Flynn had promised that he knew a nice quaint little place near here that sold great food. My stomach had immediately grumbled at the thought, I had remembered to bring a frying pan but no food to cook in it. The irony wasn't lost on me.

We trekked through the forest and I chattered at Flynn happily about the most random things; I really never knew what to say to him.

Every once in a while we would pass something absolutely amazing and I would have to stop to look at it. For whatever reason Flynn would look at me funny and stand back when I did this, as if a "butterfly", as he called it, wasn't amazing.

I thought back to what he had said before, he had talked about how mother would be crushed and heartbroken, but he had also been trying to goad me into giving him back his satchel. I didn't know what to think. Something in me told me that I probably shouldn't trust Flynn, and yet, sometimes when I looked into his deep brown eyes I saw pain, and sorrow that I felt mirrored in my own heart. I honestly couldn't get a grasp on who he was.

Suddenly the dirt path we had been walking on widened into a dirt road. We had reached the main path that passed through the forest. The rich smells of stew and freshly baked bread reached my nose. I inhaled savouring the familiarity from home in this strange new world. Up ahead I could see a smaller road that cut off to the left. It had a sign hanging on an old battered post and was swinging lightly in the breeze. Most of the paint had chipped away so it was illegible from a distance.

Flynn slowed down turning his head from side to side.

"Are we lost?" I asked softly my voice trailing off.

"No." He told me with a smile.

He kept walking forward without a care in the world, something told me he wouldn't mind us getting lost.

"I know it's around here somewhere." He said merrily, calling back to me a swing in his step.

I wondered why he was so cheery now, earlier today all he had done was cross his arms and scowl.

We reached the turn in the path and he looked down the lane way.

"Ah," he said with a flourish of his hand gesturing toward a large one story building at the end of the road.

It was long and colourful and despite the fact that it was sagging forward it had a cozy sort of look to it. I smiled happily, no matter how strange Flynn could be, he at least had a good sense in restaurants.

"There it is," he told me waving his hand towards the sign that I could now clearly read.

"The snuggly duckling" he said reading out the establishment's name.

The sign had an adorable picture of a baby duck floating with some reeds. My excitement was growing by the second.

"Don't worry, very quaint place, perfect for you," he assured me tapping on my shoulder. "Don't want you scaring and giving up on this whole endeavor now do we?"

I looked up to him smiling shyly, "well, I do like ducklings..." I told him tentatively my voice soft and quiet.

He leaned in close a slightly crazed smile slipping over his face, wow, I thought, he is really happy.

"Yay!" he squealed, it was slightly peculiar coming from a man's mouth, but then again how would I know?

He grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the door. I noticed how rough his hands were, so much unlike my own. They were strong and had patches that were calloused from hard work, Flynn obviously hadn't had as an easy of a life as he put on, and despite all this, his hands were gentle as he tugged me along.

Grabbing the handle with his free hand and moving his other to the small of my back he flung open the door a grin on his face and yelled into the building.

"Gotho! Your finest table please."

For a moment, one precious moment, my eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room, and I couldn't see anything. Sadly, that moment did pass. At first I didn't understand what I was seeing; great huge lumps of metal and sharp points of dark metal, and then I realized; they were men. They were men like those of which mother had described. Huge and hairy they glared down at me in anger; I was instantly wondering about Flynn's intentions.

There were all different types of terrifying men around the room, one of them smiled at me revealing rows of pointy teeth. As his grin stretched across his face rats crawled up his shoulders like sinister pets.

Another man looked up at me his face angry, he had been polishing the hook that was in replacement of his left hand, perhaps he was angered by the interruption.

I stuck out my frying pan hoping it would provide me some form of protection.

Flynn, who was now standing behind me, rested his hands on my shoulders in some strange form of support.

"You smell that?" he asked me still cheery as ever, "take a deep breath in through the nose."

He breathed in noisily through his nose behind me; I decided to not take his advice.

"Really let that seep in." He instructed as he pushed me past the rows of glaring angry and over all terrifying men.

"What are you getting?" he asked me as if I was really doing as he told me instead of freaking out about the wretched place I was now in.

"Because to me," he said continuing, "It's part man smell, and the other part is really bad man smell. I don't know why, but over all it just smells like the colour brown."

He leaned in close from behind me sticking his face near my petrified one; I was practically hyperventilating from fear.

"Your thoughts?" he asked me with a grin.

Out of nowhere I was being yanked back, someone was touching my hair; a man was touching my hair! I swung my frying pan back forcing the man's grip to loosen. I grabbed up as much as I could and bolted away from him and Flynn to the back of the room.

"That's a lot of hair." I heard him tell Flynn in a deep questioning voice.

Flynn, of course was completely fine as I cowered in the corner he smiled and talked to them.

"She's growing it out." He told him with a dashing smile.

I glanced back towards them, Flynn was now crouched forward staring at the hair above the man's upper lip, I inched back slightly.

"Is that blood in your moustache?" he asked in excitement, still maintaining his cheery mood.

"Goldie look at this," he called back to me, "Look at all the blood in his moustache!"

I inched backwards quickly, gathering up as much of my hair as I could.

"Good sir," he told the man, "that's a lot of blood."

Suddenly my back came into contact with something hard and warm. A low rumbling emanated from its core. I glanced back and swallowed down a yelp, I had walked into a man, I scurried away from him trying to hold onto my hair.

Thrusting out my frying pan and leaning back, I frightfully dared anyone to come any closer. Someone was coming near me I swung around to face them my pan out stretched, I didn't lower it when I realized it was Flynn.

"Hey you don't look so good Blondie," he had his hand clenched under his chin in thought, as if he was thinking very hard, as he spoke to me softly.

"Maybe we should get you home, call it a day. Probably better off, this is a five star joint after all, and if you can't handle this place well maybe you should be back in your tower."

He led me towards the door his hand on my shoulder. Before we could get outside the door was slammed shut in front of us, I spun back to hide behind Flynn, cowering behind him all thoughts of freedom being only of leaving this tavern. The man who had slammed the door shut was the one I had backed into, I swallowed in fear. He had his hand splayed over a poster on the door.

The poster read "WANTED" in big bold red letters at the top, and underneath was a picture of... Flynn. I started to grasp why Flynn didn't want to go into the kingdom.

"Is this you?" the large man asked gesturing towards the picture.

I peeked up from behind Flynn. Flynn grabbed the man's ring finger and slid it upwards to reveal the nose, if the situation were any different I would have giggled, the picture displayed Flynn with a giant and very long straight nose.

"Ugh," he grunted, "now there just being mean."

The man from before, the one with the hook stomped up to us a nasty smiled on his face.

"Oh it's him alright." He said bad intentions seeping into his voice.

The man didn't look back but he called to his friend to go and find some guards, I was suddenly worried for Flynn, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if he got hurt because I dragged him into this.

The man with the hook grabbed Flynn by his shirt and pulled him in baring his teeth.

"That reward's gonna buy me a new hook." He whispered to Flynn a devious smile filling his broad face.

Suddenly Flynn was ripped out of our grasps, and was being pulled away.

"I could use the money!" yelled a man who was now clinging to Flynn in a large bear hug,

"What about me?" roared another grabbing Flynn for himself. "I'm broke." He said trying to justify his actions.

Suddenly every man in the room surged towards Flynn and the man, the one I had backed into earlier actually, and were screaming why they deserved the reward for cashing Flynn in to the palace guards.

"Stay back! Mine!' the man yelled.

Flynn was hoisted up into the air dangling above their heads like a puppet; the poor guy was being yanked and beaten. Terror chilled my bones every time he was hit.

"We could work this out!" Flynn cried out desperately as he was pulled every which way.

"Hey!" I screamed trying to get their attention, "Please, stop!" A man now had Flynn in a headlock, "Hey, leave him alone!"

I scrambled around the throng of people trying to get closer.

"Please!" Flynn yelled out, terror entering his voice.

"Give me back my guy!" I yelled taking my frying pan and just hitting anything I could, trying desperately to get to Flynn.

"Ruffians!" I yelled at them as Flynn tried to duck being hit by one of the larger men.

I looked up to see an old dead tree that had branches reaching the ceiling as some kind of crude decoration, a plan sprung into my mind. Grabbing my hair I slung it towards the branch and pulled tight. "Thugs!" I yelled out. Still they didn't let him go.

Flynn was now gasping like a scared animal, "Not the nose, not the nose!" he pleaded.

Letting out a breath of anger I released the tension in my hair sending the branch flying towards the man with the hook who was right about to sucker punch Flynn in the face. The branch hit him straight in the back sending a ripple through his muscled body, everyone turned to me in shock.

"Put him down!" I screamed to the now silent room.

The man turned to look at me a look of pure anger on his face, everyone was glowering at me or just staring at me in shock.

"Ugh ok," I said gaining my thoughts, "I don't know where I am, and I need him," I gestured to the still suspended Flynn with my frying pan, "to take me to see the lanterns because I've been dreaming about them my entire life!" I gasped for air looking back at them; none of them had so much as shifted their weight. "Find your humanity. Haven't any of you ever had a dream?" I yelled in desperation.

They were all glaring at me now. The one with the hook turned to me fully pulling out a giant body sized axe that was black and looked deadly sharp. I gulped taking a step back. He slowly stalked towards me. I noticed from the corner of my eye that the man I had bumped into earlier, who had been holding Flynn, took Flynn and somehow managed to hang him on a coat hook. I quickly backed up into a barrel and the man with the hook leaned in terrifyingly close to me.

He looked away from me a dreamy look slipping onto his face, it was, well... really strange.

"I had a dream once." He sighed with...was that... remorse?

I leaned in curious. He then took his axe and without looking flung it across the room, it embedded itself in the far wall above the head of a young bard. With a cry of terror the poor man started to play.

"I'm malicious mean and scary," the man said to me a strange sort of sing songy quality entering his voice somehow. "My stare could curdle dairy," he sang baring his teeth; I leaned back putting my frying pan in front of my face. "And violence wise my hands are not the cleanest."

He gestured down to the chalk outline of a Viking with an axe imbedded in the place where its head would be. I swallowed my fear down.

"But despite my evil look and my temper and my hook," he walked over to an area with a stage flinging a poor man off a crate to put up his foot on a table. Out of nowhere I spot light shone through the darkness illuminating him.

"I've always dreamed to be a concert pianist." He jumped backwards onto the stage towards a small brown piano.

He started playing and despite the fact that he wasn't looking and he was using his hooked hand he was very good. He sat down while continuing his song, coming up with the tune, the rhythm and the music on the piano all simultaneously. I grinned clapping along, I felt ashamed of myself. How could I have judged this man based on appearances alone? His looks had nothing to do with what he was like; in fact he seemed like a nice guy.

"Can't you see me on the stage performing Mozart," he sang. "Tickling the ivories till' they gleam." He dragged his hook across the keys sending them flying; I rose up my pan to block the cascade giggling.

"Yes I'd rather be called deadly," he leaned in, "for my killer show tune medley." I laughed full out smiling with him.

"Cuz way down deep inside I've got a dream." everyone else in the room was bobbing up and down to the tune, I myself was swaying with the rhythm.

"He's got a dream, he's got a dream." They sang I laughed seeing the silly grins on their faces. I sat down on a bucket beside him to listen.

"See I ain't as cruel and viscous as I seem." He sang to me smiling at me warmly.

"Though I do like breaking femurs" he said forcefully pounding the keys, "You can count me with the dreamers, like everybody else I've got a dream." The other men started humming the tune to the song, and I just sat there soaking it in.

These people weren't like mother had described. At first they seemed scary, but in reality, they were just nice normal people, with a few quirks I guess... but then again who was I to talk with my eighty foot trail of hair.

A man sat up behind me, I realized that the man at the piano with the hook must have hit him while playing.

"I've got scars and lumps and bruises," he sang sadly, "And something here that oozes," he pointed to his arm, "And let's not even mention my complexion." He sang gesturing up to his face, I smiled at him kindly. He wasn't ugly. He was being hard on himself, true he had a unique face, but as a painter I could see beauty in anything.

"But despite my extra toes," he told me lifting up his foot to show me, "and my goiter and my nose," he wrinkled said nose, "I really want to make a love connection!" he belted out merrily giving me a small daisy and then speeding away.

I spotted him again in a flattened barrel that resembled a boat and a small hermit like man with a pink umbrella. I clutched my hands in front of my chest. Not sure what to think.

"Can't you see me with a special little lady," he took a long pole and started scraping him and the hermit forward, I giggled, it was supposed to resemble a romantic boat ride somehow. "Rowing in a row boat down the steam."

He quickly rigged up the little hermit, (who, as I hadn't noticed before, was dressed as cupid for some absurd reason,) and sent the hermit flying around the room suspended from a pulley.

"Though I'm one disgusting blighter, I'm a lover, not a fighter." He paused looking around the room "Cuz way down deep inside I've got a dream!" he belted out as the hermit flew around the room a dazed look in his eyes.

"I've got a dream," he sang.

"He's got a dream!" the mean repeated.

"And I know one day romance will reign supreme!" he sang with happiness and hope.

He took me by my arm and brought me around the room, he was so sweet and nice; I was so glad that Flynn had brought us here.

He grabbed a man's face, "Though my face leaves people screaming," the man he had held spit out his drink and I hid behind him to avoid the spray. "There's a child behind it dreaming," he murmured clutching his hands in front of his chest, "Like everybody else I've got a dream." He sang hugging me and the other man close.

I smiled up at him happily. Each man now called for me to approach them to see their dreams.

"Corwin would like to quit and be a florist," someone sang as a man arranged a spectacular, (although somehow masculine) bouquet in five seconds flat.

I clapped impressed.

I was spun towards another man who stood sleekly in front of the model of a room, "Günter does interior design," A deep voice resonated.

"Oolf is into mime" Someone shouted as a large man with his face painted white spun past me.

I was thrust before another male, his face hidden by a large metal helmet with horns jutting out the sides.

"Attila's cupcakes are sublime! another belted my way.

Soon I was spinning around the room; being pushed every which way to see the different men and their dreams or quirks.

"Bruiser knits! Killer sews!" Bruiser was knitting a small little sock well killer sewed up a cut on his arm.

"Dangdad's little puppet shows!"

I grinned seeing the many wonders these men could create, Mother was so wrong these men weren't dangerous, they were just a little rough around the edges, but on the inside they're as sweet as can be.

Then we were at the feet of a gigantic man. He was at least seven feet tall and five feet across. Despite what I had just learned I still shied back slightly at the sight of him. The man with the hook, the one who played piano, stood beneath him.

"And Vladimir collects ceramic unicorns." He sang, the large man, Vladimir, brought out two tiny pink collectable unicorns and tapped them together. His blank face split into a large and happy smile.

I now understood, people's personalities have nothing to do with their appearance. Vladimir might be big and scary, but he's just a big misunderstood darling.

All the men lost their cheery attitude as they circled Flynn, despite my eagerness to trust them and the fact that I honestly liked them I still didn't want Flynn going too near to them, they obviously had issues that would be best left untouched.

"What about you?" the pianist growled at Flynn.

"I'm sorry, me?" Flynn asked looking down at them in boredom from his spot hanging off a hook, I giggled at the sight of him. He looked like a scolded kitten.

"What's your dream?" asked the man who had told me he wanted to find love, as he unhooked Flynn from the wall.

"No, no, no," Replied Flynn putting up his hands, "Sorry boys," he told them smiling proudly, "I don't sing."

Obviously the men didn't like that answer, for he now had at least twenty swords in his face. Flynn was forced up onto the table while everyone in the bar stared at him impatiently. Flynn looked very anxious; he was obviously racking his brains for something to say.

"I have dreams like you, no really," he began, although he wasn't really singing, but the men let that slide, probably due to the fact that he was awkwardly dancing across the stage and if we told him to start again he might not keep dancing and his little jig was just too funny to stop.

"Just much less touchy feely." He told us with a demining smile, I rolled my eyes, although I was curious. Flynn hopped over to Vladimir and leaned against him smiling, Vladimir just glared at him.

"They mainly happen somewhere warm and sunny," he sang. Quick as a wink he grabbed one of Vladimir's little unicorns and darted away, Vladimir looked at him with a glare of death as Flynn ran.

Flynn slid onto the floor beside a cauldron that had some water and some weird lump in the middle.

"On an island that I won," he sang sticking the unicorn into the sand making it look like, well, an island. "Tanned and rested and alone," he sang, suddenly Flynn was pulled away sharply.

The men surrounded him each grabbing a limb and pulling.

"Surrounded by enormous piles of money." He finished.

I jumped up onto the table, a huge grin on my face, if Flynn was going to share then so would I.

"I've got a dream," I pronounced.

"She's got a dream," they all replied their voices several octaves below mine.

"I've got a dream," I repeated my voice soft from practice singing the song for mother.

"She's got a dream," they said again raising their glasses to me.

"I just want to see the floating lanterns gleam." I sang flinging my arms in merriment.

I crouched down low so as to be closer to them, "and with every passing hour, I'm so glad I left my tower," I told them jumping up again. "Like all you lovely folks I've got a dream," I sang dreamily.

The men danced around the room throwing barrels and anything they could to the tune.

"She's got a dream," they sang.

"I've got a dream," another young man sang out.

"He's got a dream they replied.

"So our differences ain't really that extreme!" we all sang, I smiled the truth in our words showing all around us.

"We're one big team!" they all sang slowly drawing out the words.

Flynn shouted out, and I glanced over at him only to look back in shock. Flynn was thrown through the air to land on a barrel, a man pushed it from behind and he struggled to maintain balance, I covered my mouth to stop myself from laughing at him.

"Call us brutal," one man sang, as Flynn rolled down the center of the room towards the door gaining speed quickly and passing under torches they were tossing quickly overhead.

"Sick, sadistic!" a man called out.

"And grotesquely optimistic," another chuckled.

Flynn was almost about to hit the door, I covered my eyes only to peek out again.

"Cause way down deep inside we've got a dream," they sang.

"I've got a dream," someone behind me sang.

"I've got a dream," another repeated.

"I've got a dream," said a man spinning from the light fixture.

"I've got a dream," said the man spinning with him.

"I've got a dream," said the man who baked cupcakes. "I've got a dream!" said another.

The pianist and man who was looking for love came up behind me and grabbed me by my elbows pulling my forward, I skipped with them.

"Cause way down deep inside we've got a dream!" they all sang, many of them striking dramatic poses for our finale as I was thrust up onto the table where I spun in a circle joining in on the singing.

"Yeah!" we all shouted jumping into the air.

The old hermit in the diaper landed in my arms, I looked down t him shocked and then shrugged grinning at the amazing experience I had just had with these strangers.

Suddenly the door burst open; a man I vaguely recognized running in and smiling broadly. "I found the guards." He pronounced proudly.

Uh oh.