Page 58 of The Frog Prince
So handsome. Everything Alwin no longer was.
He looked away, grasping his collar and holding it in place.
“We’ll have to find you some water back at the village,” Otto said unexpectedly. “Something large we can submerge you in. I didn’t realize you were so uncomfortable before. I’m sorry.”
Alwin whipped his head back around, shocked.
“I…didn’t tell you,” he eventually managed to say. “I can find water when I need it. It was my own fault for waiting so long. It’s not your responsibility.”
“You offered to stay with me when you didn’t have to. You shouldn’t be suffering because of it,” Otto said, stubborn chin rising. “I’ll find something.”
All Alwin could do was stare. He’d been caring for himself for so long that he’d forgotten what it felt like to have someone else do it. “Thank you.”
He couldn’t manage more. Felt like if he did, it would open up the floodgates and he’d never be able to close them again.
Otto nodded, giving him a small, closed-mouthed smile that Alwin was sure he would see in his dreams later if the universe was kind.
“The…” He cleared his throat when his voice failed him and tried again, reaching for the royal in him. “The Blue Moons are this way.”
Otto nodded and gestured for him to lead the way, quiet as they traveled, each wrapped in their own thoughts, the magnitude of what had just happened hanging unspoken in the space between them.
He expertly led them toward their goal despite his wandering thoughts, stopping and gripping the back of Otto’s soaked shirt as he passed him to prevent him from running headfirst into agigantic hedge. It stretched before them like a dark, green wall, curving slightly in both directions.
“What is that?” Otto asked, leaning his palm against it and giving it a push, gasping when it didn’t give a single inch.
“Protection,” Alwin said. “It runs in a circle around a tiny clearing, separating it from the rest of the forest.”
“Why?”
Alwin looked around as if checking to see if anyone was listening. “The elves.”
“The elves built it?”
“I stumbled across them by happenstance,” Alwin said, pointing a few steps behind them. “Just there. I watched as one by one, they walked into the hedge and disappeared from sight.”
Otto frowned. “I didn’t know they could do that.”
“They can’t. There is a hidden passage in the hedge. It shifts and moves and changes places every few moments. I waited for them to come out to ask about it. It was built as a safe haven. For freed elves running from their former masters.”
“So they can’t be found in there?”
Alwin shook his head. “Only those who are allowed entrance can find the passage through. Animals can come and go as they please.”
“And…we’re allowed?”
“I am not close to the elves, but we respect each other. They sensed I needed a place to feel safe so they grant me entrance when it is not in use.”
“They didn’t grant me permission, though. And I do not want to disrespect them or their safe space.”
“Which is precisely why they’d agree with you being here.” Alwin smiled. “Because you mean no harm to them or those seeking refuge.”
Alwin crouched and laid his palms against the ground. He looked around before smiling and reaching out to scoop a tiny frog into his hands. “Anyone in there?”
The frog shook its little yellow head.
Not for a while now, it said, eyes wide.
“Can you tell me where the passage is?” Alwin asked, and the frog nodded, throwing itself off Alwin’s palm and hopping to their right, leading them around the hedge until they reached a tiny slit in the otherwise impenetrable leaves.
