((A few months later…))
Dear Diary,
I was rescued by a knight today. This time though, he was not in shining armour – he got smarter. I was up one of Farmer Byun's trees picking apples when I heard the sound of an approaching rider. When I turned to see who it was, the branch beneath me snapped. I screamed…and fell right into Sir Conan's arms.
His expression was one of annoyance. "Why is it that you are always tossing apples at my head?"
It took me a moment to catch my breath but as soon as I got it, I started laughing. I clearly remember thinking once that I would drop a whole branch on him if I ever saw him again.
When I subsided into giggles, I thanked him. Then it struck me that he had actually rescued a damsel in distress for real – me.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, after an awkward moment.
I swear I saw his lips twitch when he replied, "Kidnapping you."
I have no idea whether he really would have ridden off with me if Father hadn't arrived. After seeing Sir Conan's 'daring deed', Father invited him to supper.
When we returned to the house, Sir Conan and I caught up on each other's activities over the past few months though for me, there wasn't much to tell. Sir Conan, however, is on another quest. It seems that Sir Wilbur has set his sights on another Lady who doesn't want him. This time, a Lady Cassandra and she has a list of romantic deeds which need to be fulfilled before she will wed. After having sung off-key ballads and recited badly written poetry for a month, the Yettle knights couldn't stand it any more and told Sir Conan to go search for the fairy who helped rid Sir Wilbur of his infatuation the first time.
I guess that my fairy tale is far from over…
The End
Final Author's Note: Thank you all for reading. Looking back, I'm rather surprised (and not a little disconcerted) that this write-by-the-seat-of-my-pants fic became so popular. No planning and minimal editting actually yielded a coherent story - I don't think I'll ever cease to be amazed by that. Sort of a Nanowrimo style of writing except done over the course of a year. I don't know if I'll ever do this again - I hadn't planned on doing this in the first place. Now is where all of you who reviewed can pat yourselves on the back for all the ideas you threw at me. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to fit them all into the story but I did the best I could. I would never have made it this far without you.
Now that we're all done, I would like to hear all your thoughts on this story. How has it been?
If you're wondering whether I'm ever going to do a rewrite to fill in those plot holes and flesh out those characters, the answer is: I don't know. When I typed 'The End' I was seized with the urge to go back and edit everything but common sense prevailed - now is not the time. I need to let this story cool. As for a sequel...no. That's not going to happen. I'm not a big fan of sequels - connected/related stories, yes; series, yes; sequels, no.
Now is the time for something new...