"Agreed." Henry offered his hand for her to shake and shake she did before confusion appeared on her face.
"Wait, why do you want to meet my sister again?"
Thankfully, she wasn't asking in suspicion. Just pure curiosity as she has always been.
"I'm just curious about the rumors going on about her and besides, as a magician, I've always been attracted to the unknowns of the world." With quick thinking, Henry came up with an excuse that was both shrouded in mystery and while at the same time enough to satiate Anna's curiosity.
"Uh-huh…" Anna was about to place her hood back on when she seemed to remember something and excitedly pried Henry about it.
"Hey! I almost forgot. Do you think I can also learn magic like you?"
Henry stopped and stared at Anna's eyes at the question. For some reason, Anna's figure started to overlap with himself from a few weeks ago when he asked Master Elias to learn the flashy magic spells.
With a few seconds to think, Henry then answered her, "Depends on your talent. Not to mention, whether you can achieve Inner Peace."
Anna tilted her head at the thought, "Inner Peace? What's that?"
"Ah~Hmm. It is not the time for you to learn it yet." Bearing the aura of mystery again, Henry pretended to be wise. Seeing as acting like wise and mysterious gets to be treated as if his words were part of a prophecy.
Anna in front of him is a great example. She thinks he has the cure for her sister but the truth is, he has something better than a cure. He can perhaps teach Elsa how to control her ice powers.
Of course, it's not a scam either. Sometimes, control is the better cure than prevention. Take the governments as an example.
"Then when will it be time for me to learn?"
Henry shook his head and replied in a simple manner, "I'll tell you when it is."
Anna, sensing that she truly is in no shape to learn it, didn't force it either.
"Wait. How would I know if you're coming or to tell you that Kai has taken an interest in you?" Anna asked.
At first, Henry was contemplating it but remembering that he had his birdy friends, smiled confidently and replied, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it."
———
After much more clarification and assurance, they both finally parted ways. Although Henry wanted to use this as an excuse to accompany the Princess back to her castle but unfortunately, she's not exactly supposed to be out here in the first place.
So if she were to return with him standing beside her, the servants and especially the steward Kai, might get bad thoughts against him, and making a bad first impression is something he had to avoid.
"Take care of yourself, Princess. I hope no more drunk men will get handsy with you." Leaving her pouting, Henry returned to the clinic shortly.
"Henry!" The first one to greet him was obviously Polynesia. She always has her own separate wooden perch beside the entrance.
"How's it going? Don't tell me Too-Too already took his 50% cut? He barely did anything." Henry cast a vigilant look towards the Owl who seemed to be shocked at the accusation.
Henry may not understand them for now but they understand him instead. It's like arguing against your wife with earplugs on.
"Excuse me!? I'm not taking a cut out of it especially 50%! How outrageous of you to accuse me!"
Hearing only angry chirps and cries coming from the owl, Henry turned to Polynesia and said, "Don't bother translating them." Much to Too-Too's annoyance.
Polynesia chuckled and ignored the owl who kept pestering her to translate everything to Henry before perching on his left shoulder.
"Wanna know how much we earned from the show?"
Henry shook his head and nonchalantly replied, "Not interested. You can keep everything we start earning from now on. Consider it as my payment for the doctor's service."
Of course, why would he bother with coins? He's a goddamn prince for god's sake, and the heir to the throne at that. If he wanted, he could take a million gold coins from the treasury and no one would bat an eye.
Maybe only his siblings would, considering their hate against him.
Polynesia was stunned for a brief moment before shaking her head, "No. You were the star of the show. If it weren't for you and we blindly performed like we usually do in towns without knowing about the consequences, we might've brought an even bigger trouble to John."
"You'll take a 20% cut." She came to a decision.
Still, Henry wanted to refuse however, doing so would only make the parrot resent him further, so he complied but with a twist.
"Fine. But I'll only take 5% and the other 15%, give it to Kristoff once he comes to visit."
Speaking of the reindeer-whisperer friend of his, it's been a few days since he last saw the guy. Hopefully, his presence didn't cause any butterflies and actually caused trouble for the big oaf.
Polynesia contemplated his words for a few seconds before reluctantly agreeing.
"Fine. I'll relay to Too-Too about what you just said. He's the one who handles our finances here."
Now that the topic of cuts is out, Henry changed the subject, "By the way, I noticed the doctor leaves every day at a precise time in the afternoon. What's with him?"
His words prompted a sigh from the parrot, "It's a bit complicated. Ever since we arrived here in Arendelle, he's been fixated on visiting a bakery shop run by an old woman every single day."
Henry perked up at that, so he smirked and wiggled his brows, "Oohh~ I'm smelling a romantic story from it."
Polynesia chuckled but agreed, "You're right. Although the doctor tries his best to hide it but he's always been bad at lying. Even Gub-Gub can sense his interest in her."
Just then, Henry remembered that in one of the earliest films of Dolittle featuring Robert Downey Jr, the doctor had a wife.
"So he's been single all this time? Never once getting married?"
As expected, the parrot shook her head and said, "No. There once was a girl who captured John's heart. Her name was Lily, a daughter of the great pirate king. I could still remember teaching her how to talk to animals with his help."
Henry didn't bother asking. He already knows what happened to her and sure enough, Polynesia only hesitated a bit before revealing, "She died at the sea. Ever since then, her death caused a huge change in John. He barely does his job anymore, he keeps wandering from town to town. We can only follow him while he seems lost in his direction."
"It was only when we arrived here in Arendelle that something inside him changed. He met this woman who ran an old bakery and now, the doctor that I used to know starts to come back. As much as I hate to admit it but I'm glad he's finally moving on from Lily's death."
At the end of the story, question marks start to appear on his head. This is definitely not part of the story he watched. Dolittle is supposed to stay in England, become a recluse for years, and finally goes out to help cure the Queen from a disease.
But for some reason, it seems like combining several different Disney films and stories had turned the timeline into a jumbled mess. First of all, the current era is in the middle between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution, so no doubt the Kingdom of Great Britain shown in the film doesn't exist yet, probably only known as the Kingdom of England for now.
'What a mess.' Henry's face crumpled into frustration.
"Enough of John's story. How about you tell me yours while I teach you animal language?"
Henry hesitated only a little and after finding nothing wrong with it, nodded his head in agreement.
———
The parrot definitely did not expect Henry to be the crown prince of a Kingdom. And when he told her about the story of how he watched someone whom he had just talked and bonded with for years die in front of him, Polynesia gave him her condolences.
"But still, risking your life to save your people. I guess you're one of the rarest kind, Henry dear. And don't expect me to call you prince. For me, you're still that Henry dear who arrived in the clinic with numb legs." Polynesia's words garnered a chuckle from Henry.
"Relax, matter of fact, I've kinda grown a bit weary from being called Prince all the time. It's a fresh breath of air to be called only by my own name."
Polynesia, being the sharpest tool in the shed, quickly noticed the meaning behind his words.
"So you don't want to live your life being respected for something you didn't earn, huh?"
He nodded, "A little bit, yeah. No matter how much I want to wear my title as the crown prince with pride, I can't get comfortable using a title I didn't work my arse off for."
"Hmm. I agree with you. But after what you just did in that shipwreck, risking your life to save someone even though you could just leave to save yourself, I'd say you can now wear that title with pride. I'm sure your parents will be proud."
Polynesia spread her wings and continued, "I mean look at me. If I were your mother, I'd be so, so proud of you, Henry dear."
Henry stopped for a bit and stared at her in a daze, meekly muttering a small, "Thank you."
Only for the parrot to scoff and reply, "Don't get emotional on me now. Let's proceed with the next word…"
———
After breezing through Polynesia's animal language lessons with ease that greatly surprised the parrot, Henry made his way up to the beach where he last saw Ariel.
On the way there, he bought a few items with the 5% cut that he received from Too-Too who seemed reluctant to give. But it was quickly solved with a quick glare from Polynesia.
Now with 2 gold coins in hand, Henry bought quite a few accessories such as a mirror, a wooden comb, a ring jewelry, a pair of gloves, and finally, a red scarf.
Leaving behind a bunch of swooning women who were muttering curses about the lucky girl who got to him first, Henry arrived at the beach.
As expected, Ariel was already there, hiding behind a huge rock embedded near the sandy shore. Although she's trying to hide but her red hair glinting under the moonlight gave her position away.
"Ariel." he softly called out to her.
The woman behind the boulder jumped in fright before a familiar face peeked out. Ariel's expression turned into relief once she saw Henry before swimming towards him.
At the same time, she then noticed the items that Henry was carrying, with a gasp, she pointed her delicate finger at them, "W-What are those?"
Knowing her fascination with human objects, Henry crouched and first showed the mirror to her, "This is called a mirror. We use it to see ourselves, it's called a reflection. Though I doubt this'll be useful to you since the water itself can already reflect how beautiful you are."
'Damn! The words just came out of my mouth out of nowhere!' Henry quickly cursed under his breath. Watching as Ariel turned beet red.
"T-Thank you!" Taking the hand mirror from Henry's, Ariel played with it a few times.
Henry then introduced the next object, "This is called a comb. We use it to fix and style our hair. Like this." He then proceeded to use it on himself before giving it to Ariel.
He once again subconsciously uttered, "Though I also doubt you'll need it cause from the looks of it, your hair already styles itself."
'I swear to god!'
Once again, Ariel blushed and she even looked like she wanted to go back to the sea and bury herself under the seafloor.
Thankfully, when Henry introduced the silver ring and the pair of gloves, no subconscious words came out of his mouth.
That is until he gave her the red scarf.
"This is a scarf. I'm sure you're not going to need it. I just bought it because the color reminds me of your hair."
———————————————
[Can you guys recommend some good Kingdom-Building novels and books? I plan on reading more on the subject to further my understanding about it. Don't get me wrong, I have some basic knowledge about kingdom-building as I play video games like Total Warhammer, Civilization VI and Starcraft 2 with my ancient fossil-like family computer. I just want to see how others write about it and learn from them so I could implement it on this book. Your recs are greatly appreciated!]
[Oh and before I forget, I would like to thank you all for the support on this book especially my patrons, I'm starting to earn enough out of it to take my family out for dinner and help in paying the bills around the house. Soon, I might be able to pay for my college tuition by myself!]