candles upon it. “Happy sixtieth Hayden. I pray for many more.”
Hayden took a deep breath and blew out the candles. “I suppose I wouldn't mind a few more years myself.” He received the first slice of cake. “Oh my! Your baking has actually become edible! If only your cooking would follow suit.” He received a palm-full of icing to his face.
London, England, August 6, 1919 time-line b
“Guess this war is a pretty big deal.”
Hayden agreed. “I don’t get what its all about though.”
Cass shrugged. “it’s the same as most. Rich people have disputes and they send the poor people out to die for them. Royalty is always ready to get up in arms over an insult but never ready to stick out their own necks to defend their honor.”
“Royalty. I used to be a royal of a sort but I didn't live a very regal life. What does it mean to be a king or a princess?”
Cass stared off into the distance. “Well…I’m sure being a king means doing whatever you want or feel is right. Being a princess probably just means…every piece of bread you've ever eaten was buttered by someone else.”
Hayden looked out of the window of their small shared flat. “I’ll be twelve in two years. Maybe I’ll hit that monster known as puberty.”
Cass smiled. “I’m looking forward to that. Dealing with a man in a child’s body has always been a bit disconcerting.”
“Well…” Hayden continued to fix his gaze upon the bustling city beneath him. “…thanks for always being with me. There’s nothing I can do as a child. I’d probably be dead if it weren't for you.”
Cass knelt behind him and wrapped him up in a loving hug. Her breath was warm in his ear as she whispered. “Don’t worry, I expect you to repay me someday.”
Wales, November 3rd, 1962 time-line b
How had they caught up with them? Why now of all times? This was probably the happiest place he and Cass had settled down in.
He ran from the cottage window. They were most certainly coming. The torches and angry shouts, it was the same as when he’d first met Cass.
The two of them fled out the back, sprinting with all of their might. They had prepared motorcycle about a half mile away from their cottage.
Life was about to get harder, so much harder. Now that his existence had been confirmed the whole realm would be after his life.
Hayden cursed as they rode away. His only comfort were the arms wrapped around his body and the cheek resting on his shoulder. He would protect her. No matter what he would protect her.
They were on a boat before the sun rose.
“Why?”
Cass cocked an eyebrow “hmm?”
“Why is my life like this? What did I do to deserve this hellish existence? Why is it that they take such pleasure in hunting me? In bringing me pain and misery?”
Cass looked out over the rolling ocean and ran a hand through Hayden’s uncouth hair. “Do you hate them?”
“Hate who?”
“The people in power. The people who say you don’t have the right to live. The three kings.”
Hayden considered the question. “I think I do but then again maybe not. I mean I certainly don’t love them but hatred feels like the sort of thing that hurts me more than it hurts them.”
Cass apparently didn't like his noncommittal answer. “If you had the royal families’ heads in the guillotines and you held the rope that suspended the blades would you let go?”
Hayden didn't answer her.
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, September 3, 1970 time-line b
Cass was gone.
What other conclusion could he reach?
For nearly one-hundred-thirty years they’d never spent more than three or four days apart. It had been nearly four months since he’d last seen her. He needed to move on. Staying in one place--even if it was such a crowded city--was too dangerous.
He wanted to look for her of course. He’d literally woken up one day and she’d been absent but he had no idea where to go. She hadn't left behind a single clue. On top of not knowing where to look for her he wasn't sure where to go in general. Cass had always been the one to make those sorts of decisions. She’d also always been the one to produce the cash for their various endeavors.
Life would be a bore without her. He had to find something to do or he might go looking for trouble just for the sake of a bit of excitement.
Vietnam, July 4, 1972 time-line b
Hayden had never felt this sort of exhilaration before, on the cusp of dying yet seeing life in the most vibrant colors imaginable. War wasn't a good thing. Of course not. Everything about it was horrible, gruesome, and cruel.
Hayden fired a few rounds over the barricade before ducking down again. He would find Cass. That much he knew, no matter how many hundreds of years it took he would meet her again. Before he did that though he would become stronger. No matter what it took he’d become a man, so that even the woman who had seen him in his childhood for a hundred years would come to see him as an adult.
And the next time they found him he wouldn't run. He’d give them hell. He’d give them an even worse hell then they had given him the last century.
