Chapter 10: Filling the Blanks
"I went to the Sugar Plum Fairy for a potion," Marianne explained yet again, "and it turned me into a goblin for a month. I left a note! You weren't supposed to worry!"
"I wasn't supposed to worry that my youngest daughter disappeared for weeks?" said Dagda. "I – you – I had no way of knowing you were safe. You – you are grounded, young lady, until I can trust you not to disappear again the moment I look away!"
"You might not have meant to scare us, Marianne, but you really did," said Dawn.
"Okay, so nothing in the note said I was in the Dark Forest, but then why did you invade it?"
"I'd like to state for the record that I also said that," said Sunny. "But everyone knows you've always wanted to go there."
"But wasn't assuming I'd been imprisoned without notice kind of – paranoid? And if you were searching for me everywhere in the kingdom, did no one think to ask the Sugar Plum Fairy, our most powerful sorceress, if she had some way of knowing where I was?"
Roland had been hoping, when he returned in triumph from the Dark Forest with Princess Marianne at his side, that King Dagda would agree to the need to vanquish the goblins.
He'd even indulged in a fantasy of the rescued princess being so grateful to him that they'd been wed, and since he was clearly better suited to be future king than Dawn's husband, Dagda would decide to pass the Crown to his second child.
He had not expected to be investigated for warmongering and paranoia. He managed to avoid complete disgrace, since the Royal Family had gone along with his plan of their own free will, but he lost a good deal of his status in Court.
The Bog King sent a message to the Fairy Kingdom, requesting an audience with Princess Marianne and an explanation for recent events.
The request was accepted. They met at the border rather than in either of their castles. The princess and king each had a small retinue of guards, stationed far enough away not to hear a quiet conversation but close enough that either could call for help.
Her story was … ludicrous, to be frank, but Bog couldn't doubt her when his mother had confessed about the Sugar Plum Fairy contacting her to warn that the younger fairy princess was disguised as a goblin and wandering their domain.
He also found it easier to look at Marsha … Marianne, now that she no longer so strongly resembled his first love.
"When you kept coming back after that first time my mother introduced you," Bog admitted, once Marianne finished explaining, "I rather suspected you had ambitions of becoming Queen."
Marianne snorted and let out a huff of laughter; the same way she'd laughed in her goblin guise. Her golden eyes had also stayed the same. "If all I wanted was a pampered life of royal luxury, I could've just stayed home."
"You could … come back, you know. As yourself. You can – you should – feel free to visit the Dark Forest whenever you like."
It came as a surprise to absolutely no one when the Fairy Princess Marianne and the Bog King fell in love after all.
(Yes, the ending might seem a little abrupt ... but this was an aesthetic choice, to mirror the first line of the story, and to match the intended 'fairy tale' tone where the story often ends right after the main characters' relationship begins.)