The sea was bubbling with life. There were sea creatures everywhere swimming around in the sea like it was nobody's business. There were all kinds of sea life in there including dolphins, sting rays, sea urchins, sea horses and much, much more. If those sea creatures were able to talk like humans do, you could hear a great big commotion of sounds, like a market or something.
That was when Max was awakened by the sound of faraway chattering and chit-chatting. He opened his eyes groggily and the first thing he saw was a pair of angelfishes whispering to each other and pointing at him. He was surprised to find out that he actually was able to understand what the fishes were saying and furthermore, he saw that he was surrounded by water and actually breathing in it! It was marvelous! Could it be...?
He sat up tentatively and took a look at his legs, only to see that they weren't legs anymore, but a long tail that shimmered slightly as he moved. He gaped in awe at the colour of his tail: a bright mixture of blonde and blue, like a mixture of his hair and eye colour. He waved the fins about and was excited to see it moving to his will. He had to try this out.
"Woah, look at who has dropped in this place! It's my dear ol' friend Maxwell Deanhart!"
Max turned to see his childhood sea friend Robert the seahorse gliding down from above his head towards him. The seahorse was actually a real life talking seahorse, as in able to talk in human tongue. He was one of those victims of sea pollution when he scorched his throat after accidentally eating polluted plankton (thanks to chemical waste dumped into the sea) and after going through a near death experience, he suddenly found himself able to understand and speak human language. He, Max and Norman were close friends as he provided information about the merpeople life he claimed he knew. He had introduced loads of things and told Max the names of those items he had discovered during his underwater trips and Robert would explain elaborately what does this and that do.
"Look at you, Max! Look at you! You have changed!" Robert said as he landed on Max's shimmering tail. "Now let's see, what's different about you, hmm? Wait, wait, don't tell me! It's a...new...haircut! No, not a new haircut...A new swimming gear! A new breathing thing-a-majigure? A new set of clothes? A new..."
"He's having a new tail, you dimwit!"
Max and Robert turned around to see Norman scowling at them. Only that Norman was not the huge, tough guy, barbaric-looking Norman, but the Norman with fins and scales and a tail and gills and all that. It seemed like SkullMaster had turned him into a fish as a payment to cure Virginia from her coma predicament, and a huge fat catfish at that! Max stared at him in awe while Robert rolled over the floor and laughed like a maniac.
"Oh my sea urchins! What exactly happened to you, Norman?!" Robert laughed non-stop. "You look...You look..."
"Stupid, I know," Norman muttered grudgingly. "I dunno why I've turned like this, but I sure don't like it."
"Well, what's this business about Max having a new tail, huh? Isn't he supposed to be human or something?"
Norman sighed and explained the whole story to Robert. While he explained, Max decided to try out the tail. He got up and tried to balance himself while flipping his fins to keep him like a standing position in the sea. So far, he was so used to swimming the human way that he couldn't keep his balance. He soon fell headlong onto sandy sea floor, sending the sand flying all over, covering Robert and Norman.
"Just look at him!" Norman exclaimed in horror, rambling on and on about how disastrous it was. It was obvious that he had finally lost his cool. "His tail...Scum merman tail! This is not good! Really not good! This is a catastrophe! What will his mother say? I tell you what his mother will say. She'll say she's gonna kill him, that's what his mother will say! I'm going straight right back up and go tell his mother..."
Max was horrified. While Norman was rambling, Max finally got the hang of swimming up straight and was dusting the sea sand off his body when he heard Norman threatening to go up and tell Virginia on him. He grabbed Norman's tail and pulled him close, shaking his head in fear, not wanting him to tell.
"And don't you shake your head at me, young man! You're just like your father, getting into trouble all the time! And I always had to back him up, just like what I'm doing right now for you! No more, Max, no more! We'll go back to that SkullMaster of yours and cancel the deal! Maybe he would renegotiate. Maybe you'll get back your voice. And then we'll all go home and you'll just be...just be..."
Max frowned sadly, begging him with his eyes not to make him change his mind about things. He looked so sad, as if like if this whole thing doesn't go happily, he was going to regret it. Norman sighed.
"Just be miserable for the rest of your life, I guess. Alright, alright, I'll help you to go and find your princess. Can't go up in open air anyway since I'm a fish."
Max hugged him gratefully and let him go. Somehow, the fish instinct set in and Norman was actually swimming naturally like all the other fish. Robert finally broke the sad ice and grabbed on to some seaweeds around the area.
"Well, it sure ain't decent for a merman to not have something on his body. One thing we gotta figure out is what to decorate you up with. Now let me see..."
Meanwhile, Princess Phoebe was riding on her pet dolphin around the sea. She greeted a few other merpeople passing by and played with a few fishes along the way, but nothing could keep her mind off her saviour that fateful night. She couldn't help thinking that there's something charming about the person who saved her and the voice that sang to her. It sounded so nice, so melodic, so suave and gentle...He has to be a very charming man to be able to rescue her and sing so beautifully. She hummed the song he sang for her to herself by memory.
As she hummed, the dolphin suddenly chirped and increased its speed. It had spotted something in the distance and was quite excited to go and find out about it. Phoebe was taken by surprise as she was dragged along for the ride. She clung onto the dolphin for dear life, hoping that she wouldn't fall off, all the while trying to slow it down. While the dolphin came in closer, Max was already quite decorated up with a necklace fashioned out of corals and seashells and a crown made out of seaweeds and pearls. He had to admit, he looked pretty good in it.
"Sensational!" Robert grinned as he marveled his piece of work. He was interrupted with the loud chirp of Phoebe's dolphin. Norman and Robert ran for cover and Max wanted to swim some place higher. He was quite shocked to see the dolphin coming up to him in such friendly manner and was butting its beak-like mouth at him.
"Reynard, stop it!" Max's heart skipped a beat when he heard Phoebe's voice. He saw her riding on the dolphin and was apologizing to him for Reynard's behaviour. He was stunned. There she was, his dream princess, lovely as ever with her chocolate-brown hair and jade-green eyes. The wonderful princess was actually up close and personal and actually talking to him! What a bliss this was! He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the Phoebe that he had been watching from afar actually standing just right in front of him! All he could do was smile.
"I'm sorry about Reynard. He's always..." Phoebe continued to apologize when she stopped to look at Max's face. That blonde hair, those blue eyes...it's like she seen that face somewhere before. She muttered, "You seem very familiar to me...Have we met?"
Max nodded excitedly. Of course they have met! How could they not be? It was during the night he saved her.
"Yes, you're the one who rescued me! You're the one! The one that I've been looking for!" Phoebe said excitedly, finally meeting her saviour. "What's your name?"
Max wanted to tell her but no voice came out. He could only mouth out his name. He then realized that he had traded his voice to SkullMaster for this new body. He held his throat, disappointed.
"What's wrong? What is it?"
Max patted his throat.
"You can't speak?"
Max shook his head.
"Oh...then you couldn't be who I thought."
Max huffed. He was utterly disappointed. Of all payments, SkullMaster had to ask for his voice. 'Why couldn't he ask for an arm or a limb or maybe his eyes or something?' he thought, frustrated. 'I'd rather give him those than unable to actually talk to Phoebe and tell her how he feels. As if body language was enough...'
Then the thought struck him. Why not? He could use body language! He had played charades before when he was a kid. That shouldn't be too hard. He waved at Phoebe to get her attention, then made loads of gestures to tell her that he really was the one who saved her that night and that he really had sang to her. Phoebe was trying to guess what he was trying to tell her.
"What is it? You're sick? No, you need help? Woah, careful!"
It seemed that out of excitement and desperation for Phoebe to understand him, he had lost his balance from the rock his was sitting on and fell into the arms of his dream princess. Their eyes met—jade-green with blue—and were locked onto each other, staring as if the whole world was theirs and that time had stopped just for them. They both couldn't believe that they're looking at each other this close—Phoebe staring at her could-be saviour and Max at his princess he had longed to be with for so long. After what seemed like forever, Phoebe finally broke the ice.
"This could seem like a mysterious adventure for us. Come on. I'll take you to my castle. Careful now."
As they mounted onto Reynard and headed towards the direction of Phoebe's castle, Norman sneaked up behind and came in between Phoebe and Max, making Phoebe chuckle. She asked if he were his pet and he nodded absentmindedly. Max turned around to look for Robert and saw him giving him a thumbs-up behind where he was hiding.
Things sure looked pretty bright from then on.
Inside the castle, he was led into the cleaning room where he was cleaned off all the sea sand he fell on and was redecorated with other ornaments less organic like the seaweed by two of Phoebe's brothers Pjer and Pac. While he was being prepared, Phoebe and the rest of her brothers were in the dining room discussing seriously about matters.
"Are you really sure that he is the one who saved you?" Pablio asked. "I mean, you did say that your saviour sang to you before he disappeared mysteriously. But this guy can't even talk."
"Yeah," Peter agreed. "For all I know, you could've mistaken this young man for someone else."
"I'm telling you, brothers," Phoebe said indignantly. "He's the one. The one that I've been looking for. And I'm gonna marry him."
"What? You can't be serious, can you?! Have you forgotten about Prince Drakeb?" Pince asked in horror.
"I thought you guys are a couple," Pad said. "You can't be saying that you've fallen for a guy you barely know and just so happened to save your life!"
"Yeah, Father even arranged to let you and Prince Drakeb be betrothed and all! You can't just let it go!" Pablio tried to talk his sister out of this.
"Well, for your information, I decide my own love life, not Father," Phoebe replied. "Besides, I didn't see Drakeb saving me from being fried from the open air I fell onto. I saw him."
"Come on now, pal," Pjer's playful voice could be heard from the far end of the dining room as he and Pac tried to coax a quite nervous Max inside. "They're not gonna bite you."
"Yeah, come on. Don't be shy," Pac ushered him inside. Phoebe widened her eyes in wonder as she saw Max with his hair handsomely decorated by tiny butterfly-shaped seashells and wearing a necklace made out of shiny pearls and corals, his tail shimmering gallantly as he swam in with a nervous smile. Even her brothers couldn't help marveling at the way Max looked in his attire.
"Wow, I have to say, sis," Pablio said as he went over to get a closer look at Max. "He sure is quite a wonderful creature. I mean, we don't see people with that kind hair and eye colour. Only humans have that."
Max shuddered a little, afraid of his true identity be found. Norman, who was following from behind, winced as well. SkullMaster sure knew how to make deals; he got exactly what he wished for. No more, no less. And that means only his legs and internal organs changed to suit merman life, yet everything else stayed the same. It was true about what Pablio said—he could tell that all merpeople had strange hair and eye colour. None of them looked normal, and yet none of them looked bad either. He sure was the odd one out.
"Please, please. Don't let's stand here. Take a seat," Phoebe said hurriedly after snapping out of her trance. Everyone took a seat, and as expected, Phoebe and Max sat side by side. As they chit-chatted, Max surveyed the place. He marveled at the tapestry of the wall and the jewels of the sea that decorated the whole place. He took a look at the table and realized that it was actually made from a naturally-formed rock that was carved into a shape of a table. The chairs were also fashioned out of rocks carved and decorated with corals and whatnot. Then his eyes spotted on the Fringlers. It was actually a fork fashioned out from a coral but Robert had introduced it wrongly as a merman's comb (and made up that stupid 'Fringlers' name for the fork), so it wasn't surprising that everyone stared weirdly at Max when he picked up the fork and started combing his hair.
Robert sure needed to get his facts straight.
Max put down the fork awkwardly, embarrassed. He then shifted his gaze towards Pad who was sucking something out of a seashell. Max lit up. He remembered Robert telling him that this seashell was a Gurom, a type of flute-like musical instrument of the merpeople. Pad noticed Max was staring at it in interest and handed it over to him. Max took it eagerly and put it in his mouth. 'This has to be right,' he thought. 'For once let Robert be right.'
"You like it, don't you? It's really delicious and it's filled with..."
He didn't get to finish his words as Max suddenly blew at the seashell, sending black liquid spilling at his face. Everyone laughed in amusement at Pad's sooty-looking face glaring accusingly at Max. Needless to say, Robert seriously needed to get his facts straight. It was actually called Numnack, a type of tidbit for merpeople where they put in sweetened black ink of a squid into a seashell and they suck it through a mouthpiece. Max grinned apologetically as Pad rubbed his face clean. Luckily, Pad was able to take it humorously. The rest of the meal went by pretty smoothly. The food tasted great and Max liked all of them. He was mute, so he couldn't ask what they were made of. But then, come to think of it, it could be made out of something outrageous. He'd rather be left in the dark.
Later that night, Max was shown by Phoebe to his room. King Benedict and his wife were on a trip to the other side of the Pacific, so they wouldn't be home for a week. Phoebe asked Max if he would like to go downtown with her to see the sights. Max, of course, nodded happily. Phoebe smiled happily and gave him a peck on the cheek, wishing him a good night's sleep and a pleasant dream. Max could just die of happiness right here, right now.
"I wonder if Virginia's OK," Norman talked to himself as Max got ready for bed. It was actually a huge oyster with its tongue as a blanket, really soft and nice. "If she has awakened like SkullMaster said she would, what would happen if she finds us both gone? She might go into a frenzy and black out again. I'm worried, Max. What do you think?"
He turned around and saw that Max had already fallen asleep peacefully in his oyster bed. The oyster remained open, as if waiting for Norman to hop in and sleep. Norman smiled weakly and shook his head. It's been a while since he had seen Max so happy. Maybe it is his destiny after all to be with his lovely dream princess of the sea. If only he could kiss her in time. That would mean the world to Max to be able to stay with Phoebe happily ever after.
"Well, we'll just have to see what happens then," Norman sighed as he slipped into the tongue of the oyster and crawled closer beside Max.
As he, too, fell asleep, the oyster closed slowly.
Saturday, May 6, 2017
A Mix of Fairy Tale Cocktail-Chapter 13
It was quite a frenzy when one of the fishermen of Fishermen's Friend Village found Max lying on the clear sand near the jetty. The oar-less boat was nowhere to be seen. It was only Max and his tightly clutched rose. Everyone was frantic as they carried Max to the clinic and rang for Norman to go and see him. Luckily, unlike his mother, Max only suffered a minor dehydration and would be up and about in a few days time. Norman was allowed to take him home to rest.
Max soon woke up after being replenished of his lost fluids. The first thing he asked was about his mother, Virginia. Norman led him to her and he soon found himself standing in front of her bed. He knelt beside her bed and stroked her hair, but she didn't wake up. She remained sleeping there without even moving an inch.
"She's been like that ever since we found her on the shore looking almost like you, only worse. We've tried everything but she still never woke up. We almost had given up hope."
Max continued to stroke her hair. He almost felt sorry for all the bad stuff he had ever did to her and all those things she told him not to do but he did it anyway—like going out to the sea, for example. And now, he felt guilty for what he was going to do next, but he had to do this. It's about time he decided his own love life. He leaned over and whispered, "Hey, Mom. It's me, Max. I'm home now. If you're wondering how I escaped, I didn't. The Beastess let me go. She's very different now, really. She's changed somehow, and she let me go free. If you wake up, forgive me if you don't see me. I have a destiny and a love life to live. I'm sorry."
Norman wanted to ask what had caused her trauma and where he had been all these while, but Max didn't have the mood to answer him that. Besides, he didn't want Norman to freak out on him when he knew that he had been venturing into the depths of The Beastess's lair. He still felt a little guilt for hurting The Beastess's feeling. He also refused to tell him about the rose he held so protectively all the while when he was unconscious. Norman was suspicious but he let him be—he’ll answer in due time. Later that night, Max was awakened by the familiar hissing sounds of the black-smoky girls out of his yard. He had been expecting them to come. SkullMaster knew that he had a crush on Phoebe; he should know when he has returned with the rose. He got out of bed, grabbed the rose he put on the table and followed the sound of the smoky girls. He so happened to pass by Norman's room and the tall, muscular butler was still awake, so Norman ended up following behind him. He saw the smoky girls a few feet ahead and called out to Max.
"Max, where are you going? Max, where are you going with those weird creatures in the middle of the night?"
"I'm going to see SkullMaster," Max replied, not looking back and not stopping his running. Norman caught up with him.
"Who's SkullMaster? I've never heard of such name. Is it something to do with this rose and your disappearance?"
"Sort of."
"Max, tell me the truth and tell me now. Where have you been all this time? Why did you disappear all of a sudden and why didn't you come back home?"
Finally, Max decided to tell Norman the whole story. Since he was following him to SkullMaster's lair, he's pretty much involved already. Max told him exactly what had happened: his deal with SkullMaster, his journey to The Beastess's island, him trading places with Virginia, his stay with The Beastess, everything. By the time he finished, Norman was more awed than freaked out.
"You seriously did all that just to become a merman for Phoebe? You even gave The Beastess, the legendary most dangerous, most lethal creature throughout land and sea, the hicks for you! Man, you really are into that mermaid princess, aren't you? The things that occur because of love. You'll never cease to surprise me."
"Like you would do anything for Mom, I would do anything for Princess Phoebe."
Norman blushed, shocked that his secret has been found. He muttered, "This SkullMaster guy sounds sinister. I don't think you should be doing business with him. He scares me."
"Normie, he's my only ticket to my true love. Evil or not, I have to do this."
After what seemed like an endless run, they've soon reached SkullMaster's lair. Norman stared in horror and pointed at it, wanting to say that this house was the legendary haunted house, but Max has already went in without a word. Norman rolled his eyes and followed suite. He was as adventurous and as fearless as his father Blake, that's for sure. Once inside, SkullMaster greeted him with his usual evil gleam in his yellow eyes.
"Welcome back from your journey, young Maxwell. You must've gone through a lot of trouble to get what we need. And I see you've brought a friend with you. Please, take a seat, my friend. You look like you could use some."
So saying, an armchair suddenly appeared out of nowhere and forced Norman to sit. Straps came out of the hand rests and the feet of the armchair and wrapped itself around Norman's wrists and ankles, holding him in place. No matter how much he struggled, he couldn't move. Max turned to SkullMaster questioningly.
"I thought I've made it very clear to you that you are not supposed to reveal me," SkullMaster said in disapproval as he stirred his staff in the huge cauldron. "I seriously like my privacy and my low profile."
"He followed me," Max replied. "I had no choice."
"I so happen to hear that your mother has been quite ill. In a coma, I suppose."
"It would make Norman here very happy if you can wake her up."
"That, my child, is a different deal." SkullMaster noted. "Your friend has to make this deal separately, and he has to pay the debt. You're here for your part of the deal, are you not?"
"Yeah, now that you've mentioned it," Max held out the rose to him. "Here's your darn rose. Now when can we start?"
"Soon, my child, very soon. But there is no need to rush. Let me tell you what the real deal is: I will turn you into a merman for a time span of 3 nights. Got that? 3 nights. Now this is important. Before the moon rises on the 3rd night, you must get a kiss from your little sweet mermaid princess you love so much," SkullMaster stirred his staff and the mists that formed out of the steaming cauldron showed a scene where Max and Phoebe kissed. Max blushed. SkullMaster smirked and continued as he showed him more animated scenes with the mists, "Just a kiss, but, mind you, not just any kiss. It has to be a kiss of true love. If she does kiss you before the moon rises on the 3rd night, you will become a merman permanently. But if she doesn't, you'll turn back into a human and…you belong to me."
"No, Max, no! Don't do this!" Norman exclaimed, only to be silenced by SkullMaster's wave of the staff. His mouth moved but no sound came out. Max began to have second thoughts about everything.
"Have we got a deal?" SkullMaster turned to Max.
"If I become a merman…" Max contemplated. "I will never be with my mother and Normie and my friends again."
"That's right. But you have your woman. Life's full of tough choices indeed. Shall we start now?"
Max stole a look at Norman and could see him shaking his head. He thought long and hard. If he becomes a merman, he'll have to give up everything he was used to on land, because he would be, like other merpeople, prone to sensitive skin on open air. He would dehydrate if he doesn't remain in water for a certain time. That will mean that contact between he and the land would be limited. But then he will have Princess Phoebe by his side. And he was sure that she wouldn't mind him unable to talk. Like SkullMaster said, there is always body language. There's no harm in trying.
"Alright, I'll do it," Max replied, much to Norman's dismay.
"It's done then," SkullMaster's lips creased to an evil smile as he waved his staff around the cauldron. With his magical powers, he materialized a scroll that read all the terms and conditions and the oath for Max to read. He then materialized a fishbone and gestured Max to sign the contract. Max knew that once he signed it, it would be a binding deal. He took a deep breath, gritted his teeth and snatched the fishbone that was hovering in the midair and, with his eyes closed, he signed his name on the dotted line. As soon as he was done signing, the scroll flew back into SkullMaster's hand as dematerialized when SkullMaster grasped it. His hand glowed, signifying that the contract was done. He then mumbled loads of weird spells while throwing in elixirs and potions that exploded and shone almost as bright as the sun as soon as it fell into the cauldron. He took the rose from Max's hand and plucked the petals one by one, dropping them into the cauldron. As the mixture in the cauldron glowed blood red, SkullMaster began to chant his devious spells.
"Boggers and rouges, winds and cast imps seal!!" the mists in the cauldron came out and made rings around Max, sealing him in his place. "Black ogres and wings of a titan, now serve only to me!!!"
Max gasped when he saw reddish-black smoke from the cauldron appeared in the shape of a pair of huge grotesque arms as SkullMaster chanted his spells and raised his arms. With a wicked gleam in his yellow eyes, SkullMaster bore deep into Max's blue ones and commanded, "Now sing!"
Automatically, Max opened his mouth and sang. He couldn't stop. He couldn't control it. It was as if his voice had a mind of its own. SkullMaster commanded him to keep singing as the reddish-black arms inched closer towards him. He could feel something warm down his throat, beating in the same line as his heartbeat but he dare not stop singing. The arms came closer and closer towards him and they looked threateningly scary. Max wanted to back away but there was no place for him to go. Slowly the arms slipped in Max's mouth and slithered down his throat, almost choking Max. He could feel the arms grabbing some sort of a lump down his throat—like they were taking his Adam's apple or something and slithered out of his throat as fast as they went in. Max widened his eyes and swallowed nervously when he saw in the reddish-black hands was his voice, glowing a bright blue and beating like his heart, and it was continuing to sing. Max held his throat; he couldn't believe he was staring at his own voice. Was that it? Has his voice been taken away? This adventure was getting weirder and scarier than he could possibly imagine.
Before he could test try whether he could talk or not, he was surrounded by a huge water droplet and was submerged in the water. He was lifted off his feet and he could hear a muffled laugh from SkullMaster. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain on his legs. His jeans and underwear tore, exposing his naked lower half of his body. He felt an electrical current running through his legs and was searing through his bones. It hurt him so bad and he wanted to scream but no sound came out. His lungs suddenly burned like fire and his heart was beating even faster, like some sort of heartattack. Somehow, he felt like he could breathe in the water droplet he was trapped in. He could feel the skin of his legs tearing and coming closer together. Before he knew, he felt his legs conjoined together as one and his feet had stretched itself into fins on a tail. The water droplet burst and Max fell onto the floor, his skin beginning to burn under the ray of the moonlight. By then, SkullMaster has released Norman from his seat and returned his voice.
"Max!" Norman yelled as he went up to Max who was shivering from shock. "Are you alright?!"
"Better hurry up and get him into the sea before he dries up like a prune, Norman!" SkullMaster laughed out loud. "And in return for your deal to wake your friend's mother up, you'll have to pay something as well!"
Norman wanted to ask what he meant by that, but he had to save Max's life first. He picked Max up and made a dash towards the jetty. As he ran, he could feel his body shrinking and that he began to grow gills and fish scales. His feet begin to falter as they slowly shrank and conjoined themselves to one, just like Max's. He was getting out of breath and could feel the suffocation coming, as if the air that he breathed wasn't suitable for him anymore. When he saw the jetty just a few meters away from him, he gathered whatever strength he had left and jumped into the sea, holding Max protectively in his arms. Max was slowly faltering into unconsciousness when all this happened.
He could still hear SkullMaster's malicious laugh as his body fell deeper and deeper into the deep sea…
Max soon woke up after being replenished of his lost fluids. The first thing he asked was about his mother, Virginia. Norman led him to her and he soon found himself standing in front of her bed. He knelt beside her bed and stroked her hair, but she didn't wake up. She remained sleeping there without even moving an inch.
"She's been like that ever since we found her on the shore looking almost like you, only worse. We've tried everything but she still never woke up. We almost had given up hope."
Max continued to stroke her hair. He almost felt sorry for all the bad stuff he had ever did to her and all those things she told him not to do but he did it anyway—like going out to the sea, for example. And now, he felt guilty for what he was going to do next, but he had to do this. It's about time he decided his own love life. He leaned over and whispered, "Hey, Mom. It's me, Max. I'm home now. If you're wondering how I escaped, I didn't. The Beastess let me go. She's very different now, really. She's changed somehow, and she let me go free. If you wake up, forgive me if you don't see me. I have a destiny and a love life to live. I'm sorry."
Norman wanted to ask what had caused her trauma and where he had been all these while, but Max didn't have the mood to answer him that. Besides, he didn't want Norman to freak out on him when he knew that he had been venturing into the depths of The Beastess's lair. He still felt a little guilt for hurting The Beastess's feeling. He also refused to tell him about the rose he held so protectively all the while when he was unconscious. Norman was suspicious but he let him be—he’ll answer in due time. Later that night, Max was awakened by the familiar hissing sounds of the black-smoky girls out of his yard. He had been expecting them to come. SkullMaster knew that he had a crush on Phoebe; he should know when he has returned with the rose. He got out of bed, grabbed the rose he put on the table and followed the sound of the smoky girls. He so happened to pass by Norman's room and the tall, muscular butler was still awake, so Norman ended up following behind him. He saw the smoky girls a few feet ahead and called out to Max.
"Max, where are you going? Max, where are you going with those weird creatures in the middle of the night?"
"I'm going to see SkullMaster," Max replied, not looking back and not stopping his running. Norman caught up with him.
"Who's SkullMaster? I've never heard of such name. Is it something to do with this rose and your disappearance?"
"Sort of."
"Max, tell me the truth and tell me now. Where have you been all this time? Why did you disappear all of a sudden and why didn't you come back home?"
Finally, Max decided to tell Norman the whole story. Since he was following him to SkullMaster's lair, he's pretty much involved already. Max told him exactly what had happened: his deal with SkullMaster, his journey to The Beastess's island, him trading places with Virginia, his stay with The Beastess, everything. By the time he finished, Norman was more awed than freaked out.
"You seriously did all that just to become a merman for Phoebe? You even gave The Beastess, the legendary most dangerous, most lethal creature throughout land and sea, the hicks for you! Man, you really are into that mermaid princess, aren't you? The things that occur because of love. You'll never cease to surprise me."
"Like you would do anything for Mom, I would do anything for Princess Phoebe."
Norman blushed, shocked that his secret has been found. He muttered, "This SkullMaster guy sounds sinister. I don't think you should be doing business with him. He scares me."
"Normie, he's my only ticket to my true love. Evil or not, I have to do this."
After what seemed like an endless run, they've soon reached SkullMaster's lair. Norman stared in horror and pointed at it, wanting to say that this house was the legendary haunted house, but Max has already went in without a word. Norman rolled his eyes and followed suite. He was as adventurous and as fearless as his father Blake, that's for sure. Once inside, SkullMaster greeted him with his usual evil gleam in his yellow eyes.
"Welcome back from your journey, young Maxwell. You must've gone through a lot of trouble to get what we need. And I see you've brought a friend with you. Please, take a seat, my friend. You look like you could use some."
So saying, an armchair suddenly appeared out of nowhere and forced Norman to sit. Straps came out of the hand rests and the feet of the armchair and wrapped itself around Norman's wrists and ankles, holding him in place. No matter how much he struggled, he couldn't move. Max turned to SkullMaster questioningly.
"I thought I've made it very clear to you that you are not supposed to reveal me," SkullMaster said in disapproval as he stirred his staff in the huge cauldron. "I seriously like my privacy and my low profile."
"He followed me," Max replied. "I had no choice."
"I so happen to hear that your mother has been quite ill. In a coma, I suppose."
"It would make Norman here very happy if you can wake her up."
"That, my child, is a different deal." SkullMaster noted. "Your friend has to make this deal separately, and he has to pay the debt. You're here for your part of the deal, are you not?"
"Yeah, now that you've mentioned it," Max held out the rose to him. "Here's your darn rose. Now when can we start?"
"Soon, my child, very soon. But there is no need to rush. Let me tell you what the real deal is: I will turn you into a merman for a time span of 3 nights. Got that? 3 nights. Now this is important. Before the moon rises on the 3rd night, you must get a kiss from your little sweet mermaid princess you love so much," SkullMaster stirred his staff and the mists that formed out of the steaming cauldron showed a scene where Max and Phoebe kissed. Max blushed. SkullMaster smirked and continued as he showed him more animated scenes with the mists, "Just a kiss, but, mind you, not just any kiss. It has to be a kiss of true love. If she does kiss you before the moon rises on the 3rd night, you will become a merman permanently. But if she doesn't, you'll turn back into a human and…you belong to me."
"No, Max, no! Don't do this!" Norman exclaimed, only to be silenced by SkullMaster's wave of the staff. His mouth moved but no sound came out. Max began to have second thoughts about everything.
"Have we got a deal?" SkullMaster turned to Max.
"If I become a merman…" Max contemplated. "I will never be with my mother and Normie and my friends again."
"That's right. But you have your woman. Life's full of tough choices indeed. Shall we start now?"
Max stole a look at Norman and could see him shaking his head. He thought long and hard. If he becomes a merman, he'll have to give up everything he was used to on land, because he would be, like other merpeople, prone to sensitive skin on open air. He would dehydrate if he doesn't remain in water for a certain time. That will mean that contact between he and the land would be limited. But then he will have Princess Phoebe by his side. And he was sure that she wouldn't mind him unable to talk. Like SkullMaster said, there is always body language. There's no harm in trying.
"Alright, I'll do it," Max replied, much to Norman's dismay.
"It's done then," SkullMaster's lips creased to an evil smile as he waved his staff around the cauldron. With his magical powers, he materialized a scroll that read all the terms and conditions and the oath for Max to read. He then materialized a fishbone and gestured Max to sign the contract. Max knew that once he signed it, it would be a binding deal. He took a deep breath, gritted his teeth and snatched the fishbone that was hovering in the midair and, with his eyes closed, he signed his name on the dotted line. As soon as he was done signing, the scroll flew back into SkullMaster's hand as dematerialized when SkullMaster grasped it. His hand glowed, signifying that the contract was done. He then mumbled loads of weird spells while throwing in elixirs and potions that exploded and shone almost as bright as the sun as soon as it fell into the cauldron. He took the rose from Max's hand and plucked the petals one by one, dropping them into the cauldron. As the mixture in the cauldron glowed blood red, SkullMaster began to chant his devious spells.
"Boggers and rouges, winds and cast imps seal!!" the mists in the cauldron came out and made rings around Max, sealing him in his place. "Black ogres and wings of a titan, now serve only to me!!!"
Max gasped when he saw reddish-black smoke from the cauldron appeared in the shape of a pair of huge grotesque arms as SkullMaster chanted his spells and raised his arms. With a wicked gleam in his yellow eyes, SkullMaster bore deep into Max's blue ones and commanded, "Now sing!"
Automatically, Max opened his mouth and sang. He couldn't stop. He couldn't control it. It was as if his voice had a mind of its own. SkullMaster commanded him to keep singing as the reddish-black arms inched closer towards him. He could feel something warm down his throat, beating in the same line as his heartbeat but he dare not stop singing. The arms came closer and closer towards him and they looked threateningly scary. Max wanted to back away but there was no place for him to go. Slowly the arms slipped in Max's mouth and slithered down his throat, almost choking Max. He could feel the arms grabbing some sort of a lump down his throat—like they were taking his Adam's apple or something and slithered out of his throat as fast as they went in. Max widened his eyes and swallowed nervously when he saw in the reddish-black hands was his voice, glowing a bright blue and beating like his heart, and it was continuing to sing. Max held his throat; he couldn't believe he was staring at his own voice. Was that it? Has his voice been taken away? This adventure was getting weirder and scarier than he could possibly imagine.
Before he could test try whether he could talk or not, he was surrounded by a huge water droplet and was submerged in the water. He was lifted off his feet and he could hear a muffled laugh from SkullMaster. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain on his legs. His jeans and underwear tore, exposing his naked lower half of his body. He felt an electrical current running through his legs and was searing through his bones. It hurt him so bad and he wanted to scream but no sound came out. His lungs suddenly burned like fire and his heart was beating even faster, like some sort of heartattack. Somehow, he felt like he could breathe in the water droplet he was trapped in. He could feel the skin of his legs tearing and coming closer together. Before he knew, he felt his legs conjoined together as one and his feet had stretched itself into fins on a tail. The water droplet burst and Max fell onto the floor, his skin beginning to burn under the ray of the moonlight. By then, SkullMaster has released Norman from his seat and returned his voice.
"Max!" Norman yelled as he went up to Max who was shivering from shock. "Are you alright?!"
"Better hurry up and get him into the sea before he dries up like a prune, Norman!" SkullMaster laughed out loud. "And in return for your deal to wake your friend's mother up, you'll have to pay something as well!"
Norman wanted to ask what he meant by that, but he had to save Max's life first. He picked Max up and made a dash towards the jetty. As he ran, he could feel his body shrinking and that he began to grow gills and fish scales. His feet begin to falter as they slowly shrank and conjoined themselves to one, just like Max's. He was getting out of breath and could feel the suffocation coming, as if the air that he breathed wasn't suitable for him anymore. When he saw the jetty just a few meters away from him, he gathered whatever strength he had left and jumped into the sea, holding Max protectively in his arms. Max was slowly faltering into unconsciousness when all this happened.
He could still hear SkullMaster's malicious laugh as his body fell deeper and deeper into the deep sea…
Friday, May 5, 2017
A Mix of Fairy Tale Cocktail-Chapter 12
Max woke up the next morning by the sunlight that seeped through the curtains of his room. He stretched himself as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He then remembered about last night's incident—how he tried to steal the glowing rose from The Beastess and how he ran out into the woods in fear and got attacked by hungry wolves. And it was truly surprising for him to be saved by the very person that had been mean to him ever since he got here. He still couldn't get over the fact that he had been saved by the meanest, most dangerous creature known throughout land and sea and that he had done the same thing to her as well.
Maybe…Maybe The Beastess wasn't so bad as everyone thought her to be. Maybe inside, she's just human…
Max's thoughts were stopped short by the sound of barking. He looked down and saw that it was the footrest dog wagging his tail and having its front legs on the side of bed. Max grinned and stroked the footrest.
“Hey there, little buddy. Good morning to you too. You wanna go for a walk?”
The footrest yipped gleefully in reply.
“Alright, pup,” Max chuckled. “A walk it is.”
After freshening himself up and got into his T-shirt and jeans (and a jacket to match-the morning air was quite cold), Max took the footrest outside in the yard to play. The footrest barked happily, running around trees and going about in a frenzy without even a care in the world until finally jumping into Max’s arms. If that footrest dog had a tongue right now, he would’ve slobbered all over Max.
Max laughed out loud; he had never felt so relaxed and happy since he got here. He stole a look at the castle and realized that it didn’t look so creepy and grotesque after all. In fact, it looked mighty nice and magnificent, well, ignoring the gargoyle statues and stuff, that is.
The Beastess was standing at the verandah of her East Wing quarters with Rusty and Virgil while she watched Max continue playing with the footrest dog. She stared long and hard at Max’s features: golden blonde hair that shone under the sun magnificently and blue eyes as clear as the sea. She never thought she’d see such a sight. For many long years, she had been looking at things the glum, dark way, but to see Max with such radiance, now that was different. She couldn’t help thinking that there’s something inside her blooming for this little teenager.
“I’ve never felt this way about anyone…” The Beastess said quietly, then clenched her fists in determination. “I want to do something for him…but what?”
“Well, there’s the usual things,” Virgil suggested. “Flowers, chocolates, promises you don’t intend to keep…”
“Ah, no, no,” Rusty shoved Virgil playfully. “It must be something really special. Something that sparks his interest…Wait a minute! I got it!”
Soon, Max could be seen standing in front of a white door with The Beastess. For once, The Beastess was talking in a slightly friendly tone.
“Max, there’s something I want to show you. But first, you have to close your eyes.”
Max raised an eyebrow, suspicious.
“It’s a surprise,” The Beastess noted.
Max finally closed his eyes. After making sure he couldn’t see anything, The Beastess opened the door with a leap in her heart she had never felt before and led him in. She took his hands and led him until they stood in the middle of the dark room inside. When they stopped, Max’s curiosity got the better of him.
“Can I open them?”
“No, no, not yet,” The Beastess replied. She led him further into the room, then stopped and said, “Wait here.”
So saying, she ran across the room and pulled all the curtains. Max was getting a little impatient with the suspense as he heard the sound of curtains being pulled. Finally he asked, “Now can I open them?”
“Alright, now!”
As Max opened his eyes and tried to adjust to the light, he gasped when he saw that he was standing in a glass room with walls made out of pure glass that could see through the whole place. He could see that the room was facing the sea and the scenery was just immaculate. But the most interesting thing of all was that it was packed with shelves upon shelves of books that stood tall and reached up to the ceiling. When he took one book out to read, he saw that they were actually comic books! This was the comic studio Rusty has been talking about! She actually had every single issue for every cool comic he had seen back in the comic house at Fishermen’s Friend Village, including his favourite comic ‘The XYZ Men’. He bet even the comic house wouldn’t be able to beat this.
“I can’t believe it! I’ve never seen so many comics in all my life! Where did you get all this duff!”
“I had free time, and these comics are the entertainment I’ve got nowadays,” The Beastess replied sheepishly.
“I didn’t know you read comics!”
“Well, not all the words. I’m quite illiterate. But the pictures make me understand the whole story.”
“You must’ve run across the world and spent loads of cash to get all these stuff, man! You’re magnificent!”
“You…You like it?”
“Like it?! Man, this is awesome!!”
“Then it’s yours,” The Beastess announced. Max gaped in disbelief. The Beastess nodded, assuring him that she meant what she said. Max jumped onto her and gave her a bear hug.
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
The Beastess blushed. She had never had this much close contact with anyone, least to say a guy, and now Max was actually hugging her willingly. She smiled and let him hug her for as long as he wanted.
In the background, hiding behind the door, the animated objects grinned as they watched, hope sparkling in their eyes.
Since then, Max and The Beastess were in good terms. Sure, there may be occasional fights and stuff, but they got back again pretty quick. Max taught The Beastess lots of things, from reading to table manners to just try and have fun. There was once when they were having breakfast of oatmeal and rye and Max was horrified to see The Beastess gobbling the whole lot, like the beast she was. She tried using the spoon, but she had been so accustomed to eating savagely and that her hands were too big for the spoon that she dribbled all over the place. Finally Max gestured her to drink it from the bowl instead, and it worked out pretty well.
As the days went by, The Beastess’s anger management was handled pretty well. She seldom lost her temper at everyone now and she had become very tolerant. When Max requested her to put aside eating those noisy cashew nuts while he was reading, she patiently obliged, even though those cashew nuts were her favourite. It was a great improvement.
Probably the best and most fun challenge would be how to handle small animals. There came a day when Max asked The Beastess out in the yard to get some fresh air and feed the birds. He started by putting some birdseed onto The Beastess’s hands and let her have a try. But the way she shoved her arms towards the birds to give them the birdseed scared the birds and moved them further from her. Max shook his head and showed her how it’s done—he had seen his mother do it: he lay The Beastess’s hand-filled seeds on the ground and scattered some of the birdseed on the ground near her hands. The birds pecked on the seeds on the ground first before miraculously jumping onto The Beastess’s hands to peck some more.
Seeing The Beastess looking so happy brought a smile to his face. He never thought he had seen her so happy. It was as if he had become his best friend in the whole world. Well, come to think of it, he probably was his only friend that ever made her happy. He felt a sense of accomplishment and a deep feeling of friendship for this creature.
As he continued to contemplate about her changes, he almost laughed out loud when all the birds came flying and perching on The Beastess wanting their share of birdseed. The Beastess shooed them away and looked up, only to receive a face full of mud. Needless to say, it was Max’s doing. It was raining the night before and Max had fashioned mudballs from the wet soil on the ground. Soon it was a battle of mudballs as Max and The Beastess tried to out-dirt each other with the dirty muck of mud. They really had a lot of fun throwing mudballs at each other and making each other look like they were swamp monsters or something, much to the delight of the animated objects who were watching their every move. They could tell that there were some certain feelings their Mistress were having for Max, and they sure were intimate ones.
Later that evening, after their mud war, they were ready to clean themselves off the gunk when The Beastess, looking all muddy and soiled, asked Max if he would like to have dinner with her. This time Max agreed willingly, much to The Beastess and the animated objects’ delight. The Beastess almost ran inside towards the East Wing excitedly, anxious to look good for tonight. She went to the huge bathroom she hadn’t used since, like, ever and requested the warm bathing water for her bath. Rusty was in the bathroom with her, giving her moral support.
“Tonight is the night!” Rusty exclaimed as water was poured on The Beastess to wash off the soap. It sure wasn’t easy to wash dirt off a huge 10-feet tall ogress that hasn’t actually been bathing for, well, ages.
“I’m not sure I can do this,” The Beastess replied, her stomach having butterflies.
“You don’t have time to be timid!” Rusty scolded. “You must be bold! Daring!”
“Bold. Daring,” The Beastess repeated her words, shaking herself off the water like the animal she was. Rusty grimaced as she, too, tried to flick off the water got on herself. The Beastess walked towards the mirror to be wiped dry.
“There would be music,” Rusty continued. “Romantic candlelight provided by myself. And when the moment is right, you confess your love.”
“Yes,” The Beastess muttered, then turned to the mirror, saying, “I con…I…I…no, I can’t.”
“You care about the boy now, don’t you?” Rusty asked as The Beastess, for the first time, received a proper haircut from a coat hanger.
“More than anything.”
“Well then, you must tell him!” Rusty said.
“But…aren’t boys supposed to make the first move or something?”
“Move-shmoves! This is the new age! Men don’t exactly make the first move nowadays. People don’t date anymore like the old-timers did.”
“Well, if you say so…” The Beastess was still skeptical.
“I know so, Mistress!” Rusty replied confidently. After the cutting was done, it didn’t exactly turn out the way they expected it to be (A/N: Her haircut looked exactly like the girly, crazy-looking stupid haircut The Beast got in Beauty and the Beast XD). Rusty hesitantly commented, “Voila! Oh, you look so…so…”
“Stupid,” The Beastess couldn’t agree more to this haircut.
“Not quite the word I was looking for, but perhaps a little more at the top,” Rusty clapped her hands and the coat hanger continued cutting. By the time she was done cutting, Virgil has already come in, clearing his throat deliberately loud.
“Your man awaits.”
After The Beastess was all dressed up in her finest ballroom gown of pale pinkish-blue, she came out of her room and saw standing at the staircase opposite hers was Max, dressed in a dark gray one-set suit. His handsome blonde hair and blue eyes shone under the chandelier above them and both of them looked magnificent. The Beastess adjusted her curls and went down the stairs as Rusty ushered her to. Soon both of them stood face to face. For the first time, The Beastess was smiling at him sweetly and lovely.
“You look wonderful tonight, Beastess,” Max commented, looking impressed. He bowed as gentlemen always do to ladies. The Beastess curtsied as well.
“So do you, Max.”
“Shall we?” Max asked as he offered his arm for her to hold.
“Of course, Your Grace,” The Beastess said jokingly and took his arm.
They went down the steps, occasionally bugged by the barking footrest, towards the dining room. During dinner, The Beastess finally got the hang of using the cutlery without dribbling or spilling anything. Soon, another coat hanger came in playing the violin. It was playing a ballroom dance version of the song ‘My Heart Will Go On’ and Max got off his seat to ask The Beastess for a dance. He led her down to the ballroom and showed her how to put her hands on the right place before dancing to the beat. He had been to enough courting ceremonies to know how ballroom dances are supposed to be like. Surprisingly, The Beastess never stepped on Max’s feet at all when she danced. It was as if she was reliving something she had long forgotten in the past. They danced and danced and were enjoying every moment of it. When Max brought her closer to him, this was it. The Beastess was sure of it. Their feelings were mutual. Rusty was shaking her hands with glee and Virgil was giving her a thumbs-up.
Soon, the dance ended. Rusty dimmed the lights and the door to the verandah opened by itself, gesturing them to come and sit under the starlit sky. Max and The Beastess moved towards the verandah and let her take the seat first before him. They sat side by side with an awkward silence between them before The Beastess inched closer towards Max and took his hands.
“Max…uh…are you…happy here with me?”
“Oh yeah, definitely,” Max replied. His eyes wandered out the yard until finally, they set upon a large greenhouse. It was really large and long, not to mention wide, and inside it was a vast garden. It was like a house built exclusively for the garden and it seemed like it could be acres and acres vast. It was separated and secluded from the rest the yard and was only visible if you’re in higher ground. It was a surprise that he hadn’t noticed this in the first place. The Beastess saw the look on his face and was curious.
“What is it?”
“That greenhouse over there. I didn’t know that it existed.”
“Except the gardeners that tend the garden,” The Beastess replied as she, too, gazed at the greenhouse. “We grow the finest plants in there, even my favourite roses.”
“Many people say that there’s a particular rose that bloomed the freshest, the reddest and the biggest. Is it true?”
“Yes. There is one. It’s our prized rose. It just so happened to grow there just like that and it pretty much is the oldest rose among its kind. It’s about 200 years old, if I’m not mistaken, and it’s still standing.”
“Re…Really…?” Max replied in awe. His heart pounded with excitement. ‘So that’s where it had been all this while!’ he thought.
“Is there something bothering you, Max?” The Beastess asked.
“Uh, no, no, really,” Max replied quickly, trying to make up an excuse. “It’s just that…well, I do wish to see my mother again. Just for a moment. I kinda miss her. I’ve been away for quite a long while now and she must be frantic.”
The Beastess looked away, hesitant. It’s true that Max has been here in the castle for quite a long while, isolated from everyone else in the world, and it’s not uncommon to feel a little homesick. But she didn’t want him to leave. She wanted him to stay forever and love her like she loved him. She didn’t want to let him go, and yet she didn’t want to see him hurt.
Suddenly, an idea clicked. She turned to Max and said, “There is a way.”
She took him to her private quarters in the East Wing. Ever since they’ve got along fine, Max was allowed to venture into the East Wing, just as long as he didn’t question anything about the room, the portrait, the rose or anything else that was there. Inside, The Beastess picked up the ivory mirror and passed it to Max.
“This mirror will show you anything. Anything you wish to see.”
Max stared at the mirror and at the reflection on it. He was skeptical at first but since the whole castle was enchanted anyway, it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try. He spoke to the mirror timidly, “I’d like to see my mother, please.”
The reflection in the mirror soon changed. In its place was his mother, lying on the bed sleeping. But it wasn’t the sleep normal people do at night. This kind of sleep was not right. He noticed his mother looking very pale and had a face of malnutrition. There was a tube stuck to her elbow with fluid dripping in. Beside her was Norman nursing her and beside him was the village doctor.
“When will she exactly be out of her coma?” Norman asked.
“I’m afraid I cannot tell,” the doctor shook his head. “If she continues to stay unconscious like this, I’m afraid we’ll have to do euthanasia on her.”
“No!” Norman stood up abruptly. “There is no way you are going to kill her just like that! She will wake up! She will! She has to…”
Max’s heart ached. He could tell that her worry and her trauma must be so great to fall into a coma like that. The Beastess looked at him, wanting to know what he had seen.
“My mom…She’s sick. She’s fallen into a coma and is into it bad. She might die and she’s all alone…”
The Beastess was afraid of this. She knew that if she let him see his mother, he would surely request her to let him go. She looked out of the verandah, not wanting to meet his face. She had to confess to him. She had to tell him now.
“Max…I’m sorry. I can’t let you go.”
“Wh…What? Why not?” Max asked.
“Because…Because I say so,” The Beastess replied hastily. “And also because I…I…have deep feelings for you…”
Max sighed sadly. He knew this would come. He had guessed it all along. He went over and lay his hand on her shoulder and whispered, “I’m sorry, Beastess. I cannot give you what you want. You are, to me, just a dear friend. A best friend. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“Wha…?” The Beastess turned around, looking at him in disbelief.
“I’m really, really sorry. Whatever reason you thought I was here for, it’s not. I had no idea that my mother was captured here in the first place. My intention to come here is to get the rose from your garden—the one you said is about 200 years old. I need it for my debt, because in truth…I have someone else in my heart…”
“No…No! It can’t be! It can’t be! I thought you liked me! I thought…!”
“Yes, I do like you, but not the way you think I am. I’m sorry. Really I am. I didn’t mean to hurt you, but this is my true intention of being here. I’m so sorry. We can still be friends…right?”
“NO!!!” The Beastess roared as she grabbed Max by the waist. She stomped out of the East Wing and brought him all the way up to the tower. Once there, she threw him inside and locked the door. Max ran towards it and pounded furiously.
“Beastess, please! Please let me out! Don’t do this to me! I thought we were friends! I’m sorry I can’t be what you want me to be, but please don’t hold it against me, please!”
“If I can’t have you, no one can! You’re staying here from now on, and this time you are my prisoner forever!”
Max wasn’t sure how long time had passed. He first counted by the rising and setting of the sun, but soon he lost count. He got his meals through the opening below the door and that was it. There were no conversations between him and whoever was bringing him his meals. He didn’t know how he was going to get it through The Beastess that he didn’t mean to hurt her feelings. He understood how it feels like to be rejected, but he and The Beastess were just not meant to be. They were two different worlds living in completely different lifestyles. There is no way he and The Beastess can be together.
Besides, his heart was only for Princess Phoebe, and he was only willing to transform himself for her, not for The Beastess.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, the door opened. There stood The Beastess, tall and strong like the ogress she was. In her left hand held the ivory mirror and in her right hand held the rose that he had been yearning for since the day he arrived to this castle. Both of them stared at each other in silence, no one saying a word to break the ice. Slowly, The Beastess came up to Max and knelt down before him.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and I realize that keeping you here is not going make you change your mind about your feelings for me,” The Beastess said quietly. She took a deep breath and continued, “You must go to your mother and sought after the love you have been yearning for.”
Max stared at The Beastess’s eyes in disbelief, “What did you say?”
“I release you,” The Beastess replied sadly. “You’re no longer my prisoner.”
“You mean…I’m free?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much, Beastess. You know how much this means to me. I’m sorry things didn’t turn out the way you wanted. I…”
“I understand,” The Beastess said. She passed the things she was holding to Max and said, “Here’s the rose you wanted. May it be in good use to you and worth your effort to come here. 200 years. I hope its death wouldn’t go to waste. And take this mirror with you, so you’ll always have a way to look back…and remember me.”
“Thank you for understanding how important this is for me,” Max said as he got onto his feet.
“And I thank you for giving me such wonderful memories for me to live by. As a return for your favour, I pledge myself to be your loyal guardian, and a faithful friend.”
Max smiled. He leaned over and kissed The Beastess on the forehead and was soon heading out of the tower, down the steps and towards his freedom. The Beastess remained kneeling there. Virgil, who had listened to everything, crept in.
“You understand, Mistress, that this would be a permanent decision.”
The Beastess nodded.
“Why, Mistress? How could you let him go just like that?” Virgil was in a state of disappointment. “You know that he could be the key. How could you do that?”
“I had to.”
“Yes, yes, but…why?”
“Because…I love him.”
The animated objects were quite shocked and disappointed to hear from Virgil that The Beastess had let Max go. They were glad to hear that their Mistress had finally learned to love, but were sad that it was not enough. Max had to love her in return to break the bestial curse she was placed upon by the very mysterious person who told her to guard the castle for the rightful owner of it to return.
As Max made a dash towards the island shore to where the oar-less boat was waiting, his heart ached as he heard the agonized, heartbroken roar of The Beastess.
Maybe…Maybe The Beastess wasn't so bad as everyone thought her to be. Maybe inside, she's just human…
Max's thoughts were stopped short by the sound of barking. He looked down and saw that it was the footrest dog wagging his tail and having its front legs on the side of bed. Max grinned and stroked the footrest.
“Hey there, little buddy. Good morning to you too. You wanna go for a walk?”
The footrest yipped gleefully in reply.
“Alright, pup,” Max chuckled. “A walk it is.”
After freshening himself up and got into his T-shirt and jeans (and a jacket to match-the morning air was quite cold), Max took the footrest outside in the yard to play. The footrest barked happily, running around trees and going about in a frenzy without even a care in the world until finally jumping into Max’s arms. If that footrest dog had a tongue right now, he would’ve slobbered all over Max.
Max laughed out loud; he had never felt so relaxed and happy since he got here. He stole a look at the castle and realized that it didn’t look so creepy and grotesque after all. In fact, it looked mighty nice and magnificent, well, ignoring the gargoyle statues and stuff, that is.
The Beastess was standing at the verandah of her East Wing quarters with Rusty and Virgil while she watched Max continue playing with the footrest dog. She stared long and hard at Max’s features: golden blonde hair that shone under the sun magnificently and blue eyes as clear as the sea. She never thought she’d see such a sight. For many long years, she had been looking at things the glum, dark way, but to see Max with such radiance, now that was different. She couldn’t help thinking that there’s something inside her blooming for this little teenager.
“I’ve never felt this way about anyone…” The Beastess said quietly, then clenched her fists in determination. “I want to do something for him…but what?”
“Well, there’s the usual things,” Virgil suggested. “Flowers, chocolates, promises you don’t intend to keep…”
“Ah, no, no,” Rusty shoved Virgil playfully. “It must be something really special. Something that sparks his interest…Wait a minute! I got it!”
Soon, Max could be seen standing in front of a white door with The Beastess. For once, The Beastess was talking in a slightly friendly tone.
“Max, there’s something I want to show you. But first, you have to close your eyes.”
Max raised an eyebrow, suspicious.
“It’s a surprise,” The Beastess noted.
Max finally closed his eyes. After making sure he couldn’t see anything, The Beastess opened the door with a leap in her heart she had never felt before and led him in. She took his hands and led him until they stood in the middle of the dark room inside. When they stopped, Max’s curiosity got the better of him.
“Can I open them?”
“No, no, not yet,” The Beastess replied. She led him further into the room, then stopped and said, “Wait here.”
So saying, she ran across the room and pulled all the curtains. Max was getting a little impatient with the suspense as he heard the sound of curtains being pulled. Finally he asked, “Now can I open them?”
“Alright, now!”
As Max opened his eyes and tried to adjust to the light, he gasped when he saw that he was standing in a glass room with walls made out of pure glass that could see through the whole place. He could see that the room was facing the sea and the scenery was just immaculate. But the most interesting thing of all was that it was packed with shelves upon shelves of books that stood tall and reached up to the ceiling. When he took one book out to read, he saw that they were actually comic books! This was the comic studio Rusty has been talking about! She actually had every single issue for every cool comic he had seen back in the comic house at Fishermen’s Friend Village, including his favourite comic ‘The XYZ Men’. He bet even the comic house wouldn’t be able to beat this.
“I can’t believe it! I’ve never seen so many comics in all my life! Where did you get all this duff!”
“I had free time, and these comics are the entertainment I’ve got nowadays,” The Beastess replied sheepishly.
“I didn’t know you read comics!”
“Well, not all the words. I’m quite illiterate. But the pictures make me understand the whole story.”
“You must’ve run across the world and spent loads of cash to get all these stuff, man! You’re magnificent!”
“You…You like it?”
“Like it?! Man, this is awesome!!”
“Then it’s yours,” The Beastess announced. Max gaped in disbelief. The Beastess nodded, assuring him that she meant what she said. Max jumped onto her and gave her a bear hug.
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
The Beastess blushed. She had never had this much close contact with anyone, least to say a guy, and now Max was actually hugging her willingly. She smiled and let him hug her for as long as he wanted.
In the background, hiding behind the door, the animated objects grinned as they watched, hope sparkling in their eyes.
Since then, Max and The Beastess were in good terms. Sure, there may be occasional fights and stuff, but they got back again pretty quick. Max taught The Beastess lots of things, from reading to table manners to just try and have fun. There was once when they were having breakfast of oatmeal and rye and Max was horrified to see The Beastess gobbling the whole lot, like the beast she was. She tried using the spoon, but she had been so accustomed to eating savagely and that her hands were too big for the spoon that she dribbled all over the place. Finally Max gestured her to drink it from the bowl instead, and it worked out pretty well.
As the days went by, The Beastess’s anger management was handled pretty well. She seldom lost her temper at everyone now and she had become very tolerant. When Max requested her to put aside eating those noisy cashew nuts while he was reading, she patiently obliged, even though those cashew nuts were her favourite. It was a great improvement.
Probably the best and most fun challenge would be how to handle small animals. There came a day when Max asked The Beastess out in the yard to get some fresh air and feed the birds. He started by putting some birdseed onto The Beastess’s hands and let her have a try. But the way she shoved her arms towards the birds to give them the birdseed scared the birds and moved them further from her. Max shook his head and showed her how it’s done—he had seen his mother do it: he lay The Beastess’s hand-filled seeds on the ground and scattered some of the birdseed on the ground near her hands. The birds pecked on the seeds on the ground first before miraculously jumping onto The Beastess’s hands to peck some more.
Seeing The Beastess looking so happy brought a smile to his face. He never thought he had seen her so happy. It was as if he had become his best friend in the whole world. Well, come to think of it, he probably was his only friend that ever made her happy. He felt a sense of accomplishment and a deep feeling of friendship for this creature.
As he continued to contemplate about her changes, he almost laughed out loud when all the birds came flying and perching on The Beastess wanting their share of birdseed. The Beastess shooed them away and looked up, only to receive a face full of mud. Needless to say, it was Max’s doing. It was raining the night before and Max had fashioned mudballs from the wet soil on the ground. Soon it was a battle of mudballs as Max and The Beastess tried to out-dirt each other with the dirty muck of mud. They really had a lot of fun throwing mudballs at each other and making each other look like they were swamp monsters or something, much to the delight of the animated objects who were watching their every move. They could tell that there were some certain feelings their Mistress were having for Max, and they sure were intimate ones.
Later that evening, after their mud war, they were ready to clean themselves off the gunk when The Beastess, looking all muddy and soiled, asked Max if he would like to have dinner with her. This time Max agreed willingly, much to The Beastess and the animated objects’ delight. The Beastess almost ran inside towards the East Wing excitedly, anxious to look good for tonight. She went to the huge bathroom she hadn’t used since, like, ever and requested the warm bathing water for her bath. Rusty was in the bathroom with her, giving her moral support.
“Tonight is the night!” Rusty exclaimed as water was poured on The Beastess to wash off the soap. It sure wasn’t easy to wash dirt off a huge 10-feet tall ogress that hasn’t actually been bathing for, well, ages.
“I’m not sure I can do this,” The Beastess replied, her stomach having butterflies.
“You don’t have time to be timid!” Rusty scolded. “You must be bold! Daring!”
“Bold. Daring,” The Beastess repeated her words, shaking herself off the water like the animal she was. Rusty grimaced as she, too, tried to flick off the water got on herself. The Beastess walked towards the mirror to be wiped dry.
“There would be music,” Rusty continued. “Romantic candlelight provided by myself. And when the moment is right, you confess your love.”
“Yes,” The Beastess muttered, then turned to the mirror, saying, “I con…I…I…no, I can’t.”
“You care about the boy now, don’t you?” Rusty asked as The Beastess, for the first time, received a proper haircut from a coat hanger.
“More than anything.”
“Well then, you must tell him!” Rusty said.
“But…aren’t boys supposed to make the first move or something?”
“Move-shmoves! This is the new age! Men don’t exactly make the first move nowadays. People don’t date anymore like the old-timers did.”
“Well, if you say so…” The Beastess was still skeptical.
“I know so, Mistress!” Rusty replied confidently. After the cutting was done, it didn’t exactly turn out the way they expected it to be (A/N: Her haircut looked exactly like the girly, crazy-looking stupid haircut The Beast got in Beauty and the Beast XD). Rusty hesitantly commented, “Voila! Oh, you look so…so…”
“Stupid,” The Beastess couldn’t agree more to this haircut.
“Not quite the word I was looking for, but perhaps a little more at the top,” Rusty clapped her hands and the coat hanger continued cutting. By the time she was done cutting, Virgil has already come in, clearing his throat deliberately loud.
“Your man awaits.”
After The Beastess was all dressed up in her finest ballroom gown of pale pinkish-blue, she came out of her room and saw standing at the staircase opposite hers was Max, dressed in a dark gray one-set suit. His handsome blonde hair and blue eyes shone under the chandelier above them and both of them looked magnificent. The Beastess adjusted her curls and went down the stairs as Rusty ushered her to. Soon both of them stood face to face. For the first time, The Beastess was smiling at him sweetly and lovely.
“You look wonderful tonight, Beastess,” Max commented, looking impressed. He bowed as gentlemen always do to ladies. The Beastess curtsied as well.
“So do you, Max.”
“Shall we?” Max asked as he offered his arm for her to hold.
“Of course, Your Grace,” The Beastess said jokingly and took his arm.
They went down the steps, occasionally bugged by the barking footrest, towards the dining room. During dinner, The Beastess finally got the hang of using the cutlery without dribbling or spilling anything. Soon, another coat hanger came in playing the violin. It was playing a ballroom dance version of the song ‘My Heart Will Go On’ and Max got off his seat to ask The Beastess for a dance. He led her down to the ballroom and showed her how to put her hands on the right place before dancing to the beat. He had been to enough courting ceremonies to know how ballroom dances are supposed to be like. Surprisingly, The Beastess never stepped on Max’s feet at all when she danced. It was as if she was reliving something she had long forgotten in the past. They danced and danced and were enjoying every moment of it. When Max brought her closer to him, this was it. The Beastess was sure of it. Their feelings were mutual. Rusty was shaking her hands with glee and Virgil was giving her a thumbs-up.
Soon, the dance ended. Rusty dimmed the lights and the door to the verandah opened by itself, gesturing them to come and sit under the starlit sky. Max and The Beastess moved towards the verandah and let her take the seat first before him. They sat side by side with an awkward silence between them before The Beastess inched closer towards Max and took his hands.
“Max…uh…are you…happy here with me?”
“Oh yeah, definitely,” Max replied. His eyes wandered out the yard until finally, they set upon a large greenhouse. It was really large and long, not to mention wide, and inside it was a vast garden. It was like a house built exclusively for the garden and it seemed like it could be acres and acres vast. It was separated and secluded from the rest the yard and was only visible if you’re in higher ground. It was a surprise that he hadn’t noticed this in the first place. The Beastess saw the look on his face and was curious.
“What is it?”
“That greenhouse over there. I didn’t know that it existed.”
“Except the gardeners that tend the garden,” The Beastess replied as she, too, gazed at the greenhouse. “We grow the finest plants in there, even my favourite roses.”
“Many people say that there’s a particular rose that bloomed the freshest, the reddest and the biggest. Is it true?”
“Yes. There is one. It’s our prized rose. It just so happened to grow there just like that and it pretty much is the oldest rose among its kind. It’s about 200 years old, if I’m not mistaken, and it’s still standing.”
“Re…Really…?” Max replied in awe. His heart pounded with excitement. ‘So that’s where it had been all this while!’ he thought.
“Is there something bothering you, Max?” The Beastess asked.
“Uh, no, no, really,” Max replied quickly, trying to make up an excuse. “It’s just that…well, I do wish to see my mother again. Just for a moment. I kinda miss her. I’ve been away for quite a long while now and she must be frantic.”
The Beastess looked away, hesitant. It’s true that Max has been here in the castle for quite a long while, isolated from everyone else in the world, and it’s not uncommon to feel a little homesick. But she didn’t want him to leave. She wanted him to stay forever and love her like she loved him. She didn’t want to let him go, and yet she didn’t want to see him hurt.
Suddenly, an idea clicked. She turned to Max and said, “There is a way.”
She took him to her private quarters in the East Wing. Ever since they’ve got along fine, Max was allowed to venture into the East Wing, just as long as he didn’t question anything about the room, the portrait, the rose or anything else that was there. Inside, The Beastess picked up the ivory mirror and passed it to Max.
“This mirror will show you anything. Anything you wish to see.”
Max stared at the mirror and at the reflection on it. He was skeptical at first but since the whole castle was enchanted anyway, it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try. He spoke to the mirror timidly, “I’d like to see my mother, please.”
The reflection in the mirror soon changed. In its place was his mother, lying on the bed sleeping. But it wasn’t the sleep normal people do at night. This kind of sleep was not right. He noticed his mother looking very pale and had a face of malnutrition. There was a tube stuck to her elbow with fluid dripping in. Beside her was Norman nursing her and beside him was the village doctor.
“When will she exactly be out of her coma?” Norman asked.
“I’m afraid I cannot tell,” the doctor shook his head. “If she continues to stay unconscious like this, I’m afraid we’ll have to do euthanasia on her.”
“No!” Norman stood up abruptly. “There is no way you are going to kill her just like that! She will wake up! She will! She has to…”
Max’s heart ached. He could tell that her worry and her trauma must be so great to fall into a coma like that. The Beastess looked at him, wanting to know what he had seen.
“My mom…She’s sick. She’s fallen into a coma and is into it bad. She might die and she’s all alone…”
The Beastess was afraid of this. She knew that if she let him see his mother, he would surely request her to let him go. She looked out of the verandah, not wanting to meet his face. She had to confess to him. She had to tell him now.
“Max…I’m sorry. I can’t let you go.”
“Wh…What? Why not?” Max asked.
“Because…Because I say so,” The Beastess replied hastily. “And also because I…I…have deep feelings for you…”
Max sighed sadly. He knew this would come. He had guessed it all along. He went over and lay his hand on her shoulder and whispered, “I’m sorry, Beastess. I cannot give you what you want. You are, to me, just a dear friend. A best friend. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“Wha…?” The Beastess turned around, looking at him in disbelief.
“I’m really, really sorry. Whatever reason you thought I was here for, it’s not. I had no idea that my mother was captured here in the first place. My intention to come here is to get the rose from your garden—the one you said is about 200 years old. I need it for my debt, because in truth…I have someone else in my heart…”
“No…No! It can’t be! It can’t be! I thought you liked me! I thought…!”
“Yes, I do like you, but not the way you think I am. I’m sorry. Really I am. I didn’t mean to hurt you, but this is my true intention of being here. I’m so sorry. We can still be friends…right?”
“NO!!!” The Beastess roared as she grabbed Max by the waist. She stomped out of the East Wing and brought him all the way up to the tower. Once there, she threw him inside and locked the door. Max ran towards it and pounded furiously.
“Beastess, please! Please let me out! Don’t do this to me! I thought we were friends! I’m sorry I can’t be what you want me to be, but please don’t hold it against me, please!”
“If I can’t have you, no one can! You’re staying here from now on, and this time you are my prisoner forever!”
Max wasn’t sure how long time had passed. He first counted by the rising and setting of the sun, but soon he lost count. He got his meals through the opening below the door and that was it. There were no conversations between him and whoever was bringing him his meals. He didn’t know how he was going to get it through The Beastess that he didn’t mean to hurt her feelings. He understood how it feels like to be rejected, but he and The Beastess were just not meant to be. They were two different worlds living in completely different lifestyles. There is no way he and The Beastess can be together.
Besides, his heart was only for Princess Phoebe, and he was only willing to transform himself for her, not for The Beastess.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, the door opened. There stood The Beastess, tall and strong like the ogress she was. In her left hand held the ivory mirror and in her right hand held the rose that he had been yearning for since the day he arrived to this castle. Both of them stared at each other in silence, no one saying a word to break the ice. Slowly, The Beastess came up to Max and knelt down before him.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and I realize that keeping you here is not going make you change your mind about your feelings for me,” The Beastess said quietly. She took a deep breath and continued, “You must go to your mother and sought after the love you have been yearning for.”
Max stared at The Beastess’s eyes in disbelief, “What did you say?”
“I release you,” The Beastess replied sadly. “You’re no longer my prisoner.”
“You mean…I’m free?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much, Beastess. You know how much this means to me. I’m sorry things didn’t turn out the way you wanted. I…”
“I understand,” The Beastess said. She passed the things she was holding to Max and said, “Here’s the rose you wanted. May it be in good use to you and worth your effort to come here. 200 years. I hope its death wouldn’t go to waste. And take this mirror with you, so you’ll always have a way to look back…and remember me.”
“Thank you for understanding how important this is for me,” Max said as he got onto his feet.
“And I thank you for giving me such wonderful memories for me to live by. As a return for your favour, I pledge myself to be your loyal guardian, and a faithful friend.”
Max smiled. He leaned over and kissed The Beastess on the forehead and was soon heading out of the tower, down the steps and towards his freedom. The Beastess remained kneeling there. Virgil, who had listened to everything, crept in.
“You understand, Mistress, that this would be a permanent decision.”
The Beastess nodded.
“Why, Mistress? How could you let him go just like that?” Virgil was in a state of disappointment. “You know that he could be the key. How could you do that?”
“I had to.”
“Yes, yes, but…why?”
“Because…I love him.”
The animated objects were quite shocked and disappointed to hear from Virgil that The Beastess had let Max go. They were glad to hear that their Mistress had finally learned to love, but were sad that it was not enough. Max had to love her in return to break the bestial curse she was placed upon by the very mysterious person who told her to guard the castle for the rightful owner of it to return.
As Max made a dash towards the island shore to where the oar-less boat was waiting, his heart ached as he heard the agonized, heartbroken roar of The Beastess.
A Mix of Fairy Tale Cocktail-Chapter 11
Later that night, the door of Max’s room slowly creaked open. Max peeked out of the door to see if The Beastess was still around. So far, so good. He was quite scared to death when the Beastess suddenly banged his door and yelled her lungs out at him when he refused her dinner invitation, and he was so pissed off at her that he was determined to stay there and not come out. But in the end, his anger made his hunger worse, and he had to admit, before The Beastess even invited him to dinner, he was already a tad hungry. Slowly, he crept out of his room and made his way downstairs to the kitchen.
On his way, without him noticing, he passed by the hallway where Rusty and her boyfriend the broom were behind the curtains playing romantic games with each other. When Rusty noticed Max out of his room, she was horrified and immediately dumped her boyfriend in the mid-game and chased after Max. By then, the steam between her and her boyfriend were broken off rudely and the broom was left there to pout.
Inside the kitchen, all the animated objects were cleaning up after themselves. The uneaten dinner was all stocked up in the food shelves and all the culinary were put away. While Normie tucked Junior into the cupboard to sleep (Junior insisted that he wasn’t sleepy, but fell off to sleep anyway), the stove complained loudly to himself.
“I work and slave all day long and for what? This culinary masterpiece gone to waste!”
“Oh, stop your grouching. It’s been a long night through for us,” Normie stopped him short.
“Well, if you ask me, that boy was just being stubborn,” Virgil said as he wiped his hands and threw the towel onto the rack. “After all, the Mistress did say ‘Please’.”
“But if the Mistress doesn’t learn to control that temper, she’ll never break the—”
“Splendid to see you up and about, Little Master!” Virgil cut Normie’s talk short when he saw Max stepping in slowly into the kitchen. He reached out to shake his hand, saying, “I’m Virgil, master butler of this castle and…” this is where the frantic Rusty jumped in front of him, much to his distaste, “this is Rusty.”
“A great pleasure to see you, Little Master,” Rusty said as she kissed Max’s hand. She can be sentimental and over-romantic at times.
“Is there—stop kissing him—anything we can do to make your stay more comfortable?” Virgil cut back in front of Rusty, earning a serious burn from her candle.
“Well, I am a little hungry,” Max admitted, scratching his chin sheepishly.
“You are?” Normie asked, sounding delighted. “Hear that? He’s hungry! Start the fire! Bring out the silver! Wake the china!”
“Remember what the Mistress said!” Virgil hissed. He was a work-to-rule kind of person and really disliked things that didn’t go into order, especially when it comes to breaking the Mistress’s rules.
“Oh, pish-posh! I’m not going to let that poor child go hungry!”
“Oh, alright! A glass of water, a crust of bread, and then…”
“Virgil,” Rusty shoved Virgil’s shoulder. “I’m surprised at you. He’s not our prisoner; he’s our guest. We must make him feel welcome here. Right this way, Little Master.”
“Well…keep it down,” Virgil finally relented. “If the Mistress finds out it’ll be our necks, you know.”
“Of course, of course,” Rusty waved Virgil’s worries away. “But what is dinner without a little…music?”
So, despite Virgil’s disapproving protests, Rusty and her fellow animated objects entertained Max with a little song and dance while Max gorged himself to all the food laid before him. Max tried a little of everything that was served there: beef ragout, cheese soufflé, pie and even pudding ‘en-flambé’. There was so much for him to eat that he couldn’t keep track. By the time the entertainment was done, he was practically stuffed. The music was pretty cool and he was impressed at how well Rusty sang, including Normie and a few dubbing from Virgil himself (he seems to be enjoying it). Max clapped his hands with glee.
“Bravo! Encore, encore! That was way cool, guys! Great show!”
“Thank you, thank you,” Virgil bowed humbly. “Good show, wasn’t it? Oh, goodness, look at the time! Now it’s off to bed, off to bed.”
“Man, I don’t think I can sleep a wink right now!” Max chuckled. “It’s my first time in the enchanted castle.”
“Enchanted? Who said anything about the castle being enchanted?” Virgil laughed nervously, then turned to Rusty accusingly. “You, wasn’t it?”
“I, uh, figured it out quite by myself, actually,” Max grinned in amusement as he watched the candelabra and the clock bickering and fighting with each other. He stood up and said, “I’d like to look around, if that’s alright with you guys.”
“Oh, would you like a tour?” Rusty offered, but was stopped by Virgil.
“I don’t really think it’s such a good idea. We can’t let him go…poking around in certain places, if you know what I mean.”
“Perhaps you’ll like to take me,” Max pointed at Virgil. “I’m sure you know everything there is to know about the castle.”
“Well, he he…actually, I’m…” Virgil tried to be humble but in the end admitted, “Well, yes, I do.”
Soon Max was taken around the castle and was being introduced by many of the things displayed there. Virgil explained longwindedly about how the fabric of India was made and how the paintings of warriors came to be and how the statues symbolized something and all the whatnot. Max wasn’t exactly interested in these things but he admired them politely all the same. His main reason here was to look for the rose for SkullMaster’s payment to turn him into a merman so that he could be with Phoebe. He had to act fast if he wanted to keep the offer from going expired. While Virgil continued to blabber about the suit of armour in the hallway, he silently sneaked off and decided to try his luck in the forbidden East Wing. Maybe whatever was forbidden in there could prove to be the one he was looking for. Halfway up the stairs, she was stopped by Rusty and Virgil. His suspicions were aroused further.
“What’s up there anyway?” Max asked.
“Oh, nothing really,” Virgil replied, trying to talk him out of it. “It’s all in the East Wing, all the dusty, dirty grime…Very gory, really.”
“Ah, so that’s the East Wing,” Max grinned.
“Nice going,” Rusty said sarcastically, glaring accusingly at the petrified Virgil.
“I wonder what she’s hiding up there.”
“Hiding?” Rusty laughed nervously. “The Mistress is hiding nothing!”
“Then it wouldn’t be forbidden,” Max took another step up but was stopped again by Virgil and Rusty.
"Well, maybe, Little Master, you would like to see something else," Virgil suggested. "We have great tapestry all the way back to..."
"Maybe later."
"How about the gardens?" Rusty asked, desperate. "Or, or, uh, the comic studio, perhaps?"
"You have a comic studio?" Max asked, interested. Comics never failed to catch his attention.
"Yes, yes, of course, with comics!" Virgila and Rusty were relieved that they have caught Max's attention. "Gallons of comics, moutains of comics, forests of comics, cascades even! More comics than you can ever read in a lifetime! Comics on every subject and..."
Max followed them for a while at first, then slowly backed away and went back to the steps of the East Wing, leaving the two rambling animated objects behind. 'The comics can wait,' he thought, 'My future happiness is at stake here.' He went up the steps slowly and was walking down a long, long corridor where it was decorated just as horribly as the ones he had seen when he was led to his room by The Beastess. He even passed by a mirror that was already shattered into pieces, reflecting dozens of his faces on it. He shook his head and mentally noted the 7 years bad luck ahead for The Beastess.
Finally, his journey came to a dead end. He found himself standing in front of a huge door probably standing about 10 feet tall with a battered lion's face as the door handle. He stood there, not sure whether this was the right thing to do; barging into people's private property sure wasn't his good side, but then again, he dared to enter SkullMaster's lair without even a single fear, why should this be any different. Besides, the thing he was looking for could be right inside there. Taking a deep breath, he held his hands fast onto the door handles and pulled the door open.
As the door creaked open, he took a peek inside to see if there was anybody there. When he was sure that all was silent, he went in. He was shocked to see that the whole place was totally trashed down to the ground. Everything was in a mess and everything that used to something was torn to smithereens, save a few chairs and tables and the bed, but then again, the bed looked like it had seen better days. He noticed a portrait with its canvas all torn up. He could only make out the eyes and the hair but the rest was just unrecognizable. When he tried to bring the torn canvas together and see clearly, something else caught his attention. It was a shimmering of light somewhere near the verandah and it made a slight tinkling sound as it went. It sounded almost like the wind chimes hung on the comic bookshop he used to go to back home.
He followed the light and was awed to see a hovering, glowing rose kept in a belljar on a round table near the verandah. It shone bright pink and looked as if it was beating like a heart. He came closer and had a real good look at the rose. He was anxious: could this be the rose SkullMaster was talking about? It sure didn't look very big, fresh and red like SkullMaster said, judging by its wilted look and the fallen petals, and it sure wasn't in the garden where it's supposed to be. Could SkullMaster be mistaken? Could it be that The Beastess has already plucked the rose and kept it in here? Well, whatever the reason, the rose was just hovering there ready for him to take. He wasn't going to take any chances. He took down the belljar and held out his hand to take it...
Suddenly, a large shadow covered him. He gasped when he saw The Beastess standing before him with her eyes gazing dangerously at his. She saw the belljar off the rose and quickly replaced it back, holding it protectively. She turned and glared at Max, letting out a lion-like growl.
"Why did you come here?" The Beastess demanded.
"Hey...Hey, I'm...I'm sorry, OK?" Max replied nervously.
"I've warned you never to come here!!!"
"Hey, look, I didn't mean any harm..."
"Do you realize what you could have done?!" The Beastess exclaimed as she smashed a nearby chair. Max was horrified. He backed away, afraid that the splinters might get to him.
"Please...stop it..."
"Get out!!!" The Beastess yelled, thrashing everywhere and beating at everything to make her point. "GET OUT!!!"
Max didn't need to be told twice. He immediately made a dash for it. He was out of the East Wing and was getting ready to get out of the castle. After The Beastess let out her anger, she was horrified to realize what she had done. She covered her face with her big hands in agony and shame, feeling terribly bad at how her hot temper led her to. Rusty and Virgil heard the sounds coming from the East Wing and could've guessed what had happened but when they saw Max running towards the front door, they were horrified.
"Wh...Where are you going?" Rusty asked.
"Promise or no promise, deal or no deal," Max said as he opened the door, "I can't stay here another second!"
"Oh no, wait, please wait," Virgil pleaded for him to stay but Max shutting the door behind him made it clear to him that he wasn't coming back.
Max ran and ran, stumbling over roots and stones in the woods, not sure where he was going. One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to go back to the horrible castle and stay with that horrible, monstrous Beastess. He was sure that if he stayed one more day in there, he was going to get mauled by her sooner or later. He would find another way to become a merman. He could bargain with SkullMaster or even try another remedy, just anything, to fulfill his desire. If all fails, he would succumb to going down the sea and watch her from afar. That would do just fine. Anything to keep him away from this hellish nightmare.
Suddenly, he realized he was being chased by the wolves that had attacked his mother before. He tried to outrun them but they were much faster. Soon he was surrounded by them. They looked pretty hungry and were ready to bite him into chunks as they growled at him and bared their fangs at him. He tried to pick up stones and throw at them but they kept coming back and coming closer. He tried using a stick to fight them off but one of them bit it into two. One of them pounced on him and forced him onto the ground, tugging at his T-shirt. The rest of the wolves cornered him, ready for the kill. This was it. He was done for. He was going to die before he was able to share a love life with his Princess Phoebe. He covered his face, bracing himself for the worse.
Surprisingly, the wolves' hungry fangs didn't get to him. He heard a loud lion-like roar and uncovered his face to see The Beastess actually roaring threateningly at the wolf that tugged at Max's shirt. The Beastess actually came out of the castle to save him! She threw the wolf away and shielded Max with her huge green scaly body. Soon a fight between The Beastess and the wolves broke loose, roaring and snarling each other as the wolves swarmed all over The Beastess, trying to maul her into pieces. They fought teeth to teeth, claw to claw but it was evident that the 10-feet Beastess was much stronger. Finally the wolves gave up and retreated, whining pitifully as they made their escape.
As soon as he saw that they were all out of harm's way, Max got up and got ready to leave when he saw The Beastess standing weakly a few feet before him. She was slouching and was staggering to stand up straight, her copper-brown eyes looking sadly and apologetically at him, as if telling him that she was sorry about her outburst and begging him not to go. Finally, The Beastess couldn't stand still anymore. She slumped and fell with a thud onto the ground. Max couldn't help feeling sorry for her. 'She must've hurt real bad,' he thought. 'But what do I care? I gotta get outta here! I don't belong here! I have nothing to do with her! I...'
But The Beastess's eyes came to his mind. So sad...so desperate...so...alone...
In the end, Max could be seen running towards the castle to bring in the castle's horse-less carriage to take him back to the castle where she belonged.
Growls could be heard as Max and The Beastess, together with the animated objects, were at the living room near the fireplace. Max dipped a cloth into hot water Normie had prepared and was thinking of using it to disinfect the wound The Beastess had on her arm when he saw her licking it like the animal she was. Max reached over to stop her.
"There now. Oh, don't do that."
The Beastess growled, taking her arm away from his touch. The animated objects backed away a little in fear. Max ordered the fidgeting Beastess to hold still as he pressed the hot wet cloth onto the wound. As soon as the cloth got in contact with the wound, The Beastess roared in pain, shaking the whole living room.
"That hurts!!!"
"If you hold still, it wouldn't hurt as much!" Max argued.
"Well, if you hadn't run away, this wouldn't have happened."
"If you hadn't frightened me, I wouldn't have run away now, would I?"
"Well, you shouldn't have been in the East Wing!"
"Well, you should hold the chili dogs and learn to control your temper, babe!"
The Beastess didn't know what else to rebut Max, so she pouted and propped her chin, looking dissatisfied. Max took the wounded arm and said, "Now hold still. This might sting like crap."
The Beastess gritted her teeth and braced herself, able to keep herself from bringing the house down. As Max continued to nurse the wound, he stole a look at The Beastess. Now that she was pretty much helpless and in his mercy, he realized that she didn't look so scary and ferocious after all. She looked just like a typically normal ogress who was trying to live her life the way she wanted, how unconventional it may seem.
"By the way, thanks...for saving my life."
The Beastess was surprised. Maxwell Deanhart, a boy who showed a serious disregard for his safety and was too curious and adventurous for his own good, actually thanking her? It has been a while since anyone had ever thanked her before. This was something new.
"You're welcome."
On his way, without him noticing, he passed by the hallway where Rusty and her boyfriend the broom were behind the curtains playing romantic games with each other. When Rusty noticed Max out of his room, she was horrified and immediately dumped her boyfriend in the mid-game and chased after Max. By then, the steam between her and her boyfriend were broken off rudely and the broom was left there to pout.
Inside the kitchen, all the animated objects were cleaning up after themselves. The uneaten dinner was all stocked up in the food shelves and all the culinary were put away. While Normie tucked Junior into the cupboard to sleep (Junior insisted that he wasn’t sleepy, but fell off to sleep anyway), the stove complained loudly to himself.
“I work and slave all day long and for what? This culinary masterpiece gone to waste!”
“Oh, stop your grouching. It’s been a long night through for us,” Normie stopped him short.
“Well, if you ask me, that boy was just being stubborn,” Virgil said as he wiped his hands and threw the towel onto the rack. “After all, the Mistress did say ‘Please’.”
“But if the Mistress doesn’t learn to control that temper, she’ll never break the—”
“Splendid to see you up and about, Little Master!” Virgil cut Normie’s talk short when he saw Max stepping in slowly into the kitchen. He reached out to shake his hand, saying, “I’m Virgil, master butler of this castle and…” this is where the frantic Rusty jumped in front of him, much to his distaste, “this is Rusty.”
“A great pleasure to see you, Little Master,” Rusty said as she kissed Max’s hand. She can be sentimental and over-romantic at times.
“Is there—stop kissing him—anything we can do to make your stay more comfortable?” Virgil cut back in front of Rusty, earning a serious burn from her candle.
“Well, I am a little hungry,” Max admitted, scratching his chin sheepishly.
“You are?” Normie asked, sounding delighted. “Hear that? He’s hungry! Start the fire! Bring out the silver! Wake the china!”
“Remember what the Mistress said!” Virgil hissed. He was a work-to-rule kind of person and really disliked things that didn’t go into order, especially when it comes to breaking the Mistress’s rules.
“Oh, pish-posh! I’m not going to let that poor child go hungry!”
“Oh, alright! A glass of water, a crust of bread, and then…”
“Virgil,” Rusty shoved Virgil’s shoulder. “I’m surprised at you. He’s not our prisoner; he’s our guest. We must make him feel welcome here. Right this way, Little Master.”
“Well…keep it down,” Virgil finally relented. “If the Mistress finds out it’ll be our necks, you know.”
“Of course, of course,” Rusty waved Virgil’s worries away. “But what is dinner without a little…music?”
So, despite Virgil’s disapproving protests, Rusty and her fellow animated objects entertained Max with a little song and dance while Max gorged himself to all the food laid before him. Max tried a little of everything that was served there: beef ragout, cheese soufflé, pie and even pudding ‘en-flambé’. There was so much for him to eat that he couldn’t keep track. By the time the entertainment was done, he was practically stuffed. The music was pretty cool and he was impressed at how well Rusty sang, including Normie and a few dubbing from Virgil himself (he seems to be enjoying it). Max clapped his hands with glee.
“Bravo! Encore, encore! That was way cool, guys! Great show!”
“Thank you, thank you,” Virgil bowed humbly. “Good show, wasn’t it? Oh, goodness, look at the time! Now it’s off to bed, off to bed.”
“Man, I don’t think I can sleep a wink right now!” Max chuckled. “It’s my first time in the enchanted castle.”
“Enchanted? Who said anything about the castle being enchanted?” Virgil laughed nervously, then turned to Rusty accusingly. “You, wasn’t it?”
“I, uh, figured it out quite by myself, actually,” Max grinned in amusement as he watched the candelabra and the clock bickering and fighting with each other. He stood up and said, “I’d like to look around, if that’s alright with you guys.”
“Oh, would you like a tour?” Rusty offered, but was stopped by Virgil.
“I don’t really think it’s such a good idea. We can’t let him go…poking around in certain places, if you know what I mean.”
“Perhaps you’ll like to take me,” Max pointed at Virgil. “I’m sure you know everything there is to know about the castle.”
“Well, he he…actually, I’m…” Virgil tried to be humble but in the end admitted, “Well, yes, I do.”
Soon Max was taken around the castle and was being introduced by many of the things displayed there. Virgil explained longwindedly about how the fabric of India was made and how the paintings of warriors came to be and how the statues symbolized something and all the whatnot. Max wasn’t exactly interested in these things but he admired them politely all the same. His main reason here was to look for the rose for SkullMaster’s payment to turn him into a merman so that he could be with Phoebe. He had to act fast if he wanted to keep the offer from going expired. While Virgil continued to blabber about the suit of armour in the hallway, he silently sneaked off and decided to try his luck in the forbidden East Wing. Maybe whatever was forbidden in there could prove to be the one he was looking for. Halfway up the stairs, she was stopped by Rusty and Virgil. His suspicions were aroused further.
“What’s up there anyway?” Max asked.
“Oh, nothing really,” Virgil replied, trying to talk him out of it. “It’s all in the East Wing, all the dusty, dirty grime…Very gory, really.”
“Ah, so that’s the East Wing,” Max grinned.
“Nice going,” Rusty said sarcastically, glaring accusingly at the petrified Virgil.
“I wonder what she’s hiding up there.”
“Hiding?” Rusty laughed nervously. “The Mistress is hiding nothing!”
“Then it wouldn’t be forbidden,” Max took another step up but was stopped again by Virgil and Rusty.
"Well, maybe, Little Master, you would like to see something else," Virgil suggested. "We have great tapestry all the way back to..."
"Maybe later."
"How about the gardens?" Rusty asked, desperate. "Or, or, uh, the comic studio, perhaps?"
"You have a comic studio?" Max asked, interested. Comics never failed to catch his attention.
"Yes, yes, of course, with comics!" Virgila and Rusty were relieved that they have caught Max's attention. "Gallons of comics, moutains of comics, forests of comics, cascades even! More comics than you can ever read in a lifetime! Comics on every subject and..."
Max followed them for a while at first, then slowly backed away and went back to the steps of the East Wing, leaving the two rambling animated objects behind. 'The comics can wait,' he thought, 'My future happiness is at stake here.' He went up the steps slowly and was walking down a long, long corridor where it was decorated just as horribly as the ones he had seen when he was led to his room by The Beastess. He even passed by a mirror that was already shattered into pieces, reflecting dozens of his faces on it. He shook his head and mentally noted the 7 years bad luck ahead for The Beastess.
Finally, his journey came to a dead end. He found himself standing in front of a huge door probably standing about 10 feet tall with a battered lion's face as the door handle. He stood there, not sure whether this was the right thing to do; barging into people's private property sure wasn't his good side, but then again, he dared to enter SkullMaster's lair without even a single fear, why should this be any different. Besides, the thing he was looking for could be right inside there. Taking a deep breath, he held his hands fast onto the door handles and pulled the door open.
As the door creaked open, he took a peek inside to see if there was anybody there. When he was sure that all was silent, he went in. He was shocked to see that the whole place was totally trashed down to the ground. Everything was in a mess and everything that used to something was torn to smithereens, save a few chairs and tables and the bed, but then again, the bed looked like it had seen better days. He noticed a portrait with its canvas all torn up. He could only make out the eyes and the hair but the rest was just unrecognizable. When he tried to bring the torn canvas together and see clearly, something else caught his attention. It was a shimmering of light somewhere near the verandah and it made a slight tinkling sound as it went. It sounded almost like the wind chimes hung on the comic bookshop he used to go to back home.
He followed the light and was awed to see a hovering, glowing rose kept in a belljar on a round table near the verandah. It shone bright pink and looked as if it was beating like a heart. He came closer and had a real good look at the rose. He was anxious: could this be the rose SkullMaster was talking about? It sure didn't look very big, fresh and red like SkullMaster said, judging by its wilted look and the fallen petals, and it sure wasn't in the garden where it's supposed to be. Could SkullMaster be mistaken? Could it be that The Beastess has already plucked the rose and kept it in here? Well, whatever the reason, the rose was just hovering there ready for him to take. He wasn't going to take any chances. He took down the belljar and held out his hand to take it...
Suddenly, a large shadow covered him. He gasped when he saw The Beastess standing before him with her eyes gazing dangerously at his. She saw the belljar off the rose and quickly replaced it back, holding it protectively. She turned and glared at Max, letting out a lion-like growl.
"Why did you come here?" The Beastess demanded.
"Hey...Hey, I'm...I'm sorry, OK?" Max replied nervously.
"I've warned you never to come here!!!"
"Hey, look, I didn't mean any harm..."
"Do you realize what you could have done?!" The Beastess exclaimed as she smashed a nearby chair. Max was horrified. He backed away, afraid that the splinters might get to him.
"Please...stop it..."
"Get out!!!" The Beastess yelled, thrashing everywhere and beating at everything to make her point. "GET OUT!!!"
Max didn't need to be told twice. He immediately made a dash for it. He was out of the East Wing and was getting ready to get out of the castle. After The Beastess let out her anger, she was horrified to realize what she had done. She covered her face with her big hands in agony and shame, feeling terribly bad at how her hot temper led her to. Rusty and Virgil heard the sounds coming from the East Wing and could've guessed what had happened but when they saw Max running towards the front door, they were horrified.
"Wh...Where are you going?" Rusty asked.
"Promise or no promise, deal or no deal," Max said as he opened the door, "I can't stay here another second!"
"Oh no, wait, please wait," Virgil pleaded for him to stay but Max shutting the door behind him made it clear to him that he wasn't coming back.
Max ran and ran, stumbling over roots and stones in the woods, not sure where he was going. One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to go back to the horrible castle and stay with that horrible, monstrous Beastess. He was sure that if he stayed one more day in there, he was going to get mauled by her sooner or later. He would find another way to become a merman. He could bargain with SkullMaster or even try another remedy, just anything, to fulfill his desire. If all fails, he would succumb to going down the sea and watch her from afar. That would do just fine. Anything to keep him away from this hellish nightmare.
Suddenly, he realized he was being chased by the wolves that had attacked his mother before. He tried to outrun them but they were much faster. Soon he was surrounded by them. They looked pretty hungry and were ready to bite him into chunks as they growled at him and bared their fangs at him. He tried to pick up stones and throw at them but they kept coming back and coming closer. He tried using a stick to fight them off but one of them bit it into two. One of them pounced on him and forced him onto the ground, tugging at his T-shirt. The rest of the wolves cornered him, ready for the kill. This was it. He was done for. He was going to die before he was able to share a love life with his Princess Phoebe. He covered his face, bracing himself for the worse.
Surprisingly, the wolves' hungry fangs didn't get to him. He heard a loud lion-like roar and uncovered his face to see The Beastess actually roaring threateningly at the wolf that tugged at Max's shirt. The Beastess actually came out of the castle to save him! She threw the wolf away and shielded Max with her huge green scaly body. Soon a fight between The Beastess and the wolves broke loose, roaring and snarling each other as the wolves swarmed all over The Beastess, trying to maul her into pieces. They fought teeth to teeth, claw to claw but it was evident that the 10-feet Beastess was much stronger. Finally the wolves gave up and retreated, whining pitifully as they made their escape.
As soon as he saw that they were all out of harm's way, Max got up and got ready to leave when he saw The Beastess standing weakly a few feet before him. She was slouching and was staggering to stand up straight, her copper-brown eyes looking sadly and apologetically at him, as if telling him that she was sorry about her outburst and begging him not to go. Finally, The Beastess couldn't stand still anymore. She slumped and fell with a thud onto the ground. Max couldn't help feeling sorry for her. 'She must've hurt real bad,' he thought. 'But what do I care? I gotta get outta here! I don't belong here! I have nothing to do with her! I...'
But The Beastess's eyes came to his mind. So sad...so desperate...so...alone...
In the end, Max could be seen running towards the castle to bring in the castle's horse-less carriage to take him back to the castle where she belonged.
Growls could be heard as Max and The Beastess, together with the animated objects, were at the living room near the fireplace. Max dipped a cloth into hot water Normie had prepared and was thinking of using it to disinfect the wound The Beastess had on her arm when he saw her licking it like the animal she was. Max reached over to stop her.
"There now. Oh, don't do that."
The Beastess growled, taking her arm away from his touch. The animated objects backed away a little in fear. Max ordered the fidgeting Beastess to hold still as he pressed the hot wet cloth onto the wound. As soon as the cloth got in contact with the wound, The Beastess roared in pain, shaking the whole living room.
"That hurts!!!"
"If you hold still, it wouldn't hurt as much!" Max argued.
"Well, if you hadn't run away, this wouldn't have happened."
"If you hadn't frightened me, I wouldn't have run away now, would I?"
"Well, you shouldn't have been in the East Wing!"
"Well, you should hold the chili dogs and learn to control your temper, babe!"
The Beastess didn't know what else to rebut Max, so she pouted and propped her chin, looking dissatisfied. Max took the wounded arm and said, "Now hold still. This might sting like crap."
The Beastess gritted her teeth and braced herself, able to keep herself from bringing the house down. As Max continued to nurse the wound, he stole a look at The Beastess. Now that she was pretty much helpless and in his mercy, he realized that she didn't look so scary and ferocious after all. She looked just like a typically normal ogress who was trying to live her life the way she wanted, how unconventional it may seem.
"By the way, thanks...for saving my life."
The Beastess was surprised. Maxwell Deanhart, a boy who showed a serious disregard for his safety and was too curious and adventurous for his own good, actually thanking her? It has been a while since anyone had ever thanked her before. This was something new.
"You're welcome."
A Mix of Fairy Tale Cocktail-Chapter 10
After throwing Virginia into the oar-less boat and watched it go further and further away from the island, she stomped back to the castle she had been staying in for many, many long years. Once she stepped into the castle and made her way up to the tower, Rusty called out tentatively, “Err…Mistress?”
“What?” The Beastess snapped at the candelabra figurine.
“You know, since the boy would be living here for quite some time,” Rusty tried to put her thoughts into words without offending her hot-tempered Mistress, “I was thinking that you might offer him a more…comfortable room…”
Her suggestion was replied with a frustrated growl, blowing out all her candles before walking past her.
“Then again, maybe not.”
Max stared from the tower and watched as his mother disappeared slowly out of sight. He sighed and hoped that his mother would forgive him for the decision he had just made. As he was still distracted by the vast scenery of the forest and the sea before him, The Beastess’s came slowly up to the tower and stood there looking at Max who was still staring out at the tower window. It took a few seconds for Max to realize The Beastess’s presence.
“Oh, sorry, I was a little distracted,” max apologized as he stood up to brace himself to be thrown in the dungeons.
The Beastess stared a little longer at Max before she said hesitantly, “I’ll show you to your room.”
“My room?” Max was surprised. Wasn’t he supposed to be a prisoner? He asked, “But I thought…”
“What, you wanna stay in this tower?” The Beastess gestured at the place he was in.
“Well, no, but…”
“Then follow me.”
Max could do or say nothing more. This Beastess seemed authoritative enough. He followed behind The Beastess while feasting his eyes over the decorations of the hallway they were walking. The place was as sinister as The Beastess herself. It was practically decorated with gargoyle, weird beasts, griffin and creepy Greek statues and portraits and paintings of gargoyles, demons, fallen angels and loads of other creepy paintings you definitely do not want to have in your living room. The hallway was lit with only candles on candle stands, which made the place even creepier. Max couldn’t help feeling that he was going to spend the rest of his sorry life in this god forsaken place if he didn’t hurry up and find a way to get out of there and get the rose for SkullMaster’s payment.
The Beastess looked sideways at Max who was putting on a face of slight worry. She somehow felt a little guilty for him and was quite amazed that such a young boy like him would dare to trade the rest of his life to stay here in his mother’s place. If only she could do something to ease his tension about this place…
“Say something to him,” Rusty, who was being held by The Beastess, whispered to her ear.
“I…uh…hope you like it here,” The Beastess said tentatively. Max almost huffed; how could he like a place like this? Rusty ushered her Mistress to say something more. She turned her head around again and said, “The castle is your home now, so you can go anywhere you like, except the East Wing.”
The East Wing? Curiosity got the better of Max as he asked, “What’s the East Wi…”
“It’s forbidden!” The Beastess suddenly snapped at him, taking him by surprise. Forbidden? What’s so forbidden about a part of the castle? The Beastess’s copper-brown eyes that bore into Max’s blue ones made it clear that when he was forbidden, he was forbidden. Max decided to put the questions aside as he continued to follow The Beastess to his room.
Finally, after what seemed like a walk forever, he found himself standing beside The Beastess at his room. The Beastess opened the door for him and he peeked in. the only light that radiated the place was the ray of the moon coming from the open window and he could make out his room to be a very big and spacious place, with a canopy bed and a table and all the necessities a deluxe room is needed. He stepped into the room tentatively and heard The Beastess’s deep voice behind him saying, “Now, if you need anything, my servants will attend you.”
“Dinner! Invite him to dinner!” Rusty whispered at The Beastess’s ear, out of Max’s earshot.
“You will…join me for dinner,” The Beastess said with a small demanding pride in her voice. “That’s not a request!”
With that, The Beastess slammed the door at his back. Max winced before rushing towards the bed and punching the pillows. He felt an unexplainable anger towards this whole deal. He was angry of the fact that he had to go through all this trouble just to get a stupid rose for the payment of SkullMaster to make him a merman. He was frustrated that he might have to spend the rest of his life in this place if he failed in his first mission and was angry at the fact that he was actually trading his life to live with this grotesque Beastess instead of living with his true love Phoebe in the sea.
But then again, it was the thought of being with Phoebe that kind of calmed him down. The thought of being able to caress her dark chocolate-brown hair and kiss her sweet rosy lips without worrying that he was going to drown made him feel better again about this whole payment mission deal.
“I gotta get out of here fast!” Max groaned as he plopped his head onto the bed.
Back in Fishermen’s Friend Village, Norman was thrown into a panic frenzy. As soon as he saw an unconscious Virginia coming back from The Beastess’s island, he sent her straight to the nearest clinic. The doctor told him that she had suffered quite a serious trauma that she had fallen into a coma. There was no telling when she would wake up. Norman tried diving into the sea to the merpeople’s place to see if he was there watching his dream princess Phoebe but he wasn’t there. He even sent a search party to check out if he was around the neighbourhood but to no avail. Felix and Bea, who helped in the search, were getting worried.
“Poor Mrs. Deanhart,” Felix said as he and Bea stood near the jetty, looking far out into the sea. “She hasn’t been awake for about a month now, and the doctors say that isn’t good news. Her trauma must be really bad.”
“Where could Max be?” Bea asked. “I thought he was supposed to be grounded and not let out of his room.”
“Even Norman couldn’t go that fast back home to open the door for him. And there is no way he could get out—I mean he hasn’t been out when Mrs. Deanhart’s around. He had to get help from somewhere.”
“Well, wherever he is, I just hope he’s OK.”
Without them knowing, SkullMaster was around the area checking on the boats and just so happen to overhear their conversation. He smiled inwardly with an evil twinkle in his eyes and thought, ‘Soon my dues will be received…’
Max woke up at a slight rattling sound at the door. He then recalled his ordeal before. He assumed he must have dozed off out of fatigue. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and asked, “Who is it?”
“Normie here!” a woman’s voice replied. He almost thought it was Norman, for he always called Norman as ‘Normie’, but judging by the voice, he decided otherwise. As he opened the door, the coffeepot bounced in cheerfully and said, “I thought you might like a cup of coffee or something.”
Max was shocked beyond comparison. He backed away with his blue eyes wide open, stammering, “But you’re a…you’re a…”
“Oh! Careful!”
Max turned around in surprise to see that the wardrobe he had bumped on was actually talking and smiling at him. His knees went all weak as he slumped to the floor, “This…Man! This is impossible! Am I hallucinating or something?”
“Nope, you’re not,” the wardrobe replied as she threw herself on the bed. “And I know it’s impossible, but here we are!”
“Told you he was handsome, Mom, didn’t I?” the coffee cup said with a smug to Normie the coffeepot.
“Alright, Junior now, that’ll do,” Normie replied as she poured some coffee into her son. “Slowly now. Don’t spill.”
Max stared in awe as Junior the coffee cup bounded towards him, but seeing that there’s no harm done and that they were all talking to him like it was pretty much a normal thing, he decided to get used to it. He thanked Junior and picked him up to drink when Junior said he could do a trick. He actually blew bubbles in the coffee (A/N: Can’t really describe it. Just imagine the scene where Chip from Beauty & the Beast did it) and was disapproved by Normie. Junior grinned and apologized, much to Max’s amusement.
“That was a very brave thing you did, my dear, trading yourself for your mother,” Normie commented.
“We all think so,” the wardrobe commented.
“Yeah, not to mention losing my life, my dreams, everything,” Max replied glumly, still unable to believe that he had just did what he did.
“Cheer up, child,” Normie said kindly. “It’ll turn out alright in the end. You’ll see. Oh! Listen to me! Jabbering on when there’s dinner to prepare on the table! Junior, come along now.”
“Bye!” Junior bid Max jovially as he bounced off with his mother. Max was impressed. They sure were able to take their oddity very well indeed.
“Well then, what shall we dress you in for dinner?” the wardrobe said, getting Max’s attention. “Let’s see what I got in my drawers…Ahh! Here we are!” she said as she took out a nice suit, “you look ravishing in this one…”
“Uh, thanks a lot but…” Max declined the suit she gave him. “I’m not exactly going down to dinner.”
The wardrobe gasped, “But you must!”
Before Max could make his point, Virgil the clock came in and cleared his throat before announcing, “Dinner is served.”
Meanwhile, in the dining room, The Beastess was pacing back and forth, waiting impatiently for Max to join her for dinner. As she paced on and on, she muttered, “What’s taking him so long. I thought I told him to come down. Why isn’t he here yet?!”
“Oh, be patient, miss,” Normie replied. “The boy has lost his mother and his freedom all in one day.”
“Mistress,” Rusty noted. “Have you ever thought that perhaps he might be the one to break the spell?”
“Of course I have!” The Beastess snapped. “I’m not a fool!”
“Good! So he falls in love with you, you fall in love with him and POOF! The spell is broken! We’ll be human again by midnight!”
“No, Rusty, it’s not that easy,” Normie shook her head. “These things take time.”
“But the rose has already begun to wilt!” Rusty argued.
“It’s no use,” The Beastess growled. “He’s so handsome and I’m…well, look at me!!”
Rusty and Normie shrugged helplessly. They knew what The Beastess meant, but they dare not say it out. Normie turned to The Beastess and said, “Well, you must help him to see past all that.”
“I don’t know how!”
“Well, you can start by making yourself more presentable,” Normie said as she jumped off the fireplace where she was standing and got on the dining table. “Straighten up! Try to be more like a lady!”
“Yes, yes,” Rusty joined in the conversation. “And when he comes in, give him a sweet, lovely smile. Come, come, show me the smile.”
Needless to say, her smile turned out anything but sweet and lovely. Normie groaned and she and Rusty talked back and forth, confusing the frustrated Beastess.
“Don’t frighten the poor boy.”
“Impress him with your radiance.”
“But don’t overdo it.”
“Show him you’re confident.”
“But be sincere.”
“And above all,” this time, Rusty and Normie said it together, “You must control your temper!”
The door of the dining room creaked. The Beastess waited in anticipation but was disappointed to see Virgil at the door instead, greeting timidly, “Good evening.”
“Well? Where is he?” The Beastess demanded.
“Oh, the boy,” Virgil laughed nervously while looking for an excuse. “Well, he’s in the process of…well, circumstances, what they are…well…He’s not coming.”
“WHAT?!”
Almost immediately, The Beastess came crashing out of the dining room towards Max’s room, with Virgil, Rusty and Normie protesting in the background. Once she reached his room, she pounded furiously at the door.
“I thought I told you to come down to dinner!”
“I’m not hungry!” Max replied from the inside.
“You come out or I’ll…I’ll…I’ll break down the door!”
“Mistress,” Rusty chuckled nervously as she voiced out. “I could be wrong but that might not be the best way to win a boy’s affection.”
“Please, attempt to be a lady,” Virgil begged.
“But he is being so difficult!” The Beastess growled at the door.
“Gently, gently,” Normie coaxed her to try again. The Beastess obliged.
“Will you come down to dinner?”
“No!”
“Hmm?!” The Beastess pointed at the door but Virgil guided her to talk some more. As The Beastess said it again gently (well, tried to), they could see, as they fear, her hackles rising up, meaning that she has lost her patience.
“It would give me great pleasure if you would join me for dinner…”
“You forgot to say ‘Please’,” Virgil whispered.
“Please.”
“Thanks, but no thanks, babe!” Max was still adamant. The Beastess finally lost it altogether.
“You can’t stay there forever!”
“I think I perfectly can!” Max replied in a mocking tone.
“Fine! Then go ahead and STARVE!!!” The Beastess roared, then turned to her servants and growled, “If he doesn’t eat with me, then he doesn’t eat at all!”
With that, The Beastess bounded furiously on all fours towards the East Wing, banging the door as she went. The tiny animated objects winced and waited until all was silent before Normie broke the ice.
“Oh dear, that didn’t go very well at all, did it?”
“Rusty,” Virgil turned to the candelabra, “stand watch at the door and inform me at once if there is the slightest change.”
“You can count on me, Mon Capitan!” Rusty saluted and stood by the door on full alert. Virgil sighed and turned to Normie.
“Well, I guess we’ll just head back to the kitchen and start cleaning up.”
The Beastess crashed into the forbidden East Wing, where her private quarters were. She banged at everything she could see as she muttered angrily to herself.
“I ask him nicely but he refuses! What else does he want me to do, beg?!”
The Beastess reached over and grabbed a hand mirror. It was placed beside a hovering, glowing rose inside a belljar and it was made out of the finest ivory the world has ever seen, carved in a certain complicated pattern no one could ever duplicate. It was as if made by a goddess with nimble, skillful hands. She took it to her face and demanded, “Show me the boy!”
The reflection of her on the mirror changed and in its place showed Max sitting on his bed looking very frustrated and disgusted and the wardrobe leaning on the bed beside him.
“Well, the Mistress is not so bad once you get to know her,” the wardrobe forced a laugh. “Why don’t you give her a chance?”
“I don’t wanna get to know her!” Max exclaimed. “As far as I’m concerned, I don’t wanna have anything to do with her! I’ll just get what I want and find a way out of this dump!”
The Beastess put away the mirror exasperatedly. She had heard enough. She knew this would happen. Her heart ached with Max’s words about her.
“It’s no use. He’ll never see me as anything…but a monster…”
As she spoke, another petal fell from the hovering rose onto the tiny heap of petals below it.
“It’s hopeless…”
“What?” The Beastess snapped at the candelabra figurine.
“You know, since the boy would be living here for quite some time,” Rusty tried to put her thoughts into words without offending her hot-tempered Mistress, “I was thinking that you might offer him a more…comfortable room…”
Her suggestion was replied with a frustrated growl, blowing out all her candles before walking past her.
“Then again, maybe not.”
Max stared from the tower and watched as his mother disappeared slowly out of sight. He sighed and hoped that his mother would forgive him for the decision he had just made. As he was still distracted by the vast scenery of the forest and the sea before him, The Beastess’s came slowly up to the tower and stood there looking at Max who was still staring out at the tower window. It took a few seconds for Max to realize The Beastess’s presence.
“Oh, sorry, I was a little distracted,” max apologized as he stood up to brace himself to be thrown in the dungeons.
The Beastess stared a little longer at Max before she said hesitantly, “I’ll show you to your room.”
“My room?” Max was surprised. Wasn’t he supposed to be a prisoner? He asked, “But I thought…”
“What, you wanna stay in this tower?” The Beastess gestured at the place he was in.
“Well, no, but…”
“Then follow me.”
Max could do or say nothing more. This Beastess seemed authoritative enough. He followed behind The Beastess while feasting his eyes over the decorations of the hallway they were walking. The place was as sinister as The Beastess herself. It was practically decorated with gargoyle, weird beasts, griffin and creepy Greek statues and portraits and paintings of gargoyles, demons, fallen angels and loads of other creepy paintings you definitely do not want to have in your living room. The hallway was lit with only candles on candle stands, which made the place even creepier. Max couldn’t help feeling that he was going to spend the rest of his sorry life in this god forsaken place if he didn’t hurry up and find a way to get out of there and get the rose for SkullMaster’s payment.
The Beastess looked sideways at Max who was putting on a face of slight worry. She somehow felt a little guilty for him and was quite amazed that such a young boy like him would dare to trade the rest of his life to stay here in his mother’s place. If only she could do something to ease his tension about this place…
“Say something to him,” Rusty, who was being held by The Beastess, whispered to her ear.
“I…uh…hope you like it here,” The Beastess said tentatively. Max almost huffed; how could he like a place like this? Rusty ushered her Mistress to say something more. She turned her head around again and said, “The castle is your home now, so you can go anywhere you like, except the East Wing.”
The East Wing? Curiosity got the better of Max as he asked, “What’s the East Wi…”
“It’s forbidden!” The Beastess suddenly snapped at him, taking him by surprise. Forbidden? What’s so forbidden about a part of the castle? The Beastess’s copper-brown eyes that bore into Max’s blue ones made it clear that when he was forbidden, he was forbidden. Max decided to put the questions aside as he continued to follow The Beastess to his room.
Finally, after what seemed like a walk forever, he found himself standing beside The Beastess at his room. The Beastess opened the door for him and he peeked in. the only light that radiated the place was the ray of the moon coming from the open window and he could make out his room to be a very big and spacious place, with a canopy bed and a table and all the necessities a deluxe room is needed. He stepped into the room tentatively and heard The Beastess’s deep voice behind him saying, “Now, if you need anything, my servants will attend you.”
“Dinner! Invite him to dinner!” Rusty whispered at The Beastess’s ear, out of Max’s earshot.
“You will…join me for dinner,” The Beastess said with a small demanding pride in her voice. “That’s not a request!”
With that, The Beastess slammed the door at his back. Max winced before rushing towards the bed and punching the pillows. He felt an unexplainable anger towards this whole deal. He was angry of the fact that he had to go through all this trouble just to get a stupid rose for the payment of SkullMaster to make him a merman. He was frustrated that he might have to spend the rest of his life in this place if he failed in his first mission and was angry at the fact that he was actually trading his life to live with this grotesque Beastess instead of living with his true love Phoebe in the sea.
But then again, it was the thought of being with Phoebe that kind of calmed him down. The thought of being able to caress her dark chocolate-brown hair and kiss her sweet rosy lips without worrying that he was going to drown made him feel better again about this whole payment mission deal.
“I gotta get out of here fast!” Max groaned as he plopped his head onto the bed.
Back in Fishermen’s Friend Village, Norman was thrown into a panic frenzy. As soon as he saw an unconscious Virginia coming back from The Beastess’s island, he sent her straight to the nearest clinic. The doctor told him that she had suffered quite a serious trauma that she had fallen into a coma. There was no telling when she would wake up. Norman tried diving into the sea to the merpeople’s place to see if he was there watching his dream princess Phoebe but he wasn’t there. He even sent a search party to check out if he was around the neighbourhood but to no avail. Felix and Bea, who helped in the search, were getting worried.
“Poor Mrs. Deanhart,” Felix said as he and Bea stood near the jetty, looking far out into the sea. “She hasn’t been awake for about a month now, and the doctors say that isn’t good news. Her trauma must be really bad.”
“Where could Max be?” Bea asked. “I thought he was supposed to be grounded and not let out of his room.”
“Even Norman couldn’t go that fast back home to open the door for him. And there is no way he could get out—I mean he hasn’t been out when Mrs. Deanhart’s around. He had to get help from somewhere.”
“Well, wherever he is, I just hope he’s OK.”
Without them knowing, SkullMaster was around the area checking on the boats and just so happen to overhear their conversation. He smiled inwardly with an evil twinkle in his eyes and thought, ‘Soon my dues will be received…’
Max woke up at a slight rattling sound at the door. He then recalled his ordeal before. He assumed he must have dozed off out of fatigue. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and asked, “Who is it?”
“Normie here!” a woman’s voice replied. He almost thought it was Norman, for he always called Norman as ‘Normie’, but judging by the voice, he decided otherwise. As he opened the door, the coffeepot bounced in cheerfully and said, “I thought you might like a cup of coffee or something.”
Max was shocked beyond comparison. He backed away with his blue eyes wide open, stammering, “But you’re a…you’re a…”
“Oh! Careful!”
Max turned around in surprise to see that the wardrobe he had bumped on was actually talking and smiling at him. His knees went all weak as he slumped to the floor, “This…Man! This is impossible! Am I hallucinating or something?”
“Nope, you’re not,” the wardrobe replied as she threw herself on the bed. “And I know it’s impossible, but here we are!”
“Told you he was handsome, Mom, didn’t I?” the coffee cup said with a smug to Normie the coffeepot.
“Alright, Junior now, that’ll do,” Normie replied as she poured some coffee into her son. “Slowly now. Don’t spill.”
Max stared in awe as Junior the coffee cup bounded towards him, but seeing that there’s no harm done and that they were all talking to him like it was pretty much a normal thing, he decided to get used to it. He thanked Junior and picked him up to drink when Junior said he could do a trick. He actually blew bubbles in the coffee (A/N: Can’t really describe it. Just imagine the scene where Chip from Beauty & the Beast did it) and was disapproved by Normie. Junior grinned and apologized, much to Max’s amusement.
“That was a very brave thing you did, my dear, trading yourself for your mother,” Normie commented.
“We all think so,” the wardrobe commented.
“Yeah, not to mention losing my life, my dreams, everything,” Max replied glumly, still unable to believe that he had just did what he did.
“Cheer up, child,” Normie said kindly. “It’ll turn out alright in the end. You’ll see. Oh! Listen to me! Jabbering on when there’s dinner to prepare on the table! Junior, come along now.”
“Bye!” Junior bid Max jovially as he bounced off with his mother. Max was impressed. They sure were able to take their oddity very well indeed.
“Well then, what shall we dress you in for dinner?” the wardrobe said, getting Max’s attention. “Let’s see what I got in my drawers…Ahh! Here we are!” she said as she took out a nice suit, “you look ravishing in this one…”
“Uh, thanks a lot but…” Max declined the suit she gave him. “I’m not exactly going down to dinner.”
The wardrobe gasped, “But you must!”
Before Max could make his point, Virgil the clock came in and cleared his throat before announcing, “Dinner is served.”
Meanwhile, in the dining room, The Beastess was pacing back and forth, waiting impatiently for Max to join her for dinner. As she paced on and on, she muttered, “What’s taking him so long. I thought I told him to come down. Why isn’t he here yet?!”
“Oh, be patient, miss,” Normie replied. “The boy has lost his mother and his freedom all in one day.”
“Mistress,” Rusty noted. “Have you ever thought that perhaps he might be the one to break the spell?”
“Of course I have!” The Beastess snapped. “I’m not a fool!”
“Good! So he falls in love with you, you fall in love with him and POOF! The spell is broken! We’ll be human again by midnight!”
“No, Rusty, it’s not that easy,” Normie shook her head. “These things take time.”
“But the rose has already begun to wilt!” Rusty argued.
“It’s no use,” The Beastess growled. “He’s so handsome and I’m…well, look at me!!”
Rusty and Normie shrugged helplessly. They knew what The Beastess meant, but they dare not say it out. Normie turned to The Beastess and said, “Well, you must help him to see past all that.”
“I don’t know how!”
“Well, you can start by making yourself more presentable,” Normie said as she jumped off the fireplace where she was standing and got on the dining table. “Straighten up! Try to be more like a lady!”
“Yes, yes,” Rusty joined in the conversation. “And when he comes in, give him a sweet, lovely smile. Come, come, show me the smile.”
Needless to say, her smile turned out anything but sweet and lovely. Normie groaned and she and Rusty talked back and forth, confusing the frustrated Beastess.
“Don’t frighten the poor boy.”
“Impress him with your radiance.”
“But don’t overdo it.”
“Show him you’re confident.”
“But be sincere.”
“And above all,” this time, Rusty and Normie said it together, “You must control your temper!”
The door of the dining room creaked. The Beastess waited in anticipation but was disappointed to see Virgil at the door instead, greeting timidly, “Good evening.”
“Well? Where is he?” The Beastess demanded.
“Oh, the boy,” Virgil laughed nervously while looking for an excuse. “Well, he’s in the process of…well, circumstances, what they are…well…He’s not coming.”
“WHAT?!”
Almost immediately, The Beastess came crashing out of the dining room towards Max’s room, with Virgil, Rusty and Normie protesting in the background. Once she reached his room, she pounded furiously at the door.
“I thought I told you to come down to dinner!”
“I’m not hungry!” Max replied from the inside.
“You come out or I’ll…I’ll…I’ll break down the door!”
“Mistress,” Rusty chuckled nervously as she voiced out. “I could be wrong but that might not be the best way to win a boy’s affection.”
“Please, attempt to be a lady,” Virgil begged.
“But he is being so difficult!” The Beastess growled at the door.
“Gently, gently,” Normie coaxed her to try again. The Beastess obliged.
“Will you come down to dinner?”
“No!”
“Hmm?!” The Beastess pointed at the door but Virgil guided her to talk some more. As The Beastess said it again gently (well, tried to), they could see, as they fear, her hackles rising up, meaning that she has lost her patience.
“It would give me great pleasure if you would join me for dinner…”
“You forgot to say ‘Please’,” Virgil whispered.
“Please.”
“Thanks, but no thanks, babe!” Max was still adamant. The Beastess finally lost it altogether.
“You can’t stay there forever!”
“I think I perfectly can!” Max replied in a mocking tone.
“Fine! Then go ahead and STARVE!!!” The Beastess roared, then turned to her servants and growled, “If he doesn’t eat with me, then he doesn’t eat at all!”
With that, The Beastess bounded furiously on all fours towards the East Wing, banging the door as she went. The tiny animated objects winced and waited until all was silent before Normie broke the ice.
“Oh dear, that didn’t go very well at all, did it?”
“Rusty,” Virgil turned to the candelabra, “stand watch at the door and inform me at once if there is the slightest change.”
“You can count on me, Mon Capitan!” Rusty saluted and stood by the door on full alert. Virgil sighed and turned to Normie.
“Well, I guess we’ll just head back to the kitchen and start cleaning up.”
The Beastess crashed into the forbidden East Wing, where her private quarters were. She banged at everything she could see as she muttered angrily to herself.
“I ask him nicely but he refuses! What else does he want me to do, beg?!”
The Beastess reached over and grabbed a hand mirror. It was placed beside a hovering, glowing rose inside a belljar and it was made out of the finest ivory the world has ever seen, carved in a certain complicated pattern no one could ever duplicate. It was as if made by a goddess with nimble, skillful hands. She took it to her face and demanded, “Show me the boy!”
The reflection of her on the mirror changed and in its place showed Max sitting on his bed looking very frustrated and disgusted and the wardrobe leaning on the bed beside him.
“Well, the Mistress is not so bad once you get to know her,” the wardrobe forced a laugh. “Why don’t you give her a chance?”
“I don’t wanna get to know her!” Max exclaimed. “As far as I’m concerned, I don’t wanna have anything to do with her! I’ll just get what I want and find a way out of this dump!”
The Beastess put away the mirror exasperatedly. She had heard enough. She knew this would happen. Her heart ached with Max’s words about her.
“It’s no use. He’ll never see me as anything…but a monster…”
As she spoke, another petal fell from the hovering rose onto the tiny heap of petals below it.
“It’s hopeless…”
A Mix of Fairy Tale Cocktail-Chapter 9
What stood before her was a sight to behold, and a scary sight too, for it was a tall and dark, looming castle up ahead, standing tall and majestic in its own spooky way. It looked really sinister, like someone or something was lurking in the bowels of the castle and it towered above her like a giant—an evil giant at that—and it seemed as if it has been there for a very, very long time indeed. The lightning and thunder in the background contributed more towards its sinister structure.
That’s when she realized that it was starting to rain. She quickly shielded her head and ran straight into the castle regardless of how sinister and scary it looked. She had to find shelter and she couldn’t risk getting sick. She went to the huge front door and pounded it, hoping someone would open. The door did open, but it opened by itself and there was no one there to greet her. She took a peek inside before the rain outside began to force her to let herself in the castle.
“Hello? Hello~?” Virginia tried to call out for anyone. She thought she heard some distant whispering but couldn’t see anyone. She tried her luck again. “Is someone there? I don’t mean to intrude but…I was shipwrecked and got stranded here…and, err, I need a place to stay for the night.”
“Virgil, come on, have a heart,” she thought heard a voice whispered, then a hush followed by a loud scream of pain before hearing the voice clearer, “Of course, madam, you’re welcome here.”
“Who said that?” Virginia muttered as she grabbed a candelabra which had a figurine of a lady holding out the candles.
“Over here!” the voice replied. Virginia turned around towards the voice but still couldn’t see anyone. She felt a sudden tinkle on her head and she turned around to see the candelabra figurine she was holding was actually smiling at her and greeted, “Hello.”
Virginia gasped and let go of the candelabra. The candelabra figurine groaned and slowly sat up on her own, rubbing her aching golden head. Suddenly a clock the shape of a chicken in robes came out of nowhere and started grumbling at the candelabra.
“Now, you’ve done it, Rusty! Splendid! Just peachy! Yagh!”
The clock let out a yelp as Virginia picked him up with much curiosity. She shook and rattled the clock, trying to figure out what made him move so animatedly. The candelabra, whose name’s Rusty, giggled. The clock finally groaned in exasperation and said, “Madam, put me down at once, do you mind?”
“I…I’m sorry,” Virginia apologized. “It’s just that I’ve never seen someth…”
Virginia didn’t get to finish her words as she found herself sneezing loudly at the clock’s face, as in literally his face (the face that shows the time was on his belly). Rusty sighed in pity.
“Oh, you are soaked to the bone, madam. Come, warm yourself by the fire.”
“Thank you,” Virginia replied gratefully.
The clock had horror struck on his face as he protested on and on behind them towards the master living room, “No, no, no, you are not going to be taking her into the living room. That’s the Mistress’s private quarters and I demand you to stop that at once! Oh no, no, not the Mistress’s chair!”
More animated objects came barging in to help Virginia make her feel more comfortable, despite the clock’s protests of “I’m not seeing this! I’m not seeing this!” A footrest that barked like a dog came and propped her feet. A coat hanger came to life and wrapped her in blanket. The clock stood up and grumbled loudly.
“Alright! This has gone far enough! I’m in charge her and I’m…”
His words were stopped short when a trolley came zooming in ridden by a talking coffeepot and coffee cup, saying, “How would you like to have a cup of coffee, dear? It’ll warm you up in no time.”
“No, no coffee!” the clock said in a muffle before lifting his flat face off the carpet and yelled, “No coffee!”
No one seemed to pay much attention to this obsessive, over-bearing chicken clock. As they chit-chatted merrily, the door of the living room suddenly banged open. All the animated objects’ faces switched from hospitable to horror, as if shocked yet half-expecting this to happen. The fire extinguished itself out of fear. The coffee cup jumped out of Virginia’s hand and hid behind the trembling coffeepot. Virginia heard some sniffing sounds, like a dog sniffing a scent and a sort of deep rumbling, like a tiger or a lion’s purr. She didn’t dare to turn around. She sat on the chair trembling.
“There’s a stranger here,” Virginia heard a rumbling voice behind here. It sounded like a female voice, only deeper.
“Mistress, allow me to explain,” Rusty immediately tried to clear things up. “You see, this woman was shipwrecked, stranded in this place and got lost in the woods and so we were thinking…”
A loud roar was heard. This creature didn’t seem to be in a mood to listening to excuses.
“Mistress, I would like to have this moment to say,” the clock said timidly. “I was against it from the start. It was all her fault, I tried to stop her, but no, she wouldn’t listen…”
Another roar stopped his explanation short.
Virginia decided to turn around and see who this bad-tempered creature was and the first thing that came across her eyes was a pair of copper-brown eyes. Virginia yelped in horror and staggered back, falling off the chair on the process.
“Who are you?!” the ‘Mistress’ demanded. “What are you doing here?!”
“I…I was lost in the woods and…” Virginia couldn’t help trying to look how this creature looked like—it was too dark for her to see its real form. Her staring eyes obviously offended the ogress-like creature as she towered over her with her flaming copper-brown eyes.
“What are you staring at?!”
“No…Nothing…”
“So, you’ve come to stare at The Beastess, have you?!”
“I-I-I beg your pardon, miss, but…I-I-I just needed a place to stay…”
“I’ll give you a place to stay!!” The Beastess growled and grabbed the collar of her blouse. In the midst of her protests, The Beastess carried her with one hand out of the living room and slammed the door with the other, leaving the cowering animated objects in the dark.
Max sat in the food compartment, being careful not to be seen. He had stowed away on the boat as soon as it was about to leave and was lucky to wriggle his way into the food compartment of the boat. So far throughout the journey for goodness knows how long it was, he had full access to food and was able to eat whenever he wanted (of course, he had to save some for the crew of the boat) and he had only just eaten a few pickles and some raw turtle eggs. He dug his pockets and took out his late father’s compass. Ever since his father passed away, he had been carrying the compass around everywhere he went, like a lucky charm or something. He checked the bearings and remembered Norman saying that the legendary Beastess’s lair was at the north-east of the Earth, following Venus the Evening Star, and so as long as he continued going north-east, he should be there.
He looked out of the window and into the vast blue sea. He had never venture further away from home than this, only deeper, literally. This was the first time he ventured away from his provincial village out into the sea. The only time he ever got on a boat was his father’s ship, and that was only for fun. He was never taken out to voyages, until now, that is.
Soon he saw that the boat was straying away from the Evening Star towards the south. That was his cue to get off the boat and venture towards his destination on his own. He wriggled out of the window of the food compartment and held on, moving cautiously towards the small rowing boats that were hanging at the side of the big boat. Luckily it was hung on his side, or he had to climb a long way to the other side and might risk falling into the sea. He climbed into one of the rowing boats, lowered himself down to the sea and undid the cord that connected his boat with the main boat. Taking one last look at his compass and mentally thanking the big boat that took him all the way this far, he rowed slowly towards the north-east once more, following the Evening Star.
After about a few hours of rowing, when the sun began to set and the moon began to rise, he finally reached his destination. Hiding the boat inside a dense bush and covering it with a few dead branches thick with leaves, he took a deep breath and started trudging through the heavily thick forest which loomed over him like a gloomy, cold and sinister gateway to the scary, unknown world he was going to encounter. To release his tension and anxiety over this place, he started talking to himself, giving himself some mental encouragement.
“OK, so here we are in this dense place and I’ll soon be moving towards The Beastess’s lair…Alright, this is suicidal, but I’m willing to do anything to be with Phoebe…ahh, my Phoebe, how I long to be in your embrace…Get a grip on yourself, Max, you are way beyond the boundaries of civilization…! What? Am I scared? Am I afraid of danger? That’s not me! I laugh at the face of danger—”
His words stopped short when he finally found himself standing in front of the dark and menacing 15-feet gate.
“Couldn’t keep our mouths shut, could we? Just have to invite her to stay, didn’t we? Serve him coffee, sit in the Mistress’s chair, pet the pooch…”
Rusty the candelabra and the clock, whose name was Virgil, were having a heated discussion about Virginia’s incident. Virgil obviously didn’t want Rusty to forget about this mistake so easily, although it had already been two days since the incident.
“I was trying to be hospitable!” Rusty tried to make her point but Virgil wouldn’t hear of it.
“I don’t know what you were thinking. You are so slack-jawed that I bet you can’t even keep your mouth shut even if I stuffed a whole glass of paraffin inside your mouth…”
“Hello? Anyone here?”
Rusty and Virgil’s argument stopped short when they heard Max’s voice echoing down the castle. They got off the table and took a peek. They soon saw Max with his T-shirt, red cap, jeans and all walking down the hallway as if looking for someone. Rusty gasped in awe.
“It’s a boy!”
“I know it’s a boy, woman! Duh!” Virgil snorted in frustration.
“Don’t you see? He’s the one! The one we have been waiting for!” Rusty hissed excitedly. “He has come to break the spell!”
Without hesitation, Rusty clattered down the hall, deliberately making herself heard. Virgil followed behind anxiously. The clattering of their bodies attracted Max’s attention. Max soon found himself being led by their scurrying down to the dungeons of the castle. He tried to call out but of course, they didn’t answer.
“That’s strange, I’m sure that there was someone,” Max muttered to himself before raising his voice, “Is anyone there?”
“Max?” Virginia’s surprised voice came from one of the dungeon doors. Max was taken aback. He rushed towards the dungeon door and found his mother in it, practically frozen and shivering with extreme cold.
“Mom? What are you doing here? I thought you’ve gone to…oh God, your hands are like ice!”
“How did you…never mind. Listen to me, Max,” Virginia said anxiously. “You have to get out of here. It’s really dangerous!”
“Who’s done this to you, Mom?” Max demanded.
“No time to explain. You must go now!”
“But I can’t leave you—”
“What are you doing here?!”
A loud booming voice rang through the dungeons and a sharp tug on his hand forced Max to let go of the torch he was holding and it extinguished in one of the puddle on the rocky floor, leaving only a small ray of light from the seam of the ceiling. Max looked around and saw a huge figure in front of him that stood at about 10 feet tall. It looked frightening and its copper-brown eyes that gleamed under the dim light contributed more to its menacing form.
“Who…Who is it? Who are you?” Max asked, trembling.
“The Mistress of this castle,” the figure replied.
“Please, I beg you, let my Mom go. Can’t you see she’s freezing to death here?”
“Then she shouldn’t have trespassed here! And neither should you!!”
“But she could die here. Please, I’ll do anything…” Though the grudge over her still hang, Max didn’t have the heart to leave her here to die a cold and horrible death.
“There’s nothing you can do,” the figure said, turning away. “She’s my prisoner.”
“Oh, there must be some way I can…” Max wracked his brains to think, then suddenly came up with a plan. He called out to the figure, stopping it at its tracks. “Wait!”
The figure turned around, looking at him sideways. Max took a deep breath and blurted it out.
“Take me instead.”
“You?!” the figure snorted at first, then turned to max with a surprised look in its eyes. “You will…take his place?”
“No, Max! You don’t know what you’re doing!” Virginia yelled in horror, but Max ignored her.
“If I did,” Max asked, “will you let her go?”
“Yes,” the figure replied. “But…you must promise to stay here forever.”
Max stared at the figure for a while. He was curious at the way the figure kept itself in the dark, as if trying to hide what it looked like. Could it be that this is…? Max had to know.
“Come into the light.”
The figure hesitated a little, then obliged. Slowly it moved closer and closer towards the ray of light that came from the seam of the ceiling. Max widened his eyes when the figure came into full view: it was a female and had red flaming hair, like fire itself. Her eyes, which were copper-brown, shone under the light. She stood about 10 feet tall and her skin was quite scaly, with the sickly colour of green. She looked so menacingly tall, scary and evil that Max couldn’t help thinking that she had ascended from hell. He couldn’t suppress the gasp in his throat as he come to realize that she was the legendary Beastess.
“No, Max, I won’t let you do this!” Virginia’s urging voice rang behind him. Max opened his eyes, a determined look on his face. It’s about time she stopped telling him what to do and not to do if she wants to live and if she knows what’s good for her. Besides, he had a mission to accomplish, and he would do anything to complete it. He walked up to The Beastess and stared straight at her copper-brown eyes.
“You have my word.”
“Done!” The Beastess boomed and walked towards the dungeon door, opening the prison that kept Virginia from freedom. Max fell onto his knees, going weak all over. He couldn’t believe that he actually traded his freedom for his mother’s life just like that. That’s something he had never done before in his whole life.
“Please, Max, listen to me. I’ve lost your father at sea, and I cannot let you die out here in this hellish place covered by this forest and…”
Virginia couldn’t finish her words as she was tugged and dragged away by The Beastess out of the dungeons. Max wanted to say his side of his last words but he had half-expected this to happen. He could tell that this Beastess was not someone who would let nonsense get in the way. He watched sadly as his mother disappeared slowly out of sight.
“Please, I beg of you, miss,” Virginia said tearfully as her cold limp body dangled over The Beastess’s shoulder as she slung the mother across her shoulders and trudged through the forest out towards the open sea. “Please spare my son. He’s all I’ve got now…”
“He’s no longer your concern, woman,” The Beastess growled as she whistled out loud. Soon an oar-less boat moved slowly up shore towards its mistress. The Beastess threw Virginia onto the boat and ordered, “Take her back to where she came from.”
From the castle, Max could hear his mother protesting loudly and ordering the boat to stop as the boat took her further and further away from the island where The Beastess’s lair lay.
That’s when she realized that it was starting to rain. She quickly shielded her head and ran straight into the castle regardless of how sinister and scary it looked. She had to find shelter and she couldn’t risk getting sick. She went to the huge front door and pounded it, hoping someone would open. The door did open, but it opened by itself and there was no one there to greet her. She took a peek inside before the rain outside began to force her to let herself in the castle.
“Hello? Hello~?” Virginia tried to call out for anyone. She thought she heard some distant whispering but couldn’t see anyone. She tried her luck again. “Is someone there? I don’t mean to intrude but…I was shipwrecked and got stranded here…and, err, I need a place to stay for the night.”
“Virgil, come on, have a heart,” she thought heard a voice whispered, then a hush followed by a loud scream of pain before hearing the voice clearer, “Of course, madam, you’re welcome here.”
“Who said that?” Virginia muttered as she grabbed a candelabra which had a figurine of a lady holding out the candles.
“Over here!” the voice replied. Virginia turned around towards the voice but still couldn’t see anyone. She felt a sudden tinkle on her head and she turned around to see the candelabra figurine she was holding was actually smiling at her and greeted, “Hello.”
Virginia gasped and let go of the candelabra. The candelabra figurine groaned and slowly sat up on her own, rubbing her aching golden head. Suddenly a clock the shape of a chicken in robes came out of nowhere and started grumbling at the candelabra.
“Now, you’ve done it, Rusty! Splendid! Just peachy! Yagh!”
The clock let out a yelp as Virginia picked him up with much curiosity. She shook and rattled the clock, trying to figure out what made him move so animatedly. The candelabra, whose name’s Rusty, giggled. The clock finally groaned in exasperation and said, “Madam, put me down at once, do you mind?”
“I…I’m sorry,” Virginia apologized. “It’s just that I’ve never seen someth…”
Virginia didn’t get to finish her words as she found herself sneezing loudly at the clock’s face, as in literally his face (the face that shows the time was on his belly). Rusty sighed in pity.
“Oh, you are soaked to the bone, madam. Come, warm yourself by the fire.”
“Thank you,” Virginia replied gratefully.
The clock had horror struck on his face as he protested on and on behind them towards the master living room, “No, no, no, you are not going to be taking her into the living room. That’s the Mistress’s private quarters and I demand you to stop that at once! Oh no, no, not the Mistress’s chair!”
More animated objects came barging in to help Virginia make her feel more comfortable, despite the clock’s protests of “I’m not seeing this! I’m not seeing this!” A footrest that barked like a dog came and propped her feet. A coat hanger came to life and wrapped her in blanket. The clock stood up and grumbled loudly.
“Alright! This has gone far enough! I’m in charge her and I’m…”
His words were stopped short when a trolley came zooming in ridden by a talking coffeepot and coffee cup, saying, “How would you like to have a cup of coffee, dear? It’ll warm you up in no time.”
“No, no coffee!” the clock said in a muffle before lifting his flat face off the carpet and yelled, “No coffee!”
No one seemed to pay much attention to this obsessive, over-bearing chicken clock. As they chit-chatted merrily, the door of the living room suddenly banged open. All the animated objects’ faces switched from hospitable to horror, as if shocked yet half-expecting this to happen. The fire extinguished itself out of fear. The coffee cup jumped out of Virginia’s hand and hid behind the trembling coffeepot. Virginia heard some sniffing sounds, like a dog sniffing a scent and a sort of deep rumbling, like a tiger or a lion’s purr. She didn’t dare to turn around. She sat on the chair trembling.
“There’s a stranger here,” Virginia heard a rumbling voice behind here. It sounded like a female voice, only deeper.
“Mistress, allow me to explain,” Rusty immediately tried to clear things up. “You see, this woman was shipwrecked, stranded in this place and got lost in the woods and so we were thinking…”
A loud roar was heard. This creature didn’t seem to be in a mood to listening to excuses.
“Mistress, I would like to have this moment to say,” the clock said timidly. “I was against it from the start. It was all her fault, I tried to stop her, but no, she wouldn’t listen…”
Another roar stopped his explanation short.
Virginia decided to turn around and see who this bad-tempered creature was and the first thing that came across her eyes was a pair of copper-brown eyes. Virginia yelped in horror and staggered back, falling off the chair on the process.
“Who are you?!” the ‘Mistress’ demanded. “What are you doing here?!”
“I…I was lost in the woods and…” Virginia couldn’t help trying to look how this creature looked like—it was too dark for her to see its real form. Her staring eyes obviously offended the ogress-like creature as she towered over her with her flaming copper-brown eyes.
“What are you staring at?!”
“No…Nothing…”
“So, you’ve come to stare at The Beastess, have you?!”
“I-I-I beg your pardon, miss, but…I-I-I just needed a place to stay…”
“I’ll give you a place to stay!!” The Beastess growled and grabbed the collar of her blouse. In the midst of her protests, The Beastess carried her with one hand out of the living room and slammed the door with the other, leaving the cowering animated objects in the dark.
Max sat in the food compartment, being careful not to be seen. He had stowed away on the boat as soon as it was about to leave and was lucky to wriggle his way into the food compartment of the boat. So far throughout the journey for goodness knows how long it was, he had full access to food and was able to eat whenever he wanted (of course, he had to save some for the crew of the boat) and he had only just eaten a few pickles and some raw turtle eggs. He dug his pockets and took out his late father’s compass. Ever since his father passed away, he had been carrying the compass around everywhere he went, like a lucky charm or something. He checked the bearings and remembered Norman saying that the legendary Beastess’s lair was at the north-east of the Earth, following Venus the Evening Star, and so as long as he continued going north-east, he should be there.
He looked out of the window and into the vast blue sea. He had never venture further away from home than this, only deeper, literally. This was the first time he ventured away from his provincial village out into the sea. The only time he ever got on a boat was his father’s ship, and that was only for fun. He was never taken out to voyages, until now, that is.
Soon he saw that the boat was straying away from the Evening Star towards the south. That was his cue to get off the boat and venture towards his destination on his own. He wriggled out of the window of the food compartment and held on, moving cautiously towards the small rowing boats that were hanging at the side of the big boat. Luckily it was hung on his side, or he had to climb a long way to the other side and might risk falling into the sea. He climbed into one of the rowing boats, lowered himself down to the sea and undid the cord that connected his boat with the main boat. Taking one last look at his compass and mentally thanking the big boat that took him all the way this far, he rowed slowly towards the north-east once more, following the Evening Star.
After about a few hours of rowing, when the sun began to set and the moon began to rise, he finally reached his destination. Hiding the boat inside a dense bush and covering it with a few dead branches thick with leaves, he took a deep breath and started trudging through the heavily thick forest which loomed over him like a gloomy, cold and sinister gateway to the scary, unknown world he was going to encounter. To release his tension and anxiety over this place, he started talking to himself, giving himself some mental encouragement.
“OK, so here we are in this dense place and I’ll soon be moving towards The Beastess’s lair…Alright, this is suicidal, but I’m willing to do anything to be with Phoebe…ahh, my Phoebe, how I long to be in your embrace…Get a grip on yourself, Max, you are way beyond the boundaries of civilization…! What? Am I scared? Am I afraid of danger? That’s not me! I laugh at the face of danger—”
His words stopped short when he finally found himself standing in front of the dark and menacing 15-feet gate.
“Couldn’t keep our mouths shut, could we? Just have to invite her to stay, didn’t we? Serve him coffee, sit in the Mistress’s chair, pet the pooch…”
Rusty the candelabra and the clock, whose name was Virgil, were having a heated discussion about Virginia’s incident. Virgil obviously didn’t want Rusty to forget about this mistake so easily, although it had already been two days since the incident.
“I was trying to be hospitable!” Rusty tried to make her point but Virgil wouldn’t hear of it.
“I don’t know what you were thinking. You are so slack-jawed that I bet you can’t even keep your mouth shut even if I stuffed a whole glass of paraffin inside your mouth…”
“Hello? Anyone here?”
Rusty and Virgil’s argument stopped short when they heard Max’s voice echoing down the castle. They got off the table and took a peek. They soon saw Max with his T-shirt, red cap, jeans and all walking down the hallway as if looking for someone. Rusty gasped in awe.
“It’s a boy!”
“I know it’s a boy, woman! Duh!” Virgil snorted in frustration.
“Don’t you see? He’s the one! The one we have been waiting for!” Rusty hissed excitedly. “He has come to break the spell!”
Without hesitation, Rusty clattered down the hall, deliberately making herself heard. Virgil followed behind anxiously. The clattering of their bodies attracted Max’s attention. Max soon found himself being led by their scurrying down to the dungeons of the castle. He tried to call out but of course, they didn’t answer.
“That’s strange, I’m sure that there was someone,” Max muttered to himself before raising his voice, “Is anyone there?”
“Max?” Virginia’s surprised voice came from one of the dungeon doors. Max was taken aback. He rushed towards the dungeon door and found his mother in it, practically frozen and shivering with extreme cold.
“Mom? What are you doing here? I thought you’ve gone to…oh God, your hands are like ice!”
“How did you…never mind. Listen to me, Max,” Virginia said anxiously. “You have to get out of here. It’s really dangerous!”
“Who’s done this to you, Mom?” Max demanded.
“No time to explain. You must go now!”
“But I can’t leave you—”
“What are you doing here?!”
A loud booming voice rang through the dungeons and a sharp tug on his hand forced Max to let go of the torch he was holding and it extinguished in one of the puddle on the rocky floor, leaving only a small ray of light from the seam of the ceiling. Max looked around and saw a huge figure in front of him that stood at about 10 feet tall. It looked frightening and its copper-brown eyes that gleamed under the dim light contributed more to its menacing form.
“Who…Who is it? Who are you?” Max asked, trembling.
“The Mistress of this castle,” the figure replied.
“Please, I beg you, let my Mom go. Can’t you see she’s freezing to death here?”
“Then she shouldn’t have trespassed here! And neither should you!!”
“But she could die here. Please, I’ll do anything…” Though the grudge over her still hang, Max didn’t have the heart to leave her here to die a cold and horrible death.
“There’s nothing you can do,” the figure said, turning away. “She’s my prisoner.”
“Oh, there must be some way I can…” Max wracked his brains to think, then suddenly came up with a plan. He called out to the figure, stopping it at its tracks. “Wait!”
The figure turned around, looking at him sideways. Max took a deep breath and blurted it out.
“Take me instead.”
“You?!” the figure snorted at first, then turned to max with a surprised look in its eyes. “You will…take his place?”
“No, Max! You don’t know what you’re doing!” Virginia yelled in horror, but Max ignored her.
“If I did,” Max asked, “will you let her go?”
“Yes,” the figure replied. “But…you must promise to stay here forever.”
Max stared at the figure for a while. He was curious at the way the figure kept itself in the dark, as if trying to hide what it looked like. Could it be that this is…? Max had to know.
“Come into the light.”
The figure hesitated a little, then obliged. Slowly it moved closer and closer towards the ray of light that came from the seam of the ceiling. Max widened his eyes when the figure came into full view: it was a female and had red flaming hair, like fire itself. Her eyes, which were copper-brown, shone under the light. She stood about 10 feet tall and her skin was quite scaly, with the sickly colour of green. She looked so menacingly tall, scary and evil that Max couldn’t help thinking that she had ascended from hell. He couldn’t suppress the gasp in his throat as he come to realize that she was the legendary Beastess.
“No, Max, I won’t let you do this!” Virginia’s urging voice rang behind him. Max opened his eyes, a determined look on his face. It’s about time she stopped telling him what to do and not to do if she wants to live and if she knows what’s good for her. Besides, he had a mission to accomplish, and he would do anything to complete it. He walked up to The Beastess and stared straight at her copper-brown eyes.
“You have my word.”
“Done!” The Beastess boomed and walked towards the dungeon door, opening the prison that kept Virginia from freedom. Max fell onto his knees, going weak all over. He couldn’t believe that he actually traded his freedom for his mother’s life just like that. That’s something he had never done before in his whole life.
“Please, Max, listen to me. I’ve lost your father at sea, and I cannot let you die out here in this hellish place covered by this forest and…”
Virginia couldn’t finish her words as she was tugged and dragged away by The Beastess out of the dungeons. Max wanted to say his side of his last words but he had half-expected this to happen. He could tell that this Beastess was not someone who would let nonsense get in the way. He watched sadly as his mother disappeared slowly out of sight.
“Please, I beg of you, miss,” Virginia said tearfully as her cold limp body dangled over The Beastess’s shoulder as she slung the mother across her shoulders and trudged through the forest out towards the open sea. “Please spare my son. He’s all I’ve got now…”
“He’s no longer your concern, woman,” The Beastess growled as she whistled out loud. Soon an oar-less boat moved slowly up shore towards its mistress. The Beastess threw Virginia onto the boat and ordered, “Take her back to where she came from.”
From the castle, Max could hear his mother protesting loudly and ordering the boat to stop as the boat took her further and further away from the island where The Beastess’s lair lay.
A Mix of Fairy Tale Cocktail-Chapter 8
Norman was shocked to see Max’s bedroom door open and no one in the whole house. He had just came back from sending Virginia off the jetty and decided that it was time to let Max out of the room for a while, despite the fact that she had warned him not to let him out. He thinks that she had been too harsh on him and he deserved a break. Besides it’ll only be for a time being. He’ll be back in the room again when Virginia comes home.
But now the trouble was brewing as he found that Max’s room was completely empty and the whole house was deserted. He wasn’t up in the secret attic—his diving gear were still there neatly stashed in a corner—and he was nowhere near Bea or Felix’s house or anyone else’s house in particular. He wasn’t even in the jetty. He couldn’t find him anywhere.
“Max, oh, Max, sonny boy, where in the blazes are you?”
Max followed the spirits quickly yet silently towards their destination. He didn’t where he was going and how long had he been running but he was sure that he was getting closer and closer towards his ultimate goal. They swerved right and swerved left, with the blonde-haired-blue-eyed boy trying to keep up with the spirit lot, until finally he found himself standing in front of the abandoned mansion at the far edge of the village.
Max heard stories about this place when he and his friends were kids—that this place used to belong to an eccentric rich man who couldn’t find a wife despite his riches and that he got so lonely and so upset that he went mad and committed suicide in that very house. Max, the adventurous boy he was, had often thought about venturing into this old mansion but he was always dragged away by some grown-ups or driven away by the caretaker of this mansion. Seeing that the spirits glided into the mansion door, he braved himself and pushed the door open, letting himself in.
Inside the mansion, he could see more spirits hovering around the place. They also smelled of incense but they were not as black as the snake-like spirits that brought him to this freaky house. They were white as cotton and their faces didn’t seem much of a happy face at all, they were moaning and groaning and sobbing like they were in some kind of invisible torture. One of them wounded itself around Max, pulling him away from the stairs the black spirits tried to lead him, but one of the black spirits hissed at it, disintegrating it into white smoke. Max felt kind of creepy and cold, but his adventurous and hot-blooded spirit got the hang of him. Finally he stopped in front of a dimly-lit room which was heavily filled with incense smell. He hesitated to walk in when the spirits slipped into the seam of the open door.
“Come in, come in, sonny boy,” a deep voice rumbled from inside the room. As Max stepped in carefully, the voice continued to rumble, “You mustn’t lurk in the doorway. It’s rude.”
Max almost gasped in awe at the ever cold, menacing SkullMaster standing before him beside a huge cauldron which could probably fit in a full-sized horse and make horse soup out of it. He stood tall and proud in his purple attire: purple body-fitting shirt, light purple tights and violet boots and cape. There was something in his cold piercing eyes that reminded Max of someone else but he couldn’t put a mind to it who it was.
“I know why you’re here,” SkullMaster said as he took his staff and stirred the cauldron. Mists came out of it, forming an image of Max’s long-time love, Princess Phoebe. “You’re absolutely heads over heels for this little mermaid of yours. Well, I don’t blame you. She quite a catch now, isn’t she?”
Max blushed. He didn’t think that he was so transparent that even someone who lived far away from civilization would know about his secret. SkullMaster grinned and waved his staff over the mists, making it disappear.
“Well then, sonny boy. The solution to your problem is simple. The only way to get what you want is to become a merman yourself.”
Max gasped in awe. Him, becoming a merman and live and breathe among the merpeople and alongside with his true love? That would be simply awesome! He asked tentatively, “Can you…do that?”
“My dear sweet sonny boy,” SkullMaster ruffled Max’s head beneath the red cap he always wore wherever he went. “That’s exactly the things that I do. It’s what I’m here for, to help unfortunate people like yourself. Why do you think I would pay so much for your village and your church if not for the well-being of it all? But I must say you are the first person in this village except the church members who has ever seen my true face. Do not tell anyone. I like to keep a low profile.”
Max nodded. He would apply to any condition necessary for him to be with his Princess Phoebe.
“Well, before we come to any deals, I always start with the discussion of something to pay with,” SkullMaster reminded the hot-blooded teen.
“But…But I don’t have…” Max was struck into reality when he didn’t bring his wallet along for this. He didn’t expect to pay anything until the job is done.
“I’m not asking much,” SkullMaster said with an assuring voice. “Just a token and we’ll be joyful! What I want from you is a rose.”
“A rose?” Max repeated.
“Yes, boy, a rose. But not just some ordinary rose you can get from your neighbour’s garden, oh no. You have to get the rose from the castle of the Beastess.”
“The…The Beastess?! You mean that castle where it was rumoured to be lurking with dark, gloomy demons and their leader would be the legendary Beastess?!”
“Yes, that’s the one,” SkullMaster replied. “In her garden lay bushes upon bushes of roses and you must pick the freshest, biggest and reddest one. That’s your first payment.”
“There’s more to pay? What else do you need, a gargoyle’s egg or a dragon’s horn or…”
“Just a small finishing touch to the debts. Your voice.”
This time Max was really struck. He touched his throat and stammered, “M…My voice?”
“You got it, sonny boy. No more talking, singing, zip!”
“But…But without my voice…” Max tried to reason with him, “how can I…”
“Talk with your sweetheart?” SkullMaster finished for him. “You’ve got your looks and your handsome face. And don’t underestimate the importance of the body language. Now go, get me the rose first, or else we have no deal.”
Without warning and within seconds, Max found himself standing in front of the mansion again, dazed and dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe that this mysterious SkullMaster would demand such a ridiculous payment that might cost him his life. The legend about the Beastess wasn’t fake either; many have been there and never ever returned. Norman did tell him about seeing the castle where the Beastess resides and was lucky to pass by there alive without being seen. All this trouble just to make a stupid payment to transform him into a merman!
A merman…He began to imagine himself swimming side by side with Princess Phoebe without the care in the world, living forever in the depths of the sea heedless of anything going on in the shore. Her beautiful face and her flawless skin were irresistible to the touch…surely such a transformation was worth all the trouble and the payment, even if it means unable to talk to her…He never exactly talked to her face to face during his secret visits anyway…
Finally, his footsteps could be heard echoing down the village road towards the jetty to catch the last boat that was leaving Fishermen’s Friend Village.
Virginia struggled to open her eyes. She didn’t know how long was she unconscious but she was sure that she was nowhere on the ship that she was taking to her archaeology HQ. She slowly picked up her drenched body and stood up, staggering a little before getting her bearing straight. She looked around and saw that she was standing on a small cliff that was about a few miles away from a huge dense forest just before her. Absentmindedly, she walked towards the forest, not caring what might be ahead of her as long as it led her to some kind of shelter.
As her mind began to clear, she recalled what had happened to her: she was on her way to her archaeology HQ with the precious dinosaur bones she got from the hill mound behind her home. She had not known for sure what species were the bones of this dinosaur is, but she had an idea that it could be a brontosaurus or something larger than that. Before she could pay more attention to the bones, her ship was caught in a storm and she found herself hanging on for dear life not to drown because this discovery was one of a kind and she wasn’t willing to let this chance go away. But all was lost as the ship hit something solid and she found her and the bones flung straight down to the depths of the sea. She clung for her dear life on a small piece of plank and fell unconscious as a huge wave brought her a dozen feet high up to the sky and sent her crashing down on solid ground. When she opened her eyes, she found herself on that small cliff.
She continued to trudge on, hoping to find some place to stay and hang out for a while before leaving back home empty-handed and dreams gone. Suddenly she felt as if there was a sort of spooky presence around her. She looked around but saw nothing. She quickened her pace and soon felt the aura dangerously close and threatening. She braved herself to look around and saw that it was a pack of hungry wolves tailing behind her, their yellow eyes giving her a dangerous look. Seeing that she had discovered their silent stalking, they didn’t bother to hide anymore. They went charging at her with their teeth bare, ready to chomp her flesh off and fill their stomachs. Virginia let out a horrified scream and started running, trying to get away from those hungry wolves and avoid herself from being wolves’ dinner. She fell once or twice, scraping her skin and skinning her face and legs, but she kept on running. Her clothes began to tear and was close to become that of a beggar’s clothes, but she pressed on, all the while trying to keep her feet moving as she could feel the wolves gaining close, snapping at her ankles.
Soon, she saw a huge gate in front of her. It stood tall at about 10 or 15 feet above her and for a minute there she felt like a midget before this gate. It was as black as soot and its towering height seemed menacing and dark, but seeing that the wolves were incoming closer and closer towards her, she couldn’t care less anymore. She pushed the gate open and barged into it. She slammed it shut just in the nick of time before the wolves were able to clamp their jaws onto her thigh. They did pull at her jeans but Virginia hastily kicked it away, sending it whining back into the forests. The rest of the pack followed suite. When she noticed that she was perfectly safe from harm’s way, she finally turn around to have a good look at what place has kept her from becoming a human sushi.
What displayed in front of her shocked her and struck her with awe.
But now the trouble was brewing as he found that Max’s room was completely empty and the whole house was deserted. He wasn’t up in the secret attic—his diving gear were still there neatly stashed in a corner—and he was nowhere near Bea or Felix’s house or anyone else’s house in particular. He wasn’t even in the jetty. He couldn’t find him anywhere.
“Max, oh, Max, sonny boy, where in the blazes are you?”
Max followed the spirits quickly yet silently towards their destination. He didn’t where he was going and how long had he been running but he was sure that he was getting closer and closer towards his ultimate goal. They swerved right and swerved left, with the blonde-haired-blue-eyed boy trying to keep up with the spirit lot, until finally he found himself standing in front of the abandoned mansion at the far edge of the village.
Max heard stories about this place when he and his friends were kids—that this place used to belong to an eccentric rich man who couldn’t find a wife despite his riches and that he got so lonely and so upset that he went mad and committed suicide in that very house. Max, the adventurous boy he was, had often thought about venturing into this old mansion but he was always dragged away by some grown-ups or driven away by the caretaker of this mansion. Seeing that the spirits glided into the mansion door, he braved himself and pushed the door open, letting himself in.
Inside the mansion, he could see more spirits hovering around the place. They also smelled of incense but they were not as black as the snake-like spirits that brought him to this freaky house. They were white as cotton and their faces didn’t seem much of a happy face at all, they were moaning and groaning and sobbing like they were in some kind of invisible torture. One of them wounded itself around Max, pulling him away from the stairs the black spirits tried to lead him, but one of the black spirits hissed at it, disintegrating it into white smoke. Max felt kind of creepy and cold, but his adventurous and hot-blooded spirit got the hang of him. Finally he stopped in front of a dimly-lit room which was heavily filled with incense smell. He hesitated to walk in when the spirits slipped into the seam of the open door.
“Come in, come in, sonny boy,” a deep voice rumbled from inside the room. As Max stepped in carefully, the voice continued to rumble, “You mustn’t lurk in the doorway. It’s rude.”
Max almost gasped in awe at the ever cold, menacing SkullMaster standing before him beside a huge cauldron which could probably fit in a full-sized horse and make horse soup out of it. He stood tall and proud in his purple attire: purple body-fitting shirt, light purple tights and violet boots and cape. There was something in his cold piercing eyes that reminded Max of someone else but he couldn’t put a mind to it who it was.
“I know why you’re here,” SkullMaster said as he took his staff and stirred the cauldron. Mists came out of it, forming an image of Max’s long-time love, Princess Phoebe. “You’re absolutely heads over heels for this little mermaid of yours. Well, I don’t blame you. She quite a catch now, isn’t she?”
Max blushed. He didn’t think that he was so transparent that even someone who lived far away from civilization would know about his secret. SkullMaster grinned and waved his staff over the mists, making it disappear.
“Well then, sonny boy. The solution to your problem is simple. The only way to get what you want is to become a merman yourself.”
Max gasped in awe. Him, becoming a merman and live and breathe among the merpeople and alongside with his true love? That would be simply awesome! He asked tentatively, “Can you…do that?”
“My dear sweet sonny boy,” SkullMaster ruffled Max’s head beneath the red cap he always wore wherever he went. “That’s exactly the things that I do. It’s what I’m here for, to help unfortunate people like yourself. Why do you think I would pay so much for your village and your church if not for the well-being of it all? But I must say you are the first person in this village except the church members who has ever seen my true face. Do not tell anyone. I like to keep a low profile.”
Max nodded. He would apply to any condition necessary for him to be with his Princess Phoebe.
“Well, before we come to any deals, I always start with the discussion of something to pay with,” SkullMaster reminded the hot-blooded teen.
“But…But I don’t have…” Max was struck into reality when he didn’t bring his wallet along for this. He didn’t expect to pay anything until the job is done.
“I’m not asking much,” SkullMaster said with an assuring voice. “Just a token and we’ll be joyful! What I want from you is a rose.”
“A rose?” Max repeated.
“Yes, boy, a rose. But not just some ordinary rose you can get from your neighbour’s garden, oh no. You have to get the rose from the castle of the Beastess.”
“The…The Beastess?! You mean that castle where it was rumoured to be lurking with dark, gloomy demons and their leader would be the legendary Beastess?!”
“Yes, that’s the one,” SkullMaster replied. “In her garden lay bushes upon bushes of roses and you must pick the freshest, biggest and reddest one. That’s your first payment.”
“There’s more to pay? What else do you need, a gargoyle’s egg or a dragon’s horn or…”
“Just a small finishing touch to the debts. Your voice.”
This time Max was really struck. He touched his throat and stammered, “M…My voice?”
“You got it, sonny boy. No more talking, singing, zip!”
“But…But without my voice…” Max tried to reason with him, “how can I…”
“Talk with your sweetheart?” SkullMaster finished for him. “You’ve got your looks and your handsome face. And don’t underestimate the importance of the body language. Now go, get me the rose first, or else we have no deal.”
Without warning and within seconds, Max found himself standing in front of the mansion again, dazed and dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe that this mysterious SkullMaster would demand such a ridiculous payment that might cost him his life. The legend about the Beastess wasn’t fake either; many have been there and never ever returned. Norman did tell him about seeing the castle where the Beastess resides and was lucky to pass by there alive without being seen. All this trouble just to make a stupid payment to transform him into a merman!
A merman…He began to imagine himself swimming side by side with Princess Phoebe without the care in the world, living forever in the depths of the sea heedless of anything going on in the shore. Her beautiful face and her flawless skin were irresistible to the touch…surely such a transformation was worth all the trouble and the payment, even if it means unable to talk to her…He never exactly talked to her face to face during his secret visits anyway…
Finally, his footsteps could be heard echoing down the village road towards the jetty to catch the last boat that was leaving Fishermen’s Friend Village.
Virginia struggled to open her eyes. She didn’t know how long was she unconscious but she was sure that she was nowhere on the ship that she was taking to her archaeology HQ. She slowly picked up her drenched body and stood up, staggering a little before getting her bearing straight. She looked around and saw that she was standing on a small cliff that was about a few miles away from a huge dense forest just before her. Absentmindedly, she walked towards the forest, not caring what might be ahead of her as long as it led her to some kind of shelter.
As her mind began to clear, she recalled what had happened to her: she was on her way to her archaeology HQ with the precious dinosaur bones she got from the hill mound behind her home. She had not known for sure what species were the bones of this dinosaur is, but she had an idea that it could be a brontosaurus or something larger than that. Before she could pay more attention to the bones, her ship was caught in a storm and she found herself hanging on for dear life not to drown because this discovery was one of a kind and she wasn’t willing to let this chance go away. But all was lost as the ship hit something solid and she found her and the bones flung straight down to the depths of the sea. She clung for her dear life on a small piece of plank and fell unconscious as a huge wave brought her a dozen feet high up to the sky and sent her crashing down on solid ground. When she opened her eyes, she found herself on that small cliff.
She continued to trudge on, hoping to find some place to stay and hang out for a while before leaving back home empty-handed and dreams gone. Suddenly she felt as if there was a sort of spooky presence around her. She looked around but saw nothing. She quickened her pace and soon felt the aura dangerously close and threatening. She braved herself to look around and saw that it was a pack of hungry wolves tailing behind her, their yellow eyes giving her a dangerous look. Seeing that she had discovered their silent stalking, they didn’t bother to hide anymore. They went charging at her with their teeth bare, ready to chomp her flesh off and fill their stomachs. Virginia let out a horrified scream and started running, trying to get away from those hungry wolves and avoid herself from being wolves’ dinner. She fell once or twice, scraping her skin and skinning her face and legs, but she kept on running. Her clothes began to tear and was close to become that of a beggar’s clothes, but she pressed on, all the while trying to keep her feet moving as she could feel the wolves gaining close, snapping at her ankles.
Soon, she saw a huge gate in front of her. It stood tall at about 10 or 15 feet above her and for a minute there she felt like a midget before this gate. It was as black as soot and its towering height seemed menacing and dark, but seeing that the wolves were incoming closer and closer towards her, she couldn’t care less anymore. She pushed the gate open and barged into it. She slammed it shut just in the nick of time before the wolves were able to clamp their jaws onto her thigh. They did pull at her jeans but Virginia hastily kicked it away, sending it whining back into the forests. The rest of the pack followed suite. When she noticed that she was perfectly safe from harm’s way, she finally turn around to have a good look at what place has kept her from becoming a human sushi.
What displayed in front of her shocked her and struck her with awe.
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