Saturday Woodcutter believes she is the only one of her many siblings without any magic, until the day when she throws a mirror out of the window in a rage, and conjures an ocean in the backyard. Because one of her brothers has run away and Saturday believes her ocean may have drowned him, she grabs her trusty axe (which has decided to change shape into a sword for the time being) and sets sail on her sister Thursday’s pirate ship in order to try to locate him again. She’s abducted by a giant bird and taken to an icy cave, towards the top of the highest mountain in the world. The blind witch there isn’t actually all that skilled at magic and was attempting to kidnap Saturday’s eldest brother, the adventurous Jack Woodcutter, who’s the man who stole the witch’s eyes in the first place.
Saturday is advised to keep silent about her true identity by Peregrine, a cross-dressing young man also trapped at the top of the mountain. The witch believes him to be her daughter, after the foolish young noble accepted a wish from what he thought was a kindly fairy. The wish was in fact a curse, and it allowed the witch’s daughter to escape her mountain home, forcing Peregrine to take her place instead. He’s lost track of the years he’s spent there, trying to foil the witch’s many plots. Peregrine dreams of breaking free of the curse and going back to his betrothed, who he believes he’s seen in visions through much of his time in captivity. Imagine his surprise when he realises that the fearless warrior woman he’s seen in visions and dreams is in fact Saturday.
Saturday, in turn, doesn’t see why romance needs to have any part in her adventure, although she can’t deny that she likes kissing Peregrine. To rescue him, and escape the mountain, it looks like she’s going to have to kill the witch, who’s dangerously close to opening a portal to a hell dimension. Of course, killing the witch may wake the slumbering dragon on the mountain top and kill them all. What’s an adventurous young lady to do? It’s not easy being a hero. More on my blog.