"Everything you could ever want," she repeated, her thin lips curving into a smile. It was all a dream, he told himself. It had to be. There was no way that someone would make him, broken, battered, useless, him, an offer like that. His life had not exactly been...happy so far. he detested his father, but he especially hated those rich, prissy nobles who reminded him constantly that he was little more than dirt under his feet. He supposed this dream was simply his subconscious picking up on that.

He deliberated for a few moments. If it was a dream, he realised, he might as well take the opportunity. It could do him no harm.

"Just the princess gone?" he asked, confirming. The woman smiled again, and nodded. Her hand began to glow, and she touched it to his shoulder. Suddenly, the light was brighter, bright enough to blind him completely.

He awoke with a start. A dream after all, he mused. Then, he laughed aloud, bitterly, at his own folly. He looked out of the window to find that the sun was already peeking through the horizon. It was time to go to work, he told himself, dragging his feet out of the bed, and throwing on some clothes. It was only when he reached for his trusty oar, that he found something odd. The old paddle that he had used for years to ferry passengers across the murky waters was gone, replaced by some kind of staff, headed by an eagle. It felt strange, against his coarse hands. He ran his fingers across the wood before picking it up.

As he stood, wondering about what it was, and where it came from, a thought suddenly struck him, he pointed his staff at the grey, broken wall of his room.

"Green," he said aloud, mockingly, not really expecting it to work. But much to his astonishment, the bird opened his mouth, releasing a stream of light aimed at the wall. When i dispersed, the mouldy grey had turned into a deep, rich green. Wenlock stood gaping at the miracle. Then slowly, a sly smile crept across his face. This would be fun.


"I said, double time!" the princess repeated, and Wenlock was reminded of why he had turned her into a troll in the first place. She stared at him with disinterested, haughty eyes, that were meant to show him how low he was, compared to her. It took all his strength to stop himself from throwing her overboard.

It only after she and her friend had been ferried across, that he finally had the time to mourn his losses, sitting on the shore of the turbid river. He wished he had never seen the staff.

"Lost?" came a voice he had not expected to hear he turned, he found the woman he remembered, looking back at him. She seemed tired, much like him.

He wanted to get up, to walk closer and speak to her, but his weary legs refused. She looked like she had lost, too.

Perhaps later, he would ask what she had been looking for.


Notes: This has been sitting with my writings for a long time, but I never had the encouragement to post. It was inspired by two Barbie movies (and I have never written for Barbie before), namely, Swan Lake, and The Magic of Pegasus. The woman Wenlock refers to is Odile who somehow went universe-hopping. I thought it would be fun to write a fic with two of the villains. The setting is of course, before and after the Magic of Pegasus movie, but not during.