I was working on a GhxVi redux of Swan Lake but I don't think I'm ever going to finish it, what with school totally kicking my ass right now. Sorry for the wait and the lack of updates on all my stories. Culinary school has gotten quite hectic and I'm actually supposed to be doing homework right now, but I thought that, since I was already on my laptop and I had this piece ready, I'd give you guys a little something before I got lost int he whirlwind of college again. Enjoy!
P.S. It's actually more of a Swan Princess redux rather than Swan Lake, but they're basically the same thing so it doesn't matter.
"Darn…" Gohan muttered to himself, watching as the beautiful white swan took the arrow in its right wing and struggled to keep its high altitude in the light of the setting sun. He turned to glare at the man who fired the arrow.
"I thought I told you to leave the swan." The Prince of Paozu snarled, "We're hunting partridges not swans!"
"My Prince," Sir Dudley mumbled, "I—I'm so sorry. My apologies, I'll—"
"Never mind what you'll do," Gohan shook his head, "I'll go see if I can find the bird and get that arrow out of its wing. You return to the palace and tell my mother that I'll be home late." The Prince shouldered his bow and climbed onto the back of his steed. Before his companion could speak again, he'd snapped his reins and urged his horse to a gallop, keeping his eyes on the struggling swan above.
*meanwhile*
'I'm almost there,' Videl thought to herself, grimacing in pain as she forced her wings to keep flapping, 'oh, but it hurts so badly.' She eyed the arrow in her right wing and wondered if she'd be able to get it out once she'd resumed her human form.
She could see the lake in the distance, glimmering in the dim light of the fading sunset, and felt relief flutter through her heart as she got closer and closer until, at long last, she was coming down to land on the banks. The sunlight was all but nonexistent at this point, and the light of the moon was nearly upon the lake.
As the Princess landed clumsily on the banks of the lake, she heard the loud pounding of a horse's hooves hitting the ground. She grimaced, wondering if it was Seru, and then remembered that he never left his precious palace unless he was going to morph into that dreadful creature and terrorize some innocent villager.
Who is that? No matter, I need to get into the water…
"Hey, there," a familiar voice halted her awkward waddle down to the water's edge, "hey, come here, little guy. I need to get that arrow out of your wing."
Videl gasped audibly and moved her long neck to look at Gohan as he hoped down from his steed and approached her slowly. Her eyes widened, and he knelt down before her, staring into her eyes.
"I've never seen a swan with blue eyes before… They look a lot like—never mind," Gohan shook his head and extended his hand, "and you're a female swan, not a male, now that I can see you up close. Can I take that arrow out of your wing?"
Videl cautiously extended her wounded wing to him, watching as his eyes widened even more, "wow… it's almost like you know what I'm saying…" The Prince of Paozu carefully clipped the arrow shaft, just above the portion that was lodged in the Princess's wing and pulled the two pieces apart, freeing her.
"There you go—hey, where are you going?" The son of Goku watched the swan waddle down to the water, "I have to bandage…" He trailed off as Videl went into the water and paddled the short distance to where the reflection of the moon shown on the surface of the lake. Almost instantly, the water around her began to glow brighter and swirl around her form as she transformed into her true self.
"What on Earth…" Gohan stood from his kneeling position as the swirling, glowing water flowed back down to the lake, revealing a lithe, lovely form, clothed in the same light blue gown she'd donned when he'd laid eyes on her last.
"V-Videl?"
Videl turned to look into the Prince's shocked brown eyes and grimaced as blood began to flow from the wound in her arm, staining the sleeve of her gown. She grasped her arm as Gohan finally got his wits about him and approached her.
"It's been weeks since your carriage and your father was found in the woods," the Prince began, taking her arm and using a strip of his riding coat to bandage her wound, "is this where you've been, Videl?"
"Yes," she whispered, "Seru took me here and placed a spell on me. I spend the night as my true self and my days as a swan."
"Why didn't you come find me?" Gohan asked, incredulous, "we could've found someone with magical skill to help you get rid of this curse—"
"I can't… Seru doesn't care if I leave the lake as a woman because I'll be a swan by the time I get anywhere near someone who would even listen to what I have to say," Videl murmured, "and I'd be a swan forever if I never returned to this lake. I can only resume my human form if I'm in the lake when the light of the moon touches it, Gohan… I'm stuck here."
"No, you're not," the Son shook his head, "there has to be some way to return you to your original state…"
"Seru will only change me back if I agree to be his bride," Videl looked down at the water they were standing in, "and I can't marry him, he's a monster… He killed my father."
"There has to be something that we can do," Gohan bit his lip, "I can't let you stay here with him."
Videl hugged him tightly, "if you don't leave me here, I'll never be human again. Gohan, please, I love you and I know you want to help me, but your hands are tied."
"I can still—you love me?" the Son asked incredulously, "but you told me…"
"I lied," she admitted quietly, "I didn't want to marry you because I felt as though these feelings had been forced upon me and I desperately wanted something that couldn't be given to me. I wanted to know that, if we hadn't been forced to meet all those summers, would we have still fallen for each other… It seems so foolish now, to deprive myself of your love for something so petty and childish…"
"I've sometimes wondered that, too, Videl, but I don't want to know," Gohan spoke passionately, "I love you, and I don't need to know if I'd still be in love with you if the circumstances had been different. All I need to know is that I love you now and I want you to be my wife, my Princess and, someday, my Queen. We'll get to the bottom of this curse, and Seru will pay dearly for what he's done to you."
"Gohan…"
Their lips met in a heated, fiery kiss that could've set the forest ablaze with amount of passion and raw emotion packed into it. Videl moaned and hugged herself closer to Gohan's body, running her hands over his shoulders to bury them in his soft, spiky hair. The Son growled into her sweet mouth and gripped her hips with near-bruising force, basking in her closeness. The moment was ruined by a medium tenor voice calling out from somewhere across the lake.
"Videl… Videl, my sweet swan Princess, I've come out to greet you." Seru called mockingly, and the Princess pulled out of the desperate kiss reluctantly, "he can't see you with me," she told Gohan urgently, "he'll kill you, please love, you have to go."
"I won't leave you."
"You have to, at least for now," she kissed him again, quicker this time, "I'll be fine as long as I keep rejecting his advances. You go home and see if you can find a way to break the spell. I know how much you love to read and study, and I know that, if anyone can figure it out, it's you."
"Alright," Gohan grasped both of her hands and kissed them as Seru grew closer still, "I love you."
"I love you, too." Videl responded quietly, fighting off tears, "I'll see if I can find my way to your home tomorrow when I change back into a swan."
"But your arm—"
"Go!" The Princess of Satan pushed her lover away from her, out of the water and onto the bank, "take your horse and leave, please. I couldn't bear it if you were killed…"
Gohan nodded once and grabbed his horse's reins, leading the beast away. Videl felt as though a part of herself was walking away from her as he disappeared into the underbrush, and carefully composed herself and her features just as Seru broke through the trees coming from the opposite direction from which Gohan had just left.
"My beautiful swan Princess," the sorcerer drawled, "what'll it be? Will you marry me and free yourself of your enchantment, or will you continue to live this half-life you've been living for the past few weeks? Not quite a swan, not quite a Princess… is that truly a way to live?"
"My answer is the same, Seru," Videl spoke firmly, "I could never marry the beast that killed my father."
"Oh, well that's too bad," Seru murmured, "well, since there's nothing better to do out here, I'll leave you to your short time as a human. Night time is so fleeting, and the time the moonlight spends on this lake is even shorter. Until tomorrow night, Princess."
The Princess of Satan watched the sorcerer disappear into the trees, headed back to his desolate palace, and breathed a laborious sigh. She didn't know how long she could take this. The past few weeks had been hell for her, seeing as he hadn't bothered to allow her to return to her human form until after the first week had passed.
I managed three weeks… I can handle it for a bit longer… I just hope Gohan finds a way around this spell on his own…
And that concludes the scene. Hope you liked it. Maybe I'll get a chance to finish it up towards the end of the semester.