by Liz Dejesus
“I think we have a winner,” she announced. She took a deep breath and wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand.
She had been working on the spell for hours and was exhausted. Terrance had been drifting in and out of sleep. Prince Ferdinand had surrendered and was now snoring on the rocking chair.
“Okay…I’m done for the night. Going to sleep now,” she said with a yawn.
“Come here,” Terrance whispered.
Bianca crawled into the small twin bed with Terrance and cuddled up next to him. With her back pressed up against his chest, she knew that no nightmares would plague her that night.
The following morning at sunrise, Bianca had Terrance and Prince Ferdinand inspect the decoy slipper. She knew which one was the fake slipper because it bore an opalescent sheen that matched the white apple seed it once was.
“What do you think?” she asked as she handed the slipper to Terrance.
Prince Ferdinand studied them both carefully and shook his head. “I have no idea which one is which.” He threw his hands up in mock surrender.
“This is the fake slipper,” Terrance announced, holding the decoy.
“Do you think they’ll know?” she asked.
“I think they will be so desperate to get the slipper that they won’t notice until they reach the castle. But I don’t know if Elda’s or Blair’s skills at magic match your own,” Terrance said.
“That’ll have to do for the moment. Now all we need to do is get them to follow us to the Fairy Realm so that Queen Titania can capture her and make her give us the other slipper.”
“We can only hope that she’ll help us once we get there,” Prince Ferdinand said.
“I have a feeling she’ll be more than happy to help us. I think she wants the slippers out of their hands as much as we do.” Bianca carefully wrapped the decoy shoe and the real glass slipper in one of her T-shirts and placed it in her battered backpack. One by one, they stepped out of the third little pig’s brick house. She plucked a hair from her head and tied it around the doorknob.
By this time next year, I’ll be bald.
“Not by the hair of my chinny, chin, chin.”
The house reverted to its original brick shape, and she placed that in the bottom of her backpack, careful not to crush the glass slippers.
“All right, let’s get going. Hopefully we can make it to the Fairy Realm before sunset.”
They had taken a few steps out of the cave when Terrance suddenly stopped walking. “Wait,” he whispered.
That was when Bianca heard hissing sounds. They came from every direction.
“Ter…” Bianca didn’t even try to hide the fear in her voice.
Both young men drew their swords and readied themselves for battle. Bianca prepared herself mentally, her hands tingling with the promise of fire.
“You thought you were so smart. You thought you could escape me. Escape your fate,” Elda taunted. She was nowhere to be seen. Her voice was a faint echo in the distance. “I will have the other slipper now…if you don’t mind.”
“If I say no?” Bianca said in a defiant tone of voice.
“Then you and your friends will die.” Elda appeared into the clearing, carried out of the forest by her snakes. They slithered all around her.
Blair was nowhere in sight, but Bianca suspected that she lurked somewhere in the shadows. Rebekah walked closely behind Elda, careful not to step on any of the snakes. Her eyes were sad and her shoulders slumped. Almost defeated. As if she had surrendered to the plan Elda had hatched. Where was the proud queen? The woman that was willing to do anything in order to have her wish come true?
“Rebekah, it doesn’t have to be this way. Things can be different if you take control of your own fate.” Bianca did her best to reach out to the Frog Queen, with the hope that she would stop Elda before things got much worse than they were.
Rebekah opened her mouth to speak, but apparently changed her mind at the last moment and shook her head. She covered her face with her webbed hands and hid behind Elda. “Do it,” the Frog Queen commanded.
The snake witch gave Bianca a wicked grin and unleashed her attack.
“Crap,” Bianca muttered.
She had no idea how Elda had conjured up so many snakes. All she knew was that suddenly, hundreds of snakes hissed and slithered their way toward them. They were surrounded. Terrance and Ferdinand did an elegant and brutal dance as they slashed and hacked the reptiles to pieces. Bianca used wind and fire to create a perimeter around them as together, they inched back into the depths of the cave. With one hand, she commanded gusts of wind to push the snakes away. With the other, she threw fire balls and did her best to kill as many as possible.
Prince Ferdinand accidentally cut one of the straps on her backpack. It slid off her back and landed with a soft thump on the ground by her feet.
“My apologies!” the prince said.
“Be careful,” Bianca scolded.
That moment of distraction cost her dearly. She had looked away long enough to miss a large black python slithering toward her. When Bianca realized her mistake, it was far too late. The python slapped her across the chest with its large, muscular tail and caused her to fall at the edge of the pit. She grunted and did an awkward summersault as she tumbled off the edge. She scrambled to hold on. Her legs dangled in the air as she struggled to find firm footing. With one hand, she grabbed on to a sharp rock, and with the other, she held on to a dried-up root.
A pale yellow snake slithered into her backpack and took one of the slippers.
“Ferdinand! The yellow snake has the slipper,” she shouted.
The prince did everything he could to get to the glass slipper, but the same python that had attacked Bianca knocked him over the head, rendering him unconscious. Rebekah rushed over to him and leaned over to see if he was still breathing.
“Leave him alone!” Bianca roared and with her free hand threw a ball of fire at the Frog Queen.
Rebekah dodged the fireball and narrowed her eyes at Bianca. Her throat expanded and a croak escaped her lips. She gave Bianca a tightlipped smile as she caressed the prince’s blond hair.
“Ter!” Bianca cried.
Terrance glanced in Bianca’s direction for an instant, but was unable to get to her. He was surrounded by venomous snakes, and it was all he could do to keep them at bay with the help of his sword.
Damn it.
“Bring him with us,” Rebekah said to Elda.
“We don’t need him,” the snake witch hissed.
“I know we don’t need him. I want him. Bring him with us,” Rebekah commanded.
“Very well.”
Rebekah held the yellow snake in her arms and took the slipper that was wrapped around its tail. “I have the slipper. Let’s go,” she said.
“Not yet. I want them dead. I want them all dead,” Elda hissed.
“I said now!” Rebekah roared. Her large blue eyes bulged out of her sockets as she stared at Elda.
“No! You can’t do this!” Bianca cried. She struggled to climb over the edge.
Her grip on the dried root helped to keep her from falling, but she didn’t know how long she would be able to hold on. She watched in horror as Prince Ferdinand’s unconscious body was dragged away by a large group of snakes.
Terrance had his back against the wall, doing his best to defend himself against the dozens of reptiles that hissed and sprang at him from every direction. His white shirt was stained with blood. It was hard to tell whose.
“Look out!” Bianca cried.
A crimson snake launched itself at Terrance and bit into his left arm several times. Her boyfriend cried out in pain, but he managed to grab the snake by the head and ripped it off with one quick flick of his wrist. The sleeve on his shirt quickly darkened with fresh blood. She could see him struggle as he looked from Prince Ferdinand to Bianca. He was trying to choose who to rescue first. She was moments away from telling him to go after the prince, when she los
t her grip and fell farther into the pit. An involuntary scream escaped her lips, and she grabbed for a nearby rock. Terrance killed the remaining snakes and ran to Bianca.
He reached out to her with his good arm and held his hand out to her. Bianca took hold of his bloodied hand and knew instantly that it wouldn’t work. Her hand slipped in his.
“Terrance!” she cried.
“Hold on. I’ve got you,” he grunted.
“You’re hurt,” she said.
“Doesn’t matter. Try to climb up.”
Bianca clutched Terrance’s right hand. She tried, but his hand was slick with sweat and blood. Dust and rocks fell over her face and hair. She screamed as she slipped and flayed her arms about, hoping to grab onto something, anything. Her sleeve got tangled with a sharp rock, and that was the only thing that kept her from falling into the darkness. Her arms ached from bearing her weight for so long.
Terrance lowered his body as far down as he could and reached out to her. They touched the tips of each other’s fingers, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t get a good grip of her hand.
“I’ll go and find some rope,” he said.
Bianca shook her head. There wasn’t enough time. She had another minute, if she was lucky. She closed her eyes and though of her parents. She didn’t know if it was even possible to love two people as much as she loved them. Bianca was going to miss Rose’s belly swell with life. She wouldn’t get a chance to meet her little baby brother or sister. The child would never wrap his or her tiny hand around her finger.
Ming. Her best friend in the whole wide world. Often times, she felt that Ming was the only one that ever understood her.
She opened her eyes.
Sweat dripped down Terrance’s face as he struggled to reach her, to keep her from plummeting down into the darkness that threatened to consume her whole. She mourned the time they would never get back. She would never be able to say goodbye to him. But at that moment, she didn’t have much of a choice.
“Terrance,” her voice cracked as she spoke the name of the man she loved.
He recognized the look in her eyes. Defeat. His eyes widened in horror and he shook his head.
“Don’t you dare,” he growled.
She couldn’t help but burst into tears. “You have to let me go.”
“Never.” He lowered himself as far down as he could and reached out for her once more, using his injured arm, suffering through the pain. He grinded his teeth. His eyes watered with the promise of tears. The desperation in his dark brown eyes was plain to see. Fresh blood rushed out of the wound and snaked down his arm. But no matter how hard he tried, he still couldn’t reach Bianca.
“Save the prince.”
Tears flowed from her eyes and washed away some of the dust on her skin.
“We’ll save him together… Just hold on.” His voice cracked as he pleaded with her.
She heard the rip on her sleeve. She had a moment…at most.
“I love you so much,” she sobbed.
Having said those words, her sleeve tore and she fell into the darkness. Her gasp echoed over and over again. The wind whizzed past her, and all she could hear was Terrance screaming her name.
Twenty
Wings, wings, wings.
Was all she thought about as she fell, her arms flailing about, desperately trying to cling to something, anything that would stop her fall.
Then a tiny blue light buzzed around her several times.
Great. Exactly what I need. Just as I’m about to die, I start hallucinating.
Then, miracle of miracles, she slowed down. Not as much as she would’ve liked, but enough to make her reconsider throwing up.
“You are heavy, Mortal Girl,” an oddly familiar voice muttered.
The last time she remembered hearing that voice was when she visited the Fairy Realm with her friends. It was the overeager blue fairy that guarded the door to Queen Titania’s realm.
“Bluebell?”
“Who else would it be? Your fairy godmother? It’s not as though you have one anyway,” Bluebell said.
“What are you doing here?”
“Would you rather fall to your death?” He grunted as he began to fly up the pit. “That can be arranged,” he spat.
“Just curious, that’s all.”
“Obviously, Queen Titania sent me. Stupid mortal. Remember, the fairies were supposed to move your tracks so the guards wouldn’t find you.”
“Oh yeah. Uhh, so where did you send them?”
“I didn’t send them anywhere. My task was to follow you and make certain you do not die. My friends, on the other hand, sent the guards to a tavern with big bosomed ladies to tend to their every need. They will be quite all right.”
“Cool. Thank you.”
Bianca made sure she was nice to Bluebell. The last thing she wanted was for him to drop her, though she quickly figured out that it wouldn’t do the fairy queen much good if the person that owed her a favor died before she collected.
Nothing is free.
After several curse words spoken in a language that Bianca didn’t understand, Bluebell placed her on a ledge big enough for her to stand on.
“That’s a lot of words I don’t understand, but thank you for saving my life,” Bianca said.
She rested her back against the stone. She needed to take a moment to catch her breath and get used to the fact that she had survived. She lifted her gaze and saw a faint light up above.
“I don’t understand why Queen Titania is punishing me with the task of following you. This is completely beneath my station.” Bluebell pouted.
“Why don’t you tell me how you really feel?” Bianca muttered.
“I will! I feel humiliated. My friends Rosebud and Acorn will never let me forget this.” He moaned.
“I get it. Stinky human. This sucks. Beneath you. Got it.”
“And now I have to put up with your insolence,” Bluebell said.
“Bluebell, I’m really sorry you got the job of babysitting me. For what it’s worth, I’m grateful that the queen thought to send you. Otherwise, I’d be dead. So I’ll gladly put up with your whining.”
Bluebell stared at Bianca and then said, “You are a strange human.”
“You’re not the first one to say that to my face.” She stood up and dusted herself off as best as she could. “Anyway, I don’t think I can climb all the way up the pit. Do you think you could carry me the rest of the way?” Bianca asked.
“Sadly, I am not strong enough to do so,” he replied.
“What about pixie dust?”
“Bah! No such thing as pixie dust. Besides, I am a fairy, not a pixie. We are two very different creatures.”
“So…Peter Pan?”
“That idiot Tinkerbell carries him everywhere. Pixie dust my blue arse!” Bluebell then made a rude gesture, and his wings beat even faster than normal.
“All right. I’ll see what I can do,” she said. She pulled the red velvet bag out of her pocket and removed a white apple seed. She needed to be more careful about using them. She’d already used up three seeds and needed to make sure they lasted a long, long time. She had a feeling that her life was going to be much more complicated from now on.
Another breath. Another number, and it vanished with a flash of light. Just like before. A reminder of what she had lost so far.
Now this makes four hours of my life gone. God…I hope this works.
She picked up a large rock and smashed the seed until it had been ground into a fine powder. She gathered it up and held it on the palm of her hand. She sprinkled some of it over her head and rubbed the remains over her arms, shoulders, and back.
“Here goes nothin’,” she mumbled.
“I’ll stay close and catch you should you plummet to your death once more,” Bluebell said.
“Thanks. That’s the spirit…I think.”
Several bones on her shoulders dislocated and reformed themselves with a few soft pops. She felt something tear
out of her skin. Bianca gasped in pain. She panted and broke into a cold sweat. Whatever it was, it hummed and shook its way out of her back, sounding as though someone had ripped a piece of fabric in half. After a few long moments, the pain subsided.
“What just happened?” Bianca asked in a shaky voice.
“I cannot believe it,” Bluebell said, his voice was filled with awe.
“What?” she cried.
“You have wings.”
“Really?” She looked over her shoulder, and there they were. The prettiest wings she had ever seen. They were translucent, with an opalescent sheen, reminding her of the wings on a dragonfly.
“Wow. That’s crazy and awesome. I wonder if they actually work or if they’re just for show,” she mumbled.
She focused her attention to the muscles on her arms and shoulders. The wings hummed with life for a fraction of a second, and after a few minutes, she managed to get her feet off the ground.
“Whoa.” She lost her balance and slammed against the stone wall. Her shoulders ached from that tiny bit of exertion.
“Don’t think so much,” Bluebell instructed.
“Okay, hard not to think about the fact that I have wings and that I’m flying. I can give that a try. Don’t think about it. Don’t. Think.” She jumped a few times, shook her arms, and rolled her neck.
Don’t think.
After slamming herself against the sharp, rocky wall a few times, Bianca finally reached the surface and made it out of the pit in one piece. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she collapsed and took several deep breaths. Her lungs burned with every gulp of air she took. Her lips were chapped and dry. She would’ve killed for a sip of water. The wings on her back must’ve sensed that they were no longer needed, because they vanished. All that remained was sparkling dust. Miraculously, her backpack was still where she’d left it. She put one of the straps over her shoulder and looked around. Bluebell hovered close by.
“Ter,” she whispered.
Deathly silence was the only thing that greeted her as she looked around the empty cave. She called out his name once more.
“Terrance,” she cried, unable to hide the desperation in her voice.
