A Grimm Warning (The Land of Stories, #3)(12)

Cornelius carefully went to the well. His hooves were messy from all the fresh mud the geyser was creating. He lifted his tail and sat right on the well, plugging it up and stopping the geyser. It was a degrading experience for him but it proved to be useful. The village cheered from below, but it only lasted a moment. The water built up inside the well and shot the unicorn straight into the air. He landed on the muddy hill and slid toward the village like an avalanche. All the villagers ran back into their homes and shops to avoid him.

Cornelius crashed into the side of a barn. He was covered in so much mud he looked like Black Beauty.

“Dry!” Alex yelled, and pointed her wand at the well. “Dry up, I said! Dry! Dry! Dry!”

Suddenly a huge ball of fire erupted from the tip of Alex’s wand and hit the well, blasting half of it into pieces. Thankfully, the water pressure diminished and the geyser died down. The well was broken but full of water—and the village was covered in it, too.

“I fixed it!” Alex happily called down to the village below. The villagers peeked out from their homes and stared up at her, each soaked, dripping, and furious. “The good news is you have water again.” Alex tried to laugh it off, but no one joined her.

The muddy unicorn joined the young fairy at the top of the hill. “Okay, Cornelius, let’s get out of here.”

She climbed on his back and they took off—not in the direction of their next stop but just as far away from the soaked village as they could get for the moment. They found a tiny stream in the woods and cleaned themselves up. Cornelius had a hard time looking at his reflection in the water; he was fat, broken, and dirty.

“Would you like me to use my wand to make you clean again?” Alex asked Cornelius. The unicorn shook his head—he didn’t want what had happened to the well to happen to him. “Okay, then,” said Alex, “let’s move on to our final stop.”

It was a couple hours till noon and Cornelius’s magic horn steered them to the southwest corner of the Eastern Kingdom. A farm appeared in the distance that Alex thought she recognized.

“Haven’t we been here before?” Alex asked Cornelius, but he was certain his horn was leading them to the right place. Up ahead Alex saw a farmer building a fence around his vegetable garden and figured he was the man they were looking for.

“Excuse me? Do you need any help?” she asked the farmer.

The farmer wiped the sweat off his brow and looked over his shoulder at her. He instantly got to his feet and waved her away like she was a wild animal he didn’t want to deal with.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” the farmer said. “I don’t want any trouble, lady!”

Alex was insulted. What about her could possibly make him believe she was bringing trouble?

“Sir, I’m not trying to cause any harm,” Alex assured him. “I’m a fairy. I’m here to help.”

The farmer placed his hands on his hips and squinted at her. “That’s what you said the last time,” he said.

“The last time?” Alex asked. “So I’ve been here before?”

The farmer regretfully nodded. “Yes, you helped me put a fence around my yard to keep out the rabbits and deer,” he informed her.

Alex pressed her index finger to her mouth as she recalled. “Oh, I remember you! You’re Farmer Robins!” she said. “But what happened to the fence I gave you?”

Alex heard a door shut. She looked up and saw Farmer Robins’s son coming out from their house—Alex didn’t have any trouble remembering him. He was tall and strong, no more than a year older than her, had wispy hair that covered his face, and in Alex’s opinion, was very handsome.

“The animals ate your fence,” the farmer’s son said with a brash smile. “It was made of vines and leaves—it was fun to watch you make it magically grow out of the ground but it wasn’t ideal for keeping out herbivores.”

“Don’t you have a table to build?” Farmer Robins asked his son.

“I’m on a break,” the son said. Clearly he wanted to stick around now that Alex was there. She tried her best not to look him directly in the eyes—she could feel herself blushing when she did.

“Well, why didn’t you tell me the fence wouldn’t work the last time I was here?” she asked the farmer.

“You didn’t give us much of a chance,” the farmer’s son answered for him. “You just sort of waved your wand and then left, insisting there was no need to thank you.”

Alex shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Gosh, no good deed goes unpunished,” she said to herself. “Well, then I insist you let me make it up to you!” Alex raised her wand; she was just about to make a new fence appear when the farmer blocked her.

“Young lady,” Farmer Robins said rudely, “I’ve got a full day of chores ahead of me and building this fence is just the beginning. The best thing you can do is leave us alone and stop wasting our time.”

“That’s silly,” Alex tried to argue. “All I have to do is wave my wand and the fence will be done—”

“I said LEAVE!” Farmer Robins yelled, losing his patience with her. “We don’t want your help and we don’t need it. I know you people solve everything with just a flick of your wrist, but people like us know how to take care of ourselves. So please go turn a maid into a princess somewhere before I do or say something I’ll regret.”