And we are on to part three of our first story to begin with. Enjoy.
Nightfall had arisen on the land and blanketing the forest in a jet black darkness in a silence broken only by the sound of nighttime critters and crickets chirping. Snow White had a stew brewing the pot to have for supper until both her and Dane began to feel the tiring weight in their bones from a long day of labor and decided to hit the hay.
"What about the stew?" Dane asked with worry. "What if it boils over while we're sleeping?"
"If it does, then the animals will let us know." She answered matter-of-factly, lighting a candle to light their way in the darkness.
"Okay." Was all he could say as he, Snow and the animals navigated their way through the darkness of the cottage. Their path lead them to the stairs.
"Let's see what's upstairs." Snow told Dane and the critters.
"Beds, I hope." Dane wondered out loud.
Everyone cautiously trekked up the flight of steps to the second floor of the cottage with every animal tailing behind the two. One lone turtle was having trouble, due to his shell. But he was a fighter and tried climbing his way up using his mouth. Snow reached the door on top of the steps and slowly opened it to peer inside along with the light of the candle.
"Oh, what adorable little beds." She cooed with delight, stepping inside.
Dane followed her to find seven tiny beds inside. If there were seven lonesome children living about in this cottage without adult guidance, what will they do with these minuscule beds when they've grown up? Either way, they were cute.
"And look they've got their names carved on them." Snow White pointed out reading some of them out. "'Doc', 'Happy', 'Sneezy', 'Dopey'."
The young princess giggled in amusement from the names. Dane chuckled a bit as well, but he knew right away that this was the dwarves' cottage.
"What funny names for children." She chuckled.
"'Grumpy', 'Bashful' and 'Sleepy'." Dane read from the last three beds.
And speaking of 'sleepy', Snow White rubbed her eyes and stretched the tiredness from her sore arms with a heavy yawn.
"I'm a little sleepy myself." She yawned.
"Same here." Dane said, yawning as well.
The rest of the animals were tired as heck themselves, stretching and yawning and rubbing their eyes before each respective animal put their little ones to sleep with them on each of the bed. Snow White completely flopped onto three beds at once because of her size. Dane decided to sleep with her, since their was no other place for him the rest.
And when he did, he couldn't help but cuddle up to her, resting a hand over her hip. Snow White, though drowsy, blushed a bit from this strange contact and let a smile perch on her lips before slipping off to sweet slumberland. Dane had dozed off, too. Lost in the comfortable sleeping of the bed and being close to Snow.
The bird that had taken the candle from Snow and placed it down, put the flame out, leaving the room in pitch black darkness. They then placed a blanket over the slumbering humans before hitting the sack, too. The sound only present was the soft snores from along the critters snoozing on the beds and the two humans.
Dane fancied himself walking through a dark hallway with a bright light far up ahead of him. He could hear a funny kind of music in the air. And whistling. He tried to brush it off, but it kept going without halting. Pretty soon, he had arisen from the dream realm to return to the waking world to hear the same noise. Sure enough, all the other animals heard it as well. He and them listened with open ears as the it was coming from outside.
"~ Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-ho ~"
It was becoming louder as it got closer to the cottage. Yes, it had to be the owners of the cottage returning home. Dane carefully got out of bed along with the animals and rushed over to the window to witness a bright glow in the distance and the singing fast approaching. However, by instinct, all the animals darted out of the room, down the steps and out fo the house to go hide.
"~ Heigh-ho, heigh-ho. It's home from work we go. ~"
Dane rushed to the door and sat by it awaiting their return. What could he do? He had ensure Snow's safety. Meanwhile, the dwarves outside marched in the direction of their home in a straight line, singing and whistling along. Their was the leader, Doc, Happy, Sneezy, Bashful, Sleepy, Dopey and, of course, Grumpy.
"~ Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-"
"Look!" Doc cried from the front and pointed towards their cottage, causing the others to bump into him and look at him to see what was the matter. "Our house! The lit's light..err..light's lit!"
Shocked, the dwarves stealthily snuck behind the trees and poked their heads out one-by-one to see that their cottage was, indeed, light up from inside, indicating that there was somebody inside.
"Jiminy crickets!" All dwarves, sans Dopey, exclaimed in surprise.
"The door's open!"
"The chimney's smokin'!"
"Somethin's in there!"
"Maybe a ghost!" cried Happy with fright to his brethren.
"Or a goblin!" Bashful suggested.
"A demon!" Doc gasped.
"Or a dragon!" expressed Sneezy.
Grumpy, however, was no coward when it came to situations like this and he was arguably the bravest, if not the smartest.
"Mark my words." He began in his serious tone. "There's trouble a-brewin'. Felt it coming' all day. My corns hurt."
"Gosh." Happy gasped with a shaky tone.
"That's a bad sign." Bashful replied.
"What'll we do?" asked the dwarves, wondering how they'll take care of it. "Let's sneak up on it."
"Yes." Doc steps up with his stammer. "Ahem, we'll, uh, squeak up - eh, sneak up. Come on, hen...uh, men. Follow me."
And the tiny men grabbed their mining tools to use as weapons to defend themselves as they carefully snuck towards their house to take care of the supposed intruder. Dane peaked down the steps to see them coming towards the house, but stayed quiet, hoping not to alarm them.
Oh God, oh God, ohgodohgodohgod!
Dane pulled out the knife he picked up earlier, taking another peek down the stairs at the tip-toeing dwarves. The floor squeaked with each step the dwarves took, making Dane face-palm of the dwarves being the worst at sneaking. Dopey, being the last to enter, slammed the door shut as the dwarves and even Dane jumped! All of them dropping their weapons in the process with Dane losing the knife, falling to the floor. Dane covered his mouth to gasp at his only weapon is gone and the other six dwarves had scrambled to retrieve their pickaxes!
"Shhhh!" They all said as they spotted the cause for the noise.
Dane could only bite down on his hand as he hoped and prayed the dwarves don't spot the dead-giveaway knife. It suddenly occurred to Dane though that while he knows they won't hurt Snow White, that doesn't mean they won't hurt him. The dwarves will know he's there if he tries to sneak out the door. And what of the knife? What if they think it's hers? Will they see her as a threat!?
Another glance from the top of the stairs and Dane spots the critters spying on the dwarves as well. Relieved somewhat and hopeful of any warning from them, he goes back into the bedroom to think of a plan with what little time he has. Looking at the bedroom, he starts pushing a couple of the dwarves' bed toward it, too busy to listen in on the dwarves commenting on how clean their home was until after barricading.
"Hey, what's that?" Grumpy questioned in his gruff voice, having heard the less-than-smooth movements Dane made in his effort to hide.
"Hey, I found somethin'." said Bashful.
Crap, crap, crap, crap!
What was he thinking? Oh right, cowardice! He looked back at the barricaded door and then at the window. Damn! No tree to grab onto! Maybe he can jump and then...Wait! What about Snow White? Gah! He was so conflicted in trying to find a safe way for him and Snow to escape, it was almost tearing him apart.
"AH-CHOOOOO!" A loud sneeze echoes throughout the house, along with the sounds of pots and pans falling!
"Damn. I just fixed that." Dane muttered quietly.
Tweeting birds on the window sill suddenly caught his attention, too much attention as he ran over trying to shoo them away!
Not a good time, birds!
Not realizing how much time had passed he suddenly heard a pair of slow, but clumsy-sounding footsteps. Quickly, but gently silent, Dane pulls back the beds away from the door, hoping to maybe salvage some sort of hospitality from the dwarves. The door began to creak open while Dane hid behind it as a green sleeve began to poke through the door, candle in hand. Then the door itself opened further, nearly hitting Dane as he hid towards a bed, holding his breath as thought that would be quieter. The young dwarf slowly made his way into the room trying to spot something out the ordinary. Dane snuck a quick look at the dwarf to see that it was Dopey.
Oh, thank god. Both the dwarf and the teen were suddenly shocked at the sudden rise of blankets. With the dwarf letting out a scream in terror and making a hurried getaway, probably thinking Snow White was monster, Dane is panicking even more at the dwarf's over-the-top reaction.
Dammit, Snow!
Dane, wanting to explain to the dwarves what's happening, ran down the stairs following Dopey as they both tripped. Both parties having landed on the other six dwarves yelling at Dopey's own vague fear, surprisingly not noticing Dane as they sped out of the house while leaving poor Dopey behind, slamming the door in his face!
While Dopey quickly recovered, Dane was still trying to get his bearings together as he saw Dopey pulling, but not able to open the door as it was being held shut by the other scared dwarves outside to keep the perpetrator inside. A little out there after hitting the floor, the teen decides to help Dopey opening the door, pulling on the dwarf's waist as they pull, pull, pull as hard as they could! The pair pulled too hard resulting in the knob breaking off and Dopey flying into the kitchen, landing and getting stuck in an assortment of pots, pans, cups, and kettles as Dane's eyes narrowed.
"We just cleaned that too!" Dane yelled in frustration as the disoriented dwarf ran out the door with the mess covered on him. Speaking of a mess, he saw the cauldron boiling over as ran towards the door and noticing the dwarves beating something up in the forest.
"Give it to 'im!"
"Don't let him get away!"
Dane could only watch he scene unfold outside in near amusement. These dwarves did seem like the brightest bulbs in the closet. The entire mess of pots and pans at been smacked away as the group gave the so-called intruder hell. But as a result, the "monster" had been revealed to be none other than Dopey and that they were pounding away at the wrong person.
"Hold on there! It-It's only Dopey!" Doc ordered them all.
As the fellow dwarfed interrogated Dopey on what he witnessed with his very eyes, Dopey, via a series of facial expressions, hand gestures and body language, explains that the intruder is upstairs in their bedroom.
"He says it's...a monster asleep in our beds!" translated Doc with shock and terror.
"Let's attack." suggested Grumpy with fierce determination.
"Yeah, while it's sleeping." The other dwarves agreed, brandishing their weapons.
"Hurry, men! It's now or never!" Doc ordered them.
"Off with it's head!"
At that moment, Dane panicked, fearing for both his and Snow's life. But he had to come clean to them and at least try to deter them from killing them both while also trying to not come off as any kind of potential threat to them. Gulping away his anxiety and fear, Dane rushed out the door and stood before the dwarves before they could all enter. They all froze in their tracks, gasping at the sight of him, but not letting their guard down.
"That's strange." Bashful muttered to his brothers.
"Looks like he's a-givin' up." Happy agreed.
"Who are you and what are you doin' in our house?" demanded Grumpy.
"Yeah, what are you and who are doing...I mean, uhh...state your business here." Doc stammered, but nonetheless demanded as well.
Dane let out a nervous chuckle as he raised his hands up in surrender as if he had been caught by the police.
"Uh, I...I can explain everything." He answered shakily. "You see, uh...we-I mean, I was lost in the woods...with my animal friends and we really needed some place to rest and we just happened to find this place, so-"
"This ain't no hotel, sonny boy." Grumpy jabbed spitefully. "And what do ya mean "we"?"
"Yeah!" Everyone else replied in unison.
"Did I say "we"?" said Dane with mock confusion. He was only mentioning himself in the matter only to make sure that the dwarves don't hurt Snow in any way. "But actually meant-"
But before he could finish that sentence, a familiar tired moan came from upstairs in the bedroom that wasn't unheard outside by Dane and the dwarves. The teen sweated, hoping that they wouldn't pay any mind to this at all.
"That noise. It's coming from upstairs." Sneezy said.
"That's, uh...probably a bear that maybe snuck in and trying to use your bed." Dane lied with the best courage he had.
"Then let's get while we still can." responded Doc, holding his axe.
Dane pretended to agree and snuck inside with them to "help" them kill the "monster" upstairs. Now, Dane only needed to gain their trust for only a second for he was afraid that they would kill Snow White right before they had a second thought. The plan was simple, he hoped. After they discovered Snow White in their bed, he would knock them all out singlehandedly, wake up Snow and she and him would run like hell. Dane secretly grabbed a branch on the ground to use as a weapon. So he and them quietly, if not for the squeaking, made their way upstairs and into the bedroom with a lantern. Then Dane heard Snow moan again and toss and turn under the sheet.
"Jiminy crickets!"
"Gosh, what a monster! Covers three beds!"
Dane fought the nerve to shake his head at their absent-mindedness at the situation, pondering why they would think that to be a monster.
"Let's kill it." Doc whispered to his brothers. "Before it wakes up."
"Which end do we kill?" Happy asked a bit too loudly, which made Dane and the dwarves shush him.
And then the dwarves all cautiously approached the beds the supposed "monster" was laying in with their weapons of choice while Dane carefully snuck behind them with his own weapon behind his back, ready to use it before they could deliver and fatal blows on the innocent princess. With the dwarves awaiting patiently, Doc slowly grabbed the sheet and Dane began to bring his branch out, preparing to knock them all out. However, once Doc yanked the sheet off and the dwarves all raised their weapons to give the "monster" what for and Dane sprung into action to defend the girl, he stopped to see that the dwarves all froze upon seeing Snow White sleeping peacefully on the bed.
Doc seemed to stammer rather happily, but almost nervously at the thought that they were about to off an innocent-looking young woman. Dane was glad that they had a moment to get a look at her before going crazy on her. Doc stuttered out gibberish, trying to form words.
"Well, what is it?" asked Bashful.
"It's a girl, of course." Dane told them all. "Her name is Snow White."
"Snow White? Such a pretty name." Happy replied with a contented smile.
"She's mighty purdy." sighed Sneezy, suddenly enamored with Snow just by eyeing her, which made Dane feel jealous.
"She's beautiful just like an angel." Bashful blushed madly with a lovesick grin. Dane couldn't agree more for he couldn't deny his own feelings for the young princess.
"Angel? Heh!" scoffed the gruff and snappy Grumpy, who was not willing to let his guard down for one second, even for a lovely girl like her. This caused Dane to glare at him for his harsh criticisms. "She's a female! And all females is poison! They're full a' wicked wiles!"
"That's bullshit!" hissed Dane, which only made the hot-headed dwarf scowl at him. However, in retrospect, he couldn't help but agree to that since he's been ridiculed and belittled by many women in the past. But Snow White was different from them. She was the only girl who didn't call him names or anything among those lines.
"What are wicked wiles?" asked Bashful.
"I dunno. But I'm again 'em!"
"Shhhhh!" Doc shushed him, agitated by his loud voice volume. At this point, Dane could do nothing besides watch them argue, bringing and amused smile to his face. "Not so loud! You'll wake her up!"
"Oh, let her wake up!" Grumpy yelled back at him. "She and him don't belong here no how!"
"But we have nowhere to sleep! This is the only place we could find." Dane pleaded to them and hoped they wouldn't just throw them out.
"Oh, ignore this old bat." Doc exclaimed, shoving Grumpy aside with his elbow. "He's just cranky a lot. He doesn't warm up to strangers easily."
"No shit." Dane muttered.
But at that same moment, Snow White started to toss and turn as she was beginning to awake from all the noise and the dwarves began to panic. Dane shook his head at their sudden fearfulness.
"Look out!"
"She's movin'!"
"She's wakin' up!"
"WHAT DO WE DO?!"
"Hide!" Doc suggested quietly before every one of them dart all around in different directions in place before they all jumped the floor in a single file line, hiding under the foot on the beds. And quickly, Dane rushed to Snow's side and placed a hand on her back as she sat up with a stretch and a yawn.
"Oh, dear." She spoke as she stretched her stiff muscles. "I wonder if the children are-"
She froze when she witnessed the dwarves peeking over the feet of the beds to get a look at her. Dane face-palmed when they did this as they weren't the world's best hiders either. Snow squealed in shock and surprise as she tried to cover herself with the blanket as if she had caught a peeping tom spying on her, which frightened all seven dwarves back down before one-by-one, they all resurfaced, hoping they didn't scare her too much.
"Real subtle, you guys. That's cute." Dane grumbled in annoyance.
"Why...why you're little men." Snow giggled at the sight of them, giving them all a reason to reveal themselves to her, but neither of them knew what to say first. "How do you do?"
But they all remained silent, utterly speechless in the presence of a beautiful woman. They weren't making a good impression on themselves at the minute.
"I said, how do you do?" She asked again, trying to have a good impression.
"How do you do what?" Grumpy grumbled, crossing his arms.
"Oh, you can talk!" laughed Snow White. "I'm so glad!"
"Now don't tell us who you are." Dane began, holding a hand up to halt any statements they may make. "Let me guess. Now you must be Doc. Am I right?"
"W-W-W-Why, why, yes!" stammered the ecstatic Doc in response. "Yes, that's true!"
"And you're..." Snow said, moving onto Bashful next. And as soon as she turned her eyes on him, his face turned a vibrant deep red color and he toyed with his beard. "You're Bashful."
"Ohhhhhhhh, gaaaawwssssh!" He chuckled.
"And you...you're Sleepy." replied Dane, pointing at Sleepy, who was yawning.
"How'd you guess?" The fatigue-ridden dwarf asked with tired eyes, making all his brothers chuckle.
"And you..." Snow was about to say when Sneezy felt another sneeze coming on before Dopey and Grumpy held his nose. "You're Sneezy."
Sneezy sighed with relief...until he let out a small sneeze with his brothers howling with laughter. Dane started to laugh as well, finding these bunch of dwarves alright.
"And you must be...?"
"Happy, my good sir." Happy answered, pointing to himself. "That's me. And this is Dopey. He don't talk none."
"Are you serious? How come?" asked Dane.
"He don't know. He never tried." Happy shrugged and the silent dwarf shook his head and everyone shared a good laugh. Dane figured that he could talk, he just didn't know how to.
"That's too bad!" laughed Snow White until she soon met eyes with Grumpy, who was giving her one of his trademark suspicious glares.
"Oh, you must be Grumpy." She said jokingly, crossing her own arms.
The rest of the dwarves all laughed heartily at their fellow brother, which made the grouchy one feel offended.
"We know who we are!" He snapped. "Ask 'em who they is and what they're a-doin' here!"
"Yeah! What are you and who are you doin'?" He asked, putting on a serious face which didn't last very long. "Err...W-What are you...Who are you two?"
"I already told you guys who she was a second ago." Dane reminded them all. "This is Princess Snow White and I'm Dane Abel. But please call me Dane for short."
"Wait? The princess?" chorused the bewildered dwarves in unison.
"Well, my dear Quincess...uh, princess." Doc stammered, getting his words mixed up again. "We're...we're honored. We're...we're..."
"Mad as hornets!" Grumpy gripped.
"Mad as hornets! No! No, we're not! We're mad as cornets! No, no, bad as...What was I saying?!"
"Nothin'!" yelled the exasperated Grumpy. "Just standing there stutterin' like a doodlebug!"
"Who-Who-Who's buttering' like a spoodledug? Who's...gutter...?"
Dane was rolling his eyes and holding his head in his hands, trying to drown out the annoying and childish argument from the two.
"Aw, shut up and tell 'em to get out!" Grumpy ordered, having enough of this arguing.
"Hey, come on! Don't just kick us out! We need shelter! If you just send us out in the wild, she'll kill her." Dane begged and pleaded with them.
"Kill her?! Who?!"
"My stepmother, the Queen." answered the distressed Snow White.
"The Queen?!" hollered the dwarves in fright with pale faces. "She's wicked! She's bad! She's mighty mean!"
"She's an old witch!" Grumpy loudly declared, catching everyone's attention. "I'm warnin' ya. If the Queen finds her here, she'll swoop down and wreak her vengeance on us!"
"But she doesn't know where I am." insisted Snow White with gentle reassurance.
"She don't, eh?" The gruff dwarf scoffed in disbelief. "She knows everything. She's full of black magic. She can even make herself invisible. Might be in this room right now."
This got his brothers looking around the room for anyone or anything suspicious. Even Dopey peeked underneath Happy's beard, which made the usually-joyous dwarf knock him on the head. As much as Dane wanted to believe him, he knew for a fact that Grumpy was all too quick to make assumptions and was just overreacting. Snow, on the other hand, was more than confident she wand Dane were in a blind spot from the Queen and they as safe and sound from her as possible.
"You sure we're safe here, Snow?" asked Dane with some uncertainty of his own.
"Oh, of course, Dane." She assured him. "She'll never find me here. And if you let us stay, we'll keep house for you."
"That's right." agreed Dane. "We'll wash and sew and sweep and cook and-"
"Cook?" interrupted the dwarves all at once like before with much excitement and interest.
"Can you make dapple lumpkins...lumple dapplins?" stuttered Doc.
"Apple dumplings!" His brothers corrected him.
"Eh, yes! Crapple dumpkins."
"Yes!" chirped Snow White with a nod. "And plum pudding and gooseberry pie."
"Gooseberry pie?" The dwarves cheered. "Hooray! They stay!"
And that concludes this part. But don't worry, my dear readers. There's more to come of this. See you soon.