The youngest wizard in twisted wonderland

Chapter 10: Harder than finding a needle in a haystack

Note: I DO NOT OWN TWISTED WONDERLAND: DISNEY!

Chapter 10: Harder than finding a needle in a haystack

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Once the bright light has faded, we find ourselves in the woods. It is so dark except for the moonlight. I can only see the silhouettes of Ace and Deuce in front of me. The surroundings are so quiet that you can hear a pin drop.

Just a few moments later, I see a small bridge that straddles a small creek, leading to a quaint, but decrepit, little cottage in the middle of nowhere.

Deuce looks around him in fascination: "So this is Dwarfs' mine... It used to be prosperous, thanks to magic crystal mining but..." Grim wriggles out of my arms and hides at the back of my head while standing on my shoulders. With his voice trembling with fear, he whispers, "Uuuhh... feels like something could jump out..."

I had an idea. I lift up my candle stand towards: "Mind lighting up the candle stand?"

"With pleasure!" Grim nods before blowing slightly on the wicks of the candles.

"Let there be light, and there is light!" Grim proclaims with glee.

But Ace seems rather calm about the situation and walks up ahead towards the hut. "Let's go ask about the mine," he suggests.

Once we arrive towards the cottage, Deuce knocks on the door, while calling out: "Good evening..." But no one responds and opens the door. Deuce knocks several times. "I guess it's abandoned," Deuce concludes to himself. Ace double checks by rubbing the dust off a windowpane near the door and plasters his face against it to peer inside, "The lights are out... and it looks empty."

"Really? Let me see!" Grim leaps into Ace's shoulder and presses his face to the windowpane.

"Me too!" I duck under Ace's armpit and stand in front of the window, looking through the windowpane while Ace rests his chin on my head.

Deuce twists the knob of the door and lets us in. Inside the dusty and ramshackle cottage, there were large cobwebs dangling from the wooden beams of the ceiling. White paint cracking off the walls reveals the brick walls underneath. On the right, when we step through the front door is a fireplace that contains a cauldron collecting mold and turning dull through time. Two ladles hang from rusty nails attached to the front of the counter overhanging the fireplace. An underused broom leans against the side of the fireplace mantel.

In the middle of the room a short table with seven miniature chairs, two being noticeably toppled over, each backrest of a chair shows a unique design, a squarish table runner featuring a diamond design with little tassels covers most of the table. The runner's colour has faded with time. More disturbing is the solid pickaxe with its blade wedged into the table, hovering ominously in mid-air like an uninvited dinner guest who has crashed a party.

"Looks like a wreck in here," Deuce observes as he surveys the living room.

Ace, walking behind Deuce, catches sight of the pickaxe and tries to dislodge it: "The pickaxe is really stuck into the table."

"Let me try!" Grim jumps onto the table, pawing at top of the pickaxe with his tiny paws, as Ace tries to yank out the pickaxe with all his might, his face puffed red with effort.

While Ace and Grim are clowning around with the pickaxe, I take a seat in one of the tiny chairs, waiting for my turn to have a go at it.

This is when Deuce saunters to me, noticing that the chair is rather small. "Aren't the tables and chairs rather small? Are they for kids? One, two... There's seven! This must be the cottage of the seven dwarves! I guess this was probably a lively home when the Dwarfs' mine flourished," exclaims Deuce.