The Enchantress Returns (14 page)
Alex woke up in a grassy field the next afternoon. She looked around and grunted to herself. She had been riding her bike all night and had just stopped to rest for a moment off the road. Clearly, that moment had lasted a few hours longer than she’d planned.
She was in the foothills leading up to the mountains where her grandmother’s cottage was. It had been a great while since the last time she and her brother had gone, so it was difficult remembering the exact directions. As the foothills slowly rose into mountain terrain, she stopped at a tiny gas station
and purchased a map. Navigating became harder as the roads wound and forked up into the mountains. She glanced back and forth at the map as she continued, making sure she was traveling northeast. She remembered her parents used to drive northeast until there were no more roads to take.
Alex felt guilty for leaving her brother at home but hadn’t wanted to drag him into her spontaneous plan. Although, when night fell and Alex was forced to set up a small camp off the road by herself, she really wished her brother were there, keeping her company.
She couldn’t make up her mind if it was more dangerous to be traveling in the woods of the fairy-tale world or her world. Even though there were no Big Bad Wolves to be worried about, she was sure there were still regular wolves around.
But if she couldn’t handle a simple wolf now, how was she going to take down a powerful Enchantress when she found her? She doubted swinging a big stick would scare off the woman who’d cursed an entire kingdom for one hundred years.
The more she thought about it, the less it made sense. What did this Ezmia woman want with her mother anyway? How did she even get to her mom in the first place? If the fairies couldn’t find her or her mother, what made Alex think she could?
Alex and her brother knew more about the Enchantress than others gave them credit for. During their encounter with the Evil Queen they discovered that the Enchantress had kidnapped the Evil Queen when she was a girl and used her in a scheme to take over the fairy-tale world.
Alex lay on the ground, using her backpack as a pillow, and let her troubled thoughts wander until she finally fell asleep.
Alex was back on her bike before sunrise the next day. She biked across windy road after windy road until the middle of the afternoon. She jolted forward and almost fell off her bike when her front tire hit a particularly sharp rock and went flat.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” she said and angrily tossed her useless bike to the side of the road. She would have to travel by foot for the rest of her journey—however long that would be.
Her spirits rose an hour or so afterward when she saw a wooden bridge on the road ahead. When Alex and Conner were younger, seeing this bridge meant they were almost at their grandmother’s house. Alex knew she was close.
She jogged toward the bridge in relief, but the closer she got, the less familiar it appeared. It seemed so small compared to the one in her memories. Was it just because she was so much smaller then? Also disheartening was how decrepit the bridge appeared to be. Every piece of wood was chipped and rotting like crazy.
Alex took a couple of steps onto the bridge and examined it closer. It didn’t feel right. A car could never fit on the bridge. She looked over the side. Several hundred feet below was a dry and rocky riverbed. The bridge her family used to drive over was only a few feet higher than the stream that ran under it.
Alex sighed. She was lost.
She turned on her heels and started to head back when she heard a sudden crack. Before she could tell where the sound was coming from, Alex fell straight through the bridge, rotten wood splitting under her feet.
She screamed and grabbed hold of the bridge. She desperately tried pulling herself up, but it was no use; she could hear the wood cracking from the pressure.
“Help!”
Alex screamed.
“Somebody help me!”
Alex didn’t know who she was yelling to. As far as she knew she was alone in the mountains and she was about to fall to her death.
“No! No! No!”
Alex said to herself.
“It can’t end like this! It can’t end like this!”
She struggled to pull herself up again. Another loud crack sounded and she slipped further through the bridge and toward the rocky ground below.
Alex felt two hands grab hers just in the nick of time. She looked up and saw a very familiar face looking down at her. At first she thought it was her dad but then realized it was Conner—it was a strange moment to notice how much he had grown up.
His face turned bright red as he struggled to hold his sister with all his might.
“Now, Lester! Pull us up, buddy!”
he grunted.
Conner and Alex were slowly dragged upward. Once Alex was above the bridge again, she could see Lester’s bill tightly clutching Conner’s pants, dragging him up while he dragged her. The giant goose pulled them across the bridge until they were safely on solid ground again.
The twins and Lester stayed on the ground until they all caught their breath.
“I hate you so much right now,”
Conner said between heavy pants.
“That’s funny, because I’ve never loved you more,” Alex said with a big smile and rolled over to give her brother a big hug. “Thank you. I owe you one!”
“Luckily, with the amount of trouble we get ourselves into, I know you’ll have a chance to make it up to me,” he said.
Lester squawked at them as if to say,
“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine!”
“She owes you one, too, Lester, don’t worry!” Conner said.
The twins stood up and brushed themselves off. They were covered in splinters and chips of rotting wood. Lester got to his feet, too, and stretched out his neck and bill.
“How did you know where I was?” Alex asked.
“Lucky guess!” Conner said. “You can’t even run away like a normal teenager. You’re supposed to leave a note! There was only one place I figured you were going. Lester and I had been flying around looking for you all day when we finally spotted your bike down the road.”
“Does Mother Goose know where I am?” Alex asked.
“I’ve been covering for you since I realized you were gone. I told Mother Goose you were sick and were vomiting all over your room. Then, when she wasn’t looking, I hijacked her goose and came looking for you,” Conner said.
“How did you manage that one?” Alex asked.
“Well, apparently he feels taken for granted and thought by helping me it would teach Mother Goose a lesson,” Conner said. “I don’t speak goose or anything, but I’m guessing that’s the gist of it, right, boy?”
Conner turned to Lester and the giant goose nodded.
“Why didn’t you take me with you?” he asked angrily. “How could you leave me locked up at home? Are you trying to do things solo now or something? Not cool, Alex.”
Alex lowered her head shamefully. “Because Grandma’s going to be mad enough at me when she finds out I took off, I
didn’t want to drag you into it,” she said. “And I found out who has Mom! I pried it out of Mother Goose.”
“So that’s why you took off so abruptly?” Conner said. “Well, who has her?! What did you learn?!”
Alex now understood why her grandmother had kept information from them. She felt horrible knowing she was about to make her brother as stressed as she was.
“Apparently the Enchantress is back,” Alex told him. “The Enchantress who cursed Sleeping Beauty is terrorizing the fairy-tale world again and she has Mom.”
“What?” he said in disbelief. “What does the Enchantress want with Mom?”
“I don’t know,” Alex said. “I’ve been trying to figure it out and can’t think of anything.”
“Wait, I thought the Enchantress was dead,” Conner said. “The Evil Queen told us that she poisoned her and she ran off and died. Remember?”
“I guess she was wrong,” Alex said. “Ezmia is her name—and she’s very much alive.”
“And that’s why we hadn’t seen Grandma in so long?” Conner said.
“I suppose,” Alex said.
Conner paced around the mountain road, thinking.
“We’ve got to get into the fairy-tale world,” Conner said. “We have to save Mom.”
“I agree, but what are we going to do when we get there? What can we do to save her that the fairies can’t?” Alex asked.
“We may not be able to do anything,” Conner said. “But
two more people
trying
couldn’t hurt. Besides, it sure beats sitting around and waiting for bad news.”
A small smile appeared on Alex’s face; she couldn’t have agreed more.
“Let’s try to get to Grandma’s cottage before sundown,” Alex said. “Do you know where we are? Are we even close?”
Conner looked around at the mountains surrounding them. “Yeah, we’re close!” he said and then pointed to a flat mountain peak in the distance. “Grandma’s cottage is just on the other side of that mountain peak! I remember seeing it when we were little and hoping it was a volcano!”
“Are you sure?” Alex asked.
“Positive,” Conner said. “Let’s go. Lester, can you take us in the direction of that mountain peak?”
Lester cocked his head in the direction Conner pointed, let out an exaggerated sigh, and then nodded.
Conner climbed onto Lester’s back, then offered his hand to Alex. “Climb aboard,” he said.
Alex hesitated. “Are you sure this is safe?” she asked.
Lester squawked, rather insulted.
“You’ve got to try this, Alex,” Conner said enthusiastically. “I understand why O.M.G. travels this way.”
“O.M.G.?” Alex asked.
“Old Mother Goose,” Conner said. “It’s my nickname for her—she calls me C-Dog.”
Alex shrugged and took his hand. She swung a leg over the large goose and held tightly to her brother’s waist.
Conner gripped the reins, ready for liftoff. “Let’s fly, Lester!” he said.
Lester spread his wings; his wingspan was much more impressive in the daylight. He took a few steps back and then bolted into a fast waddle forward, flapping his wings as he went, and they rose higher and higher into the air.
Conner was right, it was an incredible experience. The mountains seemed much more majestic from a bird’s perspective. The twins had never felt so free in their lives.
“I hope no one sees us,” Alex said, fearfully looking down at all the roads and tiny towns underneath them.
“I just hope it isn’t goose-hunting season,” Conner said.
Lester squawked and looked back at him, terrified.
“I’m just kidding, Lester,” Conner said. “Relax before you lay an egg!”
Lester headed in the direction of the peak. A few moments later, they were flying over it. Conner was a little disappointed to see it was in fact a flat mountaintop and there was no sign of molten lava inside of it.
“Keep an eye out for the cottage,” he told his sister. “It should be coming up any moment now.”
Alex scanned the ground below. It was hard to see anything but treetops and the occasional chimney. She saw a familiar bridge and her eyes followed the winding road that crossed over it and through the woods ahead. At the very end of the road, she could make out the roof of a storybook cottage.
“I see it! I see it!” Alex said and pointed to it. “It’s Grandma’s cottage!”
Lester landed in front of the cottage just as the sun began
setting. Alex and Conner climbed off the goose and observed their grandmother’s old home.
“Whoa,” Conner said.
“It’s definitely not in the same condition we left it in,” Alex said.
It was obvious that no one had lived in the cottage for a long time. The front lawn was partially dead and overgrown in some places; the flower beds were full of weeds and blades of grass were almost as tall as the twins. Ivy grew up the sides of the cottage and part of the roof had caved in.
Their grandmother’s blue car was parked outside but hadn’t been driven in years. A layer of dirt covered it, and a city of spiderwebs had been spun between the tires.
Although the cottage was used mostly as a prop, since their grandmother only lived here when the twins visited, it still was the location of the twins’ happiest childhood memories. They were sad to see how abandoned it was.
Alex and Conner approached the front door apprehensively.
“Lester, bon appétit,” Conner said and gestured to the overgrown grass. Lester squawked and happily went to town on it.
“Do you think it’s locked?” Alex asked.
Conner twisted the handle and the door creaked open, answering her question.
The twins stepped inside and surveyed the interior. It was exactly how they remembered it, except dusty and covered in cobwebs. Grandma’s rocking chair was still by the fireplace and faced a large rug the twins used to lie on when she read to them.
“It’s so strange to see everything again,” Alex said. “Grandma’s chair, the fireplace, the kitchen table—I almost can’t believe it’s been here this whole time.”
“Do you remember the forts we used to build with Dad under that thing?” Conner asked, pointing to the table.
“How could I forget?” Alex asked. “You always tried keeping me out, but Dad never let you.”
“You know what’s funny?” Conner said as he walked around. “Even though we know now that Grandma never actually lived here, whenever I picture Grandma I always imagine her in this place, baking cookies or reading by the fireplace.”
