A Trio of Anomalies - The Quest for Paradise

CHAPTER 23 - TALE OF THE ICE PRINCESS

"He's under here!" the pile of gold was shifted away, and Nicholas clambered out gratefully, stretching and rubbing his arms for they had become numb under the pressure.

"Oh jeez, are you "Intricate Security" ?" he gasped, "I thank you, ever so much."

"Same here," he soon realised that he was talking to a deer, "I mean- not to say that getting stuck under there is a good thing, but- well ... let's just drop it."

"Who are you?" Nicholas acknowledged the guards who lifted the giant pieces of golden furniture away, before bending down to look at the small deer, only reaching his knees in height. He had a mouselike face and pale stripes of fur on his back, with a golden-brown coat the colour of perfectly made cookies, mounted on four tiny legs as thin as pencils. The deer let Nicholas stroke his head as gratitude, and the boy himself was quite intrigued by this small and unsophisticated creature.

"You can call me Kancil," said the mouse-deer.

"Woah ... " Nicholas picked himself up, "Apologies, but I ... don't really know which fairytale you come from."

"Eh, they're not as globally famous as, let's say, "The Three Little Pigs" or "Jack and the Beanstalk"." Kancil led the way out, "You should hurry, they're people waiting for you."

The periwinkle sky was streaked with pink and orange, and he shivered realising how long he had been trapped under the golden furniture. Yet that feeling of dread vanished once they left the maze of hallways and courtyards. Nicholas gasped upon stepping out of King Midas' palace, and he tried his best to hide his excitement from Kancil and the crowd. His mind went into a frenzy as he pointed out each character in his head, "No way! There's Sisyphus over there, rolling the boulder, and Prometheus and Heracles hanging out over there! And that's the satyr that gave Midas the golden touch, and the laurel tree which was once Daphne the nymph! Dude, this is amazing!"

They walked in silence, and as much as he appreciated it, curiosity got the better of him.

"I'd like to hear about your fairytale," he asked, "What's it about?"

"Fairytales," Kancil corrected, "But one of my favourites was the time I had to jump on the backs of crocodiles to cross a river. I don't dare go back there again."

He nodded.

"Or maybe it's the time I escaped from a farmer's cage by asking a dog to switch places with me."

He blinked.

"Or perhaps the time I got out of a well by asking an elephant to jump into it, to which I used her back to jump out."

"That's a bit mean," he commented.

"I can't fault the elephant for being a bit ditsy," Kancil brushed it off with a laugh, "Hopefully she managed to trick someone else into falling into the well for her!"

"After hearing that I'm not sure if you're the protagonist or antagonist of your fairytales," he said coldly.