Page 40 of Cinder's Adventure: Get Me To the Wedding!

“Are you leaving? So soon?” said Cress, gesturing at the marvelous spread of treats. “We’re just getting started!”

“Maybe later,” said Cinder. “Right now, I really have to find a way back to the palace.”

Turning on her heel, she marched away as quickly as she could. It wasn’t long before she heard the off-key singing of another space shanty behind her. Clearly, her company wasn’t going to be missed all that much.

She headed in the direction she thought Iko had gone, dodging in and out of the trees, until she found a winding dirt road. As she walked, the sun sank behind the trees and a chill swept through the woods. The sky slowly darkened, and Cinder worried that she really was going to be late for her own wedding, but every time she brought up the clock on her interface, it was stuck at the same time. The exact minute Iko had appeared in the window and told Cinder to follow her.

She felt like she’d been walking for hours when she finally emerged from the forest. The road split into two directions, with a crooked sign posted in front of her.

One arrow pointed to the right and read,PETER PETER’S PUMPKIN PATCH. The road dipped down into a small valley, and from where she stood, she could see a massive iron gate. The spiked finials on top were each punctured through a grinning, glowing jack-o’-lantern. Threads of pumpkin guts and slimy seeds coated the fence. Beyond the gate, a muddy field was crisscrossed with a tangle of pumpkins and vines, some as small as her hand, and others nearly as big as a house.

The arrow pointing to the left read,MäRCHENFELD, and over the hills she could just glimpse the thatched roofs and timber-framed homes of a small village.

Neither seemed familiar, and she wasn’t at all confident that either direction would take her back to New Beijing Palace.

If Cinder should go to the Pumpkin Patch, go to Chapter 16.

If Cinder should go to Märchenfeld, go to Chapter 52.

Chapter 48

“Iko, wait!” Cinder shouted, trying to keep her eye on Iko’s bouncing white bunny ears as she wove in between the forest’s thick trees.

But it wasn’t long before she could no longer see Iko.

Cinder slowly came to a stop, turning in each direction. She was surrounded by woods. Gnarled trunks and fallen logs overgrown with fungi and moss.

She let out a frustrated groan. “Great,” she muttered. “Nowwhere am I?”

With a sigh, she started picking her way through the ferns and undergrowth, her feet sinking into the soft forest floor. She tried to keep heading in the direction she thought Iko had gone, but the only sign of life she saw were birds squawking from the boughs and the occasional squirrel scurrying across her path.

Until the faint sound of voices made her pause.

Cinder held her breath, head cocked to the side, and amplified the audio input on her interface to hear better.

Yes—there was someone nearby, just on the other side of a hodgepodge fence made of brambles and lichen, a single arched entrance not too far from where she stood. There could even be multiple someones, she thought, though she couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.

She considered calling out, but in this spooky forest, she worried she would scare them off. Instead, keeping her steps as quiet as she could, she headed in the direction of the voices.

Proceed to Chapter 20.

Chapter 49

“Oh no,” muttered Quint, as he, Pru, and Ari watched Jude roll his D20 again. And again. And again.

It landed on twenty. Every. Time.

Just like it had this entire campaign.

“What is wrong with that die?” said Pru, snatching it out of the air when Jude tried to roll it again. “Is it weighted?”

They were in Ari’s basement, character sheets and player guidebooks scattered around them, the newest Sadashiv record having gone silent ages ago.

Pru tossed Jude’s die herself.

Six.

She threw it again.

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