So...there were several ways I could've taken this chapter, and I figured it was time we had a little scene with our two favorite (former) frogs! It's not a long chapter, but I was glad to switch up the POV this time. And is anyone else as excited for The Princess and the Frog to come out on DVD as I am? I'm definitely renting it ASAP. A shout out to all the Chapter 8 reviewers (there were so many of you!): Whiteling, 5livelaughlove5, Candace Hale, queenVEExo, peaceloveandthedove, Maxilove, Naara, maramouse, charliepaceluver117, Sparkly-Vampire-Wannabe, Carlint, Persephone's Melody, lizziemagic, and Chocolate Tunda. Thanks for your support!
By the way, I noticed back in Chapter 7 no one caught the character reference I'd hidden, so I'll just tell you now. It was Louis! Evangeline's middle name is Louise - I guess Tiana and Naveen wanted to name something that would remind them of both of their bayou friends:) Anywho, on with the story.
Queen Tiana of Maldonia considered herself a very rational, put together person. Ever since she was young, she had lived a hard but rewarding life, one that required her to be a no-nonsense girl. Hardly a tear was shed through the tough times that tested her while she was still a struggling waitress in the grand city of New Orleans, and her father's death in the war had only made her stronger and more determined. Then there was when she had to make her way through the dangerous bayou as a frog with an conceited prince (who ended up marrying her - she still wondered how that happened) and move to a foreign country to become its queen.
How was it, then, that in the past 18 years it had been so much easier to break her down until she was hardly sturdier than a mound of gelatin?
The culprit at the moment was a simple piece of paper, specially sprayed with a puff of perfume so the author of the note could be easily identified. And identified, she was. As soon as Tiana's fingers broke the old fashioned wax seal of the letter, the familiar scent immediately pointed to one person: Charlotte La Bouff, the un-proclaimed queen of New Orleans herself.
It had been countless years since the two had last written each other. So long, in fact, that Tiana was surprised Charlotte still wore the same perfume. It had been such a shock when a servant had delivered the letter to her. She had been eating lunch with the ruler of a neighboring country and had to excuse herself to keep from breaking down in front of them. Just reading the name Evangeline had given her goose bumps. It was like seeing a ghost or someone long thought dead.
Tiana put her cheek in her hand and let her elbow prop up on the desk, turning her head so she was staring straight at the decorative mirror on the wall of she and the king's shared study. They had both changed so much in the time since they had left New Orleans. Being royalty meant they had access to the latest products to keep themselves looking young, but the stuff still didn't hide the faint lines of age forming around their faces. Tiana didn't care much for it anyway; Naveen used it more than she did.
The letter had arrived the week before, and she and Naveen had spent several days discussing what their answer would be. With all their hearts they wanted to see their daughter, their Evangeline again, to hold her in their arms like real parents were supposed to do. But Facilier had never been caught, and who knew where he could be lurking. Besides, it had been too long to ever hope for the perfect family life they had dreamed of when Evangeline was born. She had grown up without them, and had a different kind of family with Charlotte, Eudora, and whatever friends she had. Maybe she even had a boyfriend by then. How could they expect her to accept them as her family the instant they meet?
Tiana jumped slightly when she heard the door open behind her, twisting herself around in the chair so she could see who the intruder was. "The Prime Minister never stops talking!" King Naveen exclaimed as he flung himself into his plush chair, laying sideways so he was lounging with his legs over the cushioned arm. "I mean, really, every time I meet with him its just blah blah-blah blah-blah. It's amazing I don't fall asleep."
Shaking her head, Tiana reminded her husband, "I offered to speak to him this time." Naveen hated all the official work that came with being the king. He preferred the parades and public appearances.
"Yes," Naveen said reluctantly, "but you're doing this whole moody, stressful thing lately. And moody with boring isn't a good combination." Tiana glared at him, but he just smiled toothily back at her and crossed the room. Taking her shoulders in his hands, he began to massage them gently, earning him a content sigh from his queen. "You must relax, mon amour. Everything will be wonderful, you will see."
"How can you be so optimistic?" Tiana wondered aloud.
Naveen shrugged. "Easy, I stop thinking of all the things that could go wrong. Facilier hasn't been around for years, the coast is clear, so we'll go celebrate our daughter's birthday and start teaching her how to be a princess so she can be queen one day."
"Do you really think it's that simple?"
"No," He admitted, "but we can deal with the annoying stuff later. For now, we can daydream about what it will be like to finally see our sweet little Evening Star."
Tiana let herself smile softly, remembering the joyful face of their infant daughter before she had been sent away. "Charlotte says she looks like you, you know."
"Does she? Well, then she must one of the most beautiful girls in the world."
"Why did I marry you? You're far too arrogant." Tiana teased, standing up from her chair and facing Naveen. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him so that their foreheads were touching.
"Because I think the other most beautiful girl is you." He closed the distance between them slowly, letting first their noses touch, then their lips. It was a short kiss, but after so many years together the smallest of gestures could express enormous amounts of passion.
"Mm. Now I remember." She breathed, pulling him into another somewhat deeper kiss. Pulling away, she giggled a little to herself, a new twinkle in her eye. "I can't wait to see Evangeline's reaction when she finds out she's a princess."
Naveen pondered the thought, and gleefully provided his own answer. "Probably like yours when you turned into a frog." His voice rose several octaves in a faulty impression of Tiana on that fateful night. "How'd I get all the way down here? And how'd you get all the way up there? Aaaaaaaah!" His face was priceless as he screamed and rushed at his wife, taking the opportunity to make use of her weaknesses. She was already laughing at Naveen's little performance, and her ticklish nature was the icing on the cake. They both collapsed to the floor as the Frog Prince's fingers danced across her stomach and reduced her to begging and pleading for him to stop, all while laughing.
"For goodness sake- get off me!" Tiana gasped for air and struggled to release herself from where she was pinned on the floor. "If someone walks in here Naveen I swear - ah! - we're supposed to act dignified and you're - stop that! - acting like you're five."
"And what's wrong with that?" He said smoothly, his accent still managing to make her heart skip a beat. "Maybe I'm going through a mid-life crisis. I don't really want to turn 42 this year. And you'll be -,"
"Naveen!" Tiana scolded him playfully. "It is not polite to point out a woman's age."
"Oh come on! We both know how old you are."
"I'd rather it not be said out loud." She said with chagrin. They laid there and made fun of each other for a while longer, Naveen keeping himself propped up above his wife and wanting nothing more than to kiss her again rather than chit-chat. He was about to indulge in his fantasies when they heard a small gasp from the hallway.
"Your Majesties, you - oh! Oh my." Naveen jumped up as fast as he could, guiltily glancing at their butler standing nervously in the doorway.
"Sorry about that, Eligio." He mumbled like a preschooler who had been caught sneaking a hand into the cookie jar. Eligio, a loyal friend, bless him, cleared his throat and hastily dismissed the matter.
Tiana stood, straightening her skirt and folding her hands, a tell-tale sign she was back to her usual, serious self, addressed the butler with a regal tone. "What is it, Eligio?"
"Well, I have confirmed a flight to New Orleans early on the twentieth. I'm afraid it's not quite early enough, you may be a tad late to the masquerade."
"Fashionably late." Naveen corrected and flipped his hair dramatically, though the little trick had worked so much better when he had been young enough to pull it off.
Eligio continued, having become well practiced in ignoring his employer, king or not, too the encouragement of Tiana. "Also, the Prime Minister wishes to go over one more issue concerning taxes-," Naveen groaned loudly in protest, but Eligio didn't hesitate, "- with the queen, as he feels she will be less likely to doodle cartoon puppy dogs on her paperwork while he's speaking." The king's mouth snapped shut and he feigned innocence while Tiana shook her head disapprovingly.
"Of course, Eligio, tell him I'll be right there." The butler left without a bow - he had gained that privilege after his many years of service. It would even be he who accompanied the king and queen to the queen's home city for their daughter's birthday, and it had been he who had been with them the last time they were there. Secretly, it warmed his heart to know he would see the young princess again. "And you - you are such a child! I don't know what to do with you. For once, could you try to focus on your work? We have a country to run here, and I seem to know what I'm doing far more than you and you were raised for this! Honestly, I'm can see what your mother meant by -,"
She was cut off with a firm peck on her lips as he bound to the door before she could chastise him further. She chuckled to herself as she heard his distant voice in the hallway yell happily, "Just think about Evangeline!"
Well she didn't need any encouragement to do that. Evangeline had been the only thing on her mind for days. Butterflies tickled her stomach at the idea of seeing her again, and the sensation threatened to make her giggle out loud as she made her way through the palace's maze of hallways. Tiana doubted even she could pay much attention to the Prime Minister with such a thing on her mind. As she passed through a hallway on the back side of the castle, she stopped at a window overlooking the stables.
Is it that late already? She asked herself, taking in the darkness of the skies and the little diamonds that lay scattered in the silken blackness. Of course, as always, Evangeline and Ray were brighter than all the others, always smiling down upon her from the heavens. Tiana knew she had to hurry before the Prime Minister got impatient, but she took a moment to gaze out at the two Evening Stars. Bringing a small hand to her lips, she blew a kiss to her old friend and his girl and whispered, "Thank you." Then she lifted her skirt and shuffled off to talk of taxes and government.
Back in New Orleans was another character equally happy, and for about the same reason, though the feeling welling up in his heart wasn't nearly as pure and innocent.
"We've got 'em!" The witch doctor said, giddily practicing his card tricks with his feet resting lazily on the table. "Ha ha, we've got 'em!" He was elated, in the best mood he had been in for seventeen years. Unable to help himself, he switched off the radio detailing a recent battle in some overseas country and replaced it with an old jazz tune he slapped onto the phonograph. Before any of the Friends knew what was going on he was up on the table recalling all of the dance moves he had invented as a kid. His shadow, ultimately the only one who really spoke to him anymore, hissed in his ear.
"You fool! Don't make the same mistake you did before. It's not over until the deed is done, and the deed is most certainly not done!"
Facilier waved the shadow off, not caring that he was making the Friends testy. They would be out of his hair soon enough. "It might as well be. The little princess could have just handed herself to me on a silver platter, and we've got that boyfriend of hers to consider. He's perfect leverage."
"That may be true," The shadow yanked Facilier from his dancing fantasy and let his stumble down from the table. "But the plan is not yet executed. Things can go wrong, and you must remember who we're after. We," it spoke of itself and the other Friends. It was rare for 'we' to indicate Facilier and the Friends, as if they were truly family, "will settle for nothing lessss."
"Calm yourselves, my Friends." The Shadow Man said, little worry evident in his voice. "The whole thing will go off without a hitch. Yes, the plan is a bit complicated and lengthy, but it's nothin' I can't take care of." As he spoke, a shadow scout flew in through the door, its frayed wings somehow creating a draft when they beat up and down. It dashed to Facilier, dropping the shadow of a levitating piece of paper so he could catch the real thing in his hands. Slowly, a wide grin spread across his cheeks, stretching from one ear to another. "Well, well, well. What a convenient little development we have here."
"What?" The shadow growled impatiently.
Facilier folded the letter, depositing it neatly in an inside pocket of his jacket. "It would seem we no longer have to hunt down the prey. The prey is coming to us." Hoots and hollers surrounded him, the masks coming to life in the most eerie way possible. They swirled around him, joining in on his revelry like tribal spirits, which, in fact, they were. "The prey is coming to us!" He shouted once more, provoking more excitement among the Friends, the feeling of power that had become his drug coursing through his veins and making him high. It was a wonder he hadn't experienced in a long time, and he welcomed it with open arms.
This was why he'd allied the Friends in the first place, why he had left his family. Just one second of that feeling made the years of toil and hardship all worth it. He would finally win.
How about that, Mama Odie, he thought proudly, looks like you were wrong. I have everything I need and more.
Oh dear! What could the voodoo man have up his sleeve? I love hearing from everyone about what they thought of the chapter, so please review!