Chapter Text
She woke up on the verge of falling. The cliff at her side was pitch-black, and the wind was howling against the rocks that formed the wall where she was standing, so she recoiled with fear before she remembered what was happening.
The giant.
She got further away, still wobbly from her slumber and ran through the ruined land, her senses picking up how badly the disaster had wrecked the forest; the trees were broken in half, fallen on the road and blocking the old paths that she knew, forcing her to improvise and imagine new ones, and the soil was marked with gigantic footsteps that made the distressed Baker's wife feel as small as an ant. She feared another meeting with the giantess and her earth-shattering steps, that had almost killed her - how many time ago? hours, days? Well, nevermind. All that she knew was that the sun was setting, and that the woods looked much, much worse than the last time she remembered seeing them. She knew she had to find shelter soon before night fell and the wolves got her.
There was a distinct lack of earthquakes that made her both relieved and wary of the situation. After all, maybe the giantess had decided to leave, had been killed off or was resting or waiting to catch any survivors by surprise. She knew that while she was alone she was easy prey, so she had to find the others soon and know exactly what had she missed. While she wandered, disoriented - all clues, all marks that helped her navigate the forest lost by the crushing and the earthquakes - she tried to remember exactly where she was before she almost died. After her liaison with the prince she lost track of her steps and tried to find a way back... And then, the giantess got her. Well, almost. She remembered the accident like a blur, remembered falling to the ground, and her scarf flying away and her fear that her body would follow if she didn't find anything to hold on to. Perhaps then she hit her head, if the growing pain on her temple was any indicator of it.
Eventually her steps carried her to a beautiful willow tree. Short and wide in comparison with the rest of the forest, it couldn't help but stand out. It was fallen, yes, but the light of the sunset still fell over its leaves like strands of gold that were strangely beautiful among the rest of the disaster. There was someone sitting on the ground, near the tree, who immediately turned around upon hearing her steps. She was a young woman with beautiful, deep brown eyes and a face that she found familiar, but she couldn't exactly recall. She looked at her without saying a word, uncertain at first, before the young woman spoke to her.
"I've been waiting for you." She said, approaching her and looking her over. She seemed to take note of her dirty clothes and her disheveled state before she looked into her blue eyes and noticed something on the side of her head. "You're bleeding," and with that she ripped a piece of her apron and held it tenderly against her temple, "here, let me heal you." She whispered while she sat down and she motioned for her to do the same. The baker's wife nodded and did as she was told while the young woman grabbed a flask with clean water and poured a little on the cloth.
"Who are you? Why were you waiting for me?" The baker's wife asked. The woman looked at her with softness in her eyes before she averted her gaze and it lost its focus.
"I couldn't bear the thought of leaving anyone behind." She answered. The baker's wife frowned, and upon closer inspection she did remember who that face belonged to.
"You're..." She started to say before the princess cut her off.
"I am, indeed. Or was. Either way I don't have any power here, now that everyone is gone." It took a moment for the baker's wife to process the whole situation.
"You mean we're alone?" She asked, out of breath and almost pleading that it was not the truth. The worst scenario engulfed her mind and paralyzed her, making her feel more powerless than ever. "What happened? Did the giantess kill everyone?"
"The giantess was murdered." The princess replied, her gaze still cast elsewhere, as if she was remembering something that happened in another world. "after that her body fell towards us and we scattered, trying to not get crushed by her. I ended up here, and haven't found anyone else since then. I don't know who's alive, who's lost or who's dead; or even who could make it to somewhere safe before night falls."
"Why were you waiting for me, then?" And with those words, the princess's gaze returned to her suddenly. "Why not the others?"
"It was not exactly you who I awaited for. I... I made one last wish." She said, looking towards the fallen willow tree. "It might sound crazy, but my mother is buried under this tree, and since I was little I came here and talked to her when I was sad. Until one day, her spirit was here and she granted me one wish." She then smiled coyly at the baker's wife. "I believe that's the night we met for the first time."
"When I tried to steal your shoe?" The princess laughed then, her eyes looking more alive than before.
"Yes, that night. I thought that the wish my mother granted me was my only chance at happiness, but turns out I was wrong. And after everyone was separated I came here looking for survivors, and my mother's spirit appeared before me again and... She granted me another wish." The princess exhaled sharply before continuing. "I wished for any lost survivors to come and find me before the sun came down. And well," She whispered, eyeing the baker wife's face. "Here we are."
"We should find a place to stay." The other woman pointed out, taking note of her surroundings. "Do you know the way back to the kingdom?" The princess gave her the bloody cloth and got up, dusting off her simple dress.
"Yes, yes, I do. We should get going." She said, looking at what used to be the path back to the palace.
***
Fortunately, Cinderella knew more ways than one to get back to civilization. The main path was a wreck, but the second one was viable, even if it was not as safe as the first. There were places where it was easy to slip and fall over sharp rocks, and some places were near enough to a cliff that it made the baker's wife's face go pale. The princess guessed it was normal, after all the mayhem that the giantess had caused and that had almost killed her. She would ask more about it later, about what had happened exactly and about her scarf ending up on the bottom of a cliff. Jack had told them that there were no bodies nearby, and at the time Cinderella thought that maybe he had said that out of mercy for the baker, but it looks like he hadn't lied. That, or the woman had some serious healing magical abilities.
Jack... What had happened to him? He was on the tree when the giantess fell, and the corpse ended up knocking that tree down with the loudest, most sickening crunch she had ever heard while she ran away. The forest went quiet after that, the only thing she could hear was her own heartbeat pounding against her ears in an anxious frenzy. She hoped the boy was alive, as well as the baker, although it was almost impossible that they had made it in time.
They found some corpses on the way, mostly animals that inhabited the forest, and some people, too. Cinderella could recognize almost all of them and mourned the loss of old neighbors and friends, of the birds and foxes and squirrels that she had talked to since she was little. She would always hold them close to her heart, all the creatures and humans that she had met in the woods and out of them. None of them were Jack, Red, or the baker; none were her step-sisters and step-mother, and for that she was grateful, at least.
"Careful there." She said, grabbing the baker's wife's hand and sorting the way between fallen branches. Her hands were calloused and warm, more rough than her own. Her hands had started to get softer after living some months as a princess, pampered to levels that made her uncomfortable and with servants to cater to her every whim, but she used to have hands like those, too, made harsh by the housekeeping and the biting cold. She squeezed the woman's hand a little tighter; it felt nostalgic, almost like home, to feel that skin against her own.
The baker's wife also tightened her grip with comforting strength, something that surprised her to the point that it made her heart skip a beat.
"Thank you." The woman said, meaning it. "I'm still feeling a little dizzy after waking up."
"Don't worry, I understand." Cinderella smiled at her before guiding her out of the forest.
What they saw was not a sight for sore eyes. On the contrary, it hurt to look at what had been the city they had lived in all their lives, now reduced to ruins and broken walls. Some houses were still standing, but they were few and far between. The castle was marginally better, but only because the main keep was still standing. The outer wall had been destroyed and pieces of the inner wall had fallen apart, along with some towers that had crumbled like toys under the shaking of the earthquakes. After some discussing they decided to go to the keep and look for any food that had been left behind.
"We packed quickly and left many things behind, I'm sure we can live some days there." Cinderella pointed out while they walked to the palace. They followed the ways of the border, not wanting to go through the main roads and find people they knew or destroyed houses they could recognize. Cinderella felt drained of any energy, more exhausted than she had ever been. She could just focus on remaining alive. She had to, for that woman and herself.
The baker's wife looked just as devastated as her, if not more. She still was visibly confused about everything that had gone down while she was unconscious and seemed to have a hard time processing everything. Who could blame her? Cinderella was feeling very numb herself, and she had seen the whole thing happen right before her eyes. Including the moment when the giantess...
She swallowed, trying to bottle up her anxiety. She didn't want to think about telling that woman that her husband was probably dead, along with her only child. Last time she saw her son, Red was carrying it while she ran for her life, but god knows what had happened to her and to the baby. Putting that aside, there was also the mystery of the words her mother had told her when she made her wish, and the fact that the royal family was still missing...
She had to stop that line of thinking. She just was exhausting herself further. After eating a proper meal and some sweet hours of much needed sleep she would be in a better position to decide what to do. They reached the castle after an hour of walking, went carefully through the debris that used to be the castle's outer and inner walls and arrived to the keep at last.
"I never thought I would be on a castle like this." The baker's wife muttered, surprised. "Well, to be honest, I never even thought I would be on a castle."
"I'm afraid it will not be as dream-like as you imagined it." Joked Cinderella, pushing to open one of the keep's main doors until it finally gave up.
"It would be a miracle if it was after all this." The baker's wife answered back, following the princess inside the building.
The princess guided the other woman through the castle's halls in a haste. Their steps echoed into the empty space, making Cinderella shudder at the noise; that place had never felt like home while she lived there, and now she felt straight up uncomfortable in it. It was much lonelier than the forest had been; at least there she had the trees and the animals that had been lucky (or clever) enough to remain alive.The kitchens were now dusty and deserted, but luckily there was enough food in the pantry to make decent meals for some days. Cinderella fixed a seat for the baker's wife (she had hit her head, after all), set some cheese and beef jerky slices as a snack to help themselves recover, and rushed to cook something to eat for them both. She ended up settling for a healthy stew; after all it was the most revitalizing meal she could think of, and it would be better to eat all the meat before it rot. When she finished preparing it she served it in two plates and put them on the kitchen's main table, where the baker's wife was seated.
"I hope you like it, it has been a while since I cooked something by myself." She said before starting to eat, the smell of the stew just making her hungrier. The baker's wife also started to devour her meal, and it wasn't until she finished half of it that she stopped to talk for a moment.
"It is very good. Did you cook often before becoming a princess?"
"Yes, my step-mother loathed doing it, so I was the one in charge of that." More like the one forced to do it, Cinderella thought, but she didn't dare to say it out loud. The baker's wife just nodded without noticing the princess's hesitation.
"I used to cook at home too, but I wasn't so good at it." She observed, approving, while she chewed on some carrot slices. "It really is delicious."
"Now that we talk about your home... I just know you as the baker's wife." Cinderella pointed out. "If we're going to stick together we need to know our names." She extended her hand politely and smiling charmingly, as she had done many times before as a princess. "My name is Cinderella, pleased to meet you."
"Oh, that's true, we never got to introduce ourselves." The baker's wife agreed with a handshake, a smile as warm as sunshine on her red lips. "I'm Margery, nice to meet you."