Status Updates From The Forbidden Castle (Choos...

Awesome. There are some beautiful signature endings in this book.

A gorgeous two-page illustration spread. I love it. Paul Granger works wonders.

I suspected perhaps I should join Madame Leeta. On this story route I will.

Ha! Okay, that was a cheap-out ending.

It's fitting that where I land in the Cave of Time isn't disclosed, since getting home isn't the main point of this story.

I hesitate not to accept Madame Leeta's offer to join her search for the Forbidden Castle, but I do need to prioritize making it home.

Let's strike out for Cotwin Castle earlier, right when we first meet Garth.

I wonder why we didn't see the waterfall. Maybe we approached the Forbidden Castle from a different angle?

Yeesh. But I feared Michelle and I might be too tired to be cautious and wait any longer up the tree.

Hmm...another ending that just stops. At least these are few and far between.

Ha! The Cave of Time, my good old friend, reappears when I need it most. I wonder if we can get Michelle back to her own time...

Let's travel east this time and risk being ravaged by wolves.

So good. There's more than one sense in which you can find your way home again.

This time Michelle and I will retreat from our "dragon" foe.

Just wonderful. Edward Packard was rarely if ever better than in these pages.

Let's press on through the clearing, dragon threat or none.

Is there a positive ending down the dragon trail? Let's find out.

An excellent atmospheric drawing in a book full of such. And I expected it to end poorly, as it did, if Michelle and I tarried in No Man's Forest.

I want to give this book leeway, but I don't like endings like this one that just...stop, mid-story.

I guess attempting to traverse No Man's Forest is as good a tactic as any.

I wonder if the woman was a witch who cast a spell to send us back to the present day. Otherwise how did we make it back without finding an entrance to the Cave of Time?

Life can be grim with so many awful choices and so few good ones set among them like precious rubies. When you find success, cherish it and never take it for granted.

Who to trust in a world full of people who don't understand their own goals, let alone yours? Good stuff.

Hey! Did the witch send us home? Very interesting...

Yikes! But I can't blame us for ignoring the Philosopher Knights and their gibberish plans.

I'm surrounded by odd ducks here among the Philosopher Knights!

Michelle and I are going to wait and consult the Philosopher Knights before taking off. This book, by the way, is not an easy one in which to avoid swift, macabre ways of dying.

Do I actually know the riddle's answer? Not at all, but I have to stall my execution. Burning at the stake is the worst way to go.