The Princess and The Frog / Too Close for Comfort

Part 2 of Snow's Auction Bid: Literature Portion

Featuring Snow
Summer Y 762 NA
Glenwood near the Southern shores of Loch Kerr,
Glenmore
-Name of Art piece : The Princess and the Frog -

~ Too Close For comfort~

Another night had come and gone without a single sign of her mother's return. Snow had shivered all through the dark hours, still unused to facing the darkness of the witching hour without her mother's svelt body to warm her. Nuala's soft glow had always been there to chase away the shadows and lull the child into sweet dream-time. Now, without her mother's comforting presence, restless thoughts slithered like a serpent to infect her mind with terrifying visions of beasts that lurked just beyond her vision. Until every tree that rustled in the breeze transformed into the image of a massive, blackwood raider; every bush metamorphasizing into a hunched bear, and the rasping wind became the gutteral panting of a ravenous fox. Needless to say, sleep no longer came easy to the cremello hind, and when it did come she tossed and turned listlessly.

By the time the sun had risen in the east, the girl had already roused.  As the soft dawn light filtered down through the trees, Snow offered the same hymnal prayers to Aillte and Oganach, as she had done each time she lived to see another dawn rise without her parents. She gave an exhausted yawn, her eyes rimmed red from her lack of sleep, and carefully got to her slender willowy hooves. "Alright Snow, time to find some breakfast and get that mane groomed. Today is the day. Today Mother and Father will come to fetch me.  And I want to look my best for them when they come!" The girl had discovered the habit of talking with herself. It helped her cope with her isolation, and keep her spirits lifted.  She told herself they were coming, each day she told herself this because she believed it to be true. She knew her mother and father would never abandon her. Such a notion had never once crossed her mind.  she faced each night with a sickening dread and a courage she did not know she possessed. But the luminous girl never shed a tear, for despite her insecurities and fears, despite the fact she was alone and scared, she knew with absolute conviction that they were out there somewhere... kept away for reasons unknown to her... but that she had not been forgotten.

The girl began plucking twigs and leaves and other bits of debris from her mane and tail, grooming it as best she could without someone to help her. Mother used to put little braids in her hair, or weave flowers in behind her ears. But without Nuala, Snow was lucky enough if she managed to get it dissentangled, let alone decorate it in any true fashion. Her tail though, sometimes she could get a flower tethered to the long whip-like appendage, just above the lovely splayed tuft at the end. For today though, she was rather tired after having no sleep, and so settled with just covering the basics. Enough to be presentable when Lonan or Nuala came for her.

Dainty pastel hooves tip-toed with a dancer's grace as she flowed between the trees, long slender ears twitching too and fro with ever-present vigilance. Snow never let her guard down. Mother had always told her to take great care... that if any strangers caught her she would be  robbed of her freedom and her fate would no longer be her own. So caution was paramount to the girl at all times. Strangers were dangerous, and she would not take the chance of being taken hostage before mother and father came for her. With slow silent steps, she skirted the edge of a small meadow and came to a pause to listen and smell the air. A silvery mist slithered across the green field, and the sun had not risen high enough yet to banish it to the blue sky of day. Dew clung to the skin of things, and all was quiet and tranquil. There was no sign of anyone else in the area, so she stepped out into the open and went to graze on the succulent clover she knew to grow in the meadow.

Her belly was nearly full by the time she heard the muffled voices. Her head rose up like a shot, ears shifting towards the source. Two voices. Masculine, and muffled in idle conversation. But definitely growing louder as they drifted through the mist in her direction. Snow felt her heart leap in her throat and she spat out her cud, bounding back towards the forest.

at the forest's edge, she skidded behind a tree to hide just as two huge bucks stepped into the meadow, wisps of fog curling about their powerful legs and branch-like tines. Snow could not help but to peek out from around her tree to spy upon the pair. She was cautious, but equally curious. Especially after having no one to talk to in so long.

"Aye. I was certain Donnaghan had that tourney in the bag. But there is not to be done about it now. Rafe may well prove to be a better rule anyhow..." The larger of the two was speaking as they passed across the meadow. Snow assumed they must have been royal guards. Her mother had told her about them, and she had seen others like them before. Always in twos or threes... scouting the area she presumed. She slithered backwards as they came closer, shrinking into a copse of saplings with covetous silence. The fellows passed by her tree without taking any notice of her and continued to talk.

The hidden hind craned her neck around the birch's trunk to watch them begin to fade back into the mists... and froze when one paused, his head turning over his shoulder. She held her breath, and whirled behind the tree again.

The fur along the back of his neck rose and he gave a shudder. His companion stilled beside him. "Something wrong?" He questioned, brow arching.

"Did you see someone just now?" The other replied, glancing warily back to his friend. "I could have sworn I..." He began to turn, taking a couple of steps back the way they'd come. Snow dare not so much as blink, praying they could not hear the hammering of her heart as it thumped in her breast and ears. " Agh... nevermind. Just the mist playing tricks I suppose." He finally said dismissively, giving a shrug yet still looking unnerved as he rejoined the other guard.

His patrol partner chuckled. "Jumping at shadows, man. Been buying into them fawns' tales have you?"

"What fawns' tales?"

"You mean you haven't heard? Rumor has it a ghost has started haunting this wood. Several patrolman have made reports of spying a spectral figure wandering through the trees." He said with a grin. His friend shuddered again. "Well, lets move on then. I keep feeling as though there are eyes upon us, and I'd rather not find out first hand if the rumors are true!"

The older buck chuckled and tossed his head in amusement, but then glanced around as if perhaps he too suddenly sensed another's presence. "Very well, I cannot say I'd care for a visit from the departed myself." He conceded, and the two of them galloped away through the forest, off to patrol some other region. But it was still too close for comfort for Snow's taste. She slinked off in the opposite direction, her nimble legs fleet as her heart fluttered fearfully in her chest. "That was too close! I must be away from here before any more of them come!" She said to herself after she finally slowed her pace. She traveled all the rest of the day, venturing a little further than she ever had before, but still close enough she was certain her parents could find her if they came looking. By late evening, she found herself on the rocky southern shores of Loch Kerr, where the placid lake waters flowed into the rambling rivers and down into the forest.

Lathered in sweat, her mane and tail tangled to knots... the princess gratefully stepped down into the shallows amid the cattails and lilly pads that grew there. Lotus flowers greeted her with lovely smelly fragrances and the princess breathed a small sigh of relief as she cleansed the grit and sweat from her pale skin. A frog chirruped where it perched in one of the flowers, and she smiled down at it with a child-like wonder.

"Oh, hello there little friend..." Snow referred to all manner of creatures she happened upon in the forest as friend. After all, they were pretty much the only 'friends' she'd ever had. The frog stared up at her with no other response than another croaking chirp. Snow giggled, her close call with the guards slipping from her mind as she focused on this new creature. "What a pretty song you have, and your home is so nice..." She spoke glancing around her. "So... peaceful here."

The frog blinked, and the princess continued her one-sided conversation. "Maybe I can find a a safe place somewhere here for me to stay... at least until mother and father return." She spoke wistfully, gazing about the lake before glancing back to the frog, who croaked and jumped to a lilly pad a little further away. Snow grimaced. "Oh, don't be like that. They will come for me. I know they will. Mother and father love me, they would never leave me..." The frog gave a final lingering croak and leaped from the lilly pad, diving down into the dark water and leaving the princess alone amongst his rippling wake. "Wait! Don't go! I don't want to be alone." she pleaded forlornly as she sloshed a couple of steps after it.

But the frog did not return, and the sky had grown very dark, reminding the princess of how much she hated that darkness. Snow sighed, closing her eyes shut tight as she fought back sudden tears. "They will come." She promised herself. "They will...."

Returning to shore she found herself a soft bit  of earth beneath some bushes, and uttered her nightly prayers to the winking stars overhead. Her body shivered and shuddered. But not out of cold, and the tears threatened to bead from her eyes and drift across her cheeks, but the girl refused to let them free. She would not cry. Mother and Father were under this same moon, sharing this same sky. And she we be strong for them. And brave.  And so she faced the depths of another night, knowing sleep would not be her friend once again.

-To Be Continued-



Fawnlings (c)
Snow (c)
Artwork (c)