"Prince Turandot…"
Summary: Can the courageous Princess Amy unfreeze the icy heart of the cruel Prince Sheldon Turandot? Well, she's giving it her all…In song as well as deed.
Disclaimer: What's Chuck's is Chuck's…No infringement intended…
Part II:
Later that night, the capital city of Pasadena…
The tavern district…Prince Sheldon having placed strict confines as to the areas on which taverns could be built. Namely as far away from his palace and the few areas around it he needed to travel between…
Where two of the three newly confirmed royal ministers were continuing the evening's festivities by doing their best to get as blindly, stupefied drunk as possible…
Though Pong was carefully keeping an eye out for government spies, informers, anyone who might decide to rat on them…Ping having drawn a bit of attention to himself this evening with his gallant but misjudged effort to assist the tragic Princess of Persia…
Now currently being packed for shipment home in two containers…
"We…" Ping put up a drunken finger… "Work for …A monster…Hic…" he eyed the others…Taking a large swig of plum wine from his chalice. "Yes…That is my…Conclusion…Based on…Allmyexperience as a Confused…Konfusian…As a guy who thinks about things for money."
"Ok…Ping…" Pong patted him. "Our boss in the lowest section of the lowest department of things is a terrible guy, granted…" he looked round the tavern…
Just a few drunks…One looking straight ahead, tears on his face…
Was that one of Kripke's guards…? Best to watch it…
"But…We wouldn't want anyone to think we were talking about something concerning tonight's events, right kiddo?"
"He's a maniac, dude…" Pang shook his head… "He went ahead…And he just…That poor kid…"
"Yeah…Yeah…" Pong nodded hastily… "It's terrible when someone gets canned…But totally nothing to do with the big events of the day…Ok, fellas…I think it's high time we headed for home…OK?" he tugged at Ping who eyed him…
"I'm acoward…No matter what that pretty blonde girl said…I'mcoward, Ping…"
"I'm Pong…You're Ping, Ping…Now, come on and be a good fella and lets go home."
"Home?…Back to that house of d…hic…eath…I can't go there…" Pang groaned. "Oh, I can hear the voices of all those poor girls crying out…Bubbling through the earth…"
"You hear the sound of the ale and plum wine bubbling out of you. Now come on and help me get Ping here safely home before we have an accident…Leading to our arrest."
"Acoward!" Ping cried… "I let em kill that girl after I slept wid' her…I slep' wid' princess…Ya know that?" he eyed Pong…
"Whole world's gonna know it in a few minutes, buddy…" Pong sighed… "Oh, please come on guys, we'll go home, we'll talk…"
"And drin' cause ni' is young…" Pang eyed him.
"Uh…Sure…Whatever…" Pong nodded.
"Need some help?" Penny eyed him…Standing by the table, having slipped into the tavern before he'd had a chance to notice her.
"Oh…" Ping stared at her from his seat… "Is u…The pretty blonde girl…Hello, pretty lil' blonde girl…ImcowardPing…Nice ta meet…" he made a half rise from his seat.
"Likewise, sir…" she nodded, turning back to Pong.
"We'd better go…" she urged.
"Go where and just who are you?" Pong eyed her.
"Penny, server #12, from the Imperial Cheesecake Factory in the imperial kitchens…Nice to meetcha." She put out a hand…
"…sir…" she frowned at Pong's slightly off-put look.
After all, rigid caste society here…Slave girl, however feisty and kind-hearted.
"Right…" she put hand down. "Well, if you want a hand getting them out before someone takes notice, I've someone who'd like to meet with you at a safe place…"
…..
"Child, pardon me…" the old Empress Meemaw eyed the figure before her in the abandoned cave in the hills near the palace where they'd taken refuge…One of several hiding places the Empress and Penny used to dodge the Empress' seekers… Amy of the Fowlers now free of her disguising hooded cloak and clearly bearing the stamp of the Fowlers in regal tresses of hair, deep brown eyes, and firm chin…In her chain armor, cardigan and tunic, sword at side… Fussing with said rather chaffing chain armor…
"…But are you out of your mind? You say you're in love with my grandson, the Prince, after one look? While he was having a young woman whose crime was to try to marry him, executed?"
"A bit eccentric, I know, Empress…" Amy sighed.
"Bat-shit crazy, girl…" Empress Meemaw shook her head. "And indicative of your being alone far too long…Dear, I can't help but want to believe the best of my Sheldon, but given the evidence of your eyes, how could you possibly…" she eyed Amy.
"There were rumors about your parents and everyone says your sister was hidden away as lunatic…"
"Exaggerations…Mother and father were third cousins, Charlotte's a bit deformed from a congenital illness…They say things about Prince Sheldon too, I've heard them ever since I first heard of him."
"Well, he was tested…By our best philosophers…" the Empress frowned…
"Not that I personally put much stock in them…"
Hmmn…
"I see…" she eyed Amy… "You've been a fan…And you've met him before…"
"Yes…Once…And I've never forgotten that day…Even though I had every reason to hate him and have tried, for the family honor's sake…It only took one renewed look at that beautiful face."
"Many women have said that…It's not just the chance to rule California that's lured so many to their horrific deaths here." Meemaw sighed.
"I've always believed…Even in the moments I most despised what I'd heard of his actions…That I could help him, if he'd ever let me near." Amy sighed.
"I'd like to believe that, Princess…" the Empress shook her head.
Hmmn…Get that cardigan off her and do something with the hair…If my old stylist Henri still lives at court…And not too bad a imperial bride, she noted, sizing the figure before her up.
"…But I can't encourage such nonsense. I want to believe Prince Turandot is fundamentally still my good-hearted boy, but my grandson listens only to his evil advisors…"
"And the Dowager, who still rules officially…" Amy noted.
"Mary is a good girl…" Meemaw sighed… "A bit too conservative though and not willing to challenge my crazy son's terrible legacy. And she too errs on the side of caution following the ministers."
"Maybe…" Amy pondered… "But someone is doing evil here…And giving evil orders…We have to get to the bottom of this. And getting to Prince Sheldon is the best way…And there's only one way to get to him."
"You'll have to take that insane test…You'll fail…Amy, even I have no idea what the riddles or the answers are. You'll lose your head for nothing."
"Eventually we'll all be caught and killed whether I try or no…I have to make the effort. I'm the wife for Sheldon Turandot and I'm ready to risk death to prove it."
"Amy…" the Empress sighed. "It's hard for me to say this…But what if Sheldon has become a monster, wallowing in blood? His father was, equally hard as it is for me to say. I have to admit the possibility exists that you'll find him evil."
"I refuse to believe that…I saw his face, Empress…He's good…He's very good at macho cool during executions…But I saw the real him and it was weeping inside. No, the boy I met once…The Moonpie you loved…Still lives, however hidden in the man…I have to take the risk and try. And I will, tomorrow evening."
"If you're recognized…You'll be executed as a rebel." Meemaw pointed out.
"Everyone is convinced the Fowlers are all dead…Everyone but the ones who executed my family after they surrendered the kingdom. And if any of them yet live, they won't recognize me and even if they do, won't talk unless it's absolutely necessary."
"If you stand to become Empress, that would make it pretty necessary…" the old Empress noted.
"By then it would be too late…I'd have political immunity from prosecution as well as Sheldon's love. The suckas would be running if still breathing, at best. Fair targets for my blade…" Amy pulled at sword…Which stuck then came loose…
Whoa… "Forget sometimes how darned heavy that trusty thing is…" she gave a gasp trying to hold it firmly. "Better practice a bit, I've been letting my exercise go recently while wandering the kingdom, seeking answers as to who carried out the executions of my family after their capture."
"Whomever, they were after all only following my wicked son George's orders…" Meemaw sighed.
"Perhaps…But I've come to suspect they falsely accused my parents of plotting against the emperor George…I think he meant to keep them alive as tokens of goodwill…After all they did surrender when they might have escaped."
Meemaw shook head…
"George wasn't really into mercy, dear…I hate to say it, but I fear you'll find he only too happily gave orders for your family to be falsely accused."
"In any case, someone betrayed my parents' trust and the pledge of safety made to them on orders or no…And I intend to find them…And to win the heart of Prince Turandot for myself and back to the light side…Or die trying." Amy, firmly.
"Yes, well…The dying part would be quite easy I think, child." Meemaw sighed.
She stared as Amy stepped forward to the front of the cave... "Dear child, what are you doing?"
"I find it helpful to vent my emotions in song, Empress...I'm going to do an aria now."
"I see...Yes...Well..." Meemaw, staring...As Amy bursts into a song of her love for the prince she met only twice from afar...
Perhaps a test by the philosophers before the wedding if she should pull this off...Just for the great-grandchildren's sakes...
….