Lost in the Dark Unchanted Forest by John R. Erickson

coyote tradition. When they’re done singing, they eat.”
    â€œOh dear.”
    â€œWe’ve got to work fast. Now, I know it’s risky to use your backwards power, but before, when you told it to reverse the scene, it yanked me up here in the tree. Maybe . . .”
    â€œYes, I see what you mean. Maybe, if I try it again, it will sweep them off the ground and hang them in a tree.”
    â€œExactly. And then we’ll try to work ourselves loose and get the heck out of here.”
    â€œWhat a marvelous plan!”
    I gave her a wink. “Hey, you’re running around with the Head of Ranch Security. I didn’t get this job strictly on my good looks. Let’s give it a shot.”
    â€œVery well.” She closed her eyes and concentrated. Then her eyes popped open. “Oh, dear!”
    â€œOh dear what?”
    â€œI can’t remember the words!”
    â€œWell, make up some new ones. And hurry.”
    â€œI hate to experiment with incantations. Some­times they backfire.”
    â€œYeah, but if we don’t do something pretty quick, we won’t have any backs left to fire.”
    â€œVery well. Here we go.” She squeezed her eyes shut and said the magic words:
    Topsy-turvy, rickets scurvy, barley rye and wheatly,
    Backwards power, sweet and sour, reverse this scene completely!
    Now all we had to do was wait for the power to . . . 
    Well I’ll be a son of a gun. You know what the power did? Do you think it swept Rip and Snort off the ground and hung them up in a grapevine? Do you think it saved us from becoming coyote bait?
    No sir. Instead of reversing the whole entire scene, as we had hoped, it zeroed in on Rip and Snort’s song and, dern the luck, made them sing all their words backwards! Here’s how it went:
    Coyote worthless a just me,
    Moon the at howling me,
    Holler and sing to like me,
    Loon a as crazy me.
    Duties or job want not me,
    School Sunday or church no,
    Coyote worthless a just me,
    Fool nobody’s ain’t me but.
    Beat anything I ever saw. But you know what? I couldn’t see that it made much difference. The song sounded just as bad backwards as it did forwards, which is really saying something. Furthermore, I don’t think Rip and Snort even knew they had just sung their national anthem backwards.
    â€œOh dear,” said Madame Moonshine. “I think I missed again.”
    â€œYes, it appears that you did, Madame, which is a piece of bad luck for us.”
    â€œYes, because you might have noticed that it’s begun to rain.”
    â€œSay, you’re right, it has started to rain. That’s okay, these pastures could use the moisture.”
    â€œI’m sure that’s true, but I don’t think that we need the moisture.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œThe rain is wetting my foot, and unless I’m badly mistaken, my foot is beginning to slip out of the vine.”
    HUH?
    If her foot slipped out of the vine, then she would most likely . . . and if HER foot was slipping loose, the chances were pretty good that MY foot . . .
    Holy smokes, my foot was slipping out of the vine! And fellers, if it pulled loose, my life expectancy could be measured by the time it would take for me to free-fall from the tree to the ground.
    Short, in other words. Real short.
    â€œMadame, I have one last idea.”
    â€œOh my goodness, I do hope it’s not your last!”
    â€œWell, if it doesn’t work, it will be. We’re fixing to fall into a crocodile pit.”
    â€œYes, and I’m so annoyed at my power! It was working so well last week, I just don’t understand . . .”
    I hated to butt in on a witch, but I could feel my foot slipping out of the vine. We only had a few seconds left.
    â€œListen, Madame, here’s the plan. On the count of three, we’ll push ourselves out of the vine.”

    â€œOn the count of three,