Make The Third Wish

by ciizeey

Summary:

What happens when people somehow make their way into The Land of Stories? And how did they get there?
⋆˚࿔ ༉‧₊˚.
What happens when Chase, Deacon and Prunella pick an unusual book from the pile of books Mrs G gave them? And why are they stuck in this strange place without a story plot to follow?

(IF YOU'VE READ THE ORIGINAL, (A THIRD WISH) YOU SHOULD READ CHAPTER 8 AND ONWARDS, BECAUSE THAT WAS A CHAPTER I WAS GOING TO POST LATER BUT NEVER ACTUALLY GOT AROUND TO!!)

Notes:

WE ARE BACK!!

This took so long and I did change a few things to the plot that I thought didn't make the most sense before, so if you see something different, don't worry! Also, I did change part of the CB plot at the start, so it would be kind of similar to the first episode of Season 2!!

This will mainly be posting biweekly due to the fact that I have sooo much schoolwork, but sometimes I might post weekly, it really depends on how many assignments I have.

Also, every second chapter will be of the other fandom (IDK HOW TO EXPLAIN IT SORRY) Here's an example: CB, TLOS, CB. It will be like that (hopefully), but if it does change I will put a note.

I think that's all I need to say right now, so enjoy!!

Chapter 1: No One Else Was In The Book Where It Happened

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

Chase couldn't help but feel sick and tired of all the questions. From everyone. Danielle, Simon, Deacon, Grandpa and Mrs G. Every. Single. Person. Couldn’t. Shut. Up. They just wouldn’t. Not even with the many times Chase had tried to explain

“What happened on that last turn Chase? You were supposed to..” Simon asked him at dance practice.

“Are you sure you’re fine Chase?” Danielle asked, she’d noticed he’d been zoning out while they were at the Sugar Shack. 

“Chase, come here and test these cupcakes! They might be the best I’ve ever made! Might I even say, better than any cupcakes Diane could ever make! Now, how are they?” Grandpa would yell at him. 

Chase was his Grandpa’s designated taste tester. A wonderful thing and also a terrifying one if you were asked to try thirteen different types of gluten-free brownies in one day, and to give detailed feedback on which batch was better and why.  

“Chase! How has baby-sitting Prunella been? Oh goodness! You look sick! How about you take a day off?” Mrs. G had asked Chase when he had taken Prunella home after that afternoon.

“Chase, you have to tell me! What happened in that book? I need to know so that if something like that happens again we..” Deacon would demand, pulling up the blanket Chase was hiding under. 

It was absolutely suffocating! Listening to the constant nagging all the time. He only had one question for one person and he couldn’t even get an answer from him! Because Chase wasn’t allowed in any books until he could give Deacon a clear answer. 

It had been over a week since ‘Cinderella’ had nearly destroyed itself and everyone inside after being knocked into a container full of water. The mini world inside of the book had disintegrated and turned everything and everyone in the way into paper rot, including Deacon and Prunella. 

The only reason any of them were alive was… Was because…

Nevermind, Chase could feel his face heating up and that would not do. He didn’t care that he had kissed the guy that had hated him ever since he had stepped foot into the books.He didn’t care about the fact that he had given the guy a stupid nickname. He didn’t care that ‘Buddy’ was super crazy hot.

A part of Chase was excited to see Buddy, hoping that he’d meant everything he’d said in Cinderella. But another part was nagging in the back of his head, this part was being more logical or more like Deacon. 

That was the way to get the ending, Chase. That was what he had to do, not because he wanted to, because he wanted to finish the story and your stupid idea for ‘True love’s first kiss’ was the only way to do it. He’s hated you ever since you started going into books, and he’s only after Silver, Bronze and now Goldie. 

But then what was that thing Buddy had said? That he wanted to be Chase’s hero? That stupid line was echoing through Chase’s head at all times, and it seemed like the only way it would disappear was if he could talk to Buddy. 

What was he even thinking? Was he even thinking? Was his head being controlled by some alien people from Mars? Or worse, Saturn.

Chase sighed and rolled out of bed, he was tired of faking sick. He brushed his messy blonde hair out of his face and chose his clothes for the day, he wore his signature jacket. A black jacket with teal sleeves, and a bright yellow star on one sleeve. 

“CHASE! GET DOWN HERE!” Grandpa yelled, and so down the hallway Chase went, passing the bathroom, Deacon’s room and finally making it to the staircase. 

Childhood photos of Chase and his cousin lined the wall and followed him downstairs. Memories of his life that were frozen and framed for the world to see. Birthday parties, family picnics and beach days. If you didn’t know Chase and Deacon, they might have sounded like brothers, the stupid bickering and dumb insults. 

However, Chase had a plan for today. A very dumb and not well thought out plan. He was going to tell Deacon some sort of truth as to how they had gotten out of the book. Because he needed to know why Buddy had said all that, even if it was only to save everyone.

 

 

 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

 

Deacon wasn’t even trying to hide the cheap romance book today. Whether it was because his textbook was upside down, or because Grandpa was too busy to tell him to get back to studying was anybody’s guess. 

Besides, Grandpa was adding the finishing touches to the cakes he was entering into the bake sale today. This time, he was sure he would beat Diane Forenski, if he didn’t get kicked out by security. 

The slam of the front door made someone else’s presence known. Prunella, the girl who lived across the road. 

“Hey Mr Hollow!” She would yell each morning with a wave in Grandpa’s direction. Then she went to the cupboard full of cereal and pour herself a bowl. Now usually, Prunella would go outside for the rest of the day to build a survival fort. Well, that used to be her routine. 

Nowadays, she would go up into the attic with Deacon and Chase. 

“Kids, I’m going to the bake sale now, I’ll be back at around four-thirty.”

“Okay, Grandpa.” Chase and Deacon said in unison. 

“Bye Mr Hollow.”

“See you at four-thirty, Grandpa.”

The trio sat in silence as they waited for the sound of Grandpa’s car leaving the driveway, before they started their conversation. 

“So.. The Keys wanted some more snacks..” Deacon said, starting the conversation. 

The Keys, the tiny metal humans that could turn into- well- keys. They would allow Chase and his friends to enter stories in order to receive narratonin. A full jar of narratonin would allow Chase to make a wish. A wish to save someone he loved very much.

“Which snacks did they say?” Prunella asked. 

“Uhm, gummy bears, peanut butter cups and cheese pretzels is what Silver said.” Deacon answered, flipping the page of his book. 

They returned to the peaceful silence, the sound of Prunella’s spoon scraping the sides of the bowl and the occasional turn of Deacon’s page (And the squealing that resulted from it). Chase tapped his fingers against the table to the beat of the Star Brigade song he was humming.

So, how am I supposed to put this? Buddy and I kissed? Definitely not. Hmm, what’s something Deacon would believe? 

Chase cleared his throat. 

Silence.  

So, he tried again, this time louder. Deacon looked up for a split second, then his eyes darted back to his book. Prunella got up to wash her bowl, which was strange for an eight-year-old to do, but Chase didn’t question it. 

“Guys, I have something to tell you,” He announced. Now that drew both Prunella and Deacon’s attention towards Chase. “I’ll tell you how we got out of Cinderella.”

 

 

 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

 

“So, you’re telling me, we got out of ‘Cinderella’ because you and Buddy made up an ending?” Deacon repeated. It was way too unbelievable for Deacon, but who was he to say? He didn’t see, he was paper at that point. 

“MHM!” Chase hummed, turning to hide the redness in his face. 

He hadn’t lied, he’d just told a half-truth, which technically wasn’t a lie. He and Buddy had made an ending up, the one the book wanted. Chase was just glad Deacon hadn’t asked which ending they had made up. That would be harder to tell a half-truth for. 

“Well, as promised, we’ll go into a book now. Thanks for telling the truth.”

“No problem.” Chase said through a strained smile. He gestured to Deacon to pull down the string to the attic. 

They were standing in Chase’s room, surrounded by posters of pop stars and concert dates. One man in particular that was featured on every wall was the famous Alistair from Star Brigade, Chase’s celebrity crush. 

Deacon sighed and pulled the string, and a temporary ladder fell down, along with a small cloud of dust. Cough. 

The ladder creaked under Deacon and Chase’s weight as they made their way up and into the attic, where a quiet argument about who won Uno was happening. 

The attic, despite the dusty entrance, was more like a tower room, or secret hideout, nobody could see you, but you could see everybody. Which was why it was the perfect place to hide things . Sorry, not things, people, tiny metallic people. Three of them with their tiny, personalised houses.

“Hello Chase! What will we be doing today?” A high pitched voice exclaimed as Chase’s head popped through the attic’s floor. 

Silver, the Heroine Key, looked like your average fairy tale Heroine. She wore a giant dress, which had short puffed sleeves and a popped collar. Her body was made completely out of silver, except for of course, her giant pink gemstone eyes that shone in the sunlight. 

For the past few days, Chase had brought up colouring pages and games (The game pieces and playing cards were giant in comparison to the Keys), so that they would have something to do while they were ‘babysitting’ Prunella. 

Deacon came up a moment later, and Prunella just after him. 

“We’re going into a book! If that’s okay of course?” Deacon smiled, pulling up the ladder up after Prunella. 

“Of course that’s okay Deacon!” Silver assured, clasping her hands in excitement. 

“No, it’s not.” A grumpy voice yelled from the top of Silver’s cardboard house. 

Bronze, the Helper Key sat up from underneath a pile of wrappers. He had shiny emerald eyes and was entirely bronze. He was dressed in a tunic and knee high, laced up boots. On his back was a small apple symbol barely hidden underneath a small plait of his hair. 

“Whyever not, Brother?” Goldie, the Hero Key asked Bronze. 

Goldie, similar to his siblings, was completely gold. He had sapphire gemstone eyes and like his brother, wore a tunic and had combat boots on his feet. His hair was uplifted at the front and on his back was the image of a sun. 

“Because Goldie, I wanted to sleep today! ” Bronze yelled.  

Everyone laughed at his outburst. Bronze basically slept through any days he could, and even if he was awake, he would be eating peanut butter cups. 

“Now, I think we should do a fairy tale today, like we usually do.” Chase suggested. 

“But which one?” 

“Hmm.. How about.. Another version of Cinderella! We can do our old plan, introducing Prunella to Buddy like we wer-”

“No.” Deacon said, cutting Chase off. 

“What?!” Chase yelled.

“We’ve done enough Cinderella books to last a lifetime, Chase, and besides, Prunella isn’t going into this book.”

“What?!” Prunella yelled. 

“I’m not letting you near books for a while, considering that the last book nearly killed us.”

“That’s not fair.” 

“Well bad luck, maybe two someones shouldn’t have left a bucket full of water out in the open. And maybe someone should’ve done his job properly and made sure the window was shut securely .”

“I told you Deacon, I don’t know how that window came undone it was secure when we left!”

Deacon ignored Chase and Prunella’s complaints and went over to the unread pile of books. He searched for a while until he saw a deep emerald book with golden lettering. The cover was slightly worn out and it looked ancient, almost as though it was custom made.  

“The Land of Stories?” He mumbled. 

“Oh yeah, mum used to read that to me all the time!” Prunella chimed in, looking over Deacon’s shoulder, causing Deacon to jump. 

“I skimmed that, isn’t it just a book of fairy tales?” Chase asked, looking over Deacon’s other shoulder, making him jump again. 

“Yes, it’s special though. It was a gift from my uncle to my dad.” 

“If it’s a gift, what’s it doing in the pile of books from Mrs. G?” Deacon asked. 

“How should I know?”

Deacon put the book on the table, and began to look carefully through the pages. Beautifully drawn pictures of princesses, witches, knights and castles were spread throughout the book and all of them were original fairy tales. It took a while for him to finish looking through the entire book, and it looked expensive and almost as though it was custom made. 

“Where did your uncle get this from?” Deacon asked, holding it up. 

“Uhm, I think dad said it was from his grandma? I don’t really know, it’s just really old.”

“So, this book could be from the, oh I don’t know, 1800’s?” Chase exclaimed. 

“Maybe.”

It was almost as though Deacon had touched a piece of history. This book was ancient, and beautiful too, and in such good condition it was crazy that it might have been made a few centuries ago. 

“Would you be okay if we went into this book?” Deacon asked, pushing the book towards Prunella. 

Prunella picked up the book and began tracing the golden lettering with the tip of her finger. 

“You can go into this book,” She sighed, setting it down on the table. 

Deacon and Chase gave each other a look. That sigh was way too dramatic..

“..If you take me with you.” 

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

“Prunella, we’re not taking you with us.” Chase said, Prunella rolled her eyes. 

“Fineeee, you can still go inside, it’s just a boring book of fairy tales.” 

“Thanks Prunella!”

“No problem.”

Chase started flipping through the pages, keeping mind all of the fairy tales that the Heroine and the Villainess spent some time together. Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel and Sleeping Beauty. 

“Deacon, can we go into Snow White?” 

“No,”

“Okay then, what about Rapunzel?”

“No,”

“Alrighty maybe, just maybe, and stay with me here, Hansel and Gretel?”

“No! I don’t know why you’d want to go into a story with cannibalism of all things!”

“Uhmm what else… Cinderella?”

“Chase, we talked about this! No more Cinderella books!”

“What about Sleeping Beauty?”

“Why don’t we just go into the entire book of fairy tales without your bookmark trick?” 

“Why?” 

“We’ve never done that before? I wonder if it would work like a normal book with chapters or something else?”

“Weren’t you just talking about staying safe?” Prunella asked, arching an eyebrow. 

“Yeah, but we can just go home at any point!”

Deacon went over the very specific rules Prunella was supposed to follow with Goldie and Prunella. She was not allowed into a book without someone watching the book at all times, someone included the Keys, Chase and Deacon. She could only go into one book per day, and it had to be from her pile of Lady Lovalorn books, and she was to watch the book that Deacon and Chase were in. 

“That sounds boring.”

“Well, that sucks for you.”

Chase held out his hand for Silver to step onto, almost like a little step. Deacon did the same for Bronze, and the both of them watched Silver and Bronze burst into little bursts of light, in their places, were Keys, one bronze and one silver. 

“Bye Prunella, you can go into a book when we get back!” Chase yelled as he inserted Silver’s Key into ‘The Land of Stories’ and as a flash of light appeared, Chase disappeared. 

“He’s right, you can, and please, don’t break the rules, Prunella, your mum would kill us. Literally.” Deacon said, following Chase inside the book.

Flash. 

Silence. 

“So, Miss Prunella, would you like to play another round of Uno?” Goldie asked. 

“Hmm, okay, I’m going to win again though.”

“No, I will!”

“Sure Goldie, we’ll act like the last seven rounds never happened.”

“Thank you.”

 

 

 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

 

“They’ve been gone for a while..” Prunella grumbled. She’d won the past few games of Uno, Go Fish, Monopoly, Guess Who and Connect 4. 

“Yes it is quite unusual for them to be gone so long.” Goldie agreed. 

hummmmmm..

 

“What’s that?” 

 

Hummmmmm..

 

“Is Chase and Deacon’s grandfather back already?” 

Prunella stood up and walked over to the window and stood on her tiptoes. Mr Hollow’s car wasn’t in sight, neither was any car in any direction. 

“No, and that’s strange, it’s like…” Prunella tapped Deacon’s phone, the screen lighting up with no notifications. 

Damn, that’s sad Deacon. She thought, but her eyes widened at the time. 

“It’s 3:22. They’ve been gone for nearly four hours!” She exclaimed. 

 

HUMMMMM..

 

“What is that noise?” 

“Goldie.. I think it’s coming from the book.” 

“But how?” 

“I don’t know!”

 

HUMMMMM..

 

“Then whatever shall we do?” 

Prunella picked Goldie up, and put him on the table beside the book. The options of what they could do were limited. 

Go into the book? Deacon would kill me. Wait it out? It’s been four hours already, books usually take half an hour. Call Mr Hollow? That would mean telling him about the Keys, books, everything. That was a last resort. 

The humming was growing louder and louder now, almost deafening and she had wasted too much time thinking that she couldn’t focus of her thoughts anymore. The only thing she could focus on was the book’s humming. 

She picked up the book and it opened? The words on the page were clearly from Red Riding Hood, but the pictures didn’t show a young girl with a red cloak and a basket of treats, it showed a young woman with blonde hair who sat upon a throne with a giant wolf beside her. 

 

HUMMMMM!!

 

“Goldie! I thought Deacon said books can’t open when Keys are inside!”

“That’s right! It shouldn’t be open!” 

“Then why is it?”

“I.. I don’t know?!”

“What!?”

The pages of the book began glowing, blinding Prunella, and causing her to drop the book. 

“Ah! What the heck!”

She knelt to the floor and Goldie jumped from the desk to join Prunella 

Loose bits of paper began floating around the room circling the book, Prunella and Goldie. Slowly heavier objects started to join in on the object whirlpool, Silver’s house, Goldie’s castle, Deacon’s phone, storybooks and the Key’s food all were picked up and began floating around the room. 

“The book glows and hums now!? Since when could books do that?” Goldie yelled and Prunella held her ears. 

The pages of the book began flipping on their own, to a random page in the book. This page had a beautiful field and.. 

“Chase!” Prunella shouted, pointing to the page so Goldie could see. Chase was lying on the ground in a giant pile of tall grass that could have been taller than Chase himself. 

“Miss Prunella! I think you need to go into the book!” Goldie yelled. 

“What?” Prunella yelled back. 

Goldie turned into a Key in response and Prunella had to crawl to catch him, so he wouldn’t join the object whirlpool. 

She slammed the book’s cover shut, the emerald cover taunting her and the golden words attempted to show innocence. Like this was her fault?

Prunella put Goldie’s Key in the cover and disappeared into a flash of light. The attic immediately fell back into a silence, and the object whirlpool fell, causing the room to look like a complete mess. 

The book flashed once, then twice and on the third flash, disappeared too, leaving golden glitter all over the floor. 

 

 

 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

 

Prunella woke up, she’d had the craziest dream, she was in the attic with Goldie and ‘The Land of Stories’ book that had been in her family for generations had started going crazy! Chase and Deacon were inside using- using..

That wasn’t a dream...

She was falling through the sky! She looked down, which was a massive mistake, because with each and every blink, she would plummet even further. Tears were welling up in her eyes because of all the wind gushing in her face, and she yelled “ Home!” so many times that it was almost like Goldie’s key wasn’t even there! 

She tried to focus on her breathing, but it was like her lungs weren’t there. The ground was getting closer now…

 

Ten feet... 

 

Five feet…  

 

And she braced for the painful force of impact.

 

Thump!

 

“Owww..” She groaned. Holding her head to try and stop it from spinning. 

It hadn’t been as bad of a fall as she had expected it to be, probably because of the really tall and surprisingly soft grass that she had thankfully landed in. There was a shadow looming over her and she couldn’t see the shadow’s face due to her head spinning, her vision wouldn’t focus so all she saw was blurriness. 

“Prunella?” The shadow asked and she was shocked at the fact that the voice sounded so familiar, and at the same time so unfamiliar. 

 

 

. 

 

 

 

Chapter 2: One Short Day, In The Land Of Stories

Notes:

I just realised that I posted the second chapter first and this chapter also wasn't beta read so I hope it makes sense

 

Sitting atop a giant hilltop was a magnificent castle made of trees and gold. Once upon a time it might have been made of stone, but because of its many inhabitants, the castle grew over the years, vines and precious metals that used to be nearby becoming one with the castle. 

 

Inside, lived thousands and thousands of fairies of all shapes and sizes, most of which were floating around, whispering about new gossip from all over the kingdoms. 

 

Many fairies were floating around the giant archway that led to the biggest and most grand room in the entire castle, the ballroom, trying to get even the tiniest bits and pieces of conversation the Fairy Godmother was having with her brother. 

 

Quiet murmurs and the slightest sounds of the clinking of knives and forks could be heard echoing the room. If you went inside, the first thing you would notice was a giant, colourful, stained glass window with all the members of the Happily Forever After Assembly, made up of the rulers of each kingdom and members of the Fairy Council. 

 

The second thing however, would be a young man and woman talking about the weather whilst eating from a table clearly meant for more than two people who were having  afternoon tea. 

 

The woman had beautiful bright blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair and she had small specks of glitter spread throughout it, her hair  was done up in a tight bun t. She wore a white gown, covered in white butterflies, that fluttered their wings in sync to the woman’s heartbeat. 

 

The woman was the Fairy Godmother, Alex Bailey. The role was passed down to Alex from her grandmother, Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, who had helped Cinderella arrive at the ball to meet her now husband, Chance Charming. Alex was known to be Princess Hope’s–Cinderella and Chance’s daughter’s–Fairy Godmother. 

 

“Alex, I think I should rewrite some of my short stories from middle school, do you remember those?” The man said, buttering a scone delicately, adding jam and then stuffing it into his mouth like a wild animal. 

 

“Yes I do, Conner, and they were interesting stories.” Alex answered, reaching for a small strawberry cake from the giant silver cake stand that still had plenty of food on it. 

 

“Well, since I’ve officially finished FairyTaleTopia, I can finally work on those stories!” Conner exclaimed. 

 

Conner Bailey, one of the most well known children’s authors to ever walk the earth, had been invited to stay in the Land of Stories for a few weeks, due to the release of the final book in his most successful– and only, mind you –book series, FairyTaleTopia. 

 

FairyTaleTopia followed the lives of twelve year old twins, Connie and Alec, whose lives were changed forever when they stumbled across a strange and mysterious land, which they called FairyTaleTopia . To anyone else, it was a beautifully written book, filled with magic and mystery around every corner (One of the reviews said this word for word), however, to anyone in Conner’s family–those who would believe it, that is–, it was a bibliography. 

 

Conner had become extremely famous over the ten years it had taken him to write the series, and was now taking a well deserved break. He shared his sister’s eyes and hair, but clearly didn’t share his sister’s eye for extravagant clothes. He wore a blue button-up top, khaki pants and leather brown shoes. 

 

Alex leaned back in her chair and sighed, getting Conner here had been stressful, especially since hardly anybody in the Otherworld knew Conner had a sister, and the paparazzi had assumed she was a secret lover. Luckily, Conner and Bree had both denied the claims and explained that Alex was Conner’s sister, much to Alex’s dismay. 

 

The quiet tapping of footsteps made Alex and Conner silent, they listened carefully, trying to recognise whoever was approaching. 

 

“Well, isn’t this nice?” Both twins turned to the door, Alex’s hand gripping her wand like it was a life line and Conner ready to throw cupcakes at the stanger. However, it was Emeralda who entered the room, glitter shadowing her like she was a celebrity and the glitter was the paparazzi. Emeralda’s eyes shined a bright green in the dark and her dress was a deep emerald, with real emeralds embroidered into the silky fabric. Her hair was done up in a bun like Alex’s and had a ribbon with a matching shade of emerald to her dress. 

 

She looked at the cake display as if she was looking for something in particular, but it seemed like she couldn’t find it so she reached for a green macaron. 

 

“Ooh, matcha.” Emeralda exclaims. She brushed the crumbs off of her dress and she looked behind her to four three small fairies giggling behind her, who immediatley flew away as soon as they noticed her glare. 

 

“Emeralda, is there anything you need from me?” Alex asked, trying to get Emeralda’s attention as she reached for another macaron. 

 

“Hm? Oh, right, there’s another case of the Fields Thieves, in the Northern Palace.” She murmured, reaching for her third matcha macaron. 

 

“The Northern Palace?! Whatever are they doing there?” 

 

“I don’t know, but Snow White said that one boy was trying to act like The Evil Queen, I mean, how weird is that! The Evil Queen is dead!” 

 

“That is very weird… How many thieves were there?” Alex mumbled, placing a hand on her chin to hold her head she already looked tired just from the mention of another Fields Thieves case. 

 

Conner sighed. Alex had invited Conner to the Fairy Tale world specifically so  he could relax, but right now, he was becoming stressed at the fact that Alex was stressed. 

 

“I’m just gonna…” Conner said, standing up and gesturing to the door. 

 

“Bye Conner, I’ll see you at dinner.” Alex said, absentmindedly waving a hand in her brother’s direction. 

 

“See you Conner.” Emeralda took Conner’s chair and his plate to steal all the matcha macarons on display. 

 

Conner walked through the hallway to find a giant crowd of fairies outside, he sighed and kept walking through the halls. He practically crawled up the million stair staircase, which now he realised, staircases were everywhere in the Fairy Palace, and most fairies didn’t even use them! They just flew up, or even teleported! 

 

Conner wandered through the halls, seeing various paintings depicting the Fairy Council’s greatest achievements– most of which were accompanied by the help of Alex and Conner– and showed each and every member of the fairy council fighting with their abilities. Many canvases looked like a shimmering rainbow facing their evil enemy. 

 

The stairs wore Conner out completely and he stumbled into Alex’s office, which was a mess, mind you. 

 

You’d have thought that the Fairy Godmother, the most powerful fairy ever, would be a person with a neat workspace and an organised life. 

 

Nope, Alex’s office was a disorganised, cluttered and chaotic mess. Papers were everywhere, messy cursive scrawled on the pages, leaving Conner unsure of what was written exactly. The giant willow tree that gave shade to Alex’s office was overgrown, the leaves heaped in massive piles–Conner would have to convince Alex to use a trimming spell on the tree–and the giant Map of Magic had a very specific star in the Corner Kingdom that was glowing continuously. 

 

Conner’s eyes trailed to the cluttered glass desk, and he rolled his eyes. He walked over and began to try and organise the papers, cursing at the scribbles that Alex and everyone else considered handwriting. 

 

It never used to be this way, Alex used to be the most organised person in the entire world, her room could have won awards for how perfectly her books lined up alone. Conner was the one with a mess that virtually followed him wherever he went, and Alex would usually scold him for it. 

 

Oh how the tables have turned. Conner thought, trying to remember some of the things Alex would say about his childhood room to use against Alex. 

 

Blonde. Green. Purple. The Fields Thieves. These were the few words Conner was able to decipher in Alex’s reports. 

 

Alex and the Fairy Council had been trying for the past two months to track the mysterious thieves who were nicknamed the Fields Thieves after their continuous streak of stealing from poor unsuspecting travellers in the middle of fields. They would take food, clothes, money, jewellery and sometimes even shoes. 

 

A few minutes passed and Conner had finished his attempt to organise the papers, he didn’t know if he had fixed anything or ruined his sister’s hard work. He walked over to the willow tree and pushed its branches aside so he could stand on the balcony, which was ankle deep in crunchy leaves. 

 

He put his arms against the railing and watched the sky turn a beautiful orange colour and the sun set behind the trees of the Dwarf Forests. To pass the time, Conner picked a handful of crunchy leaves from the floor, and he crushed them in his hands. 

 

Honestly it was satisfying, and he did this many times until he heard the creaking sound of Alex’s door opening. The sound that could only be described as glitter filled the quiet room. 

 

“Conner?” Alex whispered. Conner tried to be as quiet as possible as he snuck through the leaves, standing behind a curtain of leaves that he knew Alex would walk by. She got closer and closer, looking under each and every surface that was in the room until she was almost next to Conner. 

 

“Boo.” Conner whispered directly into Alex’s ear. 

 

“OHMYFREAKINGGOD!” Alex screamed, her almost invisible fairy wings shimmered brightly and the butterflies on her dress fluttered their wings aggressively in shock. She held her glass wand out as some form of defence, but dropped it when she saw her brother. 

 

Conner fell forwards laughing, catching himself with one of the leaves, which immediately broke, causing him to faceplant. He continued laughing and Alex joined in. 

 

“You deserved that,” Alex laughed. “Anyways, I was going to tell you that it's time for dinner.”

 

“Thanks Alex,” Conner said, getting up from the floor. “Hey, how come I haven’t seen Arthur around today?” 

 

“He’s helping train some of the newer guards from the Centre Kingdom, you know they don’t really have the best security, apart from the wall.” Alex explained. 

 

“Yeah, Froggy made the right decision doing that.” 

 

“Hm? Oh no, Red made that decision, she’s afraid of the Fields Thieves.” 

 

“What, is she scared they’re going to take her baskets?” Conner joked. Red Riding Hood, or Red, as the twins called her, had an entire chamber dedicated to her baskets; it used to be a room, but now it’s a chamber. 

 

“They took her present that she was going to give to Hope, which was a tiara, the most beautiful tiara in the entire land. Red’s words.”

 

“Oh,” Was all Conner said. 

 

“Anyways, we should go to dinner.”

 

“We should.” Her brother agreed. 

 

So, they walked, well, Alex flew, towards the end of the hallway and to the banquet hall full of delicious food, ranging from perfect, golden roast chickens to the most appetizing escargot  Conner had ever seen. 

 

And yet, they walked past all of it and to a table with seven fairies already seated with their meals. In between all of them, was a giant glass throne with antlers and beautiful crystals and diamonds hanging from them. 

 

Emeralda sat on the right of the glass chair, her hair done up differently than it was earlier in the day, all braided into a half up half down bun. 

 

Xanthous, who had flames flickering above his head for hair, wore a white tuxedo, which had deep red buttons and a matching red bowtie. He nodded in Alex and Conner’s direction as they made their way to their seats. 

 

Skylene was nearly the exact opposite of Xanthous, she had water for hair that touched the floor and somehow left everything completely dry even if she had left it in one place for a long time. She wore a long blue dress that had pearls sewn on the skirt, gold leaf that created a fading effect on the hem and golden bracelets on her wrists. 

 

Tangerina had a beehive for hair, she wore a dress made completely out of honeycomb –which did make her stick to everything but it was a sacrifice she was willing to make– and had an amber necklace around her neck in the shape of a heart, that glowed in the bright banquet hall’s atmosphere. 

 

Mother Goose, who wasn’t a giant talking goose, how dare you think that, had a leather witch’s hat with a buckle on it. She had a hookah on the table and had giant bubbles coming out of her mouth that exploded with blue smoke when it touched something. She wore an old apron with many different coloured stains (How and why was there an orange stain that looked fresh?) and she had white feathers in amongst her very bushy hair. 

 

Coral had a small crown made out of seashells on the top of her head, Conner had been told she was distantly related to mermaids. She had a turquoise corset covered with pearls and small pictures of red and orange fishes. Coral was the second youngest fairy to Alex, and she was a part of one of the stories Alex and Conner’s dad had told them when they were younger. 

 

Conner and Alex took their seats and began to eat their meal, joining in on the conversation and making jokes where they could.

 

༉‧₊˚.

 

It was early in the morning when the earthquake hit, around three or four am. Alex forced Conner out of his bed and dragged him down the hallway, which was becoming a dangerous game of dodgeball with more than just your pride to lose. 

 

Objects fell and mirrors shattered, many of which, falling right out a window as the Fairy Palace had barely any walls. Every few seconds, Conner ducked and Alex flew up as a pot of gold or a painting fell, leaving mess all over the floor. 

 

“Alex! What’s going on?” Conner yelled, Alex didn’t answer and kept flying down the hallway, where she could see other members of the Fairy Council gathering outside her office. 

 

The earthquake stopped just as Alex and Conner made it to the door and everyone turned to look at them. 

 

“Emeralda, could it be?” Xanthous whispered to Emeralda. She turned to him to see his wide eyes. 

 

“Possibly. Alex, open the door.” 

 

“Um, okay?”

 

Alex waved her wand and her door flew open, a giant gust of wind came out, pushing everyone backwards. Inside Alex’s office, the Map of Magic shined with bright golden light, blinding everyone. 

 

“Why’s that going crazy?” Conner whispered to his sister, pointing at the Map of Magic. 

 

“I don’t know, Conner!” Alex whispered aggressively. 

 

“Sorry,” He mumbled. 

 

Emeralda waved her hand and the golden glow stopped, only because Emeralda had covered the Map of Magic in a thick layer of emerald. 

 

“So, what does this mean Emeralda?” Coral asked, putting a strand of hair behind her ear. 

 

“It means,” Emeralda’s voice cracked, “It means we have intruders in the Land of Stories.” 

 

“What! Intruders? Here? Right now? We have enough going on with the Fields Thieves!” Were the murmurs of response from the members of the Fairy Council. 

 

“Ha! Glad I’m not the cause of this this time!” Mother Goose laughed. The last time there had been intruders, Mother Goose had only delayed the intruders from entering for two hundred years, and they still had managed to attack the Fairy Tale world. 

 

“But Emeralda, forgive me if I’m wrong, but in order for someone to even enter the Land of Stories, doesn’t someone need to have at least the smallest amount of magical blood?” Conner asked, there were whispers of agreement from behind him. 

 

“That’s what I’m most confused about, because when someone with magical blood comes through one of the many portals, there isn’t any earthquake, but there is when someone without magical blood enters using an unstable portal.” Emeralda explained, examining the Map of Magic up close, like that would help her figure out how to fix this. 

 

“And, what would be classified as an unstable portal?” Alex glared in her brother’s direction. 

 

“Uhm, things that uh- Oh! Take the portal potion for example, that’s an unstable portal because it is a temporary portal, meaning it could close at any time with the traveller still inside!” She exclaimed. 

 

With a final flash of light, the Map of Magic stopped glowing and Emeralda took down the layer of emerald. She sighed and glared at the willow tree, it’s drooping branches still hadn’t been trimmed by Alex yet, and suddenly they all flew up, as if they were rubber and the laws of gravity didn’t exist. 

 

The morning sun peeked out from behind the Dwarf Forests, an orange glow absorbed the office, the sunlight shining down on the piles of paper Conner ‘sorted’ the day before. 

 

“What should we do with the intruder, that is, if we find them, Emeralda?” Tangerina asked. 

 

If you could have seen Emeralda’s face, you would have seen her glare fall. 

 

“We find their way out, which will be hard because once they use an unstable portal, that’s their way out and their only way out. There’s no magic strong enough and no other portal that will let them through, as their original way in was unstable, besides, they’re on a time limit.”

 

“And if they don’t get out before the time runs out?” Conner asked. 

 

“They will die,” Emeralda said. “Conner?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Why don’t you try and find this person, you'll know the difference between Otherworld people and Fairy Tale people, and Alex, clearly you need a break from the Fields Thieves, so won't you help him?"

 

Conner gulped. “Yes ma’am.” Alex kicked him in the shin, staring daggers at him and thinking profanities that she hoped he could somehow hear. 

 

“What! She’s scary when she’s like that!” Conner whispered.

 

“But still! I'm supposed to be the one in charge!” Alex hissed. 

 

Thankfully, Emeralda didn’t hear Alex and Conner’s whispering and she turned and walked out the door, the Fairy Council following close behind, leaving Conner and Alex standing in Alex’s office. 

 

༉‧₊˚.

 

Chapter 3: We Know The Way (Totally)

Summary:

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Decapitation of a minor character, mention of human composting.

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

The sound of weight hitting the ground brought Chase out of his sleep – which if he was honest, was the best sleep he’d ever gotten, even if it was on grass, thank you very much. He opened his eyes and was blinded by the light of midday, everything becoming too brightly coloured too quickly. 

Sitting up in grass that was so soft he could have fallen asleep, he rubbed his eyes and yawned, looking at his surroundings. An open meadow that opened to a giant field with different types of trees, scattered around, almost as if they were thrown at random. 

He was currently sitting in a patch of the softest grass he had ever felt, and his gaze darted from the picturesque valley to behind him, where he heard a groan coming from a giant patch of grass. 

“Owww..” 

Chase jumped to his feet, the soles of his shoes and the ends of his shoelaces were stained green from the dew on the grass. He tried – and was slightly successful – to keep his footfalls silent, until he stepped on a twig. Silently cursing, he circled the grass with caution until he noticed a familiar dark green hat.

Shit, Deacon was right, Mrs. G would murder them, and definitely get away with it too. He’d seen the murder novels on her shelves in the guest rooms, many written by Agatha Christie. 

“Prunella?” Chase yelled, the pictures of ripped off fingers and limbs left in a container full of leaves and bark, slowly turning into compost for a bright and beautiful fairy garden, going through his mind and making his stomach turn. 

He picked up the dark green hat that had fallen along with the girl. Brushing off some of the dirt that had gathered on the rim, he stepped into the patch of grass, and tried to see where exactly Prunella was.  

“Ughh,” Prunella murmured, she glanced at her arms, which were sure to be covered in bruises with time. Her head spun as she struggled to get to her feet, distorted greens and specks of light blues were all she could see. 

Finally, she found some sort of footing and stumbled around, almost as if she had two left feet. 

“Chase?” She asked the grass, pushing through and seeing a perfect farm with a bright red barn house one way and giant, towering forest of pine trees the other. Behind her, she could hear a very familiar voice calling to her. 

Chase jumped through the grass – which Prunella noticed was even taller than him – and groaned when he saw where she was. 

“I literally was just here,” He complained, going back to lying on the grass. 

“What are you doing?” Prunella asked, stumbling over to him. 

“Lying here – Wait–” Chase asked, sitting up almost immediately. “What are you doing here? Hang on – please tell me you have Goldie!” 

“ ‘Course I have him he’s right–” Prunella said, reaching for the chain around her neck– or the chain that was supposed to be around her neck. 

She froze, and Chase sighed. 

“Silver went missing too, I’ve spent the past few hours looking for her, how come you didn’t fall on the soft grass?” Chase asked. 

“Soft grass?” 

The only answer she received was Chase pointing to a giant pile of freshly cut grass that had been tossed into a giant patch of grass not too far from the meadow they were currently sitting in. She noticed that there was a giant Chase sized dent in it and she snickered. 

“I think that if I landed there, it wouldn’t have helped me much more than the other grass did, Chase.” 

“I think.. You’re right,” He agreed. “Wait, what are you doing here!” 

“I... don’t know.” 

“Wh- WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW?” 

“I DON’T KNOW?” 

They sat in silence, Prunella thinking about the few moments she’d spent in the tower, trying to piece together a full memory, and Chase thinking about where they were supposed to be. 

“I think.. The book was glowing and humming, and then there was a object tornado –”

“– Object tornado?”

“Yeah, everything was flying in a circle, I think Deacon’s phone cracked –”

“– Oh man, Auth Beth is gonna be so mad –”

“STOP CUTTING ME OFF!”

“Sorry!”

“Right, now, object tornado, then I dropped the book and it started flipping through pages, until it landed on one with you in it! Then Goldie turned into a key and now I’m here.”

“And now, none of us can leave,” Chase said.

“Really?”

“Doesn’t matter, do you know which story this book starts with, so we have some sort of direction?”

‘The Land of Stories’ with its emerald cover, golden writing and beautiful illustrations, held by her father, flashed through Prunella’s memory. Her father would always do voices for each character, making her laugh, then beg him to continue the story properly – which he never did. The book would always start with a tall tower, a young woman sitting in the frame of the only window and a prince climbing up an incredibly long braid of blonde hair. 

“Rapunzel, but why didn’t you check that before you came into the book?” Prunella said. 

“I thought we would have started the book like we usually do, in a castle,” Chase answered. “I also thought that either Dorkin or Buddy would have been there.”

“...”

“What? What’s that look? You look like you’re judging me!”

“..You should’ve checked the book before we went in..”

Chase groaned, standing as he did. He looked one way, then the other, then he started walking into the field. He stood in the middle, near the grass Chase fell in, and gestured for Prunella to follow and saw what Chase was looking at. 

A giant tower not too far from the meadow they had just been in. They hadn’t noticed it due to the canopy, and what was even more reassuring, was a long braid of blonde hair, flowing in the wind, as if it was a beacon they were on the right path. 

“I just hope she doesn’t think I’m Prince Charming,” Chase mumbled, causing Prunella to snicker. 

“Nobody would think that Chase,” She said. "You're too short."

They began the long trek towards the tower, without even wondering why they never saw the braid’s owner.

⋆˚࿔

By the time Chase and Prunella had made it to the base of the tower, the sky had begun to turn a pinkish-orange colour and the sun began to set. The base of the tower was about thirty feet wide and made out of cracked stones piled on top of one another, small pebbles were shoved in between the cracks, along with ivy that creeped up the wall of the tower, encasing it with green vines. 

Rapunzel’s hair – the hair they had seen before – had been pulled up. It would have looked like nothing had ever been there, if it weren’t for the stray hairs that were visible as they laid on the grass. 

Prunella leaned against the tower, the walk had been tiring, and her legs felt like they would stop working on her next step. Chase tugged on the ivy, checking for stability, but stopped when he heard the faintest sound. 

“Prunella, do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“That.”

Prunella rolled her eyes and focused on the silence, until she heard it. A girl faintly singing. 

‘Rapunzel?’ She mouthed to Chase, who shrugged in response. 

Chase took a few steps away from the base of the tower, and walked around until he would see the wooden window ledge. 

“Uh, Rapunzel?” Chase yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth as if it would help the sound of his voice travel to the top of the tower. The singing stopped, and a silencing crash was heard. 

“Are you up there?” 

Silence. 

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair?” God, it was weird to be the person saying it, rather than the person responding. 

More crashing sounds and a loud thump were heard along with hurried footsteps, until finally, an extremely long braid of golden locks was thrown from the ledge. Chase reached for a bit of it, however, the braid didn’t stop falling, and a head came tumbling out along with it. 

Prunella covered her mouth to stop a scream from escaping her mouth, and Chase jumped back. After all, it’s not everyday you nearly have a head fall on you. 

There was fresh blood spilling out of the neck and a mortified expression was on the woman’s — supposedly Rapunzel’s — face. More blood was dripping out of her mouth, which was wide open in an ‘O’ shape. Her eyes were wide with fear, almost on the verge of tears. 

Chase tiptoed around the head, and Prunella pressed her back against the wall. Both trying to get as far from it as possible. 

There was no way this happened in Rapunzel, not in the original at least.

Chase looked down at his hands, when had they become sticky? He had picked flowers earlier. Only, he didn’t see yellow pollen from flowers – no, he saw Rapunzel’s thick, dark red blood. Now when did that get there?

There were a few crashes that followed the thrown head, and Prunella and Chase braced for the shock of another head to be thrown from the tower, however, one never came. 

“..Wow..” Prunella whispered. 

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. 

“Where do we go now?” The sun was almost completely gone behind the tall pine trees of the forest. 

Prunella looked up at the ledge she was standing under, an idea forming in her head. 

“I think we need to go up,” She mumbled, and Chase froze. 

“Up? Are you serious? Prunella, Rapunzel’s head just fell from there!” 

“I know, but ju—” 

“No! I am not hearing you out! We don’t know who is up there! They’ve just decapitated Rapunzel, who’s to say we’re not next!” 

The howl of a wolf stopped both of them from saying anything else. 

“...”

“.. So, we're going up?”

Eaten alive by savage wolves, or decapitation at the hand of Rapunzel’s unknown attacker? 

“..Fine.” Chase huffed. At least decapitation would be quicker. 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

Deacon couldn’t say he was having the time of his life right now. Considering the fact that he’d just fallen from the sky and almost drowned in a pond, then he had watched a mall goth nearly meet the same fate, only said mall goth fell into the river reeds. 

Now, Deacon was pouring what seemed like the entire Atlantic ocean out of his shoe while listening to the sounds of ducks kicking the mall goth — or as Chase called him, “Buddy”— out of the river reeds. 

Buddy stomped out of the reeds with a huff, he was covered in mud and yellow feathers, as if he had a fist fight with the ducks, which would be absolutely pathetic if you asked Deacon. 

(Like Deacon can say anything, he gets bitten by Boris, his grandpa’s horse– and almost every horse that was within 10 feet of him actually.) 

Buddy wasn’t wearing one of his usual flashy outfits, but something that was similar to armour, however it wasn’t shimmering from the light of the sun, and it didn’t look like metal at all. 

Armour made out of fabric? That would be useless in battle. Maybe it was just for show? 

Whatever, a stupid outfit didn’t matter, however, Bronze hadn’t given him a special outfit for this book. Meaning Deacon was in the same outfit he had been when he’d entered the book, only now, it was soaking wet. 

Deacon tugged his other shoe off and somehow, even more water came out than the first, and an entire fish fell out, suffocating on the muddy surface until Buddy kicked it back into the water.

“Where is the little idiot who chose this book?” Buddy asked, crossing his arms across his chest. 

“First of all, I chose this book and second of all don’t you know where he is?” Deacon questioned in response. 

“What?”

“Well, you somehow always know the plot of the book we’re in, and all the plot cues. So, shouldn’t you know where Chase is?”

Buddy looked taken aback, then murmured something under his breath.

“What was that?” 

“This book is weird, it’s a book of fairy tales, right?”

“Right?”

“I don’t know what fairy tale this book starts with,”

“That’s great, because I don’t either,” Deacon said sarcastically. His neck began to itch, the stupid collar gave him rashes, just as he was about to scratch it, he noticed he couldn’t feel the cold metal chain of Bronze’s key. 

He frantically patted his chest, and started digging up the dirt around him. Buddy watched him with confusion spread across his face. Nothing under a layer of mud either. 

“Freckles, what are you doing? I thought we spoke about this before, you can draw in the mud at home,” He sighed. 

Deacon began walking into the water and feeling around the sandy bank. There were random coins with different dates and strange pictures and old, rusted locks with initials carved into them. No sign of Bronze’s key. 

“Are you going to answer me?” Buddy asked. 

No response. 

“Well, I might as well go home,” 

Deacon saw the flash of light reflect onto the water and he waded deeper into the lake, 

 

 

 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

 

Deacon heard the sounds of splashes behind him almost immediately and turned around to see a seething Buddy. 

“Is that why you haven’t answered me? Because you lost your key?” Buddy yelled, kicking water into Deacon’s face. 

“I thought you went home?”

“I was trying to, but this book is its own universe!” 

“What?”

“It’s — okay, it’s another universe that exists separate from ours.” Buddy explained, it should’ve been simple enough for Deacon to understand. Only it wasn’t, and there were many questions. 

“Aren’t all books their own universe? Why does that mean that Bronze is gone? Why can’t you leave? How do we leave the book now that we don’t have roles?”

“All books are their own universe, Bronze is gone because this is another universe, which is also why Violet can’t let me out of here, and I don’t know, I may still be the Villainess, since I still have Violet’s key, but there could be something or someone to let us out?” Buddy answered. 

“Like who?” 

“Magical people? This is a book of fairy tales after all, maybe there is a fairy godmother?” 

They waded through the water, both needing to pour water out of their shoes, and Buddy pointed to something both of them had missed when they fell. 

A giant castle with banners of red apples on the sides. 

“I could have sworn that Rapunzel was first..”

“Well, Freckles you were clearly wrong, now lets see if we can break into a castle,” 

 

 

 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

 

(Time skip because I can’t be bothered to write about the scenery, sorry.)

 

 

 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

 

Firstly, the guards wouldn’t let them in, laughing in Buddy’s face when he said he was the Evil Queen. Making them think that he wasn’t the Villainess, but when they walked past a stream, they saw the Evil Queen’s reflection. 

Secondly, Deacon and Buddy followed the stream, all the way to the gate for the moat, which they swam under and ended up in the dungeon. They followed the directions of a prisoner, who they were both reluctant in trusting, but he actually helped them – up until he didn’t, forgetting – or simply choosing not – to mention that the guards on patrol swapped shifts every half hour. 

So, you could imagine the shock of being allowed into the elegant and charming throne room, only to be found face to face with the general and at least ten armed men. 

Which was why they were running through a village, the villagers too shocked to do anything to help.  

The village square was filled with many children, many of which were holding the hands of their mothers, and many, many market stalls, selling pastries and candy to the children, and giving to those without money. 

Deacon and Buddy ran through the square, and down an alleyway, down another street and out to a dirt path that led to a forest of giant pine trees. 

The trunks of the trees grew thicker as they progressed through the forest, until eventually they couldn’t run and they had to squeeze through the small gaps. Men got off their horses to travel on foot, but went right, while Deacon and Buddy had gone left. The boys stood in a clearing, which was only a few feet wide, panting and gasping for breath after the run. 

“That was a terrible idea to pretend to be the Evil Queen,” Deacon wheezed, leaning against a tree. 

“Well, what other ideas did we have? Oh right, going right up to the gate, begging to enter because your cousin might be in there! They probably get that excuse from thieves daily!” 

“What do you think they thought we were just then?” 

Buddy didn’t respond, clearly thinking up some snarky response. 

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” A mocking voice asked, echoing through the forest. 

Deacon and Buddy jumped, this voice catching them off guard. 

“Thieves? Well I already have one of them, perhaps you know him?” The voice laughed. 

A boy screamed as he fell from a branch and landed in the middle of the clearing, between Deacon and Buddy. 

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

Chapter 4: We Know Things Now (Many Valuable Things)

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

So, this wasn’t how Conner had expected the next few minutes of his morning, and it wasn’t as bad as he’d thought — Well, apart from the fact his sister was crashing out, and dangerously close to murdering someone.

Alex was throwing things, shattering fine china against the walls, and screaming whilst ripping pages and pages of her favourite books out of the spines. 

If her office had looked bad before, it looked like someone had broken in and tried to find something in particular, but had eventually given up and put a few things back, before deciding to ruin the room even more, and then the owner of the house comes home, and makes a bigger mess trying to clean it all up.

  “How dare she! I’m the Fairy Godmother, Conner! She should be listening to me, not bossing me around!” Alex yelled, the tips of her strawberry blonde hair were fading into a deep magenta. The butterflies on her dress fluttered aggressively, as if they would fly away at any moment. She gripped her wand as though it was a life line, the only thing keeping her from sinking to the full depth of her anger. Conner could see electricity forming at the handle of the glass wand, where Alex’s hands were.

  “Uh, Alex, why don’t we just put the wand down?” Conner asked, much more worried about Alex’s safety than his own. He reached forward to the wand, ignoring the fact that there was probably more electricity in the wand than a hundred lightning bolts combined, and the fact that he would most certainly die if he misworded something.

Alex turned her face away from him, wiping something from her face, probably the glass tears — an after effect of the cursed glass dust that had been used to control her every waking moment by Morina, a beauty witch, who had wanted to use Alex along with all the other witches to take over the Otherworld. Thankfully, Conner and his friends had saved the day, by saving Alex from her curse.

However, they couldn’t save her from some of the side effects, such as a short temper, glass tears, and magenta hair. 

Alex fell to the floor, dropping her wand in the process, and she cried. Conner didn’t know how long she sat there crying, but he saw a decent pile of small glass beads growing. He didn’t know what to do, leave Alex alone at the risk of destroying the entire Fairy Kingdom, or try and help Alex at the risk of his own life. 

But luckily for him, it seemed like he didn’t need to decide, as Alex stood up, her magenta hair disappearing and her regular strawberry blonde hair was back.

She reached for her wand and both she and Conner jumped back as a strike of energy immediately burst out of the tip of the wand, nearly hitting Conner in the shin. The energy died down as Alex went to pick up her wand for a second time, Conner taking cover behind an old leather reading chair. 

  “Sorry,” She laughed, taking a shaky step towards her desk. “It’s just — ”

  “We’ll talk to Emeralda, but first let’s try and figure this out. Where are the intruders?”

  “I don’t know? Maybe the Charming Kingdom?” 

  “Really? That doesn’t sound right,” 

  “Well I’m sorry I can’t think straight, I nearly blew up this entire room without thinking properly!”

  “Hmm.. True. Okay let me ask a different question,” Conner said, stroking his chin as though he was in a detective show, which Alex rolled her eyes at. “Got one! Where would you go if you were suddenly transported to another dimension?”

  “That’s ironic isn’t it?” Alex yawned.

  “Shut up, take this seriously. If I were suddenly transported to another dimension, I would try to find help at the biggest place I could.”

  “And yet we didn’t do that when we were twelve.” Alex was right, they hadn’t even had to explore to find a walking, talking frog who they named “Froggy”.

  “We were twelve! Twelve and scared! Now what’s your answer?”

  “I’d.. Wander around, try to find people and ask for help.”

But Alex found that her brother wasn’t listening, his focus was solely on the giant map on the wall behind her. 

She followed his eyes to see a flickering light in the Corner Kingdom, close to Rapunzel’s Tower. 

  “Conner, that flickering means nothing, it just shows that a fairy is waking up, I don’t blame them, it’s pretty late in the morning,” Alex explained. “I wish I could have slept in.” 

  “What do you mean it’s late in the morning, isn’t it only six?” 

With flick of Alex’s wand, the willow tree’s leaves were trimmed and sunlight shone through the open balcony, reflecting off of Alex’s desk. Conner looked up, trying to tell the time, but was blinded. (He forgot to squint his eyes.)

Alex stretched and wove her wand above her head, transforming her old dress into something newer. 

The butterflies swirled around her like a dressing curtain until they disappeared into a pile of white rose petals. Today, Alex wore a light pink gown, with puffed sleeves and ruffled layers of fabric as the skirt. Her hair wasn’t done up in a bun, but let loose as it came down past her shoulders. 

Conner sighed, Alex always did this, and Conner had started to become envious of her. Small, simple things, that could take a few minutes at most, were done in a second by the flick of Alex’s wrist. It wasn’t Conner’s fault that the only time he’d tried to do magic by himself, he’d set a whole room in his step- dad's house on fire. In the Otherworld. Firefighters had been called. Bree had slapped him, his mother had slapped him, his stepdad Bob had slapped him – you know what, let’s just assume everyone who knew Conner had slapped him at least once for his stupid decision. 

 

 

 

༉‧₊˚.

 

 

 

Four hours later, it was eleven am on the dot. Conner knew that thanks to the grandfather clock in the corner of the room, which he definitely could have used instead of being blinded by the sun. 

But it was too late to change back history, and besides, Conner and Alex hadn’t figured a single thing out to hep them so there wouldn’t be much of a point.

So far, all they knew was that there was maybe more than one intruder, that they might have used the portal potion or maybe even a portrait, like the one Alex and Conner had used at their Grandmother’s house — which they’d flooded. 

But their list was full of maybes, and not actual solid proof. 

  “Hey Conner?” 

  “Yeah?” 

  “This is a crazy idea, but what if we knew these people. Not personally of course, but what if we’d heard about them?” 

Conner had to admit, he had thought about the possibility, but he’d also thought that the intruders were those obnoxious Fields Thieves who couldn’t seem to take a day off with all the money and valuables they’d stolen. 

  “What if they were those people that broke into the Northern Palace?” He asked, hoping Alex had thought about this possibility too.

  “They could be, but that would mean they were accused of being the Fields Thieves, which is a big deal, we have no real way to prove them innocent. Unless of course we sa-”

  “Saw them you’re right, because their clothes would be different from the clothes here!”

  “You could have just said Otherworld clothes.” 

Conner waved a hand in her direction as if to say ‘whatever’.

  “Is there a report for that case?” He asked, and just as he said it, a sparkling scroll with a red ribbon flew at him, hitting him in the face. 

  “Owww,” He groaned. The scroll unravelled itself, the ribbon dropping to the floor and falling in a perfect pile.

  “Two young men around the age of nineteen were seen trespassing on Royal Property on the twelfth day in the summer season of the forty-first year of the Golden Age. According to a statement by Sir General Berry of the Northern Palace, Head of the Royal Guard, the men had tried multiple times to enter the Northern Palace prior to the sighting by none other than Sir General Berry.” Alex read, mesmerised by the way each wors was engulfed by a golden light as she spoke.

  “Wait — Isn’t General Berry the guy who caught that prince who kept sneaking out to have dates with villagers? What was his name again?” Conner asked, cutting Alex off.

  “Prince Austin, and yes, General Berry did find him. How did you know about that? It happened two days before you even arrived!”

  “Well, you were off having so many meetings that I went around and found out all the recent gossip around here — What? Don’t judge me! I had to have some sort of topic to talk to fairies about!” Conner exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.

  “I’m not — You know what, I’m not even going to bother,” Alex sighed. “The guards on patrol said that two men had come up directly to the entrance, demanding entry. One said that they were ‘The Evil Queen’ which obviously isn’t possible, as the Evil Queen is dead, her death witnessed by the Fairy Godmother herself.”

  “Huh, that is weird, I wonder where they got the idea to try and break in like that from.”

  “Same, and I don’t understand how Emeralda thinks these people are the Fields Thieves, the people who have always been twelve steps ahead of the Fairy Council. They clearly aren’t dumb enough to try and pretend to be someone who has been dead for nearly two decades!”

Conner sighed before he decided to continue reading, knowing that if Alex had the opportunity, she would only talk about Emeralda and how ‘bossy and rude she is’.

  “A description of these men has been acquired, and will soon be published to the public. One man had short inky black hair, light blue eyes and wore armour made out of material. The other man had short brunette hair, dark blue eyes, freckles and wore a white shirt with a blue undercoat.” 

  “These men were chased out of the Northern Palace by a quarter of the Royal Guard, they ran all the way to the Dwarf Forests, and now under the command of General Berry all men are to guard any path leading out of the Dwarf Forests.” Alex finished, reading the final words at the bottom of the page. 

  ‘As of late, no one has entered or exited the Dwarf Forests, but many have wandered past. 

More details shall appear as they are uncovered due to..’

Conner looked off into the distance, seeing the faint outlines of the tallest trees in the Dwarf Forests.

  “What do we do now?” He asked, looking back just in time to watch the scroll roll itself back up again and tie the ribbon, but this time adding a seal with an ‘X’ engraved into the wax. 

  “We go see if it’s true, we go into the Dwarf Forests to search for them.” 

Alex waved her wand, much to Conner’s dismay, and the room had begun tidying itself up. A self sweeping broom and a floating feather duster did most of the work, while random objects fixed themselves.

Conner and Alex walked down the halls — Well, Conner walked, and Alex flew with specks of glitter formed together behind her back. There was an annoying xylophone sound that echoed the halls and Conner had learnt the hard way that this was merely the sounds of wings fluttering. 

They made it down the hallway, Alex explaining that they needed to tell everyone where they were going as a ‘Standard Safety Procedure’, but really he knew she just wanted to glare at Emeralda in the middle of the giant hall. 

The giant doors swung open a few steps before they had even reached the doorknob, but who was Conner to complain about not having to use all his strength just to open this door. 

Emeralda stood in front of a chair that had been long forgotten, as she explained some sort of plan to the other Fairy Council members. 

“— We need to be prepared, as many of you know, the Fields Thieves have supposedly have broken into the Northern Palace — ”

  “It’s not that hard really..” Conner said, before immediately clamping a hand over his mouth, the realisation of what he said began dawning on him. 

All eyes in the room were on him, and suddenly, those bookstore meet and greets seemed like nothing in comparison to this. 

  “What do you mean, Conner? Care to explain?” Emeralda snarled, she glared daggers at him, not a single hint that she would back down. 

  “I-I just meant it doesn’t seem so hard, do you remember Prince Austin? He snuck in and out of the palace multiple times a week, all without anyone noticing his absence or his appearance in the town.” Conner lied, tugging on his sleeve whilst letting out a nervous laugh. 

Emeralda studied him, her gaze staying on him for a second too long, before turning away, mumbling something about needing to fix the defence situation in the Northern Kingdom. 

  “Emeralda, Conner and I came to tell you that we’re going to the Dwarf Forests and won’t be back until later tonight.” Alex said, watching for Emeralda’s reaction.

 “Okay, just try to be back before dinner, I’ll have a carriage sent out to you at sunset to retrieve you, okay?”

  “Sure,” Was Alex’s answer, and that was that. 

Conner and Alex turned to leave and saw the giant doors shoot open, Xanthous running through them and crashing into the table.

  “Xanny are you okay?” Mother Goose called down the table. 

Xanthous weakly stuck up a thumbs up, as he pushed himself off the table. 

  “Alex.. I..” Xanthous huffed, pausing to take a breath. “I have news, it’s about a ball, hang on just give me a minute.” 

And so a minute was spent, Xanthous trying to catch his breath, and everyone wondering what was so important that he came crashing into the table. 

  “Okay, so, Cinderella and Chance are throwing a ball to celebrate their anniversary, but this one is special since it falls on the exact day that the original ball took place. You know, the one where they danced and fell in love?”

  “Yes, yes, hurry up and tell us what happened!” Alex snapped, the tips of her hair turning a pale baby pink. 

  “Right, well this is the first time without your grandmother, and they were wondering if you wanted to attend?”

Conner looked anxiously at his sister, she seemed to have calmed down slightly, her hair wasn’t pink anymore, which was a good sign. 

  “Tell them that I would love to come, and make sure to add that Conner is coming!” 

  “Okay Alex!” 

Alex and Conner walked out of the hall, the door closing as a barrier for the buzzing excitement coming from inside. 

They took a right down a passage and up a staircase until they reached a glass room, the midday sun shining down on them, making the room warmer.

  “Uhh, Alex? Where are we?” He asked, watching his sister walk into the middle of the room. She stopped in the middle of a pentagram. 

But the only answer he got was the words, “To the Dwarf Forests!” before everything went black.

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

Chapter 5: Friend Like Me

Notes:

Welp, nearly 3 weeks since the last update. Hi again.

 

.

Finding the door to the tower was much harder than either Chase or Prunella had anticipated, the ivy was unwilling to budge, and the last slither of sunlight fading quicker with every blink. Eventually Chase took out his phone, which had no signal, and opened the flashlight app. The light wasn’t much against the surrounding gloom, but it helped a bit. 

 “Chase, I think I found something!” Prunella yelled, and Chase looked over to where he heard her voice. Chase squinted so he could see the faint outline of Prunella poking her head out around the corner of the tower and waving her hands aggressively to catch his attention. 

He shined the light in her direction and watched the last of Prunella’s braid dart away, so he followed the trail of trampled grass to see Prunella was tugging at the ivy on the wall, (despite the fact that it wouldn’t budge, and she was the one who discovered that.) she looked like she was playing tug of war with the tower and constantly losing. 

Chase shone the light on the spot Prunella was tugging at specifically, and saw gold both figuratively and literally beam back. They’d found the entrance, and the doorknob was made of pure gold. 

At the mere sight of the doorknob, Chase remembered Rapunzel’s attacker from before, the mortified expression on Rapunzel’s face, and the blood, and the fact that they were waiting for them at the top. 

He was shaken out of his thoughts by a very annoyed Prunella, who was complaining about the cold. 

Chase handed her his jumper which she took, but not without criticising the bright colours. 

 “Now, let’s take down this ivy!” He exclaimed, grabbing a fistful of the vines. 

A few minutes later, the door could be opened just enough for Chase and Prunella to slip inside. Chase’s phone died after a minute of light, and they were left in complete darkness for the rest of the climb up the stairwell. 

They could hear a slight humming coming from above, no doubt Rapunzel’s attacker. Prunella used the wall as a guide, reaching out for it so she wouldn’t walk straight into the stone wall. Chase copied this after nearly tripping over his own feet. Twice. 

The faint sound of footfalls on old wood echoed against the stone walls of the tower. The staircase seemingly lead on forever, until Prunella caught a glimpse of candlelight through a crack in the floorboard coming from the turret room. A shadow passed over the crack, humming as it did so. 

 “Chase,” Prunella whispered, trying to catch his attention without also getting caught by the tower’s inhabitant. Luckily for Prunella, Chase noticed her, the light was shining against Prunella’s green cap. Prunella pointed up to the gap and made a gesture with her hands as if to say, “Lift me up.”

So Chase did, kneeling down and holding his hands out for her to step on. Prunella held on to the walls for more support and looked into the crack. She couldn’t see much, but what she could see wasn’t concerning. Well, too concerning. 

 “Can you see anything?” Chase whispered. 

 “Yep, it’s like Rapunzel’s tower in the movie, like lots of paintings on the walls. Also, there’s a lot of bags – Oh shit – ” 

 “Prunella! No swearing!” Came a whispered shout from below. 

 “Ah- CHOOO!!” 

 “Prunella!” 

“What? It’s dusty down here!” 

The humming from above stopped along with footsteps, then was quickly followed by the rummaging of objects. 

 “Hello?” A voice asked, loud and unafraid. 

Shoot. Chase thought. 

 “Come out, I know you’re there,” The voice said. 

 “Maybe we can just leave?” Prunella whispered, now back on the stairs, slowly backing down. 

She almost made it around the corner before a thud was heard and pale yellow light flooded the stairwell. 

 “Oh, you’re only children,” The voice said, holding back laughter. Chase’s vision was blurred and when it finally cleared he came face to face with Rapunzel’s attacker. She was a young girl, maybe around his age? And because of the fact she attacked Rapunzel, she might have done so because she was fighting to become the new Rapunzel, with long brunette hair that was done in a long braid that just barely reached the floor with a few smaller braids twisted into it. In between the braids, were small flowers seemingly placed with perfection. She had emerald eyes that glittered in the candlelight. 

 “I’m eighteen,” Chase huffed, clearly mad that yet another person mistook him for a kid. 

 “Really? You look twelve..”

 “Wait– you can see me?” 

Rapunzel’s attacker gave him a strange look, as if to say “Am I not supposed to be able to?”. 

 “Yes, well, I was worried you two were soldiers, here to arrest me!” The girl laughed. 

 “For murder?” Chase asked.

 “No, for trespassing.” Was the girl’s blunt response. 

 “Really? Just trespassing?”

 “Yep!” She smiled. Chase could have sworn he saw a twitch in her smile, but didn’t mention it.

 “But didn’t you throw Rapunzel’s head down before?” Prunella asked as she and Chase had begun walking up the rest of the staircase, led by Rapunzel’s attacker. Just like Prunella had described, the room looked just like Rapunzel’s, paintings of flowers and stars scattered all over the walls, and there were bags everywhere. 

 “Oh no, that was just a prop, see?” The girl gestured to all the blonde locks lying on the floor and a mannequin lying on the far corner of the room, it’s head missing. “I only used a tad bit of paint, and I made a wig for the mannequin out of all this hair. By the way, my name is Jazmine, and you two are?” 

Chase was glad to know that they weren’t with a murderer. But they were still with a criminal. A criminal he didn’t trust for a second. 

 “My name is Prunella and this is Chase,” Prunella explained. “What’s in all the bags?” Prunella walked over to a bag, but was shoved away by Jazmine. She immediately moved the bag to a different table, one with two bags already on it. 

 “Hey! I’m the babysitter today! And I’m gonna be murdered if anything happens to her!” Chase yelled, helping Prunella to her feet. 

 “Hahahaha, anyways, let’s just, NOT touch them,” Jazmine laughed, an awkward smile plastered across her face. 

“Why? What’s in them?” Chase questioned. 

 “Just food that I don’t want to go to waste, see,” Jazmine answered, opening the bag to show Chase and Prunella over a dozen apples and bread rolls stashed inside. 

 “.. Can I have one?” Prunella asked. Chase facepalmed. 

⋆˚࿔

 “.. Is he dead?” Buddy whispered to Deacon, who was silently freaking out. A guy just fell. 

FROM THE SKY!! Well, technically so did Deacon and Buddy, but at least they landed in water!

 “I hope not,” He murmured. He cautiously walked over to the guy who lay on the floor. His limbs were all spread out awkwardly, one arm underneath his torso and his leg bent to the left. 

Buddy handed Deacon a stick, which he used to poke the guy’s hand. The guy didn’t move. So, Deacon leaned over to listen to his heartbeat. Irregular, but he was alive. 

 “He’s alive, but his heart is beating irregularly, it might take a few minutes for it to get back to normal,”

 “Okay, doctor freckles,” Buddy said as he grabbed the stick from Deacon and poked the guy again, this time causing him to flinch. 

 “Urhghr..” The guy groaned, putting the back of his hand against his forehead. He rolled over and pushed himself to a seated position. 

 “What happened?” The guy wheezed, squinting at Buddy and Deacon, who were blocking the only ray of light coming down from a gap in the canopy. The guy had bright blue eyes and light blonde hair that fell just past his eyes. 

 “You fell,” Deacon answered bluntly. “From up there.” 

The guy looked up and chuckled. 

 “Oh yeah, that happens, wait – who are you?” He asked. 

 “How about you tell us who you are right now, and we’ll tell you after,” Buddy said before Deacon even had the chance to open his mouth. 

 “Sure, my name’s Caleb, now how about you two?” ‘Caleb’ said, smiling brightly. 

Buddy studied Caleb’s face for a sign that he was lying, for a sign of anything, but nothing changed, he didn’t break eye contact, or shift his weight from one side to the other, or fidget with his hands. 

 “Fine, he’s freckles–”

 “ – Deacon,” Deacon corrected. 

 “And you can call me Buddy,” 

 “Is your name seriously Buddy? Because that’s honestly a terrible name,” Caleb snorted. 

Buddy rolled his eyes, he didn’t trust Caleb, and he barely trusted Deacon, besides, he wouldn’t give either the grace of knowing his real name, something they would never find out.

 “As far as you should know, that’s my name,” Buddy nodded. 

 “Ok,” Was all Caleb said, not questioning it again. “By the way, I have a campsite that’s not too far from here if you want to see it just follow me-” 

 “No thanks,” Deacon and Buddy said at the same time, then walked away from Caleb, leaving him in the gap between the trees. 

⋆˚࿔

Prunella had fallen asleep, tangled up in a pile of Rapunzel’s hair, leaving Chase and Jazmine awake and unable to sleep. They left only three candles lit because it was a waste of matches, as Jazmine put it, so the tower was mainly lit with blue moonlight. 

 “Which kingdom exactly did you and your.. Sister, come from again?” Jazmine asked. She was sitting on the windowsill, picking her fingernails. 

 “Uh, the one in the middle the one with the beanstalk, remember?” Chase answered, he was sitting besides Prunella on the floor. It was such an obvious lie, but Jazmine didn’t mention it, so the story of Chase and Prunella going for a walk and losing their way home continued. 

 “The Centre Kingdom,” She corrected. “How can you not know the name of your own kingdom?” 

 “I guess.. I just never was told the name, I was just expected to know it? But it was just always home to me,” Chase shrugged. 

Jazmine nodded, then her eyes lit up as if she just had an amazing idea. 

 “I have some spare clothes, would you and your sister like them?” She jumped up from her spot and went to a sack. Chase walked over to Jazmine and watched her pull some clothes out, she tried and failed to hide a beautiful tiara, which Chase snatched to admire. 

It was gold and had one big ruby in the centre, smaller rubies, pink topaz and even diamonds surrounded it, almost forming a beautiful sparkling gem flower. 

 “Where’d you get this?” Chase asked. 

 “I just found it!” Jazmine snapped, snatching the tiara and stuffing it back in the sack. “Here’s your clothes, now here’s a candle, and go get dressed!”

Chase took the clothes and the candle, walked into the stairwell and changed into the clothes, which were rather bland and just different shades of yellow. 

When he came back into the tower room, he saw a pile of clothes lying next to Prunella’s head, and saw Jazmine inspecting his jacket. 

  “What are you doing?” 

  “Nothing, I was just wondering where you got this jacket from?” 

 “My mum made it for me,” 

 “Really? That’s some really good stitching,” Jazmine exclaimed, handing the jacket back to Chase. 

 “Yeah, she’s good at sewing and stuff like that,” He agreed, putting it back on. 

They stayed in silence for a few moments before Chase began to wonder why Jazmine had spare clothes. 

 “Where’d you get these clothes, and Prunella’s?” He asked. 

 “You’re wearing my brother’s clothes right now, and she’s going to wear some from when I was younger,” 

HUH. Chase was wearing another man’s clothes, when he had a sort-of-maybe-kinda- boyfriend! That was basically cheating! 

Chase grabbed his clothes and ran into the stairwell to get changed, again, the sounds of Jazmine’s laughter echoed after him. 

When he came back though, Jazmine was asleep, lying in the far corner of the room. On one of the tables, was an empty pouch, and he saw a glint of a wrapper, glistening in the moonlight. Chase shot a look back to Jazmine, to make sure she was actually asleep. She was. 

So, Chase carefully opened the bag, expecting to see the sparkling tiara, but saw something else. Chocolate, and a lot of it. There was so much that Chase was sure Jazmine wouldn’t notice if he took one or two bars, right? He shoved the chocolate in the pouch and then stashed the pouch in his jacket’s pocket before lying down on the floor – a considerable distance between him and Rapunzel’s hair – and fell asleep. 

⋆˚࿔

Ralph could tell something was off the second he walked through the front door. His grandsons had been holed up in their rooms almost every afternoon this summer. Deacon had his med school studying to do, and Chase.. Well, Chase was Chase with all his singing practice and dancing routines that he did. 

Recently the afternoons had been quiet. Too quiet. 

Before this strange new silence though, Deacon would stomp into Chase’s room, complaining about the racket that Chase considered singing practice. Then an argument would break out, Prunella would climb the staircase and watch silently, juice box in hand. Sometimes though, the arguments would get so bad, that Ralph would have to come upstairs and away from his latest plot against Diane Forenski, and break apart the fight and send Prunella back downstairs. 

However, Chase had started babysitting Prunella, reading her stories and buying her toys to play with. But even they were silent, and Deacon had stopped pretending to study. 

Ralph should’ve brought it up with them, especially when Prunella stopped building survival huts in the backyard or stopped watching her survival show. 

Because now he felt like he was playing a giant game of hide and seek, looking for two adults and a child. 

 “I swear, one of these days, I’m just going to cancel his phone plan,” Ralph mumbled as he hung up the phone after being sent to voicemail for the nineteenth time this afternoon. He’d found Deacon’s phone in his room charging, but Chase hadn’t picked up. Not even once. Ralph kept searching, he’d looked almost everywhere in the house twice, and had started looking in the barn and chicken coop. No luck. 

So it was time for the dreaded talk between himself and his neighbour, Prunella’s mother. 

He walked through the garden filled with a large variety of flowers and statues scattered on the sides of the footpath leading right up to the front door of the pink bed and breakfast. 

Ralph used the knocker on the door and waited for the hurried footsteps of Agatha Gruenenfelder, the owner of the bread and breakfast. The door opened and a cheery woman wearing a dress that looked like it belonged in a fairy tale 

 “Oh hello Ralph, I was just about to call Chase to ask him to bring Prunella home – wait – where is she?” Agatha asked. 

 “I don’t know where any of the kids are, Agatha, I was hoping that they were here, but from your answer it sounds like they aren’t,” Ralph said.

Agatha stood in the doorway, suddenly deep in thought. Her eyes lit up as she reached into her pocket for her phone. 

 “Here, I have a safety phone for Prunella that tracks her location, I just have to open this app, see,” She explained, showing the bright screen to Ralph who leaned in to see, he forgot his glasses at home. 

 “Uh, isn’t that here?” He asked, seeing his pale yellow house across the road from a photo of little Prunella. 

 “Hang on,” She held up a finger to silence him an she zoomed in. “Yes that is here, I told Prunella to take her phone today!” She sighed. 

 “I found Deacon’s phone in his room, and Chase won’t pick up his phone – ”

 “Well, try his number again!” Agatha shouted, causing a few guests to look out into the hallway to see what was happening. 

 “You have reached the voicemail of Chase Hollow, please leave a message after the beep.” Beep. 

And now they were back to square one.

.

 

Notes:

“You ain’t never had a friend like me!” Yeah Jazmine, I don’t think Chase and Prunella have friends who throw fake heads out of windows to scare away authorities.. Just saying.

Also I PROMISE, the changing clothes thing was relevant!! (You'll see in two chapters trust me.)

Chapter 6: It Takes Two

Notes:

Hello, I am here to tell you that there will be daily updates from now up until the 7th of August!! After that, there will be weekly updates every Saturday.

(Can you tell I'm getting impatient with rewriting this story? I seriously have SOOO much lore for this and I just want to make it to one scene in particular 💀)

.

 

 

 

Alex led the search and followed a map – which was of theinsides of the Dwarf Forests that followed all humans – that she’d finally finished making a few hours after they’d arrived. She was sure that she could find the — what even were they? Intruders? Prisoners? — before they’d moved too far. 

Conner wandered behind, there wasn’t much to do in the Dwarf Forests and definitely not much to see. Leaves, bark, the occasional fugitive and rarely, the sky. He barely trusted Alex and maps together, the only reason he tried to trust her this one time, was the fact this map was magical and gave specific directions. Almost like a GPS. They’d explained to the Northern Guards why they were entering, and were let through, but not without a report being made. 

Just before the tree trunks had begun to thicken, Conner recognised something out of the corner of his eye. The curvy tree his father had often spoken about climbing when Conner was younger. But then it wasn’t, changing back to an ordinary tree. 

 “Conner come on,” Alex said. “We have to find these people!” Conner slowly followed, remembering stories his father would tell him about his childhood. 

They continued, going through clearing after clearing but still finding nothing. By now it was midday, and they’d seen nothing to prove there was a witch around. Yet they pushed through, having a feeling that they were close to finding something. Anything. 

Alex had realised that the fairy she’d thought she’d seen with the witch, was actually just a traveller, so thank goodness that the Fields Thieves weren’t kidnapping fairies. 

The Fairy Godmother and her brother couldn’t find anything on one side of the forest, so they started searching on the other. Nothing for ages, just like their side, until Conner noticed something in the trees. 

“What’s that?” Conner asked, pointing at the thing. 

 “It looks like- a treehouse?”

 “What kids would be insane enough to go build a treehouse in the Dwarf Forests?” Conner asked, inspecting the structure from a distance. It didn’t look like anything kids could make on their own. 

 “Maybe they’re not kids, maybe that’s where the accused people are hiding!” 

Alex ran over to the giant tree, grabbing her brother’s wrist on her way and she noticed that the ladder was broken. With a flick of Alex’s wand, the ladder was fixed and a sturdier ladder (One that wasn’t made of frayed rope.) appeared. 

The climb took a few minutes but when they reached the top, they found nobody inside. It looked abandoned and like it hadn’t been used in a few years. Yellowed papers were scattered across the floor and the tree had a branch that had fallen through the roof. There were scratch marks on the floor, indicating something bad had happened. 

 “What happened here?” Alex murmured. 

They looked around and found names carved into the tree. 

 “John and Edward?” Alex asked

 “Maybe, though John’s name looks all scratched up and ruined.” 

The twins continued to rifle through the treehouse, searching for clues as to what the cause of the vandalism could be, 

 “Hey, Conner look at this,” Alex said, and what was in her hands caught Conner’s eye. 

It was an old leather bound book and a gold key with the symbol of the sun engraved onto it, stashed in a loose floorboard of the treehouse. 

 “What the hell?”

Alex knelt down with the key and the book, both of which she placed on the floor, and began flipping through the pages. 

 “Diary of Edward, Edward who?”

 “Don’t know.” Conner answered, kneeling down next to his sister.

They read through a few pages, nothing peaking their interest, only Edward talking about his days exploring with John. Nothing until Edward started bringing up the Curvy Tree and John’s brother, Lloyd . 

So John was John Bailey, the twin’s father. Of course. 

They kept reading until one specific entry caught them off guard. This one was different, it included the Portal Potion, the potion to travel into any work of fiction. 

 

 

༉‧₊˚.

 

 

Today at the Curvy Tree, John told me all about his mother, the Fairy Godmother. He spoke of how she would travel to another world, one filled with machinery and no magic. 

John spoke of how his brother had been given a potion especially crafted so he could travel into his own books! I could only ever dream of having the opportunity to do so. 

However, Lloyd didn't even want to peek inside! John believed it was rather foolish of him to do so, and I agree with him. 

Maybe I should make my own way inside of books, since it is clearly possible now.

- Edward

 

 

༉‧₊˚.

 

 

Alex turned to see Conner waiting for her to read, impatiently drumming his fingers against the floorboards. 

 

 

༉‧₊˚.

 

 

‘Today I asked John for the potion’s ingredients, and he gave them to me.  

1. A branch from the oldest tree in the woods.
2. A feather from the finest pheasant in the sky.
3. A liquefied lock and key that belonged to a true love.
4. Two weeks of moonlight.
5. A spark of magic to activate all the ingredients.

Very simple. The oldest tree by far is the Curvy Tree. I’d need to find a fine pheasant, maybe at a butcher? A liquefied lock and key, would that mean the lock and key to my house? My parents love each other and they live in my house. Two weeks of moonlight, it’s in the name, and finally a spark of magic. I’ll just get John to help me with that. I want to make this different from the Fairy Godmother’s, and I want to use the potion as much as I want. I wonder what would happen if I used a key from my father’s shop?

- Edward

༉‧₊˚.

 

 

Another entry from when the potion was finished, this one catching the twins off guard, and they looked at eachother when they were finished reading. 

༉‧₊˚.

 

I made the potion! John was very excited to see it fully finished, though he did wonder why I didn’t just use his mother’s potion. I couldn’t just say I was nervous to ask her, my best friend’s mother, who was also THE Fairy Godmother, for a potion that wasn’t even being used. So I just said I wanted the satisfaction of making it myself. 

Now, the portal potion, as John calls it, was in a jar, so I got one of my father’s keys that wasn’t being used and put it inside. John and I waited a few minutes and then we took it out. Somehow the key was completely dry! Then I got a book, one of Lloyd’s because John brought a few of them for me and I held the key up to it. A keyhole appeared and I started fading away. John called my name but I couldn’t answer because suddenly I was in the middle of a castle. It was beautiful, the architecture reminded me of the exterior of the Charming Castle.  

A man I can only assume was a guard came around the corner and saw me, he yelled at me, screaming about an intruder. I looked behind me and then I realised he was talking about me, so I started running faster than I had ever run before! I yelled something about wanting to go home and suddenly I was back in the treehouse with John. He was still calling my name and shaking the book. 

 

John asked me all sorts of questions about what it was like inside the book, but to many of them I couldn’t answer, partly because I was too busy running. I’ll have to figure something out to make sure I won’t run for my life every time I go into a book.’ 

 

- Edward

 

 

༉‧₊˚.

 

 

Conner opened his mouth to say something, but another page turned, cutting Conner off, and so, the twins continued reading.

 

 

༉‧₊˚.

 

 

I’ve figured it out! The keys can represent the different character archetypes! I asked my father to make personalised keys for me and he agreed. I’ve drawn up some designs for a few of the keys. Father said I can only have twelve keys, only it will take a while for them to be made, as he is a shop owner and his business is very successful. 

 

Since I was in my last book, I noticed something just before dinner. Mother told me to wash my hands before dinner as they were filthy. I hadn’t touched anything like mud or grass today, but I walked to the sink and just as I was about to put my hands under the water, I noticed a shiny turquoise substance covering my entire hand. 

 

I had never seen anything like it before yet I washed it off. Then, the next day I went into another book, and came out with the same liquid covering my hand. John joked that it could be a substance to make wishes. But in my designs I added a small vial in the key so that John and I could catch whatever this substance was.

 

-Edward

 

 

༉‧₊˚.

 

“I wonder what it could be.” Alex said. 

“Yeah, I wonder if dad was right?” Conner agreed, they had to read a few random pages about John being unable to come to the treehouse because he was with his mother and brother for the week. Edward seemed quite annoyed. 

 

༉‧₊˚.

John came into the books with me when we finally had two keys and learned all sorts of things. 

-Everything you eat inside a book can make you feel full, but when you get out you can’t feel anything in your stomach. 

-Your key is your only way in and out of the stories, if you lose it, you’re stuck. 

-Time moves slower for you when you’re in a book, and when you get out it's as though no time has passed at all. John and I read every book before going into them, only to mess around at the end. 

-When you go off the books plot it doesn’t really end well, all characters go off script and everything falls apart.

Right now we have two keys, the Hero and the Villain. John uses the Hero key, he reaches for it the second we get to the treehouse and I use the Villain key. John said that when we have all twelve keys that we should make a wish for them to become little people, or Keyple as he wants to put it. 

I still don’t believe that the stuff that fills the vials can make wishes, but I agree with his idea. Tiny people made of metal being able to wander around does sound amazing.’

-Edward

 

༉‧₊˚.

 

 

 

Conner and Alex skip through the various entries, all the way to when the author or ‘Edward’ finally has all twelve keys. 

 

 

༉‧₊˚.

 

 

We finally have all of the keys father promised! It has been a little over a year since John and I started going into the books, and we have many jars of the turquoise substance we have started calling ‘Narratonin’. 

I did promise John that we would wish for the keys to become tiny people and we will tomorrow.

- Edward

 

༉‧₊˚.

The wish worked! It was surprising to see that John’s theory was correct, as he doesn’t do the best in school (Unlike me). But, we learnt three of the key’s names today: Silver, the Heroine key, Goldie, the Hero key and Violet, the Villainess key. 

We also learned that the keys can use each other to go into the books like us! Only, they don’t get any Narratonin from going into the books. 

 

-Edward

 

 

༉‧₊˚.

 

“That’s the last entry.” Conner said, flipping through the pages the next ‘entry’ was torn out and a few loose pages fell out. Some were old entries and others were sketches, however Alex found one and this looked like it was supposed to be two drawings of the keys in their human forms. 

 

It was labelled as ‘Silver and Violet’ and was of two girls talking, surrounding them were little stars that Alex thought were to show they were sparkling. Beside Silver was a rose and beside Violet was a diamond. Alex searched the pages seeing if she could find any other sketches of the human keys. But no luck. 

There was a page with a list of all the keys and their designs, Alex looked for the symbol on the gold key on the list and realised she had the Hero key. Wasn’t the Hero key called Goldie?  

“I wonder what happened to this guy, Edward?” Conner asked, 

“Me too, maybe we can ask Emeralda?”

“Yeah let’s ask her, she’ll know.”

The twins climbed down the ladder with both the gold key or ‘ Goldie’ and Edward’s diary. They could see the orange sky through the gaps in the foliage, indicating the sun was setting.

Alex waved her wand and she and Conner were back in her office, their minds set on finding Emeralda, and asking her a few questions. 

 

 

 

. 

 

 

Notes:

Guys, idk what happened with this chapter, but the next will be better.

Chapter 7: The Other Side

Notes:

Honestly, the song doesn't match the chapter, but oh well.

.

 

 

The night before, Deacon, Buddy and Caleb built a fire near a cave where Caleb had a little camp set up already. He talked about how his sister, Jazmine, would be coming to the camp tomorrow and how she was going to bring some food. Though Caleb clearly didn’t need any more food, he could have fed an entire village with the amount of bread, fruits and vegetables that were stashed in a cave in the clearing.

Caleb, Deacon and Buddy ate the vegetables that they had roasted over the campfire like marshmallows (It tasted more like smoke). Then they had all gone to sleep. 

Well, everyone but Buddy. He found that he couldn’t fall asleep with the idea of being stuck inside a book, and besides, it wasn’t as though he needed to. Keys didn’t need anything, no food, no water or sleep. They didn’t need anything that humans needed to live, so they weren’t seen or treated as living things. Just objects to be used for Ex Libris’ selfish wishes. 

Along with being stuck in a book, there was something else on Buddy’s mind. He knew it was only a matter of time before he would see Chase again, and yet he didn’t know what to say. 

It had been a week since he had seen the Heroine light shine on the book, but it had felt like forever. At that time he had made a speech of what he would say to Chase, but now he had no idea if it was good enough or not! Buddy kicked a pile of leaves up the floor. 

“Hey.” A voice said, causing Buddy to jump. It was Deacon. But why had he followed him?

“Fre- Deacon,” Buddy answered. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing. But I’ve got a more important question for you.” Deacon said.

“Which is?” 

“What happened in ‘Cinderella’ last week?” 

“Didn’t Chase tell you?” 

“No?!”

“Well, the world fell apart turning everything to paper rot, including you and that kid. Please tell me you didn’t bring her into this book did you?”

“We.. Kind of did, and in our defence, we thought it would just be a normal book of fairy tales!” 

“Of course you did.”

“Let’s just ignore that for a moment and talk about what happened in Cinderella between you and Chase.”

“Nothing happened.” Buddy quickly said and began walking away from Deacon, luckily, he could see in the dark. Deacon wasn’t as lucky, running into every tree in front of him. 

“Just tell me! Chase has been acting weird all week!” Deacon yelled, now that he could finally see Buddy, as they stood in a clearing filled with moonlight. 

“Weird how?” Buddy asked. 

“He’s been spacing out and saying weird things in his sleep, even his friends have told me he’s been distant.”

“Well, probably just the shock of nearly dying.” Buddy answered, if Chase hadn’t told Deacon, then he wouldn’t. 

“He said something in his sleep about you saving him.” Deacon stated. 

“Really?” 

“Yes, now what did you do to ‘save’ him?”

“I just.. Helped him out of the storybook?”

“Really?” 

“Yes, now bye Deacon!”

Buddy practically ran back to the campsite, leaving Deacon in the empty clearing. 

“He got my name right..” 

 

 

 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

 

 “Ughhh, I just had the worst sleep of my life.” Prunella groaned, rubbing her head. She was wrapped up in bundles of Rapunzel’s blonde hair. And you couldn’t blame her! It was cold last night, and it was the closest thing to a blanket! Beside her was a small pile of clothes, that she guessed were for her.

A few feet away from her was Chase, completely covered in the hair around him. He was lying on an awkward angle, mumbling something about sky blue sparkly eyes and chocolate bar gifts. 

Weird. Prunella thought. 

She turned to see Jazmine, who was on the other side of the tower, sorting through the things she had in her bag. She was mouthing the name of each item as she placed it back inside, like another form of mental note. 

Prunella got up and stretched, walking  to stand next to Jazmine to see what other stuff was in the bag.

‘Tomatoes, lettuce, tiara, goblet, apples.’ The faintest whisper ever heard left Jazmine’s mouth. 

Prunella reached up to the table and grabbed a stray apple that was sitting all alone. 

 “Can I eat this?” Prunella asked, holding the apple for Jazmine to see. 

 “Of course you can, you don’t need to ask for food. Also, you should probably get dressed after you eat.” Jazmine replied. She went back to sorting the food out. 

“Okay, thanks.” Prunella shrugged, walking with the apple to the window.

Now that the sun was out, it was much clearer to see everything compared to last night. In the distance, Prunella could see a giant castle surrounded by a village just ahead. She saw the Dwarf Forests and the Centre Kingdom, which contained the giant beanstalk.  

She took a bite of the apple, it tasted similar to a regular apple, except, it was a dozen times tastier than the apples back home.

 “Why is this apple so good?” She asked Jazmine.

Jazmine shrugged, giving her a strange look. Prunella went back to watching what she could make out of the villagers going through their daily lives. Farmers sending out sheep dogs to herd their sheep back into pens, bakers setting out fresh bread and people buying things from the market. 

Behind Prunella, Chase jolted awake, causing both Prunella and Jazmine to jump. He fell backwards into the hair.

 “Ugh, can someone turn off the sun?” He groaned. Prunella rolled her eyes and continued watching the villagers. 

 “Prunella and.. I’m so sorry, I forgot your name.” Jazmine started, Chase shot up and glared at her. 

 “Chase.” He spat. 

 “Okay, sorry Chase. I know I told you both this last night, but we are going to meet up with my brother and we can get you through the northern gate of the Centre Kingdom.” Jazmine stated. 

 “Riiiiiiight,” Chase said, pulling himself out of the mass of curly blonde hair he was currently tangled in. Jazmine threw him an apple once he was finally out and he caught it. 

 “How is this apple so good?” Chase exclaimed, “The ones back home are so bad!” Jazmine shot him a funny look. 

 “They’re really sweet aren’t they?” Prunella agreed, earning another look from Jazmine. 

 “They’re just regular apples. What’s so special about them?” She asked, taking a bite from one herself. 

 “Are you kidding? They are the best apples I’ve ever tasted!” Chase yelled. “Can I have another?” 

Jazmine threw another and was extremely confused. The strange clothes, the confusion about basic geography and now the joy over an apple? These apples came from the Centre Kingdom! Where Chase and Prunella lived! It was almost as if.. They were lying to her.

“You’re not from this world are you?” Jazmine asked flatly. No more lies. Chase choked on his second apple, and Prunella nearly fell out the window.

 “WHAT? HAHA! What makes you think that?” Prunella yelled, steadying herself by holding onto the wall. 

 “I’ve heard stories about people who come from other worlds. People who come from worlds made of fiction and worlds filled with machinery.” Jazmine explained. 

“What makes you think we are from one of those places?” Chase asked. 

“You’re clearly not from the worlds of fiction. You two seem like the type to be from the world of machinery. Your clothes seem too.. Different. Too bland to be from fiction.” Jazmine replied. 

 “Wow okay,” Chase said, trying to brush his hair out with his fingers. “That’s just rude to like, literally any brand that’s ever existed.”

 “Don’t worry. I have a way I can help you!” Jazmine exclaimed, completely ignoring Chase’s comment. 

 “What is it?” Prunella asked. 

 “It’s called the Wishing Spell! It’s essentially what you would think it is, a spell for making wishes. But the catch is, you can wish for whatever your heart desires, it could be something illegal, something purely diabolical, but whatever you wish for will be granted.” She explained. 

It sounds just like Narratonin.. Chase thought. 

 “But the point I’m getting at here is, you can make a wish!” Jazmine smiled. 

 “What do we need for it? Is it like a chant? Because we kind of need Deacon and Buddy to get home too.” Chase said. 

 “The spell contains several items listed in the form of a riddle, luckily for you two, I know the riddle off by heart.” She said with a smirk.  

 “Sorry but we still need to find Deacon and Buddy before we make a decisi – ” Chase started. 

“Glass that housed a lonely soul up ‘til midnight’s final toll, 

A saber from the deepest sea, meant for a groom's mortality,

The bark of a basket held in fright while running from a bark with bite, 

A stony crown that’s made to share, found deep within a savage lair,

A needle that pierced the lovely skin of a princess with beauty found within, 

A wavy lock of golden rope that once was freedom’s only hope,

Glittering jewels whose value increased after preserving the falsely deceased, 

Teardrops of a maiden fairy feeling neither magical nor merry.” Jazmine explained, cutting him off completely. 

 “Wha – We don’t need you help! I told you we come from th – the Centre Kingdom!” Chase yelled. 

 “But you clearly don’t! You both don’t know the basic geography. You are both shocked about the food here, those apples literally come from the Centre Kingdom, where you supposedly come from! You’re both wearing strange clothing, you in particular Chase, that jacket has so many absurd colours, that it practically is an eyesore!” Jazmine shouted back, she did have some good arguments, but come on why’d she have to go after Chase’s jacket?

 “How dare you! We are proud – “ 

 “Chase, stop pretending, you sound stupid,” Prunella sighed. 

 “Now that’s just rude!” Chase exclaimed. “Fine, we might need your help, our friends are missing, and we don’t know where they are.” 

 “Do you know what some of those items are, Jazmine?” Prunella asked. 

 “Yes I do! Red Riding Hood’s basket, Cinderella’s slipper, Rapunzel’s hair, the jewels from Snow White’s coffin, the Troblin crown, Sleeping Beauty’s spindle, a fairy’s tears and finally the knife The Little Mermaid was given to kill the prince.” Jazmine said. 

 “Why are you so willing to help us?” Chase insisted, walking towards Prunella who was gathering strands of hair off the floor. 

 “Because I want to help you guys get home? Also, the Wishing Spell is practically a giant myth taht I’ve been dying to – ” Jazmine was cut off by Chase’s yelling. 

 “To prove a myth wrong? I’m not risking my life and Prunella’s just to go chasing after a myth!” Chase argued. 

 “But what other choice do you have?” Jazmine asked. There was no answer, and it was clear Jazmine had won the argument. 

Prunella walked over to Jazmine and handed her the strand of Rapunzel’s hair, which she had braided. Jazmine put the hair in her bag, folding it up in a small piece of fabric. 

 “Well, let's meet up with my brother , he’ll be able to help you guys more than I ever could and we can try and find your friends.” Jazmine said. There were no further objections and the rest of the morning was spent in silence – well silence up until Prunella started screaming when she got dressed. 

She came running up the staircase and instead of being in the dress Jazmine had given her, she was dressed in similar clothes from before, shorts and a tshirt except for the colour of the tshirt which was now blue, and there was a backpack on her back and her hair tied in a high ponytail with a blue bow. 

 “Where did you get those clothes from?” Chase and Jazmine said in unison. 

 “I don’t know, I just, wait, I think there might be clothes in here for you Chase,” Prunella said, taking the bag off her shoulders, and opening it. “Yep, there is, I think the Keys made these before they went missing, or we got stuck.”

She pulled the clothes up, and threw them to Chase who looked down to admire Silver’s designs. 

A lilac tailcoat with golden roses embroidered on the cuffs of the sleeves, and golden glitter on the collar. The tail had more roses embroidered, but these ones had intricate swirls around them. 

 “I think there might be clothes in here for Buddy and Deacon too,” She said, holding up two outfits, one that had dark purples and diamonds, and the other was different shades of 

orange, and it looked like a toned down version of Chase’s outfit, only with apples embroidered everywhere. 

 “Well let’s go find them,” Jazmine said. 

 

 

. 

 

Chapter 8: Our Word

Notes:

OH MY GOD SECRET CHAPTER THAT WAS NEVER POSTED IN THE ORIGINAL!! 😱

.

 

 

 

The tiring staircase that led to Emeralda’s room took Conner ages to climb, while Alex floated on a cloud beside him. 

 “Lazy magical Alex,” Conner murmured as he looked up to see his sister talking with some younger fairies while she was waiting. 

 “Took you long enough,” Alex joked, bumping him with her shoulder. 

Alex and Conner knocked on Emeralda’s door, they didn’t expect it to creak open. 

They also hadn’t expected to see Emeralda frantically pulling out the jewels from rocks. 

There was a flash of light and a diamond appeared. Another flash of light then an amethyst. Emeralda tossed each jewel behind her and into a pile that was growing larger every few seconds.  

Emeralda looked up for a second at the twins and then focused back on her work. 

 “Hi Conner. Hi Alex, I just got back,” Emeralda explained, she was rushing through her sentences. 

 “Back from where, exactly?” Conner asked. A rock, a flash and the rock was replaced by a large rose quartz. 

 “Back from the Northern Kingdom, I spoke to General Berry, but they still had found nothing suspicious about the Dwarf Forests,” She explained. “Well, nothing that wasn’t more suspicious than usual.”

 “Oh, that’s uh, that’s great?” Alex asked, with each new jewel appearing, she grew more and more worried about Emeralda. 

 “Nope,” An emerald appeared and Emeralda stopped. She sighed and put it in the pile behind her and waved her hand, sending them all away. “Afterwards I went to go check on the Dwarves, but they were all moving out!” 

 “Where were they moving? And why?” Conner asked. 

 “Well, they were invited to go to the Northern Palace by Snow White a while ago,” Emeralda answered. “Pyrite, or fool’s gold as you’d know it, led them to a leak in the walls, they had to abandon the mines in case they accidentally hit a piece and caused a flood.” 

That sounded terrible, however, Conner was desperate to show Emeralda the journal-diary-record-whatever it was, he wanted to show her and ask about Edward, and what happened between him and the twin’s father. What was so bad that caused him to never even mention Edward?

Alex could sense this, so she yanked the book out of Conner’s hands and placed it on the small wooden table in front of her. 

“What is this?” Alex asked. Emeralda looked up at Alex as though she had lost her mind, it wasn’t the first time Alex had received this look and definietly wouldn’t be the last, yet she nodded towards the book. 

Emeralda opened the book and mouthed the first few words looking almost bored. 

“Really?” She asked. “Edward Emmyrson? That’s who you want to know about?”

Alex and Conner side-eyed each other, did she expect them to know Edward? 

“Yes — What about him?” 

“He was one of your father’s best friends, until he died after they had an argument.”

What?! Died?!

 “What were they arguing about?”

 “John never told anyone, though your grandmother, Brystal, always thought it had something to do with the treehouse,” 

 “The treehouse?”

 “Yes, the treehouse, there was one in the Dwarf Forests, and one in the meadows that separated the Fairy Kingdom and the Charming Kingdom, however John and Edward always preferred the Dwarf Forests for some strange reason,” Emeralda explained, she seemed more relaxed than before, her obsessive jewel making had slowed down now. “Edward lived on the western side of the Charming Kingdom, while John lived closer to the Fairy Kingdom, but they both went to school in the heart of the Charming Kingdom.”

 “Was that where they became friends?” Conner asked, he was now sitting at the table across from Emeralda. 

 “I suppose. But you do realise you’re asking questions about a dead boy who was assumed to have committed suicide, right?” 

 “Suicide!?” Conner shouted. Was that the reason the paper had been torn up? Was that why their father had never told them anything? Well, they were very young the last time they’d seen him, so he couldn’t really blame him. But still!

 “Well, yes. His body was never found, and he’d left a note, I think. John was so grief stricken, Brystal put a spell on him so that he wouldn’t remember who Edward was.”

So that’s why. Now that made sense. 

 “But he could have easily run away, right?” Alex suggested. “Or was that your first assumption?” 

 “It wasn’t my first thought , because the Charming Kingdom did send out a search party after Edward’s parents had made a report,” She explained. “Like you Alex, I thought, “Oh, he must have run away after the disagreement he and John had.” but it was clear that even with search parties from other kingdoms – that were mainly made up of villagers and a few members of the royal guard – that Edward was gone, and he wouldn’t be coming back.” 

 “You said that there’s another treehouse?” 

 “What do you mean another?”

 “We went to the treehouse in the Dwarf Forests, and we found that book.” 

Emeralda sat in silence for a few minutes, scanning the entries, and saying things out loud where they were important. She placed the book on the table leaving the last entry openfor Alex and Conner to see. 

 “So that's what they were doing all those times in the Dwarf Forests,” She murmured. “Did you find anything else in the treehouse?”

Conner tensed, but shook his head, although Goldie was in his hands. 

 “No, but it was very messy,” Alex agreed, she didn’t know what Conner’s plan was, but she was going to try and trust him. After all, he’d been following her around all day while she barely told him where they were going or what they were doing. 

 “Yeah, there was also scratch marks all over the floor,” Conner said. 

Emeralda nodded, she stood up and took the book off the table, before she even thought to ask. 

 “Wait, can I take this? I need to show this to the council,” She explained. 

 “Sure, we’re going to go back to my office,” Alex explained. 

༉‧₊˚.

 

The second the door was closed, Alex lit a candle and Conner slumped onto the floor.

 “We have a Key, and we don’t know what to do with it,” He stated. 

 “Well, we could try and go into a book like Edward’s diary suggests?” Alex said. 

 “But what book? There’s hundreds in here!” 

Alex looked around the room, one cover caught her eye. It was wedged in between The Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan.  

 “Why don’t we go into Fairytaletopia?” She said, taking the book off the bookshelf. 

 “We? Only one of us can go in at a time!” Conner shouted. 

 “Fine, then me,” 

 “Fine, you’ve read the Fairytaletopia series, right?” Conner asked. 

 “Of course,”

Alex was handed the golden Key and held it in front of the cover. She was following Edward’s instructions, and suddenly a keyhole appeared. She began to disappear, first her hands and then the rest of her completely, she saw a flash of light and suddenly she was sitting in a classroom. 

It was awkward, the chairs were too small for her, and she was surrounded by children. A teacher was standing at the front of the class in front of a chalkboard, droning on about mathematics. 

She supposed this was how the book started, well, she had read her brother’s book of course, and she had been inside of his stories before, but she’d never played an actual role in the plot!

The hero, would either have to be Connie, or Alec, and judging by where she was sitting, she was Alec. Front and centre. It reminded her of her seat in Mrs. Peters’ class in middle school. 

 “Alec, which of these is larger, 0.6 or ⅝?”

In all honesty, it took her much longer than it should have, after all, it was only 7th grade math. 

 “Five eigths,” She answered, praying the answer was correct, after all, she and Conner had been stuck in their house when the class had covered this unit. 

 “Good, now everyone open your books,” 

I should probably leave now, Alex thought. 

 “Home?” She asked, and with another flash of light, she was back in her office, and Conner was still in the same position as before. 

 “You were gone for less than a second!” Conner exclaimed, then pointed down to Goldie’s key. “Hey, there’s that what’s-it-called.. Narratonin!” 

Alex looked at the Key, she hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a vial like Edward had said, and it was a quarter filled. 

 “Woah..” 

Narratonin was an aquamarine colour that sparkled and shimmered in the candlelight. 

 “What do we do with the Narratonin now?” She asked, opening the vial. 

 “Put it,” Conner paused, looking around the room. “In here.” He gestured to a small jar on the corner of Alex’s desk. 

 “Really? There?” 

 “We can find a better place for it after dinner,” He explained. 

“Okay,”

.

 

Notes:

But they never did.

Chapter 9: When He Sees Me

Notes:

Guys, just imagine, your bus comes a minute after the school bell, and you and your friend are stuck on the top floor of the school because your teacher didn't let you leave a minute early (She can literally watch you from the top floor walk across the oval), so you're shoving people out of your way as you go down the staircase, you're just about to make it to the school gates, when you see your bus GO PAST AND GO TO THE BUS STOP, so you and your friend run down the road and nearly GET HIT BY A CAR trying to get across, which mind you the BUS IS WAITING AT THE BUS STOP, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE ITS ABOUT TO TURN OUT OF THE BUS STOP, so you start running even faster and then you TRIP and your friend DRAGS you onto the bus.

Also, stuff like this only happens around that one specific friend. Because that happened to me today :) Not fun.

Anyways I hope you enjoy this chapter!!

.

 

 

 

The journey to The Dwarf Forests was long and boring as they followed a seemingly endless  dirt path. The only person that talked was Jazmine and she was only talking about the different monarchies. Strangely enough, Prunella was very invested in this. 

These were all the current monarchies:

The White dynasty (Queen Snow White, King Charming and their son), The Charming dynasty (Queen Cinderella, King Charming and their daughter, Hope), The Beauty dynasty (Queen Sleeping Beauty, King Charming and their daughter Ash), The Hood-Charming dynasty (Queen Red Riding Hood, King Charming and their four sons) and finally The Fontaine dynasty (Queen Rapunzel, King William, their daughter Eliana and their son Ezra).

“Wait, so there are four queens married to the same guy?” Prunella asked. 

“Oh godmother no, there are four Charming princes. They’re brothers and are all married to different people, don't worry. There’s Chance, Charles, Chandler and… Chase.” Jazmine explained, Prunella nodded. 

“I’m a king here!?” Chase yelled, only just starting to listen to the conversation. 

“Anyways, who’s married to who?” Prunella asked, completely ignoring Chase’s excitement. 

“Well, King Chance is married to Cinderella. He is also the oldest. King Chase is married to Sleeping Beauty, he is the second oldest. King Chan-” 

“Ew, why did it have to be the King me marrying Sleeping Beauty? She was asleep and just wanted to keep sleeping.” Chase asked, cutting Jazmine off, (He seems to really like doing that.)

“That’s how Sleeping Beauty goes, Chase!” Prunella exclaimed. 

“Well, he was searching for his lost brother Charles, who I was getting to before you cut me off. King Chase was searching for Charles and found Sleeping Beauty in her castle, he remembered the old story about her and kissed her.”

Chase remained silent as Jazmine continued. 

“King Chandler is married to Queen Snow White. He also found his wife while looking for his brother.”

“But what about Charles? You said he was married to someone too?” Prunella asked.

“Yes he is, when the current Fairy Godmother first came here, both she and her brother had found him together. A few years later he was proposed to by Queen Red Riding Hood, in this strange place. I always forget what it’s called.”

 “How come you know so much about this? Why would you know where someone proposed?” Chase asked. ‘I don’t trust you at all, but I have no other choice right now.’ He thought. 

 “Because Queen Red Riding Hood said she proposed in a weird place?” Jazmine smiled. 

Ugh, trying to show Prunella that Jazmine was an insane Rapunzel killer was proving to only become more and more difficult!

Later, the group sat down for a short break in the middle of the day, drinking water and eating more of the food Jazmine had in her bag. Chase noticed the valley around them. It was filled with flowers that looked effortlessly perfect, each nearly exactly the same. That was the magic of stories, if something was described to be perfect, it would be perfect. All  apart of the author’s design. 

 “How much longer?” Prunella asked, kicking up the grass. 

 “If we keep following the path, we should get there just before sunset.” Jazmine calculated.

 “Ughhhhh, I wish there were timeskips here. But nOoOoOo , we lost our Keys and our way home so now we actually have to walk that far,” Chase complained.

 “Shut up Chase.” Prunella said, taking a bite of her apple. 

 

 

 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

 

The next day, Caleb went on and on about how his sister would be arriving today, which was quite annoying if you asked Buddy. They’d been up since the sun had risen, but Buddy had been up since before even that. He wasn’t even sure that he’d even fallen asleep, but luckily, he didn’t need sleep, but it’d been nice if he’d gotten some for once. 

Plans to somehow get out of this book, and the fact that there was a wild Chase and a little child running around doing who knows what, had kept him up all night. So far, he hadn’t thought of a single way out, because all of them required Keys to call them home, or the Key archetypes, which this book didn’t have a plot or characters to even play as!

Apparently Deacon hadn’t gotten much sleep either, because he nearly walked into a tree. Okay, that was being a bit too nice, he did walk into a tree. 

 “Anyways, Buddy, we need to organise this all, my sister is the kind of person to organise everything, and I mean everything ,” Caleb explained, passing Buddy a bag. 

 “Why are you even meeting in the middle of a forest, it seems like a strange place to meet,” Deacon asked. 

 “Well, it’s because..” But Buddy didn’t hear the rest of the excuse, he was too focused on the smallest of possibilities. If he and Deacon could somehow get away from Caleb, find Chase and Prunella (Was that her name?), they could try and find someone who wasn’t Caleb and maybe they could all get home. 

 

 

 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

 

 

Chase, Prunella and Jazmine had finally made it to the edge of the Dwarf Forests, where they were met with a large group of guards. 

 “Hello, officers,” Jazmine said, offering the guards a bright smile. 

 “What are young children like you planning to doin the Dwarf Forests?” A guard asked. 

 “My brother is inside, we planned to meet up the other day,” Jazmine answered, not a single twitch in her smile. 

 “And, what are in the bags?”

 “Food, see?” Prunella cut in, opening a bag that had a been stuffed with apples and bread rolls. 

 “Okay then..” 

 “What about you, sir?” A guard asked Chase, pointing a sword in his direction. 

 “I’m with them,” He said.

 “Okay.. What are your names?”

 “Jazmine,”

 “Chase,”

 “Prunella,” 

The guards let them pass, documenting their clothes, height, hair colour, eye colour, and what kingdom they came out of. 

 “The Corner Kingdom? What kind of stupid name is that?” Prunella asks when they’re just out of earshot from the guards. 

 “It’s a kingdom, that’s in a corner,” Jazmine says bluntly. 

 “Now, a few things you should know, it will get dark fast in here, and at one point you’ll feel surrounded by tree trunks, but just keep pushing through, there are random clearings, so if you just keep pushing through, you should reach one of them,” Jazmine explained. “We must all stay together there, I know where my brother’s camp is, so if you just follow me, everything should be fine.”

Chase and Prunella nodded, those were simple instructions. Right? Right?

 

 

 

✦

 

✦

 

✦

 

✦

 

✦

 

✦

 

✦

 

 

 

Nothing about what Jazmine said made sense when they made it to the thickest tree trunks. The trees were five feet wide and very close together making it hard to squeeze through the thin gaps. Jazmine sneaking through the small gaps like a snake didn’t help at all!

However they made it to a clearing and saw the sky as a light orange colour, indicating that it was nearly sunset. 

“Let’s keep going guys, we’re very close to my brother’s camp.” Jazmine said.

So they continued and with each twist around a tree, Chase trusted Jazmine less and less than he already did, thinking she would lead them to a place where she would kill them.

Jazmine continued to slide through the trees and Prunella and Chase struggled to keep up with her. 

A huge cloud of smoke caused everyone to stop and hold their breath. 

It stopped once they reached another clearing with a campfire (The supposed culprit for the smoke), a cave and two very familiar boys. 

“BUDDY!?” 

 

 

 

⋆˚࿔

“BUDDY!?” 

Buddy turned around just in time to see a blur of blonde hair as he was tackled in a hug. 

 “What? Chase!?” He yelled. 

Jazmine met up with her brother and Prunella walked over to Deacon.

 “Well that happened.” Deacon muttered, watching his cousin quickly get off Buddy and apologise over and over. 

“It did,” Prunella agreed. “Also I have some clothes from Bronze for you.” 

.

 

 

 

Notes:

"OH GOD, WHAT IF WHEN HE SEES ME, I LIKE HIM AND HE KNOWS IT, WHAT IF HE OPENS UP A DOOR AND I CAN'T CLOSE IT?" - Literally the entire reason I decided to do musical titles as chapter names.

Chapter 10: The Challenge

Notes:

Chapter name from EPIC The Musical, it doesn't match but that's okay.

ALSO, THE SECOND HALF IS A CHAPTER THAT I PUT OFF TO WRITE LATER WHEN ORIGINALLY WRITING THIS!!

.

Alex woke to the loud sound of humming. At first she was confused, it was still so early in the morning, that the sun still hadn’t risen. Then she realised what it was. She hadn’t heard that sound in years, and it was strange to suddenly hear it. 

She shot up in her bed and searched the room in the moonlight, careful not to wake her brother, who was lying on a makeshift bed on the floor. Alex heard the sound get louder each time she passed the balcony. So, she went in that direction, praying that this would all be a bad dream and she could wake up at any moment.

But as Alex found the source of humming, she couldn’t help but feel nervous. Yes, it was the very same book that had led her here when she was twelve years old, that birthday had turned her life upside down, but she often wondered where she would be if her grandmother had never given the book to her. 

The book was titled ‘The Land of Stories’ written in golden glittery letters. The sight of its dark emerald cover made Alex’s memories come flooding back like a tidal wave. 

Alex and her brother were told stories from this very book as children. Her parents would drive for the entire day until they reached their grandmother’s cottage in the mountains. Alex and Conner’s dad would read them both fairy-tales, acting as the characters. 

Then her dad died. 

Her grandmother had gifted her the land of stories for her twelfth birthday, and Alex spent the entire night reading the book and admiring the beautiful illustrations. Then in the middle of the night the book began to glow and hum. For the next week, Alex would place things onto the golden pages, pens, pencils, books from her shelf, and she would watch them sink into the pages. 

Alex putting her hands onto the books an experiment. Alex getting startled and falling into the book. Alex and Conner meeting their childhood heroes while trying to find their way home. They start to collect the Wishing Spell, item after item, only to have it all stolen by the Evil Queen, whose wish failed. 

Then they were sent home by the Fairy Godmother, who turned out to be their grandmother. 

The next few years went by like a blur, defeating the Enchantress, defeating the Grandee Army, chasing their uncle through storybooks, collecting Conner’s characters from his short stories, Alex’s outbursts and slowly becoming controlled by the Snow Queen, the Sea Witch and Morina, Alex nearly destroying New York, but luckily Conner stopped her by using a short story that told a story of an alternative life, one where their father hadn’t died.

It all wouldn’t have happened if her grandmother hadn’t given her the emerald book of fairy- tales all those years ago. 

As Alex held the book up in the moonlight, she noticed something different. The cover had three empty keyholes in it.

 “How strange..” She whispered, running her fingers across the keyholes. They began to glow, one silver, one bronze and the last gold. Alex covered her eyes as the keyholes began to flash, and opened them again when they went back to normal. 

The sun began to rise and as the Fairy Palace had very few walls, forcing everyone to rise with the sun. 

‘Should I tell Conner?’ Alex thought, pacing with the book in her hands. ‘I still need to find  I should probably check the parchment I enchanted.’ 

Alex reached for her wand, and waved it around her, changing her nightgown into a lovely light yellow dress. There were little golden dusted roses and ribbons on the bodice of the dress and around the hem were the butterflies from Alex’s dress from yesterday. 

Alex began to walk to her office with the book, hoping to study it after she had caught the witch with the Fields Thieves. Her office was in the same state she left it yesterday, couch in the middle of the room and papers on the floor. On Alex’s desk was the piece of parchment that she enchanted to add to the Northern Palace’s guards. 

A feather was dipped in ink and tracing the steps that the witch took.

 “I wonder how this is even possible, the book moving on it’s own,” She asked herself out loud. The feather looked up from the parchment and shrugged. Shrugged? How can feathers shrug? There were three knocks on the door, and Conner stumbled into the room, clearly not used to the sunlight waking him up, even though he had been staying in the Land of Stories for over a week. 

Alex smiled at her brother, then moved her gaze back to the Land of Stories book on her desk. Conner joined her and looked as though he’d seen a ghost. 

 “Isn’t that Grandma’s book of fairy-tales?” He asked. 

 “I found it in my room this morning, it was humming like it did when we first came here.” Alex nodded. Conner traced his fingers over the golden lettering. 

“The president gave it to me after she lost the last election and I gave it to Emmerich,” He frowned. “Emmerich said he’d keep an eye on it, but clearly he hasn’t.” 

Conner noticed the three keyholes as Alex recounted what happened in the morning. 

“I saw the keyholes and they flashed when I tried to get a closer look at them,” She said, remembering the flash. “I couldn't see any Keys in my room, which was even stranger.”

‘It’s weird enough that the book ended up in the fairy-tale world by itself, but why are there keyholes? You can’t open a book with a key, unless it’s a diary?’ Conner thought. 

Conner tried to open the book, but it was almost as if it was glued shut. He pulled this time, trying to yank the cover and the bright flashes Alex saw earlier appeared again. 

“Why isn’t this stupid book opening?” He exclaimed. 

Conner did this over and over again, each time the lights glowed, Alex noticed thick chains in silver, bronze, gold, violet and light pink all preventing the book from opening, and fading each time the book closed. It was only for a second but Alex knew she’d seen it. 

“Conner stop, the book clearly doesn’t want to open, and I have a feeling we’ll need a key to open it.”

Conner sighed and flopped onto the couch, his face in a pillow. Then immediately shot up and bolted from Alex’s office. 

 “Conner! Get back here!” She yelled, starting to run after him, but he shot back around the corner, Goldie’s Key in hand and suddenly crashed into the couch he was previously sitting on. Alex immediately realised what Conner was thinking. 

 “Oww,” He groaned, but still pushed himself up. “Alex, I’m going into the book,”

 “Like I couldn’t tell because you have THE BLOODY KEY IN YOUR HAND!!” Alex shouted, indicating to the Key in his hand. 

 “Okay, well, I’m still going,” He said, putting the Key up to the cover of the book, and just like what happened to Alex, a keyhole appeared. With a twist and a click, Conner dissapeared, and surprisingly, so did the gold Key.  

So Alex, waited, her brother was surely going to come out soon. Right?

And she waited. 

And waited. 

Waited.. 

Waited.

Minutes blended into hours, which felt like years that turned into decades. 

Footsteps echoed the hallway behind her as she waited, standing right where she was when Conner left. 

The door opened, not to the sound of creaking, but to the light flooding the room, illuminating two shadows behind her. 

 “Alex, we have a problem,” A voice croaked. It was Tangerina, her bees buzzing around, indicating something was happening. 

 “What is it?” Alex asked turning to see not only Tangerina, but Skylene standing beside her. 

Skylene began to stutter whilst trying to explain, she began trying to use hand movements, as if that would help Alex understand, but Tangerina cut in. 

 “Well, we were walking around, and we heard the shimmering of your magic mirror, the one you use to talk to your mother, so we decided to answer it,” She said, but judging from her tone, Alex guessed that wasn’t the rest of the story. 

 “And? What did she say?” 

 “It wasn’t your mother on the other end, it was Conner,” Skylene cut in. “Somehow he’d gotten to the Otherworld, and he needs you to come get him, and a few others.”

 “Others?” What others could her brother be talking about?

 “Yes, and he says you need to hurry ,” Tangerina said, Skylene nodded beside her. 

 “Well, where is he? I can’t really help him if I don’t know where he is?” Alex shouted, walking over to the glass desk and grabbing her wand. 

 “Somewhere called Sugar Springs, but he said you should be able to find him if you specify Emmerich’s house,” 

 “Emmerich!? What’s he doing with Emmerich, now?!” 

Skylene and Tangerina shrugged just as Alex turned into a burst of sparkling white light, the only indication that she’d been there was a pile of glitter. 

.

 

Chapter 11: Sincerely, Me

Notes:

This chapter and the next are from the Otherworld perspective. (Agatha and Ralph's perspective)

.

 “Hi Emmerich, I was wondering if there’s anything you need? Considering what’s going on right now.” Bree’s voice blasted through the phone’s speaker. Bree’s call was one of the many Emmerich had missed while he was on the plane.

He was at the airport, waiting for his wife to pick him up. He had gotten the call from Agatha telling him that Prunella was missing only last night and yet he wasted no time buying a plane ticket from New York to Sugar Springs at midnight.

From what she had told Emmerich over the call, Prunella went missing and she had left her emergency phone at home. So, the police couldn’t use the live tracker on it. 

Emmerich scrolled through his contacts until he found Bree’s number. The jet lag was slowly catching up to him as he waited for Bree to pick up and the ringing of the call was one of the only sounds he could hear. The airport wasn’t too busy as it was one of the early hours in the morning, only a few other people were there, but everyone was solely focused on themselves. 

 “Oh my gosh, Emmerich! Hi, I tried calling you before but you didn’t answer.”

 “Sorry Bree, I was on a plane and I only just saw your call,” Emmerich responded, watching a family reunite, hugging and crying together. 

 “No no, it’s okay, I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going through right now, considering Prunella is missing. ”

Prunella is missing. The statement sounded unreal, the words ‘Prunella’ and ‘Missing’ sounded as if though shouldn’t even belong in the same sentence. Emmerich’s grip on his suitcase handle tightened as Bree continued. 

“But seriously, if you need anything, and I mean anything then you can call-”

 “I need the Sisters Grimm.” He snapped, cutting her off. 

 “Why? The Sisters Grimm only specialises in- Oh, you think that - How would Prunella have found a way into another dimension?” 

 “I don’t know, just, I have a feeling this isn’t a usual disappearance.” Emmerich mumbled. An announcement was made for a delay for flight 973.

 “Okay, I’ll check with Mindy now.” Bree said. 

A woman with long dark red hair and tired blue eyes approached Emmerich. Agatha. She looked absolutely exhausted, she had eyebags and had lost her usual enthusiastic energy. She wasn’t dressed like she usually did, like someone out of a fairytale and her hair, which was usually loose, was tied up tightly in a bun. 

 “Mindy says that Lindy, Cindy and Wendy should be able to arrive sometime tomorrow,” Bree said. “Where do you live again?”

 “Sugar Springs.”

 “Who are you talking to?” Agatha asked. 

 “Bree, she knows some people who investigate- Disappearances.” 

 “Ooh is that Agatha? Tell her I said hi!” Bree’s awfully cheery voice was loud enough for Agatha to hear. 

 “Hi Bree, Emmerich, we’ve got to go.”

 “Okay, I’m coming.” He said, preparing his suitcase so he could drag it. 

 “I’m going to come tomorrow too! Keep me updated!” Agatha heard this through the phone and asked Emmerich to pass it over. He did. 

 “Bree, we have a bed and breakfast so you and those investigators don’t have to pay.” Agatha said. 

“Oh, thanks Agatha!” Bree exclaimed and Agatha smiled softly, leading the way to her car. 

“Bye Bree.” Emmerich said. 

In the carpark, the cloudy weather turned into a storm and the rain began to pelt down on both Agatha and Emmerich. They ran the rest of the way back to the car and just sat there for a while, the heavy sounds of rain pattering on the roof of the car. 

 

 

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

 

 

The drive back took much longer than Emmerich had expected, either because of the rain on the main road causing a major traffic jam or because Emmerich was used to driving a quicker route. 

Emmerich hadn’t even realised he had fallen asleep, but had just woken up as Agatha turned down their street. There were trees and bushes until the first few houses started showing up. Then a giant lake that Emmerich used to take Prunella to swim in during the summer. 

Finally, there was a light yellow two-storey house with a tower room on top that had no lights on at all. It was the Hollow’s house and Agatha had said that Prunella had gone missing along with two of the boys that lived there. What were their names again? Ace and Beacon? No, Chase and Deacon. 

Agatha pulled into the driveway of the bed and breakfast, which looked like something out of a child’s nightmare now that no one was staying there anymore. The usually light pink walls were now pale and the rose archway’s roses in the garden were wilting. It seemed as though the bed and breakfast itself knew of Prunella’s absence. 

Agatha helped Emmerich waddle through the front door of the Bed and Breakfast and they walked into their bedroom on the second floor. 

The second Emmerich’s head hit the pillow, he was lost in a deep slumber. 

.

Chapter 12: Don't Lose Ur Head!!

.

Emmerich woke up to find five women, including his wife, all sitting in the living room surrounding a coffee table that had teacups and sponge cakes on a shiny silver tray. 

Bree, with strawberry blonde hair, Cindy, with her ginger hair that was let loose, Lindy, who still towered over everyone and had brunnette curly hair done in a half up half down, and Wendy, with her ebony hair tied up in a messy bun. 

They all looked at Emmerich as he walked into the room and took a seat near the window. It was a sunny day, but everything outside looked wet from the rain the previous day. 

 “What time is it?” He asked groggily, reaching for a sponge cake. 

 “Around 11:30 I’d think. You fell asleep the second you came home!” Agatha answered, taking a sip from her teacup.

‘Really?’

 “Anyways, go get ready, we’re going to Ralph’s at quarter to twelve.”

 “Alright.”

The walk to Ralph’s house wasn’t very far, it only took a few minutes to get through the beautifully cut trees and amazing statues that were a part of the bed and breakfast. They made it to the wide road – which Emmerich had heard Prunella say “The road sees more frogs than cars.” over the phone one day – and into Ralph’s front yard where there was perfect vegetables and fruit trees scattered around the yard. 

The four guests trailed behind Agatha and Emmerich on Ralph’s front porch as they waited for anyone to answer the door. Footsteps, then a click, then the creaking of the front door opening. 

 “Hey, come in,” Ralph said as the door finally stopped creaking. The guests slowly came through the door and followed Ralph through the hallway and into the kitchen, where they saw a giant mess. 

It was cakes upon cakes, upon cookies and scones. All of them being gluten free, so that Chase could eat any of them he liked. But how could he, when he was missing at the moment?

 “Wow, uhm, Ralph what is all this?” Agatha gestured to the counter that clearly wanted to collapse, but somehow didn’t. 

 “It’s my way to destress. Now, you said you had detectives?” 

 “Yes I did, meet Cindy, Wendy, and Lindy!” Ralph shook all their hands, and from that moment, they had complete freedom to search anywhere in the house they wanted to. 

 “At what time did you leave the house, Mr. Hollow?” Lindy asked, whipping out a pad of paper and pen, writing Ralph Hollow at the top of the page with the words alibi and motive underneath. 

 “I’d say around – ” Ralph was cut off by the sound of a door being slammed open. 

 “Dad, we’re here!” Hurried footsteps echoed the hallway, until their owners stepped into the kitchen. 

 “That’s my son, Dale, he’s Deacon’s father,” Ralph explained. “And that woman beside him, is Beth, Deacon’s mother.”

 “Perfect, more suspects,” Cindy said through gritted teeth, she began to gesture to Beth and Dale. “I don’t suppose I could interview you two?” 

 “Why?” Beth asked. 

 “To get a better understanding of your alibi and or your motives,” Cindy paused. “We just want to make sure you’re not the kidnappers.”   

 “Okay then,” Beth said, following Cindy into the living room. 

 “If you don’t mind, can you two follow me? We need to make sure you don’t say the same thing that Ralph does,” Wendy signed, and Lindy translated for Agatha and Emmerich to understand. 

They both nodded and followed Wendy upstairs and into a random room. 

 “Now, Ralph, as I was asking before, what time did you leave the house that day?” Lindy asked, pen and paper ready. 

 “It was around 11:23? Because I got to the bake sale at 11:37,” Ralph explained. “And I got home around 4:15.”

The interrogation went on for a few minutes longer, before Lindy decided that she’d gathered enough information about that afternoon. 

 “Tell Agatha to come in now,” She said, reviewing Ralph’s answers. He’d just made it to the doorway before – “Wait, you said your grandson, Chase, hadn’t returned any of your calls from earlier in the day, as well as not answering any when you had realised they weren’t there, you said it as if it was a regular occurrence.”

 “Yes, well there have been times when he hasn’t answered my calls, and all three of them are gone, but then I find them later, always reading and talking about how they’ve gone on walks,” 

 “So this is a regular occurrence?” 

 “No, I only really call him to let him know I’m going somewhere, like the grocery store, or to Agatha’s to go and fix something, and it’s very rare that he doesn’t pick up.” 

 “But this has happened in the past?” 

 “Yes,” Ralph said, deciding whether to add something or not. “That boy always has his phone on him.”

Lindy jotted this down, the quiet scratching of pen against paper filled the room’s silence. 

 “Now do I go and get Agatha?”

 “Yes, thank you, I have all I needed from you,”

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

Ralph, Beth, Emmerich and Bree all stood in the kitchen in silence. Beth was glaring at the food, Bree was leaning back on a stool and Ralph was anxiously stirring a bowl full of icing for some lemon poppyseed cookies that were still in the oven. 

 “I can’t believe this happened,” Beth said, taking off her glasses to rub them clean.

 “It’s unbelievable, isn’t it,” Emmerich agreed. 

Two doors opened, and five people walked out. 

 “I believe we have all of your motives. Now, can we go and investigate the house?” 

All eyes turned to Ralph, who simply said “Sure,”. 

They started on the ground floor but worked their way up to the second floor. Every single space was searched, even the tiny gaps between furniture and the wall. 

When they reached Deacon’s room, Beth was absolutely mortified to see the towering pile of fiction books on Deacon’s desk. She wasn’t even mad about the fact that the main plot for most of them went along the lines of “Pirate captain saves fair maiden from the evil other pirate ship captain.” She barely noticed those ones, but she was mad about the fact that there was a large amount of fairytales. 

 “ Cinderella? Rapunzel? Little Red Riding Hood? Ralph, why does my son have these books that are meant for children!?”

 “I don’t know! I don’t usually come up here! Maybe they’re for Prunella?” 

 “Well, what’s next? Has Charlie been harbouring criminals in his room?” 

 “What?! No!” 

Their argument went on for a while, and Lindy was beginning to lose her patience. 

 “ ENOUGH! Can we please just get our job done?” She shouted. Everyone looked at her, but didn’t say anything, in fear of angering her again. 

The detectives found nothing in Deacon’s room either, “No signs of struggle,” Wendy had signed.

The next room they’d checked was Chase’s, and the first thing that the detectives had noticed was the attic ladder. 

 “Well, nothing in here, just a really weird collage under the bed. Could we check upstairs?” Cindy asked. 

 “Yes, but there wouldn’t be anything up there. Hang on, I need to go and take the cookies out of the oven.” Was Ralph’s answer. 

By the time Ralph had come back up, everyone was already in the attic. It wasn’t much, but it looked cleaner than he’d expected. Well, apart from the food everywhere and three cardboard houses. It looked like there had been a fight of some sort, because there were books left open and on awkward angles. 

 “See, harbouring – well, something..” Beth said, pointing to the food. Everyone began searching for ages, and they found tiny knitted clothes, peanut butter cup wrappers stashed in a chicken oven mitt and tiny footprints across the surface of the table, so faint they were almost unnoticeable. 

 “I found something,” Bree said. Apparently she’d become an honorary detective because she’d written mystery novels at an ‘exceptional level’ according to Wendy. “Well, actually two things.”

Everyone gathered around Bree and what seemed to be a pinboard and a jar filled halfway with sparkling aquamarine liquid, held by a teddy bear. The pinboard had notes that were written in a mixture of both Chase and Deacon’s handwriting. There were square pieces of paper labelled things like, ‘Ex Libris’, ‘the Keys’, ‘Buddy and Violet’ and ‘Us’.

 “Ex Libris?” Bree asked, but nobody answered, because nobody knew what it was. 

There were polaroid pictures of tiny metal people, labelled ‘Silver, Bronze and Goldie’ scattered around the board, tied back to ‘the Keys’. 

‘Ex Libris’ and ‘Buddy and Violet’ were tied together, but with a question mark on the string. 

‘Us’ and ‘Buddy and Violet’ were tied together, but there was yet another question mark and a note saying ‘Maybe truce?'. 

‘Ex Libris’ was tied to almost everything, especially a missing poster for Keys, stating that they were antique and worth one-thousand dollars each. Two notes were beside the poster, ‘Did Buddy and Violet make this? Or was it Ex Libris?’ and ‘Tried calling the number, but it’s a burner phone.’. 

 “What did they get themselves into?” Dale asked, he was focused on one string in particular. The one labelled ‘Wish for mum’ was tied back to 'the Keys' and to 'Buddy and Violet', with yet  another note ‘Goal to get Buddy and Violet out of Ex Libris, along with the other Keys’. 

 “I don’t know, but this is the most information we’ve gotten so far,” Lindy said. 

 “What if they were taken by this ‘Ex Libris’?” Bree asked. The room went silent. Nobody wanted that possibility to have been real, but it might as well have been, they had no reason to believe otherwise. 

 

Suddenly, the room was filled with a bright flash of light, and a man fell to the floor, along with a emerald book and a small golden figure. 

 “Miss Prunella? Did you find Masters Chase and Deacon?” The gold man asked, holding a small vial filled with nothing. 

 “Conner?” Bree asked, watching Conner dust himself up. 

 “You can actually speak?” He asked the golden man, who dropped both the vial and his jaw. 

.

 

 

 

Chapter 13: Only A Trade

Notes:

I'm actually going to scream. I think the ao3 author curse is trying to come after me academically, I mean, since when did I have two assignments and three tests all due in the same week? TWO TESTS AND AN ASSIGNMENT WERE ON THE SAME DAY? LIKE WHAT? TWO TESTS WERE MATHS TESTS AND MY MATHS TEACHER DIDN'T TEACH US ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE TESTS? If your going to say that I probably wasn't paying attention, (I most likely wasn't :l) not only was my ENTIRE class STRUGGLING, but his SECOND class was struggling too.. I think that says something about his teaching. Like A LOT.

Also the chapter title was "Only Tea" from The Great Gatsby, edited. So yeah.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter!!

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

Deacon, Jazmine, Caleb and Prunella all went to go find firewood for their dinner, leaving Chase and Buddy alone by the fire. 

They sat in silence, Chase's head spinning from the fact that he actually just jumped onto Buddy, the guy who kissed him while Cinderella was falling apart around them. So why did he feel so nervous? Chase had begged and begged all week just to go into a book, just to see the boy next to him, but now he didn’t know what he was going to do or say!

 “Sorry for uh, jumping on you before, that was um, I don’t know why I did that.” Chase mumbled. 

Ugh great , now his face was heating up and he didn’t know what he was saying! 

 “It’s fine Chase, you’ve apologised three times already.” 

Really? Three? He’d thought that was the first time. 

 “Riiiiight.” He said. They sat in an awkward silence, listening to the crackling of the fire. 

Chase fidgeted with his hands, wondering how to put his feelings into words. 

 “Hey Buddy, did you really mean what you said in Cinderella last week?” 

There was a silence and Chase thought he’d said something wrong and when he looked at Buddy, he could have sworn he saw Buddy’s cheeks turn slightly pink. 

 “Of course. Chase, I couldn’t just make that up. I- I do want to be your hero, even now.” Buddy said that last part quieter. 

Huh. 

Chase looked at the bag sitting in his lap, was now a good time?

 “It’s for you,” Chase blurted, shoving the bag into Buddy’s hands as he looked at Chase with uncertainty. 

 “For me?” Buddy questioned. 

 “It’s a um, thank you, for saving us, from me.” 

Buddy stared at Chase, who only realised a few seconds later. 

 “Well, go on, open it!” Chase exclaimed. Buddy chuckled at Chase's outburst. 

 “Oh.” 

It was filled with chocolate bars, some bars were different sizes, others had fillings, but most of them were the brand of chocolate Chase had given him on the beach. 

 “You gave me chocolate?” Buddy asks, rather surprised. 

‘And probably my heart last week but you know.’ Chase thought. 

 “Do you like it?” 

Buddy didn't answer, but judging by the redness in his cheeks, he did like the gift. 

 

 

 

⋆˚࿔

 

Collecting firewood went.. Well. For the most part. 

Jazmine and Caleb went off by themselves, catching up and talking about their days, Deacon and Prunella could hear this, as their conversation was rather loud. 

Prunella found the best firewood in the forest, and Deacon just followed her around trying to see if he could get any for himself (Spoiler: he couldn’t.). 

 “I wonder what’s happening right now at home?” 

 “Probably nothing, I mean we’re still in the book, so shouldn’t time be shortened?” 

 “It doesn’t seem like an actual book though, we don’t have keys, or roles and I woke up like three times last night!” 

 “Yeah you’re right, hopefully there’s nothing too serious going on in the real world.”

 “Jazmine told Chase and I a way to get home, it’s called the wishing spell.” 

 “What, so it makes wishes? What’s the catch?”

 “I don’t know? Jazmine didn’t say anything about a catch!”

 “Right now, I don’t think we should trust Caleb or Jazmine, they both are very strange. Caleb was alright, but once Jazmine arrived, he started acting all weird,”

 “That’s true,” Prunella agreed. 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

Meanwhile…

 

 

Jazmine and Caleb stood wearing masks in the middle of a few trees, it wasn’t wide enough to be a clearing, but it definitely muffled their conversation. In front of them, stood a hooded man. 

 “What do you two have to offer?” The man asked, his arms crossed and a pouch in his hand, presumably full of coins. The Dwarf Forests was well known for sketchy deals like this one, and many other illegal things, which is why so many people wouldn’t dare to enter it. 

Jazmine had a bag of her own and she reached inside to pull out it’s contents. A tiara, an argyle pink diamond necklace and a golden watch with diamonds encrusted on the back. 

 “Hmm. Is that all?” 

 “What do you mean, ‘Is that all?’ These are from the best jewellers in the Charming Kingdom! If you can’t give us the money willingly, we may have to take it forcefully, if you know what I mean?” Jazmine said. The man looked over to Caleb, who now had a dagger in his hand, ready for the strike. 

 “Okay, okay, here’s your money," 

 “Pleasure doing business with you, sir!” Caleb smiled, taking the pouch of coins from the man, then passing over the treasures. 

The man stalked off, kicking a rock into the trunk of the tree and murmuring something about spoiled children who scammed him, and that they should be grateful that he was desperate. 

Jazmine and Caleb walked back to the camp, picking up small twigs on the way. 

 “Where were you when they found you, Jaz?” Caleb asked, tossing the pouch up and then catching it. 

 “Rapunzel’s tower, I threw a mannequin head to scare them off, but they were persistent, not quiet. So, I found them crouched in the stairwell.”

 “That boy, what was his name?” 

 “His name as far as I know, is Chase, but Caleb, just listen. Apparently, they come from a different world entirely,” Jazmine exclaimed. 

 “And they just told you this?” 

 “ – Yes.” 

 “Well, why are they here?”

Jazmine froze and skipped ahead of Caleb, holding her hands out in front of her as a sort of wall blocking Caleb from walking any further. 

 “What?” Caleb asked. 

 “Okay, so I need to not be mad,” 

 “Why would I be mad?” 

 “I might have told them that we can help them get home – ” 

 “WHAT?”

 “ – And that we’d use the Wishing Spell to help them – ”

Caleb took a deep breath to try and process what his sister was telling him. 

 “ – Did you at the very least say that there was a cost?” 

Jazmine froze, and slapped herself. It was a pretty hard slap too, she had a bright red mark across her face. 

“Great! Just great! I only said I would help those boys find their friends but now you’ve gone and said we’d help them commit felonies!”

 “They don’t know that it’s a felony! Besides, It’s not like we – ”

 “Do NOT finish that sentence.” 

 “..Fine.”

 “Seriously?” 

 “You told me not to finish the sentence!” 

 “Well, finish it, I want to know what you were going to say!”

Jazmine looked around their surroundings and beckoned for Caleb to lean down so she could tell him. 

 “That is a good plan,”

 “Thank Godmother, you liked it.” Jazmine sighed leaning against a tree. 

 “You don’t need to say that, it’s just me and you Jaz,” 

 “What? I’m only thanking her for making you like the plan!”

 “Because it is a good plan.” 

 “So? I can still thank her”

 “Shut up Jazmine.” 

Jazmine laughed and they made their way back through the forest, acting as though they’d never spoken about felonies and wishes and fairies. 

.

 

Notes:

Have a good day/night/morning/afternoon!!

Chapter 14: No Way

.

Alex landed in the town of Sugar Springs. There weren’t many people wandering around, and thankfully, nobody had noticed that she had randomly appeared out of thin air. No need to waste any magic. In front of Alex stood a giant library, a sign for extracurricular reading programs for extra college credits caught her eye. She didn't need them, but they reminded her of the future she very easily could have had. With a whisper of “Emmerich’s house,” she disappeared into a burst of light. 

She landed again in the middle of a road, which had no cars in either direction. She took a step. A single step. And a car appeared out of thin air, speeding past, narrowly missing her foot. 

 “Alex!” A voice called, and Alex saw Bree running out of a pale yellow house, with eight other people following behind her, her brother among them.

 “Can’t believe this..” A woman with short brunette hair murmured, shaking her head. 

 “There you are! Okay so, guess what we found out?” Conner asked, rolling back and forth on his heels. He was clearly waiting for the beginning of an answer. 

 “What?” Alex asked. Sometimes it was nice to pretend to be excited with Conner. 

 “Those people that we were searching for, I know who they are!” 

Alex was taken aback, how could Conner know who they are? Unless these people behind him were the answer. 

 “Well, who are they?” She asked. 

 “This here is Beth and Dale, their son Deacon, and their nephew Chase – ”

 “ – Charlie –” Beth corrected.

 “ – Right, Charlie, and Agatha and Emmerich’s daughter, Prunella, were the missing people,” Conner explained. 

 “Wait- so you went into the Land of Stories book, and laned here? And everyone was just there waiting?” Alex asked, it sounded too good to be true. 

 “Yep, apparently they’d hired the Sisters Grimm – Wendy, Lindy, and Cindy – and they were investigating for any clues,” 

Alex tried to process this information. Emeralda had said that if they weren’t out in between the unknown time frame, that they would die. She had no idea how to tell these parents that their children could be dead, and they wouldn’t even know it. 

Emmerich cleared his throat, “Conner, I think you’re forgetting about the most important part,” He said. 

 “What? Oh yes, I am. Alex, I want you to meet Goldie, aka, the Golden Key from the treehouse,” 

Conner lifted a tiny man made out of gold up and out of a small bag that Alex hadn’t realised he was holding. The tiny man gave an awkward wave while he gripped Conner’s finger for support. Poor Goldie, he probably wasn’t used to being carried around so carelessly. 

 “Hello, Miss Alex, Master Conner has told me much about you!” Goldie exclaimed once he had finally been able to stand straight. 

 “Oh. My. Gods. He talks.”

 “That I do!” 

Alex listened as Conner explained as much as he could about that afternoon. The landing in the attic, Goldie appearing. There was a small pause as Alex listened to Goldie explain what precisely happened the afternoon that everyone had gone missing, and the apparent afternoon the week before. 

 “So, the book started to glow and hum?” 

 “Yes,”

 “Oh my - that’s just – ”

 “That’s just what?” The man called Ralph asked. 

 “The book glowing and humming means that a fairy has activated it. The fairy is who I can only assume to be Prunella, because of you Emmerich,” Alex answered. Emmerich was Conner and Alex’s cousin, and even though there was no magic in his father’s blood, as it had been taken away from him specifically, it had somehow skipped to Emmerich. 

 “Wait, fairies are real?” Ralph asked. 

 “You’re asking that now?” Dale shouted. His father wasn’t surprised when a tiny metal person appeared, and a man came tumbling out of a book in the attic, but was shocked when fairies existed. 

 “Agatha was right?” 

 “How do you suppose I got here so fast?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow. Ralph didn’t answer. 

 “I’m sorry, I’m just going to ask it, our children are missing in a magic land with fairies and what else? Goldie said that the Keys were their only way out, so is Prunella going to get stuck in the Land of Stories forever?” Beth said. She had a point. Emeralda said that any unstable portals were the only way in and out of the Land of Stories, and they had Prunella’s Key. Which did mean she was stuck. Until she died . 

 “Potentially,” Alex saw in the corner of her eye, Agatha stumbled and Emmerich caught her. He was trying to comfort her, telling her that the fairy tale world was completely safe, and that Alex would let them visit their daughter as much as they wanted. 

 “Goldie, if I took you into the Land of Stories, would you turn back into a Key?” 

 “I believe so, if I enter any work of fiction, I will change into my Key form.” 

 “Okay, so I just need to find your kids,” Alex whispered. Before the time runs out, she thought. 

A cricket chirped, and everyone only just realised how late it had gotten. 

 “Let’s go inside to finish this conversation,” Ralph said, and everyone followed him. 

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

Ralph’s stress baking had started to be eaten by all eleven people, as they discussed what would happen next. 

 “I was planning to take Conner, Emmerich, Goldie and myself back to the fairy tale world, so we could continue the search for your kids, but I’m starting to wonder if any of you wanted to come along?” Alex offered, taking a bite out of a lemon poppyseed cookie. 

 “I want to,” Agatha said, raising her hand. “The Bed and Breakfast is closed down for the moment, and I won’t open up again until my daughter is home safe.”

 “Then I’ll go too,” Was all Ralph said. 

 “I’ll go,” Bree said. “It’s been a while since I’ve been to the Land of Stories.”

All eyes went to the five people who’d stayed mostly silent in both conversations, Cindy, Lindy, Wendy, Beth and Dale. 

 “What about you guys?” Alex asked. 

 “We’re not coming, Mindy wants us back for some other business,” Lindy answered. 

 “She says it’s serious, like mermaids-in-the-Hudson-river serious,” Cindy explained. 

Alex nodded, and turned her attention back to Beth and Dale. 

 “Now you two, are you willing to wait until we have your son and nephew safe, or would you like to see them when we find them?”

 “I don’t think we can, even though we were given leave, we still have to take Charlie’s mother to her chemotherapy appointments."

 “Okay, then, we’ll get going,” Conner said. 

 “Just a second,” Alex shouted. “I need to talk to my brother for a moment.” Conner was dragged by the wrist into a dimly lit living room, the TV softly playing an old show in black in white in the background. 

 “Conner, have you told them anything?” Alex whispered. 

 “Anything about what?” Conner whispered back.

 “You know what, the rule about unstable portals. Like the Keys, and the time,”

Conner paused.  “.. No I didn’t. I didn’t want to tell them their kids could die,” 

 “Well, at least we have one Key safe, so we just need to find two more,” 

 “Yeah, but then we also need to find these people Alex!” 

 “It’ll be easier to find their way home first!” 

 “Are you even listening? We need to find these people, and we know how they got here in the first place, so now we can try to find them for their families, Alex. If they die and their parents never got to see them, how do you think that’s going to go down, especially with you being the Fairy Godmother?” Conner hissed, jabbing a finger into his sister’s shoulder. 

Alex only sighed, her brother had a point, finding these people for their families was more important than anything else. 

 “Fine, we can find them first, but we can’t forget about the time,” 

 “I don’t think we will, Alex,” Conner promised. 

They walked back out into the room, and with the wave of Alex’s wand, a door decorated with intricate paintings of roses, stars and slippers appeared in a burst of blue light. The door opened by itself, and there was the Fairy Palace’s ballroom. 

“Now Ralph, I need you to have a serious talk to Charlie and Deacon about this, they endangered themselves and a child!” Alex heard Beth say to Ralph. One by one, those who were coming walked through the doorway, knowing it was magic, yet still fascinated with it. But before Emmerich forgot, he grabbed the Land of Stories book, which had been resting on the kitchen counter behind Ralph’s generous supply of baking. 

 “Welcome, to the Land of Stories!” Alex said, closing the door behind her. 

 

.

 

 “...” 

 “...” 

 ‘Well, what do we do now?’ Wendy signed. 

 “I say we take a few more of those pastries for the road,” Lindy said, and there were no sounds of disagreement from her fellow detectives. 

.

 

Notes:

Beth and Dale are just watching Cindy, Lindy and Wendy devour a whole table of pastries. They don't know what to do about it.

Have a good day/night/morning/afternoon!!

Chapter 15: Into The Woods, And Out Of The Woods, And Home Before Dark!

Notes:

Soooo, I did not cry over French homework nearly half an hour ago... ANYWAYSS, Sabrina's new album, Man's Best Friend is SOOO GOOD, I've listened to it all today and yesterday.

I hope you enjoy this chapter!!

.

The next morning was a massive blur for everyone. Food was eaten and then packed away, the last flickers of the fire were extinguished and with that, the group began their journey. The sky was cloudy and the tall, the wide trees were a perfect barrier against the harsh winds. Chase, Deacon, Buddy and Prunella all woke up with the same outifts they had been given by their keys. 

Everyone held at least one bag. Prunella had a small bag with bread rolls and some of the delicious apples Jazmine had given her and Chase on the path to the Dwarf Forests. Jazmine and Caleb had both insisted on holding very specific bags and they dodged questions about each bag’s contents. 

 “If you didn’t know already, we’re collecting the first, wait , the second Wishing Spell item, the jewels from Snow White’s coffin, which is in the Dwarf mines.” Caleb explained. He led the group through the last row of thick trees and onto a long path. There was a tall post with locations written on different arrows. 

Chase walked right up to the post and read the titles. Rapunzel’s tower and the Corner Kingdom pointing behind him and the Northern Kingdom and the Dwarf mines pointing in the opposite direction. 

As Caleb continued walking, the group strangely fell into a single file line, which reminded Chase of those school trips where the teacher would at some point instruct everyone into a single file line. Caleb, then Jazmine, Prunella, Deacon and finally Buddy, who had to grab Chase’s wrist to make sure he wouldn’t be left behind. 

While looking at the thin gaps of the sky above, Chase wondered what Deacon and Buddy thought about the strangers who were so willing to help. Did they find it helpful? Or were Deacon and Buddy just as suspicious as Chase was of their true intentions?

Jazmine had thrown a head – that looked scarily realistic despite the fact that it was fake – out of a window when Chase and Prunella had found her. Now Chase wanted to figure out the reason behind her prank, and if she was really hiding from authorities due to trespassing, because she had sounded perfectly fine once a large group of guards were questioning her. 

⋆˚࿔

The group stopped outside a giant mound of dirt with a tunnel held up with wooden pillars and a track leading into the darkness. Where they would be going. Jazmine and Caleb took turns explaining the history of the Dwarf mines, which surprisingly had been run by dwarves.

‘Duh, that’s how they got the name.’ Chase nearly said. 

 “I’m suggesting that we split up, The four of you go that way, while Caleb and I go-” Jazmine started but was cut off. 

 “Why are all four of us together? If we were to split up wouldn’t it be easier if we went in groups of three or even two?” Deacon asked. 

THANK YOU DEACON!!

“Deacon’s right. If we’re gonna go somewhere, especially in there, we would need someone to help us find the coffin.” Prunella added. 

Jazmine’s eye twitched, “Well, I thought that maybe we would have a better chance of getting the jewels from the coffin if we split up, you know, more numbers?”

 “Okay then, we’ll split up, Buddy and Prunella, Chase and Jazmine and finally Caleb and I.” Deacon said. 

 “WHAT?” Everyone except Deacon yelled. 

 “Or we could all just go together?” He suggested. The silence echoed through the entire forest and the decision was clear.

‘Buddy’s lucky the tunnels aren’t too small.’ Chase thought, remembering the time when that vampire locked Buddy in a coffin. 

The groups started off together, but slowly dispersed as new tunnels were formed. Deacon and Caleb went, then Buddy and Prunella, until Chase and Jazmine were left to continue through the darkness. Everyone left their bags under a big bush just behind the mound of dirt, and split up as they got deeper into the tunnels, Deacon and Caleb splitting off from the group first, then Buddy and Prunella, and finally, Chase and Jazmine were left walking in a straight line. 

 “.. So where else are we gonna go?” Chase asked, running his hand against the dirt walls of the tunnel. 

 “Uhm, the Charming Kingdom, the Centre Kingdom, the Sleeping Kingdom, the Troblin Kingdom, Mermaid Bay and the Fairy Kingdom.”

 “Wow, that’s gonna be a lot of walking.” 

 “Yep.” She agreed, looking at the wall as if it was the most fascinating thing in the entire world. 

Jazmine and Chase walked in silence for the next thirty minutes. Feeling the walls and following the dark outlines of the tracks until they saw the faint yellow flickering light of a lantern up ahead. 

⋆˚࿔

 “How is this tunnel so long?” Prunella asked Buddy. They had been walking for what seemed like a decade and still hadn’t reached the end of the tunnel. 

 “Don’t know.” Buddy answered.

The sounds of the gravel crushing under their feet and the faintest sound of water dripping echoed through the hallway. Once they had reached the ‘end’, which wasn’t really the end, they would just have to crawl the rest of the way. 

Prunella got down on her hands and knees and began to crawl. She scraped her hands a few times of some sharp rocks on the floor and her knees probably were going to have bruises, but she pushed though. 

She kept crawling until she could stand on the other side but quickly realised that Buddy hadn’t followed her. 

 “Buddy? What are you waiting for?” She yelled into the space she had just crawled through.

There was a long pause before she got an answer. 

 “I am not going in there.”

 “Why not?”

 “I don’t like small spaces!”

 “Come on, you’ll be fine, the most that’ll happen is a few scrapes.”

 “Nope. Nothing you say or do can convince me.” 

 “Not even for chocolate?”

 “Not even- Hey, how’d you-”

 “It was in the bag Chase brought.”

 “How did you get that?”

 “Come get it!” She yelled.

 “No, keep it.”

 “Damn really? There’s gotta be at least sixty dollars worth of chocolate in here..”

 “..I said keep it, I’m not crawling through there.”

 “Suit yourself, just wait for me out there.” Prunella said, not getting a response. But she couldn’t hear footsteps receding so she supposed that was a good sign. She quickly took a few bars of chocolate out of the bag and threw them back to Buddy before continuing through the new tunnel.

⋆˚࿔

Chase and Jazmine reached the lantern and took it off the wall 

The tunnel Chase and Jazmine had followed so far hadn’t led them to Snow White’s coffin, so hopefully Deacon or Buddy had better chances. Come to think of it, they hadn’t seen a single dwarf the entire time they’d been in the mines.

 “Maybe we should turn around?” Chase suggested, already turning in the direction to the exit.

 “Hang on,” Jazmine said. “I see something. Can you see that sparkling in the distance?”

Chase rolled his eyes and looked to where Jazmine was pointing. Something was sparkling on the floor a few feet in front of them. He took the lantern from Jazmine’s hands and started walking forwards, Deacon behind him. 

He dropped to the floor to inspect the sparkling and saw gold. No, really. Gold stuck in the dirt and another piece leading further into the tunnel

 “I don’t have a good feeling about this..” Chase mumbled. 

 “It doesn’t really look like real gold does it?” Jazmine asked. Chase shook his head, if this was real gold, it would have already been mined by those dwarves Jazmine and Caleb kept talking about. Yet, Chase felt as though he was being pulled down the tunnel by an invisible thread. 

“Let’s keep going.” He said, and Jazmine agreed. 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

 

This tunnel felt almost as endless as the one Prunella and Buddy had walked down earlier. Prunella still couldn’t see anything, and she relied solely on the rocky walls surrounding her for guidance through the tunnel.

There was a small house built into the end of the tunnel. It had a small glass window and a stained glass door with the picture of a woman with raven hair holding a red apple up to her lips. There was light inside and that was one of the important things.

Prunella was so focused on the light in front of her, that she didn’t notice the giant red arrows pointing back to the direction she had just come from. 

The house was bigger than Prunella had expected it to be and the door was much more detailed than she thought it was. It was still a picture of a woman with raven hair holding an apple, only with gold on the stem of the apple and small golden details on her dress. On the doorknob, there was an engraving of an apple. Prunella tried to turn the doorknob, twisting it both ways and it still didn’t open. 

Prunella grunted and picked up a rock and threw it at the window, not wanting to shatter the beautiful door beside it. Yes, maybe Prunella could have found a better way to open the window, a way that was less destructive, but it was too late now. 

She got rid of the last shards of glass still sticking out of the window’s frame and clambered through. Once inside, Prunella saw lanterns, a rotten apple with a bite taken out of it and a glass box with a golden plaque. 

‘This must be it.’ She thought as she made her way over to the coffin. It didn’t look like much, there weren’t quite as many jewels as Prunella expected, but she read the plaque and sure enough it said, ‘Queen Snow White of the Northern Kingdom’s coffin and poisoned apple.’ 

 “Weird,” Prunella mumbled. “Why are there not that many jewels?” 

Prunella picked up a sharp rock and began trying to take a few jewels off the coffin, but they looked like they had been melted into the actual glass and the ones that were missing might have been taken off by a knife. 

Sadly, Prunella didn’t have a knife so she had to use the rock that kept failing her. It would be so much easier if she just smashed the coffin like she smashed the window. But she didn’t have that option. 

One jewel came off, then a second and then a third. Prunella decided to put the jewels in Buddy’s chocolate bag so that she wouldn’t randomly lose them. 

On her way out of the small house, Prunella got a lantern off the wall and noticed a small piece of gold stuck in the wall. 

 “Gold? At least I’ll get something out of this, as well as the jewels!” She exclaimed to no one. She reached for the gold and was so focused on trying to rip it out of the wall, that she didn’t notice the small puddle of water on the floor or the water dripping from the place the gold just was. 

“Aha! Finally!” Prunella yelled and started to walk away only to hear a weird sound under her feet. Splashing? 

 “What the?” Her head whipped back to the wall as she heard a loud crack. There was water spilling out of the wall and the room was slowly flooding. 

Prunella began running with the lantern in hand back down the passage she came and back to where Buddy was waiting. 

 

 

 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

 

Chase and Jazmine had walked for ages until they started to hear water getting louder. However they didn’t seem to worry about it until they actually saw water spilling through a wall. 

“GO, GO, GO!” Chase screamed, shoving Jazmine forward. Chase was starting having flashbacks from Cinderella when water was destroying the entire world, leaving Chase, Deacon and Prunella all unable to go home without giving the book the ending it wanted. 

The pair ran up the tunnel going uphill and dropping the lantern on their way. Luckily for them, they had to keep going straight the entire time. Jazmine looked behind her and saw the lantern sinking, then the light smothered out, leaving them with the faint light coming from above. 

“BUDDY!” Buddy jumped at the sudden noise. He saw the water leaking out of the crack in the tunel, and then Prunella with a lantern. 

“We need to go! Now!” Prunella yelled and she grabbed Buddy’s wrist, even though he was the one dragging her. They ran even though the water was already under their feet and reaching the end of their tunnel. 

At the end of their passage, Chase and Jazmine met up with them and they all continued running up the tunnel. 

 

 

 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

 “I wonder what’s taking them so long?” Deacon asked Caleb who was lying on the grassy ground. They had left earlier because their tunnel had finished early at a dead end. 

 “Maybe the Dwarves caught them?”

 “But I thought these mines were actually abandoned!?” 

 “Oh they are, but from time to time a few Dwarves will go down into the tunnels and to Snow White’s coffin.” 

 “That’s weird.” Deacon mumbled. 

 “It's their land, they can use it how they please.”

A loud rumbling sound shook the trees and made Deacon fall onto his back. Chase, Prunella, Jazmine and Buddy all ran out of the mines drenched from head to toe. They all were coughing and wheezing, exhausted from running and at some point, swimming. 

 “What happened to you guys?” Caleb asked. 

 “Gold rock. Crack. Lots of water. Flood. Run.” Prunella gasped. She coughed up what looked like a litre of water. 

The leaves of a bush rustled and made everyone go silent. Caleb made a motion to start going but never got to finish it as a woman on her horse jumped out from behind a tree. 

“HALT IN THE NAME OF THE FAIRY GODMOTHER! YOU ARE ALL UNDER ARREST!” She yelled, the blade of her sword pointed directly at Jazmine. 

What?

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

Notes:

Into The Woods, And Out Of The Woods, And Home Before Dark! Can you guess one of my favourite musicals?

Also I definitely, 100% described everyone's outfits.

Have a good day/night/morning/afternoon!!

Chapter 16: Emeralda Will See You Now

Notes:

Chapter name from ‘One Short Day’ from Wicked!

Also early chapter because smth of that happened this morning (there will still be a chapter on Saturday)

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter!!

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

 “Welcome to the Land of Stories!” Alex said as she closed the door behind her. The ballroom was empty, save for the few fairies dusting the ceilings, and the new guests she had just brought through the portal. 

Goldie had transformed back into the Golden Key Alex and Conner had found in the treehouse, and Conner handed him over to Alex to hold. 

 “This right here’s the Fairy Palace, where many fairies, including myself, live! Though we do have guests from time to time, so I believe your rooms should have been made – ”

 “ – I’m sorry, did you just say made?” Ralph asked. 

 “Mhm, the Fairy Palace itself is magical, and it makes rooms for people when it senses visitors,” Alex explained. “Now I need to go have a talk with Emeralda, to let her know you’re all here. Conner, please show them around.” 

Alex waved her wand and burst into a ball of light, in her place was a small pile of glitter. 

Bree turned her head to the side. “Huh, she’s getting good at that, isn’t she?” Conner and Emmerich nodded while Agatha and Ralph both stood shocked, mouths agape. They’d just crossed through dimensions through a little door that had appeared in Ralph’s kitchen, so you’d think they would be less awestruck. 

 “How did she do that?!” Agatha asked, patting her husband’s shoulder and jumping up and down like she was a little kid. 

 “Magic,” Conner answered. 

 “Can you do magic, since you’re Alex’s brother?!”

But before Conner could even answer, Bree began to shout. “DON’T ASK HIM TO DO MAGIC, HE WILL BURN THIS PALACE TO THE GROUND!” 

She quickly shoved her hands over her mouth and cleared her throat. “Sorry, the only time he’s tried magic by himself, he set a whole room on fire.”

 “Anyways, the tour! Where we are is the grand ballroom, and if you follow me down here – you’ll see the…” Conner’s voice trailed off as they left the room. 

 

 

 

༉‧₊˚.⋆˚࿔

 

 

Alex walked into the Banquet Hall, where she had expected to see Emeralda, but instead found Mother Goose, who had her feet up on the table and was blowing giant bubbles that would fly up and into the crisscrossed branches that were considered rafters for a nonexistent roof. 

 “Mother Goose, how are you?” Alex greeted, waving her wand to make the bubbly disappear. 

 “Oi, where’s my bubbly?” Mother goose shrieked, slamming her hands on the table, as if it would help her find the bubbly thief. 

 “Mother Goose,” Alex repeated. “How are you?” 

Mother Goose looked rather annoyed, yet still tried to keep her somewhat existent composure. “Fine, Alex, how are you?” 

 “Good, I was wondering if you knew where Emeralda is? I have a few guests and I want to know if they can stay.”

 “Emeralda should be around your office, she was going to talk to you. Don’t worry, I highly doubt she would kick guests out. She’s far too composed for that.” 

Alex laughed. “You can say that again,” 

Their laughter died down and they were left in the comfortable silence of the Hall. Pixies buzzed excitedly as they chatted about what they would be eating for the feast tonight, setting out cutlery and plates as they did so. 

 “I’ve.. never actually been in here while the pixies have set up for dinner. I have tried before to help, but I’ve been forced out almost every time I tried.”

Mother Goose laughed. “Perfectionists, they are. Don’t like others touching what’s usually their job, because they’re afraid of a single flaw.” 

 “Huh,” Alex murmured, turning her head to the side. “I think I can agree with that, it always looks wonderful here.”

 “Indeed, now, don’t you have some guests to get approval of?” 

 “Yes, I do,” Alex agreed, unsure of how the time had flown by so fast from just a simple conversation.

Alex said her goodbyes and left the Banquet Hall, but not before complimenting the pixies' work. 

 

The door to Alex’s office was opened slightly, and when Alex pushed it fully open, she wasn’t fully prepared for what was inside. 

 “And where is Alex right now?” Emeralda shouted. 

 “I don’t know, last I heard, she was looking for you!” Conner shouted back. 

 “Gods, I wish she spoke to me about this earlier,” 

Emeralda, Conner and the others were spread out around Alex’s office. Clearly, Conner had beaten her to this conversation. This was the single outcome she’d hoped to avoid and somehow, out of the one-hundred-and-seventy-seven different scenarios she’d thought up, it was the only one that had come true. Just Alex’s luck. 

 “Hey Alex,” Bree groaned, her face morphed into a strained smile. “What’s uppp?”

Emeralda, who had her head in her hands, immediately looked up with a frown on her face. She got up and pulled Alex outside, a hushed conversation begun to rise as the door closed behind her, the whispers discussing Alex’s fate. 

 “So, Alex,” Emeralda said. She had a frown, which in this case, meant Emeralda was disappointed. Very disappointed. She shook her head before continuing the conversation. “What were you thinking when you brought visitors to the Fairy Tale World, without my knowledge?” 

Alex didn’t know how to answer. The first thing that came to her mind was to explain the whole story, from the very start. Finding Goldie, hiding him, using him to enter a book, finding the famous Land of Stories book in the middle of the night, and letting Conner go inside. But then she realised that the truth would lead her to more trouble than it’s worth. 

 “I was trying to find you, but I couldn’t find you anywhere, and I ran into Mother Goose, who told me that you were here,” Alex explained. She watched Emeralda sigh, a long disappointed sigh that had a deeper meaning behind it than just finding guests. 

 “What?” She asked. 

 “Nothing,” Emeralda said, brushing it off like a speck of dust on her shoulder. “Now, who are the people in your office?”

 “Well, the funny thing is – well, actually it’s not really funny now that I think about it, but they are the parents of the intruders,” She mumbled, and stayed silent when questions were thrown at her. 

 “How? Just, how did you manage to find them? How do you even know how they are the parents? I know Bree and Emmerich were there, so are they friends with them? Is that how you figured it out?” 

 “So uh, guys I don’t know if you know or not, but we can hear you,” Conner said, poking his head through the door. 

 “Ughhghghghg, okay?” Emeralda answered. 

 “Why don’t you come in and they can explain for you?” Conner offered, and Emeralda agreed, figuring it would be easier than asking Alex, who would give complicated answers. 

After a few minutes of settling down and the scattered floating candles lit all around the room, Emeralda began asking questions. 

 “So, how did you all figure out that your children were in the Land of Stories?” 

 “When we saw Conner fall out of the book titled exactly that,” Agatha answered. “It had a green cover and was – shit, what’s the word?” 

 “Odd?” Bree offered, knowing what she meant, after all she’d had a similar reaction when she saw the book and knew what it could do. 

 “Yes, that’s it. And after Conner fell out, there was a little golden man who appeared with him, who he called Goldie.”

 “Goldie?” Emeralda asked Conner. 

 He simply held up the Golden Key for Emeralda to see, and she shot a glare back to Alex. She hadn’t mentioned this part of the story. 

 “We found him in that Treehouse, with the journal, and we didn’t show him to you because we thought that this was the way that the intruders got stuck here,” He explained.  “And it is! They used these Keys, which Edward created, on the Land of Stories book, which I gave to Emmerich to take care of. Emmerich’s daughter was one of the children that went missing, along with Ralph’s Grandsons. They hired the Sisters Grimm to come and ivestigate their house, and that’s when I fell into Ralph’s house from the book.” 

Emeralda sighed, this was too much information for one day.  “The Dwarf Mines flooded this morning, a few kids were running around in there and one of them pulled out a lump of fool’s gold. There was already a leak in there, but I guess that little piece of fool’s gold was the only thing stopping it from flooding. But now this too? Alex, if you’re hoping your guests can stay, those rooms I found in your quarters better be for them.” 

 “Wait, the Dwarf Mines flooded?” Alex asked. Now it made sense why Emeralda was so stressed about this, because on a usual day she woud be more than delighted to have guests, but now she was questioning whether she should let them stay or not.  “Also, there’s new rooms in my quarters?” 

 “Yes, that’s why I came to your office! To talk to you!”

Once again, the guests were stuck watching their host fight with someone who could have them all kicked out without a second thought. It was awkward and they didn’t know what to do about it. But thankfully, a distraction was formed by a girl who held a fish that wore a suit and tie. “Emeralda, Alex, the Pixies say dinner is ready,” 

Emeralda and Alex stopped fighting, and said quiet apologies to eachother. 

 “Do we have guests?” The girl asked. The fish jumped out of her arms and walked, yes, walked over to Emmerich, Agatha, Ralph and Bree, and signalled to the door. 

 “Yes, Coral, and thank you,” Emeralda said. 

Everyone was led out into the hallway, and into a giant hall, where the guests could only hope would be where dinner would be served. 

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

Notes:

the aussie in me broke out when Mother Goose said “oi”

Have a good day/night/morning/afternoon!!

Chapter 17: Hello, Her Majesty..

Notes:

This chapter title is 'Hello, Little Girl' from Into The Woods, but renamed and the reason is at the end of the chapter.

I hope you enjoy this chapter!!

.

 “Halt in the name of the Fairy Godmother! You are all under arrest!”

What?

The woman on her horse had long curly blonde hair and looked as though she could laugh in the face of death. She encouraged her horse to move forwards and it glared at Deacon. Deacon specifically. 

Chase, Deacon, Prunella, Buddy, Jazmine and Caleb all tried to run in the opposite direction,  but were cornered by a young blonde man. He had large emerald eyes and wore dark brown pants and a dark navy blue shirt. A golden badge with the picture of multiple stars – or sparkles maybe? – on it was pinned to his shirt. 

He held out a sword, the sharp tip pointing directly at Deacon. The man smiled at the fear that was slowly growing across Deacon’s face. He jumped forwards, causing Deacon to fall backwards, bringing Caleb down with him. 

 “You are under arrest for vandalism of private property, trespassing, accused theft and are suspected to be in a cult. My name is Jack, the second-in-command on the Fairy Godmother’s special defence force. You are not permitted to say or do anything, but just know anything you say or do may be used against you in the Fairy Council Court. ” Another man said, coming out of a bush on another horse. 

Jack, as he called himself, had short copper hair, he shared the blonde boy’s emerald eyes and wore a grim expression. He had a similar outfit to the blonde man, except his badge only had a singular star on it. 

The woman got off her horse and ordered everyone to put their hands behind their heads, so she could search them for any weapons. 

Now, it wasn’t that the fact surprised Chase, but Jazmine had a pocket knife hidden in her boot, alcohol and matches in her dress’ pockets and several shuriken stars in her hair, intertwined within the braids. 

 ‘Just.. How…’ He thought in admiration. 

The woman then ordered the blonde man to bind everyone’s wrists with rope and she went around making sure it was tied tightly, the only exception being Prunella, whose wrists were tied loosely so she wouldn’t get rope burn. 

The sun was in the middle of the blue sky, surrounded by white fluffy clouds, meaning it was around 12 o’clock when ‘The Fairy Godmother’s Special Defence Force’ led the bound group down the same path they had walked through earlier that morning. 

Tree trunkswere all they could see until the prisoners were led behind a giant fallen tree, where a horse and a wagon were waiting. Like Jack’s horse, it glared at Deacon, who jumped behind his human barrier, Chase.  

 “What the fu-” Caleb started, but was cut off by Chase screaming “LANGUAGE!”. Jack shot a look at both of them and that shut them up. They were ordered into the wagon, Deacon being shoved inside after trying to pet a horse. (Long story short, it didn’t end well.) 

 “Get in there with them.” The woman ordered the blonde man, who Chase was going to start calling ‘Blondie’ if he didn’t find out his name sooner or later. 

 “But, I don’t want to be around criminals.”

‘How dare he! We were dragged into this situation!’ Chase thought as he was shoved headfirst into a haybale by Jack, who had absolutely no reaction towards Chase’s rather loud outburst.  “Listen to your superiors,” Jack said, and Blondie shut up at that. 

He slowly sat down on a bale of hay, guarding the back of the wagon. The criminals as they were beginning to be called, felt more like victims. 

About halfway through the trip, Jazmine began to pick at the ropes around her wrists. Just before they were undone, Blondie came over and tied them up again. She kicked his kneecaps from behind, causing him to trip and Prunella snorted as he face planted into the hay. 

 “Where are we going?” Chase asked, ripping apart pieces of hay

 “You’ll see,” Was all he got in response from Jack. 

Chase groaned and began banging his head on the wagon for a good five minutes until Deacon stopped him, talking about the health issues he’ll have in the future. He didn’t even want to be a doctor, but he knew a lot about it. 

 

 

 

⋆˚࿔

 

 

 

As it turns out, a giant beanstalk surrounded by a giant wall, guarded by several men was where they were going. Each and everyone of them wore a crimson red coat and a golden sash with a matching helmet. They nodded to Jack and the woman, Chase heard one mumble, “Good afternoon General Goldilocks.”

“Goldilocks and the three bears?” Chase asked Caleb, stifling a laugh. Caleb shoved his hands over Chase’s mouth. Everyone gave them a funny look, especially Blondie.

“Yes, that is the Goldilocks you think, just, don’t throw the name around. Or make fun of it.”

 “Why?”

 “Goldilocks used to be the most feared criminal in the whole world!”

 “Criminal? How’d she get to be the General?”

 “Friends with the Fairy Godmother.”

 “Isn’t she like, a bajillion years old?” 

 “SHSHSHSHHSHSHHH!”

 “What? It’s true?”

 “No it's not! The current Fairy Godmother is the granddaughter of Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother!”

 “Ohhh. What?”

 “I give up on explaining.”

 “Ohmygod, I absolutely hate Queen Red, she’s such a self centred little b-” Jazmine complained, until she saw Chase’s glare. “I was going to say brat.” 

 “I agree with you,” Goldilocks snorted, which was something Jazmine clearly didn’t expect to hear, especially not while on her way to a jailcell. 

The wagon was pulled through small simple farms, then through large villages, all the way until the stump of a beanstalk was right beside the wagon. It was right outside a mansion that looked deserted and an old worn-down shed that had caved in on itself. 

The wagon ride continued past three little pigs on the sides of the street, who nodded to ‘Goldilocks and Jack’, and they nodded in response. The wagon stopped in front of a beautiful red palace that had multiple turrets leading out of a giant… Basket? 

 “I can’t believe Red actually went through with this suggestion. I meant it as a joke.” Goldilocks complained. 

 “I know right? What was Red thinking? Living in a giant basket?” Blondie asked, practically jumping over to talk to Goldilocks and Jack. 

 “I have no idea, Hero, she does some crazy things…” Jack sighed as he waved to a man in a watchtower, who nodded to him. 

They went across a giant drawbridge and into a training ground, guards fighting with dummies and practicing with their peers. Jazmine glared at Blondie, never mind - Hero, as he jumped out of the wagon and ran to the giant golden doors. 

Jazmine began untying her bindings again and Prunella kicked a pile of hay up, most of it going straight into Chase’s face. 

 “Prunella!” He screeched at her, which made her burst out laughing at the amount of hay still stuck in his hair. Buddy brushed the rest out, Deacon noticing his hand staying a little too long in Chase’s hair, yet not mentioning anything.

Goldilocks and Jack had left by now and all the guards were now staring at the wagon and the people inside. Jazmine was pulling even harder now as whispers began to become clear words. 

 “Is that the Fields Thieves?” One man asked

 “It could be, but where’s the Fairy Godmother?” A woman questioned. 

The whispers that were once there were now replaced with shouts, most of them were full of profanities and Jazmine helped Buddy cover Prunella’s ears. At some point, their yelling all became one repeated word. 

“WITCHES!”

“SILENCE!” A loud, booming voice yelled, shutting everyone up. All the guards straightened up and held their swords in their right hand. 

The ‘prisoners’ all looked towards the entrance and saw a man who they assumed was a king? Until he moved out of the way, where a large frog-man stood with a crown on his head, a frown on his face and a giant wolf barking behind him. 

 “Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot…”

 “Caleb.. Calm down…” Jazmine said. 

 “Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot…”

 “What’s wrong with him?” Prunella asked.

 “He’s uh, he’s afraid of dogs..” 

 “Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot…”

 “Is this normal?” Chase asked. Jazmine looked up to the sky and the sun, which was now setting. 

 “Well, he usually can run far away. But uhm since we’re hostages, he has to resort to other methods. Like how he's spiralling right now.” Was her response.

 “So, Caleb is like a Dorkin, who understands that horses don’t like him and stays away?”

 “Uhm… Yes?”

The frog- wait. General-Frog-Man descended the staircase with the giant wolf trailing him. The wolf growled at Caleb and he began to cry. Jazmine kicked Caleb and he stopped crying. Mostly. 

 “Get out!” The General-Frog-Man yelled at the prisoners, and so they did, very slowly. Buddy went first, then Prunella, Chase and Deacon got out together, Caleb was rolled out whilst in tears and Jazmine was the last one out of the wagon, about five minutes after the General-Frog-Man had told them to get out. 

The wolf shepherded them through the giant golden doors they had seen Goldilocks, Jack and Hero walk through. Now, one of the first things they noticed was portraits of one beautiful blonde woman. Everywhere. 

She had many portraits, some of her looking older and some were of her as a young girl, wearing a red cloak, wearing a small tiara and standing out the front of a little castle with a crowd of people. 

 “Little Red Riding Hood?” Deacon asked and Jazmine groaned. 

Many more portraits of the woman were shown, sometimes she would be in front of a crowd, or standing with another young woman who had wings. One showed her sitting on a large throne with a small wolf in her lap. 

Chase turned to the wolf behind him to try and see some resemblance. The wolf growled immediately. 

 “If that was Little Red Riding Hood there, why would she have a wolf with her?” Deacon asked, Jazmine rolled her eyes and was about to give an answer

 “Because why not?” A cheery voice declared, echoing the hallway. Everyone looked towards the staircase, where they saw the blonde woman in the portraits. Red Riding Hood herself. 

She looked every bit as beautiful as her portraits embodied her. She wore her blonde hair in a giant bun on the top of her head, in front of it was a gorgeous golden crown with large ruby stones embedded in it. Her gown was enormous, with many layers of red ruffles and… Red glitter..? There was obviously a hoop skirt underneath. 

Red Riding Hood wore long gloves – thankfully not red or that would have been really crazy – and finally, a string of pearls with a single ruby shaped into a heart around her neck.

 “You must be the thieves Jack and Goldie were mentioning! The Fields Thieves, right? Because I must say, you stole one of the tiaras that I had bought specifically for my niece!” Red Riding Hood exclaimed, stopping just a few feet before the group. 

 “Darling, why don’t you go back to the library?” General-Frog-Man asked. So, this frog man was King Charming? 

 “But I must at least see the people I am throwing in my dungeon, Charlie! I want to know them.” The Queen exclaimed, while her husband sighed. She stepped forwards and grinned as she began the introduction. 

 “Hello! You may or may not know me – ”

 “We know you.” Jazmine sighed. Red Riding Hood continued anyways. 

 “But my name is Queen Red Riding Hood, the queen of this kingdom, the Centre Kingdom!” She said, a charming smile plastered across her face.  “Now, if you didn’t already know, my dear friend, Goldie, has brought you here to wait until the Fairy Godmother herself comes here to collect you and fulfil your future punishments!”

.

 

Notes:

The chapter was renamed because Red isn't a little girl.. SHE IS A QUEEN!!

I am SOO CLOSE to writing my favourite chapter.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope you have a good day/night/morning/afternoon!!

Notes:

This chapter wasn't beta read so I hope it makes sense

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 2 of A Third Wish / Make The Third Wish