Howdy! Tuesday means #BlogBattle time. They’re rather fun writing battles centered around a word provided by the awesome Rachael Ritchey. Check out her blog for all the rules and details and consider joining us!

Today’s word is LEGUMES. I though I was going to have to pass on this one due to school and absolutely not idea what to write, but I woke up this morning at 6:30 with this story. So, in honor of what Twitter has christened Legumes Day, I give you The Prince and the Raven!

Genre: Fantasy

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There once was a prince who I’m afraid was rather normal. Where other princes and princess had at least two stories to their name, he had only one tale.

This prince lived in a house by a lake high in the mountains. Since he wasn’t well known, he liked to walk the pebbly beach and watch the constant ripples caused by a spring in the exact center of the lake. He would occasionally look across the lake to the impressive castle that took up half a mountain, while he had only a house and two servants that preferred gardening to taking care of the house. But at the moment he was preoccupied with the problem of the little trolls who would sneak up and steal pies right off the windowsill.

He didn’t want to hurt the trolls, he only wanted to scare them off. The servants were being singularly unhelpful in coming up with ideas, so he had taken it upon himself. As he paced and pondered he found himself interrupted by an unusual voice.

“Rraaw! Rocks, rocks, rocks! Don’t like rocks. They can’t tell time like clocks. Hop, hop, hop! Only touch the pretty rocks!”

The prince looked in all directions before he finally found the voice. It belonged to the raggediest raven he had even seen. It was preoccupied with hopping from one white rock to another, commentating on its journey through the pebbles. (I should mention at this point that in these particular mountains, talking animals are completely ordinary.)

“Excuse me!” the prince called.

“Aahh! Don’t talk while I hop!” the raven screeched.

“Sorry.”

The raven ran out of white rocks before it reached the prince and was forced to fly the rest of the way.

“Crraw! I’ll be blunt. What do you want?”

“Well,” the prince began. “I have a problem,” he explained. In watching the raven he had decided that who better to scare off thieving trolls than a crazed raven?

“Trolls, trolls, trolls. Trolls are mean. They make people scream,” the raven sagely remarked.

“Indeed. It’s not that I have anything against them, per se. It’s just that I’m tired of them stealing all of the pies. So, would you like to help me scare them away?”

“Hmmm….It depends. But don’t you have friends?”

“Well, not anymore. I used to live down in the Valley. But circumstances arose, battles were fought, and I don’t have a Kingdom anymore. So now I live up here with some less than loyal servants.”

“That story is sad. You must feel bad.”

The prince shrugged. “Most days I’m over it. So would you like to help me?”

“I’ll have to see. What’s in it for me? Sweeten the pot. What do you got?”

The prince ignored the raven’s horrendous grammar and thought for a moment. “You look hungry. I can offer you a pie in payment.”

“A pie for me? Completely free?”

“Well you have to scare the trolls off first.”

“Pie, pie, pie! Pie is good. Not like legumes. They are bad. They’re all I’ve had.”

“You’ve only eaten legumes?”

“Seeds and peas, beans and weeds. Lentils make me sneeze! Are legumes in your pie? Don’t lie!”

“No, no legume pie,” the prince said, very disgusted by the idea of legume pie.

“Rraaw! Then the job is mine. The trolls will be gone in no time!”

“Perfect. Thank you.”

“I’m good at scaring and at glaring.” To illustrate the raven twisted its head to the side and narrowed its two beady eyes, while wildly flapping its ragged wings. The prince had to agree, and with that, the raven was hired.

I can tell you that the trolls were successfully scared away. As were the servants, but that wasn’t a problem since they really didn’t do anything anyway. As for the prince and the raven? Well, what do you know? That’s a story for another day.