Gabrielle - After Happy Ever After

“What is wrong with me?” she asked out loud. The relative silence of the woods answered her. Ivy sighed and collapsed in the foliage near the base of a large tree. She seriously felt like crying, but wouldn’t let herself. Of course, trying to stop her tears just made them more determined. She sniffed and the noise seemed loud to her. “I don’t deserve to be here,” Ivy said, sniffing again. “This is a magical place. I get here and wars start. Maybe if I leave, everything will be good again.” And what about Faolan, her thoughts nagged at her. “He’ll be better, too, if I’m gone. He’ll find a nice, pretty girl and they’ll fall in love and live happily ever after. Me? No, I’m just a nobody. I’m not the kind of girl who finds a nice guy who really loves her. No. I’ll end up some crazy old lady who yells at kids as they go by and waves her broom at them. And…and…I’ll have ferrets. Yeah, I’ll have lots of ferrets and I’ll call them my babies.” Ivy smiled slightly to herself, even though she was actually crying now. “Crazy ferret lady, they’ll call me. Run, run from crazy ferret lady, they’ll scream.” Ivy laughed weakly at her imitation of one of Chandler’s lines from a Friends episode. She rubbed her eyes furiously, but it didn’t seem to help. “I’m probably already crazy. Yeah, this is probably some wild fantasy I made up. Or another crazy dream. I'll wake up in a minute and write a story about it and go back to my boring, pointless life.”

Ivy growled and slammed her fist into the ground angrily. “Oh, stop it! Stop it, Ivy! Stop feeling sorry for yourself! You…” Ivy shut up quickly. Had that been her imagination or had she heard the snap of a branch?

“Ow!”

Oh, crap. It was the messenger guy. What was he doing back here? What should she do now? Ivy was about to make a run for it - better that he never even knew she was here; she didn’t want anyone to know she was crying - when the owner of that voice stumbled into view. She froze and so did he when he saw her.

“Uh…hello,” he said slowly. For a long moment, neither of them moved. Finally, Ivy couldn’t hold her awkward position anymore and fell back into her previous one. She sniffed again involuntarily and tried to hide her face from the messenger. “Are you crying?” he asked.

“No,” Ivy said, but her voice came out strangled. She faked a cough and tried again. “Of course not.”

“Yes, you are,” he said. He sounded confused. “Why are you crying? I thought that you were…”

“The accomplice of a murdering half-wolf?” she supplied, looking up.

“Well, yes,” he admitted, shifting uncomfortably.

“I am. Although the murder part is still questionable. What are you doing here?” Ivy demanded.

The messenger looked shocked. He quickly recovered, taking a deep breath and straightening. “Well, I was actually…um…coming to…you know…heed the call of nature,” he said as if he were rather embarrassed.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do that here,” Ivy said flatly.

“Of course! I mean…” he was blushing rather profusely. “I’ll just go now.”

Ivy didn’t say anything, but watched silently as he turned to leave. The minute his back was turned, she dropped her face in her hands again, trying to cover her sniffing and half-strangled sobs.

The messenger stopped. He could hear her crying. He really couldn’t just leave her like that, it was most ungentleman-like. He sighed and turned around, walking back over to her. “My name’s Peter,” he said, for lack of anything else. “What’s yours, miss?”

“I don’t want to talk right now,” she growled from behind her hands.

Peter stiffened at that growl. He had never trusted wolves. Not since he was little and his older brothers had scared him with stories about wolves eating little children. But she wasn’t really a wolf. He had heard her tell her friend about the brook. Was that why she was crying? “Well, maybe you should,” he persisted. She looked up at him incredulously and he got the distinct impression that she wished he would go climb a beanstalk. Why was everyone always mad at the messenger? “Well?” he pressed.

“Ivy,” she said stiffly.

“Why are you crying, Ivy?” he asked.

“None of your business, Peter,” she growled.

“If it’s about that brook, I’m sure we’ll find some way to reverse the spell…” he said quickly.

“It’s not about that. I don’t care about that,” she interrupted.

“What is it, then? Is it that half-wolf that…well, that…was said to have murdered someone?” he asked, phrasing it as best he could. She stiffened and he knew he’d hit his mark. What about the half-wolf, though? Had he hurt her? Was she scared? “Did he do something to you?” Peter asked.

“No. Well, kind of,” Ivy admitted.

“What?” Peter heard himself asking.

“He said he loved me.”

Peter almost fell over on his backside. True, a wolf proclaiming his love to a young girl must be something of a shock, but was it cause to be crying in the woods? Maybe she was scared of that wolf and he had made advances on her? “But what…has he been dishonorable?” he asked.

“No! No, nothing like that,” she said quickly. “It’s complicated. I don’t want to talk about it. I came out here to be alone.” He didn’t leave so she looked at him. “I’m okay, really. Shouldn’t you be helping Wendell with battle plans or something?” she asked, wiping her eyes and standing up.

“I suppose,” Peter said. “Come, it’s not safe to be out here alone this close to the castle. Not from what I’ve heard about that witch.”

Ivy allowed herself to be guided back to the camp. They emerged behind Danielle and Wendell who were sitting rather close to each other, pointing at different markings on some kind of map. Danielle seemed to be explaining something.

“If you center your troops here, they’ll get squashed by First and Third Kingdom armies. You’re at the worst disadvantage of all the Kingdoms since yours adjoins all the others. There’s no way you’d be able to hold up against an all out assault. You can’t fight an eight-front war. The only way we can save the Fourth Kingdom is to stop the problem at the roots which means stopping the witch,” Danielle said, pointing with finality at Wendell’s Castle.

Wendell nodded in grudging agreement. “You are right. It’s the only way,” he said.

“So, we’re fighting her again?” Ivy asked.

Danielle and Wendell both jumped and turned to look at her. Danielle looked questioningly from Ivy to the messenger’s arm that was around her and back again. Ivy stepped away from him.

“Yes. Yes, we are,” Wendell agreed, moving away from Danielle when he caught the messenger looking at them in the same questioning manner that Danielle had looked at Ivy.

“I suppose I should wait for the outcome,” Peter said.

“Guess so,” Danielle agreed. She stood up and turned to address the others. “Well? Are we gonna go fight this witch or not?”

Ivy groaned inwardly as she recognized Danielle’s “Let’s kick butt!” voice. Silence answered her until Wolf slowly nodded. “Yes. We can sneak in tonight and catch her by surprise. But not you, Virginia. You stay here,” Wolf said firmly.

“I…” Virginia began to protest.

“I agree with Wolf. You should stay here,” Tony added, cutting her off.

“Since when do you agree with Wolf? Why are you two ganging up on me? Stop pretending you care about me!” Virginia screamed, backing away from them.

Wolf shot a glance at Tony before hurrying toward her. “Way to go, Dad,” he snapped.

“Stop arguing!” Maive insisted urgently.

“Oh, shut up,” Wendell turned on her. “Do you think you could stay out of other people’s business just once? All you do is make it worse.”

For a moment, Ivy was confused. What was going on? Why were they all acting like this all of a sudden?

“I might be a little more help if that stupid fairy had granted my wish like she said she would!” Maive said angrily.

“I can’t make you a better witch! I’m just a fairy,” Breena protested. “I try to help people and look where it gets me.”

Soon everyone was yelling at everyone else. Even Peter was up in arms and yelling at Wendell. The only ones not yelling were Ivy and Danielle. Danielle acted like she couldn’t even hear them. Her eyes were wide and she was shaking her head, as if disagreeing with a voice only she could hear. A voice…

Just then, Ivy sniffed and caught an all too familiar scent. She spun around just as Faolan ran up. She backed away from him, hugging herself. She was suddenly so cold. “Stay away from me,” she whispered.

Faolan pretended he didn’t hear her. He kept walking towards her. “I know that you’re scared. But I wish you hadn’t left like that. I know that you think it will all be better if I go away, but I can’t. I just can’t. Maybe you’re right. We are just teenagers, how can we know? But we’re wolves, too. Both of us, now. And a wolf knows his mate when he finds her.” Faolan stopped suddenly, afraid he had said too much.

“No! Stop it!” Ivy yelled at him. “I trusted you. I trusted you and you turned on me. I don’t care if it was the full moon. That doesn’t excuse you. I wish I had never met you!”

Faolan looked as if he were heart-broken. “How can you say that? You go and steal my heart…and then step on it? Do you know what you’re doing to me? I feel like I might as well go to prison and die in a cell if you leave me. I’m your mate whether you like it or not.”

“I’m not a wolf. I didn’t steal your heart. You don’t know me. You can’t be my…anything. I’m not…I…” Ivy shivered and couldn’t finish her sentence. So cold. Why was she so cold?

Faolan grabbed her roughly and forced her to stop backing away. She heard herself whimper. “Use that power of yours and you’ll see. You’ll see how crazy I am about you,” he insisted.

Since she was unable to do anything else, she closed her eyes and used her power. She didn’t really want to, but she didn’t feel she could refuse. But her power or whatever it was, went crazy. She was getting feelings from everyone. Fear, anger, rage, annoyance, guilt, worry, desperation, jealousy, doubt. And more cold. Freezing, numbing, biting, over-whelming cold. She tried to pull out, to open her eyes and stop her power, but couldn’t. She just kept sinking deeper and the feelings got stronger. She couldn’t handle them. She thought she might black out, but she didn’t think that’s what she did. It felt more like being frozen alive.

Ivy sagged and fell against him. Faolan knew immediately that something was wrong. He lowered her to the ground and hurriedly knelt next to her. Her skin was like ice. No wonder he had seen her shiver. She was shaking uncontrollably even now. He looked around for help, but he couldn’t find any. Even his little brother had gotten caught up in all the fighting. Randal was growling and shouting at the royal messenger at the moment. Something about staying away from his big brother’s mate, which was okay really, Faolan didn’t like the guy very much anyway, but any help would have been welcome.

“Ivy,” Faolan said urgently. “I’m sorry. Oh, cripes. Please wake up.” No response at all. Faolan whined. What should he do? He nuzzled her cheek, hoping that would reach her. He froze when he could no longer hear her breathing. “No. No, you can’t do this! You hear me, you can’t leave!” Faolan yelled at her. Faolan quickly leaned over to give her his air, but was thrown backwards through the air. He yelped as he hit the ground. A figure appeared out of nowhere and when its scent hit him, even though he couldn’t place it, it made him shudder. Whatever or whoever the figure was, he was tall, taller than Faolan, and lost inside a black cloak. He, it, started slowly towards him, moving directly between him and Ivy. Faolan growled and quickly scrambled back to his feet. “What are you?” he demanded.

It laughed and the laugh made Faolan wince. “I’d show you, over-grown pup, but you might die of fright. It happens.”

“Are you causing this?” Faolan pressed, gesturing at the group arguing and at Ivy.

“You could say that,” it nodded.

Faolan’s growl got louder and he lunged at the cloaked figure. Just before he would have hit him, he disappeared and reappeared behind him. Faolan would have spun and attacked again even though he was out-matched, but he was close to Ivy and she needed help. Why didn’t the others see what was happening? The only person not in the fight was a dark-haired girl and she had sat down on the ground and drawn into herself. Her eyes darted back and forth like a nervous wolf in the middle of a mob. He should know. Not important. “Ivy. Please, please, don’t do this to me. Wake up,” Faolan pleaded. He growled when she didn’t respond. “I know you can hear me! Wake up! Now! Right, now. I’ll yank your tail if I have to. Come on…”

Faolan was yanked back away and thrown to the ground. He was kicked in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and leaving him gasping.

“You want her to wake up, to open her eyes? All right,” the figure said.

Faolan turned his head in time to see it wave a gloved hand over Ivy’s face. Her eyes snapped open, but she was just as bad as she had been before. Only now she could see her friends fighting and Faolan getting beat up by a dark, hooded person. Faolan realized his mistake. He had made it worse. Yes, it must be even more horrible for her. But he could see an ever so slight movement of her upper body. She was breathing, even if it was dangerously shallow. Maybe she could hold on long enough for…what? To see him and the others get killed? This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. No, it was all wrong. His thoughts were cut off as he was jerked back to his feet and punched in the face.

Ivy tried to close her eyes again, but couldn’t. She couldn’t even blink. At least she couldn’t feel the others’ emotions as strongly through this cold. She did feel fear and was surprised to find it was her own. Her chest hurt with each shaky breath, but even that pain was welcome. If she could feel pain, she was still alive. Still alive…what did it matter anymore? She was going to die one way or another. She had always been terrified of dying, but she had felt enough fear. She couldn’t get out of this so she would die eventually. And so would her friends. And so would this world she had come to love in spite of herself and all that had happened. She wanted to cry for the first time in her life and couldn’t.

Marissa smiled. The Tenth Kingdom bred some pretty insecure ones, that was for sure. All she had to do was reopen some old wounds, bring up some doubts, tell some lies, and the girl, Danielle, was hers.

“Your parents never loved you. It was your fault they split up. Your mother loves your step-sisters and step-brother more than she loves you. Your dad’s already replaced you. He doesn’t even want to see you. Why do you think he moved so far away?”

Oh, poor thing. It looked as if she might cry. Marissa laughed.

“You’ll never be famous. Your daydreams of being an actress and a singer are laughable. You’ll just have an average life. No one will know your name. No one will even care when you die.” Marissa failed to add that that would be soon. “If you were really some kind of hero, none of this would have happened. It’s your fault. Why couldn’t you be like the people on T.V.? Why did Wendell ever come to you?”

The girl sniffed and shook her head to say she didn’t know.

“Do you want all this to go away, Danielle? It can all go away if you want it to,” Marissa offered.

The girl nodded slowly.

Marissa’s smile widened. “Take my hand. Then, it’ll all be over,” she said, holding out her hand.

The girl didn’t seem to notice that Marissa had suddenly become visible. She picked up her hand and stared at it a moment, as if it were new to her. Her hand was shaking.

With the girls out of the way, the rest would be simple to destroy.

Faolan felt he was bleeding from numerous places. He could taste blood in his mouth and smell it in his nose. All it did was make him madder. He wanted to tear into whatever the figure in the cloak was, make him pay for doing all this. The problem was, he couldn’t touch him. Everytime he tried to attack, the figure would disappear and reappear somewhere else. He shot another glance at Ivy. Still frozen, but still breathing. He couldn’t give up. Not as long as there was a chance that he could still save her. Whether she would even look at him afterwards didn’t matter. Actually, what mattered most right now was staying alive.

“You’re getting boring, wolf,” the figure warned. Faolan bared his teeth. “If I get bored, I may just have to kill you. Or maybe your little friend?” Faolan could see the white of the figure’s teeth as he grinned. Faolan growled louder and moved closer to Ivy. “Aw, how sickeningly sweet. The wolfie’s gonna protect his girlfriend,” he sneered.

“What are you?” Faolan demanded again, unsure why it mattered to him.

“Would you really like to know, wolf?” the figure slowly reached up and pushed back his hood. “I’m the last dark elf.”

Faolan almost gasped. His eyes widened so big that they hurt. The dark elves were supposed to have all died out!

The elf’s skin was dark with a blue tint to it. A long scar ran across his left cheek. He had short silver hair and glowing red eyes. Those red eyes fixed on Faolan and he felt fear wash over him. Dark elves were pure evil. Even worse than evil witches and queens and step-mothers. Faolan had to call on all the wolf in him to remain standing under that gaze.

“I think I will kill you now,” the dark elf said. He stepped closer to Faolan and reached out an un-gloved and claw-like hand. Faolan had the feeling that if that hand touched him, he’d be dead.

Ivy could hear everything, see everything, even smell everything around her. Something in the back of her mind knew that that was impossible, but that didn’t matter. All the angry, hurt, and accusing words were swamping her as badly as the feelings had. Worst of all was Faolan fighting what she now knew was a dark elf. Her brain seemed to be working in slow motion. Her normally whirring mind was having enough trouble just keeping up with the tremendous amount of information her senses were feeding her. She did understand that both Danielle and Faolan were in danger of dying. She wanted to yell at both of them, warn them, but couldn’t. She had never felt the need to move until now. She had to do something! Something inside her knew that if one of the group was killed the rest would follow.