“Cienna, it’s okay,” Jessamine said as she tried to comfort her sister-wife. “They’re just birds.”

  “Creepy, possessed birds,” the blonde grumbled as she inched closer to Jessamine.

  “This is insane,” Rachel muttered, and she started up at the receding flock of birds as they disappeared through the canopy. “You said this is what it was like when you first got to my kingdom? The woods around my tower aren’t anything like this, thank the gods.”

  “I think this is worse,” I admitted. “We haven’t seen as many animals on the ground yet, but the noises and the fog and, dear god, those birds. What in the actual fuck?”

  “Yeah, it’s pretty bad,” Jessamine replied, though I could barely hear her over a harsh wind that had started to howl through the trees.

  “Jennyyy!” Rachel screamed over the noise. “What happened to you?”

  I expected our only answer to be the howling wind, but then a young woman’s voice called back to us.

  “I’m here!” the voice shouted, and my knees almost buckled in relief. “I’m right over here! I got off the path somehow, and I tripped and hurt my knee, but I’m okay.”

  I looked around, and I was grateful the fog had cleared. Then I heard the booming noise start again, and as it pounded into my brain over and over again, I wasn’t sure where it was coming from, but it was definitely going to make it harder to hear Jenny’s voice.

  “Do you see that through the trees?” Ariana virtually had to scream into my ear as she pointed over to our left, and I saw a flash of something that looked like bright red fabric.

  “Yeah, I do.” I nodded and squinted in its direction, and although it could have been another animal, I hoped it was the girl.

  “Jenny, can you see us?” Rachel yelled over the booming sound, and then it stopped as suddenly as it had begun again.

  I wondered what the noise was, because it definitely started to jangle my nerves as much as anything else in this crazy forest.

  “I’m wearing red!” the girl’s voice called, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

  “Listen, I don’t want to leave you alone for even a minute,” I told the princesses, “but I do think I see her clothing. So, I want you to stay right in this exact location. I’m going to head just a few hundred feet through the trees to grab Jenny, and then I’m going to come right back over, and we can get the hell out of here.”

  “Okay, Joe,” Jessamine said with a nod. “Rachel, I know it’s still a little weird for you, but this might be a good time to grab our hands for strength.”

  “Oh, I know,” Cienna interjected as she smacked herself gently on the forehead. “I’ll freeze time when Joe makes the trip. He can run over, grab the girl, and bring her back to us.”

  “Perfect,” I replied with a nod. “Cienna, that’s super smart. Okay, whenever you’re ready, I am, too.”

  Time froze around me an instant later, and I headed off as fast as I could into the trees toward the red fabric. The brush was dense off the trail, and I stumbled over branches and stones and was pricked by thorn after thorn. It took me longer than I wanted, but the closer I got, the more a tiny teenage girl came into view. Jenny had the same dull brown hair and long, narrow face as her father, and she was equally skinny. She was wearing a bright red dress and carrying a small basket, and when I finally reached her, I threw her over my shoulder as quickly as I could, grabbed the basket, and began my trek back to the princesses.

  When they came into view, I saw Cienna was looking over her shoulder at me as she squeezed Jessamine and Ariana’s hands as hard as she could, and even from a few feet away, I could see the blonde’s knuckles were white.

  “Joe, I have to let go!” Cienna shouted. “I’m trying so hard, but I don’t think I can hold it anymore.”

  “You’re fine, just let me put the girl down so I don’t totally freak her out,” I responded, and I rested Jenny down on the ground in a seated position.

  Time whirled to a start again around us, and I realized how loud the wind was as it roared in my ears. The young girl looked around at us, and her mouth dropped open.

  “What the…” she mouthed, and she looked the princesses’ strange outfits up and down. “Who… who are you?”

  “It doesn’t matter right now, we’re here to save you,” Rachel replied, and she knelt down next to the girl on the forest floor. “Are you okay? Did you get lost?”

  “I guess so…” Jenny said as she pulled up her dress and rubbed her knee, and I could see it had a big bruise on it. “I grew up here, so I know these woods like the back of my hand, but things have been getting worse and worse. I’ve been going to collect berries since I was a little girl, but now even the berries are weird.”

  I looked into her basket, and I saw the small, round berries were grayish in tone.

  “Can you eat those?” Cienna wondered in a doubtful voice. “They don’t look… healthy.”

  “I have no idea.” Jenny frowned. “Every time I come back, they look odder and odder. But if you’ve been to the village, you might have noticed how hungry we are. I feel like I have to keep trying to feed my family, but the berries don’t really look like we should eat them, do they?”

  I was sorry to have to do so, but I shook my head at the girl.

  “No, I wouldn’t eat anything from these woods,” I said. “I would try to stick to the forest downhill from the village, if you possibly can. Everything still seems relatively normal there.”

  “Yeahhh,” the girl sighed, but she shook her head and looked up into my face. “Who did you say you were again? You did come to rescue me, and you don’t look like Gertha, so…”

  “Definitely not Gertha,” Rachel laughed gently. “Your father sent us to find you. Did you get lost in the fog, Jenny?”

  “Not exactly,” the young girl confessed. “I was walking down the path to come home, and suddenly it was like I was at the beginning of the path again, back where I’d started. I kept walking and walking, but I wasn’t making any progress at all. It was like I was stuck in an endless loop. It was almost… almost like the woods didn’t want me to leave. Eventually, I left the path to see if that would help, but here I am. I’m sure that sounds crazy…”

  “Nothing sounds crazy anymore,” Rachel assured her, and she pulled Jenny in for a hug.

  The young girl resisted for a moment, but then she leaned her head up against the golden-haired princess’ shoulder and started to silently cry. Her shoulders shook and tears ran down her face for a moment, but then she pulled away, wiped off her cheeks, and stood up.

  “I’m fine,” Jenny announced, and I got the feeling hard times in the village had forced the young girl to mature beyond her years. “I’m okay. I need to get back to my parents now, though. They’re already worried enough about my sleeping brother. If they thought they lost me, too, I don’t know what they’d do.”

  “Alright, let’s see if we can make our way out of here,” I responded, and I stared at the path with a frown.

  I thought about what Jenny had said about the trail repeating over and over again in a loop, and I hoped getting out of the woods would be as simple as walking in. I wondered if the princesses could track our way out of here the same way we’d tracked Rachel before we’d first met her, and I figured we’d at least be better off than the young girl as long as the six of us stuck together. I was also grateful for the princesses’ colorful outfits as well as Jenny’s bright dress, although I wondered if brown had really been the right color for me to wear, since it was practically camo in these dense woods.

  “Yes, let’s go,” Ariana said as she grabbed my hand, and I began to lead the princesses down the path.

  Suddenly, the rhythmic booming noise started again, and it sounded like it was even closer.

  Then it occurred to me that it sounded like huge footsteps.

  Chapter 15

  “Shit, I think it might be something coming toward us!” I told the princesses and Jenny, and I could tell it was getting louder.

  “Should we try to run?” Cienna asked, but I shook my head.

  I didn’t want to get stuck in a loop of a trail if it meant we weren’t prepared to fight.

  “It sounds big, and it sounds close, so let’s get into a defensive position,” I responded instead.

  My wives and I all pulled out our weapons and stood back-to-back so we’d be prepared for something coming from any direction, but Rachel stood off to the side a little ways away, and her expression was anxious as she wrung her hands as we listened to the loud noise grow even louder with each passing second.

  I thought the sound was coming from further uphill, but the way the noise was echoing off the trees made it hard to tell. Then Cienna screamed, and I immediately turned to look at my blonde wife.

  “What is it?” Jessamine asked as she brandished her scimitar.

  Cienna didn’t seem to be able to talk, so she just pointed toward the treetops ahead of us on the trail.

  And there I saw something truly horrifying.

  A huge pair of antlers was headed toward us from about fifty feet away through a new fog that had begun to swirl around us. I couldn’t see what animal they belonged to yet, but whatever it was, it was gigantic.

  “Cienna, freeze time!” I ordered the blonde princess. “Hang in there, you can do it!”

  Time froze for just me and Cienna, and while part of me wanted to go inspect the monster coming toward us, I also knew that could be incredibly dangerous. All I could tell was the huge, pale brown antlers were as high as the treetops, and it seemed like the situation was going to turn Godzilla-bad super fast.

  “Joe, I’m torn about what we should do,” Cienna grunted, and her face twisted with concentration as she focused on holding her time spell. “On the one hand, maybe we should go see what it is and you can shoot it with Genie’s Wrath right away. On the other hand, we could focus on protection for the time being. Jenny is here with us, and we can’t just let her get murdered by some wild beast we came across on the trail. My magic seems okay for the moment, but I’m scared if I let things stay frozen for too long, I won’t be able to use it again when we really need it.”

  “Fuck it, I’m going to run over and check it out,” I told my blonde wife. “Just hold on for a few more seconds.”

  “Got it.” Cienna nodded. “Just hurry.”

  So, I dashed up the winding path toward the beast, and when I saw it, I immediately gasped. The monster looked similar to a giant, hairy Bigfoot but with glowing red eyes and, of course, the huge antlers. It was at least ten feet tall with shaggy brown fur all over its body full of twigs and leaves, and when I saw its huge feet, I knew it was more than capable of making the thunderous noise we’d heard.

  I held up Genie’s Wrath, pointed it at the monster, and focused on the purple stone, and I actually managed to hit it with sparks. The attack left a small singed mark on its dark brown fur and a spot of blood, but it certainly didn’t bring the beast down. I knew I didn’t have much time left with Cienna’s spell, so I ran back to the princesses, and I thought Ariana was probably going to need to put up her shield temporarily.

  “What should we do, Joe?” Cienna asked.

  I saw her face had tightened and she was breathing a little heavily, and I knew we didn’t have long.

  “We're just going to tell Ariana to put up her bubble right away to protect us, and then we’re going to go from there,” I said.

  From the rhythm of its footsteps, the creature didn’t seem very fast, but I certainly didn’t want that to change.

  “Okay, letting the spell go,” Cienna gasped, and the ominous crashing of the terrible animal’s feet echoed throughout the forest again.

  “Ariana, put up your shield, now!” I commanded my red-haired wife, and I almost immediately saw the shimmering bubble made of water the mermaid could generate on land. As it surrounded the six people in our party, I saw both Jenny and Rachel gaping at the sight of Ariana’s barrier.

  Suddenly, the horrible pounding grew a little quicker, and I knew we were going to have to come up with a strategy, fast.

  “Jenny, the rest of us can fight, but we need to protect you,” I grunted. “Jessamine and Ariana, I want you to work together to put up the most solid bubble you can. Make it out of water or metal or whatever, but just put it up to protect Jenny. Cienna, how are you feeling on your time magic? Because as soon as this thing gets close, I want you to freeze time again. Rachel, if you’re going to show us your fighting skills, this is the time.”

  “What is it?” Rachel breathed.

  “I can’t even explain it,” I said as I shook my head, “but whatever it is, it’s fucking huge.”

  “Okay,” the golden-blonde sighed, and as I watched, she pulled the pin out of her hair. Her honey-colored locks grew until they were about ten feet long, and then several daggers emerged from the tips of several long strands. The pieces of hair swirled outward from her head like snakes and wrapped around the hilts of the knives they were holding as if they had fingers, and they began to slither in the direction of the booming noise as if they moved instinctively.

  “Holy shit!” Cienna gasped, and her sapphire eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Rachel, oh, my gods!”

  “I guess you and Vincent weren’t joking when you described yourself as a badass fighter,” I remarked, but everyone around me gasped in shock when the giant beast finally came into view.

  And then the creature did something absolutely terrifying. It was now about twenty yards away, and when it lowered its head, I realized it was about to charge us.

  “Cienna!” I screamed. “Now!”

  Cienna grunted and squeezed her fists, and then time was frozen for myself and my three wives.

  “Okay, put up the bubble around Jenny, and do it quickly,” the blonde told her sister wives as she bared her teeth in a grimace. “We don’t have any time to lose.”

  “Sure,” Ariana said with a nod. “Jessamine, are you ready?”

  “Yes,” the dark-haired princess confirmed, and I could tell from the look of concentration on her face that a big illusion was coming.

  I drummed my fingers against my leg as I waited, and then suddenly, Jenny was enclosed in a huge, bright silver ball.

  “That’s two layers of protection,” Ariana said as she dusted off her palms. “One magical, one metal. Hopefully, that will keep the girl safe while we fight this thing.”

  “Awesome, now, Ariana, I want you to stand back,” I told the mermaid. “I know you have daggers right now, but you don’t really have anything you can use at a longer range.”

  “I really wish I had my trident right now,” the redhead mused, “but I don’t think I have time for Jessamine to make that for me. I’ll stand watch, and if I see any sort of attack headed your way, I’ll let you know immediately.”

  “Sounds perfect,” I said with a nod. Then I looked at Rachel’s hair with the daggers sticking out of it and shook my head out of fascination.

  I didn’t have much time, though, and while I wished we could dodge charging monsters like bullfighters, I didn’t think it was going to work.

  “I’m going to try to hit it with Genie’s Wrath one more time,” I told the princesses. “It didn’t work too well the first time, but I’ll aim for the face now.”

  So, I pointed my huge, golden sword directly at the monster’s eye and focused, and this time, a larger blast of purple sparks shot out. They directly hit their target, and just as time came whirling into motion again around us, the huge beast stood up straight again, put a gigantic paw to its face, and roared in agony.

  “Joe, you got it!” Jessamine cheered as she brandished a scimitar in either hand.

  I hoped it didn’t come down to having to use our weapons at short range, but if we had to cut down each of its six-foot tall legs, we could definitely do it. Luckily, the beast hadn’t yet displayed any magical attacks, so it seemed we were in greater danger of being mauled by a giant paw or gored by a huge antler if it charged again.

  The monster shook its head like it was trying to shake off the pain of my attack, and then it seemed to catch sight of the huge silver ball Jessamine and Ariana had created around Jenny. One of the beast’s bright red eyes was dripping with blood from where I’d hit it, but nonetheless, its crimson orbs lit up with interest, and it grunted, tried to move closer, and was seemingly transfixed by the gleaming metal.

  “What the hell?” Cienna asked as she stepped back with her sword in hand. “Is he ignoring us for that thing?”

  “I’m gonna take advantage,” I grunted. “I want to take its attention off the girl, so I’m going to shoot it again.”

  I aimed my sword at its head and shot another blast of violet sparks in the hideous beast’s direction. I made contact with its nose this time, and the giant creature put up a hand to the seared flesh as a thin stream of blood ran out from the wound.

  Then the monster raised its paw up into the air, and I put my arms out to cover all my wives.

  Rachel seemed to be in a world of her own, and I watched as the strands of hair with daggers reached out and began to stab the beast from all sides like some sort of murderous octopus. I saw the knives cut small wounds all over the monster’s arms and legs and up into its torso, but the beast merely batted them away.

  The golden-blonde sighed with frustration, but I figured she had to be hurting it at least a little bit.

  The huge, antlered creature kept its eyes on the giant silver ball, and suddenly, it lowered its paw and swatted the sphere like a cat playing with a toy. Luckily, the beast was facing uphill so it didn’t immediately roll away, but I feared we were in danger of losing Jenny. I could hear the girl screaming from inside the ball, but I wasn’t sure what else we could do to protect her other than to bring the beast down.

  Just as the ball started to roll downhill again, Cienna froze time for the two of us, and we both stood there gasping for breath for a moment.

  “What the hell, Joe?” my blonde wife asked me, and I just shook my head.

  “This thing is acting like a giant housecat,” I replied, and I began to think. “How could we use its distraction to our advantage?”

 

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