Little Red Cinderella and the Three Beanstalks

Previously...

"Are they together?" Belle's voice piped up from behind us. Both Ezu and I jumped guiltily and hurried looked away from each other.
"Don't be stupid," Ezu said harshly to the girl.
"Seriously though. You and everybody else here just make stuff up. Me and Ezu. Psh." I scoffed, unable to ignore the hallow note in my voice, or the flushing of my cheeks.
"Oh." Belle said, looking at Ezu in a way I don't think I liked. "Good." She said decisively.
I've never really wanted to hurt anyone before, but I felt the sudden urge to wring her scrawny little neck, for a reason I couldn't quite place. I quelled the thought as best I could however. I was supposed to be rescuing her, not murdering her. I spoke with some difficulty.
"We don't have time for this. We're late as it is, and if we don't get going soon, someone will show up," I said, grinding my teeth.
"Too late," Jack said. I whirled around to face him, to see he was staring at the far door, the one that presumably led out of the tower. I spun on my heel, praying he was wrong.
As I did so, I heard the click of a lock turning, and saw the doorknob begin to turn.

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Ezu started to speak, "Rikki, I-"
But I never found out what he was going to say, for at that moment, the door swung open, to reveal a man who could only be the King, flanked by four heavily armed guards, dressed in the same uniforms as the soldiers from the bar. Ezu groaned.
"I hate soldiers. I really hate soldiers." He muttered under his breath.
Nobody replied. Everyone else in the room was too busy being stunned to say anything. The King, a youngish man dressed in red velvet with thick, dark hair, evidently was extremely shocked to see that there were now more people in the tower room than there had been the last time he had been there. His flunkies also has similar looks of astonishment plastered on their faces, but then they didn't look like the brightest of fellows, so that could have been their normal expressions.
As for Jack, Ezu, me, and the miller's daughter, we had all temporarily frozen in place, meeting the bemused King stare for stare. It would seem our good fortune had ended without so much as a warning.
I glanced desperately at Ezu. The King seemed to shocked to do anything, we could take advantage of this momentary lapse and escape-
No, we could. I remembered we were a few hundred feet above the earth, and the only door out was blocked. Unless we were going to leap out the window and consequently fall to our deaths, there was no escape. Not this time.
The King seemed to be recovering.
"Guards! Seize them!" He barked, pointing imperiously. The soldiers stepped into the room, glowering and drawing their swords.
"Wait!" I cried, holding my hands in the air defensively. To my slight surprise, they stopped, as if unsure. I thought quickly. Jack, Ezu and I were all armed.
Ezu and Jack I knew could fight- me, not so much, but I could do some damage. Unfortunately, I doubted the miller's daughter would be of any help in a fight, and that still left four professional soldiers against three teenagers, one of which could barely safely handle a butter knife. We couldn't fight, but we might be able to talk our way out of this situation.
The King glared at me.
"And why should I wait? I ordered this useless peasant here," He waved a hand at the Miller's daughter, who looked as if she was going to cry again, "To spin this room of straw into gold. I see not only had she failed, but I find three other worthless nobodies here as well! I should have you all killed on the spot!"
I quailed, unsure of what to say to this, but thankfully Jack leaped to the rescue.
"Well, what do you expect?" He shot, sounding thoroughly annoyed. He picked a stray piece of straw out of his hair and waved it in the air. "This isn't straw, this is hay! You can't spin gold out of hay!"
I could have kissed him.
"Honestly, don't you know anything?" I put in, as disdainfully as I could. To my growing hope, the King seemed to falter, and he glanced at his guards. They, however, we are clueless as him, and shrugged. As far as I knew, there was almost no difference between straw and hay, but it didn't seem as if they King knew that.
"A King? Who doesn't even know the difference between straw and hay? Tut tut." Ezu added, shaking his blonde head as if very disappointed.
"The... difference?" The King repeated, evidently trying to keep control of the situation but failing.
"Everyone knows that when you spin hay, you only get..." Ezu trailed off, having run out of steam.
"People!" I cut in quickly. Everyone looked at me, most as if I was crazy. But it made sense, sort of. It could explain our mysterious presence, anyways. "When worthy maiden such as this one," I gestured to the miller's daughter, "Spins straw, they get gold. But when they spin hay, they get... you know, us." I shrugged. "Servants or something. I don't know- it isn't really that strange, is it?" I said, getting defensive in response to the King's obviously growing incredulity. "Some girls get roses and jewels when they speak, some flowers and animals are enchanted princes or maidens; I don't see why you're so surprised when this girl starts making hay-people." I glowered.
For a long moment, the King observed us, very carefully. I could practically see the cogs turning in his mind- it looked as if it hurt.
"There has been stranger occurrences than that, I suppose, especially in these parts," He said slowly. "And I can't rightfully have the girl executed if I provided the wrong substance." He pursed his lips. I barely breathed. "You three aren't gold... But I could do with a few extra servants, I suppose. All right then. Guards, take them to the servant's quarters." The King clapped his hands, and the soldiers stepped forwards again, though thankfully their swords were sheathed this time.
"Wait!" I called again, and again the guards stumbled to a halt, looking rather put out.
"What now?" The King asked, wearily.
"What about her?" I asked, pointing to the miller's daughter.
"Her?" The King glanced her up and down, and shrugged. "Oh, I suppose I'll marry her or something. She didn't give me any gold, but she's pretty, and I don't really have anything else to do with her. Finding this much straw or hay or whatever was far too tedious to do again for nothing. Besides, I think I'm allergic to the stuff." He itched his arm, frowning. "I'll just take over a smaller country and take their gold, I suppose." He held out a Kingly hand to the Miller's daughter, whose eyes had gone wide with surprise. She glanced at me, as if looking for permission. I rolled my eyes and shrugged.
"Oh thank you, thank you three so much! You have rescued me!" She cried, and she ran into the King's embrace.
I tried not to gag.
The King snapped his fingers, then left the room, leaving his fours guards with us.
"What a stupid little-" I began violently, glaring at the door they had left through.
"They are perfect for each other." Ezu sighed, almost sadly. "Will they be happy at least?" He asked me. I ripped the ribbon out of my hair with a little more venom than necessary, letting my ponytail fall down in loose waves.
"Yeah, happy enough, anyways." I said grimly. She'd have her baby, Rumpelstiltskin would never come to take it away, and they'd live happily ever after.
Things wouldn't go quite as smoothly for Jack, Ezu and I, however.
The guards had finally collected themselves, and seemed to be trying to command some authority over the situation again.
"Come on then, you three," The biggest one growled, apparently not at all happy he wasn't allowed to run us through with his sword, and was taking some personal insult in this.
"We're are we going?" Jack asked, hesitantly as we all hung back. The guard growled again, and rolled his eyes, as if he had far better things to do than explain himself to the likes of us. Like kill things, for instance.
"To the servant's quarters, peasant. You heard the King." He snorted.
I looked at Ezu, suddenly not so sure we'd taken the best course of action. Pleased as I was I finally completed the task I had set out to do a million emotional scars ago, I didn't think I very much liked the idea of having to spend the rest of my life as a servant to a kill-happy king as a result.
"Erm, we'd really rather not, thank you just the same," I tried, without any conviction in my voice. The guard glanced at me disdainfully.
"Too bad, because you don't have a choice." He said, moving his shovel-like hand to the hilt of his sword.
"I figured as much," I replied glumly. I glanced once more at Ezu, hoping that despite the odds, he'd have some clever, daring escape plan already in motion. However he just looked back at me, obviously as plan-less as I. However, he had a weird expression on his face, and if I didn't know better, I would have guessed it was something akin to excitement. I had to be wrong though- our situation was a distinctly dreary one, to say the least. Even Ezu wasn't crazy enough to be excited about the prospect of being forced to wash dishes and scrub floors all day for the rest of his life.
"Ezu...?" I asked, unsure. He didn't spare me a glance.
"All right then, lead the way." He sad to the soldier, rubbing his hands together. "You pathetic excuse for a human being..." He added under his breath as the soldier turned away. The guard spun back, giving Ezu a hard, dangerous look.
"What was that?" He growled. Ezu grinned back chipperly.
"Nothing at all, my good sir. Just excited to get to work is all."
I sincerely hoped the guard didn't notice the sarcastic loathing simmering in Ezu's mismatched eyes. Fortunately he didn't seem to, or if he did he figured he had better things to do than get in a fight with a lowly servant, and simply grunted and turned away again.
"Come on then, I haven't got all day." He snarled, tramping out of the straw filled room through the door. A second guard followed him, but the two remaining soldiers waited, obviously planning on following behind me, Ezu, and Jack, so we didn't sneak away. Ezu glanced at Jack and me, his expression unreadable, and then followed the first two guards out the door.
"Come on Rikki," Jack said quietly, putting his hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him in disbelief.
"We're not going to just give up!" I hissed back, appalled. "Not after everything-"
"For now, yes we are," Jack cut me off, his voice firm. "Later we can think of something, but right now, we're out of options." He gave me a sharp look, and propelled me forwards. Without bothering to try to hide my displeasure with the situation, I stalked out the door as well, with Jack at my heels, and the two remaining guards falling into step behind him.
Despite the fact that this felt like giving up, resigning ourselves to a lifetime of servitude for trying to save a silly, ungrateful girl, I knew Jack was right. Our escape would have to wait.