T'was the night before Christmas, and all through my dorm,
My roommates and I were doing anything but the average norm-
You bet your teacups we are! Woo-hoo!
'Cut the author's note, Four-Eyes! Pass the eggnog and drink yourself silly!'
No thanks. I stick with my hot chocolate, the only drink that'll entice me to stray away from Maddie's tea. But you know what has me even more excited than a mummy at a bandage sale?
Christmas?
'Cookies?'
Close. Reviews! You wouldn't believe how many we've gotten from the last chapter! We've gotten so many that we've shattered the record from my previous story! We're over 700 reviews, people, and it's all thanks to you guys! Give yourselves a round of applause with whatever limbs you may have, hands, tentacles, claws, paws, hooves, fins, pseudopods, tongues, whatever! Feel proud of yourselves! Woo-hoo!
'Quit stalling, Four-Eyes! We've got reviews to answer and holiday cheer to spread!'
Alright, alright, Deadpool. Keep you Santa hat on.
Or he could take it off and use it as a mug!
'How 'bout we just get to the reviews, eh, Teacup?'
Okay!
TerrorKing10 - Yeah, took me a while to catch up on those too once I became interested. Personally, I like Venus, Jane, and Deuce the most; out of all the monsters though, I guess I just like the scaly ones better, like gorgons and nagas.
ImmaSupa Stargirl – Too many for me to count, that's for sure! Ben's got some serious foes to defeat!
Karlos1234ify – I actually based him off of Blitzcrank from League of Legends (who actually shares some lines with the Daleks from everyone's favorite reality traversing doctor).
DoomsDay2015 – I hope that's a good thing!
Hero-Time10 – Alright then! He's in (though when has yet to be determined).
LegionnaireBlaze – Geez. Sounds like you have worse problems than me with characters breaking the fourth wall.
Numbervania – Cryptmas . . . I'll have to remember that, heh. And hey, thanks for the cloak! Combine this with my new gauntlet, protective armor and my keyboard manipulation skills, we'll be unstoppable!
Don't forget my new hammer, lighting powers, and my new bread-and-butterfly knife! Yay!
Ol' Nacho Chip won't know what hit him. And to you, Numbervania, Merry Cryptmas to all, and to all a Good Fright!
storygirl99210 – MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU, TOO!
FELIZ NAVIDAD!
'WHY ARE WE YELLING!?'
I DON'T KNOW!
marshman101 – Thanks for catching that! I sometimes get basilisks and cockatrices mixed up because of how many different versions make them similar to each other in one form or another.
mechazard01 – That's for me to know, and for you to find out!
It's . . . complicated . . . really, really, really complicated.
'Boy, don't I know it.'
Isom – I know right? And, uh, depending on what's happening over there, you need help? 'Cause that's a sound that pretty similar to a herd of in-musth bull elephants.
Will do, Isom!
Stretchy-Rat – Evidently not. And actually, Rocks is from the Asian play Power of the Omnitrix; according to Derrick J. Wyatt, Rocks and Squidstrictor are in the Omnitrix and have been used by Ben off-screen. Looks like they'll both finally get a chance to stand in the limelight!
StrongGuy159 – As you wish, Finder!
Menatron the Angel of Ideas – Correctamundo, mi amigo! And yes, Lizzie will be joining the harem as well (sometime around Way too Wonderland, guaranteed). The Attea idea I like, I really do, but now just isn't the time for it, and Courtley . . . well, I'll have to put it to a vote just to be sure. But I like it regardless and if she doesn't make the cut then, hey, there's always the Ever After High one-shot series I've been planing!
masterart – Well, there's only so much I can write!
'No, he's just lazy.'
Can it, Deadpool, or it's back in the closet with you!
Now, Creaty, be nice! We need to set an example for Mr. Nibbles!
And you, I- what did you just say?
We have to set a good example for Mr. Nibbles or else he'll grow up to a mean, horrible person who hates madness and Wonderland tea like Nacho Chip!
He's a voracious, alien predator! No amount of good parenting will do him any good and- WHY AM I CALLING IT A 'HE'? AND WHAT AM I SAYING!?
'Welcome to Insanity, dude. Population: 2 + 1.'
It equals 4! Maddie's so clever!
And since when did you start referring to yourself in the third person?
Codecrash – As amusing as it would be for Snow White to steal her own daughter's boyfriend, it's more like that parent that gets involved with their kid's activities to best them at it to try and push them to be better or fight for what they love; Snow White just happens to be getting a little too far into it XD And Happy Holidays to you, too!
fantasylover4evr – Actually, the Talent Show already happened; that's where Ben's secret was revealed in the first place (quickly followed by the time he nearly got executed).
DracoAngel17 – Are you sure you aren't through your eyes? I hear that's a real problem. And am I really that scary? I mean, I know I'm fully capable of tearing out your spine, flossing with it, and then tying you into a not, but . . . well, now that I say it out loud . . .
'Nice goin', Four-Eyes. You wanna sprinkle that terror cake with some intimidation sprinkles?'
Ooh, yummy!
Smokescreen2814 – Yeah, that might be painful.
'No kiddin'.'
Back in the closet with you!
Zachery Hance – Then I hope that I keep surprising you!
Nivek Beldo – Thank you for everything! It's nice to know that my first story is still successful and being read despite being completed.
Kaiju Fan – A Merry Christmas to you, too! And trust me, I know exactly what it's like. I might as well be living in one right now.
'AAAAA-HHHHHH! It's on my face! It's on my face!'
Mr. Nibbles, no! Stop trying to suck out Deadpool's eyeballs! He needs those!
'K-word it! K-word it! K-WORD IT HARD!'
See what I mean?
Royal Rebel – I'm thinking that they may make cameos or another appearance later on. I dunno. I'm still thinking about it.
Guest – The plan to make Apple try and trick is slipping as I want to make Apple a more likable character and not someone to hate over constantly (I have enough of that with Daring and Grimm). I have not heard of this One-punch Man you speak of, and I already have more than enough enemies and transformations up my sleeves and waiting to be used. No, I have not heard of Alice: Madness Returns, and now that you bring up Phantux, I just might cut that idea entirely. It doesn't seem to fit with what I've written so far and how a sub-species of Ectonurite could stay this unconscious without even attempting to overtake the Omnitrix and Ben would be highly suspicions; it's just an idea that's starting wane off me. And I'm not sure when fem Ben will appear, but he/she will. Just give it some time (something I seem to lack). I also apologize for not answering those questions of yours; those seemed to have somehow slipped through my fingers. Regarding the nanites, I'll see what I can do. And yes, I will eventually draw a picture of Phantux. And of course, I plan to give Prince John a glorious death. Someone that epic deserves it!
The Question – I have my own idea for how to use Paradox in this whole mess I have somehow managed to create, but it won't involve returning home. Granted, a lot of people have been asking for more Monster High editions to the harem, and I've contemplating about adding Astranova (it would be a crime if I didn't), Gooliope, and now Isi.
Riddle Master – How does the hourglass fit Ben? I'm more confused than well . . . ever!
And that's saying something.
*SMACK!*
Quiet you.
'Karma!'
Grimlock – As I stated before, there's only so much I can write in a chapter. I think Maddie and the other Wonderlandian were in her hat dimension thingy (still working on an official name).
NaruFuu Forever – Enjoy!
Story Artist – Seeing a how your OC feeds off fear, so does Zombozo. While interesting concept wise, compared to, say, the Joker and other clown themed villains or fear-feeding villains, he's somewhat lackluster. I dunno, he's just sorta faded on me over the years with more dangerous villains popping up.
Unknown – That, mi amigo, was an unfortunate typo. Ben has so many ghouls and girls (I'm actually starting to regret writing this as a sequel and not a separate story entirely, but it's too fun and I'm too far in to back out now, so it's gonna be a bumpy ride) that they just slipped my mind. If you look at the list again, they'll be there. Thanks for checking that! And I'm not sure about unleashing Ben's Anodite side since, as Verdona explained, he lacks 'the spark' that Gwen has, meaning he wouldn't be able to use any Anodite powers if he had them and seeing as how Anodites don't have DNA (or at least something that can be accessed by Azmuth's little toy), he couldn't use the Omnitrix either.
Palutena – What is with people just popping in and out of my dorm like this? Does this look like some sort of family sitcom for everyone to just torture me with!? I mean, I know I'm an undead Tetramand living in the basement of an Underworld god with a Hatter as a roommate, but now ya gotta heap a fourth-wall shattering mercenary, a pink pony encased in a cashew nut the size of China, some kind of alien monster that wants to eat my face on a regular basis, a review that can't take a hint and leave, a triangular twit of an enemy breathing down my neck, and now I have . . . whatever it is you're sending over to me? When did my life become a source of entertainment for people to mess with!?
Gojira – Can do!
Smaug – I'm a still a little iffy on the whole Predator idea, mostly because I already have so much stuff planned and so many other transformations lined up and read to toss out like playing cards, so don't expect this to come to fruition now or maybe even ever.
Fanfic Fan – Who knows? I might make it to 1,000 before that. It all depends on you guys!
Soos – To grant your final request before you may or may not die, I shall let you in on a little secret, Soos. Snow White IV may act like she plans to steal Ben from her daughter, but its more along the lines of those adults that take part in their kid's activities to best them every corner to try and get them to push them to their limits to try and beat them; Snow White is doing the same to Apple, trying to get her to fight for her boyfriend and not have it be the other way around all the time. It was an honor knowing you, Soos. May you die hugging!
Darkness Rissing – I'm not sure whether ol' Trinity Force will honor the Christmas Truce or not (most villains thankfully do, though I can't say Vilgax is among them), but what I can tell you that thinking of how to kill him is the last thing on my mind; I wanna spend whatever's left of my vacation relaxing and trying to keep Maddie and Deadpool under control. Also which OC are you talking about? There were quite a few.
KittyWolf – Now that would just give hotdogs a bad name. And the idea you present Cedar . . . quite interesting aspect. I have a specific power set in mind, but this is definitely something I'd look into.
Titanzilla – Not everything can be touched upon in a single chapter, I'm afraid. If memory serves, I think they spent that one in Maddie's Wonderland hat dimension (I'm still working on an actual name).
Redrangerlegacy – That's what you think! Taydentire infused helmet, baby!
Bill Cipher – Alright you one-eyed nacho, I'll grant you that was a clever insult. But despite that over-sized melon of yours, you seem to be overlooking one little detail. And I ain't tellin' ya what it is! And lucky for you, I managed to convince Maddie otherwise-
Liar! You drugged my tea and dragged me back here, you scoodle-butt!
First off, I have no idea what that is. Second, I want to save Raven as much as you do, but if we rush right in there without enough force or how to turn Bill's eye into our personal bowling ball, we're gonna get creamed. So sit tight for now. All we can do is wait.
Fine.
'I don't like it anymore than you do, Teacup.'
Cartoonfan10 – A reader actually requested that pairing and I just couldn't deny that, it worked out so perfectly. As for who grew the roots, I ain't saying.
'It was-'
*SMACK!*
Quiet you.
warprince2000 – Hope this satisfies you!
luciayshadow – I; trying to distance myself from True Love Loophole as much as possible (which means Grimm will not be Raven's grandfather. Too complicated of a storyline for what I have planned which is arguably even more complicated). And believe it or not, Snow White is not actually hitting on Ben, more like giving her daughter a push to try and stand up for herself and stop acting like a helpless maiden all the time and potentially one that could wield a sword when need be. Almost all of the ideas you just suggested for the Temple Adventure (name in progress) work very well, but there are somethings that'll have to be nitpicked and edited for it to work properly. Feliz navidad (I hope I said that right)!
moncada123 – (using Google translate because my Spanish is not that fluent). Lo siento, pero yo no entiendo muy bien lo que estás diciendo. Si usted se refiere a la serie de un solo disparo Ben 10 / Nación DC he planeado en mi perfil, no estoy seguro si voy a hacer una serie de Marvel de una sola vez o no.
Lord Dominator – One of the great unknown mysteries of the cosmos. And just because Ever After is a world of magic, doesn't mean there can't be technology. I mean, they somehow have phones and the internet when they have a distinct lack of anything close to a car that isn't pulled by a horse (which is kinda weird, if you ask me).
ajir12 – I'm already well aware of this. You aren't the first (or probably the last) to tell me, but I am hexcited regardless.
maverickmoxey2000 – Yes, the Hatter is mine and no fourth-wall breaking mercenary is gonna take her from me, you hear me, Deadpool!? And yes, Verde is an OC, but I'm not sure if I'll bring other colors into this or not; it would sure give the ghouls something to fight at the very least. Either way, I think the reason Vilgax (at least in my story) thinks he can handle 17 users of the Omnitrix (counting Ben) and the Nemetrix (Jane) is because most of them have little to absolutely no experience with their current form; Ben has only ever defeated Vilgax with forms he knows (with the exception of Way Big, but then again it's hard not to lose to a hundred-foot tall giant. Fun fact: Diamondhead and Way Big are the only aliens to ever defeat Vilgax). And I haven't the foggiest idea why Harangue hates Ben so much, probably just one of those adults that thinks kids are too irresponsible that they should not have any power as great as the Omnitrix.
Do I detect a thing going on between you and Lizzie? ;)
As for me, my choices of potential ghouls/girls are Jane, Robecca, Ghoulia, Frankie and Raven, Cerise, Cedar, and Maddie.
As for Achilles, he was originally built for good, but went rogue when his programming was damaged.
I'm thinking of Ben earning the right to 'help' teach classes after defeating ol' King Charming and putting his money where his mouth is. Thoughts? And the Duchess breakdown (or anyone else really) is too good to resist. At some point, that is. And I absolutely love your villain design (another glorious death, eh? Ben's not gonna like this), but it will unfortunately be a while before he can be used or even drawn. My life is too busy for me to properly work on my Deviantart work.
'Enough with the stalling, Four-Eyes! It feels like Christmas is already over!'
Alright, alright. Keep your Santa hat on. As always comment, review, suggest, and request down below! Also, there seems to be some sort of bug on the site that doesn't allow me to view the reviews you guys give me, so apologies if I missed some of you!
Onward!
Fa la la la la, baby.
"How about this one?"
"No."
"What about this one?"
"Keep looking."
"Maybe this one?"
"No."
"FOR HEX SAKE, WOMAN, PICK A TREE ALREADY!" Hunter yelled with frustration, pitching the ax he had been carrying on his shoulder for the past three hours into the snow while screaming at the heavens at the top of his lungs; a flock winter hardy birds scattered from the nearby trees, sending a fair amount of freezing snow down onto the poor huntsman and hitting him full in the face.
"Hunter, breath." Ashlynn consoled her boyfriend in a low, calm voice; the princess wore a pair of icy blue and white, fur-lined boots that reached her knees before stopping at pale, pink leggings and a warm, fur-lined dress covered by a small, blue jacket and pair of pink gloves while Hunter was dressed in nothing more than a deep green hunting jacket and black gloves.
Ben smirked slightly. "As much as I love to watch Hunter exercise his lungs, we really do need to make a decision, Venus. We can't stay out here forever." he pointed out. "Eventually, one of us will catch frostbite."
"Y-Yeah." Raven shivered, wrapping her arms tightly around her and cupping her hands to blow into them to try and generate as much heat as possible; despite her white earmuffs, purple and black jacket, matching gloves, and knee-high, black and lavender boots, the witchling was absolutely freezing to the point where she swore all feeling in her hands and feet had been lost. Ben wrapped a snug arm around him and pulled Raven close to him, sharing his body heat wit her before Cerise managed to worm her way between the two of them and wrap all three of them up in her crimson, fur-lined hood while simultaneously hiding a small blush that crossed her cheeks.
"I c-can't feel my f-f-face." Apple complained, pulling the hood of her red and gold colored coat over her blonde locks while rubbing her crimson gloves together to keep her fingers warm; against her better judgment, Apple quickly scooted over to Dexter and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly and burying her face into his jacket to try and warm herself up, unaware of the territorial look that crossed Cupid's face. Contrary to the soft pink parka, white, fur-lined hood and muff that the young deity wore, she was already boiling inside at the sight of the Daughter of Snow White unwittingly getting close to her crush in an attempt to get warm. Then again, glancing back over to Ben, she supposed Apple would be allowed to get away with this one when she noticed how Ben was simultaneously keeping Raven and Cerise warm while trying to convince Venus to at least make an exception to their mission.
"C'mon, Venus! It's Christmas!" he argued.
"You mean a tree murdering holiday?" the plant monster frowned.
Ben sighed. "Look, I know most people now usually use plastic trees or whatever, but we don't have that kind of thing here in Ever After. If we're going to celebrate Christmas and make it back to Ever After High long enough to help out with the decorations for the Holiday Mash-Up Briar's throwing, then we have to make a decision now." he explained, jamming a black gloved finger to the snow at his feet.
"P-Please?" Jane pleaded, her normally magenta lips now an icy blue as she tried to hug Venus to create some sort of warmth between the two of them; the jungle girl was wrapped up in a black, faux furred jacket, a pair of purple gloves she had borrowed from Raven that were a little big on her, and a pair of boots that Ashlynn had lent to her out of pity for the normally steamy jungle accustomed shape-shifter. Venus fared no better in her pink earmuffs, black and magenta jacket, and a set of finger-less gloves that she had recycled out of the Lost and Crown bin in the hallway between classes.
The plant monster sighed and relented, letting a cold vapor of breath escape her lips. "Fine. But only for you, Sweet Mango."
"What am I, chopped liver?" Ben chuckled slightly.
A conniving, seductive grin crossed Venus' face as she turned to look at Ben while her long, dexterous tongue slipped out at past her lips and slowly, proactively licked her lips. "Oh, don't worry, Ben. I haven't forgot about you," she purred. "I'm sure you'll love my Cryptmas gift to you."
"Uh, d-don't you mean Christmas?" Dexter corrected the plant monster while he awkwardly wrapped an arm around Apple's shoulder, unsure if he was doing something that would get his face punched in Ben or not; catching sight of the Omnitrix wielder's slight, almost invisible nod however, made him relax far more easier, unaware of the still irked expression on Cupid's features.
"Same holiday, different title." Skurd coughed. "Now can we please hurry up!? I've been frozen once already, thank you very much, and it was not a pleasant experience!"
"Why don't you just grow yourself some fur or something?" Ben suggested, bringing his arm up to his face so he could talk to the shivering Slimebiote more easily; it seemed almost no one had been expecting the warm, Spring days of Ever After to be nothing more than a distant memory with how quickly the landscape had been turned into an icy winter wonderland thanks to yet another back splash from the Well of Wonder that turned the seasons on their head. The occurrence of seasons switching so suddenly and seemingly randomly was getting to the point where Ben was growing suspicious of whether this was pure coincidence or not.
"Are you kidding? I'm allergic to Gimlinopithecus fur!" Skurd complained.
"Then chose something else." Ben rolled his eyes.
"That's just it! None of your other current forms will give me anything else half decent! I'm starting to freeze like a Piscciss Volann on Kylmyys!" Skurd grumbled, folding his little tentacles over his chest and huffing, pouting on Ben's wrist.
Hunter dusted the rest of the fallen snow off of him and grabbed the ax his father had gifted to him during Thronecoming over his shoulder. "The booger makes a point," he said, ignoring the exclamation of protest and throttling motions Skurd was making from Ben's wrist. "We've gotta find a tree and fast or we'll never be back in time to help out with Briar's party. And I for one, am not going to miss out on Ginger's Christmas cookies."
Venus rolled her eyes and surrendered. "Fine. We'll split up to cover more ground." she suggested. "First one to find a pinecone or a pine tree willing to give up its life for our festivities-"
"Again with the negativity." Hunter mumbled, spitting out a mouthful of snow.
"We'll call the others on their Mirrorphone so we can either head back or I can double check to make sure we aren't being too hasty." Venus finished, ignoring the biting comment Hunter made. With that settled, Raven, Cerise, and Ben all headed off in direction while Apple tagged along with Hunter and Ashlynn, believing that she was dancing with death if she remained to close to Dexter for Cupid's comfort; this left the young deity and her secret crush to pair up in a third direction and leave both Jane and Venus alone in the clearing.
"S-S-So, wh-where to?" Jane shivered, wincing at the sight of her own breath.
A mischievous smile crossed Venus' lips as she gently pushed the shape-shifter up against a nearby tree and wrapped her arms her, drawing her face close enough that her lips were but a breath's away from Jane's. "That can wait," she cooed, softly pressing her lips to Jane's and cupping her face with her hands for a brief moment before parting away and allowing the startled jungle girl to breath. "First, I think you need to warm up."
Jane was quite sure her face was fire as Venus slithered her long, slippery tongue out past her lips in a slow, seductive manner that made the shape-shifter shiver with pleasure when Venus slowly and proactively licked her collarbone with the very tip of her flexible tongue, tracing it up and around Jane's neck and gently touching it to her lips before whipping it back past her needle-like fangs and tenderly kissing Jane once more. The shape-shifter moaned as Venus pressed her body against her, carefully and warmly traced her hands across Jane's body, caressing her lovely face as the shape-shifter attempted to return her affections as best as possible.
"V-Venus . . . we n-need to f-find a tree . . ." Jane sucked in a breath.
Venus pouted slightly. "Oh, fine."
Jane felt an intense blush cross her face. "B-But we can continue later . . . if you want?" she offered.
"I'd love nothing more, Sweet Mango." Venus smiled, softly kissing Jane on the cheek before slipping her fingers through Jane's and walking off into the forest together.
Despite the cold temperatures that nipped at her nose and made her fingers tingle, Cupid was having a wonderful time alone with Dexter in the woods together; a small smile crept across her face as she watched Dexter rapped a knuckle against the trunk of one of the few pine trees in the Enchanted Forest and consequently got a branchful of snow dumped on his head and down the back of his coat, making him yelp with surprise and dance around much like a chimpanzee that had the unfortunate incident of having its posterior dumped in a bucket of hot coals.
"Hoo! Hoo! Cold! Cold! Ha!" Dexter yelped as he danced around while the freezing snow slid down his back and finally plopped out onto the ground.
Cupid giggled. "C'mon, Dexter! Stop fooling around!" she scolded him playfully.
"You try having snow dumped on you!"
Cupid felt a devious smirk cross her lips as she bent down and slipped her hands out of her muff to scoop up a small amount of snow and pack it into a tight ball before standing back up and tossing it lightly in her hands. "You mean like this?" she joked before lobbing the snowball right at Dexter and nailing him in the chest, causing him to stumble slightly; Cupid laughed before she was suddenly hit in the face by a second ball of snow, a smug look on Dexter's face being the only clue to its origins.
"Oh, so that's how it's gonna be, eh?" Cupid grinned devilishly.
"Give me your best shot." Dexter taunted before he gave a yelp and ducked behind a tree just as Cupid chucked three snowballs right at him, just barely missing him and nailing the trunk of another tree; the Son of Prince Charming quickly returned fire, aiming at the spot Cupid had been moments before she had suddenly and almost inexplicably vanished from sight. Baffled to her whereabouts, Dexter looked around for any sign of her before it was suddenly struck on the head by yet another dropping of snow, accompanied by a fit of laughter.
"Hey! That's against the rules!" Dexter complained, wiping snow off her face.
"Who said there were rules?" Cupid smirked playfully before chucking two more snowballs at Dexter, missing him as he juked to the left and right before quickly retreating behind a fallen log as three more snowballs drummed against his shelter. Despite the fact that he was most likely losing in this nearly one sided battle, Dexter was actually having a great time; maybe it was because now, after many weeks of near total isolation aside from the company of Cupid and a few select others, he was finally being excepted back into the hub and life of Ever After High without being constantly reminded of the curse he now bore through whispers and rumors that stalked the halls like demons in the shadows. Really he was just relieved to have friends again that were willing to put up with the danger that he possessed.
He was shaken out of his thoughts by two thunderous booms drummed against the log; Cupid had found some far packier snow that allowed her to create far more durable and bigger balls of snow to be used as ammunition; she was getting playfully aggressive, as if she were impatient with him simply cowering behind a log. Well if she wants to play, then I'll give her a game to remember, he thought to himself, a mischievous smile crossing his face as he took a deep breath of preparation and bolted out from behind the log, racing off through the forest as Cupid pumped her wings and flew after him, peppering the ground behind him with snowballs she had created from the copious amount of snow that sat amongst the branches overhead just waiting to be scooped up and lobbed at someone.
"Come back here and fight like a man!" Cupid called after him.
"You'll have to catch me first!" Dexter laughed as he swerved left and right to avoid getting pelted by snowballs. Contrary to the freezing temperatures, the Son of Prince Charming was already getting quite hot thanks to his winter wear keeping all and any heat that his body created from escaping into the open air to allow him to cool off; this of little concern to him for the moment however, as the majority of his problem was in losing Cupid and figuring out some way to win the little battle between the two of them.
Suddenly, before he knew at all what was happening, he was suddenly yanked off the ground and high into the air before being roughly slammed against a tree; when he attempted to protest, a hand covered his mouth, silencing him. He flickered his frightened, baby blue eyes about to try and find the source of whatever had managed to yank his full weight almost a dozen or more feet off of the ground with no effort whatsoever until he found it right beside him, starring at him with a pair of deep amber eyes. It was a girl about his age, if not a few years older, with pale skin that was a more deeper shade than Raven or Cupid's and a shaggy, wild mane of brown hair that hung over and framed her beautiful face while hanging back over her shoulders and back like a lion. Dexter felt a slight blush grace his face when he saw that the girl, as if completely oblivious to the freezing temperatures, was dressed in nothing more than shredded, skimpy clothing that just barely covered her well sized breasts and hips; a closer look at the strange girl revealed that her toes were spread out and strong to balance her weight and allow her to seemingly grasp and hold things as well as her incredibly strong hands that were attached to her lean, muscled arms.
"Shhhhhhh." the girl hissed, softly, bringing a finger to her lips as she rolled her eyes skyward to watch Cupid through the twisted maze and labyrinth of bare branches overhead. Dexter rolled his eyes skyward to watch as Cupid looked around for a few minutes in search of him before flying off in another direction without noticing him neath the half-dead canopy. Once she was sure she was gone, the strange girl uncovered Dexter's mouth and began to study him, looking intensely at him with her amber eyes and examining his hands and arms with her fingers and even sniffing his hair.
"Um, thanks for the save?" Dexter said, unsure of what he should say; it was after all, not every day someone was saved by a strange, wild girl in the middle of the winter. "But aren't you cold?" he wondered.
The girl stopped and looked at him. "Cold?"
"Well, h-how can you not be cold? It's gotta be ten below and you're practically naked!" Dexter pointed out as he slipped off his hat and handed it to the girl before slipping off his mittens and taking off his jacket as well; she needed it far more than he did and at least he had a wool sweater underneath. He was surprised when the girl shook her head and handed them back to Dexter, not even shivering in the slightest when a chilled breeze swept past them and threatened to blow them off of the branch they were sitting on, the girl's strong toes keeping a firm grip with minimal effort.
"Thank you for your generosity, but I don't need those." the girl declined politely. "I'm perfectly fine."
Dexter cocked an eyebrow as he slipped his hat back on, keeping his mittens and jacket out just in case she changed her mind. "A-Are you sure?"
The girl nodded. "Yes. My name is Savara. Savara Charming."
Dexter blinked in surprise. "Charming? But . . . I'm Dexter Charming." he explained with confusion. "I . . . I don't remember ever hearing of you."
Savara's expression turned sorrow upon hearing that, her face screwing up into one of frustration and anger. "Of course you've never heard of me. No one remembers old Savara."
"Why? Did something happen to you?" Dexter wondered with concern.
The sour look on Savara's face softened into a bright, cheery grin as she leaped backwards on the branch away from Dexter with ease, effortlessly standing on her hands and grabbing a snow-covered branch overhead with her feet before pulling herself up and very nearly giving Dexter a good view of her unmentionables when her ragged skirt started to slip before she righted herself on the branch and starred down at him with a bright smile. "That's not to be of concern right now," she said. "What we should be focusing on is how to win this little game of yours."
"You . . . you want to join in?" Dexter raised an eyebrow.
"Of course!" Savara smiled. "I'd love to help someone I have so much in common with!"
Dexter was growing more and more confused by the minute. "In common?" he wondered. "Other than our last name, you I don't seem to have a single thing similar to one another."
Savara rolled her eyes and smiled; he'd stop playing this silly game of his and come around eventually. "Oh, don't worry about it for now, you handsome boy, you. Right now, just get ready to follow my lead; your friend is coming back."
Now Dexter was beyond confused. "How do you-
"Dexter! Dexter!" Cupid called out. "Come on, we gotta head back!"
"My sense of smell. Even Big Bad can't smell this well." Savara smirked, tapping her nose with a knowing look; the more and more time Dexter spent talking to this strange girl, who seemed to be part man part animal, the weirder and weirder she seemed to become, having a sense of smell that could rival a wolf, more strength than a bear, and enough agility to be considered a monkey. This seemed to be a trivial matter right now as Savara practically threw herself off of the tree branch overhead and plummeted towards the ground, nimbly grabbing hold of a seemingly tiny, flexible branch with her dexterous feet and scooping an armful of icy snow before shooting back up and landing skillfully on the same branch Dexter was on.
"What are we doing?" Dexter wondered as he took a wad of snow that was offered to him.
"Make ammunition." Savara answered simply, though Dexter thought he heard an almost animal-like growl curl past her lips; the answer sounded a little more like a demand. Dexter wasn't sure if he should flinch or run away, but settled for doing as was suggested and packing the gathered snow into several tight balls.
"Dexter!" Cupid called out, cupping her hands over her mouth to amplify her voice before stuffing her freezing hands back into her muff; thankfully that was all that remained cold thanks to a set of slits in the back of her hood that allowed her large, feathery wings to slip out. The young deity was growing more and more worried by the minute at Dexter's absence; she had only meant for the sudden snowball fight to be nothing more than a harmless game, but had it turned out to be more than that? Had Dexter had hurt or offended that she was winning? Was he now off somewhere sulking and feeling absolutely miserable? Was he possibly in danger? Had he gotten himself hurt!?
"Oh, Dexter, where are you?" Cupid wondered with worry.
"Hey, Cupid!"
The young goddess felt her heart flutter and her worried demeanor immediately pick up upon hearing Dexter's once more from . . . right below her! Looking down, Cupid saw him sitting on a tree limb with a playful look on his face sitting next to . . . was that another girl? Another girl sitting on the branch next to her crush? Whoever this strange was, she was sitting awfully close to Dexter, too close for Cupid's comfort. And the way the girl was grinning at her like some kind of hungry predator . . . were . . . were those . . . fangs?
Cupid didn't get a chance to find out. Mere seconds upon finding her lost friend, Dexter and the strange girl scooped up armloads of snowballs and started hurling them at her; Cupid was caught off guard at first, getting struck in the shoulder and leg by Dexter's poor aim before she was able to skillfully dodge the majority with little effort a small laugh escaping her lips; finally, he had managed to get the upper hand on her.
Dexter was laughing and grinning like an idiot as he hurled snowball after snowball at Cupid, being careful to avoid hitting her wings and face and focusing on her more cushioned areas like her legs and stomach than anything that might be vital; glancing over at Savara, the Son of Prince Charming found her smiling as well, her lips turned upwards in a bright grin as she chucked a snowball at Cupid and succeeded in striking her in the foot. He was happy to see her having fun, believing to have found a new friend in her . . . maybe she would be willing to tell her how she shared the same last name as him instead of swiftly changing the subject? His hopes were put on hold however when he realized that unlike him, Savara's arms were not tiring as she hurled the snowballs at Cupid, her speed only increasing as she continued to pummel Cupid harder and harder, aiming for her more vulnerable areas while a predatory grin took over her playful smile. It was almost like . . .
"Savara! Stop!" Dexter said. "We won! It's over!"
"It's not over until I say it is." Savara snarled, her voice deeper and more guttural as she scurried further along the branch and continued to throw her snowballs even harder at Cupid; one lucky shot plowed itself through Cupid's wings, causing her to falter in her flight briefly and make her drop through the air slightly before she managed to regain her balance.
"Savara! You have to stop!" Dexter exclaimed. "You're gonna hurt her!
"Dexter! Stop it!" Cupid pleaded, shielding her face with her hands; ignoring Dexter and Cupid's pleas for mercy and help, Savara ignored them and continued to hammer Cupid with snowballs with enough force behind them to drive nails into wood on most occasions, leaving any exposed areas of Cupid's to become a nasty purple and red as they bruised. Savara never relented and only threw harder and harder until she succeeded in striking Cupid in the jaw, stunning her and knocking her out of the sky much to Dexter's horror.
"Cupid!" Dexter yelled as he watched her plummet to the ground and land in a cloud of fluffy, white snow; the young goddess didn't move for several harrowing seconds before her wings twitched slightly and she moaned, slowly sitting up and massaging an aching spot on her skull. Relieved that she was alright, the Son of Prince Charming felt his temper flare as he turned on Savara, who was more amused at how things turned out than guilty if anything. "What did you do that for!? She could have gotten hurt!" he berated her.
Savara's satisfied grin and bright, amber eyes now took on a hurt expression, her lips turning in a deep frown as her eyes narrowed to near slits; Dexter immediately felt any courage he had evaporate as Savara bent down low close to the branch, her figure sleek and limber as she slowly stalked across the branch towards him. The prince had seen that same posture and hungry look in her eye in Jane when she was under the cursed riddle book's spell, reduced to nothing more than a mindless, predatory beast that hacked and slashed and maimed and mauled and tried to kill anything that crossed its path. Dexter let out a small yelp of fear as Savara leaped and crashed into him, roughly slamming him against the tree's trunk and drawing her face close to his.
"Do you know why I'm out here? Why we share the last name? Why I hit your friend?" she hissed in a low tone, her breath nearly upon his lips as she spat out the last word with as much disdain and hatred as humanly possible. Before Dexter could answer, Savara grabbed him by the back of his jacket and easily lifted him off of the branch they were sitting on before throwing herself through the air and landed in the tree just above Cupid before springing away to another one and another, never stopping with a frightened Dexter in her grip until they were a short distance away from Cupid that they could still see her while remaining undetected by the young goddess once more.
And, once more, Dexter was slammed against the trunk of the tree, wincing slightly as Savara shoved her face near his and dug her nails deep into his chest, driving them through his jacket with ease and stabbing them into his skin with her lips drawn back in a deep snarl. "I am like you, young prince." she explained with a pained and infuriated tone. "I was almost a part of your wretched family, a princess who was to be wed to handsome prince charming from your line when she turned eighteen . . . if only fate had been so kind to me."
"Wh-What happened?" Dexter gulped with fear.
Savara narrowed her eyes at him. "I suffered like you did. My husband to be ran off with some bar tending slut and left me heartbroken mere days before we were to be married," she replied, her grip tightening on Dexter further, as if she were experiencing physical pain while recalling the horrid memories that lurked deep within her mind. "I was devastated and jealous beyond repair, twisted into a horrifying monster the very night I was broke in two."
Dexter blinked with surprise, stunned. "Y-You mean . . ?"
Savara grinned cunningly, her teeth having been replaced with sharp, cruel fangs. "Yes." she hissed with a low growl as her body began to change before his very eyes; her athletic figure swelled and pulsed in what looked like to excruciating agony as more muscle mass and tissue piled itself on Savara, twisting her arms in monstrous, hulking limbs that looked like they could have decimated a small tree with a single blow of her twitching fingers before they exploded in size when sharp claws tore through her nails. Savara's legs cracked and crunched, twisting and warping into those of the back legs of an animal, strong paws taking the place of her hand-like feet as a layer of thick, shaggy, brown fur started to sprout all over her body, her hair growing longer and thicker until it hung over her like a thick blanket; at this point, Savara halted the transformation and looked back at Dexter with glowing, amber eyes.
"I knew deep down that they would be horrified to see me like this," she glowered, her voice deeper yet somehow retaining a feminine tone to it. "I kept it hidden. At times it was . . . difficult . . . to stay in a household with people who abolished everything that went against the stories, and a she-beast was but one of many. All was right until my family and I went on an outing and were attacked by a pack of hungry, savage wolves . . . truly wretched creatures."
"Wh-What happened?" Dexter trembled, having a distinct feeling that if he didn't show some kind of positive emotion that things would turn really bad for him in the end.
Savara remained silent for a while, climbing off of him and scooting about a foot away on the branch as her body slowly returned her to its original form; the fur coat that covered her entire body was shed, retracting back within herself as her wild locks shortened and her eyes dulled slightly. The strong claws and firm fingers that tipped her hands shriveled and weakened as her arms and legs quite a bit of muscle and tissue, still retaining some form of athleticism and strength even after resuming their original form while her paws split back into a pair of dexterous opposable feet that Savara gripped the branch with while wrapping her arms around her, starring out at the forest with a distant look. Dexter was unsure of what she was thinking, if anything, but he knew that look all to well; he use to stare like that on occasion out towards the horizon, devastated by the loss of Raven.
"Are . . . are you alright?" Dexter wondered.
"They were appalled." Savara whispered, looking at her hands with a pained expression and clenching them into fists so tight she was sure she was drawing blood. "Even though I saved their lives . . . they saw nothing but a monster. A mindless, terrifying, brutal, cruel, killing machine that they couldn't bear to look at; I was captured and locked away in the dungeons, chained to a wall and forgotten about, erased from the Charming history books as a hidden shame."
Before Dexter could offer any sort of sympathy for her, she continued on. "But 'stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage', to quote from Richard Loveless. Even the dungeons toughest chains could not hold me for long and I broke free, running away from all I knew and into these very woods to live my days in solitude. Nobody bothered to come after me, preferring to forget ever meeting me and twisting my mournful tale into nothing more than a joke."
"You were out here all alone?" Dexter said with amazement and pity, feeling beyond sorry for the girl sitting next to him on the branch.
"I was," Savara sniffed slightly before turning to Dexter with a slight smile. "Until I met you."
Dexter felt his breath catch in his throat as an intense blush crossed his face while he backed up against the trunk of the tree when Savara slunk closer to him, a grin upon her lips as she drew her face close to her once more, an intimacy that was quickly growing to be something of a normal thing with her. "Wh-Wh-What d-do y-y-you mean-n?" Dexter gulped.
Savara smirked before she leaned forward, taking a deep sniff out of Dexter's hair, slipping off his hat as she did so while shivering with anticipation before tentatively giving a long, slow lick upside his neck before returning to look at him with a slightly red face. "I can sense the beast's curse within you, Dexter, I can sense it waiting, itching, crawling, begging to be released again."
The Son of Prince Charming was more confused than ever before; disregarding the fact that he was talking to someone he had quite literally met only a half hour ago, she also turned out to be some cursed, nightmarish monster just like him just looking for companionship and someone to call a friend while simultaneously nearly severely injuring one of his closest friends and flirting with him at a level that he was nowhere near comfortable with. "Wh-What does that have to do with knocking my friend's brains out?" he countered with an irked tone, wanting a total and complete answer.
"She'll betray you in the end, Dexter." Savara snarled with a loud, bestial growl crossing her lips. "How could she ever love a monster like you, a ticking time bomb that could go off at any second with no one strong enough to stop you? They will never understand you, never understand us." she purred, cuddling up to him as she spoke, innocently sliding her fingers underneath of his jacket and slipping it off of him while he listened with a dazed expression, too stunned to even comprehend that Savara had just torn his wool, Christmas sweater in half, leaving him bare chested against the cold, winter weather. "You and me? We're two of a kind." she breathed, snuggling up close to him and biting her lip anxiously as she pressed her figure against his.
"Wh-What are you-" Dexter snapped out of it, now just realizing how cold it was outside.
"Come with me." Savara cut him off, her breath hot and thick on his neck. "Run away with me so that we can be together forever. Just you and I, a beast and his mate alone without anyone to scream and yell in fright at the mere sight of us. We can be safe and happy, just you and me." she moaned slightly, wrapping her arms around him and softly kissing his jaw; her behavior was strange to Dexter, almost as if she were an animal in heat.
"D-Dexter?" Cupid's faint voice came off from somewhere.
"Ignore her, Dexter." Savara purred, hugging him warmly. "She doesn't need you, but I do."
She . . . does have a point, right? Dexter thought to himself, a warm feeling creeping across his face as Savara massaged his shoulders and chest muscles with adoration. This strange girl, this stranger like him that he had so much in common with . . . if he listened to her, ran off with her and never returned to Ever After High, would he truly be missed? Would fairy tales notice his disappearance or would they continue life as if he hadn't existed? It seemed, compared to other people like his older brother or even Ben, that he was a nobody, a leftover to be used as a substitute, nothing more than a puzzle piece getting shoved into puzzle he clearly didn't fit in; would he be missed then, if Daring or another prince failed in their story? Now that he thought about it, he didn't matter to a lot of people, always getting overshadowed by other, better heroes like Ben and Daring and only getting noticed when he unintentionally caused trouble or someone needed something fixed.
Would he truly be happy if he ran away with Savara and never looked back, never looked back on the life that he had managed to scrounge together in his brother's shadow? Now that he thought about it more closely, there were a few people that he would miss; there was, of course, none other than Raven Queen, his first love and one of the few rays of sunshine in the sorry excuse of a life he was living. He supposed that they to had something in common, both hating their lives even though she was on the Rebel side of the conflict for her own reasons and he was only on the Royal side out of family tradition, but he truly was honored that she noticed him and liked him enough to call him a friend. Then there was a Ben, who was perhaps the most controversial member out of his small group of friends, but after the wielder of the Omnitrix had managed to talk some sense into him, Dexter actually started to see him as an acquaintance at the very least and a good friend at the most; he supposed it wasn't entirely Ben's fault for stealing Raven away from him and turning Ever After on his head, considering he came from a parallel world and had no idea how things worked in his own. And then . . . there was Cupid. Looking back on things, the young deity was perhaps the first friend Dexter had ever made, his best friend ever after as well, who had stuck by his side through thick and thin and still saw good in him, a second chance when so many had already lost hope and given up on him.
If he took Savara's offer . . . would he ever see them again?
"D-Dexter?" Cupid called out again, her voice shaking him free of his thoughts.
Immediately, Dexter knew what his decision was.
"I'm sorry, Savara, but I can't do this." he frowned, prying the she-beast off of him while he gathered up his jacket and slipped it over himself before he caught hypothermia. "You may think they'll turn on me, but I know my friends better than anyone, and if I know them they'll stick by me through thick and thin." he told her as he wrapped his arms and legs around the trunk of the tree. "I only wish I had realized that sooner." he whispered to him before sliding down the trunk to the ground. With that being said and done, Dexter started to rush off towards the sound of Cupid's voice, only to be suddenly yanked back.
"You aren't going anywhere." Savara frowned, hanging from a branch by her hands and holding him with her dexterous feet.
"Let me go, Savara! I have to go make sure Cupid's alright!" Dexter struggled fruitlessly before Savara lifted him up by her feet, tossed him up into the air and caught him with her feet once more, catching him just under his arms and effortlessly supporting his weight half a dozen feet off of the ground.
"You aren't going anywhere." Savara repeated. "You might not realize it yet, but you need me as much as I need you. We're two lost souls destined for one another."
"Not interested!" Dexter grunted, feebly trying to squirm himself free.
"Struggle all you want, but it won't work," Savara smirked, pulling him close to her with a devilish and seductive smirk on her lips. "At least, not in your current form."
Dexter shook his head. "Oh, n-no. I am never turning into that thing again!" he huffed, folding his arms over his chest in defiance.
Savara however, did not seem the slightest bit deterred, a cocky grin joining the mixture of emotions pooling together on her face. "I admire your determination, you sweet stud, but I will get to change." she smiled, pulling him close to her until he was less than an inch away from her face for what seemed to be the fifth time that day. "One way or another." she hissed in his face, softly kissing his cheek before the Son of Prince Charming swiftly kicked her in the stomach and sent her flying, dropping him down roughly to the ground with a pained grunt as he landed hard on his knee before he ran off in the direction Cupid's voice had come from, breathing hard as he did so; Savara on the other hand had merely planted her feet firmly on the first tree trunk she had bounced off of and shot off after Dexter on all fours, her body shifting and changing all the while.
"Cupid! Cupid!" Dexter as he stumbled through the snow, his heart hammering his chest and his breath short and ragged as the sound of increasingly bigger and bigger footsteps came pounding up behind, kicking up the layer of snow and ice in thick clouds as it got closer and closer with every step Dexter took. He ignored his pursuer and weaved through the maze of bare, icicle covered trees, going so far as to ram right into one as hard as possible to shake the forest of icicles down overhead to stall Savara as long as possible; even a single, precious second would have been useful.
"Cupid!" Dexter yelled at the top of his lungs before he heard a slight whimper to his right and scrambled in that direction, barely keeping his foothold on the slippery ground as he charged after the source of the noise and skidded down to a stop on his knees in front of Cupid, relief upon his face when he found that she had been leaning up against a tree trunk the whole time nursing the nasty bump on her head.
"Dexter . . ?" Cupid hissed, rubbing her aching skull. "That girl . . . she's a lot stronger than she looks."
"You have no idea," Dexter mumbled under his breath before fully embracing the young deity; Cupid froze on the spot, her head injury all but forgotten as she cautiously returned the hug, unsure of whether the snowball to the head had actually managed to somehow knock her out and turn this wonderful moment into nothing more than a dream that be cut all too short once she woke up. "I'm just glad you're safe."
"R-Really?" Cupid resisted the urge to squeal and blush.
"Yes," Dexter said as he helped her stand up. "But right now, we have bigger problems."
"Like what?" Cupid wondered before gagging at the scent of a horrible, hot odor that stabbed itself deep into her nose and refused to leave even when she held her breath; it was like a combination of rotting meat and moist earth with the crisp, winter making it like an invisible knife was stabbing itself inside her brain. Upon feeling the hot, wet breath on the back of his neck, Dexter turned around and cringed at the sight of what had once been Savara; she was now more than twice her original size, absolutely dwarfing Dexter as she loomed over him, glowering at him with an oddly human, amber pair of eyes and a set of razor-sharp fangs and tusks that were a tad smaller than the Beast's. Her entire, muscled figure had swelled to epic proportions, making her original arms and legs look like noodles in comparison to the strong, wicked claw tipped fingers and paws while her hunched back was draped over by a thick, shaggy mane and a lion-like tail slithered out from the base of her spine, her bestial figured barely covered by the ripped and torn rags Savara had been wearing earlier.
"Uh, C-Cupid, you remember m-meeting Savara, r-right?" Dexter gulped.
"Vaguely." Cupid whimpered, shrinking and curling up against Dexter for safety.
"Savara th-this is Cupid, my friend." Dexter said, trying to remember what his hero training had taught him about distracting your opponent in anyway possible that didn't endanger the helpless maiden while you looked for a way out of the situation. "Y-You've met before."
"Don't remember." Savara snarled, shoving Dexter down to the snow and out of the way as she swung her other arm and clobbered Cupid, slamming her against the trunk of a another tree with a loud crack!
"Cupid!" Dexter cried.
Savara ignored his cries of worry and let out a loud, bestial roar that seemed to rattle the very air as she charged forward on all fours at Cupid, bunching up her legs and pouncing upon her with her claws raised and ready to slash her in half; the young goddess yelped and rolled out of the way in the nick of time, scrambling to her feet and running off through the forest with her breath in her throat and her hammering pounding in her chest. The she-beast made a move to give chase before she was suddenly decked across by a snowball.
"Leave her alone!" Dexter demanded, chucking another snowball at her face; the she-beast ignored him and swung her arm a second time, colliding it with his chest and thumping him against another tree, knocking the breath out of his lungs. The Son of Prince Charming watched feebly as Savara gave a cunning grin and ran off after Cupid, leaving him at the base of the tree for the time being; and all Dexter could do was think about how he had failed Cupid, how he had failed his best friend. She had stuck by his side through the worst of storms, always there to help pick him up when he was down, and he had failed her.
Weakling.
Dexter's eyes widened upon hearing the word, glancing around for the source of the voice that he had heard echoing in his ears deep and breathy, as if it was some sort of monstrous machine growling and grinding from the bottom of a pitch, black pit of despair.
Useless.
He now knew where the voice was coming from, the voice that was taunting him so at his failure, his inability to even save the one he held most dear to him: The Beast. The Beast within him, the unholy monstrosity that made him an outcast amongst his peers and made them cringe and wince and flinch and cramp themselves into the nearest corners and alcoves to avoid being seen by him as he traversed the halls, the very nightmare that tormented him ever since that fateful night when his humanity had slipped at the creature . . . the thing . . . the Beast had broken free. It was irrational and furious, an unstoppable killing machine that could only be halted by the bravest warriors . . . that didn't include himself.
"N-No." Dexter whispered to him as he hauled himself to his feet and clenched his fist tightly, using every last ounce of mental strength he had to suppress and push the Beast back down within him as he ran off in the direction Cupid and Savara had gone, sweat dripping down his brow and his warm breath fogging up his glasses slightly as he hoped he wasn't too late; a loud scream cut through the chilled air like a sharpened, steel blade, stabbing itself almost painfully into Dexter's ears and worming its way deep inside his head, fueling him to push his body to the limits as he forced it to run faster, forced it to run harder, forced it to simply run so that he could be there before it was too late.
He soon found them in the middle of a clearing, the perfect blanket of white snow now torn up and heavily trampled with clear signs of a struggle; downy, white feathers were everywhere along with a few, stray patches of brown fur that Cupid had been lucky enough to tear out. But what caught Dexter's attention the most was the red and pink stains that covered the ground, scattered and scarce at first but getting more and more concentrated towards the center of the clearing where Savara stood looming over Cupid as she lay curled up into a ball with what remained of her wings wrapped around her like a shield. Despite her heavy sobs and pleas for mercy, Savara continued to maul her, raking her claws through her winter garb and digging into her skin before grabbing her by an arm and slamming her against the ground and then throwing her against a tree; blood was dripping from multiple wounds across Cupid's body, a steady stream of the precious liquid dribbling out of her nose as she whimpered and waited for the abuse to stop as Savara charged at her, jaws open wide in a deep snarl and claws ready to gut her like a fish.
Dexter didn't know what happened next as he watched Cupid simply lay there, looking absolutely helpless and pitiful for the first time in her life; one minute he was standing there, watching the person he cared most about in the world lying there waiting for the inevitable pain and agony that would come, the next he was yelling at the top of his lungs and barreling across the clearing as fast as possible, throwing his entire weight into Savara's side and throwing the both of them off course, smashing and bashing against the ground as they tumbled and finally came to a stop.
"I knew it would work." Savara grinned toothily as she climbed to her feet and shook the snow out of her fur in a fashion similar to a large, furry dog.
"What are you talking about?" Dexter snarled before he realized that his voice was deeper and more forced; he glanced at his hands and found they had been twisted into half-formed versions with strong fingers and wicked claws attached to powerful hands and even more powerful arms covered in layers of shaggy, brown hair. His shoulders and back had swelled to monstrous proportions, a pair of sharp horns thrusting out of his skull just in front of his ears and behind the cage of crushing fangs and tusks that now filled his mouth. His jacket lay in shreds on the ground around him, a furry, wolf-like tail swishing back and forth in anger as the Beast roared with fury and acrimony.
"You . . . you did this to me!" the Beast bellowed, jamming a finger at the she-beast.
Cupid cracked open an eye after what seemed an eternity of waiting for the demise that never came and felt them widen and her heart nearly skip a beat as she watched the Beast and Savara wrestle around in the snow, the both of them roaring and snarling at the top of their lungs. The young goddess watched and mentally cheered as the Beast managed to come out on top in the small scuffle between him and his female counterpart, pinning the she-beast to the ground and savagely biting her shoulder, tearing into her flesh as she howled and managed to slid her legs underneath of his stomach, pushing him up and off of him with a quick kick that allowed her to climb to her feet.
Savara was delighted on the inside despite appearing absolutely furious on the outside; if she could just beat him, make him see that he would be far happier with her than with the winged slut currently licking her wounds a few yards off, then her goal would be complete. The only slight issues were the presence of the traitorous, winged slut and the fact that what the Beast lacked in skill and experience, he more than made up for it with his strength and power. She would have to be cunning and crafty while showing off her physical prowess if she wanted to make the Beast her mate; his human form was, unfortunately rather lack luster, but then again so had hers until she had been banished to the enchanted Forest and been forced to live amongst the wild animals and harsh weather conditions Mother Nature presented her with.
With a loud roar, the Beast charged forward at her, his claws pounding the snow and kicking up ice as he raced across the clearing towards her with murder in his eyes; she grinned a toothy smile that would made most creatures back up from the sheer amount of bone crushing fangs she had before turning tail to run towards the nearest tree and climb her way up, her sharp claws allowing her to do so with minimal to no effort as she then proceeded to climb upside down along a branch just out of reach of the Beast's swiping claws when he tried to jump up and pull her down.
"Now you're just showing off." the Beast snarled as he slammed a strong hand into the bark of the tree and made his way up after her, an intense frown on his jaws.
"And if I am?" Savara shot back with a taunting tone.
The Beast didn't reply as he hauled himself up the trunk of the tree and onto the branch Savara was hanging upside down from, teasing him all the while; if he could get her to fall, he could then use his height to his advantage and drop down on her, pinning her to the ground and winning the fight. With this in mind, he rushed across the branch and was prepared to step as painfully on the she-beast's fingers and toes as possible when a loud cracking noise caught his attention. Gripping the branch tightly, he felt a sudden jerk as the tree limb snapped and bowed under their combined weight, giving him mere seconds to profusely curse under his breath before the branch finally broke and dropped both him and Savara to the ground in a cloud freezing, white flakes.
Cupid watched with baited breath, wondering what would happen and quickly getting an answer when the Beast roared and came tumbling and rolling out of the white flurry locked together with Savara, the two of them rolling around across the curling as they bit and slashed and attacked each other with mercy, tussling and tumbling around the clearing until they popped up with fingers interlocked together and each struggling against the other to gain some kind of ground; while the Beast was stronger than Savara, the she-beast had more than enough energy to hold her ground against his exhausting body.
"Tired, dear?" she growled with a cocky heart.
The Beast snarled and was about to come back with a biting comment when a bright, flash of green light came off from out of the corner of his eye, a sight that was barely noticeable to someone in his position; he suspected that Savara either didn't see it or didn't know what it was, but the sight was an all too familiar one to the Beast, though not unwelcome in this case.
"Not even." the Beast gave a smug grin before he gave a sudden shove and pushed her back a few feet.
"Surpr-eyes!" a gruff, somewhat nasally voice yelled; Savara briefly diverted her gaze towards the source of the noise and was greeted with a sudden blast of energy that sent her flying across the clearing. With a grunt of annoyance, the she-beast propped herself up on an elbow and felt her eyes widened upon seeing the three people that had joined them in the clearing. The first was a girl with ivory white skin and purple eyes shaded by a head of hair of the same color stained with a dark, cruel black while the second girl bore a pair of stormy, gray eyes and was draped in a crimson hood; to her sensitive nose, the strange girl smelled just like her, almost as if . . .
"Oh, yeah! The eyes have it!" the third creature grinned cockily. He was roughly the size of an average adult, male human if not a foot or so taller and was covered in leathery, dark yellow skin on his upper half with a lighter shade coating his belly and under his arms; he was well muscled as well, his legs long and lean and perfect for jumping while his three, clawed toes and four digited hands would allow him to most likely scale most vertical surfaces. What drew the most attention however, were the seventeen or so bright, green eyes that dotted his entire upper body except for, ironically, his face. Instead, his head was dominated by a pair of large, flap-like ears that took up his entire face and allowed him to sense more of his surroundings than most other beings would be able to perceive.
"What are you?" Savara hissed irritably as the ivory-skinned girl, a witch if the she-beast's nose was working right, rushed to the aid of Cupid, bending down and fussing over the winged girl with a worried expression as her hands glowed an ominous purple in color; upon touching her palm to a bruise on her hip, Cupid cried out in pain and Raven instantly withdrew her hand, wincing at the blackened energy that crackled between her fingers like conductors.
"The eyecing on this cake!" Eye Guy cracked as he raised up his hands and fired off dual blasts from the eyes on his hands; Savara dodged both, ducking under the first and dodging the avoid the second, but she was completely caught off guard by Cerise as the hooded girl snarled and growled in a fashion very similar to that of a hungry wolf before rushing at her and successfully tackling her to the ground despite being less than half her size. Savara was stunned as Cerise grunted and managed to heave her entire body weight off of the ground and above her head with some effort before throwing her as far as possible across the clearing, a good six yards or so with a feral frown upon her lips as her eyes glowed an intense amber.
"Here's some holiday cheer all up in your face!" a slimy, green, booger-like creature chuckled mischievously as he slithered and oozed his body over Eye Guy's right arm while simultaneously tapping into the Omnitrix's genetic database; a pair of thick, carbonfiber cables wrapped around the Opticoid's arm and slithered in two, different directions. One end snaked and wormed its way to his back, jamming themselves into the side of a durable, black, turtle-like shell that was forming on his back as three, icy blue fins thrust themselves out along the spine while the other end of the cables wrapped around Eye Guy's arm and into his waiting hand, forming a black handle and blue trigger button that sprouted out into a large, black cannon that the cables attached into the bottom and back of as three more icy blue fins grew from the back of the canister, forming two glowing orbs on either side of the barrel; a rounded, reptilian head with jaws similar to a steel bear trap formed on the opposite end, a pair of nonfunctioning eyes opening up on either side of the head as several barbels and growths formed on his chin, completing the transformation.
"Cool! The Arctigun!" Eye Guy grinned upon seeing the new Polar Manzardill weapon in hand before pointing it at Savara and pulling the trigger; the Polar Manzardill's mouth instantly snapped open and blasted an icy vapor out at the she-beast, freezing her solid as the moisture in her body and the surrounding air was frozen, forming ice crystals that coated her entire figure until she looked like an incredibly ugly ice statue.
"Freeze! Ha, hah! I've always wanted to say that!" Skurd quipped excitedly.
"And you say my puns are bad." Eye Guy rolled all seventeen of the eyes that covered his entire body at once.
Savara didn't know who this strange creature was, or who the shape-shifting slime upon his arm, the young witchling currently trying to treat Cupid's wounds and failing, or animalistic girl that was stronger than most men were, but she knew she was more than capable of handling all three of them plus her temperamental love as long as there weren't any more surprises. With a low, guttural growl and grunt, she flexed her powerful muscles and broke free of her permafrost prison, sending ice scattering in all directions as she roared and rushed at the assuming witchling.
"Look out, Raven!" Eye Guy yelled; the witchling gasped with surprise and threw her hands up at the last second, encompassing both herself and Cupid in a durable, purple dome that bowed and shimmered under every blow Savara threw at it until Eye Guy closed all the eyes on his body and formed them all into a single, large eye on his chest that glowed ominously and buzzed slightly before it slithered out on a long, dexterous vein that slammed into Savara's head, stunning her long enough for the eye to blast her with a more concentrated beam than before, blasting her back just as Raven dropped the shield.
"Leave my friends alone!" Cerise growled, tackling Savara once more and furiously biting her firm fingers, crushing the bones in her middle and index fingers with her jaws before grabbing the Riding Hood was smacked upside the head with enough force to send her flying across the clearing, bouncing a couple times before coming to a stop, unmoving save for the annoying movement in her chest that signified she was still alive.
Savara's attention was quickly drawn away from Cerise as the Beast roared and charged at her, grabbing her by her upper arm and swinging her around and around in a circle, his claws digging in deep into her flesh before he threw her across the clearing, growling with annoyance when the she-beast only skidded back a couple of yards before charging at him again, tackling him to the ground while dodging a quick eye blast from Eye Guy. Savara then grabbed the Beast by his tail and swung him around like he had done to her, spinning around and around until she had reached a satisfying climax and hurled the Beast at Eye Guy, sending the both of them tumbling and bouncing across the clearing in a tangle of arms and legs.
"Nice try, dear." Savara growled with a toothy smile.
"'Dear' my eye!" Eye Guy snarled as he crawled out from under the Beast and fired off a quick jet of cold vapor from the Arctigun before charging at the she-beast with fists clenched and eyes glowing an ominous green in color, ready to fire at will. Savara merely rolled her own eyes and weaved her head to the right to avoid a quick punch from the Opticoid before grabbing him by the forearm and flipping him over her shoulder and slamming his back into the ground, pinning his legs and the Arctigun to the ground with her feet and hand while drawing back her free hand and closing her strong fingers into a firm fist.
"Please! Not the eye!" Eye Guy pleaded comically, shielding his eyeless face with his free arm as he squeezed the eyes all over his body shut.
Before Savara could slug him in the face however, a loud, high-pitched warbling noise drew her attention away from the Opticoid to suddenly be rammed in from the side, a sharp pain filling her shoulder and chest as she was sent flying and bouncing across the clearing once more, landing on her side with a pained grunt and taking several labored breaths for staggering to her feet and looking up at what had plowed right into her; a large, violet and purple furred caribou with a shaggy coat and a dark, almost black, indigo rack of antlers that the beast allowing Eye Guy to use as a support to help him to his feet. Sitting on the back of the animal was an oddly humanoid girl with soft, green skin, a pair of plump lips riddled with little, needle-like fangs, a pair of bright, blue eyes, and long, sweeping, neon green and pink hair that was shaved off of one side and swept over the other, a cruel smirk upon her lips as she bounced a pinecone in her palm.
The caribou gave off another shrill howl and snorted, tossing its head and pawing the ground in a threatening manner before something happened that Savara not only did not expect but had never encountered before in all her days; her entire frame began to swell and get larger, much larger than her skinny form. Her bones groaned loudly as more and more weight was put onto them, muscle and tissue and fat piling themselves up underneath of Jane's thickening skin. Her top split open along the spine as she grew bigger and bigger, quickly dwarfing Eye Guy and Venus as the plant monster was propelled upwards by the transformation until she was well over eleven feet off the ground and Jane's legs and arms had thickened and grown to be as thick around as telephone poles; her fingers became quite short and stubby, soon almost nonexistent and leaving behind nothing but fingers on her growing forelegs. She shot upwards a couple extra feet, a mound of tough muscle and bone swelling between her shoulder blades and transitioning rather sharply into her back as a small, ropy tail squirted out from the base of her spine. One of the two most noticeable changes however, was Jane's head as almost every last strand of hair was sucked back into her skull like strands of spaghetti, leaving nothing but thin, wiry hairs on her head and face while her ears grew to more than five times their original size, thoug they remained almost tiny in comparison to her full body weight. Jane's upper canines cracked and groaned loudly as they were forced out of her mouth and swiftly lengthened into a pair of massive, curved tusks that wrapped back around in front of her face as her eyes rotated off to the far sides of her head and her nose and upper lip effortlessly melted together and into a long, nine-foot manipulative trunk. The second most noticeable change to Jane's new form was the addition of a short layer of under wool that covered her entire body before long, thick, shaggy hair sprouted from her skin and only added to her general, impressive size just as a red, spiked collar appeared around her thick neck, completing the transformation.
"Two tons of fun, eh?" Eye Guy grinned as the woolly mammoth raised its trunk above its head and let out a long, warning trumpet as she stomped the ground with a massive foot. "Or to be more accurate, six and a half."
Barring the fact that a caribou had just suddenly and inexplicably turned into a mammoth, Savara was growing more and more uneasy; while the witchling did not seem to be a current threat, the feral, hooded girl that was staggering to her feet and roughly spitting at the ground with annoyance could be a problem, as well as the multieyed creature, green-skinned girl, and of course, the Beast, were an entirely different matter. She was vastly outnumbered and her bestial temper and instincts were telling her to fight until she had drawn her last breath, but her human half, the more logical half, was telling her to retreat and live to fight another day.
"Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide." the Beast snarled, stalking towards her as the mammoth, Eye Guy, and Cerise did the same and forcing Savara back with every step they took.
"Looks can be deceiving." Savara shot back, trying to sound brave and avoid giving off the allusion of fear. The beast within her was screaming for her to fight back, to attack and maul and maim and destroy until nothing was left but her and her desired; the she-beast gave a low snarl and made a move to charge forward, only to be halted by a short blast of the Arctigun that formed jagged, pointed icicles from the ground in front of her, forcing her back even further. A sudden twang! caught her attention and Savara turned her head to see an arrow implanted in the ground behind her, the culprit of the shot none other than Hunter Huntsman with an ax wielding Ashlynn by his side and a rather out of place Apple hanging back behind them trying to look as threatening as possible with nothing more than a ball of snow to arm herself with.
"One more move, and an arrow goes right between the eyes." Hunter threatened, pulling the drawn arrow back a little more for emphasis.
Savara didn't doubt him either and looked back and forth between her different adversary's, cringing slightly as Cerise snarled and bared her teeth in a wolf-like manner and bore her claws wickedly sharp, Eye Guy gave off small puffs of icy vapor from the Polar Manzardill weapon on his right arm while blinking his multiple eyes at random intervals, Jane snorted and flexed her trunk, Ashlynn patted Hunter's ax in her open palm, and the Beast merely glared at her, as if boring a hole right through her soul; she was cornered and trapped like a rat with no way to possibly escape that she could see. With little choice left, Savara heaved a defeated sigh and stole one last sorrowful look at the Beast.
"We could have been together." she lamented sadly before turning tail to run, her feet pounding the snow as Hunter fired off warning shot after warning shot after her; the Beast watched her go with a stoic, satisfied expression, obliviously to Savara's broken heart and her battle to fight back the trees that she would later shed upon resuming her human form somewhere far off in the deepest parts of the Enchanted Forest, far from prying eyes and ears and the weapons of men and monster and alien. Without a word or second look back, the Beast turned right around and walked up to Raven and Cupid, ignoring the way the witchling cringed slightly or how Hunter drew his bow and aimed it at him and Eye Guy leveled the Arctigun at his back, his finger waiting to pull the trigger finger when needed as the Beast carefully and tentatively scooped up Cupid in a large, furry arm and tucked her close to his chest before turning his gaze onto Eye Guy.
"Uh, guys. Eye think we can lower our weapons." the Opticoid mumbled.
"What are you talking about, dear boy! He'll tear her to shreds!" Skurd exclaimed from the top of the Arcitgun, earning a loud roar of annoyance from the Beast.
"Lower your weapons." Eye Guy repeated; sharing looks with each other, Hunter did as he was told and relaxed his hold on the bow, keeping the arrow ready just in case as Ashlynn rested the blade of the ax in the snow and Jane backed off a few feet with a low rumbling. The Beast snorted and gave a curt nod to Eye Guy before barreling off into the woods in the direction of Ever After High, his pace never slowing down as he held on tightly to Cupid and allowed the young goddess to snuggle deeper into his frame; the Omnitrix timed out mere moments later, filling the clearing in a flash of green light as Ben resumed his original form and Skurd returned the Polar Manzardill DNA back into the Omnitrix.
"Ben, are you sure that was the best idea?" Raven wondered, getting up from the ground and dusting snow off of her.
Ben nodded. "Positive." he said. "We should head back anyway. It's getting colder."
"On the bright side, I found a pinecone we can grow!" Venus piped up, tossing said pinecone up into the air and spinning it on one of her fingers.
"Okay, now you're just showing off." Hunter frowned as he took hold of his ax and heaved it over his shoulder and trudging through the snow back towards the school as Jane turned around and carved a path through the permafrost with her large tusks, leaving a good trail for everyone else to follow behind in. Apple was the last one to follow after them, the already bright, cheery smile she had been wearing moments before they had earned the warning cry of a caribou echo hauntingly through the woods already gone and replaced with a fidgeting frown, something only made worse when she noticed Ben wrap his arms around Raven's shoulders only to have Cerise once again worm her way in between them and share her hood with the both of them to try and provide some warmth.
Apple had come to accept a while back that, contrary to what she desired and wished and mentally begged, Ben would not ever stop loving his ghoulfriends and would never stop loving his girlfriends and just never stop attracting the attention of females of various species and lineage; she had excepted this fact, and yet . . . it felt so wrong to her. The negative feeling was worming and squirming and turning around deep inside her like some sort of parasite that steadily feeding off of her flesh and bodily fluids, growing bigger and fatter with every passing day; the thought made her shiver uncomfortably, but that was the least of her problems.
It seemed only a select few, including her, ever realized how important it was to follow their destinies, to follow in their parent's footsteps and relive the stories and tales they had forged forth for them. As far as she knew, the Rebels were nothing more than just troublemakers hellbent on making the poor Headmaster and the Royals lives living nightmares; but then again, some of her best friends forever after, including Ashlynn and Raven, were Rebels themselves and shared and liked the same things as Apple did. The thought and controversial issue at hand was so compelling and mind twisting, that Apple hardly noticed where she was going until she was sudden face down in the cold snow, her nose absolutely numb and frozen blue while she picked herself up and dusted herself off, shivering and looking back to see what had made her trip.
Sticking out of the ice and snow was a smooth, black object that reflected a blinding light in the barely sensible, warm, winter sun; curious, Apple scooted closer on her knees and wrapped her fingers around the top, giving it an experimental pull before giving it a quick tug and managing to pull it out after a few tries, nearly falling flat on her back before she was able to right herself and get a closer look at the object she had just unearthed. It was cool to the touch, even through her gloves and was clearly made out of a black metal of some kind that had been bent and woven into the form of a large, black lantern with exotic designs patterned and arched on all four sides.
"Apple, you coming?" Raven's voice called out before the princess could rub the snow away.
"Coming!" Apple shouted back as she tucked the lantern under her arm and unzipped her jacket far enough to slip it inside of a particularly large pocket that she had gotten Maddie to enchant with a little Wonderland magic so that it would be able to much more than it had originally been able to. With the mysterious lantern tucked away, Apple zipped her jacket back up and hurried to catch up with the group.
Apple sighed happily as she fell back on her bed, revealing in the warm feeling that the sheets provided for her, wrapping her in warmth so fine that she nearly fell asleep on the spot right there; her blonde locks were damp and her finger tips were freshly wrinkled from the recent shower she had just taken and clothed herself in a fluffy, red robe decorated with pink and golden apples. The comforting hand of sleep however, was quickly shrugged off as Apple sat up on her bed and turned to look at the lantern sitting on the table beside her bed, starring back at her as if it were beckoning her closer and closer.
Now that she got a closer look at it, she supposed the lamp would make a decent Christmas gift for Ben. Or maybe Raven? After all, the witchling did on occasion take interest in certain magical runes, items, or objects depending on what they were used for or where they had originated from; and if this lantern had no magical uses, it could still make a lovely decoration item for the room or be used in one of the spells that Apple sometimes would catch Raven performing in the bathroom with the door locked and a towel stuffed under the door frame for some reason. Whenever the young witch had come out of the bathroom afterward, she had never given Apple a reason for performing such a spell or ceremony, no matter how much the princess had asked or begged.
"Ooh. You're in for a bit of a cleaning." Apple noted as she peered closer at the lantern and proceeded to slip back into the bathroom and grab a spare towel to clean the lamp with; she was currently alone in the dorm she shared with Raven, with the majority of her friends downstairs in the school's ballroom preparing for the festivities that would soon take part later that night. Briar had gone all out in preparation of the party, getting the most festive streamers and wreaths to deck the halls with and sparing no expense in finding the biggest disco ball as well while simultaneously signing Raven and the Rebels up to play music for the evening; the witchling still wasn't able to comprehend that she and a band that she had crushed together at the last second in a fit of fury had become so popular when almost every other day of the week the people she performed for would usually end up running and screaming away in the opposite direction as if she had the plague.
Cupid fortunately, had been swiftly taken to the healer's office by the Beast, suffering nothing more than multiple bruises, a broken nose, a severe loss of feathers that would leave her wings sore for weeks on end until they all grew back, and extreme exhaustion that had landed her a nice stay in the healer's office for the day; Apple wasn't even sure if the young goddess would be able to attend the Holiday Mash Up planned for that night, and that included Dexter as well. Upon resuming his human form after several hours of nervous pacing back and forth and roaring and snarling at anyone that came too close, the prince had changed back and hadn't left Cupid's side ever since, completely overcome with worry and concern.
Apple's concern for the moment however, was how a single, stubborn stain on the top of the lantern simply refused to be scrubbed away.
"Come on, come on," Apple grumbled under her breath out of frustration as she furiously rubbed the spot with the towel. "Why is this so difficult?" she wondered to herself before noticing that the lantern was actually glowing, as if there were a bright, hot flame ignited deep within. The lantern suddenly began to rattle and vibrate angrily, bouncing up and down in Apple's grip before hopping down to the floor and quivered and shook from there before the top was blasted off by a blinding light that let a vaporous black smoke pour out and onto the floor, enveloping the room in a fog that made Apple cough and wheeze as much as it terrified her. The smoke continued to pour out violently, encompassing Apple's entire vision to the point where she thought she was seeing and hearing things; for a second there, she thought she heard someone screaming in agony and said person was actually emerging from the top of the lantern!
It was then that Apple realized she wasn't hallucinating: there really was someone coming out of the lamp!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH- OY!" the figure exclaimed as it reached it's maximum height, easily dwarfing Apple as it cried out and rubbed an area directly behind its head as it it were in pain; the smoke had cleared slightly, giving Apple a clearer view of who or what had just intruded on her private sanctuary. It was definitely human-like in appearance, with a head and two arms, but the legs seemed to have been traded out for a ghostly, wispy tail that trailed all the way back inside of the lantern. The figure also possessed pale, pink skin, bright blue hair pulled back into a segmented ponytail with a magenta streak, pointed ears, and stormy gray eyes like that of a brewing thundercloud. She wore somewhat skimpy attire compared to what Apple wore on a daily basis, the outfit consisting of a blue and pink top that showed off her midriff and cupped her breasts quite nicely, showing off a dark pink, scorpion tattoo, and a pink sash around her waist that seemed to taper into a pair of black pants.
"10,000 years will give you such a crick in the neck!" the girl groaned. "Give or take a few millennium."
"Uh . . ." Apple merely starred, unable to comprehend what was happening.
"Close your mouth, kid, you'll catch flies." the girl joked as she grabbed her head and effortlessly and painlessly pulled it off of her shoulders, bouncing it up into the air and catching it her hand before spinning it like a ball on her finger and then popping it back onto her neck once more. "Ghoul, does it feel good to be out of there! How long was I in there anyway? And where the Sphinx am I?" the girl added.
"Um . . . uh . . . Ever After?" Apple tried, unsure of how to answer the question.
"Ever After, huh?" the pointed-earred girl tapped her chin. "Why does that sound familiar?"
"I dunno. Maybe you . . . uh . . ." Apple trailed off upon catching sight of a strange object strapped around the girl's left wrist; it looked very similar to a wrist watch with a white band decorated with light blue designs and with a square-shaped face plate with a pair of pink lines that formed the outline of an hourglass over the black surface. It almost looked like . . .
"What's that on your wrist?" Apple wondered.
The girl raised an eyebrow and folded her arms over her bust, her gargantuan size shrinking down to something more manageable that was a little less than a head taller than Apple, assuming the girl didn't suddenly grow legs. "Never fails. New Finder rubs the lamp, summons the genie, and the first thing they want to know is anything but your name."
"Sorry." Apple apologized. "And . . . did you say genie?"
The genie looked hard at the princess and slowly nodded. "That's better." she allowed a small smile to creep across her face. "The name's Dijinni Whisp Grant, but everyone just calls me Whisp. And yes, I said genie."
Apple blinked in surprise. A genie? She had heard tales of such magical creatures before, and she knew that there was at least one tale within the Storybook of Legends, wherever it may have wound up, that involved a genie that had yet to be fulfilled. Perhaps this was a sign sent to her from the ancestors above that the destinies had to be fulfilled and followed? But if that was the case, why did this genie bear an Omnitrix just like Ben? Just like Clawdeen? Just like Skelita? Just like Venus? That could only mean . . .
"Quick, how many heads do you see?" Whisp interrupted her thoughts, instantly sprouting two extra heads in addition to the original.
"Uh, three?" Apple startled, feeling incredibly uncomfortable in having more than two pairs of eyes watching her.
"Then that's exactly how many wishes you have!" Whisp exclaimed before engulfing herself in a cloud of black smoke and morphing into a blue and pink slot machine that pulled it's lever down and allowed three, tiny clones of Whisp wearing sombreros to slide out of the slot. "That's it: three! Uno, dos, tres!" she laughed before resuming her original form and sliding her thumb against her hand to ignite a small flame and then light a cigar that had appeared in her other hand. "No substitutions, exchanges, or refunds, capeesh?" she said before blowing out a long trail of sweet smelling smoke.
Apple coughed and waved her hand in front of her face. "Are you seriously smoking?"
Whisp rolled her eyes. "Between you and me kid, I just do whatever the author writes."
"What?"
"Forget about it! You've got three wishes up your sleeve! You've got got some punch, pizazz, yahoo and how!" Whisp laughed, slugging Apple in the shoulder; the princess winced and rubbed the sore spot as Whisp 'sat' in the air by resting on her ghostly tail as if it were a chair.
"This is nice and all, but . . . what is that thing on your wrist?" Apple asked, mentally hoping that it didn't what she thought it was.
At this, Whisp snapped her fingers and was instantaneously clothed in a crisp, black suit that broadened her shoulders and made her all the more imposing and threatening looking as she seemed to glare down at Apple behind a pair of black shades that obscured her eyes.
"That, ma'am, is highly classified, government information!" she said in a gruff voice before leaning in so that only Apple would be able to hear as she pulled down her glasses to make sure no one else was listening. "But, uh, between you and me, this is a little somethin' somethin' that my boyfriend gave me." she explained. "Wonderful guy, and awesome in bed, too."
Apple flushed a furious red upon hearing that. "B-But wh-what is it?" she asked, trying to push the dirty images of her mind that was thrust in there by Whisp's words.
"Well in simple terms, it is a deoxyribonucleic acid computerized database that allows the wearer to promote galactic peace by allowing themselves to walk in the shoes of various extraterrestrial species while simultaneously functioning as a repository should any of a million different intelligent lifeforms be wiped out in the event of a mass extinction and bring them back in the process. Not to mention, it is probably the universe's most dangerous and useful weapon, despite its creator believing and wishing it to be used otherwise." Whisp explained casually.
"Oh, my head." Apple winced, massaging her scalp.
"Some ice should help sooth that cerebral pain of yours!" Whisp laughed as she snapped her fingers; a puff of blackened smoke came from about Apple and dropped a snowman on top of her, quickly followed by a black top hat, corncob pipe, and button nose that fell on top of the princess's head. Apple was not amused and proceeded to shiver in her bathrobe until Whisp took pity on her and snapped her fingers once more, sending the snowman away and wrapping her up in a nice, warm blanket with a mug of hot chocolate in her hands. "Better?"
"M-much." Apple nodded as she proceeded to take a sip out of her mug. "But wh-what is that on your wr-wrist?"
Whisp rolled her eyes. "Persistent, are we? Well in simpler terms than in what I just explained, I come from a different neighborhood, toots. More like a different universe actually."
Apple was more than certain she knew where this going. "Y-you . . . you wouldn't happen to kn-know someone named Ben, would you?"
The genie's eyes immediately lit up at the name as she zipped over to Apple and grabbed her by the shoulders, ditching the fancy suit and sunglasses in the process. "Quick, what kind of Ben are we talking about here? Benjamin Franklin? Big Ben? Some kind of other Ben I don't know about!?" she exclaimed desperately.
Apple gulped and trembled slightly, not sure if she wanted to see how the hyperactive genie would react if she gave her an answer. "B-Ben Tennyson?" she winced, clapping her hands over her ears as Whisp trembled and quaked before exploding into a dazzling display of brightly colored fireworks that popped and fizzed and banged and echoed off the room's walls, creating a deafening noise that Apple was sure had made her go deaf until the genie reappeared before her in a puff of black smoke, intact and whole once more.
"You know Ben!? My Ben!? You know my Ben!?" Whisp exclaimed excitedly.
"W-Well . . . he is my boyfriend . . ." Apple winced, unsure of how the genie would react to that; she did not want to be turned into a cockroach if she could help it.
Thankfully for Apple, Whisp seemed to take the news well. "Looks like ol' Ben's been busy." Whisp grinned craftily, hungrily licking her lips and rubbing her hands together in a manner that did not put Apple's mind at ease, especially when the genie eagerly grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her towards the door. "Well, c'mon! I haven't seen Ben in forever!"
"Wait! I'm not dressed!" Apple protested while she struggled against the genie's grip.
Whisp stopped cold and released her hold on Apple. "Huh, guess you're right. Most people would not take public nudity well, no matter how hot you looked." she mused, tapping her chin. "Simple enough to fix." she shrugged, snapping her fingers and engulfing Apple in a black cloud of smoke that made the princess cough and wheeze until it dissipated and revealed her to be dressed in a her usual skirt and dress now with a warm, winter sweater over the top and a pair of snug, brown, faux furred boots as well to go along with it.
"Hmmm. Now that I think about it, the rules state I can't do anything I want to do until the Finder is satisfied." Whisp tapped her chin in realization before folding her arms across her chest and tapping a finger in a somewhat impatient manner on her arm. "So what'll it be, kid? Forever rich? Eternal beauty? Immortality? A pocket elephant that can dance the tango and juggle chainsaws at the same time?"
"What?" Apple gaped.
"Did I mention that I'm a little cuckoo, too? Being trapped in a lamp for so long and losing any contact with your long lost boyfriend can make you lose your mind." Whisp shrugged, the top of her head flipping open like a lid and allowing a bouncing, gelatinous brain to come leaping out and bounce off of the floor before rolling underneath of Apple's bed and making her shiver uncomfortably.
"So . . . I just make a wish?" Apple asked.
"That's the idea, toots." Whisp winked, tapping Apple on the nose. "Before we begin though, you seem to have me at a disadvantage, princess. You know who I am, but I'm more clueless than an Appoplexian faced with a quadratic equation."
"That's . . . a weird analogy." Apple noted.
"Princess, if you've ever met Rath, you'll know what I'm talking about." Whisp smirked, pinching Apple's nose and giving it a playful twist.
Apple bristled slightly and rubbed her nose regardless of whether or not it still hurt. "My name is Apple."
"Huh. Guess it's true when they say the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree!" Whisp cracked, cackling madly at her own joke. "But in all seriousness, what's your first wish gonna be? Because trust me when I say you ain't never had a friend like me." she smirked. "This is normally where a big musical number would come in, but we're kinda pressed for time."
Apple ignored the comment and thought it over as carefully as possible, weighing various options; she had an all powerful genie at her disposal that could warp the very fabric of reality to her will and liking that was willing to grant her three wishes for anything her heart desired. The only problem was that Apple quite literally had everything she wanted, good looks, a wonderful voice, a good home, friends, a loving boyfriend, and a fair amount of wealth as well. "Well . . . what would you wish for?"
Whisp froze upon hearing those words, almost unable to comprehend what had just tumbled out past Apple's lips. "That's something you don't hear every day . . . first time, actually." she admitted with a chuckle.
"Well, what would you wish for?" Apple asked.
Whisp sighed and folded her arms over her bust again, drumming her fingers along her arm while she weighed the options of telling her before finally deciding staying silent probably wasn't the best option. "What would I wish for?" she wondered, floating past Apple to take a seat on her bed and fall back against the covers, a sorrowful look upon her lips. "The number one thing I'd wish for . . . is freedom."
"Freedom?" Apple blinked with surprise as she sat down on the bed next to Whisp and rested pleading hand on the genie's, becoming slightly stunned when Whisp curled her fingers around Apple's for comfort.
"I use to be free . . . use to be trapped in a lamp, too, but that freedom?" Whisp sighed, recalling the wonderful memories she held dear to her. "Those were the best moments of my life. No one to obey, no one's selfish desires to fulfill, no saying do this, no one saying be there, no one saying stop that, no one saying see here, just me, Ben, my loved ones, and all the fun a ghoul could have ever wanted. And then . . . it was gone. I was shoved back into that accursed lamp of mine and forced into this job again . . . all I want is to just be free once more, just so I can see my Ben one more time."
"Can't you free yourself?" Apple wondered.
Whisp shook her head sadly. "The only way I get out of this is if my Finder wishes me out. And if you can guess how many times that's happened . . ."
Apple hesitated briefly, biting her lip and looking at Whisp with a pitied expression before glancing at their interlocked fingers, wondering and pondering. "What if . . . what if I set you free?"
Whisp scoffed. "Pfft. Yeah right." she rolled her eyes as she sat up. "Kid, I learned a long time ago that no man or monster is able to overcome their greed. They want it, hunger for it, lust for it even, and yet its the ruin of them, the thing that gets them cast into the street, shoved into the darkest corners, or left alone to rot in solitude for eternity. I only know one man who is selfless enough to cast aside the chance to have his hearts desires granted, and that man is Ben." Whisp frowned.
"I'm serious." Apple frowned back. "Once I use up my first two wishes, I'll use the last one to free you!"
Whisp raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
"Princess's honor." Apple confirmed.
Whisp grinned eagerly and sat up on the bed, wrapping her arms around Apple in a tight embrace that practically crushed the princess's bones and lungs before the genie let her go and vanished in a puff of black smoke only to reappear right in front of Apple now dressed in a black tuxedo and magician's top hat. "In that case, lets make some magic!" she laughed as playing cards spilled out of her sleeves and all over the floor. "So what'll it be, Finder? I can't wait to see Ben again!" Whisp squealed excitedly.
That last little bit of dialogue made Apple hesitate for a second. It seemed that more and more of Ben's ghouls were popping up all over the place somehow, which was a worrying factor for the princess; and if it wasn't the ghouls stealing any time she wanted to spend with Ben, it would be other fairy tales and girls. It would undoubtedly continue, this almost supernatural ability of Ben's to attract members of the opposite sex of various and multiple species and lineages, until she was all but forgotten, overshadowed by girls or ghouls who were prettier than her, stronger than her, more up to par with Ben than she could ever hope to be. And when she thought about it like that, she realized that she was perhaps the weakest member of Ben's growing harem, nothing more than a pitiful human; she couldn't use magic to her will, she couldn't transform into vicious beasts, she couldn't control the very fabric of nature, hex, she didn't even know how to fight. She was hardly worthy to even consider Ben a friend, if his tales and stories of life back in his dimension was anything to go by.
But . . . what if there was a way to ensure that she was always loved? What if there was a way to ensure that Ben would always love her and would never forget her? She did after all, have an all powerful genie at her disposal with three wishes that would allow her to have anything she desired.
"I . . . I wish that Ben only loved me!" she announced suddenly, clenching her fists and squeezing her eyes shut as tightly as possible, her head an utter hurricane of thoughts and emotions.
Whisp blinked at the request; she wanted to refuse it, wanted to reason with the princess that such a wish would not only deprive the genie of seeing her lost love once more, but it could also have dire consequences as well. But as a denizen of the lamp and a genie as well, she was held in place by the rules that had been set up for her kind the moment they had been shoved into their bottles and lamps and lanterns (Whisp still didn't know how that happened. She always just assumed that the lamp was something standard that every genie received from the moment they were born/created). With little choice left, she folded her arms over her chest and closed her eyes with a slight sigh.
"As you wish." she said before she bobbed her head and encompassed the both of them in a flash of blinding light.
Ben grimaced as he glared at his adversary, gritting his teeth as he tapped the Omnitrix and cycled through the available roster before selecting the alien needed and slamming a hand down on the activation button, engulfing himself in a flash of green light that scrambled and shifted his genetic code. His skin began to crack and harden slightly, scrunching up and pinching in certain places as his pink flashed a light lavender in color while his bones faded and liquefied into nothingness, fusing together with his soft exoskeleton; his tall, lean frame was compressed and compacted down until he was less than two feet tall. Ben felt an itching sensation on his backside and turned to look behind him as a pair of delicate, butterfly-like wings slid and oozed of his back, still damp and wet before they became stiff and rigid as they dried out and turned a light magenta and pink in color. His toes cracked and melted together into two, small claws as white gloves appeared over his delicate fingers and bright pink and purple markings arched themselves over his face and arms while his hair turned a dark shade of violet and curled back as a pair of feathery antennae sprouted from his forehead above his eyes. His eyes sharpened and became pointed as a green and black dress wrapped around him, completing the transformation as the Omnitrix and Skurd appeared upon his chest.
"Lets do this, punk." Pesky Dust growled, socking his hand into his fist.
"Ben, stop intimidating the Christmas lights." Clawdeen rolled her eyes as she set down a box of ornaments down next to the Nemuina and resisting the urge to taunt him over his current form.
"I'll stop once Venus finishes with the tree." he replied, turning to watch as Venus finished digging a hole in a large pot that was about as big as a bathtub and deposited the pinecone she had collected down inside before covering the hole up once more. The plant monster then sprinkled the soil with a watering can she had managed to scrounge from the school's greenhouse and then spritzed the damp dirt with her special formula.
"Are you sure this will work?" Venus asked Raven as the witchling cracked her knuckles.
"Not in the slightest." she replied truthfully before spreading her fingers out and blasting the pot with a powerful jolt of dark, magical energy for several seconds before backing off and dusting her hands. "Hopefully that'll create a portal that'll let the roots grow to their full potential."
"And once we're done, we can properly plant it back in the forest where it belongs." Venus added with a satisfied smile as she gave the enchanted pot one last spritz of her special plant growing formula and quickly backed off when the pot started to rumble and shake; all movement in the ballroom came to a halt as a small sampling wormed its way out of the soil and fluidly and quickly grew taller and taller, its trunk thickening as branches thrust themselves out into the air and sprouted hundreds upon thousands of pine needles while the tree continued to stretch upwards, higher and higher until it was less than a dozen feet away from the top of the ceiling. A sweet, piney scent filled the air as the full grown pine tree loomed over everyone in all its powerful majesty.
"Nice." Pesky Dust smiled as he fluttered down low enough to pick up one end of the Christmas lights in his fingers. "Now rrrrrr lets decorate!"
"My thoughts exactly." Venus grinned as she tapped the Omnitrix and slammed a hand down on the core, engulfing herself in a blast of neon green light that shifted and warped her DNA into something new. She felt her skin crack and harden into a soft, metallic sheen as it turned the color of oil and tar, traveling from her fingers and wrists and up her arms before spilling across her shoulders and chest and back, swamping her entire figure until it wrapped around her head and feet; her arms and legs crunched and snapped loudly, shriveling up until they were reduced to mere toothpicks of their former selves and made her so short that she only reached Raven's knee. Venus' body gave off a loud squelching noise as it formed a cylindrical shape, her pointed legs sticking out of the bottom of her geometrical figure and her pointed hands that included nothing more than two fingers and a thumb stuck out of her sides. A neon green lightning pattern etched itself down her front and back as two bolts thrust themselves out of her arms and shoulders; a positive and negative symbol appeared on her back as the Omnitrix appeared on her perfectly flat head, completing the transformation.
"Hey, toots! You mind givin' us a hand?" Electra grinned sharply at Jane; the shape-shifter blushed and nodded, tapping the Nemetrix fastened to her wrist and cycling through the available transformations before selecting the desired one and slamming a hand down on the activation button, engulfing herself in a flash of crimson light. Her violet skin cracked and crunched violently as her back broadened and swelled and tore the back of her top apart along the edge of her spine as her head was pushed back into her shoulders, fusing together with them to form a short, thick neck; her bones and skeleton pushed themselves to the surface of her hardening skin, pressing themselves flat against it and fusing together to form a tough exoskeleton that encased Jane's entire body in a tight protective shell while her organs sloshed and oozed and rearranged themselves around inside of her, somehow keeping her alive even when some disappeared to be replaced by new ones she didn't even know existed. Four ports opened up on her sides, gaping holes big enough for someone to slide their fist inside of as her frame steadily grew larger and larger until she was bigger than Clawdeen and Raven combined. Her legs crunched snapped horribly as they wrapped around each other and fused into a long tail that sharpened at the tip and formed a dual stinger before it compressed back up against her, dramatically shortening it compared to her body size while her fingers and hands melted together to form sharp, joined legs that slid under her chest; a loud splitting sound filled the air as a second set of identical legs popped out directly behind the first pair, accompanied by wet slithering noises that revealed to be a pair of feathery antennae and four, gossamer wings that instantly began to flap once they were dry enough. The final piece of the transformation was the addition of a thick red collar around her neck with the Nemetrix at its center and a gigantic, over-sized pair of curved fangs that dominated her mouth.
"Tis the season to be- ANCESTORS ABOVE, WHAT IS THAT!?" Daring gave a startled yelp as his singing was halted and he very nearly dropped the box of ornaments he was carrying.
"Psycholeopterran." Clawdeen replied with a shrug, not even put off by the monstrous, predatory insect's appearance.
"We call it rrrrrr Hypnotick." Pesky Dust purred as Electra zipped over to her and grabbed the opposite end of the Christmas lights while Hypnotick gave off a low, ominous growl and descended down far enough to scoop up the rest of the lights in her front legs, lifting it off the ground so that she was holding the majority of the lights in a loop and both the Nemuina and Nosedeenian were holding the other ends.
Raven watched with awe and amusement as Electra and Pesky Dust flew off in opposite directions with their strands of lights in hand, zipping around and around the tree and hooking the lights across and under its branches to hook them in place as Hypnotick flapped her wings and flew upwards at a steady pace to match the small, hyperactive alien's until they had finally reached the top and run out of Christmas lights; the Psycholeopterran then proceeded to dive back down towards the floor and briefly stab its front legs into the nearest box of ornaments to pull out a bright, golden star. With the decoration in hand, Hypnotick flew back up towards the top of the tree and delicately set the star on top as everyone else in the ballroom gathered around to admire their handiwork.
"Not bad." Daring admitted.
"That has got to be the fastest tree decorating I've ever seen," Briar grinned as she eagerly checked something off of an incredibly long list in her hands. "Almost makes up for the extra three hours it took you to even find a tree."
"Technically we found a pinecone. AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Electra cackled at her own joke as both Omnitrixes timed out, returning their respective owners back to the world.
"It's beautiful." Raven smiled, taking Ben's hand and resting her head on his shoulder, her grin increasing when she caught sight of a red tinge to his face.
"Well, we still have some decorating to do." Ben chuckled, tapping the Omnitrix and cycling through the roster before selecting a suitable transformation and slamming a hand down on the activation button, encompassing himself in a burst of green light. Ben felt his skin begin to scrunch up and harden as his bones slowly started to dissolve into nothingness, nearly letting him fall into a pool of slack muscles and organs. Four fleshy stalks suddenly burst out from both sides of his head, giving him six different perspectives of how the world looked before a hardening shell covered his original set of eyes that soon enough withered away on their own. A slight itching sensation came from the middle of his back, drawing Ben's attention long enough to watch as a pair of wet and damp, gossamer wings slid out of his back, hanging lose and fragile for a second before they quickly dried out and snapped rigidly into place and turned a dull yellow in color. A second pair of legs suddenly burst out from Ben's gut like some sort of old, alien horror film as his spine, or what was left of it anyway, stretched out from his back and swelled at the end, forming a large and very sharp stinger with venom glads just above the tip. His fingers cracked and melted into a pair of sharp claws and thumb, his jaw thrusting outwards as several teeth rotted and withered away, giving him a crooked smile. The final touch was a rooting stench and the addition of the Omnitrix and Skurd on his forehead.
Raven and Clawdeen simultaneously gagged from the Lepidopterran's foul stench. "I dare say, you are as ripe as they come, my lad!" Skurd pinched whatever sort of nose he may or may not have had.
"I can't help it!" Stinkfly whined as the air shimmering and sparkled above him before Kitty Cheshire flashed back into existence and landed on the Lepidopterran's back, briefly starling him before he rotated two of his stalk eyes back to stare at her.
"I don't mind it all that much, if it helps." Kitty purred with her classic, Cheshire smile. "Now lets hang up some ornaments! The party hour is nigh, people!" she declared merrily; Briar frowned slightly at this, as that was usually the line she barked out whenever the planning in setting up a massive, page-ripping party was dragging slower than a dragon's tail through the stickiest glue imaginable. With that being said, Stinkfly grabbed as many ornaments as he could carry and flapped his gossamer wings to lift him off of the ground, flying at the grand Christmas tree and buzzing around and around while Kitty tossed decorations onto the branches.
"Raven, are you sure this is all you need?" Briar asked, looking over a small list of items the witchling had given her that was less than one-tenth of the list the Daughter of Sleeping Beauty was frantically looking over.
Raven shrugged as opened her guitar case and pulled out her bass, meticulously plucking the strings and tuning it by ear as she talked. "Briar, I know my band and I are very popular . . . more than I'd actually willingly like it to be, actually . . . but we don't really need anything overly complicated; just give us enough speakers for us play out of, a place for Melody's DJ stand, and a new percussion set for Maddie."
"What happened to the last one?" Briar wondered, making a small footnote on Raven's list.
"She set it on fire."
Briar blinked and paused briefly upon hearing that. "How'd she do that, for ancestors sake?"
"This is Maddie we're talking about. She could set fire to a swimming pool full of water." Raven smiled at her friend's antics before a wonderfully alluring scent caught her attention. Both girls turned their heads to see Ginger Breadhouse with Cedar and Maddie not too far behind carrying a teetering tower of Christmas cookies and other baked goods, each girl carrying a stack of treats taller than all three of them combined as they stumbled and staggered over to the long buffet table that had been set up for the party and just barely managed to set every last dish and container down before the leaning tower of cookies became a falling tower of cookies.
"Briar, you're drooling." Raven pointed out, much to the princess's embarrassment.
Briar quickly wiped her lips. "That's not important right now. What is important is that I get some of those cookies, the party starts on time, and that the Crumb Cousins do not scarf down the buffet like last time." she said, turning a sharp and sinister glare towards the sugar hungry duo as they tried to snag a container of cookies out from under Ginger's nose; the cousins quickly backed away and scampered off towards the tree to help decorate.
"Hiya, Briar! Hiya, Raven!" Maddie grinned wildly, all but bouncing over to the two of them. "Whatcha doin'!?"
Raven shrugged and strummed a low note on her bass, frowning slightly at the out of tune strings. "Nothing much. Briar's just freaking out over the party planning as usual."
"I have a right to!" Briar defended herself. "Especially when I could-" was all she managed to say before she quite suddenly dropped to the floor and landed on her face, her entire body completely limp and relaxed as she snored and her grip went slack.
"Fall asleep?" Maddie guessed with a giggle.
"That's gonna leave a mark." Raven winced as Stinkfly came in for a landing, a concerned look on the Lepidopterran's face.
"Uh, is she gonna be okay?" he asked, poking the slumbering princess with one of his legs moments before the Omnitrix timed out in a blast of green light and returned Ben to the world, where he promptly fell to the floor under Kitty's weight, caught off guard by the sudden shift.
"Yay! It's a floor party!" Maddie cheered before she fell flat on her back and proceeded to move her arms back and forth as if she were making a snow angel, giggling madly all the while as Ben merely rolled his eyes and allowed a small smile at the Hatter's antics.
Raven rolled her eyes with amusement. "Briar's fine, Ben." she reassured him. "Being the Daughter of Sleeping Beauty makes her a tad . . . narcoleptic than most fairy tales."
"What?"
"It means she's prone to falling asleep at random, dear boy!" Skurd face palmed himself out of exasperation. "If only there were more intelligent hosts out there with this much DNA." he mused.
"Love you, too, Scuzzball." Ben rolled his eyes sarcastically as Kitty finally got off of Ben's back and helped him to his feet before disappearing in a glimmering light that left her bright smile behind for the faintest of seconds before that disappeared as well, only for the crafty Cheshire to reappear at the buffet table and snag a cookie to then flash away before Ginger could chase her off; the Crumb Cousins watched wistfully out of the corners of their eyes, flinching when Hypnotick gave off a venomous growl and flew past them with Venus on her back to reach the higher branches that Stinkfly and Kitty had missed. "Should I take her up to her room?"
Raven shrugged and cautiously prodded the sleeping princess with her foot, only succeeding in making her snore louder. "Probably for the best. She'll need a more comfortable place to rest." she said. "Plus, her snoring is bound to drive the majority of us all crazy."
"In that case, which dorm is hers?" Ben asked as he bent down and grabbed Briar by the shoulders and pulled her up into a sitting position where her head lolled numbly against his shoulder and her grip slackened enough for the long list she had been carrying around to fall to the floor as Ben slipped his hand under her legs and lower back and lifted her off of the ground bridal style; the slumbering princess moaned and shifted in her sleep slightly, snuggling in deeper to Ben's frame, something that made him raise an eyebrow and a knowing smirk cross Raven's lips.
"It should be the fourth door on your left, not too far from the dorm that me and Apple share." Raven gave him directions.
"Speaking of Apple, where is she?" Ben wondered; Daring and Hunter came banging in through the doors of the ballroom grunting and wheezing as they struggled to shove and push Melody's DJ stand across the floor and towards the stage Raven was sitting on, the two boys barely making any progress until Hypnotick descended from the air and grabbed the heavy record tables in her jointed legs to then effortlessly lift it off of the floor and fly it over to the stage, much to Daring and Hunter's chagrin.
"My guess is that she's out last minute Christmas shopping." Raven shrugged again.
"Cryptmas!" Venus called over her shoulder as the Psycholeopterran buzzed back over to the towering Christmas tree; Skelita walked through the doors of the ballroom with two steaming hot plates of freshly made tamales that she had managed to scrounge together in the Castleteria kitchen (the lunch ladies had been more than happy to let her cook, though Skelita suspected this may have had something to do with her skeletal appearance) as Ashlynn and Rosabella came strolling in twin wagons of eggnog and hot chocolate that were pulled by a pair of deer and accompanied by a small flock of birds, squirrels, and rabbits that were willing to do some small work in exchange for some holiday goodies and a chance to get out of the cold weather for a couple of hours.
"Whatever." Raven rolled her eyes as she bent over and grabbed the list Briar had been carrying around for half of the day, taking her pen and scratching off nearly two dozen things that had already been taken care of or were in the process of being completed that the slumbering princess had missed. "And while you're out there, see if you can't convince Dexter to help; I know he's concerned about Cupid, but I'd like to have him play if possible than replace him with Sparrow. Again." she added with slight disdain as the musician jammed and wailed and rocked away on his guitar, not particularly taking any interest in helping out with the festivities until Lizzie made a slicing motion across her throat towards him and Duchess grabbed him by the ear and dragged him off.
"Aw, the floor party's over!" Maddie pouted as Ben nodded and made his way towards the door, being carefully to not accidentally drop Briar as Ashlynn's woodland friends scampered around his feet and towards the tree to help with decorating.
"Why don't you go find Bunny and Alistair? I'm sure they'd love to attend the Holiday Mash Up." Raven suggested, a thought that made the Hatter gleeful once more as she merrily bounced towards the doors after Ben to find her friends; Skelita smacked the hand of Gus as he tried sneak off with one of her tamales while Helga was being chased around the ballroom by Ginger with a plate of cookies in the former's hands and a spatula in the latter's.
Cedar sighed upon watching Ben leave the chaos that was the preparations for the Holiday Mash Up with Briar Beauty in his strong arms, deflating slightly when she saw how the unconscious princess was latching on tightly to Ben like a child to a security blanket and using him like the world's most comfortable pillow; despite the talk she and Ben had shared but a week or so ago, she couldn't be entirely sure, she was suddenly feeling shown up and insignificant once more. The mere thought of being in Ben's loving embrace however, made her fingers just splinter with lust, even though she doubted it would ever happen. What was the point of loving someone if they weren't technically alive, couldn't technically feel anything you could feel or experience everything you could?
"You okay, Cedar?" Cerise asked as she held out her arm and clotheslined Helga Crumb as she ran by, catching the falling plate of cookies and stealing one shaped like a reindeer before handing the rest back to Ginger.
Cedar bit her lip and tried to hold back the lie she was trying to form in her head. "Y-Ye . . . n-n . . . ye- no, I'm not feeling so jolly." Cedar gave up after a few seconds of stuttering and stammering like a court jester.
"Any particular reason?" Cerise asked, biting off the head of her reindeer cookie and savoring the taste.
"Ben." Cedar sighed.
"Of course." Cerise rolled her eyes, taking another bite of her cookie. "Lemme guess: you like him, but you don't know how to say it and you're unsure of whether or not he'll return the same feelings for you."
Cedar nodded. "That pretty much sums it up."
Cerise sighed and scarfed down the rest of her cookie, dusting off her hands and grabbing Cedar by the shoulder. "Look, Cedar, Ben might have a harem behind him, but it's a harem filled with both princesses, witches, Wonderlandians, werewolves, plants, and skeletons. A beautiful, living puppet like you won't be out of place." she explained to Cedar. "You may think you don't stand a chance, but as your roommate and best friend forever after, let me just say that Ben will be the lucky one when you two become a couple."
"Not if?" Cedar smiled slightly.
"Not if." Cerise nodded. "Off hand, have you seen Raven?"
"I think she's getting ready over by the stage," Cedar pointed over her shoulder. "Any particular reason?"
Cerise thanked her lucky stars that her hood covered enough of her face to hide the blush she could feel creeping across her cheeks. "N-No reason." was her reply.
And there we go!
If this chapter feels incomplete, that's because it is! This was originally part of one long chapter, but it got to the point where it just seemed to be dragging on and on forever after, so I divided it in half to save you all from the boredom.
'Not that this story is boring'
What do you know? You're just a fourth-wall breaking mercenary.
'Who breaks the fourth-wall, I might add'
Tell 'em about the poll!
Oh, yeah! So, basically I have some questions for you guys, but since this site only allows one poll to be set up at a time, I've figured a way around it by asking you all three sets of questions with three sets of answers. The poll will be posted after this chapter, so look VERY carefully at the choices so you don't get mixed up. The reason I'm doing this is because I have so many questions that affect future chapters, that I can't wait to ask them all and get it over with; it's quite literally hurting my head.
Some tea might help.
Whatever you say, doll. As always comment, review, suggest, and-AAGGGH!
No, Mr. Nibbles! Bad, Mr. Nibbles! Stop trying to eat Daddy's face!
'K-WORD IT! K'WORD IT HARD!
