Run, Princey, Run [Vanessa/Egeria]

[Deleted]

It was a well known fact to anyone who had ever seen Prince Humperdinck’s true colors that the man was a coward. That being said, he was a subtle coward. He was able to cover up his fear with excuses and cleverness (yes, he was capable of being clever, shut up). He never just outright ran from danger. He at least pretended he was about to put up a good fight, or perhaps he actually did so, he was well trained for such after all. He wasn’t completely useless. So the fact that he was currently racing through the hallways of the school like he was about to be eaten by some over-exaggerated horror movie monster was more than a bit unusual.

“Out of my way, out of my way!” he snapped when he came upon a particularly crowded portion of the hallway, pushing the lot of them as well as he could manage. “I swear, I have a sword, and I will use it if you don’t make way!” Ignoring the indignant cries of whomever he had pushed aside, he managed to make his way as far from the crowds as possible.

And to think that this all started because of some bloody flower petals!

See, Humperdinck was making one last attempt at hunting on school grounds. He realized it was probably going to be rather fruitless, but the fact was that it would clear his head. He was just so damn miserable at this school and he wanted nothing more than to be back in his kingdom, preferably with his prize, er, wife, and then he could marry the damn woman, have his crown, and then of course make sure that she was the prettiest catalyst for a war since Helen of Troy. But no, for now he was stuck here, with people who had no idea of how to treat royals (he really didn’t want to get into that bar fight that he had gotten into, he was fortunate that most of the bruises were no longer visible) and competing with the Dread Pirate Roberts when there shouldn’t have been a contest at all! He was the prince! The prince NEVER lost to pirates!

So there he was, trying to get game that was probably not the least bit existent….when he noticed a bunch of flower petals. This wouldn’t have been of very much consequence if they weren’t swirling around as if they were forming a human body. And while most thought Humperdinck an idiot, he was far smarter than you’d expect…and he was smart enough to remember what happened the last time this sort of thing happened.

And so he ran. Was it humiliating? Yes. But it was better than dealing with that aggravating fairy!

Unfortunately, he was so frenzied that he wound up crashing into someone. You’d think this wouldn’t have mattered to the guy who had forced a crowd to part like the Red Sea, if the Red Sea had been particularly stubborn iron filings attracted to a magnet going in the opposite direction. And frankly, at first, it didn’t. He was more than ready to go on his way, but it would appear that fate had other plans.

[beckyab10]

Vanessa had just finished her last class off the day, and she was more than ready to be on her merry way, in all honesty. She was beginning to remember why she hated school when she went the first time, and she wasn't liking it any more the second time. The good news though, was that unlike the first time, it was a whole lot easier the second time around, because she already knew it all, and she had a knack for doing the classwork while the teacher was lecturing and wouldn't ever have any homework. School was a breeze because she'd already done it, which meant she had more time to work on what mattered, and that was getting that stupid little whiny prince away from her even whinier niece. She hated the both of them, but she hated her niece's father even more than she did her niece, but, her niece was the key to getting back her kingdom, and if that meant suffering through school again, then so be it.

As she walked down the hall to get out of the damned building she heard an all too familiar, and all too annoying voice, screaming at people to get out his way. She rolled her eyes. He was going to have to push through her to get her out of his way, because she wasn't moving an inch for him. She'd also scratch him across the face if he tried to push her. She hated his guts and wasn't doing anything that might help him. So when he ran into her she about screamed at him. "Humperdink! Do not touch me!" She then proceeded to push the prince off of her before standing up and not helping him up in any way. She even debated on stepping on his fingers with her toes, but instead decided to put her heel about an inch away from his fingers, just enough to scare him. She might even get to laugh at his far to annoying scream. Not helping him and spiting him were two of her life goals, and right now she was getting to do that, even if it was in a small way. "Why are you running up and down the hallway pushing people down anyway?" She wasn't letting him leave without a very good reason as to why he pushed her down to the ground, and she doubted he could ever give her one, because it was him, the babbling idiot.

[Deleted]

Egeria had not been a lair to say she had decided to mend Prince Humperdinck, she had been watching him ever since their meeting not to long ago. Every move he has made, every breath he has taken she has known about. Its a part of her process, she must observe before she can hope to solve their problems. Anyway, he hadn't done anything quite vile enough for her to have to intervene. He hadn't done anything yet, she dare say. She was still quite confident that he was a threat to society and therefore, but be watched and mended to the best of her abilities. The man had a far amount of issues that she must resolve within him if she ever should hope to stoping his violent tendencies, which she had observed quite often during her time with him as her patient. These were the tendencies that it was most dire she subdue, but there really was only so much you can learn before action was necessary. It was time, Egeria figured, for another face to face encounter with the dear prince.

The nymph left nothing to chance, she thought everything through, and it was fortunate that another possible patient of Egeria was in the area right around the time she had made the decision to speak with Humperdinck. Now, Egeria believed that one on one work could be very beneficial to a person, but in this case, pairing the two was simply good time management and may actually prove most knowledgeable. Heading the prince in the right direction was just as easy as she had presumed, the silly man was quite a coward by most human standards. She had a inclination that he did not enjoy her company, so she simply swirled a few petals in a suggestive state and away he went, running running, running right into just the woman she had aimed him for. Splendid.

Ms. Vanessa Ursula. New here, though far from the young woman she appeared to be. These were the people Egeria liked to prey on study most. We are, after all, only as sick as our secrets. That made this particular woman very, very ill. Nothing Egeria could not handle, however. She allowed them to perform that awkward ritual that humans did when presented with an awkward collision, but only for a few moments before she called and made her position known. Dear Humperdinck, you know better, what good will it do you to run? she said kindly from her perch on a poll that jutted out from the wall to hold a clock in place.

She was absentmindedly plucking the petals off a daisy and allowing them to fall on the pair of them, a crisp, new petal sprouting from the yellow center before the pervious one could hit the ground. Her legs swung slightly to and fro, her flowing outfit playing on an invisible breeze. Her gaze was elsewhere, looking out into a world only her eyes could see, when she spoke again. He voice was musical and gentle, like each word was a word meant for a poem. I believe you two have met

[Deleted]

In spite of the fact that he was, again, kind of a wimp, Humperdinck rarely froze in place over just any voice. In fact, usually he was able to just forget the voice of his miniscule encounters, particularly if it was from some peasant that was just annoying him. Unfortunately, that wasn’t quite the case…oh, she was hardly royal; the stupid woman had lost her crown to her little brother, apparently. It was all quite pathetic, and Humperdinck only cared to mock her for it. Now, however, was hardly the time, and besides, he remembered those nails…

After having stumbled back away from her because she just had to push him, he shot Vanessa a death glare that he was hoping was as intimidating as a King ought to be. A rather difficult task, seeing as he was still on the ground.“Believe me, had I had my way, I would have been more than happy to avoid touching you, but you just had to be in my way, didn’t you? And don’t push me, I’m the one who’s still royal here!” he snapped. Rolling his eyes, he managed to pull himself back up (there were fortunately no broken bones, apparently, lucky for the wench) and started dusting himself off as his eyes darted around to make sure that Egeria hadn’t just popped up while Vanessa oh so rudely interrupted his escape.

“As for why I’m pushing people out of the way, that is absolutely none of your business, and you have no room to question me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I really have bigger things to worry about and had best be one my way.”

Unfortunately, it was, in fact, already too late. He actually felt his blood running cold over the mere sound of the woman, fairy…thing’s voice and for some inexplicable reason, he forced himself to turn back towards the voice that was currently mocking him for trying to run. Now that was just making him all the more irritated, and as far as he was concerned, if that stupid thing wasn’t so incapable of being killed, she would’ve been making a very fatal error.

But no, of course she knew that there was no possible way for him to kill her, and apparently it was her mission to torment him about it by stalking him like he was the prey! The very idea, a hunter like him, a bloody prince of an entire nation, having to run like a scared little boy (that he really was, of course, but he didn’t want the whole damn world knowing about it!) from a fairy! One who couldn’t even focus her eyes properly! Usually if he saw someone like that, he just backed away and tried his best to make sure he hadn’t breathed in whatever disease they had, but of course there wasn’t an option for that, apparently, because she simply would. Not. LEAVE!

As for the all too obvious comment, all he could do was spat out, “Oh aren’t you a genius, how did you figure that out? The fact of the matter is that we do not get along by any stretch, so if you would so kindly leave me be so I can get away from the both of you, I might consider the idea of not…well, I can only tell you it’d be something very painful, even for you.” It was an entirely empty threat, of course, especially since he had no idea about the fact that all he would really have to do was find her damn tree to be rid of her. A good thing too, because he would’ve chopped it down by now, and Tintagel would be one sociologist dryad short.

[beckyab10]

It was exactly as she had expected it to be. His voice was just as annoying as she had always remembered. It would always make her cringe. Then he had the nerve to tell her not to push him. Her eyes flashed for a split second as she pointed a finger in his face, "I will push you if I want to." She then brushed herself off, both trying to get the dirt off and the fact that he had touched her off of him. She sent a disgusted look at him. Then he had the nerve to tell her it wasn't wasn't her business why he touched her and pushed her. "When you start pushing me down it becomes my business. Now spill."

That was when she noticed the....girl, sitting up on the wall? What on earth? He looked at Humperdinck, hating the fact that he dragged her into this. "What did you do you idiot?" She wanted to know who she was, and why she was talking to her, then she made the "observation" that they had met. "Not only have we met, but I can't stand him." She looked back at Humperdinck. "You better not have dragged me into something you got yourself into, because I'm not helping you out. Understand?" She was, of course, glaring at him the whole time she made that threat.

[Deleted]

Egeria crossed her ankles and continued to allow her legs to swing gently. Anyone else would have lost their balance sitting on such a slender pole, but most anyone could note Egeria's completely lack of human likeness despite her girlish appearance. She had a constant air about her that triggered an instinct in the human mind, a way to almost feel her other worldliness. She could change this, she supposed, she'd studied humans enough to know how to act like them, but it was always these emotions they had that she found difficult to rightly show. Even so, she made a mental note to attempt "being human" for a day. It could be a fascinating experience and a wonderful way to gain even more insight into the human race. A revelation occurred to her just then and she locked away the idea to be a human for Sir Milo. She seemed to frighten him the way that she is now so perhaps this was the best way to solve this. Anyway, back to current events.

She'd brought these two together purposely, obviously. She was hoping that they could help each other partly, but mostly it was convenient. They both had similar issues and whats the use of repeating ones self when there is no call for it. She could gather the two and do her teaching to them both and if something specific needed to be done then she could easily arrange private time, but for now they were both relatively new to her therapeutic skills and so basics could be conducted on them both. Well first things first. Egeria shifted on her perch so that she was laying on her tummy, legs crossed at the ankles and rocking slightly in the air above her head. She rested her face in one palm and dangled the other below her, daisy in hand. All this she did perfectly balanced and somehow wonderfully gracefully on a poll that jutted out from the wall that would only be a few feet long.

Miss Vanessa she called softly Dear Prince she then addressed him after a brief pause how would you like to rule the world? she asked ominously, twisting the flower in her fingers. On her command it had taken on a certain glow, she could only hope the two would notice.

[Deleted]

Humperdinck didn’t like people in general. That, naturally, included women. Especially women that decided that they could somehow have an opinion beyond any of his own and could have any say in matters greater than his own. Buttercup had really been the first one to ever give him such treatment, and that alone boggled his mind. But Vanessa…ohhhh, she was the very worst that he could ever imagine. All he could do was groan and roll his eyes when she start harping at him about dragging her into something. “Well, if you had allowed me to leave when we had the chance, you wouldn’t be in this problem, so you really, truly, have no one to blame but yourself,” he responded…and wait, did she just say that he needed her help?? How dare she? Surely she was joking, and he was about to snap as such, but then the fairy decided to be her idiotic self and to ask them a sure to be equally idiotic question. Well, he was just going to tell her to shut up and…

Did…did the stupid fairy just ask him if he would like to rule the world? In spite of the fact that he loathed the thing with every fiber of him, no matter how much he wished he could add her to his Zoo of Death and actually manage to defeat her as easily as he had managed an orangutan once upon a time…his eyes took on something other than hatred for a split second after hearing this question. It was more like…a hunger, and he didn’t need to ask himself what it was for. He was trying to start a war with Guilder, after all, and once they won, that would mean he would crush the country’s own monarchy, of course, and take it into his own hands, and force the former royals to weep at his feet for mercy, and only then would he let them live…perhaps. If he was in a good mood. That was precisely the sort of person that would love to rule the world, of course. Perhaps it hadn’t been a conscious thought before, but he had always had the will, and just think…having the entire world at the palm of his hands…

Now just wait a moment, what was that to this stupid thing anyway? His eyes then narrowed. “And you’re asking me this because?” That was about when the truth dawned on him. “Oh…oh, I think I understand you perfectly now…” Yes, yes, clearly she was a spy for Guilder! And to think, they had grown clever enough to give him a spy that, as of yet, he couldn’t kill (he was still working on it, mark his words). “Well, your pitiful attempts at finding my weaknesses in order to overthrow us first have failed, and you may kindly tell your own king that. Florin will be crushing Guilder before they even know what hit him, not the other way around.” And with that response that he, personally, thought was quite clever and intimidating, he smirked and crossed his arms, daring the fairy to even try to get any more answers out of him.

[beckyab10]

So clearly Vanessa was not going to be going anywhere for a while. Great. That was not how she planned on spending the rest of her day. She just glared at Humperdinck as long as she could. It was really the only thing that was going to make her feel better at this point. As far as she was concerned this was all his fault. Actually, she thought the vast majority of things that happened were his fault, and it only proved it when he was involved.

This was all before the girl asked if she wanted to rule the world. She lit up like a kid at Christmas. The entire world at her fingertips. Really, this was the best thought she could have. She was quite pleased at the thought of having the entire world in her control. She could get rid of everyone she hated. It would be a dream come true. She shoved Humperdinck out of her way as she walked closer to her. "You can have Florin, fine whatever. I'll happily take the world." She sounded way to happy right now, and anyone who knew her at all would be frightened at her tone.