Chapter Text
Chapter 1
The knight ran up the noisy wooden steps, entered the left corridor, left the one on the right, with each noisy, yet light step, the armature clanked against itself, the sword she carried on her hip left a ever so small sign of trailing as it hit each of the stair’s steps.
Finally, arriving at the door, she slammed it open and entered, then looked around.
The princess who was supposedly in distress, was sitting on the edge of the bed. Her heart racing, as her mind wondered how handsome the knight in shiny armor must be. “Oh, my knight. You came to rescue me!” the sleepy princess joyed, “Oh how long have I waited for you, my love…”.
Jane, not expecting the princess to be so talkative since she just woke up, grabbed her hand and ran out of the room, slamming the door behind them.
“So… do you have a noble steed to bring me home, or do you too have a talking donkey.” the Sleeping Beauty teased her, not having fully woken up.
Jane scoffed, annoyed, as she pulled the princess down the stairs leading out of the castle.
The strong daylight hit the sensible eyes of the princess, making her look down.
“The castle shouldn’t be far from here, right?” Rebecca asked, full of hope but with her legs aching.
“What castle?” Jane replied, too bothered to keep quiet.
“Oh so you can talk.” the princess snapped back teasingly, Jane rolled her eyes.
“Let’s go.” Jane pulled her closer, holding her hand tight to not let her get away.
“Yes ma’am.”, she reddened.
“Don’t… call me that.” she sharply looked at the princess, no sign of a smile on her expression.
“You’re a grumpy heroine, aren’t you?”
Jane didn’t reply, instead, she kept walking at a rapid pace towards a big castle on the highest hill. The journey was going to be long, unfortunately for Jane. The princess, on the other hand, was happy to have finally left that castle for good; although she’d miss her bed.
Along the path, Jane thought, surely there would have been at least a couple of inns. And indeed they saw, once they reached a lowland, a few inns lined up as if Fate was trying to help them.
At the sight of a cover for the night, Jane grinned.
“Don’t ever do that again” the princess commented, looking at Jane.
“Why? Aren’t you all for the ‘sunshine and rainbow’ kind of life?”
“Yes. But that smile is scary.”
“Oh, sorry, I’m not used to smiling.” she replied mockingly, “Now let’s go.” She gave her cape to the princess, covering her head, “lay low.”
“Why?”
“Because if not, I’ll smile like that again.”
“Oh Goodness, okay I’ll lay low.”
They then went down the hill to the first inn they could find and got a room. As Jane paid with her gold, and then reached their room they noticed there was just one bed, to which Jane went to the entrance and requested a chair.
“Why do you have a chair with you? I don’t take that much space in my sleep.”
“Trust me, you do. When I entered the room where I found you, the pillow was in a queen-sized bed, diagonally” Jane laughed.
“Well, it happens. Mainly when you’re stuck in a castle for many decades!”
“Five years.” Jane put a chair in front of the closed door.
“What?”
“You’ve been there five years. You’re twenty-three, I presume.”
“I am. But how do you know I’ve been there five years?” The princess sat on the bed cross-legged.
“Well,” Jane stretched out her arms, “for instance, on your left wall, next to the wardrobe you made notches keeping count of the days. Skipping the extra day in the leap year.”
“Ooh. An attentive heroine. I like it.” the princess smirked, sitting on the bed. Leaning backwards, without breaking eye contact with the knight.
“Oh, shut up. Another reason is that King Peapod gave me some scripts about you.”
“Scripts?”
“Manuscripts. I’m lazy so I call them scripts.” she grinned again.
“Wait, the King Peapod?” the princess glared at Jane, to which she uncomfortably nodded, “Well, I’m not going there!”
“Why’s that? He seems… nice.” A mischievous glint entered Jane's eyes as she leaned closer to the bed. She savored the anticipation, a silent challenge simmering within her.
“Honey, I don’t like… him. He’s not a type I’d think of in a certain way.”
“Whatever, I just need my home back.” the heroine leaned back on the chair, yawning.
“You’ll get your swamp back, don’t worry ogre.”
Jane snapped on her feet, one inch from the bed, holding her hand on the dagger’s grip. “What did you just call me?”
“Crap!” The sleepy damsel got to cover under the bed’s blanket.
At that moment, Jane burst into laughter. The princess, looked at the knight puzzled, as her heart resumed his steady pace she joined in, laughing, feeling a bit dazzled.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that” Jane laughed.
The princess smiled, “Oh, so you’re not that grumpy then.”
“Yeah no, I just take my tasks seriously.”
“I like your smile.” the princess moved a hair behind her ear.
“...okay…so?” Jane looked at her confused.
“Nothing! I just do,” she laughed, “and someone here doesn’t know how to handle compliments” the princess jokingly remarked.
“If you say so, princess.”
“Say my full name”
Jane’s eyes widened, “That’s… an odd request.”
“You don’t know it, do you?”, she layed back on the bed; the wooden ceiling was well worked, this room must have costed her a fortune.
“Not one bit. King Peapod always called you ‘that one’, ‘sleeping girl’... ok now I see why you’d say it’s not your type.” she scratched the back of her head.
“Yeah, that could be one reason. It’s Rebecca, Rebecca Barnes.”
“Nice to meet you, Queen Barnes, honoured to meet you.”
“I’m not a queen. My mother is still alive and reigning!”
“And how would you know that?”
“She always sent me letters every couple of months.”
“Personally?”
She stood up, crossed-legged, confused, “Of course not. She
is
a queen after all.”
“A queen would not deliver the letters personally to her only daughter?”
“Apparently!” a tone of sadness stained her voice as she started to think about it.
“Well. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Queen Barnes, but…”
“Please, call me Rebecca.”
A smirk formed on the valorous knight, “Okay, Rebecca. It’s been a long day. You should rest now.”
“Yeah, maybe I should. Good night, nameless heroine of my dreams.” Rebecca cackled, distraught by the news, and fell asleep in the bed.
Jane sat on the chair, hand on the dagger’s grip, blocked the door knob with the chair. It didn’t take long for the noble knight to fall into slumber too.
As the sun shone bright at dawn, Jane woke up to see that Princess Rebecca was waiting for her, patiently, sitting cross-legged on the bed.
“Good morning.” Rebecca smiled, “your queen is feeling great today.” she declared, with a broad smile.
Jane yawned and stretched her arms and legs out, “Morning, Rebecca. Ready to depart?”
“Almost, could I enjoy the view for a while still?”
“All your wishes are my commands.” Jane stood up, moved the chair away from the door and went down the stairs.
At the entrance of the inn sat at a table two men discussing. “Have you heard?” said the bearded man, “someone stole the queen of Toss from her castle.”
“It was time,” the blind man answered, slamming his hand on the table, “the queen has to marry someone, let’s just hope it’s someone smart and witful like King Peapod. He sure is the perfect man!”
“I don’t think it’s the King.” the bearded man replied almost whispering, “voices has it that it was a knight to stole her from the castle.”
“That’s obvious, Jack. The King is too important to accomplish such a difficult task.”
‘It wasn't that difficult’, Jane thought to herself and almost commented aloud, but stopped herself and proceeded to walk out the inn. Out on the street, she saw many women walking by men and felt a sense of despair shrivel up her spine.
“If I were the queen of these hideous towns.” she mumbled quietly, not to attract unwanted attention, “if I were the queen. These women would roam freely among the streets. Worryless.”, having said that, she felt much better, and proceeded to go back to the room where the queen was waiting for her. And that’s where she found her, all dressed up and ready to leave.
“Cape on!” Jane threw it gently on top of Rebecca and, grabbing her hand as the night before, left the inn and resumed their walk to the Peapod’s castle.
Along the road, Jane, thinking back at their ‘first’ conversation, got curious as to why Rebecca talked about a talking donkey, so she asked her about it.
“Well, in the letter my ‘mother’ sent me recently, I heard how my cousin got saved by a big, muscly, drunk man.” she laughed, “He thought the pork at the entrance was a dragon and that his horse was a small talking donkey. And I wanted to make sure you weren’t as drunk.”, Jane looked at her, not believing one word she was saying, “I swear I’m not making it up.”
“Fine, let’s say I believe you.”
“Thanks.” she laughed, “ok now you, what did you mean by ‘I need my home back’?”
“It’s none of your business, queen.” Jane looked in front of her, not a sign of emotion on her face.
“Please? I’ll be annoying you if you don’t tell me.”
Jane scoffed, “More than what you’re doing now?” Rebecca shook her head, “oh god. Fine.”
Jane sat on a fallen tree’s trunk and took a deep breath.
“Well, I might or might not have… broken a couple of laws.”
“Like?” Rebecca asked unexpectedly calm and composed.
“I hunted, I enrolled for the army, I protested for some more rights for me.”
“Okay, Mary Sue. what’s the truth?”
“Mary Sue? I’m Jane…”, Rebecca glared at her, “Fine, fine. I might have accidentally, purposefully caused a wildfire next to Peapod’s castle.”
“Oh,” Rebecca commented, disappointed.
“Oh? That’s it?” Jane protested, “With all due respect, my queen, but he burned down dozens of trees!”
“Yeah, I’ve done worse.”
“Excuse me?” Jane shouted, surprised.
“That’s the story,” she got up and dusted her clothes off, “for another day. Boop!” she touched the tip of Jane’s nose and started humming.
“What-”
“You’re impatient, huh?” she teased her.
“No, I’m not!”
“There’s the grumpy knight.”
Jane was dazzled, not knowing what to say.
“Should we proceed? King Shorty is even more impatient than you I imagine.”
Confused, Jane resumed walking towards the castle, following the signs they found along the way.
As they were getting closer to the castle, they saw a town drawn on the map, but they could find just burned-down houses and the stone town hall demolished.
“What the hell happened here?” Rebecca asked, feeling a mix of confusion and fear.
“Peapod. He happened. I heard legends about this town. One day, they say, Peapod was feeling ‘merciful’ and proposed to the town’s mayor to become part of his castle-village thingy. And they refused.”
“Oh god, no.”
“Yes. Peapod the merciful, lacked mercy and human decency that day. He burned houses down, some had people in. kids, elderly, anyone was out of luck that night.”
“Please tell me you’re joking” Rebecca implored Jane, who looked at her in the eyes and melancholically shook her head. “And I’m supposed to marry this monster? This heartless beast?”
“I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do. Now can we continue?”
“You don’t care about me do you?” Rebecca was shocked, Jane didn’t answer, and nor did she look at Rebecca.
Jane resumed walking towards the castle, pulling Rebecca by her hand, who this time, was resisting.
“Don’t do this now, we’re so close. Please, I just want my life back.”
“And you’re willing to make me give up mine to take back yours? You know what? Don’t answer.”
“Look who’s grumpy now.”
“Shut up. Fake, worthless knight.” Rebecca bitterly shouted.
“At least I came in person!”
“She’s dead!” she shouted with tears wetting her cheek. “She died and I learnt this from someone like you! Leave me alone. I’ll go by myself to the castle.”
“I have to accompany you. It’s my duty!”
“Oh, boohoo. I’m your queen, you are under my control, don’t let me abuse it.”
“Fine!” Jane shouted, turning her shoulders on Rebecca.
“Great, even!” Rebecca resumed her journey to her new home, thinking that this would be the last time they’d cross paths. Luckily for them, it was not.