Samantha R. Cichella - A New Successor

Wolf groaned. His head was killing him. It felt like it was going to explode. Wolf opened his eyes to look around. He was lying on a cold stone floor. He had shackles on his wrists and ankles so that he was chained to a stonewall behind him. The room wasn’t all that big, around the same size as a cell.

A CELL! Was he back in prison? He tried to think back to the last thing he remembered. After a minute, it all came back to him in a flash. He had been in his apartment waiting for Virginia to get back home so they could leave for the kingdoms. There had been someone at the door, so he had gone to see who it was. The smell had been familiar to him, but he couldn’t place it. When he had opened the door, he had been hit in the head and as he blacked out he had saw three men. He didn’t see their faces, though. At least not clearly.

The question now was where was he? There was a small window right across from him. It was high up so he couldn’t see anything. But since there was hardly any light coming in, he figured it was night. How long had he been knocked out? Wolf whined as he felt the huge lump on his head. He didn’t know what to think. Was he still in New York? No, he couldn’t smell any of the pollution stuff in the air like he could in New York. This was fresh air. Had he somehow ended back in the Nine Kingdoms? What about Virginia? Was she okay? Or had the same people that had gotten him, got his succulent Virginia to? Wolf growled. If they harmed one hair on her head!

Wolf sat there for about an hour thinking about Virginia. He didn’t care about what happened to him. Just so long as she was safe. He just wanted to see her again, to hold her in his arms and not let her go again. He was hoping that they hadn’t touched her. She had left for her grandma’s house, so maybe she was able to avoid the kidnappers. Convincing himself that Virginia was safe at home, he fell into a troubled sleep.

Wolf woke up when he heard the door to his “cell” open. A growl escaped his mouth as two men entered. They were both pretty tall. One had golden brown hair while the other had dark brown almost black hair. They both were smiling as they entered the room. Wolf knew they looked familiar. He just couldn’t place it. He growled again, this time much more threatening. The two men just smiled even more.

“I see you’re awake now.” The one with darker hair said. Wolf wanted to knock both of their smiles off of their faces.

“Who are you?! Why have you kidnapped me?” Wolf didn’t even bother trying to conceal the anger in his voice.

“Wolf, I’m ashamed of you, you don’t remember us? Well, I’m sure you’ll remember our father.”

“Your father? Who is he?”

“You’ll see soon enough.” This time the one with lighter hair spoke.

“Why did you kidnap me? What have I ever done to you?”

“What have you done to us?! You’ve done plenty! Thanks to you and that bumbling idiot Tony and his daughter and that stuck up king, we lost everything! We got run out of town because of you!” The two no longer were smiling.

Wolf got some satisfaction in making them so mad. This could work to his advantage if they were so easily agitated. Then it hit him. He knew who they were. He recognized their faces and their scent and even their annoying accent.

“That’s right, you know who we are now, don’t you? You’re going to pay, for ever setting a foot in Little Lamb Village.” The smirk returned to both of their faces. Wolf growled again when the one with dark hair got closer. He quickly jumped back and for a split second the smirk left his face. Wolf grinned.

“Yeah, I remember who you are. You’re Wilfred Peep’s two sons. But you would do well to remember who I am. I am a wolf after all. But what I don’t understand, is why you want to bother with me, if your good old dad is the one who killed Sally.” Wolf knew that as long as he kept getting them so angry, that he had a small chance at escaping.

“You killed Sally! You and those two from the Tenth Kingdom! If it hadn’t been for you, Sally would have won the Shepherdess competition, and then Wilf wouldn’t have had to kill her.” Now, both of their faces were red as tomatoes. Wolf grinned; he still had his knack for annoying the heck out of everyone. But this was the first time it ever came in handy. Wolf decided to give it a final touch. He stood up and before the two Peeps even realized what he was doing, he charged as far as he could go and snapped, barely missing one of their shoulders. They both leaped towards the door. Wolf (if possible) grinned even more.

“Hey, isn’t there a full moon coming up? Yeah, it should be here in a couple nights. Wonder if these chains will hold up. Guess we’ll have to wait and find out.” Wolf went back and sat down against the wall. He sat there grinning as the two Peep brothers stared uneasily at each other. Finally they left the room, but not before Wolf added a small little howl.

Wolf sat there laughing, even though his head still stung a bit. There was no doubt about it his kidnappers were morons. How had he let them get a hold of him in the first place? There was something not right about all of it. Wolf very much doubted that the Peeps could have pulled all of this off on their own. But who had helped them? They couldn’t have broken into Wendell’s castle and gotten a hold of the traveling mirror (Wolf assumed this was how they had entered Manhattan) all on their own. No, they weren’t smart enough for that. Someone else was behind this, but who?