Little Red Cinderella and the Three Beanstalks

Previously...

"Have you seen her?" He blurted out.
The woman paused. Took a step closer. She glanced at the flier. Her almost yellow eyes raked over the thin, smiling face of Rick's sister, printed in black and white on glossy paper.
"Have I seen her?" She repeated, musingly. Gently she pulled the flier from Rick's hand, and stared intently at the picture.
"Oh yes. I've seen her." She said, something sharp flashing behind her eyes. Rick tried not to show what he felt. He had the feeling he was failing. "Why don't you come in for some tea?" The woman said, looking back up at Rick with a curious little smile twisting her pouting lips.
"When?" He croaked. "When did you see her?"
The smile grew. Rick thought he glimpsed the white flash of pointed teeth.
"I believe it was the day she disappeared." The wolf grinned.

*******************************************************************************

Though at least twenty minutes had passed since the little... episode in the kitchen when Jack and I returned Ezu looked as if he hadn't moved an inch in that time. He stood straight backed, his hands shoved deep in his pockets, in the middle of the kitchen, completely oblivious to the hustle and bustle of the staff around him. His head was bent down slightly, so his straw colored hair fell over and obscured his eyes, and he didn't look up as Jack and I neared. For their part, the staff seemed to be doing an awfully good job of pretending he didn't exist, save for the annoyed glances they cast him occasionally when they had to maneuver around him motionless form.
I sighed wearily, more than a little apprehensive, and looked up at Jack, beseechingly. He gave an encouraging little nod and pushed me in Ezu's direction. I glared back and Jack, and bit my lip. We had discussed how best to handle the situation on our walk back, and had decided to best thing to do was to clear the air, say what needed to be said, and try to get things back to normal as soon as possible.
I approached Ezu nervously, unsure how he would react. I had to be very gentle.
"Hey, stupid!"
Okay, so I probably shouldn't have shouted. But I was feeling a little high strung at the moment.
And it certainly got his attention. His head jerked up, and his piercing, mismatched eyes met mine, and they widened in surprise. But after a split second, the surprise was wiped away and replaced with a hard, unidentifiable look instead. It was more than a little intimidating, but I certainly wasn't going to back down, not now.
"Look, don't be such a baby, I'm not going anywhere." I scowled, crossing my arms defiantly over my chest. "I just said that 'cause I was mad at you."
Ezu said nothing. He only blinked, and averted his eyes, and shrugged. I breathed heavily.
"I won't apologize," I threatened bitterly. "You should know me better than that by now. I'm overly emotional, pig-headedly stubborn, hopelessly inept, and always manage to wind up in the worst situations at the worst possible moment. I know I over reacted, and I know it's really none of my business who you keep company with. I freaked out, and I'm sorry. I didn't stop to think how you felt, I was too caught up in myself. I acted stupidly and immaturely and stuck my nose where it didn't belong, and if I could take back what I said that upset you I would, but I can't so I guess I can only apologize and-"
Before I could continue, Ezu was suddenly very close, pressing his hand over my mouth and cutting me off mid-sentence. It wasn't my most eloquent or heartfelt speech ever, I'll admit, but it seemed to do it's job. For a second, Ezu's gaze didn't waver, but then the hardness seemed to melt away, just a little bit, and the corner of his mouth twitched ever so slightly.
"I thought you said you weren't going to apologize," He said quietly, not quite looking me in the eye. Absently, he wiped his thumb along my cheek, smearing something wet across my face. "You're crying again." He said. "I thought you knew I hate it when ladies cry."
I pushed his hand away from my mouth and blinked away the tears.
"I'm not a lady." I said, as defiantly as possible. "Ladies don't go tramping around enchanted forests with strange men, wearing pants and battling giants and thieves and getting kidnapped by kings."
Ezu almost smiled.
"You're right. You're barely even a girl." He said. I bared my teeth at him.
"Remind me why I try to be nice to you again?" I growled.
"I don't know. I don't deserve it." Ezu replied huskily. Something in my stomach flipped.
"Oh. That's why," I snarled. Ezu glanced at me, quickly.
"Why?" He asked, honestly completely unawares.
"Because you do this thing with your face." I waved a hand in front of his face for emphasis.
"What thing?" He wrinkled his nose and pulled away from my prodding fingers.
"This thing where you look like a kicked puppy. It's manipulative," I scowled. Ezu's brow knit into a frown.
"A kicked puppy? I don't look like a kicked puppy," He argued.
"You do too. And then I feel bad," I huffed. For the first time, Ezu smiled, an uncharacteristically soft, sad smile.
"You don't need to feel bad for me," He said quietly. "I've had enough of people feeling bad for me."
There was a moment of silence. I stared down at Ezu's hands, which still hovered close to me, as if he was restraining himself from touching me. They were very big hands- the hands of a man.
"Stop doing that." I said without looking up.
"Doing what?" Ezu asked.
"Acting all depressed. You're supposed to be all aggressive and brusque, Ezu the Tough Guy." I'd never noticed how long his fingers were before. They were a pianist's fingers.
Right. I'm the brawn, you're the brains, right?" Ezu smiled weakly. "You're not leaving?" Ezu whispered.
"No. I wouldn't leave. I was just being mean." I whispered back, wondering in one of his hands could completely envelope mine.
"You are mean." Ezu agreed, and I could hear the small smile in his voice. "Confusing me like this."
"What do you mean?" I wanted to ask, but never got the chance to. Behind us, Jack coughed lightly, immediately shattering the mood.
"Look, I'm glad everything is fine and dandy between you two, and I understand there is some moment thing going on, but I'm going to be sick if this continues much longer." He said with his eyebrows raised.
I flushed and pulled abruptly away from Ezu, bristling with self-righteous indignation ("denial", I believe it's commonly called by other people).
"We were not having a moment," I insisted, my face very hot. Once again, Ezu had managed to cut through my carefully contructed emotional barrier like a hot knife through butter, leaving me at the mercy of feelings and emotions I didn't even recognize- and I hated it. Feigning indifference, but still pink around the ears, I tried to change the subject. "Look, we can stand around here yaking away all day, or we can get back to work and try to think up some ridiculous, childishly simple yet ingenious escape plan and get our butts outta here." I said decisively, hands on hips. Jack gave me a look.
"Why does the plan have to be ridiculous and childishly simple?" He asked, curiously.
"Because, I'm beginning to suspect that that is the only way things work around here. You have to play by the rules." I told him.
"Play by the rules? What are you talking about?" Jack wrinkled his nose in confusion. I bit my tongue, and told myself that one of these days, when we weren't being held captive, I'd have to tell Jack the whole story. For now, I settled on bending the truth.
"Where I come from, there's this story, about this wolf who goes to a goat family's house one day while their mother is out, and eats honey to make his voice gentle and puts black ash on his paws so they are black like goat hooves, and so manages to trick the baby goats into thinking that he is their mother." I tried to explain. "That idea is stupid and couldn't possibly work in the real world, but by God it did."
This time both Jack and Ezu looked at me as if I were crazy.
"What are you talking about?" Jack asked. "That's not a story- it actually happened last month. It was a massacre, the worst case of Unlawful Sentient Goat Slaughter in years." He said. I floundered for a bit, unsure exactly how to respond to that.
"...Unlawful Sentient Goat Slaughter...?" I tried.
"Yeah. It's one thing to kill a regular goat for food or whatever, but killing a Sentient Goat, or any other Sentient Animal for that matter, is murder. Seriously Rikki, shouldn't you know this? I know Sentient Animals aren't necessarily things you see everyday, but they are pretty common knowledge. Seriously, sometimes I wonder where you've been all your life." He explained, shaking his head. I figured telling him Minnesota was where I had been, but I didn't think that would go over too well, so instead I tried to redirect the conversation back to the point I had been making, prior to my introduction to Talking Goats 101.
"Well, the point is, I think it would be safest if we tried to stick to the pattern. Hans tied bells to his wife to get her to leave, the, erm, Goat Murderer ate honey, and most girls solve their problems by sitting in the dirt and crying until somebody shows up."
Ezu shrugged.
"She has a point," He said to Jack. "Dunno why I never noticed that before..."
"Good," I clapped my hands together. "In that case, let's find someone who knows their way around the castle, and get outta here as soon as possible."
Ezu sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair.
"The only person here whose likely to even give us the time of day is- or was- Danielle. But I think I've messed that up-"
"Oh shush." I interrupted him, waving a hand dismissively in the air. "We'll beg her to help is we have to. Or you will, anyways. We'll figure something out- we always do, don't we?"
Ezu grinned weakly at me.
"Yeah, I suppose we do." He said.
"Good. In that case, we should probably find servant outfits, and head out to find her." I cracked my knuckles, happy I was in control of the situation once again.
"Wait, aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself?" Jack cut in, frowning uncertainly at me.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well..." He trailed off, as if unsure how to say what he was feeling. "I don't know... I just have the sudden urge to... I don't know, stay here and suffer while pretending to be a servant for a few months."
I blinked. After a silent moment, I decided he wasn't joking.
"Well, fight it. That's not your story, trust me." I warned him. "Now come on, let's go before someone tells us to stop loitering and get to work."
Jack shrugged, but turned away and grabbed a hold of the nearest servant's sleeve as they passed by.
"Excuse me, but can you tell me where the uniforms are-?"
Meanwhile, Ezu made to move off in the other direction, but I caught him by his shoulder.
"Hey, just to make sure, is everything okay again?" I asked, looking up at his mismatched eyes. His mouth twisted into a grin, and he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Yeah, I guess." He said.
"Good." I stuck out my hand, as a sign of peace, and after a slight hesitation, he took it. We shook hands, firmly and somber faced.
"I knew it." I said, glancing down at our clasped hands.
"What?" He asked, frowning.
"Your hands are huge- look, you can barely see mine." I pointed out, wiggling my fingers in his grasp. Ezu gave a short bark of laughter.
"You're strange, Rikki," He said, shaking his head.
"Is that so? I think I'm positively normal compared to the rest of you." I retorted.
"Hey you two, break it up." Suddenly my vision was obscured as a wad of brown cloth landed on my head. I tore it away from my face and was met with Jack's wide grin. "Put these on; like you said, we haven't got all day."
I glanced down at the dull brown dress and white apron in my hands, identical to those of the servant girls dashing around the kitchen.
"All right then. Let's do this." I grinned up at the boys, who smiled back.