VELVETEEN vs. Winter #4
“They thought I was made for them,” said Velveteen.
She kept her eyes on the horizon. “They tried to woo me for my entire childhood, and when I finally agreed to give them a chance, they hurt me. They were going to make it so I could never wake you up. They…I can’t talk about a lot of what happened during my audition, but they weren’t kind to me, and they aren’t being kind to Jack, and they wouldn’t be kind to you. Don’t let them convince you otherwise.”
“I wasn’t gonna,” he said. “I was more concerned you’d change your mind.
I’m not pledging eternal love or anything, but I thought we were going to give us a chance.
Rescuing Jackie comes first, but after she’s home, I want to do ordinary couple stuff.
See a movie, bake cookies, fight crime. You know, normal people things. ”
Velveteen laughed. “Neither of us knows how to be normal, do we?”
“It’s okay. None of our friends know how, either. We’ll be fine.”
She smiled warmly in his direction. He smiled back, and they rode on that way until the mountain appeared in front of them.
It came out of nowhere, literally appearing where there had been nothing a moment before.
The reindeer seemed unsurprised, and continued plodding gamely on, surrounded by Velveteen’s army of snow creatures.
The sky overhead was a tangled web made from ribbons of light, so bright that they were almost like daylight.
“This is us,” said Velveteen. She urged her reindeer forward, stopping and sliding down when she reached the base of the mountain. The others followed suit, and she turned to walk toward the mountain itself. “Over here.”
“She’s starting to frighten me,” said Victory Anna. “Is she starting to frighten anyone else, or am I the only one with the sense Epona gave the little white horses?”
“That second thing,” said Polychrome. “I love you, baby, but Epona hasn’t given me anything.”
“Untrue,” said Victory Anna. “She gave you me. I am more than sufficient godly gift for any one woman. To ask for more would be unreasonable, and the gods frown upon unreasonable demands.”
“I love you so much,” said Polychrome. “But you are ridiculous sometimes.”
“I am aware,” said Victory Anna chipperly. She slid off her reindeer, frowning as her booted feet sank into the snow, then offered her hands to Polychrome, who slid down to take them. Hand in hand, they turned to follow Velveteen and Tag.
The Princess, now momentarily, uncharacteristically alone, looked around at the frozen landscape, then down at her own manicured hands.
“I wish I may, I wish I might,” she said, voice a sweet whisper against the winter wind.
“Please, Jack. Be waiting in that mountain. I just want to bring you home.”
She slid down from her own reindeer, musing as she did that it was a sign of Winter’s dominance that her own powers hadn’t manifested a sleigh to ease her journey to the mountain.
She was a princess—hell, she was the Princess—and she should have had every luxury a toy line could imagine, every little kindness to ease her way.
She hadn’t even been able to find a saddle.
The hem of her gown whisking their footsteps away as it dragged against the snow, she followed the others to the mountain, and to the dark cave that both warned them away and welcomed them inside.
* * *
It was dark inside the mountain, at least at first. But as they walked, Velveteen’s snow beasts began to glow with a cool, silvery light, as if they were slices of stars dragged down to earth and forced to shine.
The light reflected off the jewels in the Princess’s tiara, becoming rich and rainbow as it filled the air.
Before long, they could all see perfectly well.
“All right, now,” said the Princess. “Since I can’t think of much more privacy than you’d find in a cave carved out of the side of a giant-ass mountain, this seems like as good a time as ever to ask what the hell we’re walkin’ into.
Santa Claus, I understood. We’re not friends or anything, but we’ve been in a few of the same parades, and he’s my best friend’s daddy.
I get him. This Aurora lady, though, I don’t know anything about. What can you tell me?”
“I can’t call her the Queen of Winter, because she’s not the Queen; the Snow Queen is the Queen.
Winter isn’t just a monarchy. She’s more like a very limited goddess, or a very incarnate force of nature.
She’s in charge of everything that happens in her country, and she enforces the laws without mercy. I can’t say I’m her biggest fan.”
“That’s all right, really,” said a woman from somewhere up ahead of them.
Her voice was kind, but it wasn’t warm: it didn’t sound like the voice of someone who was capable of warmth.
“I’m not your biggest fan either. You left us, Velveteen.
We offered you everything, and you left us.
You could have been our savior. You chose to be one more runaway, seeking warmer climes.
What do you want from us? You should know you’re not welcome here. ”
“We’re here because we want Jack back,” said Velveteen, and her voice didn’t shake, although her fingers tightened on Tag’s, bearing down until it hurt.
“I see.” In the distance, Aurora snapped her fingers. The light from Velveteen’s snow animals went out, leaving them in darkness. “I suppose we may as well begin negotiations.”