The Reluctant Hero
The old, tiny cabin was almost too convenient to be true. Especially since it had a little stove, some dry firewood, a single couch, and a couple tatty blankets.
But even with the shelter, fire, place to rest, and blankets, there wasn't enough warmth. Not enough to ensure that Apple would survive. And Rotbart REALLY didn't want to wind up with a dead princess on his hands. Not now, anyway.
Besides, he wouldn't wish this kind of end on anybody. Not even on his worst enemy (which Apple officially was). Like nearly everyone at Ever After High, he had assumed that Daring, despite his destiny as Apple's prince, didn't truly care for her, and vice versa. But now it seemed that only fifty percent of that assumption was true. Apple was clearly heartbroken; her pain seemed to be engraved on her face, just as a dead man's final moments would be engraved on to his.
No, royal-pain-in-the-neck or not, Rotbart couldn't let any person die like that! And he found himself doing something that he'd never thought he'd do in a million years:
He ripped off the wettest, coldest pieces of Apple's dress until her once-sumptuous ball gown looked more like a little red slip. He took off his own jacket and shirt, held her close to him, and wrapped his shirt, jacket, the two old blankets, and his feathered cloak around both of them to create as much warmth as possible.
Rotbart wasn't sure which part of this experience was weirdest. The fact that he was acting like a hero, the fact that he was saving Apple White, the fact that he was alone with a scantily clad girl in the middle of the woods at night, or the fact that that scantily clad girl happened to be Apple White. His Wicked Queen mother would have a conniption if she knew.
Although Apple would probably have even more of a conniption when she came to. But he would cross that bridge when he came to it.
Rotbart did his best to put all of his awkwardness aside, and he drifted to sleep as he tried to keep Apple warm.
Apple woke up briefly in the middle of the night. She was extremely groggy and still very tired from all her running. She was dimly aware that she was in a small, unfamiliar place with a little stove. And that someone has holding her and gently snoring into her ear.
Apple didn't remember everything that had happened just now, but she somehow knew that it wasn't Daring that was holding her like this. But she was strangely OK with that. Whoever this hero was, Apple instinctively trusted him. And he smelled really good.
So Apple snuggled into her rescuer's arms and soon her dainty snoring joined his.