The King's Prize

Pan knew very little of his home planet, Tansa. Every one of his nineteen years had been spent on the family farm at the edge of the Great Forest. Morning after endless morning he would wake with the sun, eat a simple breakfast, then follow his father into the fields where he’d work long and hard with only a break for lunch before continuing until the sun’s ebb drew long shadows across the furrowed earth. With just enough light to make it home before the pitch of night descended, there was precious little time to devote to personal interests as his three sisters were able to do. After washing the dirt from his face and hands he would eat dinner, brush his teeth then fall into bed, exhausted. At nineteen he felt old. When thoughts of silent despair wove their way into his consciousness, he would push them aside and fantasize about another life, far different to the one he had, never imagining that his dreams would ever be anything other than dreams.

* * * *

Early one morning, before dawn had broken and while the mist was still thick on the ground, there was a loud knock on the front door. Pan was still lost in dreams, but his mother, Margette, was already preparing breakfast for the family. A slight frown shadowed her eyes as she pulled the door open a crack and peered into the dim morning. She gasped when she saw the small contingent of Hapsid Troopers crowding her front step.

These troopers were King Seronisis’ personal soldiers, feared and obeyed by all who lived on Tansa. The hulking ape-like humanoids were not only frightening in appearance—with their beady, black eyes beneath thick-set brows, skin like polished leather covering muscular torsos and powerful arms, and thickly haired buttocks and legs—but they were also creatures of primal instinct. The troopers were a class unto themselves, having been bred and raised for the sole purpose of protecting the king and carrying out his every wish, with no regard for method.

Margette pressed her lips together. The King’s Guard made her nervous and there would be no welcome from her until she had discovered the reason for their visit.

“We’ve come for your son,” grunted the sergeant, a towering wall of muscle and thick, wiry hair. “Seronisis wants him for the Royal Harem.”

Margette hardly knew what to think. The Royal Harem was legendary. It was an incredible honour to become a member of it, not only for the young man in question but also for his entire family. Selection for the Harem was notoriously rigorous. A boy had to be eighteen, attractive and physically fit, though this was not always a guarantee of success. Many fine boys who were brought to the palace were swiftly dispatched back to their villages.

“B-but why?” Margette stuttered. “Why did King Seronisis send for myson?”

The sergeant shrugged, his face remaining expressionless. “I just carry out orders.”

He pushed past Margette and strode into the main room of the cottage. A trio of lesser-ranking troopers shadowed their leader, fanning out to search the other rooms. One pushed into the room where Pan’s sisters were waking up, eliciting screams from the girls and a stern frown from Margette. Another, having found its quarry, unceremoniously shook Pan awake.

“What is it? What’s going on?” Pan asked sleepily.

“You’re coming with us,” said the trooper.

“What’s he talking about?” Pan asked as his mother burst into the room.

“You’ve been chosen for the King’s Harem,” she explained, shooting the trooper a dark look.

Pan looked from his mother to the Hapsid Trooper and then back at his mother.

“And what if I don’t want to go?” he asked as he rubbed the sleep from the corners of his eyes.

The trooper folded his arms as his brow came down and his top lip curled at one corner.

“Oh dear,” Margette said, clasping her hands together. “You have to go, Pan. You can’t refuse such an honour.”

“But I don’t want to leave,” Pan protested. “This is my home, my family. I belong here!”

“I know dear,” said Margette as she hugged her beloved. “But Seronisis is our king and he has chosen you. An opportunity like this will never come again, son. You must go.”

* * * *

Pan nodded silently, the scent of his mother’s perfumed hair in his nostrils. Of course he realised what an honour it was. If he was accepted into the Royal Harem, it would mean his family had the protection of the all-powerful Seronisis for the rest of their days. They could live tax-free and prosper with the extra income. They’d be entitled to enter the sacred palace once a year to visit him. It seemed that Pan’s dreams of a better life were going to come true, for both him and his family. How could he deny them that?

After dressing and eating a hurried breakfast, Pan hoisted himself onto the back of the simple wooden cart standing outside the cottage and turned to look at his family. His mother was doing her best to restrain her tears and his father, bronzed and weathered from a life in the sun, comforted her as best he could. His sisters held each other and sobbed in their nightdresses. Then, as the sergeant mounted his horse, Pan waved a final goodbye to his family and watched them growing smaller and smaller as the cart traveled down the dirt track and over the grassy hillock that would take them to the main road.