by Ashley
Summary: [ANASTASIA] Anya's Dream Waltz. ©98. Plz read&review, thx!
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"Pooka! Pooka!" called Anya, running after her puppy, "Pooka, where are you?" After trying unsuccessfully to get a ticket to Paris, an old woman had told Anya to "see Dimitri; he can help." The woman had said to find him in the old palace. Well, that's where she was now; the giant Catherine Palace, looking to find someone named Dimitri. Pooka had run under a boarded up doorway.
Anya pulled on the boards to go in and landed on the ground--- seat first. Anya got up and went in, replaces her hat which had fallen off her head. She went through a maze of halls and stairs, almost as if she knew her way around. Anya, followed by Pooka, went up a staircase to its landing. Everything was covered with cobwebs.
"Hello?" she called, "Anybody home?" She stuck her scarf into her coat pocket and walked up an adjoining stair. The orphan found herself in another hall. She followed it into a room with a table full of dishes covered with dust and cobwebs. Pooka slid under the table.
Anya went up to the table. She gently blew the dust off of a small silver plate. The cobwebs came loose. As she looked at the reflection, she saw something in it. She saw a little girl in blue clothes being lifted and twirled by a bearded man. It disappeared and Anya set the plate back down.
What is this place, she thought, The whole time I've been in here, I've had a creepy, yet strangely friendly and familiar feeling. Like I've been here before.
The girl walked across the room to a stand in front of a mirror. She nearly gasped as she saw the stand contained a porcelain vase with a pattern of bears and swans. She wiped dust off of it. "This place... It's... it's like a memory from a dream..." she said. Anya could almost hear something. It was like music. She and Pooka followed it through a set of French doors. The room was a giant ballroom. A sweeping flight of stairs led to the dancefloor. Tall floor-to-ceiling windows lined the walls. Above them, hung dusty potraits. It was like something deep from her memory.
"Once upon a December..." softly sang Anya, as she descended the stairs to a landing. Anya came upon a life-size portrait of the last czar and his family. She could almost remember something. She remembered "Someone holds me safe and warm, horses prance through a silver storm, figures dancing gracefully across my memory...."
As she remembered, Anya took off her coat and gloves. She came to the top of the staircase. Suddenly, with her minds eye, men and women in beautiful clothes jumped out of the portraits that lined the walls and waltzed to the dance floor. Could Anya really be seeing all this?
Anya bowed to several of the ghosts as she went down to the dance floor. Her feet seemed to carry her across the floor gracefully, almost like she knew how to waltz. How and where did she learn? Behind her, as she danced around, the Czar, Czarina and four of their children came down from their portrait.
Three of the Czar's daughters came around the orphan and gave her fabulous jewels and amazingly, Anya's rags seemed to transform to a beautiful yellow gown and a gold crown appeared on her head. In her minds eye, Anya saw herself dance with handsome dukes, like a regal princess. She tried to remember things from long ago, something glowing dim like an ember, things her heart used to know, things it yearned to remember.
Then, one of the princes backed away and Anya came face-to-face with Czar Nicholas II. He danced with her for a moment before kissing her forehead. Anya gracefully bowed to him and sank to the floor. She could still hear that familiar, fading melody. "Once upon a December......."
Suddenly, a voice rang out, ending Anya's dream waltz, "Hey, what are you doing in here?!"
(continues as in the movie)
...
ANASTASiA™ is copyright of 20thC.Fox, etc. ^_^
PS. Believe it or not, this is a work of fiction. All the incidents, names, and characters are imaginary.
Any resemblence to actual persons etc, living or dead, is completely coincidental. ^_~
written by Ashley ©98, edited by SimbiAni™ ©2G4