A/N: Hey guys! This is a little something different I came up with while listening to the song It's Not Just Make Believe by Kari Kimmel on the soundtrack of Ella Enchanted. It has a wider age range for readers because I think little kids will really appreciate this. Please review! Thanks!
Summary : In the World of Grimm, there lived a princess who was destined for a happily ever after. Unfortunately, she didn't want any such thing. But Daddy had other plans: can you say Princess School for Damsels in Distress?
Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a princess whose name was Marianne. A petite little girl with fiery red hair and a freckled face, she was the only daughter of the king and queen of Baxendale. When Marianne was younger, her mother, Auroria, the queen died from the plague that the Witch of Grislore, Snow White's legendary adversary, set forth upon the Land of Grimm out of vengeance. Her father never remarried because he promised his wife that he will not risk Marianne having an evil stepmother like she did. King Farell loved the queen very much and kept his promise. He never remarried but he also made a promise to himself: That Marianne have the opportunity to fall in love like he and his wife did. And there was only one place where Marianne could go for this to happen…
The River Grimm was the longest body of water in the land that separated the East and Western Kingdoms. South by south, just beyond Iris Fields, stood the oldest stone bridge in the land, Rocky. It was the very bridge that connected the kingdom of Baxendale and Termounton.
One beautiful sunny day while the Queen of Baxendale was still alive, she brought her daughter out for a picnic. On that very same day, the Queen of Termounton went for a carriage ride as well. After waving to each other from either side of the river, they carried on with what they were doing.
Queen Auroria helped the servants set up their picnic by the glade near the woods. Queen Victorina of Termounton sat near the riverbank and soaked her feet in the water. Unbeknownst to both sovereigns as well as their servants, their children had scampered off to explore.
Little Princess Marianne ran off, careful not to squeal and alert the servants of her mischief in the direction of the bridge. She was curious to see what was on the other side. She was too young to remember that they toured Termounton with King Justus only a few weeks ago and so decided to satisfy her curiosity.
His Majesty, Spot, the royal dog had run off in the same direction and Little Prince Ralph ran after him. Spot ran across the bridge, but Ralph stayed on the very edge, afraid to cross because he heard his father say that he must get permission first from the king of Baxendale before he could go there and vice versa. He watched spot run towards something red. A person. No. A little girl. Ralph started to follow Spot, but he hesitated, fearing she must be one of the guards. It was a silly notion, but the girl looked very determined and was about to cross the step on the bridge when she saw Spot.
Marianne was surprised to see a tiny black dog yapping and running towards her. There were stray dogs everywhere in the kingdom but she'd never seen a dog wearing a tin hat shaped like a knight's helmet. She knelt on the ground and opened her arms to receive the dog that proceeded to lick her face happily. She noticed the collar had a small pendant that had a crown engraved on it.
"Hello there, doggie. You must be royalty," she said cheerily. "Where's your master?" The dog jumped out of her arms and started barking at someone across the bridge. She looked in that direction and saw a lone figure at the end looking despondent and longingly at them.
"Is that him?" she asked the dog as they stood up. As if the dog understood, he barked something that sounded to Marianne as an affirmative.
"Come on," she said. "Take me to your leader!"
Ralph saw Spot licking the girl who was laughing happily. Spot was a friendly dog, so he assumed that the girl must be nice if he liked her. Ralph was still watching them when the girl looked up at him and smiled. Ralph blushed in embarrassment but was too stunned to move a muscle. The girl said a few words to Spot and came over to his side of the bridge.
"Hi," said the girl. Ralph couldn't see anything else but the button nose and glassy blue eyes. Finally, he managed to speak and say,
"You don't have permission to be here." He wanted to grab a few rocks on the ground and eat them to punish his uncontrollable mouth. Instead of getting angry, the girl's eyes widened and she started looking around her as if someone was watching. For a moment, Ralph wondered who would be watching her from the ground and the sky.
"How did you know?" she whispered. "Did one of the servants get here first?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," he whispered back. "But this is Termounton and you need to ask the king if you want to pass. And why are we whispering?" As if to prove his point, he looked over at his servants who were a hundred yards away lounging under the trees.
"Really? I have to ask the king?" she asked, genuinely surprised that she had no idea. "I think I already did, but I'm not sure if I understood dog language correctly." She pointed at Spot, who was sitting and wagging his tail. His collar and the royal seal glinting in the sunshine. The redheaded girl with freckles and blue eyes just referred to the King of Termounton as a dog. That's when Ralph burst out laughing and the cavalry arrived.
A chorus of "Princess Marianne!" and "Prince Ralph" were heard over the sound of the rushing river. The two queens were running towards them from different directions, petticoats blowing and hats thrown in the wind, unmindful of the garishness of their actions. Both courts of Baxendale and Termounton stood dumbfounded when they saw the Little Princess and Prince rolling on the ground laughing and squealing in delight.
A few years later, near the river where they met, Princess Marianne and Prince Ralph met on one of their weekly excursions sans panicking monarch mothers.
"Ralphie! Come here!" Marianne called from the other side of a knoll on the Baxendale side of the river.
Ralph was by the riverbank looking for shiny stones to give to Marianne and her ailing mother. Queen Auroria loved the blue stones she found because it reminded her of Marianne's blue eyes.
"Hold your horses, Marianne, I'm coming," he called back as he pocketed a few more stones. He rushed towards her because he knew that she tended to be very impatient and always huffed whenever Ralph took so long. He found Marianne standing on a large rock, a segment of it flat while the end pointed up.
"Get down from there!" he scolded as he ran towards her. "You'll get hurt!"
"Always wanting to save the damsel in distress," Marianne sighed as she jumped down before Ralph could offer his help. She shook her head and grinned at him.
"Look, Ralphie," she said pointing at the rock. "Isn't it amazing?"
"It's a rock," he said wryly.
"Use your imagination! We're still children, you know." Marianne took his hand and pulled him over to the riverbank side of the rock. "What do you see?"
"A rock," he answered flatly. Marianne gave him a look and he sighed. He looked more closely and saw what she was looking at.
"It's shaped like a heart," he said in awe.
"A heart?" she asked skeptically. "I thought it looked like an arrowhead. Anyway, see here? We can lie down and watch the stars at night or since we're not allowed to go out at night, maybe listen to the river with our eyes closed." Marianne demonstrated her theory and lay down on the rock, her feet facing the river.
"Come on, then," she urged. "Try it." Ralph followed suit and lay beside her and closed his eyes.
"Isn't it wonderful?" she murmured.
"It's amazing," he whispered, his eyes no longer closed, and looking at the peaceful figure of Marianne.
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Marianne asked softly. Ralph was used to her abrupt changes in subject, by now. That was Marianne. She could never stay still and her mind was no different.
"I want to be a hero, just like our fathers," he answered, as he turned away and looked straight at the sky. Marianne snorted audibly and raised herself up.
"Are you sure?" she asked skeptically. "Do you have any idea how heroes start out?"
"I do," he answered confidently. "I'm going to Prince Charming School and train. Then I'll save a damsel in distress and whisk her off to the palace and then we'll live happily ever after. After that, I'll start saving the kingdom."
"What a load of horse dung," Marianne said as she laughed.
"Marianne, do I need to wash your mouth again?" Ralph said playfully.
"Sorry," she said sounding a little more contrite. "But I really don't believe in training half of your life to save someone who wasn't in any danger to begin with." Ralph sat up as well and regarded Marianne seriously.
"That's always how it's been here at Grimm," he said. "Princes like me go to Prince Charming School and princesses like you go to Princess School. Don't you want a fairy tale of your own?"
"I honestly don't" Marianne said dismissively. "Why would I want to learn how to sing and cry so someone who I already know will come and save me so the minstrels will spread the word that I'm a whimpering little tart that was stuck in an inconvenient tower somewhere in the woods?"
"That's not how it works and you know it," Ralph interjected. "The Princesses make a big difference in the world by luring out the hags and other kinds of evil that walk Grimm. In truth, we Princes only help."
"I also think the villains are quite stupid to fall for it every single time," Marianne added unhelpfully, ignoring Ralph's explanation.
"Aren't you going there when you come of age?" Ralph asked, trying to hide the hopefulness in his voice.
"Absolutely not!" Marianne said indignantly. "I'd rather claw my own eyes out than go to a school for helpless young women!" Ralph frowned but Marianne hardly noticed because she was still trying to force the image of her snoring on a glass box while a stranger kissed her in order for her to wake up.
"But that's how our parents met," he tried one last time. "And look how happy they all are."
"Not mine," she said miserably.
"I'm sor-"
"So, who do you want to save?" Marianne immediately cut him off and affected a cheerful tone in her voice. Ralph understood, Marianne asked him to come here to escape the gloom at her palace and he promised himself to cheer her up from here on out.
"What was the question again?" he asked. Better pay more attention this time.
"I asked who you'd want to save."
"Oh, that…" Ralph quieted for a moment and thought about it. There was only one person he wanted to save and she didn't want to be saved.
"Because I for one think Princess Elaine of Gaventhorpe is perfect for you, don't you think?" Marianne started saying. "She's nice. She rides around her kingdom giving food to their subjects. And I think she's quite pretty."
"Princess Elaine?" Ralph mused. "Well, she is one of the best candidates…" But Princess Elaine wasn't Marianne. Not Princess Marianne. Not her majesty. Just Marianne. Maybe if he told her the truth, that he wanted her to be his Princess, then maybe…
"Well good luck with that," Marianne said cheerily. "I'd hate to be in your shoes. I don't even think I'll ever get married. I think I'll take in orphans rather than have my own children. It's more practical and I'm sure my father would approve of anything I say."
So much for that plan, thought Ralph. He decided to save what's left of his pride and told Marianne that Elaine would be the perfect Princess for him. Ralph had already turned away and didn't see Marianne's hesitation.
From the impressionable age of ten, Marianne soon grew to be the young woman that everyone in her kingdom expected her to be. Her fiery red locks were still the same, long and wild like her mother's own ebony tresses. Her blue eyes which grew wider and more candid retained its ever-present mischievous glint, but anyone could see that the young princess was now finally a young lady. Her cheekbones were more pronounced, her legs almost as long as a young man's but slender as a swan's neck, and anyone could see that she was finally filling out her mother's antique dresses.
"Marianne, I can see your bloomers!" Ralph gasped, before turning a bright shade of red and ducking his head down. Princess Marianne of Baxendale laughed and came down from her perch high above the canopy of cypress trees and landed beside a disoriented Prince Ralph of Termounton. After straightening her torn petticoat and day dress, she bent down and looked up at Ralph who was squinting his eyes shut, oblivious to Marianne's descent.
"You've seen me in less, Ralphie," Marianne teased. Ralph was so surprised at her voice that he jerked back and landed on his behind. Ralph shook his head and scowled at the grinning Marianne.
"It's different this time," he said as Marianne helped him stand up. "We're older now. It's not proper for a young man like me to see you in your underwear anymore."
"I don't understand why that is," Marianne mused as they walked towards the river bend. "Honestly, Ralphie, your breeches show more than my underwear ever will. Look how tight it is! I can see everything and I mean everything." Ralph's color was almost returning to normal when he flushed again.
"It's my riding breeches," he muttered as he loosened his leather drawstrings a bit. Marianne shook her head and smiled as she lay down on the large rock situated beside the flowing River Grimm. They had been arguing since forever about its shape. Either way, it was a very comfortable place to sit or lie down while they watched the river flow.
"I wouldn't care even if you were as naked and shiny as a babe," Marianne said airily. "And you shouldn't as well."
"Marianne!" Ralph exclaimed. She looked up and saw Ralph's face contorted into a mixture of anger and annoyance. Marianne assumed it was one of his grown-up faces. For the past few weeks, Ralph tried different looks such as indifference, seriousness, determination and the one Marianne hated most, pompous ass.
"What is your problem, Ralphie?" she asked.
"Don't call me Ralphie anymore! It's Ralph now!" he shot back.
"I've been calling you Ralphie ever since I met you," she said flippantly, making Ralph all the more angrier. "Why should I stop now?"
"Because we're almost grown-ups and it's time you started acting like it!" Ralph snapped.
"I know that, Ralphi-I mean Raaaalph," she mocked. "But we're friends, aren't we? We don't need to be grown-ups when we're together like this."
Ralph sighed and lay down next to her on the rock.
"I think it's time we stopped being children , Marianne," he said quietly.
Marianne sat herself up and looked seriously at Ralph. She never heard his voice like that. Almost, wistful, or sad?
"What are you talking about, Ralphi…Ralph?" Marianne asked, her voice filled with worry.
Ralph sat up as well and looked straight into her shiny, blue eyes. This was it. This might be his only chance to tell Marianne the truth about how he really felt.
"I…" Ralph started to say. Marianne leaned closer and he could feel her warm breath wash over him. Never mind that it smelled like roast beef, for all Ralph knew at that moment, her breath might have smelled like jasmine to him.
"Yes?" Marianne said softly.
"I'm leaving for Prince Charming school," he blurted out. Marianne's face fell and Ralph wished with all his heart that he could take it back and tell her he loved her instead but the damage was done. What a coward he was. Why couldn't he just say it to Marianne and live happily ever after without a fairy tale ending?
He waited for Marianne to yell at him that it was stupid and useless, but all Marianne did was blink twice and then run away, along the river, over the bridge, across the fields and just simply gone. That was the last time Prince Ralph saw Princess Marianne before he left for Prince Charming School.
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