Into the Woods

She went to the woods for answers.  It was the customary place for figuring out your problems because there was something about the Enchanted Forest that encouraged reflection.  Her father had gone to the woods for answers about his marital issues, her uncle had gone to the woods for answers about his mother, and today Princess Camilla went to the woods for answers about her boyfriend.  Well, he wasn't her boyfriend per se, but she kind of wanted him to be.

He was a boy she had seen in the market on one of the days her parents had taken her on a carriage ride through the kingdom.  He was driving a cart full of cattle to wherever he was going, and his horses had nearly collided with the the horses drawing the king's carriage.  The driver gave him a hard time about it, and when Camilla looked out the window to see what the hold up was, she saw him.  Their eyes met for barely a moment, and she knew that she would rather go for a cart ride with this boy than with Prince Aubrey Stephen who had a massive mole on the side of his nose.

"So what am I supposed to do here?" Princess Camilla asked the open air, turning around and taking in every enchanted inch of the woods surrounding her.  "I'm just looking for some answers here!"

"Answers?  She's looking for answers?" said a voice, causing Camilla to jump and shudder.

"Who's that?" she demanded, whipping around.

"Who's that?  So many questions.  Which answers do you actually want?"  the voice asked.

"Show yourself!" Camilla said.  The voice laughed, "Down here."

Once Camilla's attention was directed in the correct place, she found an emerald green frog sitting on a log nearby, looking at her with a slight leer in its golden eyes.  He licked his lips with the tip of his tongue and smiled a froggy grin.  Camilla jumped once again, sidling away from the frog once its tongue made an appearance.  Her face said "ew..." but her voice was trained to be polite so she didn't verbalize it.

"How do you do?" she asked, making the stiffest of curtsies and smiling carefully.

"Another question.  Fine.  A frog.  And you're supposed to look for your own answers," the frog replied, crossing its little arms over his chest.

"But what am I supposed to do to find them?" the princess asked.  The frog rolled his eyes at the realization of  her increasingly slow thinking.

"Maybe if you sit still long enough they'll find you," the frog observed.

Camilla smiled mildly at the frog and inched a bit to the left, saying, "Thank you, you've been such a help" right up until she was hoisted up into a tree by a person-sized net.

"FINALLY!" came another voice hidden within the trees.  The source of the voice leapt out of the bushes and revealed itself to be a disheveled looking man, leaves stuck in his hair and dirt staining his once fine clothing.  "I think you found your answer..."

Thank you to Sunday Scribblings for the prompt "Woods".

"Into the woods, into the woods, into the woods and out of the woods and happy ever after!"

- Into the Woods