[Fic] "Find Me a Find" -- Enchanted Forest Chronicles
wistfulmemory said: I would like to claim the prompt "soulmates" for Cimorene, Morwen, and random forest princess. The scenario is based on the "And they were roommates" vine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-P0m0M_8pc) as I started replacing "roommates" with "soulmates" as soon as I saw the word on your bingo card. (A non-canon AU is definitely alright if you need to manipulate things to help make it work.)
Note: This does indeed take place in an AU, but only of the canon-divergence type. You can find the background details in this post. :) [725 words]
[ETA: the AO3 crosspost is now up!]
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Find Me a Find
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Three days after Princess Phernalia of Paras negotiated a one-month trial contract with the dragon Razik, extensions pending satisfaction from both parties, three of her companions in dire captivity paid her an unannounced visit.
"Of course it's not really dire, or even captivity exactly," said Vasilisa of the Grand Duchy of Zengorod, as they sat around the wobbly human-sized table in Razik's kitchen cave, buttering a plate of hastily-prepared crumpets, "but one must maintain appearances. Otherwise there's no telling what kind of trouble the wizards might stir up with our families or the various questing knights' associations."
Fern blinked in the middle of setting down the teapot, then rapidly readjusted her mental picture of the meeting. "Oh! So... you also have--"
"--contracts with our dragons?" Sweetbriar of the Perilous Isles finished for her. "Yes. And my uncle can't complain because being a dragon's princess is perfectly respectable, even if it's not the marriage alliance with the King of the Enchanted Forest that the wizards prodded him into trying to arrange."
"Ugh, wizards," added Brisanne of Quirelle, stabbing a spoon into the marmalade jar with more vehemence than necessary. "The two who talked my parents into switching the traditional temporary kidnapping by the local river god for an unannounced field trip to the Spring of Gold weren't even competent at scheming. I don't see how they expected me to win over the king and persuade him to favor them when I told them point blank I wanted to marry Sir Rosalind instead, and we'd already worked out a very nice plan for a staged battle with the river god's wife."
"Yes, yes, we know," Vasilisa said, patting Brisanne on the shoulder as she rolled her eyes at Fern and Sweetbriar. "But enough about wizards and their meddling. If you're here, Phernalia, you must have met Morwen and Cimorene--"
"--and you have to tell us everything they did and said," Sweetbriar interrupted. Apparently she had a habit of finishing other people's sentences.
"Um," said Fern. "Not that I have any moral objections to gossip, but... why do you care so much about two women we've only met, what, once in each of our lives? Admittedly it was a dramatic meeting, considering I'd just been carried off by a gryphon and dropped in the Enchanted Forest with only a letter explaining why I'd been diverted from the usual castle behind the North Wind, and also I was about to be eaten by a nightshade, but even so. It seems... disproportionate?"
The three other princesses exchanged looks.
"Because we're bored," Vasilisa said.
"Don't be flippant. It's because they helped us out and we want to do something nice for them in return," Brisanne said.
"Don't be vague. It's because they are obviously meant for each other," Sweetbriar said, "and it's been annoying us for months that they don't seem to realize it!"
Fern choked on a swallow of tea. "They-- wait-- what?"
Brisanne set down her teacup and began to tick off points on her fingers. "A witch and a sorceress, both with a relentlessly practical outlook on life, both impatient with silly social restrictions, both happily residing in the Enchanted Forest, both committed to defending the Enchanted Forest against wizardly incursions and lending a helping hand to the people caught up in their nefarious plots, each prone to giving the other admiring looks behind her back--"
"Also they'd walk all over anybody else they tried to have a relationship with, and where's the fun in that?" Vasilisa added. "They're soulmates. They just haven't figured it out."
"Um," Fern said again, and covered her confusion with a large bite of marmalade-covered crumpet. It was true that both witch and Royal Sorceress were, to put it politely, strong personalities. And they had spoken highly of each other, both Morwen when she saved Fern from the Nightshade and Cimorene when she was escorting Fern from the Enchanted Forest to the Mountains of Morning. And they did seem to have spent more time watching each other than might be strictly construed as platonic...
Oh well, it wasn't as though spending a few hours in idle matchmaking would interfere with her minimal duties as Razik's housekeeper and accountant.
"All right," Fern said as she licked her fingers to remove a stray glob of marmalade. "Where do you want me to start?"
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End of Ficlet
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It's about a month late, but whatever, it's done and I can move on to the next project. :)
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