The Alarming Scent of Cinnamon

IV

It was dark outside when Hansel and Gretel walked out of the Dark Woods.

"Did we make it out?" Hansel asked.

"I - I think so!" Gretel said.

Gone were the whispering voices, the fog, and the faint lingering smell of cinnamon. Hansel and Gretel were back in the woods, their woods.

Right?

"Gretel?" Hansel looked around at the trees he knew so well.

"Yes?" said Gretel, who was leading the way.

"Doesn't something seem...off?"

Gretel stopped and looked over her shoulder.

"A little."

"Why aren't you worried?" 

Gretel shrugged.

"I'm too tired, I guess."

Hansel frowned. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. The woods seemed smaller, somehow.

A while later, the woods gave way to a meadow. Gretel smiled. She knew the path from here by heart. Soon, she would be home again.

Hansel looked at his feet as he walked. Again, something seemed off. Then he noticed that the little dirt path was gone. He and Gretel had made it from taking the same path into the woods every day.

"We're coming up on the house!" Gretel said. She broke into a run. 

"Wait for me!" Hansel cried, running after her. 

The house, a dot on the horizon, grew larger as they ran towards it. 

They ran towards it, giddy with glee, until they were at the doorstep.

Gretel knocked on the door.

No one answered.

"Daddy?" she said.

"We're home now!" she said.

"It's nighttime. He's probably asleep," Hansel said.

Gretel turned the doorknob and opened the door. The hinges creaked as she and Hansel stepped inside.

And everything was wrong.

Everything sat under a layer of dust. The roof had worn thin and caved in in spots, coating the floor in dirt. Cobwebs occupied every spot imaginable. 

Gretel walked inside, dumbfounded. She walked across the room and opened the door to what had once been her and Hansel's bedroom. Their beds were still there, stripped of sheets and blankets. 

She turned to see the cabinet of Faerie treasures her father had made. She and Hansel had filled it with curiosities they found in the woods. The shiny rock she'd found was covered in a layer of dust and grime. It didn't shine like it once had.

Hansel watched a beetle scuttle across the floor. He slid his fingers across the dining table, then blew the dust off his fingers and watched it float away. He walked into his and Gretel's room to see her staring at the cabinet of Faerie wonders. 

Hansel walked over to the table between his bed and Gretel's. A candle sat there. He wondered when it had last been lit. Was it when he and Gretel went to bed their last night at home, just last month? 

Beside the candle sat a small wooden rocking horse. Hansel picked it up and wiped the dust off it. He turned it over. Burned into it were his father's initials:

GH

Hansel watched as Gretel drifted out of her room and into her father's room. She looked like a ghost.

Hansel followed her. The bed was bare, like his and Gretel's had been. All the blankets in the house were folded in the corner. He glided towards them, unfolding one and coughing as the dust flew everywhere. He knew this blanket. It was a quilt his mother had made. He flipped it over and held up the corner, right where he knew his mother's initials were stitched into it.

HH

Gretel looked around the room. The walls were bare. Everything was gone. She sat down on the floor and began to sob.

Hansel plopped down by Gretel, draping the dusty quilt around her shoulders. He was too shocked to cry. Everything was gone. He didn't know what year it was, where his father was, or what to do next. Gretel always knew what to do.

 And now she was just as lost as he was. 

Hansel put his arm around her. Gretel hugged him back until her tears dwindled.

"What is going on?" Hansel said.

"I don't know," Gretel sniffed.

"How long were we at the witch's house?" Hansel wondered aloud.

"There's got to be some way to go back." he continued.

 "Maybe there's a spell for it! In the magic book!" Gretel said,

Hansel set the backpack in his lap and pulled the magic book out.

He handed it to Gretel. 

"You do the honors," 

Gretel opened it and began to read fragments of its contents.

"Spells, chants, charms," she listed, her voice wavering.

Hansel looked over her shoulder. Spelled out in ornate letters on the first page was the words

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Gretel ran her finger down the page. 

"Time!" she cried. Hansel followed her finger, which was directly under the word "Time".

"Page 264," she read. She began flipping through the book, then stopped.

"What page was it again?" 

"264," Hansel said.

Gretel continued to flip until she reached page number 264.

"The magic of time is a very-" she paused for a second, squinting at the page.

"What are those two words there?" 

Hansel squinted at them. 

"The first one is 'difficult' and I don't know the second one'" Hansel said after a couple seconds.

"Ok," Gretel continued. "The magic of time is a very difficult magic and should not be -" Gretel paused to sound out the word, "trifled with."

"What's trifled mean?" she asked.

"I thought it was a dessert," Hansel said. He and Gretel had only learned the basics of reading and math, since their father thought it would be more appropriate for them to learn how to survive in the wilderness, which did come in very handy later on.

"Let's go into town tomorrow and try to figure things out," Hansel said. He looked around again and remembered where he was. His heart sank.

Sleeping on the floor was uncomfortable for both of them, and they kept shifting around. Somehow, sleeping on the beds would have been worse, though.

Finally, Gretel said,

"Could you turn into something poofy?"

"I don't see why not," Hansel said.

He focused on the time Gunter had taken them to a nearby town. They got to ride in the carriage he used to transport wood. They had seen a big, fluffy dog in the town. A lady was taking it for a walk and had let them pet it. 

Hansel felt his bones shift again. He focused and could feel his muscles expand and contract to fit his new form. 

Gretel gasped.

"The dog! From the time we went to town!"

Hansel smiled and barked. 

His new form was much more comfortable, and he didn't need to take up any of the quilt. Hansel and Gretel rested well that night, preparing for whatever lay ahead.