Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 13)

Ch.23 Narrator help

(Flashback) After a moment of walking down the dark passage way, Justine started to see light at the end as they got closer. But as they did so, Justine started to feel a light breeze brush against her skin, and that's when she noticed snow at the end of the passage as they stepped out and into a snow covered forest.

"Whoa" she breathed astonished.

"Cool huh?" Nathan agreed "Welcome to my world."

"I'm surprised it's not even that cold" she remarked.

"Well I don't get cold so I don't know what it's like."

"Well um, I gotta say, this place looks really nice."

"Oh this is just the beginning, wait until you see my castle."

"Oo" she grinned as they began down the snow path.

"So here's the thing" Nathan began "As soon as we get to my castle, the first thing I'm gonna do is help my mom, show you around a bit, and then take you back before your family starts to worry."

"So what exactly is wrong with your mother?"

"We're not sure, all we know is that this illness appears to be very rare, and if she doesn't get better soon, she could most likely die."

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine" he sighed "I'm just hoping these leaves will work."

"Of course they'll work, they work on anything."

They continued to walk until Justine suddenly spoke.

"Hey can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Um, I've been wondering this for a while but, your parents are both human, so how exactly did they, well, make you?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, I wasn't always a Nutcracker, I was once human."

"What?" she gasped.

"Yeah" he gave a small chuckle "I was human for a while, but like my father, I got cursed and turned into a Nutcracker right before my first year at Ever After High."

"Whoa" she breathed astonished "And I'm guessing you wont become human again until you love out your story?"

"Pretty much" he shrugged "It's mainly until I find my true love like how my parents did."

"And how's that going so far?"

"Well I'm still single and not crushing on anyone so..."

"Okay" she patted his shoulder in a small smile.

"Although I can wait, there's no rush for me."

"Seriously?" she questioned a bit surprised "Don't you want to become human again as soon as possible?"

"I do miss being human, but I don't wanna rush to find my true love, I know love takes time."

"Wow" she remarked "You're taking this whole Nutcracker thing well."

"Well Cedar is taking her whole puppet thing well" he put in.

"True."

"Besides, there are some advantages of being a Nutcracker, like Cedar I don't feel pain, and I float in water. But I can also crack things in my fists just like that."

"Oh yeah" she pointed "I remember seeing you crack that walnut in your fist that one time, it looks so easy for you."

"It was" he smiled "But I can also crack other things, I wont name them but you get the idea."

She gave a small snicker.

"Come on" he nudged his head "We're almost there."

As they continued down the snow path, neither of them noticed the hooded figure following them from behind the trees. And after tugging on the hood, it went back to following them.

When they arrived at the 'Wonder diner', Elena and Olivia met up with Lauren since Nicole had left earlier leaving them the only ones in the diner.

"Lauren we need your help" Elena declared after sitting at the counter "Do you know anything about how to talk to the Narrators?"

"Well-" Lauren sighed "I've been trying to talk to Brooke through Narrating but it didn't work."

"What about the other Narrators?" Olivia put in "Her parents."

"I haven't tried that, mainly because this curse prevents me from hearing them like how I did back at Ever After."

"Yeah I've noticed that" Elena stated "Before you were always talking to them, and now it's like you're not you anymore."

"I know" she agreed in a small groan "And do you know how much that scares me? This curse is making me feel, well, normal, and I know I'm not normal."

"And that's why we need to break this curse as soon as possible, but we can't really do it without knowing how, and that's why we need to talk to the Narrators."

"Well I don't know exactly how we can do that, but even if we did, we're not allowed to do so."

"What?" they gasped.

"It's against the rules for characters to interact with the Narrators, but you all know Brooke and I have broken that rule before. But her parents are more strict to their rules, and if they're the only ones, I doubt they would help."

"But their daughter's in danger" Olivia stated in shock "They gotta do something besides narrate."

"I don't know if that's all they're doing, if I could hear them right now I would of known what they were up to, but I can't."

Even though the girls could not hear us, and there was nothing we could do, there is someone who is ready to help. So as they sat there feeling hopeless, that's when Chief Chronicler sent something down to them that would do much help.

And that's when they noticed a lavender colored crystal in front of them.

"What the hell?" Elena remarked surprised "Where did this come from?"

"I have no idea" Olivia replied astonished "Lauren?"

"Didn't see anything" she responded as Elena picked up the baseball size crystal into her hand.

"So what is it?" Olivia questioned as Elena examined the crystal.

But when she turned it on the other side, that's when she noticed faint writing carved into it.

Use your magic Raven

"Whoa" she breathed astonished.

"What?"

"It says I have to use my magic on this."

"Why?"

"Perhaps it's a message from the Narrators" Lauren guessed in a shrug.

They're faces lit up as they gave each other looks.

"Only one way to find out" Elena said as she waved her hand over the crystal while using her magic.

And that's when it happened as multiple auras shot out from the crystal and into their heads, but it didn't stop there as the auras shot out from the diner and into everyone's heads, filling them with what was taken from them. As soon as it was finished, the girls all gasped as they sat there in shock.

"Oh my God" Olivia gasped.

"You girls remember it too right?" Lauren's eyes widen.

"Yeah" Elena replied still surprised "I finally remember Shadow High."