by Holly Hook
If Mary was right, there wasn't one anywhere around here.
"Red!" Tate shouted. "Come back. We don't know what's out there."
I ran faster, leaving my hoodie behind. I about smacked into a tall guy in green with a bow on his back. "Whoa!" he said, holding up his hands, but I dodged around him, and he said nothing more. I came into an open space and reached a small bridge. It was a raised bridge sitting over a gurgling river, and I ducked under it, hoping there was no one down here fishing. Or worse--a troll. Did those exist in fairy tales? Somewhere, maybe. But the place was empty except for some barren ground where people had no doubt stood and sat for hours on end. I sat down under the shadow and tucked up as much as I could under the bridge.
I had to be alone for a bit while I reflected on my crappy life.
Grandma had gotten kidnapped because of me. We should have never gone to Disney World. And if the story was right, there was a wolf there, waiting to devour her. Even if I reached her, I might find some terrible monster in her place.
And it would be waiting to devour me, too. Mary had said something about Alric wanting the fairy tales to fall.
"Red." Tate stood there at the base of the bridge. His legs came into my view and cast an even darker shadow on the water.
I ignored him. I watched a small golden fish swim by, doing happy circles. The fish was metallic gold as if some piece of treasure had come to life. I reached out to touch it, but the creature managed to dart away into the depths of the river before I could. This place was magical.
"Red. Let me at least come down here and sit with you."
I knew it was no use fighting. "Go ahead." What was I going to say to him?
Tate came down and sat with me. He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close. The leather of his jacket squeaked again. It was warm from being in the sun.
"I had no idea," he said.
"Neither did I."
"Your grandmother--we have to find her. We both know what happens in that story."
I thought about the wolf that was supposed to go and eat her. And lie in her bed to wait for me. Did Grandma have a house here in Fable that I had to visit? Maybe she'd taken me and her to the other world so we could avoid the wolf and the dark forces growing in this world.
It was also no wonder my parents were out of the picture. Maybe she'd left them here somewhere.
"I don't know what this powerful Alric guy wants from her," I said. "Maybe he's trying to destroy all the good in this place and replace it with the bad. Maybe he wants to feed her to the wolf that wants her. And me, too."
Tate said nothing to that. I had the most horrible feeling I was right. I couldn't see what else Alric would want with her. Maybe she was bait so he could attract that wolf into his ranks. He was supposed to be gathering all the dark forces in Fable, after all.
"You two? Are you down there?"
It was Brie, standing there at the bridge. Her yellow skirt swayed a bit in the breeze. It looked even more tattered now.
I said nothing. I didn't even know this girl. All I knew was that she was another Legend like I was supposed to be. Stilt, too. She had spun gold at one point.
"Look," I said. "I just had my whole life shattered in less than twenty-four hours and my grandmother's missing. I just need some time alone to think about this."
"I know how that feels. Having your life shattered, anyway. Your story likes to follow you, but you don't have to be its victim."
I wondered what Brie had gone through here. Had she come from the other world, too? But I didn't ask. I wasn't going to save my grandmother just by sitting here under the bridge. The wolf could be going to devour her right now. I had to go back to Mary and ask what I needed to do. There was no way I was going to leave her.
I got up and took a breath. "Back to the house," I said. "I need to find out what my terrifying quest is going to be."
Chapter Five
Tate and I walked back to the house with Brie. Brie didn't speak on the way back. The girl seemed lost. She looked into the forest a lot as if waiting for Alric to come out. I'd be lost, too, if I had helped the magician rise to power, even if it was a total accident. Of course she and Stilt hadn't meant to do it if they were just trying to overthrow the old King, but still. It must not be an easy thing.
Mary was still waiting in the sitting room of her little house. The straw smell overtook me again, and Brie winced as we stepped through the threshold. I faced her.
"I don't like straw," she whispered to me. Her words promised a story later. An interesting one.
Mary had taken the book away. I couldn't see where she had put it. I was glad. I didn't want to face it again. But my hoodie still sat there in the chair, red as ever. Brie had mentioned my story following me. Maybe there was some truth in that.
"What do I need to do to save my grandmother?" I asked. "Because I will. I didn't come here for nothing."
Mary took a breath and wandered over to the table and sat. "You have read your story, right?"
"In school. My grandmother probably wouldn't have let me go that day if she knew about it."
"In Fable, Legends are reborn over and over to live their stories," Mary explained. "Fable is fed by the imaginations of humankind. You and your grandmother have lived and died here many times before. So have Brie and Stilt. Brie and Stilt found a way to fight their story, but that's a tale for another time."
Her words gave me a bit of hope. There might be a way to stop the wolf from getting to my grandmother in the first place. I smelled the air again. It was still familiar, tickling the very edges of my memory. Maybe Mary was onto something. This world did seem familiar somehow.
"And every time," she continued, "you acted out the same story, with no memory of your past lives. Your grandmother is sick. Your parents have you take her some wine and cakes to make her feel better, and on the way to her cottage, you meet a wolf. The wolf tricks you into disobeying your parents, and you go off the trail. While you're distracted, the wolf consumes your grandmother. You reach her house, and then the wolf consumes you. It takes a passing huntsman to free the two of you. Alric, like me, knows all of these stories, including yours."
"What does he want with us?" I asked.
Mary cleared her throat. "Even though Alric has inherited a huge amount of gold--and therefore magic--from Henrik, it is not quite enough for him to take over Fable. But I have spies who wander into the dark region. Spies who have been in his castle and his libraries. Alric has figured out that he can turn more of Fable to darkness and spread his control over it if he makes all of its stories fall. That is, his new plan is to make all of the fairy tales you know end in tragedy and sadness instead of triumph. With each one that falls, more of Fable will grow dark. We can't let that happen."
I gulped. "Alric wants to make sure my grandmother and I get eaten and never get rescued."
Mary nodded. She was sad. Even Brie gave me a look of sympathy. "Yes. He wants to make sure your story ends badly this time. Alric has taken your grandmother. I don't know what his exact plans are for her, but they can't be good. Your story is his first target."
The world darkened for a minute. A cloud moved over the sun and cast the whole room in shadow. Even the elf guy, Stilt, seemed to dim.
"This is what we are up against," Mary finished. "We have to make sure that your story ends in victory or Alric will extend his control over a large area. He will be going after the most famous stories first. Like yours."
An immense weight seemed to come down on my shoulders.
If I didn't manage to rescue my grandmother, I would be letting more of Fable fall into darkness. I wondered how the dark spots looked. The slow, encroaching evil.
"I think this Alric guy is trying to bait you in," Tate told me. "You really shouldn't go. If you don't go, your story doesn't end, right?"
"But it's my grandmother," I told him. "I got her into this mess. I have to get her out." Anger rose up inside of me. My skin itched a bit.
"I think
your gentleman friend is right," Mary said. "Alric is trying to bait you in. He expects you to go to your grandmother. It is your story and what you are supposed to do. And it is also your story to disobey and suffer the consequences for it."
"Here's this story stuff again," Stilt said. "You'll love it."
"But if my story doesn't end, Alric can't win more of Fable, right?" What about my grandmother?
"You must go," Mary said. "If you leave your grandmother to certain doom, the story ends badly, just in a different way than we expect. The only way for you to succeed is to go to her yourself."
I felt terrible for even thinking of not going, but either way was awful. Alric could win if I did go and I'd be putting Tate in danger. I'd be doing the thing Grandma had told me not to do. Going against her when she had good reasons behind her craziness after all. She'd just been doing her best to keep us out of this situation, and I'd spent my whole life resenting her.
The wolf must have eaten me in all my past lives, and I sat in its stomach, waiting for the huntsman to cut me out. It was a disgusting thought that made vomit rise in the back of my throat. Was that wolf out there, waiting for me right now? He might have eaten my grandmother already and was waiting in her bed.
And if Alric had his way, it would eat us both again, and there would be no rescue. Fable would turn darker. His influence would spread, maybe even to this village.
"So what am I supposed to do?" I asked. "March in there with an army and rescue my grandmother? I can't just go right into the trap."
"Alric is mighty," Mary said. "Don't think for a second that I have any power here. I'm just the woman with a handy copy of all the fairy tales."
"You're more than that," I said. "The people here listen to you. You know. There must be some way to avoid whatever trap this Alric has set for me."
"Your story will find ways to follow you," Mary said. "The key is to find a way to win in your story. And we do not have soldiers here. No one who can go against Alric."
"She's right," Stilt said. His weird inner glow faded a bit more. It seemed to change with his moods. "I've been face to face with the guy. He can do things like shrink you and make you stand completely still. I couldn't even strike him." His shoulders slumped with something like shame.
Mary took the teacups off the table and headed back to the kitchen with them. "The best we can all do right now is make sure that Alric doesn't make any more fairy tales turn dark. Red, you are going to have to go and rescue your grandmother from the sway of the evil wolf. The Watchers took her down the road, into the forest. I imagine they took her to the cottage where she spent all her past lives."
"The forest?" Tate asked.
"Yes," Mary told him. Her brown eyes locked on me. They were tearful. Scared. This poor woman had been trapped here for thirty years, and now this home was threatened, too. Soon, she'd have nowhere to go. "If your story ends badly this time, I'm afraid the entire forest next to us will turn dark. We may not survive here for long."
"Can I at least take a weapon?" I asked. "Are there any, like, magical weapons in this place that I can use against wolves?"
Mary flinched. "You're going to take the young huntsman."
"The what?" I asked.
"The young huntsman. Take him with you. For your story to end happily, you will need him. It's the way it's supposed to go."
I slid my hand into Tate's and squeezed. He returned it. It was better than nothing. "I'm going, too," he said.
Mary faced him. "You're not part of the story. I don't know what's going to happen to you if you go."
"I don't care. I love Red, and I'm going."
Relief settled inside of me. I wouldn't have to do this alone, at least. “I might need more than one huntsman when I go on this,” I said. “Like, some knights. Do you have those here?”
“Henrik’s knights are gone,” Stilt said in a tone that told me there was a story behind that. “There aren’t many here in the lighter region that will dare go into the darker one. The man we’re up against can shrink entire kingdoms and imprison them if he wants.”
I shuddered. This Alric guy could walk in right now and shrink us all if what this guy was telling me was true. I squeezed Tate’s hand harder.
“When do we leave?" Tate asked.
Was that guilt in his eyes? Maybe. “Tate, I don’t want you to endanger yourself. You don’t even belong in this. If something happened to you because of this, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.” I faced Mary again. “There have to be people here who can go with me. Who knows how to fight.”
Stilt and Brie whispered some stuff to each other. They had been to the dark region before if they’d defeated Henrik, hadn’t they? They’d at least know the way around. Stilt frowned at me. “I’d help you, but the dark region makes us magical creatures…change for the worse. It does with elves, anyway."
An elf. That was what Stilt was after all.
“If I went with you, it would be worse than not having me go with you,” Stilt continued. “Brie and I want to help. But I don’t think we’d have any worth in this one.”
I thought of long, slobbery teeth going for my grandmother and I shifted leg to leg. We were wasting time. The wolf might have her already. “Then I’ll go. What am I supposed to do when I get there? Let the wolf eat me?”
Mary shook her head. “It won’t be that simple,” she said. “To triumph, you will need to stay on the trail and don’t let the evil wolf lead you astray. In your story, the wolf can’t sway you if you stay on the road.”
“Stay on the road,” I repeated. “Sounds easy enough.” Only I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be. It would be far from easy. Alric knew my story if Mary was right and he was sure to have something there to trip me up. I also had the sense that Mary wasn’t telling me something. It seemed too simple. There had to be more to it than this.
“We need more than one guy for this,” Tate said. “I know I’m a dude, and I’m supposed to act all tough, but I’m also a logical dude. We have to take more than one guy with a bow.”
Mary pushed in a chair. “We don’t have anyone else to spare in the village.”
Tate and I shared another grimace. It was the one guy with the bow, then.
“Okay,” I said. “Show us this guy. We need to get going.”
* * * * *
We stayed in the house for a bit longer. Mary spent a bit of time outside. She was going to get the huntsman guy who was supposed to cut to the wolf open if he dared mess with us. I guessed it was better than just Tate and me heading down that road, holding hands and hoping for the best. Meanwhile, Brie and Stilt walked outside, too. They might need some space, just like I did.
They had allowed Alric to rise, after all.
When the walls of the house closed in so much that I couldn’t stand it anymore, I stepped out into the sun, and Tate followed.
The sun was getting lower in the sky. It was turning to later afternoon. Soon, the night would come. How would night be here in Fable, even in the lighter region?
No one was around except for a middle-aged man pulling a donkey along on a harness. He looked tired. These weren't people who were ready for a fight. I was here to protect them, not the other way around. I had to make sure my tale ended right so the darkness from the negative region wouldn't spread here.
"I can't do this," I said to Tate.
He hugged me from the side. "I'm going to go with you. I don't care how bad it gets. I'm not going to leave you."
"I shouldn't have dragged you into this." It was how my life was supposed to be. I'd always be punished severely for being a rebel and worse, others around me would suffer even more. When Grandma and I got back home, I was going to go under her thumb again. I'd have to to protect everyone around me.
If I had to do that, so be it.
At last, after we had stood out in the growing shadows for a while, Mary returned with a young man trailing behind her. He wore a green tunic and brown pants, and he had the most serious look on
his face. He must be only a year or two older than Tate and me.
It was the young guy I had almost tripped over on the way to the creek.
The young huntsman.
He nodded at us as he approached. The guy was very professional. He was tall, a full head taller than Tate, with dark brown hair that looked like it could have been buzz cut and an oval face with hard edges. He looked like he could have come right out of the military.
And he carried a bow in one hand and had an iron ax hanging from his belt.
"I'm Macon," he said, extending his hand. Tate and I shook it in turn. "I will be taking you through the woods to your grandmother." He didn't smile.
"Thanks," I said. At least the guy was acting like a pro. How many wolves had he faced?
But the guy wasn't one for friendly conversation. He turned to the sun. "It's getting late," he said. “We should start walking. We don't want to be wasting any more time than we already have."
“Walking?” Tate asked. "We're not taking a carriage or something? Isn't that a little hazardous with wolves running around?"
Macon turned to him. “Here's the thing. I used to walk for miles in the dark hunting with my father. We did it all the time a couple of years ago so that it can get done. We managed to kill a couple of boars even in the dead of night. Over the years, I've learned to shoot this bow with precision accuracy." He held it out to let Tate admire it, but Tate looked more annoyed than anything. "And if we have to, we can climb a tree for the night. I've done that plenty of times."
“Well, how do you do against wolves?” I asked. But Macon was already walking towards the road, all full of himself. “Tate, we’re in for a long walk.”
“I agree.” He sighed. “A very long walk.”
Tate, Mary and I followed Macon towards the edge of town. He didn’t even look back at us as we walked. The guy was all business.
"I think a carriage would be a good idea," I said. "One with doors on it we can close for the night. And we might be able to move faster."
