Chapter 1 - The Beginning

Plip tottered along, the weight of her well-worn backpack hanging precariously off of her back in a jumble of lumps and bumps. It took so much longer to get around like this, hobbled down by convention. And it was so much more fun to just go where the wind went. Adventurous really! Which is the way Plip preferred to live. But she plodded on, painfully aware that her every move was now subject to needle-nosed-eagle-eyed scrutiny as a result of her last “careless” adventure. What was a reasonable-minded, free-spirited faerie to do, ramshackled with all of these debilitating constraints?

Plip’s mind drifted back fondly to that day long ago when she had accidentally-on-purpose forgotten to adorn herself with her weighted shoes, skipping happily outside to enjoy the soft grass between her toes. She laughed aloud as she remembered how a mischievous gust of wind had picked her up and twirled her high into the sky, carrying her away to a part of the countryside so distant that it took her a full three days to walk home. It had been an enlightening and adventurous walk which Plip thoroughly enjoyed—except for the extreme hunger and the somewhat tedious carrying of the boulder that kept her firmly on the ground.

However, it had resulted in a pair of very frazzled parents. Parents who thenceforth insisted that Plip fastidiously wear a lovingly-stitched weighted backpack every time that she ventured outside their home so that they had blatant visual proof that she would not be blown away again, as happens to faeries who forget to wear their weights.

Plip sighed as she readjusted the worn pack on her back that still served its original purpose. It had been with her through countless adventures in the many years since then, though none of them had been high-flying or very far from home.

A rascally root caught Plip’s foot, failing to fell her, but succeeding in jolting her attention back to her current mission. Looking at the sky, Plip realized it was much later than she had planned. But at least she’d remembered to bake Todard’s very favourite cupcakes for this momentous occasion. That would go well in her favour.

At much longer last than required, due to her well-weighted backpack, Plip finally arrived at her destination—an unassuming castle carved out of granite and jade, bejewelled with diamonds and rubies, surrounded by a moat, and set at the top of a very tall hill almost bordering mountain-hood.

Sighing, Plip tried to one-handedly adjust her clothes, which had all managed to shift slightly askew, as was their wont, while she balanced a delightfully wrapped box that smelled of the most delicious mango cupcakes you can imagine in her other hand. Dissatisfied that she had achieved her goal of straightening, but not wanting to spend more precious time doing things that felt as if they were a waste of life, Plip left her slightly less-askewed clothes, grabbed the knocker, and began to bang very loudly on the outer door of the castle.

Really! Would it be so very hard for them to have someone waiting to open the door, on THIS day, when surely they would be expecting many!

An odd feeling crept up Plip’s neck, prompting her to look around.

At an empty countryside.

A frown found Plip’s face as she suddenly began wondering why, indeed, she was the only one standing outside the castle door. She looked behind her down the hill from whence she came. Empty, save for a few squirrels and such bounding about. Still frowning, Plip turned back to the door and was about to resume her banging when the door swung open with a force that sucked a gasp out of Plip before she could suck it back in.

“What are you doing here?” came a booming voice projected from a very irritated, very squishy-looking face.

This set off a series of quick-flash thoughts through Plip’s head.

What are you DOING here…am I doing the wrong thing? Backpack on. Check. Present in hand. Check. Nope. I’m DOING just fine.

He didn’t ask what are you doing HERE…so right place.

He didn’t ask what are YOU doing here…so right me.

He didn’t ask WHAT are you doing here…but that’s just the same as asking what are you DOING here, isn’t it?

As this quick-flash of thoughts occupied Plip’s mind, a blank open-mouthed look occupied Plip’s face.

“Well!?!” boomed the now much angrier voice, jolting Plip back to the present, which she held out to the squishy-faced voice-boomer with two of her very own hands.

“Happy birthday to Todard!” Plip sang out while her feet did a little side-to-side shuffle to accompany the greeting with what Plip deemed to be an appropriate degree of levity.

But it seemed that Mr. Grumpypants did not agree. “Happy what’s it? Are you out of your mind Plip Tadadadah!”

Plip continued to hold out the lovingly wrapped present, a smile on her face and a thought in her head that perhaps she had just made a tremendous blunder.

“It’s nobody’s BIRTHDAY! Not today. Not tomorrow. It was YESTERDAY! How could you have missed it!?! There were people streaming in from ALL OVER the countryside. We had bands playing! We even had fireworks last night!”

Plip’s mind drifted back to yesterday. It all made sense now. Yesterday, amidst her hectic birthday preparation and diligent baking, she thought it was a strangely odd coincidence that there were so many people out and about and headed in the general direction of the castle. Thinking carefully, Plip was almost sure that most of those people actually had been heading in the castle’s direction. Hmmmm. And she’d been wondering where that faint music on the wind was blowing from. But she was sure she hadn’t heard a birthday tune of any sort. At least, not more than once. Shaking her head with amusement, she now realized that the resounding gunshots that had woken her from her sleep had not, in fact, been a pack of over-enthusiastic hunters out for a late-night death rampage. Plip laughed out loud to herself and was about to explain this amazing discovery to Mr. Grumpypants when a shuffle of energetic pushing wobbled the side of Mr. Grumpypants and enthusiastically shoved him aside whilst a wriggling bundle made its way past Mr. Grumpypants’ large furious frame.

“Plip! You made it!” was the joyous cry that jumped from Todard’s mouth straight into Plip’s heart. With not a word of apology to Mr. Grumpypants, who was by then stumbling gracelessly sideways, Todard leapt forward with a scream and attacked Plip with a flying front kick, which Plip deftly deflected with one hand while artfully balancing the present in her other hand, adding a nimble slap to the back of Todard’s head as his body careened past her to prove that she had dealt him a fatal injury.

“Sneak attack DEFEATED!” Plip yelled with revelry while raising one arm triumphantly in the air, shaking it in recognition of her win to the invisible crowd screaming her name.

Todard landed solidly and rolled with the trained grace of an athlete and the untrained antics of a superhero. He turned toward Plip and bowed solemnly to her in recognition of her undisputed show of superiority in this match. But in his mind, he was already tapping his fingers together with a crazed look on his face befitting the most sinister of villains as he planned his next sneak attack, which would be far better than this one.

“I was waiting for you yesterday,” Todard said with pretend sad wistfulness as he eyed the colourful present still secure in Plip’s one-handed grasp. “I knew you would come…eventually. It was almost agony waiting for you. But it will all be worth it if—”

Todard stepped toward Plip and pressed his nose against the present, inhaling deeply. “Yes! Mango cupcakes! My favourite!!!”

Plip beamed with delight, satisfied that she had chosen the very best gift for her very best friend in the world.

As the two of them walked into the castle, they had to shuffle past the now uprighted and stable angry door greeter who glared at Plip disapprovingly. “Your majesty,” he said, as he inclined his head toward Todard while completely ignoring Plip.

“Yes, er, thank you, Mr. Grumpypants,” Todard said with pretentious formality. “I bid you good day, sir.” Maintaining his newly acquired air of majestic dignity, Prince Todard offered his arm to Plip and escorted her with formal seriousness into the heart of the castle.