by Walleye
She didn’t know if she was falling in love with him but she couldn’t deny that she had feelings for him. She wished she had someone to talk to like her fairy friend who it seemed had vanished to ask what love was.
As she thought more about it she realized she might be answering her own question. If you were asking yourself if were you in love, then most likely answer was yes. It was quite obvious that she was falling in love with Johnathan.
When Johnathan arrived at the castle gate he asked Stanley with some irritation. “Why was I called back so early? Grrrr.”
The older man was apologetic. “We had two messages, one was from your Mother the Queen, young master. It seems that she is sending your cousin Elliot here to visit with you for a month or more.”
“Then there was a second message from your cousin Elliot. She says that her group left a few days ago and their traveling party is about ten miles from here. She should arrive just after the noon hour.”
“Oh wonderful.” He growled. He slammed his fist in frustration into the stone arch causing the Gate Keeper to shrink back.
He stalked away angrily. His cousin was not his favorite person as his cousin was very unconventional and always found ways to get under his skin as his cousin often succeeded at things no one expected them to. His cousin was always being held up as a standard of comparison by his Mother, especially ever since he’d been turned into a beast. “Why couldn’t you be more like your cousin?” His Mother would complain.
Now his cousin was coming here. No matter how short the visit his cousin Elliot would be certain to drive him to distraction. He wondered if this visit had been encouraged by his mother to see how he was really doing as a beast. Were they checking on him? Were they planning to replace him as the heir?
In a bad mood he went back upstairs and with Philips’ help dressed in some of his best but most comfortable clothing but he refused to be put through the agony of formal attire just for his cousin’s pleasure. He knew that would have worked to tick off his Mother if she had been visiting but his cousin was made of sterner stuff. His attire would be okay with his unwanted guest as his cousin didn’t hold much with formality either. And since Elliot had never seen him in his beast form it should make for an interesting meeting.
He checked with Phillips and found the he and Richards were hard at work supervising the cleaning and staffing of the quarters for their guests as Elliot was bringing a fellow knight.
Richards told him that the cook had been informed and would be preparing a dinner worthy of their guests. Johnathan shrugged. He suspected that the cook was pitching a prissy fit as the latest delivery of cooking supplies was late.
Johnathan decided that instead of driving the staff crazy with his interfering presence that he would spend some time in his rose garden working on his plants. His roses were his pride and joy as he had created many of them from crossing different plants imported from China. He had even been gifted with plants by the Chinese Empress and several of his crosses gifted to her now grew in the royal gardens in Peking.
Needless to say no one dared to touch his beloved roses without his express permission. The one time some stable hand had plucked one without his permission he had slammed the offender up against the castle wall and asked him sweetly in what way he wished to die. After throwing a good scare into the young man he’d let him go. Sometimes it felt good to be ferocious when he wanted to make a point. No one messed with his babies.
He was removing litter from around the bottom of one of his roses to prevent insects from setting up home there when he heard the trumpet signaling that his unwanted guests were approaching. With a sigh he put his trowel and rake away in the shed and went to the main gate to greet his cousin.
After all the ceremonies involving heralds which included exchanges of rank, recognition, and welcoming he finally got to meet his cousin. A powerful black horse pranced forward bearing his cousin who was dressed in chain mail as the travel through these lands was never safe.
As he stepped forward the horse snorted and rolled its eyes. It wanted nothing to do with him. His cousin quickly brought the steed under control and leaned forward in the saddle to look him up and down.
“Take a good long look at the beast.” Johnathan said with a growl before doing a sarcastic pirouette. “Take a good long look.”
His cousin’s gaze ran over his new form, taking in his appearance for the first time and snorted. “So this is what you now look like, cousin. I’m sorry to say it’s not that great an improvement over your previous form but it still has its nobility.”
He stared at his cousin in perplexity. Just like that his cousin was going to accept him. A lot of his tension dissipated.
He felt confident enough to try and assay a little humor. “You ought to try the look sometime. It’d probably improve your chances at matrimony.” He growled.
“Maybe it would.” His cousin replied with a chuckle. “I haven’t had a credible offer in months. May I dismount as it’s been a long and tiring journey and I’m tired of sitting in this saddle? I swear my horse has bones under my seat where he had none before.”
The Beast chuckled deeply. “I suspect that you’re pretty bowlegged by now. Go ahead and join me.”
The horse stood there snorting as his cousin who was wearing a face cloth dismounted and unwound the face cloth worn against the dust. The cloth came off to reveal the face of the beautiful black-haired woman that his cousin was.
She bowed to him. “Thank you, cousin, for the warm welcome.”
Now she was shaming him. He’d been so caught up in wanting to see her reaction to what he now looked like that he had neglected his duties as host
“Welcome, Cousin Elliot.” He said grudgingly. “I hope you had an easy journey.”
His cousin who was a very athletic and good-looking chuckled and pulled her hat off to bow with her hair spilling down. “I’m glad to be here, cousin, as no journey is ever easy through these lands where magic runs wild.”
“I wouldn’t know much about that lately.” He grumbled. “The damn curse keeps me grounded here.”
His cousin straightened and smiled at him. “Is it the curse or your precious roses which keeps you here? I would wager it’s both.”
“I see you still like to get under my skin.” He growled.
“On my honor as a knight I swear I had no such intention.” She laughed as she struck his shoulder.
He could never stay mad at her as unlike her mother she was honest and open and now she’d just dropped a bombshell on him. She was finally confirmed by the church and the empire as a knight. This was astounding news. “So the emperor finally granted you knighthood for your exploits in the battle with the invading trolls.”
She had the grace to look embarrassed. “I never sought it. The honor came to me.”
He knew she was one of only twelve women who had ever been granted the honor of a knighthood as with sword and spear she’d slain many of the enemy. It was part of his irritation with her. While he was stuck here she was free to make a name for herself.
“I know.” He reluctantly conceded. “Unlike some you never blow your own trumpet.”
“I leave that to those who can play and sing as I have no such talents.” She said with a shrug. She put an arm around his shoulders. “Come, cousin, and tell me the story as much as you can of what happened here in the year I’ve been away.”
While they talked a small fairy was with a great deal of nervousness facing the Magic Council. The Magic Council oversaw disputes between the magical beings and through its own magic made sure the fairytales followed the rules that had been agreed on ahead of time for them. These rules did not always secure a happy ending as sometimes the dark side had to win or the dark would always be at war with the white side and there would be no tales to be told, happy or otherwise.
The Magic Council consisted of five members of which two were from those who practiced good or white magic such as unicorns, white elves, good fairies, frie
ndly pixies, good dragons and the like and another two were from those who practiced dark magic such as black dragons, dark elves, vampires, trolls and the like. The fifth member was usually the head of the Council and he or she practiced both white and black magic as a grey magic wielder and would cast the deciding vote in case of ties.
On this day the council President was a grey magic sorceress named Lilith who was a slender woman of indeterminate age. She had long, black, curly hair that fell to her shoulders, blue colored eyes in whose pupils yellow flames seemed to flicker, full red lips, and dusky dark skin. She wore a light blue robe over a white shirt and black skirt. She looked down and regarded the fairy with obvious interest from her seat at the head of the council table which floated six feet over the fairies’ heads.
On her right hand but further back were seated the two representatives of the dark magic. The first was a heavy-set vampire who looked Scandinavian in origin and who was dressed in a black leisure suit and pants with matching black leather boots. His skin was pale and his eyes were red-glowing points of light. He had glanced once at Thistledown as she had flown into the chamber and after that he had ignored her.
The other representative of the dark was a slender dark elf who was as nearly as tall as his vampire colleague. He was dressed in a blood-red shirt and grey pants which contrasted sharply with his greenish skin and yellow cat pupil eyes. He had silver-white hair and a glow of magic shimmered around him, reflecting his true power levels.
On the sorceress’ left hand were seated the two members of the light side. The first was a tubby wizard with a round face and blond hair that tumbled to his shoulders. He was dressed in light-green robes with stars on them and he carried a silver staff that glowed faintly. When he had glanced at the fairy he’d given her a brotherly smile.
His companion was a red-haired woman who looked to be naked under her green-cloth sarong. Her skin was the light yellow of daffodils and her eyes were a deep green. Thistledown realized from the power radiating from her that she was a dryad and a very powerful one among the tree spirits.
Thistledown and her superior Superintendent Lark waited quietly for the Council to notice them as the five members were quietly conversing with each other. After talking to the vampire earnestly for a couple of minutes and having come to some mutual conclusion the sorceress Lilith looked down at a paper on the table and then looked up. “I see before us the fairy supervisor named Lark who has charge of the fairytale called Beauty and the Beast and one of her assistant fairies named Thistledown who has undergone some changes.”
The two fairies bowed and received a nod of recognition from the sorceress. “Superintendent Lark, while being brief, tell us what the problem is.”
Lark floated forward. “The problem quite directly put is this. Due to the actions of this assistant of mine we now have two people contending for the role of the heroine in our fairytale and one of them is from the tale called the Little Mermaid. She does not belong in this tale at all.”
The dark elf leaned forward. “Are you telling us that a mermaid is now involved in this land-based fairytale?”
“Yes, I am.” Superintendent Lark gave Thistledown an angry glare.
The dark elf looked at the vampire. “Have you ever heard of such a thing before?”
The vampire considered this for a moment before replying. “No, I haven’t.” He grinned showing his two very sharp canines. “However, I find myself amused by the thought of all the chaos such an event could bring.”
“You would, being a creator of chaos yourself.” The dryad observed drily.
The vampire just grinned at her, showing his fangs even more in acknowledgement. The dark elf chuckled in response.
“What I want to know.” The wizard asked. “Is how this happened in the first place? I mean we’ve already seen a collision between the characters from this tale with those from Rumpelstitlskin. I hoped we had solved that problem and had gotten things restored.”
The sorceress nodded at him. “A good question.” She turned to look at Lark. “Do you have an explanation?”
Lark shook her head. “Not a complete one, I’m afraid, oh great one. While on our way here I did communicate with the fairy supervisor of the Little Mermaid tale. She told me that the third sister who is not the heroine in this tale was the most adventuresome of the five sisters. She always swam up the river to observe humans in the telling of this tale and went much farther than any of her other sisters ever did. But this time instead of turning back she encountered two things that never happened before.”
“First, the Shane River for some unexplained reason became a river of magic which now interconnected the two tales and second she ran into my scatterbrained assistant who was looking for the missing heroine from our tale.”
She sighed. “Belle the heroine of our tale was swept up with her father and sisters into the Rumpelstiltskin tale and almost beheaded by the gold-hungry king of that tale. We put her back on track but now she has this unexpected competition.”
“This gets better and better.” The vampire said with a grin. He looked down at Thistledown. “Why don’t you tell your side of this sad tale, my dear?” He licked his lips. “But be quick, little one, as I need to slip out for a bite to drink.”
The sorceress Lilith nodded her head. “That sounds like a good idea. Go ahead, Thistledown.”
Thistledown swallowed and went ahead. She was afraid she was going to be in a lot of trouble for messing things up, but she told them what had happened to the best of her recollection.
When the fairy had finished there was a buzz of conversation between the five members of the Council before they turned back to her. “Let me get this straight.” The wizard said to the fairy. “You thought you’d found your missing heroine swimming in the river and so you sent her up the river Shane and when you realized you’d made a mistake, you tried to correct it and ended up locking her and yourself into the tale?”
“Yes.” Thistledown hung her head. When he said it this way it sounded like she had been really stupid.
“Well.” The dryad suggested. “It seems there is a simple solution. We just break the connections of the mermaid and the fairy to this tale and send them home. Viola. Problem solved and we can all go home.”
“Spoilsport.” The vampire said with a grin. “You have no sense of adventure in your blood.”
“Seeing that I have only sap and not blood.” The Dryad replied. “I don’t understand your problem with my suggestion.”
“I like maple syrup.” The vampire replied with an evil grin. “Maybe I’ll visit you when the spring thaw causes your sap to rise.” The dark elf started choking.
The wizard gave the vampire a glare. “The dryad’s suggestion does sound like an elegant solution. I call for a vote on it.”
“Very well. How do the rest of you vote? Vlad, what is your vote?” Lilith asked. A glowing scroll with a pen moving above it appeared in front of the Council.
“I say no.” Vlad the vampire replied. “Let the chaos continue.”
“I’m with my colleague on this.” The dark elf grinned. “These tales have become boring and predictable. They need shaking up.”
The wizard glanced at the dryad who nodded back. “By having her reach her goal I’ve seen enough. The dryad and I say end it now.”
Lilith looked up at the scroll. “We are tied and that means I decide.”
She drummed her fingers on the tabletop before she said. “The fairytales as they were originally conceived were never meant to be static stories. They have evolved over the centuries from their original forms and thus change has always been a part of them. With the discovery of printing they unfortunately became more static and predictable. Let them return to their original functions of being fluid and free. So I say let this one go on as it is now configured.”
She looked over at the wizard. “Toby, I will put you in charge of finding out why the Shane River started filling with magic. This seems more of a problem that we shoul
d all worry about and is probably connected with the collisions going on between the fairytales. What if this starts happening everywhere?”
“I’ll take care of it immediately.” Toby said with a bow.
Lilith nodded. “Good. Now give me a reading on this new version of Beauty and The Beast combined with the Little Mermaid and tell me what you see coming in the future. Will we have to intervene?”
The young wizard took out a crystal sphere and stared at the swirling colors deep inside it. He frowned and looked up at the sorceress. “I see a real problem coming. There is a major interference coming from the originator of the curse and she will be using strong magic to try and disrupt things and she may place a death spell on the mermaid.”
“Well, we can’t have that, can we?” Lilith said with a smile without any sweetness in it. She looked intently at Toby. “Can you craft a solution to this problem?”
Vlad whispered to the elf. “Lilith is being a pain in the neck.” He got a glare from Lilith and wisely subsided.
“Certainly.” Toby replied to Lilith. “But you know it will be limited by the rules of this new combined tale which will be much darker than the original.”
“Yes, I’m afraid it will.” Said Lilith with a grimace. “But do it anyway.”
“Very well.” Toby turned and beckoned to Thistledown as he rose up and floated from his chair. “Come with me, little one. I’ll give you the spell you’ll need to counter this move by your enemy. It won’t stop her magic but it’ll enable you to give your mermaid a fighting chance.” He led an anxious fairy out the chamber door.
Lilith turned to the flabbergasted Superintendent Lark. “I expect you to oversee this tale to a successful conclusion, Superintendent, and I will want to be informed of any major changes that you need to make.”
“Yes, Council President.” Lark made a bow.
Lilith smiled down at the small fairy. “What are you waiting for, my dear? You have a lot to do.”
The vampire chuckled and nudged the dark elf with his elbow as the Superintendent fairy shot out the door. “I think fairytales are going to be a lot more fun than they used to be.”