Author's Note: Ah reviews, how I love you, and just four away from having three reviews, to every one chapter too. It has been something of a long term goal of mine for my stories in case any of you didn't know. Read, Review, Favorite, and Enjoy!
Anointed Author's Note: First order of business, Apple and her reactions to death. What I wanted to show here is that death is something that Apple was raised to be able to ignore. So she did so in favor of trying to figure out why Nevermore killed these people. None the less I did make some changes here, namely having Apple actively restrain Nevermore in a effort to keep the body count from going any higher.
Chapter 10: I am Here to Rescue You, Magic Mirror
Admittedly it took Apple a minuet to get her barrings back together, she'd strongly suspected that Nevermore wasn't expecting to find herself in the middle of a shop when she dived headfirst into that mirror portal. Moaning Apple pulled herself onto her feet, her vision blurry from something wet dripping into her eyes from above. A second crash snapped her to attention as Nevermore shook the remains of whatever they landed on off of her. Irritated, the dragon shot a blast of fire at the nearby door while Apple stumbled about before collapsing again.
"Apple!? APPLE!"
Apple awoke to the feeling of something getting injected into her neck, looking over to a window she saw that her head had been bandaged, and checking her pulse was Dexter.
"Oh what happened?" The sore girl who was rapidly losing the feeling in her body from pain killers asked.
"You tell us. One minuet we were marching through the mirror over here, and the next we're being dive bombed by you on the back of Raven's dragon." Having completed his check up of Apple, Dexter walked out through the destroyed store front of a window, where in he saw a town that had been ransacked.
"What happened here?" Apple asked, mixed looks of confusion and horror on her features.
"Again, you got here first." As Dexter said that, a familiar screech that haunted his dreams ever since the night Raven lost her leg echoed throughout the air. "Speaking of, I believe that's the dragon you came here with."
A group of knights had surrounded Nevermore. The dragon attacked first, leaping onto the shoulders of one of the men, spiked tail and wings smacked weapons away from her while close quarters blasts of fire rendered the men unrecognizable via the face. A quick snap of the neck accompanied the fall of Nevermore's make shift perch, burning flesh and melted metal forming a upward draft as Nevermore took off into the air. The men attempted to load their crossbows to fire at the dragon, but were not fast enough as she rained down bursts of fire knocking them over, the dragon walked over and pinned the last surviving and conscious knight to the ground.
"Nevermore!" Apple shouted rushing over to the black beast with a knight pinned beneath her in question. "What are you doing!?" Apple was pointedly not looking at chard masses of burnt flesh and melted metal on the ground. Her stomach was turning already and it took a great deal of will power to keep it down.
The dragon only gave Apple a dissatisfied snarl as she resumed looking into her prisoner's eyes.
"Get this monster off of me!" Apple narrowed a glare at the soldier.
"In a minuet." Apple grabbed hold of Nevermore's collar, the strength that was enhanced by years of dining on Riordan's buffing type food was loosing against the naturally boisterous strength of a dragon. "Are you here investigating who ransacked the town?" Apple asked, she wanted to believe in the best of people, but Nevermore attacked this man and already killed his associates, and while she has not known the dragon for very long, she did understand that she wasn't in the business of randomly attacking people.
"Investigate it? We perpetrated it!" Apple's features cringed up like she smelt something disgusting, and it wasn't the chard meat that was a few feet away.
"Why?" Apple asked warding off her feelings of disgust.
"Why else? A Riordan Town harboring the Evil Queen's cult, the Scar backs! Providing food and troops to the Riordan war machine!" The man only spat out some propaganda sounding thing in response.
"Talk, or I shall let the dragon eat you." Even though Apple said that, she strongly suspected that she wouldn't be 'letting' Nevermore do anything any time soon. That said, Nevermore still reinforced Apple's threat with a snap at the man's nose.
"I do not talk to the allies of the Evil Queen!" The knight snapped, Nevermore's jaws inches from his face despite both his and Apple's best efforts.
"That woman has been in a cage for the better part of a decade, what does she have to do with it?" Apple asked cocking a suspicious brow.
"Do not play the fool with me girl!" The Knight stated between struggling to keep Nevermore away from his throat. "She is no less the Evil Queen as her mother and her mother before her!" Apple admittedly was taken back by that statement, so much so that she felt Nevermore slip just a little, it was not The Evil Queen these people had a ire against, it was Raven, but they were after her because she's the daughter of the previous Evil Queen. "Even a blind fool can see that this town has become a breeding ground for the Evil Queen's minions, funneling resources into their war machine!"
Apple admitted that she knew very little about warfare, but this town was not a staging ground for a army, stands full of food that had been left out to rot by these barbarians, the closest thing to a weapon that her eyes could see were farming tools, and these houses were not suitably equipped to provide protection against anything worst then a cold winter's breeze.
"Indeed, a blind fool could see how this town can be a military base." Apple's tone was understanding, her face was not. Her face was tired and losing patience, if this interrogation did not end soon it would turn into a execution. "So then fool, tell me what you did with these 'Scar Backs' or I shall have no other choice, but to let my associate here eat you!"
Later the members of the rest of the party returned from chasing shadows in the woods. They had already fought against the majority of these soldiers, and for their troubles came back wounded but alive.
"So as I understand it." Professor Charming stated rubbing the sides of his temples. "After patching up Apple White, the young Princess of the White Family, the ruling family of the United Fairy Tale Kingdoms, who also has a concussion, you neglected to take her back to the school and choose to allow her to stay in a war zone with a temperamental fire breathing monster and a army of witch hunting religious fanatics running around. Why?"
"You were the one who told me to not ignore a potential asset when it is dropped in my lap." Dexter stated walking out behind the shop where he showed his father the very strange sight.
"Who's a good girl!? Who's a good Girl!?" Nevermore on her back getting her belly and chin scratched like a big puppy by Apple, sparks of white magic from between Apple's hands and that of the dragon's, perhaps a side effect of Apple's natural affinity for animals, even though she didn't notice.
"The Dragon likes her?" Professor Charming asked looking at the sight with his face scrunched in confusion.
"White Family genes." Dexter stated putting his glasses up. "The dragon doesn't want to leave here, I've already tried to render her unconscious but it seems that she has a secondary set of see through eye lids. All natural glasses against which my 'swooning vision' as my classmates have called it useless, now that the dragon knows to defend herself from it. Apple isn't interested in leaving either, and the dragon is quick to protect her from any perceived danger. Coupled with that, we are already short on man power with our wounded having to go back to the school. In short, we can get on the Carriage, or we can get run over."
"Hmm..." Professor Charming pondered the logic in Dexter's arguments for a while, his son made valuable points, and he looked forward to the sight one day of Daring as the charismatic leader of the armies of the White kingdom, and Dexter equal parts brains with his great intellect, and brawny beast once his story was completed. "Very well. I concede your point, for now. But not one word of this to your mother, or the teaching staff at the school, or Apple's parents if they ask. Am I understood?" Professor Charming asked in a serious tone of voice.
"Understood father." Dexter pulled out his mirror pad as he began looking through his notes from their interrogation. "We were able to extract information from the individual Apple captured, there appears to be a hanging being held by these, 'Order of the Eternal flame' people in the next village over, executing these 'Scar Back' people."
"Sounds like a religious order, what can you tell me about this cult the Evil Queen joined?" Professor Charming asked scratching his chin as he pondered in thought.
"Quite the opposite actually. It would seem that the Scar Backs is a established religious order dating back to before the Story Book of Legends, whereas the Order of the Eternal Flame is only a couple decades old." Dexter continued to go through his notes as he brought up information on the two groups. "As I Understand it, the Scar Back's originally started out as a off shoot of Druid's, individuals who worshiped nature, but in order to supplement their income they learned the ways of the Wiccan, mages who specialized in healing magic, then they met the rest of the world, full of individuals who convinced themselves that the unknown was something to be feared, so they had to learn how to defend themselves, and they took what they knew and combined that with the way of the Warlock. The end result is what we know as Scar Backs." Dexter continued to scroll down his Mirror pad, not even realizing when Apple and Nevermore stopped their revelry to sneak up on them. "In more recent history, a rather notable member of the group was one Morgan Queen, joining directly out of high school."
"You're... you're talking about the Evil Queen... Raven's mother aren't you?" Professor Charming asked looking concerned.
"What information about what she did during that time is not available, the Scar Backs considered her one of it's own, and they protected her. But before that she had made enemies. To make a long and complex story short, Riordan is rich in resources, and the neighboring human kingdoms were strip mining their lands to fuel their war machines, if they wanted to take over, they had to take the head of it's young ruler. So she was demonized, a group of holy knights founded on the belief that things that should not belong in this world should be purged, with fire." Dexter stated a hint of disgust on his cool features.
As Dexter explained, Apple's fists were clenching tight, how long did Raven have to suffer through this? The greedy who demonized Raven's family by calling them 'The Royal Family of Evil' the source of everything bad in the world.
"They must have had a field day when The Evil Queen attacked Wonderland." The Heroic's professor stated leaning his chin on his fist.
"On the contrary, they all but vanished, it seems that they're fine with attacking people who can't defend themselves, but when faced with a real challenge they show their real colors." A ghost of a smile appeared on Dexter's face as he adjusted his glasses. "Yellow is much less flattering then red. Unfortunately Red is all they've seen this past week, Raven's injuries seem to have invigorated them."
"Then all we need to do is show them something to be afraid of. Like say for example..." The Professor gestured behind Dexter, where a Dragon had been playing with Apple. "A dragon... Speaking of which where did little Apple get herself off to?" While the Professor and his son looked befuddled they heard the familiar clopping along the ground of armor clad horses approaching the town.
Apple was flying over a forest, she had already tracked down the village where the hangings were to take place, and she would not stand by and watch as Raven's people were bullied by these people. That said one princess and one dragon did not a army make, therefore she needed a distraction, she'd summon the wood land creatures of the forest she was flying over and send them into the town to create a distraction.
"RRRAAAWWWWRRR!" Letting out a ear piercing roar like that, Apple could hear the sounds of the creatures of the forest following her, but these were not the usual small birds, cute squirrels and timid deer that she was use to. Looking down Apple saw several of the trees appear to get up and follow her, looking up Apple saw giant birds with feathers that more closely resembled great seven foot long great swords. "Okay..." As a well know animal lover, Apple liked to thing that she was well versed in all things animal, but these creatures eluded her memory. "This is new."
Arriving in the town many a villager was surprised to see several giant gorillas with ten foot long twelve pointed antlers and three eyes wandered out of the woods, together with the giant metal birds that Apple saw circling around the town and huge hundred foot long snakes weaving through the town. Apple passed over the town and with a bolt of fire from Nevermore destroyed the scaffolding where several people dressed in red and black monk robes were about to be hung from ropes.
"That was a warning shot!" Apple stated as Nevermore perched on top of one of the antlers of the dear gorilla's. "We want the Scar Backs, and the walking tin cans that took them." Wisely the villagers choose to return to their homes. The knights on the other hand stepped out forming a defensive perimeter around what was left of the scaffolding. "I would prefer it with we could end this without bloodshed, to see you pay for your crimes and for the monks to return to their good..."
"END THE INFIDEL! SHOW THE WITCH THAT WE WILL NEVER BOW TO HER KIND!" While shouting that the apparent leader of the knights grabbed one of the Scar Backs and ran off through the woods.
"So much for that." Apple sighed before turning her attention to her makeshift perch. "Sorry for dropping this on you, but can you avoid hurting the other monks or the people not in the armor?" The antlered perch nodding his head in the affirmative, before Nevermore still carrying Apple jumped off. They flew over the forests for a short distance before spotting the pair dashing through the woods. The Monk tripped as she was being dragged along by the knight, something big and hairy choose that moment to slam her paw into the knight hard enough that the entire right side of his body was shattered. "Ramona?" Apple asked sizing up what could only be summarized as a Big Bad Wolf. "Is that you?"
"Looks like we finally caught up." Turning around Apple saw Dexter and Professor Charming entering the clearing.
"Before you say anything, they literally had the nooses around their necks, if we didn't get there when we did the Scar Backs would be dead right now." Apple stated holding up her hands defensively.
"It sounds like this situation has already been settled." Looking past her classmate, Apple saw the approach of a tall man dressed in dark black armor, the helmet having a pair of horns in a upward curve and various symbols resembling magic runes were carved into the armor. "Guess that means I got all dressed up for nothing. Are you okay?"
"I will be." The Monk girl got up aided by the knight in armor, her hood falling down revealing a familiar looking pale face with red eyes behind glasses and bright red hair. "Mira Shards at your service you Majesty." The monk girl stated giving a curtsy.
"Did you get my message?" The Knight asked his helmeted head turning to face the girl.
"We did, but unfortunately the item that you need was taken from us by the Order of the Eternal Flame." Mira explained pulling her hood back up.
"Then once we make sure that the village is okay we will storm their base of operations." Following the Knight's instructions Apple led the group back to the village, only it was much different then it was before, the knights that had stood up to the beasts Apple summoned were now cowering in a corner of the village, and the beasts seemed to be deliberately avoiding the town all of a sudden. Most strange of all was the crowd that had formed around someone fussing here and there over them, making apologies to someone they kept calling 'The Darklord.'
"Really guys it's okay..." A familiar but weak and raspy sounding voice insisted.
"It can't be." Apple stated straining to hear, knowing full well that this person should not logically be here.
"Of course it can, my daughter has never allowed a threat to her life of this level slow her down." The Knight stated in a annoyed tone of voice.
Upon hearing his voice most of the Villagers parted, bar the Scar Backs currently attending to the young witch in middle of the crowd.
"Apple?" Then Raven's attention turned to the man in the armor. "Dad?"
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Guests: What I will say is that the Evil Queen for all of her madness does love her daughter very much, a fact I think is made evident by the curse she placed on her that spews out carnivorous fire breathing plants whenever she starts to bleed, rather effective defensive mechanism don't you think? As for escaping and what she'll do when she does... wait and see. As you might be able to tell, Apple doesn't science her way through, so much as she uses the old white family genes to plow her way through. Well, before Raven's origin wasn't so much broken as it was cracked, but so long as I have the chance I might as well explain. Simply put, the origin is a container of magical power, without it the magic simply leaks out uncontrollably, now for most spell casters this wouldn't be a issue, but for someone as insanely powerful as Raven, magic would start to spill out in toxic amounts wreaking havoc upon her body.