by Chanda Hahn
“How did you catch those?”
“I was a Boy Scout.” Jared held up two fingers in imitation of a Boy Scout salute.
“I highly doubt that,” Mina laughed. “For some reason, I don’t think you would have the patience to sit through all of those club meetings. Besides, if you were a Boy Scout, we would already be out of here.”
“You’re right. I’m not. I was too much of a trouble maker to be a Boy Scout. Let’s just say I’m a bit of an Ogre achiever and my good looks helped get you breakfast.”
“Hey, I’m not going to question food as long as it ends up in my belly,” Mina remarked.
Jared turned the fish over one more time before serving it up to Mina on a large piece of bark. The fish was juicy, hot, and lacked seasoning, but she was too hungry to care. She burned her tongue in her impatience to eat.
When they had both eaten their fill and drank enough of the cold river water, it was time to go. Jared kicked dirt over their ashes and put out the rest of their fire. It wasn’t a warm day; in fact, it was still very chilly and overcast. The gloominess was depressing and made their trek more miserable.
“So tell me more about the quests? You said that you knew one was coming, how is that?” Mina asked quietly.
“Well, because I’m Fae and I can feel the buildup of power and you should be able to as well. It’s like a tidal wave that pulls back and builds; all you get is a glimpse of small waves starting to form, followed by stillness and then the storm.”
Mina nodded her head. “I’ve felt it, and I think I’ve always been able to feel it. For me it starts as a tingling sensation throughout my body, or like being covered in static cling. It’s been happening ever since my dad died. There was always this feeling of someone watching me.”
Jared glowered angrily at the news and kicked at a rock as they walked. “Well, yes, that probably would’ve been the Story you were feeling. The Fae aren’t without some pity. It probably was waiting, checking up on you, and biding its time until all of the perfect elements were in place. It has learned to wait until the Grimms have gotten older before unleashing a quest on them. The young ones aren’t very fun.”
Mina gasped out loud and turned to stare at him in shock. “Do you mean that you’ve made children try and solve the quests? That is horrible! I almost didn’t survive it!”
“Wait, not me! I didn’t make children do anything. Like I said, this was long ago and is one of the reasons the Story decided to wait before assigning another quest. Many of the Grimm children did overcome the quests, most didn’t. A lot of the Fae didn’t like that the Story started on the Grimm’s at such a young age. Remember there are quite a few factions in our world that are Pro-Human. So the Story started waiting until the next Grimm came of age.”
“And what is the right age?” Mina asked angrily.
“Sixteen.”
“But I was still fifteen when all of this started. It was my birthday, my sixteenth birthday, that I beat the Hansel and Gretel and Red Riding Hood tale!”
“What can I say; you’re kind of a remarkable girl. You happened to catch the Story’s attention a little early.” He shrugged his shoulders and stuffed his hands into his jeans.
Heat rushed to her cheeks at the compliment. Mina stopped to rest by crawling on top of a large river boulder. Slowly, she removed her shoes and shook them upside down, dislodging a rock that had maneuvered its way in and was stabbing her foot. It hadn’t gotten any warmer, but Mina was tired and needed to rest.
Jared was leaning against a nearby tree with his eyes closed, waiting patiently for her. The sound of the river was soothing and if Mina wasn’t here under these conditions and with her present company, she probably would’ve enjoyed the trip a whole lot more. But as it was right now, this was agony.
With his eyes still closed, Jared spoke up. “Did you know that the first Hansel and Gretel were actually Fae, and it was the old woman who was a Grimm?”
“What are you talking about? That doesn’t sound right.”
“This is where it can get a little confusing and quite funny. In the very first quest, Hansel and Gretel were thieves and murders, like um, Bonnie and Clyde. But because Hansel and Gretel were Kitskin, child-like Fae that never grow old in appearance, no one ever suspected them. Your namesakes figured it out.”
“The Kitskin never robbed the same house twice, and it was usually only the elderly they robbed. It was Wilhelm who thought of a plan to catch them. He had Jacob dress like an old woman, and lure the Fae to his front door with the offer of sweets.”
Mina started to laugh as she pictured her family member trying to cross-dress.
Jared opened one eye, and his dark eyebrow arched high in indignation. He refused to continue until she had decided to stop interrupting him.
“Sorry,” Mina mumbled and folded her elbows over her knees and leaned her chin on her forearms. It was as good as a position as any to hear the whole story.
“Hansel and Gretel looked inside and were tempted by all of the jewelry and money, the Grimms happened to have laid out on the table. Later that night, Hansel and Gretel snuck back into the house to kill them and make off with the loot, but instead they were trapped by the Brothers in a magical cage and oven, thanks to the Grimoire.” He sounded smug.
“It sounds so easy, when you tell it that way? Way easier than my own Hansel and Gretel encounter.” Mina lifted her head, and when she saw Jared’s perturbed look, she covered her mouth with her hand and shrugged her shoulders.
“Yes, they do sound pretty easy, but remember, not every quest can be completed and they aren’t all deadly quests and you do get a chance to retry them.”
Her hand shot straight up into the air like an eager student in class. Jared waited a full three seconds before calling on her.
“Okay, now you can ask a question.” He pointed at her with a stray branch he had picked up from the ground.
“So what about Claire?”
“Claire was becoming a loose end and dangerous. Unfortunately, because this is the human world, the Fae don’t have to answer to anyone. So the Story will try and push these particular Fae into your path, hoping you will eliminate them for the Fates.”
“So I’m like the Ghostbuster for the bad Fae that your King and Queen can’t control anymore. They purposely send them my way and hope that I will trap them in the Grimoire.”
Jared glared at her for not raising her hand. Mina smiled apologetically.
“Yeah, it’s kind of a win-win. The Grimms need adversaries, and the Fae need a few less…um, bad guys. There has to be an equal balance. That’s why so many of them want the Grimoire, because with it they too can trap their enemies within its pages. There are also a few other perks or rumors about the Grimoire that make them want it….but none of them are true,” he finished quickly, a little too quickly.
Her hand shot into the air again. Jared nodded again impatiently at her.
“So what’s to keep me from ignoring the quests and running away and living to a ripe old age? I mean, if I don’t complete them, then the gate will never be shut and the Fae will be free to roam both worlds. It’s a win-win for me, right? Life and Life.”
Jared stared at the stick in his hands before snapping the thin wood into pieces. He broke them again and again before turning and chucking them angrily into the bushes. Startled birds took off into the sky. Turning, breathing hard, he looked at her, his eyes sad.
“That is where the Story comes in. A promise is a promise, and if a Grimm doesn’t complete the quests in a timely matter, then the Story begins to set up the quests and forces the Grimm into it. This time without giving them a choice in which quest, or a how it plays out. Remember when I told you that the Story is alive with power Well, it is more than that. It thinks, breathes, and manipulates you like a pawn on a chessboard. But even a pawn is strong enough to take out a Queen. So think about that, will you, before you try to run from your destiny.”
He was right; there was a lot to think ab
out. Tired, sore, and a little defeated, Mina stepped down off the boulder, and they continued their long trek. A few hours later, Jared wanted to stop and try to catch them some lunch, but Mina wanted to press on.
Finally, the cliff tapered off and the steep shale was replaced by dirt and trees. Mina and Jared were finally able to climb the steep embankment and get away from the river. In her head, Mina pictured that if she could just get out of the valley with the river that civilization had to be minutes away. She was wrong. They had been walking in the wrong direction and there were moss covered trees for miles around. Every direction she turned looked the same.
“Now what?” Mina groaned. Her feet were killing her; it had started to rain slightly, and she was starving. She truly believed that they were heading in the right direction, but once they got out of the riverbed, she realized her mistake.
“I don’t think I can do this anymore.” She was so crushed by her discovery she actually turned to Jared for answers. But her simple turn, became a fall when her shoe slipped on the wet leaves, and she started to pitch backward down the steep embankment they had just climbed.
Jared lunged toward Mina and caught her shoulder, but her awkwardness and flailing arms caused them both to tumble backward down the embankment toward the hard riverbed once again. Thinking quick, Jared twisted in midair so he took the brunt of their fall.
One minute she was sliding on the rocks pitching backward, the next, she was wrapped in Jared’s arms at the bottom of the embankment, warm and protected. At a loss for words and unwilling to move first, she just laid there face to face with him, intensely aware of how close they were and how tightly he was holding her.
She had always known that Jared was attractive. His dark hair, strong jaw, and grey eyes made him irresistible, but Mina could never get past his ugly attitude. His pride, arrogance, and the disdain he usually seemed to carry just for her helped keep her in check.
His eyes were closed, and she could make out each individual eyelash. His lips were slightly parted, as he breathed slowly trying to regain his breath from the fall. The faint rain splattered his cheek and in this moment, everything else forgotten, Jared was breathtaking.
She should move, lean back and pull away, but she didn’t, couldn’t, mostly because his arms were wrapped around her, and he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to release that hold.
He still hadn’t opened his eyes. Mina almost thought maybe he was unconscious, but she knew that to be a lie, because her hand was resting across his chest and the longer she stared at his face, the faster her heart raced, and Jared’s heart was racing faster.
Finally, he swallowed, opened up his eyes and she almost drowned in the raw emotions she saw in them. He was going to kiss her! She gasped when she realized his intent, and she wished she hadn’t because he misunderstood her anticipation for rejection. He immediately went cold. His jaw tightened and he looked hurt. He let go of her and she felt a little disappointed, when he reached up toward her face and pulled a stick out of her hair.
“Next time, try not to take the whole forest with you when you fall,” he smiled slowly but the smile never reached his eyes. He pulled another twig from her hair and handed both of them to her. “For your Christmas tree next year,” he joked.
She scrambled away from Jared and instantly felt the loss of his warmth; it was so much warmer being snuggled up next to him. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment, but thankfully he didn’t notice.
He sat up slowly but continued to sit on the ground. He stared at his hands for a moment before looking at her. He looked solemn, determined and whatever he was about to say. She knew she wasn’t going to like it.
Large crashing from the nearby bushes interrupted them, and they both looked up in alarm. There was no time to run or scream, before a large beast appeared in front of them. Mina froze as the black bear towered over her. All she could see were eyes and teeth as it moved in for the kill.
Mina screamed.
Chapter 10
The black bear lunged for Mina, swiping at her with its powerful paws, trying to knock her back. Jared shifted into his Ogre form, and dove between them, taking the force of the bear’s blow and getting slashed across his forearm in turn. The bear was undeterred at the sight of the larger Ogre and became even further enraged. Ignoring Mina, it focused its attack on the new, larger threat.
The Jared rushed forward into the bear’s clutches and physically began to push and wrestle the bear away from Mina, who was paralyzed with fear. Swipe after swipe, the bear used his most powerful weapons, his paws, to try and dislodge Jared, but he was too close for those paws to do much damage. Unfortunately, that only put him closer to the bear’s second strongest weapon, his teeth.
Mina cried out when the bear twisted its head and bit down on the Jared’s left shoulder. He roared in pain and punched the bear in the snout, causing the bear to release its painful grip. Jared grunted and wrestled with the bear and was able to grab it around the middle to lift it high in the air above his head. He turned, took three large steps, and tossed the bear into the river. The bear went under, broke the surface, and swam toward them, this time keeping a greater distance when it circled them threateningly again.
The bear rose to its hind legs and roared at them. Jared moved toward the bear and roared back in challenge. Startled, and a little unsure, the bear dropped and ambled off into the thicket.
Jared stayed in Ogre form until the bear had disappeared; only changing back when he was sure they were safe. Mina watched him in fascination as his skin took on a more normal, pink hue and his features shrank and disappeared until he stood before her, bleeding, spent, and fully human.
His head drooped in fatigue, but he looked up at her and smiled wanly, before collapsing to his knees in pain. Mina rushed to his side and ripped open his t-shirt to see the damage to his shoulder. It was bloody and messy, but he didn’t look to have broken any bones.
“I’m fine, it’s looks worse than it feels,” He lied terribly.
“Oh, Jared, you could have been killed. We have to get out of here, more bears could come back, and we don’t want to be here.” She tore off a strip of her shirt and ran back to the water and started to clean the wound.
“We will be fine as long as we don’t make any sudden moves in the direction of that thicket.” He sat down on the ground and let Mina tend to the bite on his shoulder and the cut along his arm. He closed his eyes and nodded toward where the bear had both appeared and disappeared into.
“How can you be sure?” Mina asked hesitantly. It was too much like being attacked by the cannibalistic bears, but the Grimoire wouldn’t work in this real situation.
“It was our fault. We startled a mother and her cubs when we fell down the embankment. The cubs were hiding in the thicket the whole time. She was just being a good mom.” He hissed in pain when she pressed to hard against the wound.
Mina glanced over at the thicket and was barely able to see the retreating form of the mother black bear and two rambunctious cubs bumbling after her.
Jared rested for a few moments with his eyes closed before he took a closer look at his wounds. Slowly, he got up and began to look around the base of tree trunks. Mina asked what he was doing, and he explained that he was looking for Eros Moss, a plain looking tree moss that the Fae loved for numbing pain. It was easy to find since the moss grew everywhere. He got Mina to apply it and bandage his wound. Satisfied, he motioned for them to continue their journey.
Mina kept close to Jared, worried that he might collapse or fall down from fatigue. But the Eros Moss seemed to be doing its job, because Jared never slowed his pace, but picked it up. It actually looked like he was the one becoming impatient with her slowness.
“Do you like to climb trees?” He asked.
Mina looked at the huge pine tree they stopped next to apprehensively. “Not really, but I can try.” She began to scale the tree, but about fifteen feet up, her natural clumsiness got the best of her and she slipped and sliced h
er arm on a broken branch. Pain laced up her arm, and she cried out.
“Stay there, I’m coming up,” Jared yelled up at her.
“No, I got this!” She knew he wasn’t in any condition to climb a tree. Gritting her teeth, she slowly ascended to the top. She spent a few minutes looking around at the surrounding landscape. What she saw was discouraging. A few agonizing minutes later she was back on the ground next to a perplexed Jared.
“So what did you see?” he asked carefully.
“A whole lot of trees,” she grumbled under her breath.
“Ah,” he intoned casually. “Well, let’s go this way.” He pointed left.
“How do you know where to go?” She looked around and back up at the sky confused.
“Because I know we need to go east,” Jared answered.
“But it is overcast and cloudy and we can’t even see the sun? How do you know which way is east?” Mina waved her arms and pointed at the grey sky. The sky took that moment to start to rain down on them. “See!”
“Because the moss grows on the north side of trees, so as long as you head this way, you’ll get out.”
Mina stopped and stared at Jared in disbelief. “If you knew that already, why in the world did you have me climb the tree?”
Jared looked at her his eyes widening in innocence. “I didn’t ask you to climb the tree. I knew which way we were heading. I just asked you if you liked to climb trees in an attempt to start a conversation. You were the one who wanted to try and climb the stupid tree.”
“I did not,” Mina tried to argue but realized that she was the one at fault.
They trudged through the slight drizzle, and soon all of her clothes were once again soaked. Another hour in and she started to shiver and sneeze. If they didn’t get out of this soon they were going to catch pneumonia.
“How much longer?” she asked.
“Hey, how am I supposed to know?” He was becoming cross.
“Well, can’t you do any magic to make it go faster?” Mina whined. The pain in her arm was starting to sting and make her more irritated than she already was.
