A Prince Charming Story

Mud - 2

"Seven?!"

"Yes, that's correct, your majesty. We have seven daughters," the short man chuckled proudly.

"Ah, of course, you are one of the seven dwarfs. Of course you have seven daughters." I took a deep breath before I continued, "what a blessed family." To my defence it had been a long day.

"Well, line them up!"

"Tone down the excitement please," I muttered but Adam only rolled his eyes at me.

"Soooo... your majesty.. prince chaaarming..."

I glanced over at a girl who was standing behind me, uncomfortably close. "Yes, miss?"

"If the shoe fits, could I bring all my sisters?"

"Well of course. There's plenty of room in the castle," Adam cheered on.

Oh, for the love of all fairies, I wanted to kill Adam on the spot. And he knew it, that's why he did it. Testing my patience like that, making the girls cling on me, it was all part of his cruel little game of torture-the-prince.

The first sister was a few years older than me, and surprisingly tall considering the size of her father. The girl stared threateningly at her sisters as she walked up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder as she tried to press down her foot into the delicate shoe.

"Sorry miss, it doesn't fit."

She gave me a deadly stare but shrugged and walked inside the house.

The second girl shook her head, "if my sis's feet's too big, so is mine."

I nodded, "alright so you'll skip."

The third girl walked barefoot in the mud and I never had the chance to stop her before she squeezed her foot into the shoe, leaving the inside brown with stinking dirt.

"Ehm.. I believe your foot is a bit too small. I'm sorry."

The girl met my eyes. They looked different then her sisters, sad but understanding. Somehow it felt like she was one of those girls who'd want to start a new life and was waiting for a chance to change. Maybe I should pretend it's her? We stood there, quiet and looked at each other. Then she smiled and shook her head, turned around and left.

I took a deep breath and peered at the shoe. It was extremely dirty so I decided to try and clean it, but as I stood there wiping it, another sister ran up to me and snatched the shoe from my hand and put it on.

"It fits!! It fiiiits!" She shouted and jumped around in the mud.

My jaw dropped and images of my future life ran through my head. A house full of sister in-laws nagging and yelling at me. Kids running around everywhere and not a calm place in sight. And somehow I would be forced to spend family occasions with the seven dwarves, their wives, children and grandchildren ... and the worst part of all... Snow White and Prince. Or wait, weren't they divorced?

"Oh, sorry miss, it's a tad too big it seems."

Those words... like the sweet taste of candy on a Tuesday morning.

"Nooo! It fits, can't you see?" The young girl refused to let go of the shoe, insisting she was the future queen.

I giggled as I watched Adam run around the house chasing the young woman who was still wearing the shoe. She was very quick and my best friend really struggled to keep up. Her confidence grew as the rest of the girls started to cheer for her. They ran lap after lap around the house until Adam stopped to catch his breath. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. The situation was ridiculous.

Eventually the girl's father stepped in and stopped the charade and the rest of the sisters took turns to try it on. Thankfully their feet were either too big or too small for the shoe. And a few hours later we were back in the saddle anxious to get away from that house.

"Worst day..."

I snickered at him, "Is it now?"

"Don't even start, she was crazy, you should be happy I lied for you."

"Wait... what?!" The blood froze in my veins, "the shoe actually fit?"

He snickered and nodded a few times, "you really think there's a shoe in the world that only fits one single person? Of course it will fit more than one girl."

He was right... oh ... crap! "Thank you!" it was all I could say. It was an understatement to what I felt, but there weren't enough words to explain the gratitude that grew inside me right then.

"Don't mention it," he smiled, "I couldn't bear the thought of you being forced to marry that crazy person."

"I'd force you to marry one of her sisters," I sniggered.

"You wouldn't!"

"I would..."

"A white lie never hurt anyone," he said as he shrugged his shoulders.

"No. But I can't help feeling bad for her."

"Don't, we left them enough coins to buy them all a new pair of shoes and even a pair of socks."

"I would have thought Snow had done that for them though, didn't you?"

Adam shrugged again, "I guess."

We were quiet for a moment but my restless self couldn't really stop talking so I opened my mouth yet again. "Where to?"

He peered at the map, "Well, there's that tower to the east. Legend says there's a princess locked inside it."

"A princess locked in a tower? Don't you think she'd be crazy by now? I mean for how long has she been alone up there?"

"You have a point."

"Right."

"Well, we could head west towards the shore."

"All right, I could use some sea air."

"We could visit Eric as we pass through," he continued.

Hmm. Eric, the perfect prince. He had the perfect hair, a beautiful castle on a cliff by the sea and I'd heard he was a great sailor. "Maybe..."

"What? I heard he's nice."

"Yeah? Well, we don't have time for socialising."

"Since when?"

"Since now."

Adam sighed and shook his head, "you know C, sometimes I worry about you."

"Really? Why?"

"You try too hard to be the opposite of what people expect you to be."

"Ehm, what do you mean?"

"I just hope you don't lose yourself trying to be someone else."

"Are you serious?" I gasped at him, "if I pretended to be someone else, don't you think I'd try to be the perfect son and prince?"

"No.."

"No?"

"Nope," he said, popping the p.

I studied him, he really thought he knew me. To be fair he did know me better than my own family, but still there were a lot of things I kept to myself. "I changed my mind. No sea air."

"Okay, so where to?"

"North, there's fresh air up there too."

"Fine, north it is."

And so our travels continued.