Title: The Owl King
Author: MidnightCat99
Summary: Sarah just wanted her book back. How could she have foreseen the chaos engendered by her bargain with that ridiculous owl? A modern Labyrinthian retelling of "The Frog Prince."
Rating: K+
Author's Note: I'm going to try to update this frequently, but it really depends on how busy I am with schoolwork. This will probably be a pretty short story, but I may make it longer if I'm struck by any particularly good ideas.
Disclaimer: I own neither Labyrinth nor "The Frog Prince."
Prologue
All I wanted was to get my book back. How could I have known making that bargain with that ridiculous owl would engender such chaos? I couldn't have known, so there. I'm not responsible for any of this. Just so you know.
You might scold me for taking my most cherished possession into the park in the first place. After all, that was the action that instigated the annoying chain of events that currently has me in such a foul mood. But you see, it was the cruelty of my stepmother and three half-siblings that led me to the park, book in hand. I couldn't leave the novel back at home for the triplets to damage further, could I?
And the whole losing my book in a tree incident? Again, not my fault. The darned purple crayon marks obscuring the words were what caused my arm to abruptly catapult the scarlet novel up into the tree. Then it was the stubborn branches that wouldn't return my book to me no matter how hard I shook them.
Clearly, neither am I to blame for the fact that I couldn't climb the massive tree and regain my book. In my opinion, there are two types of people in this world: those who can climb trees, and those who can't. I fall under the latter category. So sue me.
And the filthy, freaky, talking owl that appeared out of the blue? Naturally, I had absolutely nothing to do with that. I detest animals, especially ones of the feathery, flying variety. Honestly, what's there to like about the nasty, sordid creatures? They eat, they defecate, they make crazy amounts of noise, and yet they expect you to pamper them like they're royalty. Disgusting. So you can see why I wouldn't have purposely summoned that sorry excuse for a barn owl. Not that I would have even known how to summon a bird. Who does?
Of course, the contract that I reluctantly struck with said repulsive winged creature wasn't my fault, either. Sure, it takes two to make a deal, but the owl tricked me into the agreement. He––it; I refuse to refer to that despicable animal as a he––talked about it like it was all roses. All I had to do was allow him be my "special friend," as he called it, for a year, and in return he'd rescue my beloved book for me. Aside from the creepy aspect of the first part of the bargain, it was a win-win situation, right? Wrong.
I'd better go back to the beginning. No doubt everything will make a lot more sense then, and you'll understand exactly why I'm right in saying that I'm innocent.
Author's Note: So…what do you think? I know it's super short, but it's just the prologue; future chapters will be longer. (: