Disclaimer: Me and UltimateWarriorFan4Ever own nothing exempt from the plot. All of the respective characters belong to the company Mattel and the authors of the EAH book series, Shannon Hale and Suzanne Selfors. We had a blast writing this, I couldn't imagine writing it with anyone else other than my favorite writing partner. If you haven't read his fics you should. Right now. Don't even read this fic, just go. Anyway have a giant cookie *hands cookie* and enjoy! The man plot point will center around Hunter and Ashlynn, as you will see why in later chapters.
Hunter Huntsman and Ashlynn Ella were walking to class, giddy with anticipation. Why might they be hexited you ask? Well because they had got paired up for D.I.D (damsel in distressing) class.
Ashlynn let out a content little sigh. "I'm glad we got paired up together."
"I wouldn't dream of pairing up with anyone else Ash."
When they arrived they took notice of the pairs. Apple White and Daring Charming, Raven Queen and Dexter Charming, Meeshell Mermaid and Hopper Croakington lll, Sparrow Hood and Blondie Locks, and last but not least Alistair Wonderland and Bunny Blanc.
"Well this worked out perfectly didn't it Hunter?"
"It sure did my darling."
"All right class, quiet down please."
As soon as they took their seats...
*HONK!*
"EEEEEP!" yelped Ashlynn, who leapt of her seat in surprise.
The daughter of Cinderella suddenly looked down to realize that she was sitting down on what seemed to be a blow horn. Apparently, someone must've planted it there as a prank. She then heard laughing sitting beside her, which happened to be Spaarow Hood. Ashlynn Ella, on the other hand, found this very displeasing.
"Sparrow, what the hex?!" asked an angry Ashlynn.
"Sorry, couldn't resist!" Sparrow chuckled, right before Blondie hit her assigned partner in the arm.
"Owww. Sorry babe." Sparrow chuckled nervously.
Ashlynn just rolled her eyes and shot him a dirty look as she removed the object and sat back down.
"Alright class, it's time to announce today's final exam task. Passing this is essential to pass my class."
Excited murmurs darted between the students.
"Alright, alright, enough. Today's task for the boys to save their assigned damsels from a real live dragon. Don't fret the dragons are chained up and muzzled. The only thing that is required is no magic and to render the beast unconscious, all the while effectively saving your damsel. Your time limit is one hour to do so. There will be ten paths, only six of them will have damsels at the end of course. Would all the ladies please follow headmaster Giles Grim to your assigned paths. You will all start on the same path and at random points the path will split, and slowly there will be less and less of you in one large group. Keep in mind you only have one hour. This test relies on trial and error, strength, stamina, focus, and time saving. Any questions?"
She took a look around the room. "No? Ok let's get started. Your time starts now."
So far, first up was Sparrow Hood. At first, he started off real easily getting through right around the burning trees. The wolves that was cornering the pathway to that really short castle, no problem. He managed to soothe the beast inside them with a nice little tune, heck, a lullaby just to make the wolves fall asleep. After they were taken care of, now it was time to face the dragon head on. The dragon Sparrow got assigned to looked a lot more green and a lot less threatening. So far, it wasn't a problem. All Sparrow had to do was use his guitar to send the beast to sleep right? Well...
...
...
...that proved to be wrong.
Sparrow started played a tune on his guitar, but by the time he realized the dragon had only got more pissed it was to late. The dragon whipped its tail around and sent Sparrow flying. He landed about ten feet away with a loud thud.
"Ughh... that hurt." He looked down and realized his guitar had broke. "Oh, damn it! Now I'll have to buy a new one.." He whined.
"Sparrow!" A feminine voice yelled. His head whipped up and looked around, but he didn't see anyone. "Up here!"
He looked up to the tallest tower and seen his girlfriend, Blondie Locks waving to him. "Oh. Hey Blondie! What's up babe!"
"I want down! It's lonely up here and I miss you!" She called.
He suddenly felt guilty because he was sitting down here not trying hard while his poor girlfriend was trapped in a tower. Some boyfriend I am, he thought.
"Don't worry Babe! I'm coming I promise I'll get you down." He stood up and strolled bravely towards the dragon. When the dragon turned around and gave him the fiercest glare possible, he gulped.
"This is going to be harder than I thought..." he said under his breath.
So, trying to act brave as he could, Sparrow tightened his glove and adjusted his hat, being somehow crazy for trying to fight a dragon with his bare hands. As the Dragon kept himself ready for him, Sparrow decided to talk trash the best way that even the guitarist himself knew how.
"Listen here, ugly!" Sparrow said to the angry green dragon, "You think your tall giant figure really scares me? Let me tell ya something, I find my cousin way more scary than you are! So, if you even think you scare me at the least-"
Before Sparrow could finish his statement...
*WHAM!*
The dragon's tail had immediately smashed Sparrow right on top of the head, knocking him down and out for a loop!
When Sparrow awoke he felt an immediate pounding in his head. He looked around and realized he was no longer outdoors but in the nurses office.
"How did I get here?" He wondered not knowing he was talking aloud.
"Because I brought you here silly!" A bubbly voice replied.
Sparrow winced at the loud noise. "Ugh, would you mind keeping your voice down Blondie, my head is killing me."
The door swings open and they're teacher walks in. "Hmm. On the bright side your ok. Bad news is you have failed my class and will have to repeat the same test next year."
"Oh, well this is just great." He grumbled.
"Come on sweetie, lets go back to my dorm and relax."
Sparrows face light up. "Alright, lets go." They left and headed to the dorm momentarily forgetting the pain of they're exam.
While Sparrow was busy recovering his wounds with a cheerful Blondie, the exam continued with Alistair being his turn to do the honors. As soon as he stepped up to the plate, the teacher decided to have one last talk with him before going off on his own to save Bunny.
"Remember, Mr. Wonderland, you'll only have one hour to get Bunny before the time limit ends." The teacher informed him. "You ready?"
"I'm ready!"
"Ok, remember there is ten paths and you will have to pick the right one. There will be hints but you must look carefully to find them. Your time starts now Mr. Wonderland."
As soon as she finished speaking Alistair started down the path. He kept a sharp eye on his surroundings, should any clues be there. About five minutes down the path it split. He had three options, straight, left, or right. He looked to the left path to examine it. He noticed a small water Lilly.
"That must be the path to Meeshell."
To the right was a purple rose.
"Hmm. Raven I'm guessing. Looks like I'm going straight to find the other paths."
Three minute later the road split into two. Left and right. The right had nothing, but the left had red roses.
"Red roses? That doesn't make sense, no one here would have red roses." He walked towards them and touched one. It was wet. He looked down and seen red paint on his fingers.
A grin broke out on his face. "They're painting the roses red!" Then he seen the small pocket watch by his feet. He took off down the path, seeing a Wonderlandian type castle in the distance.
"A-ha, I knew this leads to Bunny!" Alistair smirked as he started to run faster on his path towards the castle.
So far, it had been only a good 5-minute sprint for Alistair, and yet, he definitely wasn't stopping for a break.
Of course, he only stopped just to get a good little stream of water around his face, and that's it. Other than that, all Alistair was doing so far was running to the castle, in which he was now getting closer to. Deep down, this exam was definitely bound to be a piece of cake for the riddle-solver.
"Don't fret, Bunny! Here I come!" exclaimed Alistair.
However, before he could even get a mile away from the castle...
*RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!*
The ground started to shake all around Alistair, which was weird considering the land of Ever After were more less likely to suffer earthquakes. Alistair looked down to see the ground collapsing all around him, forcing the Wonderlandian to back away just in time. From there, an O-shape appeared all around the castle, which was soon filled with water. Deep down, it was now gonna take a small bridge to cross from the ground he was standing on, to the small mini castle where the dragon Alistair was assigned to, stood.
"Damn it! This just got ten times harder.."
He looked around for something useful but all he seen was a a few decks of playing cards, an apple tree and a needle and fishing line.
"I got an idea."
Alistair jogged over to the apple tree and climbed up . He filled ups his arms with about thirty apples then hopped down. He set the apples on the ground and grabbed the cards and needle. He used the fishing line as makeshift thread and threaded the needle. He took the needle and pushed and apple through. He repeated this process fifteen times. He then cut and tied the 'thread'. He rethreaded the needle and repeated what he had done another fifteen times. When he had finished he had two ropes of fifteen apples each. He then took the string and the playing cards he stared threading them together to shape a basket. (Keep in mind theses are Wonderlandian cards so these are much stronger than regular cards.) He tied the two ropes together to create a longer rope and then tied the basket to the top.
He walked over to the edge of the water and took his rope in hand and started swinging it in a lasso type motion. After he worked up a fast speed he threw it, effectively lodging it into a crevice in the corner of the castle, using it in a way similar to a grappling hook. He then started climbing up the rope using the apples as foot holders so he wouldn't slip. When he reached the top of the left corner he noticed that Bunny was in the right side. He untied the basket and de threaded the apples, placing them in the basket. At this point the dragon had seen him and was heading over. Alistair took an apple in his hand and aimed to throw it.
"Hey gazelle neck, eat this!" Alistair said as he threw that apple hard.
Strange enough, Alistair had nailed the blue-scaled dragon right in the eye, making the big huge serpent-like creature wince in total pain. Alistair had smirked as the dragon backed away from him, due to his safety.
With the dragon still wincing on the floor, Alistair smirked as it gave him plenty of time to get to that right side of the castle.
Alistair reached the top tower on the right side. He tried turning the knob but it was locked. He realized it had been forty five minutes since he left, giving him fifteen minutes to rescue Bunny and get back to the school.
"Fuck it." He said to himself. He backed up a bit and took off running towards the door. He hit the door as hard as possible with his shoulder, effectively breaking it down. When he burst into the room he seen Bunny tied up on the bed. He stroad over to her in long strides. He untied her and stood back up.
"Alistair! You did it, I was so afraid the dragon would hurt you."
"Anything for you Bunny. Now we only have 10 minutes to get back to the school or we fail."
"There's no way we can run back and get there in time."
"Don't worry I have an idea."
Him and Bunny walked down stairs and to the balcony. Right underneath them was the sleeping dragon. Alistair hopped over the balcony and right onto its back. Lucky it didn't wake up from the impact. He crept up to its head and woke it up gently. At first it looked mad but when it recognized Alistair it whimpered in fear.
Alistair took out an apple and held it out to the dragon. After a moment it hesitantly took it.
"Listen. Would you mind giving us a ride back to the castle? We'd really appreciate it. The dragon slowly nodded. Alistair undid the chains and took off the muzzle. The dragon lifted off the air a few feet and Alistair helped Bunny into the dragon. When they had took a seat the dragon headed off towards the castle. When they arrived back everyone was shocked and amazed that he had managed to singlehandedly save Bunny and tame the dragon with a minute to spare. As the couple hopped off the dragons back the teacher approached them.
"Well done! You both have passed and are the only people to ever tame a dragon all with time to spare. Congratulations!"
Alistair and Bunny looked at each other and grinned. This was sure to be something they would always remember.
Daring Charming had taken off on his pathway towards Apple, not even slowing down to at least take a break. So far, he was confused on which path the handsome blonde-haired prince should take. There were in fact 10 paths, but one of them had to be Apple's. If only Daring would at least find some clue without even having to look at himself at the last minute.
"Okay, this is hard..." Daring thought to himself, "Which one is Apple's path?"
While he was still looking around, a strange fruity aroma had touched his nostrils. It smelled fascinating and so arousing that just by whiffing that smell, Daring had felt his tongue lick out of hunger. To be strange, it was now coming from the right side of the road. So Daring decided to take that way, just to make sure he was right on the dot. The faster he ran, the muskier that smell was getting. Of course, it had quite a dessert feeling added to it. And not to mention that smell looked like something that was basically baked out of the oven.
When Daring arrived at the castle he immediately knew Apple was in there. It was an apple themed castle, the whole thing was red with tiny apples painted on it. There was also homemade apple pies in all the windows. So that's where that scent was coming from, he mused.
"This shouldn't be too hard." He said to himself. He immediately regretted it when he seen him dragon. It was ten times the size of Alistair's, big, red, and mean looking. It had the glare that he recognized as anger and hatred.
"Oh fairy godmother.. I'm doomed. This is the end of the page for me..."
Despite his nervous state, Daring was willing to take the dragon head-on. The only thing Daring must wonder was that how he was gonna stop that dragon in the first place. He really had to think in the fastest way possible on how to stop that dragon and get her princess back in time before time would run out. So he looked around from the left to right, hoping to find something pointy like a sword and use it against the big red beast standing before him.
"Okay Daring, you can do this." He thought to himself. "There better be something you can find, and hopefully fast...
After a moment of looking he finally noticed a piece of broken wood, resembling as stake. Hmm. That'll have to do.. He picked up the wood and wielded it with a fierce determination. After a deep breath he took off towards the dragon. Ready to give it his all, for his queen.
"Hang on Apple. I'll be there soon!"
As the dragon yawned through his muzzle, the big red dragon used his tail to try to smack Daring out of nowhere, but alas, that didn't go quite well. Using quite impressive reflex skills, Daring slid under the dragon's tail and planted that stick somewhere where the dragon never thought it ended up. Knowing this firsthand, the dragon had screamed so loud, its muzzle broke in two!
"Oh hex! Come on... Why must this happen to me?"
While he was whining the dragon took this opportunity to swing his tail at Daring. Unfortunately he noticed a second too late.
"Aughh! Not my face! Not my beautiful face!" He closed his eyes but the impact never came. The dragon was in too much pain to strike.
"Aha! This should be easy." He strolled past the dragon and through the castle gates.
Once he got in the castle gates however, Daring noticed that the throne room had three stools with three delicious slices of apple pie surrounding it. Apparently, the next part seemed to be kind of a 'guess your luck' challenge. Just to make things interesting, the three stools had wires attached to the stools, in which the wires were also led to the castle throne. Daring needed to find out which two of the slices were duds and which one was the real one. Just staring at those pies gave Daring quite an appetite.
While Daring wanted to bite down on each of them he knew he couldn't, as two of them were traps.
"Oh hex.. How am I supposed to figure this out? There's got to be some type of clue to help me." He examined slice number one.
The first slice had three wires. A red one, a blue one, and a green one.
"Hmm. If I choose the correct wire, it should show me if it is fake or not."
After only 10 seconds of figuring out, Daring chose the green wire.
And then, he closed his eyes hoping that slice of pie wouldn't blow up all around his face. Ohhh, imagine his perfect face being ruined by debris. There was no way he wanted that pie he was holding to explode, making him render less and obsolete. If that happened, well, there would be no more Daring, which meant no more happily ever after for the handsome hunk himself.
Strange enough, it didn't blow up around him.
"Oh thank all of Ever After. It would have been a shame if my handsome face was ruined by a delicious dessert."
Daring moved to slice number two, which happened to be way more difficult than the last. This particular slice had six wires (red, orange, green, purple, pink, black) and three buttons (blue, yellow, white).
"Hmm. I better be careful with this one, or it could be a disaster..."
After such thinking of sorts, Daring decided to go with the orange wire with the blue button. Once again, Daring closed his eyes, still hoping that the pie wouldn't explode all around his face. Much to his surprise yet again...
...
...
...
...it didn't blow up.
"Oh, thank goodness." Daring sighed in belief as he went right over to the third slice.
"Well this is the last one... so it must be the real one." Daring picked up the slice and took a bite, hoping it would be a warm delight and not a metal catastrophe.
...
...
...
He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
"Mmm. Delicious."
When he had finished the slice, a hidden door appeared on the right of him.
"That must lead to Apple!"
With a look fierce determination, he headed towards the door, mind set on freeing his princess.
What stood between Daring was a long-mile hallway, which led to the castle bedroom door where Apple was shown all tied up and gagged. Oh, whoever decided to do that to Apple would have been slained on impact as a result. But that wasn't the time for that. His main concern was rescuing Apple and nothing else. As he sprinted over to the dungeon door, Daring sent his shoulder out in hopes of crashing through the door. With added firepower...
*BOOM!*
Daring broke through the door, finally getting in the abandoned and darkened bedroom where Apple was sitting.
"I've come for you, Apple!" exclaimed Daring.
"Wait, don't come any closer, Daring!" Apple warned him for some reason.
"Why not?" He said, stopping in time.
"Look up!" Apple gulped, gesturing Daring to do what she told him.
As Daring looked up he seen a series of booby traps. One more foot closer to Apple and a metal cage would have fell over top of him, effectively trapping him.
"Oh. This might take longer than I thought..."
"Be careful Daring!" Apple cried, worried he would get caught by one of the numerous traps.
"Don't worry, do you really think a mere maze of traps could stop this dashing prince." He smiled smugly as he set to work.
Thinking about a game plan carefully, Daring decided to back away from Apple a bit, setting in a three-point stance.
"Um, Daring... what are you doing?" Apple gulped a little.
"Forgive me, Apple!" Daring shouted as he took a run towards her.
With added strength and velocity, Daring tackled her so hard that the both of them got out of the bullseye spot in time, right before the metal cage crashed down. Much to relief, the cage had missed both Daring and Apple right by a hairline. The prince nearly came this close to having one of his legs crushed by the cold hard steel itself.
"Apple, are you okay...?" asked Daring. "Sorry if I had to do that, but I had no other way."
"It's alright Daring. I really didn't expect it, that's all..." Apple nodded, much to Daring's relief.
"Well now that I've finally rescued you, we should probably head back, since I'm pretty positive time is almost up."
"How much time do you think we have?"
"I'd say around 20-25 minutes."
"Ok, well then let's go!"
Daring grabbed Apple and picked her up bridal style. Since he would have to run he figured it would be faster to carry her, as she could not keep up with his speed. He carried her down the hall and out the door. He glared at the dragon, daring him to try something. Fifteen minutes later they arrived back at the school.
"Congratulations Mr. Charming, and to you too Ms. White. You both pass, and have officially completed my class."
Daring set Apple down as they cheered at getting an A in Damsel-In-Distressing class.
But as they did so, Apple somehow felt a little pain around the lower ribcage. Apparently, that lifesaving bookball tackle was way too much for Apple to even endure.
"Is something the matter?" Daring asked.
"I think you kinda tackled me a little too hard..." Apple painfully smirked.
"What can I say? Us Charmings don't know our own strengths." shrugged Daring.
Chuckling Apple and Daring headed off to get some early lunch. Happy with how they're exam turned out.
Hello everyone! I see you did not take my advice and leave immediately. Or maybe you did and decided to come back to me? Either way, yay! First chapter is up and I already hooked one beautiful soul. Here have a cookie. *hands cookie* wow two cookies in one day, I bet your glad you showed up now! Please review? Please? For my birthday present? *pretends birthday isn't nine months away*. We had three couples take the exam this chapter. And we will have two go next. Then onto the main focus, Hunter and Ashlynn!