Deep in the forest, the Queen fought through a horde of vicious monsters, slaying each one of them with her bow and arrow.
"Show yourself, villain!" she demanded.
A tall dark haired man stepped out of the shadows with a smug grin on his face.
"Snow White," the man said confidently. "So nice to see you out of the palace."
"Save it, Piper!" Snow White said defiantly, pointing her bow and arrow at him. "Your reign of terror ends now!"
"My dear," The Pied Piper said, lifting his flute near his mouth. "It's only just begun."
Snow White readied her arrow, using her power to fill it with poison while the Pied Piper played a slow but haunting melody, hypnotizing every large beast in the forest to attack the dark haired woman in white.
Faith awoke with a jolt as the memories of the dream came back to her. Could that dream be any more cliché? She was fighting in a dark forest, and that dialogue couldn't be cornier if they had that as a scene in Power Rangers. Then she asked herself the most puzzling question of all.
"How am I fighting in a ball gown and high heels?" Faith muttered sleepily.
Faith glanced at the clock. It would only be a few minutes until she had to wake up. Therefore, she laid her head back on the pillow and let sleep overtake her. At least, that was what she was hoping to do. Unfortunately, the morning had other plans.
"I thought you were over this already!" her father's deep voice boomed from the living room.
"You make a huge decision without consulting me or Faith!" her mother yelled back. "How are you expecting me to get over this?"
Great, her parents were arguing, again. Faith pulled the comforter over her head and kept her eyes shut, trying to drown out the fight.
"Faith is a 15-year-old girl!" her father defended. "She'll get over it!"
"You're moving her out of the country!" her mother countered. "How do you expect her to just 'get over it?'"
Now, they were bringing her into this, typical.
"Faith's going to Japan!" her father shouted. "She'll love it! She loves that anime crap!"
Just like her father to belittle her interests like that.
"You're taking her away from her school and her friends!" her mother yelled. "Do you have any idea what effect that will have on her?"
"She'll get over it!" her father said. "Faith will make new friends!"
"What if she doesn't?" her mother yelled. "What if they don't accept her?"
"Then that's her problem!" her father barked, then changed his tone to an apologetic one. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"
Faith put the pillow over her head, hoping to drown out all the yelling.
"I know exactly what you meant!" her mother accused. "You care more about your own happiness than you ever did Faith's!"
"That's not true!" her father yelled, offended. "I'm doing this for you and Faith as much as I am for myself!"
"Really?" Her mother scoffed. "How do Faith and I benefit from you moving us across the Atlantic?"
"You and Faith will have new experiences and immerse yourselves in another culture!" her father defended. "And, you'll both be seeing more money in a year than you would in a lifetime!"
"Do you have any idea how insanely expensive Tokyo is?" her mother countered. "Even with more money, we'll be lucky if we can afford a one-bedroom apartment infested with roaches!"
Faith kept trying to go back to sleep, hoping this fight would be over when she woke up. Unfortunately, her brain had other ideas.
"Don't you think you're being a little pessimistic?" her father asked.
"Why am I pessimistic?" her mother countered. "Because I have the nerve to put my family before my career?"
"Back to this again!" her father said angrily. "How many times do I have to tell you that I care about my family and my career?"
"When I can believe it!" her mother shot back.
For a while, it was silent and Faith thought she could go back to sleep.
"It's almost time to leave," her father said, sounding desperate for a change of subject. "Go wake Faith up."
So much for a few moments of silence.
"Fine, but this isn't over!" her mother said angrily.
"Don't I know it?" her father said sarcastically.
A few minutes later, Faith heard her door open.
"Get up," her mother said demandingly, switching the lights on. "We're leaving in a few minutes."
"All right, I'm up," Faith muttered sleepily, getting out of bed.
"Good," Her mother said, exasperated. "Did you remember to pack last night?"
"Yes," Faith said, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
"Good," her mother told her. "What all did you pack?"
"My clothes are in the suitcase by my closet," Faith recited, pointing to the suitcase near her closet door in the upper left corner of her room. "My bathroom stuff's in the same bag as yours and Dad's, and my recreational stuff's in my backpack."
"The clothes you're wearing today?" her mother asked.
"On my dresser."
"There's some stuff you need to use this morning that you haven't packed yet," her mother pointed out.
"I'll pack them after I use them," Faith said exasperated. "I know the drill."
"You say that and then you forget a bag," her mother pointed out sternly.
"That's on trips," Faith pointed out. "This time, we're moving."
"Okay," her mother said, sounding unsure. "Just get ready in time."
Her mother said, shutting the door.
Faith walked to her dresser, her legs feeling very heavy as her eyes were adjusting to the light. She looked in the mirror to see her reflection looking back at her.
Faith's round peach face looked slightly puffy with bags around her sky blue eyes. Her long golden blonde hair was a tangled up mess with strands sticking out where they shouldn't. She wore her winter pajamas, a loose and baggy sky blue sweater with baggy sky blue pants decorated in white stars. Faith picked up her brush, lying next to the clothes she picked out from last night. As she brushed her hair, letting it fall in its loose natural waves with the front resting on her shoulders and the back of her hair reaching her shoulder blades, she debated about putting her clothes on and getting ready or going back to sleep. Her mother's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Faith are you ready?" her mother's voice called out.
"Almost!" Faith lied, her mind snapping back to reality.
"Well, hurry up!" she yelled.
"Right, sorry!" Faith said urgently.
Faith immediately got ready, any thought of going back to sleep vanishing from her mind.
Faith continued playing her Nintendo 3DS on the plane with her earphones on so as not to disturb her father, who was sleeping in the seat in front of her, or her mother, who was reading quietly in the seat beside her. Faith had her hair tied in a ponytail, leaving a few strands loose. She wore a form fitting white T-shit that showed off her curves and had a black L insignia on her buxom chest in the same style as the character of the same name from Death Note, along with a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and black tennis shoes.
As Faith's brain started to wake up, her mind drifted from the game and to the thought that she was moving. She never really had any friends so much as a group she hung out with, and she couldn't really be honest with them. Still, it was better than nothing. What if nothing was what awaited her in Japan? It took her a while to find her clique in high school and, as the new kid, she might be the social outcast, as Buffy became on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Then again, Buffy managed to find a group she belonged to at her new school. Maybe she'd have the same luck. Faith could speak Japanese, even if she had some trouble with the language, not fully knowing the formal or the casual way to speak. What if she messed up on the language and became the laughing stock of the entire school? Faith turned her attention back to her game, trying to drive all the negative thoughts out of her head.
It wasn't long until her thoughts turned to the dream she had about being Snow White. Maybe the Once Upon A Time marathon she had with her mother last night after her father fell asleep influenced her dreams. No, this wasn't the first time she had that dream. Sometimes, Faith wasn't even fighting. She was hosting a dinner party, running away from an evil stepmother, or living with seven dwarves, like the original Snow White. These dreams started on her fifteenth birthday, like Buffy's dreams when she became a Slayer. Except her dreams were about different past Slayers while Faith's dreams all centered around one fairy tale character. Maybe it was memories from a past life, like Usagi's past life of being Princess Serenity in Sailor Moon. No, Snow White wasn't even real. That would be excessively far-fetched. Maybe they were just ideas for a story. That way, if she never got any friends, she could always focus on her writing. Okay, she was thinking negative thoughts again. Sure, Faith was moving, but she was moving to Japan, the birthplace of anime, manga and some of her favorite video games. What could go wrong?
Deep in the Kanto region, a zoo was putting on an outdoor show. Excited people filled the seats, watching a tall, dark and handsome man play the flute while Siberian tigers performed tricks in the center stage, surrounded by a chain link fence. A staff member lit a hoop on fire and one of the tigers jumped through it as the man continued playing absentmindedly. Then the tigers voluntarily went back to their cages.
"Thank you, everyone, for sticking around to see my show," the man said, removing the flute from his mouth. "But I'm afraid that's all the time we have."
The audience gave a roaring applause before getting up to leave as the staff exited the fenced area. One member of the audience had the courage to walk to the fence.
"Excuse me, sir," a woman with platinum blonde hair greeted shyly.
"Yes?" he responded.
"Um," the woman began, maintaining eye contact with the man. "May I ask you a question?"
"About what?" the man asked as the animals growled and stomped in their cages.
"Well, many tiger training acts I have seen usually require whips in order for the animals to behave, and the trainers tend to suffer injuries for their efforts," the woman explained admirably. "Yet, your tigers manage to obey you with no trouble."
"Thank you for noticing," the man said pleasantly. "Now, what is your question?"
"Sir, I'd like to know," the woman began shyly. "How is that possible?"
"It's nothing much, just a simple matter of playing the right melody," he answered humbly, indicating how the tigers were growling and attacking the cage doors. "See how agitated they are right now?"
The man put his flute in his mouth and played a soft melody, calming the animals into a hypnotic trance as the woman watched in amazement.
"That was incredible!" she said excitably.
"Why thank you," the man told her politely. "I do hope you'll be at my next show,"
"O-of course!" the woman said, snapping out of her daze. "I would never dream of missing it."
The woman left as the man looked around the empty room to see that it was just him and the animals. He went back to playing a melody on his flute, attracting every rat in the zoo to the cages of his tiger minions. He had plans for this city, and they were far greater than being their mere entertainer. This time, no one would be around to stop the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Not even Snow White or any other warrior for the Brothers Grimm. The Pied Piper smiled deviously as a tiger snatched a rat with its hungry jaws.
