(Five years later)
It was a cold winter's night, and Princess Fiona was watching the snowflakes fall on the glass of her window. Her parents hated the snow. They said it was miserable. But Princess Fiona saw and appreciated the intricate beauty in all the flakes, and lit by the moonlight they looked truly beautiful.
Then her door opened and Queen Lillian stopped, disappointed at seeing her daughter sitting up. "Oh, you're awake," she said.
That would make this part truly difficult.
Princess Fiona turned. Sitting there, in a white nightgown and silhouetted by the silver moonlight, she looked like the youngest angel Queen Lillian had ever seen.
"Is something wrong?" Princess Fiona was asking.
"No, darling, not at all. But...How would you like to go for a midnight ride?"
"Really? Okay!" Eagerly, Princess Fiona clambered across the bed, grabbing her stuffed cat. "Can I bring Felicia?" she asked, proudly holding it up for display.
"Of course," Queen Lillian answered. Actually, she was grateful; she would need something to play with while she raised herself in her tower.
"Come on," Queen Lillian said softly, guiding her daughter from the bedroom.
Climbing into the carriage, Princess Fiona smiled at her mother, who closed her passenger door for her. As her mother got in up front, next to her father, Princess Fiona looked down and her excitement dimmed greatly when she noticed the suitcase tucked halfway beneath the seat. She reached down and lifted it. Flipping it open, she looked at the contents, all of which belonged to her.
Her crown. Her dresses. Something was wrong...Was she going somewhere?
Engrossed in what she was seeing, she barely noticed when the carriage began to move. Leaning forward, she felt beneath her seat with a feeling hand. When her fingers touched a handle, she grabbed it and pulled; retrieving another suitcase, which only held more of her things.
Feeling overwhelmed by a crushing sadness, she slowly closed the suitcases, put her chin in the palm of her hand, and stared outside. No longer did the view seem beautiful. It looked white, and barren.
The drive took almost an hour, but finally the carriage pulled to a stop in front of a steep hill, which seemed to lead up to nowhere. Her parents got out of the carriage and went to the back, and looked at the suitcases sitting directly in her lap. Her eyes, full of hate, met theirs.
"You're leaving me, aren't you?"
Queen Lillian shared a look with her husband, then knelt. "Sweetheart, we love you, very much. There's nothing in this world we wouldn't do to keep you safe. That is why we're doing this."
"I don't understand," was her sweet reply.
"It's a long story. But the short version is that if we return home, and you're still with us; all of this goes away. Your father, me, maybe even you."
"But I am going away."
"Yes. Because if you don't...we could die," Queen Lillian answered. "It's hard to explain," she added, when her daughter only gazed at her. "But it's for your own good. It's for the good of all of us."
"What your mother is trying to tell you, Fiona, is that there is an evil woman who is forcing us to do this," King Harold told her. "If she realizes we ignored her, she could make us suffer, or...worse."
"So you don't want to leave me?"
"No, of course not," Queen Lillian answered, reverently stroking her cheek. "We're doing this to protect you."
Princess Fiona was too tired to argue; and anyway, she thought, it could just be a really bad dream. "Okay," she sighed, and threw her arms around her mother, who lifted her from the carriage. King Harold grabbed the bags, and together they ascended the hill to overlook a magnificent tower, accessed by a bridge constructed of boards tied together with rope. Below, lava bubbled and popped.
I'm ready to wake up now, Princess Fiona thought. But she was quiet, burying her head in her mother's shoulder and tightening her grip.
Slowly, fearfully, King Harold and Queen Lillian crossed the bridge, which swung and wobbled under their weight. Princess Fiona looked fearfully at her father until in her peripheral vision, she saw the rim of the lava pit. Then she squeezed her eyes shut and refused to open them until Queen Lillian bent and there was the reassuring safety of solid ground beneath her feet. Queen Lillian tried to pull away, but her daughter's grip was unyielding.
"One day your handsome Prince Charming will rescue you," Queen Lillian said softly, holding her daughter tight. "You'll live a happy life with him; and we'll see you again."
"Don't leave me. Please? We can just hide," Princess Fiona whispered, totally unaware that the Fairy Godmother was landing behind her.
Suddenly she was being ripped out of her mother's arms. Thinking it was her father, her eyes shot open wide in surprise, and she was horrified to see both parents, standing before her, as she was dragged away from them. Screaming, Princess Fiona twisted around and delivered a kick to the Fairy Godmother's leg. "Let me go!" she sobbed.
"Be still," the Fairy Godmother said, but Princess Fiona wrenched her arm out of the woman's grip and made a break for her father, who bent and opened his arms.
But, before she could reach him, she was surrounded by a strange colorful glow, which blinded her completely. She dropped to her knees, lifting her hands to shield her eyes.
When the glow died, a deceptively normal-looking girl was left in its wake. She just sat where she was, tingling from the effects, and totally stunned.
"We love you very much, sweetheart," King Harold said, and though he looked worried when she didn't respond, he simply turned and walked away; his steps slow, his shoulders sagging.
Recovering from the attack, Princess Fiona ran after him, but tripped over the suitcase and landed on her hands and knees. Too sad to care, she watched her parents cross the bridge for the final time, crying harder than she ever had before.