Misfit Trials

Chapter 28

As soon as the yips, howls, and the less palatable sounds fade in the distance from the horde leaving the glen, a bent, old woman stands from the benched seats. She looks exhausted and bone thin. She has a babe in arms, another strapped to her back, and one clinging to her ankles. Other children line the bench that she sits on, cowering from the looks of the Mad Hatter.

"I would like to claim an emergency petition," her old, cracked, and dry voice whispers out through the sudden silence.

"Ah! The Mother from Shoe. Of course, dear one. Please. How can we help you?" The Cat asks.

"I petition for the court to find the sorcerer Atalantes and free the child from its eternal torment. The child doesn't deserve that life. And Atalantes deserves to be punished for his part in the child's fate," the woman rasps out.

The Cat scratches his chin. "An interesting proposal. What say the jury?"

The three fairies look at each other.

"Agreed," Maleficent says.

Tinkerbell nods her consent.

The Fairy Godmother looks somewhat angered by what has taken place in this last portion of the trials. Her reply is terse. "Do it."

The Cat's smile is positively evil, thinking about what is about it happen. "Hatter, please enlist the help of King Lubdan of the leprechauns to bring Atalantes here." He quickly scrawls a message on a piece of paper.

The Hatter's madness causes his shoulders to jump, the tic in his neck causing his head to turn quickly to the side twice. He nods, a low growl coming from his mouth. He pulls off his hat, sparks moving along his hair as it springs up from taking off his hair. He waves his hand above his hat, a light sparkling within. Taking the paper from the Cat, he tosses it into his hat, waves his hand over it again to extinguish the light. He places the hat back on his head and steps back into his place.

The Cat opens his pocket watch and places his arms on the podium as he watches the time tick away.

Within two minutes, there is the great rushing sound of wind and a blinding flash of light and then a leprechaun stands before The Cat holding a middle-aged, dark haired man on his knees by the scruff of his neck. His nose was bleeding and his left eye was swelling. One of his arms hung at an odd angle.

"Tis the warlock ye asked for, aye?" the leprechaun asks.

"Atalantes?" The Cat asked him.

The man did not answer, seeming too dazed to fully understand what was happening.

"D'ya want anot'r plug about yer ears?" King Lubdan asks, pulling the man back to look at him, a first threatening in front of his face.

"No! No! I am Atalantes!" the sorcerer asks.

"That is who we want. You did well, my king," The Cat says, careful not to thank the small man. Though he is a specific species of fae, he is still a fairy and gratitude towards them can be...deadly.

The leprechaun smiles, an evil, nasty thing. Then he is gone, there then suddenly not.

There is a menacing glee that seems to fill the glen, awaiting the emergency petition to be dispensed.

"Sorcerer," The Cat calls in a misleadingly calm voice. "Do you know the name Rumpelstilzchen?"

Atalantes slowly, painfully, pushes himself up into a seated position. He's breathing heavily and it is very evident that one of his arms is broken. "Yes. I know of the despicable man. What of him?"

"He came here tonight, asking that we give him vengeance on the one who took his child away from him. Who keeps him in hiding, constantly just out of reach, for centuries. That is you, is it not?" The Cat asks.

Atalantes seems to pale even more than he already is. "You would seek vengeance for that monster?"

"No," The Cat says flatly. "We would know where the child is. We want his suffering ended."

"The child?" Atalantes looks confused. "My son? I took him in. Treated him as my own, cared for him and raised him up. But he was quite human and didn't want to have anything to do with magic, saying that it killed his parents. I figured that eventually, Rumpelstilzchen would figure it out and come to me for his son. But he never did. I can't believe that he would trouble such an auspicious body as this one to locate the child. And after all this time. What folly!"

"You say the boy was human," Maleficent interjects. "So, after all these centuries, he is dead?"

"Yes, so long gone that his bones are now dust under the ground," Atalantes says.

There is murmuring in the glen before the Godmother asks, "And what of the other children?"

"Excuse me?" Atalantes asks, clearly not expecting the question.

Tinkerbell's wings are fluttering in a flurry of red sparks and she hovers over her seat. "What about the babies that he took from their mothers and then left behind when he figured out that they weren't his son?! Did you not care about them?"

Atalantes stutters out, "I-I-I was just m-making sure that he didn't find the boy. I-I wasn't...I didn't - "

"You didn't think about the other children. About how he left them to either starve, or freeze to death, or be mauled by animals," Maleficent says, her skin darkening in her anger.

"You had to know what he was doing. That he didn't care about any other child but his own," the Godmother says, bright red spots of anger forming on her cheeks.

"And you let it continue! You let those children die!" Tinkerbell screams, her wings slamming together in a high-pitched screech.

"I didn't know that he would do that! And once he did...what did you expect me to do?" Atalantes cries.

"What would you do?" The Cat asks the jury.

The three fairies look at each other, their anger palpable, as is their furious whispers rasp back and forth between them.

Finally, they turn back to The Cat. "The Piper," Maleficent states.

And The Cat's smile turns positively gleeful. "As you wish. Piper!"

A tall, skeletal man, all sharp angles and thin appendages, stands with a flute in his hand. "Da, Herr Katze."

"Would you be so kind as to take our sorcerer here to have his soul weighed by Anubis?" The Cat says, buffing his claws on his coat. "Take the scenic route."

The Piper smiles. "Da!" The Piper looks directly at Atalantes, brings his flute to his lips, and starts to play. Immediately, Atalantes stands and starts to walk toward the Piper.

"What the hell is going on?!" Atalantes screams.

"You're on your way to Hell, Atalantes. Enjoy the trip," The Cat calls.