A Grim Fairy Tale

Chapter Fifty-Four

As the sun began to set and as day turned to night, Cherri suggested that the group stop and rest for the night then continue in the morning. Vagatha protested at first, insisting that she couldn't rest until Charlotte was found but eventually she was convinced to go along with the dryad's plan due to the fact that searching in the dark was futile. She only prayed that wherever Charlotte was, she would be safe and warm.

"We should try to get some firewood while it's still light enough to see." Vagatha said. "A fire will keep us warm and keep away the beasts."

"Beasts?" Anthony inquired.

"Yes. Wild cats, bears, wolves. They're called predators, ever heard of them?" Vagatha said.

"Of course I have! I'm not an idiot!"

"That remains to be seen."

"Why you-"

"Now don't you two start again!" Cherri demanded. "I'm not in the mood. Now Vagatha as a dryad I don't exactly like the idea of burning trees, but I don't want you or Anthony to freeze to death in the night so I'll comply. My only request is, that you burn wood from trees that are already dead."

"I respect your feelings on the matter but I'm not entirely sure if I can grant your request. I don't see any dead trees around here." Vagatha said.

"I can you help find them."

"Alright. While we do that, Anthony can find some stones that we'll use for sparking the flames."

"You mean go off in the woods by myself? Alone?" Anthony asked getting a little nervous.

"Is that a problem?" Vagatha replied.

"Actually-" Cherri started.

"No!" Anthony cut her off, swallowing his nerves. "It's not a problem! I've gone off in the woods by myself plenty of times! I am a prince, so I've been on plenty of royal hunts! This hsould be a piece of cake!"

"Alright then. We'll meet back here later." Vagatha said.

"Anthony are you sure about this?" Cherri said looking concerned.

"I'll be fine Cherri. I'm a highly competent and independent, grown man." Anthony insisted with great bravado.

Then off he went.

"Look for stones." He said. "How hard can that be?"

Apparently harder than he thought. Truth be told, Anthony had never been any forest or woods for more than five minutes in his entire life. He had never attended any royal hunts, he hated the royal hunt because they always hunted for sport rather than food. He didn't know the first thing about predators except that they existed and he didn't know the difference between a stone and a rock. Now it wasn't that he was stupid or anything, he was just very sheltered and had never been taught these things. Which made leaving him alone in the woods a very unwise and dangerous choice.

First thing that happened as soon as he was away from the women, he tripped over a root was sent tumbling down a hill, landing in a creek.

"Ah!" He cried out. "This water is damn cold!"

He quickly pulled himself out of the creek, soaking head to toe and shivering.

"How humiliating." He thought. "Oh well, at least no one saw that."

He took a moment to to ring out his hair and clothes, picturing the look on Cherri's face and how hard she'd laugh if she had seen this display. Although the worst person to see him like this would be his father. King Vincent couldn't stand it when his clumsy son would trip or fall over, doing things that would embarrass him and make him look like a fool. Once when he was six, and was attending a royal banquet, he had slipped on the floor while doing a dance, causing all the guests to laugh. His father locked him in his room for a week as punishment.