"Are you a Munchkin?" asked Dorothy.

"No, but I am their friend, although I live in the land of the North. When they saw the Witch of the East was dead the Munchkins sent a swift messenger to me, and I came at once. I am the Witch of the North."

"Oh, gracious!" cried Dorothy. "Are you a real witch?"

"Yes, indeed," answered the little woman. "But I am a good witch, and the people love me. I am not as powerful as the Wicked Witch was who ruled here, or I should have set the people free myself."

“You talked...to one of the wolves? And it didn’t kill you? Red, what the hell!? Do you have any clue how dangerous they are now?” Goldi yelled at Rima as she walked around the kitchen table while the younger girl stood there, charm in hand admiring how it looked just like the ones around her arm. Rima only half listened to her friend, caught up in her thoughts. Her mind wandered back towards the boy, his saddened face, his cry for help.

Save us…

“Red! Listen to me! If you’re not careful those beasts will kill you! Do you want to end up as their lunch? Hell, you’re to small to even be considered lunch. You’re more like a snack to them! Those monsters will-”

“Shut up Goldi! They’re not beasts, or monsters. Those are MY WOLVES! Who do you think you are, bad mouthing them? Huh? Instead of talking about them do something useful and start getting stuff ready!” Rima yelled as she stopped in her tracks, glaring at the girl on the other side of the table. The kids shrunk away from her while Goldi sat there, wide open and her eyes following the same motion. The trio stared at the girl and blinked in awe, their gaze staying upon her.

“....Your eyes….”

“What about them?” Rima huffed as anger seeped through her.

“They really do change color….only wolves eyes are supposed to change color….”

Rima’s brows furrowed in confusion at the girl before her. Goldi read her expression and picked up one of the pans laying around, holding one side up to Rima so she could see her own reflection in it. Rima jumped back, startled by what she saw in it.

There she was, her own reflection with hellish red eyes. The same red eyes she had only seen on the wolves was now staring right back at her. She slowly grabbed the pan out of Goldi’s hand and stared at herself, closely observing how her eyes changed back to the dark brown color the more she calmed down. Rima blinked a few times, not sure of what to think. The last thing she needed right now was another distraction.

“You really are one of them. You’ve been around them for so long they’re rubbing off on you.” Gretel interrupted Rima’s thoughts, making her look at the small girl.

“Is that...possible?”

Gretel smiled and nodded. “It is in a fairytale. Especially when you love them as much as you.”

Rima looked from the girl back to her reflection in the pan, staring at herself until Goldi broke the sudden silence.

“Okay, so if that thing can be reversed and turn into a tracking device for us to find them at all times, do you think we could do the same to the potion? Ya know, reverse it and turn it into an antidote to the spell on them?”

Rima’s gaze Goldi, opening and closing a few times as she thought over the idea. Goldi had picked up the potion and looked at it, inspecting it closely and even going as far as opening the bottle and smelling it.

“It smells really sweet. They boys probably never even realized just what they were drinking…” She stated in a soft tone, starting to feel bad for them.

“We should try it.” Hansel pointed out, turning everyone's gaze on him.

“How? We can’t just start mixing random stuff and hope for the best. We would need someone who knows about stuff like this….” Rima stated bluntly while everyone nodded in agreement with her. Hansel smiled brightly at the trio.

“That’s where the good witch comes in!”

“The good witch?” The trio chorused. Hansel nodded.

“Is she from your story?” Goldi whispered to Gretel who slowly shook her head. Turning toward Rima, she followed the smaller girls actions, shaking her head as well.

“How do you know a good witch?” Gretel questioned her brother who grinned brightly in response.

“I did my research on this place when we got here. While you slept at night, I stood watch and checked everything out. Turns out, this is more than just two fairy tales. I don’t know how many but this witch, Glinda, is from an entirely different story and somehow got pulled into all of this too. Who knows who else got pulled into it….”

“So this witch...where does she live? Can we go see her now?” Rima hurried the small boy, excited and hopeful that maybe, there really was a way to get them on her side before she had to fight the wicked witch.

Hansel grinned and nodded as he started for the front door.

“Follow me, all we have to do is take the yellow brick road outside of town.”

“Yellow brick road? Why does that sound familiar?” Rima questioned herself and Goldi shrugged in response. Grabbing the potion and a gun each, they made their way toward the door. Rima placed the charm on the kitchen table and smiled.

“It really does look like one of my charms.”

“Come on Red, let’s go see this good witch...If you ask me they’re all wicked to some extent..” Rima could hear Goldi yelling from outside and hurried to follow the group.

Minutes slowly turned to hours and the bright sun that shone down, lighting up their way slowly started to fade away from the sky leaving it a beautiful red color.

Hansel stopped abruptly making the rest of the crew who had been following him dazed, unaware of their surroundings, bump into the small boy.

“What’s the big deal? Are we here or-”

“Yes, actually we are” Hansel interrupted the short tempered girl of their small group. Goldi huffed in response before her gaze fell upon a house before them. Looking down she realized the brick road ended at the front door.

“So, this is it?” Rima questioned the young boy who made his way to the door.

“Yup!” He said brightly before knocking on it three times. The trio joined his side and stood behind him as shuffling could be heard coming from inside. The girls tilted their head in confusion as the noises were followed by a soft voice yelling various curses and stuff falling.

Minutes passed and a loud thud could be heard before the front door creaked open. A girl around Rima and Goldi’s age answered with a bright smile. Her hair was blue, tied in two pigtails on either side of her head while a pair of glasses sat upon her face. Freckles grazed her cheeks and her lips tugged up into a bright smile.

“Ah! It’s you again! You came back! And you brought friends this time!!” The girl shouted excitedly as she hopped up and down. The boy smiled and nodded.

“We need your help. We have a mind controlling potion that we need to reverse and make an antidote out of. Can you do it?” Hansel questioned the girl.

“Wait….are you really a witch?” Goldi interrupted and The girl her.

“Excuse you? I am Glinda, the good witch of the north. Who are you to question my powers?” She asked, insulted. Rima shook her head and smiled.

“Yeah...you have to excuse her attitude. She’s just like that. Say, Glinda, would you please help us? We need to reverse this.” Rima pleaded with the young witch as she pulled out the bottle and handing it over to her.

She twirled the bottle a few times, watching closely as the contents swished from side to side, up and down depending on how she moved the bottle. After a few minutes she turned it upright and looked at the crew in front of her.

“I can do it. It’ll take some time and a few different tests which means…” She paused for a moment and stared at Rima with a serious expression written on her face. One that didn’t suit her at all. Rima grew nervous, afraid of what the big ‘but’ would be. Would it backfire after a certain time? Would the wicked witch know in the end? Would it kill them if it didn’t work?

Rima’s mind wandered to the worst case scenario but never in her mind would she have imagined what Glinda said next.  

“I’ll only have enough of this left over for one wolf...The other two will end up stuck under her power until the very end. You will have to save the other two yourself….I really hope you have a favorite because you can only pick one for now.”