AaBack's Grimm: Dark Fantasy Fairy Tale #2 Friends Reunited: The Janus Beast, The Rose Beauty, And The Cursed Duckling

By Kristie Lynn Higgins

Type: novella and the word count is about 31,700 words
The fairy tales you know with a wicked twist. Continue this novella fantasy action adventure series with the second book and enter a deadly world that could use a little hope and love and where somethings are as different as the moon and sun.

Jane was transported to a world of fairy tales where she meets the Beast and the giant rose, Erosa. All is not happy endings for the world of AaBack's Grimm holds a dark and deadly secret for Jane.

She believes she knows the Beast and Erosa from a lifetime ago, so she has to find a way to help them break their curse. What Jane doesn't know is that the Beast is about to reveal to her that he has a light and a very dark side.

AaBack's Grimm Dark Fantasy Action Adventure Fairy Tale Series:
#1 Tale Of Two Worlds: The Wizard, The Battle Mage, And The Werewolf
#2 Friends Reunited: The Janus Beast, The Rose Beauty, And The Cursed Duckling
#3 Dragon Scorned: The Towering Mountain Citadel, The Sword Of Cross-Worlds, And The Maximus-curse

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kristie Lynn
• Release date: Jun 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311668721

Kristie Lynn Higgins

You can also check out my author page on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/author/kristielynnhiggins

Book preview

AaBack's Grimm: A Dark Fantasy Fairy Tale

#2

Friends Reunited:

The Janus Beast, The Rose Beauty, And The Cursed Duckling

Kristie Lynn Higgins

Text Copyright © 2015, 2018 by Kristie Lynn Higgins

Cover Art Copyright © 2018

Smashwords Ebook Edition

06132018

Riding A Flying Carpet painting created by Viktor Vasnetsov

Cover of a German fairy tales book created by Carl Offterdinger

Two pink Prince-de-Bulgarie roses painting created by Frans Mortelmans

The Threatened Swan painting created by Jan Asselijn

White-Bear King Valemon created by Theodor Kittelsen

Wounded Lion painting created by Raden Saleh

The Wounded Eagle painting created by Rosa Bonheur

Illustration from The Water-Babies, illustration created by Warwick Goble

Start One Of These Series

by Kristie Lynn Higgins

www.KristieLynnHiggins.com

Chapter One

Reality Is Not A Happy Ending

ONCE UPON A TIME, there lived a woman named Jane who existed in the real world and who felt set apart from those around her as if a curse loomed over her. One day, she had a dream where she was swept away to a fairy tale world of werewolves and dwarves. Jane's goal was simple, deliver some bakery goods, get a signature, and return to her make-believe job at the Tasty Dwarf Bakery with enough tips to take a bath.

Jane arrived to make the delivery only to meet the man... er... the Beast of her dreams. She tried to make her delivery, but an elf enchantress named Ceress had other plans for the Beast. Jane attacked the enchantress to save the Beast, but an arrow ended her attempt and cut short her belief that she was merely dreaming.

The present...

Blood trickled to the ground as Jane held her wound and stared at the hardwood floor where she knelt. She had been content in her belief none of the places or people she encountered were real for many of them were weird and/or frightening and yet, it also made her sad, knowing at any moment she would wake and reality would whisk her away from the fantastic and yet scary World of Grimm. All of those carefree thoughts and emotions invoked by her misguided belief in that she was only going about a whimsical trek vanished as terror set in.

Her intense panic increased its thunderous pounding as if to beat apart her chest the more she thought about her plight. The seriousness of her situation sunk in and abducted her courage. Everything she experienced up to that point was real including the arrow in her flesh. Jane had gone about her day as if everything was some silly mindscape. If she had known everything was real, she wouldn't have charged in like it was a zombie video game that she could pause or reset if things got too hairy. The werewolf had warned her. He told her she wasn't dreaming and the sooner she started believing that, the sooner she could come to terms with her new reality. Her new reality was that she had an arrow in her arm and a woman, who could cast magic, stared down at her with a glee-filled murderous intent.

The arrow thankfully had missed its mark by a few inches and hit her left arm. She glanced back at the Beast who appeared shocked by her unwavering gaze. He couldn't see her wound from his position in the room, but he could see her eyes. Jane also put his life in danger. The one who had given her hope that she would find love one day, and she played up this situation like a giddy school girl with a crush. Her crush wasn't of a man on a poster but a living, breathing, and in danger Beast.

Foolish woman! he yelled at her. Run while you still can!

He didn't even know her, and he already cared about her safety. Jane had been stupid and if she didn't put her fear to the side, she would get them both killed. With what strength she could muster, Jane stood to her wobbly feet and glanced back at the door to the kitchen. The enchantress seemed to be in no hurry to end her as Ceress, who still held the bow, moved over to the dead goblin. He had been her minion, and she searched through the arrows in the quiver on his back as if looking for the right accessory.

Once she finished looking through the quiver, Ceress said, I guess that was the only special arrow.

She moved over to Jane who backed up until she ran into the dining room table, not knowing what the enchantress wanted to do to her next and still too afraid to do anything about it. Ceress saw the fear in her eyes and relished in it as she reached over and pulled the arrow out. Jane cried out for the pain. The absence of the shaft caused the blood to increase its flow down her arm. Jane grabbed a cloth napkin from the table as the enchantress walked away from her a few paces. Jane tied the napkin around her arm as Ceress turned and faced her again. The Beast could be heard struggling against his restraints.

It would seem my aim was quite a bit off– Ceress stated. –but don't worry. I won't miss this time, not from this distance.

Thoughts about escaping rushed through Jane's mind like a log caught on a swift river as the enchantress drew back the string and like that log which rushed over a huge waterfall to be dashed on the rocks below, her thoughts went no further than the aspiration to flee and the panic-filled conclusion, I'm going to die! Her body wouldn't obey, and her mind refused to give aid or another recourse other than a frenzied, And there's nothing I can do to change that!

Ceress aimed again. She was usually an enchantress for hire but this particular job was personal, and she allowed herself to enjoy it more than usual. Ceress considered every possible scenario that could arise, but the one scenario of a woman showing up never entered her mind. It would be an added bonus to take the head of one such as she, but first she needed to complete her first objective, and the simplest way to do that was to make the woman dead. The sun dipped below the horizon outside as twilight shown across the land and just before Ceress released the string, a black tattoo of a swan magically appeared on the woman's right cheek. Time slowed as the marking shimmered in a dazzling display of hope before the one who was tied to the chair. The fairy had given this gift to Jane long ago as a defense mechanism to help safeguard her, and it kicked in seemingly for the first time as it sensed the death of the one who the mark branded. Some would call it a curse, and it would be the second curse Jane bore but at the moment, it was a blessing. A puff of smoke surrounded Jane and caused the enchantress to pause as the last rays of light vanished from the land and night began to rule. When the white smoke dissipated, a small yellow duckling stood in her place with a wounded wing. The baby bird squawked and ran around in a circle twice before she ran into the kitchen, dragging her wounded wing as she left the tied napkin behind where it fell from her arm.

This is better than I thought, Ceress spoke as she started for the kitchen. It looks like I'll be having duck tonight. She turned to the Beast, paused, and said, That is as soon as you tell me where the rose is!

Jane ran to the back of the kitchen, flapping her wings a little delirious because of what had happened to her and when she was about to scream, she saw her reflection in the spoon that had fallen to the floor and poof! She was a woman again, bleeding, confused, in pain, and incensed. She put her right hand to the wound and fisted her left. Jane noticed the fireplace where the pot of soup hung, so she grabbed a poker and stomped back into the dining room. Jane charged the enchantress with her weapon held high.

Ceress turned just as she struck, and Jane hit her on the collarbone. The enchantress stumbled back as she lifted her hands to protect herself.

You reverted! Ceress uttered and then winced in pain before she screamed, How did you turn back?

Blind with rage, Jane ran at her and swung. The enchantress' arms received the brunt of the attack, and she fell to the floor as Jane raised the poker to inflict the death blow. Ceress realized her grave mistake. She should have killed the woman when she had the chance but instead, her inaction allowed the woman to quickly recover from her affliction. Ceress would die before she took her revenge.

Jane looked into the fear-filled eyes of the enchantress, and her anger vanished. She lowered the poker as she felt a little queasy, and then she shouted, Run! Jane motioned to the other door with the poker and yelled, Get out of here or I'll kill you!

The elf enchantress crawled away, then lifted to her feet, and fled from the castle. Jane walked over to the dead goblin, dropped the poker, grabbed the short sword from his cold grasp, and moved toward the tied up Beast. She felt dizzy and saw stars as she