Once upon a time, there was a land with three species- humans, witches, and fairies. The fairies were in charge of keeping control of the light, spreading creation, love, and help, while the witches were in charge of managing darkness, spreading destruction, hate, and pain. Despite their two incredibly different tasks, the fairies and the witches were good friends and two species worked together to maintain the natural balance that the world had to remain in, allowing all three species to live in harmony.

However, one day a human storyteller came to the land, seeking to bring stories to entertain the people. He requested that he be allowed to write stories with fairies, witches, and humans alike. The fairies and the witches were more wary of this offer than the humans, but seeing no malice in his intentions, they granted the stranger permission.

The storyteller wrote stories about brave human heroes, their fairy godparents or fairy forces, as good and righteous people. And he wrote of the forces of evil that threatened these good and righteous forces, of witches and their magic.

Over time, the humans grew to be afraid of the witches, and began to fight the witches and destroy them all. The witches, at first, were surprised and frightened at this new way of treatment, before they grew angry and fought back, releasing a foul creature known as the Ender Dragon to destroy the land.

Only troubled lands have need of heroes, and soon, four heroes came to help the people of this land, to defeat this creature. Four heroes known together as the ORDER OF THE STONE.

GABRIEL the Warrior, before whose mighty sword all combatants would tremble.

ELLEGAARD the Redstone Engineer, whose inventions sparked an era of invention.

MAGNUS the Rogue, who would channel his destructive creativity for the benefit of all.

And SOREN the Architect, builder of worlds and leader of the Order of the Stone.

These FOUR friends worked so hard to claim their rightful place as FOUR heroes, banding together along with a few witches who wished to return peace to the land and fairies who wished for the same result in order to defeat the Ender Dragon.

In the end, the Order of the Stone emerged victorious, and the Ender Dragon was defeated.

But angered that their lesson to the humans had been destroyed and that some of their own, many of the witches, corrupted by malicious treatment and cruelty, banded together and unleashed another scourge upon the world- one that would not be so easily destroyed.

The FAIRYTALE CURSE.

The Fairytale Curse was a much more subtle scourge upon the world, not as obvious and as destructive as the Ender Dragon.

Upon first glance.

The Fairytale Curse took its name from the many stories that had been written under that title. Each curse took a well known fairytale, ones with happy endings and ones without, twisting the ones with happy endings so that breaking the curse was well nigh impossible without previous knowledge of the curse.

This curse punished all who received, be it fairy, witch, or human, and to this day, it is still running rampant throughout the lands, spreading havoc and death everywhere it goes.

Those who receive the Fairytale Curse are unaffected by the conditions of other Fairytale Curses, but those who do not have the Fairytale Curse know nothing of the curse- only that it exists, and that they are based on the different fairytales. Those who have it choose to keep it a secret, afraid that the fact that they have the curse will force the people they love away from them.

You may be wondering, why am I telling you this story? Does this story have a happy ending?

That all depends on the hero of this story.

x.X.X.x

"Would you rather fight a hundred chicken-sized zombies, or ten zombie-sized chickens?"

Olivia leaned back against a shelf, holding a handful of faintly glowing redstone dust in her hand. The girl's curly black hair was tied up neatly in pigtails, topped off by a green beanie with goggles attached. Her vest was already covered with the particles of redstone, although it was rather hard to tell since it was red itself, and the dark-skinned girl was giving her friend a patient look.

"And I'm not talking about just a resized thing that a fairy might summon. I'm talking about a full on nasty witch-created monstrosity that could probably kill you," Olivia added, after a moment of thought.

Jesse turned to look at Olivia, long black hair shifting aside gently as she turned to look at Olivia. There was a golden pin keeping the hair out of her emerald-green eyes, and her overalls effectively covered most of her white t-shirt with the red sleeves. Despite Olivia not being a particularly tall person, Jesse was easily a full half-head, if not a full head, shorter than her friend. In one hand was a wooden practice sword, as the dummy she'd been practicing with clattered back to the floor in the absence of any new attacks.

"I'd have to go with the giant chickens. Not because I want to, or because I think it would be easy..." Jesse paused, making a face as the mental image of the zombie-sized chickens appeared in her mind's eye and blinked out as fast as it had come, "but because they would be an abomination."

"Imagine their giant feet," Olivia agreed, rather enthusiastically.

Jesse grinned at Olivia. "Like I said. An abomination." With that, Jesse turned back to the training dummy and continued smacking it with the wooden sword, being sure to keep dodging the resulting rocking-back-forward motion of the dummy. The first time she'd tried attacking the dummy, it had rocked back forward and slammed full into her nose. She'd been lucky to not break her nose.

There was a long pause, punctuated only by the clatter of wood on wood, before Olivia turned back around to the shelf, glancing over at Jesse with a quizzical look. "So... you are going to stay away from anything that's on fire this time, right?" she asked, casually.

Jesse's sword abruptly knocked the wooden dummy to the floor, as the swing that Jesse had been preparing lashed out with much more force than had been intended, changing the rhythmic clatters into a deafening crash. Reuben, who had been nudging the training dummy to help Jesse, let out a squeal of surprise and dodged aside as the dummy hit the floor of the treehouse with a noise that startled at least a dozen parrots into flight.

"I- uh- huh?" Jesse asked, looking up from the dummy up at Olivia, who had whipped around from where she'd been putting down the redstone in a neat trail on a nearby bookshelf.

The dark-skinned girl turned back to look at her shorter friend with a slightly raised eyebrow. "I mean, c'mon, Jesse, you're the clumsiest person I know. Last year we went on a hike and you were coming up to where we were and tripped straight into the campfire." Olivia rolled her eyes. "Besides, you got seriously burned from landing in the campfire like that. It's just better for your safety to stay away from anything flammable." Despite the almost slightly sarcastic tone in Olivia's voice, there was a clear amount of concern in Olivia's eyes as she regarded Jesse.

"Oh." Jesse relaxed a little, although not a lot. "Yeah. Definitely not planning on doing that again anytime soon."

The dark-skinned girl gave a light chuckle at the answer. "I hope you weren't planning it that time, either." Returning her attention to the redstone, Olivia said, "Soo, I've got a daylight sensor on the roof..."

"Uh-huh," Jesse replied, quickly righting the dummy again and giving Reuben's head a rub.

"And if I did this right, these lamps should turn on once it gets dark."

"Okay."

"I didn't want to just leave Reuben here while we were at the competition-"

Jesse cut Olivia off here, giving her friend a slightly bemused expression. "He's... coming with us?" The way Jesse said it, it was clear that she felt this little detail was quite obvious.

"Really?"

Jesse frowned at the surprised tone in Olivia's voice, and the flash of surprise that the curly-haired girl was unable to hide in time. "Of course he is. What kind of question is that?"

Olivia put her hands up in surrender quickly, giving her head a shake and letting her curly hair bounce around a little. "Okay. I'm not saying he shouldn't come."

Reuben let out a disbelieving oink.

"I'm not!" Olivia paused, realizing she'd just spoken to the little pink pig, before continuing, sounding a little hesitant and as if she was choosing her words extremely carefully. "But... don't you think it's a little weird that you take him with you... everywhere you go?"

Jesse crossed her arms over her chest a little defensively, resting them over the pocket on the front of the overalls. "Reuben is the best pet I could ask for. Obedient, loyal, and always happy to see me at the end of a long day." Spotting the annoyed look on Reuben's face from where he was now perched on a chest in front of the windowsill, she quickly corrected, "Friend. I should have said friend. Not pet."

Reuben went back to smiling, having given her a little nod as if to say, That's what I'm talking about.

"I didn't mean anything by it. I'm glad he's coming." Olivia sighed, setting her hands down a bookcase. "I just... don't want to give anyone another reason to call us losers. I'm getting tired of it." There was a short pause, before Olivia said quietly, "I'm tired of being a laughingstock."

Jesse gave Olivia a little shrug. "Well, I don't think you're a loser. Besides," and Jesse gave Reuben a solid little pat on the back, "they really don't know what they're missing out on. It's their loss, not ours." And she and Reuben gave Olivia twin grins, both wide and cheerful.

Olivia shook her head, a low chuckle emitting from her throat. "All right, fine," she conceded.

A hissing sound started up in the background, making Jesse frown a little quizzically, looking around for the source of the sound. "Do you hear that?" she asked, quietly. Olivia was looking around too, eyes searching for the source of the sound as well.

A moment later, both sets of eyes fell on the same source.

The wooden trapdoor leading into the treehouse.

"Oh no," Olivia whispered, voice sounding a little hushed.

Jesse frowned, kneeling next to the trapdoor so she could peek through and check- and that's when the green, mottled head of a creeper burst through the trapdoors with another thunderous crash, along with a loud "BOO!"

Both girls shrieked loudly, Jesse leaping back and clamping her hands over her heart protectively, while Olivia flinched back and slammed her back into the wall in shock. Reuben let out a loud squeal, rearing onto his hind legs, unbalancing, and falling off the chest forward onto the floor. Which was lucky. He easily could've toppled over backwards out the window, and that would've been a disaster.

A boisterous laugh rang out, making Jesse freeze from where she'd started scrambling backwards with hands still clamped over her chest to get away from the creeper, before her expression switched back to the 'creeper', to see Axel pulling off a well-made creeper mask and grinning the widest grin ever at them. His black hair was slightly messed up from being inside the mask, and his fluffy hoodie was messed up a little as well. "Oh man! You guys totally freaked out!" he exclaimed, climbing fully into the treehouse, "that was awes-"

He was cut off by Reuben charging forward and butting his head angrily into his stomach, making Axel gasp a little as the air was headbutted out of his stomach. Glancing down, he frowned and rubbed that area a little.

"Axel- what's the matter with you?!" Olivia blurted angrily, rubbing her back a little and looking as if that action had just hurt quite a bit. (Actually, it probably had.)

Axel, however, seemed a little preoccupied with something else. "Great. Now I'm going to smell like a pig at Endercon," he moaned, before giving Reuben an accusing look. "I thought we were buddies!"

"Just what you deserve," Jesse joked, hands still clutched over her heart, although they were relaxing a little bit and no longer grabbing at her heart. "Cool mask, though."

"It is, isn't it?" Axel said, grinning proudly at his much-shorter friend. If Olivia was already a head or so taller than Jesse, Jesse was at least THREE heads shorter than Axel. The guy was TALL. And way bigger than them both. He might've been kind of big, but most of that was muscle, and he could easily lift Jesse if he so chose to. (Which he usually didn't, because Jesse hated it.)

"Yeah. Very convincing." And Jesse shot him a playful glare while setting her hands on her hips.

Axel let out a brassy laugh, seeming unconcerned by her playful glowering. "The look on your faces..."

Olivia changed the subject, rolling her eyes subtly at Axel and his antics. "Did you bring the fireworks?" she asked, patiently.

"Yes, I did." Axel then dramatically pulled out a set of black wings and a little Ender Dragon head, just the right size for Reuben. "I even brought something for the little guy!"

Jesse felt a huge grin spreading over face. "Nice!" she exclaimed, cheerfully.

Olivia raised her eyebrow a little bit at the sight of what he was holding. "You brought Reuben a disguise?"

"Uh, we're going to a convention," Axel said, going over to Reuben and quickly pulling the wings and the mask on, "someone's gotta wear a costume." The minute the costume was on all the way, Reuben looked around a little, the jaw of the Ender Dragon head flapping around a little bit, before dashing around in circles around the area, the wings on the Ender Dragon flapping around as he ran around the room.

Jesse's grin was in danger of splitting her face. "He looks awesome!" she exclaimed, happily.

"It only took me like a million hours to build it."

Jesse rolled her eyes at the comment, grinning widely at Axel. "All right, all right," she chuckled, shaking her head at the burly boy. Really, he looked like he could be a professional wrestler, but he was such a kid sometimes.

"You definitely brought the fireworks, right?" Olivia checked again, raising her eyebrow at Axel.

"Yes, yes," Axel waved this off, giving his eyes a friendly roll. "Waiting on you guys!" He glanced over at Jesse, giving her a gentle clap on the back. He'd used to clap her on the back a lot harder, but then after knocking her into the floor the first few times, he'd started becoming a lot more gentle. Which Jesse was thankful for.

Olivia gave him a smile at that and moved to start heading down the ladder, glancing up at Jesse as she did so. "We'll meet you and Reuben downstairs, okay?"

"Okay!" Jesse replied, a bright grin on her face.

Shutting the trapdoor behind them, Olivia and Axel began to make their way down the ladder. Jesse backed away from the trapdoors a moment later, her smile falling into a more serious expression as she did so. Gingerly, she reached up, unzipping the pocket on the chest of the overalls she was wearing and reaching into the pocket.

With almost comedic gingerness, Jesse lifted out a glowing, red heart the size of her fist (although it wasn't nearly as thick as a fist- only about the thickness of a thick cookie), allowing it to rest in her palm. The slight translucency of the heart at the edges betrayed the fact that it was made of glass, and the glow was from a single, quarter-sized sphere of light in the center of the heart, effusing a warm, cheerful glow.

The glow pulsed in sync with Jesse's heartbeat.

x.X.X.x

A/N: Alright, I figured I'd publish this and see how it's received. If... three people comment on every site that I post this on comments on the chapter (positively and showing interest), I'll keep this going. If not, then I'll just leave it as a sort of oneshot.

Wow, I'm taking on way too many things at once. Good for me! xD

Well, hopefully people like this.

See ya, so long, and g'bye!

x.X. A.L. X.x