Chapter 6

Sarah walked down a hall. She looked at the walls and saw herself in them. The Castle of Mirrors was a castle made of mirrors. Suddenly, she stopped and looked around. Why did it feel like she had gone down this hall before? Had she gone in a circle? She looked at her reflection and walked through it. The mirrors were enchanted! She looked around. She could see nothing but her reflection all around. She felt around but all these mirrors were solid. There were no doors or anything. She was trapped! She started trying to zap herself out, but the enchantment held and she couldn't get out. She screamed at the top of her lungs and all the mirrors shattered. Suddenly, she was lying on the floor of a dark room with no light. Her head snapped up. She looked around. She couldn't see anything.

After a few seconds, a light appeared and a Warlock appeared inside it.

Sarah stood up. "You're that evil Warlock."

"Yes, I am. My name is Archer."

"Where's my cousin? Jack, the duck."

Archer smiled. "I could tell you. But instead, how about we make a deal?"

"Why should I trust you?"

"You probably shouldn't, but I'll change my standards just this once. I sense plenty of power rising from you."

"You sure you have the right girl?"

"I'm positive."

"What do you got for me?"

"To summon someone from the Land of the Lost, you need a special stone." He waved his hand and 10 differently colored stones appeared in the room, each one lit up. "Find the right one, and you may have your cousin back. Choose the wrong one, and you will step into my web of dark magic."

She closed her eyes and followed her Witch's sense. Then she shook her head, scoffed, and opened her eyes to glare at him. "It's in your pocket."

He reached in his pocket and pulled out a multi-colored stone. He glared at her. "Alright. You were right. You shouldn't trust me." He started to zap her…he was zapped back.

Sarah turned around and saw the rest of the gang behind her. "How'd you guys get here?"

"We zapped ourselves straight to you," said Sophie, "Right after your brothers and sister messed up our day out by bringing home the wrong baby from a day at the park."

"In my defense," Michael said, "the girl who had that baby was cute."

Sarah glared at him. "Hello! Bad guy kidnapped Jack! Trying to get him back!"

"Right, we kind of got that from seeing the security cam footage of you doing a wishing well spell!" Wendy snapped.

"I didn't mean to—'wishing well spell'?"

"It doesn't matter if you didn't mean to," Daniella explained, "If you meant the words you said, that's enough. And don't ask where the spell name came from."

Archer got up. "Alright. Now it's on. I'm gonna—" He then noticed the stone lying on the ground.

Sarah saw this, too.

The 2 looked at each other… They both dived for it at the same time. Sarah kicked him back and grabbed it. She held it up and snapped her fingers. It glowed…

Jack appeared out of nowhere and dropped on Wendy and Duck. "Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad. How was your day off?"

They looked at him.

"Fine, until this happened," said Wendy.

Sarah looked at Archer as he got up. "Alright, I can understand if you're mad—"

"OF COURSE I'M MAD!"

"OK, backing off. Guys, a little help here!"

The triplets got out their wands and zapped him back again.

"Maybe if we all join our powers together again," Wendy suggested, "we can work up a punishment spell and get him out of Fairy Tale Land!"

"And then we can get us out of here," said Kelly, "This place creeps me out."

"You're telling me," said Nadine.

Archer started to get up.

"We need a distraction so we can teach the kids the spell!" Sophie snapped to Daniella and Wendy.

"Oh, I got it!" said Sarah, "Uh…calling all munchkins, let's do lunch-kins…come on, come on, come on!"

A bunch of mice in pointy shoes showed up.

"You called?" asked Swift.

"Yeah, could you stall this guy?" asked Sarah.

"CHARGE!" Swift led the other munchkins to Archer and they attacked.

"Alright, we have the spell book for punishment spells," Daniella said, "But we had decided to keep it safe. So we better get it out of the safe." She zapped up a safe. "Alright, we just have to…we gotta…"

"You forgot the combination, didn't you?" asked Wendy.

"No!" Wendy gave her a look. "Yes…"

"I got this," said Lexi. He leaned over and started listening closely for the tumblers as she turned the dial. Unfortunately, her super hearing acted against her, since half of it was being used on the munchkins' fight with Archer. "SHUT UP!"

The munchkins froze for a second, as did Archer.

Lexi turned the tumblers until the safe opened. "Alright, thank you!"

The munchkins and Archer started fighting again.

Daniella pulled out the spell book and started flipping through it. "It's gotta be in here…AHA!" She showed them the spell and they all took out their wands, ready to cast it. "We have to do it at the same time."

Sarah looked at the munchkins. "Swift! Fall out!"

Swift led the other munchkins out of the fight with Archer.

Daniella, Wendy, Sophie, Robert, Jack, Kelly, Ryan, Sarah, and Michael all waved their wands, saying different spells at the same time. After a few seconds, they all zapped Archer simultaneously and a large cloud of smoke emerged. When it cleared…a beagle (not an anthro) was in his place.

Daniella's eyes widened. She looked at the others. "You weren't all concentrating, were you?"

They all looked at Kelly.

Kelly sighed. "Well, I was thinking about what a good punishment would be for this guy after all he'd done and I started thinking about what happened to Mars."

"So you twisted the spell and turned him into a beagle?" asked Wendy.

Archer got up on all-fours. "'Beagle'? What are you talking about?"

Wendy took out a compact mirror and opened it.

Archer looked at it and screamed and jumped back. "I'm a dog! I'm a tiny, floppy-eared, fun-covered, canine quadruped!"

"Great!" Wendy said, putting up the mirror, "Now what do we do? We can't just leave him out. With as many people as did the spell, it's bound to be set up right, so it's likely that he'll be stuck like this for like 750 years. And I doubt anyone would wanna house a talking beagle who used to be an evil Warlock."

Lucy looked at her excitedly. "Does that mean we get to keep him?"

Wendy sighed. "I guess we have to keep him."

All the kids squealed.

Archer sighed. "Fine, but I am not—"

Wendy zapped up a tennis ball. "You want the ball?"

"Oh! Oh, yeah! I want the ball!"

"Go get it!" Wendy threw it.

Archer raced after it and fetched it. "Oh no. I'm starting to think like one of them!"

The triplets looked at each other and smiled.