12. An apple a day...

Despite her still throbbing head and a slightly 'over-used' feeling somewhere else, Snow-White had gotten up and had started doing her chores. The beds were made, the trash had been thrown out, and she now sat at the table, drinking some herbal tea. Doc had said it would help, but the healing wasn't really kicking in yet.

She had gone through drinking a lot of water also, even tried another beer, but that had proven to be the worst idea yet.

As sitting for a long time gave her slight trouble, Snow-White got up again and sauntered over to the window. She peeked outside and was surprised to see a boy sitting there, leaning against a tree. She giggled as she noticed how black and dirty he was.

The boy seemed to notice her looking, because he smiled. His teeth were clearly visible against the black surroundings that made up his face. He even waved at her.

Snow-White waved back. After a moment of thought she opened the door, only a small bit. "Hey, you. What are you doing there?"

"I am sitting here," was the answer. "Resting."

"Oh. Why are you so black?" Snow-White was a bit curious at times.

"I worked at a cart, loading coal. Coal is black, you know."

Snow-White nodded, she had seen that icky stuff several times. "I know."

"Hey you, inside. Do you think you could spare me some water? I'm thirsty." That was true. The queen had been on the load of coal all the time, getting dust in her throat, and all the way long she had not had a single drop of water to drink.

Snow-White was already running and less than a minute later she was outside, a cup of water in her hand. She gave it to the boy, very carefully to avoid becoming as black as he was.

"Thank you," the boy said and drank down all the water quickly. As he handed back the cup, that Snow-White took with two fingers, he said: "Hey, want an apple?"

The queen, because that was of course who the boy was, held up the basket. The cloth she had put over the apples had protected them, they were still red and bright and shining.

Snow-White immediately lusted after one of them. "Squeee!", she said, thrilled by the sight of such goodies. As good as the dwarfs were with many things, this was something they had not supplied her with. "Are you serious?"

"Sure, take one. You got me water, right? This way I can do something back."

Snow-White picked the biggest, reddest and most shiny apple from the basket. She looked at it, almost in awe. "Thank you." She smelled the apple. It smelled like an apple. "You know, I shouldn't be out here, so if you don't mind I am going back inside and eat the apple there."

"You do that. Enjoy the apple..." The boy's voice faltered in glee and anticipation.

Snow-White ran into the house and slammed the door behind her. She felt proud of how she had handled the situation. She put the cup with the black streaks on the floor and then took in the apple. How she had missed apples. With her eyes closed, the girl raised the apple to her mouth, opened her mouth and slowly took a big bite.

Her teeth sank into the apple, cutting through the outer skin and sliding through the good stuff. The juice of the apple streamed into Snow-White's mouth. The piece of apple broke off, as she bit down harder. This was the moment, she thought.

The black boy, who was the mean queen, was peeking in through the window. This was the moment, she thought.

The apple did its work. The fruit from the tree known as Malus Domesticus or apple tree, as soon as it came in contact with saliva, started to expand. As Snow-White was at that moment swallowing a piece, the expanding fruit got stuck in her throat

"Suck an elf!", Hilda screamed at her mirror. She saw the whole thing happen and was unable to do something about it quickly. This kind of stuff required proximity, and that was what she did not have at this very moment. She ran through the house, put on clothes and shoes, grabbed a hat, wondered why the hell she did that, threw the hat back, raced to the broom-rack, took the one she liked best for speed and with that in hand she quickly left the house.

"Are you-", the house started, as Hilda jumped on the broom and dashed off. "Yes. You are leaving."

Hilda pushed the broom to its limits. She knew this was a dangerous thing. The bristles of the broom provided its stability; riding a broom at these insane speeds could make the bristles break off, turning the whole thing into an unstable stick, usually with devastating endings.

Luckily the broom was a golden oldie, a tough one that could handle a beating. By the time Hilda arrived over the house of the dwarfs, there was no sign of the black person. Hilda was certain that this had been the queen again.

Sharply turning, she made a perfect landing on both feet, dropped the broom and magicked the door open. Rather rudely the door shoved the suffocated princess to the side, but this was an emergency and Hilda was not squeamish.

The wicked witch looked at the apple and recognised the signature of the queen in it. The combination of potions and poison was exactly how she would go about this.

"Right, Grimmy, quick thinking and fast acting," Hilda said to herself as she tapped the palm of her free her hand with her wand. Fast she ran down the list of option she could think of, which was rather a short list. She took the second option, as this meant another option to get at the queen. The first option, doing nothing, was not an option.

Hilda used a long and complicated spell. In English, so she knew she'd get it right in one go. The few extra seconds would not make a difference in this case. And it worked.

The apple that was stuck in Snow-White's throat formed microscopic holes through which a minute amount of air could reach the girl's lungs. It would allow her to breathe and keep her body going, but that was all.

The next part of her inpromptu plan involved boredom: she was going to wait until the dwarfs got home...

The queen, gloating and overjoyed, had walked back to the road where she had jumped off the coal cart. From there she had started the walk back to the castle and had had the good fortune to be picked up by someone with a large wagon and some rags. She could ride along to the village, and use the rags to clean herself up a bit, which she did with a vengeance. She had already thrown away the blond wig, as that disguise was no longer needed.

The cart took her to the village square where the queen crawled off the wagon, remembered to thank the driver and then headed back to the castle. This time she used the backdoor again. The servants who were in her way looked at her in a state of fright.

"My queen! What happened to you?", one of them dared to ask.

"You don't want to know. Go and run me a bath. A hot one. I am in dire need," she commanded.

"Certainly, my queen." Somehow the servant had taught himself to run and bow at the same time, which made for a very amusing view.

The queen strolled along at her leisure, giving the man a fair chance to get her bath in order. He wasn't bad looking, she thought, so maybe he could get something else in order also.

Smiling she walked up the stairs, hoping that Walt would remain out of view for a while. The remainder of the week would be good.

Hilda was about to gnaw off the end of her broomstick when finally she heard a number of feet shuffle about outside. She opened the door and saw the seven dwarfs.

"Grimhilda?", Happy asked, "what're you doing here?"

"Put a sock in it, before I do that, and come in. All of you." Hilda's voice told them that she did not want to wait. Before all of them had gotten inside, she was already explaining what she had seen, pointing at the body of Snow-White that was still on the floor, behind the door.

"So, I have a plan. And you're going to listen and help me pull this off."

Hilda laid out her plan to the dwarfs, who all were quite shocked about seeing their girl on the floor and hearing Hilda's words of how this had come about, but the plan the wicked witch had was so ingenious that they began to radiate with the idea they were allowed to assist in it.

"So y'all got that, right? Okay, I'm off to do my part, you do your part and we'll have a blast, I promise you."

"Oh, certainly we will, Grimhilda," Bashful said, trying to hide behind Doc. "We will help you. Someone did something to our Snow-White..." He stared at the silent body behind the door for a moment.

"Cool puppies," Hilda said. "I'm off. Good luck, I'll check in on you when I have time. See you around, boys."

As Hilda took to the sky again, Doc wondered what a witch, even a wicked one as Hilda, would want with dogs that were cold.