Princess in the Rough
Chapter 14

Echo

“Now, coming back to the dad problem, I’ve been reading my storybook, and I noticed one of the pages were no longer blank. It’s some located near the middle. I’m pretty sure it’s the fairy tale called The Three Little Pigs, but it’s sorta different.”

“What’s The Three Little Pigs?” Amber asked.

“It’s a fairy tale about three little pigs that build houses, the Big Bad Wolf blows them down, blah, blah, blah. But get this, the ending is different.” I said and read the page to Amber. “As the three little pigs cowered in the house made of bricks, they noticed that the wolf trying to eat them was someone they knew; in fact, it was their good friend in which they had just had tea with no more than three days ago! But why was a friend trying to eat them? The wisest of the three pigs, the third, knew exactly why, for he had attended a fancy Piggy University while the second piggy had attended a cheap community piggy collage, and the first, having not gone to one at all. The third little pig quickly snatched a book of his bookshelf, while grabbing a purple dragon lily, griffin whiskers, and chimera goat fur out of his cabinet. His hobby being brewing potions, he kept exotic items on hand. The wise piggy threw the ingredients in a smashing bowl and began to make a paste whilst chanting,

“Gerðu einn tvo, Gerðu einn tvo, Gerðu einn tvo”

The third little piggy had made a magic paste! The wise piggy added water to the paste and splashed it on the wolf through the window. Lightning struck the wolf from the clear blue sky, and when the piggies could see again, there was no longer one wolf, but two! The taller of the two wolves growled at the piggies, but then lost it’s courage and ran into the foliage of the forest, never to bother another pig again.”

“Wow. Uh, I don’t get it. Wait, two wolves coming from one,” Amber mumbled. Then her face lit up and she gasped. “That’s the answer to our problem!”

“So we’re back to getting the wizard for help, so we can get ingredients for the potion?”

“I guess so. We need to get to the city as soon as possible.”

“Fine by me, I probably need to get clothes, so I blend in better.” I was wearing what any normal girl would wear to middle school. Black and white striped shirt, jeans and black converse, but in fairy tales, that’s probably not something a normal character would wear.

“Ditto. I’m pretty sure normal people don’t wear belts of flowers, or any other plant on their body for that matter.” Amber laughed.

“Alright, guess we’ll leave tomorrow, or soon, I really don’t know the best time. I would prefer to travel during the day, it seems to be the safest.”

“Now would be good. This time, no detours, no distractions.”

We successfully made it to the forest line and from there, I could see the outline of the city. I could tell Amber was excited; she was practically flying off the hill by the way she was running; wait, that means I should catch up!

I sped down the hill and nearly face planted twice but successfully made it to the bottom with no broken nose.

“Come on! Come on!” Amber cheered as she continued to run to the city, not even slowing down or stopping at the bottom of the hill. I caught my breath and ran alongside her. I should have taken running lessons with wolves before I came here!

As if reading my mind, Green Paw shouted at me. “Don’t let your legs control you! You decide when your tired.”

I laughed dryly. I’m not tired. I thought wearily and panted heavily, taking a break to examine the city.

Outside the city wall were farms, some small, others large. A few roads and pathways divided the farms, providing ways to the gates of the town. I could see three major roads. One directly in front of us, another one on the left side and the other on the right.

Amber was still running with her wolf friends towards the closest gate, I started running again and didn’t catch up with them until we were at the gate, where they had waited for me.

“Here we are.” Amber said, excitement twinkling in her eyes.

“Are you ready, Amber?” I asked, smiling at her in excitement. She didn’t have time to answer because she was too busy running through the gates.