Anne yawned wearily as Poppy trudged along the path after hours of travelling.
"How are you feeling, girl?" she asked softly to which a squawk was her reply "Yeah, I'm tired too, you want to rest?"
Poppy seemed defiant to continue the journey so Anne didn't argue, just leaned her head against the soft red feathers. Anne looked ahead lazily and her eyes widened when she saw a figure stood in their path. She was about to halt Poppy to talk to her when she sensed an ominous aura coming from this woman. She hesitated, halting Poppy whilst looking at the woman ahead. Was she a witch? Such terrifying power…it chilled Anne to the bone. But the young Wiccan swallowed down her uneasiness and progressed over to the woman, clearing her throat.
"Excuse me, miss?" she said timidly and met with the woman's fierce crimson eyes "Uh, have you seen a young woman who looks like me come here?"
The woman regarded her with slight interest and her lips curled up into a smirk.
"A little far from home are you, dear?" she purred and Poppy flinched at her tone.
"A little, yes, but that's not important," Anne said dismissively "Have you seen my sister?"
"A half Wiccan like yourself with long black hair and red eyes has passed me," the woman admitted "However, you should turn back. This is a cursed kingdom and its cursed king won't be kind to a young girl like yourself."
Anne tensed at the mention of Wiccan but when the woman's eyes drifted to her ritual knife at her belt, she relaxed, almost smacking herself for her stupidity. She covered the knife with her cloak and hunched her shoulders.
"Do you practice magic too?" she asked shyly.
"Indeed, I do," the woman nodded "I'm a Stregherian."
Anne's eyes widened at the word.
"I thought they were wiped out many decades ago," she whispered.
"I am the last of my bloodline," the Stregherian sighed as she looked mournful "My family, killed at the hands of the very cursed king who resides in the land at the end of this road."
She cast her eyes towards the dark forest which wasn't very far from where they were. Anne glanced at the forest with her, swallowing a nervous gulp.
"Turn back," the woman instructed "He will kill you too."
"But you said my sister entered this kingdom," Anne said "I need to find her."
"Turn back now and save yourself."
Anne glanced down at the woman.
"I appreciate your warning," she said "But my sister has a fiancé waiting back at home and she doesn't even practice magic like me."
"How do you know she is still alive?"
"I would have felt it," Anne said confidently "And I know Tifa can defend herself just fine."
"The king holds no sympathy. Only greed, anger and pride."
"You can tell me everything about how dangerous this king really is," Anne said as she urged Poppy forward "But nothing will deter me from at least trying to rescue my sister. Goodnight."
Poppy squawked in protest briefly before going into the forest. The woman lingered on the road with an amused smirk.
"Defiant," she purred "Interesting."
Anne looked up at the eerie castle with Poppy behind her, her Book of Shadows in her hand as she looked around the overgrown village.
"Well…" she mumbled "Cursed is one way to describe this place."
Poppy chirruped uneasily and Anne turned to cuddle her soothingly.
"I'll be right back," she said before going through the iron gates and towards the castle doors.
She looked up at the castle doors before glancing at the padlock which bound them. She examined the runes carefully and huffed.
"This is Shinto language," she murmured "I was just about to go into studying that."
She took her knife out and slit her fingertip to tap the lock carefully.
"Priminade, arwysr!"
She watched at the runes shifted into a language which she could read and pronounce the runes correctly.
"O-Opunu…ne…" she whispered with narrowed eyes "O…no…kokoro…ima, ima…su?"
She cleared her throat and tried again.
"Opunu," she said more confidently "Ne o no kokoro ima su."
The padlock clicked and she took it off the door handles, the doors opening as if welcoming her in. She wandered in warily, placing the padlock down on the floor before going towards the staircase and ascending it. She stopped when she spotted a glove on one of the adjoining staircases and recognized it to be Tifa's.
"She is here!" she sighed as she knelt down to pick the garment up "Thank goodness!"
She pressed her bloody finger against the black leather and closed her eyes.
"Spwr, Tifa…"
She turned and twisted her head as she began locating Tifa within the castle before gasping at the sight of her sister, bruised and injured in a prison cell in a tower. She stood and ran up the stairs with determined eyes.
"You let another one in?!" Cid burst through the bedroom, his dingo tail fluffed up as he chewed on his toothpick.
"Oi!" Aerith exclaimed as she and Zack covered themselves with a blanket.
"Ye gods!" Cid looked away "Put a damn lock on the door when you're going to go at it like bitches in heat!"
"Well knock!" Zack protested.
"Wait, what do you mean let another one in?" Aerith frowned.
"You know what I mean," Cid grumbled as the couple began putting clothes on "Another girl into the castle, you saw what happened with that chick that tried to go up against the king."
"I never let another girl into the castle, I was here all the time with Zack!" Aerith protested.
"Well somebody did," Genesis sighed as he came up behind Cid "Angeal's with the king now so it wasn't him."
"Yuffie probably did it," Zack shrugged.
"Oi," a young girl with jackal ears poked her head out from under the bed.
"How long were you there for?" Aerith asked with flushed cheeks.
"All morning, I was looking for new hiding spots to keep my rune stones," Yuffie pouted "Now I have to move them again."
"Wait so, none of us here did it," Genesis said slowly as he pointed around the room "Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo don't know how to undo the lock… Kunsel and Luxiere are keeping an eye on the girl from before…"
"That lock has magic properties, only one with the right knowledge, skill and magic can undo it," Zack frowned.
"Which is why we put it on the doors so the right person could come along for His Majesty…" Aerith whispered.
There was a silent pause of realisation before everyone morphed into their canine forms to run out and find this mysterious girl.
Anne's feet hurt as she ran down the stone corridors, hitching her skirt up to climb the stairs better and not trip up. Her head spun as she stopped at the sight of two massive dogs, one a Great Dane and the other a Rottweiler. They growled at her from their place on top of the staircase and she swallowed uneasily, stepping back.
"There's always something…" she muttered as she opened her book to look down at the contents.
However, at the sight of the Book of Shadows, the dogs stopped growling and she chanced to look up. They were staring at her curiously as she flicked through to the spell section of the book. Then, they lay down submissively, like trained puppies. Anne raised her eyebrows in disbelief and kept her book open before stepping forward. There was no reaction, even when she got to the stop of the staircase, they simply looked up at her as if she was their mistress. Anne didn't like this, something was up. Not once turning her back to them, she backed away towards the door before opening it.
"Shiaseru."
Anne jumped and looked at the Rottweiler with wide eyes.
"You spoke!" she accused then felt a surge of energy flit past her "You spoke and something happened, what did you do?!"
Both dogs looked up lazily at her and she swallowed uneasily, stepping back into the room behind her and closing the door. She looked around and her eyes found a comatose looking Tifa.
"Tifa!" she cried as she ran to the cell and reached out to grab her arm "Tifa, Tifa!"
She huffed at the lack of response and pulled her sister over so she could take a look at where she was bleeding from her head. She whined in discomfort before checking for a pulse, relieved when she felt one and grabbed her bottle of healing oil from her pouch. She smeared the amber liquid over Tifa's bleeding patch before grabbing a sprig of herbs and holding it under her nose.
"Pyyra!"
The sprig caught alight and its fumes greeted Tifa's nose who stirred and opened her eyes slowly.
"Anne?" she whispered softly and Anne doused the lit sprig briefly and she sat up "Anne! What are you-ow!"
She hissed as she rubbed her side, wincing at the pain that wracked her body.
"Ow, I think I bruised something," she whined as Anne placed a hand over her shoulder and closed her eyes.
"Dyagansys…" she whispered whilst closing her eyes and wincing as she examined Tifa's body.
"Anne, I said no more magic," Tifa groaned.
"Magic is what got me here in the first place to save you, idiot!" Anne scolded as she opened her eyes to glare at her sister "You have three bruised ribs, some internal bleeding in the abdomen and a crack leg bone! What happened?!"
"Anne, there's a creature…a monster, here in this castle," Tifa groaned as she shifted uncomfortably "You need to run, you need to get out of here!"
"Not without you," Anne said as she stood to examine the lock on the cell "I can bust this open and we can leave, get you back home, get you looked at, get you safe…"
"No-one," a snarl cut across the room "is going anywhere."
A foul stench met Anne's nose as she froze on the spot, lock in hand and Tifa growled.
"Don't you dare lay your paws on my sister!" she spat at the person behind Anne.
Anne didn't turn as a shadow loomed over her and the person behind her sniffed her curiously. She was shaking at the ominous tone in his voice when he spoke and she felt a dark aura which made her magic core within her quiver in fear.
"How could you unlock the padlock?" he growled "You're only half Wiccan."
Anne gulped as she didn't dare to look back.
"S-Simple tr-translation spell…" she explained "You're a Shinto, aren't you? That was Shinto language on that padlock…"
There was a displeased growl and Anne closed her eyes, whining in fear.
"Why do you have my sister here?" she asked.
"She was trespassing," was her answer "No-one can simply waltz in here without facing the consequences."
Anne was shaking more violently now, resisting the urge to throw up at the stench, fear and dark magic surrounding her.
"Are…are you the cursed king?" she asked enticing a surprised sound from the person behind her.
"How could you have known?" he demanded.
"The Stregherian in red warned me about you," Anne explained as she gripped the lock tighter for a sense of comfort.
She gasped as she felt hot breath down her neck.
"What did she tell you about me?" he asked as Anne choked down a scream.
"You hold no sympathy," she echoed the woman's words "Only greed, anger and pride. You killed her family and if I came here, you will kill me too."
There was an amused sounding growl and Anne's eyes widened when large, silver, furry hands with long black claws came around to enclose her tiny hands around the lock.
"Don't touch her!" Tifa roared but was silenced by the creature's roar which made Anne bit her lip to hide her pain and fear as her ears began ringing from the roar.
She felt the fur tickling her arms from the creature's arms, a strong chest pressed up against her back and the legs sandwiching her hips to keep her from collapsing. She whimpered, tears coming out of her eyes as she trembled in the creature's strong grip.
"You're either very stupid or brave to come here despite that whore's warning," he growled "I could tear you from limb to limb, decapitate you slowly, rip your body apart and eat your internal organs."
Anne cried a bit more violently, hiccupping and coughing from the fear pooling in her stomach. His dark magic was surrounding her weaker magic core of light, suffocating her, driving her insane and she held back the bile building up in her throat. She swallowed back harshly as Tifa tried to attack the creature but was held down by a binding spell. She looked down at her sister in dismay before bowing her head, tears falling into the silver fur of the creature's arms.
"I-If y-y-you kill me," she whimpered "w-would you let my sister go?"
There was a pause as Tifa looked up at her in disbelief.
"Beg pardon?" the creature's voice rumbled, making its chest vibrate against her back.
"Let Tifa go," Anne hiccupped "and let me take her place."
"Anne, no!" Tifa exclaimed in horror.
"What's in it for me?" the cursed king snarled.
"I am willing to sacrifice anything and everything in order for my sister's safety," Anne said "Let her go back home and I will remain here for you to do as you wish. I will obey your every word without question as long as I know Tifa is safe and at home."
She winced as the king's paws gripped her hands tighter around the lock before loosening up and the lock came apart in her hands. It fell to the floor as the legs holding her hips steady left and she finally let her legs collapse. She was caught and carried over to the seat by the small tower window where she screwed her eyes shut, hiccupping violently as she sobbed, gripping the front of her dress in the hopes that the ache in her chest would ease up.
"Look at me."
True to her promise, Anne obeyed and mustered the courage to look up at the cursed king and her breath stopped momentarily. Striking green eyes looked down at her as she saw a large humanoid artic fox. His build was strong and scary, he was tall, probably eight foot tall or more. Nine white tails hung behind him as Anne could see between his legs which were clothed in black leather. She winced as he raised a large furry hand and relaxed a little as he pressed it against her cheek.
"Good girl," he said mockingly "We have a deal."
"What?!" Tifa exclaimed as he strode over towards her "No! No deal! Anne!"
"Tifa!" Anne held a hand out when the king began dragging her out by the ankle.
"Stay!"
Anne winced and forced herself to remain seated there, watching as Tifa screamed in protest while getting dragged out of the room. She buried her face in her hands and began sobbing uncontrollably.
"No, don't listen to her!" Tifa screeched as she was dragged through the castle "She's only eighteen, she doesn't know what she's saying, let her go, keep me!"
"Silence!" Sephiroth bellowed as he arrived at the stables.
He slung the martial artist onto the black Chocobo nearby which was already saddled and glancing at the red Chocobo which the half-Wiccan had brought with her.
"Poppy?!" Tifa exclaimed as Sephiroth muttered a spell to tie her to the saddle "Hey!"
Sephiroth ignored her struggles as he took the Chocobo by the reins and led it out into the courtyard where a Dhole, a Gray Wolf and a White Shepherd greeted him at the gates. He let go of the reins and shoved the Chocobo on its rump, encouraging it to run out towards the exit of the kingdom. The gates slowly closed as the Gray Wolf looked up at the tower where Anne's silhouette was seen.
"Is she the one?" he asked curiously to which Sephiroth sneered.
"We'll just have to wait and see," he said before heading back inside.