Chapter 3: The Dwarves,
When Snow awoke, she was surrounded by many short faces. She soon discovered that the home didn't belong to children, but instead little men; seven little men to be exact. The house belonged to seven dwarves.
It turned out that the dwarves were a part of the mining community, and they had just come home from a long day of unpaid work. They had come back to the house to notice that the door was a jar. The stepped inside and noticed everything was as it was, but across the dusty floor were footprints that lead upstairs. They followed to the bed room and found the young girl.
Snow was particularly taller than the men, despite her age, and took up more than one bed. When she woke from her sleep and saw them, she was a little shocked. It was rather scandalous for a girl of her age to be alone with one man, let alone seven. She knew she was intruding, so she immediately began to apologize.
"I'm sorry, I should never have entered. I was just going to wait outside for your return, but it was getting dark you see, and I was afraid of becoming prey to a hungry bear or wolf. So, then I was simply going to wait inside for you to come home, and leave as soon as you got here, but I found myself looking around. When I found the bedroom my fatigue overtook me, and I couldn't help but fall asleep, even though I knew I shouldn't. Now that you are home, and I have obviously disturbed you by my presence, I will go now, if you could just point me to the nearest town where I could stay the night." Snow White muttered as she stumbled to get up, "Then I will be on my way, and I'll never bother you again." She said curtseying in apology.
The dwarves looked her over, and noticed how scared the little girl was. The bottom of her dress was in tatters and her arms were covered in scratches from running through brambles. Her face looked flushed, but otherwise it looked like she hadn't seen much sun in her life. She looked thin and boney, like hadn't eaten much, and she was covered in dirt. She was probably running away from a tormenter of some kind. They couldn't send her back outside to the mercy of the wolves.
"You're right," the head dwarf said, and for a moment Snow White looked shocked, but then she nodded politely.
"It is getting late," Another Dwarf said, "and the nearest town isn't for miles." Snow looked a little heartbroken, but she remained polite.
"I'm sure I'll manage." She said, "Now which direction is it in." She asked,
The head dwarf shook his head, "There is a town a few days east from here, but how about you stay the night. We head off to work in that direction anyway, we can always give you a ride tomorrow." He suggested.
Snow looked a little unsure. She hardly knew these men, she wasn't sure if she could trust them. Yet, their plan sounded better than hers, which would most likely get her killed. So after a moment of consideration, she nodded.
"If I'm going to stay here, even if it's only for a night, I'm going to need to know your names." She told them, the dwarves looked at each other for a moment in confusion. "We don't know..." said the head dwarf.
"What do you mean you 'don't know'?" Snow asked,
"We only use our names at work." A quiet dwarf explained, "At home, we don't say...so if anyone comes looking, they can't find us."
"That's okay; someone's looking for me too. I understand. I need to have something to call all of you though. Do you have any nicknames?" She asked them,
"Yes we do," said the head dwarf, "I'm Doc,"
"The shy one is Bashful..."
"The optimistic one is happy..."
"The one passed out on the floor is sleepy..."
"The one with the handkerchief is sneezy..."
"The scowling one is Grumpy. Don't mind him..."
"And then there's Dopey, he doesn't talk." Doc said, "What shall we call you?" he asked, and Snow had to think about it for a moment.
She had a famous name, but no one had seen her in many years. These dwarves didn't recognize her as the Princess. She was named at birth based on her appearance, for she was as 'white as snow'. Now she could be called, "Scratchy" or "Hag" for dishevelled appearance. These dwarfs had names based off their personalities. This could be her chance to branch out. She thought about herself, and what her personality was like.
She had to go off of her own intuition, for she had no one to talk to for all those years except the birds and her step-mother, he didn't like her presence and was insistent on insulting her. She guessed she could be called 'Kindness', for she was kind, but that wasn't really a name. She thought back to her previous conversations; the one with David, and the one with the Huntsman. She knew what name would be a good one for her. "You can call me, Hope." She told them.
A/N: I told you I would write more. So that's the end of this chapter. I wonder if I chose the right fake name for Snow White. You may have noticed, but I'm adding a sense of political correctness to this. I just didn't like how stupid, rude, and pushy Snow White was in the original. So I made her a little smarter. I hope that's okay.