Title: White as Snow (1/?)
Author: Teleri
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Buffy and her world belongs to Joss and Mutant Enemy. I'm just
borrowing them for fun.
Summary: When Dawn starts have disturbing dreams, and murdered girls start
turning up, Buffy has to face an evil out of legend.
Feedback: teleri_rhys@hotmail.com. Yes, please.
Once upon a time….
Don't all stories begin like that, at least all the ones that end with "They lived
happily ever after". Stories and fairy tales are integral to our world. They create
a space that allows for the good guys to win and the bad guys to pay. In a story,
it's easy to tell the good from the bad, the right from the wrong. Without the
stories to set the boundaries, the world dissolves into an endless kaleidoscope of
grey. They set up the rules with a magic that binds people's hearts and minds.
Rules like stepmothers are evil, young girls are innocent, the prince is always
charming, and the first two siblings on a quest must fail. Stories are magical all
by themselves, not as strong as spells but stronger than mere dreams. Like all
magical things, stories affect the world they are in, sometimes the stories shape
the world, sometimes the world shapes the stories, either way, the people in the
stories don't have much control. But sometimes, things happen in the stories
that no one wants to remember, footnotes that only add to the greyness.
Sometimes the young innocent blonde girl fights back instead of being eaten by
the monster; sometimes the dark evil is really a good guy. Sometimes a
stepmother is just a lady who married your dad. After time, these bits of stories
are forgotten, lost until sometime when they are necessary, when they are
needed. Like now.
*********
Dawn laid the book on her bedside table and turned off the light. Lately it had
been getting harder and harder to go to sleep at night without reading something.
When she tried to just lay there and sleep without it, she just started thinking and
then the next thing she knew it was 5 in the morning and she hadn't slept a wink.
So she'd been reading every night, to fill her mind with something happy and
brainless, something that wouldn't make her think. She started with some Terry
Pratchetts she'd borrowed from Willow, and then moved on to some Esther
Friesner and Tom Holt that Spike had lent her, finally she re-read all the Narnia
books and Harry Potters. Now she'd run out of books and the new Harry Potter
wasn't due out for at least another year, so she'd turned to the last unread book
on her shelf, The Blue Fairy Book. Her mom had given her The Blue Fairy Book
when she was five and started Dawn's love of fairy tales and reading. Everything
was so easy in fairy tales, you knew who the baddies were and the good guys
always won. Not like the real world, where the bad guys sometimes wore white
hats and the good guys had to die to win.
Dawn winced at the memory of the last few months. With Buffy gone, everything
had been absolutely wretched. The Scoobies still did their fight evil drill, but with
less enthusiasm than before. Willow pretty much took over and had been the
strong one, Xander was a wreck and Giles had left for England. He just couldn't
face life here without Buffy. Dawn herself had barely survived, only because
Spike seemed to need her so very much. She had managed to not fade away
into nothingness and to keep Spike from kissing daylight for three months. Then
Willow had found a spell and brought Buffy back. Now everyone was settling
back into the routine, into the happy ending.
As she rolled over and got a little bit more comfortable, she smiled to think of her
sister. Buffy was back and Dawn still sometimes couldn't believe it. It was like
with Snow White, only there was no wicked stepmother and no prince. Okay, the
only bit was that Snow came back too and had a happy ending. Maybe Buffy and
all of us have finally earned a happy ending. With this comforting thought she
drifted off to sleep.
********
A pretty girl with dark hair and very fair skin sang quietly to herself as she walked
through the forest. She was so wrapped up in her song that she didn't notice the
well-dressed man behind her. He was dressed in a fine cloth, all in browns and
greys, fitted to his form like skin. Even if the girl had been paying attention she
might not have seen him, he blended so well with the forest around him. Moving
quietly he approached her and reached out a hand that caressed her pale cheek.
"Oh," exclaimed the girl, "S-sir, I did not notice you there."
"Of course not my dear," the man smiled, "I did not want you to notice me."
He moved to stand in front of her, taking her shoulders in his hands, "You have
greatly hurt and angered your mother Eira, you should not have left her in such a
state. I have been sent to take you home, dear girl."
The girl twisted in his powerful grasp, "I will not go with you Huntsman, my *step*
mother's wishes are not my own." She stopped struggling and looked at the man
with wide blue eyes. "The world does not have to be this way."
The Huntsman looked down at her, "Little girl, do not make this difficult, your
mother commanded me bring you home or bring home your heart. I would much
rather take a living, breathing child home, rather than a dead and bloody heart."
The villagers believed that Eira's stepmother was a witch who had captured her
father's heart with spells and enchantments. Of course the villagers also
believed that a dragon lived under the mountain and that stink kept away demons
of illness, but their beliefs about her stepmother were surprisingly true. She
knew it because her stepmother had taught her the same spells and how to use
them. Her stepmother had been amazed at her skill; of course the fact that she
was stunningly beautiful only helped her cast spells of devotion. Thanks to her
beauty and her magic, she had wanted for nothing. If there had been anything
she was not instantly given or offered, all she needed to do was cock her head
just so, flash her smile like that, and lower her eyes like this, and it was done.
That is until yesterday, when her stepmother had decided to have her married off
to some brute of man in an isolated cantref. He was some Marcher Lord that
would elevate the family's status with the Saseaneg, the English. Eira wanted
nothing to do with it or her stepmother's plans. She wanted to see the world,
play with a few more farm boys and find a malleable husband who wouldn't mind.
The Marcher Lord was far too powerful for her to cuckold and his lands to far
away to be near her farm boys. Unfortunately her stepmother was immune to
her glamouries, so she had run away. However the man in front of her was not
immune. She knew the Huntsman well; he was a genuinely nice man, with very
few weaknesses. Much to her satisfaction she also knew that one of those
weakness was for young girls. Looking at the Huntsman that stood between her
and freedom, Eira began to weave her favorite spell. A flash of her eyes, and a
hint of a smile, she began to recite the words in her mind. Moonlight hit her skin
as white as snow, and glinted off her hair as black as ravens. She licked her lips
as red as fire and tilted her head shyly.
"Surely brave Huntsman, I could give you my heart and yet live." She said in
voice that denied any innocence. She moved closer to him and took his hand.
"E-eira, I know of no way such a thing could be so," The Huntsman said in deep
whisper. Looking deep into her eyes, the spell took hold of him and he could
think of nothing but to satisfy and please this beautiful creature.
She placed his hand upon her breast, above her heart and whispered into his
ear, "A powerful, wise man like you could surely find a way to save such a strong
heart." With this the Huntsman moaned as she kissed him and took her into his
arms, and fell into oblivion.
Dawn started as she woke and flushed with the memory of her dream. Whoever
that Eira girl was, she knew how to work the men didn't she? Dawn shook her
head, if only she could master that spell, she'd have it made. She smiled, yeah,
but before then, she'd have to dye her hair black and go all Goth chick. Not
likely, Buffy would have a fit if she did something like that. She chuckled to
herself at the image of Goth-Dawn, as she got ready for school.
***********
Later that day, Dawn was struggling to stay awake in history. Ms. Tyminski was
droning on and on about Roosevelt and the New Deal. Dawn had been taking
rather good notes until now, but all the acronyms were starting to run together,
WPA, CCC, PWA, TVA, and all of them were very confusing. As her head
started nod, she felt sleep creep over her.
The Huntsman awoke as sunlight began to touch the forest. He was tired and
sore and very, very confused. His body ached, he had deep gouges on his back
and thighs and he was covered in the morning dew. He shook his head to clear
away the fog and saw a box before him. Slowly as memories began to return, he
found most of his clothing and struggled into it, careful of his wounds. He
examined the box and began to open it. His hand paused as he reached for the
lid as he remembered the girl's words:
"Mor ddu a'r fran, mor goch a'r than, mor gwyn arg eira. Rwyt ti eiddo."
After that he remembered little, only that she had told him she had made
arrangement to satisfy her stepmother's requirement. He opened the box and
saw a human heart. He jerked back in surprise; surely the girl had not cut out
her own heart? He tried to remember more through the fog of the night. How
had she made the arrangements? He remembered suggesting using a boar or
stag heart, but she had said that her stepmother was far to smart for that. She
had smiled then, and said she would make sure he had a virgin's heart to take
the place of her own. He shook his head again in disbelief as he remembered
more about the night; the girl had been no virgin.
Dawn woke suddenly as the bell rang, and blearily gather up her books.
"Wow, Dawn you were way gone. Staying out too late with the hotties?" Lisa
smiled.
Sheepishly, Dawn said, "Nah, just overwhelmed by all the useless letters in the
lecture. I mean, god, I felt like I was in an episode of Sesame Street with all the
dancing letters."
Lisa laughed and said, "Yeah, you looked like you were in a bit of nightmare, I
almost woke you there towards the end."
Dawn shook her head, "I'm okay, just one of those reoccurring theme dreams,
you know."
"Tell me about it, one time, I had this dream that I was being chased by rabid
bunnies for six nights in a row. I'm still a little freaked by those Cadbury Easter
bunnies," Lisa joked. "Rabbits should *never* growl like lions."
Dawn laughed with her friend and tried to shake loose the echoes of the dream.
Seeing that heart in wooden box definitely put her off the idea of lunch. Maybe
after school she'd tell Buffy or Willow about her dreams.
*********************
Buffy laid down the newspaper and looked at Anya. "If Giles were here, he'd say
something like 'This is most disturbing'. But since he's not, all I've got to say is
'research mode'." She sighed heavily. She missed Giles tons, he was her
motivation, her security blanket, her Watcher. When she came back and found
he'd left, it hurt a great deal. She understood why he left, it made sense, but
logic and sense didn't make her miss him any less. Without her here, he'd had
no reason for being. Yeah, they'd dropped the strict Watcher-Slayer gig a long
time ago, but he always knew she needed him. But when she died, she
obviously didn't need him anymore, so he'd left. Moved back to England to try
and heal, try and cope. They'd had the discussion after she came back, ran up a
huge phone bill discussing everything about their lives, and resolved very little.
She still felt a little abandoned, and he still felt a little raw with the grief of losing
her. Maybe with time, those feeling would fade into something vaguely
resembling normality, but for now…
"What do we need to research, Buffy?" Anya asked interrupting Buffy's thoughts.
"Oh, this seems like not of the norm, even for Sunnydale." She replied handing
Anya the paper. "Check out the lead story."
"Local girl found murdered in park. Buffy the only thing that's unusual about this
is that they've bothered to treat it with a headline. Sunnydale is finally
understanding about all these missing people and doing what humans always do,
ignoring it."
"No, Anya, read on, it actually lists how she died."
Anya read the article gasping as some of the more graphic areas. "Her heart
was cut out. She was laid out like she was resting after her throat was slit and
her heart removed. Buffy this is not good."
"I know, the paper mentions that murders like this have occurred in San
Francisco and L.A. I'm going to call Angel and see if he knows anything about
this. Meanwhile, page Willow and Tara with the research code and we'll start
looking for demons that have a thing for human hearts."
"Right, I'll get right on it. You call Angel, I hope it's not too uncomfortable."
Buffy nodded as she picked up the phone and started dialing, "Yea, I'm kinda
hoping that Cordelia answers. Wow, that's something I never thought I'd say."
*****
Dawn walked to the Magic Box slowly. They had all just adopted the place after
Giles left, Anya took over the management and had hired Buffy on part-time to
help out since Social Services needed some proof that Buffy could exist as an
adult and take care of Dawn. Xander, Willow and Tara all showed up there
everyday after they finished work or school. Spike usually turned up around
sunset or earlier to check on Dawn and see how school went. Everyone wanted
to be around each other as much as possible, it was like after losing Buffy, none
of them wanted to be alone for longer than it took to go to the bathroom. Now
that she was back, they'd all just kept up the habit. Besides, Dawn personally
thought that Willow and Xander kept it up just to make sure Buffy didn't
disappear.
The smell of burning blanket interrupted her thoughts and she dodged the form of
a flaming vampire running full tilt to the shop. As Spike hit the door and dashed
in, she smiled and shook her head. He really needed to find a better way to go
out in the day. One afternoon he may misjudge that blanket and get dusted.
She walked into the Magic Box and smiled at Buffy fussing at Spike.
"You know, sometimes flaming people tend to scare off customers. Why don't
you use the sewers or just stay home until sunset?" Buffy snapped. Spike had
knocked over a display of fertility dolls as he came in and she was going to have
to completely redo it now.
"Sorry, pet. Had to get here in time to check on Nibblet. She should have got
that paper back in English and I want to gloat over how well she did."
"Hey Spike," Dawn said from behind him. Giggling a little when he turned around
startled, she said, "I made an A. The teacher really liked it, she said I have an
'innate' talent for analyzing poetry."
Spike beamed, "I knew you'd ace it, luv. You're a natural. This girl," he said as
he put an affectionate arm around her shoulder, "could give those gits at Oxford
a run for their money. Mark my words, Nibblet here has a future in literature."
"Hey Buffy, I got your page, what's the what?" Willow said as she entered the
shop with Tara just behind her.
"Oh, that, um," Buffy stammered looking at Dawn.
"It's okay Buffy, we started to include Dawn a lot in the research while you were,
er, gone. I've even been teaching her Latin. She very good a cross-referencing
things." Willow smiled reassuringly.
"Yeah, Buff, I figured since I'm the Slayer's sister, I might as well pitch in on
saving the world instead of getting in the way." Dawn said as she sat down at the
table in front of the stack of books Anya had gathered.
"Okay, well when Xander gets here I'll explain everything. This is not something I
want to go over more than once. Dawn why don't you call for pizza, it's going to
be a long night."
***********
Xander arrived shortly before the pizza and Buffy began to explain the situation
in between bites of pizza. She started off by telling them about the girl found in
the park, and then told them about her conversation with Cordelia. She had
gotten lucky and caught Angel sleeping and Cordy knew all the business
anyway. It wasn't like she didn't want to talk to Angel, okay, yes it was like that.
Ever since she had come back talking to him was awkward and difficult. There
were long pauses in the conversation and eventually she'd get him out of his
shell but it was never for long.
"Anyway, so Cordelia said that five girls were found murdered like this in LA
about six months ago. The last girl was somebody relatively famous and there
was a huge stink. Of course the police couldn't find anything out and they think
it's a serial killer." Buffy watched Dawn's face as she talked. Dawn had gotten
very pale when she mentioned the first murder and now she was just looking a
little better but not much.
"Huh?" Buffy said.
"I said, who was the famous girl?" Tara asked.
"Um, Neve Bianco. Some sort of model or something."
"Oh my god," Dawn exclaimed. "She was so pretty, look." She pulled an issue of
Cosmo Girl out of her backpack and handed it around.
On the cover was a strikingly beautiful girl, with wide blue eyes, flawless fair skin
and coal-black hair. Both Xander and Spike whistled. "She's perfection made
flesh," Willow whispered.
"She was fourteen, like me." Dawn said in quiet voice. "Buffy, there's something I
think I need to tell you. I've been having these dreams and something about all
these murders feels familiar."
Haltingly Dawn lead into the story of her dreams, stuttering over the sexy bits, but
leaving them in just the same. When she got to the part about the spell, Willow
stopped her.
"Dawnie, can you remember the words? That might help us figure this out."
"Uh, yeah, let me think. *Mor thu ar vran, mor goch ar than, mor gwen arg earah.
Root ti eatho.* I don't know if that's right but it sounds close." She looked over at
Willow writing down the words and shrugged. "I have no idea what language it
was."
"It was Welsh I think, and pet, your not going to get anywhere with the way that's
written down." Spike leaned over Willow and corrected the gibberish to read:
'Mor ddu a'r vran, mor goch a'r than, mor gwyn arg eira. Rwyt ti eiddo.'
"I assume it's Welsh from the talk about the Marcher Lords and the mention of
Saesneg. I don't know what the spell means but I know the sound of it. Course,
last time I heard any Welsh it was being screamed at me. Nice people, the
Welsh, little pissy after you eat few of them, but nice mostly." Spike smirked.
"Who or what is the Marcher Lords and the Saesneg?" Buffy asked ignoring
Spike's comment about eating people. This was the game they played. He tried
to remind them all that he was the Big Bad and they ignored him.
"Damn, Slayer, didn't you learn anything in school? The Marcher Lords you
should know, English border lords that ruled Wales in the Middle Ages. Edward
the First gave them a ton of power after he beat the Welsh into submission. Over
there they call him the Black Prince and Saesneg is their word for English. I
know that for sure, they use it like a curse almost." Spike finished as he lit a
cigarette. "And believe me I heard it enough."
Willow said, "Okay, now that I know what language it is, I can find a translation
easier."
"So what do we know people? My sister's dreaming about a not nice girl who
leaves hearts for boys and we've got a welsh demon killing pretty girls." Buffy
said as she paced.
"What did the other girls look like?" Xander asked.
"Uh, don't know. The girl here in Sunnydale had black hair and was Caucasian.
Oh, you mean did the all look alike? Good thinking, Xan."
Anya looked up sharply and said, "Wait a minute, Dawn, how did the girl in your
dream describe herself?"
"She said, 'hair like ravens, skin white as snow, and lips red as fire'. Oh I get it.
It's like Snow White. Only the lips were red as blood weren't they?"
Anya shook her head. "Only in some cultures, the colors remain the same, but
what they refer to sometimes is often different."
"In my anthropology class, they said that most cultures don't recognize the same
colors but all cultures recognize red, white, and black as important." Tara offered.
"Oh I hope we aren't dealing with her, she's a total bitch." Anya said sadly.
"Who, the stepmother?" Buffy asked.
"No, Snow White. Or whatever she's calling herself. I met her once, and trust
me; the girl was no innocent. That poor woman did everything she could to stop
the little demon and when the story comes out, Snow wins. Its just not fair."
"Right, let me get this straight. Snow White really existed? And her step mom
was the good one, not her? Somehow I'm having a hard time believing this, I
mean, Snow White's just a fairy tale." Xander said nervously.
"Yes and Spike just mildly anemic. Of course fairy tales are real, how do you
think they happen, someone just makes them up? Snow's step mom wasn't the
nicest lady in the world, but she was better than Snow. Okay here's a visual.
Take Cordelia at her meanest, make her prettier, take away every hint of any
morals, and grant her the ability to manipulate people's minds with magic. That's
Snow White." Anya finished and looked around at the stunned people
surrounding her. "What?! Don't get me started on that cow Cinderella."
"Okay, you're telling me that the fairy tales are really real and Snow White,
Cinderella, and Rapunzel were not only real but actually bad instead of good?"
Willow asked in amazement. "That makes me feel somewhat strange about my
Fairy Princess Barbie."
"Well it depends on which story as to whether or not they were good or bad.
See, the stories take place all the time. At any given moment stories are
happening, right now, some girl thinks her stepmother is witch and want rid of
her, in some family of three sisters, the two eldest make the youngest do all their
chores. That sort of thing happens all the time. There have been thousands of
Snow Whites, and most of them have been okay, but the one I met was force for
pure evil. The main story behind Snow White is that vanity is bad, in the
traditional tale; step-mom wants Snow dead because she's prettier than her and
her vanity makes her evil. However in this version with this Snow White, the
stepmother isn't the vain one. Snow White is." Anya finished with a grim nod.
"But I'm not certain she would be the one targeting these girls. I mean Snow
tended to disregard women unless they had a man she wanted."
"Guess I know what that means, more research." Xander groaned.
"Guys, why don't you get a start on finding the baddie that's responsible and
Spike and I will do a quick patrol. Maybe we can see something out there." Buffy
said as she started towards the door.
Everyone settled into their positions and started wading through books. Willow
hopped on the Internet and looked up the Welsh phrases. Buffy and Spike left
heavily armed to go patrol and maybe find the creature responsible for the
murders.
Author: Teleri
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Buffy and her world belongs to Joss and Mutant Enemy. I'm just
borrowing them for fun.
Summary: When Dawn starts have disturbing dreams, and murdered girls start
turning up, Buffy has to face an evil out of legend.
Feedback: teleri_rhys@hotmail.com. Yes, please.
Once upon a time….
Don't all stories begin like that, at least all the ones that end with "They lived
happily ever after". Stories and fairy tales are integral to our world. They create
a space that allows for the good guys to win and the bad guys to pay. In a story,
it's easy to tell the good from the bad, the right from the wrong. Without the
stories to set the boundaries, the world dissolves into an endless kaleidoscope of
grey. They set up the rules with a magic that binds people's hearts and minds.
Rules like stepmothers are evil, young girls are innocent, the prince is always
charming, and the first two siblings on a quest must fail. Stories are magical all
by themselves, not as strong as spells but stronger than mere dreams. Like all
magical things, stories affect the world they are in, sometimes the stories shape
the world, sometimes the world shapes the stories, either way, the people in the
stories don't have much control. But sometimes, things happen in the stories
that no one wants to remember, footnotes that only add to the greyness.
Sometimes the young innocent blonde girl fights back instead of being eaten by
the monster; sometimes the dark evil is really a good guy. Sometimes a
stepmother is just a lady who married your dad. After time, these bits of stories
are forgotten, lost until sometime when they are necessary, when they are
needed. Like now.
*********
Dawn laid the book on her bedside table and turned off the light. Lately it had
been getting harder and harder to go to sleep at night without reading something.
When she tried to just lay there and sleep without it, she just started thinking and
then the next thing she knew it was 5 in the morning and she hadn't slept a wink.
So she'd been reading every night, to fill her mind with something happy and
brainless, something that wouldn't make her think. She started with some Terry
Pratchetts she'd borrowed from Willow, and then moved on to some Esther
Friesner and Tom Holt that Spike had lent her, finally she re-read all the Narnia
books and Harry Potters. Now she'd run out of books and the new Harry Potter
wasn't due out for at least another year, so she'd turned to the last unread book
on her shelf, The Blue Fairy Book. Her mom had given her The Blue Fairy Book
when she was five and started Dawn's love of fairy tales and reading. Everything
was so easy in fairy tales, you knew who the baddies were and the good guys
always won. Not like the real world, where the bad guys sometimes wore white
hats and the good guys had to die to win.
Dawn winced at the memory of the last few months. With Buffy gone, everything
had been absolutely wretched. The Scoobies still did their fight evil drill, but with
less enthusiasm than before. Willow pretty much took over and had been the
strong one, Xander was a wreck and Giles had left for England. He just couldn't
face life here without Buffy. Dawn herself had barely survived, only because
Spike seemed to need her so very much. She had managed to not fade away
into nothingness and to keep Spike from kissing daylight for three months. Then
Willow had found a spell and brought Buffy back. Now everyone was settling
back into the routine, into the happy ending.
As she rolled over and got a little bit more comfortable, she smiled to think of her
sister. Buffy was back and Dawn still sometimes couldn't believe it. It was like
with Snow White, only there was no wicked stepmother and no prince. Okay, the
only bit was that Snow came back too and had a happy ending. Maybe Buffy and
all of us have finally earned a happy ending. With this comforting thought she
drifted off to sleep.
********
A pretty girl with dark hair and very fair skin sang quietly to herself as she walked
through the forest. She was so wrapped up in her song that she didn't notice the
well-dressed man behind her. He was dressed in a fine cloth, all in browns and
greys, fitted to his form like skin. Even if the girl had been paying attention she
might not have seen him, he blended so well with the forest around him. Moving
quietly he approached her and reached out a hand that caressed her pale cheek.
"Oh," exclaimed the girl, "S-sir, I did not notice you there."
"Of course not my dear," the man smiled, "I did not want you to notice me."
He moved to stand in front of her, taking her shoulders in his hands, "You have
greatly hurt and angered your mother Eira, you should not have left her in such a
state. I have been sent to take you home, dear girl."
The girl twisted in his powerful grasp, "I will not go with you Huntsman, my *step*
mother's wishes are not my own." She stopped struggling and looked at the man
with wide blue eyes. "The world does not have to be this way."
The Huntsman looked down at her, "Little girl, do not make this difficult, your
mother commanded me bring you home or bring home your heart. I would much
rather take a living, breathing child home, rather than a dead and bloody heart."
The villagers believed that Eira's stepmother was a witch who had captured her
father's heart with spells and enchantments. Of course the villagers also
believed that a dragon lived under the mountain and that stink kept away demons
of illness, but their beliefs about her stepmother were surprisingly true. She
knew it because her stepmother had taught her the same spells and how to use
them. Her stepmother had been amazed at her skill; of course the fact that she
was stunningly beautiful only helped her cast spells of devotion. Thanks to her
beauty and her magic, she had wanted for nothing. If there had been anything
she was not instantly given or offered, all she needed to do was cock her head
just so, flash her smile like that, and lower her eyes like this, and it was done.
That is until yesterday, when her stepmother had decided to have her married off
to some brute of man in an isolated cantref. He was some Marcher Lord that
would elevate the family's status with the Saseaneg, the English. Eira wanted
nothing to do with it or her stepmother's plans. She wanted to see the world,
play with a few more farm boys and find a malleable husband who wouldn't mind.
The Marcher Lord was far too powerful for her to cuckold and his lands to far
away to be near her farm boys. Unfortunately her stepmother was immune to
her glamouries, so she had run away. However the man in front of her was not
immune. She knew the Huntsman well; he was a genuinely nice man, with very
few weaknesses. Much to her satisfaction she also knew that one of those
weakness was for young girls. Looking at the Huntsman that stood between her
and freedom, Eira began to weave her favorite spell. A flash of her eyes, and a
hint of a smile, she began to recite the words in her mind. Moonlight hit her skin
as white as snow, and glinted off her hair as black as ravens. She licked her lips
as red as fire and tilted her head shyly.
"Surely brave Huntsman, I could give you my heart and yet live." She said in
voice that denied any innocence. She moved closer to him and took his hand.
"E-eira, I know of no way such a thing could be so," The Huntsman said in deep
whisper. Looking deep into her eyes, the spell took hold of him and he could
think of nothing but to satisfy and please this beautiful creature.
She placed his hand upon her breast, above her heart and whispered into his
ear, "A powerful, wise man like you could surely find a way to save such a strong
heart." With this the Huntsman moaned as she kissed him and took her into his
arms, and fell into oblivion.
Dawn started as she woke and flushed with the memory of her dream. Whoever
that Eira girl was, she knew how to work the men didn't she? Dawn shook her
head, if only she could master that spell, she'd have it made. She smiled, yeah,
but before then, she'd have to dye her hair black and go all Goth chick. Not
likely, Buffy would have a fit if she did something like that. She chuckled to
herself at the image of Goth-Dawn, as she got ready for school.
***********
Later that day, Dawn was struggling to stay awake in history. Ms. Tyminski was
droning on and on about Roosevelt and the New Deal. Dawn had been taking
rather good notes until now, but all the acronyms were starting to run together,
WPA, CCC, PWA, TVA, and all of them were very confusing. As her head
started nod, she felt sleep creep over her.
The Huntsman awoke as sunlight began to touch the forest. He was tired and
sore and very, very confused. His body ached, he had deep gouges on his back
and thighs and he was covered in the morning dew. He shook his head to clear
away the fog and saw a box before him. Slowly as memories began to return, he
found most of his clothing and struggled into it, careful of his wounds. He
examined the box and began to open it. His hand paused as he reached for the
lid as he remembered the girl's words:
"Mor ddu a'r fran, mor goch a'r than, mor gwyn arg eira. Rwyt ti eiddo."
After that he remembered little, only that she had told him she had made
arrangement to satisfy her stepmother's requirement. He opened the box and
saw a human heart. He jerked back in surprise; surely the girl had not cut out
her own heart? He tried to remember more through the fog of the night. How
had she made the arrangements? He remembered suggesting using a boar or
stag heart, but she had said that her stepmother was far to smart for that. She
had smiled then, and said she would make sure he had a virgin's heart to take
the place of her own. He shook his head again in disbelief as he remembered
more about the night; the girl had been no virgin.
Dawn woke suddenly as the bell rang, and blearily gather up her books.
"Wow, Dawn you were way gone. Staying out too late with the hotties?" Lisa
smiled.
Sheepishly, Dawn said, "Nah, just overwhelmed by all the useless letters in the
lecture. I mean, god, I felt like I was in an episode of Sesame Street with all the
dancing letters."
Lisa laughed and said, "Yeah, you looked like you were in a bit of nightmare, I
almost woke you there towards the end."
Dawn shook her head, "I'm okay, just one of those reoccurring theme dreams,
you know."
"Tell me about it, one time, I had this dream that I was being chased by rabid
bunnies for six nights in a row. I'm still a little freaked by those Cadbury Easter
bunnies," Lisa joked. "Rabbits should *never* growl like lions."
Dawn laughed with her friend and tried to shake loose the echoes of the dream.
Seeing that heart in wooden box definitely put her off the idea of lunch. Maybe
after school she'd tell Buffy or Willow about her dreams.
*********************
Buffy laid down the newspaper and looked at Anya. "If Giles were here, he'd say
something like 'This is most disturbing'. But since he's not, all I've got to say is
'research mode'." She sighed heavily. She missed Giles tons, he was her
motivation, her security blanket, her Watcher. When she came back and found
he'd left, it hurt a great deal. She understood why he left, it made sense, but
logic and sense didn't make her miss him any less. Without her here, he'd had
no reason for being. Yeah, they'd dropped the strict Watcher-Slayer gig a long
time ago, but he always knew she needed him. But when she died, she
obviously didn't need him anymore, so he'd left. Moved back to England to try
and heal, try and cope. They'd had the discussion after she came back, ran up a
huge phone bill discussing everything about their lives, and resolved very little.
She still felt a little abandoned, and he still felt a little raw with the grief of losing
her. Maybe with time, those feeling would fade into something vaguely
resembling normality, but for now…
"What do we need to research, Buffy?" Anya asked interrupting Buffy's thoughts.
"Oh, this seems like not of the norm, even for Sunnydale." She replied handing
Anya the paper. "Check out the lead story."
"Local girl found murdered in park. Buffy the only thing that's unusual about this
is that they've bothered to treat it with a headline. Sunnydale is finally
understanding about all these missing people and doing what humans always do,
ignoring it."
"No, Anya, read on, it actually lists how she died."
Anya read the article gasping as some of the more graphic areas. "Her heart
was cut out. She was laid out like she was resting after her throat was slit and
her heart removed. Buffy this is not good."
"I know, the paper mentions that murders like this have occurred in San
Francisco and L.A. I'm going to call Angel and see if he knows anything about
this. Meanwhile, page Willow and Tara with the research code and we'll start
looking for demons that have a thing for human hearts."
"Right, I'll get right on it. You call Angel, I hope it's not too uncomfortable."
Buffy nodded as she picked up the phone and started dialing, "Yea, I'm kinda
hoping that Cordelia answers. Wow, that's something I never thought I'd say."
*****
Dawn walked to the Magic Box slowly. They had all just adopted the place after
Giles left, Anya took over the management and had hired Buffy on part-time to
help out since Social Services needed some proof that Buffy could exist as an
adult and take care of Dawn. Xander, Willow and Tara all showed up there
everyday after they finished work or school. Spike usually turned up around
sunset or earlier to check on Dawn and see how school went. Everyone wanted
to be around each other as much as possible, it was like after losing Buffy, none
of them wanted to be alone for longer than it took to go to the bathroom. Now
that she was back, they'd all just kept up the habit. Besides, Dawn personally
thought that Willow and Xander kept it up just to make sure Buffy didn't
disappear.
The smell of burning blanket interrupted her thoughts and she dodged the form of
a flaming vampire running full tilt to the shop. As Spike hit the door and dashed
in, she smiled and shook her head. He really needed to find a better way to go
out in the day. One afternoon he may misjudge that blanket and get dusted.
She walked into the Magic Box and smiled at Buffy fussing at Spike.
"You know, sometimes flaming people tend to scare off customers. Why don't
you use the sewers or just stay home until sunset?" Buffy snapped. Spike had
knocked over a display of fertility dolls as he came in and she was going to have
to completely redo it now.
"Sorry, pet. Had to get here in time to check on Nibblet. She should have got
that paper back in English and I want to gloat over how well she did."
"Hey Spike," Dawn said from behind him. Giggling a little when he turned around
startled, she said, "I made an A. The teacher really liked it, she said I have an
'innate' talent for analyzing poetry."
Spike beamed, "I knew you'd ace it, luv. You're a natural. This girl," he said as
he put an affectionate arm around her shoulder, "could give those gits at Oxford
a run for their money. Mark my words, Nibblet here has a future in literature."
"Hey Buffy, I got your page, what's the what?" Willow said as she entered the
shop with Tara just behind her.
"Oh, that, um," Buffy stammered looking at Dawn.
"It's okay Buffy, we started to include Dawn a lot in the research while you were,
er, gone. I've even been teaching her Latin. She very good a cross-referencing
things." Willow smiled reassuringly.
"Yeah, Buff, I figured since I'm the Slayer's sister, I might as well pitch in on
saving the world instead of getting in the way." Dawn said as she sat down at the
table in front of the stack of books Anya had gathered.
"Okay, well when Xander gets here I'll explain everything. This is not something I
want to go over more than once. Dawn why don't you call for pizza, it's going to
be a long night."
***********
Xander arrived shortly before the pizza and Buffy began to explain the situation
in between bites of pizza. She started off by telling them about the girl found in
the park, and then told them about her conversation with Cordelia. She had
gotten lucky and caught Angel sleeping and Cordy knew all the business
anyway. It wasn't like she didn't want to talk to Angel, okay, yes it was like that.
Ever since she had come back talking to him was awkward and difficult. There
were long pauses in the conversation and eventually she'd get him out of his
shell but it was never for long.
"Anyway, so Cordelia said that five girls were found murdered like this in LA
about six months ago. The last girl was somebody relatively famous and there
was a huge stink. Of course the police couldn't find anything out and they think
it's a serial killer." Buffy watched Dawn's face as she talked. Dawn had gotten
very pale when she mentioned the first murder and now she was just looking a
little better but not much.
"Huh?" Buffy said.
"I said, who was the famous girl?" Tara asked.
"Um, Neve Bianco. Some sort of model or something."
"Oh my god," Dawn exclaimed. "She was so pretty, look." She pulled an issue of
Cosmo Girl out of her backpack and handed it around.
On the cover was a strikingly beautiful girl, with wide blue eyes, flawless fair skin
and coal-black hair. Both Xander and Spike whistled. "She's perfection made
flesh," Willow whispered.
"She was fourteen, like me." Dawn said in quiet voice. "Buffy, there's something I
think I need to tell you. I've been having these dreams and something about all
these murders feels familiar."
Haltingly Dawn lead into the story of her dreams, stuttering over the sexy bits, but
leaving them in just the same. When she got to the part about the spell, Willow
stopped her.
"Dawnie, can you remember the words? That might help us figure this out."
"Uh, yeah, let me think. *Mor thu ar vran, mor goch ar than, mor gwen arg earah.
Root ti eatho.* I don't know if that's right but it sounds close." She looked over at
Willow writing down the words and shrugged. "I have no idea what language it
was."
"It was Welsh I think, and pet, your not going to get anywhere with the way that's
written down." Spike leaned over Willow and corrected the gibberish to read:
'Mor ddu a'r vran, mor goch a'r than, mor gwyn arg eira. Rwyt ti eiddo.'
"I assume it's Welsh from the talk about the Marcher Lords and the mention of
Saesneg. I don't know what the spell means but I know the sound of it. Course,
last time I heard any Welsh it was being screamed at me. Nice people, the
Welsh, little pissy after you eat few of them, but nice mostly." Spike smirked.
"Who or what is the Marcher Lords and the Saesneg?" Buffy asked ignoring
Spike's comment about eating people. This was the game they played. He tried
to remind them all that he was the Big Bad and they ignored him.
"Damn, Slayer, didn't you learn anything in school? The Marcher Lords you
should know, English border lords that ruled Wales in the Middle Ages. Edward
the First gave them a ton of power after he beat the Welsh into submission. Over
there they call him the Black Prince and Saesneg is their word for English. I
know that for sure, they use it like a curse almost." Spike finished as he lit a
cigarette. "And believe me I heard it enough."
Willow said, "Okay, now that I know what language it is, I can find a translation
easier."
"So what do we know people? My sister's dreaming about a not nice girl who
leaves hearts for boys and we've got a welsh demon killing pretty girls." Buffy
said as she paced.
"What did the other girls look like?" Xander asked.
"Uh, don't know. The girl here in Sunnydale had black hair and was Caucasian.
Oh, you mean did the all look alike? Good thinking, Xan."
Anya looked up sharply and said, "Wait a minute, Dawn, how did the girl in your
dream describe herself?"
"She said, 'hair like ravens, skin white as snow, and lips red as fire'. Oh I get it.
It's like Snow White. Only the lips were red as blood weren't they?"
Anya shook her head. "Only in some cultures, the colors remain the same, but
what they refer to sometimes is often different."
"In my anthropology class, they said that most cultures don't recognize the same
colors but all cultures recognize red, white, and black as important." Tara offered.
"Oh I hope we aren't dealing with her, she's a total bitch." Anya said sadly.
"Who, the stepmother?" Buffy asked.
"No, Snow White. Or whatever she's calling herself. I met her once, and trust
me; the girl was no innocent. That poor woman did everything she could to stop
the little demon and when the story comes out, Snow wins. Its just not fair."
"Right, let me get this straight. Snow White really existed? And her step mom
was the good one, not her? Somehow I'm having a hard time believing this, I
mean, Snow White's just a fairy tale." Xander said nervously.
"Yes and Spike just mildly anemic. Of course fairy tales are real, how do you
think they happen, someone just makes them up? Snow's step mom wasn't the
nicest lady in the world, but she was better than Snow. Okay here's a visual.
Take Cordelia at her meanest, make her prettier, take away every hint of any
morals, and grant her the ability to manipulate people's minds with magic. That's
Snow White." Anya finished and looked around at the stunned people
surrounding her. "What?! Don't get me started on that cow Cinderella."
"Okay, you're telling me that the fairy tales are really real and Snow White,
Cinderella, and Rapunzel were not only real but actually bad instead of good?"
Willow asked in amazement. "That makes me feel somewhat strange about my
Fairy Princess Barbie."
"Well it depends on which story as to whether or not they were good or bad.
See, the stories take place all the time. At any given moment stories are
happening, right now, some girl thinks her stepmother is witch and want rid of
her, in some family of three sisters, the two eldest make the youngest do all their
chores. That sort of thing happens all the time. There have been thousands of
Snow Whites, and most of them have been okay, but the one I met was force for
pure evil. The main story behind Snow White is that vanity is bad, in the
traditional tale; step-mom wants Snow dead because she's prettier than her and
her vanity makes her evil. However in this version with this Snow White, the
stepmother isn't the vain one. Snow White is." Anya finished with a grim nod.
"But I'm not certain she would be the one targeting these girls. I mean Snow
tended to disregard women unless they had a man she wanted."
"Guess I know what that means, more research." Xander groaned.
"Guys, why don't you get a start on finding the baddie that's responsible and
Spike and I will do a quick patrol. Maybe we can see something out there." Buffy
said as she started towards the door.
Everyone settled into their positions and started wading through books. Willow
hopped on the Internet and looked up the Welsh phrases. Buffy and Spike left
heavily armed to go patrol and maybe find the creature responsible for the
murders.