Fiona finally found a state of stark consciousness as she felt herself briefly flying through the air. It was a quick rush before she hit the ground and screamed out in pain. It shot through her side where she landed; she was sure she had been split in half and set on fire, all at the same time. All she could do was lay where she landed, breathing loudly, not moving. Any slight flicker of a movement tore through her skin.
In the darkness she could hear pained grunts and the sound of blows landing. Groaning, her brain didn't have the capacity to draw any conclusions. She softly closed her eyes, almost giving in to unconsciousness again. Almost.
"Fiona!"
Her eyes flew open.
"Shrek."
"I got'ya." His voice was suddenly right beside her.
"Good." She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. She trembled.
"We've gotta go." He instructed. Large fingers landed on her side.
"No!" she yelled at him. "It hurts."
In response Shrek sniggered. Anger caught hold in her brain.
"No time fer that I'm afraid."
Paying no heed to her expression of pain, Shrek ungracefully slid his giant hands underneath her body and lifted her. It wasn't the toss across his shoulder she had endured when they first met, nor like her recent painful shoulder ride, but it still hurt. Even in his attempt to be gentle, where she lay on his arm and how her legs were draped over his other arm felt like sandpaper against her skin. She squeezed her eyes closed, sucking in a teeth-clenched gasp.
"Sorry," he acknowledged, though it didn't sound sincere. She didn't have time to react before he let out a grunt and leant to one side. She slid along his rough vest, it felt as if he were skinning her like one of the rats they dined on. In reaction to her groan, he held onto her tighter, only making things worse.
Laying helplessly in his arms, she looked out and saw one of the men who had kidnapped her was standing again, though he was stumbling backwards from whatever Shrek had done to him.
"Hold on," he mumbled.
"I can't." She was exasperated. She lifted her outward arm from where it was dangling almost comfortably, and tried her best to be gentle as she took hold of the edge of his vest. Her best wasn't very good, however, as Shrek was actively fighting off their assailant, leaving the vest a somewhat moving target.
She clutched onto it, her hand burned, but it seemed to localise the pain. Of course, it still hurt everywhere as she weathered the unsteady storm of Shrek's movements, but it seemed to give her one point of pain to focus on. Finally, the ogre stopped. The brief period of stillness while he caught his breath didn't last long before he took off in a sprint, holding her against him.
"I won't let them take ye, you've just gotta hold on." He spoke quietly and breathlessly as he ran.
And she did, hold on. Screwing her face up to withstand the pain only hurt more, but she didn't have a choice. She felt every movement the ogre's body made.
"Princess!" Donkey found his way to them, and was quickly left behind until he broke out into his own sprint to follow them. "Hey-uh, wew, who are those- those guys?"
"Donkey…" Shrek panted, "...when we're running, you shut up."
They ran for what felt like an eternity. Fiona couldn't see where they were running nor hear how closely they were being chased. It was just darkness, a ringing in her ears, Shrek's heaving breaths, and the excruciating pain that leaked over every part of her body. The running didn't stay consistent. There were sudden darts aside, a stretch of slower jogging, and then finally slow. They wove in and out of the trees. In the time the frightening events had taken place, the sun had completely slipped away, leaving pitch black darkness.
"Woah Shrek, that's a tree. Huh, it sure is spooky here. Perhaps we could-"
"Donkey shh!"
"Uh yeah, you right. Never know what could be laying around that we'd be waking up."
"Shh means shut up."
"Mhm."
"Stop." Shrek halted suddenly.
Fiona could feel him looking around, listening. Her heartbeat grew louder in the still quiet, broken only by Donkey's whimpers.
"Stay here." Shrek gently laid her upon the ground. She had been gradually building some kind of tolerance to the rhythmic movement and it was burning slightly less, however everything was suddenly broken all over again as she was left on the ground.
"Here? Alone?" Donkey's panic mode intensified.
"I have t'go cover our tracks."
"Can I come with you?"
"No. You have t'stay with the princess here."
"Quickly." Fiona was able to muster a word, it burned out of her throat.
"Aye," he confirmed and she heard him disappear further into the darkness.
"Well, Princess, I don't know about you but this is the kinda thing to make a guy nervous, y'know? Being left in the dark all alone, with so many trees around. No fire. Can't see. And who knows what kind of bugs might be making their way over to us right now. Oh we'd be a tasty thing to nibble on for sure. Talking 'bout nibbling, I could sure use one of those waffles now. That'd comfort me for sure for sure. But what about things bigger than bugs? Ohhh now I'm all creeped out. Can you tell? I'm tingling all over."
Fiona stared listlessly at the darkness above her. She could only make out tiny patches of sky through the trees, much less any stars. Her brain barely had the ability to acknowledge what Donkey was saying as he paced around beside her. The ordeal seemed to leave her in a more fragile state. The cold sank into her bones even more than the previous night. Her trembling only made the pain worse. It felt like her chest was caving in further and further with each breath. The potion was gone, she had another night of endless torture ahead of her, plus her enemies had found her. She didn't need to think too hard about who the menacing duo were, or rather who they were working for.
"Y'okay?" Donkey finally noticed her state.
Fiona blinked at the sky. "No," she whispered.
"Well, yeah. That was a stupid question, sorry. Of course you're not okay, what with the curse and all that stuff." He stopped and sat in the grass next to her. "Aw Princess, you wait until the sun comes out. It all seems doom and gloomy now, but in the morning it'll be better. You'll see!"
Fiona would have nodded at him if she could, instead she shivered a little more. The sudden increase in movement made her groan.
"Now that Shrek's not here, I thought maybe we could keep talking about true love. There's nothing like being thrown aside and running for ya life to make a person think about their future, y'know." He didn't pause for her to answer. "Maybe I could stick around with you when we get to Duloc. We can leave Shrek in his swamp to chill for a few days while we go sightseeing! And by sightseeing, I mean like sightseeing, y'know? Maybe we could find your true love and my true love at the same time. And I've been working on my pitch."
The princess couldn't even muster a smile at his words, however she could widen her eyes in alarm as she watched Donkey's own eyes widen and his gaze shift upwards, as his ears flattened against his head. Against all better judgement, she turned her head to see what he was looking at, clenching her teeth at the effort.
"Oh no… oh no… ahHH-"
Donkey's scream was cut short.
"It's me, Donkey." The familiar voice was back. "Now, all you need t' do is shut yer mouth."
There was a muffled noise coming from Donkey, Shrek yet to release his snout.
"I said, how exactly am I supposed to talk all night if I have my mouth shut, hm?" Donkey countered Shrek's insistence.
"Oh. Yeah. That." Shrek acknowledged the situation Fiona was trembling on the ground over. "Well, then quietly."
"Okay, okay. I can do that. Yeah! Donkey… can talk all night long! And do it in various volumes." He was proud of himself. He turned to Fiona. "And that's what you can say about me!"
"Quiet!" Shrek hissed at him.
The pounding in Fiona's heart seemed to quieten. The adrenaline leaving her body only made way for heightened feeling. She couldn't shake the loss of resilience she had built up. It felt like her bravery had been kidnapped by the people assigned to steal her away and take her home.
"Can we make a fire?" She wanted to run her hands over her face, pull on her hair, rip her skin directly off her bones.
"No. They'll track us down faster than you could try t'stand up."
"Oh." Donkey laughed. "I get it!"
"Is this funny to you?" She welcomed the sudden frustration that flooded her body as her companions chucked with each other.
"Uh-no."
"I guess it would be." Fiona mentally crossed her arms. The instinct to do so made her lift her arms just a fraction off the ground and she sorely regretted it. "They weren't here for you. You could just let them take me and…" A wall of emotion seemed to hit her. "And get on with your lives. But you didn't. You ran, you're hiding. For me." She took a gasping breath, it burned through her lungs.
"Actually, Princess. Without you, those freaks are piling into my swamp by the second. You're my ticket to a free house," Shrek corrected her matter of factly. "And y'know. Yer alright. T'travel with that is."
"We're friends!" Donkey exclaimed, gaining another argumentative shush. "Friends don't let friends get carried off by some tough looking muscle. No one can break us up. Nuh-uh! We've got a mean, green, fighting machine! An all night at your service, talking distractor! And guess what, Princess? Shrek made a joke back before we found ya, he said-"
"Donkey."
"-Don't worry about the dragon, it's the Princess that's gonna be the problem! And wow, he was right. You're a problem for those on the wrong side of ya of course. Don't mess with this princess!" He barely paused to take a breath. "You should'a seen her, Shrek! Before you arrived. Can't move but can kick someone in the painful parts, y'know, and take 'em out."
"Y'did that, huh?"
"Yes, actually." She allowed the brief moment to take in what Donkey had said. The lowering of her emotional state left her shivering again. Her whole body ached in a way that she couldn't move or adjust to fix. As much as she didn't want to dampen any of the complimentary things Donkey had to say about her, she had no choice. "I'm so cold." She held back a whimper.
There was silence between her companions as they considered the situation. Much like the cave, there were no homey touches available to her. The grass she laid upon was better than the stone ground, but it didn't help. She could feel every single place the ground touched beneath her, stabbing into her body, creating deep bruises that would just up and disappear by morning time.
"Hey, I got a great idea!" Donkey's ears perked up. "Y'know when I lived in a stable, people sometimes snuck inside." He trotted around in a circle beside her before sitting close. "Sometimes they were real cold. But they just laid close. Shrek! And it was so cozy and all."
"Not too close." She wanted to push him away, but he didn't touch her - laying just close enough that his fur barely tickled her arm. Concentrating to do so, she carefully slid her arm the mere millimetres to rest against him - her arm feeling grazed to do so - he was warm. His fur was soft, in a coarse kind of way. It didn't stab her like the hay did.
"Shrek!" Donkey did his best to be quiet in his insistence. "Are you laying down? I'd look but I can't move too much on account of the situation."
There was a resounding sigh as Shrek lowered himself down to the ground. He left a wide gap between them, putting his hands behind his head.
"Hey, I can't see you."
"Aye," Shrek responded simply. "I'm laying."
"Good. And less of the attitude next time. This is a princess we are assisting." Donkey's brow was furrowed. "Now, apparently it's sometimes more effective the less clothes you're wearing, so-"
"Donkey!" both Shrek and Fiona snapped in unison.
"Shh!" Donkey hissed back. "What happened to being quiet, huh?"
"Okay. Now our job is t'shut up, and you tell yer little stories." There was another sigh from Shrek.
"Okay, okay fine. Ya don't wanna hear that one? Well. I've got others. Sure I do."
Fiona focused on her breath, burning in and out of her throat. This was it. She didn't know how many hours until morning, but she was absolutely sure it would drag on and feel like forever. She was so close to being able to skip the nighttime. Sure, the thugs would have found her asleep, but at least she wouldn't have been able to feel anything. Shrek would have found her even without her shouting, of course. It would have been fine. Perhaps she would have woken up in Duloc. She shivered again, trying desperately to focus on the warmth of Donkey's fur. It was so strange to feel like she was on fire and yet so cold all at the same time. Every shiver sent the burning to a new intensity, her brow permanently creased.
Finally she let out a small whimper. She summed as much energy as she could to turn her head to look at the ogre beside her, grazing her scalp. "Lay closer… please," she whispered. She blinked at the ogre, unable to hide the distress on her face.
He turned to look at her, they met each other's eyes. His hard, irritated expression softened ever so slightly - she was surprised she managed to catch it in the dark. He didn't move immediately, though, seemingly considering his options, but he finally relented. With an eye roll, he shuffled himself closer to her.
"Huh?" Donkey stopped talking. "What's happening?" He stood from where he was laying, making Fiona suck in a pained breath as she involuntarily whipped her head over to his direction. "Oh, hey glad you joined the party." With Fiona's groan at the cost of her action, Donkey widened his eyes. "Sorry, Princess. Now I gotta find my place again…" He settled himself back down where he was previously laying.
Claustrophobia hit her as they both moved closer at the same time. She held her breath as their bodies lightly grazed hers, finally wincing. Neither of them were graceful in their movements. She felt the full coarseness of Donkey's fur scratching against her arm - for a second she thought he was going to land on it, but he narrowly missed. Shrek's bulk did briefly land on her other arm. She gave a pained hum between clenched lips to stay as quiet as possible, and he darted back. Where he settled still left a gap between them, but it was far closer than before. The movement left her shaken. She tried desperately to return to the burning predictability of her breath and lessen the invisible wounds left on her.
Donkey's stories seemed to slowly break through the pain as she recovered. As much as she was even able to recover. The body heat of her travel companions helped a little. It was enough. It was all she could get.
Much like the previous night, Donkey chattered with barely any pauses. He didn't stay still, but she couldn't expect much more of him. At certain points he would enthusiastically stand, or anxiously pace around, depending on the nature of the story he was telling. Sometimes the sudden movement would come with a hurried apology, other times not. Once again, Shrek was mostly quiet - weighing in only to mock or joke with Donkey. He only moved a couple times, trying his best to remember to be gentle.
Fiona's ability to sense time was diminished. The sky was dark, it was still pitch black, with no signs of the sun's warm relief coming to save her. It felt like she had been laying in the grass for an eternity. Laying still for so long would surely make a person begin to go numb, and yet any numbing sensation her body created felt unbearable and was only cured by moving and creating even more stabbing sensations within her.
"We were walking and talking. And walking. And talking. And then…" Donkey yawned loudly. "And then I… I just… I…"
Fiona blinked at the silence.
"Well… would'ya look at that. It is possible." Shrek remarked. "I can kick him if ya want."
"No." One part of her was afraid of the cold his absence would bring, the other part of her felt guilty. They were all tired. Donkey had already done far too much for her, considering they'd only known each other a couple days. She'd pushed him to his limits, clearly. Shrek, however, wasn't a talker. Silence washed over them. She breathed steadily through her nose.
"We can't see the stars from here," she commented to end the quiet.
"Aye. Gives ye something t'look at while waiting fer sleep. Or… whatever you've got."
"Tell me about the stars. The stories." She instructed him. She was past any point of social pleasantry, or even wondering if it was appropriate for her to hear the monster's stories. She just needed something to focus her brain towards… and she wanted to hear it. Being in unimaginable pain was as good an excuse as any.
"Uh." He hesitated.
"Waximus." She prompted him. The ogre didn't have a choice. "He was first."
"Aye." The reluctance she expected wasn't in his voice. There was still a hint of hesitation, a nervous energy perhaps. "I-uh… well, Waximus is someone we tell stories about."
Fiona listened intently - desperately ignoring the burning and a particular stabby length of grass sticking into her shin - that same curious tone of voice was back she recognised from the previous night.
"They said that there was one night that never ended. Like this one huh?"
She felt him begin to nudge her, but he stopped himself. It was enough to disturb whatever semblance of peace she had built up. She used the opportunity to shift her leg off of what was bothering her, taking a long deep breath through her nose.
"Yah, so ogres got confused. We can see better than the average human, but we're not built fer total darkness. Anyway, eventually the candles all burnt out. Ogres can produce a hefty sum of wax, believe me…" He thrust a thumb at himself. "But that night went on fer so long that they ran out. Never knew why it went on fer so long. Us ogres, we're not the curious type. The humans can sit and wonder, ogres are survivors. We weather it out, whatever it is, and then move on." He shrugged. "Still, everyone was confused about what t' do."
As the princess lay listening, she stopped needing to concentrate to do so. Sure, a few of Donkey's stories were interesting, but she rarely found herself captivated.
"And then this guy, Waximus, see he hadn't been contributing. Everyone thought he was sick and weak. But eventually he stood up, dug a finger into his ear, and pulled the wax out. And it kept coming." Shrek laughed, having to mute himself.
Fiona almost felt disgusted at the topic of the story, but she wasn't. She acknowledged the idea of disgust, but it didn't change how interesting it was to learn about ogre culture. She had been told before about how disgusting ogres were, sure he smelled like he hadn't bathed in a long time, but she didn't realise how deep it was.
"Hm," she hummed her general interest, not that he paused for her.
"He pulled out a glob the size of his own knuckle." Shrek balled up his own fist and held it in the air as an example. "That wax kept burning fer days, or well what would've been days. Eventually the sun came up, the night ended. He somehow ended up in the stars."
"Oh." She spoke softly into the darkness.
"I dunno how much you as a human could appreciate it. Now, I've pulled a giant lump or two out of ma own ear, but a whole knuckle." He laughed again. "That's quite something."
Fiona briefly recalled a time where she had an itch in her ear at night that was keeping her awake. She dug a finger inside and pulled out far more wax than she bargained for. Rather than be impressed she was horrified by it. It kept her awake for her own long night.
"What about you?" His hesitant question came as a surprise.
"Me?" It almost felt like he had been reading her mind. Asking for her to share her own earwax story. Her furrowed brow made her face ache.
"What about stories from your life, or legends, or whatever," he clarified.
"I don't really have any stories to tell," she responded. Much of her life had been lonely and sad, no one wanted to hear about that, not even an ogre.
"Well… now ya have one."
"I can't imagine who I would tell about Waximus." Her words were sad. She realised once upon a time, she would have said much the same thing with an air of entitlement. That wasn't who she was anymore.
"No." He let out a soft chuckle. "I meant… I…" his confused words trailed off. "Nevermind."
As much as she wanted to be quiet, let the moment wash over her. She couldn't. The only thing washing over her was pain radiating through her body with every breath. "Tell me more stories." She insisted by way of asking. "There were others in the stars, right?"
"Aye. Ye want more stories about ogres?" His bemused words still carried that hesitance ingrained in his voice.
"It's strange." She barely managed to choke out a chuckle. "Hearing about ogres. The only stories I knew about ogres were of monsters."
"That's a story I'd like t'hear," Shrek confirmed. "Tell me what humans say about us."
Fiona's thoughts were stopped in their tracks. "Um. It's kinda mean…"
"I've got thick skin, Princess. Did ya parents tell ye bedtime stories about that?"
Fiona laughed softly, it hurt to do so. She blinked up at the sky and told him. She told him about how ogres are mean and nasty by nature, bringing death and disaster everywhere they went. They snap and argue and get so frustrated they cry. They're ugly, bloated, loathsome beings that get shut away from the world. They're nothing for a princess like her to be concerned with. They smell so bad it would bring other humans to tears - he seemed fond of that one - and shouldn't ever go near human society. They're so terrible that people would want them dead upon sight of them. For slaughtering a monster like an ogre, people would be deemed a hero, which is why ogres stayed away and kept to their horrible selves. They ate despicable things, including human children, perhaps even their own. For anyone, especially a royal, it would be a disgusting insult to be in the presence of one, unless it was being killed. She could have gone on all night.
"Y'know…" Shrek finally took advantage of a pause, "...fer a human princess… that's a lot of terrible facts about ogres." He chuckled, though his mirth faded as she stayed quiet.
She'd said too much. Her eyes were wide, almost holding her breath as she stared at the leaves above her. She'd said too much. He was obviously expecting a couple of things she'd read in storybooks, or a legend or two. Not a laundry list of every trait that had been threatened to her by her father. Everything they said to her to protect her from being seen as a monster, everything to keep her away.
"What?" he called out her sudden silence.
"What?" she retorted.
"Yer hiding something."
"No I'm not."
"Ye know princess, ye got t'hear my confession, time fer yours. It's only fair, hm?"
"I'm not hiding…"
"I don't buy it," he spoke over her.
"Fine." The tension within her was only building, her limbs ached, her head was pounding. "Fine. The pain wasn't always the curse, this is new." She stopped, abruptly. The words ran around in her brain. Her confession. Something she'd been thinking about since she was small. "Ever since I was a little girl…" She paused, her mouth dry, her breath burning her throat. "Every night I became… I…" she faltered.
"An ogre."
She paused, waiting for him to follow up with any kind of verbal reaction. "Yes," she finally confirmed. She supposed silence was a reaction in itself. She wanted to see his face, grazing her scalp against the ground to look at him, but he had turned his head away from her.
"That's great." He finally spoke. His tone wasn't light or joking. It was flat. He looked back up at the sky, propping his arms under his head.
She watched him intently, unsure of how to mend whatever had been broken. She wasn't sure what it was, or how it would have been broken by her truth, but… it was. Just two days ago she didn't think ogres could be hurt… emotionally… and yet now she was agonising over having hurt one. He continued in his silence.
The emotional whirlwind joined the burning that coursed through her. Donkey's fur beside her suddenly felt like it was stabbing her with each deep sleepy breath. The ground became hard to lay on. The body heat she was so desperate for became too hot. She wanted to escape but she couldn't. It was a feeling she supposed she was used to.
Against all better judgement, she forced out a muted laugh, her chest aching at the action. It caught his attention with an ear twitch. "I'm an idiot, right?" she asked into the silence, "For thinking it was so terrible. I was hidden away my whole childhood, I was dragged into a tower for so many years, just for being… an… ogre." She let the words wash over her, and him too. She had been given a 20 year sentence for being what the person laying beside her was. The person who was free, and even had his own stories and legends written in the stars. "Only at night too," she added.
It prompted a quiet exhale of amusement from her companion. Tears welled in her eyes against her will.
"I'd give anything to be an ogre every night again." One tear spilled over. Her eyes stung, but it felt cool as it traced its way down her cheek. "I wouldn't be alone anymore," she whispered.
Her inferior human ears managed to hear a small hum of amusement from her live heater. Despite the pain that was radiating through her body she felt the tension break in the air. His body, though not touching hers, seemed to relax.
"So… this prince who wants t'marry ye so bad, thought ye know what'll make her love me… unimaginable pain." He quietly chuckled at his joke.
She laughed too, quietly, as much as she was able to, which equated to a couple of breaths. She didn't want to laugh, not at all. She wanted to sob at her truth, at her confession, at his observation of her reality. But the thought of sobbing and the movement it would create, halted the tears, save for the one that dripped from her jaw to the ground.
"Uh-" Shrek broke the silence that had come over them. She could tell he sensed her emotion, despite not being able to see her face. "Is that why ye didn't run away?"
"Hm?" Fiona's mind scoured all the times she could have run away. There were so many moments she could have easily escaped the ogre, but she didn't. There had always been an unexplained trust between them. Perhaps this was it.
"Y'know, when we first met."
"Oh," Fiona blinked into the darkness, "Well… you surprised me, sure, but I wasn't going to drop my pants about it," she referred to Shrek's proud recounting of his scare results. Despite herself she smiled, genuinely, again. Just as much as furrowing her brow hurt, smiling did the same. Her cheeks ached.
"Maybe you've still got some ogre in there. Not being scared of something that'd make a grown man drop a perfectly good waffle. That's an ogre instinct." He spoke the words like he was complimenting her.
A rush of fleeting numbness flooded over her brain. "I've never been complimented for an ogre trait before," she spoke her feelings out loud.
"Aye, couldn't imagine why that would be," he commented.
For a moment, she felt like he understood. She'd never really felt that before. Her mother had tried to understand, but she couldn't. The few staff members who knew of her curse were kind, but everyone regarded her with the same distaste every time the sun slipped below the horizon. She never even expected anyone to understand. Then again, she never expected to be laying in a forest, shoulder to shoulder with an ogre.
"Thank you for saving me," Fiona spoke softly. The words she should have said when they first met. "Both times."
Shrek seemed to trip over his words, shrugging off her thanks. "S'nothing."
She exhaled her amusement at his rejection of her thanks. Despite laying in the grass barely able to stop shivering, with shooting pains running up and down her spine, she would have been in a far worse position without him. "Do you think they'll find us?" she allowed a slight shift in conversation.
"No, there's no one around," he was serious, "which is a miracle." He threw a thumb in Donkey's direction.
It seemed strange to Fiona that her kidnappers would give up so easily. Perhaps they had to get back to Far Far Away to report her position. That'd take long enough. She hoped it would take enough time for her to get into Duloc at the very least.
"I can hear a lot better than ye little human ears," Shrek's tone turned light.
She had almost let the fear and concern cloud her, but his words stopped the feelings in their tracks. "I know." Through the pain and the emotional turmoil, a spark of excitement rose to the top. "I know exactly how much better too." It was the first time she'd ever spoken about herself as an ogre in a way that wasn't negative.
"Oh aye?"
"Yes. As a human, the lava around my castle all kind of faded into white noise. I was so high up in the tower, the wind would obscure it most of the time. As an ogre… I could hear all the little pops and noises it made. I could hear how fast the wind was each night. I could hear if a bird was flying close. Sometimes, I could hear the movements of the dragon too."
"Hm."
"Sometimes I hated it, because I just wanted everything to fade into the background. I didn't want to hear anything. But other days it was… fun." She instinctively shrugged, immediately regretting the action. She took the chance to graze her scalp against the ground as she turned her head to look at him again. "I'm sorry," she took a burning breath, "For how I was when we first met. It was… strange. I didn't know how to feel."
He was quiet for a moment. "Aye, ogres are supposed t' be the ones fair princesses need saving from."
"Exactly." He got it, again. "It's been hard… my whole life. Being both things. A princess and an ogre." For the first time ever, in that moment, she felt like neither.
"By the description of yer little bedtime stories back there, sounds like ye might have been told a lie or two," he observed.
"It was that obvious?" she asked. She resisted the urge to fact-check everything she had divulged.
"Aye." He let out a chuckle. "Ogres cry when they get angry?" he scoffed. "Never heard of a tale like that before. Stories about ogres are supposed t'strike fear into humans, not whatever that was."
"So... it was just me."
"You and whatever made ye cry, Princess."
It was like a lifelong storm in her brain finally settled. She couldn't appreciate it of course, with the furrow in her brow making her head pound. Fighting through the pain, it was as if his words set a part of her locked up for far more than thirteen years free.
In the moments where she could briefly forget that her skin was burning and her bones were bruised, her eyes felt heavy and closed involuntarily before something within her would stir up a sharp pain and make her cringe which would set off a chain reaction of stabbing pains. She was just so tired, it seemed to make the whole ordeal worse. Especially since her chief overnight storyteller had fallen victim to the sleepiness himself. There was still one other person awake with her. His body didn't move or react when she would twitch a little in pain, or when she would softly let out a muffled groan. He stayed, right where she needed him. He completed his stories about the ogres in the stars. She let him in little by little about her own experiences as an ogre and little by little he validated them.
The sky grew lighter; it seemed to happen much faster that dawn. Eventually the sun broke over the horizon. Fiona couldn't see it through the trees but she could certainly feel it. The relief spread over her body with a sigh. But, the exhaustion immediately hit her. It had been a long and eventful time; the tiredness took over her body. She immediately rolled onto her side, sleepily relishing in her ability to change positions.
"Well… goodnight Princess," she heard Shrek speak quietly as she drifted into sleep. He sat up, to move away.
"No…" Fiona rolled back for just a moment, clutching onto his arm. It paused his movement. "It's cold. Stay."
He did.
. . .
AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED. Kinda. I saw a post that said fanfic is just reading the same two characters falling in love over and over again in different lifetimes. And yeah. Oof. Okay. Got me there.
But GOD the intimacy in how he drops her title when she's in danger, had to capture that in this story too. I love them so much.
I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing this one!
The danger is over now, right? RIGHT?