Rosa

by Elizabeth S Tyree

  Either way, the Snow White Sleeping Curse took a firm hold of the beloved baker’s girl and she has been snoring her way through life ever since.

  Joseph gathered her into his arms and left, pausing only a moment to leave a goodbye note for her parents.

  Miraculously, no one spotted the couple as Joseph slunk out of town with a cloak wrapped around Rosa, who he had slung over his shoulder. Joseph trekked deep into the woods that surrounded the small village. Deeper and deeper he went until a large clearing suddenly manifested itself in front of him. Perfectly centered in the clearing’s middle was a dilapidated old cottage just waiting for someone to stumble upon it.

  The heavy wooden door swung open with a lazy wave of his hand and sent up a fog of dust. Striding through it all, Joseph waved his hand at the dank and dusty interior, immediately restoring it to its original woodsy charm. There in the room’s center stood a small table and seven small chairs, a cook stove to one side and a cushy seat beside a now blazing fireplace to the other.

  The broken stairs at the back of the cottage had mended themselves neatly, allowing Joseph to continue onward and upward with the barest of pauses in his step.

  Ducking his head, the tall man made his ungainly way up to the two chambered second floor. Sparing not even half of a glace to the room with seven twin beds and seven sea chests, Joseph strode purposefully down the cramped hallway, stopping only once to snort derisively at the painting of a raven haired princess surrounded by smiling children and doting dwarfs.

  “Honestly,” he grumbled, “What in the world could Grandmama have been thinking? You can’t even tell them apart!”

  Feera ignored the gasps from her audience, but did allow herself to take a moment to smirk in satisfaction before continuing on with the story:

  Kicking open the final room’s door with another loud thud, Joseph deposited Rosa on the soft bed that lay within. Gently placing her head on the pillow and covering her with a soft blanket, surprising even himself with these acts of compassion, Joseph leaned down and tenderly whispered into Rosa’s ear, “You are no princess and no one will know where to even begin looking for you. But as I have placed you under Snow’s Curse, if True Love does find you all it will take is one small kiss.”

  He paused and gently kissed her forehead, sweeping long, dark hair to fan across the pale pillows in startling contrast.

  “I doubt that will happen any time soon though,” he gloated softly, “But take comfort in knowing that you will stay young and sweet forever now. Not that you’ll be able to enjoy it at all. Goodbye Rosa. I wish this could have ended differently.”

  He straightened abruptly, marching quickly from the room and the cottage, pausing only once to entreat a nearby red squirrel to ‘keep watch over her.’

  Feera smiled at Ginger, “That was your ancestor dear and she gathered our families together to do just that. For generations now, the animals of this forest have been keeping watch over the cottage in the clearing in the center of our world.”

  “Oh!” Rkaww exclaimed, forgetting his detachment for a moment. “That’s it! The directions that those numb skull pansy boys are trying to to follow! The cottage is at the CENTER of our forest!”

  “Oh my, Oh dear,” Ginger nervously began gnawing a nearby nut. “I do believe that Rkaww is correct.”

  “They have been trying to find ways to delve more deeply into the woods,” Mauze mused slowly, “Not that they have had much luck with it, but...”

  Freddy almost knocked them all from the tree as he leaped to his feet and declared, “We can’t let them find her!”

  “Darling hush,” Feera gently used her beak to nudge the foxling back onto his haunches. “These humans are messing up quite well on their own. For now, I think we should all try to get some sleep and see what tomorrow will hold for us.”

  They all reluctantly agreed that the phoenix was probably right, as usual, and so the motley crew settled in for a restless night of worry.

  Chapter Six

  In which the princes finally make a decent decision

  “Trollop! Trolly WAKE UP!” Brantmyr shook his cousin excitedly, rousing the tired and sore young man despite Trollop’s best efforts to remand firmly locked in the dream realm.

  “What is it cousin?” Trollop growled, “The sun is barely waking in the sky and I never rouse before it has had time to rise properly. Leave to my sleep!”

  “NO!” Brantmyr shook his cousin again, this time even harder. “I know the way!”

  “Whaa,” Trollop rubbed sleep and dirt from his vision and slowly rose to a sitting position. “What do you mean you know the way? Is this like yesterday, when you knew the way and we walked around in never ending circled until exhaustion made us the clumsy butt of some unseen entities joke?”

  “No, no...you gotta let that go. I KNOW WHERE WE NEED TO GO!” Brantmyr was practically hopping with impatience now. “Look, I was trying to remember the details of that story last night, right. Well I fell asleep and I swear, it was like the animals were telling me the story themselves.”

  Neither prince heard the quickly muffle animalistic groans that rose from the trees around them.

  “So you dreamed the birdies told you where to find the sleeping mythical princes?” Trollop jeered nastily at his cousin, clearly wondering how he managed to stand up without collapsing from stupidity.

  “Ok yeah, something like that,” Brantmyr admitted sheepishly, “But just listen. You know how we have just been aimlessly looking on different paths?”

  “And getting lost because they all turned out to be THE SAME PATH,” Trolly grumbled.

  “Well in the story, Rosa is in a cottage in the center of the forest. So come on! We just need to cut straight through to the middle!”

  This time the groans and a stray croak of “DAMMIT!” were too loud to ignore, but the princes were too revved up to pay attention anyway.

  Shoving their sparse supplies into packs, the two began down a small path, arguing over which direction would lead them to Rosa and fumbling with the compass that neither one had bothered learning to use because “directions just come naturally to real men.”

  Still, they were in much elevated moods and managed to work their way more and more deeply into the dark woods. Though they did try to be more observant than usual, both failed to notice the mismatched group of animal friends that followed closely behind them through the trees.

  While Feera, Ginger, Rkaww, Mauze, and Freddy did everything they could think of to frighten and distract the princes, nothing worked. In fact, every noise and obstacle seemed to make the dim whits even more determined to push on to their intended destination.

  Nothing would deter them on their Quest now.

  Chapter Seven

  In which a climax and a conclusion (of sorts) happen

  Stumbling, bruised, scratched, and more than a little scared, the cousins made their way through the ever denser woods. Continuing old arguments halfheartedly just to keep their spirits up and their fears at bay, Trollop and Brantmyr pushed each other through the day. Finally, after hours of trampling through the trees, they burst through a particularly thick stretch of brambles to find themselves on a wide, clearly marked cart path.

  Too tired to even argue that they’d gotten each other lost yet again, the princes wearily trod down the well worn path. Expecting, at the most, to arrive upon a distant village and send for a carriage to take them home to their familiar beach side castle, they were more than a little surprised to find themselves instead coming across a large clearing surrounded by evergreens.

  Sitting on the front porch, as though eagerly awaiting their arrival, was an odd group of bright eyed animals.

  “Do they look as they they have been looking for us cousin?” Brantmyr murmured, sliding to a quick stop on the dirt path. “Or as though they mean to stop us from going any further?”

  “Now that you mention it...” Trollop panted beside his cousin, leaning over to place hands on thighs as they eyed the anima
ls warily. “THey almost look as though they are set up as some sort of blockade.”

  “That is because we are, you overgrown man child,” Rkaww snapped rudely.

  The shock of hearing their own human language burbling from a large Raven’s beak caused Brantmyr to visibly blanch and Trollop to merely faint right out.

  “Now Rkaww,” Feera admonished gently, “I though that we had agreed not to speak with them.”

  “Well,” Rkaww huffed, ignoring the giggles coming from the rest of his friends, “I’m not sorry! These idjets just don’t pay attention to anything but themselves. I mean, these morons don’t deserve to go in there. Imagine arguing over who gets to kiss Rosa first and how long to wait between turns. They don’t want to find true love or awaken a beautiful maiden from her horrible sleeping cure. They just want to go home with a trophy and pose for a poster or two. Well no sirree bob, that’s not happening! Not on my watch! And if I have to talk in order to frighten them..”

  “What is all this racket? What’s going on out there?” A sweet, cultured voice called from inside the cabin. “Rkaww, is that you going on out there?”

  “NOthing to worry about my dear,” Ginger call back through the door, “Rkaww is just practicing his human speak. Nothing to concern yourself with. Go on back to whatever you were doing.”

  ”Who..who was that?” Brantmyr demanded, distracted from the inert form of his traveling companion by the poorly concealed panic on the porch. “Did the squirrel just talk?? DID THE SQUIRREL...wait a minute...IS THAT HER?”

  “Ginger? Rkaww? What are you up to?”

  A dark haired beauty peeked out from behind the door and startled at the sight greeting her. Across her front porch stood an army of sheepish animals and sprawled across her wildflower encrusted lawn were two bedraggled princes.

  “Rosa?” Brantmyr sprang from his cousin’s side and rushed forward toward the startled girl. “We did it! We found you! But hold on...how is it that you’re awake? Shouldn’t you be snoring somewhere awaiting my kiss to awaken you?”

  “I BEG YOUR PARDON!” the young woman exclaimed indignantly, “But I do NOT snore sir, and you will never be kissing me, or anyone else here for that matter.”

  “Eliza dear, is there someone there?”

  “Yes Mama,’ she smirked, ignoring the exuberant gestures of silence that her animal friends were frantically making, “Two men and our honor guard.”

  “Two men...” Eliza was yanked unceremoniously back into the house and a woman who was obviously her mother stepped out of the cottage.

  “Gentlemen,” her voice was as cold as ice. “What can we do for you?”

  “Ma’am,” Trollop had roused himself and was busy dusting his pants off, “We don’t mean to bother you. My cousin, the Prince Brantmyr, and myself, The Prince Trollop, were merely searching for the sleeping Lady Rosa.”

  She sniffed derisively, “Never heard of her. Good day sirs,” the woman swiftly moved inside and shut the door firmly behind her.

  “Well OK then,” Trollop was turning bemusedly to leave when the wind shifted and the warm scent of a scrumptious apple pie filled his hungry nostrils. “Mmm, someone’s baking,” he commented absentmindedly.

  “Baking,” Brantmyr echoed, “Trolly, do you think that that was Rosa?”

  They breathed her name in an almost reverent unison and burst into hysterical, uncontrollable laughter.

  “Come cousin,” Brantmyr finally gasped, “Let us go home. I hear the sand and surf calling out to my poor, suffocating toes.”

  “Gladly,” Trollop agreed readily and the two ambled away down the path homeward, arguing over who’s backstroke was better.

  The End