So Ella set off on her journey, having lost her home and riches.
She set course for Lamia with her stepfamily, who are actually Witches.
Just before they resumed their trek at the crack of dawn, Olga altered Ella's outfit into one that resembled theirs.
While Ella was grateful that her new clothes allowed her to move about through the forest much more easily, she wasn't very well conditioned in walking long distances in any terrain.
Never mind that of a forest.
"So, if you guys are Witches," piped up a winded Ella. "Why are we walking? Don't you have magic broomsticks so we can simply fly to Lamia?"
"Sir Edgar's watching the skies as well as the roads," Hattie explained. "The Red Guard have orders to shoot down any and all flying Witches on sight."
"And trust me, child," agreed Olga, cutting in. "They are very good at it."
"Your stepmother's right," said Benny, who was being held by Mandy flying low overhead and a ways in front. "The trees help hide us from the Red Guard... "
But before Benny could continue, they all stopped at the sound of someone crying for, "Help!"
"What was... ?" Ella wondered, only for her stepmother to gesture to her to keep silent.
"Mandy, fly ahead and see what's going on," hissed Olga. "Be careful."
A moment after she left their sight, Olga pressed her fingers against her temples, closed her eyes, and concentrated.
Using telepathy, she could see what Mandy saw.
A huge gang of vicious bandits was nearby, all of them seemingly fixated on tormenting their latest victim.
A lone male Elf was strapped to a giant bullseye with several rusty daggers and hatchets embedded in its wooden surface.
"Sing a soprano, little man," Olga and Mandy heard one of the bandits jeer.
When Mandy returned, Olga opened her eyes.
"We're rescuing that Elf," she told everyone in a hushed voice.
"How?" asked a frightened Mandy. "Didn't you see how many of them there are?"
"Those brigands don't know we're watching them," replied Olga. "I have a plan and so long as nothing goes wrong, we can pull this off without too much risk."
She turned to her stepdaughter. "Ella, we will need your help for this to work."
"Me?" gasped Ella. "But I'm not a Witch, I don't even know how to fight!"
"You won't be," Hattie said to her. "Leave that to us. You'll sneak in and free Mr Elf."
"Don't worry about us" Olive chimed in. "We've done this with Mum many times."
A few moments later...
The bandits' little fun time with the Elf was interrupted by the arrival of three beautiful maidens.
All heads turned in their direction, eyes drawn to the long, flowing dress covering their gorgeous hourglass figures as well as all the glimmering, expensive-looking jewellery adorning them from top to toe.
"Excuse me," one of them asked. "Is this the way to Westeros?"
"No," one of the bandits sneered eyes glinting with malice. "But it's gonna be a fun time where we're taking you... "
Another bandit said nothing, ogling at her with eyes each pointing in different directions and making disgusting, slobbering noises with his long, lolling tongue.
"Fun for us, that is," rasped a third bandit, his eyes gleaming with all manner of dirty thoughts like the rest of his filthy rabble.
All 50 or so bandits advanced and surrounded the seemingly helpless maiden.
Like a bolt from the blue, a Fairy shot out of the trees, knifing straight at them at full speed.
The bandits looked up at the Fairy for only a split second, enough time for her to lob several apple-sized objects that turned some of them to stone...
The sight of Mandy dive-bombing the surprised bandits with her firecrackers was the signal Olga was waiting for.
"Let 'em have it!"
At her command, Hattie and Olive transformed out of their frilly gowns and joined their mother in fighting off the bandits.
Olga's plan to use Mandy to distract the bandits worked!
They were caught completely off guard when the three Witches suddenly started blasting them with powerful magic attacks.
Even though Olga, Hattie and Olive were hopelessly outnumbered, their level of magic more than tipped the odds in their favour.
Several of the bandits were reckless enough to grab their weapons and charge at them... only to be swiftly sent flying in the opposite direction!
Mandy bobbed, weaved, and barrel-rolled as daggers, hatchets, javelins, arrows, and crossbow bolts arced in her direction, many of which missed her by a hair.
Benny, tightly tucked under her armpit, taunted the bandits below.
"Trololololololo!" he sang.
The bandits' attention was fully occupied on two fronts, the three Witches decimating their ranks on the ground and an annoying Fairy circling about above them.
Ella had managed to successfully tiptoe towards the bound Elf.
She looked at the Elf and gestured at him to stay absolutely silent, then got to work untying his knots.
The Elf looked up and paled.
Some of the bandits have seen Ella!
One loomed over the preoccupied girl, battleaxe raised high!
"Behind you! Rabbit punch!" he shouted in warning.
Ella pivoted around and slugged the battleaxe bandit in the gut, making him double over in agony.
The other bandits charged at her en-masse!
"Combo! Kneel!" belted the Elf. "Front-step kick! Dragon-roundhouse kick!"
Meanwhile, Olga, Hattie, and Olive have managed to send the other bandits packing.
"Retreat!" yelled their defeated leader.
His lackeys didn't dare stay around to fight three powerful Witches.
They ran for their lives with their tails between their legs.
Olive looked back and screamed. "Mum! Ella!"
Hattie and Olga looked where she was pointing... and couldn't believe what they saw.
There was Ella dishing out a surprising beatdown to three heavily-armed bandits with the tied-up Elf yapping out fight moves.
Once the last of the bandits have been dealt with, Ella finally finished freeing the Elf.
"My name is Slannen," the Elf told them. "Slannen of Pim."
Once introductions were made, Olga stepped forward and shook Slannen's hand in sincere gratitude.
"Thank you so much for helping my stepdaughter, Slannen."
Slannen allowed them to stay at his place for the night as thanks for saving him.
They arrived at the Elf Village at midnight, tiptoeing through the quiet streets.
"If this is where you live, why are we sneaking around?" Ella quickly asked Slannen.
"If they spot you, you'll be sorry," the Elf replied.
Another Elf happened to be looking their way. "Visitors!"
"Oh no... " was all Olga managed to say before the entire Elf Village sprang into action full force!
Almost instantly, the entire settlement was brightly lit up as all the Elves launched into a dancing musical number.
Let us entertain you,
let us make you smile
Let us give you a few tricks,
some old and then some new tricks
We're very versatile
And if you're real good
we'll make you feel good
We want your spirits high
We'll have a real good time
Slannen quickly led his new friends as they all ran towards his house, dodging the nonsensical Elves running around and obstructing their path.
Hattie looked over her shoulder and realised that Olive had been left behind.
She found her sister giddily joining a bevy of Elven women doing the can-can.
Luckily, it was a simple matter of yanking Olive along by the collar as they sought refuge inside the privacy of Slannen's house.
"Leave us alone!" Slannen yelled at the other Elves before slamming the doors shut behind them.
A/N
I had fun writing this chapter!
See if you can spot all the pop culture references here!