Lousy Little Pest! | Sequel to Gothel's Greatest Gift

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"Are you ready, Cassandra?" the captain asked the eight-year-old Cassandra.

"I'm ready!" she excitedly replied.

"On guard!"

The two began to fence, the captain with his captain's sword and Cassandra with her mini-but-still-real sword. As the metal continued to clash against itself, Cassandra had easily taken the upper hand. Sure, the captain was going easy on her, but that didn't matter. The fact that she could even remotely make him struggle was an accomplishment in itself. He was the captain of the guards!

Just as Cassandra was about to win, her mother's words echoed in her mind: "...he only feels bad for you because he knows what you're capable of: absolutely nothing".

Cassandra suddenly lost her balance, tripped over her feet, and fell to the floor.

"Are you okay, Cassandra?" The Captain extended his hand out to the little girl, but she wouldn't take it.

"No!" she fired. "I'm not okay, I'm never okay, and I'll never be okay! I'm nothing, okay?"

Cassandra dashed out of the courtyard, covering her face as she ran.

"Cassandra!" the captain tried to call out, but it was no use. Cassandra, the eight-year-old girl who believed she was nothing, had gotten away.

–

"That way!" Adira instructed the group after jumping atop the caravan once again. Cassandra readily obeyed, knowing that Adira was the captain of their crew at the moment. She flicked the reins on Max and Fidella, prompting the royal horses to march on forward into the Forest of No Return, which they happily did. They passed a creepy sign that read "Forest of No Return" etched into a tree by a skeleton hand holding a sharpened blade.

After the caravan had made its way into the forest, the majestic oak trees that once paralleled the path shifted into it, trapping the group in. However, no one had seemed to notice, which was probably a good thing considering everyone was a little on edge for one reason or another.

Once the group had made their way significantly into the forest, which decorated itself with scary trees, monsters disguised as flowers, and boiling geysers, Cassandra noticed a faint buzzing noise somewhere in the distance.

"Do any of you hear a buzzing noise?"

Pascal flung his tongue to catch what he believed to be a tiny insect, but was actually a toddler-sized fly with laser-red eyes and a diamond-crested back. Poor Pascal had attached himself to the deadly creature, who began ascending into the air, bringing Pascal with him. Fortunately, Adira had a dart blower on hand and used it to paralyze the fly and free Pascal, who fell thankfully into Rapunzel's palm.

"Thank you, Adira," Rapunzel thanked the woman. "Whew. Creepy bugs. That's totally normal, right?"

As Rapunzel had finished her rhetorical question, the trees surrounding the caravan had begun shifting, as if a giant had been moving them like game pieces on a board.

"What's happening?" Eugene asked panickedly.

"The Forest of No Return is in perpetual motion and changes without warning," Adira calmly explained to the crowd. "Luckily I procured this special map many years ago. It's the key to traversing the woods safely". Adira pulled out a pink map that encompassed a paper fortune teller, which she then handed to Cassandra.

"Let me see that," she demanded. Cassandra tried to make sense of the map, but it just looked like the fortune tellers she and Rapunzel made as kids. "This doesn't make any sense!"