" It has to be a dream, Mal told herself. This couldn't be real. She was sitting by the edge of a beautiful lake, on the stone floor of an ancient temple ruin, eating the most luscious strawberry…"
Audrey became suspicious as she narrowed her indigo eyes at Mal.
'I wonder what kind of dream is this? From the looks of it, I don't like where this is going,' Audrey thought.
Mal pursed her lips and flushed. She remembered this dream as clear as day.
" " Where am I?" she asked aloud, reaching for a plump grape from the gorgeous picnic set before her…"
"My, my. You're in Auradon!" Cinderella said, slightly surprised.
Audrey gaped, and so was Leah.
" "Why, you've been in Auradon for days now, and this is the Enchanted Lake," answered the boy seated next to her..."
Curiosity washed over Belle as she asked, "I'm wondering which boy is this?" She then cast a side-eye glance at her son.
" She hadn't noticed him until he spoke, but now that she had noticed, she wished she hadn't. The boy was the worst part of all this—whatever this was—tall, with tousled honey-brown hair, and painfully handsome with the kind of smile that melted hearts and made all the girls swoon..."
"Ben," most of the Auradonians said in unison.
Audrey fumed. Why did Mal have a dream about Ben?!
At the same time, why would Audrey care? She and Ben broke up. So she shouldn't care if Mal dreamt about being in Auradon and meeting Ben.
Now, after thinking about it, Audrey sunk herself in the bean bag, sighing. Chad watched his friend sadly.
But seriously though? Why Chad should feel bad for Audrey because Ben cheated on her? It was not like he was any better. Chad had dated 11 girls all at once and played with their emotions and treating them as if they were some property. Not to mention that he used Evie and almost got her expelled.
Hey, at least Chad wasn't under any love spell, goes in front of everybody at a game, and sings how much he loved a girl who he just met a few days ago while his girlfriend was cheering without realizing that he was cheating, right?
Now that he realized that he was guilty of his actions in the past, Chad tore his hazel eyes away from the brunette princess and focused his attention on the goddess reading.
" " Who are you?" she demanded. "Are you some kind of prince or something?" She looked askance at his fine blue shirt embroidered with a small golden crest…"
"Yup, it's Ben," Emir nodded.
" "You know who I am," the boy said. "I'm your friend…" "
"Your friend, eh?" Anxelin said, suspicious as she tapped her chin with her finger.
" Mal was instantly relieved. "Then this is a dream," she said with a crafty smile. "Because I have no friends." "
Most of the Auradonians felt bad upon hearing Mal's statement, especially Lonnie as she remembered that time when she asked the VKs if their parents loved them.
Even Audrey felt a little bad for Mal, but she shook her head and buried that emotion immediately.
What was she thinking? Feeling bad for a girl who spelled your boyfriend and took him away? Pfft!
" His face fell, but before he could answer, a voice boomed through the peaceful vista, darkening the skies and sending the water raging over the rocks…"
"I'm not surprised as to who this is," Ruby said as she tilted her head to the left and rested her cheek in her palm. She let out a soft sigh.
" "FOOLS! IDIOTS! MORONS!" it thundered.
Mal awoke with a start..."
"Gee, nice alarm bell," Meg said sarcastically, although she can't help but feel disturbed. No child under any circumstances should not be waking up to the sound of their parents shouting.
" Her mother was yelling at her subjects from the balcony again. Maleficent ran the Isle of the Lost the way she did everything—with fear and loathing, not to mention a healthy supply of minions..."
"Ok, my million dollar question is, if Malfie turned into a lizard, no longer a ruler of the Isle, who's the new ruler?" Eugene asked.
That was a good question, honestly.
Eugene's question etched into everyone's minds for a moment, thinking of a good answer but Jay replied before anyone else.
"That's a good question," Jay said. "My answer is, I have no idea."
"Well, based on what I heard," Harriet sat up in her bean bag, "word on the street is either the Horned King or Chernabog. And let me tell you, those two are scary as fuck!"
"Language, young lady," Phoebus warned. "There are young kids in this room," he added, referring to Hadie, the Smee twins, Celia, and Dizzy.
Harriet rolled her light blue eyes once Phoebus turned his head. But after hearing the Captain's warning, Harriet felt strange; she couldn't describe what she was feeling. It was indescribable.
It didn't take a moment for Harriet to realize that it was the first time she was being warned by a father—a real father, and not a deadbeat like Captain Hook.
The pirate girl pursed her lips in a firm line as she allowed herself to sink into the bean bag, hugging her empty whiskey bottle close to her chest tightly.
"Eh, we're used to it," Celia said, flipping her hand as if it were nothing.
"Yeah!" Hadie chirped.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean that you should use it. And I don't want to hear you using any swear words. Ok, Hadie?" Claudine told the small boy. Her voice was gentle but her tone was stern.
"Yes, Claudine," Hadie mumbled, a light pink blush blossoming on his pale cheeks before lowering his head.
Some of the moms were impressed by Claudine's actions. They could tell that Claudine was mature and motherly despite her young age.
Little did they know that Shan Yu's daughter had a baby at a young age.
Uma cleared her throat. "Well, Harriet wasn't wrong. It was between the Horned King and Chernabog. But for now, no one is not too sure."
"Oh," that's all Eugene could say.
" What on earth was she doing dreaming of Auradon?"
"That's a good question," Anxelin said.
" What kind of dark magic had sent a handsome prince to speak to her in her sleep?"
"Again, that's a good question. And I thought there was no magic on the Isle?"
"Well…evil magic doesn't work on the Isle. That's for sure," Celia told Anxelin, and she arched a brow but said anything.
'This magic thing is weird,' the goth girl thought.
" Mal shook her head and shuddered, trying to blink away the horrid vision of his dimpled smile, and was comforted by the familiar sound of fearful villagers begging Maleficent to take pity on them. She looked around her room, relieved to find she was right where she should be, in her huge, squeaky, wrought-iron bed with its gargoyles on each bedpost and velvet canopy that sagged so low, it threatened to fall on top of her…"
Most of the Auradonians, except for Leah, frowned. No child should sleep on something so uncomfortable. And in Mal's case; so dangerous.
But then again, it was the Isle, or better yet, a living Garbage Dump for the former villains. So this was expected.
" Her mother's voice boomed from the balcony, and the floor of her bedroom rattled, causing her violet-lacquered chest of drawers to suddenly spring open, disgorging its purple contents on the floor..."
"Maleficent seems decent," Jane said sarcastically.
Mal scoffed. "Trust me, my mom was far from decent."
" Pushing the heavy curtains aside, from her window she could see the whole island in all its dreariness.
Home, freak home..."
"Home freak home," all of the VKs chorused.
The Auradonians, except for Leah and Beast stared at the VKs sadly.
These kids don't deserve this.
" The Isle of the Lost was not a very large island; some would say it was but a speck or a blight on the landscape, certainly more brown than green, with a collection of tin-roofed and haphazardly constructed shanties and tenements built on top of one another and more or less threatening to collapse at any moment..."
"…..so, basically a ghetto?" Jane asked, her voice timid, fearing that she might offend the VKs.
"Yeah," Diego replied simply, smiling at the young fairy.
"Whew."
" Since the kitchen cupboards were bare as usual, with nothing in the fridge but glass jars full of eyeballs and all sorts of moldy liquids of dubious provenance—all part of Maleficent's ongoing efforts to whip up potions and conjure spells like she used to—Mal headed to the Slop Shop across the street for her daily breakfast..."
"She's still making potions?" Hercules asked, his thick ginger eyebrows raised.
"Yeah..but not as often," Mal answered.
" She studied the choices on the menu—black-like-your-soul coffee; sour-milk latte; crusty barley oatmeal with a choice of mealy apple or mushy banana; and stale, mixed cereal, dry or wet. There were never many options. The food, or scraps, more like it, came from Auradon—whatever wasn't good enough for those snobs got sent over to the island. Isle of the Lost? More like Isle of the Leftovers..."
Nearly all of the Auradon adults were enraged at the choices of 'food' that were listed.
"What is this?!" Tiana rose from her seat, anger plastered on her face. "Are you telling me that all the garbage from Auradon is dumped on the Isle?!"
"Ding, ding, ding! You got that right!" CJ replied, sarcasm laced in her tone. She thought that these Auradon adults were oblivious or at least in denial.
"I mean, we know that the Isle is trashy-" Jordan was cut off by her father.
"Jordan!" Genie scolded.
"I'm sorry Dad, but it's true!" Jordan said defensively. "Anyway, where was I?"
"The part you say that the Isle was trashy," Ally reminded her.
"Ah yes, thanks. Yeah, as I was saying, while the Isle is trashy, the VKs don't deserve this," Jordan said truthfully. Ally agreed with the genie girl with a nod.
"So you meant to tell me that all this time when the rubbish was collected from each state in Auradon, the rubbish was dumped on the Isle where actual people, especially children live there?" Aladdin asked in disbelief, anger started to boil inside him, and rightfully so. He knew what was like to be poor and learn how to survive, but eating garbage and moldy food was too far-fetched for the Sultan of Agrabah.
"Yeah, isn't that obvious?" Freddie replied. "I thought you Royals were involved?"
"No!" all of the Royals, even Belle and Leah surprisingly, shouted defensively.
"What made you think that we're cruel?" Rapunzel asked, still feeling offended.
"Well for starters," Freddie began, "most of the garbage is from different states of Auradon and I thought you guys agreed to dump it on us since we're your enemies' kids."
"Why would we dump garbage on you kids?" Ariel questioned, her eyebrow raised.
"We thought that you Royals are like Beast," Harriet responded with a shrug.
"No, we're not like that," Shang said firmly, shaking his head. "When the garbage collector comes to each state in Auradon, they would usually dump it here in the Auradon City dump. The main dump of Auradon. Also, it would be downright cruel for us to dump garbage on the Isle with people, specifically children just to spite our enemies while we are parents."
The Auradon Adults agreed wholeheartedly with Shang.
"And why would we be doing something that horrible?" Mulan added. "Unless we don't love children or our hearts are as black as coal,"
"Yes, and we as parents would be hypocritical of doing such a disgusting deed," Jasmine nodded, agreeing with her close friends.
All of these statements that the Auradon Adults made had cemented in the VKs' minds. They thought that the Adults had the same mindset as the former King Beast, but after hearing them explain their true feelings, the VKs realized that they judged the Adults too bit harshly.
"Oh," Harriet lowered her head.
"Oh dear, this is so tragic," Snow White sniffed as she rested her head on Florian's shoulder. Tears started to flow like waterfalls on Snow's pearly white and delicate face as Florian wrapped a comforting arm around his wife's shoulder, cooing her words of comfort.
Cinderella and Ariel reacted the same way as Snow White as they too were comforted by their husbands.
Beast wholly sunk into the bean bag after hearing the Adults find out that he was the one who ordered the garbage collector to dump tons of loads of garbage and filth on the Isle—making them look like the bad guys too.
'Oh God, what have I done?' Beast thought. He knew for a fact that the other Royals would like to have a 'word' with him when it reached break time.
As the Royals still reeling from the shocking revelation of how the kids were eating rubbish, Eugene spoke up.
"Hera, I don't want to disturb you, but can we have a 5-minute break? I don't want to hear more about this,"
Hera wasn't so sure how to respond to the king of Corona, so she fixed her gaze on Blue Fairy, and Blue Fairy gave her a nod, giving the goddess of marriage the green light.
"Yes, we can have a 5-minute break," Hera said. "I was disturbed by this too."
Eugene smiled and he got up, as well as the other adults as they made their way over to the drinks table.
Hera sighed softly as she closed the book, and placed it on the podium before she gently stepped down to get some refreshments and have a small chat with the Royals about the food situation on the Isle.
In all honesty, the Isle kids deserve better than this.
