Mercury had somehow managed to find an entire bag full of light silvery coloured corn silk, and Cindy had a mannequin head and bizarrely enough, an arm. They waited in silence as Cindy paced back and forth looking intently at their haul.
“I think...I think this is gonna work.” She decided, snapping her fingers. “The Mother’s upped her game, so have we.”
“She’s upped her what?” Snow shook her head. “How is this going to help us break Rapunzel out?”
Cindy gave an exasperated snort. “Geez, you would think you were new at this sneaking out thing. Amateurs. When sneaking out at night, what is our main concern?”
“Uh, getting caught.” Snow replied with an obvious shrug of her shoulders and a roll of her eyes.
“Exactly!” Cindy snapped again. “But if Rapunzel is sound asleep in her tower...” She trailed off.
Snow and Mercury studied the items on the floor intently.
“Ah, I see!” Mercury’s face lit up with a huge smile. “We are going to create a dummy Rapunzel, to fool The Mother, should she check in on her! Tricky, tricky little girl.”
“You scare me.” Snow added.
Cindy closed her eyes and nodded. Yes, she did feel quite frighteningly brilliant at that moment, and it felt really good that her friends had started noticing.
~~*~~
Well, it was rather ingenious Snow thought, as she regarded the sleeping “Rapunzel” they had fashioned with the pillow and mannequin parts. The corn silk Mercury had brought actually made a pretty good replica of Rapunzel’s silken tresses; but the arm was downright creepy the way it dangled out from the covers. Sometimes Cindy was so devilishly and deviously creative that it scared her. She made a mental note to never, never underestimate Cindy.
Rapunzel had been overjoyed when the girls crawled in through the window of her tower, catching both of them in a tight embrace. She had begun to wonder if she would ever see them, or anyone else for that matter, again.
“Wait.” Snow called to Rapunzel as she reached in to the pocket of her purple cloak. “I have something for you.”
She held up a red glass sun jewel strung from a fine gold chain.
“I’ve been thinking about this, and there is no one this pendant is better suited to.” She said as she moved behind Rapunzel to fasten the necklace.
The jewel hung low in the bodice of Rapunzel’s dark blue silk dress, hidden yet close to her heart. She pulled it up to look at the deep red sun.
“How lovely! Where ever did you find this?” She asked, as she admired the jewel, it seemed to twinkle and wink at her.
“The chain came from Uncle Gordon Grumpy; he made it in the mine; but the jewel is from Uncle Doc.”
“Then you mustn’t give it away!” Quickly Rapunzel reached for the clasp to return it, but Snow laid a soft hand on hers to stop her. Cindy grimaced and shhh’d them, terrified The Mother would over hear.
“No. It doesn’t belong with me. An elvish healer from Sarrilia created what he hoped would be an elixir to protect vampires from the sun, for obvious reasons it hasn’t been tested. The jewel on that chain is actually a sample of that elixir. Uncle Doc strung it on the chain and gave it to me, but it really belongs with you. Please wear it; it represents the first major step in our acceptance of vampires in to our society.”
Silently Rapunzel regarded the beautiful red sun, running her long slender fingers over the delicate engraving. “I will wear it close to my heart with pride. Thank you for such a thoughtful gift.”
“How did you know to expect us tonight?” Snow asked Rapunzel once they had crawled out of the tower and retreated in to the surrounding forest to meet up with Mercury. Their lovely friend had been dressed and waiting for them when they arrived, terribly, terribly excited and it was only now that Snow stopped to realise how odd that had been.
“The pigeon brought me a note.” Rapunzel had replied. “I do not know of a word that accurately describes how anxious I have been to get out of my tower.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “How ever did you manage to coerce that bird to do your bidding?”
Mercury looked down with a sheepish grin. “I made friends with Manuel’s little birdie. He’s going to love that.” He laughed at the thought. “I sent the bird up with a note earlier today. I’m just glad it worked.”
“Oh Man. Manuel is going to be so pissed. I really want to be there when he finds out.” Cindy chortled.
Mercury nodded in happy agreement.
~~*~~
The entire town of Turin turned out for the festival, or so it seemed as Mercury led the girls through the excited crowd. Lit by hundreds of coloured lanterns, and strung with beautiful streamers, the square was transformed from a common town square, to an energetic and exciting festival garden. Vendors called out offering candy apples, pretzels and other such snacks, and a young man stood beside that magic wishing well handing out cups of “magic” water. Even Cindy had to laugh at that, but she accepted one anyway; he was very cute, although she vehemently denied that had anything to do with it. They all knew better.
Snow eyed the candy apple vendor with interest, but Cindy dragged her away. Ah...apples, she loved them in any form.
Making their way through the crowd, the girls ran in to Alessa, the beautiful gypsy girl was leading the famed gypsy dancers that evening, and from the looks of it, it was going to be quite a show. After exchanging hugs of greeting, the girls promised to return and partake in the dance. Mercury had his eye on the courtly formation dancing held in the other corner, he had always wanted a chance to try out those lessons his mother had paid for last year.
Everywhere you looked something eye catching was happening and the air was thick with excitement. Rapunzel looked around, wide eyed and thrilled, never except perhaps in pictures from the ‘Lonstasian Eye”, had she ever seen a crowd this big. Her eyes drank in the sights, the people and the clothes, while her ears soaked up the sounds. She held tight to Cindy’s small hand.
Mercury ran back to the girls with an oversized bag of mini-doughnuts and a large pretzel which he very gentlemanly offered to share with them.
Up ahead Snow caught sight of a familiar tall dark haired figure in a black embroidered coat. Appearing to concentrate steadily on something just outside of Snow’s sight, stood Manuel, just as remote and beautiful as ever. Although she would never admit to it out loud, she was very glad to see him, perhaps even a little bit relieved as well if the truth were really to be told. As irritating as he could be, Manuel was part of their group, he was their friend. She headed quickly in his direction.
“Well, well. Look who we have here, just skulking around the festivities.” Snow announced as she neared the distracted vampire.
“Vampires are entirely unable to skulk. Skulking implies a decidedly cowardly undertone. And vampires could never be described as cowards. Are all humans as illiterate as you?” He replied without looking at her.
Exasperated she shook her head.
“It’s good to see you too Manuel. No, we have been fine, but thanks for asking. And yourself?”
“Are you alone or are you accompanied by the dog and the banshee.” Manuel made it sound more like a statement than a question.
“Ah, Cindy would rather be a siren than a banshee.” Snow replied with a shake of her head. “And yes, we are all here with Rapunzel. Rapunzel really misses you Manuel, now that we have been forbidden from visiting her, she is so terribly lonely each day. It would make it easier on her if you would stop by from time to time.”
At the mention of her name, the lovely vampire turned his head.
“Why were you forbidden from visiting her?” He asked in a serious tone, his eyes dark and foreboding. It was then that Snow noticed how pale and drawn Manuel looked; as if he had forgotten to sleep and eat for days.
“The Mother Goethal. She threw us all out of her house last week. It was quite the scene, Mercury wanted to eat her.” Snow explained with a pained look.
; Manuel glowered at the mention of The Mother.
“Pity he did not.”
Snow decided to change the subject before he decided to run over and devour The Mother himself.
“This festival is amazing. I can’t imagine how much work it must have been. I wonder who put it together?” She casually offered, searching for a calm and neutral line of conversation.
“Who indeed.” He replied turning back to the crowd, and that’s when he caught sight of Cindy and Rapunzel headed in their direction. Rapunzel broke away and ran towards the motionless vampire. A dazed and happy look settling over her features. He caught both of her hands up in his and kissed them ever so softly.
“Sweet Rapunzel, you grow more beautiful with each passing day.” The genuine smile touched and lit his bottomless black eyes completely, almost erasing the earlier signs of fatigue.
“Manuel, you had me so worried! I wasn’t sure whether you were hurt or simply bored with us.” She teased, eyes shining as she gazed up in to his.
“I could never tire of you.” He teased back with a small laugh. “I had pressing business to attend to that kept me quite busy. Every day was an eternity. I am very, very happy to see you.” Rapunzel smiled up at him, quite entertained, a small blush on her soft cheeks Snow noted with satisfaction; she wasn’t the only one who blushed.
“Buddy!” Mercury’s voice radiated happiness, as he bounded over to the beautiful vampire, catching him in a bear hug and clapping him loudly on the back. Clearly unused to such exuberant shows of affection, the vampire remained quite rigid, a genuine look of shock stamped on his otherwise perfect face.
“Pretzel?” Mercury asked, amiably offering a warm doughy pretzel to the horrified vampire who simply stared at the handsome werewolf as if he had suddenly acquired an extra head.
The grin that split Mercury’s face said it all, and the girls grinned back in amusement.
Rapunzel’s eyes shone with mirth as she looked from vampire to werewolf and back again. Manuel, quickly recovering himself stepped back and made a show of brushing off his immaculate coat, mumbling something about canine stench.
“Oh this is so wonderful! Everyone is back together again!” Cindy almost jumped up and down with glee, reaching in to the doughnut bag and grabbing one. Manuel gave her a withering look and was about to make a sharp retort, when Rapunzel laid a slender hand on his.
“This is a wonderful night, isn’t it.” She sighed gracefully, in great contentment.
“It is good to see you again, buddy.” Mercury agreed happily.
“I see you managed to keep the human children relatively safe while I was away; I suppose there might be some hope for you yet. And don’t call me ‘buddy’. Ever.” Manuel returned, pretending to look disdainful.
“Sure, sure. Pal.”
“Okay.” Decided Snow, clapping her hands together in excitement. “What shall we do first? I myself, am pretty curious about the mimes .I’m just putting that out there.”
“The gypsy dancers! I wore my favourite red skirt specially for it!” Cindy exclaimed as she began to sway in anticipation, and the skirt did indeed flare out around her legs beautifully, although it was much too short for Snow’s taste.
Mercury shrugged ruefully. “Court formation dancing. I’m working on my gentlemanly skills.”
“Good luck with that.” Manuel threw out offhanded. Mercury repressed a small smirk.
“And what would you like to do?” Manuel turned to Rapunzel.
“Oh Manuel, there are so many things to do and see here tonight, I would like to see everything! I think I would like, if I may, to see the music being played on the stages first.” Rapunzel’s eyes glowed with excitement.
“Of course. Then that is where we shall start; I happen to know several of the musicians tonight.” He replied happily.
“So we meet back here in an hour?” Snow’s question was met with a round of excited nods as they each turned and went their separate ways.
Standing in the square, she watched her friends were slowly swallowed up by the crowd. Mercury so excited to try out his “gentlemanly dance lessons”, who could have guessed that he was a dancer; he looked so dark and dangerous. Boy crazy Cindy, who had quietly noticed both Fyodor and Fredrik amongst the gypsy dancers, almost skipped her way back to them. Both of them were filled with such excitement, Snow loved seeing them like that. But what she loved most of all was the look on Rapunzel’s face when Manuel took her hand in his. How tenderly he steered her through the crowd, his hand on the small of her back, his head inclined toward hers as he no doubt whispered sweetly to her.
Yes, the elixir prototype on the chain truly belonged with her tall blonde friend. What did the future hold for the two of them she wondered?
What did it hold for any of them?
She turned and headed for the mimes.
~~*~~
Mercury was extremely pleased to find that the lessons his mother had been so adamant that he take had paid off extravagantly well. His natural wolf-like grace combined beautifully with the stylised movements of the dance, and within minutes he was regarded as one of the best dance companions in the formation. Each lady anxiously awaited her chance to dance with the outrageously handsome and wonderfully skilled stranger.
~~*~~
Snow made a small detour before heading over to the mimes. She decided to check in on Cindy, her small predicament prone friend, apparently Cindy was having much difficulty deciding between her two equally fetching suitors. In all honesty, Cindy had no intention of choosing between them...not tonight anyway. Snow hoped neither of them took things seriously enough to propose a duel...although Cindy, capricious, dramatic Cindy, might find that unimaginable romantic. Snow thought it was ridiculous.
Alessa was easily able to coax Snow in to joining in for a few riotous dances before she left them for the mimes. No one ever could say no to the beautiful enigmatic gypsy girl, and after those dances, Snow felt comfortable enough that there would not be any ridiculous duels fought that evening, so she left.
Finally she made it to the mime’s stage, mere minutes before the next show was to start, snacking on the candy apple she had not been able to resist, she waited in happy anticipation. She had always loved mimes, her father had arranged for mimes to perform at all of her birthdays up until he had become too sick to attend. For the first few years Rosalyn had kept the tradition going...before their relationship had degraded that was. She sighed, remembering the time both she and Rosalyn had played at being mimes together in her playroom back at Castle White, creating a small but entertaining routine for her father, just before he fell ill.
~~*~~
“What is it that has garnered so much of your attention this evening Manuel?” Rapunzel asked tentatively looking softly up at her vampire.
His concentration broken, Manuel turned his head quickly to face Rapunzel’s softly inquiring look. Gazing in to her eyes, he slipped an arm around her shoulders and turned her to face the band.
“Rapunzel my darling, have you ever heard of a muse?” he asked gently.
“No, I cannot say that I have; what is a muse?” She asked, her large dark eyes brimming with curiosity.
He considered his answer for a moment.
“Muses exist in a completely different plane, rarely are they ever seen, yet their influence is felt around us every day. Every poem, every speech, design, painting, song, anything in this world which requires creativity, right down to the latest medical breakthrough is directly influenced by the muses. That’s not to say that nothing would ever be accomplished without them, but without the passion they inspire things would take much longer to accomplish and perhaps many things, like music for example, would simply die away.” He started.
“Muses are almost always female, and they each carry around their neck a crystal strung from a delicate chain of the purest silver. Now these crystals, which range in a variety of different colours from the brightest red to the purest blue, are not
to be confused with ordinary crystals. On the outside they may appear to be an ordinary crystal, albeit an exceptionally beautiful and beguiling crystal, but these particular crystals house immense amounts of creative energy. You see, worn close to the muse’s heart they absorb and share the creative energy inspired with their muse, making the relationship somewhat symbiotic. And although muses inspire creative energy, they also need that energy to live, a muse deprived from the energy for any extended period of time would die, and the balance of creativity would dramatically and catastrophically shift. Were a muse to lose her crystal, she would lose her store of energy and eventually die as well, creating the same result. This is another reason the crystals are so important to the balance. Even though a muse will inspire and enjoy all forms of creativity, they do tend to specialise, so the loss of a single muse would likely be felt in a specific creative field first before spilling out across the spectrum as her sister muses attempt to strengthen her, but it would eventually wreak havoc with the balance of creativity itself. Who knows what effect that would have on our world.” He finished.
Now this was the sum total knowledge about muses, and Manuel was among a very select few who even knew that much.
If knowledge of muses was considered limited, any knowledge concerning The Great Oracle was positively sparse. Like muses, oracles were for the main part traditionally female, and usually known for their apparent youth and innocence. The Great Oracle, it was rumoured, was neither young nor innocent, but by all accounts quite eccentric. And exceptionally powerful.
It was for The Great Oracle’s favourite muse that Manuel searched. How would he recognise her as the ‘one’? Simple, she would be the only one missing a crystal. He hoped it would be that simple. By squinting his eyes and concentrating very hard he was just barely able to make out the shapes of several ethereally beautiful transparent women. They seemed to surround the band, their arms wide open as if encouraging the musicians, which in fact they were.
“How fascinating, would a muse enjoy an evening such as this?” Rapunzel asked, eyes shining with enjoyment herself.