Fiction: The Cursed Princess and The Land of Happiness - Part 2

Note: I've read and took note of your suggestions in this post. As there were not many votes/suggestions, I decided to sort of use all of them but not exactly. I gave mutliple choices and also allow you to suggest whatever you like to happen as a sort of experiment. I like to see how my writing would be effected and also, it's kind of fun to have readers tell me how a story should go - that's mainly why I decided to do this. As I did not pre-write this story, I have no idea what happens next nor how long it would take to reach the end but I hope not too long. Thank you for reading and leaving your thoughts and ideas.

-- Read Part 1 here --

Fiction: The Cursed Princess and The Land of Happiness - Part 2
On and on, Prince Limberbean rattled while Eva tried to keep her mind from wandering. If only she could turn him into a frog. Perhaps then he would have more interesting things to say.
    Suddenly, Prince Limberbean stopped talking. He coughed once and then again. With a wild grin on his face, he said, "Do you know in North Island, they make handkerchieves with machines instead of by hand? I had already sent a few servants to purchase a hundred of them. Would you like some?"
    Eva nodded. "Certainly." She would use one of the handkerchieves to silence her screams.
    Prince Limberbean looked around him. "My father said this place had valuable history but it is quite dull, is it not?"
    Eva scoffed. He should definitely be a frog. A tiny one, the size of an apple. "Then why are you here?"
    "My father promised me I would be kin— Prince Limberbean froze. His face paled and then slowly turned a light shade of green. Bit by bit, starting with his shoulders, he began to shrink until he was the size of an apple - green with two bulging yellow eyes, a wide jaw and webbed feet. He squeaked and hopped. A scream rang out. The orchestra stopped playing. A few ladies fainted.
    Eva could only stared. Could she had done this? The frog that was once Prince Limberbean leaped here and there while everyone rushed about trying to avoid him. King Limberbean kept shouting, "Catch him! Catch him!" Guards started after the frog.
   From Eva's secret studies with the royal witch Hilda, she remembered a kiss is a quick way to break a spell. Maybe she could turn him back. A couple of guards stumbled to the floor but failed to get the prince. Eva ran around them. The frog leaped toward the table filled with trays of desserts. Eva rushed forward and grabbed him with both of her hands just before he struck the cake. Yuck! He was cold and slimy. Someone bumped against her back and she and the cake toppled to the floor. Freeing a hand, she wiped cake off her face. Directly across from her, her parents were watching. She stood up, still holding the frog. Seated on her throne, Queen Anne sighed and shook her head while King Fortune beside her, covered his face with his hand and groaned.
    In the air, there was a strange scent - spicy and fruity. Eva looked around her. A feet away, there was a faint green smoke just hanging a few inches above the floor. Had the witch fairy escaped her stone prison? Eva knew only what her parents and others had told her. Due to her wicked ways, the powerful witch fairy that once ruled Happiness was magically sealed in a cave by one of the royal witches about twenty-one years ago. The smoke began to stretch until a figure emerged. The woman stepped out and left behind the smoke that soon faded away. She was tall and slim with a long, narrow face, a slightly crooked nose and black hair wrapped under a gray cloth. The hem of her long dark, gray gown glided across the floor. She had a half smile on her thin lips.
    "It is her! The wicked witch fairy!" "Queen Chartreuse!" "She is back!"
    "Silence!" said the woman. The sudden drop in sound made Eva wondered if everyone was frozen but they were moving. Even the frog Eva was holding had stopped fidgeting.
    "Those who wish to live, leave now," said the woman. The guests struggled with each other to get through the doors. King Limberbean was pulled along by his guards and Princess Wilma though he kept protesting and saying, "But my grandson!"
    The woman turned her eyes on Queen Anne. "Well, Sister, do you wish to test me? I am well aware you do not want your seven daughters to die without being wed. You and the others may leave but Princess Eva and Prince Limberbean must stay."
    Eva's sisters were gathered around their mother. They were holding onto her like a group of lost chicks.
    Queen Anne's calm and steady gaze met Eva's for a brief moment before she slowly turned away. "Very well, we shall leave. Come along." Queen Anne, King Fortune, Eva's sisters, aunts, uncles, her grandfather and anyone that was left filed out the doors.
    They were leaving. Without her! Eva dropped the frog and raced after her family but the doors shut before she could reach it. Her long braid wrapped around her shoulders, then her waist and legs. The woman pointed a long, thin finger at Eva. "You stay. And you, dear prince, keep still." She snapped her fingers at the frog. He jumped onto the table and kept still.
    "Well, Deary, are you not going to greet your aunt?" Queen Chartreuse grinned and tilted her chin.
    "Aunt? Queen Chartreuse, I do not know who you are," said Eva.
    "That is unpleasant but true. Call me Queen Olive. I just detested Chartreuse. It was mother's name," said the woman.
    Eva let out a soft laugh. "Queen Olive or whatever your name is, let me go!"
    Queen Olive's smile widened. "Is that how you speak to your aunt?"
    "Just tell me what you want." Eva could not care that the witch fairy known to have great powers could kill her any moment. She was not going to make it easy for Queen Olive.
    "You will free me from my stone prison," said Queen Olive. "It is, you might say, your destiny."
    "My destiny?" Eva scoffed. She had always thought her destiny was to marry a prince, lift the curse off her land and that was that. "Besides, why would I help someone who tied me up and rudely demanded something of me?" Why had she not noticed Queen Olive was slightly transparent? Hilda had said anyone can move without a body but they must have great concentration or great power.
    "There is no one else. Only the one hundred and eighth princess can free me. You are the only one," said Queen Olive.
    "If that is true, then should you not be kinder toward me?" Eva tried for a calm smile but her lips immediately returned to their straight line.
    "Is that important?" said Queen Olive.
    "It is to me." Eva was alway taught manners were important.
    Queen Olive studied Eva for a moment. She blinked rather like someone too tired to move. "I will not waste time explaining but know this - if you do not do as I asked, all your lovely sisters and your people will pay the price."
    "Can you promise me no one will get hurt?" said Eva.
    "I can promise you I will not destroy Happiness." Queen Olive pursed her lips into a straight line. She waved her hand toward her right. The marble floor warbled and a dark cloud appeared. It stretched upward and sideways to create a rift. "Step through there, now. Both of you."
    Eva could not see anything beyond the darkness in the rift. Prince Limberbean started to squeak. Queen Olive gave him a brief stare. He quieted down. "I suppose we should turn the prince back first. I do not like frogs. Give him a quick kiss and we can go."
    Eva shook her head.. "No, no, no! I have not agreed yet!"
    "Do you want your people to suffer?" said Queen Olive. "Be quick!"   
    "Why do you want Prince Limberbean?" said Eva. If she could leave him out of this, that would be good for their kingdom.
    Queen Olive glanced at the frog and then at Eva. "You will find out in time. Be quick!"
    Prince Limberbean was looking up at Eva with bulging eyes. How could Eva kiss him? Not only was he the most boring person she had known, he was in frog form. But she had to do. If the other kingdom knew she had a chance to turn him back and did nothing, there could be war between their two kingdoms. Eva gingerly bended down and dropped a quick kiss on the frog's head. It was slimy, like mud. She would have wiped her mouth if she could move her arms.
    Smoke appeared and swirled around the frog. In an instant, Prince Limberbean was a man standing before Eva. He stared, wide-eyed, at her. She laughed softly. It worked! She should not have been surprised and yet she was.
    "What just happened?" said Prince Limberbean. He looked toward Queen Olive and then at Eva. "I remember looking at you and then I was... Was I a frog?" Eva nodded and gave him a wry smile. He raised his eyebrows.
    Queen Olive narrowed her eyes slightly. She waved a hand and Eva's braid started to grow. It extended out to bind around Prince Limberbean and pulled him against Eva. His head struck hers. "Ou! Watch it!" said Eva. Prince Limberbean let out a breath. "My apology, Princess."
    "Call me Eva," said Eva.
    "And you may call me Philip," said Prince Limberbean. Eva remembered Philip was one of his names out of the seventeen ones. He was looking at her with his monolid gray-green eyes - eyes she had never really paid attention to before. Her heart was racing but she was not certain as to why. She turned away.
    "Are we done with the introductions?" said Queen Olive. Her arms were crossed over her chest and one of her fingers was tapping against her sleeves - a gesture Eva's mother had done when she was impatient. "Perhaps you would like me to turn your prince back to a frog, permanently. As much as I hate frogs, they are at least, more manageable. Would you not agree?"
    Eva could not allow the prince to become a frog for all eternity. King Limberbean would surely have something to say about it. Perhaps she could will Philip away with her powers. But she had not done any magic even though she had been studying for five years. She turned to face Philip. He had a small grin and there were two creases between his eyebrows. "Do not worry about me, Eva. I can handle any spell thrown at me." There was a shake to his voice.
    "Prince Limberbean, it is kind of you to offer such assurance but I cannot allow you to leave right now," said Queen Olive. She turned back to Eva. "Deary, you are my sister's child but I can tell you even with your witch and fairy powers, they will not affect me while I am in this form. And since your powers had been bound for years, it is unlikely you will get to use them, even now, on your twenty-first birthday, when the binding spell slowly cease to work."
    "How do I know you are telling me the truth? Am I to trust a witch fairy I have just met?" Eva would prefer not to believe her.
    "You are not as dumb as you looked, Deary."
    "Do not call me Deary. You... You are mad!" Eva struck out her leg at the woman but bound and tied to Prince Limberbean, she was only able to move her feet slightly.
    "Am I mad? Perhaps." Queen Olive laughed. Her eyes sparkled under the light. She waved her hand and Eva's braid around their legs loosened but tightened around their shoulders and waists as if announcing their stronger hold. "Walk through the rift now if you do not want to spend your life cleaning after a frog."
    Eva and Philip glanced at each other and nodded. They took slow, careful steps toward the rift but Eva stopped just before they stepped through forcing Philip to stop and bumped his head against hers. In the rift, the blackness was lighter now. She could make out a faint, gray stone wall. Queen Olive was standing beside them. "Are you going in or shall I do something you will both regret?"
    Behind them, the double doors bursted opened with two loud bangs...

Choose what happens next:
A — The royal witch Hilda entered.
B — A sand storm roamed into the ballroom.
C — Philip pushed Queen Olive into the rift but he slipped through her transparent form. He ended up pulling Eva along as fell into the rift's opening.
D — Fill in the blank with what you think should happen next.