Cinderella vs. Happily Ever After

Chapter 26

           “Who do you think you are, miss? What authority do you have?” The leader snapped, his nose rising in the air.

            Valerie knew she wasn’t eve going to be happy being called miss again when this was all over. She took a step forward to meet him, fists clenched at her sides. “I am Miss Ash. I’m working for Lady Ruby. We’re gathering an army to get rid of the invaders and interestingly enough, all the militias we’ve come across, people who should have joined the fight immediately, are still in their homes. So now, why don’t you tell me why you’re all hiding at home like cowards instead of doing what you were trained for and saving your country!”

            Several of the militia members winced, flushed, and began studying the toes of their boots. Two of them had clasped their hands behind their backs, like they were waiting for a lecture from their mothers.

            The leader paled again then lifted his head. “I had heard some ridiculous rumours like that but I hardly believed that good men would listen to a woman such as yourself. Everyone knows that Lady Ruby fled before the army even crossed out border.”

            She froze for a second before the fury in her eyes doubled in intensity. She stomped the remaining two steps to him and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him off his feet and holding him so their eyes met. “Everyone knows? Let me tell you what everyone apparently doesn’t know. I-Lady Ruby was drugged by your prince and sent away because she refused to leave willingly. Since coming back, all she has done is search for allies. And then, when we find militias, people who were hired to protect this country, we find that all of them are hiding at home rather than doing their duty. If you didn’t want to fight, if you didn’t want to keep your country safe, then you shouldn’t have joined the militia. Now, you have a choice. You stay here and hide like small children from an imagined ghost, or you can man up and go help the army! I promise you this, if we win and you are still here, you will be known as cowards for the rest of your lives.”

            He kicked his feet for a moment then looked into her eyes. He stopped fighting almost immediately, the colour draining from his face until he looked like a corpse. “Y-you…Miss Ash…”

            She nodded and dropped him. “Now, when you decide to grow some balls and go, tell them I’m the one that sent you.”

            Without looking at him again, she stepped over, a grinning Isaac and a head shaking Miette following. The rest of the men parted before them, half of them saluting stiffly as they passed, sweat obvious on a few of their faces.

            It didn’t take more than fifteen minutes for them to be past the village, this one made of darker wood and without as many fields as the other two. When they were through, Isaac grinned at her, ignoring the faint glow of anger still in her eyes. “I think if you’d tried, you could have gotten at least one of them to piss himself.”

            She snapped her head up to glare. He met her eyes with his dancing ones and she let out her breath in a sigh. “Oh I don’t think so. They’re just idiotic. I had thought it was just the one…”

            He chuckled. “You are so naïve sometimes, sweetie. It’s never just the one.”

            Valerie shook her head. “This is… I didn’t think my job would basically be yelling at people until they do what they’re supposed to. If this keeps up, I’m not going to have a voice by the end of the week. And you know, it’s getting tiring being angry all the time. The worst part is I can’t help it. They’re stupid and there I go again, getting angry.”

“Maybe this will make you calmer in the future. You’ll be used to people acting brain-dead and so you won’t feel the need to scare them into obedience.”

She snorted. “I just think it’ll make me angrier.”

“Well that’s the other possibility of course.”

“It will not always be like this,” Miette said. “You are earning a reputation now. When this is over, that reputation will spread and only the brave will dare approach you. Or those who are convinced they are truly intelligent.”

“So basically I’m going to be saddled the arrogant assholes and the too-stupid-to-know-when-to-run crowd?”

The lady shrugged. “It could be worse. And some will be good.”

“And by some you mean about one in a hundred,” she said then sighed again. “Why did I ever go to that club? What on earth possessed me to go drinking? I could have stayed home, but no, I just had to go out with my friends. Stupid Darren. I’m blaming him for all of this. And when I get a hold of him, I’m telling him so.”

The other two chuckled at her disgruntled expression as they continued their trudging path through the forest. Valerie wondered when they’d have enough troops and if they’d even know they had enough. She hoped the militias really were joining the recruits’ camp. And that Enax would be able to get help from Miette’s brother. Part of her wondered if they weren’t just prolonging their own deaths, looking for help like this. She knew that if she was captured her death wouldn’t be long in coming. She had no intention of becoming a prisoner or worse yet, one of the rumoured ice puppets. She’d kill herself first. She heard of people biting their own tongues off to drown in the blood. She thought she might try that if it came to it. She just hoped Isaac and Miette would be able to get away if they ever were captured.

Dark thoughts carried her through the rest of their walk and she ignored Isaac and Miette’s conversation about the differences between fairy tale land and their own world. The dark fog, so long kept back by the burning force of her anger, began creeping up her again, finding all the little cracks in her heart and shoving them wide.

She was terrified, worried, angry, and overwhelmed by grief and guilt. Part of her wished she’d never agreed to Darren’s stupid bet. The rest of her wished she could see him right then. To make sure he was still alive. Because that was the worst of it for her. She wasn’t even sure he was.