Annie moved her legs aside when the cat jumped onto the bed, giving him enough room to curl up in a soft, warm ball by her feet. She thought she’d never fall asleep with the donkey snoring loudly in the corner, but her sister warmed her back and the cat snuggled against her feet, so she soon drifted off. It seemed like only moments later that she woke to the cat poking her face with his paw.
“The thieves are back! I can hear them,” growled the dog.
Annie sat up and looked around the room. Although it was still dark, enough starlight came through the window that she could see vague outlines. Gwendolyn was asleep, but the animals were all awake, watching the door. Liam stood by the hearth with his sword in his hand and Beldegard was on his feet, rubbing his back against the edge of the stone fireplace; both had their eyes on the door.
The door was creaking open when Annie turned her head. She held her breath as two… four… six men crept into the cottage, each carrying a weapon that glinted red in the light of the fireplace. The last man had just stepped over the threshold when the rooster launched himself from the rafter, crowing as he landed on the head of one of the thieves.
Gwendolyn woke with a start and looked around, confused.
The rooster began to peck at one man who screamed and tried to fend off the bird. By then the dog had dashed across the room and bitten a second thief and the cat launched himself onto the shoulders of another man, biting and clawing.
“The monster is still here!” cried the first man.
“Run!” shouted the second.
Beldegard rose up on his hind legs. His head brushed the bottom of the rafters as he stomped toward the door, casting a fearsome, wavering shadow across the room. Throwing back his head, Beldegard ROARED so that the cottage shook, the men screamed, and Annie and Gwendolyn covered their ears.
The men were fighting to get out when the donkey turned so that his tail was toward the door and began to kick with his hind legs. Squeezing through the doorway two and three at a time, the thieves piled out of the cottage and ran as fast as they could.
Beldegard roared one last time, then settled down on all fours.
“That worked well!” he said.
The dog ran to the doorway and peered out into the dark. “They’re still running.”
“I don’t think they’ll ever come back,” the cat said as he hopped onto the bed again.
“Good!” said the donkey. “Now maybe we can get some sleep!”
Chapter 17
The rooster crowed at dawn the next morning, startling everyone awake.
“Does he do this every morning?” asked Annie.
The dog sat up and started scratching her ear with her back foot. “Always.”
“Then I’m glad he’s not traveling with us,” grumbled Gwendolyn.
After a hearty breakfast provided by the tablecloth, Annie and her companions prepared to leave. Liam and Beldegard had already gone outside when the cat said to Annie, “Last night when the thieves came back I tried to talk to you, but I couldn’t speak. I could talk again when I was no longer near you. Why is that?”
“Magic doesn’t work around me,” Annie told him.
“I thought it was something like that,” said the cat. “So as long as I keep my distance, I should still be able to talk?”
“That’s right.”
“Good to know,” said the cat. “My friends and I want to go with you. We can be very helpful,” he said when Annie and Gwendolyn looked reluctant.
“I can carry you on my back,” offered the donkey.
“I can bark at strangers,” said the dog.
“I can catch the mice before they eat your food,” promised the cat.
“And I’ll wake you every morning at dawn,” added the rooster.
Annie winced. “We could have done without that last offer. How about we let you come as long as the rooster doesn’t wake us every morning at dawn?”
“Sure, if that’s what you want,” the cat said, looking at her as if she were crazy.
The donkey was the first animal out the door. He was waiting for them when the sisters emerged from the cottage. “Who wants a ride?” he asked.
Liam gave Annie a quizzical look. She shrugged and said, “They want to come with us. Do you mind?”
“Not at all,” he said. The dog thumped her tail.
When the donkey moved closer, Liam and the princesses looked him over. He was an old creature with a sagging back and a patchy coat. His mane was thin in places and none of him was very clean. Because he had no saddle, whoever rode him would have to ride bareback.
“I think Gwendolyn should go first,” Annie said, even as her sister was saying the same about her. “You’re older than I am,” Annie told her. “And you said that your feet hurt last night.”
“I’ll help you up,” Liam said.
Gwendolyn gave both Liam and Annie dirty looks as she climbed onto the donkey’s back. “I won’t forget this,” Gwendolyn told her sister.
Annie just smiled and turned to the cat. “Do you four have names?” she asked as the donkey began to walk. Gwendolyn squealed and almost fell off, but she regained her balance and grabbed hold of the donkey’s meager mane.
“Of course we have names,” said the cat. “Our master gave them to us. I’m Cat, and the dog is Dog, and the rooster is Rooster.”
“Let me guess,” said Liam. “The donkey is named Donkey.”
The donkey snorted. “Don’t be silly. My name is Quentin. No one names a donkey Donkey!”
“Master had a friend named Quentin who he said was a real donkey,” Cat announced. “He thought they should have the same name.”
They had gone only a few miles when they entered an older forest that Beldegard said had to be the Black Woods. The trees were taller, making the shade deeper even on a cloudless day. It was quieter than most forests as well, almost as if the songbirds and other forest creatures were afraid to venture there. The silence soon wore on Annie’s nerves and she found herself glancing behind her and peering into the gloom, afraid of what she might see.
The forest must have made Gwendolyn nervous as well, because she began talking in a bright cheerful voice as if to make up for the silence. She was telling Beldegard what she wanted to wear for their wedding when the sound of hammering made her stop midsentence and she urged Quentin closer to the bear prince. A few minutes later they heard voices.
“I told you not to make the chimney big! It’s supposed to draw the smoke out of the fireplace, not let a wandering dragon or flock of eagles swoop in for a friendly visit!”
“We couldn’t help it!” replied a voice Annie had heard before. “We were trying to get the bricks lined up right and we got a little carried away. Neither of us ever claimed we were masons. Enrique and I are just trying to be helpful. If you aren’t satisfied with our work, you should do it all yourself. You’re the only one who knows how to lay a straight line of bricks.”
“If we’re to get this cottage done quickly, I can’t do everything myself. You know I had to finish the walls. If I didn’t get them just right, the whole thing could fall down. Ah well, what’s done is done,” said the first voice as Annie and her companions rounded a curve in the road. “It will have to do for now.”
“Look!” said Gwendolyn. “It’s the little pigs! And they have another pig with them.”
Three pigs stood by the side of the road, eyeing a tidy little house made of red brick with a yellow tile roof. Bigger than either the house made of straw or the house made of twigs, it was almost as big as a house made for humans. Its chimney, however, was huge, and would have been more appropriate for a much bigger house.
“Don’t look now,” one of the pigs whispered in a loud voice to the others, “but I think those people are staring at us.”
“I met them before,” said the smallest pig. Annie recognized him as the one who had built the house of twigs.
“I met them, too,” said the middle-size pig, who had built the house of straw.
> “Then I guess it’s my turn to meet them,” said the largest pig. “Hello!” he said, walking on his hind legs to the road where Annie and her friends were watching. “My name is Curcio. I understand you’ve already met my brothers, Enrique and Anselmo.”
“Indeed we have,” said Liam.
“Would you like to come inside for some tea?” asked Curcio. “I’m just about to brew a fresh pot.”
“You go ahead,” said Beldegard. “If I go in there no one else would fit. I’ll scout around and see what I can find.”
“But Maitland…,” Gwendolyn began.
“If my brother is following us, I’ll be going away from him, not toward him. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I won’t go far and I’ll be back soon.”
“You’d better,” said Gwendolyn, ruffling the fur on the top of his head. “You know how much I miss you when we’re apart.”
“We’ll stay out here,” said Cat as Quentin and the other animals wandered off. “I hear mice in the woodpile.”
Liam was the first one through the cottage door. It was a sturdy structure, with a large room in the front and two smaller rooms in the back. The windows were only as wide as one brick was long—just enough to let air and a little light into the cottage. The fireplace in the larger room was as big as the chimney implied, with an opening almost tall enough for Annie to stand in. But the ceilings were so low that Liam had to walk bent over.
“This is charming!” Gwendolyn said, following them into the room. She ran her hand across the child-sized oak table that stood in front of the fireplace.
“I whipped that table up last night,” said the pig named Anselmo. “I was a carpenter before he came along.”
“Who is he?” asked Annie.
“The dwarf who turned us into pigs,” said Curcio. “Please be seated and I’ll tell you what happened while I start the water for the tea. Would you mind locking the door? A wolf has been terrorizing my brothers and we’re afraid he might come here.”
“A wolf?” Liam asked as he slid the bolt that locked the door.
Enrique nodded. “He came to my cottage not five minutes after you did. I ran inside and locked the door when I saw him, so he stood in my yard and threatened me. When I refused to go out, he huffed and puffed and blew my beautiful little house of straw down. Fortunately, I’d already escaped out the back door and hid in the hay behind my house. I used to be a farmer, you see, and that was one of my fields.”
As the little pig talked, Annie took a seat on the low bench that ran the length of the table. Gwendolyn sat on the other bench, wincing when she bumped her knees. After eyeing the benches, Liam sat cross-legged on the floor beside Annie. They all watched Curcio add a log to the already burning fire.
“You had already gone by and so had the prince and his men when the wolf came to my house,” said Anselmo. “I was looking out my door when I saw him, so I slammed it shut and locked it just before he tried to barge in. He started shouting threats at me, trying to make me come out, but when I didn’t he huffed and he puffed and he blew my beautiful little house of twigs down. I’d already run out the back door and was hiding in the woods behind my cottage.”
“My brothers came to stay with me after that,” said Curcio, “and have been helping me build my beautiful house of bricks. I was a mason and built many of the better houses here in the Black Woods, although you wouldn’t know I could do such fine work if you look at the chimney on this house. I appreciate my brothers’ help, but such shoddy work is embarrassing!”
“It’s not that bad!” grumbled Anselmo.
“I’ve known a wolf was following us,” Liam said. “But tell us more about this dwarf who turned you into pigs.”
“He was a nasty piece of work,” said the little pig. “Enrique and I were visiting our brother, when the dwarf walked into the farmhouse as if he owned it. What was it—a week ago?” he asked his brothers.
“Something like that,” replied Enrique. “The days all blend together now.”
“And you say it was just one dwarf? There wasn’t an older one with him?”
Curcio shook his head as he set a pot of water on a hook over the fire. “There was just the one. ‘I’m hungry,’ the dwarf said. ‘Bring me a pitcher of ale and a haunch of venison.’”
“‘This isn’t an inn,’ I told him,” said Enrique. “‘Get out of my house. You have no right to be here.’”
“But the dwarf just laughed,” said Anselmo. “So I picked him up—I was a big man then—and carried him to the door. He got all red-faced and angry and told me to take my hands off him. He called me a pig, then he really began to laugh. The next thing I knew, I was a little pig, and so were my brothers. One of my neighbors kicked us out of the house the next day and moved his own family in. ‘This house is much too good for pigs,’ he said.”
“Here we go,” said Curcio, deftly lifting the pot from the fire. He used his two front trotters to hold the pot steady as he poured the boiling water into earthenware mugs.
“A dwarf turned my true love Beldegard into a bear,” said Gwendolyn. “It has to be the same dwarf. We’re looking for him now so he can turn Beldegard back.”
“How are you going to find him?” asked Curcio.
“We’ve been told that he was called home to the Black Woods because of a family emergency,” said Annie. She turned to Liam to say, “He and his brother must have split up before they got this far.”
“His family lives here in the Black Woods?” Curcio said. “I know where a family of dwarves lives. I rebuilt their chimney for them about five years ago when a storm knocked their old one down. I can tell you how to—”
The door handle rattled, making everyone turn around. “Little pig! Little pig! Let me come in!” cried a scratchy voice.
“It’s that wolf!” cried Anselmo. “Are you sure the door is locked?”
“I’m sure,” said Liam.
“Little pig! Little pig! I won’t go away. I just want to hear what you have to say!”
“He means he just wants to eat us,” said Enrique.
“We’re not letting you in, no matter how much you lie!” Curcio yelled at the door.
“Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down!” cried the wolf.
Liam jumped to his feet, but he forgot that the ceiling was low and bumped his head against it. He was rubbing his head with one hand when he set his other hand on the hilt of his sword.
Anselmo fidgeted, too nervous to stand still. “I knew he’d be here sooner or later,” he said.
Enrique began to nibble the edge of one of his front trotters, his eyes glued to the door.
Curcio ran to a window slit and peered out. “I can’t see a thing,” he told them as he moved on to the next. “I made these windows narrow so nothing can get in, but I can’t see much through them. I should have put more of the blasted things in this wall. Oh, wait, there he is. Yup, he’s blowing at the house.”
The sound of coughing came from outside. “It looks like he’s giving up now,” said the pig, peering out of the window again. “He’s walking away. I think we should stay inside for a while, just to make sure. I’ll heat up more water. We might as well have another cup of tea.” The little pig was setting the pot on the fireplace hook when there was a thump on the roof and the sound of scrabbling claws on the tile.
“He’s on the roof!” Anselmo said, staring at the ceiling.
Suddenly dust poofed out of the chimney into the room. There was a scratching, clawing, whooshing sound and the wolf fell out of the chimney into the room, knocking the pot of water off its hook and dousing the fire.
“Ow!” he howled, scrambling to get out of the fireplace. “Those coals are hot!”
The wolf lurched into the room and skidded to a stop when he saw that the tip of Liam’s sword was only inches from his long, pointy nose. “That was a bad idea, Wolf,” Liam said, taking a step closer. “I’ve skewered many wolves before, but never one who can speak.”
“T
here’s no need to be violent,” said the wolf, backing away. “I just wanted to talk to the little porkers.”
“Really?” said Annie. “And do you always drool when you want to talk to someone?”
“I can’t help it! They smell really good and I haven’t eaten in a while. But I didn’t come here to eat them. I just wanted to ask them something. Would you mind putting that sword down?” he asked Liam.
“Yes, I would mind. Go ahead and ask your question before my patience deserts me,” Liam replied.
“It’s just that they don’t act like pigs, so I was wondering if they were humans once, before a certain dwarf came by—”
“He must have overheard us talking,” said Annie. “That’s how he knows about the dwarf. I don’t trust him. He hasn’t stopped drooling since he got here.”
“I told you I was hungry. I can’t control it. I can’t control a lot of things since the dwarf changed me. I don’t know the first thing about being a wolf.”
“Aren’t you the one who scared Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother out of her house?” asked Gwendolyn.
“Hey, at least I didn’t eat her! I was starving and no one was going to give me food if I just went up and asked. When I saw Little Red carrying a basket of food I thought she could help me.”
“If you were so hungry, why didn’t you chase down a rabbit or something?” asked Gwendolyn.
“You people don’t listen very well. I told you, I don’t know how to be a wolf. My body wants me to eat raw meat, but I still find it revolting. The dwarf turned me into a wolf just last week and I’ve been eating people food whenever I can.”
“If that’s true, how did the dwarf turn you into a wolf?” asked Liam.
The wolf sighed. “I was in a tavern, minding my own business playing cards with my friends, when the dwarf insisted on joining us. We hadn’t played more than a few hands when he accused me of cheating. The next thing you know, I’m scratching fleas with my back foot and men with pitchforks are coming after me. Running away wasn’t easy ‘cause I had no idea how to do it with four feet.”