Here is the beginning of part two of my Snow White series. This one focuses on the timeframe of the movie, but since there wasn't enough development in the movie, I've extended the time to include more. In this version, it took a month for the Evil Queen to brew the Sleeping Death so we can see how the relationship between the Dwarfs and Snow develops to the point that they would be willing to craft her a gold coffin and keep watch at her side. I tried to make it fit the movie as much as possible, but there are some slight deviations.
There are nineteen chapters in this story. Please enjoy and let me know your thoughts. :)
Early morning sunlight woke Grumpy, and he blinked as he stared up at the ceiling. He'd been having pleasant dreams. But it was time to get up and get ready for the day. Slipping out of his bed, he stripped out of his nightshirt and tossed it aside, then he tugged on his clothes and put his shoes on. On quiet feet, he stole across the room and out the bedroom door then looked down at the main living area. Dishes were piled in the sink, and the room needed a bit (okay, a lot) of cleaning. Normally, they would have done a deep clean in the spring, but the old blazing fire had awoken quite early that year, and they had forgone cleaning to get to the mines. It didn't matter much if the house was a bit dirty. The others certainly didn't care, and neither did he.
When he got downstairs, he stoked up the fire and started water for coffee then began grinding the beans. The quiet cottage was peaceful and homey, and even after ten years, he'd never found another place to equal it. No place from his youth was ever home. He'd moved from city to city with the guild, stealing to survive, and he was very glad that that part of his life was over. His life now was much preferred, with hard work and rest marking the days and little comforts like a hot meal with the family and telling stories around the fire marking the evenings.
The stairs creaked, and Grumpy turned to see Happy coming down to start breakfast. He smiled at him, and Grumpy nodded then focused on the coffee.
"Gonna hafta clean up soon," Happy remarked, looking at the mounds of dirty dishes.
"Eh, mebbe next week," Grumpy said.
Happy didn't argue. He too felt the burning need to mine gemstones, and it was almost a fervor at this point. Never before had they worked so long without a day of rest, but they were quite happy about it. Even Dopey was burning to go to the mine, to handle gems and gold and silver. None of them much cared about anything besides mining at the moment. But it would die away eventually, and then they'd clean the house. Until then, the seven Dwarfs were content to live with the mess. There was simply nobody to complain.
As bacon was frying, Grumpy went out to check the chickens. They'd started raising them five years before, and it had been a pain at first, but the eggs and meat were worth it. Their coop was out on the other side of the garden, and Grumpy gathered eggs and stopped to watch the chicks dash around their mothers, peeping and pecking at the ground. He turned and went back inside to see that Bashful was awake, and he was licking sugar off his finger, which he dipped back into his cup.
"Should really clean that," Grumpy said pointedly, looking at the small blue cup.
Bashful turned red and stuck his tongue out. "Only if you start 'em," he retorted.
Grumpy handed off the eggs to Happy, grinning as he tugged affectionately on Bashful's beard, which was fully grey and much longer than when he'd arrived ten years before. Bashful tittered and swatted at him, but he didn't return the favor, as Grumpy hated anybody touching his beard. When asked why that was, he'd only replied that he had bad memories associated with the action. The truth that he didn't want to admit was that Calida, the woman who had raised him, had made a habit of viciously jerking his beard when she was angry, and his beard had started coming in at fifteen. He felt as if it were a punishment, and he never had a good reaction to it. The brothers respected that, but they didn't mind him tugging on their beards when he did it playfully. They simply showed him affection in other ways.
"Morning," Doc said cheerfully as he came downstairs. He looked around at the three Dwarfs and beamed. "What's for breakfast?"
"Dishes," Happy joked.
They all laughed, eyeing the pile that was beginning to make them anxious.
"We really should take wear, ah, care of that," Doc said slowly.
"Tomorrow," Bashful said.
"Still?" Doc asked.
"Yer over it?" Happy asked.
"Getting there," Doc said. He scuffed his boot through the dust. Then he smiled. "But not quite."
Dopey, Sleepy, and Sneezy came down the stairs, the youngest Dwarf skipping several stairs as he jumped down to the floor. Sleepy yawned and swatted at a fly as he dropped into a chair.
"We goin' again?"
"Yes," Doc replied.
Dopey clapped, and Sneezy let out a sneeze that made him a bit dizzy. "Great. It's easier ta breathe in the mine," he sniffled.
"Too dusty," Doc agreed. "I'm sorry, Sneezy."
"Ya could stay and clean," Happy suggested.
Sneezy sneezed again. "Yeah right. I'm not stayin' alone while you goes ta the mine. I'm still burnin'." He thumped his chest over his heart.
"Us, too."
Dopey nodded then tilted his head and waved his hand around. Grumpy replied. "Normal? No idea."
"Ain't unheard of," Sleepy said, sipping on his coffee. "Sometimes the urge comes afore big changes."
"What big changes could be strumming, ah, coming?" Doc asked anxiously.
Sleepy shrugged. "Stories say adventures befall them who experience it. Last time it happened ta our family was our grandpa an' his brothers. They went ta war ta help the humans. Saved the kingdom. Couldn't mine fer over six years. So's they got it done by workin' fer six months straight aforehand. Afore them it was sommit ta do with a disaster. Could be either or anythin' in between."
Doc pursed his lips. They'd been mining for almost a month, ever since they'd come back from their yearly trip to Castell. It wasn't close to six months, but still, he was uneasy. It wasn't usual for them. They usually took two or three days off every week, but not this time. He ran his fingers through his neat beard and sat down in his chair, accepting a mug of coffee from Grumpy.
"Hm."
"Cain't do nothin' about it," Grumpy said sensibly.
"True. True," Doc sighed.
They had a nice breakfast, joking and laughing and jostling each other as usual. Then they scrambled to dig through the mess to find their pickaxes. It really was a disaster, but the warmth in their blood pulled them toward the mines. Within an hour, they shut the door behind them and headed out across the bridge. Grumpy paused just before they got started and turned back. Something was missing.
"Somethin' wrong?" Happy asked, checking the basket to make sure their dinner was secure.
Grumpy couldn't admit that there was. He needed to reinforce the shield so that unwanted guests couldn't get in. But since the others didn't know about his magic (besides Dopey) he decided that it would be safe for one more day. He shook his head.
"Naw. Just feelin' strange," he said.
"Changes?" Doc asked, adjusting his spectacles as he leaned on his pickax.
"Mebbe. Not sure."
"Ain't no use jest standing' here," Sneezy said, sniffling.
Grumpy grunted then fell in line. They began to sing their morning song, but Grumpy's heart wasn't in it. He was nervous about the shield. Never before had he left the cottage so unprotected. Though the shield was still strong enough to keep out anybody with bad intentions, that didn't mean that everybody would be kept out. And some of the worst people had good intentions along with a skewed way of looking at the world. But they were already marching off to work, and the cottage was out of sight. Grumpy tried to tamp down his unease, but it didn't go away.
The workday went by quickly, and they sang as they worked, their pickaxes keeping a rhythm as time passed by. Two hours into work, Grumpy's singing was interrupted by a yelp as a strange burst of magic passed over him. It was so intense that the world briefly went white. When he opened his eyes, he found himself on the ground, surrounded by the brothers.
"Golly, what happened?" Bashful asked as Doc knelt down to assess Grumpy.
Grumpy shoved at Doc's hands, but Doc gave him a stern look, so he grumbled but let him finish assessing him.
"What happened?" Doc asked after confirming that Grumpy was okay. He helped him sit up.
Grumpy couldn't tell them the truth, so he just shrugged. "Musta moved wrong," he muttered.
"Maybe you should sit down for a while."
Grumpy thought of arguing, but his body was still hypersensitive, and he needed to figure out what had just happened. So he nodded and allowed Doc and Bashful to guide him over to a fallen log, where he dropped gratefully onto the seat.
"Call if you need anything," Doc said.
Grumpy nodded and Dopey came over to sit beside him, looking at some rubies. He held them out. Grumpy could see several flaws in the pile of chipped gems, and he nodded then bent forward and closed his eyes. Dopey understood that he needed a moment and continued to study the gems.
Grumpy considered the feeling. He knew it was connected to his magic. There was no doubt about that. But what could that mean? He'd had a similar feeling when his magic was beginning to develop, but that had been years ago. He sometimes felt that way when his magic brushed against another person with strong natural magic, but it was just the brothers here, and none of them knew a thing about magic, not even his. A worrying thought eventually came to him. It could have been somebody pressing through the barrier near the cottage.
A shiver went through him, and he half considered bolting for the cottage to deal with the intruder. But that wouldn't be practical. The brothers would want to know why he was leaving, and if he told them, they'd want to know how he knew. He couldn't admit to his having natural magic, so he was stuck. After half an hour, Doc came over to check on him.
"Feeling better?"
He decided that he would wait and see what would happen. He wasn't completely sure about the feeling. Sometimes Rowan, a jeweler they worked with from Castell, would come by to give them custom designs that they would make for customers. He'd always set off the magic, but it had never felt like that before. Perhaps he was just worried for nothing. Even if he wasn't, whoever it was could have seen the house was empty and headed off. There wasn't much to steal, and with the state the house was in, perhaps they'd think it was abandoned. He had no way of knowing if the intruder had left (something he immediately decided to fix as soon as he could re-weave the protection spell) so all he could do was wait. So when Doc asked his question, Grumpy nodded. "Yep. Jest a spell."
"Feel like working?"
Grumpy smirked and thumped his chest. "What do ya think?"
"Fire's still burning," Doc said, smiling. "Welp, back to work then."
And back to it he went. The familiar rhythm was reestablished, with four pickaxes swinging away, a cart being brought back and forth, Doc at the table scanning and polishing gems, and Dopey doing whatever tasks that remained, six of the seven Dwarfs singing the day away.
By the time the clock signaled the day was over, Grumpy had relaxed his fears as they headed toward home, still singing. As the darkness settled over the forest, Doc led the way at the front of the pack, the song still ringing through the quiet woods. Then Doc stopped abruptly, and Grumpy hit him with jolting force. The entire line crashed together at the sudden, unexpected stop. Before any of them could process anything other than aching noses and heads, Doc's anxious voice reached them.
"Our house! The lit's light! Ah, the light's lit!"
And Grumpy realized he hadn't been wrong. Somebody had come through the barrier. Somebody was in their house. And a spike of panic flashed through him as the others began to fret. A sense of anger filled Grumpy. He had sworn to protect these brothers and everything they had. And no intruder would ruin that. So, he decided, whoever was there was just going to have to leave. And if they didn't? Well, he'd been in plenty of fights before. So he knew he could make them. He would make them regret their foolish decision. No matter who they were.