Little Red Cinderella and the Three Beanstalks

Previously...

We both turned to see Jack standing there, still in his costume, looking from Ezu to me curiously. “Oh, it doesn't matter. What are you two doing here? You know what, what doesn't matter either. Guess what? I found the Prince!”

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

"What? Found him? What do you mean, found him?" I gaped at Jack, momentarily distracted from my war path.

"What do you think I mean? I've been talking to him for the last half hour! Where in the world have you guys been anyways?" He replied, glancing from me to Ezu a tad suspiciously.

"Dancing." We answered simultaneously, rather darkly.

"Well come on, don't just stand there! I promised him I'd introduce him to you guys!" Jack said, grabbing both me and Ezu by our wrists and dragging us off across the ball room, weaving between the knots of girls that stood grouped across the room. "He's over here," Jack was saying while Ezu and I stumbled along in his wake, "Guess who I ran straight into? That's right, the Prince himself! He must have thought I'd done it intentionally, because he was pretty rude and said he was sick and tired of dancing with desperate women, and then I said 'me too', and we sort of hit it off. So then I told him I had friends I wanted to introduce him to, and I went to go find you guys." He finished in a rush, slightly breathless.

"Jack, if we get out of this alive, remind me I owe you a small kingdom or something." I gasped as he dragged us across the dance floor. He forced his way through the dense crowd of women converging in the center of the ballroom, using judicious application of his elbows.

"He's right... through... here!" Jack grunted, and in the next instant we suddenly stumbled through the ranks of doe-eyed ladies, and in the center of the throng of admirers stood the Prince himself.

Up close, I could see exactly how handsome he really was, and suddenly understood why everyone was so taken with him. He had the thick, glossy blonde hair complete with bouncy side swoop; the big, sparkling blue eye framed with lovely dark lashes; a dazzling, white smile that could put any dentist for the stars to shame; and, of course, dimples.
On any other day, I might have gone weak at the knees and devised a cunning plan to get myself kidnapped by a dragon or something. But lately it seemed like I meeting just too many handsome men, princes aside, and to be honest, being surrounded by beautiful people all the time gets old kind of fast.
Call me jealous and petty, I don't care. But the next dashingly debonair face I saw was getting sucker punched.

"Hello again, Charming!" Jack said.

"Hey, don't over do it now," Ezu snickered just quietly for only Jack and me to hear.

"That's his name, idiot!" Jack snapped back.

“Oh. Well. Now I feel sorry for the bloke.” Ezu muttered back. I surreptitiously elbowed the both of them.

“Anyways,” Jack went on in his squeak, wincing and rubbing his side, “These are my friends I was telling you about! This is... um... Elsie...?... and this is Rikki!”

The Prince shot a knee-weakeningly dazzling smile at us, and took first my hand and kissed the back of it.

"The pleasure is all mine, surely," he said.

"Believe me, it is." Ezu growled under his breath. He got another elbow in the gut from me.

"We're honored to make your acquaintance," I added, giving my best attempt at a curtsy and trying to sound dignified. The only other times I'd ever been introduced to royalty I had either been breaking-and-entering or pretending to be a servant, so my knowledge on courtier etiquette wasn't quite up to par; and as far as I knew, Jack had never left his hometown before I waltzed into his life and table manners were a foreign concept to Ezu entirely, so I was just going to have to hope that we didn't commit some horrible, incriminating faux pas between now and the stroke of midnight that would prevent us from rescuing poor woe-begotten Cinderella.

But hey, since when has anything smoothly and according to plan been interesting?

"Ah, servant!" The prince held out a hand, stopping a passing waiter. "Do please fetch my companions and myself something to quench their thirst. No doubt they are parched after so much dancing and frivolity." He flashed us his gleaming smile again as the waiter scampered off.

I beamed back, but Ezu snorted under his breath and muttered, "Yeah, dancing's one way to put it." Without breaking my cheerful facade, I not-so-surreptitiously stomped on Ezu's foot. The Prince noticed--how could he not--and though he was evidently too well bred to express what he was thinking, a questioning look did flit across his handsome face for a moment.

"Please forgive (him)," I squeaked, still smiling sweetly. "(He's) is just a tad upset (he) hasn't been asked to dance yet."

The Prince gave Ezu a quick once over, and tried his best to be polite without actually lying. "Oh, I'm sure someone will ask you for a dance sooner or later," He beamed at Ezu. "After all, you are very... erm... you have a distinctly... unique charm, I should say." He cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Gee, I'm so flattered," Ezu snarled through grit teeth.

"Where is that servant with our drinks?" Jack asked loudly, laughing nervously in a crude attempt to gloss over the tension.

The Prince smiled, a little shyly. "To be honest, I would give anything to be in your shoes." He said to Ezu, in such a humble, almost apologetic way that he seemed to lose some of his rather overbearing air of regality. "I've been pestered by hoards of young ladies all night, constantly engaged in either inane, overly polite chatter or caught up in some endless, tiresome dance with a giggling girl. I mean," He ran a hand through his thick blonde locks in a distracted sort of way, "I know this ball is supposed to be for me to find a suitable wife, but to be perfectly honest, there is only one lady I have met thus far that has, well, frankly, captured my heart; and tonight I fear she isn't to be found. Tonight is the final night of the ball, the night I am supposed to claim my wife, and I don't know what I am to do." He cast Jack, Ezu, and me a pleading look, all lost puppy and pitiful Dickens-esque waif. On our part, the three of us were all more than a little shocked by the Princes unexpected candidness.

"Your highness," I began, uncertainly, "That was very... frank," was all I could muster.

As if suddenly realizing the extent of what he had said, the Prince's eyes grew wide, and his hand flew up to cover his mouth. "Goodness, did I say all of that aloud? I... I don't know what came over me. I-I'm terribly sorry."

I've never been particularly superstitious, but I know a sign when one slaps me in the face. I glanced up at the huge, elaborate clock that hung above the regal stairwell, and saw with a sudden rush of horror that it was nearly 11 o'clock. Time was running out fast, and something was reminding us of that. Whether the Prince would have ordinarily been so open about his innermost thoughts on Cinderella I very much doubted, and I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. I also doubted providence--or whatever had prodded the Prince into spilling his royal guts--would offer us another chance.

"You highness," I began slowly, wondering how much information it would be wise to divulge, "I do believe I know the young lady you are referring to."

The Prince's face lit up. "You do?" He asked breathlessly, taking a hasty step towards me.

"Ix-nay on the incess-pray!" Jack hissed through his teeth behind the Prince's back. He made a circle with his hands. "Umpkin-pay, remember...ay...?"

"Er, well, I couldn't say exactly where she is this particular moment... but I do know of someone who might..." I stammered, but before I could continue, I was suddenly shunted aside by the returning servant, his bow tie slightly askew and looking worried.

"Excuse me, Sire," he murmured demurely, bowing his head while simultaneously proffering the four drinks he had brought on a silver platter. "I have brought you your drinks... and also, some, er, young ladies who were rather forceful in their desire to make your royal acquaintance. "

The four of us turned as one to look behind the servant, where three women stood, waiting. Two of them were young, no older than twenty was my guess, and practically buzzing with excitement. While not particularly stunning, they were both vaguely pretty, but were so done up shifting silks and chiffon and lace and bows and pearl in-lays that they gave the overall impression of a couple of Christmas turkeys. The third woman was considerably older, quite obviously the mother of the girls, and, while her own dress was was of a far simpler design and a muted midnight blue color, gave off an aura of the unmistakable power of wealth and status nonetheless. Her thick, shiny black hair was flecked with silvery grey strands and pulled tightly back from her face, and her cold, black eyes swept cursorily over the lot of us. As they met mine, a shiver ran down my spine, and in that instant I knew for certain I was looking at the Wicked Step Mother in the flesh.

"Yes?" The Prince said, sounding more than a little distracted as he glanced over the newcomers. The two giggling girls curtsied, and the Step Mother gave a deep, graceful bow.

"Your Majesty," She purred. "It is the highest honor to be privileged to finally meet you."

"Ahem. Yes, of course. My pleasure, I am sure." He replied, frowning slightly as he attempted to shake off the strange affects of the previous moment and fall back into his practiced role of the Prince.

"I present my darling daughters, your Grace. This is my dear Florinda, and this here is my precious pearl, Lucinda."
The girls giggled again, high pitched and silly, and tried to strike flattering poses. They failed dismally. Admittedly, it isn't like I could have done much better myself, but at least I have the sense not to try.

"Mm. Yes, they are quite lovely," The Prince smiled flatteringly. I made a mental note not to take any of the compliments he gave me too closely to heart from now on.

Ezu, of course, being Ezu, snorted at the Prince's words. "They're 'lovely' and I'm merely 'uniquely charming'? Well, now I feel a bit spurned."

"No, I believe he said you possessed a 'unique charm', not that you were 'uniquely charming'." Jack clarified, helpfully. "There's a difference. Nobody in their right mind would call you charming."

I would have hissed at them to shut up if I had thought it would have done any good, but I knew when I was fighting a loosing battle. As it was, at Jack and Ezu's whispered exchange--which, of course, was just loud enough to be perfectly audible to everyone within ten feet of us--the Step Mother cast us a poisonous glare over the Prince's shoulder. The Prince himself affected not to notice, or perhaps he was simply still distracted by whatever had come over him earlier. Either way, he had turned his attention now to the two girls, and seemed to be going through the motions of polite royal small talk. We had been completely forgotten by him, though, judging by her piercing gaze, not by the Step Mother. I smiled weakly, offered a little wave, and dragged Jack and Ezu back a few paces by their sleeves.

"Do you two realize who that is?" I hissed, gathering us into a huddle.

"Some cranky old bi-" Ezu began.

"Well, judging by the fact all the blood seems to have drained out of your face, I'd guess she was the... what was it? Evil great aunt or something?" Jack asked.

"Wicked Stepmother." I amended. "And those two girls are her daughters, Cinderella's Ugly Stepsisters."

"Hey, that seems a little harsh now," Ezu frowned at me. "They're not that bad."

"That's just what it says in the story!" I snapped. "Look, we have to think of something quick. We only have about an hour to save Cinderella, and I don't think asking the Stepmother nicely to change her back is going to work. We need a plan."

"A plan?" A cool, hard as flint voice snapped from behind us. The three of us jumped backwards instantly, guilt etched clearly on our faces. Unbeknownst to us, the Stepmother had crept close during out little rendezvous, though how much she had heard exactly remained to be seen.

"Plan? What plan?" I asked innocently. Her icy gaze didn't waver.

"If you think you can steal the Prince, you are sadly mistaken. You evidently don't know who you are dealing with. I suggest you run along now and keep your noses out of this if you know what is best for you. One of my daughters will be leaving this ball a queen, mark my words, and no pathetic little plan or yours will change that. Not that the Prince would ever even consider taking you as his bride." She said, glancing distastefully over me, her lips curling unpleasantly.

"You foul-" Ezu snarled, taking a menacing step forwards, but Jack and I grabbed him by his arm and hauled him back.

"Ezu," I said in a warning tone, though my own ears were ringing with the woman's cruel words and I wanted nothing more than to floor her myself. "We have better things to be doing than wasting our time with the likes of her. Come on."

Ezu tore his arm from our hands, and after casting the Step mother one final look of utter hate, spun on his heel and marched away, grabbing Jack and I by our wrists and dragging us along after him.

"Wow, is she a piece of work!" Jack whistled once we were out of earshot. "Poor Cindy, having to deal with that everyday."

"You're telling me," I snorted, and glanced over at Ezu. To my surprise, he was still fuming. "What's up with you?"

"Didn't you hear what she said about you?" He said hotly, rounding on me.

"Don't be so defensive, I know I've seen better days," I said, bristling defensively.

Ezu's eyes burned bright. "Don't be ridiculous. You're wonderful. A hundred times prettier than her two dogs, anyways. Even when you're wearing that ridiculous dress."

I was speechless, and my heart pounded so loudly I thought for sure everyone could hear it. Ezu's cheeks were very pink.

"Well." I said quietly. "That almost makes up for you calling me a harlot and trying to keep me from talking to other men earlier tonight."

Ezu's primrose pink became full on fire engine red.

"I never-!"

"Perhaps now if not the best time for this," Jack said quickly, stepping in between the both of us.

"You're right," I said, shaking my head and trying to clear it of the buzzing, repeating loop of words resounding in my ears. You're wonderful, you're wonderful, you're wonderful, you're wonderful... "We have to... we need to think of a way to stop the Step mother and turn Cinderella back. You two go... um..." You're wonderful, you're wonderful... Why had I snapped at him like that? "To go, um, tail the Prince and the Stepmother and stuff. Try to catch them off guard, find out something, I don't know. I need to go to the restroom..." Before either of the boys could intervene I dashed off, loosing myself in the crowd, Ezu's words still ringing in my ears.