Culture Shock (LGBT)

Down Under

"Traveling in a fried-out combie

On a hippie trail, head full of zombie

I met a strange lady, she made me nervous

She took me in and gave me breakfast

And she said

'Do you come from a land down under

Where women glow and men plunder?

Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?

You better run, you better take cover'"

Snow White's POV

There it was again, a flicker in the corner of the Great Hall. Who is she, I wonder? She's there one second and gone the next like a specter in the night. I believe she is following me but I can't be sure; it is impolite to ask.

It is a good thing, I suppose, for the masks we weir this evening. 'Tis my father's engagement dinner and the entire court is in attendance. Every marble statuary and chandelier had been polished to perfection and the music lively, but I saw not. My melancholy disposition had only proved to intensify as the gala wore on. No matter how prettily these people bedecked themselves in yards of imported silk from the Orient, if the package out shown the prize within, then what was the point? Over the last seven years I have grown wary of their superficial laughter and flattering lies.

But in these new times, 1011 in the year of our Lord as it is, one is taught by an early age how to appear in polite society without scandal and as of late I have been teetering precariously on the very edge of propriety. Glancing down at my lap, I allowed myself a secret smile.

I was dressed the part of the fool for this night of jubilance, all black from pumps and hoes to surcoat and breeches. Even my best dress saber had been re-sheathed to match the moonless sky. And so my costume served it's purpose well. They act as a deterrent of Biblical proportion from my numerous female admirers. But they're still there in the shadows of the dance floor, lurking like vultures waiting for fresh meat to keel-over. Waiting for the illustrious ruler of our great nation of Ravenwood and master of Ravenwood Estate, the magnificent castle in which we dine, King Cynric, to grow tired of his only son's pleas and choose him a bride.

And can you guess, my dear confidants, what the identity of such a young man of reluctance may be? None other than the Crown Prince, heir to the thrown and next in line of the Dynasty of White, His Royal Highness Prince Snow Alekzandr Edward Daniel White I. He who is the fool of the court for his social anxiety and selective stutter. His father's once pride and joy until the day he started looking a little too much like his dead mother who he buried in the ground only days before.

So here I stand with a velvet mask hiding my face. For tonight I am but a humble courtier in a room of my peers. I am neither Highness nor Crown Prince. I am not even Snow White...

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There she is again, my lady of such exotic beauty. In a gown of liquid gold to match her hair she shines like a star in a room full of candles. A bejeweled mask is her disguised but I would know here slender figure anywhere. She catches my eye with a very unladylike wink and strides out into the corridor with the grace of a dancer. Intrigued, I follow, wondering if tonight I shall finally unmask my mystery pursuer.

The halls of Ravenwood Estate soon become a maze as the chase wares on. Rich tapestries rush by in a blur of red and green, my shoes echoing off the high wooden ceilings. The temperature outside must be dropping rapidly for I am able to trace her path only by the clouds of her breath. The ancient stone walls grow musty with damp as she guides me to one of the long-forgotten structures of the foundation. Farther and farther we descend a spiral stair reserved solely for servants to travel unseen.

The lady has led us to the Turkish Baths under the castle. It is where the surfs in remote villages still make pilgrimage at the harvest and pay homage to the gods of old. I had not set foot here since before the birth of my sister and had almost forgotten they existed.

This golden beauty sat regally atop one of the many stone benches along the steaming pool's edge, her mask now undone in hand. The smell of sulfur and lime instantly assaulted my senses as I rounder the corner of this great stone cavern. She patted the space beside her indicating I should join her. She said not a word as I approached and did as she requested.

I opened my mouth to speak but quickly closed it. She was the one that initiated this meeting so it was only right for her to be the first to break the silence. Not exactly silence per se considering the bath water bubbling up from a fissure in the wall that formed the pool.

Time seemed to creep along at the pace of a moon cycle. After what was an eternity, the lady spoke. "Dear Snow, you don't know me yet but I have been watching over you since the day you were born. Some of the things I'm about to tell you you won't understand but maybe with a little time I can change that. But time is one of the things we don't have."

I looked at her in outrage, "How dare you presume to use my Christian name in such a casual occurrence! And so you have been following me?! I demand answers right this moment! Who are you and what do you want from me?!" My voice had steadily gotten louder as I spoke and by the end I was all but yelling at her but she seemed not to notice. What a curious creature indeed.

She merely looked at me with the patience of a mother for her child. "To answer one of your questions, my name is Lady Catherine Black, firstborn daughter of Sam Black and Cecilia White, Black Cat to my friends."

Alright now the lady had me puzzled, "That is not possible."

"And why is that?" Lady Catherine Black was now looking at me in irritation, as if her statement were perfectly reasonable.

"Your mother cannot be Cecilia White!"

She merely sighed once again. "And I repeat, why is that?"

"You claim to know me and yet you still feign ignorance. Cecilia White is my younger sister, who has not yet seen her eighth year!"

"Snow, you are not thinking. I assure you, she will be my mother."

"You said 'will be' that time. Are you claiming that you haven't been born yet?"

Lady Catherine gave me the saddest little smile ever seen by the race of man. "That is exactly what I'm saying." 

All I managed was to gap at her in a very undignified way unbefitting one of my station. This was impossible. If she were to be believed. But in this day and time I was one of a select few that might even consider it. Still, none of this was making any since to me and when I gave voice to my thoughts she presumed to laugh at me!

She raised one slender hand as if the pacify a child. "I'm not laughing at you. I would never do such a thing, Your Highness," she remarked. "It's just that you're absolutely nothing like the Snow I've known of since before I could talk."

"So, let me make sure I'm following you. You are from the future and you've known about me since your childhood. That would make me still alive when you were born, correct?"

Now Lady Catherine was beginning to look uncomfortable. "Not exactly..."

"How so?"

"Snow, I was born in the year 2034 in Sydney, Australia. I started time traveling at the age of 11. What you don't know is that even in my time, time travel doesn't yet exist. Our two families, the Blacks and the Whites, both have a gift that has lain dormant for a very long time. And you are the first of us to actually use it. Understand?"