Born as a Prince book 1 Heir to the Throne

- Harry AnderS -
Dutch psychotherapist and alternative writer

The wonderful adventures of a little Gypsy boy

Born as a Prince 1
Book 1: Heir to the Throne
- by Harry AnderS -

A children's series of stories

http://www.harryanders.com
harry@harryanders.com

In book 1 'Heir to the Throne'; a little Gypsy boy narrates the story of his first five years in a secluded place in the Rumanian mountains, surrounded by huge woods and dense forests.
He is the Heir to the Throne, and soon he will be our Chief Cook(ie) and a Real Trapper...

Book 2 'Our Lucky Mascot' will follow; where he discovers the gadjo world outside, is imprisoned during a police raid, has his own little snow scooter, and finally travels to foreign countries...

Chapter 12 ended with:

Michail helped us skin my beautiful badger without damaging its fur, and prepared it to be roasted.
I went into our bushes, and gathered lots of nicely smelling herbs to spice its meat.
All the time, my friends crowded around my badger, slapping my shoulders and telling me they were jealous of their little cookie...
I tried to look angry, but soon started to laugh.
They were right!
Ultimately, I WAS only a little cookie...

In the meantime, a few others had been skinning my fox and cleaning it out.
They handed me its nice looking fur, to be tanned.
Now I had two furs...
A beautiful big one from my badger; and a nice looking small one from my fox.
With a proud face, I handed them to my Dad.

My Mom promised me to needle something nice and usable out of them.
Maybe, she could make me a pair of warm fox boots, to wear during the winter?
If possible, she would try to make a nice fur coat out of my badger's skin...

I nodded my consent, kissed her, and felt PROUD of myself, as my Dad had told me to be!

Chapter 13. Marshmallows, and I've caught a fox and a real badger.

I overslept a part of the next day, and the sun was already shining abundantly through our curtains.
I opened my eyes, and saw I was on top of my own bed and still wearing my clothes.
The last thing I could remember, was Michail taking me from my Dad's lap...
Obviously, he hadn't bothered about undressing me, or maybe he had been too sleepy himself.

I washed my face in our little sink, drank some water, and brushed my teeth.
My parents were still snoring in unison in their double bed, the lazy slackers...
However, I loved both of them with all my heart, and with real love!
I decided to let them have their beauty sleep a bit longer.

I dried my face, rearranged my clothes, and tried to comb my hair using my outstretched fingers.
Feeling satisfied with myself, I left our caravan; and looked around...
A few children and grown-ups had already gathered around our smoldering campfire.
They were roasting nicely colored marshmallows from one of the filled gadjo paper bags.
I decided to join them, and sat down on a bench next to Michail and Misha.

Michail was feeding his little sons small pieces of roasted marshmallow, assisted by a beaming Misha.
Misha took the next piece, and both small boys immediately opened their mouths wide, to receive it...
They reminded me of little birds in their parents' nest, and made me grin.
I leaned into Michail, next to his fidgeting little sons, and opened my mouth wide...
Misha grinned, showing little fun lights in his brown eyes:

"Look, there's a stray birdie! Do you want a piece of marshmallow, little birdie? Or do you want your diaper replaced?"

Grrrrr... but I got my piece of marshmallow!
Now, I dived for the table, to fill my stomach with the leftover gadjo goodies.
Next, I took a couple of marshmallows to the campfire, to roast them myself.

After some time, my parents joined our slowly growing group, still yawning and looking sleepy.
I climbed onto my Dad's lap, nibbling on a greenish marshmallow; and snuggled into his safe arms.
My Mom looked at me, disapprovingly shook her head, and got a comb from our caravan.
She started to comb my hair and clean my face, using a few tufts of grass, making me protest.
Women...

Misha laughed at the sight of my sour face, and suggested:

"Shall we have a look at our traps now?"

I nodded vigorously and hopped off my dad's lap, with a sigh relieving my Mom from her task.
On the way, I grabbed another buttered roll from the pile, to munch on.
Together, we sauntered through the bushes to our woods, now and then bumping into each other on purpose.

At first, I tried to lead the way towards the steep ravine and our traps, trying to feel around...
That was a disaster; because, in no time, I was totally lost in the dense forest!
Misha laughed and shook his head, but didn't do anything to help me out...
Again, I was wondering about how Misha knew the way without ever getting lost:

"How come you do know the way all the time, while I'm getting lost immediately?"

"I will show you another time, and maybe even teach you how to do it. For now, let's go to our traps in silence..."

Misha took over, felt around, and led us in a beeline to the end of the steep ravine without any hesitation!
Again, I was totally in awe, and wanted to learn that too, and soon!
What the heck was he feeling, every time when he stopped?

    We sneaked nearby the thick bushes in total silence, to have a look at our traps...
Suddenly, I saw a strange and slightly zigzagging animal track on the ground, and wondered what it could be.
    I took Misha's arm, pointed to the track, and whispered into his ear:

    "Look, there's a strange animal track over there. Do you know what animal that is?"

Misha looked at the track, slowly shook his head, and whispered back:

"I don't know for sure, but it seems to be a fresh track. Let's try to find the animal..."

We sneaked along the zigzagging track, which disappeared into a thick shrub.
We rounded the shrub, but the track didn't reappear at the other side...
Where would the animal be?
I supposed it had to be hiding somewhere in that thick shrub, but we didn't hear anything...

Careful not to make any noises, I went onto my knees and slowly crept into the shrub.
I followed the track, until it disappeared into a dark hole...
I crept nearby to have a better look; and, suddenly, something big in the hole started to move.
Two reddish glowing eyes stared at me, and growled...

I had no idea what kind of an animal it could be, so I crept back in a hurry.
All the grown-ups always told their kids to be safe in the first place...
I left the shrub, and silently motioned Misha to have a look for himself.
Misha nodded, crept into the shrub, looked at the animal, and immediately crept back.
He shook his head, and whispered into my ear:

"It's a badger, a very dangerous animal with huge claws that's afraid of nothing. We have better leave it alone."

I was a bit disappointed, but understood we didn't have any chance to catch and kill it.
We left the badger alone, turned around, and went back to the steep ravine to look after our traps.
This time, I had caught a big fox, while Misha's snare turned out to be empty.
A fox was far from being the tastiest animal on earth, but it had a nice fur that could be very usable!

I set up my trap along another faintly visible track, and carefully attached its snare onto a nearby rigid branch.
Since I had caught a big pig, I secretly hoped to catch a next one all the time, and pigs were strong animals!
I made my trap invisible to the animal by covering it with some litter, crept back, and wiped my own trail.
Misha nodded approvingly, while I proudly draped my caught fox around my neck.
Together, we left the bushes, planning to go home...

Something growled at our backs, and made a loud sniffing sound...
Both of us turned around at the same time, to have a look at what animal it was, and flee immediately if necessary!
Now, we saw our badger, which seemed to have followed us unseen.
We stopped, hesitantly, and still ready to run for our lives...
The badger stopped too, sniffed again, and looked at us with curious eyes...

I was in awe, and thought it had to be the most beautiful animal on earth!
It had a dark and heavy fur, decorated with a white band on its back, going all the way from front to rear.
I had never seen such a beauty, and stared at it for a long time.
The badger stared back at us, staying motionless and still looking curious...

After some time, it growled again, and turned around as if it was shrugging its shoulders.
Maybe it had thought something like 'stupid little boys, what are you doing in my territory?'
It seemed to be a nice animal, and not dangerous at all if left in peace.
It resumed its way, scrabbling into the bushes along the path we just left...
We turned around and resumed our ways, planning to go home.

Suddenly, the hell broke loose!
Behind us, the bushes moved wildly, and we heard some animal growling and gnawing...
Misha and I looked at each other, and both of us turned around at the same time.
We raced towards the sound, nearly tripping over our own feet.
We stopped next to my trap, and looked...

There was our badger, caught in my snare!
The animal rolled around wildly, desperately trying to free itself.
It nearly tore the shrub out of the ground, in its efforts to get rid of that strangling thing around its neck.
It tried to bite into everything within its reach, and now it started to throw its head back and forth with all its force.
Fortunately, I had attached my snare to a very rigid tree branch!

The badger jumped up and down several times,
rolled around and around in its efforts to free itself,
planted its big claws into the tree and the surrounding branches,
tried to bite into every single branch it was able to reach,
but it couldn't free itself from my strangling snare.
It stopped when it saw us, stared at us, growled, and showed us a couple of very sharp teeth...

Misha looked around, until he found a useful branch that was long enough.
He smashed its top against a nearby rock, thus making a sharp point at the end.
Now, he hesitated and looked at me, showing some doubt in his eyes:

"Do you mind me taking over from here? It's YOUR badger, but I doubt you are able to kill it yourself, and it can be VERY dangerous."

I nodded my consent, feeling both relieved and excited at the same time.
Of course, the badger was way too strong for me; and what if I made a mistake?
The beast could easily tear both of us to pieces, with its enormous claws and sharp teeth.
I looked intently at what Misha was doing...

Misha went to the badger, and started to poke it with the branch.
The badger reacted immediately, by trying to bite that irritating thing.
Misha poked again, and again the badger reacted, involuntarily strangling itself more and more.
Misha went on poking the badger, again and again, until the badger seemed to get tired.
At last, it seemed to give up, and just stared at us...

Now, Misha positioned himself in front of the badger, and carefully pointed the branch to its head.
He pricked it a couple of times, until the dulled badger didn't react any more.
Suddenly, he planted the branch deep into an eye of the badger, using all his force.
The badger fell down, shuddered, and was dead within a few seconds.

I felt a pang of compassion for the beautiful beast, and got tears in my eyes.
It seemed to be a nice animal; and it hadn't done anything violently towards us...
However, I also knew this had to be a relatively painless death, compared to being strangled slowly!
I remembered my Dad's words, and thanked the badger in my mind for offering us its beautiful fur and tasty meat...
To my surprise, I felt its spirit grin and congratulate us with our victory!
Or, did I make that up myself?
I wasn't sure, but didn't feel guilty any more.

Now, we had to transport my beautiful badger to our camp...
Misha took one side of the animal, I took the other side, and together we started to drag.
Unfortunately, the badger was way too heavy for the two of us!
We could hardly lift it off the ground, and only succeeded in dragging it over a short distance.
We sat down, next to our animal, panting, and waiting until our breaths returned...

"What shall we do now? Shall we go back to our camp and ask the others for help?"

In unison, we decided to return to our camp and ask the grown-ups to help us carry my badger.
I tried to lead the way back to our camp, proudly carrying my fox around my neck.
Of course, Misha helped me find the first part of the way, by feeling around now and then...
After some time, I recognized our surroundings; and, from now on, I was really leading the way.
We entered our camp, looking very proud, and I showed the gathered people my fox.

Everybody looked at my animal and congratulated me:

"Look at that nice fur! Did you have your lucky day today?"

"Wait until you've looked at our next animal... Ten minutes after I set up my snare again, I caught a real BADGER."

"A badger? That's impossible! You must be dreaming! You are way too small to catch such a dangerous animal..."

"Just come and help us carrying it, because the animal is way too heavy for the both of us."

"Is this for real, Misha? Did this little imp really catch a BADGER in his snare?"

"He really did..."

The whole camp followed Misha and me to my badger...
I was leading the way until I didn't recognize the surroundings any more, and from there Misha took over.
On the way, the men confessed they were a bit jealous of my success:

"It's at least five years ago that one of the bigger kids was able to catch a real badger. Normally, that's nearly impossible, as a badger is way too strong and always freeing itself after a while. You were very lucky to kill it in time, before it gnawed its snare into pieces and escaped."

"We saw it scrabbling into a shrub towards my snare, and then the hell broke loose..."

"You bet! I've heard of a badger that gnawed a whole tree into little chunks to free itself. How did you kill it?"

"Misha took a branch, and sharpened its end. He pricked the animal, until it was bored and just looked at us. Suddenly, he threw the branch into the animal's eye, and within a second it was dead."

"That's the only way to kill it, getting into its brains. Misha, how did you know you had to do that?"

"I didn't really know... I just thought that would be the best solution."

    We gathered around my badger, and again I looked in awe at my beautiful animal.
Today, I felt like the luckiest boy on earth!
    Everybody congratulated me and Misha, for having caught such a dangerous beast:

    "Look at those enormous claws! Feel those sharp teeth! No wonder it's such a dangerous creature..."

A couple of grown-ups tied my badger to a thick branch.
They lifted the branch onto their shoulders; and, in procession, we returned to our camp.

I nodded my consent, kissed her, and felt PROUD of myself, as my Dad had told me to be!

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Thank you for reading the next chapter of my story 'Born as a Prince 1'.
This is the first book of the series, called 'Heir to the Throne'. Many more books will follow...
Enjoy the reading, and help us make our world a better place!

Have a look at my OTHER story, about a retired psychotherapist taking the now eight years old and severely burnt little Gypsy boy into his house and raising him.
The story is on Nifty in adult-youth, contains NO sex, and is callled: 'Born to be a King'...

All my stories are on my own homepage as well: http://www.harryanders.com

I would LOVE to receive your comments...
Please, write me an email now and then.
Harry AnderS, Dutch psychotherapist and alternative writer.

harry@harryanders.com
http://www.harryanders.com