Though it was already late in the day, Prince Dominique was not willing to stay another day in court. As soon as they were out of the audience chamber the prince almost ran to the rooms they had been given and he ordered all of their things were to be packed immediately. They were sleeping in an inn at the outskirts of the capital by nightfall that night.
I know that it’s bad story telling, but I’m going to skip ahead here, this isn’t because I don’t want to tell you about what happened on the prince’s way to the forest where Prince Edmond had been attacked, but it wasn’t very eventful. I’m worried that if Prince Dominique gets bored, he’ll start interrupting me, and I only just got him to stop. Anyway, to keep our ADD teenager entertained, we’ll start up with Prince Dominique and Alexis already deep in the forest where they’ve been riding all day.
“I heard that, I have a fine attention span,” Prince Dominique cut in. I should have kept editorial statements out of my story obviously, they attracted his attention.
“Well of course they attracted my attention,” Prince Dominique complained. “You insulted me. I wouldn’t get bored if you’d actually write interesting things. Your readers should be grateful to me for sparing them a two page long travel narrative.”
“If my readers had any class, they would have appreciated the attention to detail I had when I created your world, do you have any idea how much work your making me waste? Anyway, I told you to keep quiet, or else I’ll end the story with the bear eating you.”
“There’s a way to make your readers happy. I know you don’t care about me, but you’re writing this for an audience here. You can’t go killing me off for no reason when your readers have been following this far expecting something to happen. Now do your job and make everyone happy.”
“Have you read the more recent book of the month books? None of them have been happy, let me tell you. I could just say I was following in the fine tradition of the classics. I don’t have the time to argue with you, and I’m skipping ahead anyway, no matter what the reason is, so you should be happy.”
The forest was dark, and cool, and Prince Dominique almost forgot why he was there and started to relax. The hunting dogs that had at first bayed at every scent, soon calmed as well, which led the men to forget their mission all the easier. When the dogs had been tense they had been reminded that somewhere there was a giant bear that might attack them at any time. Alexis killed a deer that ran across their path and so they were able to feed themselves and the dogs that night, without breaking into their provisions. It would have been better for them had they considered what the smell of fresh meat might attract, but they fell asleep completely at peace.
Prince Dominique woke up to hear the sounds of something eating. At first he thought it was just one of the dogs that was getting at the meat, but then he remembered that they had tied the meat up from the lowest branch of a tree in their camp. There was no way that one of the dogs would be able to get to it. He sat up and could see in the light of the dying coals, a huge black shape that towered over him on its hind legs. The meat was low enough that the creature could rip off chunks of it with its teeth while standing. Prince Dominique was afraid to move, he hadn’t thought to sleep with a weapon and right now he liked it better if, what he suspected was the bear, kept ignoring him.
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment