Free Golden Whispers, a short retelling of the Frog Prince, Episode one of the Golden Erotic Tales Series by M.A. Thomas

 
     
    At twenty years old, Lela couldn’t resist
falling back on childish antics. After all, she was the King’s only
child and oh how he doted on her. She could go anywhere in the
castle and its grounds, exploring whatever got her attention. She
was boundless, often traversing the forest alone going far beyond
the safety of the castle.
    Yes, Lela’s father did not saddle her with
rules. Even so, there was one rule he insisted she obey without
fail: never stay outside the castle after dark. This rule Lela did
not mind. She was completely afraid of the dark. When she was ten
years old her mother vanished one night after dinner when she
decided to go for a walk. Lela didn’t know the details of her
mother’s disappearance or why she had ventured out after sunset,
something no one, not even her father or his men ever did.
    She found solace in the forest where she felt
she could dance and sing and clear her mind of any thought that
reminded her of her mother. She could pretend her heart had healed
and that she no longer carried the weight of loss and grief.
    Today, a golden ball shining among a pile of
leaves had summoned her and she had gleefully ran to it as if the
very sun would cease to exist if she did not answer the ball’s
call. But when she came to the ball, it began to roll away from
her.
    She followed it, taking light steps so as not
to disturb the strange event she was witnessing. It kept going
until it came to a well some thirty feet from her. She looked over
her shoulder to see if anyone else was around. She didn’t want to
share this experience with anyone, let alone her father’s men who
would sometimes spy on her under pretense that they were hunting or
scouting the land for bandits.
    Holding her breath, she approached the ball.
She tried to pick it up, but it was too heavy. The ball was made of
gold! Lela had never seen anything like it in all the Kingdom of
Barmoth. Gold had not existed in Barmoth for thousands of years.
She had only read about it in books. And even she did not know the
reason for its extinction.
    “Bloody hell,” she whispered. “Gold.” Yes,
she was convinced the ball was made of gold.
    Weighing her options, she paced back and
forth. She could blanket the ball with leaves and sticks and then
go back to the castle to formulize a plan. No, she couldn’t risk
someone else finding it.
    Inhaling a long breath, she tried once again
to pick it up. This time, she succeeded. But before she had a
moment to enjoy her victory, the ball pulled her forward and into
the well.
    Lela screamed as she fell, her thoughts on
what would greet her at the bottom. Death was certain. The old
wells of the forest were deep and no one had ever survived a fall.
The people who had inhabited the forest hundreds of years ago left
behind wells which now only served as death traps for animals and
careless wanderers.
    Images of her mother invaded her mind and she
screamed louder. If she was going to die, let it happen fast. She
closed her eyes and begged the Gods to take her before she reached
the bottom. Down, down she fell, the ball still in her hands.
    In the next moment, she did not feel herself
falling anymore. Perhaps the Gods had taken her. She opened her
eyes. It was not possible! She had fallen down a well and yet here
she was, unscarred at its very bottom.
    She quickly looked around her. The bones of
her unlucky predecessors greeted her and she resisted the urge to
hurl. She looked up at the well’s opening. Although light was still
shining, she knew the sun was only hours from setting.
    She had never in her life been outside the
castle after sunset. Leaning against a wall, she dropped to the
ground. The ball, a few feet in front of her, rolled toward
her.
    “It’s your fault! Get away from me,” Lela
said. “Help me! Please someone help me!” she yelled.
    The hours passed. Lela craved her father’s
comforting arms.
    Suppressing tears, she raised her eyes to the
well’s opening and yelled, “Help