I wrote my first draft of this story in high school. Our assignment was to write a short story using a certain number of elements of Romantic literature (as in Romanticism, not romantic relationships) plus it had to incorporate a rather lengthy vocabulary list. Years later, a shortened version won a contest and became the first short story I ever had published.

 

"2 Knights" started with my dissatisfaction over the famous version of Sleeping Beauty (at the time, I was unaware that the even more distasteful orginal tale involved rape). It's horrible to imagine two people getting married without knowing anything about one another beforehand. I wanted them to develop a real relationship and I wanted their relationship to be a choice, not simply a matter of destiny. Hence, the need for the princess to talk. Everything else followed from that kernel.