“Isn’t that a brave thing at its core?” Daniel continued, not noticing my mental tangent. “For antagonists to decide to say to heck with the Author and the realm’s division of power and seek something more than the modest lives they were born into.”
“I don’t know if I would describe that as bravery,” I responded. “There are other ways a common can achieve a better life besides turning to villainy. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, renowned artists, all twenty-six of our kingdom ambassadors for that matter—they’re all commons. They’re wealthy and powerful without being protagonists. If you ask me, commons that choose to be antagonists are the opposite of brave. They’re cowards taking the easy way out. They could be something more if they worked hard enough, but instead they lie and cheat and steal and put others’ lives in danger as a means to gain superiority.”
“Are you sure you don’t just feel that way because you’re a protagonist?” Daniel asked. “You’ve never had to struggle and fight like a common. You don’t know what a desperate person—someone poor or pushed around—might do to feel important, let alone feed their families.”
I felt an argument coming. Daniel may have been a protagonist now, but he’d been a common his entire life; I’d been a protagonist all of mine. We were bound to disagree on certain things. Still, I didn’t want to lose the fragile peace between us over a squabble on antagonists. That archetype was already doing plenty to destroy us in Book. We didn’t need it to chip away at us here.
I sighed, choosing my words carefully. “Daniel, I may not know what it feels like to go hungry or feel pushed aside. But I do know what it’s like to fight to achieve something more than the life I’ve been given. That struggle has defined my whole existence and it’s the fuel that’s driving me now. So think what you want about antagonists and their origins, but no matter what, you have to know that this is the truth about me.”
Daniel and I came out of the mossy descent. The earth leveled out as the stream picked up speed and widened into a river. The types of trees became more varied, and there was more green than orange, fewer leaves having fallen from their branches.
My carefully chosen statement seemed to have silenced Daniel on the subject—he didn’t have a retort—but it did not bring silence to the surrounding forest. A loud snap burst from a section of trees nearby.
Daniel and I turned at the noise, both on guard. It was understandable given that the last time we’d heard such a sound it was followed by a giant lobster attack. True it was highly unlikely that we would run into any lobster monsters on Earth. But this was still a forest and it was unfamiliar terrain. Who knew what was out there?
I wanted to go for my wand but frowned when I remembered I couldn’t use it. Earth’s painful magic consequences would stop me before it became useful.
Daniel drew his sword and walked carefully to the area where the sound came from. I followed. We were beginning to hear more rustlings then footsteps. I peered over his shoulder as we wormed around the trees in our way.
The footsteps grew louder and were accompanied by the murmur of voices. I saw Daniel’s grip tense on his sword. We rounded a particularly thick trunk. And then—
Daniel abruptly collided with a small girl holding a map. She bounced off his chest and made a startled squeak. When she looked up and saw his sword she squeaked again, louder this time.
Daniel stashed his sword in its sheath and held up his hands. “Whoa, whoa. It’s okay. Sorry, we didn’t mean to scare you.”
The girl blinked like a confused deer. She was about five foot two. Her hair was black and short with bangs tickling her thin eyebrows. Her eyes were small and innocent. Despite her petite frame, I guessed she was about nineteen or twenty. She wore wrinkled khaki pants, a pale pink collared shirt peeking out beneath a distressed jacket, and a matching khaki sunhat with a cord that hung below her neck. There was a massive backpack on her shoulders. She clutched the straps tightly as she stared at Daniel, causing the map in her right hand to crinkle.
The girl looked us both up and down then called behind her. “Berto! Anna! Greg!”
More rustling occurred behind her. A few seconds later three other young people appeared—a girl with a perky brown ponytail, a boy with blond hair and a scruffy goatee and mustache, and another boy with warm caramel skin and glasses. They each carried gigantic backpacks and wore hiking clothes.
“Hey,” the girl with the ponytail said. “What are you kids doing out here? You lost?”
Daniel and I glanced at each other. “Where exactly is here?” I asked.
“Oh geez, you are lost,” the blond boy said. “This is the Black Forest. You guys need some help getting out of here? We were on our way back to town.”
I looked to Daniel for confirmation. He nodded.
“Lead the way,” I said.
After twenty minutes we emerged from the forest.
Blond boy and ponytail girl had introduced themselves as Greg and Anna. They were a married couple in their late-twenties who were backpacking across Europe on their honeymoon. Meanwhile, the tiny black-haired girl (Yunru) and the boy with the glasses (Umberto, or Berto as they called him) were some travelling strays they’d joined up with along the way.
“We all met at a hostel back in Zurich,” Anna explained. “We really hit it off and decided to travel together for a while.”
“How do Yunru and Berto know each other?” I asked, relieved to see the town coming into view and smell freshly baked bread. My stomach growled like a troll under a bridge.
“We didn’t,” Berto answered. “Yunru and I both study abroad. I’m taking break from university in Spain before I transfer to college in America in the spring. She goes to university in Hong Kong and comes to Germany to do research for her college thesis.” My eyebrows crinkled. “I didn’t understand half the words in that statement. What’s a college?”
They all regarded me like I was an alien or an idiot—or both.
“You know, college,” Anna repeated, as if elongating the word made its meaning clearer. “Higher education. Where people go after high school to learn about themselves and decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives, and then learn the skills they need to accomplish it.”
I thought about the idea, which struck a profound chord. “Sounds cool,” I said.
“You kids look about sixteen or seventeen,” Greg continued. “You must have an idea of where you want to go when you finish school and what you want to be when you grow up.”
Hero. Princess. Epic-worthy fairytale protagonist. Alive.
“We’re kinda concentrating on the now,” I responded.
Daniel and I hadn’t told these people where we were from. Ashlyn had stressed that—should we ever return to Earth—we must keep the truth a secret. So when Anna asked Daniel and I what we were doing in the forest alone, I thought fast and came up with the most convincing lie we could pull out of thin air.
A long time ago Blue told me that there was a group for little kids in her village where parents enrolled their children to learn hunting, tracking, camping, and other outdoor activities. Inspired by that, I told Anna, Greg, Berto, and Yunru that Daniel and I belonged to a special school that emphasized an importance in mastery of the land. Daniel—a better liar than I realized—added that as upperclassmen we had been split into groups and sent out on assignment to navigate the forest and different areas of Germany. It was a project we needed to pass in order to graduate—proving that we could traverse the forest and then find our way back to a neutral rendezvous point.
I guess they bought it because they didn’t pry any further. It helped that none of them were from Germany, I suppose. Being from other countries, they didn’t question the local schooling customs.
“I get that,” Greg replied to my earlier comment. “At your age you probably feel swamped. School, friends, the future—it’s a lot to handle.”
“Oh yeah,” Daniel said, a huff of amusement in his tone. “You have no idea.”
We ap
proached a dark blue vehicle—much like the ones we’d seen when we’d stayed with Ashlyn in Bermuda. I believed they were called cars.
“Say hello to the ‘G Love Mobile,’” Greg said, patting the hood of his vehicle.
I came around the side of the car and took a look at the license plate: GLVMOBL.
I opened my mouth to respond, but Daniel beat me to the punch. “It looks like it says ‘Glove Mobile,’” he said.
I chuckled.
“Don’t dis the ride,” Greg responded, still smiling. “Anna and I got this ’98 Toyota 4Runner for a steal.”
“We were planning to get something to eat at a local restaurant,” Berto said to Daniel and me. “You want to come with us? Our treat.”
My stomach growled again at the mere mention. This time it was loud enough for everyone to hear.
“I think that’s a yes,” Daniel responded.
“This is the greatest thing ever.”
Along with the normal breakfast food—sausage, eggs, a giant cup of coffee—I’d also ordered a slice of the enticing cake that had been on display. The moist, lusciously dark creation was apparently a specialty of the establishment.
“It’s German Chocolate Cake,” Anna said. “And it’s really good. Though I don’t know if I’ve ever had it for breakfast.”
Daniel gave me a sideways look as I swallowed a few forkfuls of my scrambled eggs—which I’d covered with maple syrup. Then I took a big, slow spoonful of cake. A relaxed grin spread across my face as its chocolaty richness immersed every inch of my taste buds.
“You are one of the weirdest girls I’ve ever met,” he commented.
I swallowed and kept smiling. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
It was nearly ten o’clock now. The small restaurant was about a third full—locals and tourists sitting in dark wooden chairs at rustic tables. The windows that lined the right side of the restaurant were slightly smudged. They were framed with white lace curtains that had turned beige due to time. Through them I could see the forest in the distance. It was brilliant green in the morning sunlight.
I wiped my mouth with a napkin. My Hole Tracker caught on a soft ray of light that streamed through the window beside me. It’d been a few hours since I’d last used the watch. I garnered it was about time we made use of it again.
“Hey, do any of you have a quill?” I asked our travelling escorts.
Again they gave me that confused look like I was being absolutely ridiculous.
“Um, I have a pen?” Yunru offered, reaching into her backpack and pulling out a blue writing stick.
Oh, right. On Earth they call them pens, I remembered, thinking back to the first time Ashlyn had corrected me on the subject.
“Thanks,” I said, taking the writing utensil from her. I elbowed Daniel, whose chair was blocking my way. “Let me out?” Daniel scooched his chair over.
“You guys are very strange,” Yunru said matter-of-factly.
Daniel noticed her eyes falling upon his sheath. “It’s for safety,” he replied swiftly. “Two kids wandering through the woods—you need to have something to protect yourself with, right?”
I grabbed a clean napkin from the table and moved to stand.
“Yeah, sure,” Anna replied as I got up. “I mean, the sword is a little unconventional, but I get it. Our parents made us take, like, two months of self-defense classes before coming on this trip. And I’ve got at least three cans of mace in my backpack.”
Yunru nodded as she took a sip of her tea. “I too come prepared. I have four switchblades on my person.”
I left our group and made my way to the back of the restaurant. Past the area with the bathrooms was a door that led outside. I pushed it open and found my way into an alley. An orange tabby cat sat nobly beside a dumpster, licking its front paw.
“Sup.” I nodded at the cat.
The cat meowed at me then scampered off.
I took a few steps away from the door. My boots crunched the weeds that poked out between the cobblestones. I scanned the area once more then activated my Hole Tracker.
The map glowed in front of me. Using the dumpster as a makeshift desk, I wrote down the coordinates of the next hole on the napkin. Once I was done I shut off the Tracker, rubbed my vaguely sore hand, and went back inside.
“And see, he was supposed to throw the fight,” Greg said, in mid-conversation with Daniel when I sat down. “But he didn’t. He stacked the odds against himself, then bet on himself. So when he won, he cleaned up.”
“Who are we talking about?” I asked, taking another bite of cake.
“Bruce Willis,” Daniel responded. “I told Greg I’d seen Die Hard for the first time recently and he was telling me about another movie of his we should see called Pulp Fiction. It came out a few years ago. We’ll have to recommend it to Blue next time we’re . . .” Daniel glanced at our hosts.
“Out of town,” I suggested.
“Right,” Daniel agreed. He noticed the napkin in my hand and gestured for me to pass it to him. I did and he glanced at the coordinates I’d written down.
“Yunru,” he said, sliding the napkin to her. “We need to get to these coordinates. It’s where we’re supposed to meet up with the rest of our classmates. Can you look them up on your map and tell us the fastest way to get there?”
Yunru unfolded her map and picked up the napkin. “These look familiar,” she thought aloud. She stared at the map. After a moment, she regarded her companions. “Just as I thought. They are headed in the same direction we are.”
“How close?” Berto asked.
Yunru pointed at a spot on the map. Anna’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s a pretty crazy coincidence. It’s almost like fate.”
Ugh. My least favorite word.
“Then it is decided,” Berto said, smiling pleasantly. “We will give you a ride.”
My princess good manners wanted me to say something like, “We couldn’t impose,” but the fact was that we could and we very much needed to. We would’ve been idiots to turn down a free ride, especially on such unfamiliar terrain.
“Thank you,” Daniel said as our hosts began to get up.
“No problem,” Greg commented. “I just can’t believe you guys are headed to the Weser.”
Daniel and I exchanged a look. “The Weser,” I repeated.
“Yup—the big, famous river on the way to Hamelin. That’s where we’re going,” Anna said. Not noticing our surprise, she turned to her friends. “Yunru, you want to come to the restroom with me before we go?”
“Yes. I must pee,” Yunru said, abruptly pushing past me.
“We’ll take care of the check,” Greg said. He gestured for Berto to follow and the two of them started heading toward the cashier at the front of the restaurant. “Everyone meet back at the G Love Mobile in five minutes.”
When they were out of earshot I turned to Daniel. “That’s bizarre. The Weser is the name of the river we were supposed to find in Alderon to lead us to the Cave of Mysteries.”
“I don’t think it’s bizarre; I think it makes sense,” Daniel replied. “When we went through the hole in the ocean off Adelaide we ended up in the ocean of Bermuda. When we fell through the hole that opened up in Alderon’s forest last night, we landed in another forest here. Maybe there’s a correlation between the exit and entry points of the holes, at least with respect to the Earth–Book ones.” He held open the restaurant door for me. “So if we go through a hole by the Weser here—”
“There’s a good chance we’ll end up by the Weser in Alderon,” I finished, stepping past him into the crisp air.
We approached the car. A family with two small children—probably twins—rushed past us. The little girl glanced back at me and smiled. Her blonde pigtails bounced and dimples sunk into her cheeks. The mischief in her eyes reminded me of Blue, causing my heart to pound a bit. I hoped she, Jason, and SJ were okay.
I meant what I said to Daniel. I had faith that they would make it to Alderon and the C
ave of Mysteries, just like I had faith that he and I would too. So it wasn’t so much where they were at the moment that caused the pang in my chest. It was where our friendship was.
As time went on, it only stung more knowing that they were out there super ticked off at me and unaware of how truly sorry I was. I’d hurt them so much at this point that I wondered if they would even be able to forgive me.
When Daniel and I arrived at the car, my train of thought shifted. Anna and Yunru were coming out of the restaurant. Greg and Berto followed behind, laughing. I looked from the car to them, then back at the car again. My eyebrows furrowed as a misgiving squawked in the back of my brain, which Daniel picked up on.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing. I was just thinking of Mauvrey. She was the one who said that rule one in life is not to take food from strangers. Remembering that saved me from being taxidermied back at Goldilocks’s house.”
“So?”
“So, if that’s rule one isn’t rule two ‘don’t get in a vehicle with strangers’?”
“Oh, relax,” Daniel said. “Besides, if there’s one thing I know about you, it’s that you enjoy breaking rules.”
“You’re right, you’re right,” I said, releasing a deep exhale as I leaned against the car. “I guess I’m just on edge.”
“Nearly being killed a half dozen times will do that to you.”
The rest of our party was getting closer. I could actually hear the crunch of gravel beneath their feet. Or maybe that was just my nerves.
“Not being able to use my wand here doesn’t help either though,” I added.
I saw the beginnings of a smirk creep up the corners of Daniel’s mouth. “Don’t worry, Knight. You sit back and relax. I’ll protect you.”
I tilted my chin in his direction and puckered my lips as if I’d sucked on something sour. “You know when you say things like that it makes it really hard for me to like you.”
“Yeah,” he said, his smirk fully emerging. “But you still do.”
“All right!” Anna declared, clapping her hands together as she approached the car. “Who’s ready for an adventure?”
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