"Snow White!" called Prince Charming, arising in a very regal and cocky way from the bridge. "Did you see the size of that troll? And did you see how I took him on? I was pretty good, if I do say so myself. And-" he stopped mid sentence, noticing that Snow White was laying on the ground, seemingly unconscious. Letting out a very un-prince like squeak, he ran to the side of his fair maiden. "Snow White!" he yelled out to her, though she could not hear him in her present dream state.

"What happened?" With a rather worried expression, he turned to Daisy, waiting expectantly for an answer. He sat next to his princess, running his fingers through her dark curls, admiring how calm and peaceful she looked while sleeping. He took the hand closest to him and cradled it, in a very loving way.

"She was almost-almost-" Daisy stuttered, still looking up at the clouds where Crane had disappeared after saving Snow from being squished by the troll's hands.

The prince's eyes snapped up to Daisy's face the moment she started to make noise, and he couldn't believe that she was getting emotional over something as small as a human life. Somewhere between feeling concerned for Snow White and now, the prince had started to think of her as only a pest. He knew something was happening to him, but could not stop the words from coming out of his mouth. He could only watch as someone else used his body.

"Come on then, spit it out!" The prince said, irritably. He felt horrid for snapping at her, but could not stop himself from doing so, he couldn't even move on his own.

"You aren't the real prince, are you?" Daisy asked calmly, looking at the now cruel face of Charming with a skeptical face and one eyebrow raised. She crossed her arms over her chest and scowled.

"Why would you say that, tree nymph? And dare you question a royal of their status?" He said, shocked that someone as lowly as she talk to him in that manner, as if he were an unwanted pest. His body language was that of complete narcissism and irritation. The real him was trapped on the inside.

"Yes, I dare to, because the real Prince Charming would not think of himself as higher than another. Plus, the real prince would cry for Snow White, and would care for her for her much more, and hide her from the troll before attacking. Or they would form a plan to take out the troll together instead running in blindly like a chicken with its head cut off." She stated simply, rolling her eyes as if it were the most obvious thing in the whole world. Gesturing with her hands, she then glared at the supposed prince. It was a crime to imposture a royal, even if that royal was from a different country.

"Ah, but little nymph, you won't be able to stop me from following out my orders, straight from the Queen herself." He said, proudly. Puffing out his chest a bit more, he took a step closer to Daisy, and she took a step away.

"Why won't I be able to tell Snow again?" Daisy asked boldly, a death glare coming from her usually kind eyes. Taking a small step closer, she noticed that she was, in fact correct. Everyone knew that the real prince had a birth mark on his neck, close to his right side collarbone.

"Because you won't be able to breath, move, or talk. In other words, you will be missing something." the fake prince said to her.

"And what is that?" Daisy asked, curious. Her lips curled into a devious smirk, she took another small step towards him.

"A heartbeat." He replied smoothly, only fake remorse in his voice. He was faker than a crocodile's tears.

Crane paced back and forth in his little room. To even consider it a room would be extreme exaggeration. All it could hold was a tiny cot, a desk filled with blank papers, ink and pens, and then a small stool. He probably couldn't even lay down in the bed without having to tuck his legs to his chin. The window beside the desk seemed to be taunting him, teasing him with the thought of flying out in his crow form to save Snow White from the Prince Charming fraud.

It had been the Queen's idea to put an imposture prince and tell him that he would be able to protect Snow White. But in reality, she would control him and use him to take Snow White as hostage, and give Snow over to her. When she was done with him, he would be killed because he knew too much about the Queen's magic using and killings.

If Snow only knew what he would do to be next to her forever; protecting her, making her laugh, and just adventuring everywhere the eye could see. But of course, he was just Crane. The Queen's servant, the lowly crow, son of a great ruler, and the big disappointment to his father, too. Why would she care about him? She was the most beautiful girl and he was, well, him. How would never be worthy to be her friend, nor her servant.

He remembered what he was about to tell Snow before he was forced to leave. Crane was going to tell her to protect herself and her locket. The locket was special, and held a magical value. From what he learned from the Queen, when someone grows attached to something, like the locket, it will start to hold a piece of that person's life force and if you; for example, put that object under water, the person will start to choke for no apparent reason. But she didn't know that and if the Queen found out about her locket, Snow was as good as gone.

Letting out a cry of frustration, Crane raised his bar foot and kicked the leg of the small desk. "Ow!" he exclaimed, holding his foot tenderly.

Sitting down in defeat, he took out a piece of paper, deciding to do something while stuck in this little prison cell. Picking up the pen, he took a moment to think of what he should draw. After pondering for a bit, he snapped his fingers with his sudden inspiration. He leaned forward in the chair, in deep concentration. He could not mess up a single stoke, for then it would a crime against the beauty he was drawing.

Dipping his drawing tool into the ink, Crane began with a few gentle and elegant strokes of his hand, and the beginning of a face stared back at him with the outline of beautiful orbs. He knew who he was drawing, he had memorized this face and couldn't ever forget it.

Finally, signing his name with a flourish in the right bottom corner, he finished the master piece. And he smiled a sorrowful grin. In full detail there was his favorite person in the whole wide world on the paper. Her small, yet full, lips smiled a sad smile without teeth, and her eyebrows seemed to dip then scrunch together; as if she were in pain. Her beauty was breathtaking, yet this was only a drawing of her.

It was the one and only, Snow White.

"Noo!" The Queen screamed in anguish as another part of her feather pendant cracked. It seemed that whenever she was just thinking that she had a grip on things, another thing goes wrong!

When she gets Snow White, she will to be sure to make her feel all of the frustration that she did during this little cat and mouse chase. It was very pathetic, really, the Queen thought, Snow White should know by now that though in all of the books, the good win, but in reality, I will never lose.

The Queen had locked up all of the little characters from the tales that would have otherwise been on Snow White's side. The Queen stared out of her window at the pathetic little commoners in the disgusting village. I should really tear that down, she thought.

Clutching the feather pendant, she inspected it closely. And with a gasp, she saw that the magic that held Crane as her unwilling servant was leaking out in a black mist. Oozing from the cracks, the magic on him was getting weaker, even the Queen could feel the magic in the air.

Her next task, finding out what caused her magic to weaken and what caused the cracks to appear in her onyx feather.

Letting the necklace hang on her neck once more, the Queen strode out of her chamber room, marching down the many hallways with two guards, she went to the small closet like room that she was holding Crane t the moment. She needed to have him spy on Snow White again, and this time she will use all of the force she could muster from the little magic left in her hard feather necklace.

Opening the door, she was met with an empty room. Gasping in horror, she turned to her two guards.

"Search the castle! Search the palace grounds! Find Crane NOW! " she screamed. They scurried off to relay the information to the rest of the guards.

She needed that boy and when she had him in her hand again, he would get a very severe punishment.

As the Queen mulled over what his punishment should be, she found the perfect idea. Since he was showing a love and caring touch towards Snow White, I will have him watch her as she dies. That should be sufficient.

The Queen turned sharply on he heel and walked back to her chamber room, ready to do the thing she loves the most.

Cause pain and sorrow to those around her, especially Snow White and the real Prince Charming.

Daisy staggers backwards, shocked that he would resort to killing. Looking closer at the fraud, she noticed a black cloud that seemed to be around. Identifying it as black magic, she realized that someone must be controlling him.

With a little effort, she used her earth abilities that come along with being a nymph to wrap vines around him, like a mummy. She took a step closer and pondered what she could do to help him.

"How dare you! Le me go, at once!"He screamed at her in frustration and agitation. His curly blonde hair seemed to be a bit messy and his clothes crumpled and wrinkled from fighting a troll.

With an eye roll and a flick of her hand, Daisy's vines wound around his mouth, letting him breath through his nose. She walked closer and then decided that a powerful life source would be able to break his trance.

Looking around she notices Snow White groaning, and trying to get up. Snow White was definitely strong and her aura should be enough to snap the fake prince from being controlled by the dark magic.

"Snow White! I need your help!" Daisy said, running to the place where she lay on the ground. Daisy's hair had came out of the bun she had put it in a little earlier, for the supposed adventure.

"What?" Snow moaned, rubbing her head. Wincing as Daisy pulled her up, she stumbled a bit before Daisy took her arm and led her to the boy wrapped in vines.

"I need you to come and-" Daisy stopped herself. Gasping at the sight in front of her, she could feel her heart beating painfully against her chest. The fake prince was gone. But what really scared her was he fact that she didn't know where he was. Her powers could only work a little magic and she probably drained it for the day. Snow White was pretty much out of it, which left them with no help or way to defend themselves.

"Didn't think you could escape the Queen so easily, did you?" asked a cold voice behind them.