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Bree was spinning through a world of light.  It was so bright she almost didn't open her eyes.  The few times she did open them, she saw Conner or Emmerich zoom past her through the world of light.  She tried to speak but she couldn't hear her own voice.  Since she knew that they were traveling to the Land of Stories, she was confident that they wouldn't die in the space between dimensions, but she still worried. 

^ What was poor Emmerich thinking? The boy didn't even know about the fairytale world, adn there he was, swept into it after Conner and Bree.  What were they going to tell him after they got there? If they even got there at all.  It was taking a long time to get there.^

Bree saw a flash and felt something brush by her as if she was falling through a curtain.  The next thing she knew, she was lying on her back looking up at her eyelids.  She heard a thud next to her that could have been Conner or Emmerich. 

She heard something rustle next to her and opened her eyes.   She looked up to see a hazy night sky staring down at her.  She started to look around the place and realized she was very discombobulated. As she looked around her eyes met Conner's. 

"Well now we know the portal is definitely open," Conner said.  

Bree pulled herself into a seated position and sighed. Her head really hurt from traveling here. "Is it always this rough getting here?" she asked. 

"No," he said.  "I don't know why that was so tough."

Bree looked over to Emmerich, who looked even more discombobulated, he could barely speak, let alone sit up. 

"I don't think we're in Hohenschwangau anymore," he said, and his head bobbed up and down.

Conner got to his feet and looked around the forest surrounding them. 

Bree got to her feet, too.  "So this is it, huh?" she asked. 

"A part of it," Conner said.  "Although I'm not sure where."

Bree heard something behind her and turned around to see Emmerich struggling to get up. Conner and Bree dragged him to a tree and propped him against the trunk of it. 

"Will one of you please tell me where I am?" Emmerich asked.  "And what happened in Neuschwanstein?"

"I told you it would be cooler than being secret agents," Bree said playfully.

"We're in the fairytale world, bud," Conner said.  "We accessed the portal that was hidden inside Neuschwanstein."

Emmerich looked around the forest with huge eyes. "The fairytale world?" he asked incredulously. "As in Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel-"

"They're all here," Conner said.   "My grandma and sister live here, too.  The portal between worlds has been closed for a while but a friend of mine asked me to check and see if it had been re-opened- and here we are."

Emmerich looked stunned. "Why did your friend ask you to check it?" he asked.

"To make sure some bad people couldn't get in," Conner said. 

Bree turned her head and looked at the forest around them.  "Speaking of, if we got through the portal into the fairytale world, doesn't that mean the French-"

Bright lights abruptly flashed all around them. With each flash, something extremely heavy appeared in midair and crashed to the ground. Bree screamed at the same time that she realized that most of the 'objects' were humans. Conner whipped his head around them, looking for something.

"Hurry! Climb the tree!" He yelled, pulling Emmerich to his feet and pushing him up the tree he was formerly leaning against. Bree climbed the tree as fast as she could and heard conner doing the same behind her.  She got to the top and looked at all the soldiers and carriages.

"It's the army!" Conner whispered to them. "They're here!"

After a while, the storm of lighting and raining soldiers ended, and the threesome looked down on a lot of discombobulated soldiers. Bree was trembling and when she looked over at Emmerich, she saw he was doing the same. 

Bree saw the flashes come down for miles around them in the forest. The soldiers and flashes just weren't letting up.  Finally, part of the fog cleared and a short man appeared. 

He gazed at the men lying around him in disgust. A musky cologne filled Bree's nose when he came near the tree they were in. The general apparently had a much stronger stomach than everyone else, and the trip hadn't affected him.

"Debout!" he shouted at the anguished men lying around him. Some were even vomiting from the ride. "Vous etes une honte pour la France!"

"What did he say?" Conner whispered to Bree and Emmerich.

"He said, 'Stand up, you're an embarrassment to France!" Emmerich translated. 

"You speak French?" Conner asked incredulously.

"I can speak German, English, French, and Danish," he whispered back.

Conner looked shocked. "Wow, I'm still struggling with English."

Bree covered both our mouths with her hands. "This is not the time to be comparing party tricks!" she snapped.

^We had just arrived in the fairytale world and they were already comparing party tricks and not focusing?! Seriously?!?^

Many of the soldiers had stumbled to their feet, as the general had requested, and were stumbling around and vomiting into the grass. Emmerich quietly translated what the general said to Conner and Bree.

"Walk it off like men," the general told his men. "This is nothing compared to the battle ahead."

Another man appeared through the fog. He was a very tall and broad man and wore a rounded hat just like the general's but it was turned to the side.

"General Marquis- congratulations, sir, we've arrived," the man said.

"Yes, Colonel, I can see that," the general barked at him. "But there is no use congratulating me until we know exactly where we are."

Two other soldiers hurried through the forest to the general and colonel. They were dragging a man who didn't look like a soldier at all.

"General Marquis! Colonel Baton!" one of the soldiers said. "We've found someone!"

"This man was walking through the forest when we arrived!" the other soldier said.

They pushed the weak old man onto the ground in front of General Marquis. He looked absolutely terrified and looked around the soldiers in shock. "I saw you fall from the sky!" he said, trembling. "What kind of magic is this?"

The general looked annoyed. "Tell me where we are and you may keep your life," he said.

"Why.....why...you're in the Eastern Kingdom, sir," the man said.

Bree locked eyes with Conner, this was important information for them too.

"And what is near here other than trees?" the general asked.

"The border of the Fairy Kingdom is west of here, but Pinocchio Prison is closer, just to the east," the old man informed him.

The general stepped closer to him, looking intrigued. "A prison, you say? Home to what kinds f criminals?"

"The worst criminals in all the kingdoms," the old man said, looking surprised that he didn't know.

General Marquis's forehead went very smooth and the corners of his mouth turned up in a sinister smile. "Gentlemen," he said, turning to his soldiers. "The gods have smiled upon us! soon we shall have a fairytale world in the palm of our hands! Napoleon will be so proud!"

The soldiers mustered up enough courage to cheer.  ^Wait.  Napoleon? But, he's been dead for two-hundred-years.  They don't know how long they were in the portal!! Oh, no.^

"You're here to take over the world?" the old man asked in fear. "Who are you, people?"

The general bent down to look the man in the eyes. "Unfortunately, you already know too much," he said. "Get rid of him."

The old man screamed. "No! Please! I have a family!" he pleaded, but it was no use.

Bree saw him being dragged away into the woods and then the next moment a gunshot was heard and his screams were not heard anymore.

Bree covered her mouth and gazed around the woods in horror, it seemed like her worst nightmare was playing right before her eyes. Conner looked at them with a grave expression-they had to stay as quiet as possible or they would be next.

"Colonel Baton, we need to regroup with our men immediately," the general instructed. "Half will stay in the woods and set up camp, and the other half will accompany us to the prison. We strike at dawn."

"What are we doing at the prison, sir?" Baton asked.

"Recruiting," the general said.

The general and all the men scattered around him got all their stuff together and walked out of the clearing. Conner, Bree, and Emmerich were the only ones left there. 

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~~~~~ (*****^-^*****) ~~~~~

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BYE BOOK-HUGGERS!!!
TLOSGEEK2-OUT!!!