Paths in sand.
Kurt Hummel was the son of the king of the land, meaning he was a very important child. He was never to be left unattended for a moment when he was out and around the castle grounds. And being a child, being cooped up in the house--or this case castle-could get rather dull. With his mother being ill as of late and unable to look after him while his father was busy with his royal duties, little Kurt was left in the hands of a nanny. A nanny whom he liked since she was nice to him and rarely raised her voice if he put a toe out of line. She had a way of explaining things to him to tell the difference between right and wrong for the most part, and that was all that mattered. One of the things she tried to ingrain into his little mind was to never stray outside the castle walls without supervision since there could be bad people who would want to hurt him. That thought alone to a four-year old was a terrifying idea that he could be hurt in some way just because he was the son of his daddy and mommy.
Unfortunately being four also meant that he didn’t always remember things all the time, especially when animals were involved. As he and his nanny took a stroll to their usual spot under a tree for Kurt to play with what ducks and bunnies lingered there, quite used to animal contact by this point, the nanny got momentarily distracted by a suitor standing nearby. Since Kurt was so intent on showing the white rabbit of the bunch his new scarf and toy White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland she assumed he wouldn’t wander off since she was only a few steps away. Little did she know it would be her mistake to turn her back on a curious little boy and a wild rabbit.
Having enough of Kurt’s attention, the rabbit hops off in the direction away from the castle. Not wanting to lose his favorite playmate, Kurt gathers his toy in his arms and wanders after the animal. Not being too focused on where he was going since they seemed to weave through hedges and gardens until the rabbit slipped under a gate. Curious, Kurt reaches for the handle and opens it to continue following. The cautious words of his nanny now on the back of his mind since his only goal was to catch the bunny and bring him back to the pond so they could continue with their tea party that he had every intention of having. But he lost the rabbit, not seeing it anywhere which only caused him to pout as he ventures closer to the edge of the wood to peek into the bushes for his little furry friend.
Travelers that never stayed in the same place for too long to settle down--for multiple reasons usually which included being shooed away for being too strange or because their prospects weren’t being plentiful. A band of travelers were in the woods, packing up and readying to leave somewhere with far more pockets to pick and items to sell. The first batch of wagons were just rolling past the castle wall when one of the travelers who was riding on the back of a mule caught sight of a child poking around in the bushes, on hands and knees with his head in the green shrubbery. And judging by his clothing it was obvious he was the king’s only son. Not wanting to let an opportunity slip by, he sends his wife off their wagon to approach Kurt with a shawl.
“Hello, little one,” she greets with a friendly smile, stooping down closer as Kurt pulls himself out of the bush, brushing leaves from his hair. His big blue eyes locked up with the strangers and since she was smiling he couldn’t help but to smile back. “Are you lost?”
“No,” he answers simply then points to the bush. “Lost bunny.”
“Oh I see. Well, I have a wagon full of bunnies, if you want to come play with them?”
Excited by that thought, Kurt’s entire face lights up as he nods and allows the lady to wrap him up in the shawl, picking him up and carrying him to the wagon to set him in the back so her husband could get the wagon moving with the band again. Of course there was no bunnies, but by the time Kurt figured this out it was far too late. And they were miles from the land that King Hummel ruled leaving little Kurt to merely cry into the woman’s skirt before falling asleep due to exhaustion.
It didn’t take long for Kurt to accept this new brand of people he never met before as his family. He forgot he was the son of a king and went on with his life as if he was the child of the only two people he knew to be his parents who went by Stanley and Georgina. He was now Kurt Laurel and as far as he knew this had been his life from birth with no one telling him the truth, letting him grow from four to seventeen without him ever questioning it. Perhaps they had had far better ways to ingrain things into his young mind which lead him to take up chores, dressing like one of the group which was no where near glamorous, and befriending children his own age. One being Sebastian Smythe, who took him under his wing almost immediately and right off the bat Kurt accepted him as his apart of his life as he had his family.
