Now wasn't that something? That old witch was trying her best to scare Jakob, but as you can see, he's very brave isn't he? Frederick was being very brave as well. Alright then, now that we've had a bit of supper shall we continue? Good, Good, then gather round and get comfortable. Well, then, I suppose I should catch us up a bit so I will tell you about what happened the next day. I'll start with...

A Cold Night, Hot Chocolate and Will

Jakob had spent his watch sitting by the fire wrapped in his blanket and recording the previous day's events in his journal. He took care in the details so that when this was over he could tell Will everything that had happened without missing a single thing. His spirit was bolstered by the thought of telling his brother everything that had happened on the way to freeing him from the tower. As the moon set he decided that the night had been quiet enough that waking Fred for the next watch was really unnecessary. Besides, Frederick was snoring so loudly it would have scared off just about anything.

Jakob had built up the fire so it would continue to burn warmly for quite a while and settled down beside it to sleep. As his eyes were closing, he looked over at Katherine. Despite how upset she had been earlier, she was now sleeping peacefully and he couldn't help but think how pretty she looked in the firelight. The golden flames softened her features nicely. He had seen a different side of her today. This woman who could be loud, pushy always in charge of every little thing almost to the point of being arrogant about her inner strength was vulnerable after all. She had acted like she never needed anyone, but she needed someone else's help today and was grateful for receiving it. 'In many ways she is just like my brother, but there is a marked difference between her and Will.' he thought, 'He was never grateful or said thank you. It was always just expected no matter what it was.'

He knew there was a softer, more feminine side to her in there somewhere and if he just had the patience to wait he would find it. 'Perhaps all she needs is for someone to treat her a bit more that way.' he thought.

As he began drifting off, his thoughts turned to the spiders. After writing it all down in his journal he realized that they weren't sent to harm them in any way, but to drive them deeper into the forest and help them lose their way. They had done their job well for at this point Jakob had no idea where they were or which direction they should take to find the cottage or the castle. He supposed he would have a better idea in the morning when it was daylight.

*********

The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon, painting an orange sherbet streak across the pale blue sky when Jakob awoke. It had been a very chilly night and it felt warm and cozy under the blanket even though the fire had died down. He thought they should be on their way soon and he really should built up the fire a bit for some chocolate to warm them up inside, but he just couldn't make himself move from this much too comfortable spot on his bed of leaves.

After a few more moments of procrastinating he pushed himself to brave the cold and get moving. However, when he tried to sit up, he found something was holding him down tightly around the waist. He swallowed hard as he remembered the enchanted trees in the forest of Marbaden and he was praying this wasn't a repeat performance.

Jakob carefully reached up and fished his glasses out of the dry, brown leaves and slowly put them on being careful not to disturb whatever it was that had hold of him. Slightly shaking and trying not to panic, he reached down and slowly lifted the blanket to look underneath. Shear terror shot through him as he saw it was a human arm wrapped around his waist. He was about to scream bloody murder at Frederick to come help him, but something looked familiar about the arm. He recognized the brown sleeve capped with lace that the arm was sticking out of.

'Oh thank God' he thought as he began to relax, 'it's only Kate.'

Jakob was so relieved it wasn't something trying to kill him or eat him alive that he lay back down under the blanket and closed his eyes rationalizing a few more minutes of sleep couldn't hurt. After all it was very warm and comfortable there.

His eyes snapped open in panic, but this time it was of a different kind. 'Only Kate? Only Kate! Oh Sweet Christ! Jakob, what were you thinking?!' he thought as he tried to figure out a way to out of this without waking her up. Gingerly picking up her arm, he slid out from under the blanket very slowly and carefully put it back down making sure she was still covered so the morning chill didn't wake her. Scooting backward a few feet towards the fire and away from her, he sat there with his arms wrapped around his long legs and chewed on the end of his thumb. His cheeks were beet red and he felt thoroughly embarrassed and confused.

He wondered how she ended up there snuggled against his back. How long had she been there? 'Well it had been a bit cold last night or maybe she was still upset over the spiders', he thought as he tried in vain to justify her sleeping with him. 'But why not sleep near her brother? That would have made more sense. Why me?' he wondered. He stopped chewing his thumb and looked at her with a shy puppy dog look, 'She couldn't really like me…could she?' he wondered. He thought about it for a few moments and then shook his head, completely dismissing the thought from his mind. 'Don't be an idiot Jakob', he told himself, 'Your reading far too much into this. She was just cold or frightened…or something. Oh I don't know, just forget it!'

Jakob tried to pass the whole thing off and hoped she wouldn't remember or mention it at all. He would record this morning in his journal later, but this little detail would not be repeated to Will when he told the story. The last thing he needed to hear was how many different kinds of fool he was after waking to find a woman in his bed and then running from her.

He busied himself with the fire and the chocolate to warm them up before they moved on. Feeling a presence beside him and seeing the edge of his blanket out of the corner of his eye, he knew Kate was there wrapped in it, but he didn't look at her.

"Morning", she said quietly.

"Good morning", he replied, trying to sound aloof.

After a couple of tense moments of silence Kate asked, "Did you sleep well?"

"Um..yes...well…and you?"

"Oh yes, very well. Thank you. Must have been the fresh air out here. It was very…um…nice."

"Oh yes indeed", Jakob cleared his throat and fussed with the chocolate pot, "very nice."

Jakob was feeling so very awkward and the strained conversation wasn't making it any better. He felt like a hare that knew a hunter was near and he was ready to bolt off into the woods at a moments notice.

"Did you know you talk in your sleep?" she asked quietly.

"Um..well..yes. My brother has complained about it many times. I'm sorry if I woke you."

"You needn't be. My brother does it sometimes as well. Its just…well, you seemed to be having a horrible nightmare."

Jake thought for a few moments, but couldn't remember having one. Then again it hadn't woken him up so why would he. "Hm", was all he said, it didn't matter really and he thought the conversation was over, but Kate continued.

"At first you were warning Will not to throw things at a giant because it would only make him mad, but then you were begging him to 'stay away from her or you'll be sorry'. That's when you became very upset and called my name a couple of times. When I went to see what was wrong I found you were still asleep."

'Was I dreaming about the time I saw Will with Angelika?' he thought, 'No, that was very long ago and anyway, why would I be calling out for…' It all suddenly made sense and he realized now how she had ended up next to him. Jake jumped up to face her with his hands outstretched and an innocently pleading face.

"Kate I…well you see... it was only a dream and…no, please, really…Ah, well you know I…" He was fumbling his words as his hands went in all directions and he was practically tripping over his own feet.

Katherine watched with a bemused look on her face as this poor, shy and innocent man tried to explain something to her that really didn't need any explanation at all.

Thankfully the entire disturbingly awkward moment was cut off by Frederick. He was awake and peppier that anyone had the right to be so early in the morning. He prattled on and on about how well he had slept; how good the chocolate smelled; how this was going to be a very productive day, he just knew it and so on and so on. Jakob had never been so grateful to have to listen to Fred's nonsense as he was right now.

*********

Will had only been in the tower for a few days now, but it seemed like forever. He had started keeping track by marking the stone wall near the window with a small piece of chalky stone he had found in a corner. He never thought he would ever say it, but he was actually getting sick of all the rich food they were bringing him and if he heard "Ode to Thee in G Minor" one more time he would go insane! Seriously, at this point he was calling his sanity into question anyway.

Lying on the bed counting the cracks in the ceiling for the hundredth time he listened as the party downstairs went on into the late afternoon and wondered just how much more of the boredom he could take. Rolling off the bed he went to the window and leaning on the bars he watched as the craziness in the town below played out. He had seen each rhyme so often now that he could run down the list in his head and thought that he would tell them all to Jakob when he returned. 'Perhaps they might make good story material', he thought, 'He would love that.' Clinging to the thought of telling his brother all he had seen when this was over made a bad situation much more bearable in his mind.

'That is, if it's ever over', he thought. There was a very real possibility he could die in here. After all, the way he treated Jake when they took him away, why would he even bother coming back for him anyway? Will hung his head and began feeling sorry for himself. He couldn't help thinking that maybe he did deserve this after all that he had done. He couldn't count how many times over the previous months Angelika had lectured him about his behavior especially towards his own brother. The woman did have the annoying habit of always saying what she thought and even worse, always being right.

Will was beginning to feel angry, angry at Angelika for being right, at Jakob for talking him into this mess, at the King for trapping and throwing him into the tower. While he was busy being angry at everyone else, deep inside, he was really angry at himself. Angry that he mocked his brother so when they took him away, that he had trouble trusting Jakob to know what he was doing, that he wasn't doing anything to try and escape and help his brother. That is if he really even wanted his help and he couldn't blame him if he didn't.

Will looked up and out the window. Tears were filling his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. Angrily he yelled out the window, "Dammit Jake! Don't die out there!" Anger began to slowly turn to resolve, He had to get out of there and it had to be now. His own life be damned, his brother needed him and he wasn't about to let him down. Not again.

Will started working on the window bars. If he did manage to get one loose, he would work on getting down later. "One step at a time Wilhelm", he told himself. Regrettably the bars were stuck solid into the stone above and below. Standing there with his hands on his hips, he sighed. Then running one hand through his hair and looking around the room deciding what to do next, his eye fell on the door. With a critical eye he began examining the door, lock and hinges looking for any flaws or weaknesses he could find.

"Tools, I need tools", he said, "but where…" An idea struck him. Going over to the food tray that sat on the small bed side table, Will fished out the knife and fork. "Well, well, look at this!" he chirped beginning to feel a bit like his old cocky self, "Courtesy of the dimwits in the castle kitchen!" A wide smile spread across his face. Grabbing an apple from the tray, he took a big bite and set to work on the lock and hinges to try and see if he could pry something loose.

Will knew that he would have to escape sometime in that one hour timeframe so as not to get caught at banquet. It was going to be very tricky getting out without being seen, but then again, tricky was his middle name.

This is a bit of a short chapter to just set things up for what is to come. The next chapter will be much longer as it involves Katherine and Jakob in a very sticky predicament.

Please read ans review. I would like to hear from you, so tell me what you think so far. Thanks.