StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a girl. This girl was very special. She didn’t know she was special, how she was special, or why she was special. In fact, in her mind she was just an ordinary little girl. All right; actually, for the moment, she was. She was going to become special when she turned eighteen and a half years old.

Her mother had died when she was very young. The poor woman had come down with some nasty disease and never recovered. The girl’s father had tried his best to make her well, but it was no use. The mother’s heart had given out shortly after midnight.

The girl’s father, Alexander Hamilton, owned a large piece of land. He made his money by growing various crops on that land and by letting out the five cottages that were on the south side of his territory; right next to the forests where rich men went fox hunting. Alex also made money (or so he told his little girl) by going on “business trips” approximately once every month. It was on one of these “business trips” that I first met him.

When I met him, I was “mourning” the loss of my own husband. He had come home drunk one night and, well, let’s just say he died and leave it at that. I had two little girls of my own, twins, slightly older than Alexander Hamilton’s little girl. My little girls were perfectly normal.

Eventually, as these things go, Alex asked me to marry him. In the eyes of everyone around us, this was ridiculous. I had no title, no land, and even less money. In fact, all that was rightfully mine were the clothes on my back and my two daughters. The one thing that was in my favor was something that no one knew about; the ability to go with Alex on his “business trips”.



Alexander Hamilton insisted that I meet his daughter before we married. When we got to his house, a small gangly slime-covered little girl came running out to meet him. Her dress was torn, and her hair was in knots, but she had the biggest grin on her face I’d ever seen.

“Papa, papa!” she shouted, running towards us. “I caught a huge fish! It must have been twice your size!”

“Oh did you? And what did you do with this fish?” he asked, laughing.

“I gave it to Cook. It said it was old and was about to die anyways so– Who do you have with you?” she asked suspiciously.

“I have with me a lady. She’s going to be your stepmother,” he told the girl. “She has two daughters, so you’ll have sisters to play with.” He called to me to come out of the carriage. I carefully wiped the look of amazement off my face and forced on a smile.

“Hello,” I said sweetly, stepping down.

“Cindy, this is Frita,” Alex introduced. “Frita, this is my daughter, Cindy.”

“Hello, Frita,” the little girl said properly. “It is very nice to meet you.”

“It is very nice to meet you, too, Cindy,” I told her. “Your father never told me that you were a…” he gave me a stern look. “An excellent fisherwoman. Tell me, did you catch that fish with your bare hands?”

“Yes, I did,” Cindy said proudly. “See?” she asked, holding her hands out for inspection. There were scales stuck into her flesh, and her fingers were bleeding.

“I see. How old are you?” I asked, remembering when I used to catch fish with my bare hands. Using a pole and line was far too boring, I thought.

“I’m six, almost seven,” she told me, picking a scale out of the palm of her hand.

“Really? My daughters are eight.” I called them out of the carriage. “Cindy, this is Amelia and Diana. Amelia, Diana, this is Cindy.”

They greeted each other in a very proper way. Finally Amelia asked why Cindy caught fish with her bare hands. In reply the younger girl burst into tears and ran inside the house.



It was nearly a year later that it happened. Alexander and I were on a “business trip”. A local sheep herder saw us and, well…

I told Cindy that her father had trespassed onto a mean man’s land and had been shot. That was mostly the truth, after all. It was then that she started asking what we did on all those business trips we took. I didn’t know how to answer, so I didn’t. After all, she’d find out eventually.



Most people, when they met Cindy, took her to be a tomboy. That was good for me, because that meant that I didn’t have to explain certain odd tendencies she had. I may have let her go on that way a bit too long, though. At fourteen I decided that she really shouldn’t be catching frogs and climbing trees after squirrels any more. As any teenager would do, she took this new strictness as a sure sign that I hated her. It was true that I never scolded my own daughters for rolling around in the compost pile, but my daughters didn’t roll around in the compost pile. They were perfectly respectable young ladies. It was true that I never scolded my daughters for singing, but they didn’t sing songs that would make any respectable woman faint. And my daughters certainly didn’t sing songs in Frog Tongue or Mouse Tongue.

By the time Cindy turned seventeen and a half she had nearly grown out of chasing things and rolling through things. The songs hadn’t improved, though.

“Rib, ribbit. Rob, robbit. Rib rib robbit, robbit rib croak,” Cindy sang. I put my fork down slowly.

“Cindy, would you mind not singing at the dinner table?” I asked as calmly as possible.

“Sorry,” she muttered.

“What was that one about, Cinder-ella?” Amelia asked. I looked over at my daughter.

“Cinder-ella?” I asked.

“Today she tried sneaking through the house with her clothes all covered in ashes,” Diana explained. “So we decided to call her Cinder-ella.”

“That’s not very nice,” I scolded. “Why don’t you tell them what the song was about?”

“It was about…” Cindy paused, looking at her plate. “Mosquitoes. And dragonflies.”

“Is that all?” I asked.

“And their place in the great circle of life.”

“Do you mean the food chain?” Amelia asked, smiling.

“Yes,” Cindy admitted. Diana was about to say something nasty when a strange man walked into the room.

“I am the Royal Tax Collector, and I am here to inform you that you owe the king this sum of money,” he announced, handing me a slip of paper. I took it and read the figure.

“Are you crazy?” I demanded. “What for?”

“There is a new tax on owning cabbages,” he told me. I looked from him to the paper and back at him.

“That’s a rather stiff tax; we haven’t got that many cabbages,” I said, horrified.

“Well, that’s what the king said. So. You have ‘till the end of this month to pay up. If you have the money now I’ll be happy to take it, but if not you may send it in later,” he recited. He’d obviously made that speech many times in the recent past.

“Why is the king instituting this new tax?” Amelia asked softly. She had the annoying habit of looking up at men with wide eyes and speaking softly.

“It’s because next year on this day the prince is going to become twenty years of age, and there’ll be a grand ball and all that where he’ll chose a young lady to be princess. All the young ladies in the whole kingdom are invited; it doesn’t matter if they’re a duchess or a duster. The king thinks that he won’t have enough money to pay for the ball, so he’s making this tax for this year only,” the man explained. He looked at me and tipped his hat. “I hope you make it, ma’am. Remember; cabbage tax due at the end of the month.” With that the man turned and left. The three girls at the table could hardly contain their excitement.

“Can you believe it?” Diana asked. “A royal ball!”

“And we’re invited!” Amelia added.

“I’ll be nearly nineteen then!” Cindy said. This comment made my head snap up. I got up and walked over to the calendar.

“We’ll need new dresses!”

“And new jewelry!”

“And new shoes!”

“Pity we’re not going,” I told them, sitting back down. The three girls stared at me in horror.

“What?” the all demanded at the same time.

“Next year, on this day, I’ll be on one of my business trips,” I told them calmly. “Chances are that all the young ladies will need an adult with them. Now go get your shawls, if we’re going to go out walking tonight.”

They stood up, sulking, and walked out of the room.



It was one full year later. A messenger had come a week ago with the official invitation. The royal ball was to be held Wednesday in the royal palace. The invitation had stated that everyone under nineteen years old needed someone over twenty-five to accompany them. Amelia and Diana presented me no problem. Cindy, however, could not go. That night would be the first full moon past when she turned eighteen and a half years old. A neighbor down the street had offered to take Cindy to the ball, but I had forbidden it. The ball would begin at three in the afternoon, but the chances of getting the girl out of there before midnight were slim to none.

“You may not go, and that is final!” I shouted at her.

“But why not?” Cindy asked, nearly in tears.

“You don’t have a dress,” I answered.

“Yes I do; my mother’s wedding dress!” she told me. I paused.

“That thing is covered in silver,” I said softly.

“I cleaned it all last week,” she told me.

“Is that why your hands were all swollen,” I muttered.

“So?”

“You…” My mind raced. “All right, you may go,” I told her.

“Yay!”

“If you clean your room and sweep the floor and count the eggs for market tomorrow and help put the cows out to pasture and wash the dishes and remove the burn stains from all the furniture that you set on fire last week and get all clean and dressed up by three,” I added. Her face fell.

“But it’s nearly eleven now,” she told me. “I’ll never get done in time.”

“Too bad.”

“It’s not fair!” Cindy shouted, finding her voice again. “You never let me go anywhere or do anything! And now this!!!” She burst into tears and ran up the stairs, shouting “You hate me, you hate me, you hate me!” The door slammed. I shook my head, not knowing weather to smile or frown.



At noon she came down and announced that her room was clean and that she had swept the whole upstairs of the house. I immediately ran to see if she was telling the truth. To my ultimate horror; she was. I spent the next hour desperately thinking of ways to keep her from going to the Ball. Finally I came up with the perfect solution. It was pure evil, but horrid problems call for horrid solutions.

I ran downstairs and called for Diana.

“What dress are you wearing for the ball?” I asked, trying to act normally.

“That pink one with gold roses on it,” she answered, brushing her hair.

“Oh,” I said, thinking of how to put it. “Since Cindy isn’t going to the ball, she said that it would be all right if you borrowed her dress.”

“Really?” my daughter asked. Thankfully she continued before I had to answer. “That’s wonderful! It’s nearly two thirty now; I’ll go put it on!” Diana rushed up the stairs to her stepsisters’ room. I sighed and silently begged Cindy to forgive me. If only I had the courage to tell her…



Cindy walked into the kitchen, her head hanging low. My two girls were driving away in the fancy carriage. I waved one more time and followed Cindy. She was slowly filling the sink with water. I hesitated. A tear ran down her face. I put my hand on her shoulder.

“Look, Cindy,” I said. She spun around, knocking my hand off.

“I hate you!” she screamed. “You want to ruin my life!”

“No I don’t!” I yelled back. “I need to tell you something!”

“I don’t want to hear it! Go Away!”

I took a step back, shaking my head. “Fine, if you don’t want to hear it; you’ll find out soon enough anyways.” I turned and walked away. Cindy crumpled to the floor, sobbing.



It was five in the evening and she hadn’t come out of the kitchen yet. I tiptoed towards the closed door and opened it cautiously. Cindy was just finishing up putting away the dishes. She turned towards the window and started crying again. I was about to open the door further when the kitchen was filled with a strange glow. Cindy turned slowly and stared at it as it took the shape of a fairy.

I stared at it. It was the Fairy Godmother. She visited every girl once in their lifetime. When she had visited me I had bitten her. Nothing makes people respect you like snarling and snapping.

“Who – Who are you?” Cindy asked, her eyes wide.

“I am the Fairy Godmother,” the fairy said, waiving her wand around and making it sparkle. “I’m here to make your life wonderful.”

Cindy gaped at her. I’d snapped “You came a bit too late!” at the fairy.

“I’ve come to get you to the ball,” the fairy said in a professional voice. “First, let’s see, the dress.”

“Diana stole my dress,” the girl muttered, on the verge of tears again.

“I can make you a new one,” the fairy stated. “Besides, that one had too much silver for you. Hmm, how about a blue color with gold trim? It would go nicely with your strawberry blond hair. Ah; a crown with diamonds and rubies and sapphires. Ruby rings, too. And maybe a necklace that could be a kings ransom. Diamond bracelets with sapphires in them, and good shoes. Good shoes are very important.” As she spoke she waved her wand and the objects appeared.

“It’s beautiful,” Cindy said, twirling around.

“Just remember, the spell will be broken at midnight,” the fairy told her.

“Midnight? But why?”

Because those spells don’t work on werewolves, I growled to myself. I banged on the wall before the fairy had a chance to answer.

“Ah… Because the magic doesn’t work past midnight. It’s incredibly romantic that way, and it gets you home at a decent hour,” she improvised. Cindy stopped twirling.

“Incredibly romantic…” she said, a dreamy look in her eyes.

“Now come with me and I will make you a carriage that will be the envy of every princess in the world.”

I dove away and hid in a closet. After they had passed me I cautiously followed them to the front door. There was a carriage there; a white one with gold trims pulled by eight white horses. It was fairly dripping with gold and it jingled when the horses so much as moved their heads. Cindy stepped daintily inside and waved at the fairy as it pulled away.

“Now look what you’ve done!” I shouted at the Fairy Godmother. She looked at me nervously.

“It was necessary,” she whimpered.

“What if she…” I shook my head, wondering what possibility to pick.

“I did tell her to be back by midnight,” the fairy said in her defense. I turned into the house and slammed the door behind me.



“Cinderella Hamilton,” the announcer announced. Everyone turned and stared at her. She stared back nervously. She was late, after all. The prince stepped down from his jewel-encrusted throne and walked towards her. He took her hand in his and bent over.

“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” he said.

“Ahhh…” she said, curtsying. “Likewise, your highness,” she managed.

“Would you care to dance with me?” he asked, his blue eyes fixed on hers.

“Ahhh… Yeah… Yes, sir,” she managed.

And they danced.



When the clock struck ten I couldn’t contain my curiosity any longer. I was already starting to feel certain things, but curiosity overrode them. I leapt onto a horse and galloped to the palace. When I got there I didn’t even bother going to the front gate. I just jumped onto the wall and ran along it until I could see into a window.

Cindy was dancing with the prince! I put my head in my hands and groaned.

“Not good, not good, not good,” I said to myself.

“Sorry,” a voice beside me said. It sounded honest. I looked at the Fairy Godmother.

“You’d better be,” I snapped.

“You know it took you an hour and a half to get here?” she asked. She sounded very apologetic. I glared at her.

“It’s eleven thirty?” I screamed at her. She backed off.

“You know, most people like me,” she breathed. “Look! He’s taking her into the garden!”

I turned my head away from her to the gardens. The prince was taking Cinderella into the gardens! “No!” I shouted, jumping off the wall. At least I tried to jump off the wall. The fairy stopped me.

“Don’t stop them! This is destiny!” she hissed at me.

“Oh, you and your romantic fairy cr–”

“You werewolves never have any sense of roma–”

“You think that you can solve the worlds’ problems, one starry-eyed loser at a ti–”

“Your solution is to eat the people who act li–”

“Haven’t you heard of survival of the fittes–”

“Haven’t you heard of making the world a better plac–”

Suddenly the clock bells sounded midnight. We stopped sniping at each other and looked in horror at the clock.

“It’s a few minutes early,” the fairy said nervously. Down in the garden Cindy was running from the prince.

“I’m sorry,” her voice echoed to where we were standing. “I have to go!”

“No, please! Don’t go!” the prince pleaded with her.

“I have to go, I’m sorry,” she said, about to cry again. “I have to be back by midnight!” She ran to the front gate and ran down the steps. Halfway down she fell and her shoes flew off. The instant she hit the bottom step it turned midnight.



We dragged her home and laid her on her bed.

“What will happen?” the fairy asked me. “To her, I mean.” I shrugged my ears.

“She’ll turrrn inhoo a human in ha morrrnin-gh,” I chocked out. Speaking English with animal vocal cords is very difficult.

“That’ll be all right, then,” the fairy said.

“C-han’t you mayhck herrr forrr-ghet?” I asked. “Orrr shomethin-gh?”

The fairy sighed and shook her head. “Not unless I stay here until morning, when she changes back into a human.”

“I c-han mayhck you shtay,” I growled, giving her a look that made her think that staying until morning would be a very good idea. “I c-han’t shtay here; they might shee me lie-kh thish,” I told her sadly. I glared at the wall and cleared my throat. “Tah. Tah.” I managed. Saying ta-ta is just about the hardest thing for a wolf to do. Other than chewing gum. And… Never mind.

The fairy was hiding in a corner behind the dresser.

Nodding to myself, I walked out the door.



Three days later it was safe for me to go back home. It took me until dinner to notice something odd.

“Where’s Cindy?” I asked my two girls. They looked at each other nervously.

“At the palace,” Amelia answered quietly.

“Oh n–” I cut myself off quickly. “What is she doing there?” I asked as calmly as possible, trying desperately to not let the horror I felt show.

“Well you see…” Diana began.

“Apparently at the ball the prince decided that Cinderella was the one he wanted to marry, but…” Amelia’s voice trailed off.

“But she had to leave before he could ask her to stay, and she lost her shoes on the way out of the palace…” Diana continued.

“So yesterday the prince sent out a man that checked what shoe size every girl in the kingdom wore, and brought them all to the palace…”

“And it turns out that Saturday they’re going to get married,” Diana finished.

“She can’t–” I cut myself off again and tried calming my frantic thoughts down. I looked at my girls suspiciously. “Why couldn’t you just tell me that?” I asked. “Why did you hesitate?”

“She’s been acting very strangely lately,” Amelia told me.

“Strangely? How?”

“Strangely for her, at least,” Diana answered. “She’s been acting like a proper lady.

She hasn’t sung strange songs since the ball, and she hasn’t gotten any of her dresses dirty, either. Night before last at dinner she was actually…”

“Dainty,” Amelia shuddered. I rolled my eyes.

“She’s been turned into a love-struck starry-eyed…” I glared off into the distance. “Do either of you girls believe in the Fairy Godmother?” I asked. They looked at each other.

“Not really.”

“Not any more.”

“No.”

“Not– no.”

“Yes you do,” I told them.

“All right, I do.”

“I really do.”

“Yes.”

“In a manner of speaking.”

“Good,” I said. “Convince yourselves that you want to commit suicide,” I ordered them. The girls looked at me, confused.

“Why?” they asked me.

“Because She has a debt to settle with me,” I growled.



It took until three in the morning, but with the two girls’ united efforts the Fairy Godmother was finally summoned. A strange golden glow filled the parlor.

“I am the… Oh no,” the fairy said, slouching. “Not you. Now, look here, you said to make her forget, and she’s forgotten!”

I backed her up to the wall, snarling. “You know what I meant! What’ll happen the next full moon?”

“Well, she’ll remember everything, and it will all work out fine,” the fairy told me in a frightened voice.

“Oh PLEASE! You know it won’t!”

“Look on the bright side; by then it’ll be someone else’s problem,” she pleaded. I put my hand around her tiny throat.

“Are you aware that she’s getting married Saturday?” I snarled.

“Er, oh really?”

“Yes! Don’t you think that some problems might arise if she doesn’t know?”

“You have a point,” the fairy decided.

“Get over there right NOW and redo whatever it was you did!” I ordered. “Put some sense into that girl’s brainless head!”

“Yes, ma’am! Er, could you release me… I need a certain amount of open space to go from one place to another.” I let go and stood back as she popped out of existence.

Amelia and Diana stared at me.

“Mother?” Amelia asked cautiously. I looked at her and sighed.

“Well, I suppose that there’s no harm in telling you; now,” I decided. “Cinderella, as you call her, is a werewolf.”

“She’s a werewolf?” Diana breathed.

“Yes.”

“She bit me once,” Amelia said, horrified. I rolled my eyes.

“You don’t turn into a wolf just because one bit you! You…” I waved my hands in the air, looking for the right word. “…Inherit it.” Diana looked at me, her eyes wide.

“Mother?” she asked, shrinking.

“Don’t you worry, it usually skips a generation or two,” I told her. “Why it didn’t in Cindy’s case I’ll never know.”

“Mother?” Amelia asked. “Are you saying that you are a…”

“Werewolf. Yes, I am.”

“Am I going to…”

“Turn into one as well?” I guessed. “No. Your children most likely will be, though. Oh stop looking like that!” I snapped. “All werewolves first turn into a wolf at eighteen and a half. You’re almost twenty; you’d know by now if you were werewolves. Trust me.”

They relaxed slightly, but were still looking at me with a certain look in their eyes.

“Stop looking like that! I’m not evil, am I?” I asked. They shuffled their feet. “I’ve never eaten anyone! I’ve never even killed any… Well, they both deserved it. My point is that werewolves aren’t bad in any respect. We’re like people with gout. There are certain things we can, can’t, and must do,” I explained. “That’s all there is to it.”

“And the fairy?” Amelia asked cautiously.

I sighed. “There are some things that even love can’t fix.”



The wedding had been moved back a few weeks. Five days before the wedding was the full moon. I got to the palace just before the clock struck midnight.

I jumped onto the wall and ran along it until I came to Cindy’s open window. At the real midnight I turned into a wolf and shook the feeling off. I concentrated on the window in front of me and jumped… At the exact moment that a much younger wolf jumped out of the window. We crashed into each other and landed in the moat. I came out of the water and immediately started paddling towards the gate. There was a hole in the wall not far from it. Cindy, however, came out of the water and started thrashing around, howling. I turned and bit her ear.

“Do what I do,” I growled at her. She shank back for a moment before following me. Once we were outside the palace I shook the water from my fur and sat down. Cindy copied me. “Now, listen,” I told her in Wolves Tongue. “There are a few things you must know.” Cindy stared at me.

“It… It’s you!” she barked, standing. My ears sagged.

“Now there’s an astute statement,” I said to myself. “I’m me, all right. Listen!”

“Sorry.” She looked at me sheepishly. “You knew what I was, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did.”

“You don’t hate me?” she asked cautiously.

I sighed, my tail moving on its’ own accord. “No, no I don’t.”

“I’m sorry.”

“A word of warning,” I said, changing the subject. “Don’t keep too many mirrors around the palace. Also, make sure you visit someone far away on a regular basis. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, but now the damage is done. Stay away from farm animals.” I stood and turned around. “Follow me.”



Once upon a time, in a land far, far away there was a little girl. Her father was king, and her mother was the most beautiful woman in the land. This girl had the peculiar habit of catching fish with her bare hands.

Using a pole and line was far too boring, she thought.