Through the Mirror and Into Snow (11 page)

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IRLS
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EALIZED
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what was happening. It was as if everything was going in slow motion. The old woman cackled, then right before their eyes, she transformed into the evil queen as Snow fell to the ground.

“That will teach you girls to try to mess with me! No one is smarter or more beautiful than I.” She laughed her sick, satisfying laugh. “I will always see to that. No one will get in my way, least of all the likes of stupid children like you!” She looked down at Snow and spoke, even though she thought Snow was dead. “I’m so pleased your father is out of the way as well. Now the kingdom is truly mine.” She turned to walk way. Just as suddenly as she appeared, she was gone.

“Valerie! The comb was poisoned, wasn’t it? What are we gonna do?”

“I don’t know. I should have known it was her. Why didn’t I think faster?” she cried as she knelt down by Snow. “I can’t think back to that story. What revived her?” Valerie strained to remember as she not so gently pounded her fists to her forehead.

Whistling and singing interrupted Valerie’s outburst. She walked over, following the sounds and saw flames from torches moving through the forest…seven small torches. This was too good to be true.

“Quick, Samantha. It has to be the dwarves! Go get them! Hurry! I’ll stay with Snow.”

The dwarves were startled at the sight of Samantha frantically running toward them. Never before had they come across someone they weren’t expecting in their woods.

“Please! You have to help us,” Sam shouted as she got close to them.

“What it is, child? What is the screaming about? What are you doing in the woods alone?”

“I’m not alone. Please, you have to help my friend. An evil witch poisoned her! Come now. Hurry!” She grabbed the first one in line by his arm and pulled him along. Everyone hurried behind her. They reached Snow and Valerie in a few moments.

“I believe it’s the young princess,” the older dwarf said.

“Yes, it is. Now please, help her.”

One of the dwarves knelt by Snow. “Poisoned you say? Would it be with this comb?”

“Yes, that’s it! Be careful!” Valerie shouted.

“My dear, that witch, as you called her, has no power over us. She should not have used stones from our mine in the crafting of this hairpiece. Now that we are with you, it no longer has powers over our little friend here either.” He removed the comb from her hair and took a handkerchief from his pocket. After carefully wrapping it up, he handed it to another dwarf who stored it in a pack on his back.

“Really? That’s it?”

“That’s it,” he assured them.

“Oh, my! Thank you!” Valerie and Samantha were relieved beyond words. They voiced their praises over and over as they took their turns hugging each of the little men. When they were done, they returned to Snow’s side and each took a hand. With all the excitement, Valerie still couldn’t remember what happened with Snow White and the poisoned comb in the story she read several years ago.

“Help us get her onto our cart. It would be best if you stayed with her. I’m sure the first thing she’d want to see when she awakens would be your friendly faces, not our bearded ones. We’ll take her back to our cottage. Rest assured; she will be fine.”

The dwarves were wise to give them the task of taking care of Snow; they would have collapsed from excitement otherwise.

As they traveled back to the cottage, Valerie asked how they knew who Snow was when clearly she didn’t know about them.

“My darling girls, we know everything that goes on in the surrounding kingdoms, especially what is happening in our forest. A tree does not fall that we do not know about. Funny, considering no one knows where our cottage is or our diamond mine. But you three managed to find our home before, didn’t you?”

“Yes, we did. I’m sorry,” Sam apologized. “We were tired and lost. We didn’t think anyone lived there. We didn’t do any damage. As a matter of fact, we cleaned up a bit.”

“We know, and thank you. I’m afraid bachelors such as we happen to be are not the tidiest men around. We do put in long days at our mine. We even stayed in it that night because of the dreadful storm. I’m afraid some gems have been washed down the stream. I hope they get washed further down until they are well away from us. We don’t want anyone else to come snooping around, discovering the jewels then setting out to find the mine. Mind you, it is hidden very well and protected with a spell, so no one ever could.”

“Oh, we weren’t looking for your mine.” Sam felt guilty and offered them the ruby Snow handed her earlier. “We found this by chance in the stream, but we were really only following a possum.”

“I see. Her again, huh?”

“Her? Who is it?”

“You will find out when she’s ready for you to find out. She always has a reason for the things that she does. For now, let’s concentrate on the young princess.”

Valerie and Samantha wanted to go back to Wilhelm and Dorothea but right now, Snow’s safety was the most important thing.

By the time they got back to the cottage Snow was awake, although groggy. She was a little confused since everything happened so fast, but she recognized the cottage and suddenly felt safe. The dwarves put her in bed and Valerie and Samantha stayed by her side all night. Exhaustion finally set in and they fell asleep, both curled up in the same small bed with Snow. Considering its size, that was quite a feat.

When Snow woke up the next morning, she said she felt great. “I feel like nothing happened at all. If you two weren’t here with me, I would have thought this was just a bad dream.”

Valerie and Samantha still did not want to leave her side. They sat at the table with the dwarves, Snow between them, and tried to think of what they should do next.

“You two girls must go home,” the eldest dwarf said to Valerie and Samantha.

“I know, but can’t we at least go see Wilhelm and Dorothea first?” Valerie begged. “They will be very worried about us and we really want to say goodbye to them.”

“You girls will not be safe alone.” The dwarf paced and rubbed his chin as he tried to come up with a plan. “All right, we will go with you to their cottage so you can say goodbye. If the queen found you before, she could find you again. With us, she cannot find you. Like the spell on our mine and our cottage, you will be invisible to her mirrors if you stay with us.”

Sam was confused. “But wait. We found your cottage on our own.”

“Did you, now?” The eldest dwarf turned away with a grin.

The journey went a lot quicker with the dwarves leading the way. The girls were sure they didn’t take the most direct route when they were on their own; especially considering when they left the cottage for the first time, they didn’t exactly have a destination picked out. When they finally reached where Wilhelm and Dorothea’s cottage should have been, their hearts sank then filled with fear.

“What happened?” cried Samantha. “Look at this. Who would have done this?”

“I know who.” Snow fell to her knees and cried. “I knew I would be trouble. I knew it!” she shouted as she slammed her fists to the ground.

The eldest dwarf tried to be of comfort while the other six inspected the ruins. Within a few minutes, the one with glasses came back to report there was no sign of any people in the fire. “A pile of ash and rubble is all that is left of their home. I assure you there are no bodies to be found. They escaped unharmed.”

“There you have it,” comforted the eldest dwarf. “They are fine. Do you know of anywhere else they would go? Somewhere they might go to be safe?”

“The prince!” Valerie brightened up. “He told Wilhelm to go back anytime he wanted. Maybe they went to Sequoia Kingdom for help. Can we go? Please? We have to make sure before we leave.”

Everyone agreed that seemed like the best option for Wilhelm and Dorothea. The dwarves originally set out to let the girls say goodbye, but now they were also concerned for the couple’s safety. They agreed to escort them to Sequoia Kingdom to check on their friends.

As they prepared for the journey by filling their goatskin canteens with water from the creek, everyone jumped at the sound of what had to be at least hundred horses heading toward them.

“It could be the queen. Everyone, quick, into the forest and hide!” yelled one of the dwarves. One of them had to be woken up and dragged into the safety of the tree line to hide him. He always managed to fall asleep within seconds, no matter what excitement was going on. They each found a place to hide and were as still as they could be, waiting with great fear and anticipation of who would be approaching. One of the dwarves standing by Valerie sneezed and she jumped.

“Shh! Sorry, I know you couldn’t help it,” she whispered. He nodded and they waited, eyes focused on the house as the horses approached.

S
NOW
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RIED
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UT
, “It’s Wilhelm!” when she saw him leading a group of men on horseback. She bolted out from her hiding place and ran toward him.

“It is!” shouted Valerie and Samantha. They also ran out to greet him.

As they got closer, they identified the man next to Wilhelm as the prince. There was quite a bit of cheering from the soldiers when the girls made their presence known. The girls got their share of hugs from Wilhelm and the prince. The prince ordered a few of the riders to look for clues to see if the queen left any trail for them to follow and let them know which direction she was headed.

“I thought you’d be gone forever,” Wilhelm said to Snow as he held her tight, fighting back tears.

“I am sorry about your house.” Snow’s happy expression turned sad.

“Don’t worry your pretty face about that.” He took her chin in his hand. “The important thing is that you are all safe. We have no need for things; it is people that count. You are safe; that is the only thing that matters now.”

The prince spoke up. “I have offered to make arrangements for Sir Wilhelm and Lady Dorothea to stay with me on my palace property.”

“Sir Wilhelm?” the girls replied with great surprise.

“Indeed. I am forever in his debt and have dubbed him a Knight.”

“What for?”

“Without him, I wouldn’t have found my fiancé. Surely that is Knight-worthy, don’t you agree?” The prince winked at Wilhelm.

Valerie and Samantha nodded in agreement with wide smiles.

“Even without my father’s persistence on the matter of marriage, I would have proposed to Danielle on the spot. Of course without your meddling, I wouldn’t have found her either. I owe you girls a great deal of thanks as well. I’m glad I had the chance to see you three again.”

“Us too,” Val said. “I wish Danielle was with you.” She turned to Wilhelm with a pleading in her eyes. By the look on her face, he knew what she was trying so hard not to ask.

“Enough of your stalling. You need to return home.”

“Drat,” Sam mumbled.

“Now that we know you are safe, you all need to return home. I’m excited to take you to your new home, Snow. The question remains, what are we to do with you two?” Wilhelm crossed his arms and looked over at Samantha and Valerie.

“Wilhelm?” asked Snow.

He knelt down at her side. “What is it, child?”

“I know you asked me to live with you and Dorothea and I do feel as if you are truly my own family but—”

“No buts now, young lady, you will live with us. Don’t you think that just because…”

“Please,” she interrupted, “I love you two. I really do, but I don’t think the queen will stop looking for me—ever. I couldn’t bear for anything else to happen to you two, not to mention the baby once he or she arrives.”

“But, Snow…”

“Please, Wilhelm. The dwarves think I will be safe with them and I feel it, too. Besides, they need me. I don’t think any one of them could boil water without burning it and no one lifts a finger to clean up. I think it’s time they had a woman to look out for them.” She turned to look at the dwarves, hoping they would like the idea. Even in the short time she spent with them, she had gotten quite attached to the funny little men. She was sure she saw the shyest of them blush when she looked his way. Even the one who always seemed a bit on the grumpy side smiled at the thought of her taking care of them.

“My, you are older than your years, Snow. You are such a fine young lady. You would have made us proud parents. You still make us proud. If this is truly what you want then you have my blessings. Promise me you will come to visit us often. My brother Jacob and his wife could not be more pleased that we will be living closer. He is quite the writer you know. Maybe someday we can put to paper the adventures you three girls have found.”

“You go ahead and return home to your wife, Wilhelm,” the prince said. “My men and I will go after the queen from here. She will never again threaten young Snolindria or anyone else. I agree it’s best for her to go back with the dwarves. She will be safe there. Maybe someday soon she can return to her castle and claim her crown but for now, she will be better off with them.” He turned to address the dwarves. “Men, will you escort these two young ladies back to their home? I believe you will find a mirror in the woods awaiting them.”

“It would be our pleasure,” the eldest one replied as he bowed to the prince.

Valerie and Samantha said their long goodbyes to Snow, Wilhelm and the prince, fighting back tears as best as they could. Three of the dwarves waited to escort Snow to her new home while four of them began the journey to return Valerie and Samantha to their own time.

The girls did their best to keep up their share of the small talk on the way back. They answered the dwarves’ questions about modern living, but their hearts weren’t in the conversation. When they first arrived in this strange kingdom, their emotions varied from scared to excited. Now that they were looking for the mirror to take them back home, they were reluctant to leave. Of course they missed their parents, but there would be a hole in their hearts for the new friends they made. They grew sad thinking about the fact that they would probably never see any of them ever again.

“Next time we go through a magic mirror, Valerie, take us to see Al.”

“Who?”

“Al-ladin. At least then we could fly around on magic carpets and not have to do all this walking!” They both laughed hard, realizing everything was going to be okay.