This is a story about a girl and a book.
It is a book of fairy tales, and a girl who is rather ordinary, until she finds herself quite literally sucked into the stories she had known all her life.
But the world of Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping...
The wolf smiled at me. "I'll miss you as well, Miss Rikki. And I promise, I'll keep my ears open, and if I ever hear of a trio of young folks kidnapping princes, assaulting fairies, or fighting witches in graveyards, I'll show up to say hello."
I couldn't help but laugh a little at that. "On second thought, it might be better if you pretended you didn't know us. Guilt-by-association and all."
I hugged the wolf one more time and stepped back. Jack gave Alfred a quick embrace as well, and promised to spread the word about the Big Bad Wolf Anonymous Rehabilitation Clinic (or BBWARC for short) Prince Charming was funding to be built in the Kingdom. Even Erik shook Alfred's paw briefly and mumbled something about being grateful for the help under his breath.
Then we were mounting our horses—or rather, Jack and Erik mounted their horses; and the Erik dismounted, helped me mount mine because I was struggling to pull myself up into the saddle; and then he re-mounted his—and with one last tearful wave over my shoulder, we set off down the road that would lead out of the royal city to Lorcastle's eastern border, and to the next stage of our quest. Alfred waved until we were out of sight, around the bend.
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As Charming had said, it was a full day's ride to where we needed to go, which was the last farms right on the edge of the Dark Forest, a mountainous range that separated Lorcastle from it's neighboring kingdom, Weissland.
Seriously, it's called the Dark Forest. Not the most imaginative name, but according to Erik, it more than makes up for that with the imaginativeness of the variety of creatures living in it that can kill you. Not that he'd ever been so far north before, but according to the map Prince Charming provided us with, the Dark Forest is the northern extension of the woods that Erik lives in and forms the kingdom of Rothwall's northern border—and where I had had the misfortune to meet wolves that weren't neatly as nice as Alfred; a giant; Rumpelstiltskin; and a giant spider; so I didn't doubt his word.
It was a full day's ride, and I hadn't ridden a horse since I was eight.
I only made it a few hours before I could go no further, and I begged the boys to take a break.
Erik grumbled, but both he and Jack seemed rather relieved as well to stop on the side of the road and give our poor, abused rear ends a breather.
"I didn't realize that sitting could be so painful," I groaned, wincing as I slid off the saddle. "Jesus, I think I have blisters on my bottom."
"Saddle sores," Erik grunted. "And I don't need details about the state of your... you know." He made a big show of checking the straps of the saddle bags without making eye contact with me.
My inner thighs were chaffing like mad too, but I kindly spared the boys that detail. I knew they must be suffering the same anyway, since none of the three of us were experienced riders. Erik was the most confident rider between us, and Jack was at least familiar with riding; but none of us were used to the toils of a long journey on horseback.
