Red Shoes & the 7 Dwarfs

Chapter 4: Searching in the Woods at Night

Red Shoes was sitting at a small desk amid the room that Arthur offered for her to stay in, separate from the main house in order to give her more privacy.

"There, it looks just like Papa!" She lifted her piece of charcoal as she looked at the drawing of a missing poster she'd made. She then looked in the mirror and made a face.

"Papa won't recognize me." She observed her dainty and feminine features in her reflection as she moved her chair back from her desk, placing the poster down before trying to take off her red shoes.

"Hu? Why, why won't they come off!?" Red Shoes did her best to take them off, but to no avail, suddenly a thought came into her mind. She felt the need to relax and be her true self, when she was able finally pry the shoes off and emerged her true form: Snow White.

"Ah, this is me." She stretched out on the bed and finally felt at ease, when there was a sudden knock at the door.

"Huh!" She jumped up and quickly put the shoes on. She slowly opened the door as she noticed Jack standing in front of her wearing a face mask.

"Would you like to join me in a moisturizing mask?" He asked as he puckered his lips together in an effort to make them move less to keep the mask on.

"Oh thanks, but I am so tired." Red Shoes yawned and quickly closed the door.

"Are you sure? It's very important to take care of your skin."

"Positive." She nodded as she waited a moment for him to leave.

"But they're French." Prince Jack sighed as he walked away.

Red Shoes rolled her eyes as she sat back at her desk and looked out her window, noticing a dark figure walking around outside.

"Huh, Papa?" She raised a brow as she quickly got up and walked outside with a lantern in hand.

Meanwhile, Prince Merlin was looking through his library.

"Hmm, a spell book to make you fall in love. Ah, here it is." Prince Merlin was able to look at even the top shelves since he was more than three feet high now that no one was around to look at him. He kept his door shut with the hopes of getting some privacy whilst he planned a way to get Red Shoes to not only kiss him, but to fall in love with him. He'd never had this strong connection to a woman before; sure he had dated many women, and even courted a couple, but he was never serious about any of them. He rather enjoyed being popular with the ladies and each time he looked in the mirror when he was in his princely form, a small portion of his pride was chipped away while under the curse as he recalled what it was like to have women swooning all over him. Red Shoes was different however, she didn't even seem impressed at the mention of Prince Merlin, thus he knew this would be one of his most daunting tasks. Just as Prince Merlin was about to pull out the book he was looking for, Hans burst through the door and Merlin was three feet high again.

"Merlin, have you seen my cookbook?" Hans asked.

"Have you checked in the kitchen?" Merlin said through gritted teeth.

"Ah, silly me, the kitchen of course." Hans turned back around and closed the door as Merlin was once again Prince Merlin, six feet tall and turned back to reach for the spell book again.

"Merlin, have you seen my moisturizer? It's nowhere to be found." Jack opened the door as Merlin shrank back to three feet high again.

"Hu, agh!" Merlin grumbled as the spell book came tumbling down and landed atop his head, then falling to the floor.

"No! Whatever it is, I haven't seen it! Now please go away!" Merlin marched over to Jack as his facemask slowly pealed off.

"Someone has anger management issues." Jack scoffed as he turned around and walked out; Merlin slammed the door behind him as he sighed, turning six feet tall again.