The Mind Behind The Beanie || ✔

The Secret Path

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The third carriage was silent as they weaved through the countryside, passing over rivers with no bridges, climbing mountains on roads that had never been finished.
I stayed quiet so as not to arise even more tension between Red and Little Bo Peep.  Everyone else followed suit, the quiet etching a streak of silence through the air.  I just watched the spiteful looks be exchanged the entire ride.
Finally, the silence seemed too much for Red, so she took a breath in and I tensed.
"So, Little Bo," she said, obviously trying to hard to sound diplomatic.  "Have you enjoyed being queen of my kingdom- excuse me- your kingdom?"
"Yes," was all Little Bo responded which made me feel better, maybe they just weren't going to speak at all.  That would be nice.  Little Bo stared at Red stoically, as if she didn't want to play this game.
But, despite what I thought, I knew this conversation, if continued, would inevitably end in disaster.
"Good to hear," Red lied through a tight-lipped smile.  She looked about ready to combust from spending time in this carriage.  "Have you fulfilled all the promises you made to the people during the election?"
"Almost," Little Bo answered, and her face never changed its stoic state.
"Wonderful," Red peeped.  "And how are the House of Progressive representatives?'
"They were all replaced with actual representatives from the village," Little Bo informed her.  I thought this might blow the bomb, but Red let out a high-pitched snicker.  I let out a sigh with Froggy and Emmerich, we were expecting something much worse to come out of this conversation.
"Well they had it coming," Red said.  "And what about the castle?  Have you grown accustomed to it yet?  I'm sure it took some time getting used to it compared to that farmhouse you lived in before."
"I still live at my farm, actually," Little Bo said. 
Red gagged as if she had swallowed a bug.  "Do you," she asked, trying her best to remain calm.  "Then why did you ask me to move out of it?"
"Because I turned it into and orphanage," Little Bo said with a snide smile.
Red sat incredibly still while her brain processed this.  Then she turned ballistic and, with her fists raised in the air, charged at Little Bo.
"I'M GONNA KILL HER!" she yelled.
Froggy, Emmerich, and I had all been preparing for this moment.  Froggy jumped up and grabbed Red, but it took Emmerich and me to keep her down. 
"YOU LOUSY PIECE OF SHEEPHERDING TRASH! You did that on purpose! You knew giving over my castle to a bunch of brats would hurt me the most!" Red yelled.
"Red, how can you say that about orphans?" I scolded.  I really couldn't believe she had said that!
"Oh, don't let the word fool you! I've met all those delinquents myself and each one is more awful than the last!  Most of their parents are alive and well- those kids were just too horrible for them to raise on their own," Red said, still glaring at Little Bo.
Little Bo didn't make matters better.  She just sat there with a mischievous smile on her face.  Red eventually cooled off enough so we could let her go.  I was wondering how to ease the tension when Emmerich said,
"What is your necklace?" the question was aimed towards Little Bo.  At first, I didn't notice a necklace, but when I looked closer, I noticed a thin chain around her neck.  It was so thin I was surprised Emmerich had noticed it.
Little Bo looked equally as surprised and shocked that he had noticed it.  She pulled the necklace out and showed Emmerich a small heart-shaped stone hanging on it.
"It's a stone heart," she said.
"Why do you wear it?" he asked.
Little Bo seemed confused as what to say.  "I lost someone I love very much once," she said, finally thinking of the right words to say.  "I wear this necklace to remember them.  In a strange way, it helps me from missing them too much."
"Did they die or runaway from you?" red asked unsympathetically with a snort.
Little Bo didn't say anything, which surprised me, but just sat there fiddling with the stone heart.  She smiled at Red, which aggravated her even more, causing Froggy to put a hand on her as a warning. 
Tings were silent in the third carriage for the next hour or so, giving me time to think.  I had the window seat, which was nice, as it gave me a spectacular view of the kingdom we were in.  I thought over the plan once more and again, trying to find something they had left out of the equation, something that would help or hurt them.  After running through it the fourth time and not finding a single thing wrong, I let my thoughts drift.
And, of course, they drifted straight to Conner.  No, not this again.  I don't want to think about Conner because then that will remind myself of all the worry I have stored up, and that can't come out right now.  But, as much as I tried to trick myself into thinking I wasn't THAT worried for Conner, the more worried I became.
He was in a seriously bad predicament. He had just found out that the fairy-tale world was going to be at war, gone across Europe to get to the portal, and when he finally gets here he finds out the odds against the army are terrible. I wonder how he's doing under all the pressure. Well, he has been through a lot already here, but this is legit war, how much worse could it get?
"Stop the carriages!" someone called from the first carriage.  The carriages abruptly jolted to a stop.
I saw Sleeping Beauty run out into the grass that bordered a-, actually I didn't know what it was.  I looked closer and saw it was a burned down village.  The entire village was devastated. 
The army had made their first strike. 

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