Adventure time
The Hidden Prince
Fiona was out exploring the land of Oo, when she came across a place she'd never seen before. In front of her was a wall of boulders, tangled in vines. She stared at the majestic boulders. They where engraved with strange markings, she traced the markings with her finger as she walked alongside them in awe.
As she came across the next one, her hand slipped through the mess of vines. She pulled the vines apart and saw it was a hidden entrance to the other side of the boulders. Inside it, was a blue castle, made of clay, hidden by the vine curtain. It looked abandoned yet homely. She wanted to go check it out, and crossed through the vines.
She walked up to the massive clay doors. There were no hinges or a handle, she felt around it until she discovered a seam by the bottom of the door. It was a smaller door built into the fake one that she wouldn't have noticed unless she was specifically looking for it.
The smaller door had a key already in the lock. She turned it and pushed the quiet door open. She crouched through and shut it behind her, as it clicked back into place. She looked around, it certainly looked as abandoned as the outside did. She glanced around but didn't see anyone.
She drew her sword and continued down a random corridor. All the things inside, were cracked and coated with thick vines and some had odd shaped leaves. She went over and smelled the strange leaves. She recognized it right away... catnip. " what's this for?" She turned around and pointed the sword towards the voice from behind her.
The voice came from someone she'd never seen before. He looked like a sort of hybrid of a boy and a cat. He was hanging off a fallen pillar , and was just above her. He had her back pack in his hand, and swung it back in forth above her head on one finger.
She reached behind her with one hand and realized it was gone. " when did you take that and who are you? I've never met you before." She snatched the bag away from him and put it back on." I'm Prince Mao, and this is my castle. Anyone who enters will be stolen from" he said with a smirk.
She put her sword away and stared at him. "Why's a prince living in an abandoned castle away from everyone else?" She stared at the prince curiously. All he did was stare back and smile, his black tail swishing calmly behind him. He then sat up on the pillar and crouched like a cat, he then started to slink back into the shadows as he stared at her." It's been a while since anyone's entered this castle." His voice started to echo through the empty castle as he disappeared.
" especially any humans..." She started to slowly process what he was saying. "wait! Other humans have been here?" She shouted after him.
She heard his laughter as it started to fade away." Wait!" She left the room and started to run after his voice. " what do you mean other humans? Has someone else been here before!?" She heard pattering noises as he leaped across the beams on the dark ceiling. "Maybe they have and then again, maybe they haven't." She could hear the smile in his voice. She ran to keep up with the sounds from above her.
He kept leading her somewhere in silence. "Where are you taking me?" She looked around as she started to tire, and her running slowed to an out-of-breath crawl. Suddenly the noise from above her stopped. She looked around and saw one door on her left and one on her right.
"You have to choose, if you guess right, you move on. If wrong, I steal something from you."she listened to his instructions as she recovered her breath."I'll ask a question, so if you would like to keep your sword, answer right."
"What do you mean, 'I move on'? What happens if I get them all right?" She said into the above shadowy figure. "If you do get them right, then you can leave and I'll answer ONE question." She turned and realized he had gotten her lost in this blue maze. "Alright, what's the first question?"
"Do you know how to knit?" She was taken back by this question. She expected it to be some random trivia question, not this. She turned to the door on the right marked 'no', as a pair of gleaming blue eyes stared at her. She entered and fell into pitch black darkness. A single bulb was swinging above her, where she had fell. "Ow." She groaned.
She looked around her and to her surprise was caught in something. The bulb swung past her, illuminating her prison. It was yarn! She was tangled up in some fuzzy pre-knitted yarn. She drew her sword and started to slash away at the string. She felt tension on the yarn next to her.
She stopped and looked up at the perched feline figure, sitting above her. "why did I get that wrong, I really can't knit?" The light swung over his smug face."of course you CAN knit, you just have to learn how" he turned and started to crawl away along the yarn strings. " hey, you tricked me!" She shouted after him. "No, you just didn't think!" He shouted back as he pounced away."come on, next round!"
She started to slash away at the yarn again, wondering what he had stole as she realized the yarn wouldn't cut anymore. She looked at her hand and saw that she was holding a wooden sword instead of her own. She threw it and untied the knots herself. Once she was free, she climbed up the yarn till she reached the top. She climbed through a hole in the ceiling and found herself in a new corridor.
"Next question, have you seen me before?" She glared at the dark ceiling. "Yes I have. Earlier, in the first room." She turned right, to the door marked 'yes'. She didn't fall, so she must have chose correctly. She was in yet another corridor. "What always runs, but never walks, often murmurs but never talks, what has a bed but never sleeps, that has a mouth but never eats? Can you tell me the answer? Take your time."
Fiona thought about it for a while. 'What runs, murmurs, has a bed, and has a mouth?' Suddenly, she realized. "A River!" She shouted up to him. There was silence, then a clanging noise, as her stolen sword fell beside her. She scurried over to pick it up. She stuffed it into her bag, as the door on her left creaked open.
She walked in to discover the room was made entirely of gold. There were mountains of gold and sapphire treasures, and right in the center of it all was a throne. A blue and gold throne holding a slouching prince. "I'll answer one question, ONE!" He looked at her disappointedly. She walked up to him to ask a question she had been wondering the whole time. "Will you tell me about the people who used to live here and where they went?" He sat up and looked at her curiously. "That's you're question? You could have asked anything in the world, and you only care about the past of some aged, abandoned castle?"
"Exactly." He tipped his head to the side slightly. "But... Why?"he looked dumbfounded. "you seemed lonely here by your self, so I wanna know why you're here all alone." She smiled at the confused prince. "Well. If that's you're question." He said with a shrug. She sat down in front of him on the floor, as he slipped back into his chair, covering part of his face with his brown and white hoodie.
"A long time ago, there was a human king and queen who lived here. They had a son and a daughter. The royal family was happy and as the years passed and the princess and prince grew to about your age, the king died from a kingdom-wide plague and the queen, heartbroken, took her own life. The two siblings were on their own to rule the plagued kingdom as their subjects died out. The two had to stay quarantined inside this castle to avoid the diseased, but it was too late. The prince had become ill. The princess, afraid of being alone, took her fading brother to her fathers laboratory."
He looked upset as he slouched in even further in his chair, his ears drooping slightly. "The young princess took the family cat who was immune to the plague, with her. She locked everyone inside with her, and begun crying. The prince's pulse suddenly faded as his eyes grew dull and his breathing heaved to a stop. The girl looked up, horrified at the sight of her brother.
She hugged his limp body as she cried. She stopped and put him down. She stared blankly ahead, her eyes distant, locked in a memory. She looked down at her brother, then the cat. She removed her crown and snapped the blue gem out of its place. She held it to her head and begun praying. The jewel started glowing as she winced. The same light shrouded around the bodies of the two beside her, and merged them as one.
The being awoke to see the princess shrink to the floor a smile fading from her teary eyed face. Her heart stopped and the gem clinked to the floor. The being removed the crown from her cold grip and fit the jewel back in. He left the lab. and walked away, immune to the virus."
The boy's blue, feline eyes darted over to Fiona's face as she wiped a tear from her cheek."I-I'm sorry." She said. He turned his head toward her and stared curiously at her face. "Why are you crying?" He asked her. "It's just a sad story." She said as she dried her eyes. "Is it?" He asked as he tilted his head. He sat back up into a crouch again. "So you used to be a human like me?" He nodded. "I USED to be a human, I guess."
His expression changed suddenly to one of realization. "I told you I'd answer one question and I've already answered two! You're gonna owe me something!" He said, upset as he crossed his arms and turned his head away."it's that way." He said as his tail pointed to a door behind him. He pounced upwards towards the ceiling beams once more and watched her silently as she smiled and left.
