"Talking to yourself, or what?"
Nikita, laughing, interrupted her monologue and, plopping down next to her on the bench, began to devour a sandwich with gusto. Umka immediately caught the scent, and her mouth began to water. But she didn't even think about asking the boy to share. Proud, probably.
"I think I made it clear that I have nothing to talk to you about. So, go away!" Alisa snapped, unwilling to endure his presence.
"I'm not going anywhere. It's not your bench anyway," Nikita smirked.
"I sat here first," the girl countered, unwilling to give in.
"So what? I'm bored. So we're going to chat now!"
At such impudence, Alisa even jumped up. She wasn't his clown to entertain him! She wanted to put this arrogant upstart in his place, but, glancing at the hungry Umka, she changed her mind and crossed her arms over her chest:
"Okay. I agree to chat with you, but on one condition."
"What?" her classmate asked, intrigued.
"Now you go to the cafeteria and buy two more sandwiches for Umka."
"For who?!"
"For the dog! You're such a slowpoke!"
Nikita pondered for a few moments, glancing at his watch. There were more than thirty minutes left until the end of the lesson.
"Alright, you win. But you’re going there with me. I don't want to drag myself there alone."
When they approached the low building of the cafeteria with an additional separate entrance from the street, the boy went to get the food, and Alisa, with a smile, patted the dog.
"I'll feed you in a minute, my dear Umka!"
She didn't have to wait long for her desk mate. Nikita returned faster than she expected, and he had a total of three sandwiches, two bags of chips, and two cans of soda in his hands.
"This is for you," he said, handing the girl one of the sandwiches and a bag of chips.
"Thank you, but I'm not hungry."
"Do you want to drink?"
"I don't drink soda. It’s unhealthy. My mom never buys it for me."
A stunned Nikita stared at her, not believing his ears.
"Is your mom crazy, or what? It's so delicious!"
"Just recently, Belka and I read an article by biochemists from Stockholm University, dedicated to a harmful carcinogenic substance called acrylamide," Alisa replied with a serious expression. "The most acrylamide was found in fast food. And your soda has too much sugar, which, by the way, is even called white death. There are nine pieces of sugar in this little can."
“Nine?!”
The boy looked at the can in horror and threw it in the trash.
"Okay, I'll confess," the girl sighed. "Very, very rarely, for example, on New Year's, I might also drink a little soda. But I don't eat chips myself. The work of the whole body depends on the work of the intestines, so it's important to monitor nutrition. I eat oatmeal for breakfast every day."
"I don't even want to eat chips anymore. You've ruined my whole appetite with your stupid stories!" the boy exclaimed.
Meanwhile “professor” Alisa continued her lecture.
"Mom also told me, when she worked as a model, and it happened that there was no hairspray on hand, she and the girls used soda. Not a single strand fell out of the sugared hair!"
"Your mom worked as a model?!" Nikita whistled admiringly. "Cool!"
"Since high school. She also participated in beauty contests. And at seventeen, she won the title of 'Miss Europe' in France. She was even offered to stay in Paris, one major agency was very interested in her, but Mom chose me. Or rather, us, my brother and I."
"What do you mean?"
"When Mom returned home after the contest and began to collect the necessary papers to work in France, it turned out that she was expecting a child. As it turned out, not even one, but two. So instead of going to Paris, she chose my brother and me."
"I didn't know you have a twin brother! Where is he? Does he go to another school?"
"Danila died shortly after birth," Alisa's face darkened at the memory.
"That's too bad!" her classmate sighed. "Well, at least you have Belka. You and she are like Siamese twins, inseparable. Only she looks like a Japanese girl from anime."
"That's what everyone says."
By this time, Umka had devoured all the sandwiches and, licking her lips, looked at the girl with gratitude.
"By the way, I read that once, when Charles Perrault was little, he was also kicked out of class."
"Kicked out of class?" Nikita couldn't believe it. "What for?"
"For arguing with the teacher. Charles Perrault grew up in a very educated, intelligent family, and in the evenings, he, along with his parents and brothers, often discussed various topics. He was used to expressing his point of view, and the teacher didn't like it. So he kicked him out."
"Unbelievable!"
"The most interesting thing is that Charles's faithful friend left the class with him for company. They both sat on a bench in the square and began to think about what they should do next. They didn't want to go back to school, and they decided to pursue self-education. Every day, Charles and his friend went to the library and studied there for several hours. They taught themselves Greek and Latin."
"They had nothing else to do?!", exclaimed the boy to whom studying seemed the most boring thing in the world.
“However, when Perrault became a well-known personality, detractors reproached him for being self-taught. By the way, his first fairy tales were published under the name of his son, Perrault d'Armancourt, so as not to tarnish the reputation of a respected critic, poet, and jurist with work in a "low" genre, as fairy tales were then considered.
"You know everything! Miss Know-It-All! They didn't happen to call you a Walking Encyclopedia in kindergarten, did they?" her classmate inquired with a smirk.
"They did, they called Belka and me like that. But we didn't actually show up at kindergarten all that often."
"But your faithful friend seems disinclined to skip class with you," Nikita observed with a touch of sardonic wit.
Everyone in the class knew that the girls had been friends practically since they were infants. Their families lived in the same building, in the same entryway, and even on the same landing, so it was no wonder that Alisa and Belka were as thick as thieves, as Nikita had previously noted.
"And she was right to do so! I don’t want Belka to have troubles because of me. Or rather, because of you!"
Nikita merely grunted in response.
"So, why didn't you go to kindergarten often? What were you doing at home?"
It was true that Alisa spent much of her time, when her mother was busy, with Belka's family, who embraced her like their own, but she chose to tell her irritating classmate a different story.
“Sometimes, my mom even took us to university classes. We sat quietly during the lectures and listened to the professors, they didn't mind. Later when we were taught to read at the age of four, we started waiting for my mom in the library."
"Oh, I didn't know you had such a difficult childhood!"
"What?!" Alisa retorted, her voice ablaze with passion. "We loved going to the university with Mom. The librarian, Lilia Mikhailovna, was like a nanny to us. We still go there often with Belka. But Mom's graduating this year."
"I've never even been to a library," Nikita shrugged. "I imagine it smells like old junk in there, and it's probably full of dust."
Alisa’s eyes flashed.
"You don't understand! It's a completely different world! Mysterious. You sit with an apple by the window, and it's so quiet, you can only hear the ticking of the clock, and you're immersed in a fairytale world. It's like unseen forces pick you up and teleport you to the book characters. And time, as if turned to stone, freezes in place."

Nikita scoffed.
"I get that too. When I'm playing on the computer," he tossed back, breaking the spell.
"The first time we ended up in that huge library," Alisa continued, her eyes sparkling, "we each imagined ourselves as Belle from 'Beauty and the Beast.' It's so much fun to play there! What kinds of fairy tales haven't we lived through there! And Lilia Mikhailovna sometimes seems like a good fairy to us."
Just then, a joyful shout erupted from behind them.
"There you are!" Breathless Belka rushed towards them. "I saw you and Umka in the yard from the window, but by the time I came down, you'd already disappeared. I could barely find you."
"Did you get kicked out too?" Nikita chuckled.
"I left on my own. As a protest against the unfair sentence against Alisa, whom you so treacherously framed," she glared at her classmate and bent down to stroke Umka, who was lying in the shade of the bench.
"Belka, you shouldn't have left, but thank you so much for your support!" Alisa hugged her friend tightly.
"So, what are our plans? What are we going to do?" the girl asked.
Nikita glanced at his watch. An idea sparked in his mind. There was enough time left before the end of class to sneak off for a visit to a tempting little spot.
"Listen, what if we dash off to the library?" he suggested. "We've got nothing else to do anyway, and maybe your fairy librarian will find me 'Puss in Boots.'"
"Actually, I wasn't asking you about plans," Belka exclaimed, "Though I'm forced to admit your idea isn't bad!"
Alisa stared at them in astonishment.
"Are you serious?! What if we're late?"
"It's not far at all, just a stone's throw away! But if you're so afraid to walk the streets without adults, then I have this," the boy pulled a mobile phone and a bank card from his jacket pocket. "We'll call a taxi now, and withdraw the money from the ATM on the corner."
"Is that your card?" Alisa asked, her eyebrows raised.
"Dad gave it to me for my birthday. But I don't even have time to spend it because Mom gives me cash," he chuckled. "Only my wallet's still in my backpack in the classroom, and I spent all the change I had in my pocket on sandwiches, chips, and cola."
Alisa stroked Umka, who was sweetly dozing near her feet after her meal.
"No, we're not going by taxi. I want to take Umka for a walk. Will you come with us?"
Hearing her name, the dog immediately jumped up and wagged her tail happily. She, too, wanted to stroll along the streets bathed in the spring sunlight with her little friends.
"I'm also going to ask Lilia Mikhailovna to suggest which Perrault fairy tale to choose for tomorrow. I adore 'Cinderella' and 'Sleeping Beauty,' but I want something a little more special."
"And I want something easier!" Nikita exclaimed.
"As for me, I left so quickly that Inessa Viktorovna didn't have time to give me an assignment," Belka smiled.
"You're so lucky!"
"If you hadn't framed Katyushka, you'd be doing great right now too."
Continuing to passionately sort out their relationship, the trio in plaid school uniforms, accompanied by a large white dog, walked towards the gate.
The University was considered one of the oldest buildings in this secret town on the outskirts of Moscow. It sprawled across a green lawn, where students loved to relax under the shade of ancient oaks. The library was in an annex that resembled a chapel beside a royal castle. It was no wonder, then, that the girls felt like princesses from fairy tales within its walls.
On the way to the library, Umka had taken the opportunity to frolic on the lawn, and then, like a true and loyal sentinel, she took her post by the massive entrance doors, awaiting her little friends.

Alisa hadn't exaggerated when she claimed that Lilia Mikhailovna looked like a sorceress. The elderly woman, with her hair touched with silver, her radiant, laughing eyes surrounded by fine wrinkles, and her pleasant, quiet voice, would have truly resembled a kindly fairy if she were dressed in a robe and topped with a pointed hat.
After listening to the schoolchildren, Lilia Mikhailovna smiled.
"I think I can help you."
Nikita's request was the simplest, so she first found him a thin booklet with a simplified version of "Puss in Boots" in French, perfect for elementary school students.
"Now, let's think about what to do with you, Katerina," the woman said, looking at the girl with a smile. "You and Belka have read all of Perrault's published fairy tales."
"There are unpublished ones?!" the girls gasped in unison.
Lilia Mikhailovna smiled again.
"In an old edition, I came across a mention of such a tale. By the way, it's about a little girl. But, unfortunately, the manuscript seems to have vanished."
"And where is that book where you read about it? Can you lend it to us? We'll study it carefully!"
"I'll have to look for it, but right now I urgently need to go to the main building to process the arrival of new books. Can you wait an hour?"
The children exchanged glances.
"Actually, we need to get back to school," Nikita said.
"Then let's do this. I'll show you which section to search in and leave you here. And when you leave, just close the door behind you. Agreed?"
"Okay, Lilia Mikhailovna. Thank you!"
The woman pointed to the shelves where the book they needed might be located and left the library. The schoolchildren were alone in the spacious room, half bathed in light and half immersed in the twilight of tall shelves lined with books.
"Wow, there are so many books by Charles Perrault here!" Nikita whistled in surprise. "We'll never find what we need on our own."
Ignoring his words, Alisa and Belka intently opened book after book, searching for a chapter titled "The Lost Fairy Tale of Perrault." That's what Lilia Mikhailovna had suggested as a way to find the right book which title she hadn't remembered. But with a job like this, dealing with thousands of books, it was difficult to remember every single one of them.
"You'd better stop talking and help us look!" Belka glared at her lazy classmate.
Nikita reluctantly started to work.
"I'll let you in on a secret, then. Lilia Mikhailovna once said that in every library, there's a hidden door to a fairytale world," Katysha confided in him.
"And you believe that nonsense?" the boy laughed. "You're so naive!"
"Actually, it could very well be true!" Belka protested. "There are so many books here, so many different characters living in them, that even the air in the library is saturated with their stories!"
"You have to admit, there's a completely different atmosphere here," Alisa nodded. "Who knows, maybe at night these characters even come to life and have conversations on all sorts of topics."
"Silly girl! You've just watched the movie 'Night at the Museum' too many times. Everything came to life there at night, too: dinosaurs, wild animals, and all sorts of soldiers."
"You're the silly one! We read about Charles Perrault that he had the gift of traveling to the Fairytale Land. That's where he met all his characters – Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb, Little Red Riding Hood, and others. And then he just wrote fairy tales about them."
"Yep, cool story! You, Belka, are quite the storyteller yourself!" Nikita shook with laughter, so much so that he almost fell and, staggering, accidentally stepped on the girl's foot.
"Ow, that hurts!" She decided he had done it on purpose, and, tearing herself away from her book, demonstratively stepped with her patent-leather shoe onto his boot.
The boy looked up at her, his eyes wide with indignation.
"Hey, what's your problem? I didn't do it on purpose! But you did!"
Offended, he pushed the girl. Belka wasn't about to tolerate her classmate's insolent act either and pushed him back in response. Their hands locked, and a struggle began. Each tried to push their opponent away. It lasted only a few seconds, and Alisa didn't even have time to do anything to separate the brawlers because the quarrelsome pair crashed into a bookshelf, causing books to come falling down from its shelves.
"See what you've done?" the frightened boy exclaimed. "You deliberately stepped on my foot, you started it, so it's all your fault!"
"No, it's your fault!"
"Look!" Alisa interrupted, her voice trembling.
Her attention was drawn to an old, battered booklet that had ended up on the floor among the other fallen books. It was titled "A Guide to the Fairytale Land," by Charles Perrault! The girl knelt down and grabbed the book.
"Wow! I thought you made up the story about the Fairytale Land!" Nikita confessed.
Burning with curiosity, they opened the brochure, and before them unfolded a magical map of fairytale kingdoms, with Sleeping Beauty's castle majestically rising above a lake where, at the command of Puss in Boots, his master was drowning. The dense forest, in which Tom Thumb and his brothers were lost, was crossed by a path along which Little Red Riding Hood walked with her basket. The map was full of wonders: Cinderella's house, where she, like a bee, toiled from early morning to late at night; the hut of the poor princess who wore Donkey Skin; the mansion of the ruthless villain nicknamed Bluebeard; the estate of the once ugly Prince Riquet with the Tuft; the wonderful Gingerbread House with a candy garden and a lemonade fountain; and the river near which the Fairy granted one of the sisters the ability to turn words into jewels, while the other sister's words fell to the ground, turning into toads and snakes.

"I wish we could go there!" Alisa exclaimed enthusiastically. "Look at how many places from Perrault's fairy tales are here!"
"I'm sure we can definitely find his lost fairy tale there," Belka said dreamily.
"I doubt that's possible," Nikita hesitated. "The fact that we found this book doesn't mean anything yet."
"Wait a minute! See, is there something written in small print in French in the corner?" Alisa exclaimed, as if she had just discovered a magical treasure.
"The letters are too small! We can't make it out without a magnifying glass!"
"I think this is the magic spell that will help us get to Fairytale Land. I'll be right back!"
Alisa ran to Lilia Mikhailovna's desk, opened the bottom drawer, and returned with a small magnifying glass. It was no coincidence that the girl knew about its existence. She herself had given it to the librarian. Her mother had brought back a pencil case from a business trip to London. It had five compartments, which could be used not only for lessons, but also for a real expedition, because there was everything there! And a miniature magnifying glass, among other things. Lilia Mikhailovna was so touched by it that Alisa immediately gave her the magnifying glass. The woman, of course, resisted for a long time, but in the end agreed to accept the gift, convinced of the sincerity of the girl's desire.
After reading the mysterious inscription with the help of the magnifying glass, the children were upset. Their disappointment knew no bounds. It really was a spell, but it had to be spoken in front of the door leading to the Fairytale world.
"And where are we going to find it?" Alisa said thoughtfully.
"You yourself said that Lilia Mikhailovna mentioned that every library has such a door," Nikita reminded her. "So we need to find it!"
"We've been coming to this library for years," Belka exclaimed. "We've walked this building back and forth and haven't seen any door to the Fairytale world here."
"Yeah, right! Do you think it would be written on it 'Door to the Fairytale World'?" the boy smirked.
"Belka is saying that all the doors here lead somewhere: to the warehouse, to the utility room, to the toilet, and there's nothing suspicious behind which lies the unknown."
"So, it's a secret door! It's hidden behind some objects. Disguised. Like in 'The Golden Key'[1]. Maybe behind the bookcases?"
"Which we won't be able to move!"
At that moment, a crash echoed through the silence of the room near the window. The children ran out from behind the shady rows of books into the center of the library and saw Umka, who had jumped in to them through the window and, like a passing whirlwind, swept the pots of flowers off the windowsill onto the floor.
"What are you doing here?!" the girls rejoiced.
But the dog, as if deliberately ignoring their enthusiastic exclamations, rushed past into the twilight of the bookshelves.
"Umka, where are you going?! Wait!"
The children rushed after the dog and saw it digging at the carpet in the same spot near the scattered books where they had found the Guide to the Fairytale Land. Umka scratched it with her claws, snorted, and even growled, trying to free the floor. Seeing her running friends, she whined and continued her task with an important air.
"Umka wants us to remove the carpet!" the boy exclaimed, realizing the dog's intention. "Let's try!"
The dog wagged its tail joyfully as a sign that its actions had been interpreted correctly.
The children grabbed the edges of the carpet and with difficulty threw it back to the middle, exposing in the floor a wooden door with an iron bolt, the kind that usually leads to the cellar.
"Is this the magic door to the Fairytale World?" Alisa whispered, mesmerized by what she saw.
"Let's check now!"
Nikita resolutely moved the bolt and pulled the door towards himself. Judging by everything, it hadn't been used in a long time. Maybe even for long decades. The darkened wood seemed to have grown into the floor and didn't want to give way to the boy, as if guarding its secrets. Straining himself, he tugged at the folding handle with all his might and flew backward along with it.
A cloud of dust immediately billowed into the air, and all four of them sneezed, including Umka.
"What's there?" Curious Belka was the first to peek into the hole that had opened in the floor.
She managed to make out only wooden steps leading down in a fan shape, disappearing into the twilight.
While the children, illuminating the thick, gaping darkness of the cellar with Nikita's cell phone, were trying to see what was down there, the dog, without hesitation, rushed headlong down the spiral staircase.
"Umka! Where are you going?!"
"I really don't feel like going in there," Nikita grimaced.
His classmates didn't reply, only grabbed the guidebook and magnifying glass from the floor and prepared to follow their four-legged friend.
"Alright, I'm coming with you!" the boy sighed, realizing there was no turning back.
"Give me your phone, I'll go first and light the way," Belka exclaimed.
"And I'll carry the guidebook and the magnifying glass," Alisa chimed in.
The brave girls cautiously stepped onto the staircase. Although the steps looked quite dilapidated from the outside, they felt rather sturdy to the touch. After all, they had held the enormous Umka!
A few moments later, having descended, the children were plunged into such darkness that the light from the phone couldn't dispel its density. Once again, Umka came to the rescue, raising her voice from the darkness. The schoolchildren moved towards her ringing bark and soon found themselves at a small door built into the wall.
Belka shone the phone's light on the guidebook.
"Let's read the spell quickly!" she urged.
Nikita was so agitated that he snatched the magnifying glass from Katusha's hands and… dropped it on the floor.
"What's with the butterfingers?!" the girls exclaimed with annoyance.
Searching for the tiny magnifying glass in the virtually complete darkness proved to be a real challenge. But once again, Umka came to their aid. She found it, carefully took it by the edge with her teeth, and placed it in Alisa's hands.
"Thank you, sweet Umka!"
The girl wiped the dust off the glass with her handkerchief.
"The magnifying glass is slightly cracked!" she noticed with concern. "I can't make out the letters..."
Trying to see them and correctly recognize the words, they began to read aloud the incantation, woven into rhyming quatrains.
Suddenly, the corridor filled with a blinding light that instantly engulfed all four of them – the girls, the boy, and the dog. And the next second, it was quiet, dark, and deserted again.

[1] ‘The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Buratino’ is a children's novel by Soviet writer Alexei Tolstoy, which is a literary treatment of Carlo Collodi's novel ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’.

The weather was enchanting. In the rays of the bright spring sun, the surface of the lake shimmered and sparkled like it was studded with precious gems, colorful flowers in the meadow vied for beauty, and in the middle of the emerald park, a real castle stood majestically. Looking around, the children immediately realized they had stumbled into a Fairytale Land.
"Hooray! We did it!" a boy shouted in delight.
Umka, surveying the surroundings, sighed heavily and lay down on the grass, her entire demeanor resembling the "facepalm" emoji.
"What's that?" Alisa frowned, noticing people relaxing in the distance under the shady canopies of trees.
It was a group of girls and boys, dressed not at all like fairytale characters, but in ordinary jeans and T-shirts. Moreover, some of them were even talking on their mobile phones!
"Doesn't look much like a fairytale world," Belka remarked.
The schoolchildren pushed their way through dense bushes and emerged onto a path. Here, as if nothing were amiss, people were rollerblading and cycling, speeding along on skateboards, and strolling with baby carriages. No magic – just an ordinary day in a twenty-first-century park.
"Where have we ended up?" Nikita wondered.
At that moment, Umka saw a pretty white poodle on a leash and, happily rushing to greet it, almost knocked its owner off her feet. This extravagant elderly lady with a high hairdo, bright red manicure matching her lipstick, and clad in tight leopard-print pants, screamed hysterically in fright.
"Whose huge dog is that? Why is it off the leash?!"
The children exchanged astonished glances. The dog owner was shouting in French!!!
"Oh, pardon, madame!" Alisa quickly apologized. "This is our dog. We'll take her away now. We just seem to have lost her leash."
The lady recovered from her fright and even smiled.
"It's all right. I was just flustered by the surprise. My heart nearly stopped!"
"We apologize again!" Nikita repeated, bowing politely.
"Madame," Belka began, "could you tell us where we are right now? We seem to be a little lost."
"Oh, you poor kids! Perhaps I should take you to the gendarme, so he can help you?"
"The police?! No, no, no need, thank you!" the children answered in unison. "We'll call our parents now, and they'll come and get us."
"Then tell them you're not far from the Château de Bagatelle. It's best to arrange to meet at the front façade, so you don't have to search for each other in the surrounding area."
"Merci, madame! You're very kind!"
As soon as the dog owner and her poodle had moved away, Alisa slumped onto a bench and grabbed her head.
Nikita sat down next to her and scratched his head in bewilderment.
"Bagatelle, a gendarme, a lady speaking French... What does it all mean?"
"You didn't understand?" Belka looked at her classmate in surprise. "Oh, right! Of course, you didn't understand anything."
She looked so agitated that concern flickered in the boy's eyes.
"I don't know how, but we've ended up in Paris!" Alisa explained to him.
"Have you lost your mind? What does Paris have to do with it?
"Because the Château de Bagatelle is located in the Bois de Boulogne, and it's the very one that Charles Perrault wrote about in the fairytale 'Little Red Riding Hood'," Belka exclaimed. "Apparently, because the magnifying glass broke, by your fault, by the way, we read the spell with errors and instead of Fairytale Land, we ended up here."
"That's right," Alisa nodded. "Little Red Riding Hood lives right here, but only in a parallel fairytale world, not in the real one where we are now."
Having said this, she recalled something and climbed onto the bench with her feet. Before the eyes of her companions, the girl spun around in place and jumped to the ground with a disappointed expression.
"No, it's not visible from here."
"What are you talking about?" her classmate didn't understand.
"I was hoping to see the top of the Eiffel Tower," Alisa confessed.

"So, we're really in Paris?! Wow!" Nikita breathed, his eyes sparkling with delight. "Awesome! Disneyland is here! Let's go there!"
"It's located in the suburbs, and you have to get there by train," Belka recalled.
"I want to go to Disneyland! I want to ride the rides!"
"There's a children's park here in the Bois de Boulogne too. Let's go there instead, since you're so eager to ride, and Belka and I will think about what to do next. We just need to ask someone which way to go. The Bois de Boulogne, you know, is huge! More than three times the size of Hyde Park in London and two and a half times the size of New York's Central Park."
"I didn't even doubt that you knew its size!" Nikita remarked sarcastically. "Let's check the navigator now to see how to get to the rides."
The trio set off along the winding path.
"Stupid name for a castle – Bagatelle!" the boy chuckled. "It's like it translates to trinket. Remember, we read a story in class, and Inessa Viktorovna translated it that way?"
"Yes, but in this case, 'Bagatelle' translates to trifle. There's a whole story behind the name!" Alisa exclaimed. "In the late eighteenth century, Louis XVI's brother bet Marie Antoinette that he could build a castle in two months. He declared that it was a 'trifle' for him. And, to everyone's surprise, he won the bet, and the castle was named 'Bagatelle'."
"He threw up a castle in two months? Wow!"
"Well, he didn't build it himself personally. Hundreds of workers toiled day and night," Belka pointed out. "Okay, let's make a deal. We'll only ride two rides and then go to the center. I want to see the Eiffel Tower up close and stroll along the Champs-Élysées."
"And what about Umka when we go to the center? What if we get fined for walking her without a collar and muzzle?"
"We won't get fined. People in Paris love dogs. You can take them almost everywhere here. But we'll still need to buy a leash."
"Then we need to make a program of where we want to go in Paris!" Nikita exclaimed happily.
"The Louvre, of course!" the girls answered in unison. "Belka and I have completed the entire 'Walks through the Louvre' game. I can't wait to see all these masterpieces with my own eyes! Especially the Mona Lisa and the statues of Venus de Milo or the boy with the goose. And I really want to see the glass pyramids!"
"What glass pyramids?"
"One in the courtyard in front of the Louvre, and the other inside the museum, inverted upside down to illuminate the underground rooms…" Belka rattled on enthusiastically. "Oh, I think I understand how to get to Fairytale Land!"
"How? Tell us!"
"We completely forgot! Lilia Mikhailovna mentioned that the magic doors are located in libraries and... in museums! There's only one museum in our city, and it's closed for renovations. That's why we forgot about museums."
"Exactly!" Alisa gasped.
"Do you seriously think we'll be able to find that door in the enormous Louvre?" Nikita asked, with doubt in his voice. "Last time, Umka helped us. How will we get her into the Louvre now?"
The children sighed and turned to the dog. In surprise, all three of them cried out. Instead of their four-legged friend, a toy Umka lay on the grass – a white shaggy dog no bigger than a football.
"The miracles continue!" Alisa exclaimed joyfully. "In this form, we can sneak her even into the Élysée Palace."
She picked up the toy in her arms and kissed it on the nose.
Her classmate smirked.
"Let's run to the rides quickly, and then to the center and the Louvre!"
In the children's park, their eyes widened. By the time they got there, they had already encountered so many temptations along the way – they wanted to ride in a boat on the lake, visit a real racetrack, and go to a flower exhibition. In the children's park, they had to gather all their willpower to keep their word and leave after two rides.
A taxi appeared as if summoned, waiting just outside the park gates.
"Good day!" Alisa blurted out the moment they were inside. "To the Louvre, please, but first, we'd like to see the Eiffel Tower up close!"
An Aladdin-like driver nodded, and the car eased into traffic.
"Where are you visiting from, if I may ask?" he asked, his eyes flicking between the road and their reflections in the rearview mirror.
"Russia."
“Oh, Russians are not afraid of sending such young kids on an excursion alone in a foreign country? Unbelievable!”
The taxi whisked the young tourists to the Place du Trocadéro. Here, with delighted exclamations, they began snapping photos of each other with Nikita's phone, the iconic tower looming in the background. They also succumbed to the allure of the local vendors, purchasing souvenirs as mementos. A separate bag was even required to contain their burgeoning collection.
"Awesome! Everyone in our class is going to be so jealous!" Nikita was already envisioning the envious expressions on his classmates' faces when they recounted their Parisian adventure. "It's too bad we won't see the tower at night when it's lit up."
"And sparkles every hour! My mom told me. Did you know that the tower was only built to be temporary?" Alisa chimed in. "It was erected in the late nineteenth century for the World's Fair, designed by the engineer Gustave Eiffel, after whom the tower is named. They originally planned to tear it down after a few years."
"Why?! It's so cool!"
"Well, back then, Parisians considered it a monster!", the girl explained. "They thought this metal structure, a whole three hundred meters tall, ruined the entire cityscape."
"Even the famous French writer Guy de Maupassant preferred to dine at the restaurant in the Eiffel Tower," Belka added, "because it was the only place in the city from which you couldn't see 'that monstrosity.'"
"The French would have been fools to tear it down. Everyone associates Paris primarily with the Eiffel Tower. It's like how Moscow is associated with the Kremlin. In all foreign films about Russia, they show the Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral."
"By the way, our Ostankino Tower is more than two hundred meters taller than the Eiffel Tower!" Alisa recalled. "And I also read that the Eiffel Tower is very light. If you proportionally shrunk it down to thirty centimeters, it would only weigh seven grams."
Nikita whistled.
"Wow!"
"In order to save the tower from demolition, Gustave Eiffel had to come up with some practical use for it," Belka continued the story. "As a result, they opened a meteorological laboratory, radio stations, and installed a television antenna. And now there's also a famous restaurant there, 'Jules Verne.' They say, tables there are booked almost months in advance."

"Cool! I'd love to grab a bite to eat right now."
"Me too," Alisa sighed, remembering that her last meal had been oatmeal that morning. "Maybe we could stop at some café?"
"I was thinking the same thing!"
"Preferably one with lots of desserts!" added Belka, the sweet tooth of the group.
The taxi driver helped the little travelers purchase their museum tickets and pointed out a café nearby. Nikita paid with a card, and the children, thanking the helpful man, exited the car.
In the Louvre courtyard, near the enormous glass pyramid and the smaller pyramids that served as skylights, they couldn't resist taking a few more selfies to remember the moment.
The Louvre astounded them with its sheer size. Upon seeing the vast palace and the buildings attached to it in the Cour Napoléon, the schoolchildren came to the conclusion that even a whole day wouldn't be enough for a tour of the entire museum.
"The collections are housed in the former royal palace—a grandiose complex of buildings, the construction of which took a whopping eight centuries!" Alisa informed them. "Each new ruler of France rebuilt, renovated, and expanded it in their own way."
"A whole 800 years?!"
"By the way, it was originally built as a fortress. That was during the reign of King Philip II Augustus. Back then, they didn't even imagine that the Louvre would become a royal palace."
"The eastern facade with the columns was built by the architect Claude Perrault!" Belka recalled.
"Another Perrault?" Nikita exclaimed.
"Charles's brother!" Alisa nodded.
"What a coincidence!"
"It's synchronicity!" Belka declared.
"Synchronicity?"
"An incredibly astonishing coincidence. It's all no accident! It's as if Claude Perrault is hinting to us that the door to the Fairytale Land is definitely located right here in the Louvre!"
"And all that remains is to find the magic door in this enormous palace!" Nikita smirked.
"We have Umka! She helped last time, she'll help now! It wasn't for nothing that our dog turned into a toy to sneak inside the museum with us," Alisa kissed the toy and hugged it close.
"Then let's go quickly! You still want to see all sorts of things."
"All sorts of things?! These are masterpieces of world art!" the girls protested, feigning offense.
For the next hour, Nikita trailed behind his classmates like a shadow as they dashed through the museum halls, gasping in delight at the sight of famous works of art.
"Oh, it's the Venus de Milo! How beautiful! Did you know that she's actually called Aphrodite?"
"Oh my gosh! Look up! It's the Winged Victory of Samothrace!" they couldn't help but exclaim, tilting their heads back before the staircase, above which the graceful statue soared, wings spread. "She's much bigger than three meters! Nika used to be attached to the bow of a ship to withstand the wind."
"Aaaah, Mona Lisa! I thought the painting would be bigger!" Alisa exclaimed, squeezing through the crowd of visitors. "Look, Nikita! See the look in Mona Lisa's eyes! It's as if she's following you with her eyes. Leonardo da Vinci managed to figure out how to depict that. He wasn't just a talented painter, but also a great architect, mathematician, and inventor."
"And he even revolutionized mechanics!" added Belka.

Nikita was tired of running after his restless classmates all over the museum. So, in the hall with the Mona Lisa, the boy sat down on a bench to rest while the girls raved about da Vinci's skill. He placed the toy dog next to him.
"Umka, I don't know about you, but I'm already exhausted from chasing after them. I'll give them another five minutes, and then we'll go look for the magic door. Agreed?"
He stroked the dog's artificial fur. Nikita couldn't tell if it was his imagination or not, but Umka seemed to blink in agreement. However, the boy didn't have time to dwell on whether it had really happened. His mobile phone rang in his pocket.
Nikita looked at the display in surprise. The number was hidden. Who could it be?
"Hello?" the boy said cautiously.
"I advise you to return home as soon as possible," a woman's voice said sharply in French. "Otherwise, you will disappear from the face of the earth, just like your dog."
"What?" Nikita didn't understand, but the mysterious caller had already hung up.
The boy looked at the phone in confusion and put it back in his pocket. Only then did he notice that Umka was no longer on the bench. She had disappeared!
At that moment, his classmates ran up to him.
"It's so great that we got kicked out of French class!" Alisa exclaimed joyfully. "Otherwise, we wouldn't have ended up in Paris!"
"And here, in the Louvre!... Where's Umka?" Belka asked, surprised.
Nikita told them what had happened.
"She's been kidnapped so she can't show us the magic door! We must save Umka!" the girls exclaimed, agitated.
"I think this woman who called is determined! I wonder why she's so afraid of us getting into the Fairytale Land? Doesn't that seem strange to you?"
The phone in Nikita's pocket meowed plaintively, announcing a new message.
"What's that?" Alisa leaned over the display.
"A spell to return home! It says here that we need to recite it near the inverted pyramid."
"Exactly!" Belka slapped herself on the forehead. "We could have figured that out sooner! Pyramids contain concentrations of magical energy."
Nikita's phone meowed again.
"Oh!", the boy exclaimed in surprise and paled. "This is harsh!"
Alisa snatched the phone from his hands and gasped. The newly received photo depicted a decapitated toy Umka! Attached to the gruesome image was the text: "It will be better for you to return home, otherwise you will suffer the same fate as your mutt."
"What have they done to her?! Poor Umka!" the girls' eyes filled with tears.
"We're being threatened just like in the movies!"
"Nikita! Umka's been killed, and you're happy about the adventure! Are you in your right mind?" Belka exclaimed indignantly.
"Relax, it's just Photoshop! And it's not even Umka! Calm down! They just want to scare us!"
“They'll regret kidnapping Umka!" Alisa said resolutely, wiping away her tears.
"Who are 'they'?" Nikita asked, confused.
"Our enemies, who want to stop us from getting into the Fairytale Land!" she snatched the Louvre map from his hands and began searching for the way to the inverted pyramid. "And now we need to put on a show! I'm sure we're being watched."
"What show? What have you come up with now?!"
“Belka, Nikita, I want to go home!" Alisa cried so loudly that several museum visitors turned in their direction. "I want to go to my mom! I'm scared!"
The girl grabbed her classmates by the hand and dragged them towards the exit of the hall.
"Have you completely lost it?!"
"Trust her, she knows what she's doing!" Belka guessed her friend's plan.
For several minutes, they dashed around in search of the hall with the inverted pyramid, getting lost in the museum's pavilions. Only when they finally found themselves near the glass structure did Alisa refrain from taking Nikita's phone to read the spell to return home. Instead, she quickly opened Charles Perrault's "A Guide to the Fairytale Land" and, peering at the small letters with the help of a magnifying glass, hastily recited a completely different spell.
"What are you doing?" was all Nikita managed to shout before they plunged into darkness.

Alisa didn't want to believe that they were back in the Bois de Boulogne. In frustration, she even stamped her foot when she saw the same tall trees with emerald foliage, behind which the meadow was hidden.
"Careful!" came the anxious cry of Belka, who had already had time to look around the new place.
She pulled her friend aside just in time, because a rider on a white horse was racing straight towards her.
"Get out of the wa-a-a-ay!" he shouted and, jumping, leaping over a large stone, flew out of the saddle straight into a bush. "A-a-a-a!"
The girls cautiously began to creep towards him.
"Hey, are you alright?"
Nikita stopped them.
"Don't go near him! He may be armed and dangerous!" the boy warned.
The stranger crawled out of the bush with groans and grumbles. It was a young man in luxurious, gold-embroidered clothing. Noticing the children, the dandy froze. He gave them a surprised look, as if aliens from another planet were standing before him.
"It seems we've definitely landed in a fairy tale this time," Belka whispered, watching the reaction of the hapless rider.
"Who are you?" he asked, getting to his feet.
"We...? We are travelers," Alisa blurted out. "And you?"
"It's obvious you're foreigners," the young man agreed. "Everyone in this kingdom knows me. I am Prince Philip, and you must address me as Your Highness!"
Nikita smirked.
"Should we curtsy too, then?"
"Are you trying to be rude, you little rascal?"
The Prince patted his sides, Alisa figured he was probably reaching for his sword, which for some reason wasn't there.
"A thousand devils! I've lost it!" the horseman exclaimed, kicking the rock he'd nearly tripped over when dismounting. This time, it was he who suffered; the rock didn't budge an inch from his kick, but his foot throbbed with such pain that the Prince even cried out. "A-a-a-a!"
"Lost your sword, Your Highness?" Belka inquired.
"No! I forgot my sword at home. I've lost a slipper!"
"Looks like both your boots are still on," Nikita couldn't help but interject.
"If my sword were here, I'd skewer that obnoxious brat!" Philip fumed. "I'm talking about the slipper of my beautiful stranger, whom I met at the ball yesterday."
"Oh, you're talking about the glass slipper?!" the girls exclaimed, delighted.
"Yesterday at midnight, your mysterious beauty fled the ball and lost her slipper on the stairs, right?" Alisa clarified.
"Correct! But how do you know that, child?" the Prince marveled.
In response, the girl only smiled enigmatically.
"How am I ever to find my princess now? I've ridden through half the kingdom and tried this tiny glass slipper on every maiden, but without it, I can't know for sure if she is my beautiful stranger or not."
Nikita stepped towards his classmates and whispered in their ears.
"I never knew Cinderella's boyfriend was such an idiot! Was he drunk or something that he doesn't remember her face?"
"Shhh!" Belka smacked his hand. "Don't anger him! Otherwise, he'll call his guards and throw us into a dungeon with mice and cockroaches."
The Prince Philip approached them more closely.
"Girl, how do you know about my beautiful stranger? Were you also at my ball?"
"No, we read about it in the royal newspaper," Nikita replied.
"The royal what?" the Prince didn't understand. "This boy is increasingly irritating me. My guards will be here soon, and I'll order them to throw you in jail!"
"No, no, don't do it, please!" Alisa exclaimed. "He's just joking! Nikita's just naturally sarcastic; you just have to get used to him. When we were put at the same desk in school, and he started playing his stupid pranks, I really wanted to hit him too."
"What?!" her classmate protested. "I wasn't happy when we were put together either. With the craziest girl in the class!"
"No, you're the crazy one! Your Highness, take him wherever you want!"
The Prince watched the quarreling children in bewilderment, not understanding what was happening.
"Where did you come from anyway? And what are those strange garments you're wearing? From what kingdom have you arrived?"
In the Fairy Tale land, the trio really did look exotic in their plaid school uniforms.
Belka winked at the Prince.
"We'll answer all your questions. But first, tell us where we've ended up. In the Cinderella story?"
"Cinderella what?"
"Oh, right, you don't know her yet!"

"I have an offer!" Nikita exclaimed. "We'll help you, Your Highness, find your beautiful stranger, and in return, you'll grant our wishes!"
The Prince visibly perked up and became kinder.
"You can ask for as much gold as you want! If you help me find my fiancee, I'll shower you with gold from head to toe."
"Well, we're not interested in gold," the boy began, but then he remembered that they were in a Fairy Tale land, where you couldn't pay with a bank card, and you wouldn't find an ATM even with a lantern in broad daylight. "Although, gold coins wouldn't hurt either."
"And what do you want?"
The girls looked at their classmate.
"Yes, what do you want?"
"A royal sword!"
"My sword?!" the Prince exclaimed indignantly, scratching the back of his head. "Alright, what wouldn't one do for love! I agree! Anyway, I have those swords like dead rats in our royal dungeon!"
"Hooray!" Nikita rejoiced. "Then it's a deal! And what do you want?"
He asked the girls. The Prince also looked at his friends with curiosity.
Alisa lowered her eyes shyly.
"I don't need anything, Your Highness."
"She's lying! She wants something!" the boy stated.
"Yes, girl, don't be deceitful!"
"You'll consider it impudence, so I'd rather be silent."
"No, speak! I give you my word as a Prince that I won't be angry!"
Alisa sighed.
"I want a tiara, like a real princess!" she blurted out and squeezed her eyes shut.
"Is that all?" Philip laughed. "I have plenty of those too. And you, girl? What an unusual little face you have!"
He looked at Belka, who resembled a Japanese doll, with interest.
"I think I wouldn't refuse... a walnut pie."
"Pie?!" her classmates and Prince Philip echoed in unison.
"Well, when else will I get to taste royal food!"
"Belka only has sweets on her mind!" Nikita giggled.
"Agreed, kids! So lead me to my beautiful stranger right now!"
The girls opened the Guide to Fairytale Land and found the merchant's house, Cinderella's father, on the map.
"That's where we need to go! To the merchant!"
"So it's not far from here at all! We just need to go around the lake, and the house will be right on the other side. I've seen it several times while hunting. But why do we need to go to his house? Surely some merchant doesn't know my beautiful stranger?"
They walked along the path towards the lake.
"For sure, he knows her!" Nikita exclaimed. "Actually, she's his daughter!"
"The daughter of a merchant?!" Prince Philip was so horrified that he even stopped. "You're mistaken! My beautiful stranger cannot be the merchant’s daughter! She was dressed in a luxurious gown! I have no doubt that she is a princess from a neighboring kingdom!"
"Oh no, Cinderella is the merchant's daughter!" Alisa confirmed.
The Prince made a disappointed grimace.
"No, I cannot marry the daughter of a merchant. I need a fiancee of royal blood, like me."
"What nonsense!" Belka objected. "You should marry for love, not for convenience! In all the fairy tales, princes married the girls they loved, and only then were they happy."
"But my father, the King, will then disinherit me! He always taught me that wealth must be multiplied. My father made my older brother, Edward, marry to a wealthy aristocrat, Adele, whom he didn't love at all."
“I'm only eight years old," Nikita said importantly, "but even I don't always listen to my dad because I have my own opinion. Moreover, a merchant is a rich and noble man, by the way!"
At that moment, splashes of water and desperate cries for help were heard from the lake.
"Someone's drowning! Help!" a frightened female voice rang out.
"What's going on there?" Alisa exclaimed anxiously.
"Let's run there!" Belka declared resolutely.
"Hey, kids! Where are you going?"
The Prince looked after them with annoyance, shuffled his feet, and, waving his hand, ran after them.
Someone really was drowning in the lake. A red-haired guy, desperately waving his arms, went under the water, then surfaced, frantically gasped for air, and went down again. An old woman was running along the shore, wringing her hands anxiously.
"Kind people! Help! I can't do anything, I'm old!"
"Your Highness, do something! Save him!" the girls begged.
"I can't! Do you want me, a Prince, to get into the water? What nonsense! Save him yourselves!"
"How can we save him?!" Nikita exclaimed. "We're small! We won't be able to pull him out!"
"Please, Your Highness, save him! It's a human life! How can you be so indifferent?"
Unable to withstand Alisa's pleading gaze, Philip sighed heavily and began to undress to get into the lake.
"Hurry up!" Belka shouted. "By the time you undress, he'll drown!"
The royal son hastily threw off his clothes and, left in only a shirt and underpants, sighed heavily and ran into the water.
Before the eyes of the admiring children and the old woman, he pulled the guy ashore, who had already managed, after swallowing water, to lose consciousness and resembled a rag doll.
"We need to give him artificial respiration!" commanded Belka, who knew about the types of first aid from her grandmother, a doctor.
"Artificial what?" the Prince didn't understand, not having caught his breath yet.
"Do you think he knows how?" Nikita laughed.
While the children were discussing who and how should bring the drowning guy to his senses, he woke up himself.
"Where am I? What happened to me?" the guy mumbled, opening his eyes and seeing the children's faces bent over him.
At that moment, a bloodcurdling scream rang out.
"A-a-a-a! Where are my clothes?" Philip wailed, running along the shore. "They were lying here! Where are they?"
The old woman also looked around in surprise.
"They really are gone!"
Alisa and Belka exchanged glances.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"If you mean the tale about a certain mustachioed domestic animal in winter footwear, then yes."
"What are you talking about?" Nikita didn't understand.
The girls turned their gaze to the red-haired guy who had almost drowned before their eyes a few minutes ago.
"Well, where's your cat? Hiding in the bushes?"
He looked at them in fright.
"How do you know I was with a cat?"
"A little bird told us!" Nikita finally answered, realizing what was going on. "We're stressing out here because of him, worrying that he'll drown, and it turns out that this is the very rogue who inherited the Puss in Boots."

"What else can I do if my brothers inherited the mill and the donkey from my father, and I got nothing but this cat? I have to survive somehow so I don't starve to death!"
"Have you tried working? Or are you waiting for the cat to marry you off to the royal daughter? Ah, Marquis de Carabas?" Belka put her hands on her hips.
The Prince got tired of running around the shore with frantic screams.
"What are you talking about here? What cat?"
"Your Highness, haven't you heard of Puss in Boots?" Alisa was surprised.
"How can a cat walk in boots?! What an absurdity!"
"You live in the same kingdom and don't know each other! Haven't you heard anything about Sleeping Beauty either?"
"Oh, well, that's my cousin from the neighboring kingdom! She's known as Sleeping Beauty among the people. Her entire palace has been asleep for almost two decades after a spell cast by the sorceress Sybil."
"Do you know Little Red Riding Hood?"
"No, I haven't heard of such a one."
"I think I've heard of her!" the old woman chimed in. "They say she has a lovely red headdress. And what about her?"
"Nothing about her, but her grandmother wasn't so lucky. The Big Bad Wolf broke into her house and ate her, then he dressed up as an old woman and wanted to eat Little Red Riding Hood, but the woodcutters saved her... It’s weird," Nikita glanced at the Prince. "You know about Sleeping Beauty, but you haven't heard of Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella."
While they were discussing the characters of Charles Perrault's fairy tales, the guy, whom his clever cat had given the name Marquis de Carabas, slipped away from the shore.
"Where is he? He was just here!" Alisa looked around. "What a sly one! They're probably sitting in the bushes together with the Cat, giggling at us!"
"It's a pity we didn't see his cat," Belka sighed.
"Where did they disappear to?" Philip looked menacingly at the old woman, deciding that she was their accomplice.
"How would I know? I have nothing to do with it. I was passing by, and then I heard someone drowning."
Nikita noticed a small bundle near the bushes.
"Oh, it's his clothes! You're in luck, Your Highness! Now you won't have to flaunt before your fiancee in your underpants."
"Are you suggesting that I put on the clothes of this commoner?!" the Prince exclaimed. "Are you crazy?!"
"Well, you don't have another choice!" the girls remarked with a smile.
The royal son, pursing his lips with displeasure, began to get dressed.
"A thousand devils! What a horror! I feel like a beggar!"
"Don't worry!" Alisa reassured him. "You're very handsome indeed! Oh, but where's the old lady?"
"She's gone too! Everyone in this forest appears and disappears whenever they want!" her classmate replied.
The road to the merchant's house didn't take long. However, the children were forced to endure the Prince's grumbling the entire way. They thought with horror about what would happen to him when he turned into an old man and began to complain ten times as much. Poor Cinderella!
Near the porch of the merchant's house, the trio met Cinderella's stepmother with her two daughters. They were going to the store for new hats and were already getting into the carriage when the Prince appeared in the courtyard with the children.
"Get away from here! We don't give alms!" the stepmother shouted.
"What do you think you're doing?" Philip was immediately offended. "Maybe I've come to make a proposal of marriage!"
The merchant's wife exchanged glances with her daughters and burst out laughing.
"Look at yourself in the mirror, you beggar!" the stepmother shrieked, her voice dripping with venom. "You're not even worthy of Cinderella!"
One of the stepsisters chimed in with a cruel giggle, "Although that's where she belongs – living with a beggar!"
"What?!" the stepmother roared, her face contorted with rage. "And who will do our laundry, feed us, and clean the house then? Get a move on, you! Get out of my yard!"
The Prince, reeling from the sheer audacity of her words, struggled to form a response. Just then, Cinderella emerged from the house, a basin overflowing with freshly washed laundry in her arms, ready to hang it to dry.
His breath caught in his throat. It was her.
"She looks exactly like my beautiful stranger from the ball!" he exclaimed, his heart leaping.
The Prince rushed towards her, his eyes shining with hope. "Was it you who danced with me at the ball yesterday?"
The stepsisters erupted in raucous laughter, their voices sharp and mocking.
"Cinderella?! At the ball?! You're more likely to see a pumpkin turn into a carriage than our little chimney sweep waltzing in the palace!"
A couple of children, who had been watching the scene unfold, exchanged knowing glances and giggled.
"Actually," one of them piped up, "that's exactly what happened!"
Cinderella, too, recognized the Prince from the night before, her eyes widening in surprise.
"What are you doing here, Your Highness?" the girl asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"She has gone mad!" the stepmother declared, throwing her hands up in theatrical despair. "She's addressing some lowlife beggar as a royal son!"
"I am he!" Philip exclaimed, his voice laced with indignation. "That is, the royal son. That is, the Prince!"
Cinderella shook her head gently.
"My godmother – the fairy Lila – said that he should come for me with my glass slipper! But you don't have it. So, you're as much a Prince as I am a Princess!"
The children, caught up in the drama, felt compelled to defend him.
"He had it, honestly!" one of the little girls insisted. "He just lost it in the forest when he was riding around the area looking for his beautiful stranger."
"Yes," added Nikita, his voice filled with conviction, "and the clothes were stolen from him by Puss in Boots!"
The stepmother, her patience worn thin by what she considered utter nonsense, clapped her hands dismissively.
"That's enough! Girls, we're leaving! Let Cinderella deal with her crazy guests herself!"
With a final, mocking giggle directed at Cinderella, the stepsisters clambered into the carriage, leaving a cloud of dust in their wake.
Cinderella cast a thoughtful glance at the Prince, now dressed in simple, common clothes.
"Alright," she said softly, "even though you came without my slipper, I'll believe you. It's hard to deceive the heart." She smiled. "Come into the house. I'll feed you and your friends."
Nikita's eyes lit up, and he licked his lips in anticipation.
"Oh, that's a great idea!"
Belka, known for her sweet tooth, clapped her hands with delight.
"Mmm, are we really going to try goodies prepared by Cinderella herself?"
The Prince, however, remained perplexed, scratching the back of his head.
"Cinderella," he began hesitantly, "so, if I'm not a real prince, you still like me, even in these beggar's clothes, and you would agree to marry me?!"
The girl's cheeks flushed a delicate pink, and she shyly lowered her gaze.
"If my father gives his consent!" she whispered.
Philip beamed, a joyous smile spreading across his face.
"What a fool I've been!" he exclaimed. "This is where true happiness lies! And all this time, I was fixated on marrying a princess. It doesn't matter who she is, as long as it's true love!"
Belka clapped her hands together, her eyes sparkling.
"You're not such a…" she began, almost calling the Prince a fool before catching herself just in time. "...I mean, I wanted to say that you're such a kind and soulful person, after all!"
Cinderella led her guests into the house, seating them around a table in the living room. Then, she excused herself to fetch refreshments from the kitchen. The curious friends couldn't resist following her, and they gasped in awe at the sight that greeted them. It was just like a movie – a flock of birds sorted peas, mice swept the floors with their long tails, and squirrels polished the plates until they gleamed.
"Would you like to help me set the table?" Cinderella asked, her eyes twinkling with amusement.
"Of course!" the children replied eagerly, their eyes wide with wonder as they watched the animal helpers scurrying about.

By the time the tea party drew to a close, the Prince was completely captivated by Cinderella. He couldn't imagine how he had ever lived without her. Just then, his guards finally caught up with His Highness, arriving at the merchant's house in a flurry of excitement. Alisa and Nikita were immediately rewarded with a tiara and a sword, along with a pouch overflowing with gold coins.
"And for you, little girl," Prince Philip said, turning his attention to Belka, "a pie will be baked today. And it will be waiting for you at the palace."
"Thank you!" she curtsied gracefully. "I would be delighted to visit. I'd love to catch a glimpse of the preparations for the royal wedding."
"Why just watch the preparations when you can attend the celebration itself? The three of you are officially invited to our wedding ceremony!"
"Oh, we couldn't have dreamed of such a thing, Your Highness! You are so kind!"
"So that's why she chose the pie!" Nikita whispered to Alisa, watching Belka currying favor with the Prince. "Smart!"
The children accompanied Cinderella to the carriage, waving goodbye to the happy couple as they drove away.
"Listen," Alisa exclaimed, a sudden realization dawning on her face. "If it weren't for us, Philip wouldn't have found Cinderella without the glass slipper! And they wouldn't be together now! And we wouldn't have been invited to their wedding tomorrow!"
"You're planning to stay here until tomorrow?!" Nikita exclaimed, his voice laced with panic. "Our families will be searching everywhere for us! They'll turn the whole town upside down, call the police..." He shuddered at the thought.
Belka sighed wistfully.
"That's right! But I really want to go to the royal wedding! And try the hazelnut pie," she added, her eyes sparkling at the mere thought of it.
Just then, a carriage pulled into the courtyard. It was Cinderella's stepmother, returning home with her daughters. But this time, they weren't alone. Alongside them, stepping proudly out of the carriage, were Puss in Boots and his master, dressed in the finery of a prince.
"Come in, come in, Marquis de Carabas!" the Stepmother fussed around him, her voice dripping with false enthusiasm. "Cinderella! Get over here! Set the table, and be quick about it!"
The schoolchildren burst out laughing at the sight of the merchant's wife greeting some imposter with such extravagant honors.
"Cinderella's gone!" they announced. "She's not home!"
"What do you mean, she's gone?! Where did she go?" her stepsisters screeched, their faces contorted with fury.
Each sister batted her eyelashes at the False Marquis, hoping to enchant him and, ultimately, marry him.
“To the royal palace. She must be preparing for tomorrow's wedding.”
Cinderella’s stepmother regarded the children as if they'd sprouted extra heads.
"Oh, right, you're all completely daft! There's no reasoning with you lot!" the woman snapped, dismissing them with a wave of her hand.
The soon-to-be groom, the impostor, cast a curious glance at the little girls. A flicker of unease crossed his face as he recognized them as his unwitting saviors, the very ones who could expose him in an instant.
"Let's go quickly inside! I'm terribly hungry," he blurted, hurrying towards the house with forced enthusiasm.
"Of course, come in, come in!" the sisters chimed in unison, their voices dripping with saccharine sweetness. "You have such vast meadows and fields! No wonder you've worked up an appetite touring your estates."
Just then, an earth-shattering rumble echoed through the forest. The sky turned an ominous shade of purple, lightning crackled in jagged streaks, and a fierce wind whipped through the trees.
The stepmother and her daughters looked around in terror.
"Sybil the Sorceress has come to our forest! This can only mean trouble. We should go inside quickly! And you," she glared at the schoolchildren, "get out of here!"
The children stared in bewildered confusion as everyone scrambled into the house, slamming the door shut behind them. They exchanged worried glances.
"What are we going to do?" Alisa whispered, her voice trembling.
"Run!" Belka grabbed her hand and yanked her forward, towards the sliver of sunlight still visible in the distance, where the storm clouds hadn't yet reached.
"Hey, wait for me!" Nikita shouted, scrambling after them.
Driven by fear, they ran with such speed that their heels barely touched the ground. Their path was obstructed by thorny bushes, trees with clawing branches, gnarled stumps, and… a pit, into which the children tumbled with a shriek. It was there, in the darkness of the hole, that the evil sorceress Sybil caught up with them, arriving in a black chariot drawn by nightmare steeds.
"Seize them!" she commanded three enormous ravens, their eyes gleaming with malevolent intelligence. The ravens obeyed instantly, snatching the schoolchildren by the scruffs of their necks with their steely beaks and tossing them at the witch's feet.
Sybil's long, dark hair and black cloak billowed in the wind, like banners of darkness. Her eyes, sunken in her wrinkled face, flashed with fiery mAlisa, and her sharp teeth were bared in a cruel, gloating grin. A chilling aura emanated from the woman, and the sheer terror of her presence sent a shiver down their spines.
"What do you want from us?" Nikita cried out, his voice barely audible above the howling wind. "I recognize your voice. You were the one who called when we were in the Louvre."
Sybil cackled, a sound that grated on their ears like nails on a chalkboard.
"It's even better that you disobeyed and came here. It makes things twice as profitable for me! I'll get double the reward!"
"Where have you taken Umka? Give her back!" Alisa demanded, tears welling in her eyes.
"Your little dog is dead! Forget about it!" the sorceress replied with a heartless laugh, then turned her attention to the ravens. "Hey, you! Take these pesky children to Bluebeard's dungeon. Make sure he doesn't take his eyes off them until I return! And I'm off to the castle. The Queen is waiting for news. I'm sure she's beside herself with worry."
"It shall be done, our precious Sybil!" the ravens croaked in unison.
"And don't forget to remind the gnomes about the chariot!" Sybil added.
The ravens, clutching the children who struggled against the monstrous birds, soared into the stormy sky, still draped with ominous black clouds.
Out of sheer terror, the girls squeezed their eyes shut. They had long dreamed of having wings like the Winx fairies, to float effortlessly above the earth. But right now, the girls would have much preferred to be standing firmly on the ground with both feet, rather than flying at such a dizzying speed, gasping for breath against the wind, clutched in the beaks of those terrifying birds.
The grim mansion of the infamous, cruel murderer known as Bluebeard stood on the very peak of a mountain, surrounded by a forbidding fence overgrown with thorny vines. The door was opened by small, bearded gnomes with perpetually grumpy faces.
"Sybil ordered us to throw them in the dungeon!" one of the ravens croaked. "She told us to tell your master to keep a close watch on them!"
"But Bluebeard is away on business and told us to look after the house," another gnome grumbled. "He even left us the keys to all the doors so we could keep everything in order."
"Then you keep your eyes on these brats!" the raven retorted. "Sybil also said to tell you to polish her new chariot until it shines, ready for tomorrow. She's riding it to Prince Philip's wedding."
With that, the ravens soared back into the sky and disappeared.
The gnomes seized the children's arms tightly and led them through cold, echoing corridors and down dark staircases into a gloomy basement, where mice scurried in the corners and cockroaches scuttled across the floor.
"Aaa, what a horror!" Alisa exclaimed as the door slammed shut behind them, leaving them in the company of rodents and insects.
"Little freaks!" Nikita muttered under his breath, watching the gnomes peering at them through a small, barred window in the door.
Belka hopped from foot to foot, trying to avoid any accidental contact with the mice or cockroaches.
"I don't want to stay here! We have to think of something!"
"What? Those little guys aren't going to let us out."
"Nikita, are you saying that our salvation rests on our frail, girlish shoulders?"
Alisa ran to the door and began pounding on it.
"Hey, open up immediately! Otherwise, I'll have to put a spell on you! I'll turn you into frogs!"
Laughter erupted from behind the door. The foreign girl's words amused the gnomes.
"Go on, then! Cast a spell on us!"
Hearing their words, Belka had an idea.
"The magic trick in the cafeteria this morning!" she whispered to her friend.
Alisa nodded eagerly and reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out a blank sheet of notebook paper, the one she had used to show a trick to her classmates during breakfast in the school cafeteria.
"See, there's nothing here? It's a blank sheet of paper!" she said.
The gnomes in the window nodded in agreement.
"I can conjure text onto it," the girl pretended to whisper a magical incantation. "There, look!"
The little men crowded around the window.
"There's nothing there! You're lying!"
"You can't see it because it's dark in here. Shine a torch on it and you'll see the letters."
The diminutive guards were known for their curiosity. After whispering amongst themselves, they finally opened the door.
"See, no trickery!" Alisa carefully brought the sheet closer to the torch, holding the paper at a safe distance, and began to read the words that, letter by letter, actually appeared before the eyes of the astonished gnomes.
Nikita nearly burst out laughing. He had also seen this trick in the school cafeteria. Everyone in the class knew that Alisa couldn't stand milk and always came up with a reason not to drink it during breakfast. This morning, she had decided to use the drink as invisible ink that appears in the light.
"Show us something else!" the gnomes demanded.
"I can collect tea under a glass."
"How's that?" Even Nikita was curious about what his classmate was planning.
"Bring a hot tea, a glass, and a saucer."
One of the gnomes brought everything needed in a matter of minutes. Alisa, with the air of a true sorceress, began to perform the scientific trick, which she had practiced with Belka after reading about it in the book "Magic School." The girl poured the hot tea into the saucer, blew on it to cool it down a little, then heated the glass over the torch and inverted it into the saucer. Immediately, before everyone's eyes, the tea from the saucer gathered under the glass.
"Miracle!" the gnomes exclaimed. "That's what genes mean! Her grandmother's gift didn't pass her by."
"What do you mean?" Alisa didn't understand. "Do you know my grandmother?"
"Nothing!" the little people said hastily, realizing they had let something slip.
"If you bring a glass of water, some jam, and sunflower oil, she'll show you another tri... another miracle," Belka exclaimed.
A minute later, Alisa was conjuring over a new trick. She mixed the jam in a glass of water, filled the glass halfway with this mixture, and carefully poured sunflower oil on top.
"It looks like a layered cake!" one of the gnomes exclaimed.
Indeed, the crimson water and golden oil did not mix and lay in the vessel in layers like a festive dessert.
"How do you do that?!"
"It's her magical gift. And these miracles are just the beginning!" Belka declared. "If you anger her, she can turn some gnomes into nasty frogs."
"Yes! If you don't let us out right now, I'll start casting spells!" Alisa chimed in.
"But if we let you out, Bluebeard will kill us! He'll definitely send us to the next world. We saw the bodies of his former wives, whom he killed, in a small room!" The gnomes shuddered at the memory of that terrible sight.
"But he forbade you from going in there, and you disobeyed him. He'll punish you anyway for your curiosity. So you yourself need to get out of here as soon as possible!" Nikita advised.
The gnomes exchanged frightened glances. After whispering among themselves, they turned to the children.
"We'll escape, but first, we have to lock you in the dungeon. Sybil would flay us alive otherwise."
"She wouldn't dare!" Alisa snapped back, her voice ringing with a confidence that belied her youth. "By then, thanks to me and my grandmother, who possesses a magical gift, which you yourself mentioned, your Sybil will be stripped of her power and become just an ordinary, unpleasant woman. Prepare her new flying chariot for us! Quickly!"
The terrified gnomes scurried off to fulfill the young sorceress's demands.
"That chariot idea was brilliant!" Nikita, her classmate, complimented, a hint of awe in his voice.
"How else are we going to escape from here if not by air? Otherwise, Bluebeard's enormous black hounds will catch us and tear us to pieces."
Within minutes, the chariot was soaring through the sky, the children gazing around in wonder.
"Do you actually know how to do magic?" Nikita asked, curiosity piqued. "What was that sorcery with the tea?"
"That's not magic!" Alisa laughed, a genuine, bright sound. "It's just that hot air takes up more space than cold air. When the air in the glass cooled down, the tea filled the empty space. It's all elementary!"
"And what about the layered glass?"
"Oil is lighter than water, so it floats on top. Read the book 'Magical School.' It has fifty scientific tricks in it. Belka and I once spent the whole evening doing every single one of them. It was so much fun!"
"When we get home, will you give me that book?"
"If you stop being a bad boy, I'll give it to you for your birthday!" Alisa retorted playfully. "Belka, what are you laughing at?"
"I recalled that you two have your birthdays on the same day," Belka giggled, "and how sour your faces were when Inessa Viktorovna threw a class party for you both."
"Well, of course!" Nikita huffed. "I went to school confident that it was my, only my, celebration, and then not only did I have to share the congratulations with her, but they put out a cake with princesses on it at my party! My friends still remind me about it and call me Snow White."
"Snow White!" the two girls burst into fresh peals of laughter.
"Don't forget that the princess cake was only half of it! And the other half had Ninja Turtles, which I dislike just as much as you hate princesses!" Alisa pointed out.
"By the way, Michelangelo was delicious!" Belka recalled, continuing to laugh. "He was made of marzipan."
"Alright, stop laughing at me!" Nikita exclaimed, a mock exasperation in his voice. "Let's take a look at the Fairytale Land guidebook map. We need to decide where to fly."

The end of the introductory section.