Someday My Prince Will Come (Chapter 5)
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: A confession, a hermit, and morning.
If You Keep on Believing...
“Tomorrow we ride out towards The Forest of Evil. But we mustn’t be too hasty. We have heard much of the evil Wizard who lives there, so we must be especially prepared. We must go to where the armor is kept.”
Arthur and the princes were huddled together discussing their attack plan. Quartz was giving something that resembled an important speech to the group. Arthur was listening intently, but he couldn’t help wondering if they had really heard so much about the wizard, why they hadn’t attacked him before.
“Arthur will need a horse first of course,” Quartz announced, “To the stable man!”
The princes mounted their steeds and headed off down the street with Arthur hurrying behind them. He was grumbling to himself, when he noticed that they were entering another stable that was just down the street. He sighed, wondering why they hadn’t simply walked.
“There you are Arthur. Would you mind picking one of these fine steeds for yourself? I am completely willing to pay for you,” Quartz told him.
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Arthur said, beginning to inspect the animals. There really wasn’t much choice to be made. There were a number of horses available, but most were old slow looking beasts. There was, however, one tall white animal that seemed a matched set with the four that the princes rode.
It was a spiritless creature. It looked proud and handsome and convenient, the Prince Quartz of horses. It might as well have been a car; it was transportation without being much of an animal. Medieval fairytales were so much easier than the actual middle ages.
“This one will do me fine, thank you,” Arthur told Quartz. The prince nodded at him.
“Call out the stable man,” he said to Garnet, and the youngest prince hurried off to find the owner. They waited in silence, Arthur looking the horse over and wondering if it could ride forever without getting tired.
Garnet returned shortly with a familiar looking man at his heels. He was a short, fat, ugly man, and Arthur suddenly realized it was the fellow who had nearly run him over with an Ox earlier that afternoon.
“Oy, what’re you doing here?” the man demanded, jabbing a stubby finger in Arthur’s direction.
Arthur responded with a wide, smug grin, “Prince Quartz here has offered to buy me a horse.” The man looked stunned and Arthur continued to smirk.
“What he said is true, now how much are you asking for this fine steed here?” Quartz did business with the man, who stared at Arthur the entire time. When none of the princes were looking Arthur took the opportunity to make rude gestures at the Ox man; it was highly satisfying.
Not long after, the five men rode off together to “the place where the armor is kept”, wherever the hell that was. Arthur was last in line and he discovered that riding his heroic steed was as disturbingly easy as he had guessed. It did whatever he wanted with very little direction; the fact that he was wearing socks didn’t seem to be any sort of a problem at all.
“So, Arthur, who is it that you are looking for?” Topaz dropped back to ride beside him, “Is it your true love?”
“Oh no, dear god, no. Just no. No,” Arthur said quickly, and then he added, “No.”
“You sound quite certain.”
“I am, most definitely, quite certain.”
“Who is this fellow then?” Topaz questioned further.
“Well, he’s… our relationship is… well it’s… special,” Arthur sighed after he had finished speaking. All the power of the English language at his disposal and he couldn’t even complete a sentence.
“But he means a lot to you?”
Arthur was quiet for a moment, “I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to him. We haven’t always gotten on so well, but somehow the idea of losing him is unbearable. He’s utterly foolish and stupid, but he means the world to me.”
“I don’t know how life is in your foreign world of wonderment, but here when someone means the world to you, you’ve probably found your true love,” Topaz insisted. Arthur became aware that the other princes riding ahead of them had slowed down to listen.
“Relationships where I come from are much more complicated,” he said quietly.
“You might just be making it complicated…” Turquoise ventured, looking over his shoulder at them. Arthur fixed him with a glare and the prince quickly whipped his head around.
“Turq is right,” Garnet chimed in, “Love isn’t that hard. Don’t you believe in love at first sight?”
“Yes, I’m certain that it happens all the time.” Arthur shook his head cursing himself for compulsive Beatles quotation. “Listen, things between me and him are just really complicated, alright? Even if… even if I might… maybe have… some sort of long standing feelings for the chap, there’s no reason to think he’d return them…”
“I don’t understand,” Topaz said. “Do you love him or don’t you?”
“It sounds like you love him,” Garnet added.
“You look like you love him…” Turquoise insisted.
“Don’t you love him?” Quartz asked, and suddenly Arthur couldn’t take it.
“Yes, dammit! Fine, I love him. But it’s not that simple, he doesn’t love me back. We’ve known each other forever and he thinks that I’m old and boring. He hated me for the longest time; I’m just glad that we’re friends again. For now I’m happy with that.”
The princes were silent. They all stared at him, letting their horses guide them forward. Arthur stared at the ground, his hands gripped tightly around the reins. He had never spoken these thoughts aloud before. Alfred had meant a lot to him for centuries now, and since the Second World War things had started to change. He had loved Alfred for decades now, but he kept it to himself. This was the first time he’d ever said his feelings.
“But you love him right?” Garnet insisted. Arthur’s eyes slid slowly up, burning with annoyance.
“Yes,” he said dryly.
“Oh,” said Topaz, “Good.”
“We have arrived!” Quartz announced. The princes quickly dismounted, seeming to have lost interest in Arthur.
Arthur followed suit, managing to find his voice, despite feeling emotionally drained, “Where is here?”
“The Cave of the Ancient warrior,” Quartz said, “He is a great warrior from an era gone by. He lives in this cave where he guards the Golden armor.”
“Do we have to fight him or something to get it?”
“Of course not,” Garnet snapped, “We just have to ask.”
“That seems simple…” Arthur conceded.
“But he will only give us the armor if he deems our journey worthy of it,” Topaz added, “He has always turned us down before.”
“Well then, if he gives the go ahead this time, it’s a good sign we’re on the right track,” Arthur said as he swung down from his horse.
“I hadn’t thought of that…” Turquoise murmured, and the five men headed inside the cave.
It was, understandably, dark inside the cave, but there was some sort of flicker of light down at the end of the path. The sound of their footsteps echoed throughout, and for once the princes were dead silent. It was an unearthly noise, and Arthur felt his skin crawl despite himself. When at last they reached the end of the cave they found a wrinkled old man sitting beside a fire. He turned his face slowly towards them.
“It is you,” he croaked, “Where do you intend to venture next?”
“The castle in the forest,” Quartz said, “Will you give us the armor?”
The old man blinked his dark eyes at them. The sides of his lips turned up very slowly, and the skin at the corner of his eyes crinkled. He nodded.
At once Arthur and the princes were dressed in sparkling golden armor. It was light as a feather, but surprisingly strong. At each of their sides hung a jeweled sword. Arthur gasped and he reached towards his own blade pulling it from its sheath. The blade was golden as well and it seemed to glow in his hand. He placed one finger against the tip of the blade and watched as a drop of blood appeared.
“This could not exist where I come from…” he said in awe.
The old man turned his eyes towards Arthur and spoke, “Foreign one, land on which the sun never sets, you have guided these men wisely. Continue to lead them forward and you will find what you most desire is at your ultimate destination. But remember, you must be honest with your heart or you could lose that which you find most precious.”
Arthur stared at the old man, his mouth open as he tried to ask a question, but the fire between them flared up suddenly and when it went down, the old man was gone.
oOoOo
Alfred woke slowly. The sun had fallen across his face, gently coaxing him back into reality. He was vaguely aware of bird song tweeting him gently awake. His eyes fluttered open slowly, and he found himself face to face with a small blue bird that was staring at him intently.
“What the crap!” Alfred shouted sitting up suddenly and pushing himself backward. The bird fluttered away, flapping its wings in his face as he went.
“Ahh! He’s awake!” someone shouted.
“I’m not done dressing!” another sobbed.
“Girls! Girls! Turn your backs!”
Puritan instincts well in tact, Alfred quickly covered his eyes. His cheeks burned brightly, until he realized he had nothing to be embarrassed over. “It’s fine. I… I haven’t got my glasses on yet. I can hardly see anything past arm length.”
“See, there’s no reason for you three to be squawking. He’s got glasses just like my Prince Turquoise; you can do anything and he won’t see it at all,” there was laughter then, and Alfred was pretty sure that it was Bluebell that he was hearing.
“You can put your glasses on now, if you’d like Alfie,” Violet said gently, and he complied, “Now we’ll go down to breakfast and let you change. You can join us when you’re done.”
The girls filed out, giggling as they did. Alfred watched them until they were gone, flinging off his blankets when they did. He supposed the hope that it had all been a dream was gone completely now. Wrinkling his nose, he changed into another tunic and tight set, same colors different order. He looked at himself in the mirror and shook his head; it was still the gayest thing he’d ever worn.
But he paused in his thought process. Arthur’s face swam in his mind, and he supposed he should be more careful about how he used his words. He blushed slightly before shaking his head violently from side to side. All this fairytale business was turning his brain to mush.
He turned and hurried out of the room, enjoying a slight increase in his energy from the day before. He ran quickly through the castle, eventually finding his way back to the room where he had dined with the Wizard the night before. The princesses all sat down at one end of the table together, chattering happily and eating some sort of porridge.
“Alfie! Alfie! Come and eat!” Rose cried out when she saw him. Alfred cocked his head as he came to join them. He was enjoying his energy, even if it was a fraction of what he usually had. He wasn’t certain he should eat the food; it might make him feel worse.
“Aren’t you gonna eat?” Bluebell asked when she noticed Alfred hesitate.
“It’s just gonna make me feel sick,” Alfred said, poking his spoon dejectedly at his food.
“It shouldn’t hurt too much, Alfred. The wizard expects us to do his work. Cleaning a castle is a lot of work, so he won’t make you feel so weak that you can’t do that. Not eating at all certainly won’t make you feel any better,” Violet explained.
“That’s true…” Alfred said quietly. He contemplated his porridge for a second longer before quickly digging in. Persuading Alfred to eat more was never a difficult task.
“How strong are you?” He almost missed the question. It had been said very quietly, and was practically inaudible over sound of Alfred’s munching.
“D’ja say something?” he asked, looking up at Daisy. She blushed but spoke again.
“Yes… You keep talking about how weak you feel. But you really don’t seem that weak, not anymore. Are you still worse off than you usually are?”
“Oh, I’m real strong! When I was little I once lifted a buffalo and flung it clear across the field, and I can carry cars without even trying.”
“What’s a car?” Bluebell asked. Alfred stared at her for a moment.
“It’s a heavy thing,” he answered, and he quickly went back to his meal.
oOoOo
Author's Notes: When I was trying to compile different chapters from what I had written for the kink meme, I occasionally had some difficulty. This chapter is an awkward sort of connection between different parts of the stories. The second part fits better with the next chapter and the first part fits better with the last chapter, but there it is. Anyway, because of this, I had a little difficulty picking a title. I eventually picked a lyric from a waking up song, Cinderella's "A Dream is a Wish(Your Heart Makes)". Of course, Cindy is a little more welcoming to her little birdy friends. And besides, maybe Arthur has to learn that if he keeps on believing the dreams that he wishes will come true.
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: A confession, a hermit, and morning.
If You Keep on Believing...
“Tomorrow we ride out towards The Forest of Evil. But we mustn’t be too hasty. We have heard much of the evil Wizard who lives there, so we must be especially prepared. We must go to where the armor is kept.”
Arthur and the princes were huddled together discussing their attack plan. Quartz was giving something that resembled an important speech to the group. Arthur was listening intently, but he couldn’t help wondering if they had really heard so much about the wizard, why they hadn’t attacked him before.
“Arthur will need a horse first of course,” Quartz announced, “To the stable man!”
The princes mounted their steeds and headed off down the street with Arthur hurrying behind them. He was grumbling to himself, when he noticed that they were entering another stable that was just down the street. He sighed, wondering why they hadn’t simply walked.
“There you are Arthur. Would you mind picking one of these fine steeds for yourself? I am completely willing to pay for you,” Quartz told him.
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Arthur said, beginning to inspect the animals. There really wasn’t much choice to be made. There were a number of horses available, but most were old slow looking beasts. There was, however, one tall white animal that seemed a matched set with the four that the princes rode.
It was a spiritless creature. It looked proud and handsome and convenient, the Prince Quartz of horses. It might as well have been a car; it was transportation without being much of an animal. Medieval fairytales were so much easier than the actual middle ages.
“This one will do me fine, thank you,” Arthur told Quartz. The prince nodded at him.
“Call out the stable man,” he said to Garnet, and the youngest prince hurried off to find the owner. They waited in silence, Arthur looking the horse over and wondering if it could ride forever without getting tired.
Garnet returned shortly with a familiar looking man at his heels. He was a short, fat, ugly man, and Arthur suddenly realized it was the fellow who had nearly run him over with an Ox earlier that afternoon.
“Oy, what’re you doing here?” the man demanded, jabbing a stubby finger in Arthur’s direction.
Arthur responded with a wide, smug grin, “Prince Quartz here has offered to buy me a horse.” The man looked stunned and Arthur continued to smirk.
“What he said is true, now how much are you asking for this fine steed here?” Quartz did business with the man, who stared at Arthur the entire time. When none of the princes were looking Arthur took the opportunity to make rude gestures at the Ox man; it was highly satisfying.
Not long after, the five men rode off together to “the place where the armor is kept”, wherever the hell that was. Arthur was last in line and he discovered that riding his heroic steed was as disturbingly easy as he had guessed. It did whatever he wanted with very little direction; the fact that he was wearing socks didn’t seem to be any sort of a problem at all.
“So, Arthur, who is it that you are looking for?” Topaz dropped back to ride beside him, “Is it your true love?”
“Oh no, dear god, no. Just no. No,” Arthur said quickly, and then he added, “No.”
“You sound quite certain.”
“I am, most definitely, quite certain.”
“Who is this fellow then?” Topaz questioned further.
“Well, he’s… our relationship is… well it’s… special,” Arthur sighed after he had finished speaking. All the power of the English language at his disposal and he couldn’t even complete a sentence.
“But he means a lot to you?”
Arthur was quiet for a moment, “I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to him. We haven’t always gotten on so well, but somehow the idea of losing him is unbearable. He’s utterly foolish and stupid, but he means the world to me.”
“I don’t know how life is in your foreign world of wonderment, but here when someone means the world to you, you’ve probably found your true love,” Topaz insisted. Arthur became aware that the other princes riding ahead of them had slowed down to listen.
“Relationships where I come from are much more complicated,” he said quietly.
“You might just be making it complicated…” Turquoise ventured, looking over his shoulder at them. Arthur fixed him with a glare and the prince quickly whipped his head around.
“Turq is right,” Garnet chimed in, “Love isn’t that hard. Don’t you believe in love at first sight?”
“Yes, I’m certain that it happens all the time.” Arthur shook his head cursing himself for compulsive Beatles quotation. “Listen, things between me and him are just really complicated, alright? Even if… even if I might… maybe have… some sort of long standing feelings for the chap, there’s no reason to think he’d return them…”
“I don’t understand,” Topaz said. “Do you love him or don’t you?”
“It sounds like you love him,” Garnet added.
“You look like you love him…” Turquoise insisted.
“Don’t you love him?” Quartz asked, and suddenly Arthur couldn’t take it.
“Yes, dammit! Fine, I love him. But it’s not that simple, he doesn’t love me back. We’ve known each other forever and he thinks that I’m old and boring. He hated me for the longest time; I’m just glad that we’re friends again. For now I’m happy with that.”
The princes were silent. They all stared at him, letting their horses guide them forward. Arthur stared at the ground, his hands gripped tightly around the reins. He had never spoken these thoughts aloud before. Alfred had meant a lot to him for centuries now, and since the Second World War things had started to change. He had loved Alfred for decades now, but he kept it to himself. This was the first time he’d ever said his feelings.
“But you love him right?” Garnet insisted. Arthur’s eyes slid slowly up, burning with annoyance.
“Yes,” he said dryly.
“Oh,” said Topaz, “Good.”
“We have arrived!” Quartz announced. The princes quickly dismounted, seeming to have lost interest in Arthur.
Arthur followed suit, managing to find his voice, despite feeling emotionally drained, “Where is here?”
“The Cave of the Ancient warrior,” Quartz said, “He is a great warrior from an era gone by. He lives in this cave where he guards the Golden armor.”
“Do we have to fight him or something to get it?”
“Of course not,” Garnet snapped, “We just have to ask.”
“That seems simple…” Arthur conceded.
“But he will only give us the armor if he deems our journey worthy of it,” Topaz added, “He has always turned us down before.”
“Well then, if he gives the go ahead this time, it’s a good sign we’re on the right track,” Arthur said as he swung down from his horse.
“I hadn’t thought of that…” Turquoise murmured, and the five men headed inside the cave.
It was, understandably, dark inside the cave, but there was some sort of flicker of light down at the end of the path. The sound of their footsteps echoed throughout, and for once the princes were dead silent. It was an unearthly noise, and Arthur felt his skin crawl despite himself. When at last they reached the end of the cave they found a wrinkled old man sitting beside a fire. He turned his face slowly towards them.
“It is you,” he croaked, “Where do you intend to venture next?”
“The castle in the forest,” Quartz said, “Will you give us the armor?”
The old man blinked his dark eyes at them. The sides of his lips turned up very slowly, and the skin at the corner of his eyes crinkled. He nodded.
At once Arthur and the princes were dressed in sparkling golden armor. It was light as a feather, but surprisingly strong. At each of their sides hung a jeweled sword. Arthur gasped and he reached towards his own blade pulling it from its sheath. The blade was golden as well and it seemed to glow in his hand. He placed one finger against the tip of the blade and watched as a drop of blood appeared.
“This could not exist where I come from…” he said in awe.
The old man turned his eyes towards Arthur and spoke, “Foreign one, land on which the sun never sets, you have guided these men wisely. Continue to lead them forward and you will find what you most desire is at your ultimate destination. But remember, you must be honest with your heart or you could lose that which you find most precious.”
Arthur stared at the old man, his mouth open as he tried to ask a question, but the fire between them flared up suddenly and when it went down, the old man was gone.
oOoOo
Alfred woke slowly. The sun had fallen across his face, gently coaxing him back into reality. He was vaguely aware of bird song tweeting him gently awake. His eyes fluttered open slowly, and he found himself face to face with a small blue bird that was staring at him intently.
“What the crap!” Alfred shouted sitting up suddenly and pushing himself backward. The bird fluttered away, flapping its wings in his face as he went.
“Ahh! He’s awake!” someone shouted.
“I’m not done dressing!” another sobbed.
“Girls! Girls! Turn your backs!”
Puritan instincts well in tact, Alfred quickly covered his eyes. His cheeks burned brightly, until he realized he had nothing to be embarrassed over. “It’s fine. I… I haven’t got my glasses on yet. I can hardly see anything past arm length.”
“See, there’s no reason for you three to be squawking. He’s got glasses just like my Prince Turquoise; you can do anything and he won’t see it at all,” there was laughter then, and Alfred was pretty sure that it was Bluebell that he was hearing.
“You can put your glasses on now, if you’d like Alfie,” Violet said gently, and he complied, “Now we’ll go down to breakfast and let you change. You can join us when you’re done.”
The girls filed out, giggling as they did. Alfred watched them until they were gone, flinging off his blankets when they did. He supposed the hope that it had all been a dream was gone completely now. Wrinkling his nose, he changed into another tunic and tight set, same colors different order. He looked at himself in the mirror and shook his head; it was still the gayest thing he’d ever worn.
But he paused in his thought process. Arthur’s face swam in his mind, and he supposed he should be more careful about how he used his words. He blushed slightly before shaking his head violently from side to side. All this fairytale business was turning his brain to mush.
He turned and hurried out of the room, enjoying a slight increase in his energy from the day before. He ran quickly through the castle, eventually finding his way back to the room where he had dined with the Wizard the night before. The princesses all sat down at one end of the table together, chattering happily and eating some sort of porridge.
“Alfie! Alfie! Come and eat!” Rose cried out when she saw him. Alfred cocked his head as he came to join them. He was enjoying his energy, even if it was a fraction of what he usually had. He wasn’t certain he should eat the food; it might make him feel worse.
“Aren’t you gonna eat?” Bluebell asked when she noticed Alfred hesitate.
“It’s just gonna make me feel sick,” Alfred said, poking his spoon dejectedly at his food.
“It shouldn’t hurt too much, Alfred. The wizard expects us to do his work. Cleaning a castle is a lot of work, so he won’t make you feel so weak that you can’t do that. Not eating at all certainly won’t make you feel any better,” Violet explained.
“That’s true…” Alfred said quietly. He contemplated his porridge for a second longer before quickly digging in. Persuading Alfred to eat more was never a difficult task.
“How strong are you?” He almost missed the question. It had been said very quietly, and was practically inaudible over sound of Alfred’s munching.
“D’ja say something?” he asked, looking up at Daisy. She blushed but spoke again.
“Yes… You keep talking about how weak you feel. But you really don’t seem that weak, not anymore. Are you still worse off than you usually are?”
“Oh, I’m real strong! When I was little I once lifted a buffalo and flung it clear across the field, and I can carry cars without even trying.”
“What’s a car?” Bluebell asked. Alfred stared at her for a moment.
“It’s a heavy thing,” he answered, and he quickly went back to his meal.
oOoOo
Author's Notes: When I was trying to compile different chapters from what I had written for the kink meme, I occasionally had some difficulty. This chapter is an awkward sort of connection between different parts of the stories. The second part fits better with the next chapter and the first part fits better with the last chapter, but there it is. Anyway, because of this, I had a little difficulty picking a title. I eventually picked a lyric from a waking up song, Cinderella's "A Dream is a Wish(Your Heart Makes)". Of course, Cindy is a little more welcoming to her little birdy friends. And besides, maybe Arthur has to learn that if he keeps on believing the dreams that he wishes will come true.