Nutcracker Sweet

Hans sighed but kept walking, deciding an explanation would be best while they kept moving.

"We're not going to just waltz into a town. Besides, if you haven't noticed nothing about this place is normal." He said patiently, as they passed a flower that was smaller that Victoria's hand and another right next to it that was taller than them both by a couple feet.

"We're not in the normal realm anymore. This is the goblins homeland, a place that is hardwired full of magic and all sorts of creatures that you don't normally see. This place is where magic in your world originated, and its magic leaks into your world. Thats why some are born with magical talent and some are not. Nothing is odd here or unnatural. Right now we're going to one of the few remaining anti-goblin towns left. I just hope they haven't changed since I was turned into a doll."

"Oh." She said blinking, feeling like a child who had just been told what was what. She kept up after him though, her night gown flowing behind her. She was, however, glad this place seemed so warm... She would have hated to be barefoot in the snow dressed in nothing more than her thin nighty.

The thought made a shiver run up her spine and she wrapped her arms around herself. It was like just thinking of the cold actually made her cold.

"Do you think anyone in this town would recognize you?" she asked.

Hans was silent, his shoulders stiffening at her question. Suddenly it felt like a great weight had just been placed on his shoulders, and it made each step for him visibly harder.

"Most likely, everyone I knew is dead." He said simply, his eyes on the road, his arms swinging freely at his sides. It was amazing that his shoulders could stiffen so much and yet he could still somehow look relaxed.

Victoria realized the mistake it had been to ask and frowned to herself. "I'm sorry." she said softly. She didnt want to make matters worse by speaking, but she coudl relate. Being alone was a horrible feeling. Feeling like you had no one you knew or trusted, it wore on ones nerves.

"Its fine. People pass on. You make new friends." He said simply, shrugging it off. Yet the knowledge weighed heavily on his mind, and yet again he wondered what he would find when they made it to that little town. Would it even be little anymore? Was it still the center of the resistance? Had goblins finally overrun it? If they had, was there anywhere left that still fought against the corrupt Goblin King? He didn't know the answers to those questions, and so he wondered what exactly he was bringing Victoria into.

Would he be able to protect her like he promised?

[So im thinking Victorias magic starts to bloom in this world XD and she doesnt realize it... that was shy she got cold :p]

Victoria took a few longer steps to close the distance between herself and Hans, hearing something like a twig snap near by. It was strange... they had left her home at night, arrived here during day, and now the sun was setting...

"It's rather spooky here... isnt it?" she asked hesitantly. She was beginning to psych herself out. The thought of what could possibly be lurking around them when the darkness fell made her hair stand on end along her neck.

((lol that would make sense, since this place is the origin of magic where she is from. lol this rp is turning into something quite magical. lol))

Hans stopped abruptly and listened hard, his senses on high alert. Something was off, that was certain and it hadn't been there before. Suddenly he turned to her and felt the air with his own mana, or magic as it was more commonly called where she was from, and frowned.

"Stop doing that." He said sternly, his voice calling her eyes to snap to his in surprise.

"If you keep imagining bad things hiding in the woods, I'm gonna end up fighting a lot of things we don't need to deal with."

The poor girl had walked right into him when he stopped walking.

She blinked up at him, surprised when he told her to stop. Stop imagining things?

"I--" She nearly jumped out of her skin when a nearby bird squawked loudly. "Y-yessir!" she eeped.

Victoria never left the manor, not unless she was going to a shop or lesson... And never at night. She'd only been in the woods once, when she was very little; and honestly she hardly remembered it.

It had never occurred to her before that she was afraid of the dark.

She instead kept her eyes fixed on Hans cloths, thinking of how odd they seemed to be. Her mind was always working, always imagining.... If eh didnt want her imagining something bad, she would have to imagine something irrelevant... LIke how similar the color red he wore was to blood.

She scolded herself for the thought, closing her eyes. "Sorry." she said.

He sighed, and turned towards her. Taking both of her hands in his he smiled reassuringly and said, "You do believe I won't let anything happen to you right?"

Seeing her freaked out face he decided it would probably be a good idea to just stop for the night. Where they were headed towards was not too much farther way but if she was going to be scared the whole way, he wouldn't force her to go.

"Lets just make camp okay?" He said, pulling her over to a nearby tree and forcing her to sit down. It didn't take long for him to start a fire, without the use of magic and keep it small so that it wouldn't unduly attract enemy eyes.

"I would make us better beds, but I don't want to use magic if I can help it. I'm sure they're still looking for us and signs of magic use is where they'll go first."

He didn't need to explain who they were.

Victoria nodded, hugging her knees to her chest where she sat. "It's fine, I understand..." she said... The truth was, she did, but only the basics... She was curious as to HOW one could track magic... WHY she shouldn't think of scary things, and how it could possibly effect their surroundings.

"So... Who exactly are you?" she asked curiously. "I mean, I know your name, but that's all really... That and that you do magic."

Hans closed his eyes for a moment as he thought about how he would answer her. His life hadn't been that interesting. At least he hadn't thought so.

"Well, I was the clockmaker for the King and the Queen. The true King, not the Goblin King. The Goblin King was trying to take over the land piece by piece but he was at a standstill. The land was pretty evenly divided, that is until the Goblin cursed the princess, and the only heir. People got afraid, and so a lot turned to the Goblin King just so they wouldn't be attacked and have their lives destroyed. The Goblin hoped to make the King surrender by promising to turn his daughter back. I was desperate for that not to happen and so I did some research and found a way to break the spell. Well it worked, but the Goblin King was so furious that he destroyed them all in his fury, and as punishment to me I guess he turned me into a doll as well. The next thing I remember I was in your kitchen and there was the Goblin King again, trying to kill me."

"... How is it no one but you attempted to lift the goblin kings curse?" she asked. "You're very noble to have taken that upon yourself..."

She sat in silence for a while, allowing her mind to wonder. She wondered how he had ended up in her world, and how by some odd turn of events she had been the one to be in possession of him when the Goblin King apparently found him again. How the goblin king found him and more over, how Hans had suddenly secede to be a doll.

"Not that noble." He said slowly, not liking this part of the story very much. He scratched his head nervously, looking into the flames instead of at her.

"Many did try. I was the only one who succeeded. It was kind of a game for the Goblin. Every noble tried to break the curse and he just laughed. I got so mad that I forced my way to the front and gave it a try. Somehow I broke the curse. To be honest with you, I don't really know how I even did it. I think thats why the Goblin King got so angry. Said a lot about breaking an oath, that a commoner wasn't allowed to attempt the spell. I saved the princess, only to watch the King and Queen be slaughtered."

Victoria frowned. "I'm so sorry..." she said. "... I suppose this Goblin King must hate me then... I bet he thinks I'm to blame for you being real again." she sighed. It wasn't a down trodden sigh... more or less, an annoyed sigh.

"See, the only reason I'm even around when I have no magic is because of my family's social status..." she said. "Usually non-magic folk in our world are-well- for lack of better terms; put off." she said. "That goblin knew I was lieing the moment I said he was messing with a witch, called me right out on my bluff.... So he must know it couldn't have been me." she mused.

She looked at the fire before back to Hans. "You don't think he'll attempt to go after my parents... do you?" she asked, suddenly quite concerned... if this goblin king was able to just kill a king and queen of a magical world with no problem, she failed to see how he might have any difficulty killing the two of them or her family.

"I wouldn't worry about it. He was more interested in getting to me right? So I doubt he paid much attention to you or who you really are. In fact he's probably forgotten that you exist already. Goblins are powerful, but not the smartest of magical beings." Hans said comfortingly.

It was obvious he believed what he said since he was so relaxed and spoke easily. Hans seemed like the kind of guy that just couldn't lie his way out of a paper bag which was entirely true. He was absolutely transparent, his emotions and feelings very easy to read.

"What I don't understand is how I changed at all if you're so sure you don't have magic." He mused, more to himself than to her.

"well, see we have a school; that tests your magic before you're granted admittance." she explained. "You sit in this dark room, with a blue bowl in front of you full of smoke. depending on the color the smoke turns supposedly tells you how strong your magic is... My mother turned the smoke green, which is fairly strong. I've gone at least four times, and the smoke never changes when I'm in the room. It just stays gray, swirling in that blue bowl... So the school says I have absolutely no magic in me... If i did it would have changed at least a little... And I have no reason to not agree with them."

[Im thinking what actually happened is her magic is off the charts :p so it stayed the same]

((sweet))

Hans just frowned, not sure what to say to that. He didn't really trust any magical test that came from her world, especially since in truth it really couldn't be that accurate since the magic was secondhand anyway. Hans was certain that she had magic in her, and if he was right, it was pretty damn powerful magic. It would have to be to break the goblins curse, well not break it, he corrected himself, but alter it enough to make a difference.

And if he hadn't found a way to distract her he was certain she would have conjured something very nasty with her imagination within the darkness. Yet she was so certain she had no magical ability at all. It didn't make a lot of sense to him really, and he wasn't sure how to handle the problem.

"Tell me about your life." He said, curiosity shining in his eyes. Maybe there would be something within her past that he could use in the case he was building to prove to her that she had magical ability. There was also the fact that he was genuinely curious.

She blinked, then blushed slightly. "My life? It's fairly dull..." she admitted. "I dance and collect dolls. That's about it... I'm a dreamer who waists her time in fantastic worlds, imaginary stories and would be fairy tales."

She shifted where she sat. "After the school told my mother I had no magic, she decided to keep me. I was too young to remember, but apparently it cause a lot of frustration in the town... The idea of a strong witch keeping such a useless child and what not. But she did, and when I was old enough enrolled me in dance lessons to keep me busy... I don't really have any friends, never have because I can't do what they do... I used to sit and play by myself while other children went outside to have fun. At age 8 all children go to the academy though, and they don't leave until they are 20. So, I've really had no choice but to keep myself entertained with collecting and keeping dolls and dance slippers all these years."

She shrugged. "It's a rather humdrum life, and I often think of it as a waste of essence the Gods should have used to create something good with."

"All things created are created for a reason. Just think, if your mother hadn't had a heart and saved you I'd probably still be a doll, or dead for that matter. I don't understand how parents could just let their children die if they don't have magical talent. It seems barbaric. We have non-magical folk here too, and they are just like everyone else. Its not considered horrible if you don't have the gift, because it means that you must be talented in other ways. Some of the best musicians I've ever met had no magical talent at all. I bet you're an enchanting dancer." He said sincerely, smiling languidly at her.

She smiled a bit sheepishly. "Well, I like to dance... But I wouldn't dare say I'm good at it."

She looked down at her bare feet, frowning at the bruise on the top of one. "The new Prime Minister's been in office for about 400 years now... And he's been attempting on creating an all magical society. Really, it's been somewhat of a holocaust against people like me... My Uncle Drosselmeiere, well, not my uncle uncle-- anyway he wanted me to be a toymaker with him. He says the strongest magic comes from ones imagination, and thinks I have potential in creating things." she chuckled. "I doubt it though..."

Hans could only take so much negativity before he made it his personal mission to make someone lighten up and smile. He truly was a rather happy individual usually. Wildly optimistic and a believer that everything happens for a reason. Looking at her, he couldn't believe that she couldn't see her own self worth. That she kept putting herself down so much.

Without any warning he stood and walked over to her and held out his hand. "Dance with me?" He asked, the smile on his face disarming.

He didn't even let her protest, taking her hand and pulling her up with surprising strength for his small form. He placed one of her hands on his shoulder, and took her other hand in his and smiled again before saying softly. "Just close your eyes and dance." Then he started to move, leading her in a stately waltz for a while. "Imagine you're at a ball, and the orchestra is playing. Everyone is in their finest but they don't measure up to you and how you look. Imagine it all in your minds eye. Don't fight it, just let your mind roam free."

Victoria was startled to be pulln to her feet, though recovered quickly enough. She couldn't help the blush on her cheeks as she closed her eyes, following his lead in the dance. Imagine a ball?

She did. She could just see the marble floor under them, showing their reflection as they spun slowly. But for the life of her, she couldn't picture herself as the bell of the ball.... no, instead what she imagined was Hans, dressed to the nines, like a prince. strong, elegant, the picture of grace and formality.

And the music. Oh, the music! She could almost hear it, she could imagine it so well. Her favorite music box tune, lead by a piano with violins and bass, flutes- the works. It brought a small smile to her lips, tugging the corners.

Finally she opened her eyes, when she felt her beat toes land, instead of on dirt, on a smooth cool stone.

Hans was smiling when she opened her eyes, his dress completely changed from what it was before. He truly did look like a prince at that moment, shining in cloth spun from gold and silver, with jewels on his cuffs. Truly it appeared that they were standing in the middle of a shining ballroom, a beautiful marble floor underneath and a gorgeously decorated room. The ceiling was high and valuted, with paintings and large stained glass windows. And still softly playing was that lovely music, the one from her childhood and nothing Hans could have ever known.

Victoria looked stunned, her eyes wide as she looked around her and Hans decided to explain what had happened.

"You created this you know, and with that same mind of yours you could make it go back to the way it was before. I had to show you Victoria. You do have magic. A lot of it. And you just learned how to use it."

She was speechless.

"But I..." her voice trailed off as her dark eyes trailed back to Hans. "Magic must word differently here..." she said. "The way my mind wonders back home-- nothing like this has ever happened." she said, her voice still flooded with awe and surprise.

Slowly the world of gold and riches melted away, like a painting splashed with a bucket of thinner, leaving them standing near the fire in the dark woods once again.

The air was warm though, the cold refusing to creep in upon the small camp sight.

Hans shook his head, still smiling beningly at her.

"Your worlds magic is no different then ours Victoria. You just never believed in yourself before"