Love at First Song
Chapter Ten: The Lecture
"I just can't believe her," Pip ranted. "Did you see her? Looking in the mirror at herself practically naked, parading around like a proud peacock." He looked quickly at a peacock in the middle of preening itself. "Sorry, Pete." He stopped to regain his composure. "She's selfish, and vain, and… she's a woman," he concluded, looking absolutely scandalized.
All of the animals glanced around at each other, wide-eyed. They had no idea what he was talking about.
Pip, being the eldest and obviously most mature of the animals, sighed in exasperation. He clasped his paws together, trying to think of a way to put it delicately. Be discreet.
"Let's just say," he whispered loudly, "that Giselle wasn't exactly telling us the truth when she was talking about the whole lips thing."
The congregation of creatures exchanged looks of confusion and began whispering amongst each other.
"No matter," Pip said quickly, realizing forcing these young animals to comprehend the matters of adulthood was probably foolish, and solved none of his problems. "You'll get it later."
"But Pip…"
"What?" he snapped at Stormy Squirrel.
"I miss her," came the miserable reply.
"Whooo?" asked Mr. Owl.
"Giselle," Faith replied knowingly, twining a comforting hoof around Stormy. "Me too."
"We can still see her," someone said with a snort. "She's not dead, ya know."
"No," Pip said cautiously. "She's not dead. But at least when we thought so, we could remember her the way she was. As Giselle. Now she's somebody different."
He looked out the window of their little hollow-tree hideout, heaving a great sigh.
"She's dead to me."
--
Giselle, still quite distraught over the apparent end to her and Pip's friendship, shuffled through the hallways with her head down. The dress she had begged for made her feel all exposed, and worst of all, it blended with the walls, and the carpet. She wished she had just listened to Pip. Pip was always right.
"Oh, well. It's always nice to make new friends," she said halfheartedly to herself.
She hadn't meant to be so hurtful towards him and all of her other forest animal friends. She was so confused. She thought her place had been with Edward. But now it appeared otherwise. Growing up with her animal friends had been wonderful, but they didn't belong in a castle. So she felt that, perhaps, she might not either. She found herself stuck somewhere in limbo between her old life and her new one, wishing that she could be in them both comfortably instead of discouraged from living in either.
A sudden shriek thrust her from the wall. Startled, she instinctively flattened herself in the wall. Camouflage is a very important defense mechanism, Faith reminded her.
"Oh my," she whispered, hearing another cry. "That sounded like Aurora."
Frightened but nonetheless determined to protect her young friend, Giselle pushed open the nearest door.
"Giselle!" Aurora screamed. "No!"
"Oh. Princess," Queen Narissa said, looking up and feigning surprise. Her hand was poised dangerously close to Aurora's throat, and a loud hum of electricity buzzed through her fingers. "What a pleasant surprise. Aurora here has just been dying to see you." She cackled before blasting the girl with a bolt of electricity that threw her against the wall.
"Leave her alone," Giselle said coldly, her tone commanding despite her hammering heart.
"Oh, my dear. Rule number one: never question your superiors," Narissa chided, her voice dripping with fake sympathy. "You have so much to learn." She paused. "Too bad you'll never get the chance."
Giselle took a hesitant step back, inhaling sharply as her back bumped against a wall. She couldn't escape now.
"Aurora has been such a great help to me. You see, now that I have her, I also have you. While it wouldn't make much sense to let either of you go – not that you could escape, anyway – I know how much your poor little heart is aching to make an exchange. So, what do you say?"
Looking to Aurora, Giselle's eyes searched hers.
"Don't do it, Giselle. I'm okay," she said weakly, cowering in the corner.
"You took me away from all of my forest friends. I'm not going to let you take my new friend from me now," she said, straightening up and regaining the ground she'd lost by stepping back.
"No! Giselle! You're making a mistake!" Aurora cried, struggling to get to her feet before collapsing in a heap to the floor.
"Bravo," Narissa applauded her, grinning wickedly. "Get out of here, you little wretch."
She lifted the small girl in some sort of electric bubble, forced open the door, and tossed her out.
"Finally. It's just you and me." She looked with disdain upon the men, still on the floor. "Well, except for them." She kicked one of the men, who only uttered a faint moan. "Now I can talk to you alone."
Trembling slightly but trying to hide it, Giselle clenched her hands into fists behind her back. What was this? A session of queenly confession?
"You
think you have it all under control, don't you?" she snapped. "You put my son under your little spell. All your little animals
adore you. And the whole town shows up to your funeral. You can
thank me for that, by the way. I cast a little spell on you. And
that tea was poisoned. These two men here were hired to kill you. But the idiots captured the wrong girl. I suppose if you want
something done right, you have to do it yourself."
"You tried
to kill me?" Giselle gasped in surprise. "But—why? I wanted
to be friends with you."
The queen laughed cruelly.
"Me? Friends with a forest rat with you? I'm afraid your brain is a little addled from all that wine last night, Princess. The only reason I was nice to you was because I was trying to gain your trust, so I could rip it away," she said, in a voice that was inhumanely calm given the subject matter.
"Why are you telling me all this?"
"Nobody else will listen," she replied simply. "Though, I must say, I have that fat fellow wrapped right around my finger." She zapped a spot on the floor with this finger to emphasize. "Besides, it doesn't really matter. I'm going to kill you anyway."
Past the point of being in fear for her life, Giselle was determined to try and find out the evil queen's reasoning.
"What do you want, Narissa?" Giselle demanded, inching forth bravely until her face was only centimeters away from the queen's.
"I want my kingdom back," she snarled. "I know where this is going. The seemingly sweet little peasant girl shows up, and then just when I think all is going well, she stabs me in the back."
"I would never—"
"Don't lie to me! I've consulted my mirror, my magic orb, and all of the town quacks. All along you've been plotting against me."
"They were just telling you what you wanted to hear!" Giselle cried accusingly, surprised that the voice speaking these hateful words was her own. "They were too scared of you to say otherwise." She raised her chin a notch. "I may not be as smart as you, Narissa, but I know the real fake. And it's you. You just wanted an excuse to get rid of me, just so you could crush the dreams of the townspeople and have no one to stand up to you."
"How dare you!" Narissa shrieked, smacking Giselle across the face.
Collapsing at the force of the blow, Giselle lay still on the floor for a moment, in a daze. Before she knew it, Narissa was standing over her, one finger arched at a frightening angle, jolts of blue firing from it unpredictably.
"Anything else you would like to say to me, Princess?"
Weakly, Giselle pushed herself up to her elbows. Apparently surprised at this small show of strength, Narissa took a step back.
"Yes. There is."
Narissa's eyes narrowed.
"You may be able to defeat me. But when the whole kingdom stands up to you and finally revokes your evil ways, you will be the one who is – how do you say it? – taken down."
"Oh, dear, you really do have quite a small mind, don't you?" Narissa sighed. "I suppose you need to be shown what big really looks like."
She took a step back and lifted her head to the sky.
"Speciosus formosus praeclarus!"
Giselle gasped as Narissa suddenly grew larger and larger, transforming into a horrific but beautiful dragon. Her giant head easily broke through the stone ceiling of the castle. She shook it off and looked down at the tiny princess with a toothy smile.
"Look at that. The roof comes right off. Nice feature."
Horrified, Giselle shrunk back against the wall, doing the best she could to make herself invisible. She had known Narissa was a witch, but this was insane.
"Oh, so now the brave princess is scared of a little lizard?"
She threw her head back and cackled.
Closing her eyes, Giselle pressed herself against the wall.
"Oh, my."