The story of A Girl and Her King, joins the young protagonist as she grows in her commitment towards her good king. She is young and he is old. He teaches, her watches over her, protects her. He has taken her to the battlefield, the arena, and now asks her to find her place inside the calm environment of her old home, where challenges abound to test her dedication to him in even in the smallest matters. She does not yet know what form their love will take, if he will one day bring her to live with him in the palace, or request she stay in that quiet home forever. But willing to wait, she receives the lessons he has in store for her.
There were few times she ever saw him angry. In fact, as she thought about it, it truly was only jealousy that drew him to anger. But it was a righteous jealousy, because she was his love and did not belong to his enemies. Then came the night that she found him the angriest and the most loving he had ever been near her. He told the princess about it first. The king knew what oppressed the girl. She had been so unaware, had no idea, but the girl knew the king often confided such things to the princess about those she met when they were suffering. The girl trusted what the king told her.
The princess’s demeanor changed toward the girl. That night they spoke. The princess explained to her, “don’t be afraid. It isn’t you or your fault, but the king will not share you with anything else. He wants only you.” She trusted the princess. Oh, how she trusted her!
That evening the came. The king came into that dusty house. His anger was real. It was not directed at the girl. It protected her.
Because in the shadows of her room, a thing jumped out at her. She jumped and shook at seeing it. It reached out its ugly black arms for her and grabbed her ankle. The king jumped at it and they began to fight. The princess and the girl watched, begging the king to win, shouting at the thing to get away from her, to lose its grip, to leave the house and never return.
The king and the beast fought. They fought for an hour. The girl shook and prayed. The Queen had rushed into the room as well and protected her, held her hands while the beast tried to grab at her heart. She, with all her heart and might, put her trust in the king. He had great strength. He had great power. She had never seen a beast like this, but she knew it was nothing compared to the king.
She cried out to the king and queen, her mother. After a while she did not know what to do. She had grabbed onto the creature’s wrist during the course of the fight and was trying to loosen its grip. The Queen Mother still held her other hand, trying to keep eye contact with the girl. The king rushed in and hugged her tight, wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly to him, even as if holding her to him so she would not fall back. His eyes came close to her and she saw those eyes as she had never seen them before.
The beast shook her, unable to stand it’s being so close to the king, as it was attached to her. She saw her king, looked at him rescuing her, and she let go of the beast, let go of her efforts to overpower it. When she let go of it, it fled and ran.
Her body felt heavy, but she was rested in the king embrace, his arms still around her. The beast was gone. For a while it danced around the room, trying to frighten her. She continued to look at the king’s eyes and feel his arms around her. She would not be afraid.
The beast appeared from moment to moment the next day. It struck her in the face and her nose began to bleed. The princess explained to her that it had probably been in her room for many years. She was used to its presence, but the king would not have it. He cast it out. It would never return to her room again. It was not welcome.
Then that day, while talking to the princess, they discovered something else. The king explained it first to the princess and then to the girl, like a good doctor trying to help a child understand. While her heart felt incredibly free, like never before, she began to feel as if there was still something in that room. They discovered it there.
The king aided them. He showed his beloved that she was the battered wife. Of whom? She was not married to anyone. She had wanted to show the king all the ways she loved him and in the process had allowed herself to be stepped on, beaten. He did not want that. She did not allow herself to be herself, because she thought those thoughts and feelings would displease his majesty. He told her he would rather her be herself with all her faults, than fake. They went on to discover the presence of another beast in her closest. They waited one day for an opportunity with the king launch an attack on it and cast it out.
The next evening, a great event was held in honor of the king. The girl went and upon receiving his kiss, she felt his love in a new way. As she returned to her seat with the princess, she felt faint and began to shake. The thing was at her foot. They left shortly after and the king came to them. In a room in the palace, with a lady-in-waiting keeping watch, the king wrestled with the beast. This one was weakened throughout the day, but grabbed the girl’s legs and threw her from her chair to the floor. It shook her around, burned her, and bruised her.
The king attacked it with his sword. The girl did not know what to do. She could not think of anything. She did all she could to push it away. A young knight came to help. He had been with her before, guiding her away from the crowds she once loved and he fought for her against the beast. The queen was also there. The girl was tossed about and felt a sharp pain in her foot as the creature bit it. She called out to the king, “I love you!” And the creature lost his grip. The king threw it out with great force, a mighty king, and held the girl close to him. She was free. She was truly free.
It had been his protection all along that saved her from those beasts that had lived in her room. She was never aware of them, always thought the strange feelings came from within her. They had made the place dark, so she felt depressed. The girl had hated and condemned herself. She had adjusted her life around their brutality.
Now she was without them. They would not mess things around for her to straighten again and again. She would learn to live differently. The king had saved her. All the songs written of him spoke to her deeper. She loved him with a love so different than ever before.
