The Swan Prince Odilio Magustine Jestarion Francas has learned from Trudy that there is no easy way out of his curse. His only hope would be to earn the love of a lady. But what can a swan offer a damsel or maiden fair? Perhaps something to do with flight could open the door he’s looking for…
@internutter/challenge-04851-m102-with-adequate-reason -- Deathshead419
The kiss of a virgin wasn't hard to obtain if you didn't mind the slobbery attempts of toddlers. Which the Prince Odilio Magustine Jestarion Francas did object to.
"I want a lady I can marry, and bring to my palace," he whined, then muttered, "All my other fiancees rejected me."
"I'd wait for you to do the math on that," sniped Trudy, "but my life is not that long. Wraithvine might be able to wait that long, but I'd like more to do with my time."
"Teach," soothed Wraithvine. "He may yet learn."
Trudy grumbled about it for an hour, part of which was spent arguing with a tree. "All right. Lesson one - don't call women sluts. Especially when they've been summoned by The Green to help you. Lesson two. Whenever you do something like that, you had best apologise and seek to make amends." She added a meaningful glare.
Prince Odilio blinked back at her in confusion before saying, "Oh. Oh. Right. You want me to apologise to you." Another minute dragged by in silence. "Now?"
Trudy folded her arms and raised one eyebrow.
Odilio honked at the sky in frustration and sighed, "I'm sorry I called you a slut."
"There's room for improvement," Trudy allowed, "but I'll accept that as a decent first try. Now, a real lesson: What can you bring to a relationship beyond a palace with servants? What can you do that would encourage someone to want to kiss you?"
"Um," said Odilio. "Nobody's indicated anything of the sort. Except my mater, and that's because I was so cute. Now that I think about it, the last time she did, I was six."
"Maybe think about what you can do now, given your current form," said Trudy. "How would you go about winning a friendship, before the witch?"
"I... showed off the palace and bought them things," he admitted. "None of them came to look for me after I turned into a swan." He nibbled some of the food that Trudy and Wraithvine provided. "They didn't really like me, did they?"
"You're uniquely unlikable," said Trudy. "So you can't buy friends any more. What kind of skills do have now that might do someone a favour?"
"I can fly? I can swim? I can break someone's limbs with my wings if I try?"
"Let's leave that last one for desperate measures. We have to teach you how to be charming, how to be genuinely kind, and how nursery tales work."
"Nursery tales?" Odilio sneered. "Why nursery tales?"
"Because I am dreadfully afraid that you might have to become one."
Wraithvine emerged from hir tower with a large, thick book. The spine declared it to be The Complete Guide to Gentlemanly Behaviour, Virtues, and Manners. Ze sat down and opened it. "Chapter one, considering more than oneself. A philosophy of empathy."
Odilio grumbled a groan as he listened to Wraithvine reading. He had never bothered with any of this before, but now he finally realised that that was why he was in this fix to begin with. He clearly had a lot to learn.
[Photo by Robert Woeger on Unsplash]
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