A/N- haha! Ok, one more update! Oh how I love lazy Sundays. It'll probably be a good week before I can get another chapter out, but maybe I'll have some time. I hope you enjoy this! Personally, writing it and picturing it play out like a movie is so much fun. Thanks to my reviewers. I adore you! Please keep 'em coming. :D -Md

The Ol' Oven Trick

"You named your horse Sir Steve?" Cinderella said incredulously.

"I was five years old when I got him." Char replied with a laugh.

"I think even I had more imagination than that when I was five."

Char shook his head and looked towards the kitchen door. It had been a few hours since the COW (Crazy Old Which, as he and Cinderella had named her.) had come in and given them breakfast. The first few meals, both of them had been reluctant to eat any of it. But later they had decided they might as well keep their strength up, especially if they wanted to plan an escape. So far, they had come up with nothing.

Char's back ached from being cramped in the small cage. He glanced over at Cinderella who was picking at the end of her fraying dress. She was covered in soot, her hair had fallen out of it's pins and fell messily around her shoulders. Her feet were red and swollen, she didn't have any shoes.

"Are you in pain?" Char asked her, nodding towards her feet.

"Oh," She laughed and glanced down. "No, I've had worse. I've got pretty tough feet. Not tough enough to handle those glass torture devices Sara gave me. I took them off as soon as I ran out of the ballroom. I think they're in your bushes at the palace somewhere."

"You were walking barefoot through this forest? I'm surprised you have any skin left on them at all."

"Like I said," She shrugged. "I've had worse."

Char kept looking at her hair. He was getting an idea.

"Do you have any pins left in that birds nest on your head?"

"Psh, well I'm sorry I was unable to keep my grooming up to your standards." Cinderella gave him a glare and started searching through the tangles. It took a few minutes but finally she gave a triumphant yelp and held up a pin between her fingers.

"Try picking the lock." Char told her. She laughed at him.

"Do I look like the kind of person that would know how to pick a lock?"

"Well, you could toss it to me, but I doubt you're that good of a throw."

She started searching through her hair again and found another pin.

"I'll try throwing this one to you, and if it doesn't make it, well, I'll still have this one."

She closed one eye like she was trying really hard to pick a target and aim for it.

"Throw it IN the cage if you can." Char said.

"Shut up. I'm not stupid." She replied back.

Finally she flicked her wrist and tossed the almost invisible pin towards Char's cage. It hit one of the bars with a small tap and fell to the floor.

"Son of a….." Cinderella stomped her foot.

"Valiant effort." Char sarcastically smiled and clapped his hands softly together. Cinderella leaned forward and grabbed the lock of her cage in her hand. She stuck the pin inside and began moving it around.

"Don't bend the pin."

"I'm not going to bend the pin."

"Well, you're doing it a little hard. You're going to bend it."

"Your Highness." Cinderella released a great sigh and sat back. "Do you know how to pick a lock?"

"Why yes, Cinderella, I do."

"Ugh, El, please." She said, referring to her name.

"Ok, El, yes. When I was a boy, I had a curiosity about all the locked doors in the palace. Despite my father's efforts to discipline me, I eventually figured out how it was done."

"Oh…" She began but was cut off when the door opened and the COW returned.

"Hello dearies." The COW smiled brightly. "How was your breakfast?"

She walked to El's cage. In her hand she held a metal loop with a chain attached to it.

"Give me your wrist Gretel, dear." She requested.

El reluctantly held out her wrist and the COW snapped the metal loop around it.

"What? What is this for?" El asked.

"You're going to help me dear. I'm getting old and I'm feeling a bit weak in the ole knees today."

She then opened the cage door after using a key from her pocket to unlock it.

"Now don't try to run honey. It will do no good. No good at all."

With the COW holding onto the chain attached to the wristband, El stepped out of the cage. El's knees wobbled a little.

"Oooh. Look's like it's a good thing we let you out. You need to stretch those muscles. But not too much now, we don't want you getting touch and chewy." The old woman giggled.

She began to lead El to the kitchen door. El looked at Char and shrugged. The woman's back was to El and she took the opportunity to try throwing the pin in her hand to Char. This time she got lucky and it flew into the cage, hitting the him lightly on the chest. Then the door was shut behind them and Char was left in the room alone.

He hoped that El wouldn't do anything stupid. He had a feeling that witch could fight a grizzly bear in a wrestling match. Picking up the lock with his hand, he stuck the pin inside and fumbled around with it. It took him a good twenty minutes before he heard a little clicking sound and the lock snapped open. Just as it did so, he saw the door knob of the kitchen door turning. He quickly made it look like the lock was still in place and then leaned back.

"See Hansel, I have her back for you safe and sound." The COW chuckled.

Char suddenly had a brilliant plan. It laid itself out in his mind like a perfectly crafted blueprint. He said a silent prayer that it would work and then opened his mouth.

"You know, I think you need to clean your oven."

El looked at him with terror in her eyes. He could hear her mind screaming: What in the world are you doing? He shot her a quick wink as the COW's head turned in shock.

"What?" She said.

"Well, the last meal you so kindly fed us, you've been extremely hospitable by the way, well it tasted a little, I guess you could say odd. How long has it been since you've cleaned that thing?"

The COW's face looked absolutely mortified. She turned around, forgetting about El.

"It has been quite a while. Oh dear, this is not good. Not good at all." Her voice was full of concern.

She walked to her oven and opened it. She poked her head inside to inspect it. Char looked at El and waved his hand so she'd look back at him. When she did he mouthed: Push her! And gestured with his hands. El shook her head. He rolled his eyes and nodded. The old woman's voice was muffled as she was still inspecting the inside of her oven. El closed her eyes tightly and leaned forward, hesitating. Finally she pushed with all her strength and the unsuspecting COW flew into her oversized oven.

"Shut the door! Shut the door! Shut the door!" Char yelled as he kicked his cage door open and jumped out.

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!" El began to scream as the old woman inside the oven began to shimmy out, but before she could get very far El slammed the door.

"Now run!" Char roared, grabbing El's hand and pulling her out of the kitchen.

"Remind me to tell you later that you are a genius!" El was yelling as Char dragged her along.

"I know." Was all he said and they ran out of the house.

They could hear the old woman screaming from inside. She was obviously out of the oven now. It made Char run even faster, though his weakened legs were about to give out on him. He looked back and saw the COW was out of the house now. Luckily for them, she couldn't move very fast at all. But then she did something that made Char yell out in surprise. She waved her hands in the air and started chanting something. Just then, as she stuck her arms straight out, a flash of yellow light flew from her hands. The light zoomed past them. The old woman tried again. This time Char didn't bother to watch, he just ran as fast as he could, pulling El behind him.

Pain hit him in the back and spread through his entire body. He cried out in pain and everything went kind of blurry. He fell to the ground and felt like he was on fire. He could hear El screaming from somewhere. He tried to find her in his line of sight. He wanted to tell her to run, and just leave him behind.

"Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!" He heard El's voice extremely close.

His vision cleared and he could still see yellow streaks of magic flying by in the air. Then he felt the strangest sensation. A giant hand closed itself around his body and lifted him off the ground. He gasped for air when he started moving forward at a ridiculous speed. His arms and legs limply dangled in the air. He didn't know how long he flew through the air, but finally he began to slow down. He could still feel giant fingers wrapped around his body.

The fingers shifted. He couldn't see to the side of him very well. He tried to move his head but found that he couldn't. The hand moved around him and positioned him on it's palm. In a blink he found himself eye to eye with a giant. He'd never seen a giant before, but this one looked strangely familiar.

"You're Highness?" El's voice bellowed from the giant's lips.

The giant was El! What was going on? Had he been miniaturized? He tried to look down at his body but still could not move his head. He opened his mouth to ask El what had happened but he didn't hear his voice. Instead he heard something that made his blood run cold.

"Rrrribbbettt."