Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.
Author's Note: Greetings and welcome to my 4th Snowing OUAT fic. They are so beautiful and that last episode was so amazing I just couldn't help it.
Here is basically my take on what happens next in fairy tale land.
Hope you all like it!
The charming prince rode hard and fast through the woods. If he slowed down he would start to contemplate how foolish he was being. But he couldn't think like that. He had seen Snow's face when he saw her in his room, felt how tight she held him in that brief moment and he knew there was no way he was making it up. She loved him too. She might be scared but he would not let her shut the door on what they had without a fight. So that's what led the former shepherd boy to break off the wedding that could've brought prosperity to the kingdom and defy and outrage the king as he rode away from the castle in the early dawn.
A source in the woods told him that they would rendezvous with Snow in a certain clearing only after making him promise to not tell the Evil Queen. It had been luck that another woodland friend of hers had been at that clearing too. The woman in the red hood wasn't sure where she might be but told him there were some dwarves who might know as they had been at the castle recently too. He thanked her profusely and was soon riding again as he tried to quiet the doubt ringing in his ears.
He had always prided himself at having good instincts. It helped him judge right and wrong and everything she said that night from the look in her eyes to the defeated slump of her shoulders as she walked away screamed that something was wrong. He tried to tell himself it was wishful thinking or wedding jitters but he'd never been able to lie to himself very well. He knew he was being crazy riding off after some girl because he couldn't handle the heat break but he would never be able to get past it until he saw her again. He had to speak to her just one more time. He had to get her to tell the truth. And if she could still look him in the face and tell him that she didn't love him back then he would… he had no idea what he would do but he knew he'd have to figure out how to live without Snow in his life even though he wasn't sure he could.
Shaking this train of though Prince James found himself rounding the large oak tree that had warts in the shape of a face that Red had noted as a landmark that signaled that the home of the dwarves was not far. Heart pounding in his ears, he slowed his horse from its steady gallop to a fast walk so as not to alarm the dwarves.
The house was a sturdy, blocky, multi-storey cottage in a small clearing in the woods. Dismounting his steed, James tied the reins to a nearby tree as some of the occupants of the house made their way out of the house.
Before he could say a word, one of the dwarves, one with white hair and glasses, stepped forward with a look of sad resignation said, "You're here for Snow aren't you?"
That caught James off guard and negated what he was preparing to say, so instead he asked, taken aback, "She's here?"
"She's inside with Grumpy." The older dwarf informed him and he couldn't help but get extremely worried at the looks of sadness on the faces of the five dwarves before him.
"Is she alright?" He asked quickly, anxiety rolling through him like boiling acid.
"She's-" The dwarf began before stopping and starting again, clearly taking great care with his words, "not the same. You'll have to see for yourself."
James strode forward instantly as the dwarves led him inside. James saw many beds upon entering the house, one that was occupied by another dwarf still asleep. Farther in the house by a set of curtains that led to another room, another dwarf who, based on his frown, was the Grumpy the first dwarf mentioned. Seeing James, Grumpy growled and went up to the older dwarf, "What did you bring him here for Doc? He doesn't need to see this."
The dwarf spoke in an undertone but James could still hear as the other dwarves retreated upstairs.
"He came to find her, Grumpy," Doc responded quietly, "I couldn't turn him away after what he's done to get here; it wouldn't have been kind."
" 'Kind'." Grumpy scoffed, "And letting him see her like this is?"
"Just let him say goodbye at least, get closure." Doc insisted, making the prince more and more concerned, his thoughts swirling.
What happened to Snow?
"Oh alright." Grumpy relented with a grumbled, "But this isn't gonna be pretty."
Grumpy then looked past Doc, addressing Charming for the first time, "Come on Pretty Boy, let's get this over with." He paused as the two walked to the curtained doorway behind him and said so only Charming could hear, "You may want to brace yourself."
Turning back to the curtains, Grumpy knocked on the wood of the archway, "Snow, can I come in? You've got a visitor."
"Of course Grumpy." Snow replied in her usual lyrical voice. On high alert from the hinting of the dwarves, James frowned slightly as he noted that she didn't sound any different.
The dwarf pulled back the curtain then to reveal Snow White as she rose to stand on the other side of the bed, a book open on the bed. Charming hadn't known what to expect, but the way the dwarves had spoken had made him fear the worst. He'd thought she was dying and that she'd be lying down, frail, suffering and wasting away but she wasn't. She looked completely fine, perfect even. Her hair was as long and flowing as ever, her cheeks healthy and flushed. Clearly life in a steady place suited her. She was as beautiful as he had ever seen her in a simple white night dress.
He had intended to take it slow, to be cautious until he had discovered what the dwarves had warned him about, but he couldn't help himself. At the sight of her alive and well, all other thoughts and doubts left him as he found himself striding across the small room to take her into his arms.
Holding her tight, he said quietly, almost to himself, "You're alright." He let her go but took her hands, still standing close, "I found you. I told you I would always find you."
Looking into her face, he saw that she looked troubled and feared that he'd been wrong and impulsive and that she had never loved him after all.
But then she spoke and he couldn't help but feel like something inside of him died in that moment.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" she asked, trying to be polite in the face of his utter sincerity but not recognizing the man before her.
"It's me- Prince James." He answered and at seeing her still blank expression, and, trying to keep his voice under control, tried her nickname for him, "Prince Charming?"
"I'm sorry, but I don't think we've ever met." She replied calmly, a sad look on her face at his devastated expression.
"No. I'm sorry." He said soberly, "I was mistaken."
Needing to get away and process this change before he broke down in front of her, he let go of her hands slowly and began to leave, but just as he reached the doorway that Grumpy and Doc had vacated to give them a moment, her voice stopped him.
"James." He paused and turned as a small sad smile spread across her full lips as she continued awkwardly, unsure of what else to say, "I hope you find her; whoever you are looking for."
"I do too." He said earnestly even though he found it painful just then to look at her like this.
And with that he left the house as quick as he could. Once outside he let out a deep breath as everything that just happened weighed on him heavily. He suddenly felt exhausted so instead of getting straight on his horse and riding away as was his original intention, he numbly sat down against the wall of the house. He had hardly felt so confused and miserable in his whole life. Looking at the ground he tried to make sense of it all.
It was then that he heard the scraping sound of metal on wood causing him to look up to find the source of the noise. In doing so he saw the dwarf named Grumpy sitting on a stump about 10 feet away carving at a chunk of wood with a knife.
"What happened to her?" James spoke first, a bitter sadness in his voice.
"She took a potion to make her forget you." Grumpy said cutting to the chase.
"But why?" James couldn't help but ask. Why would she do that? He'd never thought that she hadn't loved him but couldn't understand why she'd want to forget him.
"To take away the pain, to erase the heartbreak of losing you." The dwarf elaborated as he continued to chisel.
"But she didn't lose me." James tried to say, "I wanted to run away with her. If she loved me that much, why did she tell me she didn't?"
"She didn't want to talk about it much but I know she was trying to protect you." Grumpy responded from what he had gathered of the things Snow had said the night before as she cried her eyes out.
Charming looked up suddenly at that, confused, "Protect me? Protect me from what?"
As Snow hadn't said, Grumpy started to shrug when an arrow came shooting through the woods to embed itself half an inch from James' right ear. James ducked instinctively as Grumpy also dove to the ground, dropping his sculpture but keeping his knife at the ready.
"If I had to hazard a guess, I'd go with them." Grumpy grunted, peeking over the edge of the stump in an attempt to see who their attackers were. Another arrow went flying and barely missed the top of Grumpy's distinctive cap.
"You don't say." The prince quipped back, positioning himself behind the rather large stump as well. "What do we do?"
"Hang on." The dwarf replied, reaching for the small block of wood he had dropped. He then proceeded to carve something that looked to James like 'defend' into the base before launching it into a second story window. On contact with the flying projectile, the glass crashed loudly.
Less than a minute later 3 cross bows fired into the trees from the shattered window. A groan from where the attacking arrows had originated indicated that at least one of the missiles had hit their mark. Despite this, more opposing arrows came from the trees in the direction of the second story.
As the arrows and other various weapons began to fly between the 2nd floor of the house and the woods with a greater frequency, Grumpy grabbed Charming's shoulder to get his attention and whispered urgently, "Now's your chance. There's a trapdoor under the kitchen table that leads to a tunnel. The tunnel lets out about a mile from here in the woods. You have to get Snow out of here."
While James' first priority was obviously Snow's safety, he was immediately hesitant about just leaving when the enemy was clearly after him, "But what about you?"
"Haven't you heard the stories? We dwarves know how to take care of ourselves. Snow's the only thing that really matters. You have to protect her." Grumpy said with surprising affection for the girl.
"Thank you." Prince James said in his most sincere manner as he prepared to make a break for the door of the cottage.
"Yeah yeah, whatever. If you break her heart again I will hunt you down and make sure you can't have children." Grumpy threatened gruffly.
"That's not going to happen." James pledged with a determined grin.
"It better not." Grumpy agreed. "Now go before the others run out of arrows."
James nodded once before making a run to the door hearing arrows rush around him. Having made it inside, he slammed the door as quick as he could, vaguely aware of the arrows thudding into the wood as it closed. Before he made it more than two feet, Snow was there with a knife at his throat, back in her forest gear he knew so well.
"Oh, it's you." On seeing it was him, she immediately dropped the knife with a look of surprise, "What's going on out there?"
"Soldiers are attacking." James answered simply, walking around her to the table Grumpy had mentioned.
"Soldiers? From where?" She asked, following him.
"Not sure, could be from the Evil Queen but I think they're from my kingdom." He responded shifting chairs out of the way.
"Why would they be after you?" She questioned, trying to understand what was going on.
"It's a long story," He responded, "But right now, we've got to go. Grumpy told me I had to get you out of here and that is exactly what I am going to do."
"Well the door's out." Snow stated the obvious, trying to come up with escape plans, "We could try the back window."
"No need." The prince replied as he began to shove the table with difficulty, "Mind giving me a hand?"
Without another word, she grabbed the other end of the table and helped move it out of the way of the trapdoor. Charming reached down without further ado and opened it revealing subterranean wooden stairs.
"Where do these lead?" Snow couldn't help but ask; everything was moving so fast.
"Out in the woods." He answered quickly, "Now hurry, we don't have much time."
"But the dwarves-" Snow hesitated, cursing the fact that she'd grown so found of the group of unusual men so quickly.
"Want to protect you and so do I." James finished for her.
Without waiting for a response, he descended the stairs as more crashes sounded from above. Half way down he turned and saw Snow White still torn at the top.
Saying in his most soothing voice he implored, "Snow you have to trust me."
Though she didn't have any reason to or even know him, something about his piercing eyes and the deep concern with which he spoke made something melt in her heart leading her to nod once before following down. She had no way of knowing what would happen next but she knew that the only way she'd make it was by the side of this mysterious and dashing Prince with the deep pain in his eyes.
Author's Note: And there we have chapter one. I am very excited about this fic and hope to be able to post more soon.
While I am sure the next Snowing episode will blow this plot out of the water, I don't care, it is helping me survive until then and I hope you do too.
Now I have no idea if anyone even likes my take on this so if you want more, please please please do me a favor and review. Reviews make me so dang happy and help feed my muse so she doesn't go off and sulk and leave me without inspiration for 2 months (it has happened).
So if you want more, review! Simple as that
Hope to see you soon,
Fin.
P.S. and may I just say how much I adored the dwarves in this last episode. I fluffing loved Grumpy. like i seriously want to hug him so I got such a kick out of writing him in this.