The rumbling slowly faded away as the soldiers disappeared down the dirt path. The twins both stayed behind the tree for a few moments, making sure the coast was clear.
“I don’t know about you, but I’ve had about as much excitement as I can handle for one day,” Conner told Alex.
A poster pinned to a nearby tree caught Alex’s eye. She walked over to it and pulled it off the tree for further inspection. It was old, with faded writing, and a picture of a disgruntled-looking little girl with curly blonde hair was centered on it. The poster read:
Alex’s face went white, and she stopped breathing for a moment; she had realized where they were. No wonder the trees had been so recognizable. She had seen pictures of them so many times growing up. The book had taken them to the exact place she had hoped.
“Is it possible?” she asked herself. The wheels in her head had never spun as fast as they were now.
“Is what possible?” Conner asked. “Do you know where we are?”
“I think so,” Alex told him.
“Where?” Conner asked, fearing the answer.
“Conner, we went into the book,” she explained, but he wasn’t following her. “I think we’re actually in the Land of Stories.”
She handed him the Wanted poster, and he read it. His eyes grew as wide as a lemur’s.
“No no no! This cannot be happening! This is crazy!” he said, shaking his head. He handed the poster back to his sister as if it were infected with rabies. He couldn’t believe what she was saying; he didn’t want to believe what she was saying. “Are you telling me we’re in the fairy-tale world?”
“I’d recognize this forest anywhere! It’s straight out of Grandma’s book,” Alex said with an unplanned smile. “But it makes perfect sense! Where else would it have taken us?”
“We just fell through a book! Nothing makes sense!” Conner said. “So, are we stuck here or what? How do we get home?”
“I don’t have all of your answers, Conner,” Alex said. “Don’t forget, all of this just happened to me, too!”
Conner began pacing around the trees with his hands on his hips. “I can’t believe I ditched detention and wound up in another dimension,” he said.
Alex was rather grateful her brother had come after her. They had lived together all their lives and had been in the same classrooms since kindergarten. She didn’t know if she could handle being in a different dimension by herself.
“I hope you’re happy, Alex,” Conner said. “I told you we should have thrown the book into the creek!”
“Enough with the blaming,” Alex said. “It doesn’t matter how we got here, the point is we’re here now. What matters is finding someone who can help us get home!”
“Excuse me, may I help you?” said a proper voice behind the twins. They jolted at the sound of another voice besides their own. They turned around to see who it had come from, and once they saw, they both wished they hadn’t.
Standing behind Alex and Conner was what could best be described as a frog man. He was tall, with a wide face, big, glossy eyes, and shiny green skin. He wore a dapper three-piece suit and carried a large glass jar of lily pads.
“Forgive me for eavesdropping, but I’m rather good with directions if you need some,” he said with a very wide smile.
Alex and Conner were so petrified that they were paralyzed. If they needed any more evidence that they were in the fairy-tale world, this was their proof.
“You look awfully young to be in the forest by yourselves,” the frog man said. “Are you lost?”
Conner let out a high-pitched squeal that lasted much longer than it should have. “Please don’t eat us!” he said, and dropped to the ground in a fetal position.
The frog man looked down at him with a frown. “Young man, I have no intention of eating you,” he said. “Is he always like this?” the frog man asked Alex.
Alex responded with a squeal almost identical to the one her brother had made.
“I know, I know. Don’t worry; I’m used to people screaming at me,” the frog man told them. “Get it out of your systems. The shock will only last a minute.”
“We’re sorry!” Alex finally managed to say. “It’s just that, where we’re from there aren’t many… um… frog people? Sorry if that isn’t the politically correct term for what you are!”
Conner let out another high-pitched noise. It wasn’t a scream this time, but it was embarrassing nonetheless.
The frog man studied their faces and paid special attention to their clothes. “Where exactly are you from?”
“Pretty far from here,” Alex said.
A piercing set of wolf howls echoed through the forest. All three of them jumped at the sound. The frog man looked around the trees with fear in his big, glossy eyes.
“It’s getting dark,” the frog man said. “We’d better get inside. Please, follow me home. It’s just a few minutes’ walk from here.”
“Nice try!” Conner said.
The wolf howls echoed again. This time they were much louder than the first. Wherever the wolves were, they were getting closer.
“I know I look scary now,” said the frog man to the twins, “but I’m nothing compared to some of the creatures that lurk around these woods at night. I promise I will not harm you.”
There was such concern in his eyes, it was hard not to trust him. The frog man took off at a brisk walk deeper into the forest.
Alex nudged Conner. “We’d better follow him.”
“Are you crazy? I’m not going home with the giant frog!” Conner whispered to her.
“What do we have to lose?” Alex asked.
“Besides our lives?” Conner said, but, despite his protests, he was dragged up by his sister and pulled in the direction the frog man was leading them.
The twins hurried behind the frog man for a good while. They zigzagged between trees and jumped over boulders and tree roots that stuck up from the ground. The deeper they went into the forest, the thicker the trees became. It got dark very quickly and was almost pitch-black by the time they reached the frog man’s home.
Alex and Conner stayed close together. With every step they second-guessed if they had made a smart choice going with this strange creature.
“This way,” he said.
The frog man brushed aside some dead vines growing over a large wooden door that was camouflaged into the side of a small hill. He pulled the door open and led the hesitant twins underground. He looked back into the forest, making sure they hadn’t been followed, before shutting the door behind him.
It was very dark underground. Alex and Conner were so close together, they could have been mistaken for Siamese twins.
“Forgive the mess. I wasn’t expecting company,” the frog man apologized, and lit a lamp with a match.
Alex and Conner didn’t know what to expect of the frog man’s home, but what they were seeing definitely wasn’t it.
They were in a large room with dirt walls and a low, dirt ceiling. Roots from a tree growing above them grew down like a chandelier. A cluster of big, cushy chairs and sofas—many of the cushions had the stuffing sticking out of them—sat in the center of the room and were angled to face a small fireplace. Nearby, teacups and pots hung from hooks over a tiny kitchenette.
To Alex’s delight, there were books everywhere. Shelves of books lined the dirt walls; piles of books were stacked on every available surface and on the ground; it was as if the room were infested with literature.
“Conner,” Alex whispered close to him. “Look around at this place! It’s like we’re having our own Lucy and Mr. Tumnus moment!”
Conner looked around and saw what she meant. “If he offers us Turkish delight, I don’t care what you say: We’re getting out of here!” he whispered back.
“It’s a little dirty, but it’s cozy,” the frog man said. “It’s hard to find a landlord who will house a frog, so I did the best I could with what I had.”
He placed his jar of lily pads on the ma
ntel and immediately started a fire in the fireplace. He filled a teakettle with water from a pitcher, placed it over the fire, and took a seat in a big, white chair closest to it. He crossed his legs and folded his hands neatly in his lap. He was one proper frog.
“Please have a seat,” the frog man said, gesturing to the sofa in front of him. The twins reluctantly did as he asked. The sofa was rather lumpy, so they had to shift around in their seats to get comfortable.
“What are you?” Conner asked the frog.
“Conner, don’t be rude!” said his sister, elbowing him in the side.
“It’s quite all right,” the frog man said with a complicated smile. “I understand my appearance takes some time to get used to. Even I haven’t fully adapted to it yet.”
“You mean, you weren’t always a… um… frog person?” Alex asked as politely as she could.
“Heavens, no,” the frog man said. “I was cursed years ago by a very aggressive witch.”
“Why?” Alex asked. She was fascinated by how casually he had said it.
“To teach me a lesson, I suppose,” the frog man told her. “I used to be a very vain young man. The witch transformed my appearance so I would lose all of the things I took for granted.”
His wide smile softly faded. It had obviously been a very long and painful experience for him, and he still had a sad sense of loss and longing about him. The twins had never seen a frog look so sad.
“I can’t even imagine what that must have been like,” said Alex, beaming with sympathy.
“Can we call you Froggy?” Conner asked with a small smirk.
“Conner!” Alex reprimanded.
“It’s quite all right.” The frog man nodded, and his smile returned. “I’ve learned that the more people embrace their disadvantages, the less disadvantaged they become! Please, call me Froggy. I’d prefer it.”
Conner shrugged and smiled.
“May I get you some lily pad tea?” Froggy asked the twins.
Both the twins nodded; they didn’t want to be rude. Froggy retrieved the teakettle from the fire and hopped—literally—to the kitchenette and poured water into three teacups. He opened the jar on the mantel and dropped a lily pad into each teacup and stirred.
“Do either of you take flies with your tea?” he asked, reaching for another jar on his mantel, this one filled with dead flies.
“No thanks,” Conner said. “Trying to quit.”
“Suit yourself,” Froggy said, and dropped a few flies into his tea. He handed them each a teacup and reseated himself across from them. They stared down at it for a few moments before deciding they’d at least pretend to drink it.
“What are your names?” Froggy asked the twins.
“I’m Alex and this is my brother, Conner.”
A large and happy smile came to Froggy’s face.
“Are you by any chance Alex Bailey?” Froggy asked, grinning from ear equivalent to ear equivalent.
“Um… yes.” Alex was shocked. How did this amphibian know who she was?
“As in ‘This book belongs to Alex Bailey’?” Froggy asked. He leaned over the side of his chair and pulled up a stack of books, opening one to show where the phrase was written inside it.
“Those are my books!” Alex said excitedly, recognizing the books she had dropped into The Land of Stories. “I was wondering what had happened to them.”
“It was so peculiar,” Froggy explained. “I was out collecting flies and was walking down the path to the swamp when one just fell from the sky and landed on my head. I returned the next day and found several more in the same spot. It was the oddest thing that’s ever happened to me!”
“You mean, besides being turned into a frog, right?” Conner asked. “Because if I were you, that would be on the top of my list—ouch!” Alex elbowed her brother.
Froggy ignored Conner and went on with his explanation.
“As you can see from my shelves, I love to collect books, especially when I’m not expecting to,” he said. “And these books were unlike any I had ever read! They described people and places I had never seen or heard of, and I thought I had seen it all! The authors wrote about such interesting places. Could you imagine a world without witches or trolls or giants? What imaginations!”
Froggy chuckled at the thought of this. The twins laughed along with the best fake laughs they could muster.
“Please keep them. I have duplicate copies at home,” Alex told him.
Froggy was delighted to hear this.
“Uh-huh.” Conner cleared his throat. “Speaking of home, I don’t mean to interrupt this little book club, but we’re very lost and would like to know where we are.”
Froggy’s glossy eyes went back and forth between the twins, watching them closely.
“Oh, children, you wouldn’t be here if you knew where you were,” Froggy said. “You’re in the Dwarf Forests.”
He had expected to get some sort of worried reaction from the twins, but Alex and Conner just stared up at him with very little expression.
“The Dwarf Forests?” Alex asked. “What are the Dwarf Forests?”
“You’ve never heard of them?” Froggy asked, completely appalled. The twins both shook their heads.
“It’s a very dangerous place,” Froggy told them. “It’s the only designated area of land without a ruler or a government; it’s a kingdom where everyone is their own king. It used to be populated by dwarfs who worked in the mines, but now it’s full of criminals and fugitives mostly. It’s a place where people go when they don’t want to be found.”
Knowing they had not only traveled into another world but were in a dangerous part of that world did nothing to help the twins’ anxiety level.
“Are there other kingdoms?” Alex asked.
Froggy was stunned. It was as if she had asked him what color the sky was. However, he seemed to be enjoying their unfamiliarity.
“Of course,” he said. “There’s the Northern Kingdom, the Sleeping Kingdom, the Charming Kingdom, the Corner Kingdom, the Fairy Kingdom, the Red Riding Hood Kingdom, the Elf Empire, the Dwarf Forests, and the Troll and Goblin Territory. How can you possibly not know this?”
This was difficult for the twins to wrap their heads around. How big was the fairy-tale world?
Their puzzled faces inspired Froggy to hop out of his seat and cross to one of the bookshelves and return with a large, rolled-up scroll. He handed it to the twins, and they unrolled it.
It was a large, detailed map of the new world they were in. The fairy-tale world was a wide continent bordered by mountain ranges and covered in forests with castles and palaces and villages scattered all around.
The Northern Kingdom was the largest of the kingdoms and took up most of the top of the map. The second largest was the Charming Kingdom, spread across to the south, and the third largest was the Sleeping Kingdom, which stretched along the east. The Dwarf Forests covered the majority of the west.
The tiny Corner Kingdom was tucked away in the southwest corner of the continent, and in the northwest corner was the Elf Empire. In between the Charming Kingdom and the Sleeping Kingdom was the Fairy Kingdom, and just above that was the Troll and Goblin Territory.
The Fairy Kingdom looked beautiful, as it was very colorful and seemed to sparkle on the map. The Troll and Goblin Territory looked frightening and appeared to be surrounded by large boulders and rocks, preventing anything from going in or coming out.
In the very center of it all was the Red Riding Hood Kingdom, circled by an unmistakable brick wall of gigantic proportions.
Alex and Conner couldn’t believe it. The world they had grown up hearing about was real. It was all real, and it was bigger and better than they ever could have imagined.
Alex couldn’t help but get emotional. Tears began to flood her eyes.
“Together, all the kingdoms create the Happily Ever After Assembly,” Froggy explained.
“The Happily Ever After Assembly?” Conner asked with a slight touch of sarcas
m in his voice.
“It’s the organization formed to uphold the treaty all the rulers signed so that all the kingdoms could live in peace and prosperity,” Froggy told them.
“Sounds like our United Nations,” Alex whispered to Conner.
“All the kingdoms have their own traditions and celebrated histories,” Froggy went on.
“And there are kings and queens, I’m assuming?” Conner asked.
“Oh, yes,” Froggy said. “The Northern Kingdom is ruled by Queen Snow White. The Corner Kingdom is watched over by Queen Rapunzel. The Sleeping Kingdom—formerly known as the Eastern Kingdom, but renamed after the dreadful curse under which it was placed—is governed by Queen Sleeping Beauty. And of course, the Charming Kingdom is ruled by King Charming and his wife, Queen Cinderella.”
“Wait, are these the current monarchs?” Alex asked, with a spark of excitement in her eyes. “You mean Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty… they’re all still alive?”
“Of course they are!” Froggy said.
“Oh my goodness, that’s wonderful!” Alex said excitedly. “Isn’t that wonderful, Conner?”
“Whatever,” Conner mumbled.
“How old do you think they are?” Froggy asked. “Queen Snow White and King Charming have only been married a few years. Queen Cinderella and King Charming are expecting their first child soon. Queen Sleeping Beauty and King Charming are sadly still trying to restore their kingdom to consciousness after that horrible sleeping spell it was placed under.”
“Wait,” Conner said. “Are you saying all these queens are married to the same guy?”
“Certainly not,” Froggy said. “There are three King Charmings. They’re brothers.”
“Of course!” Alex said. “Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty all married Prince Charming! There’s more than one! How come I never thought about that?”
Conner’s eyes were fixated on the map. He kept searching for some kind of road or bridge that would lead them back home, but he found nothing.
“Why are there a bunch of rocks around the Troll and Goblin Territory?” Conner asked.
“As punishment,” Froggy said. “Trolls and goblins are nasty creatures and have a habit of kidnapping people and turning them into slaves. The Fairy Council forced the trolls and goblins into one territory, and none of them are allowed to leave without permission.”