CHAPTER TWO THE FORBIDDEN FOREST
“Well, you know what I’ll say about hanging out with you three?” Gretel says as they break apart from their embrace. “There’s certainly never a dull moment.”
“I love group hugs!” Alistair says, considerably cheered. “What kind of magic are hugs? Fairy magic?”
Filomena smiles, thinking of her parents and their group hugs. She wonders how they’re doing. Back in North Pasadena, her parents have their house rigged with an elaborate security system to keep them all safe. Filomena always thought they were being paranoid, but if they knew she’d just gotten robbed on a quest, they’d be freaking out too much to even say I told you so! A thread of homesickness worms its way into her chest and lodges there. Her parents always did everything within their power to keep her safe. She could really use one of her mother’s takeout dinners right now, or maybe a big bowl of plain pasta with butter and cheese, which is the one dish her mom knows how to cook.
“Just the magic of friendship and love, Alistair,” she says, trying to bring herself back to the present and the task at hand.
Jack is squinting into the distance. “I think they went that way,” he says, motioning to the valley below.
Filomena is relieved to see his spirits returning. Jack really does come alive in a crisis. Underdog extraordinaire. And, oh gosh, he does look so cute when he’s making a plan …
Ah! Focus, Filomena! Why did she keep going back to thinking about how cute Jack was when being heroic? (Although she thinks he looks cute all the time.)
Wait! She thinks Jack is cute? She’s always thought he was cute, of course, but … Oh dear. This feels deeper than a book crush for sure. Filomena hopes no one’s noticed how crimson she’s turned.
“All right,” says Jack. “No time like the present to pick up the pace. Let’s go!” And with that, he’s off and running in the direction of the thieves.
“You know,” Gretel says, “the one thing that’s actually good about getting robbed is that we have a lot less to carry.”
The four of them are jogging at a quick clip now, with Jack in the lead.
“So,” Gretel continues, “one way to look at this: The thieves are actually, like, our helpers, you know—like packhorses? Carrying the heavy stuff for us until we get to our destination!”
“Right,” Filomena responds, “except we wouldn’t be running right now if we weren’t robbed in the first place.”
“I can’t believe I haven’t learned by now not to wear my designer boots on these trips,” Gretel says. “Man, I really need to invest in some athleisure.”
“‘Athleisure’?” Alistair questions. “Is that some kind of potion? What witch are you working with, Gretel?”
Filomena giggles. It never gets old, listening to Alistair and Gretel. Ever since spending so much time together at the Queen of Hearts’ castle in Wonderland, they’d been bonded like squabbling siblings.
As they banter, Jack peers through his Seeing Eye to look just ahead. Luckily the tiny gold telescope hung from a chain wrapped around his neck, and the thieves hadn’t gotten close enough to grab it.
“How’s it going, Jack?” Filomena asks.
“We’re on their tails; I can see them ahead. It looks like we’re getting close to Northphalia. Not exactly the part we were planning to cut through, though.”
Another North is on Filomena’s mind again. It was only yesterday that Filomena thought she’d be going home to North Pasadena. She’d even packed her bags. She was excited to see her parents, give them a huge hug, and tell them everything that had happened since the last time she was home. And a LOT had happened. She’d tell them all about meeting the supposedly wicked stepsisters, Beatrice and Hortense; barely escaping death in a gingerbread house; spending the night in a beast’s castle; and, of course, going undercover at the Queen of Hearts’ palace! (Doesn’t sound familiar? Better check out book two of this series. The adventures just keep coming!)
When Filomena got back from her first visit to Never After (remember when she was denied her genie wish but still managed to banish the ogre Olga with help from a wolf pack?), she thought they’d never believe that this other world existed. But when she came clean about it, it turned out they’d already known—or at least had suspected. Filomena had always known she was adopted, but what she hadn’t known until that moment was that she was adopted by her parents after Carabosse, the thirteenth fairy (her aunt, remember?), rescued her from the evil ogre Queen Olga on her christening day, after her birth mother, the fairy Rosanna, died. Carabosse brought Filomena to the mortal world to keep her safe. There Filomena’s mortal parents found her and raised her as their own, protecting her from evil—and, sure, sometimes they were a little too protective. Yesterday she had been so excited to see them and to explain how she’d helped defeat the ogre queen (for now), bring the real Queen of Hearts back to Wonderland, and free Byron Bessley from his beastly curse.
But just as Filomena was about to return to her other life, a page from the Queen of Hearts’ castle had come bearing news that the fairy Scheherazade (also known as Filomena’s aunt Zera) was in Snow Country, and that she had found Colette, one of the thirteen fairies who’d gone missing after the Last Battle. And Zera needs help, desperately.
So going home would have to wait for now. Thank fairies, time works differently in Never After; when Filomena eventually did get back to her parents, it would be as if only a few hours, or a day, had passed.
“You know,” Alistair squeaks out between huge breaths, “if I’d known how big a part cardio was going to play in saving the worlds, I don’t know that I would’ve signed up for this.”
The four laugh between gasps of air.
“Oh, you signed up for this? That’s nice. I didn’t realize it was optional!” Gretel huffs.
“We really should be training in our downtime, shouldn’t we?” responds Alistair.
“Downtime?” Gretel laughs. “Since when do we ever have downtime?”
The path they’d been running along through the woods suddenly breaks into a clearing on a hill that overlooks a tiny town at the bottom of a valley. At the edge of the village is a forest that looks much different from the one they’ve been running through. It’s darker and denser, with trees that seem almost sinister; they have bare black branches, and the lines of bark on their trunks look like scowling faces.
And from their vantage point on the hill, they can just barely spy the band of thieves with bags, glinting swords, and other assorted goods beelining toward that sinister forest. Soon the thieves have disappeared into it.
Jack lowers his Seeing Eye. “It won’t penetrate through those trees,” he says dejectedly. “The forest is covered in defensive magic.”
“What is that place?” Filomena asks while Alistair and Gretel take deep breaths, hands on knees, beside them.
“Sherwood Forest,” says Jack grimly.
Gretel’s and Alistair’s heads snap up.
“Are you sure?” Alistair says.
“I’m certain,” Jack responds.
“I thought no one ever goes into Sherwood Forest?” says Gretel.
“Why? What is it?” Filomena asks. “I don’t think it’s covered in any of the Never After books I’ve read so far. But it sounds familiar.”
“It’s enchanted. No one knows much about it, but Gretel’s right that no one ever goes there. At least, that’s what they say. But it seems our little gang of thieves begs to differ.” Jack kicks some pebbles on the path.
There’s a chill in the twilit evening air; stars are just starting to glint above them. It’s growing late, and Filomena can’t tell if the cold is because they’re getting close to Snow Country or because of this mysterious forest and its creepy energy.
Jack looks out over the vast landscape ahead of them. To the left is Sherwood Forest; to the right a small village. Beyond is Snow Country and all that comes with it. “It looks like we’ll finally have some of that downtime Alistair was talking about. Let’s follow the path to the village for now.”
And with that they scramble down the hill, hoping to reach the village before the sun fully sets. An unspoken agreement lies among them: They aren’t sticking around to see whatever might come crawling out of Sherwood Forest.