A completely fictional story...really....

[dolari]

Once in the kingdom of Swan, there was a Prince Menges. Prince Menges and his father, King John, hired a wandering journeyman to work for their household. They gave the journeyman free reign to keep their subjects happy. Time passed and the kingdom was invaded and overthrown. The journeyman wandered hither and yonder, and found himself at the employ of Princess Rose in the Kingdom of Farme. And while the journeyman did not have the free reign he enjoyed at the kingdom of Swan, the Princess and later, Prince Risse, made themselves available when petitioners asked for them. The kingdom fought off invaders and a drained treasury for a time, and the journeyman found himself wandering hither and yonder yet again. This time, Prince Chako hired the journeyman for the Kingdom of Gaits. However, petitioners were no longer to talk to Prince Chako at any costs. Prince Chako would talk to petitioners, but only after much heated arguing between the journeyman and petitioners. The Journeyman was thrown out of the kingdom for a crime he could not help but commit, only to find himself back at the Kingdom of Farme, now under Prince Frances. However, this time, the Prince had a number of beaurecrats between the Prince and the Journeyman, and each of those beaurecrats had imposed a number of wills on each other, and on the journeyman so that no petitioners could ever reach the prince. Each of the beaurecrats came back to the journeyman, demanding he argue that the others weren't there, and were rewarded when petitioners would storm away in anger rather than to have that petitioner talk to the prince. Looking around the different kingdoms, the journeyman realies that this is now the rule, and not the exception...and for once, the journeyman is beginning to wonder at the sanity of not just this Kingdom, but of the world in general and his place in it....