Fairy Eyes

Chapter 3

The passage beyond the door was long and narrow. On the walls were painted pictures of castles.

Kings praying to spirits of the trees. Their arms outstretched and their faces desperate. Angels hanging over them, as if to bless them for their devotion with their divine right to rule

Dancing faeries. Faeries leading children into the forest, looking much more menacing than others. All around were faeries - including fairy queens and kingdoms that were beyond the imagining. Dancing and twirling.

Priest women. They looked much more different than the fae, their eyes a dark brown color. Some were enveloped by a gold hue, the others seemed to be a bit darker, as if they were blending into their surroundings and threatening to disappear within the shadows.

She didn't even look back, just allowed herself to continue into the passage. Suddenly, there were trees. Covered with snow. She moved past one, and then there was another. The trees seemed to be pushing her about back and forth, until she found herself fighting against the trees. Yet it would continue, until she found herself into a clearing.

There she found a single lamp in the middle of the glittering snow glowing, just like she had read about in the Chronicles of Narnia.

She turned to look around, but the path to the door was covered with trees. Tried to fight her way through the trees, but they just kept pushing her back. Inevitably, Belle just found herself coming back to the snow and the lamp.

She shrugged, put a foot in front of the other, and trudged down the path that appeared to be leading away from the lamp. It led out onto a hill, from which she could see a pink castle in the distance. It looked like the castle she saw in her snow globe.

Except, as she trudged up the path shivering, she was able to notice that it was an expansive and large castle.

The towers littered into the dark night sky. They sparkled, sitting there like gods standing over the scene. Reaching into the sky as if to touch space. The stars, too, littered the sky. They glowed with an intensity of closeness that Belle could never imagine.

The windows looked ominous and dark but also glowed a bit from inside.

Looking outside as the moved sneakily along the walls, from what appeared to be the bottom of the castle, she found a kitchenette area inside.

There stood a table next to a stove.

A big living room next to a fireplace that was dark.

A single lamp that stood near the stairs.

She knew better than to go in a home that was not hers, but she felt as if she would die from the cold. Belle knocked on the door but no one answered.

She pushed the door with all her might and discovered that she was able to get into the castle. She took her shoes off, then heaved to push the door shut. She stood by the fire for there was a little bit of flame left. Then, when she could no longer see the flame, up the stairs she went for she was exhausted and needing shelter.

Down the hall, in the room at the end, she saw what appeared to be a lithe and beautiful blonde maiden laying next to a gruff and large looking man. They appeared to be the king and queen of the castle.

To the other side stood two doors. When she opened one, she saw a young boy that appeared to be similar to Andrew. He was laying down in his bed asleep. He looked a bit younger than her brother, as if he had just been a baby and was unable to walk. Yet he lay like he was older, as if he had the same maturity and experience her brother had.

The same objects stood on his walls. The model plane that their dad had given him. The same books of the planets and of trains.

When Belle looked at the other room next door, she found it uninhabited. The bed looked as if it had been recently left. The covers opened as if someone crawled just out of it, and she looked around to make sure that nobody was standing there watching her.

There was no one of course. Except a large white bengal tiger. It stared at her.

Belle was scared out of her wits as he approached her ever so casually, without stopping.

He rubbed his head against her legs and into her hand. He purred.

Then he hopped onto the bed. Looked at her, as if she was supposed to judge him.

She was nervous as heck.

Yet there were no other rooms in the castle to sleep in. The towers were mostly for show as she noticed, seeing as there was only three floors she could see via the entry to a lower and the upper level.

Belle tipped my way into the bed.

He rolled on his back, letting me pet his belly. The weight of the tiger nearly crushed her. She gently nudged it, and the tiger rolled slightly to give her room.

She sighed, and ironically, fell asleep.