The darkness of the woods was chill and silent; nothing but the hoot of an owl or the wind blowing below the cloudy night sky and both Hansel and Gretel began to feel tired. Ivan was feeling bushed as well, especially after the unspeakable escapade that transpired little over an hour ago, but they were out in the middle of nowhere, nothing but thick, bushy trees all around, nowhere to lay down for the night. But the trio keep moving in the hopes of happening upon someplace to hide from the wilderness and keep safe. As if things weren't bad enough, Ivan suddenly felt the pitter-patter of water droplets spattering on his head, followed by a foreboding rumble up above, like the gods themselves were declaring war on one another and before they knew it, a huge downpour of rain came crashing down upon the land, drenching the three pour souls unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfires.
They ran and ran, trying to shield themselves from the raindrops and keep dry when, as luck would have it, there came a small cave just a foot away from them. It was merely like a deep whole dented into the rocky wall that one could just climb upwards, but it appeared sufficient enough to protect them from the weather. Quickly, Ivan led the two inside of the cave and finally, deep inside of the dark, cold cave, they were away from the storm, albeit still soaked. Gretel's long dark chestnut hair clung to her face and body like a wet cloak of fabric as she held tightly against her brother, shivering and chattering. Poor girl. Poor boy. These two were forced out of their own home and forced to fend for themselves in the wild. If not for Ivan, these two would never have made it this far alive.
"If only your parents hadn't tossed you guys away like this. No child would ever survive out here in the woods alone." Ivan said sympathetically.
The three wound up passing out from exhaustion inside the little cavern and slept all night and through the morning with Ivan holding the two of them tightly in his arms. Since the environment was relatively new to Ivan, he allowed the two children to lead the way for him down the path before them. It seemed that they were about miles away from civilization by now, nothing but dense forest all about them. It was like the woods went on for hours as Ivan waited for the familiar noise of people to approach his ears, but none ever came. To keep their sanity afloat, the two kids decided to strike up a conversation.
"We never got your name, by the way." Hansel began.
"Well, my name's Ivan Jones." Ivan answered back almost immediately.
The two kids both stared back at him curiously.
"Ivan….Jones?" asked Gretel with a funny face. "I'm sorry, but why do you have a Slavic-sounding name, but not sound Slavic?"
"My grandparents were Russian immigrants." Ivan explained. "I'm named after my great grand-uncle, Sergei Ivanovich."
"Oh." They both mused and continued onwards down the path. "Where do you live?"
"I used to live in the slums, but uh,...things kinda changed from there. My parents were very busy people, trying and trying to provide for the family."
"You were poor, too?!" Gretel cried with worry.
"Yeah, kinda. But we still had a roof over our heads." admitted Ivan. "And my parents were able to find easy-paying jobs."
"Maybe you'll find a new home here somewhere." Hansel cried with hope in his eyes.
"Well, my home is elsewhere. If I ever find some way to get back, I'd like to find my friends first wherever they may be." Ivan reassured boldly, though in his mind's eye, he wasn't so sure how he was going to get back home at all. He wasn't even sure how he got here to begin with. Last thing he remembered before blacking out was being in that room in the old library with the others before lightning struck. Is it even possible to experience realistic hallucinations after being struck by lightning? For all he knew, he could still be passed out in the library right now and all this was just a huge dream that he may wake from soon.
For over an hour that passed, two or perhaps three - Ivan had pretty much lost his perception of time at this point - the trio trudged through acre upon acre in the woodland area, climbing over logs and pushing through leafy branches until Ivan started to feel comforted by the return of the bright sunlight shining down upon them from above. Not only that, but their surroundings started to look more warm and alive. As they proceeded further, the trees and the grass beneath their feet started to regain a natural, healthy color of green. Bushes and flowers gleamed and glistened with life under the sun. Here and there, birds flew around, singing a cheerful tune and the air was crisp and still. The setting and atmosphere of it all juxtaposing the dark, cold and uninviting terrain that Ivan had awoken up in previously. The grass is always greener somewhere else, they say.
"Have you kids ever been this far from your home?" Ivan couldn't help but ask.
"Never at all." Gretel responded. "The trees were never this beautiful where we lived."
"You don't get out much, do you?" Ivan wondered.
"Nope." Hansel shook his tiny head. "Our father would've been angry with us if we ever traversed this far from our cottage."
"Hey, look!" chirped Gretel, pointing a little finger straight ahead of her. All three of them instantly jerked their eyes forward to see what the girl saw and, sure enough, Ivan felt a wave of relief overcome him as there about a mile from them sat a large village of people. Finally, civilization reveals itself. The three stood above a hill and the village sat just far below enough for them to see every square inch of the tiny hamlet and everyone in it. Ivan quickly instructed Lenny to hide somewhere in his jacket so that the townsfolk wouldn't get spooked by him before he and his two adolescent travel companions hurried down the leveled slope toward the village, hoping to ask for any directions since they admittedly had trouble navigating their way through the dense woodsy landscape for the reason being that Ivan was new to the place and both Hansel and Gretel have never been allowed to wander any further from there isolated cottage in the woods than at least 14 feet before their parents had tossed them out and left them to their own devices.
"Excuse me? Hello? Can someone help us?" Ivan called out among the crowded street, trying to find someone to help them out in some way, but although they seemed bewildered by his modern attire, no one would even give him the time of day. Ivan was so focused on looking from person to person for directions that he hardly paid any attention where he was going until he suddenly went bumping right into someone by accident, the impact sending them both to the ground.
"What the hell is your problem, pal?!" Ivan's face grew bright red. That was a woman he just ran into. How embarrassing! The woman was young with pale skin, short-length blackish-gray hair in frizzes, dark pink lips and a pair of gray-green eyes that now burned with hellish fury in his direction.
"I'm so sorry, madam! I wasn't paying attention!" Ivan quickly apologized as best he could, returning to his feet and holding a hand out to help her up, but she furiously slapped it away, refusing his help and independently stood back up on her own.
"Anyone who has the nerve to bump into me obviously has a problem!" She hissed like a dragon ready to breathe fire. "Try using those fucking eyes of yours, you jerk! They might save your life one day!"
"Ma'am, please. It was just an accident. So can we-"
"Don't try that sweet talk with me, bright eyes, and don't "ma'am" me either!" She screamed, getting her face even closer until their noses were just inches apart as she jabbed a finger at his chest as she spat out her venom-laced words. "I've had enough problems today already as it is!"
Suddenly, Lenny sprang out from his jacket, lunging at the woman's face with his fangs out in an intimidating manner, letting out a threatening hiss.
Hiiiiissssssssssssssssssssss!
"Ah! What the?!" squeaked the woman as she instinctively jumped back with fright as the reptile jerked outward with his fangs ready for a bite and she ended up falling back down to the ground on her butt, now pale in the face.
"Oh!" Ivan gasped, cupping a hand on his loyal snake's head, calming him down, giggling nervously. "Sorry about him, he's a little overprotective."
As the woman stared back with disbelief and looked almost ready to fire another loud, if not heated, tirade of threats and profane insults his way, Hansel and Gretel rushed over to their new friend's aide.
"Ivan! There you are!" They chorused as they held his hands protectively.
"We're terribly sorry, miss. Our brother here didn't mean any harm." Hansel began in the most civil and approachable manner he could, gesturing to Ivan with his eyes to play along. "We just happened to have lost our way and we're looking for Corona. It's important that we get there as soon as possible. Can you help us, please?"
The woman looked at the two children, then at Ivan and at the children again, thinking it over. Seconds passed and the woman's anger seemed to fade away, replaced with curiosity and letting her guard down finally. Finally, she sighed heavily, deciding to just let it go and stood back up, brushing off her dress and eyed them with a resigned, but indifferent expression.
"I'm heading back there myself." She admitted. "It's not that far away and it sits just on the coast. I'll just take you guys there if you want."
Then she gave Ivan a look that would suggest that would gladly like to be as far away from as possible soon.
"And I'll let this one go, pal. But as soon as we reach Corona, I need to ask one favor."
"Yes?"
She then grabbed him by his shirt and violently pulled his face toward hers as she started deep into his eyes with her soul-killing ones.
"Don't ever, EVER let me see your face again, got it?" She snarled with such ferocity.
"Yeah, I got it." Ivan only shrugged as he was used to bearing witness to this sort of near animalistic rage that he could tell from experience, many of Newton's infamous fits of rage and bitingly sarcastic sense of humor. The woman looked pacified for now as she released her hold.
"Follow me."
And they did so.
"You have a snake?" Gretel asked with surprise.
"Yeah. But don't worry. He's mostly harmless." Ivan assured the children.
Ivan was no stranger to horseback riding as he distinctly remember visiting a horse ranch with his friends once. It took a few tries to gain the horse's trust for it to allow him to ride it. That being said, everyone had to travel on horseback to their destination. Hansel chose to ride with the woman on her horse while Ivan was given one that had brown fur and a black mane that was named Gunther. Ivan liked that name already. Gretel had already climbed up on Gunther's back before Ivan and the blonde boy agreed to allow her to ride with him. Along the way, the woman decided to break the ice between them.
"Where are you from anyway, blondie?" She asked straightforwardly.
"Uh, not here, of course." Ivan gently responded, not sure how to answer without appearing any much like an oddball in a strange new land.
"Obviously. Judging by your outfit." She remarked, inspecting his clothes, which were far too modern for the world he now walked in. "So what's your business in Corona?"
"Let me come clean." Ivan confessed with a heavy sigh. "I actually met these two out in the middle of the woods."
"Yeah!" Hansel agreed, nodding his head. "We were held hostage by an evil witch that tried to eat us!"
"But Ivan came in and saved us both!" Gretel cheered.
"A witch?" snorted the woman with understandable skepticism. "You're kidding me right?"
"Please don't judge." Ivan reprimanded sternly. "These children would've died if I hadn't come along."
"Okay, okay." She relented, raising a hand in mock surrender. "I'm just saying."
"So I'm gonna try and find these two a new home somewhere."
"Well, Corona's definitely the place to be. My father is the general of the royal guard there." explained the dark-haired maiden.
"Oh, really?" chirped Ivan.
"That's right." She said, "And I've been training myself to become a guard myself one day….without my father's knowledge, of course."
"Well, it never hurts to have a woman's touch now and then." Ivan conceded with the utmost honesty and certainty. The woman eyed him curiously before returning her hard eyes to the path ahead.
"If you and the kids ever stick around in Corona, we have this lantern ceremony coming up in just next week. You should totally check it out." She mentioned, quickly changing the subject.
"Ooh! Lanterns? That sounds so fun!" Gretel cried, bursting with sudden interest.
"Yep. The king and queen do it once every year on the princess's birthday."
"She must be so lucky." Hansel stated.
"Yeah, but unfortunately, it's the only thing the majesties do to help honor their daughter after their tragedy."
"Tragedy?" repeated Ivan with confusion.
"Uh huh." nodded the woman with an unreadable look on her face. "Years ago after the princess was born, she was taken from her crib in the palace and stolen away by a hooded figure in the night. They searched and searched, but they couldn't find her and eventually, they gave up. And so every year on her birthday, the entire kingdom would release thousands of floating lanterns into the air, hoping that one day, the princess would find her way back home."
"Goodness me." Gretel gasped with a hand to her mouth, looking distraught.
"Poor girl." Ivan shook his head, equally shaken. "I sure hope she's okay, though."
"One would surely hope for the best." The woman remarked solemnly before suddenly pulling the reins, getting her horse to halt in its tracks and Ivan followed suit. "Well, there it is."
As Ivan and the children gazed outward, there on an island just off the coast sat the glorious kingdom of Corona. Houses and buildings built all around the small landmass surrounded by water with the castle sitting just at the top of the mountain right smack dab in the middle overlooking the town below with the only accessible entrance into the kingdom by foot was this long stone bridge connecting both island and shore. Thousands of boats and merchant ships scattered around the waters, meandering, docking and setting sail. The group rode on their horses across the long bridge until they had finally arrived and stopped right before the humongous crowd of people going about their business.
"Alright, we've arrived and this is where I take off now." The woman replied as she coaxed her steed to turn away from Ivan and his companions. "Hope you kids find your new home soon and remember my terms; don't ever let me run into you again."
She pointed a strict finger and hard glance toward Ivan, making sure to get her message across and he only nodded.
"Other than that, you guys take care. I'm out."
And with that, the woman rode with her horse down a different direction down a street in the village, possibly to meet with her father, but who knows. They all finally made it to Corona. There was no doubt about it. It looked like a humble place to live. The only question is where to even start. The place was huge like a shopping mall. Ivan dismounted and continued on foot with Hansel and Gretel by one side and Gunther on the other.