Blinding Light: A Sleeping Beauty and Snow Queen Remix

Chapter 14

A/N: Viviana Morales.^

Black boots, with designer waterproofed leather, walked on top of the snow.

The man wearing the boots huffed in annoyance at the task that had been given to him.

"Why must Princesses be so vexing?" He grumbled. "Always making demands. Save him, charm her, help me... blech!"

His eyes locked onto a section of broken snow at the base of a hill. Finally. What he'd been searching for.

"At least this one isn't coquettish." He admitted. "That would be even worse."

He knelt on the ground and dusted off the girl he'd found face down in the snow. Her red coat made her easy to see, and part of him sniffed that she'd attempted to copy him. Or perhaps not.

"Vanity is the path to self-absorption. How are you supposed to be a faithful leader if you only care about yourself?"

He sighed and hooked his arms under the collapsed, unconscious girl. His father truly never left him alone. Even if he was dimensions away, his father haunted his mind.

It was semi-inconvenient when he was supposed to be focused on saving a human. Or, in this case, a fragile witch.

He pulled under her arms, heaving her up to her knees. Her head lolled, but of course a few red sparks shot out of her fingers.

He shook her back and forth a little bit, just to see if she would wake up on her own. Her eyes didn't budge.

"So very stubborn." He sighed, tsking as he unhooked his red cloak and wrapped it around her before he threw her over his shoulder. He carried her back to his horse, or more accurately, pegasus.

He whistled a series of notes and Crocus, his pegasus, tilted her wings so he could slide the unconscious witch into a sitting position. Crocus knickered and cantered forward so the unconscious witch slid forward, almost falling off as her head rested on the back of the horse's neck. He stopped the pegasus by lunging and grabbing the bridle before she could go too far.

"None of that now." He said softly, circling around to look his horse in both eyes. "We're supposed to save the witch, even if she makes us uncomfortable. That means no unfriendly machinations."

Crocus gave him an unimpressed snort, but behaved. He let go of the bridle and carefully petted her forehead.

"I'll make you a deal. You help me give the witch back to the humans in the enchanted castle, and I'll buy you some sugar ice when we go back home."

The pegasus bumped her muzzle into the palm of his hand, and he decided that meant yes. He walked back to the witch's side, picking up his hat from Crocus's back where he'd stashed it in between her wings, and tilted it over his eyes as he swung himself up behind the witch. Wrapping an arm around the girl's waist to keep her steady, he loosely grabbed the reins with his free hand and whistled to Crocus.

The pegasus cantered, gradually picking up speed before taking off into the sky.

***

Jeanette was worried for her friend.

No one had realized Viviana was missing until Brandon skidded onto the ice rink, saying she had run away and he had lost her to the snow.

The strangest part was that she hadn't taken Preisha with her. The pyrokinetic cat familiar had been standing on the border to the ice rink when they had received the news. And Preisha hadn't taken it well either.

They managed to take her inside, but she still hadn't stopped hissing at everyone and everything. Santiago had suffered several scratches before Preisha calmed down. Jeanette had healed him, and now they were sitting in a parlor off the main castle entrance as Brandon paced in front of them.