The Princess Who Wanted to Suckerpunch a Monster

Riddle

"A long long long time ago,
someone told a love story of monochrome
Unaware, it turned venomous, shattered and crumbled..."

As Riddle regained her senses, darkness still surrounded her, hearing availed first as she registered an occasional noise. Birds of some sort. They were familiar yet not at the same time. "Have ze doves of purity come to aide thy princess in her need?" Was the first somewhat logical thought that encroached upon her brain. The odd thought was comforting though, giving her the courage and desire to open her eyes. What she had expected to see were doves, but instead of snowy shapes she was to be gazing upon sleek black crows hovering around her on a dreary morning. The smell of blood strong. Perhaps wondering if she were about perish for their benefit, to give in to the weeping earth. A sense of dread started from the c section of her spine and spread throughout her body.

Riddle wanted to get out of her immediately but upon her attempt a share searing pain could be felt on the right side of her temple, causing her to wince, eye tightly closed. Slowly, she got up, the pain vociferating through the whole process. She could feel something wet on the side of her face. Quickly putting that info together with the smell, she looked down to see a small, but bright, wet circle of blood. Next to the circle was a stone, small but firmly planted in the earth and adorn in red as well. Following her vision to the cliff walls above, her hazy memories somewhat came back to the event. She had been running from something, something she feared, and she stepped too close to the side and rolled down here where she became acquaintances with that stone and her temple. She felt lucky, she once saw a pup pull on a branch and let it swung on another, hitting them in the temple and ending their life quickly. But as she felt the stingy spot on her head, she realized it was more towards her forehead anyways. Perhaps the luck of doves? Either way, she could worry more about it later she decided.

Her attention wandered now to her environment. Ridged mountains crowned above and around her. She was on a smooth plateau with a hollow valley of sorts down at the bottom. The height brought no fear to this Apennine wolf. She felt pretty at home actually. What was bothering her, however, was that she did not recognize this place at all, nor recall the variables that led her here. The mystery did not concern or faze her too much though. If anything it was stimulating her mind with all kinds of delusions of grandeur. She immediately went along with the situation. "Perhaps a monster had abducted I, the princess, who laid in mimicry, that betrayed me as an alley who shoved thyself over the edge. Tragedy indeed! Now to learn of the monsters in these hills and slaughter them for the good of all the mountain pacts with a headbutt of justice!"

Some would find her thoughts and creativity strange. Having long moments of solitude, Riddle learned quickly that the best way to entertain herself was with her mind and nonsensical thoughts to pass those long heavy hours. Having her thoughts as motivation to get her moving. She began to slowly trot on to explore her new surroundings, no rush to be made due to the pain emanating from her head. Yet still alert and poised for any abnormalities.
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 He was roaming back towards Ichorwood but he realized that he would need to get himself some sort of snack before he did. That was where the morning found him now. Scouring the woodlands in search of something to eat. Anything would do. Fresh or rotten, Mordecai didn't discriminate. No, not at all. In fact, he felt like he was locking in on something that smelled absolutely amazing (or rotten depending on who you asked) and he just had to locate it... But what he ended up finding instead was another scent.

 It crisscrossed across his path and he pulled himself up, ears and nose twitching as he realized that the smell of wolf had come from absolutely nowhere. Intrigued, he decided to follow that for a bit instead. He always liked making new friends, after all. It made him think about that feast they were supposed to have soon. He'd hopefully make a bunch of new friends there too and-- OH! There she was. Exploring near some sort of plateau.

 "Hey there! Are you lookin' for somethin' tasty too, miss?" He asked, friendly as ever as he let out one of his lazy smiles. His tail wagged slowly back and forth as he unabashedly neared her, not thinking about the fact that he was a stranger and she might not appreciate such a large wolf coming so close so quickly.

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Riddle was off in her own little world while exploring this actual new world of reality. Perhaps it would do her some good to be out of her head, however, because her nose failed to detect the presence of the voice that just eroded off the mountains. Among hearing-she spotted a wolf approaching her. "Ahhh an ogre!!!" she found herself whispering. He was huge compared to her, in both dimensions. To add to the intimidation were the scars and tears adorn by warriors. Basically he could beat the shit out of her and Riddle was well-aware of that. He flashed her a smile full of blood-lust intentions (in her mind at least), and oddly to her shock, he was approaching her.

Trepidation began to course throughout her body. It was a different kind of trepidation however, as a giggling laughter escaped her maw, starting low before reaching several high notes that echoed eerily through the hills. Nothing about this was funny though as indicated by the wide fearful doe-eyed look she had. Albeit pathetic, she immediately laid flat on the ground, ears flat and tail squished between her legs. A few chuckles still emitted from her, but she managed to speak, disregarding his question. "Hehe...please do not bring ill-will, Ogre of the well. Thy am but a docile princess of the hills. When-hehe-the mountain knows your name but not your fang, it will sing...so please...DON'T KILL ME!" Her odd nonsensical words and riddle were spoken in such a fragile tone, that when she pleaded for her life at the end, the sudden shrill raise of her voice caused another dreadful echo. Her words and laughter probably made her look like a mad wolf, but it's hard not to deviate from normality when no one has ever given you a chance for such a pleasure. So much for slaughtering monsters.
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 Mordecai paused in his tracks briefly when she began to laugh. At first he was almost pleased by the turn of events but then he felt unsure if she were laughing at him or something near him. He looked around, trying to find out what was so funny but figured that it had to have been something he'd done. Had he stepped in something gross? He lifted up each paw to look underneath it. Nope. Nothing under there. Sat in something? He turned around to look at his butt but there was nothing there either. Hmm... He looked at the woman again and still smiled, wondering at least if she would tell him what she found so hilarious.

 But there was something in her eyes that didn't match her frantic laughter. Hmm, odd that. Ah well! Maybe if he got closer then she'd tell him. So, the man continued to approach, a laugh bubbling in his own throat. If she was laughing at him, he wouldn't be upset. He just wanted to know what the big deal was. Except, then she flattened on the ground, a clear measure of... fear. Now that matched her wide eyes quite well. He stopped in his tracks again, head tilting to the side as he tried to put two and two together.

 Then she spoke it was all he could manage to try to understand her. "Good golly, you sure do talk funny!" He said with a laugh of his own and wag of his tail. It was awful weird but he liked it! She sounded really smart or like one of those ladies from one of those old fairy-tales. Although now he could garner why she was acting like that. The large brown man flattened himself on the ground but he couldn't really tuck his miniscule tail like she'd done. "But you ain't got nothin' to worry about. I'm not gonna hurt ya, I don't wanna cause no trouble." He blinked his soft brown eyes at her, hoping that she would realize that he wasn't lying. He really did only want to talk. "I ain't never heard no one call me a ogre before, though." He said with a giggle. "An' are you really a princess? Oh! Are you a fairy princess? Is that why you talk like that?" He... wasn't a smart fellow but he wouldn't even bat an eye if such things turned out to be true. Why not in this strange new world?

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Riddle found herself flinching at his next words, expecting a certain kind of vociferation similar from others of her past. Again she wasn't sure what to make of those words, and so her anxiety began to buzz more and more, engulfing her senses. She shut her eyes tight in hopes of him just vanishing into smoke. Yet upon hearing an odd sound from him, she cracked open one blue eye warily to see the male laying down in a way that mimicked her own. And then he spoke, and she couldn't help but be drawn into those eyes. They were kind words, and no matter what her timid heart was spouting, her brain was observant and alert enough to logically claim chances of malice were too low to respond to...for now. She found herself hoping this was reality. The idea of a kind giant was comforting, but it sounded almost too good to be true. Either way she felt safe enough now to open both her eyes and lifted her head up to pay attention to the rest of his words. It's not that his words were strange...but his speech held odd mannerisms. "My apologies Ogre, Giant would have been more fitting a word for thee...heh." She said before breaking eye-contact, a sign the next words were from a sore spot.

"Thy am...no, I was...a princess." she quickly corrected herself in both her speech and words, deciding that lying would not be in her best interest right now. No matter how much she wished those idealistic fantasies were factual. However, even what Riddle believed to be fact was not a hundred-percent accurate. More so this was as of now how she could perceive it and cope. "Princess of Queen Benedetta. However, I cannot compete with sweet princes, and an evil spell from warlocks engulfed the lands, causing death from insanity. I then became but a joker of a skeleton, cast for the pits...A fairy princess is all I could wish for... Though my home was small, it was a humble land of hills-hahahaha!" She finished with another odd laughter fit, hoping nonetheless her explanation was satisfactory enough. She didn't want to try to explain it any further than that, she could feel something clawing at her brain with these thoughts as reality set in. It probably looked odd, the constant shift between fear and laughter.

Once her giggles subsided, she immediately switch the gears to him. Trying to start a new subject, she spotted his tail and cocked her head at it. "Did...something eat your tail, Giant? Or is it a technique of mimicry? Do you have a name or title? What of your status?" She peppered him with questions as she found herself scooting comically closer to get a better view (not too close though).
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 One of the lady's lovely blue eyes opened and then the other, when she seemed to realize that he really didn't want to harm her. She apologized to him but the man shook his head. "Naw, it's alright. I kinda like either name. Makes me feel like I'm sorta in a fairy-tale too!" He laughed and then smiled, not at all offended. He was very easy-going when it came to things like that.

 She broke eye contact with him and looked away, he could read that it was likely sadness or her want to speak freely that made her do that. The woman admitted that she was a princess. Wow! The brown knight was practically starstruck and it showed with the twinkle in his gaze and the fact that his mouth had fallen open to a surprised "O". She went on to explain her whole story and Mordecai was believed her one-hundred percent... even if he only understood half of the words. He was able to put most of it together. "Wow, I've not heard'a anyone with a story quite like that!" Not even from Prince Crux! The man had been royalty but not living in a kingdom with magic and warlocks and witches and all sorts of amazing things! "I didn't even know that stuff was real! That's so cool!" Oh wait... she was explaining the bad things... and he'd just put his whole foot in his mouth. "I mean, it's not cool what happened to you or nothin' but I mean, where you came from. It sounds like it's straight outta someone's story." Oof, she hoped he knew what he meant. He wasn't the best at explanations.

 Gosh, she was laughing again and he wasn't sure how to react... Maybe it was nervous laughter? That would make sense. When he didn't know what to do, sometimes he'd laugh too. He thought about asking but he wondered if it'd be rude and then--

  "Did...something eat your tail, Giant?" He snapped back to the present and looked at her again before sitting up and looking back at the tiny limb. He grinned at her and then twitched it back and forth for her to see. "Naw. It was just born like this although it's real good for fightin'. No one's ever really able to grab it 'cause it's so small." He didn't know what she meant by "mimicry" but he hoped that that answer would answer the other. "I used to be a knight! Although, I guess I sorta still am a knight, I just got a different name-title, you see?" Oh boy, he was really good at rambling and it was all coming out. "I'm a member of a pack called Event Horizon, it's back thataway." Here he pointed with a paw northwestward. "My friend Prince Crux leads it and I'm what he calls a 'Binary' which is just a fancy name for 'that guy who's in charge of defenses or whatever'." Oh! He'd forgotten to tell his own name. "My name's Mordecai! But if you want, you can keep callin' me Giant if you want to." He didn't really ever have an entirely new nickname before. He really liked it. "Oh! Hey, you might get along with my best friend, the prince. He calls himself the Prince of Stars, you know." He'd never known Crux to talk about such wild things before but hey if they were both royalty they might get along splendidly.

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Things seemed to oddly be going well for Riddle. He accepted her apology unabashed, and even her tale had seemed to spark excitement from the stranger. She did not address it, but his attention and interest in her words was a pretty rare privilege for her. It felt really nice, like she wasn't doing anything wrong for once and that she was worth something. She found herself standing up just to sit back on her hind legs and watch the brown wolf wag his stumpy tail. Riddle even began to giggle a little in a natural form for once, amused by his antics.

However, it was her turn to be starry-eyed and amazed as he confessed to her that he was basically a knight. Honestly, she was starting to be able to see it. A wolf of virtue and code! He told her lots of things actually, where he was from and the prince he served under, an actual prince. Not like the princes she had for brothers...huh? She had forgotten they were family...a memory encroached upon her with a dreadful venom that coursed through her veins. A wolf foaming at the mouth. Feeling and seeing at the same time an intense stare from green eyes filled of hatred and fear mixed together, while her ears began to rang in unison. Suddenly she started laughing, hard. The strongest fit she's had yet today. An uneasy echo was again etched into the mountains, corvines scattered into the air with alarms from nearby roosts due to the severity of the noise.

As it faded she found herself realizing the Giant had finished speaking long ago and was just waiting for her response. Feeling a bit flustered about her behavior, she hurriedly spoke, "Ah, excuse me. Just a tic..." She tried to explain, feeling feeble about it. She worried of starting to annoy him with it's repetition. Trying to save the conversation, she continued on. "Mor-de-cai...Mordecai!" She said, testing out the name before looking up at him, beaming. "I like the name, I think it's wonderful for a heroic giant such as yourself." She complimented with honesty, tail-wagging. "Prince Crux sounds fascinating, but..." She trailed off with hesitation, thinking quick for a second. She should play her cards right. She was new to the area, it may benefit to meet a local pack leader and learn what she can. Surely he would not harm her if Mordecai was around. "...That would be lovely. I would love the opportunity whenever it arrives if it isn't any trouble, Giant of Mordecai." She said with a nervous smile, deciding ultimately to combine Giant and Mordecai together.
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 The lady laughed again, but it wasn't the same sort of tone as the other almost-hysterical laughter he'd heard before. He was glad that he was making her normal-laugh as opposed to what he assumed was the nervous-laugh. In fact, she looked downright starstruck when he admitted what he was. It made him quite proud, his chest swelling up a bit because of it... but then the other laughter was back. In fact, so much so that it continued for several minutes after he'd finished speaking. The brown man frowned and was about to ask a question about it but then he wondered again if it would be rude. For several moments he wrestled with that idea until he was snapped out of it when she tried to explain it away. A tic? "You mean like... it's nervous laughter?" He cocked his head to the side, curious. "I seen wolves that nervous-laugh before. Ain't nothin' wrong with that. It's just how you are." He didn't want her to be nervous about her tic or anything. Shouldn't nobody be nervous or upset about something they couldn't help!

 Gosh! She was so really nice. He felt even more proud when she complimented his name and called him "heroic". "Aw well, I try to be! What's your name, then?" The woman said Crux sounded nice but... he could feel disappointment seeping in. Was she going to say that she didn't want to meet him and that she should go on her own way? He hoped not, he liked talking with her. However, the "but" didn't have any negatives attached! Jee, that was a first! "It ain't no trouble at all! If you don't got anywhere else to go I could show you to where we live. Prince Crux'll be there for sure and you could stay as long as you like! He's real nice and wouldn't turn no one away." If she just wanted to recuperate and get her legs under her and then set off he was sure that would be fine. But part of him hoped she'd want to accompany him and stay. It would be neat to have a prince and a princess in their pack!

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Riddle did not believe him when he reassured her of her tic. To her the best possible meaning from his words could be tolerance of the current situation. No one likes those who are different, that's why runts always get singled out or why others fear the sick. They are an unwelcome presence to this world built for the majority. Riddle could brewed on such negativism though later. If she were to be honest, it was hard to experience such feelings when the Giant Mordecai seemed so happy and bright-eyed. And if her negative feelings were true, then why was such a wolf like him, born with a different tail, so strong-seeming?

She felt a little flustered that she hadn't introduced herself yet and also from the plunge she seemed to be making as Giant Mordecai reassured her of her possible visit. Is this what they call a leap of faith or was she being naive? But when she thought of how she may wander around and run into another wolf that was not as nice...Riddle stood up and gave a little shook.

"Excuse my rudeness. Call me...Riddle! For thy have no other name that suites the skeleton of a joker. Forever alone and in debt to maze of thee unanswered!" She introduced herself, albeit a bit eccentric as she slipped real quick back into character. With a few small chortles of laughter, she continued, "Heheh..heh...When you speak so fondly of your home, how can I refuse your offer? I am in your care for now, Giant of Mordecai, much gratitude." She thanked with an earnest smile and small upper-body bow before looking at him expectantly, ready to follow wherever his legs may take him. Despite how she stood still, her thoughts were running quick. She had no idea what Event Horizon was like or what kind of wolf Prince Crux was. Prince of the stars sounded like quite the claim of power.  "I guess that's why I have to see for myself! Let this Princess of Hills meet this Prince of Stars..." She thought to herself and her resolve to the situation was strengthened.
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 Riddle it was then! What a fitting name! Especially with the next words she spouted. The large, dark wolf blinked at her and the blankness in his eyes showed that he hadn't really understood a word she'd said. He still liked the way it sounded though! All fancy-like, just like a proper fairy or princess. So, he smiled at the words even if he had no idea what she meant. Her next words, however, were certainly easy enough to understand. "An' don't you worry, won't nothin' bad happen to you while you're under my watch. I'm the best fighter around." He said as he rose to his paws and flexed his muscles, just as he had done with Valentine before. It was done to reassure her that he was in tip-top shape not really and at the prime in physical fitness.

 He mosied on past, ready to lead her back towards Ichorwood. "Alright, let's head on back. I know you're going to love seein' Ichorwood. It's got red leaves aaaaalll the time and there's tons of food and lil' buck-toothed beavers all busy buildin' they're little river-homes." And on and on he was happy to continue telling her all about it while he lead the way back to his home.

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New thread back at Ichorwood?

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Riddle found herself wagging her tail, a little touched, as Mordecai reassured her hopes with his vow of protection. Perhaps his rotund figure/dad-bod should have had her leave a little room for worry. But to Riddle who had not seen too many large wolves in her time, what else was big enough to take him on? Surely he must be the strongest in his pack. "Wait, but then he'd be the leader, right? Is this more of a might vs wit kind of thing..." She still needed to learn that the world was not such a simple place controlled by simple variables. But when you're young and new, you don't have the experience to understand that too well yet. Plus when he had flexed, she may have mistook all of that for muscle, so yeah, there's no way anyone could beat this Giant.

She snapped out of her trivial thoughts as Mordecai began to move, or more like lumber, past her to unknown lands. Ignoring the intense anxious, yet exciting, anticipation coarsening through her veins. She followed after him, keeping to his flank as she happily listened on-and-on to Mordecai the whole way there. Not annoyed in the slightest and just as engaged in the conversation as he was. "Red leaves even when it's cold?! Ah, you have beavers?! They are a rare sight where I'm from. You can go your whole life without seeing one and then some! Do you...eat them?" She could eat up all this attention for weeks.

 

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Yep, new thread sounds like a plan!
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