The images in the puddle had scattered seeds covering small portions of the image. Melody tried
her best to see through it as clearly as possible. She had sent her pet Dove out into the kingdoms to see if it
would encounter anything useful. She had told the dove to fly towards the 4th Kingdom but she didn't think the
bird understood her anyways. So she just let it fly aimlessly.
She saw trees of all colors fly by in the puddle on the ground. There were men in fields and
small cottages with smoke billowing out of their chimneys. The dove flew in and out of tree branches and flew high
up into the sky. Looking down at the Kingdoms below in a Bird's eye view made Melody a bit sick to the stomach.
"Come on, Dove, show me something interesting." she mouthed to herself. As if the bird
had heard her it began to descend lower until Melody could see the green hills quite clearly below. Trees dotted
the landscape and here and there were scattered lakes and ponds. Soon a large palace came into view.
"That's the House of White!" Melody exclaimed. She had never seen it herself but her mother had always
conjured up images through her magic mirrors to show Melody where she had lived before. Melody was getting excited
and she urged the dove to fly into the palace as close as possible. Oddly enough, the bird actually complied and
flew in closer. It snuck into an open window on the side of the palace and Melody found herself looking at a huge
banquet hall with a large table that stretched from one end of the room to the other.
"Oh my! Is that where they eat? Who in the world would eat all that food that is covering
that huge table?"
She got her answer. The Dove flew closer and perched itself onto a chair at one end of the table.
Melody could see quite clearly three people sitting down and eating. One man especially was gobbling down food
like there was no tomorrow. Melody was surprised he wasn't choking on the food he was shoving into his mouth at
a mile a minute. The dove then turned towards the other two dining people and she saw a girl. The girl was so familiar
but Melody couldn't place it. She had dark hair cropped nice and short and her eyes were a startling blue. In her
lap was a baby who was just as eagerly grabbing at food that obviously his teethless mouth could not chew.
Melody became entranced by the girl sitting at the table. She wished she could hear what they were saying. Immediately
voices began echoing from within the puddle. Melody was so surprised she stepped backwards and almost knocked over
her mirror. She quickly steadied herself and caught her reflection once again.
"That girl, she looks almost just like me!" Melody exclaimed. She studied her image
in the mirror and then looked down at the puddle to study Virginia. "Yes, she looks just like me. Almost the
spitting image. Who is she?" She muttered beneath her breathe. She leaned down closer to the puddle to listen
carefully to the people that were dining.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Prince, can you pass the pork chops down to me?" Wolf's voice boomed between bites
of a lamb leg. King Wendell rolled his eyes and passed the plate of chops down to Wolf. Wolf grabbed the plate
and began shoving pork chops into his mouth practically eating the bones with it.
"I can never ever get over how much that man can eat, Virginia." He muttered to Virginia
who was seated next to him.
"Trust me, your majesty. You never will. I still haven't. I'm just thankful he hasn't eaten
us out of house and home back in Manhattan." Virginia laughed and took a bite out of her chicken.
"I trust everything is doing well with you and Wolf back in Manhattan?" The king asked
trying not to pay attention to Wolf's ravenous appetite.
"We're doing quite well, actually. Wolf has been doing very nicely at his job with the narrating
program and my job at the health center is teaching me a lot too. I'm currently taking classes so I can get my
degree in sociology." Virginia explained. She bounced baby Peter in her lap and fed him some mashed carrots
she had in her plate.
"I am glad you are doing well, Virginia. I am glad the death of the Wicked Queen did not
affect you as bad as I thought it would." Wendell said quickly catching himself. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't
have brought it up."
Wolf looked up from his eating and looked at Virginia. Virginia just smiled back and silently
gave him a look to let him know everything was alright.
"It's alright, your majesty. I have completely come to terms with my killing of the Queen. It was something
that I just couldn't avoid. And I realized that I was brought here to the Kingdoms the first time to accomplish
that deed. It was my destiny." She explained softly. The death of her mother still hurt her but she understood
that it wasn't her fault anymore. Her mother was sick and she would've harmed so many people if she hadn't been
stopped.
Wendell sighed and gave Virginia's hand a reassuring squeeze.
"You are a strong woman, my dear."
A guard came rushing in to the dining hall shouting for the King's attention.
"Your majesty! Your majesty! Something has gone amiss!" He shouted out of breathe.
"The men, the men you sent out to greet Sir Antony and the Princess Wendy mid way have found Sir Antony's
horse just a few miles from here. The horse was found with no rider! There was no sign of the princess or her guards
or their horses!"
King Wendell jumped out his chair knocking it over behind him. Virginia also stood up and gave
Wolf a worried look. Wolf stopped eating and came around the table to Virginia.
"I'm sure everything is all right, my love." He whispered in her ear. But his face
showed that he was also very concerned. Tony was a very good friend of his and also his father-in-law. He hoped
nothing bad had happened.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony felt himself being shaken slightly. His head ached and something felt funny but he couldn't
place it. He opened one eye and peered up and saw the princess above him. It was her that was shaking him.
"Alright, alright, I'm up already." He said. But wait, he didn't hear himself say anything. "Hello?
Hello?" He said again. Nothing. He had gone tone deaf!
He looked at the princess with a worried look and the princess looked just as distressed. She
held up a slate of chalkboard and quickly squibbled something. She turned it towards Antony so he could read it.
ARE YOU ALRIGHT?
"Yes." Tony said but he didn't hear anything. He nodded and took the slate from the
princess.
WHAT IS GOING ON? AM I DEAF? He wrote.
NO, NOT DEAF. THERE IS NO SOUND. NONE OF US CAN HEAR ANYTHING. The princess wrote back. At the
word US, Tony began to look around him. He saw many people all standing around with chalkboard slates in their
hands and scribbling away furiously. He saw the two guards standing nearby looking confused and worried. Tony stood
up and looked back around him.
YOU HIT YOUR HEAD. YOU WERE OUT FOR A MIN. MAYBE. The princess wrote and shoved the slate into
Tony's face. Tony felt his forehead and felt a slight bump already forming above his left eye. He groaned to himself
but heard nothing.
WE ARE TRAPPED HERE IN THE 6TH KINGDOM. The princess wrote again.
WHAT? HOW CAN WE BE TRAPPED? Tony squibbled back. One of the guards handed Tony a slate of his
own so he didn't have to keep sharing Princess Wendy's .
WE JUST ARE, ANTONY. FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BOARDER IN THE 2ND KINGDOM, WE COULDN'T EVEN
SEE ALL THESE VILLAGERS STANDING HERE.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN?
YOU HAVE VERY BAD HANDWRITING ANTONY! Wendy frowned at Tony's slate and squinted. I MEAN, FROM
THIS SIDE, THE PEOPLE COULD SEE US HEADING INTO HERE. BUT FROM THE OTHER SIDE, WE COULDN'T SEE THEM. WE ARE IN
THE 6TH KINGDOM.
WHY CAN'T WE HEAR ANYTHING? Tony scrawled out as best as he could.
I DON'T KNOW. WE JUST CAN'T. NO ONE CAN. AND WE ARE ALL TRAPPED. WE CAN'T GET WORD OUT TO THE
OTHER KINGDOMS EITHER.
WHAT? WHY NOT?
THERE IS A FORCE LINING THE BOARDER THAT WE CANNOT GO THROUGH. I HAVE TRIED. WE CAN GET IN, BUT
NOT BACK OUT.
A FORCE? BUT THERE MUST BE A WAY!
PERHAPS, BUT WE NEED TO START LOOKING SOON. Wendy wrote quickly and motioned for her guards.
One of the guards held up his slate to show Tony and Wendy. It showed a drawing of a very large
dog. Tony frowned and shrugged his shoulders. He shook his head. A DOG? He wrote on his slate. The other guard
stepped up and showed his slate.
BERT CAN'T REED OR RITE. I THINK HE MEENS HORSE. Tony struggled with the other guard's spelling.
Obviously the guards of the House of White did not have much schooling in their life time. When he realized they
were talking about a horse, he turned left and right looking for his. Both guards pointed towards the direction
they had been coming from. Tony squinted and could barely make out a small horse off in the far distance making
his way through the shallow end of the giant's footprint lake.
PERHAPS HE WILL GET HELP! Wrote the princess who showed everyone.
YES, HE WOOD GO BACK TO THE PALISE WITH NO RIDER. THEY WILL NO WE ARE MISSING. The guard wrote.
HE MEANS PALACE, BY THE WAY. The princess wrote to Tony. He nodded to show he understood. WHAT
DO WE DO, ANTONY?
Tony looked around at the other villagers who were all gathered around looking at them. He was
beginning to get an earache even though he couldn't hear anything at all. The silence was probably making his ears
all confused. Have they just all gone deaf? Or was there just no sound at all?
WELL, WE MUST FIND A WAY TO GET THROUGH THE FORCE-FIELD. Tony wrote down quickly after some silent
thinking.
The princess nodded and one of the guards nodded. Bert the guard just stood and looked confused.
The princess quickly mouthed out IT'S OKAY as best as she could so he could understand her. He nodded and tried
to smile.
The ground beneath them began to shake suddenly. Everyone began looking around. The shaking would
come, stop, then start again like someone was jumping on the ground very very very hard.
EARTHQUAKE? Tony wrote quickly. The princess shrugged and they all looked around at the other
villagers.
Many villagers looked confused and frightened. But a couple of older wiser looking men held up
their slates. And they all read....
INVISIBLE GIANT!
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