Ever After - Ella Enchanted AU

Ever After - Chapter 18

 The sky had just started to pale by the time Alya and her band of merry men made it to the outskirts of Lamia. Alya made sure to keep her larger than life friends hidden in the tree line just outside the main castle gates so as to not arouse any suspicion, but she could only do that for so long. If they were going to save Marinette, she'd need a way to get them all in without getting arrested before they ever saw the castle. She chewed her lip, bouncing on the balls of her feet. She was getting antsy. The more time spent planning, the less time they had before Marinette's execution order was carried out.

"Alright." she muttered, motioning for Nino, Luka and Ivan to come closer to her. "We just have to find a way to get past those guards at the gate."

"We could always pick them up and throw them into the moat." Ivan mused in an eerily calm voice as he eyed the guards positioned at the entry gate.

"I'm pretty sure the idea is to not cause mass mayhem before we save Marinette, Ivan." Nino sighed, giving Alya an apologetic look on behalf of his friends overzealous plan.

"Yeah, I'm going to say that's more of a Plan B than a Plan A, okay Ivan?" Alya replied as the first rooster started to hark the morning. The capital city was starting to wake up. If they were going to get in with as little people seeing them, now was the time.

That's when Alya heard it; the quiet cry of a familiar voice from the rubbish heap that had been thrown into a pit just outside the Forest in a kind of landfill for the city. She held up a hand, hoping to hear it again more clearly.

"Alya?" It was soft, and definitely coming from the trash heap much to her dismay. She let out a soft groan before waving the giants to stay where they were. She scampered out of the Forest of Pim's canopy and over to the waste pit where most of Lamia's garbage had been tossed into a kind of makeshift that lined the moat landfill opposite the wall. She slid down the landfills embankment, careful to hold her breath lest the horrendous stench of rotting food and other disgusting things overwhelm her. She paused, hoping that the voice would cry out again and that she didn't get her boots dirty in vain.

"Alya! Help!" Alya let out a gasp, her head snapping towards the sound of the cry before she started her climb over the heaps. She's know that familiar whine anywhere.

"Wayzz!" She called. "Wayzz, yes its me! Keep shouting!"

Wayzz took up the order with vigor, crying out so that she could locate him among the rubbish. Eventually she found his book buried under some discarded banana peels and loose bits of paper. She wiped some of the grime off of the cover mirror and grinned at her companion when he swirled to life in her arms.

"Alya!" He sounded as if he were going to weep with joy. "You saved my life!"

"All in a day's work, book worm." Alya replied, "Im glad I found you, but why are you here? Why aren't you with Marinette?"

"That horrible assistant of King Gabriel found me in the library after Marinette left and threw me out with the afternoon's trash!" Alya felt a slight shiver run down the spine of the large book. "I've never felt so disgusting in my life. But thats beside the point now, we need to help Marinette, I think she's in trouble. Something to do with Gabriel."

"Yeah, I know. She's going to be executed if we don't do something fast, but before that we need to get you out of this trash heap. The smells starting to burn my sinuses."

Wayzz agreed and together they found their way out of the landfill and back into the tree line without being seen by the guards. Alya tiptoed her way through the undergrowth until she found her way back to her larger than life companions.

"Whoa, Al's, I hate to break it to you but you smell awful." Nino quipped, covering his nose along with Luka and Ivan as she situated herself between all three of them. "Why'd you go and do a thing like that? I'm pretty sure the landfill isn't supposed to be something you get stuff out of."