Skye had been walking for nearly an hour before she saw any indication that she was on the right track at all. It had been a long, twisty, narrow path to the house of this strange girl who was a Princess of Giselle, and Skye had been wondering if she had better go to sleep when a bright pink light had shot out of a tree, darted aroud her head, and then shot back in again. Instantly Skye woke herself up. If this was a pixie, could it be possible that soon she would be at the Princess's house? The little pink light shot out again, this time with a little blue light following it around. They spun in dizzying circles around Skye, looping around her from head to toe, taking in every inch of her body. More coloured lights started to emerge now. Skye registered them silently in her mind - green, orange, red, purple, cream, white, amethyst, siilver, lemon, rose...soon she lost count, and could only look around at the many lights - or really, as they were, pixies - that surrounded her. Finally, a larger gold light sedately floated down. Alomst unconciously, Skye lifted up her hand for the Pixie Queen to rest on. Her light faded, until there was just a faint golden glow around her.
She was exquisite; no doubt about it. The Queen was about two inches tall, with long, firey hair cascading down her back. Her eyes were a bright, intelligent blue, and her skin was dotted with pale freckles, but so placed that they enhanced the beauty of her otherwise ivory skin. The dress she wore was beautiful, the skirt crafted from the petals of a yellow rose, stitched together with the finest spider-thread, and the bodice expertly made from buttercup petals. A tiny crown carved from a halzenut and made golden with the Queen's magic sat atop her head, perfectly placed. She commanded Skye to tell her story, and Skye gladly acquiesced. When she had finished, the Queen told her she would gladly take her to the house of the Princess. With a sudden burst of light, the Pixie Queen and all her followers vanished from in front of Skye, and all she could hear was a strange sort of laughter. Skye realised then that perhaps she should have been more cautious with what she had said - although she had only mentioned what Skye was to do in Giselle, she had a horrible feeling that the Pixie Queen was the jealous pixie to try and kill the Princess.
Only then did Skye realise she was in a different part of the forest. She could see through the trees a little cottage, and outside of it stood a lonely girl. Skye couldn't see her from where she was, but she reckoned that whatever had to happen could wait until morning. As she had this thought, seven tall men approached the house. Climbing a tree to get a better vantage point, Skye watched them as they entered the boundaries of the house, and saw them shrink until they were no longer seven ordinary miners, but the legendary Seven Dwarves of legend. Skye could hardly believe her eyes. She had thought that the rumours of a diamond mine on the outskirts of Giselle were just that : rumours. But now, she supposed, they must be true. And her surmise was supported by the men each putting down a sack that was filled to the very top with diamonds.
After showing their loot to the Princess, the Dwarves and the girl all went inside the cottage, and as Skye watched the smoke from the chimney rise, she was painfully reminded of her own cottage in the woods, and her mother, lying on her bed in all kinds of agony. But, she remembered swiftly, Margaret was there. Margaret would care for her mother; she had promised, after all. Needing comfort, Skye felt around in her backpack for one of her books. She pulled out a book of old fairy tales, and was about to put it back inside to search for something a little more age-appropriate, she noticed the cover illustration. It was of a little cottage in the woods, in the daytime. In the picture there were seven little men with sacks of diamonds, and a girl nearly identical to the one she had glimpsed through the trees.
Entranced, Skye started to read.
***
By the time she was finished the last remaining natural light had vanished. However, there was more than enough light spilling over from the wndows of the cottage for Skye to read. She shut the book quietly, wondering if it was true. The Princess's name wasn't Snow White, it was Eleanor, and here there was no evil stepmother, but apart from that the similarities were striking. While Skye couldn't be sure that Eleanor had hair black as night, skin white as snow and lips red as blood, the similarities between what she had seen and what Margaret had told her were enough for Skye to think this was more than just a coincidence. Evidently, what she needed to do was to intercept the giving of the deadly apple, and replace it with - what? Laudanum wouldn't keep her asleep as long as was needed, and Skye couldn't think of anything else that would keep a healthy girl unconcious for days, or perhaps even weeks until a Prince happened to be strolling by. Although, Skye mused, it didn't necessarily have to be a Prince. After all, there were enough dissimilarities for it to be assumed that so long as Eleanor married for love, it wouldn't be unheard of for a peasant to marry a noble. Skye had heard of such things being done in Coppelia before the children became machinery. So, what she needed to do was to cover an apple in some kind of narcotic - enough for this girl to be asleep for about a week. Suddenly Skye had an idea. What if the girl was in a coma? That would leave plenty time for a wandering traveller to stroll through the forest, see the beautiful girl, and - then what? Do with her as he pleased? No, there must be something better than that. Unless...
Skye couldn't believe what she was thinking. It was a risk, and she had a limited supply, but she had heard that if a tube is inserted into a vein on the back of a person's hand, and a continuous supply of narcotics are pumped in, this could keep someone asleep for as long as the supply held out. It was the perfect solution. As long as she was woken up every day for food and water, Skye couldn't see anything wrong with the plan. All she had to do now was convince the Dwarves that this plan would keep Eleanor safe forever, and then Skye could wait and see how things turned out. Satisfied with her labours, Skye tucked the book back into her rucksack, tied herself to the tree with an extra-long scarf of her mother's, and promptly fell asleep.
