Author's Note:
A thank you to hugo_sam who helped me with editing on this story. For those new to the series... please check out the other Fairy Tale Fantasies to understand the characters Hetta and Daniel. Enjoy and I look forward to reading your comments. ~ Red
**
Hetta and Daniel sat on the shelf beside the bottle of aged wine. "How often have you heard the tales of your escapades?" Daniel asked his friend. He knew he was sitting closer than he should, but he didn't care. He needed to be with her. He breathed deep the scent of lilies and lilacs, both of them a constant scent on her.
"This one is my favorite," she whispered back. "Now hush."
"Well . . . I'm bored."
"Do something to entertain yourself then," she hissed.
"Muck up something you mean?"
"Don't even think about it " she growled.
Daniel laughed and slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. His mouth went to her ear and he nipped the lobe. "Does it matter how I entertain myself?" he whispered. His tongue traced the curve of her ear and he grinned when he heard her intake of breath.
"Behave," she told him. Hetta felt the rippling of butter-fairies in her belly and wondered if it was the same feeling a human got when they spoke of butterflies in their stomach. She pulled her head away and looked at her friend. "Daniel . . . you should look after your charges."
He chuckled and kissed her lips, his tongue dipping in for a taste before she could pull away. "Mmm . . . honey biscuits for supper I see." He disappeared before her wand could tap him on the head. Hetta shivered at the loss of his companionship and tried to concentrate on the scene below her magically, shrunken form.
*****
Henry Liddick sat at the bar listening to the old relic tell the young folks at the tavern of the legend of the woods, as he downed another mug of ale. He too had listened to those words, hung on them just like the wee ones were doing now, but Henry was a man now pushing 40, a wife long dead, three daughters to care for. His twins were the vilest creatures. Both were rude and did nothing but complain of their lots in life. His youngest, Jenny, was the beauty that her mother was. She would brighten his day with a smile and a hug. Though she was everything a father could want in a daughter, she was often why he drank so much. Her beauty reminded him of his lost love and he would find himself drinking away her memory.
His thoughts drifted back to the story teller and the "Ohhs and Ahhs" of the children.
"The Prince you see was a greedy man, not to mention full of himself. That night the rain was falling hard and I barely heard the knock on the castle door," the old man said.
"Was it truly a castle?" a small boy piped up.
"Yes . . . and I really was one of the palace guards. That night I opened the door and I saw an old woman. She had long hair that had grayed with age and hung in wet tangles. Her clothes were worn and holey. She was cold and asked me if I would give her food and drink."
A young girl asked, "Was she as old as Madam Martha?"
Madam Martha chuckled, "No Grace, she wasn't as old as me, no one is that old."
Henry rolled his eyes and twisted around. "No Martha . . . you know how the story goes." He took a swig of his drink and continued, "This story is what grows old. Stories like this make the woods an eerie place for children."
The old man said nothing to Henry. He remembered when the man was a young boy and was entranced with his stories. Now the loss of his wife had made Henry Liddick a bitter man. The story teller continued, "I took the old woman to the kitchens where I found her bread and warm cider to enjoy. I then went in search of the Prince to see if we could find a place for the woman to sleep."
"He wasn't a nice Prince was he?" the youngest girl in front asked. The story had been told many times and the children all knew it by heart, but they each loved hearing it over and over again.
"No. He came and looked at the woman. He ordered me to take her back outside, that her filth wasn't fit for his stables! I couldn't believe it. I begged him to reconsider. The rain had suddenly changed to snow and I knew the woman would die if she were forced to travel outside."
The old man stopped and took a swig of his drink and his eyes connected with Henry's. "That woman stood up and changed, right there in front of me, my Prince, and the kitchen help. She became a Goddess. Her hair was pale blue . . . the color of the sky on a winter's day. Oh and she had the most entrancing eyes. She wore a gown that shimmered when she moved. She pulled a wand from her sleeve and looked at Prince Collan."
No one made a sound not even Henry; he too, was lost in the story.
The old man continued, "The woman was so beautiful the Prince dropped to one knee, pledged his love to her, begged her to stay, and be his wife. She told him that he'd been blinded by his prejudice . . . that means he thought he was better than everyone else . . . and well . . . she lifted the wand and suddenly I watched everyone turn to stone except myself and Prince Collan."
"What happened?"
"Oh my "
"What was her name?"
"Were you scared? Did you scream?"
The questions poured from the children and the old man answered them as best he could. "I was scared. I looked at the Prince and he too was scared. He asked her who she was and why she did this thing to him. She became very angry. She told him she was one of the many Fairies in the land and he'd failed her test. He pleaded with her telling her he was sorry, but his words fell on the wind. She lifted her wand again and Prince Collan screamed in pain as he suddenly began to change."
There were several gasps from the small group of children. "He became an animal. A beast He grew another three feet and his nose became a long snout. His teeth became razor sharp and his entire body was covered in hair "
"Oh no "
"Yes," he told the young girl with the pigtails. "I watched it all happen. The beautiful creature told him that only true beauty and love would relieve him of his burden in life and she looked at me and smiled. She told me that I would find a woman to love me and she was right. I did. My beautiful Sarah married me . . . and we had a long life together."
"Yes, but she's dead now. Isn't she, old man? Some happy ending for you huh?" Henry said.
Eyes glared at Henry and he understood their silent message. He left the bar just as the rain began to fall. As he stumbled in the night, he stopped at the edge of the forest. He could go around it. He had all these years ever since hearing the old man's tales. "Stupid bastard," he muttered into the wind. Henry took the path that would lead him through the woods and take him to his home much faster then the usual route he took.
The rain began to thicken and fall in sheets around him. The bottle he purchased before leaving the bar was no longer full when he stumbled over a root. He pitched forward and fell. Glass shattered and imbedded in his hand. He cried out in pain as he pulled himself up. He was lost and knew it. The glass in his hand was excruciating and when he saw the iron gate he sent a prayer to the heavens. He fell against it calling out for help.
Collan heard the yells coming from his castle gate and turned his head back toward the keep. He inhaled and easily picked up the scent of the man's fear as well as the liquor on his breath. He shook head and quickly headed back to his home. When he reached the edge of the iron fence, his sharp, yellow eyes stared at the man. He rose up on his hind legs, his steps barely made a sound as he stalked the human.
Henry sensed something or someone was watching him. He immediately sobered realizing where he was. His fingers released the gate and he stepped back. Fear ran through him as the old man's stories reached his ears. As he turned to flee, his eyes locked with a pair of cold yellow ones that stared back at him.
Henry screamed, but it went unheard as the creature grabbed the man's neck and lifted him from the ground. The animal snarled.
Collan had lived in this form for the last 75 years. He'd been 20 when the curse was placed on him and his servants. His guard of the same age had left him and Collan had lived the remaining days of his existence in a castle full of frozen figures. Those frozen forms were the stone figures Henry stared at as the beast dragged him by the collar of his jacket through the overgrown garden.
Collan cursed the statues. It had taken him months to move them all outside the keep and into the garden. Their silence had been deafening those first few weeks and had nearly driven him insane. Now as he pulled the man through the garden he felt their eyes upon once more, accusing him with their granite-hard gazes.
He knew keeping the man was wrong, but something told him this was the key to ending his curse. The villagers would come, battle him, and then he could die. That was all he wanted now. He longed to die and end the curse. Now he had bait. Collan threw Henry into the damp pit of his dungeon and left him there to wait for others to come looking for him.
*****
Jenny sighed as she stepped out of the tavern. She'd gone there for the fourth and final time over the past week to find out if anyone had seen her father. The reply was always the same. "No, not since the night of the storm."
She pushed her hair back and tied it with a leather string. "Jenny," her sister Alice called to her.
"Yes?" she asked. Jenny turned and looked at the elder twin. She was identical to her sister Abigail who was only born two minutes after Alice.
