Chapter Text
You walk out into the forest as you so often do in the late afternoon, basket in hand, bow and quiver slung over your back, and a bright blue flower tucked behind one ear. A brief glance over the garden next to your home reassures you that everything is in order before you disappear amongst the trees.
Leaves and twigs lightly crunch under your feet, and you can smell the faint damp of the morning's rain. You hum a soft tune, carefree, but vigilant. There are many dangerous creatures in the woods, but that's not what you're watching for. As you scan the undergrowth a certain thorny vine crawling up a nearby tree catches your eye. You pull thick gloves from your pocket and put them on, then take your shears out to clip the vine down to manageable lengths. As each clipping comes free of the main plant, you tuck them into the basket.
"There. I'm just borrowing a little. You should regrow just fine..." You mumble, mostly to yourself, as you return the shears to your pocket and continue walking.
You spend many afternoons doing this, seeking out the useful herbs and plants that don't cultivate well out in the open space of your cottage's garden. The mornings you busy yourself by tending the garden; harvesting what you can and grinding up the dried material that hangs on lines all around your home; bottling the resulting powders; and later mixing them into poultices, potions, and teas.
It's a simple life. Quiet. The village is close enough for you to have plenty of business, but just far enough for you to feel nicely secluded.
You almost walk by a true prize - a collection of dull green buds. They don't look like much in daytime, but the pure white blooms seem almost to glow once they open up under the moonlight. You pluck a few, careful to leave enough for the plant and for the gloombees that feed on them.
You make a few more stops as you venture farther in, gradually filling the basket. It's becoming late afternoon and you're about to head back home when you spot a figure moving through the trees.
She's a little older than you, dressed in a drab brown traveler’s cloak. You might not have seen her at all if her hood had been pulled up. But with it down, her long white hair flecked with strands of vibrant red stands out starkly.
She sees you. A soft smile quickly replaces the anxiety on her face and she waves.
You know only one person with such distinct hair. Oldest daughter of the king, princess Fuyumi.
You hurry to act appropriately, lowering yourself to a knee, but she lifts her hands. "That's okay. Come on." She walks right up to you and offers her hand to help you up.
Your heart freezes in your chest. You've never even seen a royal in person before, and certainly not so close. You worry about touching her, but also about offending her by refusing the offer. Ultimately, you take her hand and get up, but you feel your muscles tighten with nerves as you stand face to face with her.
She doesn't seem to pay it any mind, though. "Well, I guess you caught me." She smiles sheepishly, then glances around the area as if to check for anyone else who might be nearby. "I hope we can keep this between us, hm?"
You struggle to form any words, so you just nod.
"It's alright." She offers, apparently trying to reassure you. "I'm just here for..." She pauses. "To visit someone. But I don't think father would approve." A brief frown takes over her expression as she adds the last bit.
As you again fail to say anything, she patiently prompts you, looking at the basket of plants. "An herbalist? You must know the area well. I'm looking for a certain clearing, near the center of this forest."
That finally snaps you at least partly free of your fear. While you've never done business with actual royalty, you have met a couple of higher nobles once or twice. "I think I know the place."
Fuyumi clasps her hands together and smiles again. "Would you walk with me? I need to be back home before it gets too late."
"O-of course, my lady." You take up your basket and start leading the way to the area you believe she means. You're still a bit shaken by her presence, so it takes you a moment to even wonder who she could be visiting out here. Perhaps a nymph or some other fae creature? If it was another person surely there would be other places far enough from prying eyes that wouldn't be such unfamiliar terrain.
"So, what's your name?" She stops marveling at the flora surrounding you both long enough to glance your way when she asks.
You tell her.
"Mm." She rests a finger against her lip. "That's nice. It suits you."
You wonder how she could tell that from such a brief meeting, but you don't want to protest.
Before long, you reach the clearing, and it immediately becomes obvious why she's here.
The prince. Youngest of the king's children, but the favorite to inherit the throne, is lying in the grass, asleep.
Fuyumi almost seems to forget you entirely as she rushes to his side. As you watch, she pulls a small lens from a pouch at her hip and looks through it. Her face falls as she does. She almost looks ready to cry. Carefully, she brushes his hair to the side and kisses his forehead. She watches him for a moment, then rubs at her eyes.
"Ah... my lady?" You ask, taking a cautious step closer.
She looks up, almost startled, then nods and waves for you to approach. "It's just as they said..." She sighs heavily and puts the lens back into her pouch.
"Sorry. What is?" You look over the sleeping prince. He seems outwardly fine, though it's obvious from his sister's reaction that he must not be. You do have a great knowledge of various cures, so if she knows what's wrong, then maybe...
Fuyumi closes her eyes and her shoulders slump. "He's been cursed."
"Cursed... How? By what?" You take a spot next to her, setting your basket down and looking between her and the prince.
She seems reluctant at first to say anything more, but eventually she gives in. "I can't be certain, but I think..." She presses her eyes shut. "I think it may have been our father."
"The king?" You look at her in shock. "But isn't he favored by the king? That's what everyone says..."
A tight frown forms on Fuyumi's face. "It's... complicated." She takes a moment to glance around the clearing as if reassuring herself that you're alone before staring right into your eyes, pleading. "Don't tell anyone of this. Any of it." Her gaze drifts back to her brother. "He's helpless like this, you know? If one of our enemies caught word..." She hangs her head. "...even the beasts may get him before I can find a way to do something."
"There must be a way to break the curse." You offer, feeling compelled to say something reassuring. You can only imagine how difficult a position she's in, but it's obvious how much it's weighing on her.
"True love's kiss." She answers without looking up.
You understand now what her gesture before was really about - not just a kindness or something to make herself feel better, but an actual effort to save him. "But you love your brother, don't you?"
Fuyumi shakes her head. She looks on the edge of tears again. "I do. But apparently it's not the right kind of love." She takes a slow, shaky breath. "I hope, with some research, to find another way... but I hate to think of him being all alone out here, at the mercy of anything that might happen upon him. I know these woods aren't as dangerous as those closer to the mountains, but..." She tugs on the edge of her plain cloak. "It will be hard for me to visit often. I can't risk father realizing."
"I can watch over him for you." You volunteer, almost without thinking.
She looks stunned by the offer, like she hadn’t even considered the possibility. "You would really do that?"
You smile and open up your basket, pulling out a bundle of bright azure blooms - just like the one tucked behind your ear. You hold one out to the princess.
Fuyumi takes it, though she seems confused.
"These flowers..." You point to the one in your hair and then start laying the others in a circle around the sleeping prince. "The scent repels monsters and most predators."
She stares at the delicate petals, rotating the flower in her hand. After a moment she tucks it behind her ear just as you have done. "Is that how you travel so freely?"
You nod, but you also tap the tip of the bow on your shoulder. "I can handle myself, but the flowers make it so most things avoid me." There's other uses for the concentrated, dried petals, but you'd hate to bore the princess with the fine details of your work.
She looks over the circle you've made, then back to you. She bows her head in gratitude. "Thank you. I'll try to find a way to repay you for this."
"There's no need for that, my lady. It's my honor to help..." You begin to say, but Fuyumi shakes her head.
"No, really. It means so much to me, just knowing he'll be safe while I'm away." She steals a glance back at the prince. "I'll bring something the next time I manage to sneak away, alright?" She winks to you, as if you're sharing some minor mischievous secret, and not something of potentially catastrophic political consequence.
The next few months go on relatively normally for you. Gardening and other household chores in the morning and early afternoon, the occasional visitor from the village seeking some remedy or other, and into the forest after. Each day you bring fresh blue blossoms to replace those that are wilting. You bring along a few seeds, too, to try and cultivate a new patch in the clearing.
The princess joins you on your walks, as often as she can. Sometimes she's in the clearing when you arrive, sometimes you bump into each other in the woods, and a few times she even meets you outside your home. She always has a small gift for you, often food or some other treat, or occasionally a small trinket. Once, she arrived with new tools for your work, as you'd mentioned the last time you spoke that yours were starting to wear out.
On this specific afternoon, the two of you are having a small picnic in the clearing. The sun filters nicely through the half cover of leaves above, reducing the summer sun to a pleasant warmth rather than the oppressive heat in the fields outside.
"I hope he's not been too much trouble." Fuyumi suddenly comments, looking over at the sleeping prince.
He looks the same as ever, the spell apparently preserving his body in a sort of magical stasis. In any other company you'd be inclined to joke, wondering how much trouble a sleeping person could truly be, but you keep that to yourself this time. Though Fuyumi has never been anything less than perfectly kind and respectful to you, she's still royalty, and being in the presence of someone of such station makes you nervous. You never imagined you'd have occasion to speak to a royal so casually as this in your life - let alone take a meal with one.
Two, you suppose. But the prince isn't very talkative.
"Not at all." You assure her. It really isn't far out of your way, and even just the small things Fuyumi has given you far outweigh the cost of the plants you've been using. You pause as you also look over the boy lying so seemingly peaceful a few feet away. "Have you found anything?"
She gets a deeply sad look in her soft gray eyes as she answers. "No, unfortunately." She picks up one of the little strawberry pastries the two of you have been sharing and stares at it a while.
You immediately feel bad for asking, and fumble for a way to sound reassuring.
Before you can think of anything, she changes the topic. "He really liked these; you know? But his favorite was always..." Fuyumi trails off, her gaze darting upward as a shadow briefly passes overhead.
"What is it?" You only caught a flash of it, but if it was a bird, it must be a large one. There are other things it could have been, of course, but nothing that would be a common sight out here.
She shakes her head and offers a gentle smile. "Nothing.” She closes her eyes. When she reopens them, she's staring vaguely into the distance. "I need to keep searching. There has to be a way..."
"I'm sure you'll find it." You tell her. Though you're not very good with spells, so you don't know, you feel like you have to believe in her. You wouldn't be so bold as to call her a friend, exactly, because of her station... but you also can't really put any other word to it.
While you're musing on that, Fuyumi is staring into the empty basket between you, apparently lost in her own thoughts. "Be careful out here, okay?" She finally says.
The warning catches you a little off guard, but you nod. "Of course."
She smiles back at you as she packs up the basket and heads out to return home, but there's a little edge of worry in her eyes.
You wonder about that for a while that evening, but eventually the thought slips away.
Life goes on.
It's another quiet afternoon in the forest. Well, quiet is relative. Of course, the forest sings its usual song - the chorus of chirping birds, chittering squirrels and rabbits, and buzzing insects.
You're alone in the clearing today - other than the prince, and you've just finished laying out the flowers again, trading the oldest for fresh blossoms. You survey your work, mentally counting the flowers. It's not an exact science, but ultimately you decide it looks fine for today.
The weather is warmer than normal today, so you sit for a moment in the shade. You glance around the space, admiring the trees and catching a few brief glimpses of birds before they flutter away.
Eventually your eyes can't help but land on the center of the clearing. It takes you far too long to realize that you're staring - but it'd be much more embarrassing if he were awake to notice. As it is, with nobody around to judge you, you take some time to admire him, peacefully dozing like a cat having an afternoon nap. A months-long afternoon nap.
He's stunning. Obviously, you'd expect as much of a royal, able to spend so much time on their appearance, and princess Fuyumi is quite lovely herself - but there's something so striking about the way his hair splits into such radically different colors.
"It must be lonely out here." You comment, theoretically to the prince, though you know he can't hear you.
You shuffle a little closer, eyeing the other prominent feature of his face - the large scar covering much of the left side. With a delicate touch, you pull his hair aside and study the mark.
It's old, long since healed though obviously not very well. You have a bit of medical skill, since it goes along with your work. You think it must have been a burn from something, but mundane or magical is impossible to tell at this stage.
Could he have hurt himself practicing his magic? You wonder. You've heard stories of similar mishaps when (mostly young) casters get overeager about testing their limits. Magic is useful, but incredibly dangerous too.
"I'm sorry. It must have hurt terribly, however it happened." You take your hand away, letting his hair fall back to conceal the top edge of the scar.
It does surprise you how clear it is, given the apparent age of it. You've grazed your arm on a hot kettle many times, but those marks are all but invisible now, faded almost to nothing in mere months. You have a hard time seeing some of them, even knowing where they used to be. But his must be years old now, and remains so distinct. Certainly, a more serious burn than the slight searing you've dealt with could do that - but you know of simple treatments that could have greatly reduced the scarring if applied soon after the injury. Surely the royal family could have afforded the expense. Surely they would have, for the presumed heir.
You sit back and consider this little mystery for a while, until you realize with a start it's beginning to get dark. You get up and rush off to get home, pausing just briefly at the clearing's edge.
"See you tomorrow."
You smile awkwardly, fully aware of how silly it is. But you know you would appreciate the gesture, however slight, if it was you lying there.
As you walk home, humming softly along with the cicadas, you wonder if the prince would feel the same way.