Description
From their spot on the shore, Adam, Tinkerbell, Carpet and HenWen watched in horror as the darkened sea around Belle began to swirl and foam. Cinderella was lost somewhere in the bigger wave around the giant Ursula, not that any of them really cared about her.
“Belle!” Adam shouted.
Carpet flew into the midst of the chaos. Belle was doing her best to keep her head above the water and it wasn’t easy. Carpet streaked forwards and dived into the water, much to the alarm of the others. But a few minutes later, he emerged with Belle clinging to him.
“Thanks, Carpet!” Belle hurriedly pulled the stopper from the bottle and gulped down some of the remaining potion within. She wished that the Morfa Witches were here to guide her right now. The ocean was such a sight of terrifying activity that she barely noticed her tail had turned back into her legs again. Different coloured fish were throwing themselves out of the water like breaching dolphins in an effort to get away from Ursula faster. As for the Sea Witch, she was reaching an enormous hand right towards her and Carpet right that second.
“Look out!” Adam shouted just as Carpet swerved out of the way in the nick of time. Belle screamed even so because Ursula’s fingers were now the size of tree trunks. She just made our Cinderella somewhere under one of Ursula’s tentacles and directed Carpet to fly near to her.
“Cinderella! Take my hand!”
Either Cinderella deliberately ignored her or couldn’t hear her over the noise that Ursula was making – each time one of her enormous tentacles lashed the water it sounded like thunder and brought up a tsunami of water. Belle sighed and reached for her anyway, and then the very tip of Ursula’s tentacle hit Carpet, sending him reeling back. The potion bottle flew from the hand and was lost in the waves below. “Oh no!” It looked like Cinderella would be a mermaid for the rest of her life.
“Bell, get out of there!” Adam roared over the noise.
Belle looked up and over to him on the shore. Tinkerbell was flitting about, panicking, and HenWen just seemed frozen in fear. She couldn’t think what to do. The plan had originally been to unleash Cinderella’s magic whilst they were both underwater, with Ursula under the impression they were two young sea-witches who wanted to learn from her, the element of surprise and everything. Now she had no idea what she was meant to do, and no idea what Cinderella was doing, or where she even was.
Then, Cinderella burst up through the surface, coughing and spluttering. Looking down, Belle realised the water around Cinderella was sparkling yellow. “What did you do that for?” Cinderella shouted up to her. “I could have-!”
She was cut off as Ursula created another tidal wave, knocking her closer to the ever-growing undertow. Belle tugged on Carpet’s front tassels, and Carpet dived, Belle snatching Cinderella’s arm and pulling her out of the water as Carpet soared over the undertow.
“You can’t escape me!” Ursula shouted after them. “I know all, I see all!”
Carpet shot upwards, climbing ever higher and higher away from Ursula’s tentacles. “To the top of the mountain, Carpet,” Belle gasped. “Hurry!” Cinderella was making no attempt to climb up back on top of Carpet, although she wasn’t struggling to get free either, and it was getting harder for Belle to hold onto her. Carpet picked up the pace and shot towards the top of the mountain. Belle rolled and she and Cinderella landed on the rough summit.
“What do we do?” Adam asked Tinkerbell. “We can’t just stand here.”
“I could get us up there...” Tinkerbell swallowed. “I mean, it might not be very dignified for you but-”
“Just do it,” Adam exclaimed. “Whatever it takes!”
Tinkerbell noted that he didn’t seem to growl so much now, in fact he sounded almost human. Was his learning to care for Belle the answer to bring him back to humanity? She bundled up a great big ball of pixie dust and threw it over him. Adam gasped but allowed himself to be lifted up into the air. HenWen stared in alarm as Tinkerbell turned to her. “You’re next, Hen!” HenWen shook her head vigorously. “I can’t just leave you here! Belle would never forgive me if you got hurt!” She threw a burst of dust over HenWen before the pig could protest. “Move your arms, Your Highness, like swimming!” Adam clumsily tried moving his arms and legs and sort of managed to move through the air. Well, at least he was trying, Tinkerbell thought. HenWen tried to run through the air and also sort of managed it, although like Adam, it was rather clumsy. Still, they flew over the sea towards the Mountain.
Meanwhile, on top of the mountain, Belle and Cinderella rolled over onto their fronts and peered down over the flailing Sea Witch, who was now looking all around for them. “I know where you are!”
“Give me my magic back NOW!” Cinderella hissed in Belle’s ear.
Belle knew instinctively that it was the only thing she could do. Ursula had made Cinderella angry, so she would concentrate first and foremost on fighting her and not harming Belle or her friends. She grabbed Cinderella’s arm and waved her hand over the bracelet as the Horned King had told her to do. “Now magic...unto your rival.”
The bracelet disintegrated into dust, like pixie dust, and as it wafted off into the air Cinderella pointed to a small plant growing out between two rocks atop the Mountain. A small stream of fire burst from the tip of her finger and turned the lush green plant into a withered black stick. Belle caught her lips turning into the most wicked smile she had ever seen.
“You might want to stand back...” Cinderella murmured, and then jumped off the top of the Mountain. Belle watched her fall into the sea as Adam, HenWen and Tinkerbell reached her. She caught Adam’s hand to steady him onto the top of the Mountain. HenWen almost nose-dived onto the summit and then buried her face in Belle’s skirt, glad to have her feet back on solid ground.
“What happened?” Adam looked at the spot in the ocean where Cinderella had disappeared, the circle of the splash she had made still rippling larger and larger. “What was all that about?”
“I don’t know, but I think we’re about to witness a showdown,” Belle replied, gripping his paw. Was it her imagination or was his paw feeling somewhat less hairy than before? In fact, it didn’t feel much like a paw at all, more like a human hand. But she didn’t have too much time to dwell on it, because without warning the water shot up like four walls around a tiny dot below them. Belle knew that the dot was Cinderella, and she was beginning to evaporate the sea water around her. Fire, after all, was her speciality.
“It’s just you and me now, Ursula!” she shouted, and Belle and the others only heard it because it was carried to them on the wind.
“You think you can defeat me all alone?” Ursula boomed back. “You needed the others to help you last time!”
“I don’t need any help from anyone!” Cinderella cried, and Belle gasped, for now Cinderella was growing now, the walls of water around her feet akin to grass around Belle’s own. Everyone on the summit stumbled as far back away as possible as she rose up to Ursula’s height. Belle saw that Ursula looked startled at least by this sudden turn of events and couldn’t help but feel satisfied by it.
“Give me your best shot, then, Cinderella!” Ursula said her name mockingly.
“You’re not all powerful yet, Ursula! You never got the Trident!” Cinderella pointed out.
It was enough to enrage Ursula into reacting. A stream of purple magic shot from her fingers and collided with the fiery orange of Cinderella’s spell. Automatically, everyone atop the Mountain ducked even though they had no chance of being hit by the magic. It was obvious, however, to Belle at any rate, that Cinderella was the stronger witch and she knew her to be the most evil. Perhaps it was because Ursula had never been able to renew her youth and was showing her age, but her magic didn’t seem to be on the same level of Cinderella’s. Or maybe it was just because Belle was used to seeing truly powerful, evil magic that Ursula’s just seemed to pale in comparison.
Ursula tried an underhand move, to send a second spell at Cinderella whilst their magic was clashing in mid-air, but Cinderella blocked it. They both pulled back, their magic spells still drawn together like two magnets. Cinderella pushed and began to direct the magic elsewhere. Ursula gasped with the effort of not being able to control it and threw her hand back. The spells together hit the Mountain which trembled and rumbled. Carpet quickly shot under HenWen and was about to do the same to Belle and Adam, who had both noticed the cracks forming where they were standing, but the edge of the Mountain crumbled before either of them could move and Belle felt the ground fall away under her.
“Belle!”
Jagged rocks scraped her hand as Belle clutched desperately at the side of the Mountain and finally managed to grip her fingers around a protruding rock. Belle reached for another next to it, her feet flailing for purchase elsewhere. Looking down, she saw that Ursula and Cinderella were still at it. Spells were being thrown this time. One of Cinderella’s fire balls hit the rocks below her, shattering some of them. Belle gasped again, closing her eyes for a second and praying for the battle to be over soon.
“Give me your hand, Belle, I can pull you up!” Adam cried from above her.
Looking up, Belle was surprised to see real pale human skin, cheekbones, a human nose and chin clearly visible beneath his generally hairy and well, beastly, there really was no other word for it, face. It was almost as if he was wearing some kind of think mask over his own face. She reached up and grabbed his hand, because it was a hand now, not a paw, and then felt something pushing underneath her feet. Glancing down, she saw that it was Carpet.
“You think you can overpower me a second time?” Ursula bellowed. “An ancient hag like you?”
“You’re one to talk about being a hag, Ursula!” Cinderella snarled, catching Ursula in the face with a spell that sent her rocketing back against the Mountain. It quaked again, but this time Belle had her other hand in Adam’s and he and Carpet had her safe as they helped her back up to the summit.
“We should just get out of here and leave them to it,” Tinkerbell advised.
Belle thought she was probably right, and yet she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the duo battling it out. They were doing a very good job of wounding each other now – Ursula’s cheek was burned from one of Cinderella’s fire balls, Cinderella’s ear was bleeding down the side of her face – and yet they were obviously still energised enough to keep fighting. It really was going to be a fight to the death, but Belle couldn’t see it going any other way. Either Cinderella must die or Ursula must die, or both of them. She clung suddenly to Adam and his arms went tightly around her. Despite what she had said about getting out of there, Tinkerbell also showed no signs of being able to tear her eyes away from the scene long enough to leave. Carpet hovered nearby with HenWen still sitting on him, unsure what to do.
None of them could have foreseen what happened next. Ursula’s next spell caught Cinderella off guard, and it was a shrinking spell. Cinderella changed back to her regular size in mid-air and then fell. Belle gasped as the water walls she had been holding up around her feet came crashing back together and the tiny dot that was Cinderella fall into them and disappeared, instantly sucked away into the undertow. She would surely drown.
Ursula laughed. “Pathetic! The most evil, most powerful witch in all the world couldn’t even last five minutes against-!”
In a great rush of water, something large and jagged burst up from the ocean and launched itself at Ursula before she had time to react. There was an awful splitting and squelching sound and Ursula looked down to see the large shard of Serpentine bone protruding through her body. The whirlpool stopped and the water moved back again like the tide ebbing. Belle could see the small figure of Cinderella lying on her back with her arms raised, surrounded by other shards of Ursula’s ruined cavern. She had done it.
Ursula fell forwards and Belle cried out as one of her flailing tentacles crashed down on top of Cinderella. As the water began to rush back to normal again, Belle found the strength to act. “Come on, Carpet!”
Carpet rushed forwards and she leapt onto him, before he flew them down to where Cinderella lay crushed beneath the giant tentacle, though as Belle reached her the tentacles were receding back to their usual size. It seemed that dying broke any spells that Ursula had cast. Together she and Carpet managed to pushed the tentacle off the last of the Coven Witches and Belle pulled her onto Carpet, who show off like a bullet as the water walls crashed in around them, burying the Sea Witch’s body from view.
Carpet landed neatly on top of the summit and Belle looked over Cinderella, whose eyelids fluttered open. From the way she was lying, however, Belle suspected that there was no saving her. Not that she really wanted to, if she was honest, but it would be wrong of them not to try if there was any hope. On the other hand, to save her only to have to kill her again later on was incredibly cruel. Better to see what happened.
“I did it...” Cinderella grinned, wickedly. “I’m still the most evil, the most powerful...”
“YOU always will be,” Belle replied, grimly. If it wasn’t for the fact that Cinderella had kidnapped and tried to murder her siblings, as well as several other children, a year ago, Belle might have felt some degree of friendship towards her in her dying moments. But she still felt disgust and disdain towards the witch for everything she had done in the past. Belle didn’t like to hold grudges, but it was better for everyone if she just slipped away now never to be seen again.
“And this is it?” Cinderella blinked at her. “I get rid of a Sea Witch and then I die again? I did you a favour.”
“You were doing it to reclaim your title,” Belle reminded her. “Now you have. There’s nothing left for you anyway – your deal with Chernobog is long over, the rest of your Coven are dead and I doubt they’d want to work with you now anyway-”
“I still don’t know which one of us is really wicked, Belle.” Cinderella closed her eyes, her smile still prominent. Belle waited. When Cinderella remained quiet, she reached to touch the side of her neck, and as she did so, Cinderella’s body began to crumble and flake. She drew back as the last Coven Witch disintegrated into ashes that were caught by the wind and sent whirling into who knew where. Belle would have watched them until they were out of sighed, but suddenly something inside her pocket exploded with a smash that made her lurch to one side. There was a pop and a puff of smoke and suddenly there was Giselle beside them, fully grown and looking just as startled as they all felt.
“Oh my! What happened?”