The Frog Princess Novel Book 1 (Completed)

Chapter 10

"Psst!" The sound woke me from a resdess sleep. "Psst! Emma, wake up!"

Still groggy, I lifted my head. At first I felt disoriented, the cage and the drafty room unfamiliar and threatening. Then I remembered where I was and what was supposed to happen and suddenly I was wide awake.

"Emma! Wake up! Vannabe's gone! Hurry—I thought of something!"

"I'm awake." I blinked and looked up.

"Finally!" said the bat, and she dropped like a stone from her perch to the stack of books on the shelf.

"Li'l!" I exclaimed. "What are you doing?"

"I have an idea," she panted. "I was thinking about your rash and I remembered this book." Stretching her tether as far as it would go, the bat tugged one of the books off the pile and dropped it onto the shelf. "There!" she said triumphantly. "I think that's the right one."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "How is a book going to help anything?"

"Open it up and take a look. If I remember right, there should be a great spell for getting rid of rashes."

"The rash isn't my biggest worry now, Li'l."

"I know, but the book with the spell for rashes has a lot of other useful spells, too. I can't read, so I'm not sure if this is the right book. Go ahead, take a look."

"But I can't, Li'l! I can't do magic! I make a mess of it every time!"

"What are you talking about? All you have to do is read it! You can do that, can't you?"

"Yes, of course, but you don't know me! I can botch even the simplest spells! You should have seen what happened when I tried to clean my chamber using magic! My bed still makes itself whether I'm in it or not!"

"It's up to you. If you'd rather lose your tongue than try..."

"All right! I get your point! I guess it wouldn't hurt to try." I reached for the cover of the book, but my arms weren't long enough to touch it. Even turning sideways and shoving my leg between the bars of the cage wasn't enough.

"I can't reach it!" I said, stretching my leg as far as I could. Hoping to find something that I could use to extend my reach, I looked about my cage. There was nothing close enough to the cage that might be useful, and the only thing inside the cage was Eadric, lying on his back with his belly in the air and his limbs flopping at his sides in a most unfroglike position. His legs were long, longer than mine, and if I could wake him ...

At first I was gentle, shaking his shoulder, whispering his name and poking him in the ribs, but when that didn't work, I tried more enthusiastic means. Shouting his name just made him twitch in his sleep. Pulling his leg made him roll over. Finally, I tried lightly slapping his cheeks.

"It wasn't me, Mother," Eadric mumbled, brushing away my hand. "I would never put a mouse in Nanny's ale, even if she did leave the room to use the privy."

I glanced up at the bat, who had returned to her rafter and was hanging upside down, watching me. "Li'l, you said he would probably wake up today, but look at him. What am I going to do?"

"I suppose you could try the remedy used on those nitwits Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. I told you they were given the same potion, remember?"

"Right, right, I remember now. They were both princesses and they were both woken by princes, if I remember correctly. And the princes both ... aw, Li'l, I'm not going to have to kiss him, am I?"

"Only if you want him to wake up."

"But I told you what happened last time."

"I'd be real surprised if you turned into anything else now. But whatever you're going to do, you'd better hurry. You don't have much time here. Vannabe won't be gone forever."

"I know, but... oh, all right. I guess even if we did turn into something else, it couldn't be worse than being a frog." I squatted beside him and placed my hands on either side of his face. "It's funny," I said. "He's finally getting his kiss and all he had to do for it was oversleep." I was about to kiss him when something else occurred to me. "Li'l?" I tilted my head to look up at the bat. "If I kiss him and he does wake up, I'm not going to have to marry him, am I? I mean, both of those princes married the girls they woke this way."

"Naw, you won't have to marry him unless you want to."

"Good! I want to keep my options open." I kept my eyes open as well this time, thinking half seriously that that might keep me from turning into something else. His lips were cool and smooth, just like the first time, and I had barely taken my lips from his when his eyelids fluttered open and he gazed up into my eyes.

"Well, hello there, beautiful! Is there something you want to tell me?" Eadric said, leering froggishly.

"What do you mean? I was just—"

"Don't get me wrong! I like being kissed by beautiful young ladies; I just wasn't expecting it, that's all."

"I wasn't kissing you. I mean, I was, but it was only to wake you up!"

"And I liked it! You can wake me that way every morning, and put me to sleep that way, too." Eadric winked and reached for my shoulders.

Pushing his hands away, I hopped to the other side of the cage, giving me space and the time I needed to explain. "I was kissing you only because you've been asleep since the day before yesterday! I warned you about that worm! But no, you had to eat a worm doused in sleeping potion! You had to sleep when you should have been trying to help me find a way to escape! I've been scared to death while you've been dreaming the time away and it just wasn't fair!"

"Emma," Eadric began.

"Never mind. We don't have time to talk now. The witch is going to be back soon to chop off our toes and cut out our tongues. Now get up and come help me! We have to look through this book and I can't reach it. Do you think you can turn the pages?"

Eadric looked thoroughly confused, but he didn't question me. With a long-suffering sigh, he struggled to his feet and hopped to the side of the cage. Crouching down, he stuck his arm between the bars, but it wasn't quite long enough.

"Maybe your leg," I said.

I was overjoyed when his longer legs reached easily. "What is it we're looking for?" he asked.