A Contest for Caedmon

Today, my friend and I played a game called Once Upon a time... It's a card game. After playing a few times, we decided to draw four cards and an ending one for a writing exercise. This is what I came up with in 30 minutes.

The cave was Caedmon’s home.
It was all he needed. It was close to a spring of clear water and a lake filled with fish. Deer and other animals came to drink from it often. There were wild apple trees and berry filled bushes and other wild but edible plants close by. He never lacked for food. His small little paradise.
Plus, it was a good place to hide from the duke and his men.
When he escaped the manor, he had brought with him only a few things: his knife; some clothes; rope and some other necessities along with a few personal items—his mother’s favorite necklace and his father’s favorite book. Those two things were the only things he had to remind himself of them.
After marrying his sister, the duke had betrayed his father and left him an orphan.
Caedmon sharpened his knife on the rock and examined the blade. He hoped it never broke.
A whistle split through the calm of the forest. Caedmon set the blade down and jumped to his feet. That was Irwen’s call.
Caedmon stepped to the cave’s entrance, brushed the hanging vines aside and looked out.
His younger friend jumped onto a rock in the middle of the spring and before he lost his balance all together jumped onto the rocky edge that led up to the cave’s entrance.
“Cad, I have good news for you.” Irwen whispered.
Caedmon beckoned him forward, knowing that Irwen never ventured into these woods alone.
Irwen escaped inside and Caedmon let the vines fall back in place. “How long do you have to go unnoticed?” Caedmon asked.
“Forever,” he answered. Irwen looked down at a scab on his arm and began to pick at it. “The king...”
Caedmon grabbed his hand and pulled it away before Irwen could make it bleed.
“The king has declared a contest.” Irwen scratched his head, ruffling his dark hair. “To begin five days from this time. I’m told he tires of the incompetent line of men who make their suit to marry his daughter. So he has decided to hide her deep in the forest; set multiple traps; and whoever of these suitors can get through all of them, shall marry the princess.”
Caedmon listened to Irwen—at the end holding himself from laughing. “And how is this good news for me?”
“I don’t know. I thought that if you won the contest and married the princess, maybe you could clear your name and reveal the duke for what a fiend he is.” Irwen shrugged.
“Ah.” Caedmon thought through the challenge. Traps. Coming out in the open. Winning the love of a princess he’d only ever seen. His family had been nobility, yes. But they were out of favor with the court. Any time he’d visited, the princess had stared at him in contempt. Too uncouth for her. Now he did start laughing. “Maybe I should undergo the challenge just to reject her.”
“You’re thinking of the wrong princess.”
“The wrong princess?” Caedmon asked. “I don’t remember there being more than one princess.” He sat down on his bed which lay close to the entrance and stretched his legs.
“Of course you do.”
“No. No I don’t.” If he remembered her, he’d also have to remember his embarrassing encounter with her. She was out riding by herself, and he thought her a common girl. Now that he was older, he was smart enough to recognize that a common girl wouldn’t have had a horse like that. But he’d been thirteen and stupid.
Kissing a common girl is one thing. Kissing a princess—a dangerous thing.
“Can’t say there was more than one princess.”
Irwen bent towards him and whacked him on the head.
“Hey! What was that for?”