Should be Day 210.
My little sister and I finished reading The Princess Bride a couple nights. We'd seen the movie earlier this summer and heard the book was even better. I would highly recommend both if you like sarcastic wit, adventure, satire, and true love. We were both a little disappointed that the story ended at such a cliffhanger. It had a happy ending but a gap that left some unanswered questions. The movie fixed it a little, but my mind is still caught up in the book. Goldman mentioned a few things that happened which almost seemed to put the characters' happiness in peril. "Inigo's wound reopened, Wesley relapsed, Fezzik took a wrong turn, and Buttercup's horse threw a shoe." Since I enjoy fan fiction and expanding on "what ifs," I'm writing how I think the book should have ended, continuing where William Goldman left off and using ideas that my sister came up with as well. I tried to write it in Goldman's style, where he abridges the book and adds in notes in italics.
EDIT: We read Buttercup's Baby, and it answered some of the immediate questions we had. Most of this is strictly off from the original text now. Oh well, fun practice.
Inigo, Fezzik, Westley, and Buttercup were galloping off on Prince Humperdinck's four great whites, heading for the Florin Channel where Dread Pirate Roberts' (or Westley's) ship The Revenge was waiting to take them away. Sailing away on his ship with Buttercup had been Westley's intention from the start of his rescue mission, but Prince Humperdinck had interrupted their plans by surrounding the couple after they had survived the Fire Swamp.
The four whites were getting closer to the channel now, creating a larger gap between themselves and Prince Humperdinck, who was fuming that Westley had not only duped him in his own bed chamber but had stolen his four most-prized horses. Buttercup was in a state bliss, now that she was reunited with her sweet Westley. The danger that was galloping behind them did not seem to phase her. Fezzik's horse was able to keep up with the same pace as the other horses, despite the giant's weight and size. Being able to think for himself had put Fezzik in an amiable mood and did wonders to his confidence. He was happily thinking of rhymes. Danger behind us. Stranger. That's a big tree. Bee. Being in Buttercup's presence, Westley felt his body starting to gain more strength. After having come to life that second time, he was fully capable of controlling his whole body now. Her love for him shone from her face and invigorated his body. He had someone to live for, someone to protect. Inigo, on the other hand, was starting to wind down from all the adrenaline that he had coursing through his blood for the past hour, and he was reminded by the pain coming from the open wound in his abdomen that he was in need of medical attention. The galloping wasn't doing him much good either. In another minute, Inigo's wound started to rip open a little further, and he could feel his insides jostling against his fist.
"Excuse me, up there!" he called to Wesley as he tried to conceal the pain in his voice.
"Yes?" Wesley replied, turning his head slightly.
"I hate to bring any more trouble to your already trying day, but I am going to need a doctor, at your earliest convenience."
It was the first time that anyone had stopped to take a look at Inigo and see how severe his wounds were.
"Inigo, are you going to die?" Fezzik's voice in panic.
"Not if I can help it," he winced as his horse jumped over a large tree root.
"Westley, we have to help him," Buttercup begged. "It wouldn't hurt for a doctor to look at you either."
"We can't afford to stop, unless you want to go back Prince Humperdinck."
"I'd rather go back to the Fire Swamp."
He smirked at her answer. "Besides, we're wanted criminals now. Murder, assault, robbing Florin of a princess. People don't tend to overlook things like that."
"You're right," Buttercup admitted.
"Remember that."
"But what about Inigo?" Fezzik protested.
"Don't worry. I won't allow our brave swordsman to suffer. As soon as we're on The Revenge, I'll take a look at it. Being on a pirate, I wasn't without my share of seeing wounds."
This seemed to satisfy all the parties involved, and they rode on, with the sound of Humperdinck and his men still pounding behind them.
Hi, it's me again. This has left me puzzled for years. I'm not sure how it happened, but there appears to be part of Morgenstern's novel that is missing. One minute, they're riding off to Florin channel, and the next, Buttercup, Westley, and Inigo are lying in the grass. Westley seems to be mysteriously weaker, even though Morgenstern had clearly stated on the previous page that he was getting better. At first I thought it was a typo, but the more I read on, the more I knew that something was missing. I don't know how an author can be so careless as to let a page of your book fall out (I for one would never let that happen, it would kill me, but anyways). I searched high and low for that missing page. I called the bookstore owner that I had gotten the manuscript from. I even visited Morgenstern's home to see if I could find it lying around in all the dusk and muck, but to no avail. The page was gone. All I can say is that the binding must have come loose or the page slipped out when he didn't notice. One can only speculate what happened on that page. Inigo is no better, so they didn't go for a doctor and Westley is weak again (maybe his horse landed wrong while he was in a bad position) and Buttercup's horse threw a shoe, which I am only guessing could have been caused by it tripping on a rock. Fezzik is also absent from the party. He hasn't been captured. Maybe he was too caught up in his head with rhymes and took a wrong turn. The important part is that they are delayed and in even more danger than before.
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