Later on in the night, Cinderella had holed herself up in her given room drawing her own wanted poster for the king. While she was no Picasso, her art skills were actually not half bad. Besides if Regina wanted to play the hunting game, she could to.
Finishing the piece, she made sure to include her location of Risky Rock before holding up up for inspection. "Not bad, if I do say so myself." With that done, she was now free to address the elephant in the room. Peeling of the glass slippers, they shimmered in the light.
Although the physical differences between their new and previous form were what most would notice, Cinderella instead 'felt' what had to be the single biggest difference. And that was the shoes now lack of that pervasive, icky feeling she felt back in the castle chambers.
In that moment, it felt like the shoes were trying to read her for the purpose of exploitation, but now they felt almost pure. Like the blood red of the apple version had been diluted to reveal a more clean entity, one that lacked any malicious spirit. Plus, it was a bonus as she had never been to fond of red. Cinderella actually preferred the more simple crystalline look.
Placing them back on her feet, she sat on the edge of the bed before completely flopping down, letting the cushion-like feeling sink in. God, it really had been a long time since she had a proper, quality bed. Not that the castle didn't give her good accommodations, but due to class restrictions she was expected to sleep in a basic servants quarters. But none the less, she never complained. It was better then her situation with her step-family and with 3 meals and day and fair-treatment, she was satisfied.
A knock then sounded at the door, Cinderella standing to open it while reminding herself to look down first as to not cause offense. Waiting outside in the hall was Jack, applying a face mask to his green complexion. "Would you like to join me in a moisturizing mask?"
Ordinarily, the blonde would have gladly accompanied him, but at the moment her plan for finding the king was the only thing occupying her mind. After all, time was of the essence.
"Ah, thanks, but I'm actually planning on doing a little more detective work before settling in for the night. Maybe tomorrow night. But thank you for the offer," She said quickly as to purposely not give him time to respond. "Are you cure," he asked again. "It's very important to take care of your skin."
Before he could do any more to possibly guilt-trip her into going along with it, Cinderella gently shut the door. "But it is the finest French recipe meant to hydrate skin!" He pleaded. "It is made from French poop!"
Sighing in relief, the servant girl came back to the desk to clutch the wanted poster before movement outside her window grasped her attention. The shape and form of the figure almost looked-like...
"Your majesty?" And with that, she set off into the night.
*******
Elsewhere in the house, Merlin stood in his human form, (courtesy of being alone) going through the contents of a bookshelf in his workshop in search of an item in particular.
He would usually never resort to drastic measures like this, but he had been stuck under this curse for far to long now and he wanted out. Cinderella was like the god-send they had all been waiting for. A beautiful girl, who from what he had seen, was a genuinely good person. Just his type, although her beauty rivaled all those who came before her. While he did feel bad about what he was thinking to do, he reminded himself he was simply giving her a push in the right direction.
I mean under normal circumstances, she would fall in love with him just the same. Right?
"Hm, a spell that makes you fall in love," his eyes combed up the book before locating a red bound book at the top with a heart on the spine. "Ah, here we go," he reached up before he was disturbed by Hans coming in the door, causing the handsome wizard to revert to his dwarf from, the book now out of reach.
"Merlin, have you seen my cookbook?"
Honestly, was he the only person with working brain cells around here? "Have you checked the kitchen?"
"Oh, of course the kitchen." And with that Hans made his exit, Merlin turning human and letting out a sigh of annoyance before reaching up for the book. "Now where was I?"
However fate slapped him in the face yet again when Jack came in the door asking for his moisturizer of all things. Before he could snap, the love spell tome fell on Merlin's head, making him completely loose it. "No," he marched up to his teammate. "whatever it is I haven't seen it. Now please go away!"
"Someone's got anger management issues."
Hopefully with the disturbances over with, he could get on with it. Unless...was this a sign telling him it was a bad idea? Oh, what to do. He then noticed his reflection in the mirror and gave his best suave smile at it. "Getting a kiss was never a problem with this face."
Then out of the corner of his eye he saw the light of a lantern moving towards the forest. Upon further inspection, familiar blonde locks could be seen indicating who it was.
"Cinderella?" What was she doing wandering into the forest alone at night. That was certain death. Well he wanted a moment alone with her, and now he could have that and a hero moment. After making sure his satchel was stocked with spell cards, he gave chase.
*******
"Your majesty! Your majesty?" Cinderella yelled into the black expanse. Now she was starting to regret this decision. Damn her impulse. What were the chances that it was the king and not some bear?
Then out of no where a stream of bats came flying in her direction and to large, beady yellow eyes came into her vision as a black mass stood towering over her. It looked to be a wood-carved, sentient bunny, and out of sheer fright, the lantern was dropped, the flame going out.
It slowly started to inch towards her, leaving her pinned against a tree. "Hey there, big guy. I'm sure you aren't a scary as you look. I bet you're just looking for a friend. Right?" Cinderella tried to small talk it, hoping it would deescalate the situation.
All of a sudden like a beacon of light, blue volts of electricity attacked the bunny, and a familiar green hand grabbed her's and dragged her away. "Merlin!" She cried in relief as they ran, a difficult task thanks to height difference. "Wait, was that lighting?" She yelled.
"Actually," he smugly responded. "It's called magic. I do it."
"Thank god! We're saved!" Cinderella thought before giving a suggestion. "Really? Then maybe hit him again!"
As she turned her head forward, Merlin turned into a human within her grasp. For a few essential moments, he simply stared in awe at being able to truly hold her hand. To be with her as his true self even if she didn't know it. He then lovingly gazed at the angel before him, when all of a sudden she looked, and he went hurdling into a tree at the sudden transformation.
Once again, she was doing the heavy lifting, practically dragging him as the bunny followed. Merlin then released her hand and pushed her forward. "Keep running and don't look back!"
"What!" She yelled in response. This was serious deja vu as she had done the same thing for her best friend less then 10 hours ago. "No way. I'm not going without you. Now's not the time to be heroic!"
"It's always a good time for heroics!" He countered. "And your're looking back! Don't do that!"
Finally accepting she couldn't win this one, Cinderella ran off leaving Merlin free to go all out in his human form. "Hate to zap you long ears, but I need to impress a beautiful woman!"
However the bunny seemed to virtually ignore him in favor of stomping on him, and chasing after Cinderella. It didn't take long for her to notice, and of course as chase sequence logic would dictate, she found herself in a dead end.
Just as the bunny came to tackle her, a battle cry let out above her. She turned to see Arthur leaping at the beast with his sword, but unknown to her, she just cost him a size advantage as her second rescuer face planted on the wooden creature.
By some miracle of physics this set off a chain reaction which ended with the bunny crashing into some rocks and falling forward, Arthur trapped under it's paw.
"Arthur!," She instantly ran over to her friend and began trying to lift up the bunny's arm. "Hold on. I've got you."
"It's no use, Cinderella," he wailed as she continued to struggle. "I'm slipping away! I don't have much time."
"Just need to put my back into it," she grunted, as the adrenaline of the situation made her blind to his obvious melodrama. "I see that light at the end of the funnel, time for me to kick but in heaven. I had a good one, lived it well."
"If Snow were here, this would be a breeze." Cinderella ignored him. Seriously, she got that he was in pain but he sounded like he was writing is 'Farewell cruel world'. "Before I go, could I request a fair well kiss?"
This request illuminated a light bulb in the blonde's head. Wait was he....playing the sympathy card? Before that thought could develop any further, Jack and Hans came running up.
"Cinderella," the red-head said, relieved. "Thank goodness your safe."
"Do you need CPR? I'm basically and expert, and don't worry I brushed my teeth." Jack offered. Oh gosh, now him? Well at least he wasn't duping her like a certain dwarf.
"No I'm fine, but Arthur's kind of in a situation," she gestured to said dwarf. Just to be safe, she made sure not to jump to conclusions.
"Uh," Hans groaned. "Would you get up!"
"So then I guess as was right. You're not hurt," Cinderella crossed her arms and gave him a disapproving look. She wasn't blind to the way the other dwarfs hit on her, their earlier comments on what they thought of her appearance made that clear to her, but for him to manipulate her sympathy was just underhanded.
"Only his pride," Hans explained before Jack added insult to injury. "You really need to find a better way to hit on girls."
Arthur then groaned as he sat up, and flashed Cinderella a smirk only for her to glare disapprovingly. The situation was soon disregarded however as three yellow lights could be seen in front of them and the ground started to tremor. The three dwarfs got in front of the girl and brandished their weapons. "Stand back," Arthur commanded, but in Cinderella's opinion it sounded a lot less genuine then when Merlin had said the same thing earlier. Wait, Merlin. She left him shooting sparks on the forest floor!
"I may have to risk my life again," she heard Arthur add, to which she heavily rolled her eyes. The four began to back up as the wooden contraption camp up on them, only for a hatch to suddenly pop open and Pino, Noki, and Kio to come out.
"Someone call for three inventors?"
"Three geniuses?"
"Oh, that sounds like us!"
"Everyone came running to help. Great, just great." Arthur mumbled as he crossed his arms. "Everyone except Merlin that is.."Jack started before Hans cut him off. "Ah, there he is," and true to word the very dwarf Cinderella was most concerned about came running out of the forest.
"Where have you been? Something awful could have happened to Cinderella if I hadn't" Arthur began to chastise him before he and the the rest of the team froze at what happened next. Namely Cinderella ran past them all to go to Merlin, got on her knees and enveloped him in a hug. "Oh god, you're okay." She ended the embrace while balancing back on her heels and staring him in the eyes. "Don't scare me like that again!"
Merlin could only dumbly nod, and she stood up and placed a hand over her heart in relief that the ordeal was over. Arthur and the rest had jealously bubbling up in them at her actions, the former wielder of Excalibur more then any other however. Wanting to put an end to the sight, he strode over to her. "Shouldn't we get going?"
With a nod, they set out back towards the cottage, Cinderella at the front with Merlin. "You shouldn't have gone in the forest this late a night. Something could have happened." he told her with genuine concern. That hug earlier had made her seem more real to him, and less like an object. He could see the goodness of her heart and knew that if he wanted her to break his curse, he would have to romance her the old-fashioned way.
"I should've known better," she looked downwards. "I thought I saw the king and had to see for myself. Forgive me, your the one who put themselves in needles danger."
Seeing her self-blame, Merlin did what he knew would be most effective. He simply clutched her hand and consoled her. "Don't worry about it. I've had worse. And if the need comes up, call and I'll do it again."
This got a chuckle out of Cinderella and the wizard swore he had never heard such a beautiful sound. It was ruined however when Prince "I'm buff", came up to her. "Oh Cinderella, if I remember correctly I never got my thanks from earlier," he tapped his lips.
"Oh my god! This again!" She thought and did the only thing she knew would send a clear message. She slapped him across the face. "Oh dear, thank you!" she said over-dramatically, the other six audibly laughing.
Arthur seemed to realize what he had done and tried to play it off. "Ah, It was no problem at all my lady." With a satisfied nod from Cinderella, they continued on, the others laughing at his failed attempt. "Nice try," Merlin snickered.
Once they returned to the house, Cinderella bid goodnight to them and went into a peaceful sleep, while unknown to her, her hosts held a midnight meeting. "Alright gentlemen," Arthur said with a pointer in hand while standing at a map. "To break this curse we're gonna have to work as a cohesive unit. Which means...you do everything I say."
"Excuse'" Hans said as all their heads snapped up to the orange-clad one in disbelief, as several other statements of disapproval chorused around the living room. To clarify, Arthur started pointing to several locations. "Jack and Hans will search around the Dismal Lake, Triplets, you search the Cave of Despair, Cinderella and I will go to Golden Goose Avenue."
"Golden Goose Avenue," Merlin repeated. "Which happens to be your go-to spot for dates."
"We are going to focus on the mission! And then see where the evening takes us." Arthur corrected.
Merlin lounged back in his chair at that. "The only thing you'll be shopping for is rejection. You can't even afford that!"
"I like my odds! You saw what she did," he gestured to the now red hand print on his face. "An expression of affection. Every woman shows it differently."
"You took your shot, you got slapped," Jack blatantly told him.
"And I remind you that this is the closest thing anyone's had to a kiss since the curse."
At that Merlin smugly laughed. "Pretty sure a hug counts as more a an 'Expression of Affection'." To which the others reluctantly nodded. Arthur simply ignored him however and continued on his rant. "Let's work together to guide Cinderella's feelings towards me so we can break the curse."
"What about the rest of us?" the wizard stated the obvious.
"After I resume my princely form," Arthur schemed, "The word about F7 will be out and ladies will be begging to kiss your green mugs!"
"Really?" Pino asked. "Sounds reasonable," said Kio. "I'll bring the gelato," added Noki.
"Getting one kiss sure is easier then getting seven," Jack mused. At that point Merlin and fed up. "This is NOT a plan. He's just out for himself."
"A half-baked plan is better then none," Hans told him.
"Don't worry Merlin. I have a big assignment for you." Arthur smirked. "Big assignment?" asked the wizard in question. What had they gotten themselves into?