The Crown’s Entrapment

Looking around his surroundings, Osman let out a heavy sigh as he spotted a boar to hunt and feed his King and Princess Xenia. Inevitable, His Majesty saw through his tricks, and he was well aware that this was how his king was punishing him. They had a decent amount of men to do such things for him, but instead, he let him do all the work alone, even preventing him from commanding his men to do it for him.

“What to do… what to do…”

It had been roughly six days since the Princess’s training had started. And even if they already made some progress, he was honestly still not convinced that she would even make it out alive of the Element Forest once she entered it.

Absently, he touched the necklace dangling around his neck. It was some kind of amulet the Queen Fairy Helena gifted him. It was made from fine specks of wing dust from willing fairies, and it was said to be able to keep him away from harm so long as he was in some form of wind-based phenomena like a tornado or whirlwind.

Frankly, it was oddly niche and specific with its terms, but he liked to think that it worked to get him out of a few storms relatively untouched by the elements.

“I could only hope that she won’t need it though…”

Even as he kept himself busy hunting for this one boar, Osman’s thoughts were busy coming up with a few more ways that could possibly help His Majesty’s mate from being swallowed whole by the Element Forest. While there was a chance that the Princess was going to survive most of what that place had to offer, there were still a few specific things that he needed to instill in her to avoid her having to overthink herself to death.

“Get back here, you pig…”

The fairies were the easiest of the bunch to talk to. They were inherently friendly if a bit fickle and childish at times depending on their mood. So long as Xenia kept her cool against more of their more annoying behaviors, she might even be able to get a little help from them.

That was, of course, if she managed to prove herself through the trial of wind…

“Dammit…” he cursed under his breath as he threw himself against the nearest tree, lunging against his quarry only for the slippery thing to juke him. “How in the hell did I miss…”

The next on the list would then be the mermaids. He had little experience with them beyond being saved by them in virtue of his ridiculous luck. From what he could gather, they were a tad more mature than the fairies, if not even fickler than their smaller contemporaries. Being able to hold her breath for unnatural periods of time would do wonders into endearing Xenia to them, and she might just get by their whirlpools should she prove that she was capable of racing against the very best of them.

“This is ridiculous…” Osman sighed, picking himself back up as he trailed behind the boar. “I’m distracted…”

Which was, of course, true. Xenia’s training was far from adequate in preparing her for the worst the Forest had to offer. And there was a reason he wanted her angry and confused when he told her to get them to shore while giving her oars to seemingly paddle the ship to the nearest island.

His experience with the Sphinx was one of utter foolishness and lack of common sense. The creature was connected to the earth, and one wrong answer to one of its numerous riddles would’ve had him being swallowed alive by the very earth beneath his feet. With that in mind, he should probably try and make sure that Xenia was flexible in thinking if only to enable her to avoid being embarrassed that badly in front of dozens of people again.

“Just like what’s happening to me…” he ground out as he stalked the boar in front of him. “Good thing nobody’s watching…”

Which would be the exact opposite of what Xenia was going to face once she entered the Basilisk’s lair. The overgrown lizard loved spying on people, and he had to do his damn best not to get spotted and get burnt to a crisp by its searing hot flames.

The one reason he decided to chuck Xenia into that steam box aside from a bit of petty revenge was so that she could at least have a taste of what it feels like around the beast’s presence. The smell of sulfur was the least of her concerns once she had no choice but to move around the lizard, and the flames it could produce could put any volcano to shame with how quickly it could turn water into steam.

Perhaps he should actually chuck her into a volcano for a more authentic experience? Although, he was sure that His Majesty would protest such a move if he suggested it just after he almost managed to kill her through dehydration.

“Just a bit more…” he whispered to himself.

Lunging forward, Osman bared his claws, piercing through the boar’s hide once he directly scored a hit. Lifting the elusive thing up in the air, blood trailed through his arms as he let the beast wriggle itself to death.

“Finally caught you,” he scoffed, feeling the boar’s life ebb away from its veins. “You gave me such a pain with chasing you around…”

With his quarry finally caught, Osman chucked the boar over his shoulder, beginning his long trek back to the cabin as his mind came up with yet another bright idea.

“Hmm… I guess that might work…”

They still had a bit of time left. And while it might end up with them cutting it close to their schedule, it might just push the Princess over the edge of actually managing to survive whatever the Forest had to offer.

“Just have to get the idea through the King first,” he murmured to himself. “I wonder how would His Majesty react this time…”