The Princess and the Hound by Mette Ivie Harrison Read Free Book Online

George could feel the pangs in its stomach. Large as it was, the creature grew thinner day by day. And in the winter, when most bears were asleep, this one moved restlessly through the snow, still searching for a rabbit or a squirrel.
    George could not doubt that the dreams were real, for they were too vivid. Yet this shared dreaming had never happened with any of the other animals George had met. It was surely part of the animal magic, and George dared not speak of it to anyone. Though LadyFittle had been turned out of his father’s court after his mother’s death, George had to remain careful.
    George was often afraid to go to sleep. Some nights he sat upright all night in a chair by the fire, pinching himself to stay awake. Or he stood by the door to his bedchamber, pacing back and forth. Yet the magic of the bear, whatever it was, was always waiting for the moment when he would drop to the floor, in a dead faint.
    Then the dreams came again.
    George wondered if there was some way for the bear to stop the dreams. He went back to the woods now and again, half fearing he would actually find the creature. But he never did. And the bear, in its dreams, did not seem to think of George at all or even remember him.
    In time the dreams changed. George still had dreams of the bear, but there were bits and pieces of a man’s world mixed in with them. A wealthy man, well dressed, who rode the best horses.
    Sometimes George thought the horse rides were hunts, but he never caught a glimpse of any creature being hunted or of the end of the hunt either. The man he dreamed of loved the feel of his bare feet on wet grass, and had tried and tried to juggle.
    George saw him meeting young ladies at this ball or another, and how they tittered and made eyes at him. The man was embarrassed and determined never to marry, not one of them. But then he was so lonely andhad to pretend that he was not. He watched his friends with their children and envied them that pleasure that could not be his.
    This part of the man George understood. All around him were those who made friends so easily, perhaps not the same friends George wanted, but still, they had something. He had nothing.
    When George woke in the morning after such a dream, he always ran to the kitchen, starved. Cook Elin had a place in her heart for the little prince. She did not think him nearly plump enough by her own standards. But she never referred to him by name. He was always “boy,” no more than that, and she would not watch him while he ate. She simply gave him what he asked for and went back to work.
    George was as close to Cook Elin as he was to anyone in the castle, and he stayed by her for as long as he could in the mornings. Then it was back to being prince again, going to this event or that one, fulfilling expectations, and being told he was the image of his father. No mention of his mother at all.
    Then night came, and more dreams, and George could not fight them, no matter how he tried.
    The man in the dreams was often rude. He seemed not to know another way to speak, and those around him either learned to grow hard skins or left him. The man was abandoned many times by his own servants, without a word.
    Yet he was not intentionally unkind. He came to see that there were those around him who were, and he hated them. And yet if they were the only ones who would not leave him, he felt he must not deserve any better.
    It was difficult for George, on some mornings, to distinguish himself from the man in the dreams. But who was this dream man? Did he have something to do with the bear?
    George could think of no other explanation. He remembered the way the bear had gestured so desperately at their first meeting, how he had wanted…something. But it was impossible. The legend of King Richon was no more than that. And a story could have nothing to do with this bear or the man, or the dreams George had about them both. Besides, George could do no transformations with his magic.