Chapter 11
Ever since she was a young girl, Evelyn had been fond of mirrors. She would spend 20 minutes, 30 minutes, even an hour some days in front of the large mirror in her bedroom, trying out different hairstyles or dresses or just thinking with her large, brown eyes staring back at her. It was a habit her mother scolded her for as being vain, but it was one she would never lose. The morning of the day she was supposed to join Merlin and the Big Bad Wolf on a journey to the "secret realm", the only world out of thousands out there that couldn't be viewed on Merlin's crystal ball, she looked in the mirror like she did every other morning, but this time, something was different.
A single strand of white hair, a bold defector in an army of black, caught Evelyn's attention. Merlin had used a spell on her that slowed her aging shortly after he captured the Kingdom of Germania, which he renamed New Britain. In the hundreds of years since then, looking into this same mirror every single day, she hadn't seen one white or even gray hair. Not one until today.
It's okay, Evelyn thought. It happens to everyone eventually.
It was something Evelyn hoped would never happen to her, however. Her youth, her beauty was all she had for so much of her life. It was what allowed her to escape the squalor of peasantry and marry a king, a king much older than she was whom she didn't love, but a king nevertheless.
One of King Phillip's first gifts to her and the one she prized more than any other was a magic mirror Phillip had purchased from a witch. Instead of simply looking in the mirror like before, Evelyn asked the all-knowing spirit trapped inside the magic mirror who the fairest in all the kingdom was, and every day since she first looked into the spirit's dark and expressionless eyes, the answer from the spirit was the same:
"You, my majesty, are the fairest in these lands."
Then, on a morning Evelyn could recall even hundreds of years later, she asked the spirit the usual question, and at first, the spirit hesitated. This time, its reply was:
"As beautiful as you are, my majesty, there's a girl with skin as pale as snow I see. A girl who now, I'm afraid to say, is fairer even than thee."
Evelyn's face turned red, as she knew exactly who the magic mirror was talking about. Her stepdaughter was now more beautiful than she was, and soon other daughters would be more beautiful, and it was only a matter of time before the king left her to marry one of those younger, more beautiful women. The thought induced sadness at first, and then that sadness turned into rage. The magic mirror became a victim of that rage, as Evelyn grabbed a shoe and threw it into the mirror, shattering it. The outline of the spirit that was trapped inside the mirror appeared above what remained of it for a few seconds before fading away, letting out a scream that sent shivers down Evelyn's spine.
King Phillip hurried into the room.
"Evelyn, are you okay?" asked Phillip.
"Yeah!" responded Evelyn.
"What happened to the mirror?"
"I-it broke!"
That was one of the last conversations she would have with Phillip, as Merlin would be brought to the palace by the royal guard later that day, and the king would die at Merlin's hands just a few days later.
Evelyn made sure the white hair was out of view as she descended into the dungeon, where Soos lay on the ground with a bored expression on his face. Once he starting hearing footsteps, he sat up to get a better look at who was coming.
"Queen Evelyn? What do you want?" asked Soos.
"I just wanted to give you the good news: you're free to go!" said Evelyn.
"Really? You don't want me to do anything first?"
"No, the king has all he needs from those friends of yours."
Evelyn and Soos climbed up the stairs of the dungeon together, and as they reached the top, Soos tripped, causing them both to tumble into Merlin's kitchen.
"Watch where you're going!" said Evelyn as she pushed Soos away from her.
As they both got up, Evelyn noticed that her white hair was now in plain sight, and she quickly turned away.
"What's wrong?" asked Soos.
Evelyn didn't bother to try to hide the white hair this time and turned again to face Soos.
"It's this, okay? This white strand of hair! You must think it makes me ugly," conceded Evelyn.
"I don't think that," said Soos. "I think you're as pretty as before."
Evelyn, who was holding back tears expecting a verbal berating like the ones her mother gave her whenever she did something improper, opened her mouth with surprise, not knowing how to respond. Before she could say something, Merlin rushed into the palace.
"Good! You're still here!" said Merlin.
"What's going on?" wondered Evelyn.
"There's no time! They'll be here any second!"
Merlin took a needle out from under his robe and pricked Soos in the arm with it.
"Ye-ouch!" screeched Soos.
Merlin squeezed two drops of blood from Soos' arm into a small tube, and he ran into the dungeon with it.
"What's his problem?" asked Soos.
Evelyn sighed. "I don't know. Merlin told me and Big Bad to meet him at Charming's castle after I let you go, but it seems he needs to do something with your blood in the dungeon first."
"What do you think it is?"
Suddenly, the palace started to shake. The Big Bad Wolf ran into the kitchen, clearly terrified, and Evelyn grabbed him and rubbed his back to calm him down.
"It's okay, Big Bad. It's okay," whispered Evelyn.
After the shaking stopped, the Blue Fairy appeared in front of the painting of the arch that led to the dungeon.
"You!" said Evelyn.
The Blue Fairy immediately recognized Soos.
"You!" cried the Blue Fairy.
"Me!" said Soos.
"How are you here?" said the Blue Fairy. "I just saw you leave with your friends in the dungeon. Unless…"
"That's why he needed Soos' blood!" said Evelyn.
"A transformation spell," groaned the fairy. "I should have known. Merlin did it. He tricked me. He won."
"And he...didn't take me and the wolf with him," realized Evelyn.
"He abandoned me...just like my pack," said the wolf.
The Blue Fairy grabbed Soos' shoulders.
"Boy, your world is in grave danger," said the fairy. "If it's true that there's no magic where you live, Merlin could face little resistance on his quest to conquer your planet."
"Wow, that sounds really bad!" said Soos. "Also, your hands hurt a lot!"
"Sorry," said the fairy, letting go of Soos to reveal patches in his shirt where her hands were.
"How can we help?" asked Evelyn.
"You two?" exclaimed the fairy with surprise.
"Us two?" exclaimed the wolf with even more surprise.
"Come on, wolfie," said Evelyn. "Wouldn't you like to get revenge on the king for leaving us here? Going to that new world and messing up his plans would be the perfect way to do that!"
"No offense," said the Blue Fairy. "But I don't trust the two of you in the slightest."
"Fair enough," said Evelyn.
Soos felt a chill overcome him.
"Does anybody else feel that?" asked Soos.
"Feel what?" said the Blue Fairy.
The doors to the palace flew open, and Grimhilde, a witch from the nearby forest, walked in.
"Who are you?" asked the Blue Fairy.
Soos gasped. "That's the crazy candy witch from the forest!"
"There you are, my little darling," cooed Grimhilde. "I didn't think you would be here. As soon as your garment led me to this palace, I believed Merlin was tricking me, but I've never been so happy to be wrong!"
"His garment? You used a locator spell on this boy?" said the Blue Fairy.
"Indeed. And in exchange for this spell, I taught Merlin a spell he coveted for a long time, one that would allow him to tether somebody's life force to a wand."
As soon as the Blue Fairy heard this, she charged at Grimhilde with rage. Grimhilde simply touched the Blue Fairy's neck with her wand, and the Blue Fairy fell to the ground, the glow around her now flickering.
"That's one thing I didn't teach Merlin!" said Grimhilde, cackling. "You fairies are all so pretentious for what are essentially overgrown insects."
Grimhilde turned to Soos.
"I see she did a number on your shirt as well," said Grimhilde. "Here."
Grimhilde threw a piece of Soos' shirt to him. The shirt was glowing so brightly that Soos had to squint as he looked at it.
"Use that to keep yourself warm as we return to my house," said Grimhilde.
"No," said Soos. "I'm not going!"
"And why not?"
"Because once we get there, you're going to eat me!"
"So?"
"So I don't want to be eaten!"
Grimhilde shrugged.
"We all have to do things we don't want to do sometimes," she said. "I didn't want to come to this dreadful palace to retrieve you, but here I am. Whether you want to be eaten or not, you shall be eaten."
Soos looked down at the glowing piece of shirt he held, and before Grimhilde could react, he threw it at her eyes.
"Oh, you brat!" cried the witch. "Once I get my hands on you…"
Soos darted to a window, but just as he made it out, he felt a cold, wrinkly hand grab his ankle and pull him back in.
"No, no, no!" said Soos, trying his hardest to pull himself back out the window.
"Face it," said Grimhilde. "You don't have the Blue Fairy protecting you any longer. Your annoying little friends are nowhere to be found. There is only you and me now, and it isn't even close to a fair fight."
Soos felt his grip on the edges of the window loosen, and his eyes welled up as he no longer had the strength to hold on. Soos fell to the floor and turned around to find Grimhilde looking down at him with a large smile, the smile of a predator that has finally captured its prey. Soos closed his eyes, expecting Grimhilde to pick him up and take him to his death. When nothing happened for several seconds, Soos opened his eyes again to find that Grimhilde was now frowning and Evelyn was standing behind her with a knife lodged in Grimhilde's back.
"It seems you forgot someone," said Evelyn.
"Do you know...what you've done?" said Grimhilde, struggling to get every word out.
"Yes," said Evelyn. "I've done something I should have done a long time ago but that my witch-sympathetic husband would never let me."
"With me...and Merlin...gone...there will be...nothing...to stop others...from invading," whispered Grimhilde.
"And how exactly will they find out?" asked Evelyn.
Grimhilde glanced at the window she pulled Soos out of. Evelyn looked at it too and saw there now was a raven sitting there.
"No," said Evelyn, realizing that the raven had seen everything that had just occurred. "What will become of my kingdom?"
Said the raven, "nevermore."
The raven then flew off, and Grimhilde, now with a satisfied expression on her face, collapsed to the ground as Soos got back up.
"Th-thanks for saving me," said Soos.
"No, thank you," said Evelyn. "I had forgotten what it was like to think about somebody other than me for a change."
Evelyn watched as the raven disappeared into the sky.
"If only it hadn't come at so great a cost," she whispered.
Mabel and Dipper walked into the Mystery Shack's parlor and stopped in front of the fireplace. Dipper glanced at Mabel, and then he glanced down at the book he was holding with "Fairy Tales and Other Stories for Children" etched into its cover. He took a deep breath, and then he chucked the book into the fireplace.
"Did we really have to destroy it?" asked Mabel.
"We can't risk Merlin finding a way onto this world," said Dipper. "If the book is ashes, we won't have to worry about it anymore."
"Yeah," said Mabel. "But there were some good memories in there."
"Yeah, for you," said Dipper.
"You seemed to get along well with Mr. Thumb."
"He's a storybook character, just like everybody else we met. The relationships we formed, none of it was real. You need to understand that, Mabel. Everybody here: Grunkle Stan, Wendy, Soos, those people are real, and we can't put them in danger."
"Speaking of Soos, we haven't heard from him in a while. You think he's okay?"
"As okay as somebody who spent days being held hostage in a dungeon can be, I guess."
"Where do you think Grunkle Stan is?"
"Looking for us, probably."
Dipper sighed.
"I can't imagine what he's going through," said Dipper. "I have my suspicions about him, but he does seem to care about us."
Mabel nodded, then her eyes widened.
"Ohmygoshiforgotaboutwaddles!" shrieked Mabel.
"Huh?" said Dipper.
Mabel ran out of the parlor.
"Waddles? Waddles? Oh man, I hope Grunkle Stan fed him!" said Mabel.
Mabel heard a familiar oinking from the storage room. She went into it and found Waddles sniffing at a large cardboard box.
"I'm so sorry for leaving you, Waddles!" said Mabel.
Waddles oinked at Mabel and then oinked at the box.
"Oh, you want something from there?"
Mabel used a hairpin to open the box, and Waddles climbed into it before climbing back out with an already-half-eaten apple in his mouth.
"Don't worry, Waddles! I'll have you eating like, well...a pig as soon as I see what else is in this box."
Mabel rummaged through the objects in the box before taking out a golden chest with a picture of a frog engraved into it and blue, green, and pink gems on top of it.
"Wow," Mabel said. "It's beautiful."
Mabel opened the chest, and she felt a powerful energy enter her body, causing her immense pain. Waddles ran out of the room as Mabel started screaming. Dipper heard the screams in the parlor and hurried out, being careful not to trip over a frenzied Waddles as he went into the storage room. By the time Dipper was inside, however, Mabel and the chest were gone.
"Oh, no," said Dipper.
Dipper ran up to the attic and looked around.
"Soos? I would have sworn I had seen Soos come up here," said Dipper.
Dipper heard a door open and close downstairs. He then heard a familiar voice speak.
"I still can't find them anywhere," said the voice, which belonged to Stan. "I promised my niece I would keep them safe, and I couldn't even do that."
Dipper heard Stan sigh before walking into the living room. He knew that he should go downstairs and let Stan know that at the very least he was okay even if he didn't know if the same were true for Soos and Mabel, but a part of him wanted to stay in the attic instead of having that awkward conversation with his great-uncle. Eventually, his better judgment prevailed, and he went downstairs, walked into the living room, and cleared his throat. Stan, who was watching television, turned around, and his jaw dropped when he saw Dipper standing in front of the staircase entryway.
"D-dipper? You're not a ghost, are you?" asked Stan.
Dipper shook his head, and Stan raced to him to hug him, not bothering to stop the flood of tears coming from his eyes.
"I'm so glad you're safe!" said Stan. "Where's Mabel? Where's Soos?"
"Uh," began Dipper. "You see, what happened…"
"We interrupt this program to bring you some breaking news!" said a reporter on the television. "A man dressed as a wizard has been causing havoc downtown and threatening to level the city unless he gets a meeting with the president!"
"Wow, you don't see that everyday," said Stan. "Now, you were saying?"
Dipper stared at the television screen, which featured Merlin shooting energy beams from his hands at cars and buildings, blowing them up. Dipper's jaw had dropped this time, and Stan waved a hand in front of his face.
"Hello?" said Stan. "Did whoever you were with the last few days steal your brain?"
"You may want to sit down," said Dipper.
Author's Note: Has it already been five years? Man! Sorry for the wait, to those of you who still bothered to follow this after all these years. Real-life occurrences, combined with a killer case of writers' block, forced me to put this on the backburner a lot longer than I was planning to. This story might not have ever been finished if I didn't find a fresh source of inspiration from another Disney show, Amphibia, which gave me the idea to split the gang up, leaving Soos in fairy tale world, keeping Dipper in our world, and sending Mabel to this other world, and figuring out how to bring them back together. I don't have as good of an idea of where things will go from here as I did during the first half, but I finally have a foundation I can build upon, which is more than what I've had for most of the break between chapters 10 and 11.
This is also easily the longest chapter I've written so far, and they probably aren't getting much shorter from here, as I'll be focused more on fleshing out characters like I did Evelyn in this chapter and telling a story that will span multiple dimensions and include more of the fantasy elements you'll be familiar with from stuff like Lord of the Rings. I feel I'm a better writer than I was when I started this, so while I can't guarantee it'll be the best thing you've ever read, it won't be nearly as much of a disaster as it would have been if I tried this back in 2016. So, strap up and enjoy the ride, because it won't be stopping again until we're at the finish line.