A/N: This is a short story I wrote for a creative writing class. Based of the Frog Prince fairy tale, I don't know if I need a copyright notice for that, if anyone owns the fairy tales. Lol, this story is mine.
The cool, fresh water felt wonderful on his hot, dry skin as he swam around in his little pond. However, now was not the time for leisure, he was warming up for his next trek to the distant bottom of the deep pond. There was not much to do as a frog in a pond, deep in the forest.
Of course, he had not always been a frog. Daryn had once been a great prince. But as most stories go, it was not a wicked witch that had turned him into a enchanted frog, but someone who he had thought was his friend, the Magician's daughter, Kirah.
As children they had often played together, and he used to think it was the most wonderful magic when she would turn them invisible and they would sneak up on unsuspecting people. Her magic also helped when they had pretended to be legendary heroes and Kirah would make the villains appear before them as though they were really there.
However, children eventually grow up. One day Kirah had asked him to play with her, and he had refused. He had said, "I have gotten too old to play children's games. I'm leaving to seek my fortune and to find adventures, slay terrible beasts and rescue fair maidens, as any good prince should."
Of course, Kirah had not enjoyed his little speech and insisted coming with him. Daryn again declined stating, "How would I look with a little girl following me around and slowing me down?"
At this, Kirah had gotten angry and yelled at him, "I'm not a little girl! I'm just as grown up as you!" This certainly did not help her case and Daryn had still refused.
Kirah had simply screwed up her face, as she did whenever she did magic, and turned him into a frog. She had not even bothered telling him how to break the enchantment besides saying, "Just till you learn your lesson." She had then put him in a box and taken him into the deepest part of the forest where almost no one came and left him in the pond.
The first few days she had come to visit him, and Daryn had attempted being nice to her. He hoped to placate her so that she would turn him back into a prince, but she said he hadn't learned his lesson yet.
Then he had been rather rude to her, and she had left. Daryn had tried to follow her but he was not used to the way his new body worked and had gotten tired quickly.
He then decided to sit there till she came back. But it was not long before he heard a noise that frightened him, and he jumped back to the pond as fast as his legs could carry him. He had never used to be afraid of snakes, but he found that as a frog, many things now terrified him. Everything was far larger than him, and probably wished to make Daryn their next meal.
It had been three weeks since and Daryn had become considerably lonely. To pass time, he had been trying to reach the bottom of his pond. However, he had not even come close enough to see it before he grew so tired he had to return to the surface before he croaked.
Daryn started his dive down to the bottom, swimming with his powerful back legs. He had found he did not mind being a frog. There was no one to tell him what to do, when to do it, how to do it, to "Sit up straighter!" or, "Hold your sword more firmly!" and even things like, "A true prince would never do that!" Well Daryn was not a prince anymore and now he could do whatever he wanted. He did not even mind eating bugs, as he had found some especially delicious. The only thing he found he truly missed was Kirah. He wished he had not been so surly with her.
He was just beginning to see the bottom of the pond when his left leg started to cramp and he had to stop swimming to make it stop. He allowed himself to float all the way back to the top and started swimming faster when he noticed someone sitting by his pond. Hoping it was Kirah coming back to see him he rushed back, and hopped onto his lily pad.
To his disappointment, he found it was not Kirah. It was the snobby princess he had seen a few times before. The first time she had come by his pond he had called to her, but once she saw him she had run off as fast as her dainty feet could carry her.
Ever since then she had stayed as far from the pond as she could while still keeping him in sight. She would sit watching him from afar with a look of pure disgust across her lovely face. She now sat at the edge of his pond looking off into space while fiddling with the golden bracelet she wore around her wrist. It was a strangely familiar gesture.
Now that he thought about it there was something familiar about her, but from this distance he could not be sure. The faint glimmer of a golden crown in her hair told him it was a princess though not one he was familiar with. Her raven hair reminded him of Kirah's dark locks, but he had never known Kirah to be seen in a dress.
He splashed onto his lily pad to get a better look. She started to move away, but when she realized who it was, she sat back against the tree.
"Oh, it's you." Displeasure was evident in her voice, though she hadn't left. Daryn was relieved that he at last had someone to talk to.
Of course, Daryn had heard the various stories of countless princes getting turned to toads by wicked witches and then returning to human once being kissed by a beautiful princess. Even the one where the princess had thrown the poor guy against a wall but then showed remorse when the toad had laid there unmoving and even that prince had been returned to his form. Daryn didn't think he'd mind if this princess threw him against a tree if it meant he could go home and apologize to Kirah.
He was just about to ask the girl to give it a try, when the princess spoke, "So are you another prince who has been turned into a toad by some wicked witch?"
He was so surprised that, at first, he did not say anything. However, He soon realized this might be his only chance at getting out of this mess. "Well, I am a frog and she certainly was not wicked." He let out as much of a sigh as a frog could manage, "I believe I deserve this."
"Oh, really?" She asked, seeming less disgusted and more intrigued by this shred of information. Maybe if she feels sorry enough for me she'll give me a kiss and I won't have to be thrown anywhere, Daryn thought to himself. So he continued, "Yes, I was terrible to her. She was my friend and I was really callous."
She gave him a soft smile, "Maybe you should apologize to her, and then she could turn you back to whom you were."
Daryn suddenly realized that there was something oddly familiar about this girl. It must be her eyes. He had only ever known one person with emerald eyes. "I would if I could, but I am too small to jump back to her house, and she will not come see me anymore."
She sighed, "That's really too bad."
"Perhaps you could carry me there?" Daryn was ready to beg if necessary but the look she gave him told him there was no way she would ever deign to help him.
"Well, I guess your stuck as a frog." She got up to leave but Daryn called out to her, "If you ever meet a witch by the name of Kirah, could you tell her Daryn is truly sorry for what he did?" The girl looked surprised for a moment but then a wide grin spread across her face.
"I think she already knows." She said softly to him.
"What do you mean?" asked Daryn. "How could she know?"
The girl then screwed up her face, the way Kirah used to when she was doing magic, and suddenly the girl he had thought to be a princess had turned into Kirah.
"Kirah?" He croaky frog voice was gone. He was now kneeling as a man in about two feet of water. What he had thought was a large pond was nothing but a big puddle. I must have been a very small frog.
He stood and pulled Kirah into an embrace. "I'm sorry that I was ever mean to you, I should have known better than to get on the wrong side of a witch." She returned the hug but pushed him away quickly. "You're all wet," she laughed.
He grinned, "I'll take you anywhere you wish to go."
"You had better, or I would have to turn you back into something much worse than a frog." She took his hand and they walked back to town. From there they went on to have many adventures and lived happily ever after.