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Elody didn’t believe Gerard when he told her he was a prince. Sure, he was the first talking frog she’d ever met, and sure, he did manage to get her golden ball back from the mucky pond. But young as she may have been at age thirteen, Elody was wise enough to not just trust people when they told her they were princes—especially without any proof. So after Gerard said he was a prince cursed to be a frog, with no crown or royal seal or servants to back him up, Elody laughed at him and walked away with ball in hand. She thought that might be the end of it.
Strangely, though, Elody still went back to the pond where she first met Gerard.
“You’re- you came back?” the frog said, half a statement and half a question. Elody shrugged a little.
“I really don’t have many friends around here,” the Princess replied, “since my mother and father don’t like me leaving the castle all that much.” This was an unfortunate truth for Elody. Ever since the Times of Shadow began, the world had been turning cruel and dark. With men becoming beasts and traitors more and more frequently, her parents hadn’t let her anywhere near the outer walls of the castle. The closest she was allowed to get was the edges of the marsh, where the outer walls converged but had small, shallow grates connecting to the rest of the swamp just past outside of castle bounds.
“So you’re back because you have no other options,” Gerard asked incredulously. Elody scoffed at the frog’s words.
“Oh, so you don’t also want someone to talk to? You’ve got better options?”
“I happen to have Fred’s Nine through Twelve on standby as we speak,” said Gerard as he crossed what he could of his front legs, as if to mimic crossing his arms.
“And those would be?” Elody asked.
“The other frogs in the pond,” replied Gerard.
“Can they even talk like you?” asked Elody. “Any other ‘cursed princes’ in there?”
“… no, they’re quite honestly terrible to talk to,” said Gerard. “They just ribbit and puff their throats a bit, it’s pretty hard to understand.”
“What happened to Fred’s one through eight, anyway?” the Princess asked. Gerard shuddered.
“I’d rather not talk about it,” Gerard said hauntedly, but after a moment of silence he continued to talk about it anyway. “There are a bunch of cranes that are hard to run from, as a frog. And big fish, if you swim too deep. And dogs, if you cross the grate into the big lake outside.” The frog frowned. “It’s really not a great place to be, as a frog, especially I guess in the times of the Neverafter.”
Elody was quiet for a moment. A liar or not, this frog was quite small. It was hard for her to imagine what it must have been like for him, to brave all that danger alone.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” she said.
“Thank you,” Gerard replied after a moment.
The frog looked at her for a bit. Elody, in turn, looked at the frog. He looked a bit pathetic in all honesty, as far as frogs go. Thin legs for a frog, every part of him looked like he could use a good meal. His skin was a sickly shade of green; his eyes were buggy and red. Elody didn’t like frogs. She found them to be slimy and slippery and gross. Gerard, though, didn’t look as gross at that moment. Just small, and alone. Finally, Gerard spoke again.
“Can… I ask you a favor? Just a small one, that’s all,” he asked.
“Sure,” Elody said, “whatever you need.”
“Could you take me back to your castle with you?” Gerard swam a bit closer to her as he said this, pushing past some greenery with a bit of difficulty. “It gets pretty cold here at night and I’m not really used to sleeping outside all this much—”
“Oh, because you’re a prince?” Elody asked sarcastically.
“I was just asking! You don’t have to be mean about it…”
“I— sorry. Look, just. I can… maybe take you with me, but you can’t touch me,” said Elody, grimacing. “If you touch me I’ll scream.”
“Well that certainly complicates things but… I think we can make that work,” replied Gerard.
Ultimately, it did not work. Despite a fairly thought-out plan involving a handkerchief and a stick, by the end of their short journey together there had been screaming, flailing, kicking, and two unhappy individuals looking at each other by a pond.
“We are not trying that again,” Elody said resolutely.
“Not even once?” The glare the Princess gave him made Gerard shrink back a little.
Elody sighed, looking up as she huffed some hair out of her face. As she saw the sky she gasped, then grabbed her golden ball.
“Oh no, I really have to go! If I’m late my parents are going to be so mad!” The princess rushed out a quick “Goodbye!” to the frog, and began to sprint towards the castle.
“Wait!” Gerard called out. “Can you come visit me again tomorrow?”
“Only if you don’t ask me to pick you up again!” the princess shouted over her shoulder.
“Got it!” yelled Gerard. “No more touching! See you tomorrow Elody!”
Although she was quite far off at that point, the frog could see the Princess wave over her shoulder in response.
Elody indeed went back again the next day. The day after that, too. And every day after, aside from when the weather made it impossible to do so. Despite the differences between the two of them— frog and princess— they became good friends. After a while, Gerard stopped mentioning that he was a prince. He did ask on occasion for news about fairies turning people into animals, a point that Elody eventually believed to be true about the frog himself. Some of Gerard’s mannerisms were simply… too human to convince her he had never been one.
When he did ask, Elody did everything she could to learn about fairies, adding what she knew to their compiled information, trying to help him find clues on undoing the spell. Sometimes Gerard got shifty when they flipped through old manuscripts together, noting down accounts of fae magic and trickery. Elody sometimes felt like he knew exactly how to undo his curse, just not how to go about accomplishing what was required. She let him be at those times. If he didn’t want to tell her, she wouldn’t ask, and if the two found an alternate solution that was valuable to the frog then that would be that.
They spent years together like this. Elody could not be free to be with Gerard all the time— she was the heir to her kingdom, and received teaching as such. Dance lessons, diplomacy, battle training, manners, mathematics, classic literature, triage, everything she could possibly need to rule her people one day. Every minute of Elody’s day was planned to a T, yet she still managed to make time to spend with Gerard when she could. The Princess could tell he liked her company, and she enjoyed his . Gerard acted as her confidant, someone she spilled secrets and frustrations to. Elody in turn acted as Gerard’s teacher. She tried to pass onto him at least some of the knowledge she gained every day, thinking that if he became human one day he could use what she gave him to go far in life.
“Now the town of Tuffeton is part of the Lullaby Lands, which borders the kingdom of Marienne. Though quite far from us here in Greenleigh— here, see, we’re on the other side of Marienne— the town is known throughout the Neverafter for its inhabitants’ obsession with curds and whey. I’ve never been to either Marienne or the Lullaby Lands, but I imagine— Gerard are you listening?” Elody asked incredulously. “This is important to know!”
“I’m paying attention Elody,” said Gerard, “I just can’t— can you imagine a town where all you ever ate was cottage cheese?”
“They don’t only eat cottage cheese Gerard— they also eat peaches, as a side dish.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” Elody grinned at him as he scoffed, and the two returned to their lesson.
Their times together weren’t always jovial. Elody tended to rant increasingly frequently about her fiancé, whom she’d had since she was too young to remember, and until she was eighteen had met only twice. Since her birthday, Prince Clemont— a duke’s son, of an alright standing to be her future Prince Consort— had been around the castle increasingly frequently. He wasn’t the worst man Elody had ever known, but he left much to be desired. Elody was holding out hope that by the time they were married (or God forbid, at the latest by the time she took the throne,) he would mature a bit and stop… everything that he does that bothers her. The prince isn’t cruel to the staff, but he clearly treats them as lesser, almost undeserving of any respect. A king should not forget his position above his subjects, Elody would think, but should never forget that like them he is only a man.
“He talks about himself too much,” Elody would tell Gerard, “and he’s always just… so loud.”
“At least he has a personality— isn’t his dad the one that sounds like he thinks plain baked beans are spicy?” Gerard would ask, placatingly.
“As much as I appreciate you trying to make me feel better, having the personality of a noodle al dente isn’t anything to write home about. And, get this, he smells! So bad! All the time! I’ve tried subtly trying to indicate that he needs to bathe (and maybe carry with him several perfume sachets), but he is not! Getting! The hint!”
“I hate to break it to you El but most men do,” Gerard would say with a sigh. “At least half the men I knew growing up did. I think it’s some sort of ego thing, it’s got to be.”
“Well, you don’t smell,” Elody would reply indignantly.
“I’m also a frog at the moment, so. The standard rules don’t apply.” Elody would huff in annoyance.
“Gah! I wish you weren’t a frog. At least then it’d be easier to be friends.” Gerard would always smile— or at least, do the closest approximation of a frog smiling that he could, and direct the conversation somewhere else. The “me too” was never said out loud, but they both felt it. They had variations of this conversation many times over.
Elody still did her best to put up with Prince Clemont. Sure she found him annoying, but an annoying husband she knew was better than a quiet husband she didn’t.
“I prefer Clemont over what the prince of Elegy has to go through,” Elody told Gerard. “Imagine knowing you have three nights to find a partner you plan to spend the rest of your life with— and you’re dancing and eating half the time! That’s a tradition I’m glad we don’t have.”
“Don’t you think it could be romantic though?” Gerard asked. “Meeting someone for the first time, and the instant your eyes meet you feel… a special kind of connection?”
“I think it sounds stupid,” Elody replied. Gerard got a little quiet after that, but from their five years together Elody had learned that he was romantic at heart and was probably just a little butthurt she disagreed with him.
Prince Clemont, to his credit, tried to court Elody at least somewhat properly. He brought her gifts, foolish things she didn’t really like but accepted anyways. He talked to her parents when it was appropriate to earn their favor, and while he didn’t always hit the nail on the head with his conversations Elody could tell her parents weren’t displeased with him. She did take grievance with his unwillingness to go with her with a chaperone.
“I don’t care that we’re both adults, it’s not proper for him to go out with me alone! Nanny is never obtrusive with us!” Gerard frowned.
“Be careful, El. If he does get you alone, don’t be afraid to make him back off if he does something you don’t like.” After half a second, Gerard said, “Wait, aren’t you and I unchaperoned?”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t count since you’re a frog,” Elody said.
Something shifted between them in that moment though, for a reason Elody didn’t quite understand. She was suddenly very aware of the fact that while yes Gerard was a frog, he was also a young man, with whom she spent most of her free time, and very much enjoyed the company of. There was an awkward silence between the two of them. After a moment they began talking again, about something foolish and unimportant. How many times Elody had managed to trip her fighting instructor, how well the Freds were faring, how often Gerard was able to scare people walking by the pond by pretending it was haunted, inconsequential things. Regardless, Elody was conscious of that awareness. She tried not to think about it.
About a week later, Prince Clement managed to convince Nanny to let the two of them walk together, alone. After they rounded a corner, into a part of the gardens half hidden behind part of the hedge maze, the prince tried to kiss her. Elody let it happen.
It was stiff, and awkward. Mostly due to the stiffness (which was admittedly mostly Elody’s fault), but also because there was somehow too much slobber for a close-mothed kiss. In all honesty, Elody found it fairly gross, and entirely underwhelming. She thought of Gerard, talking about Elegy. A special kind of connection. Elody was fairly certain this was no such connection. The princess found herself thinking that perhaps it would have been better if there were. Elody pushed Prince Clement away from her.
“My apologies, Lord Clement. Your courtship has been well received, but I am afraid I have just come to the realization that it is no longer appreciated. I will be speaking to my father shortly about breaking our engagement. Good day!” she said hurriedly, then turned and ran out of the gardens towards the marsh at the castle edge, leaving a dumbfounded Prince Clement behind.
“Gerard!” Elody called out as she rushed towards the man-turned-frog. Gerard swam over from where he had been sunning, meeting her at the water’s edge about three feet from the castle’s inner wall and climbing up onto the perch she had previously placed there for him. “Gerard! Gerard, I just did something really stupid, but I realized something I needed to know, and probably have for a while now—”
“Woah, Elody! Slow down for a second, take a breather! I can’t understand what you’re saying when you go that fast,” Gerard said, a little alarmed by her lack of decorum in arrival. Elody was usually a lot more conscious of where she was and who she was around, but the princess felt an indescribable need to tell her friend what had just happened.
“I just dumped Clement,” Elody said after taking a few deep breaths.
“OH! Well, hm,” Gerard said, a bit taken aback. “Is this a congratulations moment, or did you like. ‘Dump’ him as in his body, or what?”
“He kissed me, and it was weird and I didn’t like it, and I realized I don’t really like him at all and that if I have to be married to someone I’d really rather it be someone I actually like spending time with, and so I told him I was going to call off our engagement and I just had to tell you first because—”
“If you had informed me that you have a lover, Elody, I could have told you that we can make that work,” said Prince Clement strutting acr oss the lawn towards them. It was as if all of the blood had left Elody’s body, she turned pale as a sheet so quickly. Elody moved her body and faced the Duke’s fast approaching son, putting herself between him and Gerard.
“I truly thought you were just, how the serfs put it, ‘playing hard to get’, but it turns out that is because you were delivering your affections elsewhere! I’m hurt, Your Highness,” the prince said in a tone that made the hairs on the back of Elody’s neck stand on end. “Come now, Elody, I had gathered you ran off somewhere every day to disappear hours on end, and lo and behold it was with some man! I already heard the two of you talking, there’s no use denying it. Truly Your Highness, what would your parents think about this?” Clement stepped further towards them still, and with every word from his mouth Elody felt more and more dread pooling in the pit of her stomach.
“Oh ho! Can you not at the least do me the courtesy of seeing the man that has stolen my fiancée away?” Elody shifted to try and further block his line of sight from Gerard as the prince drew closer.
“Don’t talk to her like that, you dick!” Gerard shouted, anger so clearly coloring his voice it practically painted the air between them a hostile red. Despite her efforts the prince dodged Elody’s attempts to intercept him before he could reach Gerard, ducking under her arms as he rushed forward to see whom she had been hiding.
“And pray tell, who are you exactly to tell me what—” the prince’s sentence was choked off as he stopped abruptly, seeing no man that could have wooed the princess he was pursuing.
“I’m Gerard, you dense fuck, and I’m right here.”
The prince’s eyes locked onto Gerard as soon as he started speaking. For an incredibly tense moment, the three were all silent. Not one of them moved. Elody was almost afraid to breathe. Then the prince began laughing. Low, at first, but then growing progressively louder and more crazed. He began slowly moving further towards Gerard, and while her mind screamed at her to do something, Elody found herself frozen where she stood.
“You mean to tell me,” Prince Clement wheezed out between guffaws, “that it wasn’t even a man that posed a threat to my spot on the throne, but a frog? A god damned frog?” His laughter grew more manic. “I’ve never heard anything more ridiculous in my entire life! A princess and a frog! What in the world!” The prince stood and looked at Gerard, his laughter dying as the frog held his gaze, hateful and defiant.
“Well this is an easy fix then! An easy way to solve everybody’s problems!” the prince said. Then he drew his sword, quicker than Elody could react to from her petrified state, and swung down at Gerard.
“NO!” Elody shouted, leaping towards the sword.
Then everything felt as though it moved in bullet time, as it all went to shit.
Prince Clement was a lousy swordsman. He carried a sword as was the duty of nobles, and to put on airs, but Elody knew he missed his marks more often than he hit his own mouth with his spoon. That didn’t change the terror she— and poor Gerard— felt as the sword quickly came down. What it did change was its accuracy, leaving more than enough room for Gerard to leap away, screaming, from the angrily falling blade.
Unfortunately, the direction in which Gerard leapt away from the sword was directly towards Elody. As the frog came directly at Elody she too began screaming— as much as five long years with a frog for a friend had done for her fear, it didn’t eradicate it entirely— and before he could get close enough to touch her she slapped his tiny frog body away from her and directly into the wall a few feet away. Elody could only watch in horror, still screaming, as her beloved friend was sent by her hand forcefully careening into the brick.
As Gerard’s body hit the wall with a slick smack, Elody and Prince Clement watched not a frog but a man fall a few feet into the water below. She stopped screaming, and in turn Clement began screaming at the sight, then fainted.
The man was shorter than Elody. Not exactly a difficult feat considering her stature, but there was at least a foot between where the top of her head and the top of his, she could tell. He was wearing clothes that at one point may have been fine, well-tailored with rich trimmings and delicate fabrics, but now were stretched uncomfortably to accommodate a man’s body in what appeared to be a child’s clothes. The shirt and pants still managed to hang off of him at parts, due to his body being fairly emaciated. He hasn’t had a real meal in years, Elody realized. Gerard pushed himself up weakly, groaning both in pain and effort. His hair was long, matted ginger curls that hung past his chin, twining with the burst of facial hair sprouting from the bottom of his face, untouched since the fairy cursed him all those years ago, from his fleeting time as a boy to his years as a young man. Elody rushed towards him, finally breaking free of whatever terror had been preventing her from going sooner.
As she reached him, Elody stretched a hand out to pull him from the ground. Gerard was filthy, weak, and still of fairly unknown origin— all things that that, come the incredibly near future, would be barriers between whatever future the two of them could have with the other in it. Elody didn’t care about any of it. Gerard reached up to grab her hand, not a sound passing between them, but emotions pitched to a fervor the moment the palms of the two touched.
In another world, in another life, a frog became a man from spending three nights at the bedside of a princess. In yet another, a different frog was released from his curse by the kiss of some other princess. None of that mattered. Those stories had their happy endings already. As Elody pulled Gerard up to his feet, his eyes caught hers, with the same romanticism and cowardice and joy for life as that frog that the princess had known for a long time. Elody thought again of those words Gerard had said that time ago. The instant your eyes meet you feel… a special kind of connection. Elody didn’t see or feel anything new, but in that moment she understood she didn’t have to.