The Huntsman, along with what was left of his doggies, and the number of them was increasing by the minute, made it quite clear to us in that clearing as we stood there holding our pocket knives and oars, that we would be doing no more fighting today lest we all perish without much effort on his part. We were no longer in the majority, so what more could we do at this point anyway. We all threw down or weapons, such that they were, and we were quickly shuffled off in a line, doggies all around us, the Huntsman leading.
Tom was a mess, mumbling to himself and fidgeting nervously. Everyone else was quiet, solemn. Every once in a while Brianna would whimper quietly, but not for very long and not as annoyingly as Tom. For my part, I was scared of course but I was also riding a high, felt very detached from my body, kind of looking down at what was going on from above. All of this was very surreal and almost straight out of bad tv. I felt like I'd stepped into a twisted version of a faerie tale. Or at least, a Grimm's brother version of a faerie tale.
Eventually we arrived at what could only be described as a magical sort of city within the trees of the forest. It looked to be part of the forest, but some how twisted and wrong. The Huntsman lead us to a grand palacial structure, and presented us to this… woman, thing. She looked far more faerie-like than anything I'd seen so far. Very alien. She totally creeped me out.
From there, we were split up, and sent to whatever our new purposes would be.
I was taken to a large pool where the temperature was noticably, well, VERY low. I was then forced into freezing water, submerged. I thought at first they were trying to drown me, but what would be the point of that, really? Why wouldn't they have just taken care of us in the forest then. It was one of the most painful things imaginable to drown. Or in my case, feel as though you're drowning but not actually drown. My body was changing. Over some amount of time, the pool I was submerged into was frozen by some no doubt magical mechanism, with me in the middle of it.
Oh the pain of being frozen! Not as psychologically bad as the pain of drowning, but your limbs burn like fire until they go completely numb and you can't feel anything around you. I don't know how long I was left in that state, but I am guessing the “earth” equivalent of several weeks. But maybe not? Who knows. It seemed like forever. My mind went into hibernation with my body while in this state.
Later, I was slowly awoken, still submerged in the freezing water, my body curled up into the fetal position. My body. I looked at my hand, it was no longer just a hand, but was webbed now. I could feel my face with my hand. I slowly unfurled my body from the fetal position. It hurt a bit, but not as bad as what I remember of the drowning and freezing. Soon I was floating in the water at the surface of the pool on my back. My legs were not quite working but I could crawl. So, I slowly and carefully crawled out of the water and drug myself onto the ground at the water's edge. I turned around and peered into the pool.
What I saw looked thoroughly alien to me. Was that really my reflection? But somehow it sort of still looked like me as well. I looked like a fish. Webbed digits. Blueish skin and eyes and blueish-clearish hair that looked like ice crystals. Oh my god, what have I become? This is a dream, right? A really freaky dream?
Not too long after I was given my orders. Apparently I was here for a purpose and that purpose was to keep the water in the pool moving, and cold. What the heck kind of a job is that? Maybe these creepy Faeries need beer coolers or something?
In the pool there were some plants and some smallish animals. I would swim around, keeping the water moving, and cold. Occasionally something would be submerged into the pool to be chilled I guess. Never any people, like me.
As I got used to my role and the comings and goings of others around my pool, I started planning my escape.
Well, that didn't really go as planned, but I didn't really know how successful I would be anyway. So, I got caught trying to escape. I was sent to the harem for a week as punishment. Not exactly how I planned my “first time” to be really (or first several times, to be more accurate), which made me even angrier. Although of note, I saw that Tom kid in the harem. I was actually really surprised he would've been used for such a purpose. I have to admit, he looked pretty good (compared to how he used to look anyway), although I did notice he had some kind of decorative gag on. Heh, can't say I'm too surprised by that particular detail.
Again, several weeks or months later, I tried to escape, but I got farther this time before being caught. At least I was starting to make some progress. And I was making a mental note of everything I came across; it would help me get farther on later attempts.
After my return from the harem, I noticed something new in my pool. Odd. Fey are so weird. Three used-to-be-people like me stood on the ground next to the waters, laying down. They looked to be… penguins? I don't EVEN want to know what they are doing here and what their purposes are. I mean, what does anyone use penguins for anyway? They are cute, though…
Over the next couple of weeks I became friends with the female penguin. I could tell, from what my mind recalled of the real world, that Pengii-san was Asian of some sort. Pengii-san called me “Mizunosei”, whatever that means. That's fine. I was having trouble recalling my earthly identity at this point anyway.
Much time passed, me recirculating the pool, Pengii-san swimming around in my pool. I was kind of surprised when Pengii-san initiated it, but was certainly not about to stop her. Pengii sort of took our friendship to the next level, and we became a lot closer. Well, as close as you can get in a f'd up situation like this.
But this did not really stop my determination to get out of this freakish hell-hole. I talked to Pengii about trying to escape, but for some reason Pengii just wouldn't listen, wouldn't try. She was very pessimistic about the feasibility of such an endeavor, and any time I brought it up, she would always say that she was too weak to do it, even with my help, and then try to change the topic of conversation. If Pengii wouldn't come with me, then, I told her, I would come back for her. Pengii didn't seem much more optimistic about that idea, she would just smile faintly, sadly at me.
Again and again, I would try to escape, and again and again, I would get caught and sent to the harem for punishment. The Huntsman himself would even show up occasionally at the harem, ugh. I always hated it even worse when he was there.
The more I would talk to Pengii about escape, and fail at escaping, the more skeptical I became of ever being able to help Pengii, even if I did manage to get out. I was, however, becoming A LOT more familiar with “The Hedge” as everyone seems to call it. Every adventure out into it was more and more information that I could store away in my memory about it. I became rather intimately familiar with it, given the number of times I've been in it by this point.
One of these days, one of these days I tell you, I *WILL* get out of here. There is NO WAY I'm going to let some frosty bitch continue to control my life.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Who would ever have thought that the Fey would bother to replace us on earth with fake versions of ourselves made of dreamstuff? I would never have thought of it. That seems like an unnecessary triviality to something so Alien as a Fey.
Had I even guessed that we had fake people living our lives in our stead, I would've been pissed. Had I realized that my own replacement would be making shambles of my life, I would have been thrown into a murderous rage. Good thing I didn't know. Yet.
So while I cooled and recirculated my pond in Faerie, my Fetch had dropped out of school, become a stripper (and a whore, but isn't that implied?), and was now illegally in the USA (since my student Visa would've expired after dropping out of school). And given my ties to Russia, I suppose it would've made sense that she was a stripper/whore in the employ of the Russian mob down in Miami, Florida, but that doesn't make it any better.
Not that I knew about any of this, of course…
Grrrr…. It's MY LIFE, dammit! Screw you Fey! And screw you too, Fetch!