Into the Woods

[AHeartlessNobody]

"Stay here and finish up those potions for me. I'll be back in a few hours."


"Yes Mother." Mirabella stated with a nod as she watched her mother put on her black cloak, walking with the older woman to the door. She herself knew when her mother said it would be a few hours, that really meant she would be back after night fall. When her mother went on her outings outside of the barrier it was always like that. What her mother was doing while out there in the woods was a mystery to even Mira herself, but knowing her mother, it was probably her reeking some form of havoc on the humans. Sometimes she wondered if her mother lived only to trouble the non-magic wielders, but she never thought too long on it, a her own urge to leave the barrier as well easy blocked off those thoughts every time it came across her mind.


Her mother turned the knob and was about to step outside of their small cottage when she turned sharply, a stern look on the Witch's face, "And Mira,"


"Yes Mother?" The girl questioned obediently as she could, bringing her mind away from her thoughts of freedom and back to the woman in front of her.





"Do not leave the barrier. Do I make myself clear? Those humans out there are--"


"'Mean and vile. They wouldn't hesitate to slaughter an innocent spell-caster or sell them off to the highest bidder in market.' I know Mother, I know. Now, go on before it gets too late." She commented, having heard the same warning every day for the last ten years of her life, ever since she had wandered outside of the barrier for the first time. It was a moment etched into her mind and always left a knot in her chest. Those human children had seemed so kind to her. They had let her join in and play with them. But the moment they found out she could do magic...they tore her apart and though the physical wounds had healed, the mental ones had left scars.


"Very good. Remember Mirabella, no matter how kind those beasts may seem, they will always hate us. Never trust a human." This warning was one of many, and after her mother had spoken it softly to her, kissing her forehead, the woman went off, ape flowing behind hr as she left the home and passed through the barrier just a mere fifteen feet in front of their home, heading off into the darkness of the woods.


"What's out there that keeps her leaving all the time? What is she searching for?" Mira whispered quietly to herself a she stared out into the woods a few moments, before slowly turning and walking back inside beginning the work her mother had given her. She was to make some simple potions and though it was a very complicated task, because she did this almost every day, it was something she had come to do with ease and great skill. Humming softly to herself, she began taking things off of the shelves and throwing each things at a time, in a certain order, into the calderon that stood in the middle of her mother's study.


She repeated this with every potion, and by noon she had done all of the potions her mother had told her to, leaving her free for the rest of the day until her mother was to return. Smiling slightly, she moved tot he book shelves that stood along the back wall of the study, running her hands over the old bindings of each leather bound book. Tilting her head to the side she was thoughtful for a moment, before deciding which one she wanted to read for the day, pulling a book entitled Sleeping Beauty off of the shelves.


These books were written by two men named the Grimm Brothers, who traveled from kingdom to kingdom, finding stories to write about. Most of those her mother had were the stories based on what Mira was sure had to be the rulers of the three surrounding kingdoms. There were other stories as well, but those were of more far off lands.


Taking the book in her delicate hands, she walked outside and rounded a corner when a creature about the size of a horse jumped in front of her, giving a roar that didn't even make her flinch. In fact, if anything, it annoyed the girl, "Gounii, go bother someone else. I'm busy."


Hearing her disinterest in him, her mother's pet dragon(whom she kept as extra protection for the cottage), snorted and made a grumbling sound, slinking off around another corner to go to the other side of the cottage and likely catch mice or tease the birds by chasing them off.


Shaking her head at the beast, she laughed under breath and flopped down in the grass under a large oak tree, smiling brightly to herself as she flipped open the book, "Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful king and king, of whom were blessed with a daughter. Everyone gathered to see the new princess, including three fairies. These good fairies were to each bestow a gift upon the child. One granted her beauty. Another granted her the sweetest voice one could hear. But, before the last fairy could grant her wish, an evil woman with dark magic...." Even though she had read this story countless times, Mira always paused at this part, a frown forming deeply on her face, "Cast a curse upon the child. On the princess's eighteenth birthday, she would prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die."


By now, the dragon had made his way over to her once more, laying down beside her to look at the book as well. Mira scratched his head and looked up at him, "That wasn't nice of her to do, was it Gounii?" The dragon grumbled again as if to share his thoughts, making her laugh and continue reading, "The evil woman vanished soon after pacing this curse and the third fairy granted a wish that would save the child's life if the cure would be fulfilled. She decreed that should the princess prick her finger, she would not die, but fall into a deep sleep." She began flipping through the pages more, trying to skip to the end, "The princess is sent away....she meets the prince in the forest.....falls in love...blah, blah, blah....she gets sent back home to the castle, where she of course pricks her finger." Rolling her eyes she grinned, "Didn't see that coming. Curses are so unpredictable. Not." Finally coming to the end she started reading again, "The prince sat upon his white steed, sword held high as the evil woman shifted into a mighty dragon." She looked over at Gounii, who stood up tall and proud hearing this, giving a roar, causing Mira to laugh more and roll onto her back, continuing to read, "The dragon spit flame after flame out at the prince, but the prince was too quick. He lunged forward and...." She paused once again a deep frown coming back to her face, "he killed the witch, putting an end to her dark magic."


Sighing and not having the heart to read the rest, she shut the book and tossed it to the side, looking up to the clouds as she spoke to herself, "Why does the witch always have to die? Why can't just for once, the witch have the happy ending?" She whispered to herself, turning over on her stomach to stare out into the woods, "Once upon a time....there lived a lonely witch. This witch, was not like other witches, for she wanted a life beyond the boundaries that had been placed before her. She wanted to be a good person, yet knew she would never be accepted by humans, and because of this, hid herself away, waiting for the day she might be able to live a life away from the destiny that lays before every other witch. The day she would be accepted...." Sighing again, she moved to stand, "Which will be never. Only humans live happy lives and only prince's and princess's get happily ever afters."


Trying to shrug it off the best she could, she patted the large dragon's side and shrugged, "I'm going to go inside and maybe organize some of Mother's spell-books. I'm sure she would want--"


"Meeeeeow."


Blinking in surprise at the sound of a meow, she looked around, trying to find the source and from beyond the barrier, stood a small black cat with yellow looked eyes, staring straight at her. But this cat didn't seem normal at all. No, this animal looked to be almost like a dark cloud, or even a shadow. It just stood there, waiting, and finally, curious, Mira slowly approached the barrier, though didn't go past it at first, merely kneeling down to look at it from the other side of the barrier. It was only then that she noticed a black piece of parchment under its paw in the grass, almost like the animal had brought it to her.


Pausing slightly, she was about to reach out and grab it through the barrier, when the animal took it into its mouth, jumping through to their side of the barrier, putting Mira into a little bit of a shock, considering only things that bore magic could cross the barrier. That meant either this animal was magical or was made of magic. Or maybe both. But whatever it was, Mira just had to see what was on that peculiar note it carried And so, she took it from its mouth, reading.


You are one of six chosen few to receive this letter. You were chosen, because you wish for something with a great desire. So I shall grant you your wish. Into the Woods you must travel, to the Tree of Truth. There you will find me and if you follow my commands, you shall have your wish granted.


The letter was not signed, and right after she ha read it, the whit words on the paper suddenly began to fade until she was left with a blank piece of blank paper. She held the paper tightly in her hands, slowly looking up to see past the barrier, an uneasy look on her face, "Into the Woods?" She looked back down at the blank letter, and then at the cat that looked at her with such expecting eyes, "Someone there will grant my wish?" The cat meowed, as if to answer her, and she looked to the woods, slowly stepped forward, "I can have my wish?" She said slowly to herself, letting it sink in before she began to smile again, and this time, it was a hopeful smile, "I can have my wish!"


Rushing into the cottage again, she grabbed one of her mother's black cloaks, slipping it on and putting the hood over her head, as she rushed back outside, "Gounii, protect the cottage while I'm gone! I'll be back soon!" She stated and went to the barrier, pausing to take in what she was about to do, before taking her first step into the woods, the car running a little a head of her, "I guess I follow you then?" And though the cat didn't answer, she knew that was what she was supposed to do and began following the cat hurriedly, attempting to try and keep up.

 

[Johnny R McAvery]

THUMP! Was the continuous sound that Nick had been making all morning as he chopped a large pile of wood into a stack of firewood. Winter would be arriving soon and his parents, well adoptive parents although he considered them his real parents, would need the wood to keep warm. Nick on the other hand had an ability to not grow cold, or he didn't mind being cold he wasn't really sure which way it was. As he moved to pick up a fresh log he saw from the corner of his eyes, and had thought it to be a trick of the light, a wolf as with as fresh show. He might have missed it if it weren't for the animal's black nose and vivid forest green eyes. Curious as to why the wolf was so close to him he swung the ax and let it lodge into the chopping log.


Nick the proceeded towards the creature with caution and his eyes seemed to try and deceive him once more. The wolf appeared to be made of fog. How odd, but there was no other way to explain it. Wolves were normally made of fog were they? Trying to figure out more of the mystery Nick crouched down low, balancing on the balls of his feet and offered out the back of his hand for the wolf to smell. That is when Nick noticed the black piece or paper in the wolf's mouth and it had been astonishing that Nick had missed it the first time around. What was more was that the wolf seemed to want to give te parchment to Nick. So with a gentle movement Nick took the parchment and began to read aloud and slowly:


You are one of six chosen few to receive this letter. You were chosen, because you wish for something with a great desire. So I shall grant you your wish. Into the Woods you must travel, to the Tree of Truth. There you will find me and if you follow my commands, you shall have your wish granted.


This was crazy why would this be given to him? There was nothing special about him. He was simple farm boy who had difficulty at reading. He had two parents who loved him dearly and had always taken such good care of him. Then the nagging thought came running about in the back of his head.


Often times, especially at night Nick felt a sense of not belonging here. As if he was a puzzle piece in a puzzle and nearly fit, and almost completed the picture anyways. He felt as though he belonged to a different puzzle. This feeling had only grown stronger over the years. If this wolf could help him then surely he must take the wolf on its offer. Decided then and there to go with the letter he stood up and he stood strong and proud, as if he knew the choice he was making was right.


"Listen wolf. I have to finish these chores at the very least alright. My parents are out in town gathered grocery. I promised them to have everything down before they arrived home. So if you can wait I'll go with you." He didn't expect an answer from the wolf and before pocketing the letter he looked at it only to find the letters had gone. This puzzled him some but he couldn't change his mind now. He had given the wolf his word.


On the farm they had a healthy lot of animals. A milking cow, a brood of chickens, and then a flock of goats. There were more goats than chickens, but the chickens provided more for the family, and of course the cow was the most important. So he had to make sure everything was okay because if they weren't then they, the family, would have a hard time. He found a bucket and loaded it with feed and brought along the egg basket. After herding two of the hens back into the pen he threw down the feed before going into the coupe and gathering a basket full of eggs. Being responsible and wise enough, after he had dropped a basket of eggs trying to carry to many things at once, he placed the eggs on the kitchen table. He then went out to feed the goats which had never given him any trouble and even though the wolf was behind him they didn't frighten.


Finally he went over to Envera and gave her, her feed before sitting down with a bucket under her. He rubbed his hands together to warm them up as she hated cold hands and had come close to kicking him in the past. He touched her gently to make sure she was okay with. He mooed lightly ad watched him with big brown eyes before going back to eat. Knowing she was okay with his hands he milked her and then brought the milk inside.


Before leaving the house he knew he would need a few things. He found this hatchet that had been given to him when he was 12 and gave it the once over. Decided it might need to be sharpened he grabbed the honing stone and slipped it into his pocket. He also found his knife so that he could skin and clean an animal if he caught one as well as a piece of flint for fires. He then went into the kitchen and took half a loaf of bread which was to be his lunch anyways along with some cheese and butter made by Envera. Satisfied he had most everything he went to the door and grabbed his bow and quiver that only had 5 arrows left in it.


The bow had been had made by him and the help of their closest neighbor who was about a 3 hour walk from their home. Nick had worked as a farm hand once for about a month and in return the man had guided Nick into making his own bow as the old man had bad sight and old age had taken much of strength. Finally satisfied he opened the door and began to follow the wolf into a woods. Wither it was the woods he did not know.

 

[AHeartlessNobody]

"Alright girl, steady for me. I'll make this as quick as I can." Rannon commented, patting the brown mare on the side as he stood in the middle of the stables, horse shoe and hammer in hand, ready to nail the show to the bottoms of the female horse's hooves. He grabbed a stool from off to the side and sat down, patted her leg and having her lift it so he could place it in his lap and secure the shoe on securely and comfortably. He repeated this with each hove and when he was finally done getting them all on, grinned at the horse, holding out his hand, letting the animal eat the few sugar cubes he had for her.


Once he was done getting the shoes on, he made his way over to where they kept all the riding supplies, picking everything he needed in his arms, throwing the reins over his shoulder, walking back over, placing the saddle on, fastening it, before he went to putting the reins and such on her as well, the horse getting quite fussy about this, stomping her hooves and tossing her head, and all together just giving Rannon trouble. But, the young man had been doing this kind of thing for years and was used to horses that happened to have temperaments. He stayed calm with the mare, and every time she was took a break in between throwing her head he would fasten one or two things.


After a while, he had her all ready and smirked at her, patted her snout, "See? That wasn't so bad, was it?" The horse though seemed to disagree, snorting in his face, causing him to laugh and rake a hand through his dark hair, shifting his weight, "Okay, well, that's your opinion. I think you're just being silly and trying to give me a hard time." If looks could kill, Rannon should would be dead. He loved horses and he knew normally the horses were awfully fond of him. It was only when those high class snoods were about to ride the horses that the gentle creatures would get anxious.


Sighing, he shook his head and began brushing her, "I know, girl. I don't like those inexperienced rag dolls riding you and the others either. But it's not my place to say anything." Once he had her finished, he did the same with two other horses and as soon as he finished with that third horse, three obviously high class people, an older couple and their daughter, came strutting down in their fancy garb, complaining all the while ho the stables stunk (as if they expected a place where animals lived to smell like roses. and in reality the stables smelt better than most in the town because Rannon worked so hard to keep them that way), about how hot it was outside, and as though he couldn't hear him, about Rannon himself. Putting him down. Though they never said this loud enough until the daughter spoke up, getting angry about the horse that was suited up for her to ride.


"I don't like this one! I want the white one!"


Standing up straight, Rannon spoke, "Blizzard is still injured from your last ride on him. He wouldn't be able to make the trip."


"Yes he would! Get me my horse! NOW!"


He stepped forward a little, trying his best to stay calm with the woman, "Mam, if you take him out, an accident could happen and he could--"


The woman, even before he finished was unnecessarily angered by his words, and drew a hand back before bringing it forward to make contact wit his cheek, the smack sounding loudly, "Are you calling me clumsily! You have better be lucky my father doesn't hold your pay for even suggesting such a thing, you filthy buffoon! Now get me my horse!"


Though Rannon hated the thought of the white horse getting hurt more because of the incompetence of the woman, he knew with the horse not being his that his hands were tied and he had no choice but to suit that horse up instead, her jaw clenched the whole time. When he was done, he silently boiled as he walked the horse up to the woman and stepped back to allow her room to mount the animal.


Only, when she did, the horse immediately bucked throwing her off with a shriek, the woman landing in a unfortunate pile of....well....needless to say it was a rather smelly and disgusting place to land. Now it was the woman's turn to boil as she screamed out in anger, rushing toward the house, and seeing such a sight, Rannon couldn't help but muffle a chuckle. That chuckle though, of course angered the young woman's father more and he turned his rath on the young man, "You think that was funny?!"


Straightening again, rannon spoke up, shaking his head, "No sir, I didn't think--"


"Don't you dare lie to me boy! You thought it was! In fact, I have a feeling you even planned this!"


"What?" Rannon asked in surprise, now finally getting angry, "What makes you think I would do such a thing? Your daughter was the one who prodded an injured horse to do what it didn't want to! And she got what she deserved for it!"


"And you shall pay for this as well! You are fired! You better have be off of out property in one hours time! And you can forget about your pay for the month as well!" With that, the old man and his wife left the stables.


The angered and very much annoyed Rannon made his way to the small shack at the end of the property he stayed in, being quick to gather his things, not because the man said he only had an hour, but because h wanted to get out of here before he knocked the ignorant fool's head off. Stuffing everything he owned, which wasn't much aside from some clothes and the pay he had been saving up from his years of working there, and started walking, planning to leave as soon as possible when he paused, a crazy, yet satisfying idea coming to his head.


Hurrying back to the stables, he looked around, grinning when he saw Thunder. Thunder was a large black horse, which he had often used to run to market for the family, but now, he was taking the horse as his own. If they didn't want to pay him for his month's worth of work, then he would take what he felt would suffice for the lack of pay and all the years of being grossly underpaid and abused for the good work he did.


Gearing up the horse, he laughed as he took off, heading to the market first. There, he grabbed a few things; some apples for the horse, loafs of bread to eat, a canteen to put water in for his trip, and a coat, as winter was rolling in and the weather woudl surely be his greatest enemy. Once he had everything he needed, he turned his horse, heading down the road. He traveled for quite some time silently, hours passing, until he saw a stream on the side of the road and decided it woudl be good for he and horse to take a quick rest. So, hopping down, he lead the horse to the stream and let it drink, filling up his own canteen. Once it was filled, he knelled down, splashing his face with the water, when he saw something from the corner of his eyes.


Over beside him, sitting on a rock was a lizard about the size of his hand and curled in his tail, was a strange black piece of paper. Curious, he moved toward it, expecting it to run, when it calmly stayed there, only moving to let the paper drop and roll toward him. Picking the parchment up, he read it over, raising an eyebrow at the message,





You are one of six chosen few to receive this letter. You were chosen, because you wish for something with a great desire. So I shall grant you your wish. Into the Woods you must travel, to the Tree of Truth. There you will find me and if you follow my commands, you shall have your wish granted.


The message disappeared right before his green eyes and he looked back up, picking up the lizard to look at it When he did, it moved its tail, as if pointing in a certain direction, toward the woods. He looked between the lizard and the woods, before a wide, yet rather charming grin came onto his face, "Well, Thunder, " He said patting this horse's side, "I guess we're taking our trip through the woods now." Giving a happy laugh, he hopped onto the horse, and they took off, dashing through the trees.

 

[Johnny R McAvery]

Alric opened the large heavy wooden doors that had metal beating into them to make them look more ornate. the wood was heavy enough to begin with and the metal didn't help. Lucky the servants had always keep the hinges well oiled. He was off to see his Aunt Elsa as he had an idea he wanted to present to her. He lived in the castle along with his mother Anna and father Kristoff, perhaps two of the most loving parents a boy could ask for.


As he past a suit of armor he straightened his uniform, using the metal dome that was part of the shield as a distorted mirror. He wore a large light blue jacket over his brown tunic. Over the jacket was a layer of thick animal skin. His legs were also covered in animal skins, but instead of looking rough like many of the men, he and the rest of the royal guards looked much more put together and all wore the light blue jacket that marked them as Queen Elsa's men. He had like so many of the other men, a sword strapped to his belt. Winter was already there for the kingdom and everyone but the ice queen was bundled in furs.


He knocked on the large elm doors that lead into her throne room and waited to be let in. Once inside he didn't waist time on formalities. "Queen Elsa, If I might have a word with you."


"Yes please do." Said Elsa, her voice on a little cold. She had never fully bounced back from her son vanishing out of thin air.


"I propose a new search for my lost cousin. I believe we should head towards..."


"No. We have already spent too many resources on looking for the lost children. As much as I would love to see my son, there is no hope. He and the others must have surely died years ago."


"You can't know that. We must...."


"We must what? Look for a skeleton of a child? Perhaps fly over to a new world? There is nothing we can do. If magic were still here maybe, but it still wouldn't turn up a dead child."


"But Queen don't you still have magic of your own?"


"Magic. Don't make me laugh. Ice is a curse. That is why the Symbol Isa and Algiz rest in your swords hilt. To hopefully protect you from the unforgiving wasteland. Now leave and do your job."


"Yes my Queen."Said Alric as he sighed and went out the doors he had come through. At times his aunt was really pleasant to be around, other times she..... He didn't know how to explain it but perhaps the loss of her son had caused this.


He vanished down into corridors that lay below the castle trying to gather his thoughts. He couldn't take a group of men with him without the queen's approval. So he would have to think outside the box, or rather outside the castle. After a few turns he found his favorite little spot that had some candles, lit them, and stared into the darkness around him. As he let the thoughts of what she had said role around in his head a rat came up to him. It was a brown thing, nothing particularly special about it. Or at least at first glance. He had noticed that the rat had a black mouth, almost looking like a bad beard. Then he realized it wasn't. It was in fact a piece of black paper. How odd. He had seen many different types of paper, but none had been black. If there was ink to be on it would have had to been blacker than it. The rat step forward and deposited a note that read in ink as white as marble.


You are one of six chosen few to receive this letter. You were chosen, because you wish for something with a great desire. So I shall grant you your wish. Into the Woods you must travel, to the Tree of Truth. There you will find me and if you follow my commands, you shall have your wish granted.


He knew his wish at once. To bring home the children who had been lost. To see his cousin, and to catch up on lost times. He knew that if he finished this quest everything would be at peace. Then it hit him. He had a quest. The most noble of things to do. He had a way to bring back everyone.


He darted to the stables with a purse full of coins. Got onto his horse and placed the rat on top of the stead's head. "Guide me." He spoke to it and waited for it to make a move to show him. Surely this rat was intelligent to have brought him the note it could also take him to where he was needed. The rat sniffed the air on its hind legs and then pointed using its nose. Steering the horse he followed the different the rat said to go.

 

[AHeartlessNobody]

Rose quietly stood there within the home of Lord Talik, staying obediently and very still by her father and mother as they spoke to the old man and his son. Lord Talik was one of the richest men in the kingdom, as working as an adviser for the king and queen surely payed much through the year. Rose should have considered all of this to be an honor. After all, to be betrothed to the son of such a high class man was something any middle class girl like her would die for. But, Rose was anything but thrilled on the inside. On the outside, in the eye sight of her mother, father, supposed fiance and Lord Talik, she was as poised and graceful as ever, the beautiful girl giving soft smiles and looking about curiously at what was supposed to be her new home with her future husband.


But, on the inside, Rose was dying. She didn't wish to marry this man's son, no matter how handsome or rich he might be. She wanted to marry for love, something her parents thought was silly. Her parents had been betrothed by their own parents, and so they found the only right way for a marriage to work was to be set up by the parents. They spoke to the Lord for a long while on matters such as his plans for his son's employment to the king after father retired, if they would take over this house or if they would move into a home of their own, the matters of dowry, and other things parents of such a lovely young woman would ask when marrying her off to a man their daughter barely even knew.


The wedding was to be in two days time, but they were having Rose stay here until that time, as they stated, to get accustomed to the household and the people within it. She had agreed once more to do something she didn't wish to do, solemnly going along with whatever orders her parents were giving her. The servants were quick to bring her things in and up into the guest bedroom, where she would be staying until the wedding night.


After the long conversation between her parents had ended, there was a quick goodbye said between she and her parents, she kissing their cheeks and hugs being exchanged between them, before they left, leaving her with her so called fiance and future father in law. Her fiance was bold to approach her and give her his best charming smile, kissing her hand and as he held it, began to lead her away from the front door of their large home, "Come my dear. Let us go dine and then you can get some rest. A delicate thing such as yourself must be exhausted from such a long trip."


Rose did her best to give a flattered smile, allowing herself to be mentally unwillingly tkaen into the dinning hall, where dinner was already being set up. She sat beside the handsome young man, the food being brought out, and silently the three of the ate dinner. She could all the time though feel the young mans eyes on her and she wasn't too comfortable with it. Still though she didn't let her thoughts reach her expression and finished her dinner in peace.


Once dinner was done, she was led once again by her fiance to her room upstairs, where he kissed her hand and then her cheek with a word of goodnight, before letting her go into her room to rest. She closed the door and leaned against it, letting out a sad sigh, shaking her head to herself as she made her way over to the window, opening it up to look out and get some fresh air after such a tense situation for herself, "What in the world am I to do?" Leaning against the window sill and resting her head there on her arms, she looked out into the darkness of the night, and there at the edge of the woods, she saw something that made her stand up straight, curious.


There at the edge of the woods, stood a small deer. Once that could very well have been a fawn that might have lost its mother as she saw no doe in sight. She continued to watch it for a long moment, but the little thing didn't move from its spot and seemed to be staring back up at her, as if waiting for her to come down.


Looking outside of her window, she saw a trellis to the right of it that went from the roof, all the day to the ground. Knowing she couldn't go outside from the front door for fear of being spotted by Lord Talik or his son, she reached out and with delicate hands and grabbed hold of the wood, climbing out her window and slowly making her way from her third floor window toward the ground. She climbed slowly and even once almost slipped, clingign to the wood with a small high pitched yelp, before continuing her way down.


Finally making it to the ground, she slowly started to approach the small deer, and to her surprise, it let her get close. Kneeling down next to it, she smiled softly as she pet its head, giving a giggle, "Well, hello there little one. What are you doing out here by yourself, huh? Did you loose your mommy?" The deer nuzzled its head against her and it wasn't ut a few seconds after that Rose finally noticed the note int he deer's mouth, written on black paper. She tilted her head to the side, taking it into her hands and unrolling it, reading the words aloud to herself,


"You are one of six chosen few to receive this letter. You were chosen, because you wish for something with a great desire. So I shall grant you your wish. Into the Woods you must travel, to the Tree of Truth. There you will find me and if you follow my commands, you shall have your wish granted."





"My....wish?" She thought about it for a moment before looking back to the deer, "You mean, the wish of wanting to know who my real parents are?" She asked, holding the letter tightly in her hands. That was something she had been dreaming of her whole life and to find she might be so close to actually knowing who they were if she found the person that wrote this note, well, it was something that left her excited and nervous all at one. While she dreamed of this, Rose was a very sheltered, and somewhat spoiled, girl. She had never been out on her own or even in the woods.


She took a few hesitant steps toward the tree line before looking down at the small deer, "Will you lead me there? Please?" The little deer seemed to understand what she was saying because it took off a little quicker than she would want it to, leaving her trying to follow it as quickly a she could. it would never get too far ahead of her, but following it through the thick foliage and branches left the inexperienced girl stumbling and tripping, slipping down hills here of there with loud yelps in attempt to keep up.

 

[Johnny R McAvery]

Eleanor stamped her foot in pain as she accidentally pricked it with a bone needle. She held it close to her for a second to make sure no blood would drip onto the little bookmark she was making. She was taking a break from reading and from chores and seeing how bad her old bookmark, which was the 7th one she had gone through, was getting she decided to make a new one, only her second time at making one.


"Are you okay Eleanor?" Asked her mother who was in the next room tending to a flower arrangement she had put together. She had heard the stamp of the foot and a small squeak of pain. No not pain, something more of surprise with a touch of pain. She knew her daughter well enough to know that she was tough.


"Yes I am fine mother." Said she replied as she looked at her finger and sighed in relief as there was no blood. She cleared her head and continued to finish the bookmark. The bookmark was simple. A pleasant shade of green on one side and a yellow on the other. It made her think about spring and summer. Whatever season it was or whatever she was missing she often did a craft to the opposite effect. The last bookmark had been brown and orange for autumn.So it didn't take too long to finish the bookmark up as it was two pieces of fabric. She figured she would embroider, or learn how by the next one she would make which would be in about a years time.


When she was finished and happy with her work she stood up and stretched and went to go and see what her mother was doing. Her mother was out in the garden now taking care of roses, well trimming away what had died anyways, she had always trimmed her garden down after the frost began to move in and she knew that her mother enjoyed doing it herself but liked the company. "I will be glad when spring rolls around. It is so pretty then. Better than staying indoors with snow blocking the window." Said Her mother.


"Mom when did all the magic go away?"


"Years ago. In fact remember when all the royal children vanished? Well when I told you about it anyways. That is when it went away. Rather sad really. But we know whatever took the children was dark magic as all the good magic in the kingdom vanished."


"Well I am going to restore the magic. One way or another."


"Well I wish you luck."


The rest of the day continued and they ate and finished up whatever chores needed to be done. When night fell they went off to their rooms and Eleanor stirred the fire with an iron poker with a wooden handle, making sure not to touch the iron itself. As a fairy, iron burned them. A pain but something easy to work with. She was about to lay down in bed when she noticed a green tree frog stuck to her window. Thinking it might enjoy the warmth she opened the window and let it in. It hoped inside the second an inch cleared and she saw a piece of black paper rolled up in its hand, as if it was a person with an important scroll. Curious she took the paper and read the latter than the other kids had received. She was instantly excited and in a flurry of movements backed a bag ran down the stairs with her bag full, wrote her mother a note to tell her that she was going to restore magic. She was about out the door when she remembered the frog. Turning around she darted back to her room and got the small frog and carried it back out and waited for it to guide her.

 

[AHeartlessNobody]

"Slow down kitty! It's getting kind of hard to keep up!" Mira called to the black cat as it darted between trees much fast than Mira could ever hope to achieve. The car slowed down though, waiting for her to catch up and looking up at her with bright yellow eyes, "You know, I need to think of a name for you. Call you 'Kitty' jut isn't too suiting." The young witch stated, putting her finger to her cheek in thought before she smiled brightly and looked back down at the animal, crouching to pet him gently, "How about Rino?" The cat simply meowed and if he could talk, Mira woudl think he was saying he didn't care what she called him.


Smiling more she stood up straight, "Okay then Rino, let's keep moving." She said then the cat took off again, but this time would stop to wait for her every few minutes or so so that she wouldn't get left too far behind and get lost. Mira stepped over logs and walked carefully down hills, trying her best to avoid the more overgrown paths and make her way around to where the cat would always be sitting. It was getting to become darker, the sun slowly fading, and the surrounding trees that shielded the sky overhead left the woods even darker.


But, Mira wasn't too worried about it like most people would. She had grown up in the forest technically, seeing as that's were her mother's cottage was. The only difference was that the barrier had kept her from the thicker parts of the forest. She simply sighed and looked over at the cat who was a few feet ahead of her, "Hey Rino, how about we stop for the night? We could make a fire and warm up. Its supposed to get chilly tonight." She stated, and the cat didn't seem too pleased with the suggestion, but complied, walking a little further into the thicket until a small clearing came into view.


She stepped into it and nodded to herself, patting the cat on the head, "Good job. We'll stay here. I'll go find some sticks to make a fire." And that was just what she did, walking around and gathering some before piling them up in the middle of the clearing. Once that was all settled, she head her hands close to the sticks, concentrating for a jut a moment before sparks starting flying from her hands to the woods, the wood rather quickly catching fire. Smiling to herself, she stayed right by the fire, keeping warm as the window howled every once and a while through the trees.


A couple of hours passed and she stood, looking to the cat, "I'll be right back Rino. I'm going to gather more sticks." The cat yawned and curled its tail around itself, making her laugh softly at how lazy he was being. Shrugging to herself, she began making her way through the trees, picking up a few sticks, when the sound of leaves and branches crunching and cracking came to her ears. Standing up straight rather quickly, she pulled her hood off of her head to get a better look around her, "Who's there?" She asked, turning, trying to find the source fo the sounds, walking a few steps before the person finally came into her view.


A girl with short reddish brown hair stood there with a frog upon her shoulder, leaving Mira both curious and confused because the girl seemed so out of place in the woods, "Who are you? And what are you doing out here in the woods by yourself?" She asked calmly, bending down to pick up another stick before giving a wave of her hand for the girl, whom was older than her by seemed to have not as much experience in the woods as Mira did, to follow her back over to where the fire was still going, and placing the sticks down to the side, she looked back at her, "It's dangerous out in the woods at night. Why would you come this far out?"





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It was getting even darker than it was when she was back at the edge of the forest. Rose had of course expected it to be dark because it was night time, but the canopy over head left the woods in a un-natural darkness. It didn't help either that it was very cold with the coming winter settling in and she had not prepared to go into the forest. She silently hated herself for not going back inside at least to pack a few things before leaving to journey into the forest, because here she was no, with nothing to keep her warm or eat. Though, even if she had brought something to make a fire with, the poor sheltered girl wouldn't even know how to start one if she tried.


Shaking her head at herself, she rubbed her arms, looking about warily, trying to stay calm. The darkness and leery feeling the woods gave off left her in a bit of a nervous mess. She didn't know what she was going to do and her deer wasn't being of much use as it often moved about in circles around her in a prancing motion, leaving her confused about the direction until she did stray from it and it nudged her int he right direction.


Quietly she moved, and in attempt to comfort herself, she started to hum very softly to herself before singing, her light and bell-like voice echoing through the trees, leaving the forest echoing the sound and making her feel a little bit better. The song was light, about someone being with their love. It was just a simple folk song she had heard many times before in the town she grew up in, but it made her smile and feel more at ease, her steps going in rhythm with the song and even once a while she would do a small twirl and laugh between the words. This was enough to make her almost forget how unwelcoming and scary these woods truly were, even if just for a moment.


"Kiss me out of the bearded barley


Nightly, beside the green, green grass


Swing, swing, swing the spinning step


You wear those shoes and I will wear that dress.





Oh, kiss me beneath the milky twilight


Lead me out on the moonlit floor


Lift your open hand


Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance


Silver moon's sparkling


So kiss me





Kiss me down by the broken tree house


Swing me upon its hanging tire


Bring, bring, bring the flowered hat


We'll take the trail marked on your father's map


Oh, kiss me beneath the milky twilight


Lead me out on the moonlit floor


Lift your open hand


Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance


Silver moon's sparkling


So kiss me"


[media]





[/media]

 

[Johnny R McAvery]

After walking through the woods for an entire day Nick decided it was time o set up a camp. So after pushing his bag through a little clutch of trees he found a good clearing. The ground was mostly clear and covered in a soft moss. He figured this would be a good place to stop and get warm. As he looked around he saw a few good limbs and gathered those before chapping some in half and piling them into a heap. Once he was happy with the size he placed stones around it, admired his work and gathered leaves, small twigs, and other easy things to burn and added them into the negative spaces of the pile. He was about to light the fire when he heard singing.


The voice was clearly a female's and the wolf had perked its ears up and gave a short chuff as it stood up and head butted Nick to go and find the singer. He didn't question the wolf and started looking for the girl. He didn't have the same talent as the wolf so a few time's the wolf let out a whine to get his attention. Finally after about thirty minutes of walking Nick saw the girl. "Oi. Over here. You'll catch your death. What in the world are you doing out here alone? Did you get lost? I think I might be able to get you back to.... Town I guess. Where are you from?"


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"One might as you the same." Said Eleanor as she spun around to face Mira. She had been shocked to see another person there. "Well actually the story is a bit difficult to explain. You probably wouldn't believe me. I am Eleanor by the way." She offered her hand out and waited for the girl to take it. She had been on the trail for only a few hours and was using the moon's light to follow the frog. When she had arrived to the spot she was in now the tree frog had darted up her leg and onto her shoulder. The message was clear. Make camp.


That was the tricky part. Eleanor could do a lot but outdoor things weren't one of them. She had made a rather terrible looking shelter to keep.... Well it wasn't going to keep anything out at this point. And she was about to say something else when the entire thing collapsed. "Damn. One would think I could have made something."


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Alric was in a town, he had missed the name as he rode in as he was too busy watching the rat point about to where he ought to turn. He had suddenly found himself outside of an inn and sighed. He supposed night was as good enough of a time to call it. He took the hose to the stables and paid the man taking care of the horses and asked him kindly if he would provide his hose with a little extra feed. He had paid the man enough to do just that. "And if it isn't too much trouble would you check her hooves. I would hate it if a rock got caught in it and I didn't know about it. Thank you. I'll owe you a drink soon."


One of the earliest things that Alric had learned was common respect to others. He had learned that it often got people farther than if they were nasty. Not to mention if he had come into a hard scrape he would enjoy at the very least someone who was kind. He rather live a poor house with the kindest people than to live in a house with one person who was rude. As he left to go into the inn he saw another man, about his age and something about him had caught his attention. The man had nothing special about him. Nothing that made him standout but.... No, he was over thinking things. So he vanished inside, ordered a room and then sat down across the fire sipping at a heated cider.

 

[AHeartlessNobody]

After her little song, Rose felt a little better as she walked and followed after the small deer. Maybe she had just been fearful for nothing and had jut been being silly. After all, the woods were nothing but trees right? Surely nothing bad would happen to her on her journey. Then why, as she walked, did her heart pound so heavily in her chest? She did her best to shake it off and continue walking, stumbling once or twice over roots or almost running into branches. She was exhausted. A girl such as herself that really had never walked such long distances or had been on such uneven terrain would be so after all. She wanted nothing more than to just find somewhere warm to curl up for the night and sleep. How she wished she had come upon an inn or even an abandoned cottage she could hold in for the night.


But, being so deep in the woods as she was, there was not either of those that she saw of and fully expected to have to keep going until she did happen to find one, which which would surely not be for a fairly long time. She frowned softly to herself as she moved under a branch, when a voice spoke, calling to her. Her blue eyes went wide and she turned with a gasp, taking a few quick steps back as she looked upon the young man and what looked to be a wolf. When he began asking all of those question, a wary frown formed on her face and she poke, her voice naturally soft and almost inaudible if one didn't listen close enough.


"I'm not looking for town. I...um..." She wasn't sure what to tell him. He would likely not believe her even if she told him what she was looking for exactly. Looking down at the small deer beside ehr, she smiled softly at it, petting its head before she looked back to him, the light frown coming to her face, "I'm from a town called Yemonar. But I....I supposed I just recently moved, or well, was supposed to move, to Berndal. It is a very long story." She said, giving a sheepish smile. Before glancing at the wolf to her deer and than back at him, "You're wolf....won't try to attack Cervo? Will he?" She asked, taking the small deer into her arms like one would do with a cat or a puppy in a protective like manner.





________________________________________________________________________________________________________





"I'm Mirabella." She stated, moving to poke a stick at the ember in the fire after shaking the girl's hand. She did that for a couple of moments and almost laughed when she said it was likely Mira wouldn't believe her if she told her why she was out in the woods, which Mira thought was funny because if this girl knew why Mira was out int he woods, she likely wouldn't believe her either. Giving a small grin, she looked to the girl and shrugged, "You don't know me well enough to know if I will or won't believe you. The only way to know is to tell me."


After she was down moving some of the embers around, she threw some more stick into the fire before walking over to assist her with building a shelter, "Lean it against one of the bigger trees. Anything build won't be enough to keep animals out, but we at least need something to block the wind and any sort of other weather that might come our way." She knelt down, situating branches. It took a little while but she finally got them just right and nodded to herself before looking back to the girl once more, "So, why are you here in the forest? Did you get lost? Run away? What is it?"


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Rannon was fairly sure he was making good time. After all, on his horse he had gotten quite a few miles from the family he had worked for. Surely there was no way they would find him now and he could do what he wished now. But, with it getting dark, the woods were surely no place he wished to be, what with wolves and other creatures that might try to him him, his horse, or both of them. He had been keeping on the edges of the woods, and so, when he found it getting too dark for the journey to be safe he went through the trees and onto one of the nearby paths, in search for a town that might have an inn.


The first village he went to did not have one, but in the next town other there were a few, and so he picked the one that had a stable for his horse to stay in that night. He rode in on his horse and as the animal trotted over to the stables, they passed a young man about his age, walking toward the in. He was obviously a higher class man, and so Rannon didn't really bother with a greeting toward him. Most higher class citizens would have nothing to do with the lower class such as himself, and so he felt there was really no need to bother.


Giving the house to the stable man and handing hi money for the horse's feed and such, and he made his way into the inn and rented a room, to which he went up and put his things away, before coming back down to order a drink and once he had it, sat at one of the counters, sipping it out of the mug, a rather bored expression on his face.

 

[Johnny R McAvery]

Alric yawned as he sipped his drink then saw the man with necklace. The one he had just seen outside. He knew that symbol and who would have the right to wear it. He smiled and went over to man and sat down across from him and ordered two more drinks. "Are you one of Queen Rapunzel's men? Perhaps not a knight but one of the workers from the castle? Can't say I remember you from there, but it has been a while since I paid her a visit."


He waited for the man to reply. He couldn't help but to think, what if this man cold help him find the lost children, well adults now. The kingdoms had come to call them the lost children at any rate. As he spoke he watched the windows and looked at the moonlight as it spread out across the paved roads, allowing the people who were moving late to see without the need of lamp light.


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Eleanor gathered her breath before she spoke. "Well yo know about a decade plus ago the children of several kingdoms vanished. Well when that happened so did all the good magic. This became a problem for the people like the trolls and the fairies. They lost magic, anything with good magic lost it. So now only evil...Well not evil but dark magic exist. So I am out on a quest to return all the magic in the world. Because you did good magic to fight dark magic. And.... Well here is the part you won't believe. I am a faerie. Not one of those little things that have parties on mushrooms. Those guys are fairies."


When she got to the part about fairies and faeries she wrote the words out in the dirt with her finger. "See different spellings for different things. And if you ever meet some you do not want to call them pixies. So why are you here again?"


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"Urd. No he is harmless. Didn't even try to eat my goats." Said Nick "Follow me let's get you warm. I was about to start a fire when I heard you sing." He began leading her back to his little camp area, while Urd the wolf stayed on the outskirt of them, as if making sure no harm would come to them. "So a runaway. Well runaway shall we get you to a new town? Or do you want to stay away in a little cottage in the woods?"


Wen they got to the camp, Nick got on his knees and began striking the flint. It took a few tries but he got it to light. In a few minutes the fire was roaring and Nick took a rabbit from his back, one that he had killed on his way to the clearing the first time. He also pulled out the bread and handed it to the girl before he went to start cleaning the rabbit. "I am Nick by the way."

 

[AHeartlessNobody]

Rannon had thought he would just have a quiet night to himself, sipping on his drink. Sure there were a few young woman that woudl stare at him, some even contemplating to come over and speak with him he was sure. After all, he knew he was a handsome man. He didn't think himself better than anyone because of his good looks, he just know that it was more of an advantage when he wanted something. Unfortunately, right now in the aspect of quiet time, his good looks would have to be a disadvantage. Every time a young lady or woman would try to approach him he would simply give a wave of his hand to let them know he wasn't in the mood for company .


In doing so, he really wasn't trying to be rude, he just wanted to have some peace and quiet and even though some of the women understood and left as though nothing had happened, others huffed in a offended manner. In a way though it wasn't really his fault they decided to approach hi so he didn't let it bother him. And after a while they stopped trying to approach him and he assumed he was left in peace finally.


That is, until the high class man he said in passing outside came over, asking him whether he worked for the queen or not, "Queen Rapunzel?" She asked, confused, raising an eyebrow before taking another sip from his mug, "No I don't. Never stepped foot in the castle actually." She looked over at him again, "What makes you think I would be?" He asked, sure this high class man was looking to jest and make fun of Rannon. That was how most people like him passed their time anyway.


________________________________________________________________________________________________________


"You're a faerie?" Mira asked, raising an eyebrow at the girl. She of course knew the difference between the Fae and fairies. Her mother had taught her much about all sort of magical creatures from enormous dragon to tiny nymphs. She had sen the majority of the creatures her mother had taught her about, but this was the first time of her meeting a Fae. It was interesting because the girl looked just like any normal human would. But than again, so did she and she was a witch"Well, that's not too far fetched I suppose. After all, aren't there a lot of mythical creatures roaming about the woods?" And even though she already knew the whole story about all the good magic disappearing because of a curse, she listened politely and rose an eyebrow when she said she wished to return all the good magic to the land.


"How do you suppose your going to do that? How did one little Fae think she was going to change anything? A curse couldn't be broken unless the one who's magic caused the curse had died. And no one knew, as far as she knew, who had caused it. That is, unless there was something else in the curse specified to break it, but that was getting into the upper levels of magic which she didn't want to think about right now. Instead she merely shrugged and grinned, "I guess you could say I'm here trying to get my wish granted." She sat down and the black cat jumped into her lap, making her smile and pet him, "Right Rino?"


_______________________________________________________________________________________________________


The warmth sounded so wonderful and though she remembered her parents always telling hr to wary of strangers and to not trust them so easily, the thought of sitting beside a nice warm fire and resting was enough to make her cast aside that warning and follow the young man to where he had started to set up his camp for the night, "You heard me singing?" She asked a little surprised, a blush spreading across her cheeks from the embarrassment of it, "I didn't think anyone out here could hear me. Or that anyone was int eh woods for that matter."


When he called her a runaway she gave a sheepish smile, "Is...it that hard to tell I ran away?" Looking down, she shrugged, "Heh, I...guess it isn't that with the way I've been stumbling about these woods and such." Looking back up to him, she gave a sigh, "I'm not really heading anywhere....actually I am, but I don't even know where that is. All I know is that its in these woods somewhere and I just have to find it." She put her hands close to the fire to warm up, smiling gratefully when he reached over to hand her the bread, "Thank you, Nick. I'm Rose."


Taking a bite of the bread, she thought for a moment before looking back to him, "Nick, what are you doing out in these woods? And with a wolf?" She looked at the animal warily. Even though he had said the wolf was harmless and it had proved to be true o far, attacks from wolves int eh village she had come from were common and she didn't exactly trust it all the way. At least right now. She might after a while. After all, for all she knew it had been tamed like a dog would. She petted her deer's head, tearing off some of the bread for it and letting it eat from her hand as she waited for his answer.

 

[Johnny R McAvery]

Nick removed the skin from the rabbit before cleaning it on the inside. Once everything was cleaned he took a stick ad sharped it before skewering it on and put it over the fire. Urd walked over and ate the left overs, avoiding the skin and fur and then laid back down as if it had nothing else better to do. "Have you ever felt like, and despite being treated so well, that you didn't belong? That there was some greater calling for you? Well that is why I left home. And Urd here guided me. He... Well believe it or not he gave this little note saying to go into the woods. So I thought , why not?"


He did hope she understood what he was coming from. Sure is tale seemed as wild as a moon ghost, but there was no other way to tell it. He looked up at the bright moon and wondered, and hoped that everything would go well. Perhaps, although he didn't know it, this trip would give him his wish.


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Eleanor smiled. "Because I know I can. I have one wish, and it is to restore magic. You see. Ega gave me a letter. And It mde me realize that I can do this. That... That the world will be filled with the colors of nature. That everything will be okay." She sighed a little imagining the world. A good world.


"You might understand it if you knew about magic. Look at the faeries, people are always seeking us, hoping to get us to do their bidding. Then look at the witches and warlocks. Feared so much because they are human with magic. Wouldn't it be nice if eeryone could just be themselves? To not have to fear the other?"


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Turning is back to the people distracting him Alric grabbed a piece of paper and a stub of charcoal. He quickly drew out the symbols of the kingdoms united together. "Each kingdom has their own symbol. And your necklace is one of them. I ask you because... Well this is going to sound crazy, and perhaps you already know the tale of how the queens lost their children to some ungodly curse, but I could use help looking for each of the lost children."


He paused for a minute to take a deep drink and handed the paper over to Rannon. Sure enough the symbol matched perfectly and he hadn't even looked up as he drew it. He knew the symbols by heart having seen them so often in the kingdom, and going to the others. "Well first there is my cousin. A few years younger than me. His name is Nick and he is the heir of the ice queen's throne. Then their is Rose, she belongs to Aurora. Beautiful kingdom really. I don't know how to describe it other than elegant. Finally there is Rapunzel. Her son, his name is Rannon. I believe he would be about our age. But surely you know of this. Every soul in the kingdoms know this story."

 

[AHeartlessNobody]

"That's the way I felt." Rose stated, leaning forward slightly as she spoke, "I mean, my parents, adoptive parent anyway, treated me well. They thought of me as their own daughter and wanted just whats best for me." She paused and sighed, brushing her golden blonde hair from her face, "But what they wanted for me wasn't what I wanted for myself. So, I ran away. Well, I didn't exactly run away until Cervo showed up." She smiled at the deer again before looking back to him, blinking in surprise when he said his wolf had given him a note saying to go into the woods as well.


"Wait, You got a note too?" She asked, pulling out the black parchment from the pocket of her dress to show him, "Like this?" She opened up the note to look at it, the note still blank, "It told me to come to the woods, and that my wish would be granted. It also said there were six of us all together who would get out wishes granted. The word disappeared after I read them though..." She looked back up at him and smiled once more, "I guess we're heading to the same place then? That 'Tree of Truth'? What do you think that is anyways?"


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________


This girl seemed very naive in the way she spoke, because even Mirabella knew that bringing the good magic back wouldn't suddenly make everything okay and world good. Even when good magic had been around, there had still been people, dark magic or no dark magic, who had been bad and had caused troubles. Did she really think that just by bringing back the magic of the Fae and the Trolls everything would suddenly be fine? Apparently she did, because the girl seemed so determined to get this task done.


Mira looked to the girl and thought it quite ironic that she said she didn't understand because she knew not of magic. It was quite the opposite in fact. Mira was indeed an expect in magic and knew probably more than the Fae girl did(at least that was her thoughts anyway, considering she actually had magic and this girl didn't). But, the young witch kept a straight face and merely grinned, giving a shrug, "I suppose I would understand if I did. Well, if that's your wish, then go for it." She paused, looking at the girl again, raising an eyebrow, "Really? Your frog brought you a note? Because Rino here brought me one as well."


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Of course Rannon had heard this story. The story of Prince Nicolas(I just assume Nick was short for that, if not I'll change it to just Nick), Princess Rose, and Prince Rannon. Prince Rannon was the lost prince of the kingdom he was from, Corona. Back when the prince was born, some of the people from the kingdom, mainly those who worked in the castle, had named sons after the infant prince, so the fact that his name was Rannon as well was nothing particularly interesting to him. He just assumed his parents had been some rot of workers for the castle, thus how he got this necklace and that he was named after the lost prince.


"Yes I know this story." He said with a nod, looking back to the man, "So, you're the Queen of Arendelle's nephew, looking for your lost cousin? I'm surprised, most in your place would want to see the prince stay gone. After all, without him, that would make you heir to the throne." He shrugged, "but I guess that's not my business. Now my question is, what makes you think someone like me woudl be of any help? I'm nothing but a stable hand. I don't have any knowledge that would help you on your journey. Besides, I don't help people. Its just not my thing."

 

[Johnny R McAvery]

"Well the throne would never be a thing I would want." Said Alric. "Power isn't made for everyone. Besides when you are a king you can't be as daring as a warrior." He sipped at his drink and watched as the flocks of girls went past staring at Rannon. He didn't care, what were they to him? He judged people by their merit and bravery. What they could do, their potential. Those were traits that were important, not looks.


"So you are a stable boy. Nothing wrong with that. Some of the more important people if you ask me. Hell most of the royalties don't know how to take care of a horse. They only know how to ride them.... If I may be so daring, I could use help. Would you be willing to help me look for the lost children? "


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Really that i fascinating? I got the same thing." Said Eleanor as she rolled the black piece of paper out to show it to her. "Perhaps we were meant to meet up Mira. So you know my wish. What is yours if I might ask? Because maybe we can help each other. We could consider ourselves friends." She smiled warmly and admired the work Mira had done for their shelter. Having grown up in a nice house in town she hadn't needed to learn something like this.


"Hey thank you for your help. I suppose we ought to share this little camp together for the night at the very least." Mira sat down on the ground and wrapped her arms around her knees. She was beginning to relax now that she had some help, even if it was just for one night.


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Nick looked at Und and thought about the tree of truth. "Well I hope it is actually a tree. Maybe some... well maybe something lives in it to give us our wishes, or maybe we rub the tree to get our wish granted. " He turned the rabbit in the fire and after prodding it with his knife to make sure it was cooked her took it out. He cut the rabbit if half and using a broad leaf from a tree he handed her half the rabbit. "It'll help you stay warm."


He sat down across from her a little, close enough so they could still easily talk. When he finished eating he would begin making them a bed of straw and leaves. He knew the night well enough to know that it wouldn't rain and for some reason he knew that Und would protect them or warn them if anything would try to attack.

 

[AHeartlessNobody]

Rannon considered the prince's question for a long while to him it seemed. Did he really want to help find these children? What did thi have to do with him anyway? No matter who the heirs to the throne were, they were no doubt going to be horrible rulers. After all, they hadn't been raised to be rulers and didn't know how to lead anyone most likely. But, at the same time, he was going to be heading into the woods to look for the Tree of Truth and could probably use some extra help. He could help look for the children (which he was certain was a lost cause anyway) while the prince helped him search for this tree.


Setting his mug down, he looked back at the young man, giving a nod at his question finally, "Very well. We look in the woods first though." Chugging down the rest of his drink, he stood up and brushed his shirt off, "I'm going to get some sleep now. Be ready when dawn breaks and meet me out by the stables." He stated giving the other man a nod, before going off to the his room, ready for some sleep after such a long and quite unusual day.


___________________________________________________________________________________________________


"Yes we might be able to help each other." Maybe. To Mira though, this girl didn't seem like she was going to much help. Maybe even would hold her back. But she felt sorry for the girl, and so, given her kind heart to help others despite the 'evil and dark' label all her people held, she wanted to help. She had never been one to turn some some away who needed help from her, and even when they never said it out loud, Mira could always tell if someone needed her help. And this girl was definitely one of them.


"I'd prefer to keep my wish a secret actually. You know the old saying. If you tell someone your wish, then it won't come true." Shrugging she sat down in their makeshift shelter that was just close enough to the fire to keep warm, but not to being the wood she had made their shelter out of either, "I'm not too sure if that is true or not, but I don't want to take that chance you know? As far as sharing the camp, we'll have to. That fire is warm, but its not enough to keep our body temperatures up. So we'll have to sleep back to back. "


_______________________________________________________________________________________________________


When she was handed the rabbit, she smiled and nodded to him, saying a soft thank you before she began eating. He was right the cooked rabbit warmed her up quite a bit and by the time she had finished eating, he had finished their straw beds for them, to sleep in. Which was a good thing ,because when she was done eating, the adventure of roaming through the woods had finally caught up to Rose, leaving her exhausted and ready for bed. Smiling and giving a soft sigh, she moved to one of the home made beds and quickly fell asleep there, ready to get a good nights sleep (or at least the best she could get).


But, she didn't get a good's night sleep, because just a couple of hours after she drifted off, footsteps that made the ground below them vibrate could be felt, causing her to quickly sit up, looking around wide eyed as she spoke to Nick, "What was that?" She asked in a frightened voice, scrambling to her feet and when she did a very large creature came into view. The creature looked as though it were made f the forest itself, with rocks and trees making up it body. She wasn't sure what she should do. She had no weapon, had no idea how to fight, and would surely loose if the creature ended up attacking them"What is that thing?" She repeated quickly, panic coming through her voice as she looked around trying to find something to defend herself or a good way to run where she nor Nick would be pursued by the large creature standing in front of them.

 

[Johnny R McAvery]

Nick stared at the monster and didn't show fear even though he was riddled with it. He felt the footsteps thudding down and studied the thing. It was perhaps twice his size and looked fierce, with razor sharp rocks for teeth, and it's forearms were made of thick mismatched tree, far too thick for him to cut with a hatchet. The arms ended with sharpened sticks for fingers. It's legs looked like it could have climbed a mountain twice and still have enough strength to kick the mountain. In all the thing, whatever it was looked like it meant death.


"Stay behind me." He said as he grabbed a branch that was on fire. Perhaps he could scare it off or maybe if it came to it stab the ting in it's eye, if it had one. The fiend swung an arm down and threatened to hit Nick if he hadn't moved out of the way. He felt the ground shake and he nearly lost his footing. Not thinking very well Nick swung the branch as if it was an ax and it shattered over the monster's arm, wood splinters flying everywhere. The fiend continued to swat at Nick who was still distracting it from Rose.


Finally the fiend saw Rose and went to hit her. Nick intervened and got her out of the way but was stuck in the arm's path. Before it hit him A loud crack was heard and the air grew colder. The fiend had become frozen but Nick's eyes were closed. Then it fell apart and the wooden arm fell down onto Nick and knocked him out. The branch's scratched him across the chest and on his right arm deeply causing blood to flow out.


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"Fine by me." Said Eleanor who really didn't mind. She found her a spot under the shelter and laid down. "Sleep well." Then as if she had an off switch she was asleep. No doubt from the activity of the day.


As she slept several dreams came to her. One was of some dark presence that she couldn't make out. Something that had sinister goals and had already completed most of them. Before she could gather more she was in some meadow and all around her were different children. She was much older and each child had a gift. It was her wish come true. Magic was back and the humans were more excepting now, something she hadn't really held onto.


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Alric nodded and followed Rannon for a minute, turning off into several doors away from him and settling into his bed. He had made sure he had locked the door and left his sword by his bed post in case he needed it. He tossed and turned trying to get comfortable in the stiff straw bed, punching the flattened pillow.


Sleep was not coming to him easily tonight. So with noting else better to do he stared at the ceiling. He was beginning to come up with a plan. He would find a way to make it to the odd tree of truth. He would make it seem as though they had stumbled upon it... Maybe that would work but wouldn't he have to follow his guide. Thee rat Warick would guide him. People didn't look upon rats well. People feared the rats from the disease they brought with them. Perhaps if he had the rat sit on the knob of the saddle and stayed in front of the boy he could do it without raising suspension.

 

[AHeartlessNobody]

Rose watched wide eyed, stepping back and staying behind him as he had told her to, the monster trying to grab and and harm Nick as it swung its arms around. She looked about, and seeing that Nick had a stick with fire on it, she thought maybe she could try that too. Maybe the two of them with fire could scare the wooden creature off. So, finding a branch, she rushed over to the fire and had just been able to light it on fire, when the fiend spotted her and the sight of it moving toward her had her paralyzed with fear. She yelped slightly when she was pushed out of the way, hitting the ground hard and for a moment, she thought her fire stick would catch the ground a flame.


Only when she looked up, the stick she had been hold had no flame on it, having been smothered out by a fresh blanket of snow. The sight of the white powder covering the ground made her eyes widen in confusion and even as she looked up to the air, she could clearly see snow flakes even now fluttering down from the skies, sticking in her hair and long eyelashes, "Wha....h-how?" Looking over to Nick to see if he was noticing all the too, the only thing she saw was the fiend, broken into pieces on the ground, all the pieces covered in a thick layer of ice. One of those pieces though, lay over Nick and the boy was out cold, red covered the pure white snow around him, "Nick!"


Scrambling to her feet, she rushed over to the unconscious boy, looking him over. He chest had been cut up a little bit, but those weren't her main concern at the moment. She checked his ribs and were thankful none seemed broken. But his arm was in pretty bad condition, having a deep cut on his arm, blood flowing out of it. Standing up, she struggled, trying to push the large branch from off of him, and after a few tries, she managed to get it off and started to move him near where the fire had been, having to drag him as she wasn't very strong.


The fire had been blown out by the sudden gust of wind made by his powers, and now she had to try and figure out how to re-light it, remembering what he had done to do so. She began to strike the flint and after many times of doing that, finally got a fire started, smiling proudly that she had been able to do that.


She had seen her mother, who was thought of as a sort of nurse for her old town, do this with some people who had deep cuts such as Nick had. She just hoped she could do it right and that he wake when she was doing this or it would cause him a lot of pain. Picking up a stick, she put the tip of it into the fire, letting it warm until the tip glowed a heated orange, and when it was warm enough, she began to set to work, placing the tip against the deep cut, searing it shut so no more blood would seep out. She didn't want him loosing too much blood after all, and she didn't have any first aid supplies on her, so this was all she could do to keep that from happening.


Once she had the cut closed up, she bent down and ripped a piece off of the end of her dress, wrapping his arm with gentle and delicate fingers. As she did this, she looked about to the snow that continued to fall, a curious look on her face. This snow shouldn't have been falling and the ground surely shouldn't be covered in it already. It was so sudden. And what of the fiend? How had he frozen solid like that? As she asked these question to herself, she found her eyes moving back to Nick as she finished up doctoring his arm, and wondering if he had something to do with this.


Finishing his arm, she moved to try and doctor his chest, though because they were just minor cuts, there wasn't much she could do for them. She stood and after tearing off another piece of cloth, soaked it in a nearby stream, which was by now freezing cold, and moved to where he lay, beginning to at least clean off the cuts, humming softly to herself as she did.

 

[Johnny R McAvery]

Nick slowly began to come around and the first thing he was aware of was the pain. It was two pains, the first being bruised and cut, and the second was the feeling of being burned. He groaned a little, not meaning to and was beginning to open his eyes when he sat bolt up. "Rose! Where are you?" He was panicked, scared. He didn't know what had happened. As he scanned the area he saw snow. She surely must have vanished by now, but he looked about and saw her.


"I thought.... I thought the worst had happened to you. I... I am glad you are okay." Nick began to collect himself and looked at the damage that had been done. He saw the burn mark and figured that she had sutured him. "Thank you. How long have I been out. Must have been several days with all this snow." Then it really dawned on him. "Where is the monster? What made him leave?"

 

[AHeartlessNobody]

Rose had been sitting there behind where Nick layed by the fire, and was giving Rino some of the left over rabbit they had, when she heard a grown come from him and almost immediately after he had sat up, calling for her. Scrambling to her feet, she moved quickly over to him, placing a hand on her shoulder and smiling softly when he said he was glad that she was okay before she frowned slightly at the question of how long he had been out, "Actually....You've been out for perhaps an hour or two." She averted her gaze to look about the area as well, brushing her blonde hair back from her face.


"You might want to lay down, you're still hurt fairly badly." At least the snow around the fire had melted so he wasn't sitting or laying in the snow. She was very hesitant to tell him what had because she didn't exactly understand what had happened herself. She looked around at the snow filled trees before looking back to him, "The only thing I know is....suddenly everything around this area was covered in snow and that monster was frozen solid. I walked about a quarter mile off to see if I could find any better help for you, and it turns out that this area is the only area covered in snow." She paused, rubbing her arms up and down. It had been cold for her before with her not wearing or coat or many layers, but now with the snow everywhere it was even chillier, "I guess to be honest, I'm not exactly sure what happened."

 

[Johnny R McAvery]

"Get closer to the fire." Said Nick as he stood up. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. You just seem cold." he removed a fur from around him and placed it on her. "I'm not cold." He then began pacing the area, not really paying a whole lot in mind where he was stepping.


As he paced he tried to figure out what could have happened. Only one idea had come to him. "Perhaps we hit a ley line. Or maybe I hit a weak spot in the monster. Maybe all the energy just froze. Perhaps the thing could have frozen us. I don't know. It is odd though. It scares me a little."

 

[AHeartlessNobody]

Rose looked up to him and did as he said, moving just a tad closer to the fire, wrapping his fur closer around herself to gt warmer as he started pacing, obviously in deep thought it seemed like. Maybe something was troubling him that he didn't want to talk about? She couldn't know for sure, but either way, it worried her. She looked down for a moment, re-thinking all that happened in her head. They hadn't touched the beast really. Not enough to strike a weak spot on it anyway. And even if they had, what could have possible caused it to freeze over in such a way as it had? It had seemed like a frozen statue when she saw it. She doubted hitting it with a stick would have caused that.


Burying her face against the face for a moment, she thought some more before looking back to him, "I don't think that caused it, Nick. I mean, the thing was frozen solid. Like a statue. It was made of leaves and branches. Surely there was no way it could cause that ice. Or cause this snow to fall." In fact, as she looked up at the sky, snowflakes catching in her golden blonde hair and her eyelashes, she couldn't help but notice it was snowing a little harder now. In the back of her mind, she made the connection that this started when Nick had begun pacing and seemed so nervous, just as that beast had frozen over when Nick was being attacked by it.


Frowning more she rubbed her arms and slowly looked over at him, unsure what to say at first, and when she did finally speak, her voice was quiet and somewhat nervous, "Nick...I think...I mean....are.....are you causing the snow?"

 

[Johnny R McAvery]

"I....No... No way. I am not one of those fairies or wizards, or anything magical." Said Nick confused. It was bothering him that he didn't understand and the more he became bothered and annoyed the heavier the snow began to fall. As it fell it got colder but Nick didn't even feel the temperature drop.


Not knowing what to do with his hands Nick began fiddling with his hatchet, twirling it in his fingers as if it was perfectly balanced. As he played with it the brown wooden handle began to collect frost on it, then the blade of tool had a thick layer of frost. "Gods.... No.... What is wrong with me?"

 

[AHeartlessNobody]

For a moment, Rose thought she might have been just over thinking things and maybe Nick wasn't causing all of this cold weather to happen. But, that quick thought was all proven to be wrong as frost began to collect first on the handle of his axe and then up to the blade of it As this happened, the temperatures dropped to the point that even the fire couldn't keep her very warm. Shivering, she stood, taking a few careful steps over to him, an unsure look on her face. She didn't know what to say to him, or how to stop all of this from getting any worse, but she had to try something before he froze everything over.


It was obvious he was scared. He had no idea what was going on, so Rose couldn't blame him for all that was happening. All she could do was try to help and make him feel comforted. Maybe it doing so it might fix all of this. Taking a few hesitant steps forward, she eyed the axe before looking up at him, "Nick? Nick, listen to me. There is nothing wrong with you. If you are doing these things, than...than consider it a gift. Not many things have abilities like that. But, just...you have to calm down. Getting upset will only make this worse. Please. Just take some deep breathes." She stepped a little closer, attempting to coax him into listening to her.

 

[Johnny R McAvery]

Nick's breathing began to calm down. He was focusing hard on calming down. He remembered a time when he was a little kid and he was scared of something in the dark, or perhaps something made of the dark and his mother told him how to calm down. He used that method now and for him it was thinking about a meadow he had gone to and visited often when chores were finished early. The meadow was bright green and a huge rock was almost in the middle of it. Around it were trees and bushed with various fruits, berries, and flowers. In the spring and summer bees could be seen flying about along with butterflies. The birds chirped happily with a songs of the bugs. He remembered seeing all the deer and other animals go up to the calm moving river to get drinks. As all of this went through his head the snow stopped and the air began to slowly heat up back to the previous cool temperatures that had already been there. The snow that was on the ground had stayed and it would take a little time fore it to melt.


He took a deep breath in and looked into Rose's eyes and smiled. "Thank you. I.... I don't know what would have happened if you weren't here." He was quiet for a little bit and the ax began to thaw out in his hand. It was remarkable to him that he hadn't felt cold. Now that he had thought about he never really felt cold. How many times had he not worried about a fire to keep warm. Sure his parents used it and he stayed in the kitchen with them to keep them company, but he didn't need it. Even in the dead of winter he slept with a simple blanket or not one at all. He had passed that off as his bed being so close to the fire. "Why do you think this....This thing came up now of all times?"

 

[AHeartlessNobody]

Looking up at him, Rose thought for a moment at his question before she shrugged, an unsure look on her face, "I...I don't know. I've never met anyone with snow powers before. Or anyone with any powers for that matter." She was grateful the snow and wind had stopped for now but even so, the snow on the ground left her rather cold and she moved to sit next to the fire again to stay warm until the snow did melt, "Maybe....maybe it was the fact we were in danger. Like...maybe your body just knew what to do to save us." Rubbing the back of her neck, she shrugged, "It's not the best answer, but its the only thing I can think of anyway." She once again wrapped the fur tighter around her and looked over to him. He was standing off away from the fire and she tilted her head to the side, "Are...you not cold?"


He didn't seem like he was cold. Not even a shiver was escaping him as he stood there. Maybe in addition to those powers of his he didn't get cold? It was an interesting theory. But, what she really wanted to know was how he had gotten these powers. She wanted to ask him how, yet looking at him and his reaction to all this happening, even he didn't seem to know how this had happened to him. She supposed it would be something for them to figure out later on. If they even figured it out at all. As she at there though, she realized that while he pretty much knew she was a runaway, she had no idea what he was doing out here. And so, looking up at him, she spoke, a curious look on her face, "Nick....what are you doing out here in the woods?"