Chapter II ~ The Swan Sonata

 It was all too good to be true — despite their best efforts. Cassandra found herself out of the woods somewhere, to a place cold, dark with thickened old stone. It was some kind of closed off chamber. Casey's thoughts immediately ran back to the Dwarfs. She had no clear idea of what happened but happening close to the lake was a dangerous task~ She should have fled when they had the chance but…

Bringing back to light on what the Fairy had told her, she had to endure. Slow and uncertain, Casey rose up in order to gain a good look at her surroundings ~ It was a single, cold, and damp cell… that seemed no bigger than her own bedroom. A set of old iron set before her to keep her locked in and she had the temptation to run to the bars to look for the others… but all she could make out was cold stone and a row of unlit torches within a thin corridor.

She had to back away as this realization hit that she was actually inside that castle. As soon as that settled in, there came an eerie voice from somewhere down in the corridor. Her heart was all about to burst with fright and grief, recalling Grumpy's final word and dwelled on it until she began to feel a deep anger stir within her. Whatever had happened to them, she had to find her way out of here somehow. Of course, this was far from the real world so she had to be of strong mind… The Fairy was with her, was that true? For a moment, she needed to sit down against the wall, hugging her legs to her chest, trying to think. Her helplessness was indeed shared, she could tell…

Had there been a spell cast over them all? Was this Queen all that powerful? If so then something was fairly wrong here… Gaining back some of her bravery, Casey stood back up when she saw something shimmer in the fire's light outside the bars. It was a light blue shimmer and somehow she missed it because, at once when Casey got to her feet… those bars strangely opened up for her. At that second, she did not know what to think of all this. It was all beginning to feel as if this was all a dream… Beginning to question everything that has gone on before, her senses were on overload… It was soundly apparent that she was not alone in this place while thick boots were trudging down her way~ She looked up into the steely green eyes of a grave and strong looking man~ Someone whom she had recognized as the Huntsman who could not find it within himself to murder Princess Snow White. He stood nearly above six feet tall, adorned in hunting attire with a leather vest and boots, with a holster for a unique dagger. However Casey could sense from deep down that… something was off about him.

"What has happened to them…?" she asked while trying to keep her voice straight.

"They are none of your concern." he then said in a frightening monotone voice. "Your presence is requested."

"Oh God~ after being swept up like that?" Casey vented out, and all the worse would come if she'd clue him in that they rescued her, and they would get hurt. Furthermore, if she was here all alone, it meant someone knew all along that she existed. "If she won't come down here to me then why would I come up to her? You're her Huntsman…. You were the one who let her go…"

"Are you to come quietly?"

"Like Hell I will…." she nearly wanted to retaliate but she found his iron grip around her arm that was so tight that she could not move. Casey had no other choice but to go alongside him. He had brought her down this endless corridor that was graced with a rising moon shining through the curtains and stained glass that depicted heroic feats of dragons and knights. Rose red and snow poured scenes…

"Please reconsider~ among the others she had taken in here… I am not from anywhere near here."

"The Queen has spoken. Her desire is my command. Do as she wishes or meet her wrath." he spoke again, sounding unnatural at best.

Either he had been slipped something or under influence but none of this was feeling right to her. She was at their mercy but she had to be clever about this. At once they came up one a great auburn wooden door, it opened suddenly on command. Great snarling gargoyles leered at her right then she was shoved in, his iron grasp still tight around her arm. With him so brawny and soulless, with her so bright and for eyed, the one who awaited them smirked ~ their blood red lips parting upwards. Casey looked forward in huge fright… knowing that this was the Great Queen the Seven Men hated and feared.

She happened to have been brought into a grand and dark throne room with hardly any light being allowed to enter. There was a vast space that circled around that housed a golden peacock adorned throne on the west end, while a great arch that housed a massive mirror sat at the west end. A mirror that shot out to her, first and foremost. Around its frame were those infamous zodiac signs that mesmerized most back home. It laid dead on the wall, and yet she felt called to it… despite being restrained.

"If you truly believed those insufferable dwarfs were to keep you safely away from me, you are sorely mistaken…" came a cold voice that was sharp enough to break her from her trance.

Cassandra looked finally to whom addressed her before she was shoved to her knees before the throne. A grave woman then came out of the darkness, and it looks could kill… these terrible green eyes would have. She shuddered at the sight of her although Queen Grimhilde was superbly beautiful to the eye. She was an extraodinary tall woman, seemingly to be no older than twenty. She was indeed very beautiful but it was her expression that was pure fire and so full of hatred… Adorned in that noble violet and black and red, with a balaclava completely covering her ears and hair~ lastly finished with a wide cowl about her head and shoulders as though in a protective gesture. Her eyes were what struck her still, as if by some magic spell.

"You shall address me as your Highness, I am the firm and true ruler over Germania and its deep forests and mounts, all will answer to me. Especially you will, as well as those feckless friends of yours… Speak of your ill-intended arrival into my domain…"

She found herself shoved forward to answer to this woman who was responsible for some of this turmoil in this world, with girls left and right vanishing. Now she was on that same boat. Whatever had just happened back there to get her here had to be the work of black magic… In regards of the swans and the dwarfs, she could only imagine the worst.

"State your business, woman, or I shall cut out your tongue — since you have no use for it."

"I-I…" Casey worriedly stuttered, while glancing back at the Huntsman who was so stone faced and placid, an eerie memory hit her. "I am a simple maiden… your Highness. I was only trying to make my way back home, please. I meant no offense to you, your Grace. I only wish to go home…"

"Since the burning of the seventh Glen, I knew those ingrates were camping out in those trees… Slight help, no doubt, has brought you all to me, personally. I have been after those beastly men for many moons… and now here I have, among one of the last. State your name, peasant." she coldly commanded of her.

In answering the Queen, Casey's voice was thoroughly caught in her throat. She did her best at a cursty while doing so~ "My name is Cassandra, your Highness…"

"… and where do you hail from?"

"… from…? I~ I do not remember." Casey just wanted to shrink down. In truth, besides getting the name finally, she had no idea of where she was.

"Foolish little child, you are — to come upon my land. I will see to it that you too shall be doomed with the rest. For no one shall ever be fairer than I, and my trusted Mirror of the Fates had sought you and your attempt to flee from my sight. Your beauty, your youth, belong to me… A sip of your blood willingly given shall grant me Eternal Youth. Forever more…"

Right at that nauseating statement, Casey found her chin being pinched tight and forced to face the woman as she studied her face.

"A fine skin and pigment, albiet not so pretty but young and strong, nonetheless. You will do…"

Casey raged and yanked her face from her grasp. "You shall not! I demand to know what you have done to the Seven~"

"They are mine, as you are! No creature shall live as long as I state so. If you so wish to see them again, consent to my desire, and I shall spare them. Do not consent — You will meet the same fate as the others."

Who knew what that would entail. Casey's stomach dropped, painfully. "Where are they!?" she yelped out as the Huntsman restrained her again. "I won't consent to this until I know where they are~ That is my price…"

"On this eve then, you will be condemned. Take her to the lake, throw her in… On the eve next, you will be questioned."

"God, no… what is all this? This is sick, you know! Who would consent to doing something like that!?"

"Take her away." Grimhilde flourished around. "Be wary, Cassandra, the world you have stepped in belongs to us now. You are no local maiden, but your blood shall replenish and purify me just as theirs had, as long as you shall live. Albiet, not very long," was the deep rooted chuckle.

At this point, Casey's heart was filling with resentment towards the fairy as to how all this just fell through and now she was a prisoner. She was no match against the man who had her after having met the titular queen that was cause of all this torture. The cottage was destroyed! Oh how could her heart break ever further… and she feared more after the Queen's speech that they were among one of her enemies. She could not think of what would be an even worse case.

When she thought it was only this mind addled Hunstman with her, Casey soon found armored men following close behind them as they scored down this vast and immensely ancient staircase. Her wrists were bound behind her, so tightly that she was beginning to chafe. Down below, she could only make out a sort of well system that would end up at the lakeside… She had no say when she was chained by her ankle on the embankment and left to sit there in the damp and in her thoughts about what just went down. Only that she was some deeply dug hole that was too harsh for her to wrap her mind around, other than the fact that she had to consent to giving her blood, which was something sick by itself.

This was more than just something wrong — Deep evil was at work here and she was thrown into it. The Queen knew that, and Casey had no other excuse. Just as Happy told her, there was more to it than just stealing the youth from girls. Queen Grimhilde looked to be the perfect age… and by used of literal blood, willingly given?

She held her knees tight to her chest as soon as she was left alone, dreading… Of all those years of dreaming to be in a place like this, and then it had be in this way… She did not want to stick around to find out what she meant by condemned. Although, it could be too late already…

Seeing that dear girl stand so chillingly still was cause for their hearts to completely break once again. Despite all they could do, another maiden was taken away. Taken by a slew of slimy shadows~ that slipped directly out of the lake like a poison through the air. They came at such a force that it threw them all into the water… and along with her, they were swept off — ultimately thrown each into their own tiny stone cells with no windows or bars.

Little did they know that a grand plot was about to come down tonight~ with all of their fears in tow.

Night had fallen about an hour ago, she could tell, because the chamber began to feel even more eerie to her. Even with a shackled ankle, Casey did her best to at least seek any possible way of escaping. With the chains rattling as she moved, she was a little too distracted to see or hear the water of the underground churn and ripple. In her fright, Casey looked to see a white swan swim its way closer to the embankment. Prestinely white feathers with their wings arched, they approached with purpose to her… even to split the moment with a warning frantic flap of their wings. Casey stared at them, entranced at first.

"Where did you come from…? How did you get in?" she asked it, more so with hope.

Yet she could not predict what would happen next though. The bird poked at something embeded in the stone, having her look to see that there was an old nail sticking out of the brick. She could very well try and pick at the lock with it if she could get it out… Not even a moment had passed when a shred of moonlight had entered and lit up the chamber. That diamond she was given began to glow with it as well… reminding her that she had to hang on. The swan who joined her was beneath the light and those feathers seemed to shimmer, the water below them brightened. They opened their wings in some hyper attempt to fly however, a great mist of magic brewed up from the water, taking on an eerie emerald hue. As if in a moment, Casey looked back only to see that the swan was gone… and there was a girl with her, gathering herself on the embankment.

"God! What is going on!?" Casey gasped at what she had just witnessed. "You just —! You just changed!"

The girl looked no older than nineteen, as Casey herself was twenty one. With sweet dirty blonde hair that kissed her shoulders. She had hazel eyes and freckled cheeks. Her gown was old and torn but it used to be spring gold… She looked frightened as she approached the chained Casey.

"Please, don't fear me! I- I only wish to help…"

"Who are you? You were that swan… Oh god, if that was you…" Casey was fighting back panic fairly well.

"My n-name is Ida. I was only a milk lass in the village nearby… Please, tell me, where do you hail…?"

"I hail from nowhere near here, Ida. Trust me, I'm not a local around here. I found myself taken from my home through some kind of dark spell. I-I'm sorry if I screamed out too loud… You are honestly a sight for sore eyes, Ida."

"… Forgive me. It was the only way to get in here, honestly… I knew she would take someone else. She never stops."

"You were a white swan."

"Yes… It's a spell. A captive spell…"

"This is getting out of hand…"

"It keeps us bound to the lake, until we agree to give our blood for her thirst but some of us aren't going to give in…"

"Neither will I. I was helped by these Seven kind Dwarfs and… I know she had done something to them."

"We might be able to find them… but you must get away as soon as we get out of here. Before it's too late! She means to have you cursed, the same as me and the others…"

"You mean… you and these others are the girls who are, in her words, condemned?"

"Yes…" Ida's voice cracked before she was able to reach for that nail she hinted at prior. She yanked it out, cutting her palm, but she didn't care at the moment. It was enough to pick the lock around Casey's ankle.

"We must escape before sunrise." she hinted again, taking Casey by the hand. "We can only be ourselves under the bright moon,"

"Thank you so much~ My name is Cassandra, by the way." Casey spoke tightly as she followed Ida along this parapet.

"Beautiful, that name~ I am one of six other swans… They await at the bank. We mean to make a way out from this place. The only matter is that we have yet to learn how to fly…"

"So, as it stands… I am one of you." Casey affirmed, in spite of feeling fright.

"Let's pray that you won't be one of us… This curse is eternal."

"There is no way to break it?"

"We-we don't know…"

Now was the perfect chance of escape, and Casey remembered the words the Fairy had said.

"That jewel about your neck. You saw the Fairy…" Ida whispered out as they inched through the deep underpass.

"You know about her?"

"Yes. She promised us flight but told us to make sure you'll be with us. She said you might be the one whom we've been waiting for…?"

"There's nothing great about me, you know. I am just like you. A girl…"

Whatever that had to be endured, this was the mere beginning of it. She was trapped just like everyone else, and now this whole Swan business was beginning to make some inch of sense. If the story of Swan Lake held any other clue besides tragedy or hope, it told that evil can be greatly and strongly overcome whenever love would get into the mix. Love was the key in all of these stories… That was what had to be kept swiftly to heart; that. Was she to take on this role? If so, did she have the right spirit for it? The Blue Fairy had this mysterious way of keeping things intact so far. Right now, she knew more than the Dwarfs did.

"Whatever you call yourself, but you are the one with the diamond." Ida told her before they both came out into the moonlight.

Casey was met with one of the most beautiful, spectacular nights she had ever seen. She had never seen such a grand moon, amidst a cascade of sparkling stars from sapphire blue pattern of the sky… Hours had gone by but it truthfully felt like minutes to her. Her stomach was empty and yet so tight and churned… As beautiful as all this was, danger was looming so closely above them. The castle hovered high over their heads as they reached the bank side beside the great lake.

Meanwhile, as clever as they come, the Dwarfs were quickly at work to ensure that there was good distraction… Casey was surely found by another maiden, as Dopey had spied and was able to tell his fellows that the girls had fled the well chamber. But the moonlight brought with it a troubling reality…

"Th-they got away!" Bashful cried, in tears. "Oh they got away!"

"Don't get gay so soon!" Grumpy warned, his face taking on a look of worry. "We need to look out!"

Happy was one of the first to climb down the ledge and Doc was last before a rain of arrows shot out from chamber they had just escaped through. "Go find them, Happy! Go! We'll catch up~"

"— Oh Gosh!"

Time was not in their favor because the night was so late. Happy was frightened of finding out what was going to happen, but if Dopey's finding were true then… there would be a way to mend things. If the cards were played right.

Dopey was the one who got out of his cell first, and he was able to hear his fellows guide him out until he fell into the Queen's alchemy chamber. A cold place with a single cauldron at the heart, ever brewing… Glasses and beakers littered the place, along with old bones of animals and birds. Dead birds with open chest cavities, where their hearts used to be, laid on a platter of gold. Ancient books of dark arts and potions laid open and bare, speaking of a ritual that needed to be willingly done written in old speech. In a cell just below laid a young maiden ~ dead, and as old as anything… with hair turned from gold to white, still lovely in its way.

Dopey had to look away and he scrambled to hide away until he found one of the books beside the cauldron. Inside was a note.

He took that note and went back the way he came, finding Grumpy at last.

In black ink, the note read~ Whomever you condemn~

My spell shall dispurse over them~

Purity and Beauty, sublime

Shall bring all to be Mine

Any maiden's eye set on black wing

Shall my dark song sing~

This was a written note for the Queen, and not written by the Queen at all. There was a curse in this castle, and on that lake… so Casey had to be found~ Drawn out by this orb of light, no bigger than a speck of dust, the Dwarfs were able to make their escape… and they intended to be as swift as could be.

With the guards on edge of the escapees thus far~ during this trek, Casey and Ida were along the bank already and Casey was able to see them dodge down the rocks.

"Come! Don't stop, you must follow me… Don't worry about them." Ida told her as they hurriedly along.

"But they are my friends!" Casey countered, but she was ever so glad to see that they were all right.

"Casey!" she heard Happy cry out as he attempted to run to them, but they were too far away. "Keep runnin', ma'am~" he panted with his fellows soon catching up. His eyes were tearing up at seeing them run off into the distance. Grumpy and Doc caught up with him, and they saw the often jovial one looks so disheartened. Perhaps he knew there was that terrifying possibility of failure on this front…

"We'll catch up to'em! Let's git!" Grumpy told them before bounding on before the guards would get too close.

Across the scape, there was a bank where six other maidens were waiting, however, there was dread, even now… Maidens who were all each different, golden haired, golden eyed, brunette and one black, they each saw the two approach from afar as they began to make out the light rising in the horizon.

Queen Grimhilde opened out into the balcony in a rage. A poisonous glare obscured her fairness so much that she looked deranged. Her prize was getting away, but not for long. Neither did she care of the dwarfs… but her eyes were set on the two running farther off. Gripping the parapet, she growled animalistically under her breath before something seem to sweep by on silent wings… A regal creature as black as ink flew past the tower and over the turrets.

It looked to only be a swan~ something was frightening unnatural about it. A black swan with deep dark eyes flew over the lake as its eyes flashed a sickly emerald. Its dark bill emitting a hiss as it eyed the runaways.

Casey caught Ida seeing something in the water that made her face go white.

While the Dwarfs were close to catching up to the girls, they were horrified when they saw the black body dive down close. Sunrise was only seconds away as something fell over Casey in particular, and when she stopped running, that swan's reflection in the water caught her eye.

What met her first was this thunderclap headache~ a slew of drowsiness as all she could hear were cries of despair before something fell over her entire frame.

The sunlight peeked over the mountains as the moon's shine fled the waters. To the seven men who escaped just the same, after outsmarting the guards, they were greeted with a sobering truth — that they were unable to stop the inevitable. As soon as that black body dispersed into a mist in the sun~ each maiden at the bank were enveloped in that same mysterious emerald haze as each were forced to touch the lake ~ the waters flowed over them like veils. As for Casey among them, she was caught into it, dazed and confused. With them, she felt as if her body was no longer hers, with so much pain and shock, and then fierce numbness. In the dawn's light, an entire flock of white swans shot out of the water, flapping in discomfort and sorrow.

Her arms burned, her skin felt stretched with constant stabs in every fiber. Her lungs squeezed, and her neck pulled, her blood went hot. All at once, she could not breathe or scream~ all the while water tore passed her before she shot into the air, blinded by the sun.

Grumpy was first to get to the edge of the lake as the land was lit up from the sunrise, with a look of great sadness. Doc shook his head in denial. Happy broke into a sob when he saw the last swan shoot out of the water in clear agony… A diamond was worn about its throat still. This one had her head down, almost losing her bill into the water… She was not used to this new body at all and yanked her neck painfully as she awoke to the new moment. She tried to cry out but could only squawk out in alarm. Her arms were folded into her body and she tried to flap them out and she kicked and flailed in confusion.

"No! What! Is all this!? I'm a — I'm!" at that declaration, Casey looked down at the water at her own face. All she could see in the water was a swan. Where was she? In this bird's body!? "I am a swan!? I can't be!"

Ida, who had transformed as well, floated to Casey, softly nibbling at her tail and wings, in a way to comfort. 'I am so sorry…'

'NONE OF THIS IS RIGHT!' Casey retorted out, trying to flap again, unknowingly whacking Ida. 'I-I can understand you… Ida!'

'We are swans by day, and we ourselves at midnight til dawn… a small window for the Queen to enforce her will on us… Alas we can only speak as a flock… do not be afraid, Cassandra~ We are a flock.' Ida reassured their newest.

The other swans joined the two, swimming around them as if to provide protection. Casey kicked her new legs and turned vast to see the Dwarfs heartbroken on the banks of the lake. They had escaped!

'My friends!' Casey's worried cry was not unheard. The flock gathered to help push her closer to them.

Grumpy was devastated seeing this, as they worked so hard to try and avoid this, but it did not matter.

"We couldn't even save her…" Happy despaired. "She's lost now, just like them~"

"N'she ain't! Nah, they ain't, dangnabbit —" Grumpy remarked. He even had a tear in his eye. "That fairy- She's gotta know."

"That black'in, when it showed up, they all changed…" Doc trembled.

"It flew off into a puff a smoke!" Sneezy remarked.

"Look, they ~ they're bringin' her this way!" Happy sobbed.

"C'mon Men. She-she needs us…" Doc began to climb closer.