Snowred

❄ Chapter 19 ❄

I spend the day running so fast I feel like I'm flying through the forest of Snow's retreat, hunting him playfully. I would tumble with his wolf, and he'd smack my butt with his paw sometimes, or lick his wolf tongue across my face just to teach me what not to do.

It was a great punishment because wolf saliva wasn't exactly something to desire slobbered all over your face. The best trick I learned was to launch out of a higher location to land on his back.

Overall, it was about dynamic movements and stamina today. I end up bruised and sweaty, but Snow also generously deposits me at the front castle steps after I lay across his back for the journey home. Snow quickly ran off to bathe in a river while the lovely butler named Stephen, escorted me to my room and there I had a warm bath prepared.

Now I am comfortably sore, but feeling amazing from the physical day out learning to hunt Snow.

I now wear a purple pretty velvet gown for the night, as I sit in a lounge with Snow and his old friends. Stephen, the butler, Lilac, the stable hand, Leanne the cook, Archer the gardener and Percy the harp player. We listen to some light music now from Percy, all within a drawing room where we eat a light snack.

I am perched on one end of a long couch, nestled back against one pillow, while Snow lounges back on his end of the ouch, leaning right back, sipping on wine, smiling behind his cup. He is proud and a little embarrassed by the demonstration of his Kingly lifestyle. His immortally enchanted and loyal staff, recount his rule with fevered passion.

"...I love telling this story," Lilac begins, "As I helped care for the all the pets, not just the horses –"

"No, it's my turn to speak, I will say it," Leanne takes over, and the others listen in intently, "King Snow loved sneaking into the kitchen at midnight almost every night – I caught him many a time, feeding extra meat to his loyal hounds. Domesticated wolves, Ellie. He loved those dogs."

"I do not need dogs anymore," Snow chuckles.

"Oh, Ellie, all the stories we could tell," Leanne sighs thinking about it.

"My turn," Stephen puts up his hand next, "Do any of you even understand how many times I had to explain to Snow, that he cannot give generously to every single poor merchant out there – he would give his soul to a commoner if he could, and then at the same time he would mock and give nothing to his allies, he would throw wine at them if he was distasted with them enough – just to see them react–"

Snow laughs loudly at this, as if remembering quite a few times he must have pissed off other royals.

"He must have had a lot of enemies," I murmur, holding my hand to my chest in fright at the thought of such a rebel King. In my heart, I imagined Snow was a typical ruthless dominator who ruled quite typically and with an iron fist. Apparently not?

"I tended to the health of the castle's structural integrity, not just the garden," Archer explains next, "I spoke to many of the contracted folk from the poorest parts of the city – their loyalty was unlike any other, for any King that had passed. Snow was revered. The best King. The very best. His army was most loyal. His servants were even loyal and loving. Everyone knew him. Everyone would die for him."

"Let me tell you, Ellie, about Snow's heart," Lilac flounces up higher in her seat and closes her eyes as she recounts, "I spied the way he courted his first wife... she had some issues about one crooked leg she had, and this is the sweetest thing Snow has ever done... I witnessed it all... he instructed all of the staff to compliment Faye anytime she would pass by, and to offer an elbow anytime a stair case was involved, they also gave her flowers and gifts," I can see Snow goes uncomfortably quiet at the mention of his first wife and Queen, his first tragic love, but Lilac continues whole heartedly, "Oh, the smile I saw on Faye's mouth when the castle kept surprising her that day... she thought she was living in a fairy tale."