The Alarming Scent of Cinnamon

IX

"We need to talk," Hansel said.

"What about?" Gretel asked.

"Well... a lot of things. First off, we need to sort out our goals."

"Goals?"

"Yeah, like for the... the woods," Hansel replied, staring off warily into the mist.

"Ok. Well, first off, I need a Faerie teacher," Gretel said squarely.

"Yeah, but..." 

"What?" Gretel said impatiently.

"Aren't we going to talk about... everything?"

"No," Gretel said. "We'd be here for hours. Let's sort out our goals like you said, then we can talk as we walk if you want,"

Hansel fidgeted uncomfortably. "Ok," he muttered.

"So we need to find a Faerie teacher. What else?"

"Well, we need to figure out what the magic book says about time travel," Hansel said.

"Ok, but I think we know enough about reading to do that ourselves," Gretel said, dismissing him.

Hansel fidgeted.

"So... you know how you taught yourself a few spells without me knowing?" he said.

"Yeah. It was only one," Gretel asked.

"Only one spell? Huh. Well, uh... I tried reading a few pages in the book without telling you," he said.

"Ok," Gretel said coolly.

"Aren't you going to ask me about it? Why aren't you upset?"

She shrugged. 

"I mean, everything's so crazy right now that I'm just not bothered by much. We already were almost eaten by a witch, mysteriously got magical powers, and somehow used time travel, so I've just stopped being surprised."

"Yeah," Hansel said awkwardly, "So I tried reading more of the page on time travel, and it's in some... other language,"

"No it's not," Gretel said. "We read a bit of it when we... got back from the dark woods,"

Hansel sighed. "But the German just stopped off, and there was just this gibberish. It said it's an incantation. It's really long; it took up almost a whole page,"

"Great," she said. "It's most likely the Fae language. It'll take a long time to learn. So we need to find a teacher and learn this whole spell while avoiding all sorts of nasties,"

"Let's do it," Hansel said. He and Gretel set off into the dark woods. They didn't know it then, but they wouldn't return for five years.

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After trekking through the woods for a half hour or so, both the twins started to get bored.

"This isn't as exciting now that we can fight off almost anything," Gretel said.

"You sure?" Hansel, who was definitely more terrified this time around, said.

"Yeah, pretty sure," she said nonchalantly, "So what was it you wanted to talk about?"

"Everything," Hansel said. "The time travel stuff, the cinnamon smell that's been following us everywhere, the witch we met, all of it."

"Well then," Gretel sighed. "Go on,"

"So I've been wondering- were we in the woods for longer than we thought? 72 years have passed. Were we in the witch's house for 72 years? I don't think so, because she wouldn't have been so patient. Also, how did we not age at all? How is it possible?"