Theme 16: Excuses

Themes 16 through 18 are one connected storyline.

There he was. Sitting in his chair, blissfully unaware of what was to come. This minute, reading his strategy tome, the next covered in frogs.

Lissa held a small wooden crate in her hands, struggling to hold it upright without it falling down. Earlier that morning, she had salvaged the abandoned crate from the convoy, and filled it with frogs from the nearby creek. It was the perfect prank: One that Robin would never see coming.

She inched closer to him, walking on tiptoe to hinder the noise of her steps. The grin on her face grew wider and wider in anticipation for what was next. She was nearly there. A half-pace behind Robin's chair. She lifted the crate high, and began to tip it forward.

Slowly… There is no sense in rushing perfection…

Suddenly, Robin shifted in his seat. He raised his arms to stretch them out, causing Lissa to withdraw the crate from above his head and sending her stumbling backwards a few steps. She was thrown off balance, and skidded to a halt on the stone floor.

Robin noticed the sudden noise from behind him.

"Hm?" He turned in his chair, dog-earing the page of his book and setting it aside. "Lissa, what in Naga's name are you doing with that box?"

The princess froze dead in her tracks, her eyes widening. "Wha-? What do you mean?"

Robin stood and approached her. "That box, right in your hands. You can't be that blind."

"Oh, this old thing?" She shoved it behind her back, hiding it from Robin's view. "It's nothing, I swear. Nothing at all, don't you worry!" Lissa added with a forced, worried laugh.

Robin moved to see the contents of her crate, but she sidestepped back in front of him, blocking his view. He folded his arms.

"Lissa, don't play games with me. What's in the box?"

"It's just… Um, It's just a…" She trailed off, frantically trying to find a viable excuse."I- It's just a delivery! Yeah, I'm delivering a package! I decided to stop by and say 'hi', that's all." Lissa added an innocent smile to convince him.

No luck. He didn't buy it. "A delivery? What are you delivering?" Robin smirked, knowing he stumped the princess.

"I've got some… Some books! Yeah, Miriel asked me to bring some books to the library, so I'm gonna do that." Lissa put her hands on her hips, proud of her excuse.

"Any strategy books among those? I've requested a few recently, they should be here by now." The tactician asked.

Lissa bit her bottom lip, thinking. "Umm, yeah, they're here! We got them in yesterday morning, we need to get them to the castle's library, that's all."

As convincing as she thought she was, Robin saw right through her. "Uh-huh. I suppose you can tell me why those tomes are croaking, then?"

The color drained from Lissa's face, and she stumbled backwards into the crate. "I- I gotta go!" Lissa stammered, turning and picking up the crate as fast as she could before running out of the room.

She caught her breath in the hallway, her back against the stone wall. She sunk to the floor, clutching the box close to her chest. "How did he know?" She said to no one in particular.

Gazing inside the crate, she noticed that most of the frogs were gone. Judging by the croaks coming from inside Robin's room, she realized just how careless she had been.

"Oh, the things I do for the sake of comedy…" She sighed, leaning back against the hallway wall.

But instead of sadness, Lissa was instead filled with a sense of excitement. She now knew exactly what to do to finally pull of the greatest prank of all time. There was a lot of planning to do, and a few favors to call in. She rose from the floor and took off towards her chamber, her mind brimming with possibilities. Next time, there would be no failure, no excuses, no games. Just the prank and the sweet, sweet payoff: seeing the rubbery thing Robin did with his face.

There was no time to waste, no time for dilly-dallying. But first, the frogs. She needed to get rid of them. Lissa had already forgotten how much they grossed her out.