Caroline watched, surprising herself, as a cloud of dust settled right over the spot Catherine had flown from the room, then looked immediately down at her massive hands, watching the same tiny electric sparks bouncing between her fingertips.  Flowing through her mind, she felt a strange warmth, tingling in the recesses of her brain.  Knowledge: new knowledge, in her subconscious, all there, locked away for her entire life until this moment.  Spells, magic, and curses, all of their wisdom coming to the forefront as if Caroline had been practicing her whole life for it.  It took a moment, but she finally had figured it out.  Everything.

                Her father and Catherine, wedded around fifty years ago, under the influence of a dark spell.  When Catherine tried to take control of the kingdom, their bond was broken Richard saw the terrible error of his ways, and barely managed to throw her from the kingdom with help from Christine.  All he had left was the child they bore together.  Caroline.

                Caroline, showing no real magical aptitude, must still have presented something as a child, before she could remember it, to her father.  She tried to remember having done anything, but she simply couldn’t.  What was important that her father had recognized her as having the same abilities locked away somewhere as her mother, who was apparently unaware of this.  When choosing the person to be the barrier key around the boulder, he chose the failsafe: the one person who, if Catherine ever found her way back to power, might have a chance of stopping her, because by returning Catherine’s powers, Caroline was given all of her own back as well.

                All Others in the room, as well as her family, stared at her in slack-jawed shock, allowing her a moment to ensure her family’s safety.  She waved a hand and sent the Others holding her siblings flying against the wall before clapping both hands together and magically dragging her siblings and her mother across the floor, to the center.  The Others rushed at them to catch them, but in another second Caroline had snapped her fingers, forming a protective barrier around them that crackled and spat out sparks that knocked out cold six of the advancing Others before they could even get within striking distance of the bubble-like shield around her family.

                Before Caroline could even take another breath, she found an unfurling wall of purple fire flowing right at her from outside, belched directly through the hole in the wall like a volcano.  She raised her hands to block it but was far too late, and the fire engulfed her, dragging her straight backward.  Caroline’s enormous girth was pulled right through the wall, sending a new shower of debris to the ground as she landed with an earth-shattering smash in the pathway just inside the palace wall.  She pulled herself quickly to her feet, dusting off her taut drape robe as she saw Catherine flying straight toward her face in midair.  She came to a stop directly in front of Caroline’s eyes, allowing her a good view.

                For once, Caroline was able to see Catherine looking surprised: completely and utterly shocked beyond belief, her jaw dropped, her blackened eyes widened with incredulity.  “It… it can’t be…” she gasped.

                “Oh, I believe it can, mother.  It can,” whispered Caroline menacingly, squinting at Catherine.  Both women raised their hands and flicked their fingers simultaneously.  Catherine was sent softly smashing against the stone wall of the exterior to the Great Hall, while Caroline was sent flying cleanly through the outer wall of the palace.  She fell to the hill, rolling downward, but righted herself at the bottom, near the trees and the wreckage to the lookout tower she had destroyed upon entrance.  Her eyes darted around, and she saw Catherine speeding toward her like an arrow through the air, right for her head.  Caroline bit her lip in concentration, squinting again in the sun, and just as Catherine was about to strike directly at her face, she raised a titanic hand, blocking her face with her palm.  Catherine pancaked helplessly against the hand, which quickly closed around her.  Caroline smashed her fingers together, crumpling her mother up into the soft flesh with incredible, body-crushing force.  She then spun around, tossing the witch as far off into the trees that laid before her as she could with.  She wiped her hands off, placing them on her hips and waiting, knowing it wasn’t over.  Then, through the trees, she saw a flash of red light, followed by a screeching pop that blew out several of the trees directly around the flash with an electric bubble.  Smoke began to rise upward, far disproportionate to the size of the reaction, billowing upward directly from this one spot in a towering spire of blood red mist and soot.

                Caroline gasped loudly at what she saw next.

                Back in the Great Hall, Luke had opened his eyes and was watching the blue bubble Caroline had created around her family.  It hadn’t been up for long, but with the intense concentration that was required of the young woman outside the palace, the spell was beginning to fizzle out, allowing the Others to continue advancing.  Grunting, knowing he would have no other moment to react, Luke rose to his feet, surprising Daniel.  He punched him, momentarily stunning him as he yanked one of his blades from the sheath and began dashing at the advancing Others.  They all turned on him, but in their shock, he had already managed to cut down three of them clumped together.  As the rest advanced, he ducked to the side of the crackling, dying energy bubble, allowing them to be knocked helplessly to the side.  He dashed upon these Others and impaled them against the marble before they could have a chance to rise, just as the bubble popped out of existence, leaving the battered Elizabeth and two siblings exposed.

                Daniel pulled himself from the ground and wiped a blood smear from his lip where Luke had struck him, drawing his other blade.  He dashed for the royal family, promising himself he would save this debacle for his true queen, Catherine, as he held the blade high over his head and roared.  As he neared them, though, Luke saw him in his line of sight.  Ripping his bloodied blade from the corpse of the last remaining Other, Luke ran toward the family, who had begun running in the other direction, Elizabeth shielding her little ones as Daniel approached quickly.  Luke was too far off, though, and Daniel was already almost upon them as they were cornered against a back wall, next to the crushed corpse of an Other whose sword was still clasped in his cold, orange fingers.  Luke suddenly tripped as a still-alive Other grasped at his ankle, bringing him down to the marble with a crash.  Elizabeth hugged her daughter and son to her, quaking, as she looked upon the determined, charging half-man, half-Other whose sword was raised above his head.  She closed her eyes, clenching her fingers around their shoulders.

                Phillip, blinking, saw the sword on the ground, and had an idea.  He broke his mother’s grasp, who screamed for him to come back, and grabbed ahold of the sword from the grasp of the dead Other.   He tried to hold it up, but was at first surprised by the weight, so he dropped it, but quickly picked it back up, trying to hold it steady in front of himself.  Daniel stopped running, coming to a stop in front of Phillip and lowering his blade.  They locked eyes for a moment before Daniel started laughing wildly, clutching his chest, allowing his blade to hang at his side while the small boy courageously held the pointed blade out in front of him, his arms shaking from fear and the strain of holding the blade perfectly straight.  Wiping a tear of laughter from his face, Daniel glared into the eyes of the child, mostly to intimidate.

                “That’s an excellent weapon you’ve got there, young prince.  Do you know how to use it?”

                “Y-Yes!”

                “Oh, you do, hmm?  Well, that’s a talent.  That is a talent indeed.  To be able to wield a blade of the Others is no small feat, it takes YEARS of intensive training to master its intricacies.  You must be the youngest one to have accomplished it.  Congratulations.”

                “T-Thank you!” squeaked Phillip, more terrified than ever before in his life.

                “Let’s see how well you can handle it, shall we?” he asked, raising his own blade back up and bowing in feigned respect as if about to participate in a duel.  “Godspeed.”

                “NO!” screamed Elizabeth, running forward and grabbing her son’s hand, pulling him back as Daniel continued laughing, advancing several more steps forward.  However, as he drew his blade back, he found a hand roughly grasping his shoulder and spinning him around.  Luke kicked hard against Daniel’s stomach, sending him reeling to the ground, surprised.

                “You wanted your chance to take me, abomination of two worlds,” snarled Luke.  “Here I am.”

                “Here you are,” smiled Daniel, repeating him in the same satisfied tone.  “I shall enjoy watching you die, and I shall enjoy even more sprinkling your blood along the wall as a sign to my mistress of our success.  And, perhaps even more, I shall look forward to my duel with this fine young solider,” he cackled, indicating at the scared Phillip.  “I should think he will present a greater challenge than you.”

                “If that is the truth, then he shall triumph over you with very little problem!” shouted Luke, swinging his blade back into view for a strike.  Daniel was ready, though, hopping back to his feet and expertly blocking the stroke with his other blade.

                “Let us find out, filthy human.”

                Caroline’s eyes bugged out as she watched the red smoke spire curl higher and higher toward the sky, becoming wider as well.  She couldn’t tell exactly what was going on, but somehow she had a feeling it didn’t bode well for her ultimate success.  Then, as the smoke began to clear, Caroline felt her heart catch in her chest.

                Catherine was emerging from the smoke.  From ALL of the smoke.  Her head reached the very tip of the spire far above Caroline’s head.  The princess looked apprehensively upward, biting her tongue and taking a few steps back.  Catherine stretched her arms out, reaching toward the sky, before peering down with a devilish grin, flashing her solidly black eyes at the princess.  Caroline gulped.  The witch’s fiery hair, crazily tossed over her shoulders, hung like a forest in of itself.  Catherine’s dark robe ran down her body like a watchtower wrapped in ornate rugs, billowing loudly in the wind, deep waves of fabric being formed as it rippled.  She took a step, crushing a tree under her thirty-foot-long slipper, and in a couple more steps, managed to emerge from the forest.  She stood nearly triple as tall as the princess, who didn’t each reach her waist.  Before Caroline could react, Catherine was leaning down, snatching her up by the front of her robe and lifting her up as if she was filled with feathers.  The gargantuan princess suddenly felt personally and physically very vulnerable for the first time in many nights, finally looking into the face of someone who was actually larger than she was.  She began to shiver with fear, then cried out in pain as Catherine’s long nails dug directly through the robe, clawing at her chest.  Catherine smiled, holding her arm above her head so that Caroline had to flail her legs, kicking at her for release.  It was no use, though.

                “Struggle, little princess,” growled Catherine.  It seemed that as a by-product of her growth, her voice had decreased in pitch, and as she spoke, it seemed almost as if she was grumbling like a wild animal deep in her throat.  “Fight your fate.”  Caroline stopped fending for a moment and held out her hand, charging up more energy in her palm, but one of Catherine’s enormous hands completely engulfed it, her other hand easily supporting all of the princess’s weight, extinguishing the energy into her own fist.  Then, crackling the stolen energy between her fingertips, she touched it lightly to Caroline’s forehead and released all of it into her body, causing the princess to scream and thrash in pain.  “Trust me, my dear daughter… I’ve been doing this a much, much longer time than you have.”

                “C-Catherine…” gasped Caroline, wheezing from the shooting pain in her forehead.  “You c-can’t just take everything you s-see like this…”

                “I can’t, can I?  Would you care to explain why not?”

                “It’s a world, with real people, who have desires and dreams of their own.  You have no right to take it away from them.  The world… it’s not a toy,” gasped the princess, gripping her fists around Catherine’s very large wrist.  Catherine turned back to look at the palace, and saw a tiny troop of around ten surviving human soldiers dashing for them to aid the princess.  The colossal witch turned to study her daughter’s terrified expression, then looked back down at the ground.  As the soldiers approached, Catherine carelessly kicked her foot out, sending half of them flying backward into the dirt.  Caroline struggled, wanting to help them, but found it impossible.  Next, Catherine opened her hand, sending yellow-tinted waves flowing out from her palm.  They attached to a still-standing soldier on the ground, and he was yanked violently from the ground, right into Catherine’s fist.  He looked no more than two inches tall between her fingers as she calmly brought him closer to Caroline’s face so she could see.

                “A very noble thing of you to say, dear daughter.  But here is the truth in it:  you are entirely wrong.  Because the way I’m looking at it…” she suggested, pinching lightly at the helpless soldier and causing him to scream in agony.  “…the world IS my toy!”  She then began to increase the pressure with her fingers, and Caroline began to whimper with sympathy for the poor man.  Then, with everything she had left, she outstretched her hands, her fingertips turning bright red with light, as she started forcing Catherine’s fingertips apart.  Both women gritted their teeth, grunting loudly, with one trying to crush the tiny man between her massive fingertip pads, the other clenching her convulsing fists in an effort to save him.  The light shows coming from both of their glowing hands starting crossing over, blinding them, and with a final stroke, a sudden force pulled both magically gifted, gigantic females apart.  Catherine stumbled back, dropping both Caroline and the bite-sized soldier.  Caroline landed on her feet, and quickly thrust her hands into the air, feeling the miniscule man bounce into her palm, which she quickly secured by closing her fingers around him and lowering him to her face.

                She peeked at him between her fingers, his body shaking in pain, fear, and adrenaline, as she lowered him toward the ground.  “P-P-Princess…” he gasped, sweating.

                “Thank you for your bravery, little one.  I’ve got you now.”

                “Oh, t-thank y-you…” he sighed gratefully as the muggy pocket of her hand flesh opened, allowing him to drop back to the ground and run off.  Looking back up at her mother, who was already recovering and charging up some black, smoking tendrils of slime around her wrists, Caroline frowned, crafting her own spell along her arms in glowing yellow light, drawing power from the earth.

                “Your time here is over, mother.  You shall leave this place, and never return,” she said, raising her glowing fists up to eye level.

                “You sound far too much like your father, dear.  And look where HE ended up,” retorted Catherine, the shadowing gloom of the black smoke furrowing around her arms in wider puffs.  Without another word, both women thrust their arms forward: Catherine’s tentacle-like shadows twisting up with Caroline’s glowing beam of light.  Each one planted their feet harder into the dirt with a loud smack, creating another crater.  However, as Caroline struggled to stay standing, the hulk of a witch began stepping forward, smashing a few small saplings under her heel as she advanced, the stream unbroken.  Then, reaching her daughter, she plunged her hand directly through the light, grasping her daughter hard by the throat and slamming her directly to the ground, quaking the earth and knocking down several trees with a deafening crack.  She kept her hand firmly locked around her neck and began to dig into her skin with her sharp nails, causing Caroline to gasp weakly for air and out of pain as the light from her hands was extinguished, the swirling blackness of Catherine’s spell slowly engulfing her body like a python.  “Go to sleep, little princess.  Sleep, and let yourself drift permanently into your dreams.”

                Luke and Daniel both reared back and took a swing, clashing blades together and struggling for the better footing.  Unfortunately for Luke, Daniel had far greater upper body strength, and after pressing for a few moments, pushed the prince to the ground.  Luke scurried back, holding his sword out to block any cheap shots as he shot back to his feet, barely blocking a follow-up strike from Daniel.  However, he wasn’t prepared for the Other-hybrid’s tricky maneuvering, and he soon found the wind knocked from him as Daniel kicked him backward.

                “I feel as if I’ve fought you before,” snarled Daniel.

                “I doubt it.  You would not be standing before me if you had.”

                “No, that is not to what I refer.  I suppose it’s your tactics,” he offered as the pair quickly traded parries and blocks, clashing the metal together as the pained Elizabeth crouched against the wall and her two children comforted her, cowering away from the highest general of Catherine’s army.

                “And what do you mean by that?” asked Luke, hopping to the side and circling around Daniel.

                “Humans in general.  Yes, that’s what it is.  You all fight exactly the same.”

                “Oh, I see… so you’ve fought many of us before.”

                “Yes.  You all… use such speed, and what you believe to be cunning, but what you’re truly doing is walking right into a slowly tightening noose.  You overplay,” he said, smashing hard against Luke’s blade, causing him to back up.  “You overplay, and you suddenly find yourself in a hold you can’t possibly get out of.  It always makes it that much easier to end your lives.”

                “You’ve killed many humans, then?”

                “Yes.  Many.  Far more than I could ever count,” sniggered Daniel, running his claws over his bald head again, ruffling at his rags.

                “But… you are not so far from one yourself, are you?” asked Luke.  At this, Daniel slashed forward toward Luke’s head; the prince dodged, but was too late to avoid it entirely, and ended with a large cut along his cheek.

                “You throw your words about so carelessly, prince.  Sooner or later you will meet one with a shorter temper than my own who will refuse to tolerate your casual remarks.”

                “I see.  So you intend to surrender?”

                “No.  I refer to your future debacles in the pits of hell.”

                “If that’s where we’re headed, I intend to make sure it’s with you.  Wouldn’t want them to make to easy on me, would we?” asked Luke, expertly cocking his wrist to the side and slashing directly forward in a surprise attack, drawing blood from Daniel’s arm that carried the sword.  He dropped the weapon, stunned, and wrinkled his face at Luke, baring his teeth like a dog.  “Perhaps you will want to try and smile a bit more like us humans.  You do make yourself so very unattractive to the young ladies with that particular expression,” quipped Luke, smiling and brandishing his blade.

                “You hold your head so high, prince…” growled Daniel, picking his blade back up.  “But I feel I should warn you: hold it high enough, and someone is likely to chop it cleanly off.”

                “I suppose that would be you, then?” laughed Luke, moving back into an offensive position with his sword.

                “It would be my absolute pleasure,” Daniel smiled back, lunging forward with his blade.  Both individuals grabbed onto their shoulders, holding one another back with all their strength.  Immediately, Luke began to lose the tussle, until he slipped his thumb, allowing his blade to slide closer to Daniel’s neck as he held onto him.  It tapped against his neck gently, but because of the weapon’s sharpness, it pierced the skin.  Daniel gasped, realizing how precarious a situation he was in, and roared loudly, tossing Luke to the side like a ragdoll before clutching at his neck to feel the bleeding.

                “Be more careful, Other.  The high head lost today may just as well be yours,” whispered Luke seriously, pulling himself to his feet.  No longer even speaking a word, Daniel threw his blade directly at Luke.  Surprised by this seemingly fatal tactical error, the prince dodged coolly to the side, but a second later found the rough-and-tumble general leaping upon him like a jungle cat, his fingers outstretched.  As he pinned Luke to the ground, the latter’s sword tossed to the side, long nails extended from his fingers like claws, and they dug deeply into the flesh of Luke’s shoulders, driving entire, muscular fingertips into Luke’s body through the skin.  The prince yelled out with pain, trying to push the hybrid off of him, but it wasn’t going to happen in his disadvantaged leverage position.  Clenching his clawed fingers, Daniel raked his hands all the way down Luke’s upper torso, causing blood to trickle all along the ten long wounds.  The prince began to whimper in pain, unable to move.  Daniel smiled, standing up triumphantly, and turned back to the royal family.  They gasped, the children crying at the seeming loss of Luke, and cowered against the wall again.  Elizabeth struggled to her feet, hobbling forward to block her children, but Anne and Phillip were quick to stand up and hug themselves to their mother’s side.

                “Like I said: very predictable.  ALL of you!” said Daniel, stooping to pick up the blade of a fallen Other as he advanced on the helpless trio.  As he reached them, he pulled his blade back to strike, and Elizabeth closed her eyes, ready to take the first severe body blow for her children.  It didn’t come, though.  She opened her eyes to see an odd expression on Daniel’s face.  His eyes had rolled back into his head, and an unsettling gurgling noise was escaping his parted lips.  He slumped to the floor, then, a massive bloodstain forming right in the center of his chest as Luke pulled his blade out of the hybrid general’s back where he had sliced cleanly through his entire torso using only one arm.  Elizabeth gasped, covering her mouth, and both children quickly retreated behind her back.

                “Perhaps most are, Other.  But not this one!” sighed Luke, trying to catch his breath as he clutched his bleeding scratch wounds.  After he did, he dropped to a crouching position, having little strength remaining, as Daniel’s claws had managed to cut very deeply into his flesh.

                “Luke!” cried Elizabeth, hobbling to his side, her own body still in pain but not in imminent danger like his was.  She placed both of her hands onto bleeding scratch marks as Luke’s entire tunic became stained.  Thinking fast, the duchess tore the rags from a dead Other and began wrapping them tightly around Luke’s torso, cutting off the bleeds.  He grunted in pain as she put all her strength into tugging.  It seemed to help for the moment, although it wasn’t going to last.  “Just sit still for a moment.  I… I must go and find if Caroline is all right…”  She began hobbling toward the hole in the wall on the far side of the Great Hall where Caroline had been tossed through.  She had heard loud crashing outside and seen some sparks fly, but had no way of knowing what was going on.

                “Duchess?” he gulped.

                “Yes, Luke?”

                “Perhaps it is not my place, but…”

                She smiled.  “It deserves an explanation, although this is not the time for all of it.  It is a long tale of Catherine’s deception and foolhardiness.  It is also why I am duchess and not queen; divorces are frowned upon, as you well know, and it was upon Richard more than myself to amend the terrible situation.”

                “Was it love?  Between them, I mean?”

                She blushed.  “I should think not.  A spell was what she used; her intention from the beginning was to gain access to the kingdom itself and overthrow Richard once she was strong enough.”

                “And… it worked?”

                “Oh, not entirely.  It never does.  A spell being used to fool someone into something like love… the very idea.  It is guaranteed to backfire every single time.  And that’s what happened.  And that’s why we still have something here even worth fighting for.”

                “So… Caroline is not your daughter in blood, then?”

                “She needn’t be.  I love her as powerfully as I love my own children; I raised her from a babe, through childhood, and I like to think I helped make her the amazing young woman she is now.”

                “I see,” smiled Luke, feeling inspired despite his intensely stinging wounds.  He rose groggily to his feet.  “Come.  She needs us.”

                “No!  Stay here, I must find help…”

                “Duchess, I shall tell the same thing to you that I told your daughter: if you want me to stay out of it, your only options are tying me down with steel, or felling me permanently.”

                Caroline sucked air in as the black, shadowy rope began to bind around her body, hiding most of her inside the dark fog, leaving only her mouth and eyes.  Catherine stood up, standing over her and looking even larger as her hapless daughter laid on the ground.  The witch placed her hands on her hips, shaking her head.  “I must say, dear, I am moderately impressed by your effort.  Considering you have never cast a spell in your life, you held out reasonably well.  I truly do believe with some proper training from me, you could have become one of the most powerful sorceresses to ever roam the earth.”

                “I would NEVER…” gasped Caroline, her lungs compressing under the cold weight of the spell. “…NEVER… try to use these abilities the way you have.”

                “And what, exactly, would you have used them for?”

                “For…” choked Caroline, the black fog settling around her throat.  “For helping those who need it most.  Those who weep for food, water, and shelter.  For good.”

                Catherine threw her head back and cackled, her newly deeper, throatier voice rumbling across the Black Mountains themselves.  Wiping her watering eyes, she looked back down at her daughter.  “It ALWAYS starts like this, my sweet, sweet, SWEET, daughter.  Always.  You have a goal.  You have a vision to carry out.  And what do you do?  You try so hard to get it, you forget what it was.”

                “Didn’t y-you have one?” gasped Caroline, her breaths coming in shorter puffs now.

                Catherine sighed.  “Yes, I suppose I did.  But like I said…” she answered, shrugging.  “I can’t possibly remember what it was.  I was born almost nine hundred years ago, Caroline,” she grinned, her daughter’s skin running cold.  “Do you expect me to remember every detail of my life?”

                “It’s… i-it’s not a detail…” stuttered Caroline.  “Your visions… are what should guide your life.”

                “They are what STARTS your life, daughter, do not mistake these ideas for one another.  It is your beginning.  If you allow yourself to be tied down by the lowered expectations of your past self, you will never achieve anything.  I mean… just LOOK at me!” she bellowed, holding her arms in the air.  As she looked back down at Caroline, though, she was puzzled.  A smile was suddenly spread across the princess’s face, and the witch wasn’t quite able to explain it, but she continued anyway.  “I am the most powerful being in the world.  This place… everything you can see, or can’t see… belongs to me now.  And if you had learned that a long time ago, your abilities would have manifested, and you might have been thrust onto a similar path of glory.”

                “There is no glory in what you do, mother,” answered Caroline, still smirking.

                “I see.  What, then, is there?” spat Catherine, stomping her foot and shaking the kingdom for miles around.

                “Darkness and loss, in two measures each.  The rest is nothing.”

                “Nothing…” mumbled Catherine, disbelieving, as her choked daughter, her entire body nearly cocooned into the charcoal streamed spell, continued smiling cheerily at her.

                “There is nothing inside of you, mother.  You’ve stripped yourself of it with every evil action you took.  Every innocent you struck down.  Every black spell you cast.  Every heart you broke.  Or… the heart you broke,” she answered, still smiling but allowing a tear to roll down her cheek.  “But mother?  I want you to know something.  I forgive you.  I forgive everything… all of it.  The people.  The kingdom.  My father.  Because I can see that there is nothing left inside of you, and therefore… there is no one to truly blame for what took place.  M-My heart…” gasped Caroline.  “My heart bleeds terribly for you, mother.”  The princess’s tears began flowing quietly into the black smoke, leaving Catherine at a total loss of words for a few seconds.

                “WHAT are you SMILING at?” she screamed, unable to take it anymore, utterly bewildered by her daughter’s display of undeserved empathy.  Caroline nodded, looking past her mother’s shoulder.  Catherine turned to see Christine, looking like her much more youthful self, the curse having been lifted from her as well, standing right behind her a similar height of two hundred feet.

                “Greetings, sister,” smiled Christine.  She blinked, and both of her eyes became completely white, practically spitting light as she glared at her older sibling.  She threw both of her hands into the air, instantly lighting Catherine’s entire frame, locking her in place.  She mumbled a few words, her eyes locked with the mortifying glare of her sister, and Caroline was finally able to take a few fresh breaths as the black smoke dissipated.  She stood up, looking up at her towering aunt and mother, Christine’s hands still firmly held in place, her fingers clenched like claws, to keep Catherine subdued.  For an instant, Caroline marveled at her aunt, from whom the aging curse had been removed.  Christine now possessed the face of a woman in her late twenties, looking slightly younger than Catherine, with many of the same features, but of a face more of sweet beauty than striking power and poise.  She recognized her eyes: they were the very same ones that had sat on the small, leathery face of her ancient form, now renewed to her normal self.

Already, Christine’s arms were shaking from the effort to keep Catherine in place, but Caroline was quick to assist, conjuring her own spell to lock her mother more firmly.  However, even with the combined strength of Caroline and Christine, both of them could feel the magical bonds surrounding Catherine loosening, and after a few more seconds, the most powerful witch thrust her arms out, breaking free of the lock and sending her sister and daughter flying off in opposite directions.

                Caroline’s body careened through a dozen trees before coming to rest in a mud slick.  Christine, meanwhile, rose to her feet, preparing another spell, but was pushed back again by a flick of Catherine’s fingers.  As Christine’s back smashed against a rocky slope, dazing her for a moment, Catherine planted her foot hard into the earth, and zipped forward in the blink of an eye to close the distance between herself and her smaller daughter.  Caroline was down on the fallen trees, and before she could realize it, Catherine was standing over her in a spray of sparks that had caught the grass behind her on fire.  Grasping her daughter’s throat, Catherine lifted her off the ground, holding her in the air.  Caroline gasped for breath, and felt her neck start to break.  Before it could, though Christine was behind her again, creating an electric connection between herself and her sister.  This momentarily halted Catherine’s attempt, allowing Caroline some breath and saving her from having her neck crushed.  Catherine, still holding her daughter in the air, reached behind and held out a cupped palm, beginning to reflect the green electricity back at her sister.  Christine was prepared though, and soon found both of them bouncing the energy back and forth between their hands like a pair of opposing mirrors, all the while with Caroline fighting fruitlessly to slip her mother’s iron fingers from around her neck.

                Then, hardly realizing what was happening, Caroline reached out an arm, extending her fingers, trying to reach her mother’s face.  She couldn’t quite make it, and felt her world slow down as Catherine’s nails began to dig into her neck again; all she could hear were the gritted-teeth screams and grunts of both sisters as they each attempted to win the exchange, a massive orb of electricity forming in the midst of the volleying stream, spiraling quickly out of control and burning the ground and trees around it into a crisp.  Caroline flailed her fingers, trying to reach her mother’s face, and watched her vision become blurry again, but refocused suddenly at what she saw next.

                She blinked, thinking her pained eyes were playing tricks, but it was real.  Luke was dashing down the slope of her arm, his sword outstretched, limping slightly from the effort to stay standing.  He practically rolled off the edge to what would have felt to him like a 250-foot drop.  Caroline tried to grab him, swiping her other hand along her arm, but he was too quick, rolling downward and nearly tripping as he came to a landing on the back of her outstretched hand, his momentum still maintained.  Coming out of the roll, Luke took a flying leap forward, just as Catherine’s face turned to grimace at her daughter.  His sword drawn, he plunged it directly into the tremendous nose bridge of the witch, digging it in all the way to the hilt and hanging on tightly.  This was all it took.

                Catherine, screaming from the pain, broke her concentration for a brief instant, allowing Christine’s last volley to strike her in the side, the rings of spiraling, out of control energy all concentrated onto one target.  Catherine flew backward hundreds of feet, causing an earthquake when she landed that crashed down several abandoned houses in the village.  Luke was flung helplessly up into the air, yelling with fright, as he began the long descent back to the ground, along with Caroline, who was let go the instant Christine’s spell made contact with her mother.  Landing on her feet, Caroline threw a single hand up into the air, feeling immense relief wash through her sore, pain-wracked body as Luke plopped into her palm.  Having no time to address him directly, Caroline clasped her fingers comfortably around him and dashed forward to Catherine, who was already standing up.  Christine rose into the air, floating above the ground, and flicked her fingers toward her sister, shooting a spray of sparks out that culminated with a long stretch of flame, roaring as it raged through the air.  Catherine, clutching at her bleeding nose, formed a wall of ice in front of her face that instantly extinguished the flames and ice into hot mist that rose up into the air like a storm cloud.  Batting her hand, Catherine knocked her sister back to earth, trying to recover her standing position. 

But this was all the time Caroline needed as she came to a stop by her aunt, reaching her hand up to her shoulder and quickly tangling Luke up into her long, dirt-stained blonde hair to keep him safe.  She clasped the humongous hand of the weakened Christine, a blue spark igniting between them, and, nodding knowingly to one another, they both raised their hands, balling their fingers up into fists and pulling back over their shoulders.  Two blue strands of translucent light, like mile-long ribbons, unfurled like rugs through the air, crisscrossing dramatically in midair toward the bewildered Catherine.  They each latched onto one of her arms, pulling her forward slowly toward them, uprooting more trees as they dragged her forward.  She roared angrily, trying to start a fire between her fingers to fight back, but to her shock, the fire went out.  As Caroline and Christine continued pulling, with Catherine trying out newer spells each passing second that only seemed to fail more and more quickly, the witch came to rest, face first, in the mud in front of her daughter.

Christine held out her hand, causing a dagger large enough to be wielded by her to materialize in her palm, and clasped her fingers around it, rearing back to stab down into Catherine’s head, but Caroline caught her elbow, holding her back.  Christine gave her a confused look, but with a single glance into Caroline’s deep ocean blues, there was no questioning it.  Feeling guilty, she wiggled her fingers and the dagger poofed out of existence.  Instead, Caroline leaned down over her unconscious mother, laying a hand on top of her matted red head.

“Please, mother… let the darkness fill you no more,” she whispered gently, and in a blinding blue light, all of Catherine’s powers passed over to Caroline.  The light began to grow brighter, spreading over the whole kingdom.  All the remaining Others could feel the loss of power taking place, as if Catherine were speaking directly into the fibers of their brains.  Most either retreated for the hills at that point or surrendered to the rebellion troops that had begun making their way through the provinces.

Almost immediately, Catherine’s body began reducing in size back to its original form.  Caroline squatted down with Christine over Catherine’s unconscious body.  Christine closed her eyes, shrinking down a bit until she was proportionately sized to Caroline’s 70 feet again.  She lowered a hand, and plucked her tiny sister from the ground.  Caroline gave her a stern look, but she just nodded back to her.  “I shan’t kill her, princess, of that be assured.”

“I believe you, Christine,” she said solemnly but kindly, placing a hand on her aunt’s shoulder as the massive young-looking witch turned, as if about to transport herself back to her home.  Caroline raised her eyebrows, somewhat surprised.  “Will you not stay, now?”

                Christine smiled.   “You are kind, my dear niece, and you are wise beyond your years.  Not only that, you have freed me from my former prison and given me back my powers.  That is enough for me.”

                “But… you saved me!  You saved all of us.  You… you can’t leave,” pleaded Caroline.

                “My actions today do not absolve me of my former and numerous sins, princess,” answered Christine.  “I have all I could have ever wanted.  Now, I only wish to go forth and try to repay the goodness that was done to me today.  To try to right some of the wrongs I’ve seen,” she said, looking down at the tiny body of her sister in her palm.  “And it will begin with her.”

                Caroline nodded approvingly, placing an arm around her shoulder.  “You will always be welcome back here.  I hope I shall see you again someday.”

                “And I, you… Queen Caroline,” smiled Christine, disappearing in a gentle wisp of purple smoke, along with her sister.  Caroline stared into the remaining smoke for a few seconds, mind-blown by what had just occurred, and she held out her hand, running her fingers through the intangible final shades of purple hanging in the air where her brave aunt had been only moments ago.  Then, feeling the tugging in her hair, she frantically placed a cupped palm under the flailing body of Luke as she carefully began wrapping her fingers through her twisted hair to untangle the prince.  He dropped with a soft plop back into her hand.  As she brought him into view, though, she nearly stopped breathing to see his blood-stained shirt, his breathing becoming labored.

                “C-Caroline…” he gasped, running short on air.  “L-Listen to me please…”

                “Luke, no… no… no…” she repeated, unable to believe that she was in the same position as before, except this time, Luke’s wounds appeared far worse.  She brought him closer to her face, blowing cool air on him through pursed lips to comfort him.  “After all of this, everything we’ve gone through…”

                “It’s all right now.  You don’t need me any longer.”

                “Don’t SAY that!” she screamed, her hands shaking as the tears began dripping down onto Luke.  “P-Please d-don’t say that to me, Luke.  I… I…”

                “Shhh… be calm, Caroline, be calm.”

                “WHY?  Look at you, Luke… what’s going to…”

                “Just listen to me,” he said sternly, gulping hard in his dry throat for air.  Caroline nodded.  “I’ve never… never been able to…”

                “Luke, I know how you feel, it’s all right.  Just save your energy.  Breathe.”

                “No, Caroline, I can’t save it any longer.  This is more important than my energy, or my breaths for that matter.”

                “Yes?” she asked in the lowest voice she could, terrified she would miss a word.

                “You’ve been my friend for such a short chapter of our lives, and yet I feel I’ve known you forever… as if our lives were intertwined from the start.”

                “Fates?” she asked disbelievingly.

                “Yes.  That’s what it is.  When I first saw you, I was truly terrified of you.  Such a person, I thought would never exist.  So angelic on the exterior, but with a caring heart and a mind sharper than most of I’ve been exposed to.  You… you… you are…”

                “Shh…” wept Caroline, her tears pooling around Luke’s body in her cupped hands.  “Luke…”

                “You are nothing short of the savior for this land.”

                “But…” gasped Caroline.  “This doesn’t mean I don’t need you any longer, Luke.  P-Please stay strong.  I need you.  I need you.”

                He smiled weakly, his eyelids drooping, his hands clasped over freshly bleeding wounds from the jostling he received minutes before.  “There’s more, my dearest princess, and I must ask you to let me say it before we run out of time.”

                Caroline nodded.  “Say it, Luke… say it.  I’m here,” she whispered, cradling him softly from side to side.  Luke gulped hard, the words barely coming out of his barren vocal cords, and he had to swallow a few times to be prepared to speak as his blood began mixing with the large tears surrounding him in a pool from Caroline’s rosy cheeks.  “Speak to me.”

                “I… I love you, Caroline.”

                Their eyes met, and Caroline felt energy like none other binding them together in this moment for the rest of existence, no matter what happened to Luke in the coming minutes.  The tears still pouring down her cheeks, Caroline brought him closer to her lips so he could hear.  “I love you too,” she whispered, gasping from the emotional strain.  Knowing time was running out and unable to hold back any longer, Caroline brought him to her lips.  She pressed his face as gently as possible against her soft, pink skin as she began to kiss him, creating a suction effect on his face no matter how slight she tried to make her movement.  Luke, his face becoming wet from the damp, plush skin inflating against his face, used his remaining strength to prop himself up and kiss against them too, pinning his face into the crevice where Caroline’s lips parted.  Luke joined his love in crying as they held each other against the others’ lips, rocking from side to side, feeling one another more strongly than they ever had before, their vast size differences having been forgotten long ago.

                Then, as Caroline continued, rubbing her lips all over his soaked face, she felt her hands drying.  She looked down, pulling back ever so slightly, and saw no more red stains covering her fingertips.  No blood anywhere.  Her mouth hung open to see the last bloodstains shriveling up into Luke’s tunic.  Gasping, she couldn’t help but see a tiny pink spark spill from her lips, a byproduct of the spell she had just inadvertently cast onto her dying love, healing him again.  She stared at his glistening eyes, a smile spreading across her lips, and she began to cry anew, now with tears of absolute joy.  Luke stood up, holding his arms out.  Grateful to oblige and still sniffling with shock, Caroline closed her eyes and lowered her chin back toward her upturned palm.  Luke hugged his entire body against her wet and waiting lips, pressing his face back against them in a passionate kiss, while Caroline gently reacted, undulating her lips with soft puckering sounds against his face and upper body.  As this continued, both parties with their eyes shut tightly to more thoroughly savor their moment, Caroline felt Luke becoming larger in her hand.  Blinking through her tear-filled vision, she let Luke slip from her palm and to the ground, which was suddenly right next to her again as she returned to normal size.  She looked down at herself, and then at Luke, who was once again slightly taller than her.  Both smiling once again with the same childlike innocence and happiness they had shown at their first meeting in the palace garden, Caroline flung herself around her love, hugging him as tightly as possible and pressing her lips against his, the pair finally able to complete their moment together as cool tears of release trickled down their cheeks. 

Caroline looked over Luke’s shoulder and saw her siblings rushing down the hill toward her, screeching with delight.  She pulled back, looking at Luke’s eyes.  He nodded over his shoulder, smiling at her to go and greet them.  She gently pecked at his lips one final time in thanks before letting go and running to her siblings, locking both of them in a hug that lasted for several minutes, the princess relishing the feeling of safely hugging both siblings to her at once, but barely having room to do it.  When Caroline felt her arms and sides starting to go numb, she opened her eyes again to see a large crowd of villagers and remaining rebel soldiers, who had come out of their homes at long last, forming in rows of hundreds along the hilltop.  At their front came Elizabeth, closely followed by the tottering Rose.  Caroline stood, her siblings still latched onto her sides, facing her (to her) only real mother as she approached.  They locked hands, gripping their fingers tightly.

“Thank you, Caroline… thank you.”

“What for, mother?”

She looked back at her, confused.  “What do you mean, what for?  You’ve… you’ve saved us.  All of us.”

“Mother, do not thank me for this, please… not ever.  I did only what father would have done.”

She nodded, leaning forward and kissing her daughter’s cheek.  “I suppose you’re correct.  And he would have been so very proud of you on this day, dear,” smiled Elizabeth.  “The people will never forget what you’ve done.  They seem to wish to see you more clearly.”

“Please, mother,” smiled Caroline, blushing.  “I… I couldn’t possibly…”

“They want to see you so desperately, my daughter.  Do not deny them,” sighed Elizabeth happily, squeezing her daughter’s hands.  Nodding, Caroline stepped forward to face the villagers, her siblings walking alongside her, still with a death grip on her hips.  Caroline held out her arms in a show of simplicity and humbleness, smiling hopefully at the crowds.  An instant later, they burst into roars and cheering that echoed across the whole kingdom, heard by all, even those who were too far to make it.  All across the kingdom, knowing the victory had been attained as the Others retreated or surrendered, joined in the cheer.  The joyful sound pulsed across the lands and could be heard through the forests, the deep gorge separating the kingdom from the wilds, the caves, the Black Mountains themselves, and even the deserted Otherlands.  Caroline felt another tear roll down her cheek as she looked upon them.  Rose kissed her cheek, quickly passing by with a respectful nod and standing behind her. 

Caroline felt each of her hands suddenly clasped into another.  She looked to her left at her beaming mother, who held out one hand, gesturing toward her daughter while presenting her to the people.  Caroline blushed, flinching a little at this sight, but continued grinning at her mother as she shifted her gaze to her right side, where she saw Luke.  He tilted his head forward in a sign of respect, his eyes glowing in tandem with his deepest love’s, once again requiring no words to get his message across.  Biting her lip to keep from sobbing with overcome ecstasy and solace, Caroline stared back into the crowds, smiling warmly with desire to take care of all of them for the rest of her life, to live up to her father’s name and care for the kingdom he had left in her fully capable hands.  For a moment, Caroline thought she felt the rough hand of her father alighting on her shoulder, but when she turned around there was no one to be seen.

Taking one final reassuring glance at Luke before turning back to the still-roaring crowd of people, Caroline sighed, having a feeling everything would be all right from then on.