𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝙸𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚎 ✍︎ 𝙰𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝙱𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚢

𝚆𝙸𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚂𝙿𝙴𝙻𝙻 ✍︎ 18

Anna, Alex and Conner were lost.

"We're not lost, I just don't know exactly where we are," Alex protested.

"So, in other words, we're lost," Conner smirked.

"All right, Conner, we're lost!" Alex hit him with the map, making Anna laugh.

They had left the Red Riding Hood Kingdom in such a hurry, they thought they might have taken a wrong path. Alex was the only one to remain positive, however, as Anna and Conner slumped the further they walked.

"We could be in the Fairy Kingdom, or perhaps we're back in the Charming Kingdom," Alex finally said after a map consultation. "But the eastern gate or the Red Riding Hood Kingdom is close to so many borders, we could be in the Sleeping Kingdom, for all I know."

"So, basically, we could be anywhere which way up and down?" Anna questioned, slightly needled.

"How is anyone supposed to find their way around this place? It's all just a bunch of trees and dirt roads with the occasional castle!" Conner yelled, agreeing with Anna. "We're never going to get home!"

"It's just a slight setback, we'll be back on track before you know it," Alex said. "Hopefully..." She sighed, saying it under her breath.

"Hopefully?" Anna muttered to her. "You'd best hope Conner doesn't hear that."

Alex rolled her eyes. "Stop being so negative! Both of you!"

"Just being realistic," Conner put his hands up. "And exactly what track are we on, by the way? I hate to bring this to your attention, but we've only collected three of the eight Wishing Spell items and we have no idea what two of them are. And, to be frank, we're not even sure if the Wishing Spell will work when and if we do collect everything!"

Anna sighed. "I hate to admit it, but that's all true. We still have so many places to go, and so much more ground to cover. And after seeing the weird woman wearing legit leaves collecting a bit of Red Riding Hood's basket, we may not be the only ones after this spell. What if we... what if we don't manage to get all the items? What if we fail? What if we get stuck here?"

None of the triplets had thought about it. Silence lingered between them, until Conner broke it, speaking to Anna.

"Well, at least you'd have a guy when you grew up, Alex and I would have to find- ow!"

Anna had punched him on the arm.

"Anna!"

"He deserved it," Anna shrugged, looking to Conner and answering Alex, who had now gone back to inspecting the map.

"Alright, I've figured out what we did wrong," she finally said.

"We?" Both Anna and Conner burst out.

"You've been hogging the map since we got here!" Conner added.

"Yeah, and we had nothing to do with the navigation, either, we left that all to you!" Anna went on.

"Alright, I've figured out what I did wrong," Alex said sheepishly. "The path we should've taken is just on the other side of the forest next to us. We'll walk through the forest, get on the correct path, and then be on our way into the Fairy Kingdom."

"Great," Anna and Conner said in unison.

So they walked on down the path and into the forest beside them, and resumed trying to get to the Fairy Kingdom. However, after walking for a while, they noticed the path was very, very quiet. Almost too quiet - especially for Conner. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach that he didn't share with either of his sisters.