Disclaimer: I do not own the copyrights to content related to the Walt Disney Company nor do I intend to use it for profit. This episode is edited as of January 17, 2022

Episode III (3): Poisoned Dagger of Grimhilde

Natius began to have a dream.

11-year-old Natius was looking at his paternal grandfather in curiosity and he saw his paternal grandfather Shinji Takahashi who was a man with black hair and brown eyes dressed in a uniform suitable for a police officer and a man named Avery Huston fighting over the attention of another man who was dressed in a dark blue cloak.

Avery asked, "How much do you want for the talisman?"

The other man said, "If you pass its test; you will be worthy wield its power and be able to unlock the world that you seek."

Shinji argued with his former colleague, "Avery, you have no idea how dangerous your actions are going to be. Just get out of this temple and let me talk with this man."

Avery took a crest that had an eagle-like bird that was orange and red. He placed it around his neck, but the moment he did so something horrifying happened as fire began to engulf the man and he heard a yell of pain as Shinji tried to stop the fire by trying to remove the talisman off him, but he too began to be burned alive! He heard a scream of horror from an 11-year-old boy and Shinji turned to see his grandson screaming and staring in complete and utter shock.

The men fell to the ground with burns all over their bodies. Natius ran to his body and cried, "Grandpa! Don't leave me here!"

Avery responded, "Where's the talisman?"

Shinji cried afraid for his grandson's life, "Natius, stay away from that talisman!"

Natius saw the talisman lying onto the floor and with tears of sorrow welding in his eyes from what he witnessed he picked up the talisman.

Natius heard a voice that was calming, "So you've returned descendant of the Walt Maiden of Kindness. All those years I thought I'd never find you."

Natius started to feel fire tearing into his body, but to his surprise the flames weren't hurting him.

The voice said, "Do not be afraid, as long as you're with me, I shall protect you from the flames."

Natius opened his eyes as they were changed into a flaming orange color and he turned to glare at Avery Huston, he turned to the man in dark blue and he asked in a voice that sounded as if he was possessed by a force of nature, "Is it all right that if I incinerate this unworthy soul tarnishing the sacred ground?"

The old, cloaked man in question removed his hood revealing had long, grey hair, bushy eyebrows, and a long, grey beard that parted down the middle. He wore a conical sorcerer's hat on his head that was blue and decorated with several yellow stars and a yellow crescent moon. He was dressed in long, billowing blue robes with sky blue lining.

The old man said in a deep stern voice, "Firebird, no. It will reduce a good grandfather to ashes. Do not burn them further. It is not time yet. The boy is too young to be coming here to this temple. Come and meet me when the time is right."

The boy asked, "What are you saying?"

The old man conjured up powerful chains and bound the eleven-year-old. He gazed into the flaring orange eyes that were burning in a rage trying to fight out of the chains.

He said to the flaming eyed boy, "Firebird it is not time yet. Until that time comes you are to rest in the talisman this boy has on."

The old man touched the boy's face voice closed his wide white eyes and the boy's eyes changed from the flaring orange to a hazel color and the boy lost consciousness.

Master Yen Sid transported both of them into a Los Angeles Hospital.

Natius woke up in a shock and looked around his surroundings and found himself in a hospital and he saw his mother and she said in a voice that sounded as if her heart was broken as she was comforting her husband Masahiro, "Grandpa Shinji has died. The doctors tried to save him, but he suffered from heavy burns as did Avery."

Natius started crying.

Natius woke up panicked by the images of his grandfather burning. He began to look around and found himself at the cottage and he looked at the sleeping princess and he scurried to the windowsill, bothered by the nightmare of his grandfather burning alive.

Natius looked out the window and noticed seven lights and he began waking up his friends to hear the singing and he noticed Zander outside the room door.

The badger stated, "I take it those guys singing outside are the owners of the cottage."

Natius asked, "What do we do now? I doubt they would allow a small hamster anywhere in their property, I can try to wake up Snow White."

Bianca stated, "I think we should."

Jeanette was against this idea as she pointed out, "No. Let her sleep. The day was long and hard so we should deal with the owners."

Natius slid down the stairs wooden hand bar and he landed on the floor and scurried to the dwarfs, and he noticed that the dwarfs discovered Natius's letter about his situation, and one dwarf named Grumpy asked, "Who's Natius?"

Natius realized that he put the names and animals his friends and himself are on the backside of the paper. When the dwarfs read the note, they were puzzled.

The dwarfs found a scraggly black hamster and Doc the dwarf with the glasses and in red asked, "Are you Natius?"

The hamster nodded and he began to scurry up the stairs and the dwarfs followed the hamster to the sleeping princess.

Snow White woke up to discover not seven little children, but seven dwarfs who returned from a long day at the mines.

The dwarfs started arguing over the decision whether or not to send Snow White away.

Snow White pleaded, "Please don't send me away. If you do, she'll kill me."

One of the dwarfs Happy asked, "Who would kill you?"

Snow White answered, "My stepmother, Queen Grimhilde."

The dwarfs quaked in fear when they heard the Queen's name and Dopey noticed a small group of animals consisting of a magpie, badger, rabbit, and a raccoon.

Danyal noticed something was wrong as there was no hamster or a mouse until she noticed Jeanette climbing towards the windowsill.

Jeanette climbed up to the windowsill and noticed a doe with a faun and she asked the grey doe, "Excuse me, but did you see a black hamster?"

The doe answered in a sweet, but disappointed tone, "He took off with my husband. He went riding into the forest."

Unbeknownst to the heroes, Natius was riding on a stag to the castle of Grimhilde.

The stag asked as he was prancing into the night, "Are you sure that's wise to go into that castle? You should know that it houses a bird that hates rodents."

Natius replied, "I have to find some way to become human again."

As soon as the deer stopped, Natius got off the deer and he began to sneak along the walls of the castle and he saw Queen Grimhilde taking to a magical mirror as she asked, "Magic Mirror on the wall, who now is fairest one of all?"

The mirror answered, "Over the seven jeweled hills, beyond the seventh fall, in the cottage of the Seven Dwarfs dwells Snow White, fairest one of all."

Queen Grimhilde retorted as she opened the box to prove her point, "Snow White lies dead in the forest. The huntsman has brought me proof. Behold her heart."

The mirror retorted, "Snow White still lives. The fairest in the land. Tis the heart of a pig, you hold in your hands."

Queen Grimhilde was furious that Humbert had lied to her, and she began to descend into a cellar unaware that a hamster was following her, and she entered the room where she kept all her secret formulas, spells, and a crow perched on top of a skull by the name of Lucius.

Natius looked in terror at the sight of the crow that was watching.

She found a book on disguises, and she gathered Mummy Dust to make her old, Black of Night to shroud herself, an old hag's cackle to change her voice, a Scream of Fright to whiten her hair, a blast of wind to fan her hate and a thunderbolt to mix it well.

The wicked and vain queen drank the potion and felt as if she was changing, her hands became long and wrinkly and her voice changed to an elderly woman and she was hunchbacked, with white hair and her eyes were sea green, but huge and she had a wart on her long nose. She wore a black robe and she looked into her book and saw just a way to kill Snow White.

Natius looked on in fear as he watched the wicked woman find a page and she found the sleeping death!

As Natius listened to what she planned to do. He noticed a small black dagger that had a golden hilt with a small skull on the pummel. It was stuck on a piece of wood.

The hamster had to be quiet, and he saw the queen going upstairs to get some apples. Natius saw this as an opportunity, and he scurried to the dagger and he pulled it out of the wood, and he felt something was not right. He looked up to see Lucius looking at him in a predatorial manner and he began to swoop down trying to get Natius with his beak as Natius began scurrying around the table! Lucius started to chase him down, knocking some potions down and causing some of the potions to spill all over the table and in the process causing various reactions to the table such as melting holes.

Natius reached to the edge of the table dragging the dagger with him, but something surprising happened. Natius felt his body changing and he jumped off the table and was transformed back into a human and he looked at the dagger in his hand and he put the dagger into a loop on his jeans as he used strong rope to keep the dagger on the loop and he ran out of the cellar, and he ran outside of the castle.

He looked in relief at the moonlit sky and he noticed the stag that he rode with and stated, "We need to head back to the cottage. It's getting late."

The stag looked at him in disappointment as if he was pointing out, "The princess will not be amused with what you've done."

Natius replied, "I know."

The two began the journey back to the cottage.

Play Long Road Back Hans Zimmer at 5:31

Snow White saw a 16-year-old boy with short jet-black hair that spiked downwards to the nape of his neck and hazel eyes wearing a red long-sleeved shirt, black pants and black boot like shoes.

Snow White asked the boy, "Who are you?"

Natius answered, "It's me the hamster you met earlier."

Snow White asked, "Where have you been? Your friends have been looking for you."

Natius lied, "I was riding on the back of a deer when I got attacked by the Evil Queen and her pet crow, Lucius."

The buck was not amused as he gave the boy a look as if he was saying, "Tell her the truth, boy!"

The stag butted his head towards the boy's back using his antlers!

Snow White wasn't buying it as she looked at him with disappointment.

She replied in a stern tone, "Do not lie to me. I'm going to ask again, where have you been? If my stepmother had found you, she wouldn't show any compassion. She would've killed you as well."

One of the dwarfs, Doc walked into the room, and he asked, "What's going on here?"

Snow White looked at the dagger on the loop of his jean and she asked with concern in her face, "What? Where did you get that?"

Natius asked Snow White, "You know about this dagger?"

Snow White walked out of the cottage into the backyard and started to cry in sadness.

Doc asked, "What did you do to the princess?"

Natius answered as he looked at Doc in a confused manner, "She noticed the dagger and that I'm not a hamster. Why do you ask?"

Jeanette who had been looking for him through the cottage as she slid down the stairs using a piece of wood and she climbed up the table and carefully looked at the dagger!

Doc asked, "Where did you find this stagger, I mean dagger?"

Natius told the dwarf about what he did at the queen's castle and Jeanette in a fit of rage began to squeak in anger which made Doc laugh as he stated, "What's the mouse's problem?

Natius was surprised to hear Jeanette's voice as she asked, "What the hell were you thinking? I was looking around in this expansive cottage trying to find you so I could talk about something. What did I find? I came across a doe told me that you rode off on a stag like a horse to a castle that belongs to a jealous queen! One more question, how in Saint Michael did you change back into a human?"

Natius answered, "I had to drag a dagger across a table, all the while avoiding an angry bird that was being a predator and when I jumped off the table I was transformed back into a human, but I came out unscathed. Hell, I avoided the guards and capture."

The badger Zander climbed up the table to look at Natius who was looking at him with confusion.

Furious with what his childhood friend had done Zander asked in a stern tone, "Do you have any idea how worried about you Snow White was?"

To Doc, the badger was chittering in anger as if it was not happy with the boy.

Natius argued, "I have transformed back into a human and escaped the castle."

The badger was still unamused as he swiped the boy in the face with his long non-retractable needle-sharp claws causing Natius to yell in pain!

Zander scolded, "You inconsiderate rat! She was afraid that you were either dead or captured by a bitch with some envy issues! Besides she would've been more than happy to feed you to a crow that's notorious for eating rodents. That bird would've gutted you like a fish!"

The badger was then on the verge of tears as he stated, "I thought that you were in the same position just like that time that you were attacked by that rattlesnake Brandon Kyle released and this time I wasn't there to save your sorry little ass."

Natius felt guilt tearing into him and he noticed Zander scurrying off the table and headed to his pant leg and the badger lifted it to reveal bitemarks of a rattlesnake.

Zander reminded, "It's already bad enough that I lost both my Great Granny Tia, Great Grandpa Naveen, and home in the midst of Hurricane Katrina. I hate the thought of bringing you home dead and being forced to deal with another loss just two years after Grandpa Ray died two months in the aftermath of opening a new Tiana's Palace to honor the legacy of his parents."

Natius dropped the dagger as he felt remorse tearing into his heart as he began remembering the day that he met Zander for the first time. The bully, Brandon Kyle, released a rattlesnake that he stole from a zoo on him. The snake bite wasn't fatal, but it was still painful to injure Natius as he felt a burning sensation on his leg. Zander saw Natius was so sick that he rushed the boy into the hospital. Afterwards, Zander went after Brandon by calling his father John Kyle to inform him what his son did and even dragged Brandon to the principal's office by pulling his ear. From then forward, Zander has practically been almost like Natius' second line of defense. He was right if he did get caught, no one would be there to save him.

Natius asked, "What can I do to make up for this fiasco?"

The badger retorted, "I would suggest you apologize for pulling a stunt like that! You can bet that your grandmother would be appalled by your actions, but she would want you to be better than this."

Natius placed the dagger onto a table and asked Doc, "Can you please hide the dagger away from the princess and make sure you put it somewhere where the Queen will never find it."

Doc took the dagger, and he placed the dagger in a drawer that housed knives.

Natius walked outside to see Snow White in a state of despair and shock, and he walked over to the princess, and he stated in a sincere voice, "I am so sorry. I just didn't know that the sight of a single weapon would upset you."

Snow White answered, "It was not only that, but I also feared that you were dead or even taken away. I have not seen what that dagger is capable of, but I've heard that it would send the victim to a fate worse than dying."

Natiuss eyes widened, in fear and he stated, "I didn't know that. When I pulled out the dagger, I had to drag it across a table and when I jumped off, I was transformed back into a human. By the way, I had the dwarfs hide it from that jealous witch. She'll never know where it is."

Snow White scolded, "You're fortunate enough not to say that in front of my stepmother. I doubt she would take kindly for that insult. Now it's getting late."

Natius got upstairs and he decided to get some sleep for the next day.

Author's Notes: Looks like Natius had gotten himself into trouble. But what about Queen Grimhilde? Will the heroes protect Snow White? Find out in the next episode. I would like to give thanks to Sailor Luck for being my beta reader of this series.