Chapter 17
Jojora flies towards the pot over the fire. She sees that the ice has melted into water, but the water is still cold. She makes a smile when the ice has already melted, but the pot has suddenly fall out of balance and the water spilled on Jojora's whole body. Prince Peasley laughs in amusement to what he witnessed.
Jojora cries out, "So uncool!"
She groaned and angrily kicked the now-empty pot, but her foot is hurt upon kicking the metal pot. She grunted in frustration as the prince laughed again.
The enigmatic girl slapped Prince Peasley again on the face and cried, "Uncool! You're so uncool, you creep!"
"I'm starting to think you're not the one I'm looking for in this place," Prince Peasley insulted the enigmatic girl, who responded in fury as she floats away.
"Jerk!" Jojora yelled out before furiously leaving in embarrassment.
Prince Peasley chuckled and tried to get up on his arms. He slowly crawls towards the table with his wounded foot lifted up to avoid contact. He raises himself up to sit down on the table, still with his foot lifted.
He finds Jojora's scepter left on the table. The prince chuckles upon remembering the embarrassing moment just a second ago. And then, his amused expression turns to realization when he sees a folded towel. The prince quizzes himself upon seeing the pot and the water that spilled on Jojora.
The prince bowed his head and thought to himself, "She's… trying to treat me well again," but then, his judgment brings up the doubt about the enigmatic girl, "But, ugh, she's making fun of me and my title. She is also deceptive… but… but playful."
Prince Peasley's thoughts are confused about the girl. His face blushes, but he brushes it off with his seriousness. The prince sighs and stands up on one foot without the other wounded one standing on the floor. He takes Jojora's scepter and starts hopping on his foot to follow her.
"Jojora!" the prince called out as his voice echoes inside the palace.
When nobody responded, he proceeded to hop forward while still holding Jojora's scepter. The prince sees a set of stairs leading down and back outside.
The prince shook his head confidently and arrogantly thought to himself, "Spent a training with one foot up, I totally would accomplish this scenario."
He hops with one foot on one stair, and then the second. But his foot slipped on the third stair and falls on his back. He groans while his wounded foot is still elevated to avoid getting hurt. In his lying position, the prince could see the Jojora outside and turned away from him.
Outside, Jojora shivers by the cold wind because of her wet clothes. She groans and slowly takes her blue shirt off to squeeze the water off her clothing. Prince Peasley blushes in lust upon seeing the girl's naked back while Jojora is trying to get rid of the water soaked in her shirt. Afterwards, she places it on the railing of the ledge. And then, she slowly starts to take off her skirt.
Prince Peasley blushes uncontrollably towards the beautiful sight of the nearly-naked girl. He could not take it out of respect, so he faced away and yelled out, "Jojora!"
Jojora shrieks in surprise. She turns her head around and sees the prince lying down on the icy stair. She quickly puts on her shirt to hide away her naked beauty and hurries towards the prince.
Jojora berated to Prince Peasley, "Oh, silly boy, you should've stayed in my room!"
"I couldn't…" Prince Peasley admitted with his face still blushing red, "I couldn't recover myself without you…"
"You should've been nice to me," Jojora scolded the prince, who returns her scepter. She scoffs but smiles and thanks him anyway, "Thank you… don't worry, I will use the power of this scepter to bring you back to my room, as so you noticed when I was… trying to help you!"
Prince Peasley apologized, "I apologize for my behavior and I owe you so much in return."
Jojora smiled happily in response and replies to the prince, "You are forgiven. And you will definitely owe me for your troubles, which we will discuss in my room."
The enigmatic girl waves her scepter as its jewel, the core, glows in blue light. Ice spikes are generated once again around Prince Peasley as they become a trail to carry the prince to Jojora's room.
Inside Jojora's room, the ice spike trail stops by the table at the center of the room. Prince Peasley sits on the table as the enigmatic girl picks up the pot again to fill it with ice. The water that spilled on Jojora has frozen into ice on the floor. Jojora levitates towards one of the burning pedestals to place the ice-filled pot over the fire again.
Prince Peasley starts to ask Jojora, "Who are you exactly?"
Jojora checks on the pot. The ice slowly starts to melt under the heat, so she takes the time to converse with Prince Peasley. She starts off to answer, "There was a family of snow witches who are once in the circle of mystical beings. The family of snow witches is misjudged for being… unstable… uncontrollable… words that brought dishonor to the lineage of the snow witches, so they senselessly banished the snow witch family. We inhabited the forbidden Joke's End to continue our work, but an outbreak of black magic destroyed the earliest generation members of the mystical circle, leaving only the last of us alive, such as I am and a few others I don't even care to find. The founding members continued to exist, but they exist as spirits that lie within the sources of magic they mastered."
"How about your family?" Prince Peasley asked.
Jojora gives a small smile and confesses to him, "I am not part of the snow witch lineage. I was an orphan, a developed Clumph that evolved into more than just a Beanish. I was raised by the last member of the snow witches and I was trained to master their powers. After that, they were buried under the snow when I was thirteen. There was no laughter, just sorrow over the misjudgment casted by their own fellow members in the mystical circle. I am all that is left of the snow witches. And… I was left alone in this place forever. The monsters who lived here could not accept me. I waited for someone to play with me. Four years later, look who's here."
As Jojora's story concluded, the water in the pot over the fire starts to boil out steam. Jojora holds the handle of the pot to lift the entire pot of hot water to the table where Prince Peasley sits. Jojora takes the folded towel from the table to soak it in the pot of hot water.
"The cold wind will cool the heat away…" Prince Peasley tells Jojora about the soaked towel.
But Jojora replies by asking, "But isn't it hot enough inside this room already?"
"Would the ice ever melt?" the prince asked curiously.
"Oh, no, silly," Jojora answered by explaining to him, "the snow witches made sure that the palace stayed icy and cold. No block of ice ever melts inside this palace, save for those that I conjured earlier… those are raw ice with no resisting enchantment. The fires in the pedestal are set up by the Clumps before we came to this place. The family of snow witches did not put it out so that they could stare at it in vengeance towards one of the ones who banished them."
"A fire being?" Prince Peasley guessed.
Jojora gently places the soaked towel on the place of injury. Prince Peasley winces a bit by the heat and slowly becomes refreshed. The soaked towel is very hot so that the cold environment would barely cool it off. Jojora holds the towel up to see much of Peasley's blood has melted on the towel.
Jojora quietly tells Prince Peasley, "This towel is used to be my clothing I wore when I was a dumb Clumph."
Prince Peasley chuckles lightly and shows a red blush in both his cheeks. Jojora's face turns slightly red in embarrassment, but the prince tries to make it fair by saying, "Oh, don't be so embarrassed. I always wiped my sweat from this red cape."
Jojora laughs in response as she continues to treat Prince Peasley by recovering his wounded foot.
She proceeds to ask the prince, "So, what about you? What's your story?"
Prince Peasley begins to tell his story to Jojora, "There was a royal family line who ruled the entirety of Bean-bean Kingdom, until my grandfather challenged the king for the throne to a duel for the crown, so my family have won the throne. I am the third generation of the new Beanish monarch. I trained myself to become better than the troops, the soldiers of Bean-bean Kingdom, so I trained from childhood to earlier today."
"Is that why you're here?" Jojora positively assumed, "To come all this way to face the dangers of Joke's End to… play with me?"
The prince blushes nervously and stutters in confusion, "W-Wait… what?"
The snow witch giggles and blushes, and then she closely leans towards the prince and flirts the prince by claiming the prince's intentions, "You knew your royal, prince eye caught a… a pretty someone in the lost northeastern region of Bean-bean Kingdom to let her become a princess-to-be by your side… and you're lonely and single, so I accept… under the condition…"
"Y-You got it all wrong!" Prince Peasley nervously corrects the snow witch, "Look, you are elegant, beautiful…"
The unintentional compliments make Jojora blush even more to the point she leaned much closer to the prince, causing him to stop talking.
Jojora slowly leans towards the prince's ear and whispered to him, "Well, I think you're dazzling, Prince Peasley."
Prince Peasley's heart beats in nervousness and his face blushes red. He pushes Jojora away gently and tells her, "You think I'm dazzling? You haven't witnessed the rest of it, Jojora."
Jojora raises her eyebrow in confusion but excitedly watches the prince what he could show for. Prince Peasley raises his arm and puts his hand in the back of his head. He moves his arm as the fingers slide through the strands of his golden hair. As the prince's arm has extended, his fingers go free as the golden hair is blown to the direction where his arm has extended to. His golden blond hair dazzled with shining light before Jojora's eyes as Prince Peasley adds a smile and a smug look.
Jojora opens her mouth in amazement and squeals in amazement. She screams out, "That is so cool!"
The prince laughs and replies, "Thank you. I'm the lucky golden-haired Beanish to come out of the bean pod."
"That makes it better," Jojora flirts again, which confuses the prince to blush in nervousness again, but the snow witch happily clears it up, "I'm just kidding, silly. Gosh, you're really serious."
The snow witch giggles a little bit more as he continues to place her soaked towel onto the prince's wounded foot; his green skin starts to regenerate and cover up the wound.
Prince Peasley steps his recovered foot on the floor, which actually feels better now. The prince gratefully thanks the snow witch, "Thank you, Jojora. I… I wish to stay a bit longer, but you must come with me. I will escort you to my castle to…"
"No," Jojora declined and reminded the prince, "you still owe me like you said you would."
The prince shakes his head, wears his boot to cover his recovered foot and urges Jojora, "But we could play later. Anytime in the world as long as you…"
Jojora places her finger on the prince's mouth to stop him from talking. The touch of her finger generates ice to seal the prince's lips to ensure that he will not talk until Jojora enacts her will to free him. She looks at the prince in seriousness and tells him, "It's my turn to be serious now, jerk. Trying to escape a debt, huh? Well, I won't be your princess until you become a good prince to me."
Prince Peasley groans through his nose. But his mind makes up a resolution, which he thought to himself, "I guess the Beanstar will have to wait. Besides, I've sworn an objective to protect the suspect with the ability of awakening the Beanstar. I sure hope it's this lady."