The Little Boy by LadyBrooke

Chapter 1

Once upon a time, there was a little boy that loved his mother very much. This, in and of itself did not make this boy extraordinary, for most little boys love their mother very much. Nor did it make his mother unusual when the father’s family disliked her, for many women do have problems with their in-laws, at least in the beginning. And the father was not unusual, though he was a prince. But he had many cousins that were princes as well, so many that at times it seemed that half the city was a prince. 
 
What made this family unique was the promise the little boy gave his mother. He promised her that one day, when he was all grown up, that he would find a place where his mother could be happy. His mother looked at her little boy and smiled, and told her son that one day he would rule over a land of beauty. And the little boy smiled and promised his mother that he would plant flowers all around the land for her. 
 
Then one day when the little boy was not so little anymore, his father’s grandfather died. And the boy’s father’s family began to make their way to a different land. The boy’s grandfather turned back when they reached the water, but his mother had kept with them. Then the boy and his mother had reached the ice, and the woman hesitated at the edge. But the boy had stepped foot on the ice and was forced to go on. And he begged his mother to go with him and tried to wait for her, but the boy’s uncle grabbed him and forced him to move forward. 
 
And the boy remembered this for years. It came to pass that one day, when the boy was now a man and living with his uncle that two of his uncle’s cousins came to dwell with them. The man watched the cousins as they gathered supporters among his uncle’s people. He could have stopped them from doing so, but he decided that this would be the only way he would ever be able to fulfill his promise to his mother.
 
So the man waited for some time, until his uncle had been overthrown. And soon after the cousins had done so, they found themselves confronted by the man, a desperate look in his eyes. The cousins fled the land soon after, disappearing into the wilderness in search of the object of their own promise. The man began to redecorate his new lands, hoping that if he planted enough flowers that his mother would be happy here. And if his mother would be happy here, maybe she actually would be here. So the man planted and planted and planted, slowly losing himself in his own mind. 
 
The mother never appeared in the man’s land. The man waited and waited for her, rarely paying attention to his actual duties. One day, the man’s daughter fell in love. Her love quickly became the man’s favored adviser  allowing the man to have more time for what he actually wanted to be doing. So the man continued to plant his flowers. 
 
And one day a dragon came. But the man was killed in the battle that accompanied the dragon, because the man was not a fairy tale prince. And the dragon destroyed the land the man had worked so hard on. The mother wept for the boy, and then she sat to wait for him to return to live happily forever.