Disney Princesses
'Do we have to stay here?'
Snow White moves the spoon to her lips, checking her soup before looking at her dæmon. Waiata tilts his head at her, annoyance clear on his face. Snow White merely raises an eyebrow in return and the lamb huffs, trotting towards the table and lying down, facing away from her.
'Yes.' Snow finally says, adding more herbs to the soup. 'We need a place to stay and they need someone to look after them.'
Waiata mutters something under his breath and Snow smiles to herself, chuckling quietly at her dæmon. His form may reflect her personality but he surely doesn't. Where she tries to stay happy and sees the good in all, he is careful to point out the flaws in everything he sees. The lamb thinks his girl is too innocent; she thinks he's just grumpy.
'You'll get on well with one of the dwarves, at least.' She says, giggling into her hand. He turns his head and pulls a face, which just makes her giggle more. 'At least try to like the others.'
He sighs but doesn't say anything, watching the dwarves walk in. They'll be here a while, he can try.
Kanikani surges forward, hitting the door a second after it closes. He hits himself against the wood, trying to break it down as Cinderella joins him in hitting it, shouting at their stepmother to let them out. Cinderella kneels down, looking through the keyhole and let's out a groan, slumping down next to her dæmon and burying her head in her hands.
'Gone?' The dæmon, a pyrenean mountain dog, mutters, still trying the door, still determined. The break in his voice betrays his true feelings.
'Gone.' Cinderella cries into her palms, leaning sideways until her head hits his side. He turns his head towards her, whining low in his throat.
'It'll be okay though.' He mutters. 'We'll get out, we'll try in that slipper.'
She makes an infinitesimal smile. 'We don't need to, Kani. We've got the other one.'
He sighs, moving slightly and forcing her to sit up. She puts a hand on his back and scratches his neck. His tail swings slowly, sweeping the floor. Cinderella rests her head on the door, listening to her stepsisters fighting over the slipper below. A small tear falls from her eye as she holds onto the slipper in her pocket.
'Cinderelly!'
He dreams and in his dreams, Aurora isn't there.
In his dreams, he isn't a dæmon, bound to one person and unable to change form, but a multitude of particles, flying from room to room and taking whatever shape he wishes, even if it can only be for a few seconds. He always seems to revert back to a dragonfly, without even thinking, and is always searching for Aurora, searching for someone just out of reach.
Aurora sleeps and in her sleep, she thinks of Maracini.
She is alone when she sleeps, as she has been since Maracini Settled. A dragonfly can't sleep in the same bed as a human, for fear of being crushed, so Aurora spends her nights searching through the dark for her dæmon, knowing once she wakes he'll be right there.
But she can't seem to wake up.
Maracini rouses, seeing a tigress before him, head tilted. He looks past the familiar dæmon, trying to find Aurora.
Aurora feels her eyes open of their own accord, seeing Phillip standing above her. She smiles but a faint buzzing takes her dazed attention. Before she can turn, Maracini is in her hand.
Dæmon and human are fully awake.
'Ariel!' Leoatle hisses, swimming after his girl. 'Dad's going to kill us.'
The young mermaid barely turns, rolling her eyes at her shark dæmon. They've snuck off to their cave dozens of times and her father never paid attention. One late night visit, especially when everyone is partying, is not going to be noticed by anyone.
'Don't worry, Leo.' She smiles, finally making it to the cavern. 'Dad's never going to find out.'
Leoatle sighs, swimming past her and up into the rafters. He nestles himself between some thingamajigs and whatchamacallits, staring down at her as she once again looking through her collection, marvelling at the human world.
'Isn't it amazing, Leo?' She says, smiling up at him. Normally, Flounder gets this question but, with the fish still at the party, Leoatle will get to join in.
'Yes, Ari.' He grins back down at her, teeth flashing. 'It's brilliant. One day we'll walk on the shore and actually ask what this all is.'
Ariel laughs, swimming up to meet him and resting her arms on the ledge. 'What do you think it'll be like? Being in that world?'
Leoatle smiles, bumping her nose with his. 'I don't know. Probably wonderful.'
Belle looks around the room, her face lighting up instantly. Her eyes scan the hundreds of books, seeing the titles she had only ever dreamed of seeing in real life. Kniha flies to her shoulder, having soared around the room to get a closer look at the books.
'There's so many, Kniha.' She mutters, bringing one hand up to stroke the macaw's feathers. 'We could read them all.'
'If he lets us.' Kniha points out, though he is definitely distracted. 'We're still technically working for Beast.'
Belle shrugs the shoulder her dæmon isn't resting on. 'He wouldn't show us the library if he didn't expect us to use it. So where should we start?'
Kniha jumps off her shoulder, flying towards the fictional section and trying to pull a book down with his claws. She laughs, following him and taking it out of the bookcase.
'La Belle et la Bête.' Belle smirks down at him. 'Did you choose it because of my name?'
Kniha pulls a face and she smiles, picking another book. 'This looks good; Den Lille Havfrue. It Dutch but there's a French translation.'
Kniha smiles, jumping back onto her shoulder. They are found hours later, still reading.
'I AM NOT A PRIZE TO BE WON!'
Jasmine ignores the shocked look on her father's face as she walks out of the room with Pomoc and Rajah. The two tigers, one dæmon, one regular creature, flank her as she moves through the palace, growling at anyone who comes near. Not that many do, knowing to avoid the Sultan's daughter when she is annoyed. She makes it to her bedroom, slamming the door and laying down, screaming into the pillow. Rajah places himself in front of the door while Pomoc jumps up onto the bed with her.
'Are you okay?' He mutters, batting his head against her arm.
'No.' She moans into the pillow before rolling over to look up at him. 'Yes. I'll be fine, you know I will. Father's just being-'
'Annoying, insensitive, rude...'
Rajah roars from the door.
'...yes, that to.'
Jasmine giggles, leaning against her dæmon and smiling at Rajah. The tiger had been her pet before Pomoc Settled and she loves him almost as much as her own soul. 'Why do they have to be so...princely?'
'The princes? I don't know.'
She smacks his side and he laughs, knocking her over. Suitors can wait.
Vietor walks further over the branches, trying to get a better look at the people below him. He wants to see their dæmon, to see if Kocoum's view of the them was correct. His jackal dæmon had told Vietor the white men's dæmons are deformed creatures half made of Dust, trapped between life and death. As the coyote looks down, he can't see any Dust.
'What are you doing?'
The coyote almost falls as he turns back to his girl, leaning against the tree trunk. She raises an eyebrow and he walks towards her, raising his nose to greet Flit as he flies last him.
'Just looking. Nothing wrong with just looking.'
Pocahontas smiles, sitting down on the grass gracefully. 'There's a lot of things wrong with looking, apparently. Nakoma says their dæmons can steal other dæmon's Dust.'
'And what do you think?'
Pocahontas smirks, moving forwards to rest on her stomach and stare down at the white men. Vietor lies down near her head, following her gaze over their huge boats, strange weapons and pale face.
'I think there's nothing harmful about a bit of staring.' She smiles at him. 'What bad could come from a bit of staring.'
Mulan frowns as she eats her dinner, alone, in her tent. Again. Not really how she wanted to spend her evening but, without miraculously making the other soldiers like her, there isn't much she can do. Mushu has gone out to get her more food, complaining that the camp doesn't feed her enough, and dragged Cri-Kee along with him.
'We need to do something.' Ära says, crawling towards her. 'This is getting ridiculous.'
'I know.' Mulan says, putting a hand on his back. Before she met Mushu, she had believed her dæmon was a lizard but he had several dragon-like features she couldn't ignore. 'Come on, let's go put this away.'
Ära jumps onto her shoulder as they walk back through camp, Mulan handing her empty bowl back to the chef. She smiles at him but he just rolls his eyes and she turns away, Ära glaring at the man. As she turns, her dæmon pinches her and she looks up, seeing Captain Shang walking towards her holding Khan's reigns.
'Go home, Ping.' He says. 'You're not suited for war.'
Mulan sighs, taking the reigns. Ära pulls on her hair making her look up and smile.
'The arrow.'
'Cogydd, I know you want to help but get off the counter.'
Tiana glares at her dæmon until he moves himself, hopping on top of one of the cupboards and staring down at her. He doesn't like his new form, it's horrible. He used to be a hawk, able to fly over Tiana as she was working, able to pass her the ingredients she needed. When she was transformed, he was a bee, still able to help, stinging anyone that tried to hurt her. Now he's a frog and he can't do anything.
'Here.' Tiana says, holding a finger out to him. Something sticky is on the end. 'Try.'
Cogydd leans forward to taste, nodding slightly. Okay, he can do something but no one really wants a frog near food. 'Could use more sage.'
'Sage.' Tiana says, clicking her fingers. 'Knew it needed something, couldn't figure out what.'
The chef smiles at her dæmon, turning back to her food. It opening night at the restaurant and she wants everything to be perfect. 'Cogydd, could you check the tables are ready?'
The frog nods, hopping towards the door. No one wants a frog near food but he can still help out.
Rapunzel is woken by an insistent pressure on her stomach. She opens one eye to stare at her rabbit dæmon, bouncing up and down and smiling. Gwalt cheers when he sees her awake but Rapunzel just rolls over, dislodging him.
'Go away.'
Gwalt is unperturbed, putting his paws on her face. 'Come on, lettuce, let's explore.'
Rapunzel smiles at the nickname, pushing herself into a seated position. 'Fine. Where do want to go?'
The rabbit jumps up, rushing out of the door, without an answer. Rapunzel follows him, laughing. They look through the library, seeing the thousands of books to read, books that won't take them two minutes to scan through. They look into the kitchen and seamstresses' workroom, helping out for a few seconds before hurrying along. They have a lot to see after all.
They end up in the throne room, empty bar a few guards. Gwalt bounces towards the throne, turning and looking past her. Rapunzel turns, seeing Eugene behind her.
'Enjoying your tour?' He says, smiling. His lynx dæmon steps around her to greet Gwalt.
'Oh, yes.' She grins, giving him a hug. 'Its just magical.'
'Is that why you're still in pyjamas?'
Rapunzel's face drops.