Dark Snow White (Grimmoire Series)

Part VIII

As soon as Orion heard the news, he went straight to the mine and started digging. The morning sun was beating down hard on his back. Orion wiped the sweat from his face. During his time in the war, he’d had to move all types of debris off his fallen comrades, but this was really testing him. 

The mud had turned to sludge and moving even a medium sized rock was taking all his strength. It wasn’t until later that he was joined by the Queen’s soldiers. While they tried their best to help, none of the soldiers were as big or strong as the Huntsman. They worked on clearing mud from around rocks and would have Orion pull the rocks out. 

The rescue team had been there all morning, but in that time had only moved five huge rocks. There were so many more larger boulders with no plan yet as to how to move them. Some of the Queen’s men were devising a large pully system to mount atop the cliff and lift the giant boulders below, but getting all the equipment together for such a device would take days and the Dwarfs were running out of time. 

If indeed they were still alive.

A castle worker walked toward the rescue team. He was carrying a wooden bar on his shoulders with two full pails of water on either end. Eleanor instructed the men to stop for a moment and have water. The soldiers complied, but Orion kept working. “Orion,” called the Queen, met with no response, “Huntsman, you need to drink.”

One of the Queen’s soldier’s piped up, “Be respectful Huntsman, your Queen is addressing you.” Orion stopped working and wiped more sweat from his face. He turned to face the Queen, “In grave times such as these, I do believe that mud is more important than etiquette” he sniped.  

Begrudgingly, he walked over to the pails. While the other soldiers grabbed a cup each and dipped into a pail, Orion went over to the other pail, picked it up and sculled the entire thing.

“This is useless,” proclaimed Floran, defeated, “in the time it takes for them to move all this, the Dwarfs will surely be...” He stopped himself. Orion overheard. “My prince, are there any other ideas?” he asked. Prince Floran shook his head. “Then we shall continue,” announced Orion, to the soldiers. 

* * *

Almost everyone in the castle had left to inspect the cave-in site. Snow was left to her own devices and right now, that’s exactly what she needed. She felt strange today. A little... off. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. 

She sat up in her bed, pulled the covers off and gingerly brought her injured foot into her lap. Inspecting the damage, she thought, “This isn’t healing fast. I shouldn’t have worn myself out last night.” She peeled part of the bandage off and took a closer look. “Hold on, it’s not healing at all,” that sentence resonated in Snow’s mind, “How can that be?”

Snow pondered this as she eased herself off her bed. She winced as her injured foot touched the floor. Slowly, she rose to her feet and walked around the room. As she picked up the pace of her walk, a sudden realisation flashed in her mind.

“It couldn’t be time again... could it?” 

She began counting on her fingers. Thirteen months. It was overdue. With everything that had been going on, she’d lost track of time.

She started pacing about the room, her anxiety overcoming the pain. “Where am I going to find one around here?” Snow said aloud to herself. “I might have to venture outside the castle... but with everyone coming back and forth from the mine I could be seen,” she went on, conspiringly.

There was a knock at the door. Snow looked around the room frantically (for evidence) and saw that her mud-caked shoes were still by the door. She walked over (as fast as she could) and kicked them under her bed with her good foot.