PART 2
Prince James rode through the forest on horseback, his heart pounding with each thud of the horse's hooves. Snow loved him. She loved him. How could he had ever have doubted it? The green and brown woods sped by with a blur but he barely saw them. He would always find her, no matter what. He glanced up into the sky and spurred the horse faster. He could just barely see the blue bird's tail feathers as it flitted through the undergrowth in front of him.
When he arrived at the dwarves' cottage, he slid to the ground before his horse had even come to a complete stop.
"Snow! Snow!" He shouted, but it wasn't Snow who met him at the door of the brown cottage, it was Grumpy and Sleepy, their faces very grave.
"What do you mean she won't...know me?" James said a minute later when they gave him the news. He staggered backwards as dread seeped its way through his arms and legs. It didn't matter he tried to tell himself, true love could concur anything.
James forced himself into the small cottage. "Is she here? Snow! Snow!"
"She took a potion..." said Doc, just behind the other two dwarves. Dopey wouldn't look up from the bowl of oatmeal on the table in front of him, the tips of his ears were red. The other three sat at the table around him. "It was that blasted Rumpelstiltskin!" said Grumpy with a clench of his fist just behind James.
"Where is she now? Where did she go?" said James, turning on the spot.
"She stepped out for some air last night," said Grumpy. "And she didn't come home. We tried looking for her...but, she's not herself..."
"Which way did she go?"
Grumpy pointed into the dark forest outside the opened doorway. Although it was daylight, the forest and woods in some parts of the kingdom had a mind of its own...
At the Queen's Castle, some distance away...
"Knock, knock, knock, deary!" said a voice with a twitter and maniacal laugh. The Queen rolled her eyes. The door opened with a crash and the Queen's henchman who was just about to open it, was thrown across the room. He crumpled into a heap next to a suit of armor, blood leaking from his head just as Rumpelstiltskin stepped into the room, smelling of power and flaking with gold dust with each wave of his arms.
"My, my," said the Queen. "To what do I owe this great pleasure?" Although, she was far from pleased. She really hated the man...or whatever he was.
"You called me, darling," Rumpelstiltskin remind her with a twitch of his head and a with a wave of an arm and an odd squeal. "So, I came."
"Yes," said the Queen, her mouth turned down in displeasure as she glanced over at the dead henchmen. "So, you did it? She took it?"
Rumpelstiltskin strode into the room and plucked an apple from a bowl that sat in the center of a long, glossy table. A fire crackled merrily in a fireplace at the end of the table, and threw its reflection across the surface. He twirled a red, ripe apple between two fingers as the Queen held her breath. "You're wondering about the potion I gave Snow White."
"Yes, will it take?"
"Depends..."
"On what?" she huffed, annoyed.
"True love's kiss triumphs all..."
"What are saying?" said the Queen, sharply.
"I'm saying, precious," he said in a sing-song voice, "that it's always good to keep your options open..."
"Rumor has it that Princess Abigail has found her true love," said the Mirror on the wall as the Queen stabbed a comb into her dark hair about an hour later. She hated that she had let that bastard Rumpelstiltskin get to her. So, hence the beauty makeover to try and boost her spirits. "King Midas is displeased," said the Mirror.
"Please. That man is always displeased about something," snorted the Queen, as she brought her hands down and angled her face one way and then the next as she looked at her reflection. She smiled an evil, wide smile. "Now tell me, am I not the fairest one of them all?"
"Snow white is the fairest of them all," said the Mirror in a deep, dark voice. "And always will be as long as she is alive."
"As long as she is alive!" screeched the Queen. "Well, she won't be much longer!"
"I'm sure her highness's plan with the huntsman was an excellent one," said the Mirror, a little dead-pan.
The Queen glared at him. "You know it failed. But soon, I'll have another heart to add to my collection..."
The face in the mirror just stared at her, not blinking.
"Show me where Princess Abigail is!" she demanded.
At King Midas's Castle...
Princess Abigail and her love were out in the garden, walking hand and hand amongst the golden magnolias. The sun sparkled on the golden statues, on the flowers and on a wide-once-wooden-bench that gleamed golden and shiny smooth as glass. Even some of the flowers along the path that they walked upon sported golden petals.
"It's really a treat during the winter," said Abigail with a smile on her face. "The golden flowers don't die, see, and well, I don't suppose we'll ever run out of them," she said with a laugh, "as father can't seem to stop touching them all."
Her fiancé Frederick chuckled warmly. He looked down at their fingers intertwined together and brought the back of her hand to his lips. "Your marvelous, do you know that?"
Her eyes sparkled, like sunlight on the bluest of water. "I am?"
"Very much so." He leaned in close, his lips almost touching her own.
"Well, aren't you two just a sight for...well, never mind," said the Evil Queen disdainfully as she stepped out from the shadow of a tree in front of them. "It looks like even Prince James's leftovers get their own happily ever after."
"What are you doing here?" said Abigail, her hand tightening around Frederick's. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. "My father will curse you!"
"Well, he isn't here now is he?" said the Queen and then she smiled, but it wasn't all that comforting. "Relax, dear, I'm not here to hurt you. I merely came to congratulate you on such a happy engagement."
By this time, Frederick had pushed Abigail behind him and pulled out a knife at his belt. He wasn't weak, despite what King Midas had tried to tell him. He really was one of the best knights in all the land.
"Don't come any closer!" he said, as he brandished the knife out in front of them.
The Queen just rolled her eyes. "You think a little pocket knife can stop me?" She waved her arm and the knife flew out of Frederick's fingers and pinged into the nose of a golden statue of a goose, which was perched upon a green hedge to the right of them. "I merely came to collect what is mine," said the Queen.
"What are talking about?" said Abigail, her hand to her chest. She had this feeling, this gnawing feeling that something terrible had just happened.
"A heart for a Kingdom," said the Queen, with an evil, evil smile. "And believe me when I say it was worth it's price in gold. " The Queen laughed. "Your father was more than happy to give away what was his."
"That's ridiculous! Her heart belongs to me," said Frederick.
"On the contrary, dears, she'll always be Daddy's little girl." And with that the Queen pulled out a silky, golden document, where at the bottom there read King Midas's signature in a bold, shaky black ink. "I always knew the King was a selfish little bastard."
"What did he promise you?" said Abigail, her voice sounded faraway, even to her own ears.
"You're going to marry Prince Charming, darling, and get your father back that Kingdom that he so desperately wanted."
"That will never happen!" protested Frederick but the Queen merely waved her hand in the man's direction and he was immediately silenced.
"Your heart, your life, belongs to me now. Oh, and princess...you have to do exactly what I tell you to."
AN: I'm rather pleased at how fast I cranked this one out! I haven't written dialogue for the Evil Queen before and may I say, for the record, it is fantabulous! Anywho, you the know the drill...if you liked it...let me know!
A special thanks to BlooperLover, Nikstlitslepmur, Paladin of Farore, Lady Elena Bella Petrova and hfce - who were the first! Thank you! :)