Chapter 23
Prince Peasley has learned quite a lot from his own people in one day. The time is about to be set to midnight as the skies are about to be dark.
Under the evening skies of the town, the hooded prince says to the Beanish townspeople, "Thank you for letting me stay for dinner and spending time with me watching the stars above. I must depart to my resting place not far from here. I intend to return tomorrow morning."
"Can't you just stay with us?" one of the Beanish townspeople offered the hooded stranger.
But Prince Peasley nervously reasoned, "Doing so, you would be in great danger. If my barbaric people would find me here, they will attack you without hesitation. Surely, once I have learned enough from your culture, I, as a civilized representative of my barbaric people, will educate them to become one with your people. Do not worry about me. Thank you for your time today."
"No problem, Haricot," a Beanish townsperson replied.
The hooded prince proceeds to leave Bean-bean Town as the townspeople watch his departure. Afterwards, they went back into their respective homes to rest for the evening.
Unbeknownst to them, the hooded prince returned to town after its people are inside their homes. Prince Peasley quietly and sneakily passed by their property and went his way to the entrance of Bean-bean Castle in the north of the town.
Prince Peasley sighs and takes his hood off and wears his red cape properly. As he proceeds to enter the castle doors, he sees the clueless Beanish guards asleep in their posts. He groans and ignores their timid characters before entering the castle.
The prince walks down the east hall leading to the royal bedroom. As he walked, he makes a couple of stretches after the hard work he committed in the day. He yawns out of exhaustion and pushes the door open.
Inside the royal bedroom, Prince Peasley sees the queen, his mother, on bed uncovered without a blanket. Beside Queen Bean's bed is a table with a ceramic mug on the tabletop. Prince Peasley quietly approaches the table to inspect the contents of the mug. There is a drop of Teehee Blend inside the mug, to which the prince suspects of his mother drinking Teehee Blend again.
Prince Peasley goes and sits on his bed. He takes his clothes off, revealing his muscular build. And then, he puts on cleaner clothes and discards the used ones he wore during the day. He places the hood under his bed and proceeds to lie down on his bed.
He sighs upon thinking what he learned during the day. He tilts his head to look at his mother. The prince stood up and approached her. The queen's blanket was on the floor, so her son picked it up and covered her with it. Queen Bean feels and snuggles the warmth to sleep comfortably.
The prince smiles and lies down on his bed. He tucks himself with his blanket, closed his eyes and went to sleep. In his sleep, Prince Peasley could feel an unusual breeze inside the room but took it as comfort.
A figure lurks in the darkness of the royal bedroom. It is just floating in front of the beds of the prince and queen. It sighs, and then it slowly floats towards Prince Peasley.
The prince mumbles in his sleep, starting to detect a presence inside the room. The figure's hand is placed on the prince's golden hair. Giggling could be heard echoing inside the room; those who are outside the room could not hear it.
Prince Peasley awakened upon recognizing the giggle. The prince lifted himself up to see the figure beside him. He flaunts his golden hair, reflecting the dying light inside the room before the night has completely darkened. The prince's dazzling sleuth identified the figure beside him.
"Jojora?" the prince identifies the snow witch.
Jojora blushes and proceeds to confess to the prince, "I have stalked you since this hooded stranger has entered town. I couldn't see why a same-species foreigner would want to have his redemption from such a nice town and nice townspeople. But I found out it was a deviant of his own people… the prince himself."
"Give me a chance," Prince Peasley pleaded to Jojora, "and enough hours to sleep."
The snow witch pouts a little and answers, "I'll give you a chance, but I want to take away just a little time before you rest."
"Why is that?" Prince Peasley asks and rolls in bed to look at Jojora.
Jojora answers, "To tell you… first, I'll give you one chance, but I won't forgive you just yet. Second, we'll play tomorrow."
The prince apologized to the snow witch, "I apologize to disappoint you again, but I have promised to meet my own people tomorrow morning."
"Fine," Jojora replied, crossing her arms, "then, you won't have my forgiveness, you jerk."
Prince Peasley groans. But he confidently smiles and tells Jojora, "It is fine. I know another chance would come up from you."
"Oh?" the snow witch joyfully asked, "B-Because there's always a second chance, huh?" she proceeds to laugh that echoes the whole room.
Queen Bean is bothered in her sleep by the echoes of laughing. She wakes up, though her eyes are not wide open. She mumbles to Prince Peasley, "What is… that sound, Peasley?"
The echoing laughing stopped as Prince Peasley looks at his mother and answered, "Nothing!"
Queen Bean went back to sleep. Prince Peasley sighs in relief and quietly turns around to face Jojora again, but she has disappeared in the bedroom. The prince gasps quietly in surprise. And then, he sighs with a smile before immediately going to sleep.
Outside the castle, Jojora floats down slowly to the ground in front of Bean-bean Castle. The snow witch is holding her scepter in her hand and her arms cross with a blush on her face.
She is suddenly confronted by a swarm of ugly green bats with purple ears and black wings. The green bats widened their eyes upon laying beautiful sight at the snow witch. The green bats grinned and opened their mouths to launch balls of fire at the snow witch. Jojora quickly retaliated by waving her scepter to freeze the air into floating chunks of ice shielding her from the fireballs.
Jojora aims her scepter at the swarm of bats. The blue jewel glows and summons a strong blizzard to blow the ugly green bats away. One bat is left in the air. It opened its mouth to release a bolt of lightning against the snow witch. Jojora is hit, but rather than feeling pain, her body glowed beautifully and briefly. The snow witch feels refreshed as she smiled cockily. The snow witch aimed her scepter at the last bat to release a bolt of lightning that froze and encased the ugly green bat in an ice block.
Jojora quickly flew away and thought to herself, "What weird bats. The Beanlets are way better."
The ugly green bats that were blown away returned with fire in their mouths. They revolve around the frozen bat to thaw it out. The frozen bat is free, so the swarm of bats, no longer having flames inside their mouths, converge as the release purple clouds to cover themselves.
Out came the Beanish witch Cackletta. The witch looked up the dark sky, pointing her pink eyes to the direction where Jojora flew away and assumed to herself, "That must be the snow witch of Joke's End, the one Prince Peasley has found and suspected to be the pure one to awaken the Beanstar," and then, she laughed menacingly to say, "She isn't so strong outside her territory, so I shall find a way to keep her here."
Cackletta cackles and raises her arms to release purple clouds from her hands. The purple clouds engulf the Beanish witch as the same swarm of green ugly bats reappeared and flew towards Jojora's direction.
The next morning, Prince Peasley woke up, opened his eyes and got up. He makes his morning stretches as Queen Bean also wakes up to greet her son, "Good morning, son."
"Good morning, queen mother," Prince Peasley greeted back and told her about his activity yesterday, "I have learned many things from our own people while disguising as a foreigner from a faraway land."
"Deception isn't the way of the Beanish," Queen Bean said to her son, "if a child was to understand what I'm saying, I meant lying."
"You have taught me language," Prince Peasley replied, "that I have already know of since my days as a child. But do not worry about me lying to the people. I have made it a truth."
"Do tell this truth you forged from your lie," Queen Bean inquired out of confusion.
Prince Peasley explained, "I might say, it is metaphorical. The faraway land I spoke of is my distant person that kept me away from the ways of my people…"
The prince would continue explaining while the queen quietly muttered to herself in doubt, "I still think it's lying."
After Prince Peasley finishes his explanation, which Queen Bean listened in boredom, a Pea entered the royal bedroom with a tray of two bowls of red-colored stew for the prince and queen. The Pea placed the tray on the table between the two beds before leaving the prince and queen inside the bedroom to dine privately.
Queen Bean identifies and tells about the stew, "Red beans are Chuckle Beans, agility-boosting beans, in case you need to hurry to meet the townspeople to learn more about them."
"I will learn patience," the prince replied, "I suspect it is a Beanish trait as well. But thank you for reminding me about Chuckle Beans, it has been a while since I need it to catch on with my training with Beanardo."
"Patience is a trait to all living things," Queen Bean responded about patience, "even animals you deem inferior have patience. Not to die, of course, by your hand."
"I saved Beanlets," Prince Peasley told his mother about his previous experience from yesterday while eating the Chuckle Bean stew, "I mean, they are animals, right? They're like cute little bean puppies. But back to the point, I am in no rush of meeting my people, if that is the way of the Beanish."
"You expect the way of the Beanish always like that?" Queen Bean asked, "Beanish being nice all the time that they would forgive you all the time? If so, I dare you to not bring your hood and admit to your people that you know nothing about being a Beanish."
Prince Peasley sighs in response.
Queen Bean proceeds to tell her son, "Dear, you already know that Beanish are being pure in honor of the Beanstar's existence. But our people are not always pure. They try to, all the time, especially behind your own back."
The prince starts to become confused and quizzed. He shakes his head and sighs and asks his mother, "There's this Woo Bean tree. Everything you told me is… really confusing, now I'm asking about this Woo Bean tree that existed ages ago."
"Yes," Queen Bean replies, "I know the tree that children could climb because of their innocence. Now, as a corruptible being of age, to climb up the tree, you must believe in yourself."
"In what way?" the prince asked as he finishes his Chuckle Bean stew.
"In order to climb to the top," the queen answered, "believe in yourself that you can climb the tree with everything you have learned, and I mean, everything… your physical training with Beanardo and the traits you have learned from the Beanish. Climb up without regret or worry, think about your mistakes, come up with ways to forgive yourself from mistakes, love and cherish those who have helped you and finally, I… I'm running out of breath, actually."
Queen Bean inhales for air and makes a deep exhale. And then, she continues to breathe properly. She scoops up a spoon of Chuckle Bean stew to eat.
She concludes her answer, "And finally…"
Prince Peasley quickly puts his hood on and wears his red cape as a scarf and interrupts his mother, "Thank you. But count on me to find out myself. And please, don't drink anymore Teehee Blends. Despite all the traits I have learned, I still do not believe in luck."
The hooded prince leaves the royal bedroom. Queen Bean is left alone finishing her bowl. She picks up and rings the bell, summoning a Pea holding a cup of Teehee Blend.
Queen Bean chuckles lightly and thanks the Pea, "Thank you. I'll need a gallon of them by my throne, please."