“And so, Rider, that is when we arrived at the doorstep of the gingerbread cottage,” Reietta finished as she beckoned Damselle, Biddy and Ixby back through the Woods the way they had rushed before.
“Yes, and it is most clear that Peter Grimm is in the same dire situation that both you and I were in not so long ago,” Damselle said. “He wandered off just as we did, Biddy.”
“Wait just a goblin-kissin’ minute,” Biddy growled. “I ain’t ‘ardly never been touched by no spell since I been wearin’ this cursed cloak. What ‘bout that spell got through and made me follow that woman like a lost pup, eh?”
The question was obviously directed at Reietta, but the fairy merely shook her beautiful head and said, “It is strong and dark magic and that is all that I can tell.”
Ixby shivered.
The unlikely lot walked and flew through the trees in silence, the daylight breaking through the trees and sprinkling the ground with shimmering dots of sun. Damselle found that it was never bright in the Woods, thick as it was with so many branches. Finally, the group stumbled back upon the camp they had abandoned. Nothing remained, of course, of the warm cooking fires they had built, though the logs they’d rolled out for sitting remained and so too did their belongings, Damselle saw with great relief.
She scurried over to their bag of dwindling fruit and bread. Then she checked to see that the Jabberwocky head was still in its place by poking it with a stick, although the strong stench rising from the bag would have been enough to tell her it remained.
Biddy trudged back to her log and sat, staring at the dirt and twirling Bellerophon, the spear she’d received from the fairies, in her hands. The weapon wasn’t long, but it ended in a wicked-looking, curved blade with a lead tip.
“Bloody magic,” she said. “What good is it anyway?”
“It can be used for much good!” Ixby squealed. The tiny creature was covered in ash and looked pitifully exhausted, but he shook his finger at Biddy anyway.
“What I do not understand,” said Damselle, “is why we were lured out to our assumed dooms. There had to be a reason, and perhaps understanding it will help us to find Peter Grimm.”
Reietta cleared her throat, a sound like a bird’s chirp, and said, “Reason may have had nothing to do with it. True evil has little motivation other than simply to be evil.”
Ixby shivered again and Damselle stood and took an angry kick at a rock, which sent it flying into the distance. Frustrated and worried, she paced around the nearest fire pit. Evil for evil’s sake was a horrifying thought, but there seemed something more to this magical attack. She felt they were the target of someone’s intentions, and she was not sure if that made her feel better or worse.
“It just does not fit,” she said. “One moment I was eating my dinner and the next I was alone in the woods feeling foggy and confused, and I’ll wager Biddy and Peter would say the same if they’d been able to break through their spells as I had.”
“Don’t go braggin’, Girl. Last thing we need’s a big ‘ead on your shoulders like’s on the Woodsie-man’s,” Biddy said, though she guffawed as she said it.
“I only meant,” said Damselle, her cheeks reddening, “that it seems too…well-planned…to be, ah, random.”
“I agree,” Reietta chimed as she sat herself upon a notch in a log. “Both of you humans were lead to a cottage gated from the rest of the Woods.”
“I’ll bet the Woodsman is in a cottage, too!” Ixby said. Then he covered his eyes and said, “Oh no! Suppose there is another Mae?”
“Or suppose there is another Kai?” Damselle said with a shudder. “Oh, Biddy! He was just as awful as Mae, but his eyes danced with flames and he pretended to be a child acting on behalf of his…his…”
Comprehension and memory bloomed within her like a flower in springtime.
“His what, Miss?” Ixby asked.
“Devil, most likely,” said Biddy.
Damselle had been too confused and frightened at the first cottage and she had been fighting to free Biddy at the second. She wanted to kick herself for only just now connecting the dots!
“I know the Woods better. Mother said to come get her,” she breathed.
“What did you say, Miss?”
“Poetry! Bah!” Biddy growled.
But Reietta glowed with excitement. “Yes, you are right!” she said. “And Mae said you thought you were worthy to meet her Mother, but she said ‘our’ mother!”
“Yes, because she called Kai her brother,” Damselle said.
“Alright, one of you pretties tell me what’s goin’ on now, will you? Case you forgot, I been stuck in a ruddy lookin’ glass!”
Biddy threw back the hood of her cloak, presumably to concentrate. Her nearly-hairless head and white-blue eyes still made Damselle squirm.
“Kai called himself ‘The First of Three’ and had a tiny lion stitched upon his collar just like the goat embroidered upon Mae’s lapel,” Damselle said, avoiding eye contact with the Rider. She wished the woman would keep her hood up! “If Mae was the second, then we must assume whoever holds Peter is the third. They are some part of three, controlled by one entity. One woman.”
“But what woman would want to hurt us?” Ixby asked.
The question hung on the air, caught upon the slight breeze that kept blowing Damselle’s hair across her face.
“I cannot think it of Fairy Alyas,” Damselle said finally. “She is a dark fairy, true, but from what I have heard she would not miss the chance to receive gifts from ‘lesser’ beings. Dead, we could not bring her a tale, a veil, and a scale.”
“Sounds like we got one option left then, eh?” Biddy said. She fished an apple out of the bag and crunched into it while Ixby, Damselle, and Reietta watched her expectantly. “I reckon we got no choice but to go after that fog-brained fool of a man and find what woman done set us up when we get there,” she said spraying apple juice as she spoke. “An’ I only say it ‘cause the bloody man is our guide and knows ‘is way ‘bout this wretched forest, or else I’d say leave ‘em!”
Damselle half smiled, but kept her thoughts to herself. Reietta said, “Hmm” and pursed her lips.
“Alright,” Damselle said. “To the west, then. Reietta and Ixby can scout ahead for cottages and picket fences.”
Once the foursome had loaded their weapons, food and monster heads upon their persons, they started off towards the west. Ixby had seen Peter head that way in his entranced state, so they traveled that way for some time without any event.
Damselle listened hard as she could for any sign of danger. She had long since shed the old armor she’d worn to save Biddy, but her body felt heavy and sluggish with exhaustion. It had been quite some time since any of them had slept.
And I thought my life was distressing before I entered the Woods, she thought grimly.
Danger had been imminent while she had lived within her village, but within the Enchanted Woods it lurked behind every tree. It sought her, sure, but she sought it out now, too. It scared her badly, but what almost eclipsed that fear was guilt. Wasn’t it her fault Peter Grimm and Biddy had been taken? And Biddy was on a mission of her own, but Peter traveled only to help them.
Someone caught her arm and she jerked back to the present, to where her nose was nearly pressed against the bark of a tree.
“We’re takin’ a rest,” Biddy said. “You’re fallin’ asleep walkin’ and if poor Icksy flew any slower ‘e’d be an ugly ornament for the trees.”
“But Peter…”
“Will not be saved by anyone who can’t keep her eyes open,” Reietta finished. She did not look tired, but Damselle wasn’t sure about the sleeping patterns of fairies.
Reluctantly, she settled down against a tree. And, though worry plagued her every thought, she fell quickly into a sleep in which Sir Leal rode a Jabberwocky intent on catching a wolf made entirely of gingerbread while she watched the entire thing with a scratchy beard on her chin.
Damselle slowly became aware of the forest sounds once more and opened her eyes. She felt somewhat better, if not well-rested. Evening was nearing and the air was growing cooler. The trickling of water caught her ear and she realized how much she longed for a cold drink. The others had settled down and were still resting among the trees, so she grabbed a canteen from her bags and followed the sound and scent of water to what she hoped was a small stream.
She was, of course, wrong.
A white marble fountain stood among the trees as if it were as natural as anything in the Woods. A pattern of ivy and foreign letters were etched upon the stone and pristine water ran from the smallest, fourth tier to the third and downward until it pooled at the bottom basin.
The brightest, most beautiful flowers Damselle had ever seen grew at the base of the fountain where the water overflowed and sprinkled the ground with sparkling drops. The entire scene was one of serenity and she made her way to the fountain, where a rabbit and her two babies merely watched her from the other side.
Damselle peeked at her reflection in the water, cringed, and plunged her canteen straight through the reflection’s nose. The water began filling her canteen with a glug! and had filled half full when Damselle heard the snapping of twigs not far off. Quickly, she capped her canister and hurried back to camp. Once there, she saw Biddy fastening the hood of her cloak and Ixby and Reietta hovering nearby.
“Oh, Miss Damselle, I do wish you would stop disappearing like that!” Ixby squealed when he saw her.
“Yeah, what ‘e said,” Biddy said roughly.
Damselle apologized and uncapped her canteen. She took a drink of the water, which tasted perfectly pure and if it had just a hint of some sweetness to it, and she gasped.
Bubbles filled her, tingles raced along her arms and legs. She felt as if she were going to explode, but in the most wonderful way possible. She felt happiness and fulfillment racing through her, and she felt like she could do anything in the entire world.
She could do anything in the entire world!
She became aware of a small hand upon her nose.
“Damselle?” Reietta said.
“This…this water,” said Damselle, “is wonderful!” And she twirled on her tip-toes.
Ixby, Biddy and Reietta exchanged looks, but Damselle ignored them.
“I feel like I could take on the Jabberwock all by myself! Like I could climb that tree without any trouble! I feel full of life and energy and almost…childish!”
She giggled and clapped her hand over her mouth. She was acting childish, but she no longer felt weary or downcast. She felt blissfully free!
Biddy eyed the canteen dubiously and muttered something under her breath. Reietta, however, perched herself on Damselle’s hand, dipped her fingers into the canteen and then let a few drops fall into her mouth.
“Oh!” the blue fairy said. “Worry not, Rider. It is not dangerous. It is water from one of the Springs of Youth.”
“I wasn’t worried,” Biddy mumbled.
Damselle giggled again, though she tried to stifle it when the other three looked her way.
“It was a fountain,” she said. “Not a spring.”
“Youth’s waters will take on various forms,” Reietta said dismissively. “It will wear off eventually. However, I think it would be good for us all to sample a small amount to rid us of our weariness. Youth will take away most any ailment. A handful of the water will do. Do not take so much as Damselle did.”
Reietta herself took a bit more of the water from the bottle and Ixby, too, sampled some, after which his large eyes bulged and he did several airborne somersaults.
“Little Biddy have some water!” Damselle offered in a sing-song voice as she danced towards the Rider in a thoroughly ridiculous way.
“Get that away from me,” Biddy growled. “Away with you, you silly girl!”
“But Biddy, it will make you feel refreshed and renewed!” Damselle said. She pushed the canteen towards the woman who was still resisting.
“Biddy, do not fear it! Embrace it!” she laughed, and she shoved the canteen at the Rider. Biddy jerked away so hard and fast that she knocked the water from Damselle’s hands. The thing went flying towards Biddy, where it sloshed onto her cloak (and dried immediately) and plopped upon her uncovered hands.
The woman howled an incredible, terrifying cry. Damselle snatched up the canister of water and saw as she did so burning, hissing red welts on Biddy’s skin where the water had fallen. She capped the canteen and knelt by Biddy, who was blowing on the white fingers of one hand and the wrinkled palm of the other.
“Biddy, what…”
“Quiet,” Biddy said through clenched teeth.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know, I…”
“O’course you din’t. Now quiet.”
The woman simply sat still, inhaling and exhaling and cooling the burns that should not have come from water, even the water of Youth.
Ixby flew to her shoulder and perched upon it, while Reietta adjusted the feathery belt around her waist and went to the Rider’s hands.
After two flashes of blue light and several moments, Biddy rose and said, “Done’s done. Now you know. Let’s go find our Woodsie-man.” and she slung the Jabberwocky head over her shoulder, hefted Bellerophon and trudged off.
“Did you help her?” Damselle asked Reietta.
“I helped take the burning away,” she said.
“What happened?”
“It was very unusual, but she is a very unusual person. I do not think she knows and I am not sure I would venture a guess.”
The fairy unconsciously fiddled with the feathers coiled around her waist again. Ixby stared at his own hands, as if waiting for them to begin burning, and then he zoomed off after Biddy.
“Alright, let us go,” Damselle said glumly as she walked begrudgingly onward. Her euphoric feelings of moments before had completely evaporated. “I have a bit of water for Peter Grimm if we ever manage to find him and if he doesn’t completely melt when I offer it to him.”
"I think the Woodsman will be able to drink what the Rider could not," Reietta said as she flew along beside Damselle. "If we find him in good enough health to continue this journey at all, that is."
"I intend on finding that Woodsman and rescuing him if it is the last thing I do," Damselle said irritably.
"It very well may be," said Reietta.
"Fine! But I will rescue he who helps me!"
"Then 'ere's your chance, Missy," Biddy said, appearing from in front of them. "'Cause Icksy said 'e saw a bee-oo-tiful cottage and picket fence straight ahead. Oh, and it's bein' guarded by three Bears."
© Kiley M. Kellermeyer
“Yes, and it is most clear that Peter Grimm is in the same dire situation that both you and I were in not so long ago,” Damselle said. “He wandered off just as we did, Biddy.”
“Wait just a goblin-kissin’ minute,” Biddy growled. “I ain’t ‘ardly never been touched by no spell since I been wearin’ this cursed cloak. What ‘bout that spell got through and made me follow that woman like a lost pup, eh?”
The question was obviously directed at Reietta, but the fairy merely shook her beautiful head and said, “It is strong and dark magic and that is all that I can tell.”
Ixby shivered.
The unlikely lot walked and flew through the trees in silence, the daylight breaking through the trees and sprinkling the ground with shimmering dots of sun. Damselle found that it was never bright in the Woods, thick as it was with so many branches. Finally, the group stumbled back upon the camp they had abandoned. Nothing remained, of course, of the warm cooking fires they had built, though the logs they’d rolled out for sitting remained and so too did their belongings, Damselle saw with great relief.
She scurried over to their bag of dwindling fruit and bread. Then she checked to see that the Jabberwocky head was still in its place by poking it with a stick, although the strong stench rising from the bag would have been enough to tell her it remained.
Biddy trudged back to her log and sat, staring at the dirt and twirling Bellerophon, the spear she’d received from the fairies, in her hands. The weapon wasn’t long, but it ended in a wicked-looking, curved blade with a lead tip.
“Bloody magic,” she said. “What good is it anyway?”
“It can be used for much good!” Ixby squealed. The tiny creature was covered in ash and looked pitifully exhausted, but he shook his finger at Biddy anyway.
“What I do not understand,” said Damselle, “is why we were lured out to our assumed dooms. There had to be a reason, and perhaps understanding it will help us to find Peter Grimm.”
Reietta cleared her throat, a sound like a bird’s chirp, and said, “Reason may have had nothing to do with it. True evil has little motivation other than simply to be evil.”
Ixby shivered again and Damselle stood and took an angry kick at a rock, which sent it flying into the distance. Frustrated and worried, she paced around the nearest fire pit. Evil for evil’s sake was a horrifying thought, but there seemed something more to this magical attack. She felt they were the target of someone’s intentions, and she was not sure if that made her feel better or worse.
“It just does not fit,” she said. “One moment I was eating my dinner and the next I was alone in the woods feeling foggy and confused, and I’ll wager Biddy and Peter would say the same if they’d been able to break through their spells as I had.”
“Don’t go braggin’, Girl. Last thing we need’s a big ‘ead on your shoulders like’s on the Woodsie-man’s,” Biddy said, though she guffawed as she said it.
“I only meant,” said Damselle, her cheeks reddening, “that it seems too…well-planned…to be, ah, random.”
“I agree,” Reietta chimed as she sat herself upon a notch in a log. “Both of you humans were lead to a cottage gated from the rest of the Woods.”
“I’ll bet the Woodsman is in a cottage, too!” Ixby said. Then he covered his eyes and said, “Oh no! Suppose there is another Mae?”
“Or suppose there is another Kai?” Damselle said with a shudder. “Oh, Biddy! He was just as awful as Mae, but his eyes danced with flames and he pretended to be a child acting on behalf of his…his…”
Comprehension and memory bloomed within her like a flower in springtime.
“His what, Miss?” Ixby asked.
“Devil, most likely,” said Biddy.
Damselle had been too confused and frightened at the first cottage and she had been fighting to free Biddy at the second. She wanted to kick herself for only just now connecting the dots!
“I know the Woods better. Mother said to come get her,” she breathed.
“What did you say, Miss?”
“Poetry! Bah!” Biddy growled.
But Reietta glowed with excitement. “Yes, you are right!” she said. “And Mae said you thought you were worthy to meet her Mother, but she said ‘our’ mother!”
“Yes, because she called Kai her brother,” Damselle said.
“Alright, one of you pretties tell me what’s goin’ on now, will you? Case you forgot, I been stuck in a ruddy lookin’ glass!”
Biddy threw back the hood of her cloak, presumably to concentrate. Her nearly-hairless head and white-blue eyes still made Damselle squirm.
“Kai called himself ‘The First of Three’ and had a tiny lion stitched upon his collar just like the goat embroidered upon Mae’s lapel,” Damselle said, avoiding eye contact with the Rider. She wished the woman would keep her hood up! “If Mae was the second, then we must assume whoever holds Peter is the third. They are some part of three, controlled by one entity. One woman.”
“But what woman would want to hurt us?” Ixby asked.
The question hung on the air, caught upon the slight breeze that kept blowing Damselle’s hair across her face.
“I cannot think it of Fairy Alyas,” Damselle said finally. “She is a dark fairy, true, but from what I have heard she would not miss the chance to receive gifts from ‘lesser’ beings. Dead, we could not bring her a tale, a veil, and a scale.”
“Sounds like we got one option left then, eh?” Biddy said. She fished an apple out of the bag and crunched into it while Ixby, Damselle, and Reietta watched her expectantly. “I reckon we got no choice but to go after that fog-brained fool of a man and find what woman done set us up when we get there,” she said spraying apple juice as she spoke. “An’ I only say it ‘cause the bloody man is our guide and knows ‘is way ‘bout this wretched forest, or else I’d say leave ‘em!”
Damselle half smiled, but kept her thoughts to herself. Reietta said, “Hmm” and pursed her lips.
“Alright,” Damselle said. “To the west, then. Reietta and Ixby can scout ahead for cottages and picket fences.”
Once the foursome had loaded their weapons, food and monster heads upon their persons, they started off towards the west. Ixby had seen Peter head that way in his entranced state, so they traveled that way for some time without any event.
Damselle listened hard as she could for any sign of danger. She had long since shed the old armor she’d worn to save Biddy, but her body felt heavy and sluggish with exhaustion. It had been quite some time since any of them had slept.
And I thought my life was distressing before I entered the Woods, she thought grimly.
Danger had been imminent while she had lived within her village, but within the Enchanted Woods it lurked behind every tree. It sought her, sure, but she sought it out now, too. It scared her badly, but what almost eclipsed that fear was guilt. Wasn’t it her fault Peter Grimm and Biddy had been taken? And Biddy was on a mission of her own, but Peter traveled only to help them.
Someone caught her arm and she jerked back to the present, to where her nose was nearly pressed against the bark of a tree.
“We’re takin’ a rest,” Biddy said. “You’re fallin’ asleep walkin’ and if poor Icksy flew any slower ‘e’d be an ugly ornament for the trees.”
“But Peter…”
“Will not be saved by anyone who can’t keep her eyes open,” Reietta finished. She did not look tired, but Damselle wasn’t sure about the sleeping patterns of fairies.
Reluctantly, she settled down against a tree. And, though worry plagued her every thought, she fell quickly into a sleep in which Sir Leal rode a Jabberwocky intent on catching a wolf made entirely of gingerbread while she watched the entire thing with a scratchy beard on her chin.
Damselle slowly became aware of the forest sounds once more and opened her eyes. She felt somewhat better, if not well-rested. Evening was nearing and the air was growing cooler. The trickling of water caught her ear and she realized how much she longed for a cold drink. The others had settled down and were still resting among the trees, so she grabbed a canteen from her bags and followed the sound and scent of water to what she hoped was a small stream.
She was, of course, wrong.
A white marble fountain stood among the trees as if it were as natural as anything in the Woods. A pattern of ivy and foreign letters were etched upon the stone and pristine water ran from the smallest, fourth tier to the third and downward until it pooled at the bottom basin.
The brightest, most beautiful flowers Damselle had ever seen grew at the base of the fountain where the water overflowed and sprinkled the ground with sparkling drops. The entire scene was one of serenity and she made her way to the fountain, where a rabbit and her two babies merely watched her from the other side.
Damselle peeked at her reflection in the water, cringed, and plunged her canteen straight through the reflection’s nose. The water began filling her canteen with a glug! and had filled half full when Damselle heard the snapping of twigs not far off. Quickly, she capped her canister and hurried back to camp. Once there, she saw Biddy fastening the hood of her cloak and Ixby and Reietta hovering nearby.
“Oh, Miss Damselle, I do wish you would stop disappearing like that!” Ixby squealed when he saw her.
“Yeah, what ‘e said,” Biddy said roughly.
Damselle apologized and uncapped her canteen. She took a drink of the water, which tasted perfectly pure and if it had just a hint of some sweetness to it, and she gasped.
Bubbles filled her, tingles raced along her arms and legs. She felt as if she were going to explode, but in the most wonderful way possible. She felt happiness and fulfillment racing through her, and she felt like she could do anything in the entire world.
She could do anything in the entire world!
She became aware of a small hand upon her nose.
“Damselle?” Reietta said.
“This…this water,” said Damselle, “is wonderful!” And she twirled on her tip-toes.
Ixby, Biddy and Reietta exchanged looks, but Damselle ignored them.
“I feel like I could take on the Jabberwock all by myself! Like I could climb that tree without any trouble! I feel full of life and energy and almost…childish!”
She giggled and clapped her hand over her mouth. She was acting childish, but she no longer felt weary or downcast. She felt blissfully free!
Biddy eyed the canteen dubiously and muttered something under her breath. Reietta, however, perched herself on Damselle’s hand, dipped her fingers into the canteen and then let a few drops fall into her mouth.
“Oh!” the blue fairy said. “Worry not, Rider. It is not dangerous. It is water from one of the Springs of Youth.”
“I wasn’t worried,” Biddy mumbled.
Damselle giggled again, though she tried to stifle it when the other three looked her way.
“It was a fountain,” she said. “Not a spring.”
“Youth’s waters will take on various forms,” Reietta said dismissively. “It will wear off eventually. However, I think it would be good for us all to sample a small amount to rid us of our weariness. Youth will take away most any ailment. A handful of the water will do. Do not take so much as Damselle did.”
Reietta herself took a bit more of the water from the bottle and Ixby, too, sampled some, after which his large eyes bulged and he did several airborne somersaults.
“Little Biddy have some water!” Damselle offered in a sing-song voice as she danced towards the Rider in a thoroughly ridiculous way.
“Get that away from me,” Biddy growled. “Away with you, you silly girl!”
“But Biddy, it will make you feel refreshed and renewed!” Damselle said. She pushed the canteen towards the woman who was still resisting.
“Biddy, do not fear it! Embrace it!” she laughed, and she shoved the canteen at the Rider. Biddy jerked away so hard and fast that she knocked the water from Damselle’s hands. The thing went flying towards Biddy, where it sloshed onto her cloak (and dried immediately) and plopped upon her uncovered hands.
The woman howled an incredible, terrifying cry. Damselle snatched up the canister of water and saw as she did so burning, hissing red welts on Biddy’s skin where the water had fallen. She capped the canteen and knelt by Biddy, who was blowing on the white fingers of one hand and the wrinkled palm of the other.
“Biddy, what…”
“Quiet,” Biddy said through clenched teeth.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know, I…”
“O’course you din’t. Now quiet.”
The woman simply sat still, inhaling and exhaling and cooling the burns that should not have come from water, even the water of Youth.
Ixby flew to her shoulder and perched upon it, while Reietta adjusted the feathery belt around her waist and went to the Rider’s hands.
After two flashes of blue light and several moments, Biddy rose and said, “Done’s done. Now you know. Let’s go find our Woodsie-man.” and she slung the Jabberwocky head over her shoulder, hefted Bellerophon and trudged off.
“Did you help her?” Damselle asked Reietta.
“I helped take the burning away,” she said.
“What happened?”
“It was very unusual, but she is a very unusual person. I do not think she knows and I am not sure I would venture a guess.”
The fairy unconsciously fiddled with the feathers coiled around her waist again. Ixby stared at his own hands, as if waiting for them to begin burning, and then he zoomed off after Biddy.
“Alright, let us go,” Damselle said glumly as she walked begrudgingly onward. Her euphoric feelings of moments before had completely evaporated. “I have a bit of water for Peter Grimm if we ever manage to find him and if he doesn’t completely melt when I offer it to him.”
"I think the Woodsman will be able to drink what the Rider could not," Reietta said as she flew along beside Damselle. "If we find him in good enough health to continue this journey at all, that is."
"I intend on finding that Woodsman and rescuing him if it is the last thing I do," Damselle said irritably.
"It very well may be," said Reietta.
"Fine! But I will rescue he who helps me!"
"Then 'ere's your chance, Missy," Biddy said, appearing from in front of them. "'Cause Icksy said 'e saw a bee-oo-tiful cottage and picket fence straight ahead. Oh, and it's bein' guarded by three Bears."
© Kiley M. Kellermeyer
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