Disaster Ever After [COMPLETED]

Chapter 8 - PRICE

There were no words that could express the sheer pain and anguish that overcame her body at the sight of the body. The large, pitch-black dragon laid motionless on the crimson-stained grass. The whole place was a disaster. There was blood everywhere and the tower was on fire.

Gabrielle's eyes widened suddenly. The tower was on fire! Her friends were in there! She tried to make her way towards the door at the bottom of the building, but the burning hot flames pushed her back. Helplessly, she watched her home burn down alongside the bodies of her two friends. She wouldn't even get to give them a proper burial!

A tear slid down her skin, followed by another. And another. She was now crying, sobbing uncontrollably. She fell to her knees next to Cedric's corpse, taking his horned scaly head into ger lap and stroking it gently, her fingers trembling. She wept for what felt like hours until there were no tears left to cry. Her throat was dry and her head was hurting, her muscles aching to move from the position she had been in for so long, but she couldn't muster enough strength to get up anymore.

Why would she, anyway? What reason was there to do anything when her entire life seemed to have crashed around her. Without Cedric, Chess and Remmy, who was there to live for?

"Don't think like that, my child." a woman's voice spoke up.

Gabrielle didn't even look her way as she kept caressing her dead friend's head. She had gotten tired of strangers coming into her life. She had gotten tired of feeling hurt. She was just so tired of everything...

"Gabrielle, I can feel the depressing thoughts from here. I have come to help you." the woman said.

"How could you help me? How could anyone? There is nothing anyone can do about this..."

"Oh, but I think I can. After all, they don't call me the Fairy Godmother for nothing, do they?" the stranger said mischievously. She seemed completely unfazed by the destruction of the tower or the corpse of a dragon. "I can fulfill any wish and dream you may have, however insane it may be! But all, of course, for a price..."

Gabrielle finally looked up, noticing a short, plump woman staring at her. She had short fawn hair and warm brown eyes. She wore a middle-length baby-blue dress and her hair was pinned up in a bun, tied up with a huge blue bow. She didn't look older than thirty, yet she had the sort of appearance that made you unsure of her age. She could have been twenty, yet she could just as well have been in her mid-forties.

She was smiling warmly, yet Gabrielle could tell there was more than just kindness behind her expression.

"What do you want?" the princess asked, her voice hoarse from crying.

"Oh no, child. This is about what you want! I am here to fulfill your greatest desire if you're willing to pay the price. So, what will it be? Do you want flawless beauty, wealth beyond anyone's imagination, immortality, even? I can make it all happen, as I've done before."

"The only thing I wish for is my friends' lives."

"Oh, dear, that's a tough one. You see, usually, people ask for normal things, like gold or power or other things you mortals want. One time, I even gave a mermaid a chance at love for the price of her voice, poor thing got turned to seafoam, but that's a different story. But to bring someone back from the dead, that's hard magic, my child. And hard magic requires hard payments."

"I'd be willing to do and give anything to get them back!" Gabrielle assured her, still a little skeptical of the woman's truthfulness. Could she really be a fairy? Could she really get Cedric, Cheshire, and Remington back?

"That's what I want to hear, though there is one more problem. When bringing someone back from the dead, I'd request a life for a life, and I'd also need the body of the dead person, but you're alone, so I can only get one of your friends back. SO, who's it going to be?"

Gabrielle thought for a moment.

"So you're saying that you can only get someone back if you have their body?"

"Yes, child, otherwise it would be impossible." the woman nodded gravely.

"Well, my other two friends' bodies are... they're in that building..."

The fairy looked at the burning tower before turning back to Gabrielle.

"Then I'm afraid they're gone for good. Are they the only ones you wanted back?"

"No. I think I know what I want." Gabrielle told her, taking in a deep breath. "Dear Fairy Godmother, my wish is for Cedric, the dragon here, to be brought back from the dead. I'm willing to give my life up for him."

A dangerous glint flickered in the fairy's eyes as she finished her words.

"Very well, child. I hope your decision was thought over. Now please close your eyes, this will take a minute and it might hurt." she warned her, starting on her incantation.

Gabrielle complied, still caressing Cedric's head as she listened to the strange words the woman spoke. After a minute, a warm feeling sprouted in her chest. Steadily, it grew hotter and hotter until it was almost unbearable. It was like a fire inside her body, burning her as she cried out from the pain.

"Don't worry, child. The feeling won't last long and your friend will be back." the woman told her between the magic words.

Flames licked at the insides of Gabrielle as she struggled to breathe. Her lungs seemed to stop working as she scratched her throat, trying to let air through.

But then, suddenly, all feelings stopped. There was no fire, no pain, no nothing. She was floating, her body relaxing as she crashed into the grass. Her mind was blank and her thoughts empty.

She felt at peace.

Behind the heavy cloak of unconsciousness, she felt Cedric's head shift. With a smile, her world turned dark for the last time.