Snow walks silently and with determination. She'd managed to escape the castle without alerting Charming or the dwarves, but it wouldn't take them very long to realize she was missing, so she had to move fast.
The forest was different at night - mystical. A quality hung in the air that made her shiver and wonder at it in awe. It was the queen that had brought her here so far into the night. She wanted the whole story - the entire picture. Her stepmother had been an enigma for far too long. There must have been something more to compel the once kind-hearted, gentle savior of Snow's childhood to become the vicious and malignant woman that she was now. It had to be more that just the spilled secret.
A sharp pang of guilt caused the princess to wince. She was the reason the stable boy was dead. Several tears slipped down Snow's cheeks. Daniel had been kind to her, had given her a riding lesson as a thank you for keeping their secret...only, she hadn't. She'd told Cora. She'd written his death sentence.
Just as she'd nearly written Regina's. Charming had been utterly confused as to why she would even entertain the thought of letting the queen live. He'd told her that she had to stop being naïve and accept the fact that the Regina she so fondly remembered was gone - dead - replaced by a murderer.
But it was that compelling feeling in her gut that was driving her to her destination. A place of legends, where all becomes clear.
"Who disturbs me?"
Snow halts, nearly running into a tall figure standing in her path. The figure starts to circle around her, a cloak hiding its face from view, though by the sound of the voice, she's pretty sure it's a man.
"Answer me!" he bellows.
"I'm Snow White," she answers. She's tempted to grab her bow from around her body, but ultimately decides it would not be wise - most guardians wield some type of magic.
"You have come here for what purpose, Snow White?" The cloaked figure continues to circle her, as if to get every detail of her.
"I wish to see someone clearly."
He finally stops circling her, stopping just shy of her peripheral vision. And suddenly, she's no longer in the forest, but in a moonlit garden full of wild flowers and weeds and tall grass. A fountain covered in ivy and honeysuckle sits in the center of the garden, though it can't possibly be honeysuckle. She's never seen a honeysuckle vine with blue orbs in the centers of its flowers.
"Where am I?" Snow asks as she takes a step closer to the decaying fountain.
"You are in the Garden of Lonely Children, in the tell-tale Forest of Dreams," the guardian tells her. "Here, things appear as they really are."
She turns to look at him, confusion written plainly on her features. "But the person I want to know about isn't a child."
"She was a child at some point, no?" He begins to advance towards the vine-covered fountain, and Snow begins to follow when his choice of gender finally dawns on her.
"I never said it was a she."
He turns, and Snow knows he's smiling even though she can't see his face. A soft chuckle escapes from the cloak, a sound of disbelief and amusement. "Princess, I know all of my garden's occupants. You're in her memories," he says.
It's an idea that almost causes Snow to smile, but she knows the memories of her will not be happy or pleasant ones. It never escaped her as a girl when her stepmother would cringe at the sound of her name coming off Snow's tongue, the forced smiles she gave when presented with the task of entertaining her young stepdaughter.
"Come, Snow White, and see her clearly."
AN
So what do you guys think? Should I keep this musing of my muse alive? Please leave me a review!
TM - Long Live the Muse