Thank you for the reviews, guys! I really appreciate it. In reply to
SunGold, you're not dumb, lol, I re-read it and it's not all that clear. I
was kind of imagining Ariel sitting cross-legged and just hovering above
the ground in a mysterious, magical way. Not really relevant, important or
interesting, just a girl levitating in mid-air. :)
*************************************************************
The small wizened man artfully stepped around Ariel's outrage, and smiled at Brigette.
"I realise that this probably all seems a little strange to you," he said in his deep, gentle voice.
When trapped in a book of fairy tales with no idea how to get home, fall back on sarcasm.
"Well, why would it?" she asked in falsely jovial tones, "I mean, you'd be surprised how often this happens to me. Next week, I may just take a little jaunt inside a Harry Potter book. Or maybe something by Shakespeare. What do you think?"
Sarcasm was quickly rising into hysterics.
There was a pause, during which she and her former boss – because this had definitely not been in the job description – stared at each other.
"Are you finished?" he finally queried politely.
"Yes," Brigette mumbled lamely.
By this time Ariel had fallen silent, and now smiled at Mr. Hopkins.
"She's really taking it awfully well, Wizz," she told him, patting Brigette encouragingly on the shoulder.
"Wizz?" Brigette asked, looking from Ariel to Mr. Hopkins in confusion.
"Arthur Hopkins," he said, "but many people around here just call me Wizz."
"Oh," said Brigette. Then: "Why?"
"Oh, it's all a matter of politics," Ariel replied airily.
"Politics?"
"Politics."
"I see."
"Yes."
Mr. Hopkins...Wizz...interrupted this scintillating exchange of dialogue.
"I'm not sure how much Ariel has told you, Brigette," he began.
"Very little actually," Ariel broke in, slightly shame-faced, "I...uh...got a little carried away when she mentioned...mermaids."
Both syllables of the last word were enunciated with loathing.
Silence ensued for several seconds more, and Brigette shuffled uncomfortably. A low growling sound broke the still air, and she stiffened.
"What was that?! A wolf? A bear? Oh my God, I'm going to be eaten alive by The Three Bears..."
Wizz cleared his throat.
"Er...I think that was your stomach."
Brigette paused and looked down at her abdomen. It rumbled again in agreement.
"Oh."
"But it's good to see that you can keep a level head in a dangerous situation," Ariel jibed, grinning.
She was levitating again, in an upright position this time, bare feet dangling in mid-air.
"Can you walk on the ground too?" Brigette asked curiously.
Ariel thought for a moment.
"Probably," she mused, "But I never do, so I really couldn't say for sure."
"Because you think it's beneath you as a magical being?" Brigette pondered, secretly rather impressed with her own ingenuity.
"No," Ariel responded calmly, "Because I'm lazy and I have feet the size of melons."
"No, you d-" Brigette started to refute in her new friends defense, looking down at the feet in question. Her voice tailed off.
"Yes," said Ariel defensively, "Exactly."
Silence.
"Stop looking at my feet already!" "Sorry."
"Ready to go?"
This last uttered in a patient tone by Wizz.
"Home?" Brigette asked hopefully.
"Not yet, no," Wizz replied enigmatically, "But if you still wish to return home after, then no one will stop you."
"After what?"
"But she can't leave!" Ariel cried, turning to Wizz.
"After what?!"
"We can't force anyone to help, Ariel,"
"Help with WHAT?" Brigette asked loudly, just barely resisting the urge to childishly stamp her foot. "What's going on? Why did you bring me here?"
"All will be revealed shortly."
Brigette huffed out an irritated breath. It was completely odd that she was predominantly feeling slightly miffed and tetchy right now. If anyone had ever brought up the scenario of being flung into a living world of fairy tales – which of course they would not, because it was completely absurd – then she would have been almost certain that she would by now be huddled on the ground rocking back and forth.
Not searching the terrain around her, out of sheer frustration, for an object that she could use to biff a tiny little man over the head.
And for someone who was about two feet tall, he sure walked awfully quickly.
Brigette sped up her pace, and huffed alongside him.
"Where did you say we were going again?"
"I didn't."
"Right."
She looked around her in fascination as they crossed over onto a path paved with white bricks. Small houses were scattered around the grassy meadows, and doors of red and green and yellow were set into the occasional tree. Where their occupants were, however, she had absolutely no idea.
Ariel followed her gaze.
"Oh, they're probably hiding," she explained, "They're a little nervous of non-fairy folk."
Brigette looked at her quickly.
"Other humans have been here? Other than my friends, I mean?"
Ariel's eyes flashed and she looked thoroughly disgruntled briefly, but, catching Wizz's eye, she covered up her annoyance with a bright smile.
"One or two," she said vaguely, and pointed at something to their left. "Look at that!"
Brigette looked.
"It's a tree."
"Yep. And it's tall."
"Ok..."
"And leafy."
Apparently the topic was closed.
*****
"Wow."
In some circumstances, it really was the only appropriate word. Such as walking in on your grandmother doing jazzercise in a thong. Or discovering that your mother was getting remarried for the sixth time to a man who'd rung the doorbell that afternoon, selling vacuum cleaners.
Or finding yourself standing before a real, honest-to-goodness fairy tale castle.
Brigette stood before the drawbridge and gazed up, past the ivory coloured stone walls, and the turrets and the flags. She craned her neck as far back as it would go, gaping at the four towers that stretched and seemed to blend into the seamless sky.
Wow.
Ariel laughed at her stupefied wonder and slack-jawed admiration.
"Yeah, it is pretty beautiful, huh?" she agreed.
Brigette nodded wordlessly.
*****
Following Wizz and two friendly-faced guards in full suits of armour down a high-ceilinged hallway, lined with portraits of good-looking royals who might have been posing sitting on tacks, if their expressions were anything to go by, Brigette had no idea what she had expected to find behind two of the largest, most majestic doors she'd ever seen in her life.
However, as two more of the guards...knights perhaps...pulled them open for her and she barely resisted the urge to curtsy just for the heck of it, she reflected that whatever she might have expected, it was certainly not Camille Verey seated on a red velvet chair and soundly beating a footman at chess.
Brigette had never been so glad to see anyone in her life.
Camille evidently did not share her grateful sentiments.
She looked up frowningly from her chess board massacre and her scowl deepened.
"Oh," she said, "It's you, Brigette."
Well, all right. Brigette hadn't been expecting Camille to throw herself sobbing into her arms...exactly...but this was a lot colder than the reception she'd thought she'd get on being reunited with her companions.
She opened her mouth to say something witty and scathing.
"Um. Yeah, it's me."
Nice one, Brigette.
Camille got up from her seat.
"Is it ok if we finish this later?" she asked the exhausted looking footman.
"Fine!" he said too quickly, mopping sweat from his brow with a crumpled handkerchief.
Brigette could empathize. She'd once played tennis against Camille on a school sports day. The imprint of the ball had still been etched into her forehead a week later.
Camille walked over.
"Ok," she said, without preamble, "I know that on a logical level I shouldn't blame you for the fact that we're all ensnared inside a book of fairy tales. After all, it could have been any of us who opened it. It wasn't, it was you, but that was only a matter of chance."
"Right," agreed Brigette whole-heartedly.
"However, the less rational part of me is hungry and confused and more than a little freaked out here, so if I'm less than nice to you in the next little while, it's probably because I'm silently screaming 'this is all your fault!' in my head. I'll work on it. Ok?"
"Ok," Brigette said, blinking at the speed with which words were flying out of Camille's mouth.
"Ok, good." Camille looked her over. "I'm glad you're ok, though."
"Thank you." Brigette said faintly, "Same here."
"Where did you wake up?"
"In a field. It was very peaceful. Until I heard Ariel speak, and just about had some sort of fit."
"Yeah. Me too. Except for the Ariel part."
"Who found you?"
"A wolf. I felt something licking my face."
"Oh my...did you freak out?"
"No, not really. To be honest, I was pretty relieved."
"Relieved? Why?"
"I originally thought it was Stanley."
There was a brief silence and then the two of them broke into giggles.
*************************************************************
The small wizened man artfully stepped around Ariel's outrage, and smiled at Brigette.
"I realise that this probably all seems a little strange to you," he said in his deep, gentle voice.
When trapped in a book of fairy tales with no idea how to get home, fall back on sarcasm.
"Well, why would it?" she asked in falsely jovial tones, "I mean, you'd be surprised how often this happens to me. Next week, I may just take a little jaunt inside a Harry Potter book. Or maybe something by Shakespeare. What do you think?"
Sarcasm was quickly rising into hysterics.
There was a pause, during which she and her former boss – because this had definitely not been in the job description – stared at each other.
"Are you finished?" he finally queried politely.
"Yes," Brigette mumbled lamely.
By this time Ariel had fallen silent, and now smiled at Mr. Hopkins.
"She's really taking it awfully well, Wizz," she told him, patting Brigette encouragingly on the shoulder.
"Wizz?" Brigette asked, looking from Ariel to Mr. Hopkins in confusion.
"Arthur Hopkins," he said, "but many people around here just call me Wizz."
"Oh," said Brigette. Then: "Why?"
"Oh, it's all a matter of politics," Ariel replied airily.
"Politics?"
"Politics."
"I see."
"Yes."
Mr. Hopkins...Wizz...interrupted this scintillating exchange of dialogue.
"I'm not sure how much Ariel has told you, Brigette," he began.
"Very little actually," Ariel broke in, slightly shame-faced, "I...uh...got a little carried away when she mentioned...mermaids."
Both syllables of the last word were enunciated with loathing.
Silence ensued for several seconds more, and Brigette shuffled uncomfortably. A low growling sound broke the still air, and she stiffened.
"What was that?! A wolf? A bear? Oh my God, I'm going to be eaten alive by The Three Bears..."
Wizz cleared his throat.
"Er...I think that was your stomach."
Brigette paused and looked down at her abdomen. It rumbled again in agreement.
"Oh."
"But it's good to see that you can keep a level head in a dangerous situation," Ariel jibed, grinning.
She was levitating again, in an upright position this time, bare feet dangling in mid-air.
"Can you walk on the ground too?" Brigette asked curiously.
Ariel thought for a moment.
"Probably," she mused, "But I never do, so I really couldn't say for sure."
"Because you think it's beneath you as a magical being?" Brigette pondered, secretly rather impressed with her own ingenuity.
"No," Ariel responded calmly, "Because I'm lazy and I have feet the size of melons."
"No, you d-" Brigette started to refute in her new friends defense, looking down at the feet in question. Her voice tailed off.
"Yes," said Ariel defensively, "Exactly."
Silence.
"Stop looking at my feet already!" "Sorry."
"Ready to go?"
This last uttered in a patient tone by Wizz.
"Home?" Brigette asked hopefully.
"Not yet, no," Wizz replied enigmatically, "But if you still wish to return home after, then no one will stop you."
"After what?"
"But she can't leave!" Ariel cried, turning to Wizz.
"After what?!"
"We can't force anyone to help, Ariel,"
"Help with WHAT?" Brigette asked loudly, just barely resisting the urge to childishly stamp her foot. "What's going on? Why did you bring me here?"
"All will be revealed shortly."
Brigette huffed out an irritated breath. It was completely odd that she was predominantly feeling slightly miffed and tetchy right now. If anyone had ever brought up the scenario of being flung into a living world of fairy tales – which of course they would not, because it was completely absurd – then she would have been almost certain that she would by now be huddled on the ground rocking back and forth.
Not searching the terrain around her, out of sheer frustration, for an object that she could use to biff a tiny little man over the head.
And for someone who was about two feet tall, he sure walked awfully quickly.
Brigette sped up her pace, and huffed alongside him.
"Where did you say we were going again?"
"I didn't."
"Right."
She looked around her in fascination as they crossed over onto a path paved with white bricks. Small houses were scattered around the grassy meadows, and doors of red and green and yellow were set into the occasional tree. Where their occupants were, however, she had absolutely no idea.
Ariel followed her gaze.
"Oh, they're probably hiding," she explained, "They're a little nervous of non-fairy folk."
Brigette looked at her quickly.
"Other humans have been here? Other than my friends, I mean?"
Ariel's eyes flashed and she looked thoroughly disgruntled briefly, but, catching Wizz's eye, she covered up her annoyance with a bright smile.
"One or two," she said vaguely, and pointed at something to their left. "Look at that!"
Brigette looked.
"It's a tree."
"Yep. And it's tall."
"Ok..."
"And leafy."
Apparently the topic was closed.
*****
"Wow."
In some circumstances, it really was the only appropriate word. Such as walking in on your grandmother doing jazzercise in a thong. Or discovering that your mother was getting remarried for the sixth time to a man who'd rung the doorbell that afternoon, selling vacuum cleaners.
Or finding yourself standing before a real, honest-to-goodness fairy tale castle.
Brigette stood before the drawbridge and gazed up, past the ivory coloured stone walls, and the turrets and the flags. She craned her neck as far back as it would go, gaping at the four towers that stretched and seemed to blend into the seamless sky.
Wow.
Ariel laughed at her stupefied wonder and slack-jawed admiration.
"Yeah, it is pretty beautiful, huh?" she agreed.
Brigette nodded wordlessly.
*****
Following Wizz and two friendly-faced guards in full suits of armour down a high-ceilinged hallway, lined with portraits of good-looking royals who might have been posing sitting on tacks, if their expressions were anything to go by, Brigette had no idea what she had expected to find behind two of the largest, most majestic doors she'd ever seen in her life.
However, as two more of the guards...knights perhaps...pulled them open for her and she barely resisted the urge to curtsy just for the heck of it, she reflected that whatever she might have expected, it was certainly not Camille Verey seated on a red velvet chair and soundly beating a footman at chess.
Brigette had never been so glad to see anyone in her life.
Camille evidently did not share her grateful sentiments.
She looked up frowningly from her chess board massacre and her scowl deepened.
"Oh," she said, "It's you, Brigette."
Well, all right. Brigette hadn't been expecting Camille to throw herself sobbing into her arms...exactly...but this was a lot colder than the reception she'd thought she'd get on being reunited with her companions.
She opened her mouth to say something witty and scathing.
"Um. Yeah, it's me."
Nice one, Brigette.
Camille got up from her seat.
"Is it ok if we finish this later?" she asked the exhausted looking footman.
"Fine!" he said too quickly, mopping sweat from his brow with a crumpled handkerchief.
Brigette could empathize. She'd once played tennis against Camille on a school sports day. The imprint of the ball had still been etched into her forehead a week later.
Camille walked over.
"Ok," she said, without preamble, "I know that on a logical level I shouldn't blame you for the fact that we're all ensnared inside a book of fairy tales. After all, it could have been any of us who opened it. It wasn't, it was you, but that was only a matter of chance."
"Right," agreed Brigette whole-heartedly.
"However, the less rational part of me is hungry and confused and more than a little freaked out here, so if I'm less than nice to you in the next little while, it's probably because I'm silently screaming 'this is all your fault!' in my head. I'll work on it. Ok?"
"Ok," Brigette said, blinking at the speed with which words were flying out of Camille's mouth.
"Ok, good." Camille looked her over. "I'm glad you're ok, though."
"Thank you." Brigette said faintly, "Same here."
"Where did you wake up?"
"In a field. It was very peaceful. Until I heard Ariel speak, and just about had some sort of fit."
"Yeah. Me too. Except for the Ariel part."
"Who found you?"
"A wolf. I felt something licking my face."
"Oh my...did you freak out?"
"No, not really. To be honest, I was pretty relieved."
"Relieved? Why?"
"I originally thought it was Stanley."
There was a brief silence and then the two of them broke into giggles.