1. Don’t
All the stories say the same thing: Don’t.
Don’t eat the food, no matter how tasty it looks or how hungry you are, for if you eat the food, you will die, or you will have to stay in the underworld forever, or you will sprout hair and snout and claws as you turn into some ugly and gluttonous thing, or you will choke on a bite of poisoned apple and fall into a deathlike sleep, or you will grow and grow and never stop growing while your tears drown the world, or you will shrink and shrink until you become so small that you disappear, or a witch may feed you to her oven.
Don’t talk to strangers, no matter how kind their smile or how lonely you are, for if you talk to strangers, you will go to your bubbe’s house and find a wolf sleeping in bed where she should be, or the witch who raised you will cut off your beautiful hair and cast you out of the lonely tower that is the only home you have ever known, or your evil stepmother in disguise will lace up your corset so tight that you can’t breathe and you slip into the dark bosom of enchanted sleep, or you will wind up a prisoner in a house made of sweets.
Don’t stray from the path, no matter how much faster it seems or how much you crave the sight of something new, for if...
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