Oh, My, God. I did not expect such a great response, you guys! Everyone who reviewed, thank you so much! Certain … inconsistencies have been fixed in Chapter One, and scenery descriptions upped a bit. Thank you especially to OnomatopoeiaMan and MagRowan. And yes, several stories will be incorporated – including the Twelve Dancing Princesses and King Grisly Beard. Just a few that got left out of the movie. Please, keep talking: I live for reviews. Update rate estimated at one chapter per week, if my schedule does not kill me dead.
Same disclaimer. I own nothing better than what you might find at a garage sale, so please do not sue.
The Perils of Dancing Princesses- or, a Most Humble Sequel
Chapter Two- In Which, Perhaps, Jake Wishes He Had Not Been Found
Jake was lost.
Oh, God, and Saint Francis above, was he lost.
"Are we lost?"
He was lost, in the woods, at night, staring at a creek that shouldn't be there. There could be wolves, or really big spiders -
"We're lost, aren't we, Jake?"
- At least the trees had stopped moving. Hadn't they? -
"Ah, God in Heaven, he's lost us again!"
- Maybe there was some vine, with magic still in it, which would string up his brother by the ankle. There was a fine idea.
Will found a handy boulder, still being wary of trees, and sat on it. "That's it, Jake, it's your turn to lick the frog."
"She's a toad, Will. And besides! I didn't ask you to come. In fact, I remember specifically telling you not to. You could be very comfortably ensconced at the village inn right now, some girl with dainty ankles sitting on your knee." Jake grimaced. As Will opened his mouth to protest, Jake pushed forward. "You followed me. You made me lose us. Therefore, it is your fault, not mine, that we are lost."
"So you admit we're lost!"
"Can we please stop saying that word!"
And so, thus chastened, Will sat in silence on his boulder, watching his brother pace in the space the dense forest would allow. They were in a little ravine of sorts, a short cliff wall at his back and a creek in front. The light was almost gone, twilight filtering down through the ancient trees, barely illuminating the scruffy bushes and rocky underbrush.
Jake, for his part, was efficiently wearing a track in the moss at his feet. Nervously readjusting his glasses, he took stock of their situation. They were off course in the forest, a good distance from the town. You're disgusting…. They had no supplies - no food, no flint, no blankets. He'll never want you…. They had no guide. They had to find Grandmother Toad, but he had no idea how to go about that. Look at him. How could you think he would want you?... If only Angelika-
"Jake? What's on your mind?
Startled, Jake's expression resembled that of a nervous deer. "What?"
Will smiled indulgently, and ran a hand through his hair. "What's been on your mind recently, brother? You seem even more bewildered than usual."
The younger Grimm, naturally, didn't know whether to be touched or angry with his brother. For a moment, he simply stood there and stared, perplexed. When Will grinned again, he realized what a picture he must make – clothes out of place, thatching in his tunic, and spectacles about to fall off his nose. Hurriedly, he pushed his spectacles into place and tugged at his sleeves.
"Just … you're an idiot, you know?"
Will's face fell. "You won't tell me what I did. I can't read your mind, Jake, so how can I fix it? What ever I did …" he cleared his throat, and looked at everything but Jake. "I thought things were going well for us, finally. Was I wrong?"
Staring, yet again, Jake felt his anger at his brother wane, and a heavy sorrow take its place. He went and sat down beside his brother, his thick, idiot of a brother, who really hadn't done anything wrong, except to remain oblivious. He huffed a bit, and turned to look at Will.
Who was, in turn, looking at him, silently asking forgiveness for being dense.
"It's alright, Will. I'm fine, it's just the excitement – or something…." Mumbling the last part, he stared at his feet. Unexpectedly, he felt Will's hand underneath his chin, gently drawing Jake's face up to meet his. The look in Will's eyes was startling in its intensity.
"I may be an idiot sometimes, Jake, but you've never been able to lie to me. Something has been bothering you."
If only he were never like this, Jake thought, I wouldn't have to be under his thrall. And yet, if only he were always like this.
The pop! of a branch breaking behind them caused both brothers to jump, Jake all the way to his feet and some distance away.
"Excuse me, sirs? Are ye lost? It's a frightful place to wander about after dark, young sirs." The voice was uncultured, belonging to an older sounding male in a wide brimmed hat and long coat. He was standing some five feet above them on the edge of the short cliff. All other details were obliterated due to the darkness.
"Ah! A savior!" Will smiled at his brother, who was warily standing with his back to the nearest tree. "Sir, we have lost our way in the forest, and we humbly beg your assistance."
As Will climbed up to meet the stranger, Jake groaned into his hand. The Will he knew in private was gone, replaced by Will, Master Conversationalist. He could hear him now, introducing them, throwing in a barb at Jake for his antisocial behavior or something of that nature, sufficiently impressing the man, but being completely gracious and charming at the same time. Will went about procuring lodging the same way he went about procuring women.
"Well, young sir -"
"Call me Will. We're good enough friends for that, aren't we?"
"Ah, yes, of course, Will – ah – I have a little house not far from here. Certainly not what you fine sirs are used to -"
"You might be surprised," Jake griped up from his spot by the tree, where he still stood grumpily.
The man looked down, and then evidently decided to ignore the comment. "- But it does well by me and my wife. You can spend the night there, if you please, and I'll show ye the way back in the mornin'."
"Sir, you are far too kind. I hate to be any sort of burden, but with the situation we've been thrust into…." He left off with a shrug of the shoulders and that trademark grin, which Jake knew – felt – was there, even if he couldn't see it.
The younger Grimm heaved himself away from his tree trunk and started around to the sharply sloping incline. Oh, yes. This was going to be quite a night.
- o -
The man, a traveling fiddler, it turned out as he and Will continued to chat, indeed did have a cozy little cabin about a mile from where the two brothers had stalled. The cabin was small, with equally small windows, the shutters open to let in air on this warm night. The glow from them was a welcome sight indeed for the travel worn and exhausted Grimms. Once inside, Jake saw that it was a two-room affair with a half-loft above, a decent hearth, and earthy log-hewn furniture.
"Meta, my wife, see who I have found on the road. Two fine gentlemen, lost in the woods. At this hour!" He chuckled a bit, and turned to the brothers. "My wife, Meta."
Meta sat in front of the hearth in a drab, shapeless brown dress, which did nothing to disguise her beauty. Dark haired, tall, and slender, she looked at odds with everything around her. She turned from poking at the pot hanging from the hook, and silently acknowledged them. She then turned immediately back, and sitting on her little stool, resumed her stirring.
"Ah, my lady, I hope we have not inconvenienced you." Will, faced with a beautiful woman, turned that charm on as high as it would go. "The stew smells delicious, madam, and I hope you will allow my brother and I to partake."
The woman remained silent, and Will stood, unsure in the face of blatant disregard. The fiddler jumped in to cover his wife's lack of response. "Of course, of course! It's a plain meal, as my dear wife isn't much of a cook – but it will honor us to have you eat at our table." Hospitable to a fault, he indicated a bench at the roughly formed table, and instructed his wife to serve the stew.
Dinner passed mostly in silence, broken every few moments by increasingly awkward attempts by Will at conversation. The stew was indeed simple, rabbit with some wild herbs to flavor and flour to thicken it, eaten with wooden spoons and bowls. Meta gathered up the dishes quickly and dumped them in the washtub, spooning a dollop of rough soap and sand in with them.
"Please, let me show you where you both will be sleeping tonight, sir," implored the fiddler, motioning Will to the loft ladder.
"I would be delighted!" Will jumped up, looking relieved to be doing something other than sit in silence. He climbed the ladder after the fiddler, and both disappeared into the loft.
Fantastic. Jake slumped over the table, watching the fiddler's wife scrub the dishes, and wondered at her stony personality. I might as well be in a room alone. Well, not quite. If I was alone, I could at least write.
"You know …"
Startled, Jake focused back on the fiddler's wife. Had she really just spoken?
Meta straightened up and seemed to wipe her brow with the back of her hand. She stood with her back to Jake, facing the hearth and a collection of ceramic pots arranged across the mantle. They looked as if they had broken and been poorly mended.
"You know … I used to be a princess."
The only sound, for some minutes after that, was the muffled voices of the fiddler and Will exchanging compliments upstairs.
