Challenge #04675-L291: Minding a Larger Flock

What a coincidence! Prince Philip has found a young shepherd boy who looks exactly like him living in the countryside. Even better, the young man is willing to trade places for a lark. With the talk of the cafes turning increasingly murderous with regards to Philip’s family, it would certainly be a good time to be a Shepherd Boy rather than a prince, though, the boy doesn’t need to know that… -- Deathshead419

Once upon a time, there was a Prince and a Pauper... so the stories say. Roughly the same age, certainly looking very much like each other. Gossip and rumour would have had it to be the result of an indiscretion of the King. Such things are wont to happen when marriage is an obligation to forge peace and not a delighted meeting of minds.

Regardless of the truth, the Prince Philip and the shepherd boy Dor were nigh identical. And the suggested lark came about at they chatted over a pint.

There aren't many reasons for a Noble to surrender their power to a commoner. There are Nobles who choose to go incognito as commoners, usually for their own protection, but to exchange places? That's not an everyday occurrence. Maybe Dor sensed this. Maybe Dor was a little too trusting when drunk. Either way, after a few lessons in handling tableware, and a story about falling off a horse, Dor stumbled towards the barracks of the King's soldiers. He asked politely if they knew where he was, then asked why they were calling him "your highness" and then fell into a swoon.

They thought that Dor was Philip. Their ruse was successful.

Dor feigned illness and confusion when Philips servants were bustling about the Prince's chambers. He often found it more convenient to feign unconsciousness. Which gave the servants freedom to speak. Well. Whisper.

The real reason that Philip was eager to become a shepherd was that the kingdom was close to revolution. Close enough to make the servants worry about their welfare when the peasants with torches started their ruckus. Dor wasn't stupid, and knew what it meant when the wolves howled in the night.

He recovered relatively well, adapting to Noble life with easily-explained rough patches. Dor answered to Philip and feigned concern for his 'father', offering to help with this or that. It was in the Kingdom accounts that he prospered.

A shepherd, after all, is one unlikely to fall asleep when counting -well- anything. Some subordinate lords had been playing fast and loose with their accounting, and the King himself was mis-applying his taxes as a result. Some of the accounting helped convince his 'father' to change the rulings, but the vassal lords under him whispered poison into the old man's ear.

So Dor slipped poison into the old man's wine. Then he took the crown, executed the vile lords for treason, and re-established a fair and just system. Philip might try to tell people that he was the true Crown Prince, now king. He was free to tell people whatever he liked.

However, Dor had a special place for madmen. A nice, comfortable asylum where they were treated very fairly, all things considered.

[Photo by Biegun Wschodni on Unsplash]

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