Part V: The Discovery

         Bafl waited patiently for his brothers. The day was over, and it was time to go home.  Today had been unsuccessful, with no finding of any jewels or precious gems of any sort, and they where hungry, and so, their spirits where low and most where ill tempered. Dofca, being the oldest and fattest, was the last out of the cave, and it was his responsibility to close and lock the entrance door, making a tremendous creak.  Grup frowned.

“Who’s turn is it?” Grup growled.

“It’s Dopim’s turn to fix it!” suggested Sney.

It was actually Sney’s, but he was lazy, and hoped, being that Dopim was more skilled at metal work then he (the door was made of bronze) that he might just get away from the labor.  Hap laughed, for he knew his brother well.

“Nay, it be yours!”

The four brothers argued.

“Stop!” yelled Bafl, holding up a hand, alert, “See the skies, Snow White’s friend Sparrow approaches!”

And, indeed, down from the skies came small Sparrow, hopping from one foot to the other, talking rapidly.

“Friends, terrible, terrible, terrible news! Old lady! Poison!  An apple!  Snow White! Hurry, hurry, hurry!!!”

Though his speech was but of scattered words (most sparrows talked that way), his message was clear.  Snow White was in danger! The dwarves started to run towards the cottage, a total distance of two miles downhill from the mine, shouting and arguing along the way. Sparrow flew off for a moment, and then returned with three noble stags.  Docfa and Dopim rode the first, Hap, Slee, and Bafl the second, and Sney and Grup on the third. The race down seemed long, and it was all the Stags could do but not to fall and trip.  Finally, they arrived at the cottage, and saw through the window an old woman stepping down the stairs, caught their eye, and hastily rushed out the back door. The dwarves rushed through the front door, and ran to the top of the steps to find Snow White draped onto Docfa’s bed.

They where too late. Snow White, it seemed, was dead.

Part VI: Regrets

             Rouge watched bitterly as Snow White swooned.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, and down she went, giving into the darkness, and fainted. Instantly, Rouge regretted the deed she had just done, and began to cover her cheeks with kisses. Snow White did not awake. Again and again, Rouge tried in vain to wake up her slumbering step daughter, for surely there was another way to keep her daughter safe from the Prince, but, finally, she gave in to the truth: she was not the Chosen One.  She had made a terrible mistake, she now realized, to chose this way to protect her. Now, she knew that the only way for Snow White to awake was if Prince…his name was Peter? Or was it Phillip? Rouge’s mind was too blurred with misery to remember, but either way, she could only awake if HE kissed her, not herself, and now Rouge was truly  left behind in the darkness, and now not because of others’ decision, but because of herself.  You have no time for this, she thought to herself, it is already dusk and the dwarves would be here soon…. They could take care of her!  So Rouge did the first thing that came to her mind: to move Snow White up the stairs and into a bed. This task was difficult to complete, and had hurt her aching bones. Docfa’s bed was the biggest, so Rouge laid her slumbering step daughter onto it, watching over her, knowing that these moments where the last the two would ever spend together, though one was unconscious and the other was not. But Rouge had watched over Snow White too long, for she soon heard the pounding of approaching hooves and cries. Knowing that she was in danger, Rouge quickly mumbled the spell for transporting, but she had forgotten a rule that came with the transformation spell, which rule was this: once transformed, her magic is limited. None can be performed within the nightly hours unless she was back into her original body. Frustrated, Rouge hurried down the stairs, and saw the dwarves, about to enter the house, and, as fast as her ancient bones could carry her, ran out of the back door.