Have you met the boy with the limpid eyes? His name is Walter. He can’t be more than four or five.You could drown in those eyes of his. They are two quiet pools glimmering in summer sunshine, clearer and cleaner than crystal. You look into them and see all the way to forever, feel the waves close over your head as you sink deeper and deeper…Until he shyly looks away. After all, he can’t be more than four or five.
His name is Walter. Once, he had no mother. He’s the River King’s son. The River King is a large fellow. Water voles nest in his sleeves. Bull rushes are his crown. Minnows hide in his beard.
Walter is the boy with the limpid eyes. The ‘l’ in his name is usually not pronounced. One night, after the wind had blown the clouds away, he decided to see more of the world beyond the river. So he splashed out onto the riverbank and he followed the stars – across the meadows, around the scattered woods and away from the river.
On that same night, ogre-kin ventured down from the high mountains to roam the lands below. First was Mister Mgka’le - the witch doctor, The Black One; with his yellow cat-slit eyes and pointed teeth. Next to him drooled Chatta Toka. Chatta Toka the eager, Chatta Toka the frenzied. Chatta Toka with the snout of a crocodile and a lion’s mane. And the bald green klutz was called Poak the Wuss.
They searched the lowlands for prey, for such blood sport as could be found but instead stumbled upon a wondering child, far from his river. Things would have gone very badly for the River King's son if another had not come along.
Like Walter, she had been out following the stars and exulting in the very act of being alive. She was younger then, and looked no older than sixteen. The ogre-kin saw her but did not KNOW her, for she had been wandering incognito. They did not recognise her as a Princess of the Night, a princess of their queen. And by the time they realised their mistake, it was too late.
She broke the ogre kin that night on the fields; inflicted pain upon pain as only one of the Royal Children could. That done, Walter’s saviour knelt to hold and comfort the sobbing child. She whispered words of reassurance such as her own parents gave her from time to time. And as wiped away his tears, she looked down at his face…and drowned in his eyes.
His name is Walter. There’s a sunrise in each of his smiles. His meeting with the ogre-kin has faded like a bad dream. He spends half of his time with his father, and the other half with the Night Princess. He sees her as a beloved older sister. He feels safe with her. She calls him Wa’ter. She sees him as her son, coddles and defends him as if he were flesh and blood. The River King does not object to any of this. Some say he even approves of it.
Unknown "Not for sale!" Hurt
- 16 years, 9 months, 13 days ago
