Reptilian-Angel's
Hope
And
Belief
By
Reptilian-Angel
Me: Violet Jones is now Cupid. That is what the moon told her. She is now also trapped under a Dark Ages spell of obedience as punishment from Mother Nature. Looking for answers for her past and her curse, she starts a trek to her palace along with a Not-So-Scary Wolf-man and a Leprechaun-possessed compass for company. But what happens when she ends up meeting the Guardian of Hope along the way? Set thirty years after the ending of the movie! BunnymundXOC I owe nothing but my own characters! Loosely based off "Ella Enchanted"!
Chapter 1.
Whatever Happened
To
Violet Johnson?
Normal P.O.V.
"Oh . . . Oh Don!" A young woman exclaimed breathlessly, tears of joy shimmering in her eyes at the sight in front of her.
A man had one knee to the ground and was holding a box with a diamond cut ring in his hand out towards her. He looked up to her hopefully as he, as she expected, then asked, "Veronica Samson, will you marry me?" Hope and nervousness etched out in every note of his voice.
Almost instantly, the woman then said, once again as expected, "Yes! Yes, yes, I will!" Her voice turning high-pitched with happiness and tears now running freely down her face.
A smile breaking out on his face, the man instinctively laughed as he placed the ring on her finger delicately. Once the task was done, he got back up on both feet, wrapped both his arms around his happily sobbing love and pulled her into a passionate and loving kiss.
Just as she predicted.
As usual.
A young woman was perched on the top of a lamp-post only a few feet away from the couple. If that wasn't unusual enough, the woman looked somewhat oddly even for these present times.
Not that she looked like a monster or anything, if anything she looked as though she was a literal teenaged goddess among man.
For one thing, she was utterly and soundly beautiful; with flawless sun-kissed skin, long flowing hair with a segment of it tied up in a braid that shimmered either rose red or chocolate brown; big, sparkling deep violet/green eyes with flecks of blue in the irises, an elegant yet cute button nose, full lilac pink lips, an evenly sloped chin, an hourglass figure with an ample bosom and perfectly round hips that stretched out into a pair of deliciously slender yet strong legs.
Seeing her, one would've mistaken her as a living Michelangelo statue if not for her outfit.
She was dressed in a bright red camisole and a tight black hunting vest with string ties that showed off her upper body, black strapped leather arm sleeves that stretched from near her armpits to her wrists, dark red/black leather pants that hugged her lower half with a dark red sash tied around her waist and knee-high black combat boots. On her back, she carried a near black red quiver with a seemingly infinite set of arrows inside and a matching archer bow that was currently clutched in her hand.
The young woman continued watching the couple for a time, all the while sporting a rather bland expression on her face.
Obviously unaware of her presence, the couple went on with their kiss and continued, and continued, and continued, and continued a little too long for her tastes.
After several moments of this, the woman looked away and sighed in exasperation.
She knew she should've gone easy on the arrows that she shot at them.
But, NO, of course, these two had to be one of those stubborn couples and she was resorted into taking matters into her own hands.
But with this, she was happy to declare that her work here was done.
For now, at least.
She knew that she was probably going to have to deal with thirteen more ideals of the heart tomorrow morning.
Lord knows how much joy she was gonna get from that.
Yeah, right.
She pulled the bow onto her shoulder and wordlessly hopped off the lamp-post and onto the sidewalk with ease. Once both feet were on the ground, she then decided a brief walk before heading home would be nice for a change of pace.
If anyone saw the pure white angel wing design on the back of her vest, they would be greatly surprised to see it flutter and twitch every few seconds making it shimmer; as though it was relieving itself of its long rest.
A walk on foot would give them time to wake up properly anyway. No sense in crash-landing while flying half-way over China or England again.
This gave the woman plenty of time to be in her own thoughts.
My name is Amour'a L. St. Valentine. Or you'd probably better know me as "Cupid".
She nimbly jumped over a large puddle made from the melting snow on the ground. She frowned when she didn't see a certain something look back at her on its surface.
Let me guess, you were probably expecting something like a near naked baby wearing only a diaper with curly blonde locks and a cute little bow and arrow set with hearts all over it, right? If wrong, well, good for you!
Amour'a frowned when she jumped again to the side to avoid a night jogger from bumping into her, though the probability itself was unlikely.
He didn't even try to warn her, as per usual. She scoffed at herself. Humans. Always in a hurry!
I'm the only "Cupid" around these parts. How do I know that? 'Cause The Man on The Moon told me so. Yeah, that's right. There's really a man on that big bright thing in the night sky.
You probably wouldn't be the first to doubt that. There have probably been hundreds over the years who listen to that weird mumbo jumbo you call "science" that states that "No human being can ever actually go to the moon and survive!"
I should know that, considering I was once one of them.
Suddenly a child came out of nowhere and ran right through her, surprising her. As though she was nothing but thin air.
Which she might as well be in this case.
"Once", being the keyword.
Amour'a watched as the child ran around in circles for god knows what reason before he came to a stop, turned around and ran right through her again and back to his parents who watched with bemused expressions from only a few feet away.
Shaking her head, she continued on.
You see, I used to be a human myself. Back then, I never actually believed in stories like the "Man on the Moon" or "Mother Nature". I only chose to believe in little stuff like "Santa Clause", the "Easter Bunny" and some cases even the "Tooth Fairy".
Not too seriously, of course. I was a teenager for heaven's sake!
But that all changed when The Man in The Moon gave me my name.
And he gave me my name when I . . . Or rather when the human girl, Violet Johnson, had died.
The girl blinked with tired eyes.
What was that light that was shining so brightly above her?
Was it a way out?
She hoped it was.
She looked around the darkness that surrounded her. It felt cold, damp and dark.
She shivered.
She didn't like it.
She wanted to leave.
Her arms felt numb as she raised them from her body. They almost felt like rocks and it took almost all the strength that was in her to move them.
How long had she been down here? It felt like centuries.
She pawed the air for a few moments until she finally felt the cool, hard surface of a rather large rock. Using that for leverage, she weakly hoisted herself back onto her feet and almost stumbled back onto the ground in the process.
Why did she feel so weak?
She put a hand on her head, a sudden headache slicing through her brain.
For that matter, why was her head hurting so much? She felt like she had been cleaved in the head by a rock.
She pulled her hand back and bit back a gasp of horror.
Dark, cheery red blood coated her hand. Oh, god.
Now she really had to get out of here.
Wherever here was.
Panic began filling her body with energy insanely fast. Smacking her hands over the rock in front of her, she finally managed to find the top of it and began pulling herself up. She didn't stop there. Each time she came to something solid and sturdy set in the wall before her, she scrabbled for moments to find a decent ledge to grab on to before quickly but shakingly scaling upward. Despite nearly losing her grip twice and after nearly an hour's worth of climbing, she finally came to the edge of the . . . . The hole she was in?
Now that she was at a good distance off and above the ground, she could easily see the lord knows how old gap that she was in.
Yes, it was a hole. Definitely a hole.
But how did she get there?
Before she let her strength leave her, she clutched at the ground that was now level with her head and pain-stakingly pulled herself up and out of the hole's entrance. Once every inch of her form was out, she fell to the ground and breathed heavily, her chest rising up and down with deep breaths of air.
Five minutes later, she blinked her eyes open and was greeted with the sight of the dark velvet of a starry night sky.
So it was night. Great.
Just how long had she been in that hole?
And just how did she get there anyway?
She tried to think back but it nearly made her head split her head open with pain just thinking about it. The light she spotted earlier wasn't helping much either.
Rubbing at her eyes, she ignored the cracks that sounded from her neck as she glanced up towards the lights' source of direction. What she saw astounded her.
The full moon hung in the sky with all its glory. Its silvery white glow cast all over the forest trees and grass around her. The chill in the air almost would have been ignored if not for the occasional gust of wind and that fact that she, when she looked down and noticed, was wearing only a thin light blue and white day-gown with a small wrap on her shoulders that was tattered and torn from wear and tear.
However, the light of the moon was hypnotic to her; comforting somehow.
As though it was telling her that everything would be alright. Maybe it was.
The girl didn't know what possessed her to look behind her, maybe it was by some paranormal force or nature or some freak force of chance; when she did, her eyes widened slightly at the sight of a pure red rose.
Its' blood-red petals and delicate stem contrasted to the seemingly gray and white foreground of the forest. It somehow avoided the blanketing glow of the moon as the petals sparkled with small drops of water, almost begging for her touch.
Entranced and somewhat bewildered at the beautiful flower that grew in such a place as this, she twisted her body around so she was facing the flower face-to-face before she begun reaching out towards it with her hand very slowly. It was like any false movement she made would make the beautiful plant vanish into thin air.
It was pleasantly deprived of thorns; she realized when her fingers made contact with the stem. It only took a milligram of force from here to snap the stem and pull the flower up to her face.
She had begun to admire the rose's beauty for only an instant before her eyes were suddenly blinded by a flash of light.
Exclaiming in surprise, the girl almost dropped the flower before the light disappeared as quickly as it came. The girl saw dots dancing in front of her eye and had to wait a moment or two before she could see properly again.
When she could see her hand again, the rose was gone. But it did not leave her hand unattended to.
In the rose's place was a beautiful archer's bow that was about almost as tall as her; with a black riser, deep red/black limbs and a tightly banded bowstring, it was a beautifully crafted piece of work. It felt light in her grip and felt all too easy to lift over her head. The girl couldn't stop gaping at it.
The only time she did stop was when she felt something click and twitch from her back.
She turned around and once again, for the approximately third time that night, gaped in shock.
Small, bird-like and pure white wings fluttered from her shoulder blades like they had been there her entire life. They extended to the top of her shoulders to the small of her back and began wiggling as though they were saying, "What are you waiting for?!"
They couldn't be real. The girl looked at the bow in her hand. This couldn't be real. None of this could be real.
Could it?
Hesitantly, she used her free hand to pinch the hand holding the bow. She squeaked with pain.
Yep. It was real.
The rose really did just change into a bow.
Wings really did just appear on her back.
This wasn't a dream.
All of this was real.
Really real.
This meant she could actually shoot things with this bow in her hand.
Which also meant she could . . . She could fly with these wings too . . . Right?
Without thinking, she willed the appendages on her back to move.
She just concentrated all of her new-found energy on her wings.
Sure enough, after a couple of moments from hard and pain-staking concentration, move they did. They began beating hard against the current underneath them, all-too-easily finding their center and working their power into her.
The girl of course, never actually took into account how well and how fast she would be off the ground.
That is, until she opened her eyes and found herself at least fifty feet in the air.
She would've fallen right back down to the ground due to losing her concentration to pure blind panic, if not for the sudden updraft that caught her totally by surprise.
Flying further up into the sky, adding at least thirty more inches between her the earth below her; the girl screamed in fright and surprise at what was happening to her all in an instant.
She just woke up in a hole with no memory as to how she got there.
She discovered herself with a serious injury to the head that looked incredibly lethal.
She saw a rose turn into a bow.
She just got little angel wings on her back and was now flying into the sky like it was nothing even though she was likely to drop like a stone at any moment.
She had absolutely no idea what was going on. No idea at all . . . .
. . . . But she liked it. She liked it a lot.
When a smile suddenly broke out on her face, all her fear and disbelief vanished.
In their place, happiness and euphoria stood their ground and forced her into their submission.
With no more negative emotions holding her back, the girl righted her body up and allowed herself to be shot in the sky.
When the current passed, she felt herself drop. But this time she was ready for it. Twisting her body around, the girl unfurled her wings and before she knew it, she was flying.
No joke, she was flying; really, really flying.
She glided on the bursts of wind and currents of air like a natural. Her hair flew out like a wave behind her and the cold night air bit at her cheeks, making her go red but she didn't care. She let out a loud "Whoop!" of joy, shooting forward like a dart and spinning in circles until she got dizzy.
This was pure ecstasy. Pure freedom. The girl couldn't believe she went through her whole life without ever flying.
It was no wonder that man came up with the phrase, "As free as a bird".
She couldn't remember the last time she felt anything like this before. This was beyond real words.
She wished that this would never end. Unfortunately, the tired and exhausted feeling coming from her wings told her otherwise.
Sighing in disappointment, she looked down at the trees before her in consideration for a few moments before finally setting her sights on a middle tree branch that looked somewhat sturdy enough to hold her. The girl then carefully swooped down, swung her feet out in front of her and landed on the said branch with grace and balance that she didn't even know she had.
The girl hummed in approval. She could get used to this.
That was when she spotted the lights.
The girl wasn't too sure at first; when she squinted her eyes hard enough at the sight only a few miles away from her, her eyes lit up.
It was a town. A town filled with people.
She couldn't help the laugh.
This was great! She could find someone who, hopefully, had some idea about what happened to her!
Eagerness filling her body, she hopped off the tree and onto the ground with ease and ran, almost skipped, towards the town.
When she arrived, she quickly surveyed the scene.
There were plenty of people about; women talking and gossiping, men doing work and joking and children laughing and playing all around the village.
This gave her hope; somebody here had to know what happened to her.
It was worth a try, at least.
The girl quickly made her way to the first woman she saw and said, "Excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you but I was hoping if you –" She stopped when the woman just continued walking, completely ignoring her.
She hummed in bewilderment. Well, that was rude.
Quickly shaking it off, she spotted a man coming near her and she started again, "Pardon me, sir, I don't mean to take up your time but –" Once again, she was utterly ignored as the man walked right by her. "You're not listening . . . great."
She was getting a little frustrated with this. What was going here? Why was everyone ignoring her?
The girl then noticed that a child was running right towards her. Okay, here was somebody who wouldn't ignore her at least! Leaning forward a bit, she said, "Excuse me? I was hoping if you could possibly help me find someone who could –"
She was cut off abruptly when the child, instead of answering her, instead ran straight through her.
Yes, straight through her.
She wasn't imagining things.
The child really did just run right through her. He didn't even see her at all.
Fright overcame her again. She patted herself down.
She felt solid, as solid as any regular human being would be, anyway. So how did that kid just . . . ?
A chilling thought suddenly came to her mind. One that made her want to vomit up everything in her.
Could it be she . . . ?
Looking around, she spotted the man she tried to talk to earlier. Walking up behind him in an hauntingly slow pace, she raised a hand up and placed it on his shoulder.
To her horror, the hand went completely through.
She jumped back in fright. Her thoughts went on a complete whirlwind.
What was going on?
Why couldn't anybody see her?
Why couldn't anybody hear her or feel her?
What happened to her that –
The realization of what happened came caving down on her.
The blood.
The wound on her head.
That hole.
The feeling as though she had been there for ages.
She knew what happened to her.
She had died.
She was dead.
She was a ghost.
And she didn't know how or why.
"YOU ARE NOT A GHOST." A voice suddenly sounded.
She jumped again in fright and surprise. She then started looking around her in confusion.
Who had said that?
Or did she just imagine it?
"NO, YOU ARE NOT IMAGINING THINGS." The voice reassured her, catching her by surprise.
She didn't know why, the voice's tone was comforting and calm as it then said, "DON'T BE SCARED. I KNOW WHO YOU ARE."
At this, the girl blinked.
Why was some mysterious voice telling her that it knew who she was?
She knew who was.
She was a regular human girl named Violet Johnson. Or at least she used to be . . .
"NO." The voice sounded again, keeping its calm and comforting tone. "YOU ARE NO LONGER VIOLET JOHNSON."
No longer Violet Johnson?
. . . If she wasn't Violet Johnson anymore . . . . Then who in the world was she?
"I KNOW WHO YOU ARE." The voice said again, hearing her thoughts as though they were spoken questions. "YOU ARE AMOUR'A L. ST. VALENTINE. YOU ARE "CUPID"."
Amour'a L. St.Valentine?
"Cupid"?
That was who she was now?
". . . . . But why . . . ?" "Amour'a" sounded for the first time. "Why am I her?"
She received no answer.
"Please . . ." She whispered fervently.
The voice remained silent.
"Please . . . Please . . . Please!" Amour'a started shouting, no one hearing her or turning to look at her. "You can't just leave it like that! Please, I need to know! Why me? Please tell me! PLEASE!"
Still the voice was quiet.
"Please!"
Nothing.
"Please."
Nothing but silence.
Everyone around her continued on with their routine, ignorant to her cries.
She sank to the ground, clutching the bow to her chest. Hot, lonely tears leaked from her beautiful eyes and ran down her flawless face.
Had anyone seen her, all they would see is someone whose beauty was comparable to that of an angel.
And her face twisted with such utter grief and despair that it would break even the most hardest of hearts.
She whispered to no one last time.
"Please . . ."
Amour'a snapped out of her trance.
What . . . What was that?
She looked around and saw that she had ended up walking to a cul-de-sac. Her feet were now achy but her wings were now fully awake and eager to fly again, waiting for her command.
She huffed in aggravation. Great, she must've been walking in a daze for nearly an hour. Again.
What was she doing relieving old haunts?
That's all they were, just haunts.
There was no sense in mulling over the past. Especially when she had a job she should be doing.
For lord's sake she was near three hundred years, she shouldn't be constantly be phasing out like this!
She was just glad that it wasn't Valentine's Day, since it had passed only a couple of weeks ago; if she had been zoning out on that day, hormones and emotion-related dilemmas would be piling ontop of her shoulders like a never-ending crap pile.
It would probably help if the Man on The Moon gave her something to work with for a change.
She looked up to the sky as at that.
The full moon hung in its usual place in the sky in all its amazing and natural glory. Almost like it was taunting her.
She scowled. For years, she had watched it each time the night came and waited patiently each time for something to happen; a sign, a clue, a hint, anything to show that the Man in The Moon knew that she had questions that desperately needed answers.
At this point even a falling star that would hit her in the head or something sent crashing into her would be helpful.
But as per usual, as she seemed to be saying a lot lately, she got absolutely nothing. Nada. Zilch. El-Zippo. Wonderful.
Her head ached. Amour'a unconsciously brought her fingers up to her head and allowed the tips of her fingers to brush up against the side of it.
The scar had long since healed since that night nearly three centuries ago and usually just ached whenever she thought about it. It was always short and passed momentarily. It wasn't noticeable; if she wore her hair up in a braid like she often did it was covered up but it didn't seize to annoy her.
She supposed the scar was the only real physical flaw on her and, she didn't mean to sound vain whenever she thought this; she was rather embarrassed by it and chose not to flaunt it and draw questions.
The last thing she wanted was bringing up awkward questions about how she got it in the first place.
Not to mention feeling even more awkward by not being able to give an actual answer when asked.
She shook herself out of her thoughts.
She needed to stop this.
She needed to get home, she needed to get in bed and more importantly, she needed to get some sleep.
Lord knows she was going to need to get all the sleep she could get for tomorrow.
After all, people weren't going to be able to fall in love by themselves, right? Right.
Amour'a sighed. She rolled her shoulder blades once and her wings came out instantaneously like a Chinese fan unfurled. Even after all these years, they still remained as pearly white and as healthy as ever.
She guessed it was just one of the perks of being "Cupid".
Amour'a had just bent her knees close to the ground and would have taken to the skies like a bullet if not for the sudden blur of bluish-gray fur that had then pile-drived into her. "OW!"