Clover swiftly realized that Madeline was herding the giants further away from the door that led to the throne room, and finally saw an opening for their escape. “Now’s our chance! Follow me, ladies. We’re getting the hell out of here! You, too, Alister! Come on!” Clover took off running towards the doorway with the ladies following right behind him, running as fast as they could in the high heels they’d never worn before.

Alister ran after Clover and the women until he hesitated and came to a stop. “Four against one? I don’t like those odds. We can’t just leave her behind, Clover. We should…stay and help her somehow.”

Clover halted his steps and turned to face Alister. There was a grim, determined, and yet apologetic expression on the King’s face. “I must get these fair ladies to safety. They’re depending on me,” Clover explained as he waved the girls through the doorway and into the throne room. “Keep going!” He told them when they shot questioning looks over their shoulders his way. “I’ll be right there.” The White King returned his attention to Alister. “We should go too. Our rescuer appears to be able to hold her own against those giants.”

“Wait, just tell me…how did Jacklyn defeat so many giants in the past?” Alister questioned. “Did she use the mushroom to increase her size like our mysterious rescuer?”

“No. She used poison, I think,” Clover said as he tried to recall the details of the legend. “But, I’m sorry I don’t have any on me.”

Alister’s troubled expression grew thoughtful. “That’s okay. I…I’ll think of something. Go! You’re right…those girls need a hero to look after them.”

Clover frowned. “What about you?”

“There’s someone I just can’t leave behind,” Alister said.

“Good luck.” Clover gave him a thumbs-up.

Alister nodded. “Thanks. You too.” Clover ran through the doorway after the girls. Alister faced the treasure chamber and watched Madeline fighting the giants. He gulped at the fearsome sight. Come on, Alister. Think! He dug his fingernails into his scalp. Poison, poison, poison. How could he get his hands on some poison?

Just paint something, Silly. Katrina’s voice flitted through his mind.

That’s it! Alister ran across the chamber and used the stairs he’d created to climb up the table. Once he was standing on the table’s surface he called out to Madeline to get her attention. “Uh! Over here!”

Madeline’s green eyes flared when she spotted Alister standing on the antique table. She blocked a hammer blow and ran over to Alister to see what he could possibly want. “Alister! What are you still doing here? You need to leave.”

“Quick! Set your sword down on the table,” Alister directed in an urgent voice.

Madeline tilted her head at Alister, but since she trusted him implicitly did as she was told and set the Vorpal Sword down on the table.

Alister then used his paintbrush to paint glowing green poison on the blade. “There! Now it’s poisoned. You can kill them!”

Madeline looked at the glowing, green poison on her sword’s blade in awe, and looked suitably impressed. “Thanks, Love.” She grabbed her sword’s hilt and spun just in time to block a sword blow that had been aimed at her back.

Alister ran across the tabletop, and scrambled his way down the stairs as quickly as he could. He was about to run for the exit, but…

As long as he didn’t get himself stepped on and squished like a bug maybe he could still help Madeline somehow.

Madeline fought savagely, and using her superior speed and agility managed to slip past the giant’s defenses and stab him in the shoulder with her sword. The giant staggered backwards, swayed on his feet, and then fell over - dead.

“Poison!” one of the giants exclaimed fearfully.

“What foul treachery is this? She must be Jacklyn’s descendant in disguise!” another giant added with a bloodthirsty gleam in his beady eyes.

Alister tried to get closer to Madeline without getting stepped on. There had to be something he could do. He thought back to his previous battles. Well, a well-placed mud puddle always seemed to do the trick.

Alister snuck behind one of the giants, crouched down, and started to draw a large mud puddle on the floor. Once he was done, the painting glowed, and turned into real mud.

When the giant took a step back his foot sank down into the mud. “Ah!” the giant cried out as he lost his balance, fell forward, and fell to his knees.

Madeline saw her chance and swung her sword, decapitating him.

“Yeah!” Alister fist pumped the air until the giant’s head hit the floor and started to roll in his direction. “Or not. Eek!” He let out a squeak and ran for it. All of a sudden I know how Indiana Jones felt in the Temple of Doom!

At that moment, a giant wielding an axe spotted Alister running across the floor of the treasure room. “You! You did that, you little pest!” The giant raised his sword and started after Alister.

“Alister! No!” Madeline tried to go towards him, but the giant with the hammer stood in her way.

Alister managed to avoid the rolling head, but slipped on some blood on the floor and fell. Uh oh. Alister inwardly moaned.

“I have you now, bug!” the giant raised his axe.

“I’m so dead,” Alister muttered darkly.

“Think again, foul creature!” a familiar gallant male voice declared.

A cloud of sparkly black dust engulfed the giant and he was transformed into a cockroach.

Alister looked up to see Clover approaching the cockroach. “Sorry about this. I usually fight with more honor.” He raised his boot and smushed the bug with an audible splat.

“What was that?” Alister questioned breathlessly as he pushed himself up off the floor and grimaced at the blood that was now on his clothes.

“Dark fairy dust,” Clover explained. “I ‘borrowed’ some off a Dark Fairy back at Salome’s Tavern.” His expression turned smug.

Alister smirked. “You dawg.”

A relieved look passed over Madeline’s face when she saw that Clover had come to Alister’s rescue, and she was able to return her attention fully to the giant wielding the hammer. She snuck past his defenses and slashed at his gut. The wound she managed to create was shallow, but the deadly poison worked instantly. The giant dropped his hammer, sank to his knees, and fell over, dead.

“Phew,” Alister let out a sigh of relief as the last of the giants was vanquished.

Clover grabbed Alister’s arm. “We should go!”

Alister glanced at Madeline. Madeline gave him a discreet nod and winked.

Alister nodded back and grinned. “Thanks, Uh!”

Clover and Alister ran out of the castle, into the courtyard, and started to make their way down the beanstalk.

 ***

Several years ago in London, England…

Laura and Henry Kingsley were the happiest newlyweds one could find. They were very much in love, and had no financial troubles due to Henry’s popularity as a poet.

They lived in a brick townhouse in the heart of London, and Laura had fun decorating it to her heart’s content. It wasn’t long before she became pregnant, and nine months later she gave birth to a healthy baby boy with the bluest eyes, and lovely, golden-blonde hair.

Laura had been tempted to name the boy ‘Angel’ since he reminded her of a little angel sent from heaven, but Henry decided on naming their son after his own father ‘Alister’ meaning ‘defender of mankind’.

The Kingsleys were the perfect little family. They lived peacefully, happily, and in good health without a care in the world until Alister got his first box of crayons.

It was on a day just like any other day when it happened. Laura was sitting in the living room working on her embroidery while four-year-old Alister was scribbling away at several pieces of white paper that were scattered on the coffee table in front of him.

Nothing Alister had drawn so far really resembled anything. They were all just nonsensical, childish scribbles. But that day, little Alister looked out the window, and spotted a bluebird perched on the branch of a tree in the garden.

When the bluebird began to sing Alister clapped his hands together in excitement. “Ooo pretty!” He immediately began to draw the bluebird to the best of his ability. He drew the bird’s head, its body, its wings, its little feet, and lastly, Alister drew its eyes and filled them in.

That’s when the strangest thing happened.

The drawing glowed with a bright golden light, and then the image of the bird started to peel off the drawing paper. Alister giggled happily and clapped at the incredible sight in amusement.

“What’s so funny, Al?” Laura asked absentmindedly as she looked up from her embroidery just in time to see Alister’s drawing peel off the page, and then materialize into a very real bluebird. Laura’s jaw dropped and she dropped her embroidery hoop.

The bird flew over to Alister’s outstretched finger, perched upon it, and began to sing for him. Alister smiled widely at it.

However, Laura was not impressed, but incredibly frightened by this unexplainable turn of events, and screamed loudly.

Alister flinched at the sound of his mother’s ear-splitting scream, and his eyes shot to his mother. His lower lip started to tremble as he took in her distressed state, his blue eyes filled with tears, and then he started to cry.

Upon sensing Alister’s unease and fear the bird turned its attention to Laura - the threat. The bird flew towards Laura and started to peck viciously at her in order to get her to quiet.

Laura’s scream only intensified, however, as the bird started to peck at her, and she leapt up from her chair in a panic. She waved her hands futilely at the bird. “Ah! Get away! Get away from me!” A trickle of blood trailed down Laura’s face from her forehead where the bird had managed to peck at her skin there.

The bird started to try and go for Laura’s eyes next.

At that moment, the front door was flung open, and Henry stepped inside the foyer. He’d just gotten home from the publisher’s who were helping him to release a new book of poems, and the first thing he heard was the sound of his beloved wife screaming in terror.

“Laura?” Henry called out and rushed into the living room just in time to see his wife getting savagely pecked at by a bluebird. “Hey!” Henry shouted, and quickly scanned the room for an object he could use to get the bird away from his wife. He spotted the fancy, brass, fireplace poker sitting against the fireplace, and walked over to grab it. “Stay away from my wife, you crazy bird!” Henry swung the poker at the bird like a baseball bat.

The tiny bluebird died instantly from the impact, and was knocked to the floor with its little head completely bashed in.

Henry dropped the bloody poker and rushed over to comfort his frazzled wife. He cupped her pale face in his large, warm, calloused hands. “My Love, what happened? Where did that crazy bird come from? Did you leave the window open? Or perhaps it came down the floo-”

With crystalline tears streaming down her face, Laura shook her head in denial, and pointed a trembling finger at Alister, who’d stopped crying by this time, and was now looking at the dead bird on the floor that was now surrounded by a pool of its own blood with a forlorn look on his face. “It was him…he did it. Alister summoned that - that demon! It was just like witchcraft!” Laura wrapped a trembling hand around the cross she wore around her neck.

Henry frowned. He knew that Laura would never lie to him, but this was a little hard to believe. “Laura, please, you’re not making any sense. Come over here and sit down, and tell me what happened in more detail.” Henry guided his trembling wife over to the plushy armchair by the fireplace, and helped her to sit down.

Laura took a deep breath to steady her nerves before she began to tell Henry everything that had happened. Henry listened intently and remained silent until the end of her retelling. “The bird peeled itself off the page and became real?” Henry stroked his chin in a pensive gesture.

“Y-Yes,” Laura said in a quavering voice.

“So, what you’re really saying is our son could be Harry Potter?” Henry teased jokingly.

Laura quickly became incensed at her husband’s blasé attitude. “Be serious, Henry. This isn’t a joke, and I’m not making this up. Our child may be demon-possessed.” She shuddered and rubbed at her arms.

Henry frowned at his wife’s incriminating words. He didn’t believe in demons, and knew Alister was the opposite of some evil creature. “My Love, let’s be reasonable about this. Maybe this was just a one-time thing. First, we should see if Alister can even do it again.”

Laura grew appalled by the suggestion. “You want him to summon another of those creatures here!”

“It will be alright,” Henry said soothingly. “I’ll be right here with you.” He walked over to Alister, crouched beside his son, and ruffled his hair affectionately. “Hey, my boy.”

Alister sniffled and glanced up at his father. “Hi, Daddy.”

Alister’s nose was red and his eyes were still glassy from crying. A wave of protectiveness washed over Henry at the sight of his distraught son. “Alister, there’s something I want you to do for daddy.”

“What is it?” Alister asked softly.

“I want you to draw another bird,” Henry said.

Alister’s lower lip started to tremble. “So, you can kill it?”

“No! Of course not,” Henry instantly objected. “I feel bad about what happened to the first one. But, I was only protecting Mommy. I…really would like to see your drawing.”

“O-Okay.” Alister picked up his blue crayon and started to draw another bird. He set the blue crayon down when he was done with it, and picked up the black crayon to draw its eyes. As soon as Alister had finished filling in its eyes the drawing glowed and materialized to become a real bird.

Henry couldn’t help himself from being both awed and impressed. “Brilliant! You really did it. You brought it to life!”

“You see, I told you!” Laura exclaimed in a shrill tone. “Our boy is cursed!”

Henry’s shoulders slumped in disappointment at how his wife was handling this situation. “No, Laura, this isn’t a curse. It’s a gift.” Henry calmly walked over to the window, opened it, shooed the bird outside, and then shut the window after it.

Laura gaped at her husband in shock. “You just let that thing out there! It’s not even a real bird! What if it attacks someone?”

Henry took a deep, steadying breath as he tried to find the patience he needed to deal with his hysterical wife in that moment. “You must have done something to frighten it before, Love. It’s just a bird. Animals often lash out when they feel threatened.”

“So, now this is my fault!” Laura snapped hotly and gave her husband an incredulous look. “You’re forgetting that our son is evil! We can’t have him creating anymore of those…abominations of his!”

Henry frowned at his wife’s negativity. “I don’t really see the problem…except that it might draw unwanted attention to Alister.” He stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Perhaps, there is a way he can control his power. Let me try something. Alister, I want you to draw me a bunny rabbit. Think you can do that?”