Collection of Shorts

The Prince's Quest

When the girl of his dreams disappears the night he met her, the prince is distraught. She has made a fool of him by disappearing, and he is not pleased. More than that, though, when she disappeared she left her slipper on the steps of the castle. The prince seeks closure by destroying every trace of the elusive girl, but when he returns to find the slipper itself missing, he is lost for what to do. Like a man obsessed, he searches the kingdom for the slipper that caused his torment; he will not cease his hunt until that slipper rests safely in pieces in his own hands. (Cinderella rewritten, if the shoe disappeared along with the rest of her magical outfit)

"No! Come back, please! I..."

The prince slowed his pace to a jog, and then to a stop. She was gone. He turned around, inwardly berating himself. How had he let her escape him? It was all that slipper's fault. Whoever had left that there would be a citizen of his kingdom for a short time, indeed. If it hadn't been there, he probably would have caught her. But no. Of all things, all manners of dissuasion, he tripped over a slipper. A stupid, idiotic, slipper.

He began to head back to the palace to go and smash the thing. It had seemed to be a priceless item, made of crystal or glass. The craftsmanship was perfect; it was likely of dwarven make. Maybe it was those seven that his cousin Snow had taken such a liking to. In any event, something that flawless would undoubtedly be seized by the royal treasury and put on display. Under no circumstances would the prince allow that to happen; he adored the museum and spent many of his free hours there. To have that slipper there, likely on prominent display, would effectively bar him from ever setting foot in that building again. He could handle a lot of things, from dragons to briar thorns, but one thing he could not stand was failure. He could not bear to have a reminder of his failure with that girl so evident and on display. The slipper would be in shards by the end of the night.

Returning to the palace, he reached down to pick up the slipper from the grand staircase where it had been. He felt around for a bit; it was after midnight and dark as pitch. There was nothing. He began to be frantic, but it was not to be found. It was as if the slipper, like the girl who had owned it, had simply... disappeared. No. This could not happen. It could not be gone. He needed it, needed to destroy it, needed the closure of smashing the cause of his failure. But alas, it was not there. The prince finally admitted defeat for the night, or rather the morning, and retired to his chambers until a less obnoxious hour. The search must wait.

The prince awoke to birdsong outside his window. He grabbed the first thing his fingers touched and promptly threw it outside in the hopes of deterring the mockingbird. For indeed that was what it appeared to be doing: mocking.

"Foul birds," muttered the prince as he hopped about his chambers trying, and failing, to put on a sock. He tripped over a random item and winced when this caused him to collide with a wall. This did not bode well for today. If the first quarter-hour of the day had already turned out this badly, he could only imagine what the rest of it might hold.

Finally dressed, the prince headed down to meet with the head of the treasury. He must convince the good sir to give him the slipper that must have already been claimed for the kingdom. There was no other option; the slipper could not have just disappeared. That would be magic, and everyone knew magic didn't exist. Although, he supposed, there were the select few that still believed in the old ways. He wasn't one of them, of course. The palace royals needed to remain modern and on top of the times in order to rule, not bogged down in traditions and the ways things were. A kingdom living in the past will never see the future. Which is exactly why it was of the utmost importance that he find that slipper posthaste, so he could destroy the reminder of his failure and move on.