A/N: I had this written up before my surgery, but couldn't post it so...have it now. This is technically not required to read if you plan on following the main TPP storyline, Truth's history will eventually be summarized in (TPP) The History of a Lovely Kingdom so you can simply wait and read that if you don't care to read an entire story (which is why this is being separated into TPP: BP). For those of you who do want to read however...
Hope you enjoy~!
Disclaimer: I do not own FBNFH, but I do own my OCs.
*.*.*.*
They say that the beat of a single butterfly's wings can cause a great effect...
So it would be safe to say that the actions of an entire family would cause a monumental effect.
All the actions of the Sunny Family have continued to build and now effect a single prince who, unbeknownst to him, would later cause a dangerous effect on, not only his future daughters' lives, but the entire planet.
But this in not their story.
It's his.
*.*.*.*
Chapter One
A Strange Prince is Born
*.*.*.*
Queen Charlotte "Lottie" of the Sunny Kingdom had successfully given birth to a darling little girl three years prior. She named her little miracle Falsity against her husband, King Consort True's, wishes as the name Lottie gave her was meant to keep a "theme" with True's own. He found it quite...embarrassing. Still, he could not say no to his wife (especially after she quickly signed the birth certificate) and the name grew on him eventually.
True loved to dote on his little daughter, but he always desired a bigger family. Luckily, Lottie was of the same opinion. The two decided to try and have another child. Although, the general consensus was that there was no need for the Sunny Royal Family to have anymore children. A princess was born and a princess is all the matriarchal Sunny Kingdom ever really needed. If a prince was born he would be delegated into the background, perhaps even forgotten in time as Prince Gavril (who was nicknamed "the Forgotten" as very few texts of him were made) was. It would be safer if another princess was born, but that was no guarantee that no problems would arise. When Queen Solange had superseded her older sister Princess Delicia, it caused a break in their relationship. That break had an adverse effect as Delicia killed her own sister out of jealousy a few years after her coronation, forcing Fayette to take the throne and become the Sunny Kingdom's youngest queen. It would be better if the Queen simply focused on her heiress and her work, instead of wasting months with her pregnancy being unable to perform her royal duties and leaving them up to her husband (who was quite inexperienced in royal affairs as in his family women too ruled supreme).
But this did not change their decision. Even if they were royalty this was still their lives and their family. If a problem arose because of this in the future, Lottie was certain she and her family could handle it, even find a solution for it. And so the two tried for another child and the next year Lottie had successfully gotten pregnant once again.
True and Lottie spent a lot of time mulling over names...Well, True did. Lottie already had her heart set on continuing the "theme" with her husband's name. Every time True tried to suggest some other name outside the theme he was shot down. In the end he had to concede and so they were left with the names Rumor, Truth, and Mendacity. Lottie believed these names could fit for any gender child therefore they would wait to decide on a name once their second child was born.
"Surely, once we see them we will know which one fits best." Lottie said.
*.*.*.*
Lottie's water broke a month earlier than anticipated, while she had been speaking to the head scientist in the palace. She quickly had Lottie escorted to the infirmary. True was notified shortly afterwards and he waited with bated breath outside the infirmary doors while Falsity was nearby waiting patiently to be summoned inside with her father. Soon the doors opened and a nurse beckoned them in. True rushed inside and there he saw Lottie, proudly holding two baby boys in her arms.
"True my love! We have two new princes joining our family today!" Lottie grinned. True went to her side and peered at the two babies. Unlike Falsity, who inherited the appearance of Lottie, one of the babies had inherited his looks form what he could tell. His eyes were closed, but the little tuft of hair was unmistakably as purple as his own. However, the second baby looked nothing like True or Lottie. He did not have his purple hair or Lottie's orange hair, instead it was a dark shade of blue. His eyes remained closed so he couldn't tell the eye color. Perhaps he did inherit his sea-green eyes or Lottie's pink ones?
"Aren't they precious?" Lottie asked. "Rumor was born first and he has his papa's purple hair!"
"So Rumor is our first prince's name...how about our second?"
"I think Truth fits him quite well. And look at his hair color, only one person from my family has ever had such a color and she was nothing short of perfection! I'm sure he'll be an excellent prince and will make a wonderful king of a kingdom someday, just like his papa. Come hold one of them!"
True picked up Rumor at his wife's urging. Rumor was peacefully sleeping, something he noted was different from Falsity when she was a baby. Falsity cried for quite a while after being born, but here Rumor was, sleeping away.
"Father, I want to see him." Falsity tugged at her father's pants. True crouched down so Falsity can take a look. Her eyes seemed to sparkle when she saw him. He was so cute!
"You're his and Truth's big sister now Falsity." True smiled. "You three must get along okay?"
"Mm-hm!" Falsity nodded.
"Oh! Oh! True! Falsity!" Lottie chirped. "It looks like Truth is starting to wake up!"
True and Falsity went to Lottie's bedside and eagerly waited for Truth to open his eyes. When he did he first laid his golden eyes on his mother and began to look around. He soon began to scream and cry! And it looked like he was attempting to flail his arms, but the blanket he was wrapped in kept him from doing so which seemed to make him scream even louder. The commotion woke up Rumor who soon began to wail alongside his twin brother.
"Wh-what's wrong!?" True looked to the doctor in the room.
"Something must have startled him while he was looking around." The doctor said.
"There, there Truth!" Lottie cooed. "It's alright! Nothing here will harm you."
Despite her words Truth continued to wail. In the end, the doctor took Truth away so he wouldn't disturb Rumor and to let Lottie rest.
"Oh dear...I wonder what startled him so..." Lottie frowned. "I hope being out of this room calms our dear boy down..."
*.*.*.*
However, Truth wailing became a constant around the palace. Truth continuously kept wailing and flailing his arms and legs and nothing Lottie or True did would calm him. He would only stop his wailing when he was feeding or asleep. In the end, his parents were forced to separate him from Rumor as they feared with his constant flailing he might injure Rumor. And it seemed Rumor didn't like that one bit. Rumor seemed to miss his brother and would start crying as well, although, nowhere near as much as Truth.
"I know it's hard being separated form your brother..." True told Rumor in a hushed tone. "But for now, it's for the best..."
The two weren't sure what to do as Falsity never cried nearly as much as Truth has. But the doctor assured them that Truth's crying should begin to calm down in about three to four months and that this wasn't anything to cause alarm. She did check Truth to see if he had any allergies and had Lottie change her diet just in case it was the breast milk that caused him agitation.
Truth did stop crying so much after four months, but he continued to flail his arms and legs around wildly that True still feared letting Rumor go back and sharing a crib with him. In the end, Prince Truth spent much of his time away form his siblings and being coddled by his parents and the doctor. This, however, only seemed to agitate him more as if his parents spent too much time with him he began his wailing again and would flail his arms and legs about, almost as if to tell his parents and the doctor to keep away form him. Some might even dare say he was doing so with the intention of causing harm to whoever was holding him at the time.
At around eight months Rumor began to crawl and had already said his first words, "papa" and "mama". But Truth did not crawl until twelve months and had still not said his first word.
This didn't present any alarms until it was Truth and Rumor's third birthday, and Truth still did not walk, but he did finally say his first word. However, unlike Falsity and Rumor whose first words were calling out to their parents, Truth's first word was "why".
As True began to grow more concerned he wanted to consult the doctor again. However Truth was uncooperative. He would try to crawl away whenever he was put down for a moment and if he was held he began to flail around and scream, "Why! Why!"
Lottie then suggested to her husband that perhaps they should wait a little longer as Truth clearly seemed to register what was going on around him even if he couldn't say much or walk.
"It's obvious he doesn't want to see the doctor, let's see if he doesn't start trying to walk soon. Perhaps we can figure out a way to even encourage him to start." Lottie told her fretting husband. He nodded and decided to wait a little longer.
In the coming months Truth managed to crawl his way towards some crayons his brother left behind. Rumor didn't like scribbling on paper so when his parents left the room he left the crayons and paper behind and opted to go where Truth and his toys were. However, Truth did seem interested in the crayons. He crawled his way over and grabbed the box of crayons before going back to his original spot near the wall. As Rumor played with the toys laid out Truth began scribbling on the wall.
When Lottie and True came back into the room they were shocked to see the scribbles on the wall, but were also rather pleased! Truth may not have been talking or walking, but at least he wasn't behind on learning how to scribble. Perhaps writing would be his forte.
When it was time for their baths True tried to take the crayons away from Truth, but he clung onto them. As his father tried to coax him into giving him the crayons he started crying.
"You can have them back after your bath, I promise." True said. This seemed to appease Truth somewhat who, hesitantly, let go of his beloved crayons.
After that incident Truth always had his crayons with him, even if this did make crawling around harder for him. Truth also seemed to have a preference over scribbling on the walls as opposed to the paper his parents and the servants provided for him. Rumor was influenced by this too and soon began scribbling on the walls alongside his twin. However, True was too afraid to try and get them to stop, fearing that it may impede Truth's progress, so instead he just had the servants thoroughly scrub whatever walls Rumor and Truth used as their canvas.
One day Truth and Rumor fell asleep in their playroom. Lottie and True took them back to their room while the maids cleaned up. One of the maids picked up Truth's crayon box and placed it on a shelf. A shelf that would be too high for Truth to grab if he didn't stand up, which he never really has done before.
When Truth woke up he noticed his crayon box was nowhere to be found and began screaming. As he still did not know how to say crayon box when his parents came rushing in with some maids all he could do was babble and cry. His mother seemed to pick up what he wanted though and took him to the playroom. He crawled over to the shelf, but of course, he couldn't reach them. He sat down in front of the shelf and aggressively pointed to his crayons. True was about to go help him, but Lottie stopped him by placing a hand on his chest. An idea had just occurred to her. Perhaps this would be enough incentive to get Truth to say something!
"Truth, darling, if you want the crayons ask for help or stand and get them yourself." Lottie said.
Truth looked like was about to cry again and continued to vigorously point at the box. He then began to babble, "Ba! Ba!"
"Say papa or mama, Truth. Then one of us will come help you." Lottie said.
"Ba! Babu!" Truth screamed.
"Pa-pa...Ma-ma." Lottie said.
Truth grew increasingly frustrated and started flailing his arms. "Baba! Babu!"
As his mother still showed no signs of helping him or allowing his father to help him Truth shakily got up to his feet and reached for the crayons. He managed to get his hands on them, but slipped and fell in the process.
When Truth fell down his face showed momentary shock, he blinked and then began sobbing. "Mama! Hurts!"
Lottie's earlier attitude faltered as she and True rushed to their sobbing son's side.
After that incident it seemed like Truth finally began progressing normally. He started using more words and even started taking some steps.
Needless to say his parents were very relieved.
Along with him progressing normally with his words and walking, Truth started showing skills in writing. Even if there were certain words he couldn't say he was able to write them. His parents were quite proud and hoped that he would continue to progress this way.
However...a new problem would arise in the coming years...
*.*.*.*
"Did you see what Prince Truth wrote today?" One maid whispered.
"I did, I did! He continues to get stranger by the minute." The other maid whispered back to her companion. "And you know, his parents caught him speaking to the large tree in the outer courtyard as well. Head butler William even said that he overheard the young prince telling his parents that he had made friends with the tree and a few butterflies roaming about as well..."
"What in the name of Grace could he be thinking of when he said and wrote such things?"
"Ah...look...he's at it again..." The maids stopped walking when they saw Truth up ahead, scribbling with crayons on the wall.
"Do you think he'll leave soon? I don't wanna pass him by..." The first maid said.
"I doubt it, he seems so focused...if we're lucky when we greet him he just won't acknowledge us..." The second maid sighed. The two mustered up their courage and continued walking. When they got close to Truth they curtsied and greeted him, "Good day, your highness."
Truth momentarily glared at them before giving a wide smile, "Oh! Hello there!" This was something else that made people think him odd. When he was a baby he was rather frightful and always seemed to be upset, constantly wailing and flailing his arms and legs about. Despite the fact that the doctor told them this wasn't uncommon something always seemed off when Truth did it, almost as if he was upset that he was a baby. His parents and the doctor were the only ones who dared get close to him. Now as an eight year old he still sometimes glares at those who disturb him, but for a few split seconds only, he then goes back to giving a carefree smile, almost like he was never upset to begin with. The entire experience is quite off putting...
The maids smiled nervously before bowing and leaving. Truth then went back to his scribbles.
*.*.*.*
"Now what did he write?" Lottie mumbled under her breath. Lottie always takes a look at Truth's scribbles and has them written down before having them erased.
Earlier today he had written: "Ice can melt flames."
"The lady in the teacup wants to say something."
"The magic gem hides in the sea."
No one could make sense of any of these things and it looks like what he wrote now would be no different.
"Was I born when I was born?"
"Will the magic gems be useful again?"
"Who decides who can and can't know about the birthright?"
"The princess lost the magic gem at sea."
Lottie wrote this all down in the journal she was carrying before ordering the servants nearby to clean it up.
"What should we do dear? Rumors are starting to surface that Truth is deranged..." True, Lottie's husband, asked.
"These are just silly musings of a silly child. I'm sure this must all come from daydreams...he does space out an awful lot. I'm sure he'll grow out if it, he's only eight after all." Lottie said to her husband.
That's right, this is simply a silly child's silly tendencies. He's sure to grow out of them once he reaches twelve at least, Lottie's sure of it! He's sure to grow into a fine prince soon.
Quite, quite sure...
But being "sure" doesn't mean it will be so...