It is time for the fourth addition of my ongoing “Faylinn” short stories—a series of short stories inspired by Fairy Tale Central’s featured fairy tale!

 For Newcomers:

Each month Arielle posts a prompt on her writing blog that goes along with FTC’s featured fairy tale. I’ve been writing prompts for it of a continuing story about a wingless fairy and banished prince, Raylinn and Finn, or “Faylinn” as is their designated ship name.

The Previous Stories:

• Deal or No Deal (A Rumpelstiltskin-inspired story and the first introduction to these characters)
• Let Down Your Hair?  (A Rapunzel-inspired story)
• It Ain’t Easy Having a Genie (An Aladdin-inspired one)

My titles literally get weirder and weirder with each story. This one’s title I just stuck as a placeholder and then…decided to go with it. So here we are. XD

 A Summary:

(If you’ve never read the previous stories or just need a refresher.)

Raylinn is a fairy who was born without wings and visible fairy markings, a shame to the proud fairies…and punishable by death. In a panic, her mother took her away from the fairy realm into the human world, where she left baby Raylinn with a kind farming couple. After a tragic fire killed Raylinn’s adopted parents (because fairy tale protagonists aren’t allowed to have parents, you know), Prince Finnigan found her and took her to stay at his castle. Except, one day, grumpy King Olten struck his son and Raylinn became enraged and her fairy magic released unbidden, revealing her true nature. Well, it just so happens Olten hates fairies, and tried to have Raylinn executed. Finnigan quickly defended her, causing his father to disown him. Raylinn and Finn escaped from Finn’s father, and, now engaged, have been on the run ever since, having all sorts of adventures and searching for someone who can help Raylinn learn how to control her magic.

At last they found someone, a snarky genie named Zayd. Genies were once fairies who betrayed the fairy queen and were thus stripped of their wings and cursed as genies—people who can only use their magic when their masters make wishes. Zayd’s master, Aladdin, has the genie lamp tucked away and refuses to make any wishes, leaving Zayd powerless (which may be for the best…). In order to convince Zayd into helping Raylinn learn how to control her magic, she and Finn agreed to search the world for a way to break Zayd free from his genie curse.

And thus the threesome travel the world, and find a lot of trouble along the way…

 The Prompt(s):

Due to being on hiatus last month, I didn’t write a story for the last prompt. Buuuut to make up for it I’ve decided to combine last month’s and this month’s prompts! Both of them worked so well together, it was perfect.

 July’s featured fairy tale was Snow White and Rose Red and the prompt was…

You can find the post to this prompt HERE with a link to everyone’s awesome stories!

 This month’s fairy tale is The Frog Prince! The prompt for this one is…

If you want to write a story based off this yourself, find the details HERE!

Excuse the weird internet expression, but these prompts totally put off the same energy. It was way too fun combining these fairy tales. *grins*

I also did something a liiittle differently this go round. But it was fun. Bwahaha! I hope you guys enjoy!

Frogs & Bears Make Great Boyfriends

“Rose, let’s go back. This is ridiculous.”

“Shh, we’re here.” Rose Red snagged Snow down behind a group of bushes and pointed to the grassy clearing in the forest. “There,” she whispered, all grins.

Snow let loose a heavy sigh. Really, it was a wonder she had any breath left as much as her little sister brought out the sighs. Rose was sixteen, just a year younger than Snow, and yet sometimes it felt like a decade of years sat between them.

With another sigh for good measure, she peered over the bushes she had so rudely been snatched behind.

She blinked. And then pressed a hand against her mouth to stifle her scream.

Rose had told her she found someone who could solve a rather unfortunate magical dilemma they found themselves in. But this.

“No, no, no, no, nooo,” she hissed, snatching her sister’s arm and pulling her back. “We need to go. Now. We’ve dealt with enough dangerous magical beings.”

Rose resisted. “They’re not dangerous.”

“They have fairy markings, Rose. That’s as dangerous as it gets.” Half of Mother’s stories had wicked, mischievous fairies in them. Everyone in the kingdom of Lenderra, in the world, knew to steer clear of the wild folk.

“Well, they probably can be dangerous if they want to, but they’re not. They’re nice. I’ve been watching them for days now.”

“Days? This is where you’ve been sneaking off to? You could have gotten killed. Or cursed like Malak.”

Rose sat firmly on the ground, shaking her wild mane of red hair. “I don’t think they’re the cursing kind. Just watch them for a minute. Please, Snow.” The ever-constant playful twinkle in her eyes vanished, and in that somber moment Snow could see the young woman her sister was growing into. “We’re running out of time.”

Sighing, Snow stopped tugging on her sister’s arm and settled on her knees behind the bush. There was no use fighting. Rose’s stubborn streak was infamous, and if they kept this up, the three people in the clearing would surely hear them. Better to just let Rose have her way and hope she could be convinced that these were the last people they needed to meddle with.

The strange people all stood in the clearing, with the remains of a bonfire behind them. An assortment of sacks and other items scattered around the fire. It seemed they had chosen this spot to stay for a while. Unease boiled in Snow’s stomach.

Two men and one woman made up the group. The woman, with her long dark hair and fair features would have seemed rather unassuming, if not for the swirling purple fairy marks glowing from her hands and arms, as well as the golden ball of energy emanating between her palms. The man next to her was even worse. His wild orange hair matched his own fiery fairy markings. The other man was the most normal of the group—mussed brown hair, average sized, a pleasant smile on his face. But he still had a sword hanging from his belt that didn’t help Snow’s nerves one bit. She strained her ears to make out what they were saying.

“Do you see this, Finn?” the woman asked, grinning from ear-to-ear down at the golden ball.

The brown-haired man stepped forward, appearing absolutely delighted. “You’re doing fantastic!”

“Yes, yes. Raylinn has magic. Whoohoo.” The other man lazily waved a hand in the air, rolling his eyes. “We’re all so very impressed. It only took me a week to get her to create one of the simplest spells, without burning the forest down.”

Now that he mentioned it, Snow couldn’t help but notice there were an awful lot of charred patches of grass dotting the clearing.

“The orb spell is one of the first taught to fairy younglings.”

The other two—Finn and Raylinn presumably—glared at the orange-marked fairy.

“Well, I wasn’t raised in the fairy realm, if you recall,” the woman snapped. The orb seemed to get bigger and grow brighter as her scowl deepened.

Wasn’t raised in the fairy realm? That did bring up some questions. And come to think of it, didn’t fairies supposed to have wings? Who were these people?

The male fairy—or whatever he was—smirked. “Ah, good. You’re feeding your emotions into your magic, just what I wanted.”

The female blinked. “Wait, what?”

Still smirking, he motioned to the larger orb. “Your emotions. They control your magic. And you seem to be your most powerful when you’re angry.”

She glanced down at the golden all, then up at him, and down again. The following sigh reminded Snow of the ones Rose extracted from her. “I guess it’s good I have a teacher who makes me angry. All the time.”

The orange-marked fairy grinned. “That’s the spirit. Now.” He clasped his hands together. “Shall we try a duplication spell?”

Snow had heard enough. She pressed a hand on Rose’s shoulder. “We really need to go.”

Rose pulled away. “They can help us, Snow. They might be our last chance.” She dug into the basket hanging from her arm. When she pulled her hand out, a frog was grasped firmly in her fingers.

Snow sighed.

Rose held up the slimy green thing and stroked his head. “Reggie is turning more and more into a frog by the day. He doesn’t have much more time.”

Snow glanced down at the so-called Reggie. His bulbous eyes blinked slowly at her. “Why couldn’t you have fallen in love with a human, like normal girls?”

“Says the one crushing on a bear.”

“That’s different. Malak is cursed. He is human.”

“So is Reggie!”

“Shhh!” She shot a glance at the threesome in the clearing, but they hadn’t seemed to notice Rose’s outburst. The woman stared at her golden ball with deep concentration while the other two appeared to be cheering her on. Well, the one named Finn did. The other one was just kind of poking her.

Snow turned back to Rose and Reggie, who both stared at her like pleading puppies.

She still wasn’t entirely convinced Reggie was anything but a frog. According to Rose, she had met him at the lake and he explained he had been cursed and was very much human. Rose had kept him hidden for a while (she had always been prone to secretly keeping little pets in the house since she was a child), until one day Snow stumbled upon him sleeping on her pillow. After much screaming, the truth came out and Rose admitted that she had been keeping him safe and was trying to figure out a way to break his curse.

When Snow tried to speak with him, he merely croaked. Rose explained that his curse was spreading, making him lose his human mind and become more and more frog-like. Once he was completely transformed, it’d be too late to turn him back.

It all sounded a little too much like Rose’s overactive imagination getting the best of her again. But Snow had to remember, she did care deeply about a bear-turned-human herself. More than one person in the wood could have been transformed into an animal.

Perhaps.

Still, that did not justify waltzing up to a couple of fairies on the whim that they could help instead of make things worse.

She knelt in front of her sister and let out a steady breath. “Let’s just go back home, Rose. We’ll tell Mother about the people here and—”

“Rrr-bit!”

“Reggie!” Rose jumped to her feet as the frog slipped from her hand and hopped through the bushes, right into the clearing. “Reggie, wait!”

Before Snow could stop her, her sister chased after the blasted frog.

“Rose!” She clambered to her feet and scrambled out from behind the bushes.

The woman and two men gasped at the interruption. Three startled sets of eyes stared at Snow and Rose.

Snow’s heart lodged in her throat. Now they were probably all going to be turned into frogs or something equally as awful.

“Reggie!” Rose didn’t even seem to pay heed to the people as she chased the frog through the clearing.

The foolish amphibian hopped right up to the fairy woman and landed by her boot.

“Oh!” She let out a squeal and dropped her golden ball. It landed smack on top of Reggie.

Rose screamed. Snow pressed both hands against her mouth in horror.

“Oh no! I’m so sorry!” The fairy-lady sounded genuinely distressed as she reached down for the ball. Before her hands touched it, it dispersed into thin air.

“Rrr-bit!”

“Goodness!” She jumped back as not one Reggie but two appeared. Then two more seemed to materialize from those two. And more from those. Until two dozen frogs were leaping all through the clearing.

The orange-marked fairy let out a guffaw. “Color me impressed, Raylinn. I didn’t expect you to get the duplication spell that quickly.”

“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!” Rose dropped to hands and knees and tried to snatch up the frogs. “Reggie? Which one are you?” She shot a beseeching look at the three strangers. “That was my boyfriend you duplicated! Please, you have to help me find him!”

The three shared a round of highly puzzled looks.

“Um…boyfriend?” the male fairy repeated.

Snow smacked her hand against her forehead. This was a disaster. She knew she needed to snag her sister and run. Quickly. But her legs couldn’t seem to register this need. She just stood there, useless. Stunned by the utter insanity taking place before her and waiting for the inevitable fairy mischief to get worse.

“Yes!” Rose scooped up two frogs and plopped them in her basket. “He was cursed as a frog. But now I don’t know which one he is. Reggie? Reggie!”

The male fairy chuckled. “Well, that is an unfortunate circumstance.”

“Zayd!” Raylinn scolded. “We have to help her.” She dropped to her knees and snatched up a frog. Curiously, the purple fairy markings on her arms had disappeared.

The one called Finn joined her, a hint of a smile on his lips. “This reminds me of my childhood. I loved catching frogs. Mother, on the other hand, wasn’t too keen on me letting them loose in the castle.”

Castle? This man lived in a castle?

Raylinn let out a yelp as a frog slipped from her hand. Finn caught it, and managed to scoop up two more in his other hand. Zayd just watched the whole affair, laughing. Frogs hopped madly around, rrribiting and croaking mercilessly.

Snow shook her head. This was ridiculous. She marched forward.

“Careful!” Rose cried, holding up a grass-stained hand. “You might step on Reggie!”

Right now, Reggie was the least of her worries. “Rose, we need to go. We—” A scream cut off her sentence as a frog hopped right onto slipper. “Ugh!” She shook it off. Of all the creatures in the world, why oh why did Rose have to fancy a frog? More frogs hopped around her. She squeaked, backing up.

A bone-clattering roar silenced both human, frog, and fairy alike.

Growls rumbled from the wood, tree branches snapped, and then a hulking black bear tore into the clearing. He stood on hind legs, teeth gleaming in the sun.

Finn, Raylinn, and Zayd all stood alert. Finn whipped out his sword and Raylinn held up her hands. Her purple markings reappeared as her palms glowed.

“Wait!” Snow threw herself in front of the bear. “He’s my friend, don’t hurt him!”

“Snow?” The bear dropped to all fours and gently stroked her cheek with the back of his paw. “I heard you scream. Is everything all right?”

“Seriously?” Zayd snorted. “You mean to tell me your boyfriend is a bear? What is up with you girls?”

“Malak, please be careful,” Rose called, still on hands and knees. “You might step on Reggie.”

“Oh, goodness.” Malak carefully pulled up one paw at a time, examining each one as if he expected to see splattered frog beneath. Seeming satisfied, he turned back to the group, and his eyes widened. “Finnigan?”

“Um.” Finn cocked his head. “I apologize, but do I know you?”

“It’s me, Prince Malak! Don’t you recognize me—oh wait.”

“Mals?” The confusion dispersed in delight and Finn strode over. “Is that really you? It’s been years!”

Snow looked back and forth between the two. Malak knew this man?

Finn sheathed his sword and wrapped his arms around Malak’s great neck. “This puts a whole new meaning to bear hug.”

Zayd groaned while Raylinn giggled.

Malak rumbled with laughter. “The same ol’ Finn. What have you been doing? Last I heard you were banished from the kingdom after aiding a fairy…” His eyes wandered over to Raylinn, whose purple markings were slowly vanishing. “Oh.”

Raylinn shifted her weight and smiled sheepishly. “That would be me, yes.”

Malak let loose a grin, which always looked a little unnerving, him being a bear and all. “Well, you don’t look dangerous nor evil. The way King Olten goes on about it, I was under the impression you were some sort of fanged, hideous beast. But I should have known. No offense, Finn, but your father is a bit of a drama queen. Or, erm, king.”

Finn shrugged. “You’re not telling me anything new.”

“Wait.” Snow backed up. “You’re Prince Finnigan? Of Talgaria?”

He offered a flourishing bow. “At your service, milady. Although…if you wouldn’t mind keeping my whereabouts quiet, I’d be most grateful.”

She just blinked, trying to process everything that was unfolding.

“You’re a prince?” Rose scrambled up, half a dozen frogs wriggling in her arms. “Do you know any princesses by any chance?”

“Well, I do have a sister, but I doubt you’d want to meet her. She’s about as unpleasant as my father.”

Rose’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “I need a nice princess.”

“Might I ask, erm, why?”

“Well.” She took a deep breath, and Snow steeled herself, waiting for the inevitable nonsensical explanation. “Everyone knows a pure-hearted princess’s kiss can cure curses. I’m sure if I could find a princess to kiss Reggie, he’d turn back into a human. Reggie suggested I try it anyway, even though I’m not a princess, but it didn’t work. Obviously, I need a real princess.”

“Let me get this straight.” Zayd crossed his arms and eyed her with much the same scowling expression Snow was pretty sure was on her own face. “You’re telling me you agreed to kiss that frog?”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“In that case, I’d hate to hear your definition of a bad idea.”

Snow didn’t like this fairy-man, but she couldn’t help but agree with him with this. How could Rose kiss that slimy thing?

“You know he can hear you, right?” Rose hugged the frogs in her arms protectively. One wriggled free and plopped to the ground. “Oooh!” She dumped the remaining ones in her basket, closed the lid, and continued her made dash around the clearing gathering more.

Raylinn dropped back onto her knees to help.

Finn ran a hand through his hair, mussing it more than it already was. “Am I the only one dying for an explanation for…all of this?” He motioned to Malak. “I know it’s been a while since I’ve visited your kingdom, but last I recall you weren’t a bear.”

“Mmm. No.” Malak settled to a sitting position and scratched behind his ear. “It happened just before last winter. Some dwarf or imp or I-don’t-even-know-what infiltrated the castle treasury and took half the gold. I tracked him down here but he caught me off guard and cursed me into this form as well as made it where I can’t leave this forest. Thankfully, I found some friends along the way.” He glanced down at Snow fondly.

She looked away, cheeks warming and heart pumping quicker.

“Snow, Rose, and their mother let me hole up in their house during the bitter winter months. I tried sleeping in a cave like other bears but ugh.” He shook his head and stuck his tongue out. “Rocks are cold and hard. I don’t know how bears do it.”

Finn patted Malak’s shoulder. “Sounds like you’ve had quite a string of bad luck, my friend. I’m sorry to hear all that. Did you at least catch that imp?”

A deep growl reverberated from Malak’s throat. “Unfortunately, no. I’ve been scouring the woods for him all spring, but I suspect he scampered off like a cowardly rabbit once he cursed me. Off to steal more gold.”

“Wait.” Raylinn set two frogs in the basket and pushed back up to her feet. “What did this imp look like? Short with thick eyebrows, large yellowish eyes? Really, really annoying?”

Malak’s eyes widened. “Do you know him?”

Her face paled and she shared a glance with Finn. “I do. And he, um, he won’t bother you again. I sort of…” She waved a hand in the air. “Took care of him.”

“Well, glory be!” Malak’s hearty laugh startled Snow. “That’s a relief off my mind! Except…” He glanced down at himself. “I was sort of hoping if he died, my curse would lift.”

“It certainly helps.” Zayd moved toward the group, examining his fingernails as if he were perfectly bored with the whole affair, but Snow clung to his every word. “If the curser is dead, the cursee can be more easily uncursed.”

“Errr.” Malak scratched his head. “Could you run that by me one more time? Also…who are you?”

Zayd waved a hand. “Just a genie.”

Snow gasped, Malak jumped to his feet, and even Rose halted her obsessive gathering of frogs to look up.

“A genie with no power,” Finn quickly explained. “Don’t worry, he’s harmless. Unless sarcasm can kill.”

Zayd grinned.

Snow massaged her forehead, feeling a headache coming on. A prince, a fairy, and a genie, in her wood. What had her life become? But something the genie said stuck. She looked back up at him and pressed a hand against Malak’s shoulder, digging her fingers into his coarse fur. “What was it you said earlier? About his curse being easier to break?”

“Oh, right. That. Some curses can’t be undone as long as the person who did the cursing is alive. But if what Raylinn says is true and that imp is dead, his magic shouldn’t be that powerful anymore. And I just happen to know someone who does have powerful magic.” He turned to Raylinn, a gleam in his eye.

She backed up, biting her lip. “Me? I don’t know. Breaking a curse seems like extremely advanced magic.”

For once, Snow’s heart took action before her brain. “Please. Could you try?” She was begging a fairy for help. This day was getting more and more absurd by the second.

“Well…” The fairy-lady looked back and forth from Snow to Malak, and her face softened. “It wouldn’t hurt to try. Especially for true love.”

Snow’s heart caught.

“Blech.”

“Zayd, shut up and come help me.”

Groaning, the genie marched up to Raylinn’s side.

“Hold on!” Rose plopped another frog in her basket, snatched up the handle, and rushed to the group, hair frazzled, a blade of grass on her cheek, and dirt stains all over her dress. “I think I got them all! You’re going to uncurse Reggie too, right?” She held up the basket, hopeful.

Raylinn patted Rose’s shoulder. “I will certainly try.”

“Yeah, why not?” Zayd shrugged. “May as well kill two birds with one stone.”

“Kill?” Rose cried at the same time Snow’s heart flipped.

Zayd’s orangey eyes gleamed with mischief. “Just an expression.”

That didn’t comfort Snow nearly enough.

Raylinn shot a glare at the genie and cleared her throat. “So what do I do?”

The genie interlocked his fingers behind his head and casually leaned back. “It’s usually pretty easy to feel the inner workings of a curse. Just hold your hand out in the cursee’s general direction and see if you can sense the discordance inside them.”

“Um. All right.” She hovered her hand over Malak’s chest and Rose’s basket of squirming frogs. “Uhhh. I don’t feel anything.”

With a heavy sigh, Zayd stomped over, grabbed both of her arms, and pushed her closer to the bear and the basket. “Concentrate.”

Finn joined the genie and set a hand on Raylinn’s shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. “You can do this.”

Nodding, she pulled in a deep breath and closed her eyes. Snow held her own breath, even as her heart pounded double the speed it was supposed to.

“Oh.” Raylinn’s forehead wrinkled. “I think I feel it. It’s like…a bunch of tangled strands inside them. Like yarn.”

Zayd actually looked rather pleased. “That’s a curse all right.”

Snow started. “You mean one of those frogs really is a person?”

Rose straightened her shoulders and pulled up her chin. “I told you!”

Raylinn, eyes still close, just nodded. “Yes, I can definitely feel a curse in the basket.”

Snow just shook her head. “I…I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, Rose. I just thought…” She sighed and rubbed at her temple as the headache increased. “I don’t even know what I thought.”

Rose merely smiled, a spark glinting in her eyes. “Well, it’s not every day I fall in love with a frog.”

Zayd cleared his throat. “Glad you’re bonding over there, but if you want your boyfriends to not be a frog and a bear anymore, maybe you can keep it down?”

“Zayd,” Raylinn scolded.

“What? I’m trying to help. Tell me, are the strands all tightly knotted up into balls?”

“Not really. Just crisscrossing and messy.”

“Good. That means the curser is indeed gone and the curse has loosened enough to untangle.”

Raylinn’s shoulders relaxed and Finn let loose a breath. Snow couldn’t imagine what trouble the imp had caused them, but she, too, was relieved to hear he was gone for good.

“Here’s the tedious part,” Zayd said, tightening his hold on Raylinn’s arms. “You have to untangle all those strands.”

“How do I possibly do that?”

“With your mind of course. It’s like untangling yarn, like you said. Except if you end up making more of a tangled mess, you could accidentally seal the curse forever.”

“What?” Snow, Rose, and Raylinn cried in unison.

Zayd just shrugged. “The more knotted the curse is, the more permanent it gets. Just a matter of curses.”

Raylinn’s breathing heightened. “The tangles in Malak are fairly loose, but Reggie’s are a lot messier. And harder. Almost like they’re made of iron instead of thread.”

“Mmm yeah. Being turned into an animal with less of a brain requires more crude, unstable magic.”

“But…you can fix him, right?” Rose grasped the basket’s handle so tight her knuckles whitened.

Raylinn opened her eyes and turned to the girl. Her lips parted, but she hesitated.

Finn squeezed Raylinn’s shoulder, smiling softly. “If anyone can, it’s Raylinn.”

She glanced up at him and the crease in her brow loosened. Nodding, she closed her eyes again. Everyone stilled. Even the frogs quieted.

Raylinn’s purple fairy markings returned, swirling up from her hands to her elbows and disappearing beneath her sleeves. She closed her eyes tighter, and the markings began to glow. Her brow scrunched. She grunted, her breathing heightening.

Snow dug her fingers into Malak’s fur. Silently pleading, hoping, praying.

The fur under her fingers shifted. She pulled back, gasping. Before her eyes, black fur transformed to rich blue fabric. Malak’s bulky form shrunk and shifted.

Rose let out a shriek and dropped the basket as it expanded. The sides bulged until they broke and a greenish hand stretched out from the hole, then on the other side. With a crack, the basket gave way completely and a green man lay on the ground with almost two dozen frogs hopping atop him. Slowly, his skin turned smooth and light.

Raylinn gasped and stumbled back. Finn caught her and smiled as he brushed a loose strand of hair away from her face. “You all right?”

She smiled tiredly up at him and nodded.

“Huh.” Zayd eyed her with something akin to pride. “I didn’t expect you to do them both at the same time. You’re more powerful than you think, fairy girl.”

“Snow?”

Snow snapped her gaze back to Malak and—

Rose’s excited shriek echoed her own feelings.

Two men sat on the ground, completely whole and very un-animal like. Snow could only stare at Malak. He was handsome. Really, really handsome. Uncomfortably so.

He looked up and his absurdly blue eyes locked into hers. He smiled. A white-toothed, charming smile that Rose’s silly romance books would probably describe as glistening as the sun or some such nonsense. Snow’s heart-rate sped up.

Rose’s squeal pulled Snow’s gaze away from Malak. Her sister threw herself down on the other man and planted a kiss right on his lips.

“Rose!”

“What?” Rose pulled away, grinning. “He’s not a frog anymore.”

The man’s cheeks were as red as Rose’s hair, and he, too, was grinning—a very lopsided, goofy grin. Unlike Malak, Reggie was a bit more plain in the looks department. He had an indistinguishable shade of frazzled hair, his large nose was rather crooked, and his eyes bulged out a little and still looked a bit frog-like.

“Reginald?” Malak stood and brushed off his silver and blue vest, eyeing the once frog-man.

Reggie’s eyes widened even more. “Malak?” His lopsided grin returned.

Rose scrambled off him and helped him to his feet. “Reginald? Like Prince Reginald? As in Malak’s brother? You didn’t tell me you were a prince!”

He scratched his head, only to frown and lift a frog out of his tangle of hair. “I didn’t even remember,” he said, absently setting the frog on the ground as if finding amphibians on his head was an everyday occurrence. “That curse really scrambled my brain. I couldn’t even remember my full name.”

“If it isn’t Reginald!” Finn patted the man’s shoulder. “Welcome back to the world of humanity. Both of you!”

Reginald blinked. And then blinked again. “Finn? What are you doing here?” He pressed a hand against his head. “I am so confused.”

Malak loosed a hearty laugh.

Snow caught herself smiling. He had a warm, happy laugh. It did things to her heart. Though…not exactly unpleasant things.

“How did you get cursed, brother?” he asked Reginald.

“By coming to the wood searching for you of course! When you didn’t return for hours, I knew I had to do something. But…well.” He dropped his gaze and rubbed his neck. “I ran into that strange little impish dwarfish guy. I tried to throw him into the lake but he threw me in instead and next thing I knew I was tiny and had webbed feet!” He held up his hands and admired them. “It’s so nice to have proper fingers again!”

Rose giggled and grasped his hand in hers. “This is definitely better than slimy, rubbery fingers.”

Cheeks reddening again, he grinned down at her. Their joint hands swung between as they gazed lovingly at one another.

Snow’s heart flipped when a large, warm hand wrapped around her own. She looked up and her heart did yet another somersault. At this rate, she was going to have a heart attack from all the unhealthy movement of her heart. But it was kind of hard to keep a steady heartbeat with a tall, square-jawed, blue-eyed prince holding your hand and smiling down at you.

“Hello,” he said.

There went her heart again. “H—hello.”

“Ooooh!” Rose bounced on her toes. “We must tell Mother. Our cottage is not far from here, and it’s nearly supper time. You’re all invited!”

Now Snow’s heart turned in an unpleasant way. What would Mother think about them bringing a fairy, a genie, and three princes home? Well, she was rather welcoming to Malak when he came knocking on their door that one winter night. Besides, she was accustomed to Rose bringing home strange creatures.

“That sounds magnificent,” Malak said. “And then tomorrow we can head back to the castle. I’m sure after being gone half a year, Mother and Father are sick with worry about Reginald and me.” His smile returned to Snow, making her uncomfortably warm. “And I’d love to introduce you to them.”

“Oh, well, I…”

Rose’s squeal interrupted Snow’s mumbling. “We get to go to the castle?”

“But of course!” Reginald said, seeming just as enthusiastic as her. “Your mother is welcome too. We’ll all go!”

“As nice as that would be…” Finn looked from Raylinn to Zayd. “I’m not sure how your father would feel about you harnessing the banished prince. I don’t want word getting to my father and him declaring your kingdom an enemy. Lenderra and Talgaria have been allies so long. I don’t want to jeopardize that.”

“Oh, pshaw.” Malak waved a hand in the air. “Father and Mother both would be more than happy to see you. We’ve all questioned King Olten and his decision in banishing you. Besides, my parents would love to meet the one who broke my curse.” He inclined his head toward Raylinn in respect. “We owe you a great debt.”

By the sweat on her brow and her pale cheeks, Snow realized Raylinn really had done a lot for them. Unbreaking a curse couldn’t have been easy. And yet, the female fairy just smiled warmly and nodded back.

“It was my pleasure.”

Huh. Perhaps not all fairies were dangerous and mischievous.

Zayd clasped his hands together and strode into the middle of the group. “I for one would love to settle in a castle for a while. I’m getting sick of this whole sleeping outside on the hard ground nonsense.”

Snow frowned. Well, some fairies were still unpleasant.

“Then it’s settled.” Malak squeezed her hand, pulling her attention back to him. “Shall we, milady?”

Ugh. He had to stop or her heart would just stop working altogether. Her tongue didn’t seem in proper working order with him around either. Thankfully, with Rose present she didn’t have to worry about that.

“Yes, we shall!” Rose squealed. Hand-in-hand with Reginald, she skipped toward the trees, then stopped short. “Wait!”

Snow rubbed her temple, feeling her headache returning. “What is it?”

“We can’t just leave all these frogs here! They’ll dry out. We should gather them up and take them to the lake.”

All Snow could do was sigh as everyone knelt down and began collecting frogs.

Yeah, I have no idea what just happened either. This was just a fun, goofy one I spilled out the other day. XD I don’t even know… I find writing these stories a great stress reliever. It’s nice to have something lighthearted and fun to work on amidst all my other bigger projects. I do hope you guys enjoyed reading this addition!

LET’S TALK!

Have you joined in on this month’s prompt??? (Because you totally should, it’s so much fun!) Are you enjoying my “Faylinn” stories? (I really need a proper name for these… Suggestions?) Shall I keep them going?