The little girl scrambled out of the hole and fell flat onto the kitchen floor. She pulled up Irma, Hay-Lin and finally Taranee but was blasted back even further when an angry Will burst from the tunnel.
"Girls ya ready?" Taranee yelled.
"Right!" the other two nodded.
Hay-Lin let out a chilling blast of air at Will as Irma blasted her with water slowly forming a solid crystal of ice around her.
"Well, that was easy," started Taranee " Where's CORNELIA!!" she yelled as ice splitters shot across the room, little Ayane ducking and missing one of the larger fragments.
Taranee blasted several fire bolts at the witch but with no luck, all faded as soon as they got inches near her. After many failed attacks the girls were exhausted and running out of energy, but Will, she just kept getting stronger and stronger feeding off of their attacks.
"It's useless" Hay-Lin muttered her body going limp.
"Will stop please. We never hated you, we always loved and cared about you., please look inside yourself." Irma pleaded.
"What's inside of me….NOTHING!" Will yelled edging closer to the pixies huddled in the corner "You never liked me, you always hated me, saying I held you back."
"That's not true Will, Cornelia thought that not us. We understood." Taranee pleaded.
"No you don't understand. How alone I was, no one wanted me, no one loved me and the one person who I thought loved me didn't and…"
"THAT'S NOT TRUE!!" Ayane yelled from behind Will. Will twisted round to stared at the girl who she forgot about.
"What did you say??" Will asked bemused at the defiant little girl.
"It's not true. Caleb always loved you. He was scared of admitting it. It sounds like Cornelia just manipulated him into thinking he liked her, but it's not true." She finished . Will continued to stare at her but not because she was an insolent child but because something was happening. She opened her eyes and they shone a beautiful lilac, blue. An ethereal aura of this colour shone around her body as she glided up to Will. The chain that was hidden around the girls neck came off over her head and into her hands, it was a key. She glided towards Will who was frozen with shock and tapped the key onto the heart.
"Bye bye darkness" she giggled before falling to the floor, back to her normal self.
Meanwhile in the dungeons Caleb fell from his shackles in time to see Cornelia glow with the green light that had previously been drained from her. Ignoring her he shuffled up the tunnel with great difficulty considering it was built for the lithe little girl and not for a clumsy man like him. He emerge out of the tunnel to see Will unconscious on the ground next to Ayane. The 3 other guardians sitting in the corner in shock and a Cornelia tugging at his leg, which he decided to kick to swat the girls hand away.
Will came to in the dingy room that had been hers for the past 4 years, but this time something was different. She felt different. No longer filled with such hatred and evil she felt light and slightly happy. She opened her eyes to find Caleb slumped up against the window asleep, the 4 guardians and Ayane asleep scattered across the room. Small beams of light fluttered through the cherry red drapes casting a beautiful glow over the mans face. She sat up. She was back into her human form, wearing the black silk nightie she had worn when the whole dungeon fiasco happened. She sat up and tip toed over to Caleb and sat down on the deep plum cushions on the window box. She sat there and stared at his sleeping form until she saw him stir from his sleep. When his eyes had open she smiled meekly and stared at the hands that were fidgeting in her lap. He tilted her head up and gave her a soft peck on the lips. Her heart felt like it might explode with happiness and the Heart that was around her neck glowed it's beautiful bright pink. Across the room she heard the other guardians and the child wake up.
"I'm sorry" she uttered.
"It's not your fault." Caleb said placing his arm around her petite waist.
"If anyone should be sorry it's Cornelia, for being a self righteous brat!" Taranee sniped.
"Look guys let's just put it in the past now, everything is back to what we may consider normal." Hay-Lin chirped and the 4 other guardians and Caleb nodded in agreement.
"Can I go now?" Ayane piped after a short silence. Will had temporarily forgot about the girl. She stood up and walked over to the girl.
"Thank you."
The little girl smiled her little toothy grin and hugged Will around the waist.
"Thank you, thank you thank you." she sobbed into the woman's night dress.
"As a reward for helping me your family will have great riches and need not to work again." she smiled down at the girl only to receive a small frown.
"But my mother and father like working."
"Then they shall work for me in the palace and you shall never go hungry and shall have fine clothes and good wages. Please I am forever in your debt."
Ayane nodded and grabbed Will by the arm and pulled her down out of the castle, past the crumbling walls that where obliteated earlier, and through the streets of Meridian up to the Windmill on top of the hill.
"Daddy daddy daddy!!" she yelled running up to her father who was loading a sack onto a cart. He dropped it instantly and held his daughter close. Will allowed several minutes to pass before interrupting the reunion.
"Mr Miller, Sir. It would be a great honour if you and your family worked for me in my castle. Your daughter saved me and I'm forever in her debt and it would be just…"
"Stop right there." The miller interrupted. " We do not wish to leave. This windmill has been in my family for generations and I will not leave, but my wife and daughters may love to work in your castle, but I do not."
By this time his wife and two older daughters had appeared.
"Yes please. I shall work in the kitchens but my daughters are good seamstresses." Mrs Miller said in a soft voice that matched her appearance. She had dirty blonde hair in ringlets down to her chin, she wore simple clothes with a giant white apron that covered most of it up, she was quite large but not fat and radiated with motherly love and care.
"Then it is done." Will said turning to Ayane.
"You my dear will become my second lady. If I can not fulfil my duty as Queen you will be second in command ok." The girl smiled before running to her mother and sisters.
"Well I think there's some one on earth who you need to see." said Caleb taking hold of her, forming a portal to earth.
Only one more chapter to finish it off. Hope it was worht your wait and thank you for staying devoted to it. DG