Swan Problems (fireOwl)

[firejay1]

Eran had grown up in the Enchanted Forest his whole life, with his woodcutter father and the mother who had taken care of home while his father was away. Not a lot of people lived in the Enchanted Forest, and those that did were either enchanted themselves or simple folk who didn't mind weird things happening on a regular basis, and animals who might turn out to have been people originally. Suffice to say, most of them were vegetarians. Just like his parents, Eran was a plain, boring kid of the forest. Or so he would have liked to have been, but there was one little problem with his supposed normalcy.

Ignore the enchanted frogs. Ignore the enchanted frogs. He thought to himself, doing the laundry in the stream by their home, and desperately pretending to he did not notice the two frogs next to him arguing about kissing each other in the hopes that it would turn them back into humans. It wasn't going to work, from his experience, but if he said something they'd know he could recognize and understand them. So, he scrubbed the clothes and kept his big mouth desperately shut as he wished he could do with his stupid ears. He peeked at them out of the corner of one eye. Oh no... The frogs leaned forward to kiss each other, and he hollered, "WAIT!"

The frogs looked at him in surprise, and he knew he was caught, but well, it was better than what would've happened if he hadn't said anything. He sighed. "That cl- Never mind. Just.... Don't. Kiss each other. Go find the witch who cursed you and ask for the conditions of breaking it, because... well just do it." He turned to leave.

"Wait!" One of the frogs cried, but Eran ran off with his basket of clothes before they could trap him there.

He went home, finished his chores quickly, and hurried over to the lake where his friend lived. He hadn't had a chance the past few days to see if she'd heard the news about her fiance and her sister!

 

[Diana]

The girl had not yet heard about her fiancé and her sister.

For if she had, she wouldn't be wading serenely in the shallows of the lake, soaking up the warm afternoon sun, and being quite possibly the most beautiful creature in the Enchanted Forest.

Of course, she was a swan, but she was a beautiful swan! Feathers of pure white, a beak of glossy orange, and adorned with a tiny little flower crown, as she was not just a swam, but a princess.

A cursed princess. It ruffled her feathers thinking about it, so she often tried not to. Princess Marala didn't really know who was so incensed that they needed to curse her into being a swan, but at least she knew her true love, her wonderful Prince was sure to come scouring the Enchanted Forest to find her. It made the few weeks she'd spent swimming the lake by day, and shivering in the forest at night a little more bearable.

Her friend helped as well!

On sight of Eran approaching the lake, she threw her wings up and gave a mighty HONK. Princess Marala swam quickly for the shore and waddled her way to meet him.

"Eran!" she honked again. "Look at my crown! My Prince will be able to see it is me!"

 

[firejay1]

Eran was the only one in the Enchanted Forest, so far as he knew, who could understand her. The only one who could pick out by eye and understand all of the poor souls who'd ended up trapped in animal form here, besides actual witches and fairies, anyways. As usual, he could see the curse wafting around his new friend Princess Marala, hers in the form of glittery pink sparkles, approximately arranged into the shape of wings. Usually, he tried not to give enchanted creatures much attention, even when they seemed really sad, but she hadn't tried to ask him for any help, and instead talked to him about the world outside of the Enchanted Forest and her life in general, so he'd sort of grown fond of her in the weeks since her arrival at this lake. He'd never seen her in her real form, since he usually had to be back at home by nightfall, so it was hard to think of her as anything except a funny little swan.

What she said made him wince, though. So she hadn't heard. "Yeah, about that, Princess Marala." He sat down by the lake, putting aside a basket he'd brought to excuse his excursions to the lake as herb and berry gathering. "I mean, I love the crown. It's nice, and you look great. But your prince is Prince of Andyr, right? He and your sister, Princess Siya. Well I heard they were getting married! Took a while for the news to get over here, but the witch a few days out came by to bring us pastries since mom helped her with the extra herbs I've been harvesting, and a particularly difficult newt liver she'd been trying to get her hands on, I mean anyways. When I asked her about it, she even let me see it on her crystal ball. They're getting married. It might have even happened already." He scrunched up his face, bracing himself for her reaction.

 

[Diana]

The princess swan's neck scrunched close into her body as all of her snow white feathers puffed out. The way they ruffled and her rotund little body buzzed, there was no doubt she was vibrating with something fiercely awful. That assumption was proven true as she let out such a mighty HONK that a nearby flock of birds scattered out of the trees and for a split second the forest went silent!

"WHAT!" She quacked, throwing out her wings and doing a mad dash and run back and forth. No rhyme or reason to it, just pure unbridled swan rage!

"How dare she! My greatest love stolen! BETRAYAL! VICIOUS SISTER!"

Of course, all any normal person could hear was a serious of screaming HOOONK! HONKHONK! BLEAAAAAP. QUACKHONK! All they could see was a angry swan now waddling circles around Eran, with her tiny flower crown slightly falling askew.

"This will not stand, Eran!!" she insisted. "They cannot leave me here in the forest to die, and go on to live happily ever after! I WON'T ALLOW THIS! I will- I will ruin their wedding! ...if I have missed that, I will steal their first baby and give it to a family of wolves to raise! Wolves are at least loyal and true!"

Already seeming to have a plan in mind, the swan princess darted off towards a thicket in the woods where she had made herself a cozy home. There was a great clattering of noise as she seemed to be collecting things with her beak for this perilous plot of vengeance.

 

[firejay1]

As expected, his news wasn't received well. Eran covered his ears with a wince as she shrieked and hollered and honked her outrage. She was such a weird one. He sort of thought the prince may have been relieved that he wasn't marrying her fanciful personality, but it did make her an interesting friend. He jumped up as she waddled off at top speed, and followed her. "What are you doing?" He gave a nervous chuckle. "You can't really be thinking about stealing their first baby, right? The forest is dangerous, and you'd have no idea where you're going! Plus, how's a swan going to carry a baby around?" The words coming out of his mouth were so ridiculous he stopped and looked down for a second, as if he could see those words and somehow make them sound less stupid by staring at them.

 

[Diana]

"A basket, Eran! I will need a basket for the baby!" she honked, waddling through her tiny camp collection various objects to shove into a small bag that looked a little too big for a swan to be carrying. A hair brush, some apples, a pair of silk slippers and what looked like the tattered scraps of a fancy nightgown were beak-shoved into the sack. It took a bit of shuffling, but she managed to get her head under the strap and flop the sack onto her back. It weighed more than she expected, making her little swan legs buckle a bit, but she was so determined, she waddled out of her enclosure despite it.

"Maybe I will not steal the baby. It is not the baby's fault that the parents are vile betrayers. But I will have my vengeance! I will chew all the hair off her head! I will scare all of the horses in the kingdom away! They will never ever rest!"

 

[firejay1]

"Wait! Marala! Wait, I mean!" Eran's cries fell on deaf ears, the swan stomping about shrieking away in honks only Eran could understand. He slapped his hand against his forehead as she came out of her nest dragging a ridiculous sack with her. Taking a huge breath, Eran moved forward and scooped her up, bag and all. He wouldn't have dared do it with an actual swan, but Princess Marala wouldn't attack him. He hoped.

"Are you a bit calmer?" He asked, around what felt like a mouth full of feathers.

 

[Diana]

For a moment Princess Marala was still trying to walk, her little orange feet paddling in the air as he held her. After a beat she deflated, a long slow hiss of air escaping her beak as her slender neck went limp and dangled. Somehow she'd become nothing but a round feathery ball of dead weight.

"I cannot believe they have left me to die, Eran," she squawked pitifully. He was right in that she wouldn't lash out at him - he was in fact the only person in the world that even seemed to care about her at all anymore. The Prince that had claimed she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen and the dearest love of his life didn't even try to find her. The sister that she'd known all her life chose not to seek her out at all, and to leave her fate to the winds.

Did they even know what befell her? Perhaps it was not a matter of them not caring about her, maybe they simply didn't know that she'd been cursed on her way home to the castle!

Perking up immediately to straighten her long neck again, the princess ruffled her feathered body and began squirming to get loose.

"Eran, I have to go to them! I have to tell them I am a swan! It may not be too late and I might take my kingdom back! Oh, put me down this instance, Eran, I command it!"

 

[firejay1]

Eran sighed heavily, but let her go. Always so bossy. At least there was something vaguely cute about how she did it, more a goofy demand than any real implication she saw herself as his better. He'd seen his fair share of those. Personally, he sometimes secretly thought there was a good reason most witches went after royalty. "How are you even going to GET home?" He asked, though, as she fluttered out of his face. From what she'd told him, she'd woken up here by this lake after being cursed, and HE certainly didn't know where her kingdom was, he'd never so much as been out of the Enchanted Forest!

 

[Diana]

"With the roads, of course! I will follow the roads and the signs back to my kingdom," insisted the swan as she fluffed and plumed after her momentary capture.

Now that her swanly (royal?) rage had passed, and she recognized she indeed needed to take a more proactive approached to her curse and return to her kingdom, now too was it setting in that she was leaving the safety of the lake. And by extension, Eran.

Turning her head this way and that, she eyed him up and down. Slowly she rose her head to her most regal of levels, working her wings and rotund body to it's most elegant of extensions.

"Eran... You have been a most gracious friend and host here in the forest. I will never forget your kindness and I am so sorry I must leave you now with such little warning and not a proper goodbye. When my curse is broken, I will return here to you and give you many beautiful swans - ones that are not cursed - so that you might always have beautiful company!"