by Cameron Jace
“The characters are messed up indeed, but the heart and soul of love and transcendence never change,” Charmwill said. “Faces change, hearts remain,” he winked at Loki, and Pickwick nodded with approval. “But no worries; get on the horse, and give it a chance. It should be like riding a bicycle. We’re in a dream anyways. Use your Chanta.”
Reluctantly, Loki got on a horse. Once he did, Charmwill tapped it gently. The horse took off and was at full speed within moments.
Loki screamed, hanging onto its neck, unable to control it, doing his best not to fall off.
“This Chanta isn’t working,” Loki yelled, the horse sprinting away into the dark forest.
“That’s because you still don’t believe enough in yourself,” Charmwill said from behind. “Keep trying. Use your imagination.”
“But I crushed Sesame! I got rid of the one thing that was holding me back, and it saved me from drowning. What else should I do?” Loki shouted as he struggled with the speeding horse, arching his back and hugging it like a rodeo cowboy.
“You need to believe in things that you haven’t seen with your own eyes yet,” Charmwill yelled, his sound faint and far away. “Believe it and you will see it.”
“I can’t think straight while I’m on this horse,” Loki said, knowing that Charmwill wouldn’t hear him. He felt exactly like he had in the Candy House when the crow had grabbed him. This wasn’t good. He needed to control the horse to save Snow White. He was wasting precious time. He didn’t even know where he was going, but he assumed the horse was following Carmilla’s wolf-driven carriage. The moon above was the only light guiding his way into the forest while he looked like a clown on the back of a reckless horse. “Loki do this. Loki do that. Loki go kill the princess. Loki don’t kill the princess,” he kept mumbling to himself, almost falling off the horse. “Loki ride the horse. Loki save the princess. Loki use the Chanta. Loki believe in yourself. I’m Loki’s all confused and fed up conscious. I hate this dream.”
“For someone who should be saving a princess, you look embarrassingly amateur,” Charmwill shouted, riding next to him on a unicorn. It was an unusually fast unicorn, so beautiful it had a glittering aura surrounding its curvy body. Loki was glad Charmwill was at his side.
“Why do you get the unicorn and I get the horse?” Loki’s face reddened.
“I’m Charmwill Glimmer,” he said proudly, riding his unicorn as if he were as young as Loki. “I deserve it. I did many amazing things in my life.”
“Do you think this is really the right time to brag?” Loki puffed.
“I’ll tell you what,” Charmwill drew nearer to the side of Loki’s horse. “Jump behind me, but this is the last time I will save you, understood?”
Jumping off the horse was as hard as riding it, but Loki thought it was the lesser of two evils. He grabbed Charmwill’s cloak with one hand and managed to jump on the unicorn behind him.
“Yeeha!” Charmwill said and the unicorn sped up. Loki had never seen this side of Charmwill before. He wondered why he’d never been fun like this in the past, and wondered if it was because they were in a dream.
Suddenly, Loki heard growling sounds approaching from behind. Fear surged into his soul. Someone or something evil was after them.
“Who’s chasing us?” Loki asked, holding onto Charmwill.
“Whatever happens, don’t look back!” Charmwill’s tone changed back into having a serious edge. “You hear me? Don’t look back!”
“Who are they?” Loki asked.
“The Queen’s huntsmen,” Charmwill sped up. “Led by the Huntsman. Whatever happens, fight the urge to see his face, or all will be lost. You understand?”
Being Loki, he couldn’t help it and looked behind to get a glimpse of his pursuers. Behind him, leading all other huntsmen, a black-cloaked Huntsman rode a hornless unicorn like nothing Loki had ever seen. This wasn’t the white, good looking unicorn like Charmwill’s. It was a black one with scars all over its body, and it had a third eye where its horn had been cut off. It sped up once it saw Loki looking back. It was hungry for him, and bared its lion-like canines.
But the black unicorn was the lesser of Loki’s horrors. It was the Huntsman riding it that brought goose bumps to the back of his neck. Loki felt a sudden headache, a needle sharp pain in his head. He stared at the cloaked Huntsman against Charmwill’s advice, but couldn’t see his face. The Huntsman’s cloak showed only hollow darkness underneath it. But Loki could sense the amount of evil in him just like when he looked into the eyes of the Queen of Sorrow. Loki’s eyes were glued to the hunter. He regretted looking back at him, but he was too stiff with fear to turn back around. The Huntsman let out a dark laugh and was about to lower his cloak and show his face.
“What are you doing?” Charmwill pulled Loki back from the Huntsman’s spellbinding trance, and turned him around. “Didn’t I tell you not to look at him? He is evil! So evil and full of darkness like you’ve never, and will never, see in your life.”
“I don’t know what happened to me,” Loki shook his head. “This Huntsman and Carmilla have the same effect on me.”
“That’s because you’re still not strong enough,” Charmwill still rode the unicorn skilfully as Carmilla’s carriage was coming into view. “Did you look into the Huntsman’s eyes?” Charmwill asked Loki worriedly.
“No. You turned me around before I could see what was under the cloak,” Loki said.
“That’s good,” Charmwill let out a sigh. “I will take care of him and his hunters, once we get closer to the carriage.”
Loki and Charmwill quickly caught up to the golden-framed carriage. Like everything else having to do with Carmilla, the carriage looked majestic and expensive. It was the shape of a pumpkin. Nothing hinted to the evil Queen who rode inside it. From this angle, Loki couldn’t see the wolves pulling it, nor could he see Snow White inside. The back and side windows were barred with rods made of pearls.
It was a dire situation. They had to save Snow White and escape their evil pursuers.
“We’re close enough, now,” Charmwill said, right behind the carriage. The Huntsman’s heavy breathing was so close Loki knew he wasn’t just behind them. He was riding right next to them. “You’ll have to ride the unicorn from here and save the princess. I can’t help you anymore.”
“Whatever happens don’t look at him,” Charmwill said, focusing his eyes on the carriage. It was as if he couldn’t bear looking at the Huntsman himself. “Ride the unicorn and stop the carriage, Loki. Let me take care of the Huntsman.”
In a flash, Charmwill jumped through the air and onto the Huntsman’s unicorn. Loki was worried about the man who taught him everything, but managed to control his urge to look at the Huntsman while he fought Charmwill. He rode the unicorn and followed the carriage, listening to the sounds of struggle between the Huntsman and his guardian behind him.
Loki kept on chasing the carriage.
Someone pulled the curtain behind the window open. It was Carmilla, showing her fingers wrapped in rings of pearls. She stared at Loki as if she were amused that he’d made it his far. Then she bestowed an infuriating look upon him from the top of his head to the bottom of the unicorn’s legs. Like usual, she didn’t speak.
The Queen mocked Loki without saying a word. She mouthed, “Peekaboo,” as she pointed her forefinger and middle finger at her eyes and back to Loki. “I see you.”
The words sent a shiver into Loki. The Queen loved to play games. Killing her enemies abruptly seemed not to be her thing; she loved to see them suffer slowly; she loved to watch them decay as she sat and slowly devoured her precious apples.
Loki saw her gripping Snow White tightly with her other hand. Although he knew that Snow White wasn’t a damsel in distress, and that she was badass, he wondered why she didn’t fight the Queen. Was it because she was her mother and that she felt partially ashamed to resist her, or was it that the Queen’s strength was overwhelming?
“Run, Loki,” Snow White screamed
as the Queen pulled her hair. “Save yourself. She won’t let go of me. I tried to get your Fleece from her, but now it’s too late. Run!”
“No, I won’t,” Loki said, gripping his Alicorn. “I won’t wake up without you! We’re going to wake up from this dream together, and then I’ll never leave you again.”
“She’s mine now, Dreamhunter,” the Queen of Sorrow yelled from behind the pearl bars. “As mother and daughter—or shall I say once-mother and daughter—she’s bonded to me. That’s why as long as I hold onto her, she is trapped in this dream and won’t be able to wake up,” she turned her head back and called for the one of the wolves pulling the carriage in the front, “Managarm!”
Loki assumed this was the wolf’s name, but he was oblivious of what she’d ordered him to do. Seconds later, the unexpected started happening. Loki tried to calm himself as he saw the carriage slowly start to rise into the air, pulled by the wolves. It was a slow lift off; they were pulling the carriage towards the moon.
“No!” Loki screamed, trying to grab the window’s bars with his hands.
“Peekaboo,” Carmilla mouthed again from a higher angle behind the bars. “Goodbye to you.”
Loki sped after them, wrapping his hands around the unicorn, wondering if it could fly. Spontaneously, he raised his Alicorn in the air and shouted, ‘Ora Pedora.’
“This should work,” he mumbled to himself. “I’ve had a long journey, and I’ve changed a lot. I do believe that I can do the impossible now. I really do. This should work,” he closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on the sincerity of his emotions. He imagined Snow White back in his arms again. He imagined he could save her. He’d spent a whole year trying to be forgiven for falling in love, and he wasn’t going to do make that mistake again. He wasn’t going to resist his feelings this time, or apologize for having them. Even if it was irrational how fast he’d fallen in love with her, even if he was forbidden from loving a demon girl, he wasn’t letting go of her. To hell with his memory, the hell with going back home, and the hell with the boundaries that chained him and prevented him from transcending and becoming what he wanted to be.
With eyes closed, he could feel the spiral surface of his Alicorn changing. It was moving, gliding as if it was becoming…alive.
Loki opened his eyes and saw the spirals around the Alicorn were circling around it like a snake. The truth was that this was a snake. He whipped it the air and it let out a scream and got thicker, spiralling higher toward the flying carriage. Loki soon discovered it would stretch as long as he needed it.
What he was holding in his hand was partially an evil weapon. He wasn’t that fond of snakes, especially after seeing the Queen’s forked tongue. But he knew this was what Charmwill repeatedly told him, that Loki had darkness inside him, darkness that had to do with whoever he’d been in the past. Only he could use this darkness and control it to use it against the likes of the Queen of Sorrow. It was like fighting fire with fire.
Loki whipped the snake one more time until it reached the carriage. He saw the Queen snarling with her fangs at the Alicorn’s snake. It was like a clash of titans, the same species eye to eye with each other.
Loki whipped his Alicorn for a third time. His snake slithered through the Queen’s hair and sprayed poison into her eyes. Carmilla screamed and backed away from the bars as Loki’s snake curled itself around them and started pulling the carriage down.
The struggle disrupted Loki’s balance on the unicorn but he gripped it harder with his free hand. Then he tightened his other hand around the Alicorn to help the snake pull the carriage back to land.
“I deserve an Oscar for this acrobatic performance,” Loki said, still struggling with both hands.
But his snake was amazingly powerful. It grew smaller snakes from its sides that stretched even further and sprayed poison into the wolves’ eyes. The wolves dizzied and dropped back toward land, pulling the carriage down with them.
The scene from Loki’s eyes was epic. A golden carriage in the air, pulled by poisoned wolves and strapped to the snakes from his Alicorn, all of this with the full moon in the background. Loki thought it was so crazy that he must have been dreaming. But hell, he was in a dream and this was what dreams may come.
The carriage came crashing down in front of him. Loki jumped off the unicorn as the snake pulled itself back curling around the Alicorn’s surface. He ran toward the carriage’s remains and saw Snow White sprawled on the floor. Carmilla was gone.
He pulled the demolished parts of the carriage away and knelt down next to Snow White. He patted her lightly on the cheek but she wasn’t responding. She was also paler than she’d been all dream long.
“Wake up, Shew,” he pleaded. “Wake up. I’m here beside you,” he rested her head on his arms but her hands fell loosely to her sides. He didn’t know what to do, wondering what happened to her. She didn’t look like her unconscious condition was caused by the crash of the carriage. Something else happened to her while she was in mid-air.
Crows started cawing and gathering around the trees all around him. Loki raised his head, assuming that this meant the dream was about to end. Soon enough there’d be earthquakes and mountains falling and they’d wake up. But was it safe to wake up while she was unconscious? He didn’t know.
Laying her back on the ground, he saw her lips were dripping blood. It didn’t make sense. He wondered if she had bitten the Queen while struggling in the air.
But that wasn’t the case. Next to Snow White’s paralyzed body, Loki saw a bitten apple. It was a blood apple, the juice that seeped from it was red, and he assumed Snow White had taken a bite off it. Carmilla must have forced her to bite on it while they were in the carriage.
Behind him, Loki heard Charmwill screaming. Loki stood to his feet and saw Charmwill in the distance. He was on his knees, his hands bound behind his back, and surrounded by the huntsmen. They were half-circling him with their swords to their sides. Each of them wore that same black cloak that didn’t show their faces. The wind puffed through their hollow heads and stirred the cloak as if they were black ghosts. They had caught Charmwill and were about to execute him. Loki wanted to run to him.
“Don’t come for me, Loki,” Charmwill pleaded. “I’m not as important as her.”
Loki stood stranded, looking back and forth between Snow White and Charmwill. He didn’t know whom he should save. The dream was about to end and he could only save one. The earth underneath him rumbled. The earthquake was nearing.
“Save the princess,” Charmwill screamed, sounding afraid. Never had Loki heard such a shiver in his guardian’s voice before.
Loki expected the Huntsman to appear from the dark to kill Charmwill. He needed to think fast. Was he going to face the Huntsman against Charmwill’s advice? Was he going to think of a way to save Snow White and give up on the man who unshadowed him and had blessed him with a second life? It was a hard call. It was like choosing between past and future, old and young, and it was going to break Loki’s heart either way.
Slowly, someone appeared from between the huntsmen circling his guardian. But it wasn’t the Huntsman. It was Carmilla.
She walked slowly among her huntsmen, approaching Charmwill. A number of goblins next to her were pulling the Queen’s favorite mirror behind her. They stopped in front of Charmwill and Carmilla tilted her head, meeting Loki’s eyes in the distance.
“I swear if you say that Peekaboo-I-see-u thing one more time I’m going to kick your majesty’s royal ass,” Loki snapped.
Carmilla let out a short laugh then turned her shoulder towards him, as if ignoring him. She reached her hand into the mirror and pulled a sword made of sharply edged glass. She walked closer to Charmwill and patted him on the cheek like a puppy.
“You know how long I’ve wanted to kill you, Charmwill?” she asked the old man who lowered his eyes silently with shame. “So long that I’m willing to let your prodigal Dreamhunter get away with the princess.”
It wasn’t surprising tha
t Charmwill knew Carmilla. Loki hadn’t figured out most of the truth about this fairy tale world after all. He just knew that he wasn’t going to kill the princess, and that he had chosen to stay in Sorrow and forget about finding out who he really was. But it killed him inside him to see Charmwill like this. He’d known how proud the man was. Charmwill had never been afraid of death. It was the shame that he feared; the shame of getting down on his knees and bowing to the forces of evil. Even if he were immortal, killing Charmwill in the dream was putting him into sleep forever in the real world. The rules that applied to the Demortals also applied to Dreamhunters in the matters of life and death.
“Stay where you are, Loki,” Charmwill pleaded again, his head still low, ready for the Queen to chop it off. “The dream is ending. You’ll be safe if you have patience.”
“But I can’t leave you,” Loki felt a tear roll down his cheek. He was about to take a step toward him. The only thing that stopped him was that it was a step away from Snow White as well. “You don’t want to kill him,” Loki diverted his eyes toward the Queen. “You want Snow White, and she’s here with me,” the words ached in his heart when he said them, because he didn’t really mean them. He knew deep inside that he wasn’t going to be able to give up on the pale princess. But he was trying to fool the Queen to buy some time.
“I don’t need her,” Carmilla said nonchalantly, raising her glass sword in the air, “at least not now.”
“What do you mean you don’t need her?” Loki grimaced.
“I forced her to bite on the apple. It’s a blood apple. She’s cursed now with being one of us. And she’ll stay cursed until someone finds the cure, which I’m sure you will never find, foolish Dreamhunter.”
“Tell me what the cure is,” Loki demanded, knowing it was indeed a foolish request, as if the Queen of Sorrow was going to tell him.
“You can take her along with you to the real world. She’s no threat to me at the moment. The apple will turn her into a dark vampire. She’ll probably kill you once you pull the stake out,” Carmilla took a deep breath, preparing to bring the sword down on Charmwill.
