Disclaimer: I do not own the Frog Prince or the Peasant's Wise Daughter
It is a well known fact that a Prince should never really physically exert himself. Firstly, the high class of the Kingdom of Phell would see it as highly improper because a Prince should never be exhausted or sweaty, and two physically exhausting work was a peasant's job. It was because of this that the frog Prince had never really done anything half as exhausting as hopping one jump at a time from Rosie's house to the Palace. He had not heard the King telling her that all she had to do was find him and her father would be released. He still believed that without the pestle he would be trapped in the dungeons forever. So the Prince did the first truly noble thing he had ever done in his life (and I'm happy to say it wasn't the last), he ventured in the pouring rain with a still empty stomach across busy roads one hop at a time. He was nearly trampled on many times but he kept pushing himself. He had really and truly gotten himself into this mess and for the first time he himself would put it all to rights.
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Rosie couldn't breath. No. She was not drowning, or being strangled. The cause for this was something responsible for many more deaths then either of the two listed above: she was wearing a corset.
The King had felt extremely bad about his son's actions and had very intention of releasing the girl's father no matter what the girl discovered. He also had every intention of giving her the reward he had promised. He simply thought with her father in a dungeon she might be a little more…motivated. Anyways he treated her as a guest of honour. He decided to give her the Prince's room to sleep in and she would dine with himself and the rest of the Royal family and advisors.
So there she was dressed up like royalty, which naturally meant a corset. And she couldn't breath. It was for this reason that though she was starving from her extremely exciting day she could not manage to swallow even one mouthful. Instead she did her best to make a good impression on everyone at the table and did a little research on the Prince himself.
"He was such a darling as a boy." The Queen said fondly. "Always being so helpful to the King." The Princess Jasmine snorted loudly.
"My dear," said the Queen quietly. "It is not polite to snort."
"It's also not polite to lie." Jasmine replied. Everyone gasped. "My brother was certainly not helpful. As a boy he always used to sneak outside and play in the woods. He also stole a horse and tried to go and see the world."
Neither of the above particularly surprised Rosie. He was a spoilt, terrible Prince and perhaps his disappearing was someone trying to save their kingdom.
The dinner went on for many hours, until the moon was high in the sky. For Rosie it was torture. She stared at the delicious food which she could not eat and the lack of food was making her very light headed. She was also very tired and her back was sore from sitting up so straight for the last three hours.
Ten minutes later Rosie felt her eyes closing. She tired to stop them, she really did but they just would not co operate. Her eyes closed. She felt herself drift off to dreamland when-
She heard a loud croak form outside. Rosie jerked wide awake. Another croak and this time followed by something that sounded like: "I have brought your pestle." Rosie jumped up and hurried to the door.
"Where are you going?" the King asked. He was not used to people standing up in his presence without his permission.
"I'm sorry your majesty! But…I have to let this frog in." The King stared at her as she pulled open the door and low and behold, in hopped a frog.
Princess Jasmine gave a loud shriek causing everyone male in the room to flinch and cover their ears. "WHAT'S THAT DISGUSTING, SLIMY THING DOING IN HERE!" she screamed.
"It's a frog your majesties." Rosie said guiltily as she picked the exhausted frog up. "I'm sorry but I promised to let him eat from my plate and drink form my drink-oh and sleep on my bed if he brought me…this." Rosie held up the pestle.
"THE PESTLE?" The King said incredulously. "I didn't know you could train frogs to carry things like pestles…especially golden ones."
"Well he's not a normal frog." Rosie said nervously as she sat back down in her seat and gestured to the frog to eat (which he willingly did). "You see…he talks." Everyone stared at her like she was completely insane. "IT'S TRUE!" She cried, too late realizing how all this sounded. "Frog." She said pleadingly. "please say something." The frog looked up at her pleading eyes and knew he could not refuse.
"What would you like me to say?" he said quietly. But they heard. If possible everyone gaped at him even more. That is, everyone but the King. The King's face went through a series of emotions before arriving back at a carefully neutral one.
"Well Mr. Frog." He said loudly. "If this girl promised to let you eat off her plate, drink her drink and sleep in her bed then that is exactly what you shall do."
"I asked for none of it your majesty." The frog said quietly. "If you will release this mai-woman's father that will be all the payment I need." The King stared at him for a moment, a smile playing on his lips. Finally he said. "And indeed I shall but I must insist you stay the night. In fact I demand it."
"As your majesty wishes."
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Once the frog had eaten his fill (which was quite a lot since he hadn't eaten in over a week) Rosie carried him upstairs and placed him gently on her pillow (which was actually, ironically his pillow).
"Mr. Frog, I really don't know how to thank you."
"There is no need." Said the frog in a quiet voice. "I was merely paying you back for all the things you did for me and I was too spoilt to notice."
"Like what? Starve you?" she sighed and sat down beside him. "I nearly killed you and you went out of your way by hopping all the way across town with a pestle in your mouth with no food just for me. And thanks to you my father will be freed. Yet you won't even accept my thanks."
"I deserved it."
"No you didn't!"
"Did too."
"Did not."
"Did too."
"Did not." Rosie burst out laughing. "I see you are just as stubborn as I am." The Prince couldn't help but smile. There was a silence for a moment, each of them lost in their own thoughts. Then: "Frog?"
"Yes?"
"Will you tell me a story?"
"…I will do my best."
"Thank you." Rosie lay down on the bed beside him and made herself comfortable. The Frog felt his heart skip a beat as she was suddenly so close to him but he refused to let it distract him.
"Once upon a time there was a small boy. He came from a strict family and so he was never allowed off the property of the family's house. This made him very sad because he loved the outdoors. This boy was a born explorer and there was nothing he liked better than to see someplace new. So one day he snuck off the property and into a nearby forest. He started to do this everyday for just an hour or so. It became the highlight of his day. Out in the forest he could just be himself. He would climb the trees and befriend all the woodland creatures. Then one day his father caught him sneaking out. He was furious. So he told the boy he could never go into the woods again. Of course the boy made several attempts to go anyways but the father had kept a careful watch on the boy since the discovery and caught the boy on every one of those attempts. The boy was then banned from even going outside his own house. He resented it greatly, in fact resented it his whole life. His father never removed the ban and so the boy never made any friends. He just stayed inside with his anger doing all kinds of work he didn't want to do. His heart became a horrible black hole and for many years it stayed that way. Sometimes he was forced to go outside on an errand but it was so painful for him to walk only on the roads and see only busy towns and not the forest or any other landscape he may have found enjoyable that he only did it when it was absolutely necessary. Who can say how long his heart would have stayed like that if it weren't for a witch. This witch kidnapped the now grown boy and forced him to go outside. It was here that he met a beautiful young lady. And this lady changed his heart. Suddenly he had things to think of besides how resentful he was to the world and he was cured." ….. "Ummmm…I guess that's the end?"
Rosie smiled at the frog. "That was pretty good story frog, but I think you should work on the ending."
"Well what should the ending be?"
"How about, the boy married the girl and they both lived happily ever after-oh! And how about they lived in a small cottage in the woods the boy loved so much?" The frog smiled.
"That would be perfect."
Now as everyone reading this story is probably well aware, Rosie was a very smart girl. I'm sure most of you have by this point realized that the boy in the story was the prince and you would think Rosie would have picked up on that too. All I can say in her defense is one: she was very tired when Jasmine told her that her brother used to sneak into the forest, two: she was very tired now, three: because she was so tired her eyes had been closed throughout the story so she hadn't seen the Prince's face as he was telling it, and finally: she liked the frog far too much to even think for a second that he could be the much hated Prince who had thrown her father in the dungeon and probably ruined their chance at planting anything before winter.
Rosie felt herself falling asleep again and this time she had no reason to stop herself, so she whispered;
"Thank you frog, that was the best story ever." And leaned forward and kissed him gently on his head.
After that everything happened so quickly. There was a bright yellow flash which caused Rosie to scream so loudly her father heard all the way down in the dungeons. She jumped out of bed and stared horrified for one minute at Prince Gilbert sitting on her-well his pillow. Then the King and a few guards burst in the door causing Rosie to scream again. This was all she could take (especially with her corset still on-she didn't know how to take it off and she was too embarrassed to try in front of the frog), and so she did what was considered the proper thing for a lady to do: she fainted.
Author's Note: Wow! Only two chapters left! Sweet! I hope everyone enjoyed this one cause I think it just might be my favourite so far! Oh and of course HUGE thanks to all my reviewers who give me all the inspiration I need to write. THANK YOU!
