The climb was just as arduous and they had imagined, perhaps even more so. The vines were coarse and rubbed their hands raw while the footholds were scarce and shallow. Both parties were far too concerned with not falling to their deaths that their usual back and forth of flirtation halted almost entirely.
About halfway up the beanstalk, it was William who broke their focused silence.
"May I ask you a question?" he asked as he stretched his arm to grasp a vine high above his head, Jones tried not to notice the well defined muscle in his arm as he did so.
"I strongly suspect you are going to ask it regardless of my answer," she said in a strained voice as her right foot threatened to slip.
"You are correct, how exactly do you have magic?" so few people could wield magic in this realm, and the few that did were more often than not, old and ugly purveyors of dark magic. The young and beautiful Jones who climbed next to William couldn't have been more contrary to his vision of magic if she tried.
She hesitated before answering, pondering if there would be any consequences to telling the truth, there so often were. But she decided to do it anyway.
"Well, it is sort of a couple of reasons. For one, my mother has magic and two," she hesitated again before continuing, "I am a product of true love," she went quiet as she went to grab another vine.
"Fascinating, your parents found true love so you were born with magic," William put her answer in his own words to make sense of it. He had never really considered who Jones' parents were. Given she had been on the run for the past year, he assumed she hadn't any.
"Yes, but it isn't a sure thing. True love is the most powerful magic of all," Jones rubbed her right wrist before grabbing another vine, "and therefore one of the least understood. It is rare and unpredictable. For instance, both my brothers are products of true love as well and neither of them have magic,"
This was the most backstory William had ever gotten out of Jones, usually she was a maze of flirtatious quips and insults, evidently the focus required to climb a beanstalk had dulled her shield, for prior to this escapade, William had no idea she had any brothers at all.
He was about to ask more about them when his hand felt cold stone as he reached for another vine. He looked up to see the stone of the giant's castle right above him.
They had reached the sky.
As they hoisted themselves off the beanstalk and up onto the clouds, they both breathed heavily, the exhaustion of climbing hitting them at full force. Jones sat on the stone ground to catch her breath while William remained on his feet.
"May I ask what your Plan B is, if talking to the giant fails? If you even have one?" his biting wit returning with every moment of rest.
"Of course I have a Plan B," she stopped talking as if that was all she was going to say on the matter, but a pointed look from William made her reluctantly continue, "My bag contains a spindle, laced with a curse so strong it could put anyone, even a giant to sleep," she stated as she stood up, breath all caught and back in fighting shape.
"Where on earth did you get a cursed spindle?" this revelation was almost as jarring to him as the magic one.
"It was a graduation present from a family friend," she mumbled as she looked up at the massive castle. Made of large gray stones, it stood like a hulking gray storm cloud stretching miles and miles into the depths of the sky.
"Well now I simply must see it," quicker than Jones could react, William had snatched the bag off of her shoulder and had begun rifling through it. Jones' head snapped to him, her hands following suit, lunging for her bag that he held just out of reach. She managed to wrestle it from his hands but not before he had pulled one item from its depths.
"Now what is this? Some kind of portrait?" he held a photograph in his hand high above his head as if he were holding it up to the light to see through it. He was really just keeping it away from Jones who was still trying to attack him even after retrieving her bag.
"Give that back this instant!" her normal confident and collected voice had wavered and her eyes had gone wide, but she backed away from him, as if he held a knife to someone she loved.
He pulled the photo down to a more normal viewing angle, Jones' emotion being very clear to him and in turn very intriguing. He looked at the photo more closely, it depicted a dark haired man sitting on the deck of a large ship with a large storybook in his lap, next to the man sat a little girl with the same wide eyes that stared at William now.
"I would ask who this man is, but one look between you two and it is quite clear that you are the spitting image of your father." This much was very true, Jones and the man in the photograph shared the same piercing blue eyes, dark hair and oval face shape. And perhaps most notably, the man had a hook instead of his left hand, the same hand where Jones now had a hook tattooed. Jones knew this much about the resemblance to her father, she had heard such sentiments her entire life.
"Am I to assume that this sweet looking little girl is you?" his face lit up with a grin, but it was slightly different than usual. A strange and conflicting seriousness appeared in his eyes as he looked at the picture.
"Yes, that is me and my father when I was very young, now can you please give it back?" Jones relented as she reached for it, but William pulled it out of reach again.
"I thought your father was a pirate, he looks quite civil here," WIlliam assessed as he began to stroll away from Jones, her quick on his heels.
"He was a pirate, and he was always civil, but he's retired now. He just kept his ship which is where we are in that picture, now can I please have it back?" she asked again, the strain of needing something from William evident in her voice.
"So he just stopped being an evil pirate?" William's devilish grin returned, as he was greatly enjoying his torment of Jones.
"My father was never evil, and true strength is shown in the ability to change, he may have made poor decisions but he became a better person and you are one to talk considering I met you in jail!" Her words sped up as she talked.
Her abrupt change of topic from her father to their first meeting didn't phase William, but what did phase him was the real anger and desperation in Jones' eyes. She was actually upset with him, not in the annoyed way she usually was, and that was an idea that tugged on his heart in a way that he could not tolerate. He held out the photo to her and she gratefully took it.
"You speak very highly of him," he said calmly after a beat.
"I think very highly of him," she said to William, but her gaze was focused on the photo, a small smile had appeared on her face.
"You have two brothers?" William asked, remembering her brief mention of them from the climb.
"Um, well yes, but one of them is my half brother, I mean in my family we don't use terms like half brother because it isn't like I love Henry any less than Hugo because we share less blood, but, um, the man in that photograph, my father, only has two children," she rambled for a minute, William listened cordially.
"Am I to assume that your father thinks highly of you as well?" William's questions seemed to be all over the place, bouncing between her brothers and her father, but Jones didn't mind, the photo had loosened her harsh exterior once again.
"If Hugo were here he'd tell you that I'm my father's favorite, which isn't true, he loves us both equally," she said with a small laugh.
"That sounds like something your father's favorite would say," he taunted.
"Who's side are you on?" She called, her usual playful anger returning to her voice.
"Oh Jones you should know by now that I am always on your side," his voice dropped a bit (Jones' heart rate sure didn't) as he stepped towards her once again. Much to his delight, she blushed slightly before turning back towards the castle.
"So are you your father's pride or his joy?" William asked to her back. She turned back towards him,
"What do you mean?" this time it was her face that was laced with confusion.
"My mother always said that the reason a person has two children is so that one can be the pride and the other the joy,"
Jones was a bit taken aback by this statement, as she knew just as little about William's history as he knew about hers. In fact following this climb, he knew far more about her than she knew about him.
"Well, I suppose I don't know," she said after pondering for a moment.
"Ah, so you're the pride," he said knowingly.
"What?" Jones' confusion had returned.
"Joy admits it, pride doesn't. The joy will be happy to tell you just how happy they make everyone. Ironically, the pride will be humble. You see, to be a joy is easy, but to truly bring pride to your father, means you became everything he wanted and more."
William supplied the explanation, he had not thought about his mother's assessment of familial dynamics in a long time, but something inside him told him that he was exactly right. Jones was every bit her beloved father's pride and he didn't have to know the man to know it.
Jones smiled as a slight blush flitted across her cheeks, she stared at him for a moment before placing the photo back in her back and looking back up at William.
"Hope," she stated quietly.
"What about it?" William asked, the confusion having returned to him. Evidently they were bouncing it between the two of them.
"My name, I do believe, you just earned it," she said with a smile and a twinkle in her eye; his eyes went wild with realization.
"Hope Jones," he stated with a smug smile, as if he had bested her at something for once.
"Hope Milah Swan Jones if you're yelling at me," she said with a laugh.
"You have quite the name, I can see why you hid it," he said, once again stepping towards her.
"I think you'll find I am quite the person," she said, stepping towards him, close enough now she could reach out and touch him if she decided to.
"Of that I am well aware," he laughed and walked past her towards the castle, at his departure, she found herself letting out a breath she wasn't quite aware she was holding. She quickly followed, matching her strides to his and walking beside him.
"I'm sorry," she said suddenly, and rather abruptly given their interactions were usually far more aggressive.
"About what?"
"When you had my photograph, you were looking at it very intensely, as if you once had one like it but you lost it, I am sorry."
They kept walking but he didn't respond immediately, he looked at her, Hope, he reminded himself. It was a lovely name, it fit her very well. He tried to focus on her name to distract himself from the fact that she was entirely right about the sad wistfulness he felt looking at the small portrait. Rather than explain any of the reasons for this, he merely murmured his thanks to her and they kept walking. Hope didn't ask any more questions, she was smart enough to know when she wouldn't get any answers.
They approached the great archway that marked the entrance to the castle, without hesitation the two intrepid adventurers continued inside, hands resting on their swords.
"Why do you carry that portrait of you and your father?" evidently William did not hold the same courtesy when it came to questions.
"He gave it to me when I left home, said it was a way to always keep him with me, It is one of my most prized possessions," the fingers of her right hand grazed over the tattoo on her left, another tie to her father, William imagined. He refrained from asking how the man had gotten his hook in the first place even though he was dying to. Instead, he decided to switch parents.
"What about your mother?" his mind returned to their fight in the tavern when she had flipped him over her shoulder, she had claimed at her mother's instruction. He drifted a few feet ahead of her as he walked, but turned back to face her, almost walking backwards like a college tour guide.
"Oh of course I love her too, I have a tattoo for her as well, my father and I just-" Hope cut herself off as she lunged forward at William and pulled him tightly to her. Her arms clamped tightly around his torso, she balanced on her toes as she pulled him back. Her head notched on his shoulder as their bodies were pressed against one another.
"Oh you have got to be kidding," she mumbled into his shoulder, before walking them back a step.
"My, my, Hope, who knew all I had to do was ask about your mother to elicit such a reaction?" he reached out to push back a lock of hair that had fallen from her ponytail, she slapped him away none too gently as she released him.
"There was a tripwire you fool, this castle is full of traps, I forgot to mention that, giant castles always are." Hope had indeed forgotten that her companion knew considerably less about giants than she did. She had neglected to tell him enough and had fallen right into a trap. Not a giant one certainly, but some kind of trap to be sure.
"A likely story," he whispered in her ear as she brushed past him, he was now following her, the apparent giant expert.
The trap incident reignited their earthbound feud, Hope's walls rebuilding and any hope of getting questions answered diminishing by the minute. Nevertheless, they continued through the castle, now cautious of traps and still on the lookout for the giant who had yet to make his appearance.
No sooner had that thought entered the pairs' heads when a thundering sound arose from deep in the castle and within moments, the mighty giant entered the room full of treasure that the young adventurers were in. William drew his sword but Hope remained steady.
"WHO ARE YOU?" bellowed the giant, he stood several stories high and wore robes of a deep purple color, long brown hair spilled over his shoulders. Hope fought the urge to smile as he reminded her greatly of a dear family friend.
"My name is Hope, what is your name?" she asked kindly, still making no move to grab her sword, William still making no move to put his away.
"YOU HAVE COME HERE TO KILL ME!" the giant called again, his gaze fixed on William's shining sword that the young man held ever so slightly in front of Hope.
"No we haven't, I just want to talk to you!" she called to the giant before turning back and whispering to William,
"Unless it is laced with poison I don't know about, your sword is useless against a giant," she hissed in his ear, William looked up at the giant before reluctantly placing it back in its scabbard. The giant continued to stare at them, though some of the menace left his eyes as the sword was sheathed.
"I just wish to talk to you," Hope repeated, "What is your name?" she asked again.
"Xandyr," he called down to them, far quieter (though still very loud due to the mere size of his vocal cords) than before.
"It is very nice to meet you Xandyr, I heard that you went down to the village at the base of your beanstalk and hurt some people, may I ask why?" she asked very calmly. William grabbed her arm as if to say "Why the hell would you bring that up?" she looked at him pointedly and shook her arm free.
"Giants and humans are not friends, I had to remind them," Xandyr said casually. Hope could tell that he was young, perhaps even the giant equivalent of her own age, her heart ached at that thought. Given that Xandyr was all alone up there, he had most likely lost all of his family.
"Do you really believe that giants and humans can't be friends?" she took a step towards the giant, though it hardly mattered, he was so massive it barely made a difference.
"THEY ARE NOT, which is why I must kill them and kill you, before you kill me," His words were spoken with anger, but Hope could tell it was the anger of a young man who had been told such sentiments his entire life and then had lost his family as if to prove them.
As he spoke, he reached down to grab at Hope and William, but Hope was faster. She pushed William back into a pile of large gold coins and leaped onto Xandyr's hand. Getting herself caught before he could catch her.
"I don't think so, in fact I know giants and humans can be friends! I have seen it!" Hope called as he lifted her up to his eye level, her struggling to maintain her balance in his palm as he did so. She briefly questioned why she was on his palm and not wrapped in his fist, she took it as a good sign that his first impulse wasn't to crush her.
"It is not possible," he once again stated firmly, much like Hope had stated her earlier beliefs about magic. As if someone had said them to her one hundred times before.
"Yes it is, many years ago, my mother and father climbed a beanstalk just like yours in another realm. And at the top they met a giant named Anton who was all alone, just like you." she paused, waiting for Xandyr's reaction. He didn't drop her to her death, so she took that as a cue to continue. "They tricked him into a trap, and my mother could have killed him, but she didn't, because she knew he was good at heart. And in return, Anton helped her out of his castle."
She looked the giant in his big brown eyes, as best she could given how close she was to his face. William watched in horror from the safety of the ground, trying to think of a way to get her down. But the cursed spindle was in her bag, which William could see was slung across her shoulders, and therefore out of reach. His only hope was to believe in Hope's plan. Quite ironically, he had to have hope.
Hope herself was beginning to plot how she would move to Plan B without arousing suspicion when Xandyr asked,
"What happened next?" he bellowed, Hope breathed a large sign of relief.
"Anton and my mother are still friends to this day, because giants and humans do not have to kill one another. What must I do to ensure you don't hurt anyone else Xandyr? You name it."
Despite the situation, Hope maintained perfect grace and calm, it was the first time that William had ever truly seen the princess in her show through. Typically she was all pirate, but in that moment she had all the regal grace of a princess.
Xandyr mumbled something so quietly, even Hope up by his face couldn't hear it.
"What was that?" William called from the ground, now willing to join the discussion.
"If I were not alone up here, I wouldn't have to go down there," he said, almost ashamedly, but Hope's face lit up in response.
"Why Xandyr you'd like a friend!" she said with all the kindness of a storybook heroine.
"You could be my friend, you could stay here," Xandyr's eyes lit up this time.
"I'm afraid that isn't possible Xandyr, you see, I have a family down below that I have to return to. And giants live quite a bit longer than humans, you need a friend who will live the same amount as you," she explained rationally, William was left on the ground in awe that she was even entertaining this idea.
"How about this, I will leave here, you will stop harming the villagers, and then I will return with someone to be your friend and live here with you," she pitched to the giant.
"You would just leave, you would not come back," his eyes grew sad as he spoke, Hope immediately jumped to action.
"No Xandyr I would not," her eyes grew serious, she reached into her bag. William breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that Hope had finally seen sense enough to knock the giant out. He began to think how he could catch her when the giant fell to the ground, he wondered if she would use her magic to catch herself. But all those thoughts were for naught, for Hope did not pull out the spindle, she pulled out her photograph.
"Xandyr, this is a picture of me and my father, I have carried it with me for years. It is my most prized possession. I am going to leave it with you, so you know I must return and retrieve it." Xandyr considered this while William looked dumbfounded on the ground. Hope continued talking,
"I swear to you, I will return with a friend for you to reclaim my portrait, so long as you swear you won't hurt anyone while I am gone. And when I swear something, I must do it, it would be horribly bad form not to"
She held the photo in her hands, but she showed no signs of stress or anxiety. By all accounts, she was calm as could be.
"I swear it," Xandyr said with a smile as he lowered Hope back down to the ground. Hope stepped off his hand, leaving her photograph on his palm, it looked nearly microscopic compared to Xandyr's hand.
"You are a good human Hope, I will guard your portrait until you return, and I will not go down the beanstalk until then." He placed his finger on her photo, picking it up like one might pick up a sequin, and he placed it on a high shelf up by his face.
"You are a very good giant Xandyr, I am glad we can be friends," Hope was practically beaming as she joined William on the ground.
"You should tell your mother and father that you have made a giant friend like they did!" he called excitedly, Hope laughed lightly.
"I will! I am sure they will be thrilled!" Hope called up to him before turning to William and starting towards the exit.
"Goodbye Xandyr! I will see you when I return with your friend!" Xandyr smiled and waved at the pair as they left his massive home. For the giant knew that the young woman would keep her promise, so of course he would keep his.
Hope and William reached the top of the beanstalk quickly and began their descent, even Hope with her love of giants was not eager to stick around. Not because she didn't like Xandyr, just because in truth she really did have a mild fear of heights. And though she was hiding it well, she really would prefer to be on land (or even better on sea), than up in the sky.
Going down the beanstalk was somehow easier, maybe they remembered where they had stepped before or maybe they were just both yearning to be back on the ground. They once again climbed in relative silence, Hope still reeling from the entire adventure, William still reeling that her plan had worked.
By the time they reached the ground, night had fallen and both parties were exhausted. The horses were sleeping right where they left them at the base of the beanstalk. Hope and William both felt far more secure the second their feet touched solid earth.
"That was quite the trick you pulled," William said as he caught his breath.
"What do you mean?" Hope asked as she re-tied her hair back, sleep playing at her eyelids.
"Telling the giant you'd return for your portrait, I assume your father has a copy as well, the giant will stay up there forever, harming no one and you can get another portrait so you have no need to return." William explained, as if she didn't understand her own plan.
"I will return for my picture when I have found someone to live with him," she said with her brow furrowing, she was under the impression that her plan had been very clear.
"You mean you actually intend to find a friend for that giant?" William was once again dumbstruck at the woman before him.
"Yes of course I do, you thought I was lying?" she asked sincerely, she herself had never even considered swindling Xandyr.
"Well yes, it is going to be incredibly difficult if not impossible to find someone of his same lifespan who wants to live in a castle in the sky." he tried to make her see logic, but to her, she was being as logical as can be.
"Doing the right thing is rarely easy and doing the easy thing is rarely right," she said, mildly scolding him like a mother might.
William once again found himself rendered speechless by the complex anomaly that was Hope Milah Swan Jones (or so he now knew).
"You are a strange woman Jones," what he meant to say was that she may be the best person he's ever known, but he surely couldn't say that. She would win if he did.
"So you keep saying," she smirked and turned to rouse her horse so that they could part ways. She had climbed a beanstalk with William, a similar story was still racing through her mind. Evidently it was in William's as well.
"That story of your parents, I am painfully fascinated by it. What are the odds your mother and father would climb a beanstalk just like us?" he smirked as he turned to his own horse, knowing for a fact that this discussion would get deeply under Hope's skin. "Specifically I'd like to know about you father's role, he was scarcely mentioned"
"Oh that? My mother left him for dead at the top," she said sweetly with a saccharin smile.
"Oh good," William walked right up behind her with his handsome grin playing across his face.
"What could possibly be good about that?" Hope flipped around from tending to her horse to find herself once again nearly flush against William, this time she had to tilt her head back slightly to make eye contact with him, she prayed he couldn't feel her heartbeat accelerating. He leaned in to whisper in her ear, barely a breath from her face.
"It means your parents had a pretty rocky start too," he whispered and promptly pulled away. Hope considered stopping him for a fraction of a second before the majority of her that was infuriated took over.
"Where will you go now?" he called out to her as she mounted her horse.
"Back to the village, tell them to not let anybody else climb that beanstalk," she said, you could practically see the gears in her head turning.
"And after that?"
"Oh well I can't just make things easy for you now can I?" she flirted, her eyes going wide with feigned pity. William laughed in response.
"Not to worry Jones, I'll always find you,"
Hope froze. She swore her heart stopped beating for a split second. It took everything in her not to let her mind spin out.
It was just a phrase, he has no idea what it means, hell it doesn't mean anything
It means everything you dumbass
Her mind began to argue, but she pulled it back. For it wasn't true love (at least not yet), they were just playing a game and she would be damned if she lost.
"I would despair if you didn't," she said with a seductive smirk to mask her inner turmoil as she rode off into the pitch dark night.