- 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 16 ended with:

    All the other bike-owners collected their own bikes, and we rode off with me up front.
We raced around our camp, and tried to outdo each other in using our brakes and slipping in the muddy snow.
Now and then, one of us fell off his or her bike, but that didn't temper our fun!
We just remounted our bikes, and went on...

    All of us had lots of fun, until we were too tired and our stomachs started to rumble.
In the meantime, the grown-ups had prepared a real feast meal...
They had really outdone themselves, even without the help of my herbs!
We sat down on our wooden benches, and munched on the many tasty delicacies.
Soon, all of us were stuffed to the brim, and burped loudly to thank them.

    That evening, I went to bed having an intense feeling of gratitude.
All my people were loving me dearly!
And, finally, now I was five years old...

    The remainder of the winter passed by without any major events; and, finally, summer was approaching!
Suddenly, it was SPRING in our mountains, and nature started to blossom abundantly.
Pietro and I put our snow scooter in an old caravan, and locked it away until next winter.
I helped him smear it with a thick layer of grease, to conserve it.
    Of course, Pietro tried to tease me with my skills:

    "I didn't know it was necessary to conserve YOU too!"

    This was one of those rare occasions when I did NOT have an immediate answer ready...
I just grinned, and let him help me wash the layer of slippery grease off my body.

    I shucked my beautiful badger fur coat and warm fox boots for the last time.
From now on, all the kids went naked again, as usual when the weather outside was warm enough.
Every day, our grown-ups went to the gadjo world to look for some work or trade.
They returned carrying lots of money, to buy us healthy food and other necessary things.
Everything was back to normal again.

    We went into our woods every day, to set up our traps and catch lots of small animals.
Of course, Misha and I left our group of kids as soon as we entered the small clearing, to go together.
Mostly, we walked across the dense forest, to set up our traps at the end of our steep ravine.
There, we caught the bigger animals; and, now and then, we even had a tasty porcupine or a stray hare.
Unfortunately, we didn't see any more pigs or badgers...

    One morning, we went to our traps, and looked at the destroyed snares in surprise...
They seemed to have been robbed by some predator, maybe by a clever fox?
Well, we didn’t make a big problem out of it, and just grinned.
We wished the predator bon appetite, and set up our traps along other tracks.
Live and let live...
Who knows, maybe, once, we would even catch the beast that had robbed us...

    We went to our flat boulder at the edge of the steep ravine, and sat down in silence.
Together, we enjoyed the beautiful sight of the meandering water stream, while I leaned into Misha.
    After some time, he nudged me, and whispered into my ear:

    "What do you think, shall we try to practice our sneaking skills a bit more?"

    "Yeah, I think that's a good idea! What do you want us to do?"

    "Let's go into the dense forest, and try to sneak onto each other."

    "Okay. You go first, because you are always knowing the way."

    We left our boulder, and walked into the surrounding dense forest.
Misha felt around, and led us towards a small clearing in the bushes.
   Here, he stopped, pointed to a faintly visible animal track, and whispered:

    "First, count to twenty; and then, start moving from here and try to find me. I am not going too far away..."

    I nodded, closed my eyes, and started to count.
Meanwhile, I heard Misha disappear into the forest, causing no more than just a faintly rustling sound.
He was very good at sneaking, and I wanted to learn that too!
It certainly would be an honor to be the youngest real trapper in our community...

    I counted to twenty, opened my eyes, and went into the dense forest myself.
At first, I started to follow the animal track, as Misha had told me to do.
However, I had no idea where he would be now. Of course, he would soon have left this too obvious track!
I tried to look for clues, but didn't find any. Misha had certainly wiped his traces very carefully.
I stood still, and listened...

    Suddenly, I heard a faint cracking sound to my left.
There he was!
I tiptoed towards the sound, being careful not to make any unnecessary noises myself.
Again, I heard that same faint sound, this time in front of me.
It sounded as if Misha carelessly stepped onto a small dry branch.
I grinned and sneaked towards his sound, ready to surprise him...

    "CRACK!"

    I stepped onto a dry branch myself, and the reverberating sound was deafening.
I heard Misha suppress his laughter, but how could that be possible?
His laugh was clearly coming from the right, and not from where I had heard that faint sound...
How had Misha changed directions that fast?
I turned around and tiptoed towards the laughing Misha, careful to avoid any other dry branches...

    Again, I heard the same faint cracking sound, again coming from the left.
Had Misha suddenly moved from my right side to my left side?
How could he do it that fast? That was nearly impossible...
I shook my head, turned to the left, and went to where I thought he would be...

    "Gotcha!"

    Misha tapped my shoulder from behind, making me jump up in surprise.
I thought he would be in front of me, as I had clearly heard his sound coming from there...
How could he be at my back, all of a sudden? Had I made a stupid mistake?
    I looked at his grinning face, and uttered:

    "I thought you were in front of me..."

    He threw his arms around me, and triumphantly lifted me high into the air:

    "Want to give it another try? This time, it's your turn to go first!"

    I nodded, and Misha closed his eyes and started to count to twenty.
I sneaked away along another faintly visible animal track, and disappeared into the forest.
After a couple of steps, I curved to the right, all the time thinking about what had happened.
How did Misha sneak around me that fast? I had clearly heard him in front of me...
What was that faintly cracking sound I had heard? I thought it had to be a small branch that cracked...
Had that really been a dry branch? Or could it be something else?
I decided to try it out, and deliberately stepped onto a small branch myself...
That sounded very different from the faintly cracking sound I had heard!
Did Misha cheat me? How? What had he done to mislead me?

    How could he tap my shoulder from behind, while I had heard his sound in front of me?
Could he have thrown something into the bushes in front of me, to distract me?
I decided to try it out, and looked for a suitable small branch.
I found one, and threw it away in front of where I thought Misha could be...
It didn't go very far through all those entwined twigs, and caused quite a lot of noise!
Immediately, Misha grinned and turned towards my noise to catch me.
I tiptoed away as fast as I could, while curving to the left to get rid of him.
That didn't work out...

    I had to find something relatively small, which could be thrown with ease and far away...
Maybe, a small pebble would do the trick?
I looked around, found a nice one, and threw it in front of where I thought Misha would be now...
A second later, I heard a faintly cracking sound, coming from where the pebble hit the ground.
THERE WAS THE SOUND!

    I suppressed a cry of victory, and enthusiastically looked around for the next pebble.
I HAD him! The cheater...

    The next couple of minutes, I was sending Misha into every direction I wanted.
He tiptoed from left to right to left again, all the time following my carefully thrown pebbles, thinking it had to be me...
All the time, I had to bite my tongue to suppress my laughter!
Finally, I got too bored, and carefully lured him towards me, using my pebbles.
I sent him past me without any trouble, let him stop, and silently sneaked nearby...
    I jumped towards him and threw myself onto his back, loudly crying my victory:

    "GOTCHA, you cheater!"

    Misha nearly got a heart attack, and forcefully spun around to get me off his back:

    "How the hell did you do THAT? I thought you were in front of me..."

    "Well... to be honest, I've used your little trick against you. I was throwing small pebbles."

    "What... how... how do you know? You're the first one in all those years who's finding out how I'm doing it."

    "Never underestimate your Prince..."

    Misha laughed, lifted me into the air, and told me he was very impressed by my trapper abilities!
During the first few minutes, he was only able to hear me the moment I changed directions too abruptly.
After that time, he didn't hear me at all, except for those faintly cracking sounds as if I stepped onto a branch...
He didn't realize I was copying him, all the time throwing small pebbles to cheat him.
He thought I had to be the youngest 'old trapper' he knew, and a big cheater, and a little devil...
And he liked every bit of it!

    We hugged each other for a long time, both of us enjoying our special friendship very much.
Now, we decided to try to sneak onto each other again, but this time without cheating or using any dirty tricks...
Misha sneaked away first; and, after counting to twenty, I followed his faintly rustling sound.
At first, I didn't know for sure where he was, until a small branch cracked.
There he was, being slightly to my left...

    I tiptoed towards the sound, but he heard me coming and changed directions, trying to get away.
I didn't give him a chance to escape, and followed him like a sneaking cat following its prey...
He sped up a bit more, and promptly stumbled across a hidden pothole!
I heard him stifle a cry, and mumble something that sounded like a curse.
Inwardly, I grinned in triumph, deciding to jump onto his back again.
I sneaked towards him, soundlessly, feeling like a real predator...

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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