Oh my yes! It is just terrible that Wilhelm has been locked away in that tower and poor Jakob feeling so sad about it! Ah, but see this is where the real adventure begins! What? Yes, I will tell you about what happens to Wilhelm in the tower if you really want to know and then you will find out how Jakob's journey finally gets started. You're sad about Will, little one? Well you needn't be. Then come and sit on my lap then and I'll tell you about...

The Tower and The Travelers

"I have faith in you Jakob!"

The guards had now reached the top of the stairs with Will still tightly in their grasp. One of them thrust a large metal key into the lock on the heavy wooden door and turned it with a heavy clunk. As the door swung open, they tossed Will into the room and slammed the door shut. The lock clanked shut sealing him in the room and he was now locked into highest tower of the castle with little hope of escape. Running to the door, he tested it, but found it was shut tight. He tried beating on it and yelling, but he knew it would do no good.

Will looked around the room for anything that might help him escape. It was a large room, but sparsely decorated with a bed, a wash stand and a small table on top of which sat a small oil lamp. 'Nothing', he thought despondently.

Then his eye fell upon the only window and he went to test that as well. It faced the front of the castle and overlooked the town below. It also sported six, inch-thick iron bars, not that he could just climb down if they weren't there. The only way down would be to fly or simply fall to his death, neither one being practical really, making the bars seem a bit much.

He slumped on the bed with his head in his hands somehow hoping this was just a bad dream and he would wake up soon to the sound of Jake snoring and talking in his sleep about trolls or some such nonsense, but alas, the only sound he heard were the church bells beginning to ring in the noon hour. What this meant hit him suddenly. Panic welled up inside as he ran to the window once again, grabbing the bars in both hands and pressing his face up against them to look down.

"Jake, where are you?" he said out loud, "you have to get out of there now!"

As the final peal of the bells faded, he was relieved to see his brother make the flying leap off the drawbridge just in time and winced as he watched him land face first in the dirt. At least his brother was free of all this. He saw Jakob look up at the tower then turn and run down the mountain towards town; knowing in his heart that he would get him out of there somehow, but at the same time Wilhelm felt a profound sense of loneliness. He and his brother were partners at the root of it all. Even with their bitter fights and disagreements, they were always together when it came to business, women, crazy adventures or simply polishing off a bottle of schnapps in the wee hours of the morning, partners in crime, as it were. He had no idea how long it would be before he would see Jakob again or if he ever would.

Will could hear the music and laughter coming from below and it wasn't making his mood any better. He paced back and forth in the room trying to think of ways to escape, but the music kept breaking his train of thought. The harder he tried the worse it became. Wilhelm's temper finally broke.

"Perhaps I shall go insane listening to all of the racket going on down there and at the end of thirty days I shall welcome my death with open arms!" he shouted to the empty room. Charging at the window and grabbing the bars in both hands so tightly his knuckles turned white, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Damn you, Jakob! How could I let you talk me into this?! You idiot, this is all your fault, you half-witted, thumb-sucking crybaby! Beans, Jakob BEANS!!

He slammed the palms of his hands against the bars a half dozen times and then grasping the bars once again, he hung his head. After a few moments he pushed away from the bars roughly and stuck his hands under his arms, hugging himself tightly. His hands burned from striking the bars and he felt completely stupid for doing it. Will hadn't had an outburst like that since Jake laid him out at the base of the tower. He hadn't so much as mentioned beans of any kind either. Will lightly touched the side of his face where his brother had hit him and slightly smiled. Jake packed a pretty hard punch and his hand was swollen for at least three days afterwards. He hadn't realized until then how much his words had hurt his brother, the only family he had left.

It was then it occurred to him that for some unknown reason the tower room he was in seemed to be immune to the enchantment the rest of the castle was under. He had no desire at all to be at banquet with the rest of them really, but it was an irritant just the same. 'Terrific', he thought, 'I'm stuck in my own private version of hell.' A party was in full swing and he hadn't been invited.

"At least if I were down there with them I could enjoy my final days or at the very least get something to eat", he said more or less talking to himself.

There was a noise in the hallway outside the door that made him stop and hope on some outside chance they had changed their minds and were going to let him out. He saw a small door open that was built into the bottom of the main door and a hand pushed a silver tray through laden with rich food and a bottle of wine. Will dove for the door, but found it was a bit too small for him to get through and even if he could fit, it didn't matter for they had locked it tight as well. Picking up the tray and setting it on the bed he thanked God that at least they hadn't forgotten to feed him in the midst of their revelry.

As he hopped up on the bed, he surveyed the tray's contents. Pheasant, fresh fruit and rye bread, the good kind most could only afford around Christmas time. He took a huge bite of the pheasant and wiping his mouth on the back of his sleeve, he took a pull from the bottle of wine without bothering to pour it in the cup he had been given. Despite everything that was happening, he found he was quite hungry and of course one always thinks better on a full stomach anyway. Will ate all that he could hold and then some.

When he had finished he went back to the window and tried once again think clearly about the situation they were in. As he looked out over the town below he could see the chaos the rhymes were causing all over town. He still really couldn't accept what was happening even though he was seeing it with his own eyes. Will had always been the practical one and Jake was the bookworm with his nose in a book or his head in the clouds. He had spent his whole life watching after him, albeit begrudgingly and now he was out there on his own facing god knows what.

He began to worry about his brother, going out there all alone, facing the witch and breaking the spell over these people without him there to help even if he didn't really understand how all of this could be real. Given all he had seen lately, in the back of his mind he began to wonder if he hadn't spilled those beans, they might have actually worked. Will shook his head to clear it. Now he was getting as bad as his brother! No, there had to be a reasonable explanation for everything that happened. But whichever it was his brother understood it better than he ever could

Will thought back on how Jake had taken charge back in Marbaden, destroying the evil Queen and doing whatever it took to save his miserable life. Now he was about to do it again. He touched the spot on his chest again and felt the familiar chill. Will realized it wasn't a remnant from the Queen after all. It came from the growing realization the Jakob no longer needed him to baby-sit him, at least half of the time now anyway. His brother really could do this on his own without Will telling him what to do. He was having a difficult time accepting that as well.

Will leaned his hand against the one of the bars and looked out over the town as the late afternoon sun began to head towards the horizon. "I do have faith in you Jakob. I really do."

The one thing Will had accepted was the fact that this was going to be his home for the next thirty days. The noise from downstairs had begun to pick up and broke his train of thought once again. Will suddenly felt very tired and flopping down on the bed, he stuffed the pillow over his head to block out the noise. "Now if those bloody fiddlers would just shut up!"

**********

Jakob awoke with the first rays of the morning sun pouring directly into his face. 'Will has forgotten to close the bloody shutters again' he thought not immediately realizing where he was. Rolling over to retrieve his glasses from the night table, he noted something wasn't right with the way he felt. He hoped he wasn't catching cold again. Putting on his glasses, he looked around and realized where he was. "Right, not Marbaden", he mumbled to himself.

Yesterday's event's came back to him like the strong stream of sunlight flooding through the window of his room. With some urgency he sat up a bit too quickly in a rush to get the day started. "Ahh gaa!!" he moaned as he grabbed the sides of his head and fell back on the pillow. Trying in vain he couldn't remember much of the rest of the day after coming back from the castle. He vaguely remembered Katherine handing him a drink, but after that was all rather fuzzy.

He tried again, a bit more slowly this time and as his bare feet touched the floor he noticed he was undressed down to his long underwear. Looking around on the floor, he saw his clothes weren't scattered about as they should have been if he had undressed himself, but were instead neatly folded and lying on a chair, his boots tucked under the bed. His hope that it might have been Frederick was dashed by the fact of how neat the room appeared. Jakob felt horribly awkward as he wondered what else happened yesterday he couldn't remember and how would he walk out there and face the woman after all this.

After dressing he opened his door and peered out sheepishly into the other room. No one was there but Frederick so he slipped in, cleared his throat and closed the door behind him quietly.

"Good morning Jakob!" shouted Fred as he bounced over and slapped him on the back, "I see you've survived my friend!"

Jake thought he was going to pass out and wanted to kill Fred, but couldn't find the energy at the moment. He slumped down at the table with his head in his hands trying to make the thumping stop.

"Yes I have survived, however I don't remember what. Perhaps you can fill me in, quietly."

"Oh, you had a very good time indeed", Fred told him, "That is after you got past the argument with my sister. Something about Will as I recall?" Jakob winched. What could he have said, he wondered. "The rest of the evening was very entertaining I must say. You told some very exciting stories about you and your brother's adventures, but I must say the love poem you recited off the top of your head was the best! You really should write it down, but then again I suppose you don't remember that either. At any rate, Kate thought it best to put you to bed after that."

"Oh my", was all he could say, rubbing his forehead.

"Oh my, indeed!" Katherine had just come through the door with a basket of vegetables from the garden. "Don't worry; you were the paragon of virtue despite your rigorous consumption. Not that I expected anything else from someone like you."

Jakob looked at her crossly, 'What could she have meant by that?' he wondered. That would have to be a discussion for another time though. He had to start getting the supplies together for the trip. He fetched the list they had made two nights ago and with a few changes in mind, grabbed his satchel and pack and headed for the door.

"Nothing to say Herr Grimm?" Kate snapped as she headed out the back door for a pail of water letting the door slam behind her. The sound made Jake's ears ring and pouting, he went out the front.

Jakob was having a difficult time collecting the needed supplies for the trip. With the town going crazy all around him quite a few of his attempts led to dead ends.

One of his first stops was the butcher's. There wasn't much to be had there at the moment. The butcher's wife, a rather rotund woman with a ruddy round face and one tooth missing, explained that he ran off every afternoon to the baker's, wasting the rest of the day there until dark doing what, she didn't know. Jake bought some of what was left of the dried meat in the shop. As he went out the door one of the villager's bumped into him and snatching the package from his hands, ran off with it full tilt. There was no catching him as he disappeared into the crowd on the street. The butcher's wife felt sorry for Jake and gave him what little she had left. "A tall handsome man like you needs to keep his strength up", she twittered, flirting unmercifully. Jakob thanked her; this time putting the meat in his satchel to prevent losing it again and left quickly before she tried to go further.

Making his way through all the bizarre happenings of the town, he made his way to the baker's. Jakob found the shop locked. He thought of finding another shop, but was distracted by an uproarious, laughing crowd behind him. He could not believe what he saw in the center of the crowd. There in the fountain in the center of the town square were the butcher, the baker and the chandler floating in a rather large wooden tub, all drinking ale and singing songs. Some of the villagers in the crowd were hurling insults and trash at them, but there hardly seemed to notice.

Jakob didn't want to risk being out there for very much longer, so in desperation he went round the back of the shop. He poked around the large stone ovens, but found no loaves baking inside. As he came around the last oven, there in the corner sat a young lad with chubby cheeks. He was eating a rather large mince pie with his fingers. When he saw Jake, he jumped up and announced, "I'm a good boy, really I am. Honestly!" and he ran off out the side gate.

Jake made a mental note to write all this down later as he tried the back door of the shop. Finding it unlocked, he let himself in hoping to find bread and get back to Kate's. Upon finding two loaves of dark bread, he wrapped them carefully and this time put them in his pack before he left the shop. He didn't want them to be taken from him like the meat. He left a few coins on the counter as payment and left quickly making his way back out to the main street avoiding the crowd jeering the men in the tub.

He only had a short distance to go to Kate's when a lovely young girl with long blond curls, who was about 16 or so, confronted Jakob in the middle of the street. She smiled at him dreamily as if in a trance. Jakob knew he was in trouble, but didn't move, not knowing what was about to happen next. He got sudden goosebumps as she began to recite to him.

"Roses are red,

Violets are blue.

Sugar is sweet

And so are you!"

The young girl grabbed him around the neck and kissed him on the lips. Jake began to panic and tried to pry her arms from around his neck and get rid of her, but she held on staring at him in the dreamy trance. A voice called behind him, "Gretel!" and the girl let go to see who it was. A young boy about the same age ran up to her and kissed her on the cheek. The girl immediately went to tears and yelled, sobbing, "Now you've ruined everything Georgy. I hate you!" The boy only laughed at her. A group of boys came out of a side street at that moment and one of them pointed and said, "There he is! Get him!" The boy took off up the street with the gang behind him in pursuit and the girl cheering them on. Jakob took this opportunity to slip away and head for Kate's as fast as he could.

As he reached the front door, he was nearly run down again by the same young boy with a pig under his arm that ran into him the day he and his brother first arrived in town.

Finally making it into the house exhausted, he dropped his pack on the table just to find the house was a complete mess and Frederick and Katherine were arguing.

"What is that you're packing now Frederick?"

"My sword, a small pot of grease and some holy water from the church."

"And what prey tell are you going to do with that?"

"When the old witch slips on the grease, I'll throw the holy water on her and then stab her in the heart. That should work, right Jakob?"

"Well, no it…'

"I should say not! That's ridiculous! It will never work, right Jakob?'

"Well, umm…"

"I know, how about the cross instead, that will keep her at bay until we can kill her!"

"I, err…"

"That's vampires, you idiot, not witches!"

"Jake, help me out here, man!"

Jakob just shook his head and gave up trying to say anything as Kate jumped back in. He turned and began filling the packs with what he knew they would need, but even that was of no use. Kate pushed her way in, "Oh your doing it all wrong you know", she said as she started rearranging things on the table. All the while Frederick was bouncing around the room coming up with ways to get rid of the witch and become the hero.

No matter what Jakob did, each time he turned around to get something else to pack he would find that Kate had unpacked the previous item and repacked it her to her liking.

"Please don't touch that…"

"It isn't right!"

"But it needs to be in this one!"

"It will work better in there!'

And so it went on with Jake and Kate fussing at each other and nothing getting done. Reaching his limit of utter frustration, Jakob gave up and strode out the back door into the garden leaving the woman to do as she pleased.

"Mein Gott im Himmel!! I'm saddled with an idiot and a shrew! What am I going to do?" he shouted as he raised his hands in to the air and looked skyward pleading for help. If it weren't for his brother, he would have walked out on them at this very moment with no regrets.

He let his arms fall in despair and hung his head. In the face of it all, saving his brother was all that really mattered and this was just the beginning. His mind began to race through all the trials he would have to face on this journey. The enchanted cottage, the captive maidens, a wicked witch to defeat in her castle, a Princess to be saved and god only knows what else along the way! Jakob's heart began to race with the excitement of it all! All the nonsense going on around him had made him lose sight of the reason he'd come here to start with. It was the story! Freeing Will, unfortunately, had now become part of that story making it even more intense! All the pieces had fallen into place and had suddenly come into clear focus. Taking a deep breath, he headed back towards the house, but stopped after a couple of steps. Returning to the spot where he had stood and raising his hands into the air, he looked skyward once again saying, "Thank you…just… thank you!" He turned on his heel and strode boldly back into the house.

He strode into the room with new found vigor. Grabbing Fred by his shoulders to get his full attention Jake sent him on a mission to get some drinking chocolate and then fetch some firewood. He was then to do nothing further except sit on the bench by the fire and make some up for them to drink. Jake pushed him out the front door with coin purse in hand. Frederick would do anything for Jake, so he gladly sped off.

Katherine was stunned by this sudden change in attitude. She was about to open her mouth to say something about it, when Jake gently took her by the upper arm, then sticking his finger in her face right at the end of her nose, he said, "You…Sit!" and pointed to a chair. Kate sat down and stared at him still stunned as Jake resumed packing in silence.

She tried to say something, but he pointed his finger at her with a stern look on his face and said "Ah!" She tried a couple of more times each with the same result. Kate finally gave up and sat in silence. She watched him for a while as she sat thinking and before he could cut her off again she blurted out, "I'm sorry!"

"What?"

"I said I'm sorry."

He looked at her wondering at the apology.

"I didn't mean to act the way I did. I don't know any other way to be. I've had to take care of my brother since our parents died some years ago. He lets his imagination overtake his reason sometimes and he's always going off on some flight of fancy. If I didn't keep after him, he would get into some kind of trouble or worse. I've always had to be the one in charge, the strong one."

Jake dropped the pack in his hand and took a step toward her. There was a strange familiarity in her words.

"All the other men in this town I've ever had to chance to meet are just as foolish, not one brain between them. You see most of the men in this town, my brother included unfortunately, are complete idiots and they couldn't change their socks without explicit instructions. If I didn't tell them what to do and how it's to be done, nothing would get accomplished. I've never met a man like you before Jakob. You're clever and smart, well educated and a gentleman. Even when you've have had a bit too much to drink."

He now realized what she'd meant by what she'd said that morning.

"You always know the right thing to do and then you do it without anyone having to hold your hand. Here I am just doing what I always do, trying to do everything for you and mistakenly treating you like all the rest of those lazy, pudding-headed fools because I didn't know what else I was supposed to do."

Jakob was taken aback by her honesty. He knelt down in front of her, his face pleading forgiveness.

"Oh, I'm sorry too Kate. I didn't hurt you earlier did I? I wasn't too rough with you was I?" He raised his hand rather awkwardly toward her arm where he had grabbed her earlier, but shyly pulled back before he touched her.

"No, no, not at all' she said reassuring him, "I'm fine." She looked into his eyes and smiled, "You're a strong man, Jakob Grimm. If anyone can do this I know you can. You will save your brother, I'm sure of it!"

Jake realized she has been holding his hand the whole time. He shyly looked back at her over the top of his glasses. If Will had been there he would probably called him a sotted moon calf or some other such embarrassing name, but he wasn't thinking about that or anything else for that matter. At that moment it felt like they are the only ones in the whole world. However, their moment was interrupted by a racket coming from the back door. It was Frederick with the chocolate and an arm load of firewood.

"Why don't you sit by the fire with your brother and help him", said Jakob softly, "It will be a long journey starting tomorrow and you'll need all the rest you can get, eh? I'll finish the packing and then we'll have the chocolate and some supper and turn in early, alright?"

Kate nodded and watched as he returned to the packing. After helping Frederick get started on the chocolate, she turned and watched Jakob pack, smiling at his turned back. Fred's fumbling drew her attention and she helped him put the kettle on the hearth.

Jakob watched Kate from the corner of his eye as she fussed at Fred and gave him instructions on how the bank the fire properly to get the kettle to boil. He sighed and relaxed a bit. The thought crossed his mind that he might not despise her so much after all.

They arose before dawn the next day. Jakob thought it was best to leave before all the chaos began in town that could delay their departure. They headed out of town with Frederick leading the way to the part of the forest where he and the Princess used to meet.

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Thanks to JakobG for the reviews! Prosit!!