The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell (14 page)

One wolf tried to pounce on Porridge, but the horse kicked him away with her hind legs. Another wolf tried to bite Goldilocks, but she struck him with her sword, drawing blood, and he whimpered away.

Goldilocks was the best swords
woman
the twins had ever seen. Anytime one of the wolves got so much as a claw close to her or her horse, she was quick to shield them. Porridge wasn’t so bad herself; she wasn’t shy about kicking away any wolf that was too close for comfort.

A wolf leaped and sank his claws into Porridge’s back. The horse bucked to free herself. In one quick slice, Goldilocks chopped one of the wolf ’s paws off. He limped into the forest, howling in pain.

Two wolves teamed up on Goldilocks. One leaped toward her, and she tripped over the other one. Her sword flew into the air and landed close to where the twins were hiding. Goldilocks was on the ground, unarmed.

The wolves were closing in on her and the horse, going in for the kill.

“Catch!” Conner yelled, and tossed the sword straight to her. Goldilocks swung it hard at the wolves closing in on her, leaving large gashes in their muzzles.

“Retreat!” Malumclaw ordered his pack. “No snack is worth all of this trouble!”

The wolves stampeded into the forest, growling and howling in anger, letting the rest of the forest know they were on their way.

“Until we meet again, Goldilocks!” Malumclaw called
out, as he disappeared into the trees with the rest of the wolves.

Goldilocks got to her feet and put her sword away. She was out of breath and, now that the enemy had left, much more vulnerable than she had shown in combat. She petted Porridge’s nose and dabbed the horse’s wounds with the fabric of her coat.

“Good girl, Porridge,” Goldilocks said.

She turned and faced the fallen tree Alex and Conner were hiding behind.

“You can come out now,” Goldilocks said.

The twins were hesitant at first. Then Conner popped up and exclaimed,
“That was awesome!”

“Conner!” Alex said, popping up beside him.

“That was one heck of a fight!” Conner continued. “You know, at first I really thought they had you! I never expected a girl and her horse could be any match for six hungry wolves, but you impressed me! Where did you learn to fight like that?”

Goldilocks was not amused by his enthusiasm. “When you’ve been on the run as long as I have, you pick up a few tricks here and there.” She turned around and remounted her horse with a jump.

“So, is it really you?” Alex asked. “Are you really Goldilocks? The woman wanted dead or alive for all her crimes?”

“Don’t believe everything you read,” she said sternly, and then pulled on Porridge’s reins and galloped away. But
she only traveled a few feet before she steered Porridge back to the twins.

“Thank you for your assistance,” Goldilocks said.

Conner nodded.

“Here, take this. In case you need it.” Goldilocks reached into the side of her boot and pulled out a silver dagger. She tossed it on the ground.

“Now get as far away from here as possible; those wolves will be back sooner than you expect.” And with that said, Goldilocks and Porridge galloped off into the forest.

Alex and Conner stood motionless watching her ride off out of sight.

“That was amazing!” Conner said. He retrieved the dagger from the ground and put it inside their satchel. “As terrifying as that was, it was kind of nice to see another human for a change.”

“We’d better get out of here,” Alex said. “And this time we aren’t stopping until we know we’re out of the Dwarf Forests!”

Conner couldn’t agree more. The twins continued down the dirt path, running this time.

They had experienced more danger today than they had ever experienced in their entire lives. Unfortunately for them, it wouldn’t be their last encounter with Goldilocks, the Big Bad Wolf Pack, or the Dwarf Forests….

T
he twins had been running for almost an hour straight, and they were starting to feel it. Their adrenaline was slowly running out, and the pains in their sides were increasing with every step they took. But since something dangerous seemed to happen every time they stopped moving, they were motivated to keep going.

“After all this running, P.E. testing should be a breeze,” Conner said through heavy wheezes.

“We’re almost there,” Alex said unconvincingly. “Just a little farther!”

The forest had changed as they ran through it. The trees weren’t so thick, and there was more space and grass between them. More sunlight fell through the branches, so nothing was in the dark. The path became wider, too, and much more visible.

The twins didn’t feel as threatened by their surroundings; the forest almost grew
friendlier
the closer they traveled to the Corner Kingdom.

Conner collapsed to the ground. He was breathing harder than a fish out of water.

“I can’t run anymore! I can’t take another step!” he said with his limbs spread out as if he were making a snow angel in the dirt.

“We can’t stop moving until we get into the Corner Kingdom,” Alex reminded him through her own heavy breathing.

“I think we’re there,” Conner said.

“How do you know?” Alex asked.

“That’s how,” Conner said, and pointed upward.

In the distance, a tall tower was visible above the treetops. It was circular and made of square stones. There was a single window near the top, just below the pointed roof made of hay. It was partially covered in thick vines of ivy.

Alex gasped and clutched her hands together.

“It’s Rapunzel’s tower!” Alex said, and her eyes became a little misty at the sight of it.

“Are you seriously crying?” said Conner, who was still on the ground.

“It’s just how I imagined it!” Alex said. “Get up! We’re getting a closer look!”

Alex yanked on her brother’s arm until he climbed to his feet, and the twins walked through the trees until they came to the base of the tower.

It was even taller than it looked, a few hundred feet tall at least. The twins’ necks began to ache after looking up at the tower for a while. A large golden plaque was displayed in the ground in front of it that said:

Q
UEEN
R
APUNZEL’S
T
OWER

“It must have been so hard for her,” Alex said. “Seeing people and places so far away and never being able to visit them.”

“At least she never had to worry about burglars,” Conner said.

“I’ve got to go up there,” Alex said.

“Do you have a jet pack or a grappling hook that I’m unaware of ?” Conner asked her.

“No, I’ll have to climb it,” Alex said, surprising herself with the declaration.

“You have officially lost your mind!” Conner said. “We’ve almost been killed twice, and we haven’t even been here a full day yet!
We need to stop fooling around and find a way home, Alex!
What part of that don’t you understand?”

“Look,” Alex said. “I’m going to climb up there for just a few minutes, and then as soon as I climb back down, we’ll
read the journal and find out what all the Wishing Spell items are, okay?”

“Alex…”
Conner began. His face was turning pink.

“Please, Conner,” Alex said. “I need to do this, or I’ll regret it forever!”

Conner shook his head with the frustration that only a sibling could cause. He wanted to lecture her about how childish she was acting. But the way she was looking at him, with her big, wanting eyes, prevented him. It was so rare that Alex ever
needed
something, he supposed one last stop couldn’t hurt.

“Don’t kill yourself,” Conner said. “But while you’re up there, I’m going to start reading the journal and make a list of the Wishing Spell items we need to find.”

Alex happily nodded and put her bag on the ground. She stretched for the climb she was about to make.

Conner sat on the ground and began flipping through the pages of the journal.

Climbing the tower was easier said than done. After searching around the base of the tower for a place to put her first step, Alex could tell why a long train of golden hair might be needed to get to the top of it. Eventually, she found a stone block with a chip large enough to put her foot in and take her first step.

“Here I go,” Alex said. “Gosh, I wish I had a camera!”

“Trust me,” Conner said. “The
real
Alex I know isn’t going to want proof of this.”

It was like climbing the world’s most difficult rock-climbing
wall. She relied on cracks and chips and uneven bricks sticking out just enough to put her hands and feet on. She moved slowly but carefully. If she were any larger, it wouldn’t have worked.

“You’re still at the bottom?” Conner said, looking up from the journal after a few minutes.

“Shut up, Conner!” Alex yelled back at him.

“I’m just saying, at the rate you’re going Mom’s gonna be eighty by the time we get home whether there’s a time difference or not,” he said.

After some time had gone by and she had gotten the hang of it, Alex moved more quickly, carefully pulling herself up using the ivy. The higher she climbed, the less she looked down at the ground, fearing it would tamper with her effort to reach the top.

She was so determined to see the top of the tower, to be in the room where Rapunzel had lived and to see what Rapunzel had seen through her window every day. She wanted to be where somebody else had been during the loneliest times of
their
life.

Rapunzel’s story had always been easy for Alex to identify with. Alex felt she was in a tower of her own, looking at the world from an unreachable location.

She was almost halfway up the tower by now, and she was above all the trees in the forest. Any tiny misstep would no longer result in potential injury, it would mean death.

“There’s a reason the witch put Rapunzel up there, you know!” Conner called up to her. “So no one could reach her!”

“I’m not listening to you!” Alex said, and then, stupidly, looked down.

Beads of sweat appeared on Alex’s forehead. She felt like her heart had fallen out of her body. What was she doing? There was no way she could climb back down. Was she really risking her life just to see the inside of a tower? If she ever reached the top, would she be able get back down? Would she have to wait until her hair grew long enough to climb before she saw anyone again?

What would Conner do if she got stuck up there? Would he try to find the fairy-tale world equivalent of a fire department with a ladder long enough to get her down? Or would he find the Wishing Spell items on his own and go home without her?

The more Alex worried, the more she climbed. She knew it wouldn’t be productive to worry and stay still, so she just kept going. It felt like hours had gone by.

She looked up.
She was only a few feet away from the window!
Just a few more feet and she’d be there! Finally, she felt the windowsill with her hands and slowly pulled herself up to it… then through it… she was almost through the window…

Alex swung her legs over the window and into the tower.

“Thank God,” she said to herself. She might be stuck in the tower, but at least she was safe.

Alex looked around the tower; it wasn’t at all what she had expected. It was a large, circular room with no furniture or decoration of any kind. In fact, it was completely
empty except for some hay and bird droppings littered around the floor.

“Hi, Alex!” said a voice inside the tower.

Alex jumped and screamed. She was completely shocked to see Conner sitting up against the tower wall just a few feet away from her.

“It took you long enough to get up here!” he said with a laugh. He was eating an apple, and he had the journal open in his lap.

“How in the world did you get up here?” Alex demanded. She was still out of breath from her climb.

“I took the stairs,” Conner said with a mocking grin. “I was reading the journal. It says that after Rapunzel became queen, she installed a staircase in her tower so she could come back and visit whenever she wanted. The door to the staircase was on the other side of the tower. We just didn’t see it.”