Andres squinted when he finally awoke. A shaft of light was shining through a nearby window, and he turned his head to shield his eyes. The surroundings were strange. He found himself lying on a bed in the corner of what appeared to be a log cabin. On the other side of the room, leaning against the wall, was Cable. He was sound asleep.
Andres then tried to roll on his side. However, as he leaned on his left arm, he grimaced. His arm hurt terribly. He looked and saw that a big white bandage had been wrapped around his arm. Slowly, the events of his immediate past came rushing back. That must have been the arm that had been grabbed by the wolf. It was very painful--and that said a lot, because Andres wasn't the kind of boy that typically felt a lot of pain.
When Andres finally sat up, he looked back over at Cable. His brothers face and arms were covered with scratches and bite marks. Andres was filled with admiration for his brother. "He must have got those when he was fighting off those wolves," he muttered to himself. "And I couldn't even find my own dumb dagger."
Andres then stood to his feet to try and stretch. When he did so, the old bed on which he'd been laying let out a creak. The noise startled Andres, and he jumped and stumbled into the wall, which made his sore arm hurt even more. Andres shook his head. This just wasn't his day.
As Andres grumbled to himself, however, a young girl came dashing through a door from an adjacent room. She had wavy blond hair and brown eyes. Andres figured she must be a little younger than himself. When she saw Andres on his feet, she ran up to him and poked her finger into his chest. Beaming a smile that stretched from one ear to other, she blurted out, "HOORAY! YOU-ARE-A-WAKE!" Then she promptly twirled around and danced in the middle of the floor. When that was done, she ran back to Andres, pulled his head down, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then she danced again.
Andres watched in complete bewilderment. He just didn't understand girls. He didn't figure he ever would.
Andres knew he wouldn't be able to dance with her, so he figured he'd try talking instead. Mentally fumbling for something to talk about, he asked, "So...uh...what's your name today?" As soon as he asked it, he felt dumb. Talking to girls really wasn't his strong suit.
The girl turned back to him and smiled again. "My name is Remma," she replied, evidently quite proud of her name. "What is yours?"
"Well, I guess I'm Andres," he said, again kicking himself for the awkwardness of his response. He just didn't know quite how to handle girls. In an attempt to cover up his obvious discomfort, he continued, "Hey, can you tell me what happened?"
"Andres...hmmm, I like that name," Remma said (mostly to herself), evidently ignoring Andres' question. "Did you know that there isn't a single word in the whole world that rhymes with Andres? Wow, that's weird." She then started to dance again--more slowly, this time.
Andres started to get just a little irritated, kind of like brothers get with their sisters. "I hate to interrupt your silly dancing," he said without much restraint, "but could you tell me how I got here?"
Remma stopped and glared at Andres. "Dancing is NOT silly!" she declared. "But I can't get too mad at you. After all, you saved my life from those horrible wolves!
"I was down at the riverside doing some fishing," Remma continued. "You see, my mother is quite sick, and she needs me to fish in order to get food. Almost as soon as I got there, I saw about four wolves surround me. I've lived here all my life, and I'd never seen them before. But there they were! There was no way out! And then I saw you, and I realized you were my only hope. So I yelled as loud as I could."
"I'd say you're pretty good at that," Andres mumbled. He didn't think Remma would hear him. He was wrong.
Remma glared at Andres, put her hands on her hips, and asked, "How else was I supposed to get your attention?" Then, turning away from Andres, she continued. "Anyways, you saw me and came swimming. Just as the first wolf was about to grab me, you jumped on top of me and...well, the wolf ended up biting you instead of me. You were very brave--you stayed on top of me the whole time. I could hear a bunch of growling and yelping and fighting, but you never moved.
"After awhile, the fighting seemed to stop. The other boy came over and shook you, but still you didn't move. So he gently rolled you off and helped me to my feet. He had fought off the wolves all by himself! He had a dagger in his hand, and it was covered with blood. His face and arms were all scratched up. But he was more worried about you than himself. He picked you up, put you over his shoulder, and asked me, 'Can you take me to your house?' So I led him here.
"As soon as he walked through the door, he laid you on that bed. Then he walked over to that wall, leaned against it, and collapsed. I think he was exhausted.
"I looked at your arm and saw that you were still bleeding. So I wrapped a bandage around your arm as tightly as I could. Then I went over to the other boy and washed him up a little bit. And then I went to tell me mom. And that's it, Andres!" When she was done talking, Remma walked up to Andres and gave him a gentle hug. Andres wondered how someone that acted like such a girl could have done such a good job putting on his bandage. Most girls he knew fainted whenever they saw blood.
Just then, Cable started to wake up. He moaned and groaned and shook his head. "Where am I?" he said, mostly to himself, as he came to his knees in an attempt to stand up. But before he could get up, Remma went over and hugged him as well.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"I'm Cable," replied Cable.
"I'm Remma. Thanks for killing all those wolves," said Remma. "I don't know how you did it. You saved my life."
"That's okay, Remma" mumbled Cable, still trying to clear his head. He started to shake his arms a little bit, wincing as he did so. The scratch marks were still fresh and extremely sore. Then he continued, "Actually, I didn't kill all of the wolves. I got three of them, but one got away. If I ever see him again, I'm gonna stick my dagger right down this throat!"
Andres then asked, "Where is your mom?"
"She's resting in the other room," Remma answered. "She's been very sick lately. I'm starting to get really worried."
"Where is your dad?" asked Cable.
"Well...Mama says that he had to go away for awhile. Actually, I've never seen him. But Mama has told me all about him. He's very brave, and a good fighter, like you boys. He's also very kind, and he loves us very much. But something happened a long time ago. He went away, since before I can even remember, and hasn't been able to come back yet."
Remma then started to wipe a tear from her eye. "I hope he comes back soon," she said quietly. "I don't know how much longer Mama is going to make it."
Just then a quiet shuffling of feet was heard. Cable, who was still fighting through the grogginess of the struggle, looked over toward the doorway to the other room. He then saw perhaps the most beautiful lady that he had ever seen. She had long dark hair and brown eyes that seemed to immediately grasp his attention. She wore a kind smile that put him at ease, though she was a complete stranger. Though she walked very slowly, she carried herself with great dignity--like she was a queen or something. Cable stood motionless and stared at her. He figured she was fairly young--maybe in her mid-30's, or 40 at the oldest. But he knew enough not to ask.
Remma turned and pranced over to her mother's side. "Mama! You're awake!" She gave her a hug and a kiss. Andres figured he'd never seen a girl that did more hugging and kissing. Then Remma told her mother, "You've got to meet the boys that saved my life!" She took her mother by the hand, led her to a wooden chair that was set up against the wall, and told her all about her brush with death and her salvation at the hands of these brave young boys.
When she finished her story, she said, "Boys, will you please come here? I'm so sorry. I don't have the strength to move around very much." The boys immediately came over. She reached out and hugged the boys and said, "I'm so thankful for what you've done--more thankful than you can imagine." The boys melted inside her embrace. They hadn't felt so comfortable since the last time their own mother had tucked them into bed, the night before their great adventure had begun.
Wiping a silent tear from her eye, Remma's mother said, "Can you boys look at me?" As they did so, she said, "You know...you remind me of two boys I used to know a long time ago." Then she began to weep.
Cable didn't really know what to do. Neither he nor Andres really dealt with emotional stuff very well. But one thing Cable noticed was that Remma and her mother seemed very poor. So he found his satchel, grabbed out a bunch of coins, and said, "Here, Ma'am, why don't you take these coins? We don't really need them. Please, take them."
As Remma's mother took a handful of coins, she looked at them intently. For a minute or so she was completely silent. Then she shook her head and whispered, "My goodness. It's been so long. I haven't seen him in so long..." And her voice trailed off.
Andres immediately interrupted. "You haven't seen who in so long?"
Cable muttered, "You mean, 'whom', right?" As a loyal brother, he found it to be his duty to constantly correct his brother.
Just before Remma's mother answered, a great howl was heard in the air. It was a chilling sound that pierced the daylight. Cable ran to the window and looked out. "It's the wolf that got away!" he cried. "Let's go get him!" And he grabbed his dagger and ran out the door. He was filled with rage at the beast and couldn't wait to end his life the way he'd ended the lives of the other wolves.
Cable dashed out the door and rushed madly toward the wolf. As he did so, the wolf turned and ran. "Come back, you coward!" he yelled at the retreating wolf. But it was the last thing he yelled. For while he was running toward the wolf, two men clad in black snuck up behind him, tackled him, and quickly put a gag in his mouth. They had been lying in wait for Cable, having been led to this house by the wolf. They tied his hands and feet and threw him to the ground.
The men then burst into the house. One was tall and skinny, while the other one was short and fat. Both wore black masks. Remma shrieked in fright. Ignoring the women, the fat one turned toward Andres and said, "Get over here!" Andres tried to resist. But one of the men grabbed his bandaged arm, squeezed it, and said, "Better get moving, buddy, or I'll rip this arm off for good! King Slumbutter, may he live forever, has been looking for you. And we wouldn't want to disappoint the king, would we? So come along!" He squeezed the arm again. Andres nearly fainted again from the pain.
Remma's mother spoke up. "Be gentle with the boys, you miserable wretches," she said, her voice steady and firm. "When Maximilian returns, you will pay for your treachery."
The tall man replied, "Maximilian is dead, and you know it. And soon, you will be too!" With that, he grabbed a torch that he'd left just outside the door. Staring at the woman as he did so, he lit the log house on fire. "Sweet dreams, lady!" he yelled as he grabbed Andres and left. Both men laughed as they heard poor Remma cry out.
The men grabbed the boys and pushed them toward some black horses that had been hidden in some nearby woods. They then threw the boys over the backs of the horses. "Today is your lucky day!" they cackled. "You'll get to come to the castle! The castle prison, that is!" They laughed some more as they grabbed hoods and pulled them over the boys heads.
The boys were captives again.
Andres would have been in complete despair were it not for one thing. Just before the hood was lid over his head, he'd taken one last hopeful look at the tree that towered above him. In that tree, silently staring at them, stood the owl.
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