"Dad?" Virginia gave a startled look when she realized her voice was gone. She couldn't
hear herself, or for that matter, hear anything at all. There was such deafening silence all about her that it
was practically roaring in her ears.
Tony helped his daughter stand up and shook his head sadly at her. He looked up and saw Wolf
being halted by his friend to come after Virginia. Smart move, my friend. Tony thought. Now what are they going
to do? Virginia was now trapped in the 6th Kingdom along with them. This is turning out to be a fine, fine mess,
Tony. He said to himself. Virginia grabbed at Tony's arms and her eyes were the mostly shocking blue as she tried
to ask her dad questions with just her eyes. WHAT HAPPENED? She mouthed carefully. Tony shook his head again and
retrieved his chalkboard slate. He squibbled something onto it and handed it to Virginia; then he turned his attention
back to the Princess Wendy who seemed to be looking up into the sky at something. She lifted up her arm up and
pointed. Tony raised his head and looked. He saw a tiny speck of something coming closer and closer to them.
DAD, WE'RE ALL TRAPPED NOW? Virginia wrote after she read Tony's explaination. Tony just nodded.
OH DAD, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO? She wrote again. Tony shrugged
WOLF! HE'S STILL OUT THERE! THERE IS STILL HOPE! Tony nodded to assure Virginia that Wolf just
might be able to help. But he himself did not want to get his hopes up again to have it rammed down his throat
once again.
Princess Wendy began tapping on his shoulder and pointing in the sky. Tony looked again and realized
that the tiny speck he had saw in the air was actually Pip, the talking white dove. In all the excitement, they
hadn't even notice that he was gone. Now he had flown up as high as he could and came back to the side of silence
in the 6th Kingdom.
Pip landed on Wendy's shoulder and his beak began moving around frantically. But he soon realized
no sound was coming out and he stopped. His little shoulders slumped and her fluttered into the air and noticed
that Virginia was now among the trapped humans in the 6th Kingdom. He rolled his eyes when he realized what had
happened.
WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO? Virginia wrote out on Tony's slate. I CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING. HOW LONG
HAVE YOU BEEN HERE?
TOO LONG, VIRGINIA. BUT DON'T WORRY. WE'LL FIGURE SOMETHING OUT.
DAD! MY SHOES!!!
Tony raised an eyebrow and looked at Virginia as if she was mad. WHAT ABOUT YOUR SHOES? YOU MEAN
THOSE UGLY BROWN LOAFERS YOU PUT ON EARLIER? I WAS WONDERING WHAT YOU ALL WERE DOING.
THEY'RE MAGIC, DAD. THEY'RE THE SHOES OF TRUTH. WE USED THEM JUST A LITTLE WHILE AGO TO FIGURE
OUT WHO HAD PLACED THE CURSE. IT WAS OUR FRIEND, MELODY. Virginia gave a sad shake of her head to try and erase
all that had happened since Melody ran off. She couldn't believe that Wolf was still alive. Her heart had jumped
to her throat when she had turned around and saw him. But her relief had been shattered again when Bon grabbed
her. And now she had fell into the 6th Kingdom and all sound was lost. She also then realized that her magic Shoes
of Truth were on the other side in the 2nd Kingdom w/ Wolf and Patrick.
She sat down on the fallen log and put her head into her hands. This whole trip back to the 9
Kingdoms was certainly not the vacation she had been looking forward to. They had befriended a witch who had been
trying to kill them. She was lost in a pumpkin patch with what she thought was a monster. She was then attacked
by a mass of Tazmanian Wolves which frightened her to death. Wolf had been under a spell for a while there making
him fall in love with Melody. They met three billy goats and their slave troll. Then they met a talking bird who
told them about how her father was trapped in the 6th Kingdom. And lastly, she practically murdered her own beloved
Wolf.
This is not happening to me! She screamed in her head. What else can possibly happen now?! She quickly knocked
on the log she sat on to un-jinx herself. Knock on wood, Virginia. Knock on wood.
WHERE ARE THESE SHOES, VIRGINIA? Tony wrote using his white powdery chalk which was quickly shortening from the
constant use.
Virginia pointed towards Wolf and Patrick who they could still see clearly. They were both in
the process of sitting down on the ground not speaking or moving. With her eyes, she searched for her bag in which
she left her shoes in but couldn't seem to locate it on the ground where she left it on the other side in the 2nd
Kingdom. Where did it go? She asked herself. Did someone take them?
Her thoughts were interrupted when the ground beneath her began to shake. She scrambled to her
feet and gave Tony a horrified look. Tony smiled and gave her a slight smile to let her know to relax.
IT'S JUST UDO. He wrote down.
"I've been looking for you all over, Little Man!" Came Udo's loud and booming voice
from above them. He soon materialized before them and Virginia's eyes grew as big as saucers as she saw his face
way up over the high trees.
"What are you all doing? Hey, who's she? I don't remember seeing her before. But then, my
memory is sort of shot." Udo blasted again. Without being asked, he quickly picked up Tony, Wendy and Virginia
individually and placed them in his hand in which he began to raise high up into the air. The three small little
people hung on to dear life as they watched the ground below them retread further and further away.
"Good timing, Udo." Tony gave Udo's huge hand a pat, which he doubt the giant even
felt.
"Oh yeah? What's going on? Did I miss anything exciting?"
Tony gave a shout of exaggerated laughter.
"You sure did, Udo. But it's not important. This is my daughter, Virginia."
Virginia quickly regained her voice and shouted out a greeting to the giant. Princess Wendy quickly
took Virginia's hand and patted it gently.
"Do not worry, Virginia. You are the heroin that save the 9 Kingdoms from the Evil Queen.
I am sure you will now figure out how to get us out of this mess."
That did not help Virginia one bit. Instead it made her even more nervous. All the pressure!
"Man, I thought she had surely killed that wolf-man!" A small obnoxious voice called
out. They all looked and saw that Pip had flown up with them and was now perched on the index finger of the giant.
"When I saw what was going on, I figured I might as well fly on over to you guys and explain what was going
on. But then I remembered that you couldn't hear me anyways. But I guess everything turned out a-okay, Pops. So
what's next on the agenda?"
Tony rolled his eyes. The obnoxious bird sure talked a lot. "We need to break the spell
that is holding us all in the 6th Kingdom. That's what's on our agenda, my friend."
"The shoes. I need to get those magic shoes. If you ask it a question, they will tell you
the answer no matter what it is." Virginia announced. She looked down to the ground and got dizzy from the
height but she forced herself to look at the sitting forms down below of Wolf and Patrick.
"Well, those magical shoes or whatever you call them are on the other side in the 2nd Kingdom.
You think Wolf or that other friend of yours might figure it out and use them?"
"His name is Patrick, our friend. I'm not sure if they know but even if they did, they can't
use it. Only I can wear them. The billy goats programmed the shoes that way."
"The billy goats? Oh don't even start….I don't want to know." Tony threw his hands
up in exasperation.
"Hey Pops, I can fly on over to those men down there and tell them to use the shoes."
Pip piped in.
"That would be good, but still it wouldn't work. Virginia needs to be wearing them. We need
the shoes on this side with us." Tony explained but a sudden thought popped into his head. "Okay, I am
feeling like the worst idiot in the world now. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. Pip, fly down to
Wolf and Patrick. Tell them to throw the shoes over through the boarder. Udo, you can pick them up and then Virginia
can put them on here. Then we can figure it out!"
"Dad! You're a genius!" Virginia cried out grabbing onto Tony's arm with excitement.
"I know, I know." Tony couldn't help cracking a grin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Patrick had pulled out Melody's bag and was rummaging through it. There were books, small leather
pouches, bottles of odd colors and stacks of rolled up papers and scrolls. He flipped through one of the small
leather bound books and realized he was looking at a spell book of enchantment. So it was true. Melody was really
a witch this whole time. He thought with remorse when the realization dawned on him. He turned to look at Wolf
who, in the last five minutes, had ran his hands through his dark hair about four hundred times already. And the
occasional mournful sounding sighs would follow and the whole process will repeat again.
"Huff, puff. I wish I knew if Virginia was all right or not." Wolf finally breathed
out.
"I'm sure she's all right." Patrick said.
"Hey, you two down there."
Wolf and Patrick looked up at the small white dove that was slowly flying down to them. They
had both completely forgotten about that bird during the whole disaster that had unfolded not even 30 minutes ago.
"What do you want?" Patrick cried out.
"Jesus, you sure know how to greet someone. I just got some news, that's all. Maybe you
don't wanna hear it."
"Damn that bird!" Wolf said low in his throat.
"What is it?" Patrick cried out again. Pip flew around in circles and finally landed
on Patrick's shoulder.
"Man, you're impatient." He remarked.
"I think we have every right to be, don't you think?" Patrick grit his teeth in aggravation.
If the bird did not spill out the news, he was afraid he was going to squeeze the little birdie life out of it!
And Wolf looked like he was just about to do the same.
"You have those magic shoes?" Pip cooed.
"Yes, we do. What good is it if we don't have Virginia to wear them though?"
"Toss them into the 6th Kingdom. Tony says that Virginia can put them on there and they
will figure out how to break the damn spell."
"Virginia? She's all right?" Wolf jumped to his feet in anticipation. He whimpered
and absentmindedly scratched his forehead.
"Of course she is. Man, why do you care? She practically drowned you. If I were you, I'd
just leave her trapped. But of course, I ain't you. I'm a dove. No, actually I'm a talking dove from Brooklyn and
now I'm stuck here in this god forsaken fairy land helping a bunch of humans. Who, by the way are nothing but selfish
idiots. Back in Brooklyn, that is."
Pip rambled. "I think I need a vacation."
Wolf threw his head back and howled in respite when he found out that Virginia was all right.
His sweet delicate love of his life was perfectly fine trapped in that kingdom of doomed silence. He ignored the
bird's comments about how Virginia had almost killed him. He didn't give a sheep's ass that he had almost suffered
from the lack of "life".
Virginia had been under a spell. A horrific spell that thankfully he knew how to break by just
merely clapping. He was not going to hold that against her. When Virginia had held his head under the water, he
realized that Virginia was not going to let up. His cunning wolf instincts instantly told him to lay still in hopes
that she'd let go thinking he was dead. And she did. She didn't know that Wolf was able to hold his breathe for
such a long time. When she lifted his head out of the water to peer at him, he quickly drew in air through his
nose without her noticing. And through the cracks of his eyes he was also able to see in HER eyes that she knew
exactly what she had done and that she was in such dreadful pain but she couldn't stop herself. When she reached
out to touch his fac,e Wolf's heart had almost burst from knowing that she loved him so much that she was still
able to "feel". But he held on to his composure and laid still.
Patrick was already rummaging through his bag for Virginia's Shoes of Truth. There was no time
to waste. It was better than just sitting around and doing nothing. When he finally retrieved them, he quickly
dusted them off on his sleeve. He held them up to Wolf and gave him a questioning look as if asking for approval.
Wolf just gave a curt nod and Patrick quickly tossed the shoes to the area where they had saw Virginia vanish.
The shoes immediately disappeared and Pip flew into the air like lightening to fly over the high brim of the invisible
wall.
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