The Perfect Gift

Part 8

Around noon it was very hot outside. They had to stop and rest under an apple tree. Princess Missy carefully climbed up and dropped down at least twelve apples before pausing to satisfy her own hunger.

Just then a gentle breeze began to blow and it sounds as if it was carrying Missy's words to Michie's ears. It said "We don't need Michie with us. She is such klutz at home how is she going to be of any help to us now?"

So when Black Tooth announced that it was that time to resume their travels Michie hastily picked up the remaining apples to place into the basket in an effort to hide her tears.

When Michie turned over she politely ask her sister what she had meant when she said they'll she who deserves to be here. "Are you sure that you don't remember, you were the one who asked why I was even traveling with you," Missy replied.

"I never asked such a thing! And when we're on the subject why did you say that I was a klutz?"

"I didn't say that, but I know I plainly heard you ask that question about me."

"Please listen to me! In the past have I ever said anything means to you or to you?"

"You're right sister; I have never heard you say anything mean before today. I probably just heard you wrong."

"I'm sure that I probably just heard you wrong too," Michie said as she hugged her sister to sleep.

The next day, Hendel was busy trying to put her deceitful plan into motion. With a laugh and wave of her magic staff, she turned her cat into a man to assist her in trapping the girls.

She explained that her plan was to lure the group into falling into a pit trap by using an imitation Princess Sue's voice to lure them there. And once, they were in the pit. She would use her magic staff power to lift the girls out, while leaving the wolves trapped. As the girls tirelessly walked around a bush they held their sister calls out to them. "Oh, please help me."

When Missy turned to go help her dear sister, Michie caught her arm and said: "I don't think we should go this way, because I just saw that crow heading in the opposite direction."

At hearing this, Black Tooth told Missy that he sensed danger and that he thought that they didn't miss hear each other before; instead they were tricked by some body that wished to stop them. He felt as this is also a deception. So the four continued to travel in the direction in which the crow had gone. This route led out of the forest and into a lush grassy meadow.

At the castle Hendel had retuned the cat back to his original form and flinging him into the pit fall trap. She was so very angry that her plan had failed, that she was causing a mild thunder storm to form with her staff. She reached her dark gloomy bed room and dropped onto her bed.

After another hour of journeying had passed the party of travelers found them in what appeared to be a long forgotten garden. The whole place looked rebellious, untidy, dark, and neglected. The place seemed so spooky that one had to stay on their guard, because of the monstrous creatures that might be hiding behind the foliage.

As they traveled forward they did not stop to rest, out of fear of their soundings. A very small squirrel smelled the apples in the basket, leaped from a tree to their basket, and tried to knaw a hole in it large enough to reach some lunch.

To his dismay, Princess Missy grasped his tail and gave him a stern talking to about manners. After this hard learned lesson, he asked her politely for some food and she happily gave him some.

Princess Missy politely asked the squirrel, as he ate, if he knew what was at the end of the path that they seemed to be walking down.

"Please, whatever you do, don't continue down this path to the castle. An evil cat lives there that tries to eat me. So I repeat do not go near that castle." He pleaded before running off.

"Are we really going to continue down this path?" Missy asked after translating what the squirrel had said for her sister.

"We must continue searching for Sue," Michie replied.