pumpkin princess

[imeanforever]

Promise settles in. Her garden grows. Her tree grows; she stores her map and the rest of the notebook in there, first, and after she's been there for seven days, she can fit inside it herself. (At that early stage it's only an improvement over the outdoors when it's raining, but it's her tree. It'll get bigger.) She slowly broadens her diet as she learns the peculiar local plants and which ones she likes. She coaxes her tree into flower, picks one and ensorcels it, wraps cottony fluff from one of her trees in a giant flower petal of the same kind her bag is made of, and she has a pillow. The other flowers turn into haw berries that taste like home. She practices fairylights and then more complicated spells all around her new turf with her map, then without, until she has it memorized by feel and by the response of the magic when she casts.

When she doesn't need to do magic to her plants every single day to get and keep them producing at a rate sufficient to sustain her, she goes to the library and tells them things about the continent she came from in exchange for a half-century's membership. She brings home books. She makes paper to take notes on.

She doesn't have any near neighbors, but she has distant ones, and she trades foreign seeds and candied dewdrops for glass and books. She drinks her stream and writes her thoughts (a lot of her thoughts are about Arcane). She decompresses. She reads and thinks.

Time goes by. It's dark at night; sometimes she watches the stars.

Comments

[feel_so_free]

"I didn't really go out of the house... you could put it to an ocean or something. There's oceans. Or you could put it to right back where she started, for that matter."

[imeanforever]

"Yeah, that works. And when my friend comes by he can close them both. Will you show me?"

[feel_so_free]

"Sure."

[imeanforever]

The Princess continues to be uncooperative. They fly her to the gate anyway.

Promise goes through the gate and back a few times, figuring out exactly where it is.

"I'll make it facing the opposite way so we can still put her where she came from after it's settled," Promise explains, and then she starts the new gate. "But this might take a while."

[feel_so_free]

"How long's a while?"

[imeanforever]

"A few days at most."

[feel_so_free]

Shrug.

[imeanforever]

"Do you mind staying and taking shifts watching her? I'll keep her stuck in the ground and inaudible, but if Nap or somebody comes for her..."

[feel_so_free]

"It's not like I have anything better to do."

[imeanforever]

"...And after that would you mind if I commanded you not to lie to me so I can check your secret and then maybe told you my name?"

[feel_so_free]

"Depends," she says. "Are you gonna keep me and take over Fairyland and make everybody call you Princess?"

[imeanforever]

"...No."

Especially not the Princess part.

"I mean, there are things I would like to do that you would be very useful for but I'm pretty sure I could accomplish most of them by telling you my name and then occasionally sending you mail."

[feel_so_free]

"Then sure."

[imeanforever]

"But not in front of the Princess, because if there's anything wrong with your information, if you forgot something or don't know everything about how it interacts with mortals, it would be bad."

[feel_so_free]

Shrug. "Yeah."

[imeanforever]

"Do you want to sleep first or should I?"

[feel_so_free]

"You can."

[imeanforever]

Promise makes sure that the Princess is securely fastened, thoroughly inaudible, and not about to die of anything. And then she curls up on the ground and goes to sleep and mutters words. (None of them form enforceable, let alone enforced, commands.)

[feel_so_free]

Secret sits and watches the Princess.

[imeanforever]

The princess sobs and picks at the earth gripping her feet and mouths words. Eventually she sleeps.

[feel_so_free]

As ways to stop being a fairy princess go, Secret feels like the Princess is probably experiencing one of the better ones.

[imeanforever]

Promise wakes up eventually. "Your turn."

[feel_so_free]

"Mhm."

She curls up and goes to sleep. One of her wings is crushed against the ground and continually disintegrates and regenerates.

[imeanforever]

That looks pretty unpleasant, but she doesn't seem to mind.

Promise watches the Princess and tosses rocks at her gate. They land on the grass and not in the ocean. So far.

[feel_so_free]

Secret does appear to sleep very peacefully! She does not utter any nouns.