The Enchantress Returns (39 page)

“Now, Charlie!”
Jack shouted. The twins watched in horror as if it were happening in slow motion. The cat was zooming toward Froggy, ready to sink its teeth and claws into him. Froggy hopped out of its way at the very last second, narrowly avoiding its outstretched claws. The cat slammed into the
cupboard, and Jack and the twins shut the doors behind it. Froggy joined them and together they fought against the cat, trying to keep it inside.

A heavy grunt came from the top of the table. Goldilocks pushed a giant spoon over the edge, and it hit the floor with a thud. She slid down the table leg like it was a pole in a firehouse. The twins ran to her and helped her carry the spoon to the cupboard. They slid the spoon between the handles of the cupboard and the cat was trapped—
for now
.

“Raaaaaar!”
the cat angrily growled from inside the cupboard.
“Raaaaaar!”

“Let’s get out of here!” Jack ordered. “The spoon won’t hold it in there forever!”

The five of them made a mad dash through the dining room and back into the entrance hall. The cat banged violently against the cupboard doors, bending the spoon ever so slightly with every push.

Jack and Goldilocks ran toward the door at full speed. They hit the floor with perfect momentum and slid under the door. Conner tried copying them but only tripped himself and had to climb under the door the regular way with his sister and Froggy.

Once they were all outside, the five of them took off running as fast as they possibly could down the stony path.

“The cat isn’t going to follow us outside, right?”
Conner asked the others as they ran.

They all glanced back, praying they wouldn’t see the cat emerging from the castle behind them. What they hadn’t seen
until now was a giant cat door cut into the castle’s door and a furious cat poking its head through it.

“Oh come on!”
Conner shouted.

The cat chased after them like a fat and furry torpedo. Thankfully its weight slowed it down, so it took a while for it to catch up with them.

The stony path ended and the group of five carefully moved through the clouds at a sluggish speed. The cat was apprehensive about stepping onto the clouds, but it was too determined to stop now. Luckily, it had just as much trouble walking on the clouds as they did, but the cat still tried clawing at whoever was closest to them.

“We’ve got to get down!”
Goldilocks shouted.
“Everyone crawl the rest of the way to the beanstalk!”

They all fell to their hands and knees and were covered by the clouds. They couldn’t see where they were crawling, but at least the cat couldn’t, either. It tried digging them out of the clouds, sending large cloudy chunks into the air, but it never found anyone.

One by one, Jack, Goldilocks, Froggy, and the twins found the beanstalk and started their descent back to the ground. They didn’t even bother with ropes this time—in fact, they were practically throwing themselves down the beanstalk. Leaf by leaf, they bounced closer and closer to the ground below.

“The cat’s not going to follow us down the beanstalk, is it?”
Conner asked, but just as he did, the cat poked its huge head through the clouds above them.

“Mew!” the cat said, delighted to finally find them.

“GOD, I HATE THIS FLIPPING CAT!”
Conner yelled.

The cat was descending the beanstalk behind them now. It looked like an elephant climbing down a tightrope. It was timid from the height, moving at a lazily cautious pace. It clearly hadn’t thought this plan through.

Goldilocks started slicing down the beanstalk’s leaves as they passed them, making it more difficult for the cat to follow.

“What in the world—?”
a voice shouted up at them. Red was staring up at the beanstalk, watching her five friends being chased by an enormous cat.
“Am I actually seeing this or did I bump my head when we landed earlier?”

“You’re actually seeing it, my dear!”
Froggy yelled down at her.

Clawdius was going nuts, too. He barked up at the colossal cat in the sky and pulled against his restraints. The tiny wolf made the enormous cat very nervous and it stopped, now stuck on the upper part of the beanstalk.

“Red! You need to cut down the beanstalk!”
Jack yelled down at her.

“Excuse me?”
Red asked.

“You need to cut it down before the cat reaches the bottom!”
he yelled.
“There should be an axe in my shack—get it and start chopping!”

Red looked around for someone else to do it instead, but there was no one to be found.

“Red, we need you!”
Alex said.

Red mustered up all the determination she had. “I’ll do it!” she yelled. She ran straight into the shack—but quickly ran back out a moment later.
“Wait—which one is the axe again?”

Goldilocks slapped an open palm against her head.

“The one that looks like this!”
Jack said, raising his own.

“Got it!”
Red said and ran back into the shack. She ran out, dragging a large axe behind her as if it weighed more than her.

“Now chop it down!”
Jack yelled.

Red nodded. She lifted the axe, which took all the strength she possessed, and swung it toward the beanstalk. She missed it by several inches and the swing spun her to the ground.

“Come on, Red! You can do this!”
Alex cheered down at her.

“We believe in you, darling!”
Froggy called down.

Red looked at her reflection in the axe and fixed a strand of her hair that had fallen. She took another swing at it, and this time she hit the beanstalk but only left a tiny dent in it.

“I hit it! I hit it!”
Red said and jumped up and down, so proud of herself.

“You’re going to need to hit it about a thousand times harder than that!”
Goldilocks yelled.

The cat grew agitated, seeing the five of them getting closer and closer to the ground. It started to climb down again, moving faster than ever, its bright green eyes fixed on them. Red took another swing at the beanstalk, barely leaving a larger mark.

“I can’t do this!”
Red said through sniffles.

“Yes you can, Red! Do it for your country! Do it for your granny! Do it for me!”
Froggy encouraged her.

“PRETEND THE BEANSTALK IS GOLDILOCKS!”
Conner shouted.

Everyone on the beanstalk froze and just stared at Conner.
Red looked down at the axe more determinedly than ever—Conner had done the trick. With one confident swing, Red sliced through the entire base of the beanstalk with practically inhuman strength.

Everyone was shocked, but not as shocked as Red. Even the cat looked surprised.

The beanstalk began to teeter.
“Everyone get to this side of the beanstalk!”
Jack yelled, and they all swung themselves to the side of the beanstalk that wasn’t going to hit the ground.

The beanstalk slowly began to fall… faster and faster and faster.… The cat, however, wasn’t ready for its quest to conclude. It sank one front paw into the beanstalk and a back paw into the clouds above it, holding it in place.

“Now what?”
Alex yelled.

Clawdius broke his restraints on the deck of the
Granny
and ran down to the base of the beanstalk. He barked up at the gigantic cat dangling in the sky.

“Raaaaaar!”
the giant cat yipped fearfully. In one giant leap, it let go of the beanstalk and soared back into the cloudy world above.

“Timber!”
Jack yelled.

The beanstalk fell toward the ground like a giant whip. It crashed into the manor, splitting it in half like a knife slicing a birthday cake.

Jack, Goldilocks, Froggy, and the twins looked up at one another—they were all surprised they had survived the ordeal. There was a moment of silence before they heard an earth-shattering scream. They all looked toward the manor—the beanstalk had missed the golden harp by inches.

“That’s the second time I almost died today and it isn’t even dusk!”
the harp shouted.

The team climbed down from the beanstalk and brushed themselves off. Froggy gave Red an enormous hug.

“You saved our lives!” Froggy said and twirled her around.

Goldilocks avoided making eye contact with Red. “Nice one,” she said begrudgingly, and then quickly walked away.

The twins lay on the grass and caught their breath. The clouds began to part now that the beanstalk was gone and revealed a beautiful bright blue sky.

“I
never
want to do that again,” Conner said.

“Never,”
Alex agreed.

Jack walked over to the newly destroyed manor.

“Hey, Harper,” he said, with an apologetic hesitance in his voice. “I’ve got good news and bad news.
Good news
—you’re still moving!
Bad news
—you’re coming with us.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

THE REFLECTION

Let me get this straight,” the magic harp said. “You’re on a
quest
, collecting the most
prized possessions
of the most
hated people
in the world to build a powerful
wand
that you hope will overthrow the
Enchantress
? And
I
happen to be one of those possessions?”

Conner shrugged. “That’s right,” he said. “Although it sounds lame when you say it like that.”

It took Jack, Froggy, and Conner to move the harp of solid gold into the lower deck of the
Granny
. Once they got her there, the men and the women of the ship surrounded her and
told her all about their mission and her newly discovered relevance to it.

“I don’t understand. How am I supposed to be a part of that wand?” the harp asked and gestured to the ice scepter Goldilocks had been showing her moments before.

Froggy had to agree. “I don’t see how you fit into this, either,” he said. “You’re awfully big to be a part of a wand.”

“I beg your pardon?” the harp snapped at him.

“My apologies,” Froggy said. “I just meant, everything else has been small material items. We’ve yet to have—well—whatever it is that you are.”

“Whatever it is I am?” the harp said. “That’s rich, coming from a
giant frog man
!”

Froggy took a step back and bowed out of the conversation completely.

“What if we cut off one of her fingers or something?” Conner suggested.

“What?”
the harp yelled.

“Conner, that’s so barbaric!” Alex said and hit him in the shoulder. “Why would you even mention such a thing?”

“It was only an idea,” he said.

“But what would happen if she came in contact with the Wand?” Goldilocks asked. “Will she shrink? Will the Wand blend into her somehow?
Would she die?
”

The harp went berserk and desperately tried to jump out of the ship, but she was too heavy to lift herself.

“Harper, calm down,” Jack said to the overly excited instrument. “No one is going to harm you.”

“But I’m still your prisoner, aren’t I?” the harp said. The strings on her back played the opening chords to a dramatic ballad.

“Right when it teased me,

The cruel world deceived me,

No hope now for freedom,

No stars now to wish upon,

Born for imprisonment am I,

Can’t be free until I die—”

“Enough, Harper,” Goldilocks said. “You’re not our prisoner. We’re just going to keep you around for a while until we can figure out what to do—then you’ll be free to live your exciting life of watching grass grow and entertaining people against their will.”

The harp squinted at Goldilocks and raised a golden eyebrow. “So
you’re
the girl Jack ran off with, eh?” she said. “No wonder he can’t be seen with you in public—I wouldn’t want to be, either.”

The twins both made
ooh
ing sounds. Jack and Froggy had to hold Goldilocks back. A high-pitched laugh erupted from Red’s mouth and she slapped the side of her leg.