The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell (11 page)

“I can’t even imagine what that must have been like,” said Alex, beaming with sympathy.

“Can we call you Froggy?” Conner asked with a small smirk.

“Conner!”
Alex reprimanded.

“It’s quite all right.” The frog man nodded, and his smile returned. “I’ve learned that the more people embrace their disadvantages, the less disadvantaged they become! Please, call me Froggy. I’d prefer it.”

Conner shrugged and smiled.

“May I get you some lily pad tea?” Froggy asked the twins.

Both the twins nodded; they didn’t want to be rude. Froggy retrieved the teakettle from the fire and hopped—literally—to the kitchenette and poured water into three teacups. He opened the jar on the mantel and dropped a lily pad into each teacup and stirred.

“Do either of you take flies with your tea?” he asked, reaching for another jar on his mantel, this one filled with dead flies.

“No thanks,” Conner said. “Trying to quit.”

“Suit yourself,” Froggy said, and dropped a few flies into his tea. He handed them each a teacup and reseated himself across from them. They stared down at it for a few moments before deciding they’d at least pretend to drink it.

“What are your names?” Froggy asked the twins.

“I’m Alex and this is my brother, Conner.”

A large and happy smile came to Froggy’s face.

“Are you by any chance Alex Bailey?” Froggy asked, grinning from ear equivalent to ear equivalent.

“Um… yes.” Alex was shocked. How did this amphibian know who she was?

“As in ‘This book belongs to Alex Bailey’?” Froggy
asked. He leaned over the side of his chair and pulled up a stack of books, opening one to show where the phrase was written inside it.

“Those are my books!” Alex said excitedly, recognizing the books she had dropped into
The Land of Stories
. “I was wondering what had happened to them.”

“It was so peculiar,” Froggy explained. “I was out collecting flies and was walking down the path to the swamp when one just fell from the sky and landed on my head. I returned the next day and found several more in the same spot. It was the oddest thing that’s ever happened to me!”

“You mean, besides being turned into a frog, right?” Conner asked. “Because if I were you, that would be on the top of my list—
ouch
!” Alex elbowed her brother.

Froggy ignored Conner and went on with his explanation.

“As you can see from my shelves, I love to collect books, especially when I’m not expecting to,” he said. “And these books were unlike any I had ever read! They described people and places I had never seen or heard of, and I thought I had seen it all! The authors wrote about such interesting places. Could you imagine a world without witches or trolls or giants? What imaginations!”

Froggy chuckled at the thought of this. The twins laughed along with the best fake laughs they could muster.

“Please keep them. I have duplicate copies at home,” Alex told him.

Froggy was delighted to hear this.

“Uh-huh.” Conner cleared his throat. “Speaking of home, I don’t mean to interrupt this little book club, but we’re very lost and would like to know where we are.”

Froggy’s glossy eyes went back and forth between the twins, watching them closely.

“Oh, children, you wouldn’t be here if you knew where you were,” Froggy said. “You’re in the Dwarf Forests.”

He had expected to get some sort of worried reaction from the twins, but Alex and Conner just stared up at him with very little expression.

“The Dwarf Forests?” Alex asked. “What are the Dwarf Forests?”

“You’ve never heard of them?” Froggy asked, completely appalled. The twins both shook their heads.

“It’s a very dangerous place,” Froggy told them. “It’s the only designated area of land without a ruler or a government; it’s a kingdom where everyone is their own king. It used to be populated by dwarfs who worked in the mines, but now it’s full of criminals and fugitives mostly. It’s a place where people go when they don’t want to be found.”

Knowing they had not only traveled into another world but were in a dangerous part of that world did nothing to help the twins’ anxiety level.

“Are there other kingdoms?” Alex asked.

Froggy was stunned. It was as if she had asked him what color the sky was. However, he seemed to be enjoying their unfamiliarity.

“Of course,” he said. “There’s the Northern Kingdom,
the Sleeping Kingdom, the Charming Kingdom, the Corner Kingdom, the Fairy Kingdom, the Red Riding Hood Kingdom, the Elf Empire, the Dwarf Forests, and the Troll and Goblin Territory. How can you possibly not know this?”

This was difficult for the twins to wrap their heads around. How big was the fairy-tale world?

Their puzzled faces inspired Froggy to hop out of his seat and cross to one of the bookshelves and return with a large, rolled-up scroll. He handed it to the twins, and they unrolled it.

It was a large, detailed map of the new world they were in. The fairy-tale world was a wide continent bordered by mountain ranges and covered in forests with castles and palaces and villages scattered all around.

The Northern Kingdom was the largest of the kingdoms and took up most of the top of the map. The second largest was the Charming Kingdom, spread across to the south, and the third largest was the Sleeping Kingdom, which stretched along the east. The Dwarf Forests covered the majority of the west.

The tiny Corner Kingdom was tucked away in the southwest corner of the continent, and in the northwest corner was the Elf Empire. In between the Charming Kingdom and the Sleeping Kingdom was the Fairy Kingdom, and just above that was the Troll and Goblin Territory.

The Fairy Kingdom looked beautiful, as it was very colorful and seemed to sparkle on the map. The Troll and
Goblin Territory looked frightening and appeared to be surrounded by large boulders and rocks, preventing anything from going in or coming out.

In the very center of it all was the Red Riding Hood Kingdom, circled by an unmistakable brick wall of gigantic proportions.

Alex and Conner couldn’t believe it. The world they had grown up hearing about was real. It was
all
real, and it was bigger and better than they ever could have imagined.

Alex couldn’t help but get emotional. Tears began to flood her eyes.

“Together, all the kingdoms create the Happily Ever After Assembly,” Froggy explained.

“The Happily Ever After Assembly?” Conner asked with a slight touch of sarcasm in his voice.

“It’s the organization formed to uphold the treaty all the rulers signed so that all the kingdoms could live in peace and prosperity,” Froggy told them.

“Sounds like our United Nations,” Alex whispered to Conner.

“All the kingdoms have their own traditions and celebrated histories,” Froggy went on.

“And there are kings and queens, I’m assuming?” Conner asked.

“Oh, yes,” Froggy said. “The Northern Kingdom is ruled by Queen Snow White. The Corner Kingdom is watched over by Queen Rapunzel. The Sleeping Kingdom—formerly known as the Eastern Kingdom, but renamed after the
dreadful curse under which it was placed—is governed by Queen Sleeping Beauty. And of course, the Charming Kingdom is ruled by King Charming and his wife, Queen Cinderella.”

“Wait, are these the current monarchs?” Alex asked, with a spark of excitement in her eyes. “You mean Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty… they’re all still alive?”

“Of course they are!” Froggy said.

“Oh my goodness, that’s wonderful!” Alex said excitedly. “Isn’t that wonderful, Conner?”

“Whatever,” Conner mumbled.

“How old do you think they are?” Froggy asked. “Queen Snow White and King Charming have only been married a few years. Queen Cinderella and King Charming are expecting their first child soon. Queen Sleeping Beauty and King Charming are sadly still trying to restore their kingdom to consciousness after that horrible sleeping spell it was placed under.”

“Wait,” Conner said. “Are you saying all these queens are married to the same guy?”

“Certainly not,” Froggy said. “There are three King Charmings. They’re brothers.”

“Of course!” Alex said. “Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty all married
Prince Charming
! There’s more than one! How come I never thought about that?”

Conner’s eyes were fixated on the map. He kept searching for some kind of road or bridge that would lead them back home, but he found nothing.

“Why are there a bunch of rocks around the Troll and Goblin Territory?” Conner asked.

“As punishment,” Froggy said. “Trolls and goblins are nasty creatures and have a habit of kidnapping people and turning them into slaves. The Fairy Council forced the trolls and goblins into one territory, and none of them are allowed to leave without permission.”

“Fairy Council?” Alex asked. This world was almost too good to be true.

“Yes, they’re a group of the most powerful fairies of the kingdoms,” Froggy explained. “Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother is one of them, and so is Mother Goose, and all the fairies that blessed Sleeping Beauty when she was a baby are on it, too. They rule the Fairy Kingdom and are the leaders of the Happily Ever After Assembly.”

“Is the Red Riding Hood Kingdom under some sort of punishment, too?” Conner asked. “Why is there a huge wall built around it?”

Alex looked down at the map and back up at Froggy, equally curious.

“That was a result of the C.R.A.W.L. Revolution,” Froggy said.

“What was the crawl revolution?” Alex asked.

“The Citizen Riots Against Wolf Liberty,” Froggy explained. “The Red Riding Hood Kingdom used to be a group of villages in the Northern Kingdom that were constantly under attack by wolves. They begged the Evil Queen—Snow White’s stepmother, who was on the throne
at the time—to help them. But the Evil Queen was too occupied with her vanity, so they revolted and started their own kingdom. They built a huge wall around it so no wolves could get in.”

“And now Red Riding Hood is the queen?” Alex asked.

“Yes, she’s the only elected queen in history,” Froggy said. “The villagers figured her story was the most symbolic of their struggle, so they chose her to lead them.”

“But isn’t she just a little girl?” Alex asked.

“No, she’s a young woman now. A very self-obsessed young woman, from what I hear. After all, she named the kingdom after herself! Her grandmother does most of the decision-making while she takes all the credit,” Froggy said. “Unfortunately the C.R.A.W.L. Revolution only led to the rise of the Big Bad Wolf Pack.”

“The Big Bad Wolf Pack?” Conner asked.

“Yes, they’re the descendants of the original Big Bad Wolf. They travel around terrorizing villages and attacking unsuspecting travelers,” Froggy said.

“Oh joy!” Conner said sarcastically. “I’m sorry I asked.”

“But besides that, things are very peaceful throughout the kingdoms,” Froggy said. His voice drifted off, and uncertainty grew on his face. “That was, until a week ago.”

The twins leaned forward.

“What happened a week ago?” Alex asked.

“The Evil Queen escaped from the dungeons of Snow White’s palace,” Froggy told them. “I thought everyone had heard.”

“It’s news to us,” Conner said.

“That can’t be good,” Alex said. “How’d she escape?”

“No one knows,” Froggy said. “She just vanished, along with her Magic Mirror. Snow White’s army has been searching throughout all of the kingdoms for her. They pass through these woods at least twice a day. So far they’ve found nothing, not even a footprint, to lead them in her direction.”

“Do you think they’re going to find her?” Conner asked.

“I hope so,” Froggy said. “She’s a very dangerous woman. She’s the only queen in history to lose her throne; I couldn’t imagine the revenge she must be seeking. Who knows what she’s planning to do next?”

Alex suddenly became very tense. It had just occurred to her that, along with all the characters she had grown up loving, all the ones she hated and feared actually existed, too. It made her feel very uneasy and very unsafe.

The fire in the fireplace began to fade, and Froggy got up to add another log. The twins’ eyes and mouths were wide open, and their heads were spinning from all of this new information.

“Exactly how far away do you live from here?” Froggy asked as he sat back down across from them.

The twins looked to each other, back at Froggy, and then back at each other. They didn’t know what to tell him. Would he believe them if they told him the truth?

“It’s practically a different world,” Conner said. Alex
shot him a dirty look and then nervously laughed, trying to make light of what her brother just said.

Froggy wasn’t laughing. He sat straight up in his seat and his face grew very still with an intensity in his eyes, as if he had found the solution to a mystery.

“Interesting,” Froggy said, eyeing the twins back and forth. “Because, if I didn’t know better, just from the way you dress and the way you speak—and the way you were so surprised at basic history—I would say that there was a very good chance you are indeed from a different world.”

They didn’t understand what he was trying to say. Did he know something that they didn’t?

“Just out of curiosity, have you ever heard of another world?” Alex asked him.

“Or, preferably, how to get back to it?” Conner added.

Froggy studied their faces even more intently for a moment. He got up again and went to a bookshelf on the far side of the room. He rustled through the books, looking for something of special interest. Finally, he found it: a small leather-bound journal with a red band around it.

“Have either of you ever heard of the Wishing Spell?” Froggy asked the twins.

Alex and Conner shook their heads. Froggy flipped through the pages of the journal.

“I assumed not,” he said. “It’s a legendary spell comprised of a list of items, and, apparently, when you put the items together, you are granted one wish. It doesn’t matter how extravagant the wish is, the Wishing Spell will grant
it. Many people believe that it’s only a myth, and I did, too, until I found this journal.”

“What does that journal have to do with anything?” Conner asked.