Patty Liu - Silent Reflections

“Udo, you can let us down now. They’ve figured out how to break the spell!” Tony cried out in excitement. He couldn’t wait to set his feet down on solid ground and be able to hear again. He was getting so sick of only hearing and speaking up in the air where the air pressure was thin and Udo’s hand constantly quivered.

Udo complied and set the three humans down onto the ground. Pip had flown up to them not two minutes before and explained that Wolf and Patrick had everything figured out. The parchment was a map that a potion had spilled on. All they had to do was tear the map apart. It was all a matter of waiting now.

Princess Wendy held onto one of Tony’s hands and Virginia held the other. They waited. Udo became agitated and stomped the ground several times, causing the ground to shake beneath their small feet.

They could clearly see Patrick and Wolf on the other side. They were looking at a map in Wolf’s hands and speaking to one another. Virginia wanted so badly to get to the other side and just give Wolf the biggest hug.

The last time she had touched him was when she was drowning him with an iron grip on his throat. She wanted to touch him so badly. To touch his hair. Smooth it down beneath her hand. She wanted to kiss that little wrinkle between his brows. She wanted to feel the prickly stubble that was constantly shading his jaw line. She wanted to hold his hand in hers to feel the hard but yet warm skin in her own hand. To watch the contrast of his tanned skin next to her own porcelain pale complexion. She still couldn’t get over the realization that she hadn’t killed him. She wanted to touch him just to prove it to herself. She waited.

Tony’s hands were getting clammy as he held onto Princess Wendy’s and Virginia’s. He looked up to watch Pip flying back and forth in front of the invisible wall. Testing to see if it was still there. And it seemed to be still holding. Tony wanted out of the Sixth Kingdom. He swore to himself that he would never ever set foot in this kingdom again even if they paid him a million bucks. He also swore to himself that he was going to go back home to New York City as soon as he was out of this damn mess. He missed sitting in that old reclining chair of his. He missed television and beer. Then he remembered that Virginia and Wolf had moved into a new apartment and had gotten rid of his old recliner. Damn. And Tony waited.

A princess should never have gotten into such a terrible disaster such as this one, Princess Wendy said to herself. I’m royalty! Well, she was pretty close to royalty, at least. She was actually only the niece of Queen Scarlett who had adopted her many, many years ago and declared her heir to the throne. For Scarlett was unable to have children of her own and she desperately wanted an heir to pass her kingdom down to. Princess Wendy had lived such a sheltered life in a completely different castle away from the palace of Queen Scarlett. She didn’t understand how she had been supposed to learn to take over the throne if she was so sheltered all her life. But she could remember that one particular day when Queen Scarlett had announced that she was actually able to have children after all. And the position for queen had been snatched away from Princess Wendy in a flash. Wendy was quite thankful actually. She didn’t want the position. She just wanted a peaceful life. But peace wasn’t actually what she had gotten so far. It was far from it. She had gladly accepted the proposal to marry King Wendell and the next thing she knew she was trapped in a Godforsaken kingdom with absolutely no sound. She liked what she could remember of King Wendell. Prince Wendell, actually, when she’d known him as a child. He had always been a great royal pain to everyone else but he had always been nice to her. Considerate and thoughtful. They had become such good friends. She squeezed Antony’s hand and gave him a weak smile. And she waited.

They all watched as Wolf ripped the map apart into two equal pieces. They waited for sound to slowly return. But nothing happened. They still couldn’t hear anything. There was no change. It hadn’t worked. The oblivious Pip flew into the invisible wall and bounced right back, giving him a horrible headache.