Sitting in a meadow not far from the desert, Puss and company had stopped to rest and set up camp.
Gathering some twigs and building a small fire surrounded by stones, Puss looked at the dragon and winked at her.
The dragon girl looked shyly at him, then lowered her snout and released a small stream of fire, instantly lighting the pile of twigs and making him smile.
Fiona sat down beside the fire, her eyes gleaming with the glow of the flames, taking in the scent of the grass, the freshness of the earth beneath her, the blue sky above her head, and the sunlight warming her skin.
She hugged her knees, covered by her green dress, and a mix of joy for being free and sorrow for the years spent locked away in the tower rose in her heart like waves. Her gaze grew distant and full of complexity.
Seeing her like that, Puss approached and gently rubbed her back.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly.
Turning her head to look at him, she gave a faint smile.
"Just... struggling a bit with the decision I made," she sighed as she explained, uncertainty in her voice.
"Regretting it?" He raised an eyebrow at her.
At his question, she looked ahead as the wind played with her hair, making her close her eyes slightly in comfort.
A small smile appeared on her lips.
"I don't think so." She opened her eyes again and looked at him with a lighter heart.
"That's good." Puss smiled, happy for her, then stepped away to prepare the food over the fire, a bit lost in thought.
'Strange… Fiona in the movies wasn't this uncertain when she left the tower. Why is that? Could it be because she's younger? She's 18 now, and in the movie she was almost 30, so she was a lot more mentally mature.'
He thought, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the beautiful redhead now watching him handle the boar the dragon had caught earlier on their way to the clearing.
'Then again, back then in the movie, she also insisted on waiting in the tower for her true knight, but Shrek didn't have the patience and just carried her out like a sack of potatoes. Fiona later stopped resisting and placed her hopes in Farquaad to break her curse, and in the end, she fell in love with Shrek along the way. But here, she barely has the promise that we might fall in love, and she doesn't know if a cat can break the curse.'
Puss recalled, beginning to understand why Fiona seemed so insecure now, not as determined as in the films, and his eyes narrowed slightly.
But soon he brushed all his doubts aside and smiled confidently again.
'Heeh, what am I thinking? Even if nothing happens between me and her in the end, I'm still going to make her happy. I don't need to worry if I've wronged her when I've actually freed her from a fate of staying another decade trapped in that tower.'
'Twenty years locked away in a tower is no joke. It's throwing away one of the best periods of your life. After that, the years fly by in the blink of an eye, and you're old and on death's doorstep, while twenty years of this short life were wasted doing nothing but staring at gray walls, alone, waiting for someone to come save you. No, that's not a life.'
The more Puss reflected, the more certain he became of his decision.
His eyes turned to the dragon, who was watching him fondly, never looking away.
'Her too. I don't know if she's really the princess from hundreds of years ago, but one thing is certain: she was locked up and isolated in that tower just as much as Fiona was. They both needed saving, and maybe I'm not their true love—but one thing's for sure, I, Puss in Boots, have never needed ulterior motives to save anyone.'
His resolve only grew as he began roasting the large boar on the makeshift spit they had set up.
Looking at the two watching him, he decided to be honest and say what was on his mind.
"Dragon, Fiona, there's something I want to tell you both."
His voice echoed through the clearing, and both of them looked at him, confused.
Tornado also glanced over at his master curiously while chewing on some grass.
Looking into the pairs of blue and green eyes staring at him (ignoring Tornado), he spoke seriously.
"Look, I'm not sure if I can be the true love of either of you. But I really want you both to live happily, have adventures, enjoy life, and discover love. Not be locked away in a tower for decades, isolated and sad. And even if in the end, I'm not your true love... I'll still do everything I can to help you find love and live happily. That's the responsibility I placed on my own shoulders when I chose to take you both out of that castle."
Puss explained, meeting their eyes with his intense green gaze.
Fiona was stunned by the sudden promise and his sincerity. He had already said something similar when he freed her from the tower, but now he seemed more determined and sure of his choices.
A small smile appeared on her face, and she nodded to him, silently promising herself to trust the only man who defeated the dragon for her and treated her with such sincerity—cat or not.
But then, a sudden doubt arose in her heart.
'Wait… the dragon also wants to find true love, and her target is Puss?!' She looked speechlessly at the huge, shy dragon staring at the small, confident orange cat, and then a more important thought came to her mind, 'Wait, he doesn't mean for the two of us to…'
While Fiona got lost in her thoughts and threw suspicious glances at Puss, Aurora, the dragon, looked at him with love, seemingly unconcerned about whether he was truly her fated love—because she had already waited hundreds of years, and he was the only light in her heart.
Just looking at him made her heart race like never before, so she had no doubt about her feelings.
Puss, receiving two intense gazes—one suspicious and the other lovestruck—coughed lightly into his paw, embarrassed about what he was about to say.
"Ahem… actually, there's something else I want to say. I'm not a one-woman cat. And well, if both of you fall in love with me, I won't hesitate—I'll choose both. And there's already another woman who's probably going to be mine too," Puss said, scratching his neck awkwardly as he said it.
Fiona froze, having her thoughts confirmed—that this was a scoundrel of a cat—and then she rolled her eyes fiercely, glaring at Puss in irritation.
"In your dreams!" Fiona growled through gritted teeth and shot him an angry glare, crossing her arms and wondering if she should turn back and head for the castle.
As for the dragon, she felt a little jealous at hearing that, but then, with a soft growl, she began nuzzling Puss affectionately.
To her, as long as he stayed with her, loved her, and didn't leave her, she wouldn't mind if he had a few more women. He was the man she had waited hundreds of years for, and she wouldn't lose him for anything.
Puss petted the dragon's nose with a smile and shifted his gaze to Fiona, his brows slightly furrowed.
"Fiona, I wasn't joking. If you feel it's not right for me to have other women, or if you don't fall in love with me, then just travel with me as a great friend and enjoy this world until we find the one you'll truly love. Either way… it can't be worse than being locked up in a tower for an indefinite period, right?" he teased with a soft smile, though his eyes weren't joking—they were serious.
Fiona, uncertain about what to do next, felt something stir in her heart at his words and his sincere face. After hesitating for a moment, she decided to stay a little longer before making any final decision.
And now that she had finally left that tower, she had no desire to return anytime soon.
With a sigh, she nodded, but didn't say much afterward.
Puss felt a little powerless at her sudden coldness but understood. Despite it being a medieval time, Fiona had never considered sharing her man with anyone. And even if Puss wasn't her man, he was still her top candidate for a Prince Charming—for now.
Still, Puss wasn't too concerned about her cold demeanor. He knew Fiona would warm up to him soon. They were still strangers to each other, and this kind of distance was normal at first.
Thus, Puss continued roasting the boar under the silent atmosphere.
It didn't take long before the smell of roasting meat began to fill the air, making both the dragon and Fiona start to salivate.