Friday - start (for me) of a three day weekend! Hope you enjoy your weekend but first, our weekly writing prompts, thanks to the genius of ComicFan.

Our prompts this week are:
Prompt 140 – Creative
Cue – The Date
This wasn’t what you expected when you finally agreed to go out. You figured maybe a movie and dinner but that isn’t you got. Who could have expected this on a date? So what did happen?

Prompt 141 – Creative
Cue – Elements
Life is created by the elements around us from the elements found on the periodic table. That is challenged when a meteorite strikes the earth near the farm lands. You have been studying the fragments brought back but you have also gotten calls from the farms in that area. Seems new plants are growing and their makeup includes items of new elements. Life is changing due this fragment. What will these new elements mean to mankind?

Take a chance and see where you can go on one (or both) of these, and share it with the community in the Writing Prompts Forum.

Every week, we also look at how someone approached a past prompt. We featured James Savik's response to Prompt 127 already and now I want to show you how Andy021278 took the same prompt and went in a totally different direction. And that's one of the things I love about our writing prompts, the varied responses the same prompt can generate!

“Just how many more times can you do that?” Josh thought to himself as he dried his eyes, after crying for the fourth time that evening.

 

The small blond-haired, blue-eyed boy looked around his room for the last time. He sighed deeply as he took in his bed, the non-descript decor, the rather large collection of books, and he wondered what tomorrow would bring. Tomorrow is his fourteenth birthday, and under the law, he is required to move into the palace. His name is Joshua Tierny and he is the son, and only child, of King Kenneth and Queen Maria of the Kingdom of Salania. Although technically he is Prince Joshua, he does not come into his title until tomorrow when he turns fourteen.

 

He lives in a townhouse on the outskirts of the prime city of Rasunal, and since he does not come into his title until tomorrow, he has lived his life without anybody knowing who he really is; he has been attending the local school with the children of Rasunal, denying his lineage of royalty. He has spent the past fourteen years (well thirteen years three hundred and sixty four days) in the company of his Aunt Mildrea, who is the sister of the Queen.

 

Unlike other monarchies in the realm, Salania does not bestow titles upon the extended family or other children of the royal family – hence why Joshua’s aunt is not Princess Mildrea. Only the firstborn child of the king and queen can ever become the next lead monarch; in the current case, it is Joshua’s mother, Queen Maria, who is the lead monarch.

 

At the age of fifteen, when she formally chose a boy called Kenneth who came from a nearby village to become the one who would rule by her side, he became King Kenneth upon her accession to the throne. In contrast to other monarchies the heir to the throne of Salania can marry anyone of their choosing; whether they are of noble birth or a commoner.

 

The succession laws have however lead to problems in Salania’s history. Every schoolchild has learned that their kingdom has been left monarchless on four occasions over the past one thousand years, and the clergy were forced to establish a new ruling bloodline.

 

Joshua has not seen his parents in person since he was born. The way that royal society works is that by preventing the heir to the throne from having contact with the monarchy and being raised in the privilege and comfort of the palace, they will hopefully learn what life is truly like for the commoners who inhabit the land. The plan is that they will better understand the lives of their subjects and keep their subjects’ wishes and desires in their mind and in their heart at all times.

 

The Kingdom of Salania is rare these days in that it is what is termed a monarchist totality; the King and Queen are the law and their word is absolute. All kingdoms in Relan have a monarchy but the vast majority also have a ruling council who are responsible for enacting the royal decrees, though they do carry a power of veto in order to prevent the monarchy from becoming despotic. According to the lessons Joshua had learned in school there are only two other monarchist totalities amongst the forty kingdoms, and Salania is the only monarchist totality left amongst the four Grand Kingdoms.

 

“Good night Aunt Mildrea,” Joshua called to her from his room.

Like the beginning of what Andy wrote? Here is the rest!