Royal Retinue

Chocolate Chip Pancakes, extra protein! Come and get them my dear! Clark was in his tree house he liked to pretend was a fort. Each day of play he was a Knight protecting his Queen. That queen being his Barbie doll he had, hopefully to find a girl some day to be his human queen.

He picked up and stirred honey into his white grape juice in order to have his "mead" and sat down clanking in his chainmail and setting down his plastic sword by the umbrella stand. He was excited to hear another knights tale from his mother. Last time the story was about the knight for the fairies. Tales of knights were usually male. Burly men fighting for their kingdom, but today was a tale all female:

There once was a queen with druid powers connected to cats. They were her best companions. The smaller house cats kept her company and the bigger lions and panthers helped with her to fight along with her Royal Retinue. Her name was Pauline and she fought with a sword made of cats claws.

Her second in command was a druid with power to regulate birds. Talon, as she was called, had a feather bow and bird talon arrows. She used birds such as doves for message sending and eagles for the battlefield. The two were so close there was talk of her and the queen as lovers. Many people came to use her beautiful arrows.

Third was Marina who controlled sea creatures. There were plenty of them in the moat around the castle. Sharks for defense and dolphins for entertainment. She fought battles with a harpoon. She was known to make and leave man-of-war and jellyfish booby traps.

Fourth had a good relationship with Marina. Her alligators right alongside the sea creatures. Ammie oversaw the cold-blooded, scaly creatures. She had a dagger with poison snake venom. People laughed at her in battle because it seemed a too tiny sword, but was actually as lethal as a snake bite.

Fifth was Buttercup over horses. She loved to ride them all day and night. She knew how to throw horseshoes with a great precision. Either for a great game at a RoyalTea party or to knock out an ambush.

These ladies all gained their armor and weapons from Fuona, the fire nymph blacksmith crafting weapons specifically to withstand their magic. They were a great force in the time of monarchy, but after a while that way was overthrown and they fled the castle to the woods. The ladies still used their power from there less directly. They now will send an animal to anyone for any reason decided. Help, fun, or a lesson learned.

Clark was sad the ladies no longer had a castle and he went outside to build one from rocks. He thought more about the story and how many birds always followed him and his mother around. Her name was Tallie and she seemed to have a special connection to them. Now that he was really thinking about it, people she met that annoyed her started getting bird poop in weird places and having birds start to hit their windows. People she did like started seeing beautiful or sweet birds. Clark stared at the bird feeder as his mom came out in her athletic wear for her usual walk in the woods. Instead of enjoying ice cream by the TV, he decided to follow her and see if she came across five other women...

More scrapbook spreads for each lady of the retinue below👇