Gabrielle - After Happy Ever After

“General Sampson, I want troops in the Fourth Kingdom. And I want them now! If Wendell doesn’t do something about this, then I’ll have to.” She narrowed her eyes dangerously and said in a much quieter voice, “If that witch wants to rule, we’ll see how Wendell’s crown fits.”

Wolf watched as Cinnamon’s first stone flew through the air and to a spot near the bush. The spikes shot up. Wolf hurried through them, weaving carefully, trying not to touch any of them. He could tell they were deadly sharp.

Cinnamon watched nervously. She was practically jumping out of her skin. She paused carefully, watching for any movement in the spears, a stone in her hand. The spikes glistened dangerously. She bit her lip. The spikes started to slip and Cinnamon jumped.

“Wolf! Freeze!” she yelled. Wolf stopped, careful to keep all his limbs away from the spikes. They sucked back into the ground. A moment later, Cinnamon’s rock struck the ground and they shot back up. Wolf continued on.

“Oh, be careful,” Cinnamon muttered nervously.

Wolf was so close. He tried to reach out and pluck one of the roses, careful of the thorns he knew were poison. He stuck his tongue out and narrowed his eyes with concentration. He leaned over farther, his fingertips almost touching the golden petals of the nearest rose. Wolf’s balance faltered and his arm dipped. It brushed a spike and opened a gash in his arm. The spike was so sharp it had sheared right through his sleeve and skin in just a touch. Wolf yelped and whimpered in pain, jerking his arm back. He clamped a hand over the wound, lifting his hand to see blood all over it. He whined and licked the wound, then looked back up at the roses. They were so close! The breeze blew them a tiny bit and it was as if they were silently mocking him. He gritted his teeth with determination and reached for the rose again.

Cinnamon cringed at Wolf’s pained whimper. She wanted to bound over there and help him, but knew she couldn’t. She shook with surpressed jitters.

Wolf’s fingers closed around the top of the rose. He pulled, bracing himself with one foot behind him. He had no idea how hard it would be to free the flower. To his surprise, it broke away easily. Wolf stood in the middle of the spikes with the rose in his hand. He looked very surprised. Cinnamon wanted to howl with joy. He had gotten it! He hadn’t died! They could leave!

Wolf started carefully back when the ground began to shake. Cinnamon’s eyes went wide. Oh no! “Wolf!” she yelled. Wolf braced himself, trying not to fall into any of the spikes.

“What is that?” he yelled back.

Cinnamon looked around wildly, looking for what was causing the sound. Then, she looked up. The tree tops swayed slightly a short distance away. The trees closer began to sway as if whatever it was was getting closer. Cinnamon had a terrible suspicion. “Oh, you’re not going to like this!” Cinnamon cried.

Wolf followed her gaze and saw the trees. He quickly came to the same conclusion as Cinnamon. He began to run, almost disregarding the spikes. They sucked into the ground again and he lounged the last few feet, falling to the ground near Cinnamon. She helped him up quickly. They both shot a glance back at the trees to see that they had parted to show…a giant!

Wolf and Cinnamon ran for the trees on the other side of the clearing. The ground pounded so hard that every time they tried to run they were thrown to the ground. The giant spotted them and stomped toward them. He reached out for them.

Wolf saw the giant’s hand coming. He jumped to his feet, grabbed Cinnamon’s arm, and dragged her after him as he ran back towards the giant, avoiding the hand and dashing between his legs. The giant lifted his foot to step on them. The two wolves split up, running in opposite directions.

“Hide! I’ll find you later!” Wolf yelled, running back in front of the giant to draw him off.

Giants were big, but not too smart. It wouldn’t be hard to distract him. Cinnamon dashed off in the other direction, diving into a deep niche under a bush near some large tree roots. She scrunched down into the leaves and soil, trying to hide but be able to watch at the same time.

Wolf led the giant away into the forest. The giant made some annoyed grunts and incoherent murmuring as he strode after him. Cinnamon quickly lost sight of Wolf, but could still see the trees moving off into the distance, signaling the giant’s passage. She wanted to run after, to make sure Wolf got away. But she also didn’t want to leave her hiding place. She was a lone wolf. She didn’t know how to do the pack thing. She stayed put telling herself she was doing what Wolf had told her. He would find her later.

Virginia hurried along the river in the direction she knew Wolf had to be going in. She was getting tired, but forced herself to keep going, until she heard a boom resound through the forest that made the birds all around fly away with angry and frightened squawks. Virginia froze, looking around for what could have done that. A tree falling maybe? For some reason she recited in her mind that old question, if a tree falls in the wood and no one’s around, does it make a sound?

Virginia scanned the top of the trees and saw a patch of them sway and jerk. Another boom sounded and another patch of trees swayed. “That can not be good,” she said to herself.

Virginia stood still, watching the trees when she noticed that the direction of whatever it was had changed. It was coming towards her! And fast! Virginia started to back away. The booming got louder and the trees nearer to her jerked. She was so busy staring at the treetops that she didn’t see the figure dart out of the trees and run towards the river. She did notice, though, when he jumped in, making a big splash.

“Wolf!” Virginia cried, running to the edge of the river and helping pull Wolf out.

“Virginia! Huff-puff, Virginia! What are you doing here? Nevermind, let’s get out of here!” Wolf cried as the giant broke free of the tree line on the other side of the river.

Wolf scrambled to his feet. He kept a hold on Virginia’s arm and ran on into the woods. Virginia ran after him, trying hard to keep up. Her mind whirled in confusion and insanely she thought that Wolf had left his tail out. She mentally slapped herself and screamed in her mind to get ahold of herself. She took a quick glance back at the giant. An actual giant! He was getting closer. And she didn’t know about Wolf, but she couldn’t run forever. He was going to catch them if they didn’t do something quickly.

Maive knew that her struggling was getting her nowhere, but she couldn’t help it. She knew Tony and the two guards were in trouble. They needed her help! They didn’t know what they were getting into! Maive stared at the house, praying that her companions would come out again. She was staring so intently that she caught the movement at the side of the house. She squinted, looking closer, and saw Tony disappear into the woods. No. It couldn’t be. He wasn’t leaving her here! And what about the guards! Maive tried to yell after him, but she couldn’t get it past the cloth in her mouth. She cursed silently, wishing Tony hadn’t done this.

Maive calmed herself. She couldn’t think if she was mad. She tried to figure out a solution. One came to her slowly. Maive murmured a spell into the gag, a spell to call help. She didn’t know if it would work, but it was the best she could do. She used all her gift in the spell, calling on all the powers she knew.

A fox poked its head out of a bush to her right. It sniffed cautiously, then slowly approached her. Maive remained motionless. The fox walked over and began to gnaw at the ropes tying her. Maive cried her silent thanks over and over. Praised be the Goddess!

The fox finished chewing through the rope and backed up a few steps. Maive patted it carefully on the head with one hand while pulling out the gag with the other. “Thank you, little friend,” she said. The fox flicked its tail, then turned and disappeared into the bushes. Maive straightened. She crept up to the house carefully, chanting a concealing spell under her breath. She peeked in a window and saw the guards frozen and Marissa looming over her cauldron. She ducked out of view again, quickly assessing the situation. There was nothing she could do for the guards. But she could catch Tony.

Maive hurried away from the house and after Tony. Her father had been a hunter and had taught her a little about wood-lore and the like. She should be able to follow his trail as long as he didn’t try to cover it. From what she saw so far, he hadn’t even thought of it. Good. Maybe she could still catch him in time to fix everything.

Marissa sat down heavily in her old wooden chair. Magic could be tiring. She hadn’t understood that at first when she was younger, but she had learned quickly that magic was like everything else. It depleted with use. She had used a lot of magic recently. It would take awhile to rejuvenate.

But she had to check on her wolves. She had already spied her servant in the Tenth Kingdom. He was doing quite well, spreading strife and anger as he went. The Tenth Kingdom would be the first to go. They had no great magic there to fight the spreading animosity. But they did have great weapons that she didn’t understand, but knew could destroy that entire kingdom. No, it wasn’t hard to corrupt a kingdom that was already corrupted. The Second Kingdom would be next. That she could already feel. It, too, had been susceptible.

Now she must check on the wolves. They should have reached the rosebushes by now. She collected her strength and pushed herself up out of the chair and over to the cauldron. She wearily used her magic to find Wolf. The picture was a little hazy from her tiredness, but clear enough to show Wolf running from a giant. Alerted, the witch focused the picture, looking closer. Wolf had Virginia with him! And Cinnamon was nowhere to be seen. This was very bad.

Marissa looked closer at Wolf. Something glistened in his hand. She focused the picture farther. He had the rose! She had to keep him safe, but get him away from Virginia. She needed time. Time to think. Time to restore her magic. But she didn’t have time. She would just have to wait and watch and hope her Wolf made it out of it and his mate didn’t.

“Wolf, I’m too tired. I can’t run anymore,” Virginia panted. Wolf had temporarily thrown off the giant with quick changes in their path and by doubling back and the like. But Virginia could still hear him, stomping around close by.

Wolf glanced back at her and saw she really couldn’t keep going. He stopped, releasing her arm. He, too, was panting, but nowhere near as hard as Virginia. Wolf’s mind buzzed, trying to think of a solution to this problem. They could hide, but the giant might step on them or, if they ran again, would be close enough to catch them. They needed someplace that a giant couldn’t get to. “Huff-puff, but where?” Wolf cried out loud.

“Where what?” Virginia asked in between trying to catch her breath.

“Where can’t the giant go?”

Virginia thought quickly. “Underground? Small caves?” she offered.

“Underground! But how do we get underground?” Wolf whined and began pacing.

“If that’s truly where you wish to hide,
Simply find a tree marked X and climb inside.”

The singing ring! Wolf and Virginia both stared at the ring, then both jumped and went quickly to the nearest trees.

“A tree marked X. A tree marked X. There’s a million trees around here, how are we supposed to find…?” Wolf began as he bounded from tree to tree.

“I found it!” Virginia called. Wolf ran up behind her and saw she had found a tree with an X carved in the trunk. The tree was huge. If Virginia and Wolf had joined hands, they still probably couldn’t encircle it. But there was no obvious way inside. “How do we get in?” Virginia asked.

“I don’t know. Oh, cripes! The giant’s coming back this way,” Wolf began walking around the tree, running his hands over it, looking for some kind of secret knob of something. Wolf pulled on a little twig and the tree opened. A part of the tree simply swung out. “Virginia!” he called.

She was quickly at his side. But she didn’t like the looks of the darkness inside. “Is it safe?” she asked hesitantly.

“Safer than out here! Come on!” Wolf cried.

He climbed inside and Virginia followed slowly. The door snapped shut behind them. The giant entered the clearing just as the door closed. He stomped around, but didn’t see or hear any sign of the two he was following. He continued on, determined to find them.

“Woooooaaaaahhhh!” Virginia cried as her feet hit nothing and she fell. She landed on her butt on something hard, then started sliding down. She leaned back, hoping the ceiling wasn’t low. She couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face, but she could hear Wolf ahead of her.

And then, just as suddenly, she was out of the tunnel or whatever it was and in some dim lighted place. Her momentum carried her off the slide and she landed right on top of Wolf. He grunted and tried to move out from under her.

Virginia blinked. Even the dim lights seemed bright compared to the darkness they had just left. Her eyes adjusted slowly, but when they did she saw that the light was from torches and that they were inside some kind of giant underground tunnel. She could hear voices far off, maybe in a different tunnel, but she couldn’t see anyone. She felt Wolf trying to get to his feet and quickly got herself untangled from him.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“Shhh,” Wolf shushed her quickly. He looked around at their surroundings, sniffing and listening. “I think these are goblin tunnels. Maybe ogre. I haven’t had the chance to smell either before, but from what I’ve heard, they’re supposed to be a colony or something hidden underground, but since they don’t surface for anything less than the end of our world, they have been mostly forgotten.”

“Goblin? As in…” Virginia began in a whisper.

Wolf nodded. “Yes. Goblins are pretty nasty creatures, according to history. They mainly care about only two things: themselves and money. There have never been many of them because they fight and kill each other so often. They’re not incredibly bright, but they’re smart enough. If we can not run into any of them, that would be best.”

And so, of course, we will, Virginia thought irritably. Whenever there’s someone or something that we don’t want to mess with, we always get mixed in with it anyway. Virginia opened her mouth to tell Wolf as much, but he clamped a hand over it. He shook his head and drew her back into the shadows with him. She froze, trusting him. As she watched, five hideous looking creatures walked right past the small section of tunnel that they were in. She looked at Wolf, wondering if it was okay for him to drop his hand from her mouth yet. Her eyes got wide.

Wolf was trying desperately not to sneeze. He let go of Virginia and covered his mouth and nose with both hands. The goblin scent in such close quarters was too much for his nose. The smell was sending him into a sneezing and coughing fit that he was trying to keep from coming. Goblin hearing was good. Maybe not as good as his, but very close. He could get them captured and killed if he couldn’t keep this sneeze!

Virginia gestured at him. He could not sneeze! Not right now. She was not being taken prisoner by goblins. No way.

Wolf couldn’t hold it any longer. He sneezed, trying to cover the sound with his hands. This was followed by two more sneezes, but he managed to stop any more. Wolf and Virginia both froze, waiting to see if the goblins had heard. Nothing happened. Finally, they both decided that they hadn’t been heard. Wolf sighed with relief. Virginia leaned into him, too exhausted to do much else. Wolf closed his eyes, smelling her scent, sniffing deeply, getting rid of the goblin smell in his nose.

There was a clanking noise. Wolf’s eyes snapped open and Virginia found new energy to spin around. At least ten goblins stood at the entrance of the tunnel, all with spears.