Well hello! Here is a new chapter of The Forest's Princess-fanfiction. This chapter was inspired by the Zodiac P.I.-manga, and the Let's Dance a Waltz-manga. See you in the next chapter.
Clarice looked at the newly blooming flowers in the small forest clearing, and tried to feel the forest thing, and then looked at her father as she felt very small steps in the meadow:
"There must be grasshoppers in here".
Clarice's assumption was soon confirmed, as many grasshoppers jumped out from among the flowers.
"Counting those would be difficult, because they keep jumping in different directions, which is why it would be easy to get confused in the calculations", Clarice said.
The weather was sunny, and the sun was already setting.
"I do", Gallant said, looking at the grasshoppers hopping in all directions.
"Heh heh!" Clarice laughed, jumping towards the grasshoppers in front of her, who then jumped in different directions as Clarice's feet hit the ground.
Gallant looked around, but when no one was to be seen, he touched the ground with his forelegs, and the crickets were hopping everywhere again. Gallant then looked at Clarice, who was watching the crickets laughing.
"Heh heh!" Clarice laughed looking around.
Gallant smiled a little:
"Heh heh!"
"Dad laughed", Clarice smiled a little. "Heh heh!"
(In the evening)
Clarice stood with her father by the river, having just had a drink.
It had been a fun day, and in her heart Clarice hoped, it would continue for a long time.
"I hope father doesn't look for an adoptive mother for me anymore! May this happiness continue forever!" Clarice hoped.
Splash! Clarice was suddenly splashed with some water from her left side, and as a result, she looked at her father standing on her left, with water falling from his horns.
Gallant looked at his daughter for a moment, then at his horns, which were still dripping with water.
"Oh, this is what you want!" Clarice thought, and splashed water on her father with her left front leg. Splash!
Gallant looked at his daughter with a smile, then ran into the river with Clarice following her father.
After running around in the water for a while, Clarice and her father kicked water over each other. Splash!
"Ducklings", Clarice said as she saw the ducklings swimming in the river, to her and her father's left as Clarice sat on the bottom of the river.
"I see", Gallant said, pushing his daughter forward with his horns, splashing water around her as the ducks flew off to the side, until they finally stopped. Splash! "Heh heh"
"Heh heh!" Clarice laughed, but then looked at the setting sun:
"I should probably go home. I'm getting tired".
"No wonder, considering how much you ran today", Gallant said.
Clarice walked home with her father, then laid down on the leaves on the floor of her father's cave. She then saw Friend the owl land on a tree branch near her father's cave, and saw her father's expression turn serious, causing Clarice to become all perky, but she closed her eyes believing she was sleeping as she eavesdropped on the conversation between her father, and the Friend owl.
"I still haven't found an adoptive mother for Clarice", Friend owl said.
"I see", Gallant said.
At last the Friend owl flew away, and Gallant went to his cave to sleep, looking at his daughter sadly, and then fell asleep.
"I was hoping father had dismissed that idea. I guess it's time to start my plan", Clarice thought sadly, but then composed herself. He waited for a while, until he was sure that his father was asleep. After that, he stood up, left the cave, and brought some roots, bark, and grass near the mouth of the cave, and then looked at his father before walking away from the cave. After getting within a few meters of the cave, Clarice turned around, and looked at her father, and then whispered very quietly:
"Thank you, dad".
A part of Clarice hoped, that Gallant would wake up in the middle of it all, and say, that he no longer wanted any female-deer to raise Clarice, and that Clarice's father would promise to take care of Clarice himself. But Gallant continued to sleep.
Finally, Clarice regained her composure, and started walking away from her father's cave. He finally arrived at a cave he found with Flower, and Thumper, and went into that cave, laid down on the leaves of the trees on the floor of the cave, and began to cry, until he finally calmed down. He was sad that he hadn't had the courage to call his father his father, even though he had really wanted to.
"It's better this way. Father will have his own time now", Clarice thought, just before she fell asleep.
"What am I going to do to Gallant?!" Having advised Clarice earlier, the strange deer thought angrily, looking at the cave, where Clarice had just gone to sleep.