The Twins Who Changed CanWest

By: Millie Gonzalez 

A long time ago there existed a planet far away from Earth. It was very similar to Earth, except for 2 things. First, they only had one ocean and it was a bright red color. Second, instead of countries they had kingdoms; each kingdom had its own king. Unlike on earth however, only the king ruled. The king’s wife was not a queen or royal in any way; she was merely the king’s wife.

The largest kingdom was the kingdom of CanWest. The tradition in this kingdom was that the oldest son of the king would ascend the throne. When the heir to the throne turned 20 they would hold a ceremony where the heir would become the head of the king’s guard until he became king. This would occur when the king turned 50, the age where he had to pass the crown to his heir. This way of doing things was the only way this kingdom (and the other kingdoms as well) knew. Since the start of their kingdom many centuries before our story starts, there had never been any kind of problem with this system. Every king had at least one son and each oldest son had been made head of the king’s guard and then on to become king.

One year however, tragedy struck CanWest. On a stormy night the prince was seen by the King’s head groomsman riding off towards the royal horse trials. He wondered why the prince would go riding on such a stormy night, but he did not follow. It was not his right to question the prince’s actions. When the prince did not report for his Head of the King’s Guard duties the following morning, a search party was put together to find the prince. The Head Groomsman told them what he had seen the previous night. The search party immediately began searching the royal trials. Halfway through the trials they found horse tracks going off the path. They followed the path through the more wooded area near the horse trials. The came to the cliffs near the northern border of the kingdom. To their horror they saw that the horse tracks went off the edge of the cliff. As they made their way to the edge they were all silently hoping that they would find no one, that this was some kind of mistake, that only the horse had gone off the edge…anything but that they would find what they did find: at the bottom of the cliffs, on top of what the people in CanWest called “Alien Rocks” due to their extreme and almost unnatural sharpness, was the Horse and his master the Head of the King’s Guard, the oldest son, the Heir to the Throne.

The kingdom was devastated. The king ordered the entire kingdom to wear black for 6 months, he ordered the horse trials closed for a year, and issued a royal decree that no horses were allowed in the castle grounds. He wanted to pass another decree that forbid the heir to the throne to ride horses but his wife convinced him to change it so that the Heir to the Throne was not allowed to ride horses anywhere but on the castle grounds. All of these actions were made aware to the kingdom via special announcements on radio and TV stations. The king was so grief stricken that he did not go out in public for a year.

Inside the castle grounds however, the king still maintained his duties as king. The death of the Prince was a personal and emotional blow not only to the kingdom and especially to the royal family, but it was also a huge blow to a system that was unprepared for this tragedy. The problem of who would now be king was a huge one, especially with the king’s 50^th birthday coming up in less than a year. The ordeal was made worse by the fact that the king’s other son had a twin sister.  The king ordered the Kingdom’s Law Keepers to look through the kingdom’s laws to see if there was anything at all to help device who should next be king (or queen). They came back after a month saying that there was nothing to help the king. The law never even said that a princess could not become “King.” the king thought and thought he talked to his wife; he talked to his advisors and even to other kings in other kingdoms. No one could help him because none of them had ever had this problem or even believed this could happen.  Finally, the king decided that he could not choose between his children. He felt that if the chose one the other would hate him for not choosing them and he had already lost one child. The king decided to make a revolutionary order to the kingdom: the people of the kingdom would vote to decide which of the twins would be king.

Both twins wanted to be king; they each saw an opportunity to make their mark in the history of the kingdom: if he won he would be the first youngest son to become king. If she won she would become the first daughter to become king. For months they each went out to talk to the people, to tell them why they make the best king, what they would offer to the people if they were made king. He promised to help the kingdom reach its full potential and he would improve the country’s health system. She promised to help improve the kingdom’s schools and improve their relationship with other kingdoms.  They both held huge “rallies” where they would make speeches; they even organized a debate between themselves.

          On the day of the official voting, no one knew who would win. Some people wanted to see a daughter become king; they thought it would be a tremendous change to have a woman as king; that it would make them not only the biggest kingdom but also the most advanced since no other kingdom had ever had a daughter become king. Others believed  that a youngest son as king would be beneficial for the kingdom since it would be someone who would rule out of duty, who would appreciate  being king since he had grown up not knowing he would be king one day. This and his impressive speeches and the delivery of those speeches helped him to win over his sister.

          She was upset for many months, though not angry. She knew that the people of the kingdom had made their choice and she needed to accept it. She truly wanted to leave her mark on the kingdom though, so she decided to attend CanWest University. She was such a good student that upon graduating the University offered her a job as professor of the University, becoming the first woman in the kingdom to become a professor at a university. She went on to become the first woman president of the university several years later.

 Her brother was an amazing and beloved king. Following the wake of his election to becoming king, he added to the Kingdom’s law that instead of the oldest becoming king, the kingdom would choose which of the royal children they wanted to become king. This election would be held when the youngest turned 16. In case of no royal children, the kingdom would choose someone from among the kingdom itself (with the King’s approval).  

The kingdom never forgot the prince whose sudden and unexpected tragic death brought great changes to the kingdom. It was a lesson for CanWest that they were not shielded from bad things and that they needed to (as the first youngest son to become king said in his coronation speech) “hope and live for the best and be prepare for the worst.”  He made it clear to his people that his reign would be one that would make his brother’s death not be meaningless.

CanWest would go on to become the greatest and most advanced kingdom on the planet, beginning with the twins who would both make their mark on the kingdom. History remembered them both.