Little Red Cinderella and the Three Beanstalks

((A/N: I’m doing a giant time jump here, just because I really need to get on with the actual plot and cut out so much of the traveling that is taking up most this silly story. Trust me, it all would have been a bunch of boring walking))

After our encounter with the Huntsman, we found ourselves completely separated from the Prince and his men. We knew that some of them must have scattered when the Huntsman had first shown up and attacked, but whether they had regrouped somewhere, or just continued on to the Queen’s Castle individually, or all just gave up and went home, we had no way of telling.

For us at least, giving up wasn’t an option, not if we wanted the world to remain in its current undestroyed state. We had to forge ahead, only hoping that we would meet the rest of the Prince’s troops there when we arrived, and do our best to defeat the Queen on our own if we didn’t.

It was something of a comfort to have the Huntsman with us on that final leg of the journey. I knew that Ezu was still as suspicious as ever, but I trusted him, and his presence had the benefit of keeping any other animals away. By the time darkness had begun to fall, the forest came alive with the sounds of the animals of the night, and I swear once or twice I heard the howling of a wolf in the distance, and caught glimpses of yellow eyes watching us in the undergrowth. But as long as the Huntsman was nearby, nothing seemed to dare to get too close. The added bonus was that he, unlike us, knew where he was going.

Without the Prince and his small army to follow, it didn’t take us long to realize that there was no way we could navigate through the forest fast enough with our simple map. But the Huntsman knew exactly where we were, and where we needed to be, and the quickest route there. He led us better than any GPS, and even Ezu had to admit that was one boon to his presence that was worth the risk.

The walk was long and the terrain was difficult, but I was the only one who got complaining rights. In case you’d forgotten, when the Huntsman had first charged us, I might have had a bit of an accident. It didn’t take long for the boys to notice the dark, wet spot on the pants, and thus ensued the most awkward conversation of my life. The entire situation ended with me having to waddle uncomfortably through the woods, with Ezu’s heavy jacket tied about my waist in a generous offer on his part to help me at least conceal my shame, trying not to wonder which I smelled more strongly of, days of unwashed sweat, or urine. Every time Jack or Ezu made to complain about their aching feet or emotional weariness, I just shot them the dirtiest look I could muster, and they shut right up. They weren’t covered in their own pee, after all.

Overall, it was safe to say no one was in a Mary Poppins mood by the time the line of trees broke, and we had finally arrived at the Queen’s Castle sometime before midnight.

We came out on the South East side, so we were closest to the front left corner of the Castle wall, though it was still almost half a mile in the distance, heavily shadowed and difficult to make out in the darkness, apart from the few orange flickers of lights from torches along the battlements. Remembering the Prince’s plan, we retreated back into the tree line just enough to keep concealed in its shadows, and hugged the edge heading north, where hopefully we would find the Prince, Roland, the Dwarves, and our army waiting for us.

But when has luck ever been on our side?

We hadn’t made it very far when suddenly there was a huge flash of light, and a moment later the shockwave of an explosion hit us, rattling our brains in our skulls and making our eardrums throb. Moments later, the sound of a battle horn rent the night air, a cry of alarm coming from the castle that had a meaning no one could mistake: intruders.

The call was answered by another, and another, until a dozen horn were blaring, all from different posts around the castle wall, like the wailing of a pack of banshees. We all exchanged a look.

“They must have got here before us, and decided they couldn’t wait any longer,” Ezu said.

“They’ve already stormed the Castle, and their cover has been blown. This is about to break out into an actual battle,” Jack warned.

“We’ve got to get in there, I don’t think they can do this without us!” I said, panic rising in my throat. The Prince might have an army, but I had the Story. If we weren’t in there, the ending might not be put right, innocent people might die, and all of this would be for nothing.

“But Rikki, what can we possibly do?” Jack said incredulously, grabbing me by the shoulders. “We’re barely armed, and there’s only three of us.All of the Queen’s guards will already be on the lookout, there is no way we could even get through the gates!”

“There’s four of us, and it’s the middle of the night. At the very least, the Prince must have caught the castle by surprise, so they’ve got to be in a panic! We don’t have a choice, it’s now or never!”

Jack and Ezu looked at each other. Ezu sighed. “Yeah, I guess today is as good a day as any to get myself killed. Let’s go.”

Jack just shook his head. “I’m crazy. I’m absolutely mad to be doing this. The whole Cinderella fiasco was one thing, but this? I must be mad. We should go before I come to my senses.”

I beamed. I could always count on my boys.

“Huntsman, you’re up! Get us inside that castle!”

He did, and more.

Eager to please, he immediately fell onto all fours and took off at gallop out of the forest and across the expanse of flat, empty ground that surrounded the palace.

The three of us started sprinting after him, Ezu having already drawn his sword, all desperately trying not to be left too far behind.

A couple solitary arrows went whizzing by us, missing us by meters, but evidently whatever was going on inside the castle was too distracting for more than one or two archers to even notice our approach.

We were panting heavily, utterly out of breath, by the time were caught up to the Huntsman at the Castle gate. I don’t think I’d run half a mile straight in years, but somehow I did it, even though it felt as if someone had poured gasoline down my lungs and dropped a lit match in after.

But we weren’t given even a moment to catch our breaths, for with a roar of rage and pain and effort, the Huntsman reared up to his full height, grabbed the iron portcullis that kept us locked out of the castle grounds in both his clawed hands, and actually tore the entire structure from its frame, causing a small avalanche of stonework to rain down upon us. Ezu covered my head and Jack shoved all of us out of the way in time to avoid being crushed by the debris, but it did the trick.

The Huntsman stood there panting, looking for all the world like a giant furry Hulk, still holding the two thousand pound grid of metal in his sagging grip. Even he looked surprised that he had done that, but then gave a triumphant cry, and hurled the thing through the empty space where it had once been at the handful of guards that had come running to see what had happened.

“Go Huntsman!” I shouted, slapping the creature proudly on the arm as I ran past him through the opening.

“Rikki, wait!” I heard Ezu calling behind me, and he and Jack came sprinting up behind me.

“We have… to get… inside,” I panted between great breaths of air.

That was easier said than done. Inside the castle walls, it was chaos.

The Prince had definitely beaten us there and decided to storm the castle without us, I recognized his men in the fray. I didn’t know how many soldiers the Queen had on her grounds, but at the moment, it looked as though our side had the upper hand. The Queen’s men had definitely been taken by surprise, and the night watch was being easily overwhelmed by the Prince’s troops. Even so, there were still archers on the walls who were raining arrows down upon us unimpeded, as even as we ran across the grounds that must have been a lovely garden in the light of day, but was only proving to be an annoying obstacle course in the darkness, more guards began streaming out the castle doors into the grounds.

It was dark and almost impossible to see, and I didn’t notice the man until he was practically upon me. He was one of the Queen’s men, and leaped at me out of the darkness with a mace raised above his head, ready to splatter my brains in, surely. For the split second that I finally noticed him rushing me, and he saw me clearly for the first time, I saw his eyes widen in surprise, no doubt being utterly shocked in that final, horrible second that he was bearing down upon a teenage girl. But he was too far gone to stop, and he surely would have brained me a moment later if someone hadn’t suddenly pulled me to the side and sent the guard tumbling head over heals over a topiary bush sculpted into the likeness of a rabbit.

I spun around, and saw that my last second savior had been the Prince.

“Oh thank deus ex machina,” I gasped, and threw my arms around him in a rib crushing hug of gratefulness. “You saved my life!”

“Clearly. Why aren’t you armed?” he replied roughly, shoving me away from him. He was all business, and for the first time I saw him as something other than a pompous Prince out for glory. The man before me now was a battle commander, and he had no time for my shenanigans.

“No time, we only just arrived,” I replied. Ezu and Jack, who had seen my close call but had been too many paces behind me to be able to help at the time, finally caught up, and before they could start reprimanding me or some waste of breath that like, I shoved my rucksack into Jack’s arms so I could unsheath my short sword, and pull out the book while I was at it.

“There, happy now? Now we have to get inside, before the Queen figures out what’s going on and tries to do anything to Snow White.”

But the Prince didn’t seem to have heard me, for he suddenly gave a cry and shoved me bodily out of the way, leaping forwards with his sword raised high.

“It’s the beast!” he cried, slashing at the Huntsman who had come lumbering up behind the boys after tossing two of the Queen’s guards bodily over the wall when they tried to approach him, thinking him still the Queen’s loyal pet.

“No, no!” I shouted, scrambling back to my feet and trying to stop him before something regretful happened. But it was Ezu who leapt between the Prince’s brandished sword and the startled looking Huntsman, his own blade parrying the Prince’s downwards.

“What is this? Traitor?!” demanded the Prince.

“No, he’s not a monster, he’s the Huntsman!” I insisted, grabbing the Prince’s sleeve and trying to drag him away from my friend and the cursed man he now protected.

“The what?”

Of course, that meant nothing to the Prince.

“He’s cursed, the Queen cursed him, but he’s on our side! He helped us get here, he got us in! We need his help, your Highness!”

The Prince paused, uncertain, but he didn’t have the time or the resources to bother doubting us. He lowered his sword.

“Fine. I’ll accept your word. You had better be right, though, the lives of my men are depending on it.”

“Thank God. Now please, we have to get into that castle!” I insisted.

“That is precisely what we are trying to do. You do know where we are going once we get there, right?” asked the Prince.

“I have a map, more or less,” I replied, cursing the book for not being able to give us a more complete blueprint of the castle’s layout. All it could really give us was a general sense of the floor plans, and tell us that Snow White was being held on the cellar floor, and that the Queen’s throne room was somewhere on the second. “Where are the Dwarves? And Roland?”

“Still in the tunnel. We used most of the explosives to burst through the base of the mountain into the castle grounds. Most of the entire back side of the castle wall have collapsed. There are more explosives hidden in the tunnel system that we didn’t use, and the Dwarves, Roland, and a few of the other soldiers are trying to collect as much as they can, in case… well, in case it comes to that.”

“At least they’re safe,” I said as I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well what are we still standing around here for?” Ezu urged, glancing nervously around us at the beginnings of a battle that were still clashing around us. “We may not exactly be on a schedule or anything, but sooner or later that nasty piece of work Queen we’ve all heard so much about is going to come see what all the ruckus is about herself, and somehow I get the sense that won’t bode well for us.”

“No doubt,” replied the Prince tersely. From his waist he pulled a large curved battle horn, placed it to his lips, and blew, hard. It trumpeted loudly enough to be heard across the courtyard, attracting the attention of all his men--and most of the Queen’s men, as well unfortunately. “To arms, men! Storm the palace walls!” he shouted.

His soldiers were as loyal as well trained dogs, and abandoned whatever it was they were doing, whether it be running a palace guard through with their sword or stomping out the flames of a topiary lit by a burning arrow to rush to their Prince’s side.

“Onward!” came the next cry, and everyone rushed forwards, to the Castle doors.

The Queen’s men weren’t slow in reacting, and many of the Prince’s soldiers were cut down before they ever reached their leader. But again the Huntsman proved his worth, and when the wave of guards threatened to crash over us, he responded with a bellowing roar and swiped one massive clawed hand at them, sending half their numbers flying through the air and crashing painfully against the stone walls.

It certainly helped that for that brief moment, our numbers were still greater than theirs, though we all knew that wasn’t likely to last much longer. It was vital we get into the castle before the Queen had time to gather her forces, or the outer guards had time to regroup their strength.

Shields up and weapons drawn, Ezu, Jack and I lost somewhere in the middle of it all, the Prince’s soldiers forced open the castle doors.