DON'T HOP BELIEVING (The Frog Prince flash fiction!)

Happy Thursday! *ignores the fact that it's Sunday*

Hehe. Heh. Sorry I'm late with my post this week! I'm seriously slacking, not just on my blog but other things as well. Reading, writing, Bible reading, and everything else are struggling. :/ I'm hoping to get myself together in this coming week, because this feeling of not doing anything and letting time run away with me STINKS and I really want to try to be more organized.

BUT ANYWAY. This week, late or not, I'm bringing you guys the next installment of The Adventures of Trentley and Jynnia! (not an official title xD) If you didn't know, there's a new fairytale featured on The Fairytale Central every month, and Arielle posts a writing prompt inspired by that fairytale on her website. I've been writing short stories tying these prompts into the very strange journey that my cute little couple Trentley and Jynnia have been having, and it's been quite an interesting ride. xD

Here's the prompt, and you can find the original post HERE:

Last month I made a little fun of myself because of how goofy my story was, but I think this month's is even goofier. xD But I'm letting myself just let go a little and have fun because that's what these prompts are for, and really, what else could you do with fairytales besides have fun??

I do apologize in advance, though, for this story's awful title.

Anyway, on with the story!

      *** 

Jynnia and Trentley sat staring at each other in the middle of the woods.
"I can't believe I'm in love with a bear," Jynnia said.
Trentley scratched his ear with his paw.
"How are we going to get you back to normal?" Jynnia said. "Getting rid of some crazy long hair is one thing, but this?"
"That dumb dwarf said there are jewels everywhere," Trentley said. Jynnia just could not get used to seeing her boyfriend's voice come out of a bear's mouth. It was slightly more growly than normal, but definitely Trentley's voice. "Maybe we'll come across one before long that will help us fix this."
She sighed. "We'll figure something out." For the hundredth time since Trentley's transformation nearly a week ago, she began to reach out to touch his face. But that felt far too much like petting a dog, and she was not a fan. She pulled her hand back.
"Jynnia, I've been thinking." Trentley slowly lowered his large body to the ground and rested on his fluffy side. "All those gems can't stay strewn throughout the world. Bad things could happen. Well..." He paused.
"Bad things already have happened," Jynnia finished his thought.
"Yeah. And I think--"
"Shh!" Jynnia held up a finger, zoning out.
"What?"
"Shh!"
She listened carefully. "I thought I heard a voice," she said, so quietly it was barely even a whisper. She stood and looked from tree to tree, searching for any movement. They had been especially careful of any passersby lately; if anybody came across Trentley unawares, they could shoot him.
Trentley sat upright, his ears flicking. "I heard it too," he whispered. Strange to hear a bear whisper.
Jynnia held her palms toward him to keep him from moving. "I'll go check it out," she said. "Make sure they don't see you."
She quietly stepped through the woods, avoiding every twig and leaf she could. She peered through the trees, squinting. Searching for a person walking--
"Hey."
Jynnia jumped and looked around. The voice sounded as though it was right beside her, but she saw no one.
"Down here."
Oh, no. If that didn't sound like a line from a fairytale.
Jynnia slowly dropped her gaze toward the ground, her heart pounding in anticipation of what she might see. Her eyes stopped on a shiny green frog slightly bigger than her fist.
She made an odd noise between a gasp and a scream. 
"What, you're not afraid of frogs, are you?" The frog actually opened its mouth and spoke.
"N-no. I'm just... not accustomed to talking to animals."
The frog laughed. "You could have fooled me. I've seen your little predicament. Your boyfriend's a bear."
She glared at him. "How did you know that?"
"I'm a frog. I hop around."
She nodded slowly. "Yeah, so, uh-- what do you want?"
"I have a proposition for you. See, I used to be a person."
Of course you did.
"A fairy, actually. And I got in a fight with another fairy and, well, he won. And now I'm stuck like this."
Jynnia blinked. "Okay..."

"Okay, and the only cure is to be kissed by a beautiful girl."
Jynnia rolled her eyes. "Are you really about to ask me to kiss y--"
"I'll turn your boyfriend back into a human."
She stopped. "Can you do that?"
"Of course. I can break other people's spells, but I can't break a spell on myself." He sighed. "Which is why I've been a frog for two years. Lucky no one's stepped on me, you know? And those birds, I hear they've got a--"
"Okay, okay!" Jynnia held her hands up. She looked at the frog and tried to keep her lip from curling. "I'll... kiss you."
"Yes!" The frog leaped into the air and did a spin. Oh, brother.
"Jynnia? Are you all right?" Trentley called.
Jynnia glanced back in his direction. "Let's get this over with," she said, and knelt to hold out her hand. The frog jumped into it.
Standing, Jynnia sighed deeply. She couldn't believe she was about to do this. But she held the frog close to her face, tried to ignore the fact that he looked like he was smiling, and closed her eyes and kissed him.
She felt a very strange sensation. The frog fell out of her hand, and she felt very tense, as if something was preventing her breathing. She opened her eyes to see a pair of feet in front of her.
"What on earth?" She tried to turn her head but found that she had mobility in her neck. "What did you do to me?" she demanded.
But the frog was gone. In his place was this giant pair of feet.
Jynnia could not look up, either, so she turned around. That was when she realized she was sitting very close to the ground and had webbed feet.
She screamed, but it came out sounding less shriek-y and more croak-y.
Trentley emerged through the trees. Trentley! He was no longer a bear! Jynnia wanted to rejoice, but she was a frog.
"Jynnia!" Trentley looked around. Feeling very wobbly and strange, Jynnia hopped up to a tree trunk to see better.
Trentley's face grew angry. The frog-turned-fairy had pointed ears, shoulder-length blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, and boyish features.
"What have you done with her?" Trentley growled, and this time it wasn't because he was a bear. He tackled the fairy.
"Trentley!" Jynnia shouted as loudly as she could. She hated talking. Her lips felt slimy. "I'm down here!"
Feeling like a total idiot, she started jumping up and down.
Trentley looked at her, and horror darkened his face. "Oh, my goodness," he said. "What happened to you?" He turned to glare at the fairy again.
"He was a frog!" Jynnia said. "And he said if I kissed him he would turn you back!"
"Let me get this straight. You're telling me that you agreed to kiss that frog?"
"It seemed like a good idea at the time."
"In that case, I'd hate to hear your definition of a bad idea."
"You know he can hear you, right?" The fairy stood and held his hands up. "Allow me to make the proper introductions, since nobody's asking. My name is Paxton. I'm--"
"I don't care! Look what you've done to Jynnia!"
"I'm sorry! If I would have told her the consequences, she wouldn't have kissed me."
"Yeah, and I wouldn't have had to kill you," Trentley growled, making a move toward the fairy again.
"Stop, stop!" Paxton held his hands up. "I can take it off of her."
"Yeah," Jynnia said, remembering. "You said you could take curses off other people. Why didn't you tell me that to begin with?! Then I would have still done it for you."
"But maybe you wouldn't have!" the fairy said. "Well, anyway, let's just get all of this behind us." He faced Jynnia and closed his eyes. Sleek wings they hadn't noticed before unfolded from his back and gave one shake, shedding glowing, sparkling dust. It floated over to Jynnia and surrounded her, and in a moment she was human again.
"Jynnia!" Trentley cried, taking the step forward to embrace her. Jynnia was glad to embrace Trentley, too, without fur getting in her way.
"Don't mind me," Paxton sighed.
"How did you come to be a frog, anyway?" Trentley asked, turning around.
The fairy sighed impatiently, as though this were the tenth time he had been asked and not only the second. "You see, apparently it's frowned upon to make people you don't like into frogs. At least that's what that other old fairy thought all those ages ago when I turned that silly prince into a frog and he had to sleep for three days on a princess's pillow--" He laughed, slapping his knee. "If only you could understand how funny it was, how he was so desperate."
"Wait," Jynnia said. "You're... that fairy?"
"Why did you turn the prince into a frog?" Trentley asked.
"Because he was a prince," the fairy said dryly. "I was jealous. Anyway, moving on. Long story short, the other fairy was apparently a friend of that prince's, and when he found out what had happened, he went searching for me. And a couple of years ago, he found me." Another sigh. "And a long two years, it was. But now here I stand, tall and two-legged once again." He took Jynnia's hand and bowed, kissing it. Jynnia yanked it back and Trentley glared at him.  

"Wait, I thought you had to be hosted by a princess for three days, not just kissed by a girl," Jynnia said. 

"Yes, well, magic changes over the years."
"Well," Jynnia said, drying the back of her hand on her clothes. "Thanks for, uh, saving me, but we should really be going."
Paxton nodded and shook out his wings again, and they began to slowly flap back and forth. "Glad I could be of service. And I should thank you for returning me to my natural form."
Jynnia held back a laugh at his calling being a fairy "natural form", but she smiled and copied his bow from a moment ago.
The fairy saluted with one finger and lifted off the ground, and a moment later was flying away through the trees.
Jynnia sighed. "Well, that was fun," she said. "Thank goodness neither of us are animals now."
"Yeah." Trentley took a deep breath. "Jynnia, I was trying to tell you earlier. I think we should search for all the jewels."
 "Seems like we don't have to search for them. They're finding us on their own pretty easily." Jynnia wiped her mouth, still feeling the sticky wetness that had coated them a short time before.
"Yes, well... I want to find them all and keep them from messing up other people's lives," Trentley said. "We've seen the strange things they can do. I don't want anybody else to have to go through that."
Jynnia laughed. "So, what we're the sacrifices?"
Trentley smiled. "If you want to look at it like that."
They began walking throught he woods, arm in arm. Now that Trentley wasn't a bear anymore, they could show their faces in public.
"We didn't find a jewel this time," Jynnia said suddenly. "How did that happen if there wasn't a jewel?"
Trentley thought a moment. "Well, we know now that the jewels cause fairytale-related events to happen, but we also know that those fairytales actually happened. So maybe we don't need the jewels around to meet up with the people that were involved in those stories."
"So why did we happen to meet up with Paxton?" Jynnia wondered.
Trentley laughed. "There sure are a lot of questions, huh?"
"You bet."
"Well, what do you say while we try to come up with the answers, we go find some jewels?"
Jynnia squeezed his very human-like arm and grinned. "Let's go!"

      ***

Well, at least nobody ended this story as an animal or anything.

I hope you enjoyed this weird little chapter of Trentley and Jynnia's story! If you don't really know what's going on, don't worry because I don't either. xD

A couple things before I go! You might remember a couple weeks ago I said I had some exciting news but I was waiting to tell you. Well, now I can finally share it! I'm so excited to announce that I'm going to have a story published on Havok!

You can read my story Fly on the Havok website Tuesday, September 17th. I'm so thrilled to be a part of the Stories That Sing theme and I can't wait for you guys to read it! :D

Also, just a reminder that you guys can still ask me questions for my Q&A vlog! If you missed it, the post is HERE. You have until Thursday, the 29th, to ask away.

And I think that's all! Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time!

What do you think of Trentley's decision to find all the jewels? Do you think we'll see Paxton again? Most importantly, HAVE YOU WRITTEN A STORY FOR THE PROMPT? Link to it in the comments so I can read it. :D