immzies-adventures-through-books:

ocean-moxion:

general-katy:

idiopathicsmile:

“So you see,” said the Royal Advisor, wringing his hands, “the curse states the princess will die on the night before her twenty-fifth birthday–”

“Hang on,” said the princess, “‘ON the night before’–”

The Advisor nodded grimly.

“So what you’re saying is that, until that one specific date, I am effectively immortal?”

“Technically yes, but then–” the King stammered.

“Wow,” said the princess, who was sixteen and did not possess amazing impulse control. “I’m gonna go teach myself how to juggle chainsaws while hang gliding over shark-infested waters, catch you chuckleheads later.”

Ohshit, this needs to be a lot longer

@immzies-adventures-through-books

This went completely in the direction I was not expecting I really was trying for light and funny.

Her mother tried to stop her at first. White faced with
strain around her eyes, the queen would argue with everything- but the princess
would never listen.

‘Leave her.’ The king said quietly. ‘Let her live.’

‘Live? She’s going to ki-‘ The queen shut her eyes. ‘injure
herself.’

‘And when she does, she will learn.’

And so the queen watched in silence as her daughter- the
bright flame of life and laughter- learnt to first fight, then juggle those same
swords. Watched as her daughter- who was the only one that seemed to not care
of the countdown on her life- not only swam with the sharks that lived in their
oceans, but befriended them.

Every day she risked her life, yet every day she came back
home with more excited ideas to try.

As it was, her first injury was not from one of her ideas,
but from an every day object in every day use. A letter opener with the royal
arms on top of it that stole the top of her finger when it slipped from her
hands.

Her mother, father, and the Royal Advisor all came running
at her scream.

‘What is it?’ Her father demanded, pushing through the
doors.

‘Is it the curse?’ Her mother whimpered.

‘Cool!’ The princess said, her shock and the sudden pain
already past. ‘Look! I don’t bleed!’

The Royal Advisor only closed his eyes.

The Now Nine-Fingered Princess was not put off her cause by
a missing part and lack of blood. Rather, it furthered everything.

Her mother watched as she went from sword juggling to sword
throwing. She was the target and her would teach the soldiers aim. Her mother
watched as she went from swimming with sharks to trying to hunt like them.

It should have killed her before the curse did- but the
curse had given the princess what it had taken from everyone else- fearlessness
and bravery.

And stupidity.

Her next accident was, again, one that no one expected. She
had been travelling, visiting the villages in their kingdom after a harsh and
hot summer, to see what they could do to help.
And along the road, there was a rock fall.

She lost her leg.

But again, she was more interested in her lack of blood and
pain than she was in missing a foot.

They crafted her a new one out of the old tree that had
stood in the palace grounds for so long, and for a year she hobbled around on
that and two crutches.

But still, it did not stop her, and she put more effort into
becoming strong than before.

She was twenty by this point, and though her heart still was
with sharks and adventure, her impulses were better, and she knew she had to be
princess, no matter how long it was for.

But it was in that year that everything changed.

A neighbouring country had heard that the kings mind was
elsewhere- not on his armies but on his daughter, one he would only have for a
few more years. And so, with his face turning the other way, they found and
they kidnapped his soldiers.

To most, losing one soldier was nothing- one man lost in a
sea of thousands. But to the king and the queen- and the princess who knew
every soldier by name- each and every soldier lost was a stab in their hearts.

The king did not know what to do. But the princess did.

They argued long into the night on her plan.

‘What can they do to me?’ She shouted at him. ‘Take an arm,
take a leg, take my heart from my body? I am the only one they cannot kill, and
it is my fault they are captured.’

A flinch- her father had told her time and again that it was
never her fault, but she would never listen.

Finally, he relented, and the princess who once had thrown
swords in the air to see if she could catch them now strapped them to her sides
and set off to a country she knew nothing about.

She travelled for days, weeks, before she hit the borders.

The Nine-fingered princess was well known in her own lands,
but in the other country she was nothing but a stranger, covered in a layer of
dust and mistaken for nothing but a servant on a task.

And she used it to her advantage. Going from one town to
another and gaining information about prisoners and their royals.

Her soldiers were being held in a prisoner camp between two
small villages, set to mine and farm day and night. It sounded like any normal
job, but she learnt quickly that they were starved and not let rest, punished for
the slightest thing, and with every comment she heard, the angrier she was.

She had but four years left to live. Four small years, and
she realised in that second she would make every one of them count.

Starting with breaking out her soldiers, and making it clear
who had managed it. Starting with showing this place that she and her family
were no one to mess with.

Once upon a time she would have sailed away under a golden
sun to become a pirate. Once, she would have travelled to the highest mountain
just to see how wide the world really was.

Once she didn’t care for anything except her next goal. Once
she had been selfish.

But she had four years where she would not die, four years
where she could not bleed. Four years of a curse turned into a blessing, and
she was going to use every year to make herself be remembered, so she would
live on long after her death.