The Prince’s Adventures
THE PRINCE IS IN THE FOREST WITH HIS KEY AND COMPASS PRINCE Many instances of bad luck dog my travels. My clothes are scratched and torn by briars so that the peasants will not give me shelter or food. My horse throws me off and bolts. My tent blows down in a terrible storm. My purse is stolen while I sleep. I miss the ferry over the lake and have to walk through the marshes where mosquitoes devour me. My mobile phone batteries corrode. I get an abscess in my knee joint no doubt due to my subsistence diet of roots and berries. When I reach a raging river, I strip naked and swim across, holding my clothes over my head. S/HE IS IN DANGER OF ENJOYING REMEMBERING THIS To save time. As I cross the Blue Mountains, a terrible thunderstorm sluices water over me for twelve hours and the dazzle of the lightning bolts causes partial blindness which has never left me since. I am chased by hostile Indians and when I do manage to find a guide - he is chased by a bear. My pet eagle dies of strangulation on one of its restraining cords, my boat is blown 70 miles offshore in a storm and, falling into a pit, I am gored almost to death by a wild bull. I have bouts of quite severe depression and yet I do manage to collect a few rare specimens in and amongst. Finally, I misplace my compass, and give myself up to Oblivion. OMNES WATCHING However PRINCE in the nick of time, I see a strange light in a strange cave, and crawl towards it, strangely.