I was sitting on the roof of my father's manor house, watching as he and the other nobles from our region took their morning constitutionals through the fields. The air smelled like springtime; it had just rained a few hours before. A flock of geese flew overhead, honking their disapproval at the world.
I felt an odd sense of satisfaction to be able to sit there without being noticed by anyone. My mother would have been furious with me for not doing more with my time. She would've said that I'd better get up off the ground and make something of myself.
And she was right. But I wasn't ready yet.
The problem with living in a castle is that you are surrounded by so many things to do. It is easy to get distracted. You can find yourself with your nose buried in a book one moment, and the next thing you know, hours have passed and the sun is high in the sky.
As I sat there, however, I found my mind wandering to places it shouldn't be. To thoughts that made me feel guilty. I knew that my mother would be disappointed in me for allowing such things to distract me. I also knew that she wouldn't approve of what I was thinking. I didn't want her to be disappointed in me. That was why I had come here, away from everyone else.
"Is everything okay?" came a voice behind me.
I turned to see a servant girl walking toward me. She wore a blue dress and held a bundle of laundry under her arm. Her brown hair was cut short at the sides and curled around her face at the back.
She looked at me with concern. "Are you feeling well?"
"I'm fine," I said, standing up.
The girl walked over to me and set down her bundle on the wall. "It's just that you haven't moved all morning."
"I like to look at the birds fly over the fields. They seem so happy when they're free of their cages. Don't you think?"
The servant girl laughed. "Yes. I agree with you there. I love looking at the animals too. Especially the deer. They seem so graceful and strong at the same time. Like they were born to run across the open plains."
"Yes," I said. "They're beautiful creatures."
She looked out over the field, and then she spoke. "My father told me a story once. He said that there was a man once who was known for his hunting skills. His name was Lord Ragnar. One day, he was traveling with a group of hunters when they came upon a forest that was full of animals. There were so many different kinds that it seemed impossible to hunt them all. So Lord Ragnar decided to go into the forest by himself and track each animal down, one at a time. When he returned to camp, his companions asked him how he had managed to succeed.
"He told them that he had simply followed the trail of every animal he had hunted. The tracks led him from one place to another, and that is what allowed him to find them all."
"That is a wonderful story," I said, watching the way the sunlight glinted off the lake's surface.
"My father said that it shows how hard you have to work to reach your goal. If you only try your best, you will eventually succeed. That is the lesson we should learn from this tale. Do you think so?"
I nodded.
