Smudge On The Rug

I zipped around the room in circles, uncaring of the people below me or the objects I was disturbing from the shelves. “Fae!” Wolf called from somewhere below. My nostrils flared at the smell of burning hair. I stopped mid-flight and looked down. Smoke was billowing from around Wolf’s neck. His eyes had begun to roll up in his skull like boiled eggs. I dropped to the ground like a stone. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I couldn’t help it. I was caged for so long. Fairies’ wings atrophy if they’re not-” Kanchana shushed me. Wolf’s collar had stopped buzzing. He lay on the floor; the fur around his collar was smoldering. “Did I kill him?!” Kanchana was bent over Wolf’s prone body, her ear dangerously close to his muzzle. “Well, he’s still breathing. I think he’ll be fine. I wouldn’t get too close to him though. You seem to aggravate his condition.” I backed away from them. “I didn’t mean to,” I whispered lamely. Kanchana grunted as she scooped up the motionless Wolf. Her legs buckled for a moment under the weight. “Guard!” She moaned. One of the sentinels that had escorted us in suddenly appeared at the doorway. He paused, unsure of what to do. “A little help?” Kanchana called to him. He lunged forward, relieving the Queen of her burden. “The Spinning Room, please.” I reached a hand out toward the door as the guard and Wolf disappeared through it. It was all happening so fast. Kanchana smiled warmly. “Don’t worry. We’re going to fix him up. The resident vet is very good.” I fluttered my wings nervously. “But you said to take him to the Spinning Room.” “Right. We have to get the collar off.” I frowned in confusion. “I don’t understand.” “You remember the spinning wheel Rumplestiltskin enchanted to spin straw into gold?” I nodded. She leaned in and giggled, “Well, he never fully un-enchanted it! Only, instead of spinning straw into gold it now spins gold into straw. Can you imagine how horrified my husband was? He had it locked up in a room at the top of the castle. I have a feeling it might be just the thing to take that gilded collar off your friend’s neck.” My shoulders relaxed. “He should be better in a week or so,” Kanchana finished. Her words gave me a start. “But we have to get that name back in two days!” The Queen tilted her head to the side and stared at me. “Couldn’t you do it yourself and come back?” Tears threatened to spill out from the corners of my eyes. I had hoped Wolf and I wouldn’t have to be separated again. It was my fault Wolf couldn’t accompany me. “I guess I could. Do you promise to take care of him?” Kanchana nodded firmly. “My word is my honor. I haven’t seen or met anything as interesting as you two in a long time! If you promise to return for visits once your journey is over, I’ll promise to get your friend fixed up before you get back.” I shook the Queen’s pinky and went on my way. I couldn’t help but feel guilty as I left the kingdom. Wolf would be outraged when he awoke and realized I was gone. But a part of me knew I could do this quicker without him. “There won’t be any need to climb back up,” I thought as I flew alongside Rapunzel’s hair. Just before I broke through the clouds, a strange thought entered my mind. Why was “Rumplestiltskin” the magic word? Surely it couldn’t be just a coincidence. What I didn’t know at the time was that Wolf had been dreaming of the very same question. As the Queen’s guards carried him to the tower he feverishly mumbled, “together” over and over again. They were placing him on the table when he jerked up from sleep and yelled, “They’re working together!” The first thing I heard after breaking through the clouds was snoring. It appeared Rapunzel had fallen asleep at her window. I flew closer to see if Melchoir was still hanging around. “Melchoir?” I whispered, landing on the window sill. “Shhhh,” Rapunzel mumbled in her sleep, batting at me lazily with her hand. I flew in further, only to find the Manikin curled up in a trunk. His legs were twitching as if chasing or running from something in his dream. I shrugged. Now that I could fly, it was easier to get around alone anyway. The flight back to Casino City didn’t take nearly as long as I’d anticipated. I grew anxious to complete my mission and get back to Wolf. “Maybe he won’t have time to notice I’m gone!” I thought happily as I squeezed through the key hole in Rumplestiltskin’s front door. I floated down the hallway slowly, looking for the double doors that Melchoir had taken us through. I should have followed my ears instead. The further I got down the hall, the louder I could hear people talking. I traced it to the double doors. With an ear against the wood, I strained to hear what the voices were discussing. I hadn’t planned on Rumplestiltskin having company. “Come now fairy,” Rumplestiltskin’s muffled voice pleaded. “Touch the Mirror.” I squinted between the crack in the doors, but only the flicker of the firelight pressed through. “It’s not the right one,” a harsher, female voice replied. I pushed back from the door in revulsion. “What’s Queen White doing here? Has she taken over the city?” I flitted around the door, looking for some crack or crevice to sneak in through. But the door was solid. “Let me in,” I said softly to it. To my surprise, the wood beneath my hands pushed in like putty. I knew what I had to do. But fear welled up, causing me to hesitate. What if I suffocated? What if the wood solidified? I doubted the control I had over my own magic. It was unstable at best. Before I could think on it any longer, I moved forward with the rest of my body. I held my breath, suspended in the door. When at last I couldn’t hold it any more I opened my eyes and inhaled. I was relieved to find I could breathe just fine. The door had melded to me. I was nothing more than a knot in its surface. “Just touch the mirror!” Rumplestiltskin yelled toward a metal cage on the table. Queen White stood rigidly next to the table, which was slid against a wall where Mirror Mirror had been hung. I couldn’t help but wonder how they had dragged it up the bean stalk. “No!” screamed a tiny voice from inside the cage. At once I knew who it belonged to. “Where did you find this insolent little fairy?” Queen White sneered. “Flittering around the kitchen, stealing food. She got away from me once already. Then she came back with that mutt and started throwing your name around.” Rumplestiltskin turned toward the cage again. “Touch the mirror or I’ll rip your wings off one by one!” The fairy stuck out her tongue and then yelled, “Not a chance, shorty!” After all that time searching for her, I finally found her after I stopped looking. “She doesn’t look anything like the fairy I saw hanging around the wolf. THAT’S the one I need. I won’t pay you a single coin until you bring her to me.” Rumplestiltskin’s frown deepened. “I’m sure this is the same fairy. She looks just like her.” He bent down. “Listen. I’ll let you free if you touch the mirror, OK?” The fairy turned her face toward the reflective surface. Three swirls had materialized to form what could almost pass as two eyes and a mouth. Almost. “Do you promise?” She asked, cautiously reaching an arm from between the bars. Rumplestiltskin rolled his eyes. “You won’t do me any good if you’re not the right one.” The fairy stretched her arm the rest of the distance, brushing her fingertips against Mirror Mirror’s glass. Queen White stared at the mirror intensely as everything became silent. “NOT IT!” The mirror bellowed. Rumplestiltskin groaned and buried his head in his hands. “Damn. I was sure, too.” The fairy in the cage cleared her throat loudly. With a flick of his wrist Rumplestiltskin unlatched the cage and looked away in disgust. The fairy burst from the opening with a gleeful shriek. Before I had time to register what was happening, Queen White’s bony arm was arcing through the air. “Awful creatures.” She spat, swatting the fairy onto the floor. “They’re a plague.” She raised one of her booted feet. “I’m just sorry we actually need one of their kind for this.” Her foot came down with a sickening crunch. Rumplestiltskin turned toward the noise. “What are you-” Then he noticed the smudge on the floor. “You got fairy guts on my expensive rug!”