Alex falls and falls until she lands on a path in the middle of a forest. Conner lands beside her, and they find the miscellaneous items Alex has been dropping through the book all week. Before they can figure out where they are, a group of armored soldiers rides by on horses, each carrying a shield with a red apple on it. The twins find a wanted poster for Goldilocks, and with a jolt, Alex recognizes the forest from the pictures in the fairy tales their grandmother used to read. To a wide-eyed Conner, she explains that “we’re actually in the Land of Stories” (85).

Alex and Conner argue about being in the land of fairy tales until a frog wearing a suit asks if he can help them. Alex and Conner are too shocked to answer. A pack of wolves howls nearby, and the frog tells the twins to follow him to his house, where they’ll be safe from the things that stalk the forest at night. Conner protests, but Alex drags him along.

The frog’s home is in a hollowed-out hill beneath a tree, complete with bookshelves and warn sofas. He hasn’t always been a frog. He’d once been a man who took his good looks for granted, and a witch cursed him, presumably to teach him a lesson.