La Petite Pantoufle De Verre 🦋

🦋𝐿𝑎 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑎 𝐷𝑒 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑖𝑡🦋

As Ella was about to finally divulge her name to Kit, she was cut off by the chiming of the bell from the large clock, which was by the palace gates in the near distance and in correlation with time this marked the close hourly duration of midnight. She could not speak for a moment, she knew that she couldn't be mistaken because before they had come to Kit's secret garden she glanced at one of the nearby clocks in one of the portrait rooms and saw that the time was ten minutes to eleven o'clock. While still seated on the swing she immediately remembered Fairy Godmother's words to her, regarding the last echo of the last stroke of twelve. She quickly got up and ran to the stone wall while still inside, she peered through the brick window and saw that the minute hand moved on the clock tower, it was now exactly one space before twelve as it was very near to being honed vertically and so Ella had to quickly make great haste. As she had readied herself to make her way out of the secret garden Fairy Godmother's words echoed through her head simultaneously..."The spell will be broken..., the last echo..., remember..., the magic will only last so long..." she turned back to Kit and quickly sat back on the swing, unfortunately, she said to him that she had to leave, she told him that it was difficult to explain "Lizards and pumpkins and things," She stated to him, she got up from the swing and walked speedily to the wooden door. "Wait, where are you going?" Kit said loudly to her, she quickly stopped for a moment more at the window space and told him that he had been "graciously" and "awfully" nice, so she thanked him for the wonderful evening, "I've loved it, every second!" She said loudly before briskly making her way to the stone path which would have then led her to the palace and then finally towards her carriage once again, which was soon to be on the brink of changing back into a pumpkin. Kit sat back down on the swing and sighed and repeated Ella's odd words..."Lizards...and pumpkins?" He said confusingly, he shook his head and smiled before deciding to chase after her.

Off Ella went she hurried as fast as she could back to the palace, for she only had one minute and a few seconds to spare till midnight began. Her steps echoed behind her as the glass of her shoe firmly hit the stone path, the flames of the flambeaus roared as Ella continuously gasped for air while running as fast as she could, step after step she could see the entrance doors getting closer and closer, before she knew it Ella had made her way to the main palace premise so she began speedily climbing up the flights of stairs to enter the portrait room again, this time the heel of her glass hoes roughly hit the surface and she could feel the firmness of the action. As she hurried through the doors she passed many guards in her pursuit, she quickly turned her head so that she could look back to see if Kit was perhaps following her but she could not view him in sight so she turned her head straight as before and continued rushing onwards. She opened the other room doors directly in front of her and she was now about to enter the ballroom, which was expectedly still quite full of people dancing as it was soon to be the dance of the midnight polka. She quickly jostled through the crowd and then through the floor where some others had been dancing, "Excuse me...terribly sorry..." she said as she had to rush through everyone, Kit had now managed to catch up to Ella and he saw her walking speedily on the opposing side of the ballroom, as he began making his way through the people dancing Anastasia had seen him and forced herself onto him so that they could dance. "My prince!" She said excitedly and loudly so much so that her sister Drizella had seen what was happening and she quickly in an aggressive manner pushed her dance partner away so that she could dance with the prince as well. Drizella frustratingly shouted to Kit saying that he had the wrong one with him, as Anastasia continued to forcefully dance with Kit she deliberately directed him away from her sister and this led to Drizella chasing after them both around the ballroom. But while Kit was unintentionally being distracted by Ella's stepsisters she was making her way up the flight of stairs which would have led her to the long corridor from where she had entered at first. While Ella hurriedly did so, the usher and his two associates were still trying to get the name of the mysterious maiden, they were rushing through many name cards constantly one after the other, the usher then ordered them both to read the names aloud that instant, "Angélique, Elise, Gisele, Juliette," the associate said, unfortunately for them they could not find any name that seemed to have suited their guest or nor were any names out of place as Ella had arrived without an escort or a name card as well, "No! It's not any of those names nor are they unfamiliar at all!" Out of frustration, the usher was about to walk away, with his head tilted down while he and his party were underneath the staircase as they needed some privacy to check all the cards, but as he was unfocused he did not see that he would be walking straight into the staircase pillar supports, and as he did a large thump was heard along with the supports shaking slightly. The amount of force was quite great and as a result, he fell right to the floor and rested there for a brief moment as he was just too embarrassed and understandably exhausted.

As Ella reached the upper landing of the ballroom stairs while still rushing forward she accidentally dashed straight into the king's chest. She gasped loudly and was in great shock, "Oh your majesty-I'm so sorry," she said with a breathly cursty, the king as understanding as he was responded saying she'd rather not think anything of it and that it was no problem at all. She smiled and continued to make her way past him towards the doors he stood in front of but before doing so she quickly said to his highness that his son was the most loveliest person she had ever met, so "good" and "brave" she expressed and that she hopes he knows just how much his son loved him. "Excuse me..." she said while being very out of breath before turning and hurrying to the adjacent corridor. She darted through the space as time was truly of the most precious essence, and as she did so the steps she made in her glass slippers continued to reverberate in every corner of the passageway once more while nearing the exit she passed another clock positioned on the wall, she quickly glanced at its hands and realised that she had only a few more seconds left to depart. Ella had reached the main palace doors and without a second thought, she dashed down the second last flight of stairs, she felt slightly relieved as she saw the large stone arch which was so close and within reach, to her, this meant that her escape conveyance was only a few meters away as it was directly under this stone arc. She ran through the sandy path, which had a stone roundabout but due to the urgency of the situation, Ella ran straight through the middle and then followed this pathway as her carriage was still stationed right at the very last step of the final flight which was in view.

The first sign of Fairy Godmother's magic wearing off had become quite evident as a fly flew passed Mr Lizard and landed on the carriage door. He instinctively pushed out his long tongue to rid of the fly and he did as an ordinary lizard would do, but given that just a few minutes ago when the same fly flew past him he simply waved it away with his hands instead, this meant that time was about to run out quite soon. Ella reached the arch and was now rushing down the steps as her carriage was now directly in front of her, the moonlight shone brightly on its golden exteriors and gleamed right into her eyes. As she was moving at this brisk pace she had accidentally taken a wrong step and in this miscalculated process she had left behind one of her glass slippers, as it fell it bounced atop the stone steps and clinked with each descent. While this happened Kit was right at the bottom landing of the main palace doors and as he charged vigorously toward the gates, the guards watched the prince as he ran as fast as he possibly could. Ella turned around to pick up her shoe but saw that Kit was now standing right at the upper landing so she was hesitant to spare a moment more to pick it up and so she left it there because there was nothing she could do. She instantly turned back around and made her way towards her carriage instead, she picked up her other shoe and decided that she'd rather hold it in her right hand and in her left hand she held as many seams of fabric as she could for the rest of her departure which she had now made on foot.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Kit shouted to Ella, but she could not risk losing any more time before the effects of Fairy Godmother's spells were reversed. "Hurry! Hurry!" She shouted to Mr Lizard as he was resting on the side of Ella's carriage. He was quite unaware of the situation but he soon woke up and urgently made his way to the doors which he opened for Ella so that she could get in as swiftly as possible. As she was at the very last few steps she heard the clock chiming in the near distance. This meant that it was now about to produce the echoes of midnight. Ella had finally reached her carriage and quickly got in and as she did so she skipped one step of the vehicle, got inside and sat down, Mr Lizard briskly closed the doors and got up back to his post. "Hurry please Mr Goose!" Ella said loudly, he then quickly waved the reins to signal to the horses that they had to start making their way out of the palace borders. "Wait!" Kit shouted to Ella but it was clear to him that she was not going to stop in her tracks, the carriage made its way back around the fountain towards the exit that the guards had opened. Ella peered through the window and watched the distance between herself and Kit grow larger and larger by the second...