A great bustling of noise came at noon. Eloise asked her neighbors what was the matter.
"Poor girl, haven't you heard? Iris has returned! The village shall celebrate!" they all exclaimed, but it wasn't Iris's return. It was only Lenora, transformed into Iris's figure. Iris, however, was still stuck as a ferret in a sack that was behind the sorceress's back. She laid limp in the bag, for Lenora put a drink of sleep into her water before they ventured to Essington.
The evil Lenora never had experience as a sister, for she was born by a mother who abandoned her at a young age, and a harsh enchantress cared her for throughout her childhood. She hadn't always been evil however, until that fateful day when she was twelve.
"Lenora, come quickly! We may escape from Maeve if we get out of here," Anne, Maeve's latest victim and Lenora's newest friend, said in a hushed voice, for Maeve was sleeping across the room.
"Please don't make me do this. You don't know her like I do. She isn't just a witch, she's evil," the small and cautious Lenora begged.
"I know you want this as much as anyone does. Come, before she stirs again."
Anne's beckoning voice had an assuring tone, so Lenora followed the girl into the window. Outside never looked so haunting, but before she realized it, she was beside the willow tree. Lenora refused to tell anyone that her greatest fear was the Forest. The beasts, the monsters, and the terrible stories made her blood freeze. Even an eternity with Maeve didn't sound as bad as the Forest, but she wanted Anne to be happy. She was the closest thing to a friend Lenora had ever gotten.
The house that was fifty yards behind the two girls shimmered with light. Maeve must have awoken. With fear, they ran forward, straight into the Labyrinth of the Unknown.
The cave welcomed the girls with a sinister groan, but nevertheless, the young girls hid within the confines of the labyrinth.
Moments later, another moan and another came from all around. It seemed as if demons were screaming at them, in fact, there were three forlarrens and a blood sprite covering the entrances. Murder gleamed in their eyes and their lust for human blood singed their thirst. The girls backed away from these monstrous demons, praying that perhaps they would be saved.
"Come hither, children. We will only feed upon you if you do not satisfy us," the blood sprite said to the girls.
For a time, the girls stayed silent, until Anne answered with her voice quivering with fear, "What do you want?"
"We only need one child. That is all we need to satiate this terrible hunger, but only one. If you cannot choose, both of you shall be our meal."
"Then-" Anne began to say.
"No, let this girl decide. She has yet said anything, and we are curious to see what will come from her lips. Choose wisely, child," the forlarren told her.
Lenora wanted to be back home, in her warm scratchy bed at Maeve's. She didn't want this burden of choosing her life or the life of her only friend, but an evil thought came to her. "I don't deserve to die. It was Anne that brought me here!" this other-worldly, outspoken entity thought. Lenora's reasonable side was too startled to stop what came out of her mouth.
"Let Anne die!" she cried, before she fell to the ground weeping.
"No! I thought-" her friend said, before the four monsters pounced on her. When they were finished, the listless body laid in an unnatural position, arms and legs broken and dislocated. Lenora looked away, mortified of what she had done. A wave of guilt drowned her, paralyzed her.
"You are a wiser child than I would've thought. You have great promises of treachery, for that is easily seen in your blood. Perhaps I will see you again, cousin," the blood sprite said. Lenora collapsed and wept until Maeve found her unconscious on the corpse of Anne in the Blood-kin Cave.
Lenora angrily tore the image of childhood in her mind and remembered the quest for the gloves and that she was in Iris' form. She looked at the pathetic child laying on the bed. Eloise looked like Anne in many ways, like the color of her skin and the icy blue eyes. She wanted to get out of the room where the haunting image Anne stood, but she had to assure Eloise that she was Iris. The appropriate language for concern was unknown to Lenora and so she awkwardly patted Eloise's head and simply said, "I missed you."
Eloise knew something wasn't right with this behavior, for Iris would embrace her tightly and say something happy to get rid of all of Eloise's past worry. At least Iris had done this in the past, but instead, Eloise felt tense. "Is something wrong with Iris? I hope nothing happened while she was gone. She could have at least vaguely explained what had happened to her. I suppose... Well, at least she's home now," she thought.
Although Lenora was nervous about the little sister's reaction, she had to get to business. To obtain the gloves was the initiative. Waving goodbye, she left the crowded room to search the cottage alone. In a short while, she entered the house and promptly began tossing the belongings to each side, but the search for the ivory gloves ultimately failed. She left the ruined home with angered disappointment.
Eloise was recovering and Lenora had to hide her frustrated fury as she walked to the house where the sister was in bed. She asked with false concern about the health of Eloise with those who were caring for her. Finally when she encountered the girl, she asked her where she placed the gloves.
"Sister, can't you remember? We placed it in the belly of the whale," Eloise replied, confused why Iris would ask such a ridiculous question. Clearly it was in the toy's stomach, for they spent hours debating for the best hiding place in case an accident happened.
"How can gloves be in a belly of a whale? We are several leagues away from any sea. You are lying!" she said in an outrage. She stormed out of the room.
Eloise was astonished by her sister's new attitude. Never before did Iris speak to her like that before, but it was then she realized that it could not be her sister because Iris had to know where they placed the gloves.
But Lenora was frantic. She needed the gloves' magical power before she had none at all. She turned back into her true form and opened the door to face Eloise. "A foolish girl cannot last long in this world. Tell me now, or all of Hell's demons shall tear you apart, limb by limb," Lenora explained coldly.
Eloise was struck with fear. Iris wasn't found, but it didn't mean that she wasn't in danger. She firmly decided that she would never tell the hag the gloves' place for Iris could possibly be harmed if she would do so. If she told the witch where the gloves were, why, neither of them would be able to be safe. I'd rather eat a cup of worms, she thought to herself. Lenora waited for Eloise to tell her where the gloves were, but she didn't hear a word from the child's lips.
"Are you going to tell me where they are?" She asked irritably.
"Never."
"Then you shall face the consequences until you do!"
The sorceress took her to a lake many miles south and performed the set of trials, in the hopes that the stubborn girl would lose her spirit. She watched Eloise eat a handful of scorpions, swim with piranhas at her feet, and outrun a herd of gazelles, but her face offered no hint of despair or depleting confidence. Lenora didn't know what to do next, for the girl still remained silent. The witch's mind was submerged in irritation when she developed the perfect plan to make Eloise tell her where the secret gloves were.
"I am allowing you one more chance. Unless you provide me the knowledge of the where the gloves currently lay, your beloved sister will perish from this world," Lenora fiendishly clarified.
"How can you harm my sister? She may be in danger, but she is safe from the likes of you."
"Child, your idea of where your beloved is, well, quite tarnished in that sense. She is nearer and in greater danger than you could believe. Now you see, if you fail to tell me where these instruments of magic are, your sister shall perish and what will you have? You shall have nothing more than a broken soul, alone in this world without a family relation and enveloped in guilt, for it was by your hand that your sister shall die," Lenora told her, knowing the consequences were too terrible for words to describe.
Although Eloise was dressed in the greatest finery at the time, she was stripped from her dignity and all that held value in her life as she explained where the gloves were. The gloves were ultimately not as important as her sister's fate and Lenora grinned in anticipation until Eloise finished her last word.
"Such a gullible dunce you are! Now that my magic will be returned, both of you shall serve me for all eternity!"
Eloise felt betrayed and dim-witted. Why didn't I see this coming? She pondered. Lenora shoved her into a birdcage with Iris still in ferret form, but Eloise had no idea the furry rodent was her sister. Instantly, Lenora disappeared and Iris was desperately trying to communicate with her sister. She eventually gave up since she could not speak a human word while she was an animal. Eloise usually got along with small animals well, so she held Iris in her lap while she waited for Lenora's return.