[Half/Time 01] Half Upon a Time

by James Riley

  “Do you think I would keep it from you if I knew?” the wolf asked, sneering a bit.

  Jack ignored him and took a step toward May, who was shaking from the news. The look she threw him, though, set him back. “Okay, fine, hold your grudge,” Jack said. “But there still might be a way to find your grandmother.”

  “How?” Phillip asked.

  Jack reached over to May, hooked a finger under her necklace, and pulled it out. “We could use the Magic Mirror,” he said softly.

  Chapter 22

  “The Mirror?” Phillip said, a look of confusion on his face. “But the Mirror was destroyed!”

  The wolf growled, baring his teeth. He was intimidating, even in human form. “Not destroyed, little prince,” the wolf said. “Only … broken. Without the crown, the Mirror is useless. With it, we will have the Wicked Queen’s most powerful weapon in our paws!”

  “But … we cannot restore the Mirror!” Phillip pleaded. “There must be a way to find May’s grandmother without unleashing its power!”

  The wolf sneered. “Do you know where the child’s grandmother is?”

  Phillip shook his head. “Of course not,” he said. “But I do know what evils the Mirror wrought during the war. We have to ask ourselves if … well, if it is worth the price.”

  Once again, the wolf’s teeth came out. “I would do anything to save my queen, little prince.” He took a step forward, his eyes locked on the prince. “And I will do so whether I have your approval or not.”

  May quickly stepped between them, raising her hands to hold off any violence. “I agree with the Wolf King, Phillip,” she said.

  Phillip’s face fell. “But, Princess, you do not know—”

  She smiled a very small smile. “You’re right,” she said. “And I don’t care. All I want is to find my grandmother, and quick. You think the Wicked Queen put her up in a nice room and is keeping her comfortable?”

  “I would not think so, Princess,” Phillip said sadly.

  “That’s right,” May said. “So we find the Mirror as soon as possible, and we use it.” She turned to the wolf. “And after we find my grandmother, then we destroy the Mirror. Deal?”

  The wolf smiled. “I would have it no other way, Princess.”

  “So where is the Mirror?” Jack asked. “How do we find it?”

  “One of the evil one’s minions, the Red Hood, stole the Mirror after the crown was removed,” the wolf said. “Unfortunately, the Hood’s cloak for which she is named is magical. It keeps her invisible to my senses, or else I would have found her long ago. However … there might be another way to track her now.” He reached his hand out toward May, palm up.

  The princess stared at his hand for a second, then realization dawned. “Oh!” she said, and slowly removed her necklace, placing it into the wolf’s outstretched hand.

  The wolf brought it to his nose and inhaled deeply. His eyes closed halfway, just as they had when he tasted Jack’s and Phillip’s blood in wolf form, and he paused for a moment. Then the wolf turned his face up toward the ceiling of dead trees, his mouth hanging open. As he did, a strong wind rose from all around them, pushing Jack, May, and Phillip back against the trees. Within seconds, though, the wind stopped, and the wolf lowered his head.

  He was smiling.

  “Your necklace, Princess,” he said, and handed it back to her.

  “So, do you know where the Mirror is?” Jack asked.

  The wolf nodded slowly. “I know which direction it is in. I will take you there.”

  “We have little time,” Phillip said. “We should take the quickest route possible.”

  The wolf laughed. Strangely enough, his laugh was creepier than his growl. “I will carry you,” he said simply. “I must do so if you wish to leave the Black Forest. Already, the trees hunger for human blood; they speak to me, beg me to leave you with them.” He smiled almost evilly. “Don’t make me regret my decision.”

  At that Jack, Phillip, and May all quickly took a step away from the nearest trees.

  The fur-covered man shimmered again in the light of the sword and morphed back into the enormous monster of a wolf. The animal’s red eyes opened, then glared at the three of them. “Climb onto my back,” he growled. “There is little time to waste.”

  Jack took a step back. “Um, you know, this doesn’t really seem like the best idea, all things considered.”

  “What?” May said, her tone mocking. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of the big bad wolf, Jack.”

  Phillip forced a laugh. “Yes, Jack,” he said. “What is there to fear? He’s an ally of Snow White. He will keep us safe.” As he spoke, the prince slowly inched up next to the animal. He put one hand on the beast’s fur, then took a deep breath and vaulted onto wolf’s back.

  All three of them braced themselves, but the wolf didn’t react at all.

  “Ah, see?” Phillip said with a relieved smile. “There is nothing to fret about. Come, Princess, I shall assist you.”

  May smiled cruelly at Jack. “It’s nice to have a big, brave man along, isn’t it? You know, someone dependable?” With that, she turned and walked over to the wolf’s side, where Phillip helped pull her up.

  After the two of them were seated, the wolf turned his gaze to Jack. “Well, boy?” he growled. “What are you waiting for? I won’t hurt you.”

  Jack swallowed hard. “You know, I’d like to believe that—”

  “Get on!” the wolf roared, then leapt forward, landing just in front of Jack, his teeth only inches from Jack’s face. The wolf’s breath puffed out of his nostrils, sending Jack’s hair flying.

  “Okay, but only because you asked nicely,” Jack said, sliding his sword into its scabbard and climbing up behind May. “I have a bad feeling about this,” he told her.

  “You have a bad feeling about everything,” she sent back.

  Jack started to respond, but before he could, the wolf leapt forward, sending them all airborne. All three grabbed fur and managed to keep themselves on the wolf’s back as he loped off into the woods.

  Wind and branches flew by as the wolf ran, threatening to knock them all off the wolf’s back if they didn’t lean forward and hold on for dear life. Between the howling wind and their faces being pushed into each other’s backs, all conversation was effectively cut off.

  Riding the wolf was nothing like riding a horse had been. While Samson had a rhythmic gait, the wolf’s loping seemed to change every few seconds as he adjusted his stride for the terrain. Sometimes, they’d be just about shaken off their perch from a short tear through a clearing, only for the wolf to leap forward at other times, taking to the air like an enormous furry bird, the wind just about pushing each of them right off his back. If Phillip hadn’t locked his arms around the wolf’s neck, with May holding on to him and Jack holding on to May, all three would have fallen off after the first leap.

  Gradually, Jack began to notice that the trees rushing by on either side looked different. Instead of black, dead wood, the trees now had leaves; brown, living branches clawed at them as the wolf ran. Eventually, Jack started to see birds and even some animals, magical and otherwise, in the underbrush, a sure sign that they’d left the Black Forest behind.

  The wolf loped on for what seemed like days. In actuality, it wasn’t more than one night, as when Jack was about to yell to the wolf that they needed a break, he saw the sunrise poking through the trees up ahead.

  The sunlight turned out to be a small clearing. Jack barely noticed, though, he was so intent on the natural sunlight after seeing everything by the glow of the knight’s sword. In fact, he was so focused on the sunlight that he didn’t realize the wolf had abruptly screeched to a halt.

  While May and Phillip managed to stay on the wolf, Jack flew off to land in the dirt, skidding to a stop just before the clearing, his sword shooting off his back to land even farther away.

  “Shh!” May shushed from behind him, still safely mounted. “You could be a little more quiet!” She laugh
ed softly, then stuck out her tongue at him. The wolf let out a sound that sounded eerily like a chuckle. Even Phillip had a smile on his face as he helped May get down off the wolf’s back.

  Jack sighed, quietly promising to wipe the dirt on his clothes all over the others at the first opportunity, then joined May, Phillip, and the wolf at the edge of the forest to see what they’d found. With one of the Wicked Queen’s minions, anything could be waiting for them.

  Anything turned out to be a small house of white brick with a bright red roof.

  “That’s where the Mirror is?” May asked the wolf, who nodded.

  Jack glanced at the animal. The wolf’s teeth were bared, which couldn’t be a good sign. “What’s wrong?” Jack asked him.

  The wolf’s eyes narrowed. “After so many years, I have the Red Hood in my paws.” He smiled, licking his lips. “Wait here,” he said, then loped off into the forest. A few seconds later, they caught sight of him slinking low to the ground across the clearing, moving silently to the cottage’s nearest window. The wolf pulled himself up ever so slowly, then peered within. After a moment, he sank back down to the ground, turned around, and returned the way he came, surprising all three of them when he appeared behind them a moment later.

  Before they could ask the animal what he found, the wolf cursed several times. “She is not there!” he growled, his eyes as red as fire.

  “How would you know?” Jack asked. “I mean, you said you couldn’t track her … how can you be sure?”

  The wolf stared at him, a furious look painted across his long face, making Jack take an involuntary step backward. “I cannot see or smell her,” the wolf spat out. “But I could hear her if she was there. There is nothing alive in that cottage.”

  “But the Mirror?” May said, holding up the necklace. “You know for sure it’s there?”

  The wolf nodded. “It is in there somewhere,” he said. “My senses do not lie.”

  “Perhaps the Mirror is there, but the Red Hood is simply out,” Phillip suggested.

  “Maybe we should check,” Jack said. “We might be able to just sneak in and take the Mirror. That’d be easier than dealing with one of the Wicked Queen’s monsters.”

  “Agreed,” said Phillip.

  “No,” growled the wolf quietly. “I have waited much too long for this moment. I will not leave until I have dealt with the Red Hood once and for all! Go fetch the Mirror. I will keep watch for the Red Hood.”

  May nodded and started jogging off toward the cottage, so Phillip and Jack had no choice but to follow. As Jack passed the sword he grabbed it from the ground and returned it to its scabbard on his back, a scabbard that clearly wasn’t holding it tightly enough if it could just fly out like that.

  May reached the cottage first and tried the door, only to find it locked. Jack and Phillip both tried it as well, while May rolled her eyes at their need to confirm the obvious.

  Instead of wasting any more time, Jack took out the witch’s knife and used it to slice through the lock, which it cut through as easily as it had the trees in the Black Forest. As he finished Jack took hold of the knob and gently opened the door, its loud squeaking startling a large blackbird from its perch on the roof. Inside, the little cottage was filled with shadows despite the sunlight outside, so Jack reached back and pulled out his sword: Its glow gave them enough light to see by.

  The cottage had just one room, though it was much larger than Jack’s cottage back home. Flowered curtains hung over the windows, obscuring the outside light, while wooden furniture overflowed the cramped space, the biggest piece of which was a four-poster bed covered with linens that matched the curtains.

  Jack rolled his eyes. “This whole place just stinks of evil,” he said sarcastically.

  “Do not be fooled by appearances,” Phillip said. “Pleasant exteriors sometimes mask the worst interiors.”

  “I agree,” May said. “Flowers on the curtains? This place hurts my interior.”

  As the three of them entered the cottage Jack raised an eyebrow. “So, where’s the Mirror?” he asked. They all took a quick look around, searching under the bed, through a closet, even in a chest of drawers. Then, almost at exactly the same time, they all looked up from what they’d been doing, up to the wall next to the door….

  Looked up at the mirror hanging on the wall.

  Three mouths dropped open at the same time. “She’s using the most powerful magic item of all time … as a regular mirror?” Jack asked.

  “That cannot be it,” Phillip said, also shocked. “For her to be so … open with it …”

  Jack nodded. Phillip seemed to have identified the problem exactly. How could she be so unconcerned? Granted, the mirror on the wall really didn’t look like anything special, apart from what looked like gold in the frame. Age had worn down many of the elaborate lines in the mirror’s frame to the point Jack couldn’t tell what they had originally looked like. Other than that small design, however, the whole thing looked completely ordinary. This certainly wasn’t the all-powerful evil item of doom they had all been expecting. Maybe hiding it in plain sight wasn’t such a bad idea.

  May moved in, followed closely by Jack and Phillip. The princess peered at the top of the mirror, then turned around and pointed. Sure enough, there at the top where the worn-down lines came together was a small indentation in the shape of a crown.

  It really was the Mirror.

  Jack cleared his throat, feeling that this was too important a time not to say something, something to impress upon the other two just how momentous their find truly was.

  Unfortunately, May beat him to it. “How lame!” the princess said, tapping the Mirror’s glass with her fingernail. “The glass is even cloudy! What a letdown!”

  Jack and Phillip both looked at her, trying subtly to make the point that maybe such a comment wasn’t the most appropriate reaction for such a significant moment, but she steadily ignored their questioning glances. Instead, May pulled the necklace out from beneath her tunic and held up the crown at the end of it. “Should I put it in?” she asked them. “Or should we wait till we find the Red Hood and, you know, beat her up?”

  “One thing at a time,” Jack said quickly, yanking May’s hand away from the Mirror. The whole idea of unleashing the Mirror’s power again turned Jack’s toes cold, but they didn’t really have any choice. Still, it could wait until they were safely away from the Red Hood’s home, if nothing else.

  “How do we handle this?” May asked. “What if she comes in? If she’s as powerful as the Wolf King says, she could kill us all—”

  Just then a very feminine shout of surprise came from the path leading into the clearing. “Who’s there?” the voice yelled out.

  Instantly Jack, Phillip, and May turned to the front of the cottage to find the front door still standing wide open.

  “Whoops,” May said softly.

  “Hide!” Phillip hissed, and, not having a better plan, all three ran and slid underneath the oversize bed. The bed’s linens overhung the side, giving them some cover, if not nearly enough. Unfortunately, they had no other choice.

  No, they were just going to have to hide beneath the bed and hope that May’s big, bad wolf protector would come in and save them all from the Red Hood.

  Chapter 23

  Jack couldn’t see much from beneath the bed. The frilly quilt that covered the sides of the bed and subsequently hid them also did a great job of obscuring what was happening. All he could make out was a pair of black shoes stepping carefully through the open door of the cottage.

  “Who’s there?” the owner of the shoes asked again quietly, just as a thunderous noise exploded outside. The shoes immediately turned and ran toward a wall … no, to the window in the wall. “What is this?” the voice asked softly.

  Another huge crack, almost like a tree splitting in half, erupted outside the cottage. Phillip, closest to the Hood, looked over to Jack, then nodded. Phillip wanted them to take the Red Hood by surprise while she was distr
acted. Jack nodded back, then pushed himself toward the edge of the bed, shaking his head as he went. How had a nice, normal boy like him gotten caught up in such an idiotic adventure?

  Jack grasped the edge of the bed, his hand on his sword, but he stopped. The sword would be too large if he planned on sneaking up on her. There was the knife, of course, but it wouldn’t actually be able to hurt her.

  But maybe he didn’t need to.

  With the beginnings of a plan, Jack reached into his bag and pulled out the knife. The shoes still seemed to be intent on whatever they were looking at out the window, but that wouldn’t last for long. There weren’t any further noises from the forest, so the wolf had given them all the distraction he could. Jack pushed himself out from under the bed, then grabbed the linens and pulled himself up so he could see over the top of the bed.

  Directly above the shoes stood … well, no one. Yet someone was clearly in them; as Jack watched, whoever it was nervously lifted one foot, then the other.

  Even invisible, the Red Hood was panicking. Now or never …

  Without another thought, Jack threw himself forward, directly at the spot where the Red Hood should have been. Right above the black shoes, he smacked into something solid, something that screamed in surprise and fell over beneath him.

  Jack lifted the knife and slashed over and over at the invisible screaming woman beneath him. He couldn’t actually hurt her this way, but she didn’t know that. Besides, though the knife couldn’t cut flesh, it did cut something pretty important to her.

  Just as Jack hoped, everywhere he cut the Red Hood’s cloak, the woman became visible. In fact, he quickly found himself lying on top of two arms and what looked to be a leg.

  Then the leg pushed its knee up into Jack’s chest, kicking him back against the bed. As the knife flew from his grip he marveled that his plan could both work so well and fail so miserably at the same time.

  “You cut me!” the arms and leg screamed indignantly, rising into the air as if by magic. “I can’t … wait, I’m not—whoop!” The last bit came as Phillip yanked the Red Hood’s visible leg out from under her and she crashed back down.