Chapter 10: The Transformed Princess

In which Arthur climbs a tree, Alfred rescues a cat, and Francis proposes a tropical retreat.

Being woken up by a dog's cold nose pressing against your face is rarely a pleasant experience, but it was even worse for Arthur. He was damp and cold and didn't understand why stabs of pain kept shooting up his leg since the last thing he remembered was riding on his horse. Arthur blinked his eyes and felt every hair stand on end as he saw the giant hell-beast sniffing at his face. He leapt to his feet and tried to run, finding it more difficult than usual because he had two extra legs.

He raced out of the ditch as the dog followed at his tail. Relying on instinct, Arthur raced to one of the giant trees and climbed it quickly using his claws. He gripped the branch tightly and shouted at the dog, "Bad dog! Go away!"

The dog continued barking. Then whined and set on its haunches, prepared for Arthur to come down eventually.

Arthur glanced down at the ground, which seemed much further away than possible. His leg still hurt—a dull aching pain from an injury that must have occurred when he fell into the ditch. The pain lessened now that he wasn't running away from terrifying canines. Arthur noticed a cream paw on the branch beneath him and the realization slowly dawned that it was his paw. He swished his tail and tried to understand how he could sense something that shouldn't exist. Arthur rested his head against the tree branch and focused his thoughts.

The good news was that the world was not suddenly filled with giant dogs and trees. The trees and dogs were the same size as before—he was the one with a changed perspective. The bad news was that he wouldn't be able to undo the spell without his spellbooks. Also, he wasn't sure how he was planning to scale down the tree much less deal with the barking dog.

Arthur glanced around looking for a potential source of help. Colors seemed strange and he thought he could see more greens than normal. He could smell more of the forest. The musk of a nearby dying tree, the sweet sap flowing beneath his paws, the scents of flowers wafting on the breeze. It was all very beautiful—but unfortunately, none of it could help him shoo away the dog or return to his human body.

Just past the next line of trees, he could see the road that led to Kiku's cave. Arthur called for his horse, hoping that it would scare away the dog. Nothing responded.

Arthur rested his head on his paws and consoled himself with the knowledge that he definitely wouldn't have to worry about marrying Francis now. A cat marrying a frog, what a pair they would be!

He sighed, unsure what he intended to do once Alfred returned with Francis. At the moment, his best plan was to ship Francis to a princess-free tropical island. He certainly didn't intend to keep his fiancé in a wicker basket for the rest of his life.

Arthur watched the sun slowly set, changing the angle of light filtering through the trees. He dozed for a while, but perked up as he heard hoofbeats coming along the road. Arthur hoped it was his horse coming back for him.

"Over here, come here girl!" he called as the dog began barking again.

The horse and its rider trampled through the small amount of brush separating the road from Arthur's tree. As they approached, the dog whined and ran away. The rider glanced up into the tree's branches, giving Arthur a clear view of his face. It was Alfred. Arthur felt both grateful and embarrassed.

Alfred smiled. "Hey there, little fella. Need help getting down?"

Arthur stood up and carefully moved closer to the trunk of the tree. "No, I'm fine, Alfred. I'm just… contemplating my options." Cats managed to climb down trees all the time, and he was smarter than a cat, so it couldn't be hard.

The cat princess stared at the trunk and tested his claws. They seemed to give him a good grip, all he would need to do was make a rush down the tree. Arthur gathered his courage and prepared to run down. He twitched his tail in agitation and stared at the ground… which appeared to recede before his eyes. Arthur backed up and shook his head. He needed a better plan. Preferably one that didn't involved depending on his new claws.

Alfred dismounted and moved closer. "Looks like he's stuck," he said, glancing up at the tree with a fond smile.

"I'm sure I can manage. I'll just… or perhaps I could…"

"Alfred, we don't have time to rescue cats from trees," Francis muttered in annoyance. "He found a way up, he can find a way down."

"What kind of heroic knight would I be if I left helpless kitties stuck in trees?" Alfred called back with a grin.

Arthur ignored their conversation. He moved this way and that, but he was already on the lowest branch and a good ten feet from the ground. He wanted to jump, but his legs wouldn't let him. He looked at Alfred's smiling face and admitted that he would have to do something very difficult. He needed to ask the knight for help.

"On second thought, I could use just a… um, a bit of assistance," Arthur said nonchalantly. "This tree seems a little taller than when I originally climbed it. Do you think you could place some soft plants at the base of the tree?"

Alfred called his horse over and had Ace stand next to the tree. Then he pulled himself to a standing position on the horse's back, using the trunk to hold himself steady as he stood to his full height. With his own height plus the horse's, Alfred could easily reach Arthur.

"Now, no claws. Got it?"

"Of course not," Arthur replied dismissively. He didn't bite that hand that fed him, or in this case, claw the hand that rescued him. He allowed himself to be manhandled—cathandled?—and carried down to the ground.

"Oh geez, it looks like his leg's hurt," Alfred said as he gently touched Arthur's leg.

"It's just a flesh wound."

"I'd better take him to Emma. She knows how to fix up cats."

"The witch? Are you crazy?" Arthur protested. "She threw a bucket of water on me the first time we met. I can't imagine what she'll do now that I'm a cat. No, take me back to Kiku. I'll be able to use my spellbooks to heal the leg and become human again."

"Geez, he's a talkative fella, ain't he?" Alfred said fondly.

"Yes, almost as much of a prattlebasket as you," Arthur retorted.

"Hmm, perhaps it would be a good idea to see Emma first," Francis said thoughtfully, realizing that it would give him an opportunity to see Angelique. Alfred nodded and closed the saddlebag. He cradled Arthur against his chest and then urged his horse to a trot.

Arthur resisted the urge to sink his claws into Alfred's flesh. "Are you listening to him or to me? I said Kiku's cave," he protested loudly.

"Don't worry, little fella, we'll get you all healed up soon," Alfred said gently. Arthur curled tighter and tried to ignore his precarious position. He didn't want to fall off a horse twice in the same day, but Alfred seemed to be ignoring his every attempt to insist that he slow down and head to Kiku's lair. Arthur replayed the conversation in his mind and drew the logical conclusion.

"You can't understand a single word I'm saying, can you?"

Alfred reached Emma's cottage at twilight. He kept the cat he had rescued in his arms, worried that it would get in a fight with one of Emma's cats. The cat at least seemed content to be carried and held. Alfred knocked on the door.

"This isn't one of yours, is it?" he asked as Emma opened the door. She shook her head and agreed to examine the cat. The cat waited patiently on the table, far quieter than when Alfred had originally rescued him from the tree. He guessed that the cat realized that Emma wanted to help. She tended to have that effect on animals. She examined the injury as Alfred watched.

"Nothing I can't handle," Emma reassured him as began to rummage through her cupboards looking for a specific potion.

Alfred reached out to scratch the cat behind his ears. "Is he upset? I can't tell why his ears are folded down," he asked as he continued petting the cat. He was a cute cat with white fur and cream spots.

"No, that's just the way his ears are," Emma replied as she handed a milk saucer over to Alfred. "Have him drink this. I think he likes you better than me."

Alfred set the saucer in front of the cat and continued gently petting him as the cat lapped up the milk. The cat's fur seemed surprisingly soft for a cat he found lost in the woods. He wondered if it was someone's pet, but only Emma lived in this portion of the Magical Forest. From what Alfred had heard, she had a disagreement with her brother a few years back and had declared her own territory. They still visited each other, but both seemed happier living alone (to the extent that a person living with a dozen cats could be said to be living alone).

"Any idea who he might belong to?" Alfred asked. Perhaps if he couldn't find the owner, he'd keep the cute cat for himself.

Emma brought another set of potions to the table. She thought for a moment and finally replied. "Arthur, perhaps. Although I didn't see a cat when I visited recently. By the way, when you see Arthur, let him know that he can stop worrying about the anti-princess spell. It seems to have dissipated on its own."

Alfred nodded, even though he didn't understand discussions of magic. He much preferred riddles and swords. His favorite was the Gordian knot, which involved both. Alfred noticed the cat starting to sway to the side under his hand. He glanced up at Emma, who didn't seem concerned.

"That's just the potion taking effect," she explained. "I want him sleeping while I fix his leg."

The cat twitched his tail and stumbled to the edge of the table. Alfred swept the confused cat into his arms and tried to calm him as the feline panicked. Despite his fear, the cat kept his claws retracted. Eventually Alfred set the sleeping cat on the table. Emma quickly and expertly fixed his leg with herbs and spellcraft. Alfred watched, impressed that she could fix a wound in only a few minutes. Then again, with her number of cats, she probably had a lot of practice.

"All better!" she said with a smile. She offered him use of her guestroom for the night as she put away her potions and herbs. Tired and hungry, Alfred gladly accepted. He placed the sleeping cat on a pillow at the head of the bed, grabbed his saddlebags from outside, and checked in with Francis.

"No point in seeking out Arthur tonight, he will only be grouchy," Francis agreed, then bid Alfred good night.

Underneath the starry sky, Francis hopped out to join Angelique in the tulip field. They sat together in silence. He had brought her up to date as soon as he arrived and she in turn had given him good news—Emma didn't discuss her spells much, but her cats had gleefully informed Angelique of a spell that could remove the effects of a spell and cause the effects to rebound on the original castor. She was looking forward to turning the wizard she had angered into a frog.

"When we're human again… what then?" she asked.

"I was thinking that I could visit your tropical island, perhaps."

She laughed. "Don't you need to get married to eyebrows-jerk?"

"If Arthur can spend a few months in a dragon's lair, surely I can afford to visit your island."

"You would like Seysel. One of the islands has a little cove we call silver beach because the sand is so pure. It looks gorgeous next to the turquoise sea. I could spend all day sipping coconut and listening to the crash of the waves. And, oh, the fish. I miss the fish most of all," she said wistfully as she described her home. "I wish I was back there and not stuck here eating crickets."

Francis nodded—he had been wishing the exact same thing.

Arthur woke up to the sound of soft breathing on the pillow next to him. With his newfound night vision, he examined the room. It was small, just barely large enough to hold the bed and a night stand. Alfred slumbered next to him, his expression filled with youth and innocence. Arthur debated finding a new spot to sleep, but the ground looked much harder than his current spot on the soft pillow. Warmth and comfort won out and he curled up and returned to sleep.

Rays of warm sunlight peeking through the shutters woke Arthur in the morning. He stretched and realized that his leg now felt completely fine. His annoyance with Emma disappeared.

"Come on, are you planning to sleep until noon?" Arthur asked Alfred, before remembering that anything he said would come out as meows. In this case, the meows had the desired effect. Alfred blinked and sat up in the bed. He reached out to pet Arthur's fur.

"Well, little fella, I can't keep thinking of you as 'cat.' You need a name."

"I have a name. A perfectly good one, too."

"These dark spots over your eyes kinda look like eyebrows… so how do you like Browdy?"

Arthur hissed and jumped down from the bed. He had been subject to a number of indignities as a cat, but he was drawing the line at a name based on his eyebrows. His eyebrows were perfectly lovely and he didn't care what anyone else said.

Alfred laughed. "Guess that's a no. You don't need to hiss, they're cute eyebrows."

Slightly mollified, Arthur returned to the bed and let Alfred pet him a little longer. A deep rumble started in his chest and he realized to his embarrassment that he was purring.

"Since I found you in a tree, maybe 'Twiggy' would work? You're pretty small," Alfred said as he gave Arthur a final pat on the head and climbed out of bed.

The knight pulled a new set of clothes out of his saddle bags and began shamelessly changing his clothes before Arthur realized what was happening. Arthur turned his head to the side, but he still caught an appetizing glance of muscles and tanned skin. He tried not to feel embarrassed for the third time that morning. If a cat could look at a king… surely he could look at a knight, he reminded himself.

Spending so much time with a touchy-feely knight was doing nothing for his mental state. Arthur needed to find a way back to humanity…

"Come on, Twiggy-iggy, it's breakfast time!"

…and the sooner the better.

Author's Notes

Two-thirds of the story done!

Do I need to rate this fic M because Alfred and Arthur slept together in this chapter? ;)

Love and Duty and Riddles

As any of you who've read the Shades of Spades will know, I love building stories around the tension between love and duty. Of course, because I'm a huge romantic, my characters always find a way to reconcile the two. Here, I've posed the I-don't-want-to-marry-Francis problem as a riddle, because the theme of this story is that any riddle can be solved.

Why riddles? Well, "Dealing with Dragons" is the main story inspiring this one, but another key source I used for inspiration was the Hobbit, mainly for the idea that dragons love riddles and for the concept of a riddle battle. I didn't want rescuing princesses to involve actual violence. My love of Professor Layton was another inspiration for using puzzles to complete quests.

Monty Python References

"It's just a flesh wound" is the fourth reference to Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail in this story. I love tossing in Monty Python references :)