Alexis meanwhile had become of very little use at all, having been terrified of the bear during its nighttime visit, and while he agreed to help Prince Dominique prepare for battle, he was no longer willing to help with the actual fight when it came. Actually, Alexis tried his best to convince Prince Dominique that leaving the woods and never looking back would be the best for everyone. Prince Dominique on the other hand only had his eye on the prize through all of this, a happy wedding and the respect that he felt that he deserved.
I suppose in the end I have a weakness for romantics on the rare occasion that I actually write them. There’s a reason why I still haven’t introduced Prince Dominique’s princess, and I don’t know if I will. I’ve never written a romantic scene in my life and I don’t really want to start now. On the other hand Prince Dominique is being sweet enough that I guess I feel he deserves a reward. So long as he doesn’t object to the fact that I am going back to fairy tale mechanics, I will therefore introduce the woodcutter, who will tell him the bear’s weakness. The problem is that I was bluffing before, and now I have to actually come up with one. This might take a little while, before it was just a way to make Prince Dominique feel stupid.
“You’re being pretty honest, way more honest than you usually are in your writing,” Prince Dominique pointed out. “I’ve read some of your other stories; normally you don’t talk to the audience about your writing process.”
“You’re the one that started that,” I said, taking a break from my writing to explain the sudden variation. “Normally my characters don’t talk the audience either, while I’m breaking form already, I might as well do it all the way. Now, would it be alright with Monsieur Prince if I return to fairy tale conventions a little? I wouldn’t ask, not after you made it so clear what you thought of it before, except that it would help you. To be honest I don’t like the thought of your brains being the only thing keeping you alive. Not that I’m insulting your intelligence,” I added quickly, not being willing to start another fight. “I am more commenting on your lack of combat experience.”
“Well,” said the prince, looking sheepish. “I know I said I’m not a story book prince, and I’m not, or I would have won already, but I don’t really want to die either. Just this once, you can do as you like.”
Prince Dominique was surprised when a woodcutter wandered into their camp, carefully avoiding all of the traps that filled the surrounding area. He was a man who had clearly spent all of his life out in the woods and Prince Dominique felt ignorant in comparison. Just the fact that the woodsman had been able to evade all of the traps didn’t bode well for them catching the bear.
“You here on a hunting trip?” asked the woodsman, by way of introduction, looking around the camp with curiosity. “We don’t get hunters around here often, these woods are dangerous.”
“We noticed, a bear came into our camp the other night,” said the prince, not willing to admit that he, a prince, was after the reward on the bear. “Don’t you worry, working in these woods all the time with animals like that wandering around?”
“You’re lucky to be alive if it was the bear I think,” commented the woodsman. Prince Dominique almost cut in to say that it wasn’t a comforting speech, but he decided that he would let the woodsman talk instead. “That bear is the king of the woods around here; none of the other animals are half as dangerous.”
“Yeah, okay, I get it,” the prince finally interrupted. “It’s dangerous. You work out here all the time though, and you’re not dead, which means you must have some way of surviving out here. Care to share?”
To be continued...
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