Once Upon a Time (Part Three)

May 10, 2021

Missed parts one and two? You can read them here and here.

Poor Prince Walter just muddled along. He did not despair or even fail. Well, he did hit some pretty rocky patches and did some unsavory things we won’t go into here, but he always bounced back and landed on his feet. Little by little, Walter realized that there was always somebody supporting him and fighting for him. Over time, he noticed that some of these people really goaded him into following their suggestions. Eventually, Walter would get angry and leave their company. Other times, he became trapped. He had an uncomfortable sense that he was becoming co-dependent. There were others, though, who were more interested in what Walter thought. Their proddings were more like “Walter, what do you think about this?” Frederick, as you can guess, was manipulating the first kind as well as Walter himself who invited all of this, but Walter’s friend Charles was somehow behind this second, more dangerous group. A very dangerous group indeed, if you’re Frederick.

The battle raged. At one point, Frederick decided “Enough! I need to turn up the heat, blow in the little fire I have, along with some smoke and spells. Confound it all, Walter has been listening to himself more and more! At first I thought it was manageable, just a phase, because Walter created a lot of pain for himself and others, but somehow he has managed not only to survive, but thrive. He even thinks he knows where he is going in life! No more! I know his weak spot.”

So what did Frederick do? Slowly and discreetly, he wrapped his dragon tail around poor Prince Walter so Walter had a harder and harder time breathing. Walter felt the constriction, but couldn’t see or feel the tail. Frederick backed off a little when he heard Walter, of all people, suddenly yell out, “I feel like there’s a cobra around my chest and I can’t breathe!” Whoa! At least he didn’t know it was a dragon’s tail, but this self-understanding was getting too close for the dragon’s comfort. Frederick slightly retreated just to confuse Walter, but then Frederick resumed full force and wrapped his tail around Walter’s chest even more tightly.

To be continued…