Oubliette

3

He felt her presence close at hand as he opened the magic door back to where he'd come. He didn't wait to see if she'd follow, didn't look back, he just walked. The first warning head bellowed out its one line, and as they moved along the path the others joined in.

"Oh, shut it!" He snaps at them, then addressed the cautious follower. "Don't pay any attention to them. Lots of shit like 'em in here, especially when you're on the right path." She didn't say anything, just followed him while observing each head in turn. The last one guilted him into letting it give its warning, then they were pressing on.

He heard it before he saw it, and when the clear ball rolled into sight then passed them he felt the dread fill him, "Shit." He mutters as the ball rolled right into a tin cup.

"What's this?"

He had followed it, into a tunnel that was more or less a sewer passage, knowing what laid inside, and his low growl expressed a warning. "Nothing."

The ball had rolled and lifted itself right into a tin cup, held by what seemed to be a begging goblin. But nothing can fool the wolf's nose.

"Nothing? 𝑁𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔?" The voice grew louder and changed as the goblin did, shifting into the Emperor himself who threw away the disguise. "Nothing tra-la-la!"

Another low growl slipped out, but he didn't move away, and were he in his wolf form only flattened ears would have gave him away to the slight fear he had toward the Emperor. Not because he was afraid what would be done to him, this seemed to come from somewhere else, 𝑓𝑜𝑟 someone else. "Your Majesty, what a 𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑒 surprise."

"Hello Gaffen." The emperor says, hands on his hips and a wicked smile that said he didn't buy the greeting.

"Gainor." Snow interjected to correct him.

"𝐺𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟." He corrected them both.

"𝐺𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟, can it be that you are helping this girl?"

𝐿𝑖𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑙𝑓, 𝑙𝑖𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑡ℎ.

He looks from Snow, back to the Emperor and reaches up to scratch at the scruff. "𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔? In what sense?"

"In the sense that you are leading her toward the castle."

"No, no I was taking her back to the beginning. Just like you wanted."

"What?!" The cry of disbelief made him flinch, not for its shrillness, but because he could hear the edge of pain in her voice.

He continued on in spite, he felt like a child being reprimanded and reached for the pack in his pocket to find a distraction. "I told her that I was gonna help her solve the labyrinth. A little trickery on my part—"

"What is that you have there?" The emperor suddenly interjected, making him stop in mid opening of the box. He glances down at it, then up into a highly disapproving face and couldn't help but wonder why.

"Oh this? This is nothing. Just something I found."

"Gaffen—"

"𝐺𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟."

"Yes." He seemed to be done with hearing whatever excuse the wolf was trying to come up with. "If I thought that for one second you would betray me, I would be forced to suspend you head first into the bog of Eternal Stench."

"No, your majesty!" His brows have shot up at the threat. If there was one place he hated most in the damned labyrinth it was the bog, it assaulted all his senses to the point of physical pain. "Not the bog!"