Ch.1

Leaving the Bayou

A cool breeze swept over the early morning bayou, a rare treat in the humid late spring of Louisiana. Tall pink feathered birds, with lanky pale gold legs, rested on the limbs of a large strong tree, neighboring the bank of murky calm swamp water. The flock of pink birds happily gazed to a treehouse below them, watching an old woman dressed in a long white dress and matching white hat saying goodbye to two dear friends, the old woman loving them as if they were her own children. Mama Odie, the bayou's voodoo priestess, held a young woman tightly in her arms, patting her back and telling the departing princess, wearing a shimmering petal crown in her thick black bun, comforting and gentle words beside her ear.

"Thank you so much for everything, Mama Odie." the beautiful princess said in their embrace, a single tear shedding down her soft brown cheek.

The old woman chuckled, Princess Tiana taking in the kind woman's scent of fresh peppermint, "You're welcome, baby." Mama Odie now pulling away from the hug, finding Tiana's falling tears in spite of her blind eyes, patting them dry, "Now, now, no more tears. This is a happy day! You dug deeper and found ever'tang you needed!" the old woman reminded, motion her head to the edge of her treehome's porch to a second watching visitor.

Tiana's soft brown eyes turned for Mama Odie, stopping on her new husband, smiling their way in his classic confident grin. He word a light green doublet with a belt buckle showing the shape of a flower, and a matching cape, flowing to the back of his calves. His wavy brown hair fell perfectly in place, a stray curl styling to the side of his forehead. Not a single strand of hair was stressed or ruffled, in spite of the morning's building heat.

Tiana fought a bridal blush meeting his warm honey coated eyes, fixed solely on her; she soon turned back to the priestess, "You're right Mama Odie. Naveen was everything I needed-all along."

"She's even more beautiful when she comes to her senses, Mama Odie." a joking Prince Naveen remarked, touching a glaring Tiana's chin as he came to the women by the treehouse's door.

"Prince Froggy," a petite Mama Odie protectively called, glancing up to his tall frame while putting her hands on her hips, "you take good care of your new wife through this here bayou, you hear?"

"I promise." Naveen nodded his head, placing his hands in a cradled hold around a smiling Tiana at her waist.

"Now that there river is a straight way back to New Orleans. I have my boat right here at ta trunk of the tree waiting on you. Louis will take ya'll back for me. Shouldn't take ya'll more than a few hours."

"Thank you, Mama Odie." Naveen gave the old woman a hug; she chuckled as they said their goodbyes.

"Uh, Mama Odie?" Louis the alligator's voice called to the group above.

The three peeked down to the sound of his voice from the tree, curious of his troubled tone.

"Yes, baby?" Mama Odie shouted down to him, adjusting her sliding black sunglasses and smacking her pink gums.

"Is this the boat you want me to carry Miss Tiana and the prince on down the bayou?" Louis' voice doubtfully questioned, his large body and the boat unseen from the humans' view.

"It's the only boat I got down there!" the Southern woman sassily replied.

Tiana and Naveen exchanged worried glances, knowing something was wrong.

"Well, have you seen it….lately?" the sweet alligator asked the blind old woman, stroking the tip of his scaly green tail; Louis hated being the bearer of bad news.

"Stay here, Tiana." Naveen sprang into action, climbing down the ladder steps of Mama Odie's treehouse, "Louis?" the prince reached the grass of the swamp to find his friend, coming to the concerned alligator on the opposite side of the tree's trunk.

Louis simply pointed with his clawed hand to Mama Odie's boat in silence. Naveen put a hand to his face in frustration, witnessing their planned transportation. The wooden boat was water logged, covered in moss, and missing several pieces and boards of wood. In short, their boat back to New Orleans was unfit for travel. Two chipmunks arrived, crawling over Naveen's shoe and climbing into the broken boat for a pile of stored nuts they had hidden aboard. The rodents began to eat their breakfast while keeping their beady black eyes on the massive alligator before them, sitting their small weights on a cracked seat of Mama Odie's boat. Tiana, unaware of the boat's status, cupped her gloved hand to her ear, only hearing the sound of small squeaks and….crunching?

Mama Odie blinked repeatedly in confusion of all of the silence then released a gasp, "Juju!"

"Brother, I think she knows." Louis concluded of the boat to a tense shouldered Naveen after the echo of the old woman's shout to her pet from the treehouse.

Mama Odie's pet snake, slithering out of the house's doorframe, came up to her shoulders and met her eyes.

"Did you patch up the boat last night like I asked ya, child?"

Tiana looked to the snake on the priestess' shoulders, the forgetting reptile's eyes beginning to grow wide. Mama Odie began to shake her head with disappointed clicks of her tongue, Juju now hanging his head in shame.

"Mama Odie," Naveen returned back to the top of the tree, "the boat is-"

"Broken! I know!" the upset woman crossed her arms as Juju started to swerve down the trunk of the tree to survey all of the boat's damage.

"Now that throws thangs behind! It'll take us all day to fix!"

"Mama Odie…the boat is ruined. I don't think it can be fixed at all." Naveen shook his head, dreading the idea of him and Tiana sinking midway to New Orleans in the river even if the well damaged boat was repaired.

"Oo!" Mama Odie gave a frustrated grunt, "Where's my wand?" the old lady began to mumble, going back into the treehouse to find her magic club to magically fix the boat instead.

Tiana bit her thumbnail, drawing up her shoulders, as the rattling and clashing of pots, pans, glass, and cans began to echo to her ears while standing on Mama Odie's porch as the priestess started a vigorous search for her magic club inside.

"Juju!"

The snake lifted his head to the top of the tree while looking at the destroyed boat next to Lois and a few fireflies on the floor of the swamp.

"What did I do with my club, baby?" Mama Odie couldn't remember, laying halfway under her couch in her treehouse's livingroom.

The snake sighed a breath, leaving his friends and the boat at the swamp's floor to help the equally forgettable woman find her misplaced club in the tree.

More shattering glass was heard as Juju entered the treehouse, bringing Tiana to a new decision, "Come on, Princey." She walked past Naveen on the porch to its edge.

"Where are you going, mi amor?"

His wife peeked back to him with her sweet stunning eyes as she prepared to climb down to the swamp, "To build a raft."

"A raft? But," Naveen looked over his shoulder, helplessly pointing to the direction of a loudly searching priestess and Juju in their house, "Tiana, the boat will build itself once Mama Odie finds the club." The prince didn't mind more magic for the morning-he got a beautiful new bride because of it.

"If they find it." Tiana replied, doubtful of soon success, and continued down the trunk's steps in her heeled shoes.

"Tian-"

"Heeheeheeeeeee!" a rejoicing Mama Odie's voice laughed from inside the house.

Naveen smiled in relief, turning from his departing wife to the home's entrance. Mama Odie found her club.

"Here's that old record I've been looking for, Juju!" the distracted woman joyfully said, blowing off the record's trapped dust into a coughing Juju's face.

Naveen rolled his hazel eyes and left the porch to follow Tiana.

"Hmm…." Tiana began to ponder, placing her silky gloved hand to her chin, her eyes glancing to the surrounding grass, trees, and water of the river, "This raft's going to have to be a lot bigger than the last one I made." She recalled during her time as a much smaller frog.

The new wife reached to her hair, about to remove her glittering veil from her wedding ceremony, ready to work.

Naveen jumped down from the last step of the tree to the swamp's surface, looking to his strategizing wife, "Darling, you made the last one. Let me make this raft."

Tiana heard Naveen's voice, touched by the gesture, and turned from the river to see him, "That's sweet, Naveen, but we'd get finished much faster if we work together."

He took her hand, "Louis and I will build the raft. Here. You just relax in the shade, princess."

"Naveen-"

"I insist."

Tiana sighed, allowing Naveen to build the raft on his own, while she began to enjoy the cool of the morning's shadows from her tree.

Naveen smiled, looking back at a relaxing Tiana, then went around to the trunk of Mama Odie's tree, his face now washed with panic, "Psst! Louis!" the pampered prince whispered, causing the alligator to turn from the broken boat, finding the transportation a lost cause.

"Hey, buddy! Did Mama Odie come up with a plan to get you two back to town?"

"Well…"

"Juju! Did I find it?...Hahaaaa! Nope!" a humored Mama Odie stated of the false alarm, a rounded glass bottle soon falling next to Louis and Naveen's feet on the grass, a fair reminder of the priestess' magic club.

Naveen looked away from the abandoned bottle to Louis, "Tiana wants to build a raft."

Louis' eyes began to twinkle of the suggestion, "Great idea! Miss Tiana's a natural at that! I remember that cute little one she made the day I met you two out on the river!"

"Yes, Louis, but this time, I want to build it."

"Come again?"

"Louis, please tell me you know how to build a raft. I want to impress Tiana."

Louis put his clawed hands to his hips, "Boy, why would I know how to build a raft? I'm a gator. I swim wherever I need to go."

Naveen groaned, stroking a hand through his hair. Tiana watched Naveen talking to Louis from the shade, wondering why they hadn't started working yet. She looked up to the bright rising yellow sun. The last thing Tiana wanted was Naveen to be out trying to build the raft during the hottest portion of the morning. She gave the two more time, beginning to straighten out her sparkling green wedding gown while continuing to sit in the protection of the shade.

"Where do we get wood around here?" Naveen wondered aloud, placing a finger to his mouth.

"From the trees." Louis pointed, the forest in full supply.

"I don't have a saw!"

"Neither did Miss Tiana, but she built the raft anyway."

"Gah!" Naveen fully hid behind the thick tree's trunk, out of his wife's sight. Frustrated by his lack of construction knowledge, he began to swearing in Maldonian.

Although Tiana couldn't see Naveen behind the tree, she certainly could hear him, swearing in Maldonian without a doubt, in all of his distant shouting. Her eyes glanced up to Mama Odie, now emerging from her treehouse empty handed.

She sweetly waved Tiana's way, "Now don't you worry, baby! Juju and I gonna find my club real soon!" the priestess knew Tiana was concerned, but honestly, Mama Odie had no idea where her club had gone; she waddled back into the house, hoping for a miracle.

Tiana got up from the grass in the shade, more sounds of Mama Odie's falling furniture ringing into the open air of the swamp. Tiana shook her head then saw a small beaver out in the water downstream. Recognizing the furry creature as an earlier wedding guest, she went to say hello.

"Just tell Tiana you don't know how to build a raft!" Louis begged Naveen, his eyes growing irritated of the proud prince's unneeded distress.

"How hard can it be? All I need is wood, a few vines-several vines- and some mud….maybe?"

Louis became puzzled, "What do you need mud for?"

"To hold all the wood together!"

"Why use mud when you have the vines? It'll take forever for the mud to dry to put out on the lake."

"Won't the wood sink without it?!"

"Wood floats, Naveen."

"Right, right…" the new husband sighed, "I know that. I'm just…" Naveen heaved a heavy second breath and began to rub the back of his neck.

Louis walked over to Naveen, putting his hand on the man's shoulder, "Brother, you've only been married to Miss Tiana for an hour. Not knowing how to build a river raft won't end your marriage, you know."

"You're right, Louis." Naveen sighed once more, lifting the weight of his imagined pressure from his shoulders. He looked to Louis, smiling at his side, "I better go ask for Tiana to help us out."

"There you go, buddy, and while you do that, I'm gonna go get those vines!"

"Thanks, Louis."

The alligatior nodded to Naveen then spotted a tree close by across the river, covered in thick vines perfect for their raft. Louis dived into the river and swam its way, the two eating chipmunks and some of the fireflies tagging along on the alligator's back to help.

Naveen arrived to the shady tree, "Tiana?" his wife was nowhere to be found, "Tiana?" he looked past her shaded tree to the other trees in the swamp, beginning to peek into a pile of bushes, "Where did you go, mi fraggee pruta?"

"Hi, there." Tiana spoke from behind him, a flat tone in her voice.

"Hi!" Naveen turned away from the pile of bushes with a nervous grin, for a second secretly thinking Tiana had transformed back into a frog while he was gone, his cape swaying from the fast shift of his body.

"Did you come to tell that the raft is done?" her voice carried a deep touch of her Louisiana accent.

"Well, um…"Naveen nervously chuckled again, "about the raft…"he now met her eyes, "Tiana, I don't know how to build one…Well, I know how to build one, I just don't how to chop down the wood without supplies."

"Naveen, why didn't you just tell me?"

"Because Tiana," Naveen sighed with guilt in his eyes, "For our entire time in the swamp, you've practically taken care of everything-the first raft, what we ate, knowing what we shouldn't eat, helping me outsmart frog-eating birds and alligators…"the husband began to shrug his shoulders at her with an embarrassed look over the features of his face, "For once, I wanted to help you." He lowered his eyes to the swamp's grass, perching his mouth, uncomfortable in the silence of his wife.

Naveen soon felt soft silk gloves on the sides of his face, causing him to look up, and to his surprise, an even silkier mouth came to his lips in a kiss.

Tiana laughed, seeing her husband's restored confidence in a bright grin and slightly dazed look in his honey warm eyes, "Now," she dusted off the prince's shoulders, "don't ever feel that way again. You help me everyday-more than you know." She took his hand, "Follow me."

"Where are we going?"

"Not far. Louis?" Tiana stopped at the lake, her hand in Naveen's, "Can you follow us down the river when y'all finish collecting those vines?" she saw the reptilian friend happily nodding next to the chipmunks and glowing fireflies aiding light at the tree and continued to pull Naveen along. "We have a few of our other good friends waiting for us right down the bank." She explained while they walked.

Naveen formed a pearly white smile in surprise of the news, "Tiana, a riverboat stopped for us? How did you find them?" the man envisioned in his mind, continuing alongside the river.

"I didn't." Tiana smiled at him, beginning to push away a tree's hanging layers of moss, revealing a family of waving beavers-standing on a pile of freshly chopped logs for their raft. She looked back to Naveen at her side.

"Ashidanza…" he grinned, impressed of the precisely cut wood for them at the river.

Tiana giggled. The couple waited for a swimming Louis, coming their way in the water with a jaw full of tree vines.

o-o-o-o-o

"See, Naveen, you helped after all!" Tiana encouraged as she and the prince floated down the river under the provided shade of Naveen's swamp made umbrella attached to the raft's base, a long stick with vine tied leaves at its top.

"I did, princess!" Naveen was beaming from ear to ear as Louis pulled them along to New Orleans with a secure vine. "And now," he pulled from his belt a forked stick with well tied strings, reminiscent to a guitar, or better yet, a ukulele, "I shall serenade you with music."

Tiana covered her mouth, fighting a laugh, as Naveen propped one of his legs over the other to loudly strum his handmade ukulele with a humming Louis in front of their raft. "Some things never change!" she playfully spoke over the laughing men as they came closer to the city.

Tiana smiled then looked ahead to her sugar mill as they drifted to the ports of New Orleans. She suddenly gasped, remembering her deadline, and her heart began to sink.

Naveen heard Tiana's gasp. Stopping the music of his ukulele, he raised his thick brow, "Is something wrong, my love?" he sat up on their raft, now looking to Tiana's dream place for her restaurant. "It's your sugar mill, yes?"

"Mm-mm! I can smell those po' boys you're gonna make for me already, Miss Tiana!" Louis' mouth began to water at the thought, their raft ride soon coming to a stop further down the city's ports.

"Naveen," Tiana touched the man's arm, "the deadline! I missed the deadline!" she began to panic, clenching with both arms now to his one arm.

"Deadline? What deadline?" Louis twisted his head, in effort to see a worried Tina behind him on the raft.

"The deadline for the sugarmill- with the Fenner brothers." Tiana answered Louis then turned to Naveen, her eyes starting to fill with tears, "Naveen, I promised to meet them Wednesday morning in their office to top another bid-yesterday!" a tear began to fall down her cheek.

"Tiana, don't cry." Naveen held her, gently stroking the soft curls of her hair, "Are you sure you still can't make a higher offer?" he gently spoke over her and began to wipe her face, Louis now swimming in distracted curves through the water in front of them while hearing Tiana's cries.

She began to nod, "They told me-at Charlotte's party."

Naveen glanced away from his wife's eyes to the shining river ahead in thought, "The night we met?" he began to recall, meeting Tiana on the balcony of the LaBouffs', changing her to a frog from their kiss.

Tiana quietly nodded once more.

Naveen closed his eyes, shortly muttering in Maldonian, "This is my fault." He looked to Tiana, "Don't worry, Tiana. I will take care of this."

"No, Naveen. Don't blame yourself." She shook her head, "I missed the deadline, and there's nothing else we can do." She crossed her arms to cover her bare shoulders, fighting a shudder, "I'll have to find a new place for the restaurant." Inside, Tiana already knew there was no other spot in all of New Orleans with property for sale large enough to hold her dream restaurant-from a real estate firm willing to sell to coloreds, that is.

Naveen stared at his disappointed wife for a moment, a determined look in his eyes as she sadly swayed one of her gentle fingers to ripple the river's water at her side, "How far is your home from here?"

"Hm?" Tiana came out of her trance, "About a mile. Why?" she then lifted a teasing brow and smiled, "Are you scared to meet my mama?"

Naveen's eyes quickly widened, forgetting all about meeting Tiana's mother. He was convinced his heart had just stopped at the thought of meeting the woman.

"I'll take that as a yes!" Louis spoke in amusement of Naveen's sudden silence, letting out a heavy bellied chuckle of the man. The alligator soon came to the edge of the river, allowing the newlyweds to cross from him to a shaded area of the bank, "Thank you for riding the S.S. Louis!"

"Thank you, Louis." Naveen chuckled, holding out his hand for Tiana as he got his footing stable to the grass of the bank.

"Anytime!" Louis smiled, which soon began to fade as Tiana reached for his face for a hug goodbye, "Promise you two won't forget about me- now that you're human?" he looked up to his new friends from the river with sad black eyes, puppy-like in spite of being an alligator.

"Of course we won't, Louis. We never would have made it through the swamp to Mama Odie without you. You're our friend!" Tiana smiled a smile that warmed the listening gator's heart.

"She's right, Louis. After all, we'll meet again. Tiana wants you to play with the big boys once her restaurant is up and running!"

Tiana remained quiet at Naveen's side, uncertain if that day would ever come now. She looked away from her husband's loving smile to Louis, wagging his excited tail in the bright blue water, "I do, Louis," she began to agree, finding it better to be positive, "and I'll pay you for your playing in po' boys."

"Ooo!" Louis gave her a wide smile, a smile so wide, if Tiana and Naveen couldn't talk to him with magic, they'd think he was about to eat them; the alligator gave joyful splashes at the thought of his generous pay, "I can't wait!" he began to back away from the bank to the deeper area of the river, taking the raft with him to give to Mama Odie, back in the bayou, "I'll see you lovebirds soon." and began to swim back to the swamp.

"Goodbye, Louis! Take care, my friend!" Tiana and Naveen simultaneously replied with waves as the alligator disappeared from the port.

Tiana looked away from the river to Naveen, "Now we got to find a clock in town."

"A clock?" Naveen was confused of the odd request, taking Tiana's hand as they walked up a tall grassy hill in the shade to get to one of the city's sidewalks.

"Mm-hmm! We need to catch the next available trolley to Mama's."

Naveen froze in his tracks again, his heart racing in anticipation.

Tiana felt the man stop, unable to easily pull his body behind hers any longer, "Don't worry." She now faced him and kissed her husband's lips, "I promise she won't bite." She gave Naveen's face a soft brush with her thumb, and the couple began to walk on the sidewalk of a busy mid-day New Orleans, keeping their eyes peeled for the next clock and trolley.