A/N: I'm gonna be honest, and say that I have never actually read the whole Hansel and Gretel story, like, I know the gist of it but not the whole thing. Hopefully that shouldn't affect much but whatever. *shrug* Anyway, you'll see why that matters – or doesn't – soon enough. ;)

"I'm just saying, I don't think Hansel and Gretel should be a kid's story. I mean, the kids literally throw the witch into the oven and bake her alive."

"Well, yeah, but that's no worse then, like, I dunno, shooting the Beast, and making Gaston fall to his death, or cutting the Wolf open after he ate two people whole."

"Touché, but I still never liked it. It's like the moral of the story is to burn or bake anyone you don't like alive."

"The moral of the story is to not trust strangers. And people used to burn witches anyway."

Douxie looked over to where Jay and Aaron were debating, seeing Cassie also look incredulously at them. "What are you two talking about?" She spoke up, slightly concerned.

"Yeah, mate, burning witches and eating people?" Douxie joined in, hearing about witches and burning in the same sentence bringing back some bad memories. Since Cassie had come, the extra jobs Mr. Connors had been piling on Douxie were shared, and he was able to relax a bit. Until this.

Jay looked at him. "Why is it that you're only focusing on the worst parts of this conversation?"

Cassie chuckled. "Oh, it's just generally a bad conversation, believe me. I'm hoping there's at least a good reason for this conversation?" She turned to Aaron, the older one in this situation, though not much more mature.

"Well, I was babysitting my nephew last night while my sister and her husband went out and…" he saw them waiting for him to get to the point and he got the hint. "Anyway, so I had to read him a bedtime story, and he chose Hansel and Gretel, and while I was reading, I was just like, there's a lot of things wrong with the story. And actually, pretty much every other fairytale. But, point is, I'm sitting there, reading out loud to a 4 year old about a witch wanting to eat the two children - cannibalism, basically - and who later gets baked alive herself - murder committed by a child!"

"When you put it like that, mate, that's pretty bad. But I have a feeling that what actually happened was a lot worse." Douxie tried to keep his voice joking, even if his mind was panicking, remembering one of his other, less fortunate birthdays.

"What do ya mean, 'actually happened'. Hansel and Gretel is not a true story, Douxie." All of their eyes were now on him.

"I'm not saying it is, but all stories started somewhere. The Grimm brothers, or whichever other guy wrote it, must have gotten inspiration from somewhere. Even if the story might be stretching the truth. A lot."

"How do you know all this?" Cassie looked suspiciously at him, and Jay crossed his arms, obviously not believing him.

"Used to work in a bookstore, remember, love?" He winked at her. "You pick up some stories here and there. As well as how to tell a good one." Especially if you've lived it. He added in his head.

Hansel and Gretel may not have been a true story, but as Douxie had said, the inspiration had come from somewhere, even if the story was way more far-fetched than what had actually happened. Of course, only him, Zoe and Archie knew the entirety of the true story.

Because it was their story.

After Camelot, 1811:

"Archie, wake up, come on, let's go!"

"Wha… where's the danger?" Archie immediately got up and went on the defensive, looking around him. Finding nothing, he focused on Douxie's confused face looking at him.

"What danger?" Archie saw it when Douxie's eyes widened in understanding. "Oh, no sorry, there's no danger. You can relax Archie."

"Then why'd you wake me up!? What is so urgent that you needed to wake me up so early?!"

"It's not early. It's almost mid-morning." Seeing Archie's unchanged angry expression, he promptly continued. "We're meeting Zoe today, remember? I don't want to be late."

"Douxie, we have the whole day."

"Yeah, but tomorrow isn't my birthday, today is, and I'd like to see Zoe on my birthday, which is today. And besides, I feel lucky today, so maybe we might find something interesting today."

"'Lucky'. Hmm. Your 'lucky' usually means 'risky'." Douxie frowned at the comment, but couldn't come up with a response. "Fine, since I'm up, we might as well get going." Archie sighed, getting up and stretching. "Happy birthday by the way."

"Thank you, Arch. Hey, maybe we'll meet some unicorns!"

Excited, Douxie started walking confidently, before Archie sighed again. "Other way, Douxie."

Acting as if nothing had happened, Douxie promptly turned around and started heading in the direction Archie was pointing to. "Right, I knew that. Come on Arch, to adventure!"

This is going to be a long day. Archie thought, following his energetic familiar.

"Uhh, Arch? Are you seeing this?"

They'd been wandering around the dense forest, lost, for the past few hours. Though the sun was shining brightly, only few rays of the golden light made it through the thick canopy, illuminating parts of the greenery while shrouding the rest in darkness.

The path they'd been following had disappeared a while back, and in an effort to find another, they'd found themselves in a darker part of the forest, Douxie having to use magic to light the way.

That was, until they stumbled on this sunlit clearing where a small white cottage sat in the centre, surrounded by perfect rosebushes as if it had come right from a storybook.

"Yes, Douxie, I see it."

"Wonder if they have any food?" Douxie asked, looking down at his empty stomach.

Archie looked at him, opening his mouth to say something but snapping it shut when the smell of food reached him. Douxie met his eyes, the smells taunting them, coming from the cottage and making their mouths water.

His brain only focused on the smell and the prospect of food, everything else becoming blurry, so much so that he didn't notice he had started walking towards the small house.

A bad feeling stopped him and he shook his head, clearing it.

"Douxie, I don't think we should go in… we should leave."

He looked to the young wizard who seemed to be in a trance, walking slowly towards the cottage door.

"Douxie!"

Douxie shook his head, looking at Arch. "But I'm hungry…" he whined.

"I know, Douxie, but I have a bad feeling about this place."

"Just a pop in, Arch, please? In and out, I promise." Douxie was already halfway to the door, going closer every second, though Archie couldn't tell if Douxie was doing it consciously or not. He looked at the boy's pleading face, and he considered his own hunger.

"Alright, fine. But only for a short while. Something's off about this place."

"Thanks Arch." Douxie walked up to the door and waited for his familiar to catch up before knocking. They stood in silence for a few seconds before the door opened.

Creaking open slowly, Douxie and Arch looked for who had opened the door, but they were met with nothing. Looking at each other warily, they stepped inside, the smell and promise of food compelling them to.

Inside, as they looked around, they saw it was a small place, but quaint. There weren't many personal touches, the furniture and walls plain. In the middle of the room, the two saw where the smell had originated from, the sight making their mouths water again.

On a plain wooden table sat all of their favourite dishes, from snacks, to meals, to desserts and even some drinks.

Douxie didn't even look to Archie for permission before heading over to the table and sitting at one of the seats, immediately getting started and shovelling dish after dish into his mouth, the food replenishing itself when it was finished.

Some part of Archie's mind, and a small part of Douxie's too, told them that there was something wrong, something off about the whole thing. Something sinister.

But it was as if a spell had been placed on them, their main focus only on satisfying their hunger, everything else fading away. They were barely even aware of each other, only aware of the food in front of them.

"Arch…? I don't… feel too good." Douxie's voice was sluggish, sounding far away to Archie as if he was hearing it through water. His vision was darkening, and his own movements were slow and sluggish. Realising what was happening, Archie started panicking, fighting through the fatigue.

"Douxie! We have to get out of here! There was… something in the…" His head felt heavy, and he saw that Douxie was already leaned over of the table, his head resting next to a knocked over plate of food - why hadn't he heard it fall over? - his leg spread out as if he'd been about to get up but had passed out before he could. Archie tried to call out, or crawl over to the boy, but his body had stopped responding.

The last thing he saw before his world turned dark was the front door being closed slowly by an old hag, her face split in half by a creepy smile.

She gave him a small wave, still grinning widely. "Nighty, night."

Archie awoke with a start, eyes wide as his mind cleared and he remembered everything that had happened. Looking around frantically, he tried to move, only to find himself tied to a spit that was slowly rotating magically over an open flame. Desperately searching for his familiar, he sighed in relief when he saw Douxie.

The relief was short lived as he saw that the young wizard was tied to a chair, and was only just waking up, panic in his eyes as he also frantically looked around. The hag Archie had seen earlier was nowhere to be found.

"Archie, what's going on? What happened?"

Douxie met his familiar's eyes, panicked. He could feel that something was very wrong, and as he tried to figure out what, he realised that his familial connection with Archie was dampened, which only should have happened if one of them was gravely injured, and Douxie saw that it wasn't the case. Something else was going on.

"Just… calm down, Douxie. Let me think about how to get away from here."

The first thing Archie tried to do what shape shift, even if he wasn't entirely sure it would help, but if he could just turn into something smaller then the ropes should loosen and he'd be able to help Douxie.

That's when he noticed that something was very wrong. He couldn't shape shift, or revert back to his dragon form which should have taken no energy at all. Hoping his theory was wrong, he turned to look at Douxie.

"Try using your magic to get out of the ropes."

Douxie followed his familiar's instructions, but he nothing happened. From what he could see out of the corner of his eye, his vambrace's runes didn't even glow. When he tried a different method, instead trying to access his own magic, he was met with resistance, as if something was blocking his magic. Trying harder, and starting to panic a little more because his magic was gone, all Douxie got from his efforts was a sharp pain in his head, the hurt spreading through his body as a dull ache before dissipating.

Archie had seen Douxie's wince when he'd tried to use his magic, and with a sigh, he accepted that magic wasn't going to help them in this situation.

"Archie? What do we do? I can't feel my magic. It's like there's a barrier blocking it. It hurts." Douxie complained, and Archie could see the fear and panic in his familiar's eyes, knowing that without his magic, a vital part of him, Douxie felt helpless. Both of them felt that way.

Someone appeared in the doorway, entering from another room shrouded in shadow.

She shuffled forward and Archie saw that it was the hag he'd seen before. Now, as he got a better look at her - well, as good a look as he could while rotating on a horizontal stick over fire - he saw that she had a gaunt face, framed by wild white hair, her toothy grin full of yellowing and rotten teeth which she flashed in Archie's direction.

"Wonderful, you're awake." Her voice was sickly sweet, and made Archie's hackles raise as she walked past him. He saw Douxie also tense up as she walked towards him, but she passed right by, instead heading to the kitchen.

The two tensed up again when they saw her pick up a knife, but she didn't turn around, instead focusing on chopping up something that they couldn't see, as if she'd forgotten about them.

"Who are you?" Archie called out. "What do you want?"

The hag froze, still facing away from them, light glinting off the knife.

"I want your friend's youth and the strong magical energy in both of you. And the easiest way to do that…" she finally moved out of the way, and let them see the pot of small vegetables she was preparing, and what looked like… spices and marination?

Archie figured it out at almost the same time he saw Douxie had too, both their eyes widening at the in fear and understanding.

Douxie was there first to speak. "You're going to eat us!?"

He thrashed around, even more desperate to get away now, but it got him nowhere, the ropes just tightening.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The hag walked over, no longer pretending to be sweet, her hand reached out, faded red-black magic coating her fingertips. Douxie just looked at them in fear and froze, nodding to show that he wouldn't try to escape again.

Seemingly satisfied, the witch smiled sweetly again, straightening up again. "Glad we're on the same page. Now, I'll be back in a bit. Don't do anything silly while I'm gone, understood?" Her voice became dangerous once again, and a terrified Douxie nodded frantically again.

As she passed Archie, she flicked her magic coated finger in the direction of the fire under him, which leaped up and almost scorched him. The dragon part of him was helping him tolerate the heat, but in his cat form, the fire could still burn him. The second she was out of sight, Archie got to work on trying to chew through the ropes binding him.

"What are you doing, Arch?" Douxie hissed, looking at the doorway nervously as if expecting the dark witch to return any second.

"We have to escape, Douxie. We can't stay any longer. I'll try getting out of these ropes then I'll help you. Like when we got captured by witch hunters remember? Just, stay calm."

"Stay calm?!" Douxie squeaked. "We're about to be eaten by a cannibalistic witch who's going to use dark magic to take our magic and youth for herself!"

Ignoring his familiar, knowing that Douxie's panicking wouldn't help their situation, Archie tried to access his dragon fire to burn through the ropes. Unfortunately, it was in vain.

Trying a different strategy, he tried using his claws to cut through the ropes, being careful not to move too much so the rope wouldn't tighten. He could already see that Douxie's struggling had made the ropes cut into his skin, making the poor boy wince. With renewed motivation - as if the threat of being eaten alive wasn't enough - he kept sawing the ropes, feeling it starting to fray.

Just a bit more…

A loud snap echoed through the room, and Archie almost fell into the flames with the rope as it gave way, only just managing to dodge the flames and land beside it. Douxie was quiet now, watching him as he walked over to the wizard's chair and started clawing those ropes too.

"Archie?" Douxie squeaked.

"Not now Douxie, I'm almost through." He whispered back.

"Archie." Douxie managed to point even despite his hands being bound. His familiar listened this time, and turned to face the witch who reached out and grabbed the black cat.

"Managed to get out, now, did you? Well, I tried to be nice, but it seems that won't work." She brought the pot over to the fireplace, adding oil and other liquids. "Right in the pot then now, then your friend." Slowly, she dangled Archie over the boiling pot, about to drop him in…

"Let go of my familiar." A voice that sounded like Douxie's came from behind them, but it was laced with something deeper, more powerful. The witch turned, letting Archie see too.

"What's this? You're magic is even stronger isn't it. Oh, you will be a treat." Archie stared at the boy who stood before them now, eyes glowing the same blue that was surrounding his body. It seemed that Douxie's instinctive magic had taken over, but he hoped the young wizard was still in control.

"I said 'let go of my familiar.'" He repeated slowly, magic starting to gather at his hands, the threat obvious. Archie felt pride for a second, a brief second, but all his positive emotions evaporated when he saw the cruel smile on the hag's face.

"Very well."

The next few seconds seemed to go in slow motion, many things happening at once.

The hag let go of Archie, true to her word, except that she had let him go right into the boiling pot. Archie fell in slow motion, scrambling for any purchase in the air, trying desperately to turn into a dragon, but he was met with the same wall Douxie had described earlier. He heard the young wizard shout, "No!", while he tried to reach his cat in time. Then Archie heard another voice, a new voice, but it was familiar, calling out his name before his fall was stopped by a pink magic platform appearing under him. The platform became a box which encased him and pulled him away from the fire into Douxie's arms instead.

Though he knew who his saviour was, he still looked to the front doorway where a certain pink-haired witch stood, the door still swinging after being violently thrown open. Douxie must have known who it was too, but he didn't turn around. Instead, he faced the witch and blasted her with blue light right in the chest, making her fall into the fire, knocking the pot's contents all over her. She screamed in agony, and anger, but no one was paying attention to her anymore.

Zoe ran over to stop Douxie before he fell, managing to catch him before he hit his head. The blue aura around him was gone, and his face was scrunched up in pain. Archie nuzzled his familiar's cheek, knowing that breaking the barrier on his magic must have had consequences. The boy groaned, and Zoe helped him up, Archie climbing onto her shoulder so Douxie could walk without the extra weight.

They silently walked out, Douxie leaning on Zoe, all still ignoring the hag's screams, as she flailed, throwing burning embers everywhere, some of the furniture starting to catch fire too. The group sped up a bit, not wanting to be caught near the burning house.

Zoe led them, and they made slow progress towards the edge of the forest. She was the first to speak. "So, well, that was something. Oh yeah, um, happy birthday Douxie."

Douxie looked at her, seeming to decide wether to laugh or cry. In the end, he just hugged Zoe, pulling Arch into the embrace too. "Thank you." He said quietly, and Zoe considered asking whether it was for the bday wishes or the rescue to lighten the mood, but she decided against it, instead just hugging him back tightly. They stayed that way for a short while, then Douxie noted that they should probably get going.

"Well, anyone else hungry? I, for one, would still like to have some cake on my birthday. Preferably without any poison." He added.

Archie and Zoe looked at him, then smiled, Archie because he was glad that Douxie wasn't letting this drag him down, and Zoe, because she just found the whole thing ridiculous.

A/N: This chapter gave me so many writer's blocks, I'm not even joking. I decided that maybe action scenes aren't my strong point, but if you have a different opinion or any tips, feel free to let me know in the comments. (I feel like a YouTuber right now, lol). I think i'll just stick to angst. ;)

Anyway, hope it still turned out okay and you liked it. Next chapter is a little more low key, but sweet (hopefully). Stay safe and see ya soon.

-CrowofArcadiaOaks