An unwilling prince

Prince Dewayne and his two older brothers.

Prince Dewayne had had enough trouble escaping from his royal security guards earlier in the day. Then, his attempts to pass among the commoners of his kingdom to learn of their true situation were stymied by his wealthy clothing (though it was the most basic he could find in the royal castle). And his handsome face and firm jaw drew the attention of the fairer sex too much (much too much) for him to lurk unnoticed and listen to their opinions of how the kingdom was being run. So, (aside from hearing the interesting idea that many commoners believed that the kingdom's traditional patriarchy was semi-secretly being dominated by the women of the royal family, and those same commoners wondered if the kingdom would be better off run overtly by the wiser women instead), the entire day had largely been a waste of his time.

And now he was lost in the woods while trying to make his way unnoticed around to the secret escape tunnel from the castle. Of course, it would not do for the secret escape tunnel to be easy to find, but for some reason the full moon overhead was not giving him the assistance he had expected.

A complete waste of a day.

Then he heard in the distance, women chanting a soft welcoming song. He thought it must be coming from the town by the castle, so he could get his bearings untwisted again. He pictured in his mind himself bursting into a tea party of a couple beautiful princesses and their almost equally beautiful handmaidens, a group he could comfortably sway with all his royal court skills.

What Prince Dewayne wished he had found

There was no trail heading toward the singing, so he had to stumble through the overgrowth until he emerged into the calm clearing.