It was full of straw—literally filled, almost floor to ceiling, so that there was hardly any room to move, aside from a narrow path that led to the only door, and a small empty space for a spindle and a stool. This meant that there was no where for the miller’s daughter to go, despite the fact that she was obviously extremely alarmed at our unexpected appearance, and she just stood with her back pressed up against one of the towering piles of straw, watching us with wary eyes.

It was obvious she had recently been crying, but even red, puffy eyes and a runny nose couldn’t detract from her beauty. Her hair was the color of melted chocolate, hanging long and loose in untamed waves. Her red-rimmed eyes were wide and green as grass, made even brighter by the tears still sparkling in them. Her mouth, with its perfect cupid’s bow lips, was open in surprise at our sudden appearance. Despite her beauty, however, it was plain she was in fact just the daughter of a poor miller--her dress was plain, undyed, and heavily patched. It also happened to be rather wet along the hem, where she had evidently been wiping her eyes as she cried.

There was a moment of stunned silence. The woman—girl? She seemed so young, younger than me—just stared at us in shock and confusion. Erik and Jack were looking at me, evidently expecting me to take the reigns now that we were finally here. It was my quest, after all. I cleared my throat.

“Um, hi. We’re here to rescue you.” No point beating around the bush.

“Rescue me?” the miller’s daughter repeated, looking rather doubtful.

“Yes, we heard about your predicament, and being good Samaritans, decided to help get you out of it,” I hastily explained.

Erik gave strangled cough from the floor that sounded suspiciously like “Liar”. I ignored him.

“The point is,” I continued, a little louder, “Is that if the King comes to check on you in the morning and finds that you haven’t spun all this straw into gold, you’ll be executed. So we’re here to get you out of here before that can happen. Do you follow?”

“I… suppose?” she said, but she still seemed far from convinced. “I’m sorry—I still don’t really understand who you are.”

“We’re your fairy godparents; your knights in shining armor; the three enchanted animals you have to encounter in order to prove your worthiness. Does it really matter? We’re hear to save your neck, we can hash out the details later. I appreciate your curiosity, but there is a thousand foot tall beanstalk outside and I think someone is going to notice sooner or later. So let’s get going while we still have the chance, yeah?” I jerked a thumb towards the open window, and tried to put on my best winning smile.

“A beanstalk?” the miller’s daughter repeated, looking at me as if I’d just sprouted one out of the top of my head.

I groaned. “Yes, a beanstalk. That’s how we got up here, and that’s how we’re getting back down.”

The girl edged past us, trying not to turn her back on any one of the three of us as if she thought we might try to attack her or something once her back was turned, and she glanced out the window at the dark shape of the beanstalk. She tilted her head back, then tilted it a little further, and a little further, aaaand a little further; following it up, up, up until it disappeared into the darkened sky above. Then she looked down, and down some more, to the courtyard eighty feet below.

“I’m not climbing down that,” she declared, her tone about as yielding as granite.

“It’s not like there are any other options,” I told her.

“I can’t climb down that, I’ll fall and I’ll die!”

“Actually, there is one other option,” Erik cut in, “Stay here, let the king find out you can’t spin straw into gold, and die anyway.”

“It’s actually not as difficult as it looks,” Jack tried to assure her. “We all were able to get up here without too much trouble. It’s really quite safe.”

Safe isn’t exactly the word I would have used, but I wasn’t about to contradict him now.

“Look,” I said, actively pleading now. “I want to help you, I really really do. Is this an ideal solution? No, but this is what we have. If you want out of here, we have to go now, okay? This beanstalk isn’t going to escape notice for long.”

The girl looked from me, to Jack, to Erik, and then to the room full of straw all around her. She swallowed hard, then nodded.

“Okay. I’ll try. I suppose I have to try.”

I heaved a sigh of immense relief. “Great. Wonderful. Come on then.” I hurried back to the window, the miller’s daughter right behind me. I glanced down at Erik, where he was still sitting slumped against the wall. That was going to be a problem.

“Okay, Jack, you’ll have to go first, to lead the way down. You’ll follow him, okay?” I said to the miller’s daughter. “Jack is an excellent climber, just follow the path he takes, and you’ll get down safely. Erik and I will follow after.”

Jack was looking at Erik too, as his expression echoed all the things I was thinking. “But-”

“We’ll be fine,” I told him firmly. “Just get the miller’s daughter down in one piece, okay?”

“Anne,” the girl said.

“What?”

“Anne, my name is Anne.”

“Oh. Huh. Nice to meet you, Anne. Now get your ass moving, before we’re all dead meat.”

Jack gave Erik one last worried glance, but climbed up onto the window sill and let himself fall forward until he was able to grab the beanstalk with both his arms. Then his feet followed, and in a few moments he was climbing effortlessly down the beanstalk.

“Okay,” I said, giving the miller’s daughter a little push in the small of her back. “Your turn.”

She took one step forward, then stopped abruptly. “Actually, I don’t think I can do this,” she said, shaking her head hard.

I grit my teeth together so hard, I swear I forced one loose. I knew it wasn’t fair to be getting frustrated with her, since I’d completely frozen up with fear myself on the way up the beanstalk, but being so close to home free and grinding to a dead halt like this was agonizing. I was painfully aware that with every passing moment, the risk of someone looking out a window or a guard patrolling the castle grounds and spotting the beanstalk increased tenfold.

“Look, I empathize with how you feel, believe me, I really do—but if you don’t climb out that window in the next minute, I’ll have to push you out it.”

She turned to look at me with an expression of horror, and I realized I was coming across more villain than hero at the moment. I forced myself to unclench, and tried to smile reassuringly. “Just a joke, sorry. I will not push you out of any windows. But seriously, it’s time to go. You’ll be fine, it’s not really as bad as it looks, and you’ll be on the ground and safe before you know it. Look,” I said, leaning partially out the window to point at Jack, who had already reached the ground and was looking up expectantly at us from far, far below. “Jack’s already reached the bottom, that had to have taken him less than two minutes, tops—”

I was cut off mid-sentence as my next words died in my throat. A sudden movement in the darkness caught my eye, and I looked up to the castle wall to see a guard, yawning and stretching, ambling out of one of the guard post towers built into the corner of the wall. He didn’t get more than three or four steps, and my stomach didn’t even have time to finish dropping to the soles of my shoes, before he looked over, bleary eyed, and spotted not only the mind-bogglingly enormous beanstalk, but me, leaning halfway out the window with my mouth hanging wide open in guilty shock.

The guard staggered backwards, pulled out a horn that hung on his hip, put it to his lips, and began to blow a warning that rang through the silent castle grounds like a klaxon.

Lights immediately began to illuminate the dark windows of the guard tower, with those in the castle following only a few moments later. The sound of several other horns added to the first guard’s alarm, and I knew we were done for.

I looked back down the length of the beanstalk, and saw that Jack had started climbing back up it the moment our cover had been blown. I frantically waved at him, urging him to retreat. He paused for a second, confused.

“Go back, go back!” I half shouted, half whispered, only loudly enough for him to be able to just barely hear me. “Get out of here, don’t get caught with us! Get away while you still can!” And then, a sudden thought striking me, I pulled off my backpack and threw it out the window. He had to dodge to the side to avoid getting hit by it. If we all got away, I’d get it, and the Book inside of it, back later. If Erik and I were captured, I’d rather not have the Book falling into the wrong hands.

I didn’t have the chance to see if he obeyed and fled, because the next moment, someone yanked me back into the tower room.

I screamed and flailed at my attacker, but it was only Erik, and since he was still sitting on the ground, my flinging arms went sailing uselessly over his head.

“What are you doing, get back in here!” he snapped, and he tried to pull himself into a standing position using my skirt. I grabbed his hands and helped haul him to his feet. He staggered alarmingly the instant he tried to put any weight on his wounded ankle, and we both nearly went toppling over.

“Damn it!” he swore, and looked as if he wanted to punch something. “You have to get out of here,” he said to me. “Take the girl, and go. Just run, head towards the rear of the castle—that’ll be where the kitchens are. You might still be able to get out that way. Go as quickly as you can, and hide whenever possible.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I said, and I slung his arm over my shoulder so I could help support him. “I’m not leaving you here, are you insane? You’ll probably be executed if they find you here!”

Erik shook me off, and actually shoved me away from him, towards the window. “Don’t be an idiot—I won’t be able to keep up. I’ll only slow you down, and you’ll never make it out of here. Either you leave me here and the two of you make it out of this, or all three of us die together.”

I stood there, halfway between our only way out and Erik, the miller’s daughter looking from me to him and back again, clearly on the edge of full blown panic.

I was trying to figure out how I could force him to come with us—blackmail? Bribery?—when the decision was suddenly taken out of my hands.

There was the sound of clattering footsteps outside the tower door, as if many feet, some of them in full, clanking armor by the sound of it, were running up the tower steps.

I rushed at Erik and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. “Hit me,” I demanded.

“I—what?”

“Hit me! Right in the mouth, right now!”

Erik pushed me away, looking at me as if I had completely lost my mind. “I’m not going to—what the hell are you talking about? Rikki, we’re about to be caught and probably sentenced for treason-”

“And we might get out of this if you punch me in the mouth, and make it good one!”

“Oh, for God’s sake!” Anne, the miller’s daughter, shouted, and she grabbed me by the shoulder, whirled me around, and socked me right in the mouth.

I swore and dropped to my knees, clutching my bloody mouth. Erik cried out in alarm, Anne cried out in pain, her knuckles sliced open on my teeth, the lock on the other side of the tower door clicked, and the door was wrenched open.