A/N: Okay, I'm awful. I know I said I would have this chapter up about 3 days ago, but I had a major case of writer's block. On the bright side, the writer's block was overcome thanks to some toast. You've gotta love toast. So that should explain the many toast references in this chapter. It's about 5-600 words longer than usual, so enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Sisters Grimm

Chapter 5

Quite a bit of time passed before anything (as far as the story went) significant happened. Plenty of other things happened in those two weeks, though. Daphne's eighth birthday came and went (or so they speculated; it was impossible to know how fast time was progressing outside the book); Sabrina found a large deposit of gold and earned herself two days off; and Puck got in a large amount of trouble what with all his pranks, outbursts, and One's irritability. One had a considerable hatred toward Puck. When asked, the dwarves would blame it on childhood disputes (Two was always stealing One's toys).

All three had grown worried about the amount of time this story was taking. The other stories had taken a matter of hours to complete, a day and a half at the longest. Already, they'd been in Snow White for a month. Sabrina found it unsettling. Daphne was homesick, but for the most part enjoyed playing the part of her idol. Puck, on the other hand, thought it was all a sick joke, particularly when One decided to make him do half of Daphne's chores for a week instead of mining. He didn't know which was worse, nearly taking his foot off with a pick-axe, or nearly whacking himself with the broom handle when trying to sweep.

Daphne enjoyed the time off, but felt a little bad for Puck.

Sabrina didn't feel the least bit sorry for him and was never without entertainment. In fact, she spent her two free days just sitting on a stool and laughing at Puck as he tried to sew. He swore that his normal sewing was much higher quality and he could do a better job if she'd just shut up and leave the cottage. She laughed harder.

When Sabrina's free days ended, Puck's chore duty (or temporary death sentence as he referred to it) was also over. Before they left with the dwarves, Sabrina made it a point to instruct Daphne to never open the door for anyone. Puck made it a point to dance around outside the cottage chanting, "I don't have to wash One's filthy underwear today!" but only after making sure One wasn't within earshot, of course.

On the way to the mine, Sabrina asked him, "So, why do you think this story's taking so long?"

He shrugged, wondering the same thing himself. "Maybe it's just the story." Sabrina swore she heard him add, "Or maybe whatever god is out there just wants to kill me."

She smirked and continued, "I hope everyone doesn't think we're dead."

"That's a pretty big hope. If time's the same here in the book as it is in the real world, we've been missing for weeks. They probably think the Scarlet Hand took us," he replied matter-of-factly.

The smirk disappeared. "Way to be a downer, Puck."

His face darkened. "All those, those things did that to me." He sighed and continued forlornly, "Now I'm a pessimist for life."

"Great achievement, Puck," she said sarcastically. Then something occurred to her. "Um, what did you mean by 'things'?"

"You know, the creation of the devil. The thing that must not be named," he said, as if it was obvious. She shook her head. "The c-word."

"Unless you're talking about cats, I really don't know what you're getting at." She despised cats and the feeling was mutual.

He gulped and took a deep breath before speaking, fearing that saying the name would cause chaos. "Chores," he whispered.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" she asked, even though she heard perfectly well.

He glared, but said it anyway, this time a bit louder. "Chores."

She nearly fell down laughing, but quieted abruptly when One glared at her. "Really, Puck, chores?" she questioned.

"Shhhhh!!!! Don't say that word," he hissed.

"Which word? Oh!" – Sabrina snapped her fingers – "You mean chores!"

Puck glared again. "You do know that I hate you, right?"

She acted as if she was deeply hurt. "How could you say such a thing? I'm not the one who made you do chores."

"WILL YOU STOP SAYING THAT WORD?!?!?!" he screamed.

One turned around and yelled, "That's it! Two more weeks of chores!" Puck flinched at both the concept and the word.

Thankfully Mr. Seven stepped in and said, "One, give the guy a break. I'm sure he didn't mean it, and he just got off chore duty. He'll be better, won't ya', Two?" Puck nodded desperately.

One grudgingly complied.

Puck vowed to get Mr. Seven a nice gift basket once they got back. A few minutes later, they arrived at the mine and right as Puck raised his axe, Sabrina whispered, "Chores."

He cursed under his breath while Sabrina cackled.

Daphne, bored, stared out the window after having finished her chores and eating lunch. She definitely missed the last week when she had Puck to laugh at. Now, she was all alone. Remembering the Disney's version of Snow White, she decided to see if any animals would come if she whistled.

Then she remembered she couldn't whistle. She decided to sing instead. The song didn't have any meaning whatsoever and was really just comprised of random words she made up. Daphne noticed that her singing voice was a lot better here than back in the real world. She hoped it would stay that way.

After singing for about five minutes, she gave up and went to get some water. She grabbed a glass and was about to pour some water from a pitcher when she noticed a small bear cub cowering underneath the dining table. "Fido!" she exclaimed and ran to it. "Hey," she said softly, not wanting to scare it. "Do you want to be my friend?" She held out her palm and tried to coax the black cub over to her. It took quite a while, but the cub eventually walked over and cautiously sniffed her hand. Overjoyed, Daphne began petting it. Fido seemed to enjoy this and rolled onto his back. Unfortunately, that's when she noticed something.

Fido was a girl.

Thinking quickly, she told her, "Don't worry, you're name can be Fifi!" She scratched Fifi's tummy a bit and then cooed, "You're a good girl aren't you?" Daphne scooped her up, walked over to the bedroom and sat down on her bed (by now, One had decided to give Sabrina Puck's bed, and Daphne Sabrina's bed. Puck still had the floor).

Daphne spent the rest of the day training Fifi to do tricks. After a couple hours, she could lie down, sit, shake hands, and play dead, but only if she got toast before and after. Fifi liked her toast, which is quite odd considering she's a bear. Daphne figured she was just a vegetarian bear. They were in a fairytale, after all. Anything could happen. Besides, she reasoned, toast is pretty good.

Bunny, feeling much better, finally figured out a better way to kill Snow White. A way that would surely work. Due to her understanding of witchcraft, especially in beauty potions (heck, how do you think she got so pretty?), she was able to brew a very strong poison. Taking her least favorite ivory comb, she coated it with the potion. Giggling, she disguised herself as an ordinary middle class merchant woman.

This time, Snow White would die… hopefully. Her plans had failed before.

Multiple times.

She decided not to dwell on that.

Sabrina stepped inside the cottage shortly after Mr. One and Puck. However, when she saw what was growling at Daphne, she halted immediately. The dwarfs outside started yelling at her to stop blocking the doorway, but she opted instead to point and stutter, "W-what i-is th-that?" Puck looked up in curiosity, shrugged, and went back to unlacing his boots. Mr. One didn't even bother looking and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

She heard Mr. Five yell from outside, "Who the hell cares? Just move already." Normally, she'd yell at him, but she was more worried about Daphne at the moment.

Daphne looked up innocently, almost sheepishly and said, "This is Fifi, my new pet. I'm teaching her how to growl when I tell her to. She's doing great!" She then proceeded to feed her some toast, told her to growl, and then gave her more toast.

Puck, having heard Daphne's explanation, exclaimed, "That is so cool!"

Sabrina glared at him and then turned back to Daphne. "Do you really think it's safe to have a bear as a pet?" she questioned as level-headed as she could manage, not wanting to offend her.

Daphne huffed indignantly. "Fifi's a great pet! She'd never hurt me!"

"I'm not so sure about that," Sabrina argued.

"Oh just give it a rest and let her keep the bear. Fifi's cool," Puck said.

She turned on him. "Oh that's real great Puck! What are we going to do with a freakin' bear?!"

Daphne interrupted. "Hey! Fifi can hear you, ya' know!"

"The bear does have ears," Puck agreed.

"You guys are hopeless!" Sabrina exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. She pointed at Puck, "I'm blaming you if that bear kills us all."

"How would you blame me if we're dead?" Puck asked.

"Just shut up!" She started walking toward the bedroom. "I'm going to bed. GOODNIGHT!"

Daphne called after her, "What about dinner?"

She didn't get an answer.

Puck shrugged as the rest of the dwarfs filed in, looking very miffed about the hold-up. He turned to Daphne, "So what's with the toast? Don't bears eat meat?"

"How should I know what they eat? I'm eight," she replied.

Puck thought about it, then said, "Good point."

The dwarfs had no qualm with Fifi as long as she didn't "crap all over the cottage". At dinner, Fifi climbed onto Sabrina's chair and begged for more toast. The dwarfs, excluding Mr. One, found this hilarious and spent the rest of the meal feeding her scraps. That night, one thing was agreed upon: Fifi was gonna be one fat bear.

By morning, Sabrina was still pretty miffed about the Fifi situation, so she left the evil queen lecture to Puck. Big mistake. Here's how it went:

Puck: Hey! Okay, so Ugly's still mad about the bear so I'm gonna talk to you this morning.

Daphne: "The bear" has a name.

Puck: Oh right, sorry. She's still mad about Fifi.

Daphne: I still don't get that. Fifi's the coolest pet ever.

Puck: I know! She's a bear! How can you hate a bear?

Daphne: Exactly! Hey, what trick should I teach her next?

Puck: Oh! You should totally teach her to walk on her hind legs. It's so awesome when bears do that!

Daphne: Great idea! You want to help?

Puck: Awesome! Just let me get some toast!

Yeah… not the best idea. So Daphne didn't get her lecture, and Fifi got a whole lot of toast. Not too long after Fifi learned how to walk on her hind legs, she fell asleep on Sabrina's bed. For some reason, Daphne didn't think that all the bear hair would help Fifi get on Sabrina's good side.

Sighing, Daphne started her chores and tried to do them fast, as it was already past lunchtime. However, as soon as she finished sweeping, there was a knock at the door. Not really thinking, she called, "Come in! The door is unlocked."

The door opened and in hobbled a rather unremarkable middle aged woman with a canvas sack in her hand. "Thank you, good child. I just wondered if you would like to buy my wares." She flourished a beautiful ivory comb.

Daphne stared at the comb, and said, "What does 'wares' mean?

The woman sighed, as if annoyed, but answered anyway. "Wares are what I have to sale. This wonderful comb" —she waved it around madly — "Is one of my wares."

"Ohhhh," Daphne said, nodding in understanding. "I'm afraid I don't have enough money for a comb like that," she said wistfully.

The woman laughed and shook her head. "Silly girl, do you think I would be so awful as to let a child pay for something like this?" She laughed again, then added under her breath, "especially since you're in such need of it. Jeez, these dwarfs must be barbarians. Do they own a hair brush?"

Daphne's eyes grew wide. "Really?"

The queen opened her mouth to reply, but instead screamed.

Daphne laughed and told her that Fifi wouldn't hurt a fly.

Bunny wasn't convinced, and resolved to leaves A.S.A.P.

"Come; let me comb your hair properly for once."

Daphne finally remembered the fairytale and balked. Why was it that she always forgot about the story? Taking a deep breath, she nodded, walked over to the queen and tried to seem eager.

As soon as the comb touched her hair, Daphne collapsed, dead once more. Bunny felt like she should say something, but took one last glance at Fifi and high-tailed it out of there.

As usual, on the way back from the mine Sabrina struck up a "conversation" with Puck. "So, how did the lecture go?"

Puck, focused on his injury (today he actually DID hit his foot with the stupid pickaxe. He wasn't cut, thanks to the boots, but he did break his toe), didn't know what she was talking about. "What lecture?"

"What lecture?! The lecture you were supposed to give to Daphne this morning!"

Puck's expression went from pained to panicked. "Um, about that… I kinda helped her train Fifi instead of talking to her." He cringed. Sabrina looked like she was sorely tempted to stomp on his broken toe. "I wonder if she ever did get Fifi to walk on her hind legs," he wondered out loud, hoping to distract Sabrina.

It didn't work.

"You WHAT?!?! Puck, what the hell? Now she's probably gonna get herself killed again!" she exploded.

"She's smarter than that," he assured her.

"Oh, don't give me that crap. Of course she's smart enough. It's a matter of if she's careful or not. Daphne isn't exactly careful."

"She'll be fine, stop worrying."

"How can you possibly know that?"

"I'm me. I know everything." Not even a horrible situation could stop Puck from being annoyingly cocky.

"Of course you do," she replied.

Puck, not picking up on the sarcasm, continued, "I knew you'd figure it out eventually. It just took a bit longer than I expected. I mean, really, maybe you shouldn't have missed all those months of school."

"Look who's talking."

He sighed. "I'm over four thousand years old. I haven't had to go to school since I was 18." He looked down at himself. "In real years, that is. I still looked 11, of course."

"What about that time you had to come to school with me and Daphne?" she pointed out.

"That doesn't count." He sighed. "Look, the point I'm trying to make is that when we get back, Daphne will be training Fifi and/or making toast. Got it?"

"Yeah, I got it. It's just I have a bad feeling."

"You always have a bad feeling."

"It's usually right."

"So? Nothing's right all the time. Not even me. Although, I do come pretty close."

She rolled her eyes. "I'll believe that when I see it." However, she said it quietly enough that Puck didn't notice. Sabrina was tiring of this conversation.

They walked in silence the rest of the way to the cottage, and all the way there Sabrina focused on remembering how to save Daphne if her suspicions were confirmed.

Little did she know that Puck was doing the same thing. Well, he tried to at least. Let's just say he doesn't have the longest attention span.

Finally, the cottage came into sight and everyone quickened their pace. When they were about 50 ft. from the cottage, she broke into a run and passed both Mr. One and Puck. Puck, of course, followed and burst into the cottage shortly after Sabrina.

"I told you she's okay," he yelled. "You really should start list"—he trailed off when he saw Fifi digging through most of their food. "Great! Now what am I going to eat?"

"Puck! You're worried about food while Daphne's dead?" she said, sounding a bit disgusted.

"Oh for crying out loud." He walked across the room to where she was kneeling over Daphne. "Just take the comb out. Isn't that what it said in the story?"

"At least you remembered. Now if you could help me find the comb, that'd be great. Ugh! Why does her hair have to be so tangled? It's impossible to find anything," she groaned, frustrated.

"Hey! What's going on? Why did you two just rush ahead of us like that?" Mr. One screamed on his way inside. He froze when he saw Daphne. "Why'd she let the queen in again? Didn't one of you talk to her this morning?"

Sabrina glared briefly at Puck before searching for the comb again. "This idiot suggested new tricks for Fifi to learn instead."

"Hey!" Puck yelled defensively. "Snow brought it up first!" After so much time, he'd grown accustomed to calling Daphne, Snow.

"I don't care who started it! It's still your fault."

"MY fault? I'll tell you whose fault" –

He was interrupted by Sabrina yelling triumphantly. She'd found the comb! After removing it from her hair, it didn't take long for Daphne to wake up. She told them the story and then went to the kitchen to get more toast for Fifi. "Hey! What am I going to eat? There's no more food left!"

Puck turned for Sabrina. "Told you."

Sabrina ignored him and turned to her sister. "Snow, you better not let the queen in again, got it?"

Daphne groaned. "Yeah, sure, whatever. What about the food?!"

"She's been spending way too much time around you," Sabrina told Puck.

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

The dwarves watched, amused, as the argument continued and Daphne began making a list of groceries she needed. Toast was listed about 10 times.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it! Did anyone catch the Harry Potter reference? I hope so. It was pretty obvious. I can't guarantee that the next chapter will be as long, but hopefully it will be up faster. Remember to review!