HOME | DD

Description

“Giselle!” Adam laughed, helping her to her feet. Belle stared as the two cousins hugged one another tightly. Anything beastly about Adam had melted away, and had she not seen with her own eyes that he had looked human before Ursula’s death she would have simply thought it was the result of the Sea Witch dying. Perhaps the Morfa Witches and the Horner King were right. Perhaps she did have powers of her own.

As the two cousins parted, grinning at one another, Belle was further taken aback. She hadn’t considered that Adam might be very handsome indeed beneath all that fur, and yet she had come to like him enough to think of him as a potential romantic partner, not that they had had much time for romance in their mission to defeat the Sea Witch. But it was over now. She was gone.

“We did it!” Tinkerbell did a mid-air back flip. “I mean, you technically did it, Belle, you were the one who released her magic when the time was right.”

“I think it’s a victory for all of us, Tink,” Belle smiled, and then she was tackled in a hug from Giselle.

“Belle! You really are here! It’s so weird!” Giselle’s eyes were shining as she pulled away. “I had this dream where you just appeared outside my bottle and I just knew you’d be able to help us, so I called out to you and you asked where I was-”

“The cupboard...” Belle finished. “You meant Ursula’s cupboard in her lair.”

“You dreamed it too?”

“Yes, although I didn’t know which cupboard you meant at the time.”

“Strange!” Tinkerbell chipped in, grinning at Giselle who was startle by her sudden appearance. “Hi! I’m Tinkerbell, friend of Belle!”

“Well, any friend of Belle’s is a friend of mine,” Giselle laughed, holding out her index finger for Tinkerbell to shake in her tiny hand.

“You said us,” Adam frowned. “There were more of you trapped down there?”

“Oh yes!” Giselle leapt to her feet, her hands over her mouth. “Not just trapped in bottles, like me, she did terrible things to some of them! She turned them into sea plants and-!”

“It’s alright!” Tinkerbell, who was hovering near the edge of the Mountain, beckoned them over. “They’re alright! Look!”

Belle looked down and saw a collection of humans swimming below them, realising only a few moments later that some of them weren’t humans, they were merpeople. She was about to tell Carpet to go down and help them, but it looked like the merpeople were already helping them navigate their way to the shore. Even so, she felt that they ought to go down and see what was happening.

Laughter reached their ears as they neared the scene, Carpet hovering inches over the surface. A few of the humans looked up and stared at them in wonder. “Do you need any help?” Belle asked, politely.

“Oh, it’s alright,” answered a small octopus who was helping a dark-haired mermaid with a pink tail escort a young woman with caramel-coloured hair dressed in blue towards the shore. “We can manage. But thanks.”

The mermaid waved, smiling prettily. Belle wondered if maybe she couldn’t talk, so her octopus friend talked for her. Still, she and her friends watched the procession, and Belle reflected how only minutes before all these people had been under awful enchantments and imprisoned under the surface by the Sea Witch. They must be revelling in their freedom.

“Come on,” she said, finally, tearing her eyes away from the scene. “I need to tell the King, and I want to find out if everyone in Atlantica’s alright too.”

“They’ll have heard already that the Sea Witch is dead, most likely,” Adam commented.

Carpet turned around and soared off in the direction of Beljardin. Belle needn’t have worried about the merpeople of Atlantica, however, for as they swept over the surface of their patch of the sea, Arista appeared on a sudden wave, beaming at them all.

“I knew you’d save us all!” She twisted, flipped and dived back into the water before re-surfacing beside Carpet, propping her wet arms upon him and grinning at them all. “I told Father you would, and now you have! The Sea Witch is gone!” She turned to Adam and Giselle. “Isn’t she incredible?”

“Yes, she is,” Adam agreed.

Belle felt herself blushing all over.

“What did actually happen, anyway?” Giselle asked. “How did you even find me?”

Belle explained about HenWen’s vision. It seemed to have happened a lifetime ago now. “I didn’t know I was going to end up in Beljardin then, of course, or that I’d end up meeting Cinderella again.” She shuddered. “That was bad enough the last time.” She had told Giselle previously about the Coven.

Giselle shook her head. “I can’t believe you thought you could ever trust her, Belle.”

“I didn’t,” Belle admitted. “But I knew her pride would lead to her helping us in the end, because she could never bear for any witch to out-magic her, not even anyone in her own...” She sought for the right term. Friend group? Family? The only word that was fitting was “Coven. I don’t think there was ever a time when she wasn’t evil. If there was, I might feel sorry for her.”

Arista nodded. Other merpeople were breaking the surface now, beautiful and lithe, handsome and strong, thousands of them. The sea was suddenly filled with them. Then, a host of merman soldiers rose up blasting shell trumpets, and a tiny seahorse leapt from the water long enough to say “Presenting his Royal Majesty King Triton!” before diving back into the water.

Belle, Giselle and Adam bowed their heads in respect. Tinkerbell curtseyed. Carpet clapped his tassels together. HenWen sank down on her front knees in an unmistakeable bow. King Triton rose up from the water right in front of their party. No longer brooding, he was smiling majestically at them all.

“Atlantica owes you a great debt, Miss Belle. How can we ever thank you?”

“You really don’t need to,” Belle said, not wanting him to make any grand gestures for her. “We were both suffering because of the Sea Witch – she was destroying your kingdom and she had my friend prisoner – so I had to help. Please don’t think anything of it, your Majesty.”

“Merpeople will speak of this for generations to come,” King Triton replied. “Your name will be sung throughout the generations. If I had a son, I’d offer him to you as a reward.”

Belle laughed along with him. “I’d be very flattered, your Majesty.”

“Don’t be a stranger!” Arista flipped her tail in the water, eagerly. “You must come and visit us, mustn’t she, Father?”

“You will always be welcome here,” King Triton agreed.

The King of Beljardin said the same when he was presented with his now human-again son. Belle couldn’t remember the last time she had seen a man look so happy, and he was delighted to see his niece again.

“What I can’t understand is how she was able to kidnap you in the first place,” he told her.

“Oh.” Giselle looked embarrassed. “I was father foolish, actually. Belle, you know there’s that pool not far from where I live, where the sea water collects and sometimes it’s warm in the summer?”

“Yes,” Belle replied, feeling that she knew where this was going.

“It was there. I suppose the water of Atlantica must flow into there. I was only out there to get some air and this old lady came up to me. She was cloaked in blue and asked for a drink of water. I gave her some of mine and then she said that as a reward she would show me how to look into the pool and find my destiny...” She blushed deeply. “See? I told you it was foolish. The next thing I knew the water just sucked me in even though I was on the edge of the pool, it was like it just rose up and pulled me down, and then I was being pulled into a whirlpool until I found myself in an underwater grotto.”

“That must have been her in disguise,” Belle said. “If there are potions that can turn humans into mermaids, then why not the opposite?”

Giselle nodded. “She appeared and told me that I was going to help her take Beljardin. I refused, so she shrank and bottled me. There must have been some kind of enchanted air in that jar because I never ran out. She’d take all of us who were bottled to the surface every day to deposit food into our jars. It was humiliating.”

“But over now,” the King replied, comfortingly. “Come, we must celebrate. I’ll host a banquet. Giselle, you can find something of your aunt’s to wear, and for Miss Belle too, of course.”

“Oh, I should be-!” Belle’s protests that she ought to get home soon were lost as Giselle seized her arm and dragged her upstairs. HenWen and Tinkerbell followed. Despite all her reservations, Belle eventually gave in when Giselle pressed a yellow dress on her that she claimed would really suit her, and selected a purple one for herself.

“What a shame these are all too big for you, Tinkerbell,” she sighed.

“I don’t mind,” Tinkerbell replied.

“No, wait, I have an idea.” Giselle took up an ivory silk handkerchief and began rummaging in her aunt’s old sewing box. In no time at all, she had created the most beautiful little strapless white dress with a feathery skirt just Tinkerbell’s size. “Here, try this for size.”

“I haven’t had a new dress in ages!” Tinkerbell wriggled into it, beaming. “Thank you, Giselle!”

“It looks great on you,” Giselle said, “although it might look better if you wore your hair down.”

Belle slipped into the dress, feeling she didn’t really belong in it, but Giselle clapped her hands and said she looked lovely. She had the servants give HenWen a bath too, and polish up her trotters until they shone, much to the pig’s delight. When they got back downstairs, they were greeted by a scene of colour and laughter. Most of the King’s friends and acquaintances of Beljardin and turned up and as Belle made her way down the vast staircase, they all turned to look at her and applauded.

“I wish they wouldn’t do that,” Belle murmured to Tinkerbell.

“You might get used to it,” Tinkerbell ventured, encouragingly.

Giselle quickly went to talk to some people she knew. Belle looked around. There was no one there she knew, except for the King, and he was busy talking to several grand-looking people. Tinkerbell flew over to investigate the food, leaving her standing awkwardly alone. Then, a blue sleeve appeared beside her.

“You’re looking lost,” Adam smiled.

Relieved to see him, Belle tucked her arm through his. “I’m still a simple farm girl at the end of the day, Adam. This is overwhelming for me.”

Adam led her into the dining room as the gong sounded for dinner. “So, are you just going to go back to being a simple farm girl after this, then?”

Belle hesitated. Once upon a time her answer might have been yes. Now she wasn’t so sure. “I really don’t know. I thought I could after my last adventure, but all this past year I’ve felt a yearning to go back to the Forbidden Forest. Now I’m here...I just feel so confused about where I really belong.”

“You could belong here,” Adam suggested, gently.

Belle glanced at her feet. “I’m not so sure, Adam.” The unspoken question hung in the air between them, the mutual feelings well known even if unsaid. She felt Adam squeeze her arm reassuringly.

“I’m glad I met you, Belle. And you know, when you say goodbye to someone, it doesn’t have to be goodbye forever.”

Belle supposed he was right. Leaving Beljardin didn’t have to be for the last time in her life. It wasn’t like she’d never be able to find her way there again. She nodded. “I’m glad I met you too, Adam.”

The banquet seemed to go on forever, but Belle was very glad when it was over and she could finally be alone with her thoughts. The grand bedroom she was given to sleep in didn’t feel right, even though it was comfortable enough, but it wasn’t like being back in her own cosy room at the farm. And yet, when she thought about going back, it seemed...boring and predictable. Provincial.

She slept uneasily but when she woke in the small hours of the morning, she felt refreshed enough to make her leave quietly. HenWen woke as she dressed and sat patiently by her feet until she was ready. Accompanied by Tinkerbell and Carpet, they made their way softly down the stairs and into the dining hall. Belle left a quick note for the others, apologising that she had to leave because her family were worrying about her, and besides which, she had things to return to the Morfa Witches.

“It doesn’t seem right,” Tinkerbell complained, “just running off like this.”

“We’re not running off,” Belle replied, determinedly. “We’re going home.”

It was true enough, at least it was her intention, but first she had to find Orddu, Orgoch and Orwen. They deserved to know what had happened, and besides which, Belle wanted to see them again. Their spooky little corner in the woods hadn’t seemed so spooky for a long time, in fact coming upon it now was almost a relief.

“Belle! Dear girl!” Orddu grasped both of Belle’s hands in her own gnarly ones. “It’s all over the Forest! Is it true? Is she really dead, the Sea Witch?”

“Yes, it’s true,” Belle smiled. “It was Cinderella who defeated her, but the Horned King gave me the means to control her magic in the meantime.”

“Praise every living magical being!” Orgoch crowed, jumping up and down and clapping her hands. “And praise you, Belle, you have powers stronger than any ordinary human can have!”

“Because of your strong heart,” Orwen added, hugging Belle.

Belle smiled at them all. “Thank you for all your help too. I hope no other witches bother you from now on.”

“Oh, we wouldn’t mind if it was you, Belle,” Orddu laughed.

“Me? A witch?”

“You could be, you know, a white witch, if you read up on magic, of course,” Orgoch agreed. “And we’d help you with anything you needed to know.”

Belle blinked at them. The idea was appealing, but then so was the idea of going home, and so was the idea of rushing back to Adam’s arms. “I don’t know...” she said, slowly.

“Of course it has to be your choice, Belle,” Orwen replied, gently, “and not a decision to be entered into lightly. Think about it.”

“Listen, Belle, there’s something we want to give you,” Orddu added.

“Oh, you’ve already given me enough,” Belle began, drawing out the magical mirror. “I lost your mermaid-cure potion in the sea, I’m afraid, but-”

“Oh, that doesn’t matter, dear, and you may keep the mirror,” Orddu said, pressing it back into her hands. “But we’ve been talking, and, well it seems the logical solution, really-”

“You can have Carpet,” Orgoch finished. “We don’t use him so much anymore, and he’s helped you out a great deal already. Take him with you, wherever you go, and then at least you won’t be lonely.”

Belle stared at them. “You’re giving me Carpet?”

“What do you think, Carpet?” asked Orwen. “Would you like to stay with Belle?” Carpet punched the air with balled-up tassels and then flew around Belle in excitement. “I think that’s a yes, dear.”

“Besides, any good white witch needs a few magical objects around her,” Orgoch added. “If that is what you decide, Belle.”

“It’s my choice...” Belle murmured, standing in the middle of the Forest a long time later, looking first at the path ahead of her leading back to Beljardin, and then the path behind her leading home. “Part of me wants both...but that’s impossible...unless there’s a third option...”

Taking a deep breath, Belle closed her eyes, listened to what her heart told her she truly wanted and made her choice...

XXX Ten Years Later XXX

“...And over there,” the guide went on, waving a hand at the small farm cottage on the hill beside the sea, “is where Belle grew up. They say her brother still lives there, the rest of the family moved on a long time ago. Of course, people still look for where she lives now, somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, but they can never find it, it’s far too well hidden...”

“She’s a real heroine!” one of the girls who was clutching a small doll with brown wool hair and a blue dress against her chest piped up. “I want to be just like her when I grow up!”

The guide, and several other people laughed. “Of course many of us do,” the guide agreed, “But not all of us can find the secrets of magic like she did.”

“I heard she battled the Sea Witch with a great big axe and a shield like a mirror,” one of the other children piped up.

“No, it was a magical sword, stupid!” another cut in.

“No, no, no, it was a pitchfork from the sea-!”

Up on the hill, Arthur could hear their arguments. He shook his head with a grin. The stories had become so distorted over the years that only a handful of people really knew what had happened, and just how Belle had defeated the Coven and the Sea Witch. He pulled the shutters closed and turned to smile at Alice, who was sitting beside the fire with a book propped on her rounded stomach.

“We should visit them soon,” Alice said. She had been listening too. “It would be nice to see them before the baby’s born, and Kayley and your parents too.”

“Yes, I’d like to see what they’ve done with the new farm,” Arthur agreed. “I wonder if Belle will create any magical gifts for the baby.”

Alice laughed. “Those poor souls out there don’t know what they’re talking about. If only they knew that Belle had to travel a long distance to defeat all that dark magic-”

“-And married a Prince, who renounced the throne in favour of living in the Forest with his wife,” Arthur recounted. “And now Princess Giselle ruled Beljardin but comes to visit her parents here occasionally. It’s like something out of a fairytale, isn’t it? Who would have thought that my sister Belle would one day become the most famous white witch who ever existed, and all thanks to a clairvoyant pig?”

The End

Description

“Giselle!” Adam laughed, helping her to her feet. Belle stared as the two cousins hugged one another tightly. Anything beastly about Adam had melted away, and had she not seen with her own eyes that he had looked human before Ursula’s death she would have simply thought it was the result of the Sea Witch dying. Perhaps the Morfa Witches and the Horner King were right. Perhaps she did have powers of her own.

As the two cousins parted, grinning at one another, Belle was further taken aback. She hadn’t considered that Adam might be very handsome indeed beneath all that fur, and yet she had come to like him enough to think of him as a potential romantic partner, not that they had had much time for romance in their mission to defeat the Sea Witch. But it was over now. She was gone.

“We did it!” Tinkerbell did a mid-air back flip. “I mean, you technically did it, Belle, you were the one who released her magic when the time was right.”

“I think it’s a victory for all of us, Tink,” Belle smiled, and then she was tackled in a hug from Giselle.

“Belle! You really are here! It’s so weird!” Giselle’s eyes were shining as she pulled away. “I had this dream where you just appeared outside my bottle and I just knew you’d be able to help us, so I called out to you and you asked where I was-”

“The cupboard...” Belle finished. “You meant Ursula’s cupboard in her lair.”

“You dreamed it too?”

“Yes, although I didn’t know which cupboard you meant at the time.”

“Strange!” Tinkerbell chipped in, grinning at Giselle who was startle by her sudden appearance. “Hi! I’m Tinkerbell, friend of Belle!”

“Well, any friend of Belle’s is a friend of mine,” Giselle laughed, holding out her index finger for Tinkerbell to shake in her tiny hand.

“You said us,” Adam frowned. “There were more of you trapped down there?”

“Oh yes!” Giselle leapt to her feet, her hands over her mouth. “Not just trapped in bottles, like me, she did terrible things to some of them! She turned them into sea plants and-!”

“It’s alright!” Tinkerbell, who was hovering near the edge of the Mountain, beckoned them over. “They’re alright! Look!”

Belle looked down and saw a collection of humans swimming below them, realising only a few moments later that some of them weren’t humans, they were merpeople. She was about to tell Carpet to go down and help them, but it looked like the merpeople were already helping them navigate their way to the shore. Even so, she felt that they ought to go down and see what was happening.

Laughter reached their ears as they neared the scene, Carpet hovering inches over the surface. A few of the humans looked up and stared at them in wonder. “Do you need any help?” Belle asked, politely.

“Oh, it’s alright,” answered a small octopus who was helping a dark-haired mermaid with a pink tail escort a young woman with caramel-coloured hair dressed in blue towards the shore. “We can manage. But thanks.”

The mermaid waved, smiling prettily. Belle wondered if maybe she couldn’t talk, so her octopus friend talked for her. Still, she and her friends watched the procession, and Belle reflected how only minutes before all these people had been under awful enchantments and imprisoned under the surface by the Sea Witch. They must be revelling in their freedom.

“Come on,” she said, finally, tearing her eyes away from the scene. “I need to tell the King, and I want to find out if everyone in Atlantica’s alright too.”

“They’ll have heard already that the Sea Witch is dead, most likely,” Adam commented.

Carpet turned around and soared off in the direction of Beljardin. Belle needn’t have worried about the merpeople of Atlantica, however, for as they swept over the surface of their patch of the sea, Arista appeared on a sudden wave, beaming at them all.

“I knew you’d save us all!” She twisted, flipped and dived back into the water before re-surfacing beside Carpet, propping her wet arms upon him and grinning at them all. “I told Father you would, and now you have! The Sea Witch is gone!” She turned to Adam and Giselle. “Isn’t she incredible?”

“Yes, she is,” Adam agreed.

Belle felt herself blushing all over.

“What did actually happen, anyway?” Giselle asked. “How did you even find me?”

Belle explained about HenWen’s vision. It seemed to have happened a lifetime ago now. “I didn’t know I was going to end up in Beljardin then, of course, or that I’d end up meeting Cinderella again.” She shuddered. “That was bad enough the last time.” She had told Giselle previously about the Coven.

Giselle shook her head. “I can’t believe you thought you could ever trust her, Belle.”

“I didn’t,” Belle admitted. “But I knew her pride would lead to her helping us in the end, because she could never bear for any witch to out-magic her, not even anyone in her own...” She sought for the right term. Friend group? Family? The only word that was fitting was “Coven. I don’t think there was ever a time when she wasn’t evil. If there was, I might feel sorry for her.”

Arista nodded. Other merpeople were breaking the surface now, beautiful and lithe, handsome and strong, thousands of them. The sea was suddenly filled with them. Then, a host of merman soldiers rose up blasting shell trumpets, and a tiny seahorse leapt from the water long enough to say “Presenting his Royal Majesty King Triton!” before diving back into the water.

Belle, Giselle and Adam bowed their heads in respect. Tinkerbell curtseyed. Carpet clapped his tassels together. HenWen sank down on her front knees in an unmistakeable bow. King Triton rose up from the water right in front of their party. No longer brooding, he was smiling majestically at them all.

“Atlantica owes you a great debt, Miss Belle. How can we ever thank you?”

“You really don’t need to,” Belle said, not wanting him to make any grand gestures for her. “We were both suffering because of the Sea Witch – she was destroying your kingdom and she had my friend prisoner – so I had to help. Please don’t think anything of it, your Majesty.”

“Merpeople will speak of this for generations to come,” King Triton replied. “Your name will be sung throughout the generations. If I had a son, I’d offer him to you as a reward.”

Belle laughed along with him. “I’d be very flattered, your Majesty.”

“Don’t be a stranger!” Arista flipped her tail in the water, eagerly. “You must come and visit us, mustn’t she, Father?”

“You will always be welcome here,” King Triton agreed.

The King of Beljardin said the same when he was presented with his now human-again son. Belle couldn’t remember the last time she had seen a man look so happy, and he was delighted to see his niece again.

“What I can’t understand is how she was able to kidnap you in the first place,” he told her.

“Oh.” Giselle looked embarrassed. “I was father foolish, actually. Belle, you know there’s that pool not far from where I live, where the sea water collects and sometimes it’s warm in the summer?”

“Yes,” Belle replied, feeling that she knew where this was going.

“It was there. I suppose the water of Atlantica must flow into there. I was only out there to get some air and this old lady came up to me. She was cloaked in blue and asked for a drink of water. I gave her some of mine and then she said that as a reward she would show me how to look into the pool and find my destiny...” She blushed deeply. “See? I told you it was foolish. The next thing I knew the water just sucked me in even though I was on the edge of the pool, it was like it just rose up and pulled me down, and then I was being pulled into a whirlpool until I found myself in an underwater grotto.”

“That must have been her in disguise,” Belle said. “If there are potions that can turn humans into mermaids, then why not the opposite?”

Giselle nodded. “She appeared and told me that I was going to help her take Beljardin. I refused, so she shrank and bottled me. There must have been some kind of enchanted air in that jar because I never ran out. She’d take all of us who were bottled to the surface every day to deposit food into our jars. It was humiliating.”

“But over now,” the King replied, comfortingly. “Come, we must celebrate. I’ll host a banquet. Giselle, you can find something of your aunt’s to wear, and for Miss Belle too, of course.”

“Oh, I should be-!” Belle’s protests that she ought to get home soon were lost as Giselle seized her arm and dragged her upstairs. HenWen and Tinkerbell followed. Despite all her reservations, Belle eventually gave in when Giselle pressed a yellow dress on her that she claimed would really suit her, and selected a purple one for herself.

“What a shame these are all too big for you, Tinkerbell,” she sighed.

“I don’t mind,” Tinkerbell replied.

“No, wait, I have an idea.” Giselle took up an ivory silk handkerchief and began rummaging in her aunt’s old sewing box. In no time at all, she had created the most beautiful little strapless white dress with a feathery skirt just Tinkerbell’s size. “Here, try this for size.”

“I haven’t had a new dress in ages!” Tinkerbell wriggled into it, beaming. “Thank you, Giselle!”

“It looks great on you,” Giselle said, “although it might look better if you wore your hair down.”

Belle slipped into the dress, feeling she didn’t really belong in it, but Giselle clapped her hands and said she looked lovely. She had the servants give HenWen a bath too, and polish up her trotters until they shone, much to the pig’s delight. When they got back downstairs, they were greeted by a scene of colour and laughter. Most of the King’s friends and acquaintances of Beljardin and turned up and as Belle made her way down the vast staircase, they all turned to look at her and applauded.

“I wish they wouldn’t do that,” Belle murmured to Tinkerbell.

“You might get used to it,” Tinkerbell ventured, encouragingly.

Giselle quickly went to talk to some people she knew. Belle looked around. There was no one there she knew, except for the King, and he was busy talking to several grand-looking people. Tinkerbell flew over to investigate the food, leaving her standing awkwardly alone. Then, a blue sleeve appeared beside her.

“You’re looking lost,” Adam smiled.

Relieved to see him, Belle tucked her arm through his. “I’m still a simple farm girl at the end of the day, Adam. This is overwhelming for me.”

Adam led her into the dining room as the gong sounded for dinner. “So, are you just going to go back to being a simple farm girl after this, then?”

Belle hesitated. Once upon a time her answer might have been yes. Now she wasn’t so sure. “I really don’t know. I thought I could after my last adventure, but all this past year I’ve felt a yearning to go back to the Forbidden Forest. Now I’m here...I just feel so confused about where I really belong.”

“You could belong here,” Adam suggested, gently.

Belle glanced at her feet. “I’m not so sure, Adam.” The unspoken question hung in the air between them, the mutual feelings well known even if unsaid. She felt Adam squeeze her arm reassuringly.

“I’m glad I met you, Belle. And you know, when you say goodbye to someone, it doesn’t have to be goodbye forever.”

Belle supposed he was right. Leaving Beljardin didn’t have to be for the last time in her life. It wasn’t like she’d never be able to find her way there again. She nodded. “I’m glad I met you too, Adam.”

The banquet seemed to go on forever, but Belle was very glad when it was over and she could finally be alone with her thoughts. The grand bedroom she was given to sleep in didn’t feel right, even though it was comfortable enough, but it wasn’t like being back in her own cosy room at the farm. And yet, when she thought about going back, it seemed...boring and predictable. Provincial.

She slept uneasily but when she woke in the small hours of the morning, she felt refreshed enough to make her leave quietly. HenWen woke as she dressed and sat patiently by her feet until she was ready. Accompanied by Tinkerbell and Carpet, they made their way softly down the stairs and into the dining hall. Belle left a quick note for the others, apologising that she had to leave because her family were worrying about her, and besides which, she had things to return to the Morfa Witches.

“It doesn’t seem right,” Tinkerbell complained, “just running off like this.”

“We’re not running off,” Belle replied, determinedly. “We’re going home.”

It was true enough, at least it was her intention, but first she had to find Orddu, Orgoch and Orwen. They deserved to know what had happened, and besides which, Belle wanted to see them again. Their spooky little corner in the woods hadn’t seemed so spooky for a long time, in fact coming upon it now was almost a relief.

“Belle! Dear girl!” Orddu grasped both of Belle’s hands in her own gnarly ones. “It’s all over the Forest! Is it true? Is she really dead, the Sea Witch?”

“Yes, it’s true,” Belle smiled. “It was Cinderella who defeated her, but the Horned King gave me the means to control her magic in the meantime.”

“Praise every living magical being!” Orgoch crowed, jumping up and down and clapping her hands. “And praise you, Belle, you have powers stronger than any ordinary human can have!”

“Because of your strong heart,” Orwen added, hugging Belle.

Belle smiled at them all. “Thank you for all your help too. I hope no other witches bother you from now on.”

“Oh, we wouldn’t mind if it was you, Belle,” Orddu laughed.

“Me? A witch?”

“You could be, you know, a white witch, if you read up on magic, of course,” Orgoch agreed. “And we’d help you with anything you needed to know.”

Belle blinked at them. The idea was appealing, but then so was the idea of going home, and so was the idea of rushing back to Adam’s arms. “I don’t know...” she said, slowly.

“Of course it has to be your choice, Belle,” Orwen replied, gently, “and not a decision to be entered into lightly. Think about it.”

“Listen, Belle, there’s something we want to give you,” Orddu added.

“Oh, you’ve already given me enough,” Belle began, drawing out the magical mirror. “I lost your mermaid-cure potion in the sea, I’m afraid, but-”

“Oh, that doesn’t matter, dear, and you may keep the mirror,” Orddu said, pressing it back into her hands. “But we’ve been talking, and, well it seems the logical solution, really-”

“You can have Carpet,” Orgoch finished. “We don’t use him so much anymore, and he’s helped you out a great deal already. Take him with you, wherever you go, and then at least you won’t be lonely.”

Belle stared at them. “You’re giving me Carpet?”

“What do you think, Carpet?” asked Orwen. “Would you like to stay with Belle?” Carpet punched the air with balled-up tassels and then flew around Belle in excitement. “I think that’s a yes, dear.”

“Besides, any good white witch needs a few magical objects around her,” Orgoch added. “If that is what you decide, Belle.”

“It’s my choice...” Belle murmured, standing in the middle of the Forest a long time later, looking first at the path ahead of her leading back to Beljardin, and then the path behind her leading home. “Part of me wants both...but that’s impossible...unless there’s a third option...”

Taking a deep breath, Belle closed her eyes, listened to what her heart told her she truly wanted and made her choice...

XXX Ten Years Later XXX

“...And over there,” the guide went on, waving a hand at the small farm cottage on the hill beside the sea, “is where Belle grew up. They say her brother still lives there, the rest of the family moved on a long time ago. Of course, people still look for where she lives now, somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, but they can never find it, it’s far too well hidden...”

“She’s a real heroine!” one of the girls who was clutching a small doll with brown wool hair and a blue dress against her chest piped up. “I want to be just like her when I grow up!”

The guide, and several other people laughed. “Of course many of us do,” the guide agreed, “But not all of us can find the secrets of magic like she did.”

“I heard she battled the Sea Witch with a great big axe and a shield like a mirror,” one of the other children piped up.

“No, it was a magical sword, stupid!” another cut in.

“No, no, no, it was a pitchfork from the sea-!”

Up on the hill, Arthur could hear their arguments. He shook his head with a grin. The stories had become so distorted over the years that only a handful of people really knew what had happened, and just how Belle had defeated the Coven and the Sea Witch. He pulled the shutters closed and turned to smile at Alice, who was sitting beside the fire with a book propped on her rounded stomach.

“We should visit them soon,” Alice said. She had been listening too. “It would be nice to see them before the baby’s born, and Kayley and your parents too.”

“Yes, I’d like to see what they’ve done with the new farm,” Arthur agreed. “I wonder if Belle will create any magical gifts for the baby.”

Alice laughed. “Those poor souls out there don’t know what they’re talking about. If only they knew that Belle had to travel a long distance to defeat all that dark magic-”

“-And married a Prince, who renounced the throne in favour of living in the Forest with his wife,” Arthur recounted. “And now Princess Giselle ruled Beljardin but comes to visit her parents here occasionally. It’s like something out of a fairytale, isn’t it? Who would have thought that my sister Belle would one day become the most famous white witch who ever existed, and all thanks to a clairvoyant pig?”

The End