Fiona's eyes shot open. Something had rudely ripped her away from sleep, but she couldn't place what; perhaps the baby had just kicked particularly hard, which was nothing new.
As her eyes adjusted, she slowly realized she was not looking at the cracked earth above her and her husband's bed, thick roots creeping down the walls; rather, lush dark green furls came into focus, suspended above her on four ornately carved bedposts. She felt around the mattress she lay on, but her hands only fell onto cold silken sheets, Shrek's warm shoulder no longer beside her. A firm, cylindrical pillow pressed into the back of her neck.
She bolted upright, looking down at herself in frantic disbelief - lean legs and narrow waist under a velvet dress, and delicate, trembling hands held up to her face. She felt around her body in panic, but it was all horrifying real beneath her hands.
Her human ears then picked up a sound, faint but unmistakable: a baby's cries.
Her baby? Was it hers? It had to be; she wasn't pregnant anymore, after all. The distressing sound was growing louder, occupying more of her consciousness.
Fiona stumbled from the bed, through the gossamer curtain into the center of the room. Before she could take another step, she froze as she caught her reflection in the vanity mirror.
The human woman staring back at her was unrecognizable - empty grey-blue eyes sunken into their sockets, dark bags surrounding them; hollow, gaunt cheekbones; matted, unkempt hair a faded dull mess.
The continued crying finally broke her horrified trance, growing louder still. She rushed back over atop the mattress to the window sill, but could see nothing through the oppressive black smoke.
Fiona ran to the room's door and pulled desperately at the handle, but it was locked. She threw her weak, bony shoulder into the door. She did it again, but to no avail. She reeled, gasping for air as tears began to blur her vision. Her head whipped back around the room, and she noticed a coil of rope sitting at the foot of her bed, somehow unnoticed before. She tied an end around the thick leg of her bed, and threw the rest out the window.
She held the rope tightly as she lowered herself out of the window, down into the darkness toward the cries. One hand after another, further down the rope–
"MOMMY!"
Three terrified little voices shrieked out in unison above Fiona. She raised her head, her neck straining as she clung to the rope with all of her frail might.
The faces of her three children were huddled at the tower's window - three little ogres no older than six, their eyes full of terror and tears. "Help us Mommy!" "Please!" "We're scared, Mommy!" "Help!" they sobbed, their voices a random, deafening cacophony. Fiona could only stare back up at them from where she dangled, horror-stricken.
She looked back down over her shoulder, toward the smoky abyss, the infant's ceaseless cries searing through her skull like a white-hot spear. Every cell in her screamed at her to continue down. She looked back up at the triplets, their desperate pleas ripping the fabric of her mind in two.
Tears streaming down her pale face, she finally pulled her arm up the rope, back up toward her tower room, where her children were trapped.
Just as she grabbed her first hold, her vision suddenly filled with the swirl of gold dust.
"No!" She clenched the rope harder as she transformed.
The triplets' cries and the infant's wails kept her battered mind from forming thoughts. She opened her eyes, the delicate hands that held onto the rope for dear life now large and green.
YOU ARE READING
Extraordinarily Pleased
Fiksi PenggemarThe ogre triplets, nearly grown, take their first steps into adulthood, while their parents have their own adventure of a lifetime at home. Truths come to light, relationships are tested, and the next chapter of their lives is only just beginning.
