The Last Ever After (SGE Fanfic)

Into the Woods (+ Bonus Section)

(This bonus excerpt was an idea from @thisisme_18, who I'm dedicating this chapter to! <3 Check @thisisme_18 for me!)

There is an uneasiness that remains when a skeleton tries to murder you and your prince.

But Agatha batted that feeling away, just as she had with Sophie. It didn't matter, anyway. At least it hadn't managed to finish her and Tedros off. Agatha knew with a cold certainty if the skeleton had really wanted to kill her, she wouldn't be walking away from the village.

Agatha and Tedros both stepped together as one. She glanced for a moment at the village in the distance. There was still movement, as the men and women frantically tried to put out the fires that wouldn't stop burning. She and Tedros had tried to magically put them out, but the fires had raged higher and an arrow flew, with a message: "No, no. You cannot interfere. The Woods: come and fight, or your village will burn."

They stopped trying after that.

For hours, the people doused the flames with water, but they never went out. The result? Hundreds of angry villagers who blamed Agatha and Tedros.

It was just like when Sophie had attacked by the boys - only this time, the Elders were content to sit and watch in the background.

Finally, after mobs of villagers bombarded Agatha and Tedros' house - the only one untouched by the eternal fires - Agatha agreed to leave for the Woods. Right after they'd left, ten scorched villagers took up residence in the house. It had been attacked with fire bombs two minutes after.

The trees, so forbidding before, bent their branches so that Agatha and Tedros could both walk through. The sun vanished as they stepped through the meadow's grass onto the dirt of the forest.

Agatha's finger glowed brighter, and she tried to fill her mind with thoughts about what they'd do when they finally came across Sophie and the School Master... But all she saw was her Ever After, ruined again by Sophie. She couldn't help but smart in anger at the injustice. After being forced apart, they should have lived out their life in Galvadon in peace. However, they'd barely been there two weeks.

She remembered Beatrix drawing the Wish Fish into a wedding, with a rainbow and two happy Evers. Her heart fluttered as she thought of Tedros, so strong and -

No! Agatha shook her head. She couldn't think like this, not when her village and her life was at stake. And besides, Tedros was so intent on revenge, so intent on killing Sophie, that now, when she looked at him, his features were closed, mouth drawn in a permanent scowl.

But still handsome. Still beautiful.

A tentative step, a cocked ear brought Tedros to a stop. "Wait. I hear something," he said, quietly, sharply.

A rushing noise.

A crumbling of the earth -

Agatha and Tedros ran as the ground beneath them fell, both grasping each other's hands, both fingers glowing gold. But it was no use - with a final cry, Agatha dropped, falling, even as she ran -

They came to a stop, panting, clinging to a sign.

The ground stopped rumbling, and Tedros helped her stand up. Her feet had been knee deep in dirt as part of her was submerged, but other than that -

"Look," she breathed.

The Flowerground.

"Does... It still work?"

Tedros stopped. "I don't think we should risk it."

Agatha sagged. He was right. But how were they going to get past -