Princess Ahira (21 page)

             
“T
hat’s
the
Hanzel and Gretel
’s
house. A
ctually
,
when I think about it, it’s
not
really
their
s
.”  He corrected. 

             
“Can we go look?”
I asked.

             
“Sure,” he said.
I jogged ahead to find
a small cottage that w
as made entirely out of sugar.
The walls were made of
golden baked
ginger bread, and
the roof shingles were
plate sized gumdrops. The shutt
ers for the windows were made of solid chocolate, and the chimney was constructed with sugar blocks and syrup.
Lemon drops formed a sidewalk, and delicious peppermint flowers
sprouted
out of green
,
frosting gra
ss.
Every candy you can imagine was used to
decorate the house and the yard. My teeth throbbed as I stared at this sugar overload waiting to happen
.

             
T
wo angelic
, golden haired children peered through a window.
One was a boy, Hanzel I assume
d
, and the other was a girl,
Gretel.
They were watching an old woman/hag who was sitting on the front porch
, scowling at the yard.
She was wearing gray clothes, had a large crocked nose, and her back was
frightfully curved
.

             
“What happened?” I asked.

             
Kohath
pointed
to the children.

             
The two kids
,
who had appeared to be angels mere moments before
,
grinned like evil spirits as they watched the old woman. 

             
“Let me in you brats!” s
he yelled, poundin
g her fist on the cookie door.
“I feed you and clothe
you, and then you
lock me out of my own house!” s
he bellowed.

             
“Excuse me, what’s going on?”
I asked the old woman
,
who frowned.

             
“What’s going on?” s
he
repeated. “Look here missy.
I own this
here candy cottage.
M
e
!
And when I find two poor
, little children
who ran away from home I take them in o
ut of the kindness of my heart.
Hanzel and
Gretel they say their names are,”
s
he said as more gold haired children joined the
original
two at the window.
“But
one pair isn’t enough! NOOOO.
Instead they keep coming, and coming, and they all say that th
eir names are Hanzel and Gretel. I
t’s a popular name for these times I’ve
heard, but this is ridiculous! I’ve got ten kids in there! Count em, TEN!
The oldest two
are 1
3
and the youngest are four. B
etween all of the little monst
ers
there’s only TWO names!” s
he growled as she shook her cane at the bratty children. 

             
“We should go,”
Kohath
whispered.
I walked away
, glancing back to watch the old woman curse at the children.

             
“Darn kids!
That’s it, no dessert after dinner
!
And
if you eat my flowers again it will be an early bed time
!
” 

             
I shook my head
in disbelief as we walked on.
Once we reached the den Kohath
bowed
. 

             
“Sa
dly, this is where we must part,” he mournfully sighed
.

             
“I’m so heart broken,”
I
blankly replied
.

             
“Be strong for
me Ahira,” h
e teased.

             
“Each second
your away from me I feel faint,”
I shot back, my voice dripping with sarcasm. 

             
Kohath
laughed and waved as he and Tuggles
started down
the road
.
I watched them until they disappeared from sight
before
I went into the cave, planning the rest of my day. 

             
The next morning started out normal. I got up, dressed, made breakfast, ate with Azmaveth, and started getting ready for cleaning.
I pushed my dress sleeves up
and reached for the charm b
racelet Azmaveth had given me. I usually took it off when I scrubbed the floors,
there was
no sense in getting it dirty. However, the bracelet, oddly enough, was not dangling from my wrist like it always did.

             
A frown crossed my lips and I twisted around a few times and shook my clothes. The bracelet must have fallen off…

             
“What’s wrong?”
Azmaveth asked, noting my odd behavior
before stuffing his mouth with food
.

             
“I
can’t find my charm bracelet. The one you gave me,”
I said as I bent ove
r to look for it on the floor.
It’s a good thing I did too.

             
“
What
?” Azmaveth said, spitting the oatmeal out, spraying
it
all
over the kitchen wall.

             
I glared. “Now I’ll have to wash the walls to
o!”
I
moaned
.

             
“You
lost
the bracelet?” Azmaveth all but roared.

             
“Sheesh! What’s your problem? I’m looking for it right now! Besides, you told me yourself it was just som
ething you found laying around.
It’s not like
you
can wear it anyways.”

             
“Yeah, well tha
t was before I found out
what
it was!” he stormed. “FIND IT!”

             
“I’ll go look in my room Mr. Crabby Claws!” I
replied
as I flounced
away
. 

             
Azmaveth followed me, babbling as we went
.

“If you don’t find that bracelet, Ahira, I
just
mi
ght
have to fling myself off a cliff and drag you with me,” he said as
I walked into my room
.

He paused outside the human sized entrance and placed his eye over the opening.

             
“Nosey is your middle name,
” I said.

             
“No it’s not it’s…” h
e trailed off.

             
I rolled my eyes. “You can’t even remember your middle name?” I asked as I inspect
ed my bed stand
.

             
“It’s not that,” he protested
.

             
“Oh?
Then what is it?” I questio
ned, hoping it would be ridiculous, like Goodbert or Humphrey. I had a cousin named Humphrey.

             
“Uhh…
,” he started
, h
is eye roaming around my room. “There it is!” he crowed
, gazing at my dresser.

             
“Ah, so it is,”
I replied as I walked over and pic
ked it up off the dresser top. “
I must have forgotten to put it on this mornin
g. Oh well,”
I
shrugged. “Now about your middle name,” I gleefully snickered while turning around. The doorway was empty.
I suspected that he had retreated to his lab, and I was not about to follow him. (Especially when I had that oatmeal mess of his to clean up.)

             
Later
that day I heard a doorbell ring, but the toll was almost complete eclipsed by a mournful wail that strangely sounded a lot like Behemoth.

             
I abandoned my task
of sweeping floors
and walked to the den en
trance, Azmaveth following me.
We opened the doors and sure enough, Behemoth w
as standing outside our doorway
looking droopy, tired, and depressed.

             
“Hello Azmaveth,” h
e
sniffed, on the verge of tears. “Ahira!” h
e brightened.  “Hello! How are you?” 

             
“I’m fine, thank you,” I said, watching Cinders
amble out from behind Behemoth.

             
“What is the problem Behemoth?” Azmaveth asked as he
slowly and carefully
used a silver claw
to pull me closer to his side, almost like he was politely dragging me away from a madman.

             
“Well…I was wondering if you wou
ld like to switch princesses!” h
e cheerfully asked.

             
“No.” Azmaveth flatly said and shut the door in Behemoth’s face.

             
“Come
on Azmaveth! It’s not fair!” Behemoth
whined.

             
“Yes it is, now go away,
”
Azmaveth sa
id, starting to walk back to
his lab.

             
“Azmaveth let him in.
It will give him a break from Cinders,
which I’m sure he needs,”
I said as I started to open the door.

             
“If you insist,” Azmaveth sighed
as he sat on his haunches a
nd watched Behemoth stumble in.
“You might
as well let his princess in too,” h
e added as he walked down the hallway with a sobbing Behemoth.

             
I did so with great reserve.

“I am expecting
to be told
all about
him
,” the odd princess
informed me as she stomped around the kitchen while I finished sweeping. 

             
“And who exactly is
him
?” I asked, getting a f
eeling of dread.

             
“Yo
u know who I’m talking about!” she crossly said.
“He is so handso
me,” she dreamily added
.

             
She could only be referring to Kohath,
so I frowned
.
Handsome was one way to describe him. So was bossy, rude, and annoying. 

             
“Where does he live?” s
he asked.

             
“I don’t know,”
I said, honestly answering her.

             
“Where?” Cinders
demanded.

             
“I don’t know!”

             
“I want to know where
him
lives!” s
he stormed.

             
Apparently English was her second language after
Idiot
. “
I.
don’t. know!” I said, emphasizing every word
.

             
“Where?” Cinders stubbornly repeated
.

             
“He lives in
a hole, clothing himself in squi
rrel skins and eating only nuts,
”
I said, inventing a reply because she obviously didn
’t believe my lack of knowledge. I highly doubted she would believe me
anyways
unless I spun an unbelievable tale.