Christopher yawned and pulled himself out of his makeshift bed. The performers were on the move, which meant they were up with the sun and packing things away to move on to the next town. Lyn was already cooking up some breakfast over a fire and Neil was packing away pieces of the stage along with many others. More members of the traveling show were packing up their various booths and getting ready to leave.
Chris stretched and went to one of the few remaining booths with a little privacy and got changed for the day. His regular clothes would be in need of a wash pretty soon. He made a face. He hadn't realized how nice it had been back home with his mother to take care of those things for him. He never had to worry about what to wear or where his next meal would come from. He supposed that when the ordeal with the "writers", as Ethan had called them, was over he wouldn't mind travelling with this company on a regular basis. He splashed some water on his face and walked back over to help Neil and the others.
"Hey Neil, hey Lyn..." he waved as he trotted up. "Anything I can help with?"
Neil looked up from a bundle of tent stakes and poles he was busily tying together, "Not really..."
Lyn handed him a plate with some eggs and pancakes, "well um... the performers don't really have to do much of the work you know... since they're the ones that earn most of the money and um... yeah...that's just how it's always been."
"I don't mind." Chris stated as he bent to pick up one of the neatly tied bundles. "Where does this go?"
Neil gestured over to one of the horse drawn carts, "over there, the third cart on the right."

Long before noon everything was packed up and ready to go. Christopher dusted his hands off. Lyn was over at one of the carts, sitting on the edge and swinging her legs over it.
"Mind if I sit here?"
Lyn scooted to one side. "If you want, but the performers are allowed to have their own---"
"That's ok. This is fine." Chris hopped up and joined her. Moments later the horses started moving and the town slowly receded into the distance. Christopher twiddled his thumbs and searched for something to say or do to break the silence. What was it that Ethan said was the best for that? He couldn't remember... Ethan was always so good at talking with people and making them feel at ease. When he feels like it. He added mentally. If he doesn't feel like it, you'll be lucky to leave with your ego intact. He wasn't sure exactly what to say, so he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
"So... How'd you get started working here?" Christopher asked nervously.
Lyn smiled slightly, "um... well I met Neil a few years ago and he recruited me. Before that I was living off the streets. Now at least I have a place to call home."
Chris took a breath, "oh..."
"...it's ok. I like it here." she blushed a little, "They let me design the posters for all of the performers."
"really? That was you? That's amazing!" Chris exclaimed.
Her cheeks only burned deeper, "tha... thank you. It's nothing special really..."
"How does that work? Making so many duplicates like that? Doesn't your hand get tired from copying it so many times?"
She shook her head. "There's a machine that does it. I just have to carve the prints. The machine makes the copies when you run it through this big press and..." she paused, "sorry, it's probably boring to you..."
Chris caught himself looking into her eyes, "Nothing you say is boring. I think it's really interesting. How do you carve the prints in the first place?"
Lyn dug into the bag at her side and pulled out some unfamiliar objects. "This is what I use. This one is for carving and this one is for larger prints."
He reached out and tried to take the tool so he could examine it, but she withdrew her hand. Chris looked startled, "what's wrong?"
She set the carving tool down between them, "Sorry... my hands are pretty rough, working with tools like these. They're not very ladylike. Not like that princess that came to see you."
Chris frowned and held out his hand. "Take a look."
Lyn leaned over and looked at Chris' calloused hand. It looked rough to the touch and a little dirty.
Chris set his hand back down, "It's not so great either, so don't worry about it. I'm not interested in girls like that anyway."
"you... you're not?" Lyn looked down at her own calloused hands.
Chris laughed, "Are you kidding? Girls like that drive me nuts! With their high pitched giggling and acting all ditzy and they're just so fake... I can't stand it. I like people who are real. A good friend of mine would always tell me that it doesn't matter how high in society you are, or how popular, or pretty. It's not easy, and you won't always make a lot of friends that way, but at least the ones you do make are the good kind. The kind that'll stick by you. You know?"
"yeah..." Lyn smiled just a little.
He scratched his head, "I guess that still makes me a little bit of a hypocrite. Wearing a mask onstage and all..."
"n.. no! Not at all. I think it's very... mysterious. It makes people want to know you." Lyn stammered.
Christopher shrugged, "They wanna know The Frog Prince. They don't want to know Christopher Hodge, the shop clerk. Which is just as well."
Lyn shook her head, "Then they're missing out. You... You're a very nice person..."
Chris felt his cheeks redden a little, "thanks..."

* * * * *

Ethan awoke with a start as a door materialized in the side of one of the many grey walls and opened with a loud clank. How long had he been here? He had no sense of time to go by, no watch, no windows that would let him see out into the sky.
A man's shadow stretched over the floor. A bit of light shining behind him. Ethan tensed, unsure of what would happen next, now that he was finally meeting the ones responsible for this. Now that he was finally going to see who was behind all this madness. He stood to meet them and put on his most penetrating stare. It wasn't difficult since he already had a fairly deep hatred for what they'd done to him and his family and friends. Manipulating them, leaving them behind... They would pay for it.
"Why hello pauper." came a familiar voice. Footsteps walked into the room and Ethan crossed his arms over his chest.
"Kelly. What are you doing here?" He stated in a voice that meant business. He was in no mood to fool around.
"Oh, I had a little chat with those brothers. Nice chaps." Kelly made each footstep slowly, deliberately. Ethan stayed silent and waited for him to explain. If he started fighting with him now, he might never get the answers he was seeking. "They told me quite an interesting story... One I'm sure you've heard before, about a princess that slept for a hundred years. A noble prince made it into the dangerous castle and woke her from the spell. She and the prince got married and lived happily ever after."
Ethan looked away. He was hoping Kelly wouldn't have caught wind of that. He seemed a little too self absorbed. Then again, it was something that affected him, if not directly.
The prince took a step closer, "Happily ever after..."
Ethan took a step back, "But she's not going to be happy with that ending... She---"
"What do you know? You're just a peasant!" Kelly snapped. "There's certainly no peasant in that story, is there? Why do you try to interfere? It said she'd live 'happily ever after'! Don't you want her to be happy?"
Ethan frowned, "Because it's fake. She won't be happy with you. She might look happy, but shouldn't she be able to be sad too? To feel pain and joy and everything inbetween? How can you be satisfied with just 'happy'?"
Kelly set his hands on his hips, "the book SAID she'll be happy. She WILL be happy."
"Because you force her to! Don't you understand?" Ethan balled his hands into fists.
The prince pulled a scrap of paper from his pocket. "And you force me to do this pauper. Not that I won't enjoy it."
Ethan looked dumbfounded for a moment, then looked up in surprise as cold steel wrapped around his wrists. and ankles. The chains pulled him backward, where he slammed against the wall. "H... how?" he forced the words out.
The prince cleared his throat and looked down at the paper he held:

The daring prince went forth to give the pauper Ethan one last chance to give him his foolish quest, but the stubborn boy wouldn't listen. The prince reasoned with him, but finally grew weary of the arguement and the boy's accusations. He thought that perhaps if he couldn't reason with the pauper, force would be necessary. The boy had the power to use Rune Arts, so the prince was also prepared. His friends had summoned a magical chain to hold the boy fast and block his magical attacks at the same time.

"Convenient, no?" Kelly cracked his knuckles, "I've been wanting to do this for a long time."
"You coward! Can't you face me on equal terms? You'd beat an innocent, defenseless man? Where's the honor and nobility in that?" Ethan glared and pulled against the chains.
"Maybe not." Kelly smiled, "but that doesn't mean it won't be fun." He threw a punch right into Ethan's unprotected abdomen. He fell back in pain, but could do nothing to stop the prince.
He pulled his hands as far as he could and started a chant. There had to be something he could do. "Rune Art of Fire." Ethan whispered the spell and all of it's chants correctly, but he didn't feel the usual flow of power from his core to his waiting hands. Something wasn't right. It was as the prince had said. These chains not only kept him from fighting back physically, he couldn't fight back with spells either.
Kelly laughed, "Nice try pauper." He threw another punch, this one landed on his cheek and sent him back a step. "But weren't you listening? Your magic doesn't work here. The book says so." He crinkled the paper that he'd read from and threw it in Ethan's face. It bounced away harmlessly.
"You don't scare me. You're still just a pompous, arrogant, self-absorbed, vain little---"
Kelly backhanded him across the face, "Now now, those aren't very nice things to say. Especially to the man who will marry your dear friend 'Bri.'"
Ethan winced at the pain, but wouldn't let that stop him. It was a good hour before the prince got tired of beating someone that couldn't fight back and gave up in disgust. He just walked out the door and left him there, chained to the wall.
Ethan sighed, counting his new bruises. Pansy. Ethan thought. I've had far worse than your sissy punches. You think this'll stop me? You're sadly mistaken.
He eyed the paper that Kelly had thrown at him. It still lay there, crinkled on the floor. The reach of his chains wasn't far, but maybe he could grab it. He stuck licked his lips in concentration and inched as close as he could. His foot just barely reached it and he happily started the slow process of scooting in to his direction.
It took a while, but he finally got it. He unwadded the paper and read the paragraph once again. The prince had said this was from the book... whether it was an excerpt or a copy though... that would make all the difference. Ethan hoped that they'd been in a hurry and hadn't taken the time to copy it to another paper after writing it in their book. He licked his thumb and smeared it over the ink. He smiled as it smudged the ink into one big black mottled mess. He felt the chains start to give, then crumble away into dust. He rubbed at his sore wrists and ankles. He smiled deviously to himself and started to plan...

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