Disclaimer: I do not own the Tenth Kingdom, or any of its characters.
Chapter 2: Happily Ever After Didn't Last As Long As We'd Hoped
My name is Virginia Lewis… well it was until five months ago…
Now my name is Virginia Wolfson. And I live on the edge of the forest.
Well not really, my dad and I used to live in this apartment across from Central Park, but somewhere in the middle of Central Park there's this mirror, well it's the back of a mirror, and it's a portal to this alternate dimension where fairy tales are true.
Sounds crazy I know. Seven months ago I wouldn't have believed it either, but a lot has happened in those seven months, including me marrying my current husband. However, if the next five minutes go as planned he won't be my husband for much longer…
You see my dad and I got pulled into this wild adventure by this dog, who wasn't really a dog, but a Prince who got turned into a dog, because his step-mother, my long lost mother, wanted to take over his kingdom. If you think that's a lot for you to handle, think about how I felt…
But anyway, we helped restore him to his throne, saved the Nine Kingdoms and I ended up finding the man of my dreams in our traveling companion, Wolf. Wolf is well, half-wolf and has a bit of a P.M.S. issue around the full moon, but somehow he got me to fall in love with him, and then he got me pregnant. So I married him five months ago, and we opened a little restaurant together. Wolf also runs a dog-training business on the side. Then he started cheating on me. I don't know how this always happens, maybe I'm a glutton for misery, but Wolf was in for the surprise of his life, except for maybe me falling in love with him in the first place, but no one cheats on me and gets away with it!
I found out about his behavior because I intercepted a love letter that day from his mistress.
"My Dearest Warren," it read, Warren is the name Wolf uses for work and such.
"I just can't wait to see you again! I will be in New York again soon, and the first thing I'll do is come straight to your place, and you can huff and puff, and blow all my clothes off!
Don't worry; I'll make sure to see that Virginia isn't home before I come up. See you soon you big bad wolf you! Love always, Rosaleen XOXO"
I'd never been so heartbroken in my life. I couldn't bring myself to open the restaurant feeling the way I did, and instead spent the entire day with my head under the covers and wishing that there was some mistake. But the letter was pretty unmistakable. Eventually I mustered up enough energy to be angry, and decided to confront him about it the minute he walked in the door. Wolf was out on his dog-training circuit and should've been home already. Suddenly there was a knock at my door and as I looked out the peep-hole but the person I saw wasn't Wolf, it was a woman.
I couldn't help myself, I ripped open the door and grabbed the girl by the collar, pulling her inside and slamming the door closed behind us. Still holding on to her I shouted, "You dirty tramp! Bet you thought I wouldn't find out!"
"Virginia! Virginia!" The woman cried. "Virginia, it's me… Jordanna! Wendell is in danger, we need your help! And I'm sorry for whatever it is that I've done!"
My eyes went wide with realization and I let her go, my hands immediately went to my mouth. "Oh my god!" I said, "Jordanna, I'm so sorry!"
Jordanna looked up at me from the floor and through coughs nodded her head that it was alright.
"Can I get you anything? Coffee, scotch, anything?" I felt horrible, I had just attempted to strangle the Prince's –excuse me, King's, best friend.
"No I'm fine." She wheezed, "Well, maybe a glass of water…"
I hurried to the small kitchenette and got water from the tap and quickly brought it back to Jordanna who gulped the liquid down in one breath.
"Just out of curiosity," Jordanna began after beginning to catch her breath again, "who did you think I was?"
I hesitated for a moment, then said, "Wolf's mistress…"
Jordanna's eyes went wide, "What?" she cried.
"I found this love-letter today from some lady to Wolf." I quickly retrieved the letter and brought it to Jordanna who read it over carefully.
"Lady Virginia," she began, "perhaps you are mistaken? This is addressed to a Warren Wolfson..."
"That's Wolf's name here, it's to him, trust me. And forget the 'my lady' stuff it's too formal for someone like me."
"But you're Wendell's step-sister; technically the heir to the throne should Wendell not have a child."
"Well, I'm not queen yet, so don't call me 'my lady' until I am, alright?"
"Yes my la—Virginia…"
"Now you said you were here because Wendell needed our help. What sort of danger has he gotten himself into this time?" I asked.
"Well," Jordanna began. "This morning your father and I came to discover that Wendell had gone missing, kidnapped in fact. His kidnapper left a note…"
Jordanna produced a piece of parchment where a scrolling hand had left a cryptic message in violet ink.
"Dearest citizens of the Nine Kingdoms,
King Wendell has been kidnapped, and unless you do as I command he will end his life as a frog. Firstly, I want the Fourth Kingdom to be passed over to me. The other eight kingdoms may live on in peace until I decide otherwise. Also, I want three million gold Wendells presented to me as tribute by the other eight kingdoms on the night of my coronation. My name is Lady Rosaleen, you may know me as the toad supplier of the Nine Kingdoms. Do try and keep this hush hush, don't want to poor peasants scaring do we? And before anyone thinks of performing any thrilling heroics, the only person who could have stopped me has been dead for years, she can't save you now, nor can the heroic four who have usurped and murdered the true queen of the Fourth Kingdom!
Forever your Queen,
Rosaleen"
"So you see Virginia? We need your help, both you and Wolf together!" Jordanna pleaded.
I stared at the letter and then to the love-letter on the table, my fingers trembling a little.
"Jordanna, this is bad, this is very bad…"
"Virginia, are you alright?"
"No, Jordanna, look, look at the signature on both of these letters…"
She did, and the same expression of realization and disgust I had on my face hung over hers.
"Wolf's mistress is…"
"Lady Rosaleen!" I finished for her.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Warren Wolfson best referred to as Wolf was the dashing, romantic, and slightly animal husband of Virginia Lewis. He had been in love with her since he first met her, "wolfies" being some of the only creatures where love-at-first-sight can legitimately occur. He had bushy black hair, and grey-blue eyes which sometimes turned golden when Wolf acted especially wolf-like. He was tall, though not as tall as Tony Lewis, and he did once try to eat Virginia's grandmother but Virginia forgave him for that. Although, they're still not quite sure whether or not her grandmother had forgiven him, the first time Wolf went over to her house for dinner, he and Virginia had to restrain the old lady from calling the police, calming her down by claiming Wolf was on a medication that had some very bad side-effects on his personality, but was fine now. Wolf then turned up the charm again and the rest of the night went relatively smoothly.
Wolf couldn't help but run a little faster at the thought of getting home to his beautiful Virginia. He was on his way home from his side-job and since he preferred to use modes of transportation he was familiar with, he usually ran everywhere. Home was a small apartment over-looking central park; somehow the landlord was still under the magic-bean's spell and was thus delighted to have Virginia back in the building. Although it had gotten a little annoying being asked when "master" was coming home. There wasn't much left in the apartment, their T.V. having been smashed by Burly the Troll and most of the rest of the room had been in shambles as well, and since they had just opened a restaurant they still didn't have enough money in the bank to buy furniture, but business was doing well so they expected to be able to have a nicely furnished apartment soon.
To Wolf, Virginia was the most beautiful woman who had ever lived, even considering Snow White, and Cinderella. She had pale skin, which generally had a healthy rose-like flush to it, she also had striking blue eyes, and "soft, creamy" lips as Wolf liked to say. Due to a previous encounter with Wolf and a magic axe, Virginia also had a very short haircut, shorter than Wolf's.
Wolf felt his tail wag a little in the seat of his pants, and noticed his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth as he ran. He quickly stopped this behavior and scratched his head as was his habit and continued to run.
He ran through Central Park which was a beautiful palate of color that time of autumn. He ran past the place he and Virginia had come out of the mirror about five months ago and stopped short when he noticed a strange shimmering coming from the mirror's location.
"Well that's odd…" he said moving closer to it. "Huff-puff, did someone really leave it on by mistake?"
Wolf thought for a minute knowing that Virginia would worry if he was late, but surely she'd understand that the travelling mirror shouldn't be left on like that, so he stepped through, and came out in the large room where the mirror was being kept, but no one was in sight.
"Hello?" he called moving through the castle. "Wendy? Tony? Lady Jordanna? Hello? Is there anyone home?"
"Sir, may I enquire as to what you're doing in the castle?" A voice said behind him.
Wolf turned and looked an unhappy servant in the face. The servant immediately recognized Wolf and began a long string of apologies.
"I'm sorry sir! I did not recognize you from behind! May I be of some assistance to you?"
"Yes, you can. You see I just stumbled through the travelling mirror from the other side and was wondering why Wendell left it open?" Wolf said.
"Have you not heard sir?" the servant replied.
"Heard what?"
"Why that Wendell has been kidnapped! Surely you got the news, Lady Jordanna went through the portal just today to find you and Lady Virginia. I assume that's why the mirror was left open, so that you three could return."
Wolf was taken aback. "Thank you." He said, and then began to stumble back to the Mirror room.
"Where are you going sir? Will you not help us?" the servant cried.
"I will!" Wolf called back, "but I have to go get Virginia, and find Jordanna!"
Wolf didn't stop running and charged full-speed through the mirror, and kept on going until he got up the stairs to his apartment. After fumbling with the keys to the door he finally got in.
"Virginia!" he cried, "Virginia! Wendell's in danger!" Wolf only had a brief second to look at the stunned looks he was getting from Virginia and Jordanna before he was being attacked by his wife.
Okay, so I over reacted a little when I saw him. Actually I over reacted a lot. But he just barged right in and muttered something about Wendell being in danger. So I didn't really have the time I needed to put my thoughts together before I acted. Maybe I was taking Snow White's advice a little too seriously. I wasn't thinking, I just became. Or perhaps it had to do with me being hormonal and five-months pregnant?
After strangling Wolf a little, Jordanna pulled me off him. It's a little embarrassing to say but I had him pinned against the wall for a second, the look on Wolf's face would have been comical if taken out of context. It was somewhere between terror and utter shock.
The first words out of his mouth were, "I'm sorry Virginia! I don't know what I've done, but I'm sorry!"
"Sorry isn't going to help!" I yelled back. "You thought I wouldn't find out about her did you? You're cheating on me!"
Wolf looked genuinely confused, "What? Virginia I'm not cheating on you, I love you! Wolves mate for life, I'd never dream of loving another woman!"
"Liar!" I shrieked and went at him again, this time Jordanna was prepared to hold me back.
"Please Lady Virginia, we need both of you alive to help save Wendell!"
I stopped then thought about what Wolf had said. "Wait a second," I started, "How did Wolf know Wendell was in trouble? Unless he heard it from his mistress Lady Rosaleen! Aha! Caught you red handed!"
"Lady who?" Wolf looked like he did the day he was to be burned at the stake for the murder of Sally Peep, completely and utterly innocent.
"Lady Rosaleen, your mistress. Stop acting Wolf, the cat's out of the bag." I said.
'Wait a second,' I thought, something very important had just occurred to me. 'Wolf's horrible at lying… so therefore he has to be telling the truth… but what about this letter?' I looked at the letter in my hand until Wolf's pleas brought me out of my thoughts.
"Please Virginia!" he said, "You have to believe me! I have no idea who she is! I found out about Wendell because coming home tonight I stumbled upon the portal which was open. So I thought 'this is odd' and decided to go through and ask about it. When I got through to the other side there was no one there so I wandered around until a servant stopped me and told me that Jordanna had come through to fetch us. Then I came straight home to tell you, I swear it Virginia!" He whined a little, the look on his face showed he was clearly distressed by this turn of events.
"Lady Virginia… Sir Wolf…" Jordanna piped in hesitantly. "If you would, can I please have your answer? Will you help the kingdoms or not?"
Wolf and I glanced at each other uneasily until I sighed and said, "Yes, we'll help you."
Jordanna smiled broadly and took one of our hands in each of hers, "Thank you so much! You truly are the four who saved the Nine Kingdoms! I'm sure your little… ahem, problem will work its way out soon! The Kingdoms has a way of making everything work out alright in the end!"
We took a moment to go around the mostly-empty apartment and collected any clothes food, and supplies we could think of needing and put them in a backpack. Once we had everything ready I left a note at the restaurant for the staff saying that Wolf and I needed a vacation to "reconnect," and that we should be back in a few weeks.
Jordanna was the first one back through the portal. As she disappeared Wolf and I looked at each other still feeling the tension from my earlier accusations.
"Ladies first." Wolf offered bowing slightly; I huffed out of frustration and stepped through the mirror.
Wolf watched her disappear then inhaled and exhaled slowly and stepped through the mirror and back into the Nine Kingdoms.
A/N: Okay so this is the longest chapter so far… wh00t! And I decided to write this alternating between third person and Virginia's point of view if you couldn't already tell. It will always be marked by a row of Xs so it'll be easy to figure out when perspective changes. I haven't decided yet but I may throw in a few other points of view too, like Jordanna, Wolf, Tony… Anyway… Third chapter probably won't be up for a little while. I still have to outline it and I want to finish a couple chapters for my other fics before I work on this one a little more… Expect it in a couple of weeks depending on how much writer's block I get. Please Review, comments/criticism/ideas/anything is much appreciated.