The triplets ran as far as they could away from the gingerbread house, this time keeping up a faster pace than before. They had had their first dangerous fairy tale world encounter, and weren't in any hurry for their next.
But, Conner being Conner, he finally had to shout out. "Guys! I've got to sit down! I feel like my legs are going to fall off!"
"Conner, we have to keep going!" Alex begged. "It's already noon, and Froggy said we need to cross into the Corner Kingdom before nightfall!"
"Easy for him to say - he has frog legs!" Conner protested, panting.
"Let's just stop for a couple of minutes?" Anna suggested.
Alex was hesitant. Then, finally, she gave in, saying. "Alright, but let's find someplace safe."
They continued walking a little further until they found a cool opening between some trees. Conner found a fallen tree to sit on and catch his breath.
Anna took this moment to look around the forest, seeing nothing but shades of green around her. They were alone.
"It's amazing, isn't it?" Alex asked her. "All of this has been at our fingertips the whole time, and we never even knew."
Anna smiled slightly. "It is pretty cool."
They took a seat next to Conner, both grinning.
"What d'you think dad and grandma would make of all of this?" Anna asked curiously, more pointedly at Alex. "What d'you think they would say if they knew that all of this was actually real?"
"From the way they always talked about fairy tales, you'd think they did," Conner chimed in, answering her more than Alex did. Neither could help but smile at the thought.
"I have a thousand reasons why I wish dad was still alive," Alex sighed to herself. "But now I wish it more than ever, just so we could bring him back and show all of this to him and grandma."
"We have to get back first," Conner pointed out. "And while we're on that subject, I think we should take a look at that journal. The sooner we read it, the sooner we can get back home."
"I know," Alex said dismissively. "But we should at least see a castle or a palace first!"
"I think we should 'just see' a portal back home," Conner rolled his eyes. "You can't have everything, Alex!"
"Come on, Conner!" Anna protested, punching her brother playfully in the arm. "Think what dad and grandma would say if they found out we wound up here and didn't even experience that!"
"Anna, we barely just escaped being a witch's dessert," Conner said seriously. "We can't waste any more time-"
A twig snapped behind them. The triplets froze then ducked behind the fallen tree, hidden from view.
A cream coloured horse was slowly travelling into the clearing. They had ducked just in time, it seemed, as it had a rider. A woman, who the triplets got a clear view of as she moved into their view.
She was young and very beautiful. Her eyes were big and blue, her hair half up; what was down flowing in golden blonde waves down her back. She wore a long, maroon knit coat, black leggings and very tall boots.
"Easy, Porridge," the woman said to the horse as they entered the clearing. Must be the horse's name, Anna thought. "That's a good girl, nice and slow."
She hopped down from the horse and made her way to a tree. A tree with something pinned against it. After closer inspection, Anna saw that it was a WANTED poster for Goldilocks, like the one she had seen the day prior.
After a thorough read, the woman took the poster and tore it up.
"Who is that? What's she doing?" Conner asked, whispering to Alex, who was closest to him.
Alex whispered back waspishly. "Do I look psychic to you-"
"Shut up!" Anna hissed, as the woman's head jerked in their direction. Whoever she was, she had excellent hearing.
She also had, as she drew it a second later, a large sword in her possession.
Her gaze was stern and determined, making her instantly, in Anna's eyes, someone to be reckoned with. She stepped closer to where the triplets were hiding.
But then another party was set to join the very weird gathering. A piercing wolf howl echoed through the forest. It was so loud Anna covered her ears, and when she turned, Alex and Conner were doing the same. The woman, however, just turned, and pointed her sword in the opposite direction, away from the triplets.
She didn't have an ounce of fear in her face or body.
That's who I want to be, Anna thought immediately. Someone strong. Someone who you don't mess with.
She instantly looked up to this woman, no matter who she was.
"Porridge! Get ready! We're about to have company!" She shouted.
"Who's Porridge?" Alex and Conner mouthed to each other.
"The horse, idiots," Anna mouthed back.
But there was no time to roll eyes or make a comment back. The 'company' mentioned by the woman was fast approaching. By that, 'arriving' was meant.
Half a dozen wolves were coming through the trees towards them. But these wolves were unlike any other ones that the triplets had ever seen.
For starters, they were four times the size of the wolves they knew. Their fur was jet black and matted. Their eyes were red, their snouts were wide. They looked ready to kill at any moment.
The triplets glanced at each other. There was no doubt about it. They were face to face with the Big Bad Wolf Pack.
Anna shook with fear, but the woman in the maroon coat never showed any hint of panic. She pointed her sword at the largest of the wolves, standing in the middle of the pack. The wolves growled menacingly at her.
"Hello, Malumclaw," the woman said sternly.
"Hello, Goldilocks," was the reply.
This new information showed three different responses.
"Goldilocks! That's Goldilocks!" Alex mouthed in joy.
"No way..." Anna was in awe.
Conner, meanwhile, was in awe at something else. "The wolf talks! It talks!" He mouthed in excitement.
"I'm surprised you're not chained down in some Red Riding Hood Kingdom jail yet," Malumclaw, the talking wolf, said to Goldilocks.
"I'm surprised you haven't been turned into a rug for a child's nursery yet," she retorted right back in his face. "What brings you to this part of the forest? There isn't an innocent village for your pack to torment for miles."
Goldilocks never lowered her sword. The other wolves in Malumclaw's pack slowly surrounded her and Porridge.
"My pack is hungry," Malumclaw answered. "We've stopped for an afternoon snack."
"Have you really come to eat me?" Goldilocks laughed. "I would've thought you'd learned your lesson by now. I bite back."
She gripped her sword tighter.
Malumclaw laughed.
"The wolf can laugh! It can laugh!" Conner mouthed at Alex and Anna.
"You are far too small a portion," Malumclaw answered cleverly, with an evil, wolfish grin. "Your horse, however, has plenty to go around."
Anna, Alex and Conner had never seen a horse look as frightened as Porridge did. Had she not already been so light coloured, they would've thought she had gone pale.
"If you so much as scratch her, I will wear you as a coat, do you understand?" Goldilocks asked warningly.
"All people do in this world is eat one another!" Conner whispered to his sisters. And as soon as he did, he knew he shouldn't've.
A wolf turned in the triplets' direction. "Malumclaw, I think I just heard something."
Alex covered her mouth to stop herself screaming.
Malumclaw and his pack began sniffing in the air. "Wait! I think I smell something! Three children! One boy and two girls."
Anna could hear three heartbeats. Hers and her siblings'. They were all terrified. Was Goldilocks going to rat them out to save her horse? Had they just narrowly avoided death by a cannibal witch only to be eaten by a pack of torturous wolves?
"I'm afraid you just missed them!" Goldilocks said. Anna grinned. Not only was she strong and brave, she was loyal as well. And to people she didn't even know. "I frightened them away just like I frightened you the last time our paths crossed."
"Then the horse it is!" Declared Malumclaw.
All the wolves howled in unison, closing in. They snapped their humongous jaws at her, and she swung her sword at them.
One wolf suddenly made a pounce on Porridge - or tried to - but the horse kicked him away with her hind legs. Another wolf tried to go for Goldilocks and bite her, but she struck him with her sword, blood drawing. The wolf didn't attack again.
Goldilocks was the best swordswoman the triplets had ever seen. Anytime one of the wolves came for her or her horse, she was quick to shield them. Porridge wasn't so bad either. She wasn't shy about kicking wolves if they got too close.
A wolf leapt and sunk his teeth in Porridge's back. The horse bucked to get him off. In one quick slice, Goldilocks chopped one of the wolf's paws off. He limped into the forest, howling in pain.
But then the tables turned. Two wolves teamed up on Goldilocks. One leaped towards her, the other tripped her up. Her sword flew in the air and landed close to where the triplets were hiding.
The wolves closed in on her and the horse, going for the kill-
"Catch!" In one motion, Anna had lunged for the sword and chucked it to Goldilocks. She caught it and swung it down hard, leaving gashes in the wolves' noses and muzzles.
"Retreat!" Malumclaw commanded his pack. "No snack is worth this trouble!"
The wolves obeyed him, stampeding through the forest, growling and howling in anger, letting everyone know they were coming.
"Until we meet again, Goldilocks!" Malumclaw shouted as he disappeared into the trees.
Goldilocks didn't reply, but instead got to her feet and put her sword away. She was out of breath, and, now that the enemy was away, much more vulnerable than she let show in combat. She petted Porridge's nose and dabbed the horse's wounds with the fabric of her coat.
"Good girl, Porridge," Goldilocks said, a smile grazing her face.
She then turned and faced the triplets. Or where they were hiding.
"It's okay, you can come out now."
The three of them were hesitant at first, but then Conner popped his head out. "That. Was. Awesome!"
"Conner!" Alex said, popping up beside him.
"That was one heck of a fight!" Conner ignored her. "You know, for a moment, I thought they had you! I never thought a girl and her horse could be a match for six hungry wolves, but you impressed me-"
He got shoved out the way by Anna, who was just staring at the girl in a stunned silence. "You're like... like all my heroines put into one person."
Goldilocks chuckled. "No one's ever said that about me. Especially not after just seeing me for about two minutes."
Anna sighed. "Either way, I-"
"Where'd you learn to fight like that?" Conner interrupted his sister, stepping in front of her.
Goldilocks shrugged. "When you've been on the run for as long as I have, you pick up a few tricks here and there," she turned and remounted Porridge with a jump.
"So, is it really you?" Alex asked. "Are you really Goldilocks? The woman wanted dead or alive for all her crimes?"
"Don't believe everything you read," Goldilocks commented from above them, getting ready to leave. She paused before saying to the triplets. "Thank you for your assistance.
"Here, take this, in case we need it," she handed a silver dagger to Anna. The stunned girl took it graciously.
"Now, get as far away as possible from this place," Goldilocks advised the three kids. "Those wolves will be back sooner than you think."
And with that, she and Porridge galloped off into the sun that was fast setting.
Anna, Alex and Conner stood motionless, watching them go.
"That was amazing, though," Conner directed at Anna.
"True," Anna hi-fived him. "It was also good to see another human. We haven't seen that since coming here."
"We better get out of here," Alex said, half scared, half warning. "And this time, we're not stopping until I know we're out of the Dwarf Forests!"
"Couldn't agree more!" Anna said, as again, they took off.
But little did the triplets know that that wouldn't be their last encounter with Goldilocks, or the Big Bad Wolf Pack, or the Dwarf Forests...