I got called handsome today and yk what? I am handsome I feel handsome like a young prince. In the boyish way. In the way that makes me feel like I got a long life.
was having thoughts about princes and princesses and frogs and true loves kiss and thought it would be kinda cool if a monarch got frogged as one gender and got unfrogged as their real gender so i did this
He finally found it. A single tower in the dark forest surrounded by ruins, the once sturdy walls now just piles of broken stone with only the single tower and a small fraction of the once great castle still intact. Prince Valentine entered a large rectangular room he needed to pass through to get to the tower; the remanence of a throne room with only a single thorny, blackwood throne standing on the dais. He wasn’t surprised to see a man standing in front of the caricature of a true throne, dressed in a black and green imitation of the prince’s own royal clothes.
Valentine eyed the man with suspicion as he entered and shouted, “I am Prince Valentine and I am here to save the princess, do not stop me!”
The man glared back, not needing to raise his voice knowing it would carry in the empty space, “There is no princess here, there is no reason for your being here.”
“The king and queen sent me here to find her, everyone in the village says she’s here!” He shouted back.
“There is no princess here,” The man said again and drew his sword, “I must ask you to leave.”
Valentine drew his own sword, “The villagers say there are an evil knight, a witch, and a dragon keeping the princess here, can I assume you are that knight?”
The man shook his head in disappointment, “There is no princess, no knight, no witch or dragon. This is your last chance, leave or parish.”
Valentine laughed as he lunged into battle. The knight lifted his sword and defended as Valentine slashed at him, but the knight easily caught Valentine’s blade against his own.
The knight shoved against Valentine’s sword and pushed him back. He grinned, “They say left-handed fighters have an advantage since most practice against right-handed opponents. I would not count on that giving you an edge here.”
“I needn’t rely on something so trivial to win a fight,” Valentine said, pushing forward again.
It seemed to be an even match, for every attack from Valentine, the knight would block and counter. As Valentine pushed him back, the knight tried for the high ground, stepping up the dais behind him, but it wasn’t enough to unbalance Valentine. It was however enough to make the knight trip slightly when he put his foot back believing there to be another stair to the dais. Valentine took advantage of the knight’s mistake, pushing forward and making the already off-balanced knight fall backwards, and twisting his blade until the knight dropped his sword.
“You’re disarmed, knight, yield,” Valentine said leveling his sword at the knight’s chest.
The knight rolled back and dashed behind the throne as Valentine charged forward and lodged his sword into the throne. While Valentine was stuck, the knight jumped up from the other side of the throne, raised his hand, and Valentine had barely a second of warning as green lightening ran from the knight’s chest to his hand and shot out. It hit Valentine in the chest and sent him flying across the room, leaving his sword still buried in the throne.
Valentine pushed onto his hands and knees, trying to regain his breath while his body still shook from the hit and the shock of the lightening.
“You are outmatched,” The knight called and Valentine turned to see him walking off the dais, carrying both swords that had been left there.
“You cheated,” Valentine said, still out of breath but gaining strength. Suddenly, his sword clattered to the ground next to him.
He looked up at the knight, “There’s no reason to keep fighting, there is no princess, and you are no match for me. Leave.”
Valentine looked between the sword and the knight, and after taking a deep breath, he grabbed his sword and pushed up to lunge at the knight again, but the knight had his sword at Valentine’s neck before he even got to both his feet.
“Why are you still fighting?” The knight asked, tapping the edge of his sword to Valentine’s Adam’s apple.
Valentine glared at the knight, “I will never stop fighting for good! I vowed to the king and queen to return their daughter, and I will save her or die trying!”
“There is no prin-” The knight sighed exasperatedly and shook his head, “You know what, fine! Come on, stand up, move.”
The knight pulled his sword back from Valentine’s neck and sheathed it. Valentine stood up and hesitated, but then sheathed his own sword and followed the knight to a door on the left side of the throne room, down a short hallway, and finally up a winding stair case.
“Where are you taking me?” Valentine asked, though there was really only one place it could be.
The knight didn’t answer until they reached the top of the tower where a single heavy wooden door stood. Valentine watched expectantly as the door was opened, this was where the princess was kept.
The room was full of furniture made from the same blackwood as the throne down stairs; a fourposter bed, a wardrobe, a desk, and a table all made of twisted black thorns. Next to the desk was a small library and along the same wall as a display case filled with various small jars of colorful liquid and a cauldron bubbling over a fire. But, there was no princess.
Valentine couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Where is she?”
“She was never here,” The knight said, “This is my room, where I live and practice magic.”
Valentine looked at the knight, “But, the king and queen cried, the villagers swore, she was here. You are the knight and the witch; they wouldn’t make up an entire princess.”
The knight sighed and walked to the small table. He waved his hand and his eyes glowed green as a tea set shrouded in green magic hovered to the table. Valentine watched for a moment and when the knight offered him a cup, it seemed rude to refuse.
Once Valentine sat down, the knight began, “Once upon a time, there was a king and queen who were liked by their people and loved by their allies. However, they desperately needed an heir to their throne, and after a small ordeal with a witch, the queen became pregnant. The entire kingdom was overjoyed when the birth of the princess was announced. She was kind and rambunctious and beautiful.
“Everyone saw the future of the kingdom in her, but she never felt right. There was something wrong when it was announced, “Her highness, the Princess.” She asked her parents to be trained as a knight, and they allowed it, of course all princesses go through their knight phase; they’d let her train and when she got tired of it, they’d respect her decision to quit. But she didn’t get tired of it, and in fact, she came to them and said, “I want to be a prince.”
“They weren’t sure what to make of it. There are tales of princesses who dress up as princes and train as knights, and those all ended with the princess coming home and becoming queen. So, they let their princess be a prince, but only in the castle, only when no important allies were visiting, only when they were the only ones to see.
“When she asked to go to a ball as a prince, the king and queen got angry. She was supposed to have gotten tired of pretending. She was supposed to only pretend when the doors where closed and no one could see. She was only pretending to be a prince, she would never really be a prince. And they weren’t going to let her pretend any more. No more short wigs, no more binding her chest, no more fake names.
“So, she wasn’t going to pretend any more. She went to the court wizard and asked about changing. She had grown beautiful, delicate, and demure, and she asked the wizard to become handsome, strong, and confident. He couldn’t do anything at the moment, but, he taught her the basics of magic and helped her research the depths of transfiguration.
“Eventually, the king and queen found their studies. They blamed the wizard for cursing their daughter; by chance, he was the son of that witch the queen had gone to for help getting pregnant. So, they- they…” The knight paused, staring blankly into his tea, “I never saw Magnus again. I’m not sure if they exiled or executed him; I left before they did it.”
Valentine spit his tea onto the floor, “You where there? What happened to the princess?”
The knight looked confused at Valentine before rolling his eyes and explaining, “I am the princess.”
Valentine’s eyes went wide, “What?”
“Well, I would be a prince now if my parents hadn’t disowned me,” The knight said and took a sip from his tea. “As I said, I left when Magnus and I were caught. We had made a potion that, if taken consistently for six months, would make me a man permanently. My parents thought I was going too far in my pretending.”
Valentine stared at the prince-knight, “But, why?”
“Why what?” He asked, looking at Valentine with venom in his eyes. “Why be a prince? Or why were they overjoyed to have a princess and then ashamed of a prince?”
“I just,” Valentine couldn’t understand most of it. “Why go through all that, just to become like this?” He waved at the room around them, and implied the shambles of a castle beyond it.
The knight shook his head, “I don’t expect you to understand, but this is who I am. I am a prince. When they called me prince, they were playing along with a game, and they stopped when it got boring. But, it was never a game for me. I was never pretending to be a prince, I was trying to be a prince.”
Valentine nodded his head and quietly said, “That, I think I can understand.”
The knight raised an eyebrow, “Really?”
“I, you’re…” Valentine ran his hand through his hair, and looked back at the knight, “You are more prince than I am.”
The knight looked at him and waited, but when Valentine didn’t elaborate he started, “Well, you’re not obligated to tell-”
“I wasn’t born a prince,” Valentine said, jumping into it like he usually did. “I just, walked into a town one day, after accidentally killing an evil witch tormenting the people there, and said I was a prince sent to help them. That’s what princes did in all the stories, and that was all I ever wanted in life. But then, more towns asked for help and I can’t refuse a call for help, I just can’t. And then the real royalty asked for Prince Valentine and wanted to know who I was, what kingdom I was from, what family I was related to. I always managed to avoid answering those questions, but…”
“You can’t run away forever,” The knight said, and laughed at the similarity of their situations, “Well, that’s certainly interesting. Are my parents convinced that you’re…?”
“Yes,” Valentine said, “It’s part of why they sent me after you.” Beat of silence passed and then Valentine asked, “Wait, so, if you’re the princess and the knight and the witch, where’s the dragon?”
“Oh, that’s Sif,” the knight said, his eye’s glowed slightly and the sound of slithering came from the fire next to the cauldron. “She’s my familiar.”
Valentine watched as a giant green snake slithered from the fire and up the chair where the knight was sitting. It came to a rest around his shoulders but its head stretched halfway across the table towards Valentine, making him give a slightly terrified laugh, “Ah-haha, that’s a snake.”
“An I can turn her into a dragon if I don’t feel like fighting the ridiculous people my parents send after me,” The knight said and the snake let out a small breath of green fire. “That usually scares them away.”
“Holy…” Valentine said as the heat brushed across his face. “Can- can I pet her?”
The knight smiled, “Yeah, sure.”
Valentine reached out and ran his hand along the snake’s head, “Wow, so smooth.”
“I keep her clean and well fed,” the knight said, “And she keeps the rats out.”
“Oh, yes, the villagers said this was once a grand castle,” Valentine said, lifting his tone at the end to make the statement a question.
“My family’s from a long time ago,” The knight said, “It was damaged in a war and they never fixed it. I’ve been using my magic to restore it, but… I mean, I’m basically building a castle by myself. Plus, I keep having to stop for people who’ve come for the princess.”
Valentine blushed, “I’m sorry about that, I feel like a fool for attacking first and asking questions later. The first thing you said was the princess wasn’t here, and I just assumed you were lying.”
“It happens,” the knight said. “The question now is, what are you going to do?”
“What do you mean?” Valentine asked.
“You vowed to return the princess, and she doesn’t exist, at least not as my parents want her to,” the knight said, “Are you going to go back on your vow? Go face the consequences of that? Probably fess up about your lineage? Or force me to come back with you?”
Valentine thought, “I don’t know. I don’t want to do any of that. I am my word, it’s all I’m known for, completing impossible quests and following through on my word. And… I’ll have to face the consequences of my… lie eventually. I’m definitely not going to force you to do anything, you’ve had enough of that.”
The knight nodded as Valentine talked through his options, and in one of Valentine’s pauses he spoke up, “You know, you don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to.”
Valentine looked back at the knight after staring off into space considering his future, “What?”
“You could just stay here,” The knight offered, “I’ve almost finished restoring another room. I was going to make it my new study for magic, but I can easily make it another bedroom for you.”
“Really?” Valentine asked and looked around, “I- will that not cause problems for you?”
“What do you mean?” The knight asked.
“Well, you said it’s taking a long time to restore the castle,” Valentine said, “And I don’t know where you’re getting your food? You’re out here alone with only a snake for company- though a very nice snake- and, I don’t know, I don’t want to put you out.”
The knight chuckled, “No, I- I spent most of my life alone, hidden by my parents, or hiding from my parents. I had gotten used to it and I didn’t mind being alone here. But now, I- you’re going to think this is so sad- but I’ve started looking forward to the people my parents send? It’s the only social interaction I really get. And it’s kind of fun winding them up and fighting and being dramatic.”
He paused and took a sip of tea before quickly adding, “Oh, and half of magic is gardening, I can grow enough food to feed a small village for a few days, and if need be, I am surrounded by a forest full of animals, hunting has never been difficult. And- you could help restore the castle, if you want to do that.”
“Well then, I guess I could stay for a little while,” Valentine said, then awkwardly added, “But it would be helpful to know your name, if you don’t mind?”
“Alistair,” The knight said, smiling.
“Well, Prince Alistair, it would be an honor to be your guest,” Valentine said and Alistair might have giggled at his exaggerated “proper” tone.
Okay but runaway prince(ss) turned Knight for the heir of a neighbouring kingdom. Krem. I'm talking about Krem. Royal runaway Krem pledges his sword and life to the next rightful ruler of the castle next door or... Whatever look I want something a little different.
