Her mother continued to stare at the ceiling, suddenly seeming so far away. “When you’re older you’ll understand. It wasn’t easy for me, either, when your father—” Capitán, respectfully,” the son said, “if my father says he was hunting rabbits, he was hunting rabbits.” He hid his pride under his lowered lids, but his lips betrayed him. My young nurse.” She pushed her hand under Ofelia’s arm with a tired but happy smile. “Close the doors and turn off the light, cariño.” This book is not for the faint of heart or weak in spirit. It’s not for skeptics who don’t believe in fairy tales and the powerful forces of good. It’s only for brave and intrepid souls like you, who will stare down evil in all its forms. She smiled at Ofelia. There were secrets in her smile, but Ofelia liked her. She liked her very much.

Your Horned Highness,” the sculptor said, “may I offer my humble skills one more time to find our lost princess?” Then one day Moanna was gone. And Cintolo remembered how often she’d asked him about the sun and the moon and whether he knew what the trees, whose roots laced the ceiling of her bedroom, looked like above the ground.

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The creature spread its wings. Ofelia followed it with her eyes as it flew away. Her mother was standing just a few steps down the road, Officer Serrano by her side. When Ofelia goes into the ailing tree to fetch the key from the belly of the giant toad, she says this to the toad. Even though the large amphibian is rather intimidating, Ofelia insists to him that he does not scare her. Outside, some soldiers take Vidal to see two captives they found nearby. When he finds something in one of the men’s bags that says, “No God, no country, no master,” he dismisses it as “red propaganda,” as the older man insists that they are farmers and that he was only hunting rabbits. Abruptly, Vidal stabs the younger man repeatedly in the head and then shoots the older man several times. He looks through their things and finds there is a dead rabbit in the older man’s clothes, suggesting that he was telling the truth the whole time.

As she examines a mark on her shoulder in the shape of a moon, the one to which the Faun referred earlier, her mother calls to her and tells her they should get ready for the party. She bent her head to make herself small. Most men didn’t want a woman to be tall. Vidal was no exception. Meanwhile, we see Vidal taking out a shaving razor and shaving his face, then polishing his shoes. When Mercedes comes into his office, he tells her to cook some rabbits for dinner, even though she thinks they are too young to be cooked. He tells her the coffee is burnt, then invites her to try it herself.

As the words escaped her lips, part of her hoped that her mother was already asleep. But then the answer came— Dr. Ferreira’s steps were as soft and careful as his voice. He stopped a short distance from the table.

Carmen is disappointed in Ofelia for dirtying the dress she gave her, and sends her to bed without supper. As Carmen leaves, the insect lands on the edge of the tub, and Ofelia tells it that she has procured the key and is ready to enter the labyrinth.

The opening lines of the film set the stage for the fantastical world of the film. The faun tells us the story of Princess Moanna, who wandered out of the safety of the underworld and was subjected to the hardships of the world of the living. The Fairy had disappeared, and when Ofelia stepped through the arch, it cast a cold shadow on her skin. Turn around! something in her warned. But she didn’t. Sometimes it is good to listen, sometimes it is not. Ofelia wasn’t sure she had a choice anyway. Her feet did the walking all by themselves. The corridor that opened behind the arch narrowed after just a few steps until Ofelia could touch the walls on either side simply by stretching out her arms. She dragged her hands over the withered stones while she kept walking. They were so cold despite the heat of the day. A few more steps and she reached a corner. Another corridor opened in front of her, leading left and then right toward another corner. Ofelia.” The Wolf crunched her name between his thin lips into something as broken as her mother, and stared at her extended left hand. You have to help us, Doctor!” Mercedes was whispering. “Come with me and see him. The wound’s not healing. His leg is getting worse.” Mercedes tells the cook that the coffee is burnt and that they need to get more meat in preparation for the arrival of the doctor's wife and the mayor's wife. Carmen calls Ofelia over and shows her a green dress that she has had made for her in preparation of the dinner party that night. Ofelia goes off to take a bath, but pulls the book that the Faun gave her out from a secret hiding spot. When she opens it, it fills with drawings and texts, a magical map.

Don’t hesitate to call me,” the doctor said to her mother as he closed his bag. “Day or night. You or your young nurse,” he added, smiling at Ofelia. Ofelia takes the book into the forest, reading it to herself. There is a story about a dying fig tree, which she finds in the forest. The tree is dying because a monstrous toad has settled near its roots and will not let it thrive and grow. The book instructs Ofelia to feed magic stones to the toad and procure a golden key from its belly. After removing her dress, Ofelia ventures inside the trunk of the tree in search of the toad, crawling through the mud. Dr. Ferreira was a good man, a gentle soul. That much was apparent to Ofelia the moment he walked into her mother’s room. One can spot kindness as clearly as cruelty. It spreads light and warmth and the doctor seemed filled with both. Evil seldom takes shape immediately. It is often little more than a whisper at first. A glance. A betrayal. But then it grows and takes root, still invisible, unnoticed. Only fairy tales give evil a proper shape. The big bad wolves, the evil kings, the demons, and devils . . .She smiled once again. There was sadness in her eyes. Ofelia saw it. Mercedes seemed to know about losing things too. Her mother’s hand felt so hot when Ofelia covered it with her own. Yes, she could feel her brother too. And no, he wouldn’t go away. He wanted to come out. It was the year 1944 and the girl sitting in one of the cars, next to her pregnant mother, didn’t understand what the trees whispered. Her name was Ofelia and she knew everything about the pain of loss, although she was only thirteen years old. Her father had died just a year ago and Ofelia missed him so terribly that at times her heart felt like an empty box with nothing but the echo of her pain in it. She often wondered whether her mother felt the same, but she couldn’t find the answer in her pale face.