Episode Two: Once Upon a Time
Ten thousand mirrors smiled down at Alice from every direction. Some were smashed, some held visages of things she could only imagine--some of them held her reflections but yet they just weren't her. Something was wrong about them...distorted by an imperfect mirror, so it was an imperfect world...
It went by all too quickly, silver flashing like lightning as she passed through each one. The girl that held her hand looked back and laughed, her eyes glowing emeralds against the dark as she bolted one mirror after another. She was a child, running, laughing through a forest of silver mirrors, and Alice was her new playmate.
But it came to a quick, and mildly painful stop. It was like someone had just unplugged Alice's vital support and left her there to die. In this world, it was twilight, with stars dotting the heavens. The girl was gone.
Her knees gave out from under her. She suppressed the need to vomit with several swallows and beating her head against the ground. Turning her head to the side, she could see grass. A field. Sky. Stars. That was semi- normal. You don't see many fields in New York City. Clouds. Clouds are good.
However.
A strange girl looking like a porcelain doll was not. Neither was being dragged through a mirror.
Then it hit her. She was dreaming. She had to be. It was too much like Through the Looking Glass not to be a dream. Just a girl instead of a bunny. Or something.
"Ugh..." She stood up, immediately regretting it. Her stomach spasmed. emptying it's contents on the green grass. She wiped her pale lips with the back of her hand, which in turn was wiped on the ground.
In the distance, she heard hoof beats.
"The strings of a puppet's marionette is delicate--just like the balance of this world!" A strong voice came from behind her. A long, tall figure--was it a man?--stood there, possibly ten feet away.
Alice had never had psychos in her dreams before. She spun on her heel, eyes wide yet expression still neutral. She pulled her hood up in one fluid motion and stood in a calculatedly submissive pose. "And why do I care about the balance of this world?" she replied, her voice carrying over the night breeze.
"Same reason you should care about looking behind you." He replied gruffly. In the darkness, one could faintly see the wicked smile on his face.
Alice looked behind her. (She's a genius, not faultless.)
He was true to his word. A cross-like object spun toward her, it's metal blades flashing in the upcoming moon. It flew dangerously close to Alice's head, but didn't have any impact. A broken strand of golden hair floated down to Alice's eyelevel. She watched the object with her head tilted down slightly, like a frightened animal.
"Marionette!" The figure called, and black cords erupted from the heart of the cross.
Alice threw herself to the side, rolling in dewed grass, starlight making her white coat shine with ghostly light. Cursing, the shadow jumped into the air and caught the marionette like it was second nature. He looked down at her from where he stood before he was in flight--much like the girl from the mirror, bringing back eerie memories, though they had just occured--the marionette held to the side at his right as he advanced.
She pushed herself to her feet, slipping on the wet grass. "Nice to know that New York isn't the only place with fetish murderers." Her feet slid again, knees knocking together. Her dangled her left hand out enough to catch her if her sandals betrayed her, while her right hand gripped something in her coat pocket. Her eyes narrowed minutely before she launched herself at the man, pepperspray out and functioning, right in his face. To say the least he was startled. He lurched back, a gloved hand over his eyes. He fell backwards, catching himself on his elbow. The other hand held the back of his head, tilting his face down towards his chest.
If Alice was the unsporting type, she might have kicked him while he was down. But no, she decided to make a break for it and dashed off in the direction of the forest.
"Wait....! Wait, dammit!" The figure shouted, but to no avail. He slumped before rising to his feet slowly, using the marionette for support. His voice gave out some, in desperation. "Wait..."
Alice glanced back, the moonlight shining on her hood. For the briefest moment, a faint mark shaped like a P glimmered on her forehead. Her head turned, and she ran into the forest. The marionette sunk into the ground as his eyes widened. "She's...one of us...." And then, his eyes dilated and he began to call her back with renewed vigor. "WAIT! WAIT!"
"No... fucking... way..." she whispered under labored breaths. Her lungs ached already. Alice had never been a track star and didn't know to practice running away from murderers before she got here. Slipping behind a tree, she stopped to catch her breath. Her head was almost touching her knees as her chest heaved, sucking in air. Hopefully there weren't any new obstacles here.
"'Allo."
So much for that idea.
He said that to her as he hung upside down from the tree she was nestled under. His legs suspended him from a particularly strong looking tree branch. Gently, he slipped his gloved finger the gap between her knees and head and poked her forehead. "Well whatcha know, the sign's gone now."
Alice's eyes were easily the size of teacup saucers. She did the only thing she could think of, she grabbed the man's arm and yanked with all her body weight, sending him quite unceremoniously to the ground. "Why don't you find someone else to rape?!" She seemed to have forgotten that she'd emptied half a canister of pepperspray in this man's face.
He hit the ground with a dull 'thud.' And then he started to laugh, which was deep and rich, and not unkindly. In fact, he was laughing so hard he put his hand over his stomach. His large blue eyes opened as he tilted his head to look at her, his neck aligned with her foot. "I'm not going to rape you." He said to her.
The moon rolled out lazily behind a cloud, sending a pool of moonlight over the man. Something immediately was not right about him--his eyes were large and glass-like, permanently a blazing blue. His skin was too dark...and ... and hard, too polished. But the give away was his nose, which was unnaturally long and thin, with abnormally small nostrils. Beneath the choker he wore were indentations, all the way around his neck--like a puppet's joint...
The moon traveled further, over his body. He had a small, feminine waist and long, toned legs, and more and more of the puppet joints were revealed. The outfit he wore was childish--shorts that would have been popular in the tenth kingdom that barely laced up to his hips, a white body suit and bronze suspenders. He also wore a blue sailor collar. And then, it hit her: He wasn't a man at all.
Alice's arms and legs started shaking. She had, in succession, been attacked by a woman who looked like a doll and one who was a doll. A living, talking doll. She blinked a few times before her eyes rolled back in her head as she crumpled in a dead faint.
The puppet's eyes widened and then a look of sadness crossed over her face. She rolled over and knelt, gently tapping Alice's face. "Oh my lord," said she, "I've killed her."
Carefully, she picked up Alice's limp body and walked in the dark to a carriage that was waiting silently for them. With a small "hup" from the puppet, she jumped up into the driver's seat and sent the horses in motion. The field was silent.
******
Meanwhile, in a cottage in the Second Kingdom...
She leaned forward through the open window, exposed skin of her forearms pressed against the chilled brick of the sill. Inhaling deeply, she closed her eyes to absorb scents that mingled in the warm summer air. Her inner core desired to run through the forests that this window faced. The tall oaks and elms surrounding the clearing that the brick cottage had been constructed upon was casting shadows of black and blue against the lush, fertile green of the grassy ground. She longed to feel the earth between her toes, to dash around the underbrush and run her hands along the bark as she ran past the thick trunks. The urge to give into these desires was even stronger than it was the rest of the month -- she could feel it in every nerve of her being, and both wanted it to come, yet dreaded it.
Starlight shone down brightly this eve, seeming more vibrant than she had noticed before. The girl narrowed her eyes at the sky, ears twitching as though she heard something coming and moved forward even more. Sniffing the air, she could smell nothing strange, nothing but the woods, its inhabitants, Grandmother, and herself. But what was that sudden tingle she felt in her forehead, and that pulse of light in the sky?
"Cécile... Shut the window and sleep," a stern voice commanded from behind her, causing the dark haired girl to nearly fall backwards off of the window seat. Cécile turned around, her brows raised with a lingering surprise and an oddly dumb look on her face. She began to open her mouth in protest, though the older woman was quicker to speak, her hands upon her hips, "It is late, and you need rest for the coming days. Close your mouth, dear." The pet name sounded somewhat forced, but typical from Grandmother, clad in her thick white nightgown with a quilt draped over her shoulders. Her own expression was grim, somewhat cold, though not uncommon on her face. She had always been a tough woman, and that had been the only way she could keep her status in town.
"Yes, Grandmother," replied the girl as she closed the rotting wooden shutters. Cécile slid her legs off of the cushions, wriggling her bare feet against the chilled stone. Even during the summer nights, the cottage never failed to keep a low temperature, sometimes requiring quilts. But the cold did not bother her as much as it did Grandmother, who was growing frailer by the year. In the bakery, the teen had heard whispers of how shocked some of the employees were that the old woman was still alive. However, living without Grandmother was quite unthinkable to Cécile, and as soon as she heard the words out of the gossipy girls, she demanded that they get back to work or else their pay would be lighter by the end of the week.
But it was the truth, as hard as the truth was to face. Cécile removed the black ties from her braid, letting the dark hair fall loose over her shoulders. She combed it with her fingers as she moved up the rickety wooden stairs, the paneling creaking softly beneath her weight as she marched upwards. Dull moonlight flooded the upper floor of the small cottage through the single window, short roof nearly brushing the top of Cécile's head as she reached the final step. Half of the upper floor was partitioned for storage of antiques and memorabilia of the childhoods of her aunts and uncles, her mother, and herself. The other half that stood before her was a neatly kept bedroom, filled with a single trunk for clothing, a bed, a nightstand with a lamp, a desk and chair, and a bookshelf upon which small trinkets and a jewelry box sat.
Rather than head straight for her bed as Grandmother had told her, Cécile instead lifted her chair as to avoid waking the sleeping woman below by dragging it. She planted it before the circular glass window, looking straight out at the sky, and the stars, and the moon. It wasn't a random decision, but a necessity. Especially on a night like this, when she could feel that something was wrong... The problem was that she didn't know what, or who, or where the source of this disturbance was. Tonight, it would be especially difficult for her to fall asleep...that is, more difficult than normal.
Cécile would be the last person to admit she was afraid of closing her eyes and falling asleep... She would start to drift off some nights, then suddenly jolt awake in fear, despite the fact that she was secure and that it had been two years since the incident. Her head would toss and turn in resistance and her hands would roam over the soft down pillows, groping for something to help her escape, just like that sunny afternoon on the grassy knoll. Cécile raised a hand up to her throat, making sure that the red cloth was still tied around it, and traced her fingers over the material. She wrapped her arms tighter around herself and shuddered, goosebumps forming over her skin, though there was no airflow in the room that was giving her chills. It was simply memories that she didn't like to recall. If only she could just forget...
She yawned and rubbed at her eyes, suddenly overwhelmed with exhaustion. With one girl out because of an illness, and another one that Cécile was sure was just faking it to spend time with the new boy she had been fawning over, she had had to work overtime to keep up with the usual demands. It seemed that most of the young girls in the town were getting older and marrying off, becoming housewives with children or leaving the town, sometimes the kingdom altogether. Despite practically smelling the lies on the man-chasing worker, the bakery couldn't afford to lose anymore people. Standing up, Cécile stretched out her lean formed before crawling into bed, curling up on her side to face the window.
She looked straight through the glass pane before closing her eyes, to catch one last glimpse at the sky and the stars and the moon...
******
"Virginia!" said a voice as as man with coal black hair walked inside the cozy apartment. His smile was broad and happy. Slipping off his black coat and folding it over his arm, it was revealed that he was carrying a boquet of roses.
He walked further inside, and looked around. The lights were dimmed in the livingroom. Not a sound was heard... "Virginia?"
Walking into the living room, he looked around and saw a woman with short brown hair nestled into the couch. His look softened as the man knelt down beside her, tucking a loose strand of her brown hair behind her ear. Then he slipped the boquet beneath her arms. It was obvious that she was expecting, and he whispered something about their child to her. Finally he laid his jacket over her and kissed her forehead.
"I'll go make us some steaks," he said to himself. Mmm, steak. One of the three basic food groups: Steak, Lamb, and Pork. Ooh, and poultry. Poultry was good too. But not as good as steak.
The sound of a music box echoed throughout the tiny apartment. He turned, looking around and sniffing. That's funny, he didn't hear that before--
"Good evening, Wolf."
A lady appeared in the corner of the room. She had brown hair, like Virginia's, and striking green eyes. To be frank, she was wearing the most bizarre outfit he had ever seen--the most noticable being the dark green sailor collar and the leather straps around her neck and forearms. She looked down at him from her mid-air position and laughed. "Today has been
such a busy day for me. Traveling between dimensions is very tiring, you know. And I left that poor little girl Alice in the fifth kingdom to die by the hands of Sailoruranus!"
"Who are you?" Wolf asked as he instinctively moved back in front of Virginia. He tucked his head down and away from her, much like an animal.
"You don't need to know my name..." she said softly, her words cold. As if gravity was just now effecting her, she dropped to the floor gracefully and advanced toward him. "I have to get rid of you, Wolf. You...and the child."
Wolf looked up at her wordlessly.
"Virginia means nothing to me. She is nothing without you. Niether does her halfwit of a father living back in the nine kingdoms--but we want to make this clean. It's you...you and the child. The others are taking care of King Wendell."
She held out her hands to touch him. He moved backwards and was preparing to sink his teeth into her gloved hands when a shard of glass appeared there in her palm. It was the size of a kitchen knife.
"No."
"This will only hurt if you struggle. I don't want to bring you pain, Wolf." She moved closed to him. This time, he reeled back and succeeded in biting her, and smiled at her defiantly.
The lady cried out and held her hand, looking at him viciously. "That wasn't very nice, you know." And then, with her glass shard in hand, she flew at him. She was unbelievably fast...
He ducked down and rolled, landing on his haunches. Frantically he looked over to the couch and shouted. "VIRGINIA! VIRGINIA, WAKE UP!"
Virginia, still nestled under Wolf's coat, turned over to face the back of the couch. "Mm, no, not try now.. so sleepy..."
Wolf rolled his eyes. "Oh, of all the times to take a nap."
"This is no time to be making jokes," the cold, quiet voice said behind him. He looked up to see a glass shard dangerously close to his head. Piercing green eyes looked down at him as she spoke. "Goodbye, Wolf, one of the Four Who Saved the Nine Kingdoms."
Wolf's head tilted down as he looked at her pitifully. He scratched behind one of his ears and bent down submissively. Squinting, he saw the ornate mirror that hung in the center of their livingroom. There was a strange aura around it as it flickered like sunlight at the bottom of a river.
'So that's how she got in,' Wolf thought to himself. 'But that mirror isn't magical!... Is it?'
At that instant she sent the shard down upon his head. But Wolf was too quick for her. He leaned back and with all the strength he could muster, kicked her in the stomach. With no gravity to stop her, she flew into the wall--and straight through the mirror. She screamed. The glass shard hit the floor and broke.
Wolf sat there for a few minutes, scratching his head and looking at the mirror. Carefully, he walked over to the mirror, which was still shimmering. "How can it be...?" He asked out loudas he reached to touch the mirror to feel its authenticity.
Suddenly, a white gloved hand grabbed his hand and pulled him in. The apartment was silent.
******
It was, Richelle thought unhappily, enough to make any single person go crazy. First her parents, who were at best flighty (and at worst downright neglectful nowadays), had just left. Not a note or word to the one servant they had as to where they were going--just left. Richelle, expecting her day to be no different from any other, had woken up to have breakfast with them. "Of course they weren't there to breakfast with..." she muttered kicking off her boots in favor of her lighter slippers.
Then, on the way home from school, Maya had dropped a bombshell. "Listen Richen...My family wants to take a vacation..." Richelle had wisely not mentioned her family always took vacations. "This time you can't come." Maya said this with a look of resigned misery on her face.
Richelle had blinked shaking her head. "What?"
"Mom and dad...well they don't think its so wise to be taking you along anymore...what with the boys getting to be that age and always skipping after you..." Richelle suddenly understood what Maya meant. 'My parents don't want a fight to break out because my brothers are all in love with you.' Which was as ridiculous as it sounded. All seven of them in love with her?
"Oh...okay. Its not a good time anyway--lots of extra studying and all...when you get back then.." Richelle had merely murmured with a faint smile. Maya instantly looked relieved and hugged her friend. Richelle patted her back, only a little uncomfortable.
After that horrible episode came the biggest shock of her life. The maid slash housekeeper slash cook slash every other duty in the household had quit. Just like that. The moment Richelle stepped through the doors Mariah, the all purpose servant, had quit. "Sorry young miss, but I ain't gonna do that even if it is for your sire and mom." she has said simply then marched out.
With a feeling bordering on surrealism Richelle had put down her books and reflected on the day. Padding to the library she peeked in, saw no one and continued to the next room. By the fifth room, her parents' bedroom--a place she only barely remembered from childhood, having believed it was improper for her to go near there--she was pinching herself like crazy to see if she was dreaming.
Sitting heavily on the biege covered bed Richelle stared at her mother's small vanity mirror. She tugged at the braid she wore her shoulder length hair in, wistfully wishing her mother would let her cut it just a few more inches. She traced the bone structure of her face, frowning the whole time at the still very visible baby fat.
All in all not a bad reflection. Richelle knew she would improve and the thought cheered her. She yawned and scooted back a little to fall asleep. With Mariah gone and her parents away dinner would be a simple affair. Greens and bread maybe, she thought sleepily, snuggling into the warmth of the bed more.
Her last fleeting thought, as sleep took over, was that maybe today no one would need Sailor Mercury.
******
A pair of eyes, of dark brown and of vibrant yellow, opened in the darkness. A stream of pale blue light fell over her features, casting dark shadows in the curves of her face and illuminating the floating dust. She blinked at the moon, which was almost perfectly aligned with the round glass pane. Cécile looked around, unusually wide awake, though it was still night. She wasn't sure how long she had been sleeping -- perhaps hours, minutes, or a few seconds. Either way, all exhaustion had fled her body, replaced by a wide awake high that usually came from caffeine. Somewhat irritated by her early awakening, she half-grumbled, half-sighed aloud. Who needed sleep? She would have to get up in a few hours anyway... According to the clock on the nightstand, it was already midnight, and though the bakery didn't open until nine, she had to get an early start at five.
Rather than get up, she rolled over to lay flat on her back, staring up at the ceiling. She didn't want to be here -- trapped in a dull little town, with a boring job, and no time to do the things she looked forward to. Already at sixteen her life was over, before it had barely begun. But Grandmother needed her to stay here and keep the bakery running smoothly. Cécile couldn't just drop her responsibilities to her own family and become this 'Sailormars' person that she had transformed into once...no matter how much her heart desired it. She closed her eyes again and rolled onto her side, laying still for a moment, before pulling back her arm and punching the pillow. She sat up in bed, kicking back the sheets and grabbing the limp pillow to her chest. Burying her face in the white softness, she didn't notice the strange ripple in the ceiling above the end of her bed until she heard a loud half-growl, half-yelp fall from it.
A pile of dark cloth lay on the opposite end of the bed. Cécile lifted her head up quickly, eyes wide as saucers while her mouth hung open dumbly. The pile stirred slightly, tilting its dark haired head up to peer curiously at her with gleaming golden eyes. It wasn't a pile -- it was a man!
So she did the only think she could think of doing: scream.
Her high pitched cry echoed in the room and down the stairs, causing the man to cover his own ears and duck his head again. Scrambling out of bed, Cécile flung the pillow at him and fell onto the floor with a thud, legs tangled in the sheets. She wriggled free before the intruder could catch her, quickly shifting from a crawl to a stumble for the opposite end of the upper floor, ducking into the shadows. When Wolf turned his head up again, the girl in the bed was gone. He shook his head as though it would get rid of the shock and the numbness he felt from being pulled through the mirror. At least the landing had been soft...
Suddenly, a faceful of thick straw was jabbed at him and Wolf was forced to lean back. Except he leaned back too far, and fell backwards with his legs still on the springy bed and his torso on the hard wooden floor. He winced, though the pain didn't seem to end there. The thick straw was the end of a broom, and it was now swinging down on his head rather forcefully. He heard the girl's voice, shouting loudly, "AAAH! DIRTY BASTARD! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?!?" All he could do was try and sputter between each downfall of the broom.
"Nnnn! Aaaargh! Uuuuugh! ERRRRNGH!" The man tried to speak, making poor attempts at blocking the broom with his arms.
"DIIEEE! BASTARD!" Cécile called out as she raised and swung the broom in her hands, an adrenaline rush the only thing keeping her from passing out due to hyperventilation. She began to slow down, trying to catch her breath between shouting, smacking, and recovering from being frightened. It was then that Wolf was finally able to grab the end of the broomstick and try to pry it from her grip, yanking it towards him. But Cécile showed surprising resiliance, before finally letting go, which caused the stick to go flying and hit him instead.
The man laid limply from the blow he inflicted upon himself, which had been almost comical, were it not for the fact that he was a stranger that suddenly appeared in her bed. Still panting from exhaustion, Cécile stepped over his body and grabbed for the broom, which lay on the other side of his body. She was careful not to step on him, in case that woke him and he tried to attack her. Where was Grandmother? She couldn't be that dead asleep. Taking it up in her shaking hands again, he stirred slightly, shaking his head and lifting one hand to scratch the side of it. "Cripes..." the man muttered, to which Cécile replied to with the handle of the broom at his throat.
She stood above him, one foot planted firmly on his stomach while she pressed the handle to his throat, eyes narrowed dangerously as she growled, "Who are you, where did you come from, and WHY are you in my room?"
"Not so many questions at first, huff puff..." He opened his eyes and looked at her with piercing eyes, as if he were studying her from the inside. Of course, to Cécile this may have come across as him trying to undress her with his eyes, but he couldn't help that. "For starters, I came from the tenth kingdom." At that, his eyes bulged and he tried to sit up, but the broom conviently poked him in the adam's apple and made him resume his position on the floor. "But you must let me go--oh, my poor creamy, dreamy Virginia...!" He let out a pitiful whimper.
The stunned silence that fell over them was so still that one could practically hear Cécile blink. Twice. She stared at him blankly, though didn't remove her 'weapon', "The...Tenth...Kingdom?"
Couldn't be. This man was nuts. Or...he could be... She blinked again at the name 'Virginia'. One of the Four Who Saved the Nine Kingdoms... "Cripes!" the girl shouted, almost dropping the broom. It leapt in her hands before she caught it and placed it on the floor and out of the way. Cécile covered her mouth with one curled hand, biting her nails nervously as she crouched beside the man and offered a hand to help him up. "I...I'msosorry, Mr. Wolf, sir! Didn't realize... Of course, you did just drop into my bed...and I was scared, and I didn't... Very sorry!" she winced, ducking her head a bit in shame.
He sat up rather painfully. "It's okay... I don't know what happened.." He scratched himself behind the ear and sat deep in thought. "Some girl showed up at our apartment while Virginia was sleeping... I managed to fight her off, but she dragged me through the mirror.... Cripes. The mirror wasn't even magic--it was some plain one she had bought a few months ago.
"But as we were jumping from mirror to mirror, she left... and then... I fell through one and well...I was instantly beat over the head with a broomstick. You know the rest. But now the girl's gone and my poor Virginia is all alone..." He perked up and one of his ears twitched. "And she said that she and 'the others' were going to take care of Antony and Wendell!"
"You mean King Wendell White? And his manservant...er, friend, Antony Lewis? But..." the girl tilted her head and blinked a few times, trying to absorb all of this. Though the beginning of their fame had only been six months ago, the man before her was still a legendary hero. And now he was telling her things that she didn't quite understand -- things of monarchs in danger, and people jumping through magic mirrors... But it wasn't a dream, and she knew it was really Wolf sitting in front of her. She recognized his face from the newspapers, the clippings in a box beneath her bed, and he was no impostor, for she could smell that he was truly a half wolf. Her glazed over eyes shifted from staring at the floor to looking at Wolf, suddenly snapping out of her trance, "I...I'm Cécile Follet. And I'm afraid there's not much we can do about the situation from here... You're in the Second Kingdom, sir."
"Pleased to meet you, Cécile," Wolf said distractedly. And then, something hit him like a bag of bricks from the sky. Only not as painful. He sniffed and looked at her, but didn't say anything. There didn't need to be words. Then he shook his head and decided to stay away from that subject, as now was not to the time to bond with a girl who had nearly given him a concussion with a broom alone. "But there's got to be some way--we could hitch a ride or..." He stopped as the word 'we' registered in his head. "Something."
Tilting her head at Wolf, Cécile caught a brief look in his eyes, a glint of recognition. The look was familiar, though she had only seen that expression in the only other half wolf she had ever met. That woman had simply been passing through town, only ordering bread but saying nothing about what they were. Then again, it wasn't as though Cécile's identity was concealed, not when her eye betrayed her.
She replied only to the words he actually spoke aloud, though her tone was somewhat incredulous, "Hitch a ride? In case you haven't noticed..." Pushing back the hair that fell over her golden eye, she turned her head towards the window, through which the moon shone brightly. Wolf turned to look as well as she spoke, "Where do you propose we 'hitch a ride' at this hour?" A slight frown formed on her face as she turned back to him. And even if they *did* find a way to get to the Fourth Kingdom, Wendell's Palace was still hours, perhaps days, away...
"Then we'll walk. I'll walk. Until we find a place where we CAN hitch a ride." And with that, Wolf shakily rose to his feet and began walking towards the door. Then he paused, scratched his ear, and looked back. He was still somewhat disoriented from being attacked by a broom, much less traveling to the nine kingdoms. "Uhh...which way is out?"
The girl stood and straightened the folds of her nightgown and robe, her expression somewhat blank at his inability to even find a way out of the upstairs floor. "Here, down these steps. But you might want to be extra quiet and extra careful not to wake up Grandmother... She can get very cranky when her sleep is interupted, and she's far more terrible with abroom than I am," Cécile turned him towards the staircase. If he couldn't even handle navigating the cottage... Why, she couldn't let the poor man wander the big scary woods all on his lonesome. A smirk curled at the corners of her lips while his back was turned to her. "Er, wait downstairs for me... I'll pack us...er, you, some things to take with you on your walk. We--you, might be able to find someone out when you reach town."
This what just the sort of escape she had been waiting for... And now she was going to go on a grand adventure.
******
"Backstreet's back, ALRIGHT!"
Alice moaned and rubbed her eyes with the flat of her palms. Of all the things, to wake up with a headache and remnants of a bad dream, but to add music by guys who sound like girls was simply cruel. She started humming the first thing she could think of, which happened to be the theme to "My Neighbor Totoro," but anything is better than Backstreet Boys. But something else was strange... could it be that her bed was rocking? She opened her eyes. She definatly was not in her room. In fact, it looked more like the inside of a... carriage.
Maybe that wasn't a dream.
Now was the choice time to find out. Alice sat up, brushing her hair back like second nature and kicked open the door.
Only to find that the carriage was in motion. Trees passed her eyes and then disappeared as fast as they came. Long blades of grass thundered against the exposed floor of the carriage. The sound of horses was everywhere.
She gasped and shrunk back. They were going fast. Too fast to jump, probably. Maybe if she hid or... Screw it. "HELLO!" she shouted out the door, "WHO'S DRIVING THIS THING?!"
Over the top of the carriage she could see the backside of a young man. He was dressed in a grey suit with tails and a top hat cocked to the side of his head. "So I see you woke up!" He called over the horses, but his voice was vaguely familair... "How did you sleep?"
Alice blinked, wondering what happened to the puppet chick. Or the mirror chick for that matter. "Badly." She replied in a deadpan tone. "Time to play twenty questions. Where are you taking me?"
"I dunno, where would you like to go?" was the reply. He tilted his hat up with one hand.
She sighed, figures she'd be kidnapped by the Clueless Wonder. "I wouldn't be able to go back to New York by any chance?"
"New fork?" He repeated over the sound of the horses. "I've never been to a place called that lady, and I've been all over the nine kingdoms. But if you want to buy some silverware, we could--"
"...Wait one moment here... 'Nine Kingdoms'? What in the name of Einstein's electrical socket are you babbling about?!"
"You're the one babbling about silverware and elec....electric... whatever the heck you just said," He retorted. He paused for a moment. "You know, this is the Nine Kingdoms. Five Kingdoms were ruled by a queen during the Golden Age...ringing a bell, right?"
"I was talking about New York, like YORKshire terrier," she replied stiffly, "There is no such place as the Nine Kingdoms on the geographic maps of Earth, and what's more, I haven't heard of any Golden Age except in storybooks!"
"You know, I liked you better when you were inside the carriage." The young man said, before they turned around a sharp bend.
"Why I--" was all Alice could manage before she was thrown back inside the carriage and against the other door. "Ow," more quietly, "fuck," then "ow" again was what she ending finishing the sentence with. Well, on the not-so- bright side, it seems her kidnapper lacked the intelligence to rape her.
"Just relax and enjoy the ride for a bit, okay, lady?" He called, "We're almost there. I don't want you falling out and getting yourself enchanted...you've got just the right attitude to piss someone off who could turn you into a gnat. That's the last thing I need."
Just then, something flew by the window. Alice assumed it was just a bird, when more of them came. They glowed like fireflies, and yet one got the distinct feeling that they were as far away from lightning bugs as one could possibly imagine. And then the whole group disappeared into the dense foilage of the forest.
"..." Alice gulped. 'Enchanted'? Was that their term for getting high? Or brainwashing? She crawled on her knees to the carriage door and slammed it shut without a reply. Then after pulling up her hood again, she curled up in the corner of the carriage, wondering what the hell had happened to her.
The carriage ride continued for another hour. Eventually, the forest faded away to long fields and then little farms emerged. Soon a stone wall started that followed them passed all of the farms. It was suddenly very apparent that she was nowhere near New York, though. As they passed a rickety old house seven little children immediately came outside and chased after the carriage.
"No rides today, children!" He told them. "Gio's on important business!"
But they refused to stop following the carriage until they reached the end of the stone wal, where they stood, waving to the young carriage driver.
"I promise!" He said to them, "Next time, I will take you all for a very long ride! And I will bring peppermint for you all!"
Alice woke up from dozing when the carriage lurched to a halt. She opened the door and peeked out, hoping that it was safe for her to make a run for it. It didn't help that her limbs were cramping from being in a fetal position for so long.
Unfortunately, there was no such hope for her, because the young man jumped off the driver's seat at that exact moment. He patted one of the horses soothingly and spoke to them. "Good job, good job. Deserves some sugar cubes, eh?" And secretively, as if it were an illegal thing to do, he pulled a handfull of sugar cubes from his pocket and fed each one a few cubes and gave them a pat on the head.
They were apparently in a village of some sort. People walked up and down the streets, the ladies in full gowns and tight corsets and the men in suits not unlike the young carriage drivers. The entire village seemed to step right out of a historical novel.
"I suppose," the carriage driver said to her, as he tied up the horses, "that we started out on the wrong foot yesterday."
Alice gingerly stepped out of the carriage, keeping her hood up and coat zipped. "Last night?" she asked, her lips twitching slightly when she realized she had just stepped in some mud, "That wasn't you, that was some weird chick who tried to kill me..." She scooted over to drier ground, narrowly avoiding a lady's voluminous skirts.
"Well, you know, 'weird chick' would not be the name I'd like you to call me if you could avoid it," He turned around and bowed, sweeping his hat to the side with one hand. Shineless rust red hair fell over his face as he stood. "My name is Gio Geppetto, from the Fifth Kingdom. And you, my friend, are Sailor Pluto of the Tenth."
Alice made a quiet noise. She looked at him through the eye that wasn't hidden by her hood. "N-nice to meet you," her fingers were quivering. She couldn't understand what was going on. "And I'm not a sailor... I'm a waitress. My name is Allison Wunderlich, but most people call me Alice."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, dear Alice," He replied. As he brushed his hair from his face, it was now very apparent that he was either A. a very attractive man or B. a very masculine looking girl. Alice couldn't decide on which. "And trust me, you are very much a sailor. Come on, I'll buy you dinner and I can tell you everything."
She blinked, the sensible part of her brain wanting to refuse. Her stomach had other ideas, and growled in consent. Dinner did sound awfully good, and she could smell food where she stood. Despite the semi-renaissance air, Alice didn't feel completely out of place. "I would like dinner very much."
******
Two foxes sat on a pile of books, gesturing towards a torn page in an open book on the floor. They were bickering loudly, and knocking more and more books off of the shelf next to them.
"You shouldn't have done that. Rabe's going to skin you alive. That's her favorite book, you know."
"They're ALL her favorite books. Besides, I'm her favorite uncle."
"You're her only uncle. Besides, this used to be MY library. -I- should skin you alive. Now, look here, you've ripped MY favorite book!" One fox began advancing towards the other, but was interrupted in his attack by a hand picking his victim up by the scruff of his neck and thumping him over the head. "Right, give him a good one from me, would you? Ow..." She thumped him too.
"What are you two doing destroying my library? Or has becoming foxes addled your brains?" Rabe sighed and picked up her grandfather in the hand not occupied by her great-uncle. She took them downstairs and dropped them unceremoniously on the main desk. "Now I have to put everything back on the shelves where they belong AND repair the pages. Joy of joys."
"Oh, Grumpy-Britches, you needed something to do anyways. No one's come in here in ages, you know. Most of the shelves are dusty with unuse." Wilhelm whacked his brother Jacob over the head with his tail on his way past, and sat down in front of his granddaughter. Who was now grinning. His eyes widened. "What're you thinking, Grandaughter?"
Ten minutes later, the pair of furballs were dusting the shelves.
Rabe laughed a bit as she carefully put Binder's Ointment on the torn pages. Ahhh, magic was a handy tool. It was a good thing the tear wasn't through any words, or they would have been mangled. This way you couldn't even tell. She thought fleetingly of living the adventures in her books, but then got caught up in putting the fallen back in their place. As always, one chore eventually led to another, and she ended up re-binding a couple of books that were somewhere past 'Tattered' and into the realm of 'Falling Apart'. Something always needed done around here, and that was all right. Rabe liked her quiet life. She knew that sometime in the future someone would seek out Sailorsaturn, but for now, quiet was what she had. And quiet was what she wanted.
******
The Dish and Spoon was Gio's favorite restaurant. Therefore, everyone there knew Gio by name. It was a busling, busy little place but when Gio walked in, the entire room stopped and looked up before waving. Walking over to a little booth in the corner labeled 'Gio's table' for obviously some inside joke, the carriage driver was bombarded with questions.
"Gio! How are the travels?"
"Splendid as ever, might I say. Picked up some cargo along the way," Gio gestured to Alice who followed behind. A few of them laughed.
"Is she your girl, then?"
"No, not quite--let's just say we have a mutual acquitance. Promised I'd bring to dinner."
Gio sat down in the burgundy-colored booth and scooted over to the window, propping up on an elbow. A small, worn down wax candle sat in the center of the table. A waitress came over and offered to light it, but Gio politely declined, hands trembling.
Alice looked around the restaurant, her expression null. She didn't even twitch an eyebrow at the "cargo" comment. Why bother? She was too hungry to care about dealing with sexist slime. Tucking her pale locks behind her ears, she read over the menu. Finally, she tilted her head up slightly and asked, "What are you having?"
"The usual," Gio replied absently, but then realized that it was not a waitress who was asking the question. "Oh, I mean the chicken parmesean. It's very good, you should try it."
She nodded and set her menu down, notably listless and subdued. It wasn't because she was hungry, either. Then they ordered their food and the waitress collected their menus.
Gio sat his menu down too, and looked at her thoughtfully. "So tell me, how did you get here? If you really did come from the tenth kingdom...I know you're from the outside."
"What was your first clue? The vinyl or the jeans? And as aforementioned, some woman dragged me through a mirror and deposited me here. Wherever 'here' is," she replied.
"Actually, it's more of the crude, mocking demeanor you posess. Anyone who had lived here all their life and acted like you do would probably be a badger by now. Or a witch," Gio replied. "And 'here' is the Nine Kingdoms. You see, nearly 250 years ago, our kingdoms were united by five powerful queens, including Queen Cinderella who is still ruling the First Kingdom to this very day. We are currently in the fifth kingdom, where I come from. That's why I was the first one to find you--besides you being from the outside and all. Does that make it any more clear for you?"
"Witches aren't all that bad and I'm not crude..." Alice mumbled below hearing range. "And I'm starting to understand, despite the fact that the First Kingdom is ruled by fairy tale princess... So what is this "sailor" business?" She asked.
"You see, each kingdom has a specific guardian that watches over it," Gio lowed her voice and moved in a little closer. "I am Sailoruranus, protector of the fifth Kingdom. You are Sailorpluto, protector of the tenth kingdom. I had thought it was Virginia, at first... but it surely couldn't, she only killed the queen on accident. But I saw your sign--on your forehead, last night when you were running away. So I had to follow you. Apparently, you were supposed to stay in the Tenth Kingdom, to watch over it, but something went wrong." Gio looked at Alice and then paused. "Okay, maybe I should explain.
"The Nine Kingdoms' Golden age was over a long time ago. We're not exactly in the best of shape right now. Especially with so much evil suddenly appearing in such a short time. It was only around half a year ago that the evil Queen rose and tried to take over the Nine Kingdoms. But a group of people stopped her. They are legends here, Alice, so remember their names. Wolf, Antony, King Wendell, and Virginia. Virginia was the daughter of the evil queen herself.
"It seemed like everything was okay. Most places have settled down now, and continued their business. But now there's been stories of new evils--people trying to do what the queen couldn't. And they have magic far powerful that the Queen's was. The four who saved the nine kingdoms, we're afraid, just couldn't handle it. Heck, Virginia's with child! So that's where we come it. It's our destiny to stop these--these Speculum Soldiers, that's what they're called."
Alice listened closely, trying to follow Gio's story. That was easy. It was fitting it into her reality which wasn't working. She stopped fiddling with her cuticles and tried to ignore rational thinking. "So," she said in a conspiratorially quiet voice to match Gio's, "I'm a soldier and I was supposed to protect New York-slash-the world when that woman, who'd I would assume is a Speculum Solider, took me here. And now I am supposed to help save the Nine Kingdoms from the Speculum (which means mirror, by the way) Soldiers." She leaned back, slightly proud she understood most of it. "What's more," she shook pepper onto the table and traced the astrologer's symbol for Pluto, "if I am Sailorpluto and you're Sailoruranus, there must be a Sailorsaturn and Sailorneptune. Are they going to help as well?" She traced the others' symbols as she spoke.
"Well actually, seeing as there is ten kingdoms, there should tecnically be ten soldiers. But the third kingdom is ruled by the Trolls...so they might not have one." Gio leaned back, talking as if it were the most casual thing in the world now. "So we're not only looking for Neptune and Saturn. We're looking for Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus and.... er. I forget the last one."
"Hmm... There's nine planets. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. So... There must be a Sailor... Asteroid Belt? Then there's the Sun, which is actually a star..." her voice trailed off into astronomical mumblings.
And then, the food arrived. Which was a good thing--Alice was about to put Gio to sleep. The carriage driver perked up immediately. "Ooh, look, the food. Doesn't it smell great?"
Alice snapped out of her trance, "Oh... yes." And it did, she hadn't eaten since lunch yesterday. She unfolded her napkin and placed it in her lap and started shoveling food into her mouth. Well, she thought she was. Even though she looked to be one of the most refined diners in the restaurant.
And quite frankly, Gio was not the most refined either. Slurping the pasta on the plate almost like a child, Gio ate like..well, a horse. "Mmmm this is sooooooo good. *slurp* I love *munch* it here, the people are so nice. You should try the chocolate pie, it's to die for."
Had she been at home, and not ravenous, Alice would have lost her appetite right there and then. "Uhm, sure," she replied after chewing and swallowing a piece of chicken.
"So yeah, what did this Speculum soldier person look like? The one that took you...?"
Alice bit pasta off her fork and chewed thoughtfully. She swallowed and replied, "Brown hair, porcelain skin, brilliant green eyes... ... Unique costume, made yours look tasteful... She grabbed me though a mirror."
"Hmm," was all Gio had to say to that. "I suppose, after this, we should look for the other senshi. But where to start?"
"Do I look like I live here? I think not. However, my suggest would be to start in the Eighth Kingdom seeing as how we have the guardians of the Fifth and Tenth here," she replied in a neat manner, pausing to deter a man from touching her with a quick glare.
*************
Broken Fairy Tales: Senshi of the Ten Kingdoms.
Ahahaha! And so, the plot thickens. :D
The chapters of this story are taken directly from a play-by-email by the same name. Each of the writers, including myself, have given consent to having their work published under this name, with due credit.
'Once Upon A Time', episode two of Broken Fairy Tales, was written by Gena, Sushi, Koi, Alex, and Mags. Love you guys! 3
This is a crossover between 'Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon', and the NBC/Hallmark miniseries 'The Tenth Kingdom', that aired in 1998/1999. 'Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon' and 'The Tenth Kingdom' do not belong to the people who wrote Broken Fairy tales and we do not claim rights to any of the aforementioned television shows. We do, however, claim rights to our original characters, the Senshi of the Ten Kingdoms. They are copyrighted to their creators.
Are you a fan of sailormoon, the tenth kingdom, or just fairy tales? If you're a good writer and would like to contribute, visit our site at www32.brinkster.com/cwmrpg/broken
We're currently looking for someone to play Sailorvenus and Sailor Commoneo, so if you're interested please check it out. ^_^
Ten thousand mirrors smiled down at Alice from every direction. Some were smashed, some held visages of things she could only imagine--some of them held her reflections but yet they just weren't her. Something was wrong about them...distorted by an imperfect mirror, so it was an imperfect world...
It went by all too quickly, silver flashing like lightning as she passed through each one. The girl that held her hand looked back and laughed, her eyes glowing emeralds against the dark as she bolted one mirror after another. She was a child, running, laughing through a forest of silver mirrors, and Alice was her new playmate.
But it came to a quick, and mildly painful stop. It was like someone had just unplugged Alice's vital support and left her there to die. In this world, it was twilight, with stars dotting the heavens. The girl was gone.
Her knees gave out from under her. She suppressed the need to vomit with several swallows and beating her head against the ground. Turning her head to the side, she could see grass. A field. Sky. Stars. That was semi- normal. You don't see many fields in New York City. Clouds. Clouds are good.
However.
A strange girl looking like a porcelain doll was not. Neither was being dragged through a mirror.
Then it hit her. She was dreaming. She had to be. It was too much like Through the Looking Glass not to be a dream. Just a girl instead of a bunny. Or something.
"Ugh..." She stood up, immediately regretting it. Her stomach spasmed. emptying it's contents on the green grass. She wiped her pale lips with the back of her hand, which in turn was wiped on the ground.
In the distance, she heard hoof beats.
"The strings of a puppet's marionette is delicate--just like the balance of this world!" A strong voice came from behind her. A long, tall figure--was it a man?--stood there, possibly ten feet away.
Alice had never had psychos in her dreams before. She spun on her heel, eyes wide yet expression still neutral. She pulled her hood up in one fluid motion and stood in a calculatedly submissive pose. "And why do I care about the balance of this world?" she replied, her voice carrying over the night breeze.
"Same reason you should care about looking behind you." He replied gruffly. In the darkness, one could faintly see the wicked smile on his face.
Alice looked behind her. (She's a genius, not faultless.)
He was true to his word. A cross-like object spun toward her, it's metal blades flashing in the upcoming moon. It flew dangerously close to Alice's head, but didn't have any impact. A broken strand of golden hair floated down to Alice's eyelevel. She watched the object with her head tilted down slightly, like a frightened animal.
"Marionette!" The figure called, and black cords erupted from the heart of the cross.
Alice threw herself to the side, rolling in dewed grass, starlight making her white coat shine with ghostly light. Cursing, the shadow jumped into the air and caught the marionette like it was second nature. He looked down at her from where he stood before he was in flight--much like the girl from the mirror, bringing back eerie memories, though they had just occured--the marionette held to the side at his right as he advanced.
She pushed herself to her feet, slipping on the wet grass. "Nice to know that New York isn't the only place with fetish murderers." Her feet slid again, knees knocking together. Her dangled her left hand out enough to catch her if her sandals betrayed her, while her right hand gripped something in her coat pocket. Her eyes narrowed minutely before she launched herself at the man, pepperspray out and functioning, right in his face. To say the least he was startled. He lurched back, a gloved hand over his eyes. He fell backwards, catching himself on his elbow. The other hand held the back of his head, tilting his face down towards his chest.
If Alice was the unsporting type, she might have kicked him while he was down. But no, she decided to make a break for it and dashed off in the direction of the forest.
"Wait....! Wait, dammit!" The figure shouted, but to no avail. He slumped before rising to his feet slowly, using the marionette for support. His voice gave out some, in desperation. "Wait..."
Alice glanced back, the moonlight shining on her hood. For the briefest moment, a faint mark shaped like a P glimmered on her forehead. Her head turned, and she ran into the forest. The marionette sunk into the ground as his eyes widened. "She's...one of us...." And then, his eyes dilated and he began to call her back with renewed vigor. "WAIT! WAIT!"
"No... fucking... way..." she whispered under labored breaths. Her lungs ached already. Alice had never been a track star and didn't know to practice running away from murderers before she got here. Slipping behind a tree, she stopped to catch her breath. Her head was almost touching her knees as her chest heaved, sucking in air. Hopefully there weren't any new obstacles here.
"'Allo."
So much for that idea.
He said that to her as he hung upside down from the tree she was nestled under. His legs suspended him from a particularly strong looking tree branch. Gently, he slipped his gloved finger the gap between her knees and head and poked her forehead. "Well whatcha know, the sign's gone now."
Alice's eyes were easily the size of teacup saucers. She did the only thing she could think of, she grabbed the man's arm and yanked with all her body weight, sending him quite unceremoniously to the ground. "Why don't you find someone else to rape?!" She seemed to have forgotten that she'd emptied half a canister of pepperspray in this man's face.
He hit the ground with a dull 'thud.' And then he started to laugh, which was deep and rich, and not unkindly. In fact, he was laughing so hard he put his hand over his stomach. His large blue eyes opened as he tilted his head to look at her, his neck aligned with her foot. "I'm not going to rape you." He said to her.
The moon rolled out lazily behind a cloud, sending a pool of moonlight over the man. Something immediately was not right about him--his eyes were large and glass-like, permanently a blazing blue. His skin was too dark...and ... and hard, too polished. But the give away was his nose, which was unnaturally long and thin, with abnormally small nostrils. Beneath the choker he wore were indentations, all the way around his neck--like a puppet's joint...
The moon traveled further, over his body. He had a small, feminine waist and long, toned legs, and more and more of the puppet joints were revealed. The outfit he wore was childish--shorts that would have been popular in the tenth kingdom that barely laced up to his hips, a white body suit and bronze suspenders. He also wore a blue sailor collar. And then, it hit her: He wasn't a man at all.
Alice's arms and legs started shaking. She had, in succession, been attacked by a woman who looked like a doll and one who was a doll. A living, talking doll. She blinked a few times before her eyes rolled back in her head as she crumpled in a dead faint.
The puppet's eyes widened and then a look of sadness crossed over her face. She rolled over and knelt, gently tapping Alice's face. "Oh my lord," said she, "I've killed her."
Carefully, she picked up Alice's limp body and walked in the dark to a carriage that was waiting silently for them. With a small "hup" from the puppet, she jumped up into the driver's seat and sent the horses in motion. The field was silent.
******
Meanwhile, in a cottage in the Second Kingdom...
She leaned forward through the open window, exposed skin of her forearms pressed against the chilled brick of the sill. Inhaling deeply, she closed her eyes to absorb scents that mingled in the warm summer air. Her inner core desired to run through the forests that this window faced. The tall oaks and elms surrounding the clearing that the brick cottage had been constructed upon was casting shadows of black and blue against the lush, fertile green of the grassy ground. She longed to feel the earth between her toes, to dash around the underbrush and run her hands along the bark as she ran past the thick trunks. The urge to give into these desires was even stronger than it was the rest of the month -- she could feel it in every nerve of her being, and both wanted it to come, yet dreaded it.
Starlight shone down brightly this eve, seeming more vibrant than she had noticed before. The girl narrowed her eyes at the sky, ears twitching as though she heard something coming and moved forward even more. Sniffing the air, she could smell nothing strange, nothing but the woods, its inhabitants, Grandmother, and herself. But what was that sudden tingle she felt in her forehead, and that pulse of light in the sky?
"Cécile... Shut the window and sleep," a stern voice commanded from behind her, causing the dark haired girl to nearly fall backwards off of the window seat. Cécile turned around, her brows raised with a lingering surprise and an oddly dumb look on her face. She began to open her mouth in protest, though the older woman was quicker to speak, her hands upon her hips, "It is late, and you need rest for the coming days. Close your mouth, dear." The pet name sounded somewhat forced, but typical from Grandmother, clad in her thick white nightgown with a quilt draped over her shoulders. Her own expression was grim, somewhat cold, though not uncommon on her face. She had always been a tough woman, and that had been the only way she could keep her status in town.
"Yes, Grandmother," replied the girl as she closed the rotting wooden shutters. Cécile slid her legs off of the cushions, wriggling her bare feet against the chilled stone. Even during the summer nights, the cottage never failed to keep a low temperature, sometimes requiring quilts. But the cold did not bother her as much as it did Grandmother, who was growing frailer by the year. In the bakery, the teen had heard whispers of how shocked some of the employees were that the old woman was still alive. However, living without Grandmother was quite unthinkable to Cécile, and as soon as she heard the words out of the gossipy girls, she demanded that they get back to work or else their pay would be lighter by the end of the week.
But it was the truth, as hard as the truth was to face. Cécile removed the black ties from her braid, letting the dark hair fall loose over her shoulders. She combed it with her fingers as she moved up the rickety wooden stairs, the paneling creaking softly beneath her weight as she marched upwards. Dull moonlight flooded the upper floor of the small cottage through the single window, short roof nearly brushing the top of Cécile's head as she reached the final step. Half of the upper floor was partitioned for storage of antiques and memorabilia of the childhoods of her aunts and uncles, her mother, and herself. The other half that stood before her was a neatly kept bedroom, filled with a single trunk for clothing, a bed, a nightstand with a lamp, a desk and chair, and a bookshelf upon which small trinkets and a jewelry box sat.
Rather than head straight for her bed as Grandmother had told her, Cécile instead lifted her chair as to avoid waking the sleeping woman below by dragging it. She planted it before the circular glass window, looking straight out at the sky, and the stars, and the moon. It wasn't a random decision, but a necessity. Especially on a night like this, when she could feel that something was wrong... The problem was that she didn't know what, or who, or where the source of this disturbance was. Tonight, it would be especially difficult for her to fall asleep...that is, more difficult than normal.
Cécile would be the last person to admit she was afraid of closing her eyes and falling asleep... She would start to drift off some nights, then suddenly jolt awake in fear, despite the fact that she was secure and that it had been two years since the incident. Her head would toss and turn in resistance and her hands would roam over the soft down pillows, groping for something to help her escape, just like that sunny afternoon on the grassy knoll. Cécile raised a hand up to her throat, making sure that the red cloth was still tied around it, and traced her fingers over the material. She wrapped her arms tighter around herself and shuddered, goosebumps forming over her skin, though there was no airflow in the room that was giving her chills. It was simply memories that she didn't like to recall. If only she could just forget...
She yawned and rubbed at her eyes, suddenly overwhelmed with exhaustion. With one girl out because of an illness, and another one that Cécile was sure was just faking it to spend time with the new boy she had been fawning over, she had had to work overtime to keep up with the usual demands. It seemed that most of the young girls in the town were getting older and marrying off, becoming housewives with children or leaving the town, sometimes the kingdom altogether. Despite practically smelling the lies on the man-chasing worker, the bakery couldn't afford to lose anymore people. Standing up, Cécile stretched out her lean formed before crawling into bed, curling up on her side to face the window.
She looked straight through the glass pane before closing her eyes, to catch one last glimpse at the sky and the stars and the moon...
******
"Virginia!" said a voice as as man with coal black hair walked inside the cozy apartment. His smile was broad and happy. Slipping off his black coat and folding it over his arm, it was revealed that he was carrying a boquet of roses.
He walked further inside, and looked around. The lights were dimmed in the livingroom. Not a sound was heard... "Virginia?"
Walking into the living room, he looked around and saw a woman with short brown hair nestled into the couch. His look softened as the man knelt down beside her, tucking a loose strand of her brown hair behind her ear. Then he slipped the boquet beneath her arms. It was obvious that she was expecting, and he whispered something about their child to her. Finally he laid his jacket over her and kissed her forehead.
"I'll go make us some steaks," he said to himself. Mmm, steak. One of the three basic food groups: Steak, Lamb, and Pork. Ooh, and poultry. Poultry was good too. But not as good as steak.
The sound of a music box echoed throughout the tiny apartment. He turned, looking around and sniffing. That's funny, he didn't hear that before--
"Good evening, Wolf."
A lady appeared in the corner of the room. She had brown hair, like Virginia's, and striking green eyes. To be frank, she was wearing the most bizarre outfit he had ever seen--the most noticable being the dark green sailor collar and the leather straps around her neck and forearms. She looked down at him from her mid-air position and laughed. "Today has been
such a busy day for me. Traveling between dimensions is very tiring, you know. And I left that poor little girl Alice in the fifth kingdom to die by the hands of Sailoruranus!"
"Who are you?" Wolf asked as he instinctively moved back in front of Virginia. He tucked his head down and away from her, much like an animal.
"You don't need to know my name..." she said softly, her words cold. As if gravity was just now effecting her, she dropped to the floor gracefully and advanced toward him. "I have to get rid of you, Wolf. You...and the child."
Wolf looked up at her wordlessly.
"Virginia means nothing to me. She is nothing without you. Niether does her halfwit of a father living back in the nine kingdoms--but we want to make this clean. It's you...you and the child. The others are taking care of King Wendell."
She held out her hands to touch him. He moved backwards and was preparing to sink his teeth into her gloved hands when a shard of glass appeared there in her palm. It was the size of a kitchen knife.
"No."
"This will only hurt if you struggle. I don't want to bring you pain, Wolf." She moved closed to him. This time, he reeled back and succeeded in biting her, and smiled at her defiantly.
The lady cried out and held her hand, looking at him viciously. "That wasn't very nice, you know." And then, with her glass shard in hand, she flew at him. She was unbelievably fast...
He ducked down and rolled, landing on his haunches. Frantically he looked over to the couch and shouted. "VIRGINIA! VIRGINIA, WAKE UP!"
Virginia, still nestled under Wolf's coat, turned over to face the back of the couch. "Mm, no, not try now.. so sleepy..."
Wolf rolled his eyes. "Oh, of all the times to take a nap."
"This is no time to be making jokes," the cold, quiet voice said behind him. He looked up to see a glass shard dangerously close to his head. Piercing green eyes looked down at him as she spoke. "Goodbye, Wolf, one of the Four Who Saved the Nine Kingdoms."
Wolf's head tilted down as he looked at her pitifully. He scratched behind one of his ears and bent down submissively. Squinting, he saw the ornate mirror that hung in the center of their livingroom. There was a strange aura around it as it flickered like sunlight at the bottom of a river.
'So that's how she got in,' Wolf thought to himself. 'But that mirror isn't magical!... Is it?'
At that instant she sent the shard down upon his head. But Wolf was too quick for her. He leaned back and with all the strength he could muster, kicked her in the stomach. With no gravity to stop her, she flew into the wall--and straight through the mirror. She screamed. The glass shard hit the floor and broke.
Wolf sat there for a few minutes, scratching his head and looking at the mirror. Carefully, he walked over to the mirror, which was still shimmering. "How can it be...?" He asked out loudas he reached to touch the mirror to feel its authenticity.
Suddenly, a white gloved hand grabbed his hand and pulled him in. The apartment was silent.
******
It was, Richelle thought unhappily, enough to make any single person go crazy. First her parents, who were at best flighty (and at worst downright neglectful nowadays), had just left. Not a note or word to the one servant they had as to where they were going--just left. Richelle, expecting her day to be no different from any other, had woken up to have breakfast with them. "Of course they weren't there to breakfast with..." she muttered kicking off her boots in favor of her lighter slippers.
Then, on the way home from school, Maya had dropped a bombshell. "Listen Richen...My family wants to take a vacation..." Richelle had wisely not mentioned her family always took vacations. "This time you can't come." Maya said this with a look of resigned misery on her face.
Richelle had blinked shaking her head. "What?"
"Mom and dad...well they don't think its so wise to be taking you along anymore...what with the boys getting to be that age and always skipping after you..." Richelle suddenly understood what Maya meant. 'My parents don't want a fight to break out because my brothers are all in love with you.' Which was as ridiculous as it sounded. All seven of them in love with her?
"Oh...okay. Its not a good time anyway--lots of extra studying and all...when you get back then.." Richelle had merely murmured with a faint smile. Maya instantly looked relieved and hugged her friend. Richelle patted her back, only a little uncomfortable.
After that horrible episode came the biggest shock of her life. The maid slash housekeeper slash cook slash every other duty in the household had quit. Just like that. The moment Richelle stepped through the doors Mariah, the all purpose servant, had quit. "Sorry young miss, but I ain't gonna do that even if it is for your sire and mom." she has said simply then marched out.
With a feeling bordering on surrealism Richelle had put down her books and reflected on the day. Padding to the library she peeked in, saw no one and continued to the next room. By the fifth room, her parents' bedroom--a place she only barely remembered from childhood, having believed it was improper for her to go near there--she was pinching herself like crazy to see if she was dreaming.
Sitting heavily on the biege covered bed Richelle stared at her mother's small vanity mirror. She tugged at the braid she wore her shoulder length hair in, wistfully wishing her mother would let her cut it just a few more inches. She traced the bone structure of her face, frowning the whole time at the still very visible baby fat.
All in all not a bad reflection. Richelle knew she would improve and the thought cheered her. She yawned and scooted back a little to fall asleep. With Mariah gone and her parents away dinner would be a simple affair. Greens and bread maybe, she thought sleepily, snuggling into the warmth of the bed more.
Her last fleeting thought, as sleep took over, was that maybe today no one would need Sailor Mercury.
******
A pair of eyes, of dark brown and of vibrant yellow, opened in the darkness. A stream of pale blue light fell over her features, casting dark shadows in the curves of her face and illuminating the floating dust. She blinked at the moon, which was almost perfectly aligned with the round glass pane. Cécile looked around, unusually wide awake, though it was still night. She wasn't sure how long she had been sleeping -- perhaps hours, minutes, or a few seconds. Either way, all exhaustion had fled her body, replaced by a wide awake high that usually came from caffeine. Somewhat irritated by her early awakening, she half-grumbled, half-sighed aloud. Who needed sleep? She would have to get up in a few hours anyway... According to the clock on the nightstand, it was already midnight, and though the bakery didn't open until nine, she had to get an early start at five.
Rather than get up, she rolled over to lay flat on her back, staring up at the ceiling. She didn't want to be here -- trapped in a dull little town, with a boring job, and no time to do the things she looked forward to. Already at sixteen her life was over, before it had barely begun. But Grandmother needed her to stay here and keep the bakery running smoothly. Cécile couldn't just drop her responsibilities to her own family and become this 'Sailormars' person that she had transformed into once...no matter how much her heart desired it. She closed her eyes again and rolled onto her side, laying still for a moment, before pulling back her arm and punching the pillow. She sat up in bed, kicking back the sheets and grabbing the limp pillow to her chest. Burying her face in the white softness, she didn't notice the strange ripple in the ceiling above the end of her bed until she heard a loud half-growl, half-yelp fall from it.
A pile of dark cloth lay on the opposite end of the bed. Cécile lifted her head up quickly, eyes wide as saucers while her mouth hung open dumbly. The pile stirred slightly, tilting its dark haired head up to peer curiously at her with gleaming golden eyes. It wasn't a pile -- it was a man!
So she did the only think she could think of doing: scream.
Her high pitched cry echoed in the room and down the stairs, causing the man to cover his own ears and duck his head again. Scrambling out of bed, Cécile flung the pillow at him and fell onto the floor with a thud, legs tangled in the sheets. She wriggled free before the intruder could catch her, quickly shifting from a crawl to a stumble for the opposite end of the upper floor, ducking into the shadows. When Wolf turned his head up again, the girl in the bed was gone. He shook his head as though it would get rid of the shock and the numbness he felt from being pulled through the mirror. At least the landing had been soft...
Suddenly, a faceful of thick straw was jabbed at him and Wolf was forced to lean back. Except he leaned back too far, and fell backwards with his legs still on the springy bed and his torso on the hard wooden floor. He winced, though the pain didn't seem to end there. The thick straw was the end of a broom, and it was now swinging down on his head rather forcefully. He heard the girl's voice, shouting loudly, "AAAH! DIRTY BASTARD! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?!?" All he could do was try and sputter between each downfall of the broom.
"Nnnn! Aaaargh! Uuuuugh! ERRRRNGH!" The man tried to speak, making poor attempts at blocking the broom with his arms.
"DIIEEE! BASTARD!" Cécile called out as she raised and swung the broom in her hands, an adrenaline rush the only thing keeping her from passing out due to hyperventilation. She began to slow down, trying to catch her breath between shouting, smacking, and recovering from being frightened. It was then that Wolf was finally able to grab the end of the broomstick and try to pry it from her grip, yanking it towards him. But Cécile showed surprising resiliance, before finally letting go, which caused the stick to go flying and hit him instead.
The man laid limply from the blow he inflicted upon himself, which had been almost comical, were it not for the fact that he was a stranger that suddenly appeared in her bed. Still panting from exhaustion, Cécile stepped over his body and grabbed for the broom, which lay on the other side of his body. She was careful not to step on him, in case that woke him and he tried to attack her. Where was Grandmother? She couldn't be that dead asleep. Taking it up in her shaking hands again, he stirred slightly, shaking his head and lifting one hand to scratch the side of it. "Cripes..." the man muttered, to which Cécile replied to with the handle of the broom at his throat.
She stood above him, one foot planted firmly on his stomach while she pressed the handle to his throat, eyes narrowed dangerously as she growled, "Who are you, where did you come from, and WHY are you in my room?"
"Not so many questions at first, huff puff..." He opened his eyes and looked at her with piercing eyes, as if he were studying her from the inside. Of course, to Cécile this may have come across as him trying to undress her with his eyes, but he couldn't help that. "For starters, I came from the tenth kingdom." At that, his eyes bulged and he tried to sit up, but the broom conviently poked him in the adam's apple and made him resume his position on the floor. "But you must let me go--oh, my poor creamy, dreamy Virginia...!" He let out a pitiful whimper.
The stunned silence that fell over them was so still that one could practically hear Cécile blink. Twice. She stared at him blankly, though didn't remove her 'weapon', "The...Tenth...Kingdom?"
Couldn't be. This man was nuts. Or...he could be... She blinked again at the name 'Virginia'. One of the Four Who Saved the Nine Kingdoms... "Cripes!" the girl shouted, almost dropping the broom. It leapt in her hands before she caught it and placed it on the floor and out of the way. Cécile covered her mouth with one curled hand, biting her nails nervously as she crouched beside the man and offered a hand to help him up. "I...I'msosorry, Mr. Wolf, sir! Didn't realize... Of course, you did just drop into my bed...and I was scared, and I didn't... Very sorry!" she winced, ducking her head a bit in shame.
He sat up rather painfully. "It's okay... I don't know what happened.." He scratched himself behind the ear and sat deep in thought. "Some girl showed up at our apartment while Virginia was sleeping... I managed to fight her off, but she dragged me through the mirror.... Cripes. The mirror wasn't even magic--it was some plain one she had bought a few months ago.
"But as we were jumping from mirror to mirror, she left... and then... I fell through one and well...I was instantly beat over the head with a broomstick. You know the rest. But now the girl's gone and my poor Virginia is all alone..." He perked up and one of his ears twitched. "And she said that she and 'the others' were going to take care of Antony and Wendell!"
"You mean King Wendell White? And his manservant...er, friend, Antony Lewis? But..." the girl tilted her head and blinked a few times, trying to absorb all of this. Though the beginning of their fame had only been six months ago, the man before her was still a legendary hero. And now he was telling her things that she didn't quite understand -- things of monarchs in danger, and people jumping through magic mirrors... But it wasn't a dream, and she knew it was really Wolf sitting in front of her. She recognized his face from the newspapers, the clippings in a box beneath her bed, and he was no impostor, for she could smell that he was truly a half wolf. Her glazed over eyes shifted from staring at the floor to looking at Wolf, suddenly snapping out of her trance, "I...I'm Cécile Follet. And I'm afraid there's not much we can do about the situation from here... You're in the Second Kingdom, sir."
"Pleased to meet you, Cécile," Wolf said distractedly. And then, something hit him like a bag of bricks from the sky. Only not as painful. He sniffed and looked at her, but didn't say anything. There didn't need to be words. Then he shook his head and decided to stay away from that subject, as now was not to the time to bond with a girl who had nearly given him a concussion with a broom alone. "But there's got to be some way--we could hitch a ride or..." He stopped as the word 'we' registered in his head. "Something."
Tilting her head at Wolf, Cécile caught a brief look in his eyes, a glint of recognition. The look was familiar, though she had only seen that expression in the only other half wolf she had ever met. That woman had simply been passing through town, only ordering bread but saying nothing about what they were. Then again, it wasn't as though Cécile's identity was concealed, not when her eye betrayed her.
She replied only to the words he actually spoke aloud, though her tone was somewhat incredulous, "Hitch a ride? In case you haven't noticed..." Pushing back the hair that fell over her golden eye, she turned her head towards the window, through which the moon shone brightly. Wolf turned to look as well as she spoke, "Where do you propose we 'hitch a ride' at this hour?" A slight frown formed on her face as she turned back to him. And even if they *did* find a way to get to the Fourth Kingdom, Wendell's Palace was still hours, perhaps days, away...
"Then we'll walk. I'll walk. Until we find a place where we CAN hitch a ride." And with that, Wolf shakily rose to his feet and began walking towards the door. Then he paused, scratched his ear, and looked back. He was still somewhat disoriented from being attacked by a broom, much less traveling to the nine kingdoms. "Uhh...which way is out?"
The girl stood and straightened the folds of her nightgown and robe, her expression somewhat blank at his inability to even find a way out of the upstairs floor. "Here, down these steps. But you might want to be extra quiet and extra careful not to wake up Grandmother... She can get very cranky when her sleep is interupted, and she's far more terrible with abroom than I am," Cécile turned him towards the staircase. If he couldn't even handle navigating the cottage... Why, she couldn't let the poor man wander the big scary woods all on his lonesome. A smirk curled at the corners of her lips while his back was turned to her. "Er, wait downstairs for me... I'll pack us...er, you, some things to take with you on your walk. We--you, might be able to find someone out when you reach town."
This what just the sort of escape she had been waiting for... And now she was going to go on a grand adventure.
******
"Backstreet's back, ALRIGHT!"
Alice moaned and rubbed her eyes with the flat of her palms. Of all the things, to wake up with a headache and remnants of a bad dream, but to add music by guys who sound like girls was simply cruel. She started humming the first thing she could think of, which happened to be the theme to "My Neighbor Totoro," but anything is better than Backstreet Boys. But something else was strange... could it be that her bed was rocking? She opened her eyes. She definatly was not in her room. In fact, it looked more like the inside of a... carriage.
Maybe that wasn't a dream.
Now was the choice time to find out. Alice sat up, brushing her hair back like second nature and kicked open the door.
Only to find that the carriage was in motion. Trees passed her eyes and then disappeared as fast as they came. Long blades of grass thundered against the exposed floor of the carriage. The sound of horses was everywhere.
She gasped and shrunk back. They were going fast. Too fast to jump, probably. Maybe if she hid or... Screw it. "HELLO!" she shouted out the door, "WHO'S DRIVING THIS THING?!"
Over the top of the carriage she could see the backside of a young man. He was dressed in a grey suit with tails and a top hat cocked to the side of his head. "So I see you woke up!" He called over the horses, but his voice was vaguely familair... "How did you sleep?"
Alice blinked, wondering what happened to the puppet chick. Or the mirror chick for that matter. "Badly." She replied in a deadpan tone. "Time to play twenty questions. Where are you taking me?"
"I dunno, where would you like to go?" was the reply. He tilted his hat up with one hand.
She sighed, figures she'd be kidnapped by the Clueless Wonder. "I wouldn't be able to go back to New York by any chance?"
"New fork?" He repeated over the sound of the horses. "I've never been to a place called that lady, and I've been all over the nine kingdoms. But if you want to buy some silverware, we could--"
"...Wait one moment here... 'Nine Kingdoms'? What in the name of Einstein's electrical socket are you babbling about?!"
"You're the one babbling about silverware and elec....electric... whatever the heck you just said," He retorted. He paused for a moment. "You know, this is the Nine Kingdoms. Five Kingdoms were ruled by a queen during the Golden Age...ringing a bell, right?"
"I was talking about New York, like YORKshire terrier," she replied stiffly, "There is no such place as the Nine Kingdoms on the geographic maps of Earth, and what's more, I haven't heard of any Golden Age except in storybooks!"
"You know, I liked you better when you were inside the carriage." The young man said, before they turned around a sharp bend.
"Why I--" was all Alice could manage before she was thrown back inside the carriage and against the other door. "Ow," more quietly, "fuck," then "ow" again was what she ending finishing the sentence with. Well, on the not-so- bright side, it seems her kidnapper lacked the intelligence to rape her.
"Just relax and enjoy the ride for a bit, okay, lady?" He called, "We're almost there. I don't want you falling out and getting yourself enchanted...you've got just the right attitude to piss someone off who could turn you into a gnat. That's the last thing I need."
Just then, something flew by the window. Alice assumed it was just a bird, when more of them came. They glowed like fireflies, and yet one got the distinct feeling that they were as far away from lightning bugs as one could possibly imagine. And then the whole group disappeared into the dense foilage of the forest.
"..." Alice gulped. 'Enchanted'? Was that their term for getting high? Or brainwashing? She crawled on her knees to the carriage door and slammed it shut without a reply. Then after pulling up her hood again, she curled up in the corner of the carriage, wondering what the hell had happened to her.
The carriage ride continued for another hour. Eventually, the forest faded away to long fields and then little farms emerged. Soon a stone wall started that followed them passed all of the farms. It was suddenly very apparent that she was nowhere near New York, though. As they passed a rickety old house seven little children immediately came outside and chased after the carriage.
"No rides today, children!" He told them. "Gio's on important business!"
But they refused to stop following the carriage until they reached the end of the stone wal, where they stood, waving to the young carriage driver.
"I promise!" He said to them, "Next time, I will take you all for a very long ride! And I will bring peppermint for you all!"
Alice woke up from dozing when the carriage lurched to a halt. She opened the door and peeked out, hoping that it was safe for her to make a run for it. It didn't help that her limbs were cramping from being in a fetal position for so long.
Unfortunately, there was no such hope for her, because the young man jumped off the driver's seat at that exact moment. He patted one of the horses soothingly and spoke to them. "Good job, good job. Deserves some sugar cubes, eh?" And secretively, as if it were an illegal thing to do, he pulled a handfull of sugar cubes from his pocket and fed each one a few cubes and gave them a pat on the head.
They were apparently in a village of some sort. People walked up and down the streets, the ladies in full gowns and tight corsets and the men in suits not unlike the young carriage drivers. The entire village seemed to step right out of a historical novel.
"I suppose," the carriage driver said to her, as he tied up the horses, "that we started out on the wrong foot yesterday."
Alice gingerly stepped out of the carriage, keeping her hood up and coat zipped. "Last night?" she asked, her lips twitching slightly when she realized she had just stepped in some mud, "That wasn't you, that was some weird chick who tried to kill me..." She scooted over to drier ground, narrowly avoiding a lady's voluminous skirts.
"Well, you know, 'weird chick' would not be the name I'd like you to call me if you could avoid it," He turned around and bowed, sweeping his hat to the side with one hand. Shineless rust red hair fell over his face as he stood. "My name is Gio Geppetto, from the Fifth Kingdom. And you, my friend, are Sailor Pluto of the Tenth."
Alice made a quiet noise. She looked at him through the eye that wasn't hidden by her hood. "N-nice to meet you," her fingers were quivering. She couldn't understand what was going on. "And I'm not a sailor... I'm a waitress. My name is Allison Wunderlich, but most people call me Alice."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, dear Alice," He replied. As he brushed his hair from his face, it was now very apparent that he was either A. a very attractive man or B. a very masculine looking girl. Alice couldn't decide on which. "And trust me, you are very much a sailor. Come on, I'll buy you dinner and I can tell you everything."
She blinked, the sensible part of her brain wanting to refuse. Her stomach had other ideas, and growled in consent. Dinner did sound awfully good, and she could smell food where she stood. Despite the semi-renaissance air, Alice didn't feel completely out of place. "I would like dinner very much."
******
Two foxes sat on a pile of books, gesturing towards a torn page in an open book on the floor. They were bickering loudly, and knocking more and more books off of the shelf next to them.
"You shouldn't have done that. Rabe's going to skin you alive. That's her favorite book, you know."
"They're ALL her favorite books. Besides, I'm her favorite uncle."
"You're her only uncle. Besides, this used to be MY library. -I- should skin you alive. Now, look here, you've ripped MY favorite book!" One fox began advancing towards the other, but was interrupted in his attack by a hand picking his victim up by the scruff of his neck and thumping him over the head. "Right, give him a good one from me, would you? Ow..." She thumped him too.
"What are you two doing destroying my library? Or has becoming foxes addled your brains?" Rabe sighed and picked up her grandfather in the hand not occupied by her great-uncle. She took them downstairs and dropped them unceremoniously on the main desk. "Now I have to put everything back on the shelves where they belong AND repair the pages. Joy of joys."
"Oh, Grumpy-Britches, you needed something to do anyways. No one's come in here in ages, you know. Most of the shelves are dusty with unuse." Wilhelm whacked his brother Jacob over the head with his tail on his way past, and sat down in front of his granddaughter. Who was now grinning. His eyes widened. "What're you thinking, Grandaughter?"
Ten minutes later, the pair of furballs were dusting the shelves.
Rabe laughed a bit as she carefully put Binder's Ointment on the torn pages. Ahhh, magic was a handy tool. It was a good thing the tear wasn't through any words, or they would have been mangled. This way you couldn't even tell. She thought fleetingly of living the adventures in her books, but then got caught up in putting the fallen back in their place. As always, one chore eventually led to another, and she ended up re-binding a couple of books that were somewhere past 'Tattered' and into the realm of 'Falling Apart'. Something always needed done around here, and that was all right. Rabe liked her quiet life. She knew that sometime in the future someone would seek out Sailorsaturn, but for now, quiet was what she had. And quiet was what she wanted.
******
The Dish and Spoon was Gio's favorite restaurant. Therefore, everyone there knew Gio by name. It was a busling, busy little place but when Gio walked in, the entire room stopped and looked up before waving. Walking over to a little booth in the corner labeled 'Gio's table' for obviously some inside joke, the carriage driver was bombarded with questions.
"Gio! How are the travels?"
"Splendid as ever, might I say. Picked up some cargo along the way," Gio gestured to Alice who followed behind. A few of them laughed.
"Is she your girl, then?"
"No, not quite--let's just say we have a mutual acquitance. Promised I'd bring to dinner."
Gio sat down in the burgundy-colored booth and scooted over to the window, propping up on an elbow. A small, worn down wax candle sat in the center of the table. A waitress came over and offered to light it, but Gio politely declined, hands trembling.
Alice looked around the restaurant, her expression null. She didn't even twitch an eyebrow at the "cargo" comment. Why bother? She was too hungry to care about dealing with sexist slime. Tucking her pale locks behind her ears, she read over the menu. Finally, she tilted her head up slightly and asked, "What are you having?"
"The usual," Gio replied absently, but then realized that it was not a waitress who was asking the question. "Oh, I mean the chicken parmesean. It's very good, you should try it."
She nodded and set her menu down, notably listless and subdued. It wasn't because she was hungry, either. Then they ordered their food and the waitress collected their menus.
Gio sat his menu down too, and looked at her thoughtfully. "So tell me, how did you get here? If you really did come from the tenth kingdom...I know you're from the outside."
"What was your first clue? The vinyl or the jeans? And as aforementioned, some woman dragged me through a mirror and deposited me here. Wherever 'here' is," she replied.
"Actually, it's more of the crude, mocking demeanor you posess. Anyone who had lived here all their life and acted like you do would probably be a badger by now. Or a witch," Gio replied. "And 'here' is the Nine Kingdoms. You see, nearly 250 years ago, our kingdoms were united by five powerful queens, including Queen Cinderella who is still ruling the First Kingdom to this very day. We are currently in the fifth kingdom, where I come from. That's why I was the first one to find you--besides you being from the outside and all. Does that make it any more clear for you?"
"Witches aren't all that bad and I'm not crude..." Alice mumbled below hearing range. "And I'm starting to understand, despite the fact that the First Kingdom is ruled by fairy tale princess... So what is this "sailor" business?" She asked.
"You see, each kingdom has a specific guardian that watches over it," Gio lowed her voice and moved in a little closer. "I am Sailoruranus, protector of the fifth Kingdom. You are Sailorpluto, protector of the tenth kingdom. I had thought it was Virginia, at first... but it surely couldn't, she only killed the queen on accident. But I saw your sign--on your forehead, last night when you were running away. So I had to follow you. Apparently, you were supposed to stay in the Tenth Kingdom, to watch over it, but something went wrong." Gio looked at Alice and then paused. "Okay, maybe I should explain.
"The Nine Kingdoms' Golden age was over a long time ago. We're not exactly in the best of shape right now. Especially with so much evil suddenly appearing in such a short time. It was only around half a year ago that the evil Queen rose and tried to take over the Nine Kingdoms. But a group of people stopped her. They are legends here, Alice, so remember their names. Wolf, Antony, King Wendell, and Virginia. Virginia was the daughter of the evil queen herself.
"It seemed like everything was okay. Most places have settled down now, and continued their business. But now there's been stories of new evils--people trying to do what the queen couldn't. And they have magic far powerful that the Queen's was. The four who saved the nine kingdoms, we're afraid, just couldn't handle it. Heck, Virginia's with child! So that's where we come it. It's our destiny to stop these--these Speculum Soldiers, that's what they're called."
Alice listened closely, trying to follow Gio's story. That was easy. It was fitting it into her reality which wasn't working. She stopped fiddling with her cuticles and tried to ignore rational thinking. "So," she said in a conspiratorially quiet voice to match Gio's, "I'm a soldier and I was supposed to protect New York-slash-the world when that woman, who'd I would assume is a Speculum Solider, took me here. And now I am supposed to help save the Nine Kingdoms from the Speculum (which means mirror, by the way) Soldiers." She leaned back, slightly proud she understood most of it. "What's more," she shook pepper onto the table and traced the astrologer's symbol for Pluto, "if I am Sailorpluto and you're Sailoruranus, there must be a Sailorsaturn and Sailorneptune. Are they going to help as well?" She traced the others' symbols as she spoke.
"Well actually, seeing as there is ten kingdoms, there should tecnically be ten soldiers. But the third kingdom is ruled by the Trolls...so they might not have one." Gio leaned back, talking as if it were the most casual thing in the world now. "So we're not only looking for Neptune and Saturn. We're looking for Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus and.... er. I forget the last one."
"Hmm... There's nine planets. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. So... There must be a Sailor... Asteroid Belt? Then there's the Sun, which is actually a star..." her voice trailed off into astronomical mumblings.
And then, the food arrived. Which was a good thing--Alice was about to put Gio to sleep. The carriage driver perked up immediately. "Ooh, look, the food. Doesn't it smell great?"
Alice snapped out of her trance, "Oh... yes." And it did, she hadn't eaten since lunch yesterday. She unfolded her napkin and placed it in her lap and started shoveling food into her mouth. Well, she thought she was. Even though she looked to be one of the most refined diners in the restaurant.
And quite frankly, Gio was not the most refined either. Slurping the pasta on the plate almost like a child, Gio ate like..well, a horse. "Mmmm this is sooooooo good. *slurp* I love *munch* it here, the people are so nice. You should try the chocolate pie, it's to die for."
Had she been at home, and not ravenous, Alice would have lost her appetite right there and then. "Uhm, sure," she replied after chewing and swallowing a piece of chicken.
"So yeah, what did this Speculum soldier person look like? The one that took you...?"
Alice bit pasta off her fork and chewed thoughtfully. She swallowed and replied, "Brown hair, porcelain skin, brilliant green eyes... ... Unique costume, made yours look tasteful... She grabbed me though a mirror."
"Hmm," was all Gio had to say to that. "I suppose, after this, we should look for the other senshi. But where to start?"
"Do I look like I live here? I think not. However, my suggest would be to start in the Eighth Kingdom seeing as how we have the guardians of the Fifth and Tenth here," she replied in a neat manner, pausing to deter a man from touching her with a quick glare.
*************
Broken Fairy Tales: Senshi of the Ten Kingdoms.
Ahahaha! And so, the plot thickens. :D
The chapters of this story are taken directly from a play-by-email by the same name. Each of the writers, including myself, have given consent to having their work published under this name, with due credit.
'Once Upon A Time', episode two of Broken Fairy Tales, was written by Gena, Sushi, Koi, Alex, and Mags. Love you guys! 3
This is a crossover between 'Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon', and the NBC/Hallmark miniseries 'The Tenth Kingdom', that aired in 1998/1999. 'Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon' and 'The Tenth Kingdom' do not belong to the people who wrote Broken Fairy tales and we do not claim rights to any of the aforementioned television shows. We do, however, claim rights to our original characters, the Senshi of the Ten Kingdoms. They are copyrighted to their creators.
Are you a fan of sailormoon, the tenth kingdom, or just fairy tales? If you're a good writer and would like to contribute, visit our site at www32.brinkster.com/cwmrpg/broken
We're currently looking for someone to play Sailorvenus and Sailor Commoneo, so if you're interested please check it out. ^_^