King Silva had problems. \u00a0The first problem was the Queen had now been deceased for 15 years. His second problem involved his only child, Princess Katarina. \u00a0She would be of age in three weeks and had not a single suitor to woo her. \u00a0His final problem indirectly involved the Princess. \u00a0Without an heir from her, his Kingdom would last only as long as the two remained alive. \u00a0Upon their deaths, the land would turn to ruin under a series of inevitable civil wars. \u00a0It was his duty to ensure an heir, but the Princess was of a frail state and no one believed she would live much longer, let alone find a Prince, marry him, and give him a son. \u00a0If the Princess could, the King would only need to arrange a marriage to one of the second or third sons of a friendly king, thus insuring the State continuity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
King Silva consulted the royal physicians and\nkept close watch on his daughter’s health and the degenerative nature of her\nillness. By the time of the Harvest Dance, the King and the Princess\nhosted the royals of all nations to participate in the celebration. While\nnot expecting a proposal of marriage, the Princess found sufficient strength to\nattend and mingle with the eligible bachelors. By the next morning, all\nagreed on the success of the celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two months later, the royal physicians\nannounced the motherly nature of the Princess. Both doctor and lawyer began a\nrace against time to bolster the health of the Princess and to identify the\nfather of the child. And while a certain inheritance of a hearty Kingdom\nweighed in the balance, the unknown suitor failed to identify themselves as the\nrightful claimant to the title of Father of the Heir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scandal always follows intrigue and the King\naverted neither. The press wanted information. The adjacent Kings (and\ntheir Princes) demanded information. Even King Silva became stymied by\nthe lack of additional topics of conversation throughout the Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With each passing day, the birthdate drew\ncloser. With each passing day, the health of the Princess fell. Exactly\nnine months after the Harvest Dance, the Princess’s health took a turn for the\nworse as she underwent labor and a heart attack simultaneously. Only an\nimmediate C-section saved the male heir. No such treatment could save the\nPrincess. At the cost of one heir, the Kingdom now had a new healthy\nheir. Such was the price for regal continuity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what of the new Prince? Who was his\nfather? Was it a royal at the Harvest Dance or a commoner from a village?\n If the former, King Silva had his salvation. If the later,\nplowshares to swords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On his deathbed, King Silva permitted a DNA\ntest on the new heir. Scientists proved he was of true royal blood.\n The Prince received his mother’s DNA from his mother. He also\nreceived his father’s DNA from his mother’s father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heavy is the head that wears the crown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
King Silva had problems. \u00a0The first problem was the Queen had now been deceased for 15 years. His second problem involved his only child, Princess Katarina. \u00a0She would be of age in three weeks and had not a single suitor to woo her. \u00a0His final problem indirectly involved the Princess. \u00a0Without an heir from her, … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa867U-wa","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1994"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1997,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994\/revisions\/1997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Andy Betz has tutored and taught in excess of 30 years. He lives in 1974, has been married for 27 years, and collects occupations (the current tally is 100). His works are found everywhere a search engine operates. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"