"Dear brother, I have found a solution," Gretel said in Hansel's head bright and early Saturday morning.

Hansel shook his shaggy head and sat up in bed. "What is it?" he asked groggily. He looked around to make sure he was alone.

"I know what we need to do about out problem," she said brightly. "Last night I..." she decided to omit the part about how she hooked up with some random guy at the bar. "I found out about a Faerie Godmother who lives beyond the mountain and she never does anything half assed. If we went to her and told her of our plight she may grant us our wish, to have separate bodies."

"You can be brilliant sometimes."

"See it's not always about sexy time. I am quite a clever girl," she said smartly.

"I didn't need to hear that," Hansel got out of bed. "So you're telling me we, or I, have to hike through the mountains to get to this Faerie Godmother? And we're not even sure if she'll fix our problem."

"If we bring her a gift I'm sure it will work."

"What kind of gift would a Faerie Godmother want?"

"I don't know, whittle her something."

He rolled his eyes. "We should get ready, it will probably take us all day and then some to get there and I don't know how much time we have left."

Hansel packed a bag of provisions and ready himself for the journey. He hiked all day with Gretel in his head, telling him which direction to go and when he should stop to eat. They cut through the foothills as the stranger at the bar had suggested, near the lake since the weather was not favorable. By the end of the night Hansel had grown exhausted and set up a camp for himself. By Sunday morning Hansel was refreshed enough to finish his treacherous hike through the foothills. The afternoon came quickly and he had already gotten himeslf onto level land. "Where do we find this Faerie Godmother of yours?" Hansel asked Gretel as he settled down on a stump to whittle a small piece of wood.

"Well, the man in the bar told me that she lives outside the city in a cabin and she wears huge hats," she said weakly. He was giving her that look. Hansel was not pleased with this information. "We'll figure something out dear brother."

"I need to take a break before we continue on," he sighed and continued to whittle away at the block of wood in his hands. He shaped it artfully into mortar and pestel.

"Why are you making her that?" Gretel asked impatiently when she realized what he was doing.

"I don't know," he snapped. "Everyone could use one of these things," he stuffed it into his pocket. "Let's just go, there can't be too many cabins out here, this place is desolate at this time of the year," he grumbled. He continued walking, mildly agitated until Gretel made him stop walking. "There's smoke over there," she said and made him point his finger toward the sky line. He looked to where she was pointing and saw the smoke. "Huh," he said cocking his head to the side. He continued to walk to toward the curling smoke until they saw a little cabin and a woman outside in the garden.

"That's her," Gretel said knowingly as she noted the huge hat and the long black hair that the man in the bar had described. "This is our chance!" she said suddenly getting excited. Hansel's heart raced as he quickened his pace. "What do I say to her?" he asked her as he stumbled through the final stretch to the Fairie Godmother's cabin. "I don't know I'll figure something out," she said.

He stopped in front of the fence and looked at the woman. "Uh... hi," he said, he slapped himself in the forehead after he realized how dumb and insane he must have looked.

Tags: gretel, hansel, carabosse