18 . 11 . 08
Sorry for the horrendous delay. Life, more times than not, gets in the way of writing. However, I am – if only for a brief moment – the victor! Here are the fruits of my spoils.
Disclaimer: Gloria's personality is Cimh's.
After sleeping in the hollow of a tree, and spending an entire day refusing to so much as look at any of the ponds he came across, Thomas grumblingly returned to the clear pool with the waterfall that Wyn had led him to the day before. It had algae and plants in it, a fact that caused Thomas to shudder, but he had little choice. His thoughts were—water!—rapidly de—Water!—grading into—WATER!—uselessly ch—WATERWATER!—oppy sentences.
His lack of ability to concentrate was giving him a headache, so he cautiously, regretfully, slid into the crystal pool. His thoughts immediately cleared, and he enjoyed a few moments of respite before he was reminded of his hunger. He sighed heavily and sunk further into the water, feet steeped in pond mud. A prince was never to find peace in this accursed forest.
Watching the other frogs snapping flies and mosquitoes out of the air only made him more sullen. It took a great deal of effort to beat back the frog instincts and keep his tongue inside of his mouth, and he was soon exhausted.
He slept by the riverbank that night, and spent the next day trying to find his way out of the forest, demanding help from any forest creature unfortunate enough to cross his path. Sadly, the stories weren't true – the animals did not speak, or, at least, did not speak such that he could understand them. He couldn't even interpret the soft croaks of the frogs, much to his chagrin.
He spent the next five days wandering around the forest, always running back into the waterfall pool, which he began to think of as a sort of temporary home base after he stopped being frustrated that he was walking in circles. There was a sheltered niche underneath the waterfall where he could sleep in the light mist, therefore staying comfortably dry, but not waking up in the middle of the night needing a dip. He kept venturing out, but could never make it to any edge of the forest.
He still refused to eat a bug. He tried to eat berries, leaves, grass, roots, nuts, fruit, and anything else he could find once he got hungry enough on his third day as a frog, but he felt very ill afterwards and had to go through the extremely unpleasant process of throwing it up again. This, Thomas discovered, was even more unpleasant as a frog than as a human. Apparently, frogs vomit their entire stomach out of their mouth and then have to carefully clean it out while trying not to gag on it.
That was enough to give Thomas nightmares, and he didn't try to eat anything else after that first, very long, night. He figured out how to stifle his froggish instincts, though they still annoyed him, but as he was dead set against eating an insect, he thought he had little choice than to put up with the annoying voice.
By the time Wyn reappeared at dusk on his eighth full day as a frog, he was so hungry that he couldn't see straight.
"How you doing, froggie?" she asked, hovering above his head, just a fuzzy green blob in his vision.
Thomas thought the green blob very comforting and stared at it as it buzzed in little circles, making some sort of noise. He blinked and slipped a bit more into the water.
"Froggie?"
Even his instincts had hushed now, leaving him in blessed silence.
"Thomas?" Wyn asked, now really worried.
He didn't respond. She flew in a tight circle around him, then put a cautious hand on his face. He didn't flinch. She pulled her hand back like she'd been stung and stared at him for a minute before shaking her head in disgust and disbelief.
"I didn't think he'd be that much of an uppity brat," she muttered to herself, flying away.
The green blob disappeared, but Thomas didn't really care. Everything was silent. He wasn't even hungry anymore. He liked the feeling of being suspended in the water, even if it was dirty. The sky darkened, but there were no stars. Thomas realized, uncaring, that it was his vision darkening, not the sky.
He contemplated that dying didn't hurt very much.
"Eat this," a high pitched voice said next to him.
He smelled bugs and kept his lips tightly shut, even when Wyn tried to pry them open.
"I should let you starve," she said, words light, though her tone was anxious.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and a moment later the green fairy was gone, replaced with a human the size of a fox. She prized his mouth open and dropped a handful of smashed flies into it. When he started to choke she wordlessly gestured at his mouth and the flies slipped down his throat.
"Now, idiot, eat," she said with a sudden grin. "That wasn't so bad, was it? Your survival instincts must be completely shot. Did someone squish your egg, froggie?"
"I'm a human," he managed to mutter, though he still felt very woozy. "And I don't eat bugs."
"You're a frog," Wyn corrected, closing her eyes and returning to her smaller, fairy form. "And you do eat bugs. You eat them, or you die."
"I almost died, didn't I?" Thomas said, looking interested.
"Yes, you did," Wyn said cheerily. "It's a good thing Wyn was here to save the damsel in distress."
Before Thomas could protest to being called a damsel, she vanished.
Large amounts of poofy fabric blocked the door of the carriage, effectively cutting off any view Jared might have had of the arriving girl. He stood on tiptoe, trying to see over the monstrosity of a dress that Gloria had been forced into that morning. It was large enough in volume to completely conceal a small child beneath its skirts, and even the beautiful shade of peach wasn't enough to condone it in Gloria's eyes. As she had so elegantly said earlier that morning,
"With this dress, I could smuggle ten armed soldiers into the palace, and no one would be the wiser."
Jared, after one look at the dress, speechless for once in his life, agreed. He did not have any idea why fashions demanded such a bulky dress. He was informed that the bulky dresses were only for the morning and tea, and all evening events demanded dresses with much less poof to them. After a long dissertation on why it would cost the country less money if they allowed the same fashion for the entire day, they were interrupted by Alexis' arrival, which left him where he was now, craning his neck to see Alexis but finding it impossible.
"Gloria, budge your—bu...stle," he cried, quickly changing words halfway through when he saw both sets of parents watching him keenly. "I'd like to see Alexis sometime today."
The girls didn't appear to hear him, chunnering away between themselves so rapidly that he couldn't hear where one girl's sentence ended and the other's began. After several pointed coughs, Gloria stepped down from the carriage and drew Alexis out by the hand. Her parents were already being greeted by Gloria and Jared's parents.
"Alexis," Jared said, his long speech about the treasure of unwasted time forgotten when his eyes met Alexis's, albeit briefly. She dropped her gaze shyly.
"Hello, Jared," she said softly.
"It's—I mean—I—It's nice to see you again," he stuttered. He looked unsure whether to hold out his hand or embrace her, and was left in an awkward position of doing nothing at all. Gloria savored the awkwardness for a full fifteen seconds before she broke it.
"The horses are already saddled. Our parents said we could go looking for the waterfall right away, if you wanted to."
"Yes, let's!" Alexis said quietly, though her eyes sparkled in excitement. "I must change my clothes right away, then we can go. Adrian, would you bring my clothes trunk up to the spare bedroom right away?"
"It's the second bedroom on the left as you go up the stairs," Jared informed the man unloading the carriage. "You can't lose your way. It's the yellow room."
"Lexie, what are you telling Adrian to do?" Alexis' mother asked, disentangling herself from the long greetings she was receiving from Lady Tiroe.
"Lady Carter," Jared said, taking her arm and smiling winningly. "Welcome to Greyson. I trust your journey was a comfortable one?"
"Yes, it was," the tall, pretty woman said, temporarily distracted from her query and smiling back at Jared. "And how are you, Lord Tiroe?"
"Better than Lady Alexis, I would think," he said seriously. "It seems her legs are stiff from the long journey. We were just discussing riding into the woods together – if it was alright with you and Sir Carter, of course. We would never think of running off without your knowledge, as I hope you know."
"Welcome to Greyson, Lady Carter," Gloria said, expertly wedging her comment as Jared took breath to continue. "Would you allow us to take a ride?"
Lady Carter looked hesitant, but after a few perfunctory questions of Alexis' well-being, and making sure the other two had permission, she allowed the trio to go for a ride.
"Thank you, Mama!" Alexis said, smiling and kissing her mother on the cheek.
The other two chorused their thanks as Gloria grabbed Alexis' hand.
"Come on, you must get changed!"
They started toward the house, then Gloria looked over her shoulder at Jared.
"Meet us in the stable," she said before ducking into the house.
"Yeah, fine," he muttered, stumping off to the stables. "Not like I did all the hard work of convincing Lady Carter or anything."
Meet Alexis! And Thomas really is stubborn, isn't he? --shakes head sadly--
EVA: Huzzah! Speculation! Here's your raspberries and white chocolate. --hands them over-- I can't say you're perfectly correct, but you are rather close. Of course, the fun of this story is the predictability/cliché-ness, in my opinion. This is a cutesy story, for the most part, that has some subtle themes and messages for those who are looking for them. LOL? Well, LOL to you too, then.
Mazkeraide: Too true. Spunky is very overdone. She might be a little cliché, but this whole story kind of is, so I hope you can forgive me. I like her, though, so I don't think I'll be able to let her get too terrible. --white chocolate with raspberries for you, too-- You are basically psychic. How do you do that?
Faylinn: They're about 16 or so. They act a bit immature, though, as they don't really have to put up with much of anything, being noble's children. They'll grow up hard and fast pretty soon, though. But yeah, I see what you're saying; they probably did that 'going out' thing when they were younger, then abandoned it in favor of friendship. And now Gloria has Alexis to tease him about constantly, so that's a good thing, too. --grin--
Forever Daydreaming: Yes, that plotline is cute, but often done the same old way every time, which makes it dull, dull, dull. Nope. I've got my Prince Charming for this one. Jared's got his own lady-maid. Ah, teenagers. Not my favorite stage of childhood. The title really does suit him. He's such a toad, even in real life. --chuckle--
Falchion: Good guess! Have some chocolate with your raspberries. Wyn is fun to write. I like her. --grin--
Darth Chocolate: Good guesses! Have some chocolate with your raspberries.
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