Yearning for Fiction

„Your Majesty, they are here!“

I turned around to see my most trusted palace guard stand in the doorframe. His face paled from fear, and his legs were shaking.

I knew this day would come since my husband, the king, died. Everyone was after his kingdom and his riches. It was just a matter of time until they started attacking us. From the moment I heard the news about my husband, I had started preparing for this. But I couldn’t stop feeling that we still stood no chance in case of a fight. We just recovered from war against the southern armies, so our troops were small and new recruits weren’t fully trained yet.

„Who is it? And much more important, how many men did they bring?“

The guard looked at me and slowly shook his head. „It’s the king’s second cousin and his mother. She insists on him being the rightful heir to this kingdom since your daughter is still too young. They brought their whole army, ten or twenty thousand. Maybe more. They didn’t come to take this kingdom peacefully.“

Just as I thought. We stood no chance. His troops were at least twice as big as mine. I have to keep them out at all costs. It is the only way to-

„Alice, will you please get ready? I told you a hundred times that we have to leave now.“

Sighing I closed the book and put it away. Right, that wasn’t my story. My story was boring and mundane. In my story, nothing interesting ever happened. Every day was the same all the time. The same things happened every day, over and over again. Without change. 

I had to go to school. I had to go to piano class. I had to help my mom in the kitchen. The only time something else happened was when I was alone in my room with my books. When I was reading, it felt like I was part of their adventurous life. I was there with all my favorite characters in their story, living their fantastic lives.

I would give everything to be part of those stories. My problem isn’t that my favorite characters aren’t real; it’s that I’m not fictional.

How great would it be to become queen in a faraway land? Or to sail the seas with your own ship and crew? Or to live in the magic woods together with fairies and elves?

I could be whatever I want to be and do whatever I want to do. I would experience something new and interesting every day. It would never get boring again. If I could just be fictional.