OH YEAH! I UPDATED! Well, um… this is your holiday present. Yeah…
Happy holidays!
~*~*~
A few days later, I decided to visit Darren again. Creeping down the stairs from my room, I walked into the lobby, where he was writing letters.
"So, are you writing to a special someone?" I came up behind him.
Darren jumped a foot in the air. "Kiaivi!" he swore in elfish. "Usually people don't scare each other first thing in the morn'."
I grinned. "Yes, but you didn't answer my question!" I tried peeking over his shoulder, but he caught me before I could see anything.
"Yes. I. Am. Courting. Someone. Go. Away. Please." He said seriously, but then jokingly laughed. "She's very nice. But aye, some people could call her twisted." He ran a hand through his coal-black hair and played with his earring. Come to think of it, he also had black around his eyes, making him look like he was forbade from the church, or a punk.
I raised an eyebrow. His girlfriend was twisted?
"Yeah. A deranged fairy backfired a spell on her, so that she must be obedient, but half the spell didn't work."
I nodded slowly. I still didn't get it though. How does a spell 'half- work'?
"Yes. So Terencia must be obedient against her own will, but if she eats a certain fruit, the spell can be partially broken." He turned back to his letter. "She's very pretty, though. I'm righ' smitten wi' her, I am."
I gaped. Terencia? Wasn't she…
"Terencia Loverin?" I shrieked. Darren looked at me strangely. "You know her?"
By the time he said 'her', I was already on my way, running upstairs.
***
"Mirror, mirror on the wall and all that crap. Hurry up Cerdames!" I ushered.
Cerdames filled the mirror screen, and opened an eye, just the way mother would. I cringed, just thinking about her. Even though it had been almost 5 ½ years, I still wasn't completely over this loss.
"Yes?"
"MY LIFE IS A FREAKIN' TWISTED FAIRY TALE!" I screeched.
Cerdames smiled perversely. "Eh." was all she said.
"Why- How… no um… What…augh!" I growled in frustration. Something was wrong with my life! Cerdames nodded and her face disappeared, replaced by a scene. I predicted it would be like when I had watched my father, when the soldiers found that an assassin had killed me.
Terencia was sitting uncomfortably on a wooden chair, nervously glancing around. She was in my house, but I realized it was within the corridors I was banned from, since mother's death. The corridors Desdemona had shielded me from. At Desi's lounge, the light from the rusted chandelier flickered in a sinister manner, casting weary shadows over both women's faces. I looked closer at the mirror and saw that Terencia was bound to the chair by her wrists, by a thick, brown rope. Desi spoke in hasty, thick whispers.
"Look. I know you have a curse on you. So I order you to kill this girl." She pointed at a small, old portrait of my mother when she was probably two or three years my senior, but in the poor lighting, it looked just like me.
Terencia squinted her eyes. "Who is she?" From this, I gathered that this meeting was before I had met Terencia.
"My…Step-daughter. After you kill her, prove to me that you killed her. Just a bit of her hair, or her blood would do the trick. Maybe her heart."
Terencia bit her lip and leaned back, probably to get away from Desi as much as possible. "No…your Gracious, please don't make me to this…"
Desi growled and abruptly stood up, her leg fat pushing her chair away as she rose. "I said I order you to do it!" She snarled. "And you know you can't do anything about it."
Terencia bit her lip harder and shook her head. Desdemona rolled her eyes. "Better yet, before you kill her, make friends with her. Spill your pathetic life story. I order you to." She smiled and laughed. "Lets try this, shall we?"
By now, Terencia had almost started to cry, had her pride not been strong. "Terencia!" Desi cried, as she unbound her wrists. "Dance for me"
And sure enough, Terencia started to move. At first, she tried to resist, but her face twisted in pain and so she twirled, although ungraciously. After a few moments, Desdemona became bored. "Be off, peasant. And kill her within five days, she ought to be at Ralene, if she were fast enough to run…"
The setting in the mirror changed, and I was brought back to when I was talking to Darren just a quarter of an hour ago.
"Yeah. A deranged fairy backfired a spell on her, so that she must be obedient, but half the spell didn't work."
I nodded slowly. I still didn't get it though. How does a spell 'half- work'?
"Yes. So Terencia must be obedient against her own will, but if she eats a certain fruit, the spell can be partially broken." He turned back to his letter…
I looked confusedly at the mirror, yet again twisting it's scene. I recognized it as the path in which I met Terencia in the fight for my life.
"What's your name?" I asked, trying to stall. It worked.
"Terencia," She replied slowly, pronouncing her name like Tear-En-Shee-Ah. "Terencia Loverin."
"Loverin? That's not a common name around here," I cocked my head to the side. "What language is it from?" I smiled gently. Easy does it…
"It's… a rare breed of unicorn" Terencia replied. "Why do you want to know?"
I was stuck for a moment. "Well why not?" I covered, lamely.
Terencia shrugged, and her short, elegant frame walked over to her horse and tied its reins to the nearest tree.
I did the same with my horse, and I laid out my coat to sit on. I motioned for her to sit beside me.
Suspicious of me, she took the seat and I offered her a bowl berries that I had begun to eat from…
Thankfully, she took it. I breathed a sigh of relief. She dug in, filling her hunger.
I bit the inside of my cheek, realizing that she hadn't eaten from the bowl because she was hungry, but because she was trying to rid of her curse before she would be forced to kill me. Raspberries must have been the fruit Darren was talking about. Though... I guess it hadn't worked too well before she started to attack me.
At least she didn't kill me, due to the raspberries.
I scuttled backwards and collapsed onto my bead, as Cerdames appeared in the mirror again.
"Well, sweet, now you know, I guess." She looked to the bedpost, she looked to the door, she looked to the balcony, everywhere but me.
"Cerdames- it's fine. Uh… please change your image though. I'm still wary of you looking as my mother would if she was alive. How about masquerade mask?" I tried to reassure her in a strangled voice. And then I had the stupid feeling that I wanted to cry. I didn't even know why. But fortunately, I didn't. But Cerdames obliged and turned herself into a pretty mask, ivory white and lined with midnight blue beads.
To get used to her new image, all I did for the next two hours was talk to Cerdames about nothing, and then she asked me about…
"So how are you and Chenate?" I froze at his name.
"Look Cerdames, I'm probably never going to see him again. He's practically married already, and let's just please drop it, okay?"
"Do you want to see him right now? I can show you…" She volunteered.
I hesitated. I could fall in love just seeing him again… "Okay"
Cerdames' image blurred, replaced by a beautiful palace, decorated with gold, and Chenate was in the midst of it all. He was handsome, terrific, and next to whom I could only guess was the Princess Tavetina.
Oh, I was jealous. I was pleased to see that he looked extremely bored and tried to keep a straight face. That or he probably wanted to spit all over her face. I did, at least. The Princess had long, wavy blonde hair and very blue eyes. She was adorned in too many jewels, giving her a gaudy look. She sat lazily on a luxurious bed and looked at Chenate like he was lucky to be with her, when it was the other way around. She held a book up and I looked closer at the title, just to see if she were an intellect.
The book she held titled itself "Lerning the alfabete by prinsess Tavetina". She didn't know how to spell anything, and here she was, writing her own book!
Oh poar prinsess!
"Chenny, darling, please peel this grape for me" The Princess drawled in a disgustingly high- pitched voice. Chenate rolled his eyes and sucked in his breath sharply while he reached over to peel the grape that his air-headed betrothed should have choked on.
After carefully peeling the miniscule grape, he handed it to the Princess, who dropped it onto the spotless floor.
"Five second rule!" Chenate snatched the grape off of the floor and held it to Tavetina's face, knowing it would disgust her, but also saving himself from peeling another grape.
"Ewwww, you are absolutely unsanitary!" The bitch whined. "Peel another one for me!" she demanded.
"No" He stated firmly. Both the blonde, beautiful yet idiot princess and I (the black haired, smart AND pretty girl) fell off of our seats in what Chenate had just said.
"Excuse me?" Tavetina asked.
"Yeah! What did you say?" I murmured out loud to nobody in particular.
"No. I'm very sick and tired of you bossing me around. I'm not a servant, Tavetina. Goodbye!" And with that, he turned around and left. That was probably the rudest thing he had ever done. But it didn't matter, because HE DIDN'T LOVE HER. YES!
Cerdames returned to her mirror and blinked, expecting my comment. I grinned at her and blew a kiss at her.
"Thank you Cerdames, thank you so much!" I ran out of my room and locked the door, rushing out in happiness. He was still betrothed, but he didn't love her. I was going to leave, going to the country Cavereta. Maybe I'd still have a chance with Chenate. Just one more kiss until he gets married?
I bounded down the stairs and into the private part of the first floor; to tell Darren I was leaving.
"Hey! I'm going to Caver-" I stopped mid-sentence, to find Terencia and Darren kissing.
Kissing a lot.
I covered my eyes with my arm. "Ah! Sorry guys!"
"Kiaivi!" Darren swore in elfish again. But then he started to laugh hysterically. At least that's what it sounded like.
"Um… Snow? Is that you?" Terencia called.
"Yes, and I'll be leaving now!" I replied, and walking out backwards through the door, my arm still over my face.
"Now where were we…?" I heard Darren say to Terencia. A lot more kissing noises continued.
Well at least they're in love, I had to give them that much.