A/N: So this is my first foray into the world of Shrek FanFic. I'm strictly a Star Wars fanatic, so we will see how this goes.
The words in italics are the lyrics from We are the Fallen's song I Am Only One, from their new album, Tear the World Down. I got the cd and heard the song right after seeing Shrek Forever After and I just thought the song fit absolutely perfect. I've been planning this in my head for a few days now and I hope it comes out how I see it in my mind. Reviews are appreciated and encouraged as I love every opportunity to grow as a writer.
Enjoy, Lelila
Brick after dull grey brick were all that she could see from her window, both looking out and looking in. Her room held a bed, and that was about it. It was a small, empty, cold, damp room that she was locked in, only to escape when Prince Charming rescued her. The only thing that brightened the room was the tapestry her parents had hung when she had first arrived. Sighing, she pulled it aside and marked another day off with the stub of chalk on the floor. There were so many marks behind the ratty tapestry that she couldn't even count them anymore. It had been years, she knew that at least. Her red hair had grown out very long, she had to keep it braided or it got every where. When she'd first arrived as a young girl, her parents had comforted her with thoughts of her Prince Charming coming to the rescue. Now, at nineteen, she didn't know if he was ever coming. She longed for the short reprieve she would get in a few months when her parents would whisk her back home for a week or so. But then, when she had to leave, it brought all the pain back.
Fiona turned back to the window and stared out. Her keeper, the dragon, was wandering around the courtyard, smashing the remaining pillars of the decrepit castle to the ground. The lava simmered underneath the bridge. Nothing had changed. She could barely even remember what a real princess' life should be like. This was all she had never known, or all she could remember. The sky was growing dimmer, the sun would set soon. And it would happen all over again.
The dragon looked up to the tower as gold light flashed from the window. Then she continued her walk around the courtyard. Taking to the sky for a bit, she chanced a glance through the window of the princess' prison, all she knew was a green thing had taken the princess' place on her bed.
Fiona let a tear trickle down her cheek as green, bulky hands pushed a stray tendril of hair behind her mutated ears. At least her curse took place at night, when she could sleep through most of it. Memories of all the things she had missed because of her curse mingled together in her mind, tainting her dreams as she fell asleep.
Memories fade into the silence
Haunting me tonight
With hope's last breath I take this moment in
It will be my last
Morning breaks and sunlight takes the pain away
She was twenty one, a suitable ago for her prince charming to whisk her away. And yet, day by day, no one ever came to her castle. She doubted if anyone even remembered that she existed. Her dreams of the glamorous life of a princess were slowly fading away into nothing. She was still a cursed princess, who turned into an ogre every night. If her Prince Charming came at night, she thought she would rather die.
Still, she prayed every night that he would come soon and take her home, to her comfortable life in the castle of her family. She was becoming practical, keeping herself occupied as best she could. She certainly was nothing like the airheaded princesses that stayed in her family's kingdom of Far Far Away. But as each day passed, and she added mark after mark to the dull gray bricks that symbolized her bondage, she feared that her happily ever after, would never really happen after all.
Ever after never came
And I'm still waiting
For a life that never was
And all the dreams I lay to rest
Are ghosts that keep me
After all that I've become
I am only one
It was getting to be too much. Living this shell of a life, waking and sleeping, barely eating, her hopes and dreams slowly dying along with each passing day; her parents had stopped coming to get her. It had been two years since she had seen them. It seemed they had left her to survive on her own. Even the food had stopped coming, she was going to run out soon.
She told herself that they had more important matters to attend to, that they could no longer be bothered by a daughter who disgraced them. They were probably searching for a new heir to take her place on the throne. She tried to forget about them, as they seemed to have forgotten about her. She didn't think her parents were that heartless, but then again, they had locked her away in a tower for the better part of her life.
I close my eyes and bleed this empty heart
Of all the longs to die
When faces lie and love will falter
I'm left with only time
And time will break the dreams that take the pain away
Time had left her with only pain, and nothing to take it away. Every night her curse turned her into a monster and that was how she fell asleep. A monster. When she woke, she was a princess again, and it seemed to be that her curse was only a horrible nightmare. Time was making her believe that all she was, was a monster. Her Prince Charming was never coming. She was never to be rescued by a daring man on a white horse who would slay the dragon. If he was coming, he would have shown up by now. She would have a life by now.
Ever after never came
And I'm still waiting
For a love I'll never have
And all the dreams I lay to rest
Are ghosts that keep me
After all that I've become
I am only one
As night fell once again, and her transformation was complete, Fiona made up her mind. She was going to have to rescue herself from captivity. She wrenched the door off of its hinges and began the descent down the winding staircase to the bottom of her tower. The castle was in an even worse state than she thought as she cautiously picked her way across crumbling floors and down stairs with gaping holes left in them. She saw signs of some knights who may have attempted to save her left on the walls by the ash left from the dragon's fire. Skeletons and bits of armor remained on the floor. She outfitted herself with a dagger and sword, and any bits of armor that would fit. The world lay outside the castle, and she had no idea what was in it, or who.
The dragon seemed to be no where around, but Fiona didn't risk looking for it. She quickly found her way out of the castle and across the fraying rope of a bridge that was still swinging between the castle and her freedom. With a last look at the place she'd lived her entire life; she turned her back on it and made her way towards the kingdom of Far Far Away. The darkness didn't scare her so much, but once she was in the woods, she found a place to camp for the night. The night was passing quickly and soon she would be able to find her way home.
Her journey home was a long one, and when she finally arrived on the outskirts, she understood why she had been abandoned. Her parents no longer existed, at least not in Far Far Away. The entrance sign was falling over, the land was dry and barren. It so barely resembled her home that she wondered if this was also a terrible nightmare. Keeping away from the dusty road, she stumbled through briars and undergrowth as she made her way to her kingdom. She disguised her human form and made her way into the town. If anyone recognized her, they didn't say so. The characters that loitered in her streets were not the happy people of her parents' kingdom. They were rough and grim; their clothing was torn and ragged. The shops were boarded up, glass windows were broken. The trees that lined the main road were dead or dying.
She joined a group as they gathered around a wagon carrying something she couldn't quite…an ogre. A small, singing donkey was pulling the wagon towards the castle, two witches argued on top of the wagon, driving the donkey onwards. But her attention was on the ogre; he was fierce, despite his shackles. And he was roaring "Rumpelstiltskin, you can take us, but you can't take our hope."
She whispered to the nearest townsman "What is he talking about?"
"Are you new here or something?" the man said as the group turned to her.
She took a few steps back, "Well, I…I'm just passing through." She attempted to make her voice huskier so she wouldn't be recognized.
"Rumpelstiltskin is the king," a woman said. "And all glory be to him. He's riding the countryside of those dreadful ogres, but word has it that he's yet to find the one he is searching for."
"But how did he get to be king?" she asked, stuck on the first thing the woman said.
"How did he get to be king?" another woman mimicked. "Well the king and queen signed the whole place away to him to save their beloved daughter. A lot of good it did them, signing a contract with Rumpelstiltskin is like asking for hell to befall you. They signed a contract for all of their problems to go away, and poof, they disappeared. A fairytale gone horribly wrong if you ask me. How is poor Princess…what's her name?"
"Firna? Fornia?"
"Fiona," another said at last.
"Yes, Princess Fiona, how is the poor dear ever to have Prince Charming rescue her if no one knows where she is anymore."
"Never mind that, she's probably dead by now."
"More like, she went poof along with her parents when they signed that contract."
"But how is that keeping with his contract? If they vanished?" Fiona asked, growing frantic.
The townspeople grinned, "Well, their problems went away didn't they?"
The first woman spoke up again, "You see, you have to read the fine print, and the king and queen were so intent on bringing their daughter home, and saving her from that horrid curse, that they just signed away everything. Stupid if you ask me, what kind of fairytale ending is that?"
"Yeah, what kind of fairytale indeed," Fiona said, staring longingly up at the castle that used to be her home.
Fiona had gotten so caught up in the activity, that she hadn't realized what time it was, or that the sun was setting. As the towns people took up to chattering amongst themselves again, she wondered if what they had said was true, did her parents truly sign everything away in an attempt to save her. If it was, then she took back every bad thing she'd been saying about them for the past two years. But it was time she took back her kingdom.
"Ogre!" a man yelled.
"It's the…it's the princess! Princess Fiona is back, and it looks like Mummy and Daddy's contract didn't do anything at all!" they laughed.
"Call the witches, there's an ogre on the loose in Far Far Away."
This was how she got her first lesson in how to deal with witches and how she found the resistance, or rather, how the resistance found her.
Before she knew it, witches were flying out of the castle at top speed towards her. She turned and ran, twisting through the crowding streets of townspeople armed with pitchforks and torches, reaching the outskirts of her kingdom just as the witches caught up with her. A pumpkin exploded over her head as she toppled into the underbrush and passed out.
When she awoke, she was not, as she feared, in a prison cell. She was lying in a hut, it had only been a few hours, and she had a killer headache. Oh, and she was surrounded by ogres. Screaming, she jumped up and put her fists up. They eyed her curiously, but took a few steps back. "Who are you?"
"Brogan," a much larger male ogre stepped forward, offering his hand. "This is the resistance."
In her own tent much latter, she contemplated how she had ended up here. She was now in a community of ogres. Surrounded by her curse at every glance, where she could never forget. And her parents had tried and failed to save her, by giving up their kingdom and their lives. And her prince charming had never come to save her, because everyone had forgotten that she had existed. It was just as the townspeople had said, a fairytale gone horribly wrong. She dissolved into tears as she curled up on her makeshift bed.
I'm all alone here
And no one's left to be the hero of
This fairy tale gone wrong
As night will fall my heart will die alone
Months passed, and the ogres learned to give the newest female ogre her space. But they never underestimated her prowess and tactic. Before long, she had taken control of the resistance, leading them to victory after small victory against Rumpelstiltskin and his horde of ogre hunting witches. She was the fiercest and the most cunning of any of them. They all looked to her for leadership. But none of them knew who she truly was. Her tent was on the outskirts of the camp, and she was gone long before the rest of her clan was awake in the morning, scouting and gathering any information from Far Far Away that she could.
Fiona blamed Shrek for everything that had gone wrong since he had shown up. Otherwise, their plan would have gone perfectly and she would not have let her comrades get themselves captured by the Pied Piper. As he followed her and argued with her, she gave up. She told him what had happened to her, that she had rescued herself, and that she didn't need happily ever after, that it didn't exist.
She left him on the bridge, and went to rescue her comrades. She stole into Far Far Away in the dark, slipping past the witches standing guard around the town. But when she reached the castle, their sweeping spotlights caught her and they dragged her inside in chains. At least she would go down with them. They chained her on the floor of what was once the front hall of her parents' castle. Her ogre comrades were in cages above her, Brogan was calling out words of comfort. She sighed, she did not struggle. She would save her strength for when she needed it. And when she got out, she would find that Shrek, and she would kill him herself for what he had done to her new family.
Suddenly, she heard a popping sound. The other ogres were gone. She looked to the ceiling in confusion. It made no sense for them to just disappear, unless it was Rumpelstiltskin's magic. Then she heard noise, and two witches flew down beside her. Though she longed to lunge at them, she kept silent and steady. Then she heard more noise. People were walking towards her. It was Shrek, and he was…he gave himself up to save the others. She couldn't believe it. He gave himself up to save her, but he'd forgotten about the curse.
They had chained him opposite her, and every step forward that she took, he was forced backwards. And she realized that Rumpelstiltskin had set her up, and Shrek also. He knew something that she didn't, but Shrek seemed to understand. And then, her keeper from the castle, the dragon was coming after them.
Ever after never came
And I'm still waiting
For my heart to beat again
And all the dreams I lay to rest
Are ghosts that keep me
After all that I've become
I am only one
As he lay, slowly fading in her arms after their final victory over Rumpelstiltskin and his witches, she felt her heart coming to life again. That spark they had felt in the camp was really, truly there. And he said that she had children. He handed her an ogre doll, and said that it belonged to her daughter, Felicia. As she kissed him, he faded away until he existed in memory. She knew he would add to the painful memories that still haunted her.
"Princess," Puss caught her attention. She had forgotten that anyone else was there. Her fat cat, Puss in Boots and Shrek's Donkey were staring at her, along with all of the ogre's who had helped them escape. She noticed the sunrise. She was still an ogre. The kiss had worked; it was true love's kiss. Her happily ever after had been right there, with that ogre who infuriated her, but gave his life to save hers and those of her people. And it was gone, he had faded away, like her parents, her happily ever after really was never to be.
And suddenly, everything disappeared and dissolved.