~Poisoned Apple~

Me and Bam became great friends that day. When Bella took us to the county side Bam promised to show me a little old run down cottage.
It was in the heart of the forest and although I feared few things the idea of wandering though the thick brushes and trees was not a pleasant one.
"How far exactly is the heart of the woods?" I asked Bam as he pulled me along the small dirt path.
"A ways. No too far. Relax, my prince." I caught sight of a slight smirk.
"Are you mocking me?" He stopped and turned to me.
"Yes." He grinned and grabbed my hand, literally pulling me. I watched the patches of sunlight dance off his hair and almost lost my footing and fell off the side of the hill. Bam tightened his grip on my hand.
"Easy, there. I don't want to get hanged for killing the King's only son." Again the smirk was pasted to his lips and mocking me. I rolled my eyes and we carried on though the darkening forest.
We talked and walked and talked some more. Bam at first seemed like he was a mute. Now I found it hard to get him to be quiet.
"So, what will you do when your king?" I shrugged.
"Nothing I spouse. To tell the truth I don't want to be King." Bam laughed. He laughed at a lot of things I said that weren't meant to be funny.
"What do you want to be?" I paused and thought.
"A musician." This sent Bam into another fit of laughter.
"Do you what people would say if they heard you, Ville?" I smiled.
"What happened to, 'My prince.'" Bam's face went blank before he rolled his eyes.
"Forget that! No really? I mean how would you do it?" I thought about it for a few moments.
"I would run away with a band of gypsies." I could tell Bam was holding back more laughter.
"I would sing ballads and dance in the streets like they do. Maybe even get into acting in plays. But I just really want to make music." Bam surprised me once more by not laughing. Instead he just smiled and said,
"I hope you find a way to do that someday." I nodded.
"We're here!" Bam shouted and ran into the slight clearing ahead. I ran after him.

The small run down shack was worse than I thought. It was built on the side of the hill and a tree was growing though it. My first thought being, why would he bring me here? The ugly thing looked as if it'd fall down at any moment. I looked over to Bam, and for the third time today he surprised me totally.
The look on his face was one of joy and admiration. He turned to me smiling wildly.
"Isn't it beautiful?" He asked. I had no idea of what he was talking about. The cottage was hideous!
"What is? The shack?" I asked still completely blind to what he was seeing. Bam laughed and took my hand again pulling me towards the cottage.
"Look." He said stopping me right dead on in front of it, he was standing behind me, hands on my shoulders. I sighed.
"What am I looking at?" Bam shook me a little.
"Look!" I looked up at the shack and gasped.
Colors of green, pink and yellow covered the moss that grew on the dark spiraling pattered on the wood. Not a inch was left untouched by the glowing brilliance of the vines and moss. The last beans of sunlight shun in small dots though the leaves of the great huge tree. It was beautiful. IN that moment I realized that I had over looked the beauty of this place because I was taught if it's old or run down it's ugly. But truly looking and not a assuming, I saw what Bam saw all along.
"See what I mean?" He smirked and I nodded, still entranced by the amazing colors and shapes of the leaves and flowers.

The inside wasn't damp or even really dirty as I had pictured. There was a sitting room where three small wooden chairs sat around a open fireplace. There was a sink to the far while along with a flat fire stove, it was very much like the ones in the castle kitchens. Both room were open to one another and there was one door to my left. Bam showed me that it was a bed room, even though the bed must have been removed long ago.
Bam sat on one of the chairs and patted the one next to him. I slowly sat down, slightly worried if the chair would break.
"Relax, Prince. It's a chair, it can't bite!" Bam laughed.
"I know that." I mumbled bitterly. We talked more and Bam even convinced me to play a game of war. A simple game really, all you had to do to play was have a 'sword' or (stick for that matter) and battle one another. I knew that Bam let me win, but I wasn't sure why. The boy conuited to shock and confuse me.
When we arrived back at the farm lands where Bella was waiting we both were punished for staying out so late. It was dark when we finally returned home. I said good bye to Bam and I thought that would be the last time I saw my new friend. I was thankfully wrong.
We grew into even greater friends as the years passed. Bam showed me how to play 'pranks'. Little annoying traps for house servants. We were infamous around the castle for being trouble makers.
It was on my thirteenth birthday that my step mother asked me to her room. I was playing in the garden waiting for Bella to get done yelling at Bam for setting fire to my bed sheets (When in fact I did, but Bam often took blame for my misdeeds) when her servants came to get me.
I had only ever spoken to my step twice. Both accounts I made up my mind I hated her. She was cruel to her servants and she had told me to stop playing with Bam, because he was common. Bam was anything but common.
So I stood before her door, knocking.
"Come in, Ville." I heard her seemingly sweet voice call. I opened the door and slowly stepped inside the dark room.
It was at lest ten times bigger than my own. The bed was in the middle of the room pushed to the back wall. Many chairs and throw rugs accented the cold room. The fire was cracking and my step mother sat before it in the biggest chair, made to look like a throne. Next to her chair there sat a young girl not much older or younger than myself. The girl looked like a young vision of my step mother. Her hair was long and golden, yet instead of being pinned high on her head it was brushed around her small shoulders and only a few pieces were pulled back. Her skin was pale and her face sweet and kittenish.
"Ville, this is my daughter Lilly. She has been living with my mother and she will now be living here." I bowed and kissed lily's hand as proper manners call for. I took a chair across from them.
"I have spoke to your father and we have both deiced that it would make sense for you both to marry." My heart sank and I felt ill suddenly. I was barely out of boyhood and they were already planning my life.
"What if I refuse?" I asked bitterly, looking to the floor. I heard her gasp.
"You have no say in it, boy. You have a duty as prince and soon to be king to marry the best in the class. Lilly is pure blood to my family and will be an ideal queen." I didn't take my eyes off the floor. As I rose and left without another word. Not caring that it was the worse manners. All I knew was I had to see Bam.