"Come on, look for my weak spots!" Sparrow roared. "Watch to see where I'm swinging the sword!"
It had been a total of three weeks of training for Prince Regie. Despite being a complete whiner and possessing the ability to get his ass handed to him on a regular basis, Reginald was actually a fairly quick learner. Obviously, three weeks (even of nothing but training) was no where near enough to become fantastic at sword fighting, but Sparrow wasn't exactly willing to spend long enough with him for that.
"Can't we take a break?" whimpered Reginald.
"Breaks are for losers," Sparrow rebuked, bringing her sword down in another arc. In response, Reginald quickly blocked it, and went flying forwards, over exaggeratedly stabbing the air where Sparrow once was. "Don't be so obvious!"
"I'm trying!"
"Try harder!"
Back and forth they went, each yelling and waving their weapons around. Perhaps you would like to hear of this boring training scene. Perhaps I know jack shit about sword fighting.
"Stop looking at my face! You're not fighting my face!" Sparrow yelled at the prince, who was getting more disheartened by the minute. Said prince, once again getting frustrated, slashed at the hero. As if by some incredible miracle (or that irritating shrieking child not too far off), Reginald actually managed to land a hit. The two stopped and looked at each other.
"Ok, training is over, you're good enough, let's go kick some ass."
"Just like that?"
"Sure, why not," Sparrow replied, tossing her wooden sword away and walking off.
Later that evening, after the two plus one dog had set up camp, Sparrow and Reginald were sitting and eating dinner ("Ew, what is that, a giant snail?" "Obviously.") when the delicate subject of what they were going to do next came up. Sparrow had taught the prince how to fight, but it was all for naught if they didn't have a princess to save.
"So, Reggie…" Sparrow started. "Know of any princesses you can get married to?" Wordplay was generally not among a hero's strong points. Unless that hero was Reaver. But no one cares about that douche, so let's move on.
"Well, I did hear about a princess in a kingdom nearby to mine, Princess Molyneux. I think her father is attempting to acquire a suitor for her presently, also."
"…You talk weird sometimes, you know that?" was Sparrow's eloquent response.
"HEY."
The two looked around at the sudden shout.
"HEY QUACK."
Clearly it was a talking duck, and Sparrow contentedly just went back to eating. She had come across much stranger things than it before, after all, like the prince who was currently half buried in a bush in his vain attempt to find the creature.
"Just leave it alone, Reg," Sparrow told him, mouth half full of giant snail. "It'll probably come to us anyway. And even if it doesn't, there are plenty of other weird things to find."
"HEY GUYS QUACK."
In a poof of smoke that smelled vaguely like photo chemicals, the duck was on Reginal's head. I don't know if you've ever had a duck on your head, but for Reginald it was a very unpleasant experience. He vainly tried to shake it off with a violent and decidedly un-royal spasm, but the duck held firm and in return left him a slimy present down the back of his shirt.
"SO I HEARD YOU GIRLS ARE LOOKING FOR A PRINCESS."
"Yeah," Sparrow answered, picking out another piece of snail. "You know of one?"
"THERE'S ONE IN THE MAOXA KINGDOM NAMED PRINCESS POMEGRANATE QUACK."
"That's not far from here, actually," Sparrow mumbled to herself. Then, to the duck, "Is there anything we have to look out for?"
"JUST THE STANDARD DRAGON-GUARDED CASTLE IN THE MIDDLE OF A VOLCANO, MISS."
"Please get off me…"
"STOP BEING A GIRL AND DEAL WITH IT QUACK."
Ignoring this outburst, Sparrow proceeded to get the details to where the castle was (thankfully, the bird carried a map), and then Mister Duck was on his way, much to the relief of Reginald. As the prince started on cleaning all the bird droppings from his back, Sparrow munched the remainder of the giant snail thoughtfully.
"You know, I think he was rather sweet."