Fairytale Visit
Hey readers, just something that popped into my mind and I wanted to try it out, see if it worked you know? But I'll need your help to confirm that, let me know what you think of this idea please. Thanks :) Enjoy and thanks for reading!
It was a usual sunny afternoon in San Francisco; people roamed around the streets running their daily errands and went about their business, completely unaware of any danger that could be lurking around the corner. Detective Mal Fallon and Special Agent Natara Williams sat in their squad car driving downtown to visit the San Francisco Children's Shelter as they did once before during Halloween.
"I still don't see why I have to go again." Mal grumbled.
"Because, Mal, they loved you last time and besides, you promised me you would!"
"Remind me why I promised that again?"
Natara just laughed lightly and rolled her eyes. A little while later, Natara pulled up outside the shelter and stepped inside, Mal shortly following. Small children looked up at them, recognition and joy filled their expressions as they all charged forward.
"Natawa and Mal are here!"
A young girl, around the age of three, with fine blonde hair and pale skin said rushing up to them, where she was swooped up in Mal's arms and hugged lightly.
"Hey there, Brea." He said placing her back on the ground and crouching so he was her height level.
"Hewwo." Brea said shyly and bit her thumb.
After a number of greetings by the other children, Natara and Mal gathered the kids in front of them.
"So, what do you all want to do this afternoon?" Natara said softly, placing her hands on her hips and smiling.
"Tell us a story!" a boy called out and the others nodded enthusiastically.
"Wanna take this one Mal?" Natara whispered.
"... Sure, why not." Mal directed his attention to the children. "Okay then, gather round and shut up."
Natara sighed as the kids moved over to the sofa area and sat in a circle on the floor staring up at Mal. Natara sat near the back on a wooden chair, with a young boy on her lap. Brea stumbled over and tugged lightly on Mal's jacket sleeve. He smiled down at her and lifted her up onto his lap, holding her as she leaned back into his embrace. She still bit her thumb and held a small stuffed rabbit in her tiny hands.
"Okay... um... Oh, I know. How about a classic tale with my own twist?"
"Yeah!" the children called and settled down into a comfortable position as Mal began his tale.
Once upon a time in mid winter, at a time when the snowflakes were falling like feathers from heaven, a beautiful queen sat sewing at her window, which had a frame of black ebony wood. As she sewed, she looked up at the snow and accidently pricked her finger with the needle. A few droplets of blood fell into the snow. The red on the white looked so beautiful that she thought,
'If only I had a child with skin white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as this frame.'
Soon afterward the fair queen gave birth to a little baby girl that was indeed as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony wood, and therefore they nicknamed her Snow-White; but in fact her real name was Amy Chen.
"Seriously, you're using Amy?" Natara quipped and smirked at Mal.
"Excuse me, is this your story?" Mal asked sarcastically.
"Shhh Natawa!" Brea, the little three year old girl sat on Mal's lap, whined and shot her small glare, making her giggle.
"Sorry, continue."
"Anyway, as I was saying..."
The queen was the most beautiful woman in all the land, and very proud of her beauty. She owned a magical mirror, which she stood in front of every morning, and asked:
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is fairest of them all?"
And the mirror always replied the same thing:
"You, my queen, are fairest of all."
And then she knew for certain that no one in the world was more beautiful than she. Amy grew up and she was so beautiful that she surpassed even the queen herself. Now when the queen asked her mirror:
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is fairest of them all?"
The mirror said:
"You, my queen, are fair; it's true. But Amy is a thousand times fairer than you."
When the queen heard the mirror say this, she became pale with envy, and from that hour on, she hated Amy. Whenever she looked at her, she thought that Amy was to blame that she was no longer the most beautiful woman in the world. This turned her heart around. Her jealousy gave her no peace. One day she summoned a huntsman, named Kai, and said to him,
"Take Amy out into the woods to a remote spot, and stab her to death. As proof that she is dead bring heart back to me."
Kai, the huntsman, afraid of the wicked queen did indeed take Amy into the woods. When he took out his hunting knife to stab her, she began to cry, and begged fervently that he might spare her life. Kai took pity on her because she was so beautiful, and he thought,
'The wild animals will soon devour her anyway. I'm glad that I don't have to kill her.'
He ordered her to flee deep into the woods and never return, or the evil queen would have her killed for sure. Heeding his words, Amy fled into the woods thanking Kai as she went. As soon as Kai was sure she was out of sight, he turned on his heels and headed over to a barn, where he slaughtered a pig and removed it's heart, bringing it back to the queen as 'proof' that Amy was dead.
"Whoa, Mal, isn't this a little... gruesome?"
"Natara, stop interrupting. It's fine, right kids?"
"Yup!" the kids cheered.
"Told ya."
"Fine, but why not just use the normal Characters?"
"Where's the fun in that?" Mal smirked. "Now shush, or your going in the naughty corner."
Natara shot Mal a glare that could melt ice, but stayed silent, as the kids all giggled mischievously.
Amy was now all alone in the great forest. She was terribly afraid, and began to run. She ran over sharp stones and through thorns the entire day. Finally, just as the sun was about to set, she came to a little house. The house belonged to seven dwarfs. They were working in a mine, and were not at home. Amy hesitated, but went inside and found everything to be small, but neat and tidy. There was a little table with seven little plates, seven little spoons, seven little knives and forks, seven little mugs, and against the wall there were seven little beds, all freshly made.
Amy was hungry and thirsty, so she ate a few vegetables and a little bread from each little plate, and from each little glass she drank a drop of wine. Because she was so exhausted from running all day long, she wanted to lie down and go to sleep. She tried each of the seven little beds, one after the other, but none felt right until she came to the seventh one, and she lay down upon it and fell into a pleasant sleep.
When night came, the seven dwarfs returned home from the work. They lit their seven little candles, and saw that someone had been in their house, so they began to explore cautiously. The seventh one looked at his bed, he found Amy lying there, fast asleep. The seven dwarfs all came running and they cried out with amazement. They fetched their seven candles and looked at Amy.
"Wow!" they cried. "She is so beautiful!"
They liked her very much. They did not wake her up, but let her rest in the bed for the night. The seventh dwarf had to sleep on the small sofa until the night was done.
The next morning, when Amy woke up, the dwarfs asked her who she was and how she had found her way to their house. She told them how the evil queen had tried to kill her, how the huntsman had spared her life, how she had run the entire day, finally winding up at their house. The dwarfs took pity on her and said,
"If you will keep house for us, and cook, sew, make beds, wash, and knit, and keep everything clean and orderly, then you can stay here, and you'll have everything that you want. We come home in the evening, and supper must be ready by then, but we spend the days digging for gold in the mine. You will be alone then. Watch out for the queen, and do not let anyone in."
The queen thought that she was again the most beautiful woman in the land, and the next morning she stepped before the mirror with a small smirk upon her face and asked,
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is fairest of them all?"
The mirror answered once again,
"You, my queen, are fair; it is true. But Amy beyond the seven mountains is a thousand times fairer than you."
It enraged the queen to hear this and she knew that she had been deceived, that Kai had not killed Amy. Because only the seven dwarfs lived in the seven mountains, she knew at once that they must have rescued her and been hiding her. She began to plan immediately how she might kill her, because she would have no peace until the mirror once again said that she was the most beautiful woman in the land. At last she thought of something to do and started her wicked scheme. She made a poisoned comb, disguised herself, and went out to the dwarf's house. She knocked on the door, but Amy called out,
"I am not allowed to let anyone in."
Then she pulled out the comb, and Amy saw how it glistened. She noted that the woman was a complete stranger and she opened the door, and bought the comb from her.
"Come, let me comb your hair," said the woman.
She had barely stuck the comb into Amy's hair, before the girl fell down and was dead.
"That will keep you lying there," said the queen. And she went home with a light heart.
The dwarfs came home just in time. They saw what had happened and pulled the poisoned comb from her hair. Amy opened her eyes and came back to life. She promised the dwarfs not to let anyone in again.
The queen stepped before her mirror once more and said,
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is fairest of them all?"
The mirror answered,
"You, my queen, are fair; it is true. But Amy with the seven dwarfs is a thousand times fairer than you."
When the queen heard this, she shook and trembled with anger,
"Amy will die, if it costs me my life!"
Then she went into her most secret room - no one else was allowed inside - and she made a poisoned apple. From the outside it was red and beautiful, and anyone who saw it would desire it. Then she disguised herself as a peasant woman, went to the dwarfs' house and knocked on the door.
Amy peeped out and said, "I'm not allowed to let anyone in. The dwarfs have forbidden it most severely."
"If you don't want to, I can't force you," said the peasant woman. "I am selling these apples, and I will give you one to taste."
"No, I can't accept anything. The dwarfs don't want me to."
"If you are afraid, then I will cut the apple in two and eat half of it. Here, you eat the half with the beautiful red cheek!"
Now the apple had been so artfully made that only the red half was poisoned. When Amy saw that the peasant woman was eating part of the apple, her desire for it grew stronger, so she finally let the woman hand her the other half through the window. She bit into it, but she barely had the bite in her mouth when she fell to the ground dead.
The queen was happy, went home, and asked her mirror,
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who now is fairest of them all?
And it answered,
"You, my queen, are fairest of them all."
"Now I'll have some peace," she sighed, "because once again I'm the most beautiful woman in the land. Amy will remain dead this time."
That evening the dwarfs returned home from the mines. Amy was lying on the floor, and she was dead. looked in her hair for something poisonous, but nothing helped. They could not bring her back to life. They laid her on a beautifully carved log, and all seven sat next with her and cried and cried for three days.
They were going to bury her, but they saw that she remained fresh. She did not look at all like a dead person, and she still had beautiful red cheeks. They had a glass coffin made for her, and laid her inside, so that she could be seen easily. They wrote her name and her ancestry on it in gold letters, and one of them always stayed at home and kept watch over her.
Amy lay there in the coffin a long, long time, and she did not decay. She was still as white as snow with lips as red as blood, and hair black as ebony wood. She lay there as if she were asleep.
One day a handsome prince, named Kenneth Greene, came to the dwarfs' house and wanted shelter for the night. When he came into their parlour and saw Amy lying there in a glass coffin, illuminated so beautifully by seven little candles, he could not get enough of her beauty. He read the golden inscription and saw that she was the daughter of a king. Feeling his heart pound against his chest, he gently lifted up the glass, despite the protests of the dwarfs and leant down, placing a single tender kiss upon her soft lips.
After a long moment, Amy's large brown eyes fluttered open and she gazed up at her saviour. All the dwarfs cheered as she sat up, smiling sweetly at them. Ken then brought Amy back to his castle on his noble steed. Their wedding was set for the next day, and everyone in the kingdom was invited. The evil queen attended the wedding in a fury, determined to murder Amy, but Ken refused to let her near his bride and had her arrested. She was locked away in a dungeon for all eternity and they all lived Happily Ever After.
"The End."
"I wike that story." Brea mentioned before yawning.
All the children had listened intently to the story, but were now dozing off.
"Alright kids, I think it's time for Mal and me to go."
"Aww..." they sighed.
"Hey, don't worry. We'll be back, right Nat?"
"Yeah, of course. Mal promises, don't you Mal?" Natara said smiling.
"... Yep, I promise." Mal replied, rolling his eyes playfully.
Saying their farewells, Mal and Natara left the shelter and headed for their squad car. Slipping in the driver's seat, Natara turned to Mal with a huge grin on her face.
"What?" Mal mumbled.
"Oh nothing... big softie."
"Hey! I am not a big softie."
"Sure you're not." Natara said sarcastically, gaining a smirk from Mal. "Just remember what you said, Mal. You promised."
"Ah hell..." he groaned as Natara started the engine and drove back home, knowing she was determined to hold Mal to his word.
Thanks for participating in my experiment ;) Review?
Disclaimer: I do not own Cause of Death or the tale of Snow White (I have no idea who does, but hey!)
