Alex Bailey
A Character From The Land of Stories Series
By: Gretchen Albers
Who is she?
Location: The Land of Stories
Hero's Journey
In Book 1
Call to Adventure: Alex discovers that their grandmother's storybook is magic! She begins to study it.
Assistance: Conner helps her realize that even though it may be dangerous, they should test it out
Departure: Alex and Conner use the book as a portal to travel into the Land of Stories.
Trials: Alex and Conner must collect items so that they can get back home. This requires them to go across the whole Land of Stories, solving problems so that they can get back home.
Approach: Alex and Conner realize that someone else (the Evil Queen) is having the wishing spell items collected for her too!
Crisis: Alex and Conner come face to face with the Evil Queen, and she takes all the items they worked so hard to collect. She then uses the spell to free her long lost lover from her magic mirror, only to have him die in her arms.
Treasure: Alex and Conner realize the power of love.
Result: The citizens and rulers of the Land of Stories thank Alex and Conner and look up to them as heroes.
Return: Alex and Conner's grandmother (the Fairy Godmother) takes them back home.
New Life: Alex works harder to make friends and is always anticipating the day when she can go back to the Land of Stories.
Why is Alex a Hero?
Fan Fiction
“Alex,” someone yelled.
Alex whirled around and found herself face to face with her friend Red Riding Hood (the Queen of the Red Riding Hood Kingdom). She noticed Red’s extravagant dress, and quickly used her fairy magic to change her jeans and t-shirt into a beautiful gown. “What’s going on?” Alex asked.
“I just received an anonymous invitation inviting both of us to eat lunch with someone at The Squiggly Piggly!” Red said.
“How do you know that this isn’t some sort of trap?” Alex inquired.
“I think we should both go over immediately since it is almost time for lunch,” Red continued, completely oblivious to what Alex was saying.
“RED!” Alex exclaimed.
“What?” asked Red.
“Oh, never mind,” Alex replied, realizing that Red probably wouldn’t even care who had sent the invitation.
Alex and Red quickly arrived at The Squiggly Piggly. They looked around and, much to their surprise, saw Conner (Alex’s brother), Goldilocks (an outlaw), and Jack (also an outlaw) sitting at a table in the back. Alex and Red walked over to their table and sat down. Conner, Goldilocks, and Jack looked up with a surprised look on their face.
“What?” Red asked haughtily.
Goldilocks quickly answered, “We just didn’t realize that it was you guys who sent the invitation.”
“But it wasn’t us,” Alex said.
Before anyone could ponder over what this might mean, the door flew open with a bang. A small shadowy figure strode in and yelled, “Nobody move! I’ll just take what I came here for and then I’ll be on my way.”
Alex was frozen with shock (and quite a bit of fright). She watched the thief walk up to the counter that the three little pigs were cowering behind. Alex was dreading the worst, and was very surprised when the burglar just growled, “I’ll take this.”
The thief snatched the three little pig’s most prized possession, their first carrot, off the counter. Alex caught a glimpse of something golden before the man hid the carrot inside his cloak. He then turned, ran out the door, jumped onto a horse, and rode away. A shocked silence was left throughout the restaurant. The first people to move were the three little pigs. They ran over to the table where the twins, Red, Goldilocks, and Jack sat and began to whisper urgently.
“You must help us because-” began the first little pig.
“-that carrot holds all the magic-” interrupted the second little pig.
“-that allows us to cook so well,” finished the third little pig.
They all looked up and whimpered, their eyes pleading the quintet of friends to help them. The comrades looked at each other and Goldilocks finally said, “Well, I guess the only thing that would be really good would be to help them.”
They all jumped to their feet, ran out the door, and climbed onto their horses. Then they raced off, following the hoofprints left on the ground. If it hadn’t been for Goldilocks and Jack’s sharp eyes, they would have missed the clearing where the thief had stopped at. As they dismounted their horses, Alex and Conner quickly came up with a plan.
“I think we should walk in there and just tell him to give the carrot back,” Conner said.
“Are you kidding me?” Alex cried in disbelief. “What makes you think he would just give it back to us after he took all that trouble he took to get it?”
“I dunno. It just seems like the sort of stuff that a superhero or someone would do,” Conner replied.
Alex sighed and said, “Okay, let’s just go ahead. We always seem to have better impromptu plans anyway.”
Alex, Conner, Goldilocks, Jack, and Red stepped into the clearing. There was a collective gasp as everyone took in the sparkling clearing around them. Everything had been turned to gold. Everyone was so busy surveying their surroundings that they did not notice the small man in the center of the clearing.
“Well, well, well. I see that someone has tried to come after me. My name is Midas,” the man said with a grin, not looking worried at all.
Alex stared in shock. She looked over at Conner and saw her expression mirrored on his face. King Midas!
“Anyway, is this what you’re looking for?” King Midas asked lazily as he pulled out the three little pigs’ carrot. Something had changed about it though. Now, it was golden.
Conner stepped forward and said, “Give it-”
“You’re too late. I’m about to complete the spell that will finally allow me to eat without all my food turning to gold. Now that I have the carrot, all I have to do is throw it in the fire with this magic dust that I collected from some very unfortunate fairy. It’s amazing what power you have when you can turn anything you touch into gold,” King Midas gloated.
Alex shot Conner a look saying “stall him”. She had an idea, but she needed more time to make it work. She noticed that Midas had a very large latching crate that just might be big enough to fit him in. Now all she needed to do was figure out how to get him in it. Her eyes landed on the meal that Midas had laid out for himself. It was a very big feast, probably to celebrate himself being able to eat again. But it wasn’t the food she needed. It was one of the bottles on the middle of the table.
As Alex slowly moved towards the table, Conner said, “Did you really think you could get away with this? We knew about your plan before you ever showed up at The Squiggly Piggly. In fact we’re about to stop you right NOW!”
Alex quickly jumped up and threw all the pepper she had just collected from the bottle into King Midas’ face. He dropped the golden carrot and magic dust (thankfully on the ground), and stumbled backwards. As he sneezed uncontrollably, he fell backwards into the crate. Goldilocks and Jack quickly sprang forward, closed the lid, and latched it tight. An awkward silence settled over the clearing.
Red broke the silence by saying, “Can I keep the golden crate once he’s out of it?”
Everyone laughed at Red’s words. They had done it! Now all they had to do was turn King Midas in and return the three little pigs’ carrot (which was now golden). They all worked quickly to pack up King Midas’ stuff, then they set out towards The Squiggly Piggly. When they arrived, they saw a troop of guards and Froggy (Red’s boyfriend) standing in front of the popular restaurant. They delivered Midas to the guards, then walked over to the pigs and handed them their carrot.
“Oh thank you-” said the first little pig.
“-so much. We don’t know-” interrupted the second little pig.
“-what we would have done without you,” finished the third little pig.
Greatly embarrassed, the five friends quickly excused themselves and went over to talk with Froggy. He said, “I got here and found out that you guys had all gone off on a dangerous quest without me.”
Everyone grinned sheepishly. Then Alex thought of something and said, “Wait, why were you coming to The Squiggly Piggly?”
“Yeah. Did you get an invitation also?” Conner asked.
Froggy chuckled and replied, “I was the one that sent the invitations to all of you. Now, let’s go eat.”
As they walked inside the restaurant, Alex couldn’t help thinking that she could not imagine how this day could have gone any better.Bibliography
- Corrison, Michele. "What's Next for Glee's Chris Colfer? See the Cover of His New Book!" PEOPLE.com. People Magazine, 10 Apr. 2015. Web. 22 Sept. 2015. <http://www.people.com/article/glee-chris-colfer-new-book-land-of-stories>
- Chris Colfer's The Land of Stories. N.p., 2015. Web. 22 Sept. 2015. <http://thelandofstories.com/books/>
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