A Tale of ....

In a small country, there once lived a king. He was a kind and well liked king, who ruled his little, but very strange backward country, with a firm hand when necessary. One day a stranger came to the court to request an audience with the king. The guard at gate ceremoniously acquired his name, and entered it into a large leather bound ledger. The guard told him that he would be able to see the king the following day shortly after breakfast “And….Don’t be late!”
The young man went to the boarding house, just a block away from the castle wanting to take out a room for the week.
“So, young man,” the old woman asked him, “is this stay purely for pleasure or do you have business to conduct?”
“Madam this is strictly a business trip, I have an important business proposal to bring to the king. It may well turn this country upside down…” He smiled at her, but she did not return the smile.
“Well I didn’t mean it quite literally,” he said, trying to patch up the impression he seemingly had created with the old woman. However, the old woman just pushed over the old leather bound register book, and pointed to where she wanted him to sign in.
“Sign there…”
He shrugged and did as she had requested.
She yelled something out to the back and a young boy appeared.
“Take the guest to room nine,” she demanded and the boy grabbed the stranger’s bags and nodded for him to follow.
Once in the hall way the young man asked the boy, if he could shed some light on why the old woman had reacted so cross to his innocent remarks. The boy shook his head, and quickly delivered the bags to room nine, received his tip and left without a word beyond ‘thanks.’
Wondering about this strange turn of events, the young man went to bed, and fell into a deep, though rather restless sleep. It was still dark when he suddenly was jarred out of sleep and sat bolt upright in the bed. He heard….