Someday My Prince Will Come (Chapter 3)
A continued De-anon.
As a child, Alfred asked Arthur to let him into a fairy tale book, but the adventure never happened. 400 years later, Alfred accidentally gets sucked into the tale and Arthur has to go after him.
This Chapter: Dinner and more Princes
Here's the first chapter: http://undone-reading.livejournal.com/1918.html#cutid1
Here's the second chapter: http://undone-reading.livejournal.com/2178.html
and here's the third:
Genuflect, Show Some Respect
Alfred didn’t want to eat dinner with an all powerful wizard, partly because he was dead set against believing in magic. Although this was becoming increasingly difficult as it was becoming increasingly obvious that he was not dreaming. He’d never had dreams this realistic before. Most of the time his dreams, or what he could remember of them, were short and stupid and made no sense. His unconscious wasn’t very good at telling cohesive stories. Besides, Alfred didn’t like to think that he’d have a dream about being stuck with a bunch of giggly princesses. Heroes were supposed to have manly dreams.
Of course the only other option was that magic had magicked him into a magical world filled with magic, and he wasn’t to keen on that idea either. It would mean that there was an entire side of the world that he had spent most of his life ignoring. More disturbing still it would mean that Arthur wasn’t a crazy old man, and that he was right and Alfred was wrong.
But following a living suit of armor through a dark and creepy castle, more detailed than anything Alfred’s mind could have ever cooked up, was making it very difficult not to believe in magic. More than that, it was making it very difficult to feel anything angry or derisive towards Arthur. The older nation was the only one that Alfred knew who was knowledgeable about magic, and he was probably the only one who could get Alfred out of the bizarre and frightening situation he found himself in. He didn’t think he’d ever wanted to see Arthur so badly in his life.
The suit of armor stopped abruptly. It turned, creaking, and faced Alfred. The nation looked up. Behind the metal creature was an immense wooden double door. It was beautifully ornate, in a frightening sort of way. The shapes of tangled tree branches were carved into it. Behind their twisted limbs, the frightening shapes of dragons could be seen, and at the very top there was a picture of a sword. Alfred gaped at it, until suddenly the suit of armor pounded the butt of its spear against the stones three times, and the door opened slowly before him.
It revealed a long thin room, which held a dining table fit to seat a hundred men at least. The table was lit all along by immense candles that flickered entrancingly in the darkness. There was enough food for a feast. It was old fare, not what Alfred was used to, even in his earliest days. There were roast pigs, and tremendous birds, meat pies and loaves of bread that didn’t look like they could ever have fit into an oven.
Alfred’s stomach began to rumble, and his mouth watered in appreciation. He hadn’t eaten anything since the cursed apple, and he was starting to grow hungry. He was so distracted by his appetite that he did not notice the wizard seated at the head of the table at the far end of the room. He practically jumped when the Wizard addressed him.
“Come closer, Boy, and let me look at you.”
Alfred glanced back at the doorway, wondering vaguely if it would be worth it to attempt some sort of escape. The door slammed suddenly shut, and he was forced to continue his trek towards the wizard. The man was shrouded in shadow, and Alfred could barely see him as he approached. He had the uncanny feeling of being looked over, and he pulled self-consciously at his tunic, in an attempt to make it longer.
When he was at last close enough to the Wizard to make out his pointed black beard, and steely gray eyes, he opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, a chair pulled itself out from the table and the Wizard gestured for him to sit down.
“Take those things off your face, I want to see you properly.”
“I can hardly see without-” the glasses took themselves from his face. They floated from his eyes, folded themselves nicely, and placed themselves on the table.
“There now. Much better,” the Wizard crooned.
“You shouldn’t do that,” Alfred told the blurry man angrily, “Those aren’t normal glasses. People live there.”
“How is it that such strange stupidity can live behind such an appealing mask?” The wizard said.
“I’m serious!” Alfred insisted. “You have no idea who you’re messing with! If I had my strength you’d be so dead.”
The wizard eyed him with amusement. He picked leisurely at a chicken leg and chuckled, “You don’t have your strength though, do you? You are a naive fool who would take food from anyone. Did no one ever warn you of the power of magical fare?”
Alfred had a vague recollection of Arthur telling him about never, ever, never, taking food from the fae. This advice had never come in handy, and he hadn’t thought on it in centuries. Unable to think of a decent response, Alfred moodily reached out for something to eat. Without his glasses it was difficult to tell what he was grabbing for, he eventually managed to rip a chicken leg off for himself. He bit it petulantly.
“Are you some kind of spectacular idiot?” The wizard asked in disbelief. “We were just discussing how foolish it was to eat the food of the enchanted!”
Realizing his mistake, but feeling too proud to agree with his captor, Alfred shrugged. “I don’t care. I’m hungry.”
He continued eating as the Wizard watched him. The food gave him much the same bizarre sensation as the apple had earlier. Even as his stomach filled, he felt as though the energy was being drained from his very bones. His eyelids began to feel heavy and he placed the meat back onto the table in exhaustion. He couldn’t eat anymore.
“Tsk. Such foolishness,” the Wizard said. He was still eating; the food clearly had no effect on him. “Didn’t the girls tell you that there would be something for you to eat after my meal?”
Alfred nodded slowly. “I didn’t think it would be enough, though…”
“Whatever I serve you is enough.” The wizard told him. “I’ll be sure to put a spell on it too. Something to put the color back into your face, without putting the strength back into your muscles.”
Alfred felt unbelievably tired. He wanted nothing more than to simply curl up and go to sleep. He didn’t have the energy to speak or to eat. The world around him was blurry and dark. This vague miserable experience was much more like a dream than anything he’d experienced earlier. He could feel the wizard’s eyes on him, and he wished desperately that there was something he could do. He felt absolutely helpless.
oOoOo
There wasn’t a castle in town. This much was obvious by a simple glance at the skyline. Consequently, Arthur had no idea where Prince Quartz was leading him. Had he ventured a guess at where they were going to find a large group of princes, the answer would not have been “dilapidated stable”. Yet, Quartz rode, quite confidently, into the confines of a rotting old wooden stable, leaving Arthur to tag along behind him.
The stable was no more glorious inside than it was outside. There were piles of hay all about, and a few of the boards in the roof had fallen away entirely. There were, however, three magnificent white horses already present, and besides each of them was a prince.
Arthur felt quite out of place in his work suit and stocking feet. It wasn’t simply a matter of his being anachronistic; he was completely out classed. The princes were all dressed in tunics and capes as glorious as the one that Quartz was wearing. If he could not appear to be their equal, than he supposed he ought to play the subservient role; he would probably get the best results that way. He bowed deeply, saying nothing and waiting for the princes to address him.
“Who’s the pauper, Quartz?” One of the princes asked. Arthur glanced towards him briefly. He was shorter than Arthur, looking as though he hadn’t quite finished growing yet. He had blonde hair that was pulled back in a short messy ponytail. The boy also had freckles, and a smug look on his face.
“This is Arthur. He has traveled from lands far away and has offered to help us find our fair maidens. In return he asks only that we keep an eye out for his missing comrade,” Quartz announced. He then turned to Arthur. “My fine fellow, meet my fellow royalty. The young man who addressed you is Prince Garnet.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Your Highness,” Arthur said bowing again. The boy grinned at him in a self satisfied way. He gave Arthur the strange impression that he shared all of Alfred’s negative points and none of the good.
Prince Quartz placed a hand on his shoulder and directed him towards a thin nervous looking man dressed in blue. He smiled awkwardly at the nation and adjusted a pair of glasses at the end of his nose. “This is Prince Turquoise.”
“My pleasure,” Arthur said with another bow.
“Thanks…” The man muttered, he then focused his attention on his horse and averted his eyes.
“Last we have Prince Topaz,” Quartz announced. He gestured to a delicately featured man who was leaning against the doorframe and staring dreamily at the sky. The man turned, revealing wispy brown bangs and large gray eyes.
“Ah, a traveler! I am terribly glad to meet you. It fills my sad heart to meet those who have traveled. It makes me forget the loss of my dear sweet Daisy.”
“Oh,” Arthur responded and, unsure what else to say, he simply bowed.
“So, Arthur, my good man, now that I have introduced you to my companions in heroics, will you lend us whatever help you can?” Prince Quartz asked.
“Certainly. I’ll do whatever I can. Now are you certain you haven’t any leads at all?” he asked looking around at all the princes.
“Well, uh-I, we have a map,” Turquoise stuttered pulling a large rolled up piece of parchment out of his saddlebag.
“That’s good…” Arthur said, “What’s on the map?”
Turquoise hurried over and rolled the map out in front of him, but said nothing. It was a simple map, the sort that might appear at the beginning of a children’s fantasy novel or in one of Kiku’s videogames. It showed a town in the center and a number of different terrain around it. There was a mountain range in one direction, a lake in another, a desert a canyon, and a number of other places that would never have been so close to one another in real life. Some of the places were marked with large red Xs.
“What do these signify?” he asked pointing to one of the letters.
“Those are the places we’ve already searched as thoroughly as possible,” Quartz informed him.
“How did you choose where to start?”
“We just pick one randomly and then give it our all,” Garnet said enthusiastically, coming to join the three men by the map.
Arthur was silent for a moment; as he studied the map he raised an eyebrow, “So you haven’t tried this large intimidating castle in the middle of this creepy forest?”
The princes all looked at one another and then back at Arthur. They shook their heads.
“Why there?” Topaz asked, “That place has no beauty to it.”
“Well, your princesses are clearly somewhere from which they can’t get back of their own volition. They’re not merely lost. Quartz said they were likely kidnapped. If that’s true, shouldn’t they be in the only other place on the map that has someone who could have done the kidnapping?”
“I don’t follow,” said Quartz, leaning in intently. The other princes followed his lead.
“They were kidnapped by a bad person. This castle is scary, and it’s in a scary place. It probably belongs to a scary person,” Arthur said, the princes still seemed confused. “The bad guy is here!” He jabbed at the map with his finger.
“Oh,” the princes said in unison.
“We attack in the morning!” cried Quartz, “For now we prepare!”
oOoOo
Author's Notes: I had some trouble picking a Disney title for this one. The only magical meal song I could think of was be our guest, but it didn't have the right feeling to it. I eventually decided on this line from "Prince Ali" in Aladdin to represent the princes. It was the only prince song I could think of.
As a child, Alfred asked Arthur to let him into a fairy tale book, but the adventure never happened. 400 years later, Alfred accidentally gets sucked into the tale and Arthur has to go after him.
This Chapter: Dinner and more Princes
Here's the first chapter: http://undone-reading.livejournal.com/1918.html#cutid1
Here's the second chapter: http://undone-reading.livejournal.com/2178.html
and here's the third:
Genuflect, Show Some Respect
Alfred didn’t want to eat dinner with an all powerful wizard, partly because he was dead set against believing in magic. Although this was becoming increasingly difficult as it was becoming increasingly obvious that he was not dreaming. He’d never had dreams this realistic before. Most of the time his dreams, or what he could remember of them, were short and stupid and made no sense. His unconscious wasn’t very good at telling cohesive stories. Besides, Alfred didn’t like to think that he’d have a dream about being stuck with a bunch of giggly princesses. Heroes were supposed to have manly dreams.
Of course the only other option was that magic had magicked him into a magical world filled with magic, and he wasn’t to keen on that idea either. It would mean that there was an entire side of the world that he had spent most of his life ignoring. More disturbing still it would mean that Arthur wasn’t a crazy old man, and that he was right and Alfred was wrong.
But following a living suit of armor through a dark and creepy castle, more detailed than anything Alfred’s mind could have ever cooked up, was making it very difficult not to believe in magic. More than that, it was making it very difficult to feel anything angry or derisive towards Arthur. The older nation was the only one that Alfred knew who was knowledgeable about magic, and he was probably the only one who could get Alfred out of the bizarre and frightening situation he found himself in. He didn’t think he’d ever wanted to see Arthur so badly in his life.
The suit of armor stopped abruptly. It turned, creaking, and faced Alfred. The nation looked up. Behind the metal creature was an immense wooden double door. It was beautifully ornate, in a frightening sort of way. The shapes of tangled tree branches were carved into it. Behind their twisted limbs, the frightening shapes of dragons could be seen, and at the very top there was a picture of a sword. Alfred gaped at it, until suddenly the suit of armor pounded the butt of its spear against the stones three times, and the door opened slowly before him.
It revealed a long thin room, which held a dining table fit to seat a hundred men at least. The table was lit all along by immense candles that flickered entrancingly in the darkness. There was enough food for a feast. It was old fare, not what Alfred was used to, even in his earliest days. There were roast pigs, and tremendous birds, meat pies and loaves of bread that didn’t look like they could ever have fit into an oven.
Alfred’s stomach began to rumble, and his mouth watered in appreciation. He hadn’t eaten anything since the cursed apple, and he was starting to grow hungry. He was so distracted by his appetite that he did not notice the wizard seated at the head of the table at the far end of the room. He practically jumped when the Wizard addressed him.
“Come closer, Boy, and let me look at you.”
Alfred glanced back at the doorway, wondering vaguely if it would be worth it to attempt some sort of escape. The door slammed suddenly shut, and he was forced to continue his trek towards the wizard. The man was shrouded in shadow, and Alfred could barely see him as he approached. He had the uncanny feeling of being looked over, and he pulled self-consciously at his tunic, in an attempt to make it longer.
When he was at last close enough to the Wizard to make out his pointed black beard, and steely gray eyes, he opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, a chair pulled itself out from the table and the Wizard gestured for him to sit down.
“Take those things off your face, I want to see you properly.”
“I can hardly see without-” the glasses took themselves from his face. They floated from his eyes, folded themselves nicely, and placed themselves on the table.
“There now. Much better,” the Wizard crooned.
“You shouldn’t do that,” Alfred told the blurry man angrily, “Those aren’t normal glasses. People live there.”
“How is it that such strange stupidity can live behind such an appealing mask?” The wizard said.
“I’m serious!” Alfred insisted. “You have no idea who you’re messing with! If I had my strength you’d be so dead.”
The wizard eyed him with amusement. He picked leisurely at a chicken leg and chuckled, “You don’t have your strength though, do you? You are a naive fool who would take food from anyone. Did no one ever warn you of the power of magical fare?”
Alfred had a vague recollection of Arthur telling him about never, ever, never, taking food from the fae. This advice had never come in handy, and he hadn’t thought on it in centuries. Unable to think of a decent response, Alfred moodily reached out for something to eat. Without his glasses it was difficult to tell what he was grabbing for, he eventually managed to rip a chicken leg off for himself. He bit it petulantly.
“Are you some kind of spectacular idiot?” The wizard asked in disbelief. “We were just discussing how foolish it was to eat the food of the enchanted!”
Realizing his mistake, but feeling too proud to agree with his captor, Alfred shrugged. “I don’t care. I’m hungry.”
He continued eating as the Wizard watched him. The food gave him much the same bizarre sensation as the apple had earlier. Even as his stomach filled, he felt as though the energy was being drained from his very bones. His eyelids began to feel heavy and he placed the meat back onto the table in exhaustion. He couldn’t eat anymore.
“Tsk. Such foolishness,” the Wizard said. He was still eating; the food clearly had no effect on him. “Didn’t the girls tell you that there would be something for you to eat after my meal?”
Alfred nodded slowly. “I didn’t think it would be enough, though…”
“Whatever I serve you is enough.” The wizard told him. “I’ll be sure to put a spell on it too. Something to put the color back into your face, without putting the strength back into your muscles.”
Alfred felt unbelievably tired. He wanted nothing more than to simply curl up and go to sleep. He didn’t have the energy to speak or to eat. The world around him was blurry and dark. This vague miserable experience was much more like a dream than anything he’d experienced earlier. He could feel the wizard’s eyes on him, and he wished desperately that there was something he could do. He felt absolutely helpless.
oOoOo
There wasn’t a castle in town. This much was obvious by a simple glance at the skyline. Consequently, Arthur had no idea where Prince Quartz was leading him. Had he ventured a guess at where they were going to find a large group of princes, the answer would not have been “dilapidated stable”. Yet, Quartz rode, quite confidently, into the confines of a rotting old wooden stable, leaving Arthur to tag along behind him.
The stable was no more glorious inside than it was outside. There were piles of hay all about, and a few of the boards in the roof had fallen away entirely. There were, however, three magnificent white horses already present, and besides each of them was a prince.
Arthur felt quite out of place in his work suit and stocking feet. It wasn’t simply a matter of his being anachronistic; he was completely out classed. The princes were all dressed in tunics and capes as glorious as the one that Quartz was wearing. If he could not appear to be their equal, than he supposed he ought to play the subservient role; he would probably get the best results that way. He bowed deeply, saying nothing and waiting for the princes to address him.
“Who’s the pauper, Quartz?” One of the princes asked. Arthur glanced towards him briefly. He was shorter than Arthur, looking as though he hadn’t quite finished growing yet. He had blonde hair that was pulled back in a short messy ponytail. The boy also had freckles, and a smug look on his face.
“This is Arthur. He has traveled from lands far away and has offered to help us find our fair maidens. In return he asks only that we keep an eye out for his missing comrade,” Quartz announced. He then turned to Arthur. “My fine fellow, meet my fellow royalty. The young man who addressed you is Prince Garnet.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Your Highness,” Arthur said bowing again. The boy grinned at him in a self satisfied way. He gave Arthur the strange impression that he shared all of Alfred’s negative points and none of the good.
Prince Quartz placed a hand on his shoulder and directed him towards a thin nervous looking man dressed in blue. He smiled awkwardly at the nation and adjusted a pair of glasses at the end of his nose. “This is Prince Turquoise.”
“My pleasure,” Arthur said with another bow.
“Thanks…” The man muttered, he then focused his attention on his horse and averted his eyes.
“Last we have Prince Topaz,” Quartz announced. He gestured to a delicately featured man who was leaning against the doorframe and staring dreamily at the sky. The man turned, revealing wispy brown bangs and large gray eyes.
“Ah, a traveler! I am terribly glad to meet you. It fills my sad heart to meet those who have traveled. It makes me forget the loss of my dear sweet Daisy.”
“Oh,” Arthur responded and, unsure what else to say, he simply bowed.
“So, Arthur, my good man, now that I have introduced you to my companions in heroics, will you lend us whatever help you can?” Prince Quartz asked.
“Certainly. I’ll do whatever I can. Now are you certain you haven’t any leads at all?” he asked looking around at all the princes.
“Well, uh-I, we have a map,” Turquoise stuttered pulling a large rolled up piece of parchment out of his saddlebag.
“That’s good…” Arthur said, “What’s on the map?”
Turquoise hurried over and rolled the map out in front of him, but said nothing. It was a simple map, the sort that might appear at the beginning of a children’s fantasy novel or in one of Kiku’s videogames. It showed a town in the center and a number of different terrain around it. There was a mountain range in one direction, a lake in another, a desert a canyon, and a number of other places that would never have been so close to one another in real life. Some of the places were marked with large red Xs.
“What do these signify?” he asked pointing to one of the letters.
“Those are the places we’ve already searched as thoroughly as possible,” Quartz informed him.
“How did you choose where to start?”
“We just pick one randomly and then give it our all,” Garnet said enthusiastically, coming to join the three men by the map.
Arthur was silent for a moment; as he studied the map he raised an eyebrow, “So you haven’t tried this large intimidating castle in the middle of this creepy forest?”
The princes all looked at one another and then back at Arthur. They shook their heads.
“Why there?” Topaz asked, “That place has no beauty to it.”
“Well, your princesses are clearly somewhere from which they can’t get back of their own volition. They’re not merely lost. Quartz said they were likely kidnapped. If that’s true, shouldn’t they be in the only other place on the map that has someone who could have done the kidnapping?”
“I don’t follow,” said Quartz, leaning in intently. The other princes followed his lead.
“They were kidnapped by a bad person. This castle is scary, and it’s in a scary place. It probably belongs to a scary person,” Arthur said, the princes still seemed confused. “The bad guy is here!” He jabbed at the map with his finger.
“Oh,” the princes said in unison.
“We attack in the morning!” cried Quartz, “For now we prepare!”
oOoOo
Author's Notes: I had some trouble picking a Disney title for this one. The only magical meal song I could think of was be our guest, but it didn't have the right feeling to it. I eventually decided on this line from "Prince Ali" in Aladdin to represent the princes. It was the only prince song I could think of.