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Happily Never After

Raven's head was in agonizing pain. He thought the death was supposed to be painless. He was supposed to die without agony. Hawthorn said he was to sleep. And he would quietly and peacefully died. He knew it wouldn't be peaceful. Hawthorn had told him her plan. She told him how his useless body would be laid down upon a bed waiting for Rose's demise. Rose had tried to fight it, but the poison rendered him useless.

Raven could only imagine the scene of Rose walking in and seeing Raven laying there. Hawthorn told him two things would happen: either Rose would kiss Raven and take the poison too or she would shoot him with a dart infecting him that way. Every scenario Raven had was of Hawthorn scoffing Rose and then impaling him with a dart.

A voice entered Raven's head. It was distant and it hurt when it entered, "Are you coming to, yet? I haven't got all day."

Raven felt his eyes open slightly but quickly closed them again from the swirling colors. Raven spoke and cringed from the rasp of his voice, "Who's there?" Was the voice just in his head? Was it an angel? He knew it couldn't be both. If it was it would have sounded like Rose.

There was no answer from the voice. Maybe it really was just in his head. Raven tried to shift a little but found his body slow to respond. He opened his eyes once more and stared at the swirls until they settled down. He was surprised to be staring up and clear blue sky.

He slowly tilted his down where he thought he had heard a voice and frowned. There was someone there. Not just anyone, though. It was Hort, the Beauty Slayer. "I'm not dead, am I?"

Raven heard a shift to his left. He slowly rolled over and his eyes lit up.

"Rose!"

There was a groan from Rose and Raven continued to move towards him in slow mothing.

"Don't touch him."

Raven looked to Hort again, "What is going on? What happened?"

"Be quiet, Raven."

"But . . ."

Hort's finger glowed and a gnarled root wrapped itself around Raven's mouth. "I said quiet."

Raven glared at Hort, but there wasn't much Raven could do. He was weak from negligence from Hawthorn. He was sore and groggy from the deep sleep he had just had.

Suddenly, "R-Raven?"

Raven tilted his head towards Rose again. His eyes were still closed and he was pale. Raven looked at Rose's tattered clothing and the healing cuts around his mouth and surrounding his body.

Rose went still again. Hort frowned and crouched down by him. Raven had so many questions to ask, but with the root in his face he couldn't. So he just glared at him.

"Be at ease, Raven. I'm not here to hurt you two. Hawthorn and her team did enough of that." Hort gently took Rose's head and shoved something in his mouth.

Raven tried to protest, but his slow movements and gagged mouth did nothing. He slowly reached for the gag and tore it away. Slowly.

"What is going on? Where are we? What happened to Rose? Why is he cut? Why are you here? Where is Haw—"

"Be quiet. Or I'll change my mind and leave the two of you to die out here. I'll answer everything once Rose is awake. I don't want to have to explain everything twice."

Raven went quiet.

"Here, drink this. It should help." Hort passed a goblet with a scarlet liquid in it. Raven sniffed it and slowly put it to his mouth. He got half of it in his mouth. The other half was spilt.

Immediately it felt as if a thousand bolts of fire were streaming through Raven's veins. Raven bit back a scream and all that was left was the ghost of the memory.

Raven blinked and wiggled his fingers. Everything was moving normally now. No more slow motion.

Raven sat up, despite his still swimming head and skootched closer to Rose. "He's alright, though, right?"

Hort only nodded as Rose's eyes opened slightly, "Who-who are you? Why are you purple?"

Raven smiled, "Rose, you don't go around asking people why they are purple." Even though Hort was very much not purple.

Rose's eyes widened, "Raven!" His head slowly turned towards Raven. "You're purple too."

"Rest a little bit more," Hort told him. Rose closed his eyes again.

"What happened?" Rose asked. I looked to Hort.

"Hawthorn won. I brought you out of the Woods and healed you both."

"How?" Raven bit his lip. He didn't mean to interrupt.

"Your morgrif, Philip was the cure. I got to him before Hawthorn's minions burned it down."

Raven waited for more of an explanation but when nothing else was said he asked, "Why would you do it, though?"

A new voice came from behind them, "Because it's hard finding people who are purely good and purely evil. Hort's victory was his downfall."

Hort glared and Raven looked behind and his mouth dropped open, "Agatha?"

The boy beside her interjected, "And Tedros."

"What are you guys doing here? I—I still don't understand."

It was Agatha's turn to try and explain, "When Hort slit the throats of Beatrix and Chaddick Hort realized how petty the quests were. He moved into his Never After and the couple's images haunted him everywhere. This is his coping mechanism. Saving you. Hawthorn still wins, and we'll need to figure out what to do with you, but at least you're still alive."

Rose opened his eyes again and Hort shoved a goblet with the scarlet liquid at him. Hort muttered, "Thank-you for reminding me."

Agatha continued, "The bottom line is this: Sophie and I are still alive and our story ended. We're supporting the life of the losers. You two are fortunate. You are the first ones we've actually successfully saved."

Tedros nudged Agatha, "You said this wouldn't take long. We need to get back before our people start missing their handsome king."

"And beautiful queen," Agatha added.

Tedros nodded, "Of course. They missed you once you set your foot out of the kingdom." He gave Agatha a kiss on the cheek. Hort gagged. "But we best be off. Hort, you can take it from here?"

Hort nodded.

"Great. We'll be off. Best of luck." And then the two were gone.

Hort helped Rose to his feet and Raven stood up as well. "We need to go."

"Where are we going?" Rose asked.

Hort look off into the distance and sighed, "Far, far away." And then he started walking.


Rose huddled next to Raven as they followed Hort across the lands. No one spoke. No one needed to. They were finally together.

The trip took a long time. The land they were headed for was far away. But Hort did eventually stop and say, "We're here."

Rose frowned at the dark mountains they had wandered into. They had crossed scorching deserts and frigid tundras and every biome in between. But this place felt horribly wrong.

Raven asked the question that was on Rose's mind, "We'll be living here?"

Hort shook his head, "This is an old, cursed mountain. Deep in the heart of it is a portal. That is where I will take you."

Rose looked at Raven uneasily. They would be together, but the portal idea concerned him. A hike down through dark, damp caves led them to a shimmering pool.

"You go in there. You won't be able to come back."

Raven asked, "Is it safe?"

"Safer than if you stay. If Hawthorn finds out you two live she will hunt you down."

Raven nodded and looked to Rose who looked to Raven. They clasped hands and walked into the pool together.


Rose and Raven held onto each other tightly as they were sucked into a dark vortex that seemed to be trying its hardest to tear them apart. When they came to rest in the darkness the land around them seemed to form. First the base of land in water about 25 meters in diameter. Grass grew instantly. A cottage sprouted out up from the ground and a garden popped up beside it.

"Where are we?" Rose asked.

Raven only shook his head. He had no idea.

Just then a blue woman emerged from the seemingly endless water and floated above it for a moment, "Welcome, Raven and Rose. This is a sanctuary. No one shall join you. No one shall leave. Your eternity has begun."

She started to dip back into the water before Raven interjected, "Wait! Who are you?"

She paused a moment then smiled, "I am the Water Warrior." And then she disappeared back into the water.

Rose looked to Raven, "Wasn't the Water Warrior the Never in the Drowned Sailor?"

Raven only nodded. What had they agreed to?


The End~

Thank you so much for reading ^_^