Prince Valium (continued)
"I will take the gun," you tell him.
The old man's eyebrows shoot upward.
"The gun?
That's an odd choice."
You shrug.
If witches are involved, even if it happened 100 years ago, you want to have protection on you.
You're simply not going to let yourself get caught in any kind of evil spell.
That would be horrendously stupid.
For a while, the old man says nothing, probably hoping you have more to say.
You don't.
"Alright, then," says the old man.
"The gun it is."
He packs up the rest of his things quickly and turns to head off in another direction.
"Good luck," he mutters.
He doesn't look back at you at all.
Again, you shrug.
It's your choice.
* * * * *
When you reach the outer boundaries of the castle's property, you realize you should have chosen the sword.
To get to the castle, you have to get past the briars, and in order to do that, you have to cut through them.
All you have on you, of course, is the gun, and you can't cut through shrubbery with a gun.
You sigh.
There must be some other way.
You walk around the border of thorns, hoping to find some chink, an opening, maybe even a free path.
Nothing.
There are only walls and walls of thorny bush.
You sit down to rest a while and think...
...and you hear voices.
Keeping yourself hidden, you venture toward the voices.
It sounds like two people, a young man and a young boy.
You crouch low and listen, holding yourself still.
Moments later, the two come closer, and you see them.
Both are looking up at the massive wall of briars.
The young boy appears to be the young man's squire or servant, leading the horse and carrying a sack, while the young man is as well-dressed as a prince, weilding a heavy sword and looking up at the sturdy looking shrubbery.
The young man smiles when he speaks to the boy.
"So," he says, "do you think my new sword will be able to cut through those briars?"
The young boy bites his lip before responding.
His words are full of pride.
"Any sword of yours can cut through anything, Prince Valiant!"
Valiant.
Naturally, the other prince's parents would be better than yours at naming their children.
You're jealous of him already; never mind that he's going after
your princess.
You stop and think for a little bit.
Valiant has a sword.
You don't.
The sword is new; therefore, Valiant will probably be keeping it possessively by his side at all times.
So there's no chance of you snatching it away if you wanted to.
But you do have the gun.
You realize then that if you want to have the princess for your very own, you have two choices, and you
do want the princess.
So what do you do?
