tales of the pink fairy, part four

Gnome released Joseph and off they all went. I waited until the footsteps sounded far away before I turned around, my wings drooping sadly at the thought of spending the long dark night alone in a cell. 

"What are you still doing here? Thought you left." My wings perked involuntarily at the sight of that gorgeous blue fairy.

"I hate leaving you here, Mary Elizabeth. You know I love you."

"If you loved me, you would have gotten me out of here. Now go."

Okay, that was harsh. Maybe my charm levels really are low.

Giving me one last look, he turned and went up the stairs. For real this time.

Well, for bee's sakes, what am I going to do now? Francine was making her special blueberry pies tonight. Domain Master would probably stay for dinner and eat mine. Sigh.

I allowed myself a medium sized pity party and then put it away. Life goes on. Not like this was a life or death situation. Not that fairies dies anyway, so what in the blue blazes was I worried about?

Footsteps again. Quiet fairy ones. Well, I guess we all know who that is, don't we?

More folded arms. Another devastatingly handsome face. Purple, this time.

Sigh.

Drumming his fingers against his arms, he spoke.
"So, Mary Elizabeth, here we are."

"Yep, sure would seem so."

"Do you have anything to say to me?" Were all fairy men this handsome or just the two I have to deal with?

"Hmmm. About what, exactly?" Yep, that's me, always pushing the envelope.

"Mary Elizabeth, don't be difficult. You need to apologize."

Sigh, I just hate it when I'm wrong.

"Fine. I'm sorry. But I just have to add…"

He interrupts me. Bold move on his part.

"Stop speaking right now. Just let it go. You apologized. I am satisfied."

He solemnly directed Ugly Gnome Number Two to open my cell. Huge sigh of relief on my part, I have to admit. Very glad to be done with this whole thing.

"It's dark out now, Mary Elizabeth. Too risky for you to fly home. You will spend the night."

Excuse me, is he giving me orders? Seriously, is he?

"Yeah, right, like that's going to happen. I'm going home."

Picture me sashaying my little pink behind up the stairs. Knowing he's enjoying the view.

"Mary Elizabeth, seriously, you cannot possibly go home. The night creatures are out."

"I'll be fine."

"You are the most frustrating fairy woman I have ever met, Mary Elizabeth."

"I am just an independent woman. Not some little pink ball of fluff you can dictate too." Not like that darn Clarabelle.

Ignoring his protests, I tripped right on out the heavy front door. Spreading my wings and breathing deeply, I took to the sky.

Was I worried about the night creatures? You bet. Was I aware he was watching my graceful ascent? You double bet. Off I flew.

To my credit, I did at least make it out of his sight before the first disaster hit.

Nighttime is not very safe for us little folk. We're hard enough to see in the daytime, with the sun reflecting off our glittery wings. But nighttime is really bad.

Major bad.

Tonight was obviously not going to be an exception.

 A passing leprechaun knocked me senseless and sent me hurtling to the ground. Lucky things, leprechauns, with their automatic night vision and all. Definitely an unfair advantage.

Did it out of spite, too. Never even paused, just kept on going. Hateful things, leprechauns. Never met one I liked.

Sigh. Well, I'm in trouble now. My left wing appeared to be bent at an odd angle.

When you are only about 3 inches tall, hoofing it takes on a whole 'nother meaning. It would take me hours to get home.

Plastering a big smile across my face, I confidently strutted my stuff in a forward direction.

Didn't take too long for me to become completely exhausted. These tiny  pink legs don't walk too awful far. Flying's more a fairies' mode of transport. The wings can go for hours.

The little legs. Not so much.

Now you would have to think that with two men(that's right, I said two) concerned about me, that at least one of them would come looking for me.

Clearly, you would be wrong.

I plopped my tired little pink behind against a conveniently placed tulip stem and tried very hard to ignore the inky darkness around me. Not to mention the hunger now rumbling impolitely in my stomach.
 
The definitely damaged ego hurting the most.

        

Feeling sorry for myself was not something I ever did for very long. It didn’t get you anywhere but down and that was a pretty useless place to be.
         
Standing up straight and squaring my perfectly rounded pink shoulders, I took a deep breath and brushed myself off as best I could. Determined to make the best of things, I plastered a huge, albeit, unnecessarily large smile on my face, and off I went. One tiny, but very stylish pink booted foot in front of the other.

That lasted about five or so minutes.

Then the noises started.

Now, when I say noises, I mean probably nothing I didn’t hear in the daytime. They just sounded really different at night. And scarier.

Clasping my little hands together tightly, as if that would make a difference, I kept marching on.

At what point I actually started talking out loud to myself, I have no idea. I truly thought I was thinking things in my head when a deep voice about caused me to jump straight out of my pretty pink skin.