Fairy Tale Rip-off: A Write or Die NaNoWriMo Vignette (#6)

For this vignette, in addition to using Write or Die, I also used this nifty little tool called The Brainstormer. You click on it to spin the wheel and it will land on concept words to help with various creative projects. For this vignette, the words that came up were, "Prey to misfortune, fairytale, clocktower."  As in most cases, I had Write or Die set at 500 words in 15 minutes. This has only been edited for typos and a few grammatical errors that I happened to catch --there may be more...

Oh, and this one made the cut to be read aloud at the Thank God It's Over party.

rince Oswald was hunting with his trusty steed one day when he began to hear someone singing in the distance. A lovely humming sound. He decided to follow the sound of the singing, until eventually, he arrived at a clock tower. Now this clock tower was not the kind one sees in the middle of large metropolitan areas. This was made from stone and stood in the middle of the forest in a clearing surrounded by trees. That is to say, the clearing was surrounded by trees, not the clock tower. Prince Oswald noticed that the minute hand had just landed on the hour of three o'clock, and yet there was no chime. "Strange," he thought. But then it occurred to him that the bells could be out of order, or have been taken out to be cleaned.  While he was thinking about this, he heard the singing again, this time it was very close. It seemed to come from above. The prince looked up, and at the window above the clock, there was a beautiful young woman with red hair and sharp blue eyes. She was singing and she appeared to be happy. "I guess that explains the lack of bells. Who'd want to live in a clock tower if there were going to be bells chiming every hour and sometimes on the half hour, and right over your head to boot!" Oswald mused. When the singing stopped, Oswald couldn't contain himself, "I say, hello!" The woman above him appeared to be startled and looked all around for the source of the voice. "I'm down here, miss."

The woman looked down and found Oswald. "Oh!" she smiled, "How did you get here?"

"I was hunting...with my horse, when I heard you singing and just had her hear where it came from --you really have a lovely voice, you know!"

The woman blushed. "What is your name, sir?"

"My name is Pr...my name is Oswal...Ozzy."

"Good to meet you, Ozzy. I'm Kendra."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Kendra," Ozzy dismounted and bowed. His horse snorted and backed up a bit, "Do you live up there in that clock tower?"

"Yes, I do. Just me. All alone up here in this tower. Out in the middle of nowhere."

"Can't you come and go as you please?"

"Umm...not exactly. There's a curse."

Ozzy sighed. "There's always a curse, isn't there?"

"I suppose...this one requires the aid of a handsome prince. If a handsome prince tries to enter through the tower door at the bottom of the tower, and if he manages to give true love's kiss to the maiden living inside the tower, then they are blessed to live happily ever after."

"Oh...well that doesn't sound like much of a curse. Sounds more like challenge to me!"

"Oh, uh...yeah, there was something I forgot to mention. Inside the tower is  fire breathing dragon. The handsome prince must defeat the dragon in order to find the princess and only then will she be able to bestow true love's kiss."

"I've fought dragons before."

"Well, you are handsome," Kendra giggled, "but the curse specifically mentions a handsome prince, so do you happen to know any princes, Ozzy?"

"As it so happens, I do. Allow me to reintroduce myself," Ozzy took another bow, "I am Prince Oswald of Nargalopia."

The end.