Chapter 3: The Friend
That night she had terrible nightmares. Various Masters were shouting at her, telling her what to do, how pathetic, stupid, worthless, and what a waste of time she was. Now this is what she was used to, the shouting and anger, but two things made it so different, that it terrified her.
One: she was having this vision. She had never experienced any sort of dream or nightmare before; sleep was just a small, black escape from her routine trials.
Two, was the vision she had after the yelling. She was in a corner of a tan colored room, behind a desk similar to the artist's desk in the Hidden Room. On the wall opposite her, there were large bookshelves made of a beautiful aged wood. There were crumpled papers, pencil shavings, and eraser bits on the wooden floor. A large shadow crossed her line of sight, which was followed by a man in khaki slacks. He tried to pick her up, but she squirmed out of the way. Eventually he caught her and brought her up into a soft embrace, in which she shook violently.
He was lifting her to eyelevel, when she woke up. The fuzzy images clung to her memory, along with the voice. It was like the man was talking from the other side of a thick wall, and though the words were not clear, the general message was. When she was hiding, he was looking for her out of concern... and love.
This petrified her. She was never given any sort of positive emotions, and she had never seen this kind man before. She felt unworthy to have seen him; undeserving of his embrace and kind words.
She was shaking violently, reflecting on this vision, when a soft noise diverted her attention. It was a small musical tinkling, coming from downstairs. She debated going back to sleep when her curiosity insisted that she explore. It was still very dark outside the window, but whether it was an hour after escaping or a week, she couldn't tell…at first. As she stood, her aching body told her it was not long ago at all. Her wings were scraping painfully on the cold floor, picking up lots of dust. Using the rounded, juvenile claws on the tops of her wings, she hooked them up on her shoulders like a black cape.
She went down the short steps to the knight, which moved out of the way once she approached. She retraced her steps from earlier, coming to the glass filled hall. She looked from the hall, to her boots, and back again. There were no gaps in the glass shards that layered the floor that she could hop between, and her now dusty black boots were thick, but an upturned shard could easily slice through to her small foot. Sighing, she headed up a few steps and unhitched her wings. After a good warm-up shake or two, she leapt off the step and spread her wings, gliding across the sharp floor.
She lost control at the last moment and crashed on the stone steps, landing sharply on her deprived stomach. She opened her mouth in a silent scream of pain. Getting to her feet, she braced herself and inhaled deeply. The pain was a dull throbbing, but she had to push through. The tinkling sound was much closer now and there was certainly no chance of turning back to the hidden knight's room. After heading down a long set of spiral stair steps, she found her goal.
She was in a small doorway to a ballroom. As far as ballrooms go, it was rather small, but to someone only a foot and a half high who's never seen one before, it was massive! The décor was different from the halls and staircases; the upper levels had thick wooden rails and the grey stone walls were cobbled together. The chandeliers, torches, and tall candelabras were simple iron ring patterns and the few banners hung around the room were a rich green. Most noticeable, however were the grand wooden thrones at the far end of the room and the large stuffed black bears that surrounded the area.
In the center of the room was a small black figure, tiptoeing across the ominously dark floor. Due to her position and the pore lighting, she could not make out the details of this new thing beyond two very large, tall appendages on top of the small (but slightly bulky) figure. It was looking around the room and muttering shakily to itself, and a few words were able to reach her ears.
"…don't like this…" grumble "…my only day off …" grumble, grumble "…owes my big time…" grumble "…his stupid Houdini act…" then there was a sigh. It plopped down and pulled a small, navy blue and black box. There were some sort of silver designs or words on it, but she was too far away to see them properly. The figure made a movement (presumably opening the lid of the mystery box) and suddenly the tinkling music started again, much more clearly. It was a cheery little tune that seemed to lighten the new guy's spirit right away.
Something clicked in her mind. This was very similar to a trial. Yes, she had run away, but that could have possibly been just the first part. She ran the possibilities through her head.
Teacher: DOR-15
Physical Challenge: Chase
Puzzle: Knight/Glass Hall
Mental Complication: New/Shifting Surroundings (?)
Enemy: New…Thing Ahead
Goal: Retrieve Box
With that, she set out for her goal. She cautiously climbed the nearest stuffed bear to the next floor, where she could get a better visual. The bear was not tall enough, but the unlit torch above her was within jumping distance. Balancing on the raised paw, she jumped and caught the bottom of the torch. Then, using her momentum swung up and grabbed the rail. As she clambered on to the second level, the bear wobbled slightly from her jump, and fell with a painfully loud crash!
The enemy hopped up and turned quickly, accidentally kicking the box aside and stopping the music. It was completely silent except for the heartbeats booming in their owner's ears.
"W-Who's there?" the enemy asked. Its voice was high for a male, and almost nasally. Now that he turned around, she could see his startled paper-white face and black eyes. Despite his fear, he puffed out his chest defiantly.
"Alright, where are ya? If you're tryin' to scare me, it ain't workin'!" with that he reached into his pocket again and pulled out a comically large flashlight. "Come on out. If you're those triplets that live here, don't try to pull anything on me! I'm a dad!" he yelled as if that would scare said triplets away.
On the balcony, the experiment snuck across to where the box had landed. She peered into the darkness until… there! A faint flash of silver gave away the box's position. She looked over to see the enemy, who was still searching the area for whatever caused the crash. Carefully, she climbed up and crouched on the rail, using hands and feet for balance. Her wings rose, preparing to dive for the box, when a bright light hit her eyes…
The 'enemy' gave up looking for the three pranksters (which he was positive were the ones who knocked the bear) and turned back to look for his music box, when movement on the balcony caught his eye. He aimed the light towards the movement and saw the creature. It was perched like a cruel gargoyle, with sharp, cold eyes and hands curled on the rails like claws. It was tiny; even from a distance he could see the sharp ribs, bruises and scars of mistreatment. Once its eyes cleared, it looked right at him. Then it returned its attention to the far corner and dove…
She glided to the box and, like in the glass-filled hall, lost control and fell. She was a little over half way from her target and still in pain. Food; Full sleep; Less pain; These thoughts kept her going, but only so far…
Once it dove, he knew exactly what it was going for. Easily, he could have outrun it and reached his prized position first, but that would only scare the poor thing. Fighting the urge to go and protect his box, he stood and watched as the gargoyle-like being fell out of the air. With a small, rather pitiful grunt, it crashed to the ground. Should he go and help now? No! It was up again, running with a determined look on its small face. At this point he was rooting for the little thing! Come on, he thought almost…there…
A great shudder ran through her body. Every last cut and bruise, all the missed rations, every single insult and failure seemed to hit her at once. Literally inches from her prize, she fell, sobbing. It was just a simple trip, but to her it was certain death. If her enemy didn't finish her off, than her punishment for failing would; if not that, then another missed ration; if not that…
Suddenly a hand touched her. She didn't have the strength to even flinch, so she waited for the end to come…but it never did. The hand just stroked her, softly. Looking up through tears, she saw the face of her 'enemy' looking at her with a sad understanding.
"Hay, it's alright. I'm not gunna hurt ya." He said softly
After a while, he helped her sit up and reached into his pockets (they could hold everything!). From his navy blue shorts he pulled out a long, hard orange colored thing. "Here, eat this."
She looked at it, confused, then back up at the toon.
"Aw, come on, don't tell me you've never seen a carrot before!" her face was still blank.
"Here," he snapped off a piece of carrot and popped it in his mouth. "See, it's good!" he handed the vegetable to her "Yeah, it's a little cliché for a rabbit to snack on carrots, but I like 'm." he said with a smile. She looked at the carrot suspiciously, and then used her sharp little teeth to bite off a small piece. As she chewed, her expression changed from suspicion, to utter amazement. It was exotic, it had a wonderfully fresh flavor, and she loved it. She hungrily finished it off.
The other toon stood and let out a long whistle "If you're that excited over a carrot, what'll Sadie's cooking do to ya?"
She looked up at him, less suspicion and more curiosity in her eyes.
He reached down and grabbed the little box. When he lifted the lid, instead of the soft, cheerful music they heard before, there was a horrible screeching. They both cringed at the atrocity emanating from the delicate box. She stood up and grabbed it, glancing inside. Quickly she found two gears at war with each other. She reached in and used her small fingers to separate one from the other and carefully clicked it back into place. Once again the music box was making its beautiful art heard.
Letting out a sigh of relief, she glanced at the rabbit and held the box out to him. As his hand reached out, she shut her eyes, expecting a blow for her grabbing the box out of his hands. Instead, he picked up the box, closed the lid, and shoved it back into his pocket.
"Gee, thanks!" he said without a trace of sarcasm "uh… what's your name, kid? Wait, can ya even talk?"
She opened her mouth to talk, but what to tell him? She was called many things, like idiot, moron, imbecile, useless; needless to say, none of them were very nice. Not only that, but she had never spoken to anyone else. Her last actual words (besides various shouts and gasps of pain) were also her first; her promise to be helpful. He was looking at her, wondering what was wrong. Start with the easy stuff she told herself. She gulped.
"Yes, I can talk. As for a name, I have been called many things, but I hardly believe any of them are proper titles." She stated this like a laundry list of facts.
"Hmm… Well, my name is Oswald. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit." He said proudly, jabbing his thumb at his chest. Just their voices alone were different, his loaded with character, each word used to its full extent. Whereas hers was basic, a few steps above a monotone. "Ya look pretty bad off, so I'd like to take ya home. Patch ya up, give you a name. I'll even give ya more carrots. What do ya say?" He asked.
Her eyes widened at the offer. She was stunned! Someone wanted her! At the very least, he cared and wanted to help her! All she could do was nod in response.
"Great! Come on, the exit's this way." Oswald took her small hand and led her out of the room through the rest of the castle, and into a new life.
A/N: This chapter and the next one were suppose to by one and the same, but I put more events into this one, and the next one is incredibly detailed so I split them. Also, I need some more help. Without giving too much away, I need a few characters to act as a search party later on, so who do you want in there? FYI…
-you have to figure out who that 'Dream Man' was
-the throne room is that of Disney/Pixar's brave
-the Triplets mentioned are Hamish, Hubert, and Harris, Merida's little brothers
-Oswald was the big star before Mickey. In fact he would be the icon instead of Mickey if it weren't for an ownership issue back in 1927. Long story short, the Disney Company got him back in 2006 and he is slowly but surely becoming a big member of the Family again.