The Beaver King, A Cautionary Tale of Medieval Dysfunction

Meeting as young adolescents, Little Lord Bucker and Jessalyn Slumthumb grew up together, but they did not grow up well together. That is not the same thing.

From the early beginnings they both were volatile together. They were poorly supervised, emotionally immature, impulsive, and completely irresponsible. Their closeness formed before either of them had boundaries, skills or models for stability.

While in the very beginning they were sweethearts in the gentle sense, they were loud and reckless, reactive, frequently arguing, and she was often physical. They learned intensity before safety. They learned attachment before judgement and reaction before consequence. What looked like loyalty was often just familiarity and shared chaos. It was a mutual normalization of dysfunction. They mistook survival and learning together for compatibility. They were growing up without guidance or anyone stopping what should have been stopped as underage adolescents. The relationship was allowed to escalate not because it was healthy, but because not one person was watching close enough to care.

The truth? Little Lord Buckers softness and incompetence and Jessalyn’s endurance and depletion were not created by each other, they were reinforced together too early and too intensely. This does not absolve nor villainize anyone. It just simply explains why their later marriage felt inevitable and impossible at the same time.

They spent years of drifting thru the various villages in Solipsia as well as the many family homes located within the Beaverton Kingdom, staying with anyone who would take them in with a bed or even a floor to lie upon. This was clearly unstructured and unstable for a young couple. They were not building a life, but most times just avoiding a collapse. Eventually, with no remaining options they returned to The Log Cabin Castle to the waiting (and advantageous) arms of the Beaver King.

Their wedding that were to come later would be Secret, unannounced, and unrecognized by the court. They were married by their Uncle, BillDong “The Bone-Clad” Grier. This was an offense to the Beaver King. King Robert considers him useless — a body that occupies space, a mouth that consumes, and a name that must be included on lists only because the law insists upon it. Billdong is never trusted with tools, secrets, money, or children. He is placed where he can do no harm, which is almost anywhere.

The second act in their wedding planning to was to wed on the very anniversary date of the Beaver King and the Queen Consort. We can only assume King Robert took equal or greater irritation of this fact.

There was no procession. No public blessing. No family acknowledgment. The marriage occurred quietly, without approval or objection—because it was not noticed.

On the night of their wedding, Lord Bucker and newly named Lady Jessalyn spent the evening not with King Robert, nor with court, nor with witnesses of standing.

They spent it having a simple repast with Baylor the Brave and This Minstrelle. (This was before The Turning.)

No feast. No dancing. Just presence.

It is perceived by This Minstrelle that their marriage did not begin with hope. It began with familiarity and retreat. They did not marry because the world supported them. They married because no one stopped them, and no one offered anything better.

They returned to Beaverton not as heirs or rebels, but as two people who had nowhere else to go—and married without the world noticing.