The Frog Collector

Chapter Two Part 1/2

It was already evening when the princess arrived at the castle. She barely had time to enter when she heard a deep, breathy voice:

"Where was Your Highness?"

It took a while for the princess to realize that it was the head of the palace guards, a tall, imposing man. He was not that old, but he had gray hair.

"Oh... Michael, what a fright! Hi... You're sweaty... Is everything alright?", she asked.

"Yes, it's just that I was dying to see you arrive soon. It's late, I thought you had disappeared... and Your Highness still hasn't answered me", he said.

"Keep your voice down", she warned and continued: "I was looking for James. He didn't show up today".

"What? In this day?", said Michael in surprise.

"That's right. He never missed a day, and on an important day like this. I had to look for him and ended up being late", Agatha answered, almost whispering.

"And did you find him? Your Highness seems calm. What did you tell him?", asked Michael curiously.

"I couldn't find him. But looking for him I found a woman in the forest who told me that he might have disappeared because of magic and said she could help me find him", said the girl.

Michael looked incredulously at the princess and began to sweat even more.

"Your Highness... has entered the forbidden forest? That is very dangerous princess... And this thing of magic... is a myth... Maybe something important happened in his kingdom and will come back tomorrow", said the guard.

The princess retorted:

"You know he wouldn't just disappear without telling me. I don't think his disappearance is something natural. Besides, I saw the magic with my own eyes. It is real. There was a table there that makes every kind of food you can imagine. and there is also an invisible wall that surrounds the whole place and I don't know how I got through".

Michael was dumbfounded for a period and as he had no counter-arguments he asked her:

"What will Your Highness do now?"

Then the princess told him about the flowers she needed and then finished:

"I will try to talk to the king tomorrow and see if it is possible to find these flowers in this kingdom. If it is not possible, I will look for them in another and in this case I will need your help again".

Michael looked skeptically at the princess.

"Nothing will happen to you. I promise", she said calmly.

The guard became reflective.

"Now I'm going to my room. Have a good evening", said the young woman and left.

"Good evening", Michael said thoughtfully, and watched her until she disappeared from sight through the rooms of the palace.

To be continued...