Skye woke up the next morning sore and stiff from her night in a tree. She had been used to a warm, comfortable bed every night, and a hard, thick branch of wood isn't comfy for anyone, even if they've never seen a bed in their lives. She looked down at the cottage, and noticed that the chimney was smoking. All that Skye had done yesterday came back to her suddenly, with dizzying certainty. She almost doubted if she had even met Caleb. But she remembered his smiles, his ease in helping her, and Skye knew that what had happened was real. Stealthily, she clambered down the tree, waiting for the men to walk out the cottage.
She had been waiting almost an hour before they left. There they were, seven little men, all walking out the front door. As they exited the cottage barriers, they shot upwards, until they were all somewhere in the region of 6" tall. Skye trailed them arbritrally. She didn't want the Princess to hear what she had to say, but it was necessary that the Seven should know how their friend would be safe for evermore. They were about half a mile away from the cottage before Skye dared show herself. After much deliberation, she had decided on being disguised entirely as a boy. They might take her promises more seriously. Taking a deep breath, Skye moved in front of them, blocking their path.
As she told them what danger Eleanor was in, some stirred uneasily. However, her assurance that she would be alright eased them. Skye wasn't sure why, but somehow these people trusted her, even though they had literally just met her. They knew what was expected of them, and Skye hoped that they would keep her sedated until a man came. If the fairy tale was anything to go by, only when the man comes do they finally open up the glass coffin. Skye stressed to them to only open for food and water in daytime, when the pixies were mainly asleep, so they wouldn't discover that the Princess was, in fact, alive. They gladly consented, if only to keep her safe. Satisfied, Skye started back to the cottage at a run; she didn't want Eleanor to die anymore than the Dwarves did.
Once Skye was back at her tree, she quickly rolled up her trousers, pinned a skirt on around it, grabbed her cloak that she was using as a blanket and scrubbed her face with mud, to ensure that neither Eleanor nor anyone else would recognise her. Skye took out the bottle of laudanum, injected part of it into the apple, and set off to the little cottage, with a bag of other fruits she had packed so she didn't seem too suspicious. She walked up to the front door, and, using the lines from the book as a prompt, asked Eleanor to come out. To Skye's surprise, Eleanor followed the script exactly, and reached out for the apple eagerly. She took a deep bite, and chewed it thoroughly for about thirty seconds. In the middle of swallowing it, the Princess collapsed to the floor inside the cottage.
Skye panicked. Even though she knew that Eleanor was only asleep, she didn't like the idea that perhaps she was going to choke to death on the apple. It was unclear to Skye later exactly how she did this, but at the time it seemed that the door just opened as soon as Skye's skin came in contact with it. She burst through the door into the cottage, and, slamming the door behind her, checked the unconcious girl for a pulse. After a few seconds of frantic searching, Skye eventually found her wrist pulse. She proceeded to feel for Eleanor's neck pulse, and became inceasingly worried when she found that it was as faint as the wrist pulse had been. However, the girl was still breathing. Evidently whatever had happened to her, it didn't mean death. Exhausted from the sudden burst of adrenaline her panic had produced, Skye sank down beside Eleanor. She longed to go to sleep - after all, it had been a exhausting morning. Up at sunrise, cooking breakfast over a fire, walking through a miles worth of rough, untamed forest, and now a panic over Eleanor's near-death experience. Skye felt her eyes closing almost against her will. The last thing she saw before she fell asleep was a faint golden light.
***
The second time Skye awoke from a sleep, she knew something was wrong.
Her throat was tight, and horribly dry, she tried coughing, and a strange sound came out instead. She glanced around the still-deserted cottage, and noticed that Eleanor wasn't on the floor beside Skye where she had fallen. Skye darted up, and looked out the window. She watched in horror as she saw the Seven lined up, all dressed in black. A long wooden box lay shut in the garden. She tried to scream, and although her mouth formed the word, nothing came out. Shocked, Skye lifted her fingers to her mouth. She shook herself suddenly, remembering the danger that Eleanor was in, and started banging against the windows. But the Dwarves couldn't hear her. Skye thought of the Pixie Queen. She had seemed so helpful, but at the same time, Skye had known that something wasn't quite right. And now she knew. The Queen was going to get what she wanted.
Skye burst through the door in an explosion of strength and noise, running towards the nearest dwarf. She noticed absent-mindedly that none of them had taken any heed of the noise that had accompanied her actions, but instead ran straight into one of them. Finally, they turned to look at Skye. Skye tried to explain it all. But once again, just as she hadn't been able to scream, although her mouth formed the words, "Don't worry, she's not dead," her voice refused to agree with her. They looked at her, wondering what happened. She heard a few of them mutter amognst themselves. She gestured angrily back towards the door of their house, and on seeing the destruction the noise it had made was clearly heard by each of them, although Skye heard nothing. As an experiment, she motioned for them to face away from her. She tapped loudly on the wood of the coffin. Then Skye turned them around, one by one, and they each reacted to the noise. Skye thought she understood what had happened now. The Pixie Queen had attempted to erase any sound Skye (or anything Skye touched) made. But as soon as someone saw the object that made the noise, they could hear it.
Suddenly, out of her own plight, Skye remembered the Princess. She opened up the coffin lid, and checked the girl for breathing.
It had stopped.
Frantically, Skye checked her pulses, pupils, reflexes and the like. They all responded perfectly. She just wasn't breathing. There was only one explanation that Skye could come up with - magic. Although why the Pixie Queen had condescended to save Eleanor Skye couldn't imagine. Relieved, she smiled up at the seven men in front of her, and, grabbing a stick, wrote one sentence on the ground : She isn't dead.
They rejoiced, and told Skye they would set to work making a more aesthetically pleasing glass-ware coffin. She grinned, and unpinned her skirt, revealing her rolled-up trousers. She pulled on a shirt over her bodice - she wasn't about to bare herself in front of anyone, even if they were the legendary Seven Dwarves - and started walking back to the tree she had stored her backpack in. One of the men called her back. He gestured to her hair, holding a small, sharp knife. Skye offered it up to him, and he cut it off in one fell swoop. With her new jaw-length cut, Skye smiled her thanks at her new disguise, and, on reaching the tree, swiftly got her things together.
Slowly, with tramping feet, Skye set off for Coppelia and the metal children.
