You see? Wilhelm was just fine once he started being his regular,cranky old self. Ha Ha! The one you should feel sorry for is poor Jakob. He was having an awful time getting stared on his journey, but as you will see. it will only get worse for him. You see, the old witch will discover him soon and she is going to make sure he and his companions are...

Lost in the Enchanted Forest

Near the edge of the kingdom sat a small, unassuming castle. Built in only what could be described as the shape of a high topped shoe with curving walls worn smooth by the elements and one large tower rising to its west, it looked old and uncared for many years. A wall once stood snaking its way around the outside to protect it from invaders, but it had long since fallen into ruins after a great battle had taken its toll. A small village of two dozen or so houses that once lay at the base of the mountain on which the castle sat had also fallen into ruin after it had been burned by the invading forces. The forest surrounding it still showed traces of the destruction even after so many years. Nothing seemed to want to grow there anymore and the dead trees reached their gnarled arms up to the sky as the dry, dead leaves tumbled along beneath in the lonely wisps of wind. The spirits of the long dead still walked there among those trees and the lone call of a raven sent a chill through the air.

Up in the tower the old witch slowly tottered along among the golden cages that hung from its ceiling. She went from cage to cage filling little golden cups with seed for each of the birds that they contained. All of the ninety-nine birds in her care were identical, snowy white with sky blue wingtips and each cooed a melancholy song.

At last she came to one cage that sat empty waiting for it's occupant to arrive. The old woman ran her fingers down the side of the empty cage almost lovingly as a wicked smile formed on her face. "Soon now your very last sister will come to join you and everything will be complete." The birds fluttered uneasily in their cages as if they knew what was to come.

Her grating voice grew louder as her fury also grew, "Then at midnight on the equinox I shall exact my revenge on those who turned their backs on me so long ago and nearly caused my end in this world! I shall plunge them into endless winter so that they will know what is like to freeze when they find their wood will not burn on the hearth and to starve looking for food where there is none. No crops will they grow and their livestock shall freeze! They shall suffer as I have suffered!"

The terrifying sound of her voice caused the birds to flutter around in their cages as they tried to fly away in fear, but to no avail. Seed scattered everywhere on the floor and feathers wafted down slowly around her feet as she strode across the room, her thirst for revenge growing.

"They will have to depend on me for their very survival, but only when I deem when they have earned it! At each full moon they will have to bring to me a fine, healthy young man, innocent and unspoiled, to grace my table and I will no longer need to hunt them myself. If they do not do as I command, then one of their precious young females shall perish!"

As she finished, she raised her hands into the air and thunder rumbled across the skies, a stiff and feted wind rushed in through the windows and stirred her skirts. Her long, spider web-like hair fluttered behind her as the smell of death and decay filled the room like the air that rushes from a freshly opened old and dusty tomb.

She began moving from window to window around the room surveying the kingdom that would soon be hers to do with as she pleased. She had woven herself a spell of great power and it enabled her to see many leagues with her unaided eyes. This way she could see every corner of the land and nothing was hidden from her. Every rescuer was quickly found out and dispatched to her pleasure. No one escaped her gaze. So far she had spied no one and she was pleased that her rhyming spell was working so well. Each of the King's subjects was trapped in their own chaotic little corner of the kingdom.

As she looked over the King's castle, her eye fell upon Wilhelm as he gazed out the tower window looking melancholy and trying to take in as much fresh air and sunlight as he could under the circumstances.

"Why haven't I seen this one before?" she said, her eyes gleaming with desire. "Oh my what a handsome one he is; healthy and strong too. Too bad he is spoiled goods though. He would have been delicious! It seems a shame to let him die though. Perhaps I shall find a place for him as keeper of my flock since he is so enamored of females and he shall remain in that tower forever attending my birds as I sit upon the King's throne below!"

Her dream of sitting as Queen of the kingdom with her handsome consort at her side was interrupted when her eye fell upon three figures making their way through the forest not far from the tower where she had seen Will. This gave her some cause for concern.

"Three intruders in my enchanted wood?" she said aloud to herself, "I shall have to keep my sharp eyes on these three and put a stop to this nonsense!" Looking over Frederick her plans for them began to fall into place. "That one is nearly perfect for my needs. He shall make a wonderful main course for my equinox feast!" she declared. "Oh, and the girl appears fresh and unspoiled as well. Lovely! I believe I have found your missing sister", she announced to the caged birds causing them to flap around in panic; stirring up more seed and feathers, scattering it about the room. However, she frowned as her gaze fell upon Jakob. There was something about this one that made a chill pass over her.

"That one is trouble! He seems to be the leader of this little expedition and a born troublemaker, I can sense it! Too bad he will have to die. He's tall, strong and has good meat on his bones, but I dare not risk bringing him here even under the best of spells! It doesn't seem like he could be held very long, he's smart, that one. I can see he isn't like those other simple village fools. He thinks he's well prepared and doesn't fear me, but he shall. Oh he shall!"

As she watched the little band hike through the forest in the early morning sun, something else about them began to trouble her. "Ach no! It appears that if I wish to keep the girl pure enough for my intent and not have to waste time hunting another, I shall have to separate her from the troublemaker soon. For if I do not, in due time, she will let him have what he desires!"

Turning quickly from the window and heading for her work chamber, she began to formulate a plan to put an end to this merry band of travelers once and for all.

************

Jakob, Katherine and Frederick had been hiking through the woods for what seemed like hours with Fred leading the way. Jakob was beginning to think it was a bad idea to let Fred have the lead given his propensity for getting off subject.

"Are you sure we're going in the right direction?" asked Jakob looking dubious about their path.

"Why yes", said Frederick confidently, "I'm sure of it. I've been going there at least twice a week for most of my life."

At this point Jake had little choice but to believe him. Finally, after what seemed like forever, they came to the stretch of pine trees where Frederick and the Princess always met. After finding nothing really amiss, Jakob made it clear he was most interested in the cottage where the Princess was taken.

"What direction did you take when you awoke in the morning that led you to the cottage?"

"I'm not really to sure about that one I'm afraid."

Jakob was making a few notes in his journal and without bothering to look up said, "You must remember Fred. It's very important. If I can see the cottage it might give me some clue as to what we're up against and where she was taken."

Fred looked around to get his bearings and then pointed to a protected place under a low hanging pine. "Ah, there! That's where we fell asleep after I spoke that stupid rhyme. The Princess looked so beautiful in the rays of the setting sun", he said wistfully.

"Frederick, focus!" chided Jake as he snapped his book shut and stared at him.

"Ah yes, wait". He said and trotting over, he lay down under the tree and shut his eyes. Jakob looked quizzically at Kate, but she only shrugged. After a few moments Fred sat up and opened his eyes, "That way", he said pointing to his left, "We got up and started running that way." He paused and frowned, "I think."

Being a bit doubtful of Fred's methods, Jake came up with a quick plan.

"Alright, we'll go off that way for a few dozen meters and see if anything looks familiar to you. If it doesn't feel right we'll come straight back here and try another direction. Agreed?'

Kate, also doubtful of her brother's directions despite his objections that he was right, agreed to Jakob's plan. It turned out to be a good idea given the fact that after a few false starts, each time with Frederick being sure it was the right way then finding it was not, they finally found themselves going in the right direction. This time Fred swore this was the right way after identifying more and more landmarks that lead them deeper into the wood.

"See, I told you this was the right way", Frederick prattled on as he walked backward facing them, "All you had to do was listen to me and trust me, but could you do that? No and now we are finally on our way, which we would have been before if you had only…"

Stepping backward between two red currant bushes, Fred promptly disappeared from sight letting out a short yelp. A few seconds later there was a sharp thump. Kate and Jake stopped dead and stood there, listening and waiting, but he was not to be seen or heard. Just the sound of the birds chirping and the wind rustling the colorful fall leaves.

"Frederick?" called Kate.

"Fred where are you?" called Jakob.

Not getting a response they both ran to the currant bushes only to find that they were growing on the edge of a steep embankment. They surveyed the clumps of bushes and weeds below, but still no Frederick. Jakob scratched the back of head looking bewildered. An arm came up through the underbrush below and waved at them.

"I'm alright!" called Fred weakly from down below.

Kate just shook her head and looked at Jakob with annoyance, "Yes, he's an idiot."

Jakob put his hands on his hips and sighed loudly, "Let's go fetch him."

They made their way down the embankment and at the bottom found Fred brushing himself off, "I'm fine. A little thing like that doesn't deter a hero from his quest. It would take something much bigger to stop me!"

"Fred", said Jakob sharply to make him focus, "Have you ever been here before? Does this at all look familiar?"

Fred nodded his head vigorously in a very positive way and then said matter-of-factly, "No."

"Let's go", said Jakob flatly as they made their way back up and continued on for a while longer. As the sun worked its way towards the horizon, they found a rather suitable place to make camp for the night. Jakob went about gathering what he needed to start a fire. Because they were traveling higher into the mountains, the evening air was taking on a noticeable chill and he knew the farther they went and the longer it went into the season, the colder the days and nights would become. The higher mountain peaks were already starting to gather snow on their tops.

*************

The old witch watched as the weary travelers settled down in their campsite. She ran her bony fingers back and forth over her chin a few times, deciding it was time to start putting her plans for them in motion.

"I think it's time for you to totally lose your way my little troublemaker, then while you're busy trying to save everyone, I shall take away the object of your affections and leave you there lost on the woods to die of a broken heart!"

After a few moments of thought she hit upon the perfect rhyme for the occasion.

"Little Miss Muffet

sat on her tuffet

eating her curds and whey.

When along came a spider

that sat down beside her

and frightened Miss Muffet away!"

*************

An old gnarled tree stump sat but a few meters from where Jakob was trying to build the fire. From a large rotting hole between two twisted tree roots came a large, hairy Wolf spider the size of tea saucer. It was followed by three more, and then several more crawled out as the first spider made its way towards the campsite. Soon there were dozens of them moving in a wave, crawling over the leaves, sticks and rocks on the forest floor, yet making no sound as they went.

Katherine was sitting on a tree stump massaging her left ankle. When she switched to her right, a spider came riding up clinging to the toe of her boot. It stared at her with black, beady eyes for a few seconds before she shrieked and kicked the spider across the clearing. Holding up her skirts, she danced around on her tiptoes. "Yah spider!" she said sounding disgusted.

Jakob paused from his task for a moment and looked up laughing at her, "Come on, toughen up woman. It's only a little…spider?"

Kate was now surrounded by dozens of large, hairy spiders. She jumped up on the stump shrieking and dancing on the ends of her toes. Jake stood up and headed for her after grabbing a long, burning log from the fire, when he discovered he was cut off from her by a few dozen spiders of his own. He waved the log around his feet hoping the fire would back them off, but it did no good.

Frederick had just come back with an armload of apples, munching on one as he walked when he tried to make out the bizarre behavior of his companions.

"Well what are you two on about?" he asked. Something felt wrong and he looked down at his boots. They were covered in spiders. "Saints in hell!" he swore as he dropped the apples and began stomping spiders right and left.

There were now hundreds of them crawling over the campsite and as Jake and Fred continued to stomp and fling them away, Kate stood shrieking on the stump. It was now covered in spiders and they were flooding up her boots and covering the ends of her skirt. She froze in fear as they began to crawl up her skirt and were headed for her waist quickly. In shear terror, she screamed.

Fred and Jake stopped stomping and looked up, both seeing her at the same time. They headed for her from opposite directions, Jakob reaching her first. He grabbed her around the waist and dragging her off and away from the infested stump, he knocked spiders off her arms and bodice, but there were just too many.

"Take her dress off!" yelled Frederick.

Jakob's fingers moved fast as he flipped down the buttons running down her back. Frederick stripped the top of the dress off and pulled down as Jake lifted her up and out of the skirt. Jakob leaned over and grabbing her around the waist, he picked her up over his shoulder and ran off into the woods and away from the spiders, grabbing two of the packs in the process.

Frederick gave her dress a sharp snap and spiders flew everywhere. After another sound snap making sure he had gotten them all off he threw the dress over his shoulder and headed after them, grabbing the last pack on the way out. They ran through the woods with the wave of fast moving spiders right behind them. It looked as if the whole forest floor was moving.

Making their way running through the trees, they came to a wide stream winding through the woods. The banks were steep and the water appeared very deep making crossing it seem nearly impossible, but they knew they had no choice but to get across. There was no going back or around.

"There!" shouted Frederick as he spied a log lying across the stream stretching from bank to bank a few meters upstream and he ran for it with Jake on his heels still toting Kate over his shoulder.

"I can't make that with Kate and the packs!" shouted Jakob as he put Kate down. "Here, take the packs and help your sister across. I'll stay here and keep them back for as long as I can!" Fred and Kate start to protest, but Jake will have none of it, "No, just go!"

The log was moss covered and very wet and slippery. They barely made it across moving slowly sideways while trying to keep their footing and balance the packs at the same time. Jakob meanwhile was trying to stomp on a many spiders at the leading edge of the swarm as he could.

Jakob saw that they had made it across. After a few more stomps he ran for the log hoping to get across before it was too late. Alas, half way across his foot slipped. Jake fell hard, banging his chin on the log on the way down. He was now dangling, hanging on with the log wedged under his armpits, the moss and dampness making his grip precarious. Fortunately the spiders had stopped and were milling about as if they were trying to figure out their next move. Seconds later the spiders began to file slowly onto the log two at a time and head straight for Jakob's face.

Jake tried to struggle to get back up on the log, but the slippery moss prevented him from getting a good grip.

"Stay there Jake!" yelled Fred as he slowly made his way across to him. Grabbing Jakob by the back of the shirt and suspenders then by the back of his pants, he pulled him back up onto the log and helped him across.

Once safely on the other side, Jakob gave the log a good kick with the heel of his boot. It moved a good ways but didn't fall. The spiders kept coming, now half covering the log and crawling over each other in an effort to cross. Jake gave the log another good kick and it went down into the deep stream with a resounding splash. They watched as the spiders from the log floated away. The others on the far shore milled about in confusion now having no way to cross the stream. Jake thought it best to put some distance between them and the spiders in case they found another way across, so they took off through the woods only stopping when they felt they were safely far enough away.

Coming to a clearing they all flopped down on the ground to finally catch their breath.

"Oh, thank heavens!" said Katherine sounding relieved. "Frederick, you were so brave. Thank you for rescuing me." She hugged him tightly around the neck.

"Well, your welcome, but it was Jakob that did most of the rescuing", Fred explained, "If it weren't for him holding them back for us and thinking to kick the log over we would still be up to our neck in spiders."

Jake pulled himself up off the ground, sat on a large log and ran his fingers through his hair, "You did just as much rescuing as I did Frederick and more." He said humbly.

Kate went to Jakob, hugged him tenderly and whispered in his ear, "Thank you". However as she held him in her arms a lone spider crawled up Jake's back and came to a stop on the back of her hand staring at her with beady, black eyes. Kate shrieked at the top of her lungs nearly deafening Jake in one ear as she flung her arm away tossing the spider into the air. In a reflex, she shoved Jakob hard with her other hand sending him ass-over-teakettle backward off the log he was sitting on. As the spider hit the ground there was a poof of mist and in its place laid a large, golden leaf.

"Huh, well what do you know about that?" said Frederick sounding unfazed.

Jakob crawled his way up onto the log and resting on his elbows he readjusted his glasses, trying to focus and figure out what in the devil just happened. As he stared and tried to focus in on Kate, she realized she was standing there in the middle of the woods in her pantaloons and camisole and he was staring right at her! "Oh!" she yelped and tried to cover herself with her arms while she looked around for her dress. She snapped it up from its place on the ground next to her brother and held it up in front of her in an effort to cover herself up.

"How dare you!" she snapped at Jake, "I see the way you're leering at me! I guess I was wrong about your being different! All men are pigs!"

With that she ran off behind a large tree to get dressed. Jakob was totally bewildered at what had just happened. He looked at Fred questioningly, "What she on about?" Frederick just shrugged back.

Exhaustion and hunger had set in, so Jakob decided that this was as good a place as any to make camp for the night. Mostly due to the fact the sun was now hugging the horizon and it would be dark very soon. Frederick took first watch to keep the fire going and look out for spiders or anything else that might come after them while they slept as a cold, crisp fall night set in.

As you can see, I'm going to put Jakob through his paces in this story. It's not going to be as easy as he imagined back in Marbaden and Will isn't going to get off all that easily either. Please read and review this story. I would really like to know what you think. Good or bad. Thanks.