The temperature had dropped drastically, and Alister rubbed his arms as goosebumps broke out over his flesh. Alister held up his lamp to see into the chamber better, and the monoliths cast long shadows upon the stone floor in response. “What is this place? It’s creepy.” He gulped as a chill crawled up his spine.

“This place…feels dangerous,” Katrina said, the hair on the back of her neck had risen in warning. “There’s probably some kind of trap in there to prevent people from continuing their way and trespassing into the Fairy Kingdom. We must be getting close.”

“Trap?” Alister squinted as he tried to make his eyes pierce deeper into the darkness beyond. “What kind of trap?”

“I suppose we’ll find out when we try to cross the room and make it to the other side,” Katrina said with a smirk.

“Well, Crim was able to do it,” Alister mused aloud, and looked around the chamber. “And I don’t see his corpse so…whatever the trap is it can’t be that bad, right? Let’s go.”

Alister held the lamp up high and started his way forward into the chamber with Katrina almost glued to his side. A minute later, they were passing by one of the stone monoliths. A sudden movement caught Katrina’s attention out of the corner of her eye. “Look out!” Katrina shoved Alister to the ground and ended up on top of him.

Alister blinked up at Katrina dazedly and for a moment didn’t see her. The feeling of a female body pressing down on him like that had reminded Alister of something from his past. “Mother, please…no…”

Katrina frowned and quickly scrambled off of Alister. “Alister, it’s me - Katrina.”

Alister blinked again, and his vision focused. “Katrina?” He looked past her and saw the oddest thing - a shadow had risen up off the floor and had attacked him with its sword. “Is that…?”

Katrina’s attention turned to the shadowy figure. “A shadow. Yes. Now, run!” The Cheshire Cat girl grabbed Alister’s hand and they ran for the exit of the chamber. As they passed stone monoliths the light from Alister’s lantern caused shadows, which allowed the shadowy figures to appear and attack Alister and Katrina.

The duo was forced to dodge and avoid deadly sword attacks as best they could. “I’ve heard of this. The Dark Fairies can apparently use magic to cut their shadows off and then use them to fight for them. These shadows must be their first line of defense for the Dark Kingdom.”

Alister took a closer look at one of the shadows that was trying to kill him and sure enough it had the silhouette of a Dark Fairy, wings and all. “Bloody hell. What do we do now?” he asked breathlessly as he continued to run forward, and ducked another sword swing.

Katrina watched as the light from Alister’s lamp caused a shadow to form next to a stone monolith and then seconds later a Dark Fairy shadow was rising up off the floor. “You have to extinguish your lamp!”

“What?” Alister squeaked. “You want me to get rid of our only source of light in this foul place? No way!”

“Without light there will be no shadows cast by the stone moonlights and the Dark Fairy shadows will be unable to appear and try to kill us,” Katrina quickly explained.

Alister shook his head vigorously. “No way. I can’t. I won’t be able to see anything. Come on, we can make it to the other side. We’re almost there.”

“You’re wrong. We won’t make it. There are too many of them!” Katrina’s eyes widened as she watched several Dark Fairy shadows rising up off the floor. “You must put out your lamp, Alister! It’s the only way we’re getting out of this place alive! Don’t be such a coward!”

Alister was opening his mouth to respond when a black hand reached out from a shadow on the stone floor and grabbed Alister’s ankle, tripping him up. The artist fell flat on his face. “Oof!”

“Alister!” Katrina cried out in alarm.

Alister rolled over just in time to see the shadow of a Dark Fairy slowly rising up off the floor next to him. The fairy was wielding what appeared to be a black, shadowy, double-edged broadsword.

“Put out the lantern!” Katrina shouted.

“I can’t!” Alister shot back, and his body began to tremble violently out of fear. The Dark Fairy shadow raised its sword high, and a wide, maniac grin spread across its face. The smile was eerie and appeared to be completely hollow. The Dark Fairy swung his sword.

Katrina covered her eyes with her hands. “I can’t watch!”

“Let there be light!” a booming, confident sounding voice called out. Abruptly, the entire chamber was flooded with a bright, blinding golden light. The light blinded Alister, who was forced to squeeze his eyes shut.

The Dark Fairy shadows cried out in pain as several of them disintegrated from having been exposed to direct light, while others retreated into the shadows that they’d emerged from in order to escape.

Once Alister’s vision had adjusted to the bright light inside the chamber, he spotted the White King casually strolling towards them with his sword raised high like a torch. Alister noted that the light was coming from the White King’s sword that was glowing with a silvery, golden light. “It’s the White King,” Alister breathed in relief.

“Greetings, Alister Kingsley,” the White King said with a smile on his face. “I told you we would meet again soon, and we have as contenders for Madeline’s fair hand!” He held his hand out to Alister to help him up. “Are you injured?”

Alister gratefully accepted the hand up. “I think I might have wet myself.”

The White King turned his attention to Katrina. “My lady, are you alright?”

Katrina blinked at the White King and his overly gallant behavior. “I’m fine.”

The White King took Katrina’s hand and placed a kiss upon it. “It gladdens my heart to hear so.” He then lowered his voice in a conspiratorial manner. “If you are ever in need of a scratching post, feel free to use my entire body.”

Katrina raised an eyebrow at the masochistic White King. “I’ll keep that in mind, Clover.” She held up her hands and flexed her claws in his direction teasingly.

Alister gave them a strange look and cleared his throat to get their attention. “Ahem. Thank you for saving my life, Your Majesty.”

The White King waved his hand dismissively through the air. “All in a day’s work for a heroic King! And please, call me Clover. Now, shall we continue our journey to the Dark Kingdom? I believe the bean fields are just through that tunnel over there.”

“Sure,” Alister agreed. “Clover.”

Clover flashed Alister a charming smile. “Onwards! To the bean fields!” The White King started to lead the way while Alister and Katrina followed right behind him.

As soon as they’d passed into the tunnel beyond Alister was able to breathe easier. “What was that back there? How did you defeat the shadows?” Alister questioned Clover curiously.

“That my boy was light magic,” Clover obligingly started to explain. “Only the pure of heart are able to wield light magic.”

Katrina snorted. “You’re not that pure.” She coughed into her hand. “Masochist.”

Clover flushed and Alister chuckled softly at Katrina’s teasing. A few minutes passed when another question came to Alister’s mind. “Clover, if you don’t mind me asking…why do you want to marry Madeline anyways?”

“Why?” Clover asked in surprise and a twinkle came to his pale green eyes. “Madeline is amazing. She’s beautiful. And she’s also so domineering and bossy. I want her to tie me up and spank me-” Clover caught himself and coughed awkwardly into his hand. “Ahem. Well, you get the idea.”

Alister’s blue eyes were as wide as saucers, and he’d grown significantly paler. “I’m sorry I asked.”

Katrina was laughing madly out of amusement, however.

Clover gave Alister a keen look. “Well, why do you want to marry her?”

Alister took a moment to think about it. The easy response would be to simply say that he loved her. But there was more to it than that. “I want to marry Madeline because she’s everything I’m not. She’s everything I aspire to be. And I greatly admire her strength.”

“Ooo so romantic,” Katrina teased, and shoved at Alister’s arm playfully. “You Romeo, you!”

The clanging sound of a sword clashing against something hard reached their ears along with the sound of someone swearing. “Damnation! Why won’t you just die already! Die! Die! Die! Off with your head!”

A chagrined expression settled over Clover’s face. “I do believe my dear brother is just up ahead.”

“Oh, goodie,” Alister said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Crim,” Katrina murmured worriedly to herself.

Alister, Clover, and Katrina exited the tunnel and entered an enormous cavern that housed an entire city of Dark Fairies. At the far end of the cavern stood a castle made entirely of gleaming, black onyx. The castle had twisting spires and turrets, which leant to its foreboding appearance.

The fairies’ houses were carved out of the natural stalactites and stalagmites that had sprung up from the floor and ceiling of the cavern. A huge, glowing, magical crystal that was stuck to the center of the domed ceiling of the cavern provided the only light within the city.

Directly in front of the group lay the bean fields - rows and rows of magic bean plants that were secured to tiny, wooden trellises to help their growth. “The bean fields. We made it.” Alister’s relief was short-lived, however. Blocking their way to the field was a black, eighty-foot-long centipede. “What the hell…?” Or at least at 10-inches tall, Alister realized that it appeared to be eighty-feet long, but was in reality probably only eighty inches long.

Standing directly in front of the creature was none other than the King of Hearts who appeared to be battling the beast. Alister grew awed by how Crim fearlessly swung his double-edged broadsword at the centipede again and again. But, when Crim’s sword clashed against the centipede’s exoskeleton it appeared to have no effect.

The centipede’s tail whipped out, rammed into Crim, and sent him flying back through the air. He landed not too far from Alister, Clover and Katrina.

“Hello, dear brother!” Clover greeted enthusiastically. “It’s so good to see you again!”

Crim shot the White King a dismayed look and groaned. “Ugh. It’s you. It’s so awful to see you, Clover.” Crim stood up and dusted himself off. The King’s sharp, dark gaze went to Alister next and a flash of surprise flitted across his features. “I’m surprised you made it past the Dark Fairy shadows, peasant. I didn’t think you’d be brave enough to put out whatever source of light you were using to navigate the tunnels.”

Alister flushed in embarrassment since Crim was right - he hadn’t been brave enough to extinguish his lantern.

Oblivious to Alister’s inner turmoil, Clover puffed up his chest with pride. “You’re wrong brother. He didn’t put out his lantern. I had to rescue him using my light magic!”

A vein at Crim’s temple throbbed in irk at his brother’s words. “You…helped him!” His voice was laced with disbelief. “He’s the competition, you fool! I thought you wanted to marry Madeline.”

“I do,” Clover instantly agreed. “But milady Madeline wouldn’t want to wed a man who would turn his back on someone in need. To be worthy of Madeline I need to be a true hero!” The White King decided to strike a gallant and heroic pose to make his point.

Crim rolled his eyes at his brother’s dramatic antics. “Oh, brother.”

Clover’s smile immediately widened at his brother’s words, and his eyes became glassy with emotion. “You just called me ‘brother’, Brother! That makes me so happy.”

“No, I didn’t,” Crim swiftly denied. “That was just an expression. Stop smiling at me like an idiot. Gah! I hate you!” The King of Hearts pointed his finger at Clover. “You…just stay out of my way and-” A thoughtful look crossed Crim’s face and he stroked his chin. “Wait a minute, you might as well make yourself useful and help me slay that bloody beast. I can’t get anywhere near the magic beans because it keeps getting in my way.”

“You want my help?” Clover gawked at his brother in surprise before his expression brightened. “Of course, Brother! Let’s slay the beast together…just like old times!”

“Alright then, follow my lead,” Crim began as he returned his attention to the gigantic centipede. “And be careful with its pincers. They’re coated in acid.”

Clover’s pale green eyes grew glassy at his brother’s concern. “Are you worried about my safety, Brother?”

“Of course not,” Crim snarled. “But a dead man doesn’t make a very good decoy, now does he?”

Alister frowned at Crim’s heartless words. “Decoy?”

“I assure you that I will be the best decoy ever, Brother!” Clover readily assured.

“Will you shut up already? Just listening to you is giving me a headache.” Crim snapped and pointed his sword at the centipede. “Let’s do this!” He charged towards the centipede with Clover right behind him. Then the brothers fearlessly engaged the creature in battle.

“You should help out too, Alister,” Katrina said as she watched Clover and Crim taking turns with swinging their swords at the centipede. Though her attention was mostly focused on Crim. She started to nibble on her lower lip out of worry when Crim barely dodged the centipede’s pincers from closing around him and chopping him in two.

“Me?” Alister shot the cat-girl an incredulous look. “What could I possibly do against such a creature?” Alister returned his gaze to the King of Hearts and White King who were fighting side by side. Somehow, Alister knew that this was an unusual occurrence. Their blows appeared to be swift and powerful, but they still appeared to have no effect on the centipede’s hard exoskeleton. Also, Crim and Clover were forced to dodge tail swipes and pincer attacks from the creature that had the blood draining from Alister’s face when they had a couple of close calls. He shook his head vigorously. “Impossible. I’ll be killed!”

“Just paint something, Silly!” Katrina snapped, beginning to lose her patience.

Alister pouted. “What should I paint?”

“I don’t know. You’re The Artist.” Katrina let out a frustrated huff. “They won’t be able to defeat that creature on their own. They need your help. Please. Hurry! You must think of something.”

Alister wracked his brain for an idea. “I’m trying.” He watched as the centipede whipped its tail out in the White King’s direction. Clover tried to dodge, but wasn’t fast enough this time. The centipede’s tail collided with his stomach and sent him flying.

Crim was suddenly left battling the centipede on his own again. Undaunted, Crim leapt up into the air, and with an overhead downwards slash he aimed his sword at the creature’s neck. “Off with your head!” However-