Starr looked through the gap in the bush that Paul had caused and gasped at what she saw.
Smooth, soft, thick green grass covered the Valley like a thick fluffy carpet. The stream they had flown along had forked off, and a small trickle wound through the Valley, although at fairy size it still seemed to be a decent sized river. There were thick trees all around, covered in mushrooms, with holes scattered about, which on a closer inspection began to remind Starr of doors and windows. Obviously, the fairies lived in the trees. On Starr’s left there was a large stone, bordered by daisies, daffodils and more honeysuckles; and two silver thrones rested on it. To her right, there were cuts in the mounds of earth and grass which were full of fruits and nuts. Paul rested a hand on her shoulder.
“It’s why I like it too” he smiled. He knew enough to know the place had overwhelmed her. She drew her eyes away slowly.
“You get to live here?” she whispered, scared that her talking would ruin the place. Christian nodded emphatically, smiling widely. At that moment they were joined by a yellow and an orange fairy.
“Paul! Christian!” They exclaimed, and kissed them both. They merely nodded to Ben, and looked Starr over. “Who’s this?”
“Starr, she’s a human we shrunk who promised to help us get King Mark back!” Christian grinned, and swooped up with the yellow and orange fairies to perform an impressive array of somersaults. Several nearby fairies overheard the news, and either joined Christian and his friends, or flew over to welcome Starr and fuss over her. It wasn’t long before half the fairies in Fairy Valley had surrounded her, and separated her from Paul, Ben and Christian. Again and again, fairies thanked her or asked her about her plan to save King Mark, but they had no intention of actually listening, which saved Starr the embarrassment of admitting she had no plan of any kind. She looked around herself desperately, wishing one of the fairies she knew would save her, and help her out.
Unfortunately, they were too far away to be able to talk to her. She looked and saw that Ben was a deep purple colour, and Paul was arguing with him. Christian, who had settled back next to them, managed to catch Starr’s eye, and pointed to a hollow high up in the oak. Starr looked, and realised they wanted to talk to her there. She looked back at Christian, who was now on his own, and gave him a firm nod, before he too was out of Starr’s sight. She was suddenly pulled up by a pair of strong arms, and the bustle of fairies joined her in her unexpected assent She eventually landed in the hollow that Christian had pointed out, and the fairy who had taken her was now arguing with the other fairies.
“King Mark won’t be pleased about you hiding her Ben”
“Shut up, all of you, this is FOR King Mark”
“Ooh, Ben’s turning red”
“Hey, Ben, which colour rainbow fairy are you exactly?”
“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Paul snapped as he joined the crowd from inside the tree. “Go away, all of you. Ben, Christian, Starr and I need to discuss how we’re going to rescue King Mark. And STOP talking about Ben’s colour, he’s a rainbow fairy, and that’s a lot better than you flower fairies, and you weather fairies, you tree fairies and you rock fairies. Don’t let your jealousy rule in the absence of King Mark, that’ll just destroy the world faster. Starr, Ben, come on, we’ve plans to make” With that he pulled them into the tree.
“Ben, come on, calm down!” Paul said, and Starr noticed he was now a deep red, so deep it was almost black.
“I can’t! Don’t they realise how hard it is? Maybe a pebble fairy should have kids with a rose fairy and they can see how their kids like it!”
“I don’t understand this” Starr spoke up, looking from fairy to fairy. Ben sighed.
“Might as well tell her why I’m the butt of everyone’s jokes”
“Well, have you noticed Ben’s colourings?”
“Usually blue”
“Right. He’s supposed to be a blue family. Everyone on his mother’s side is blue. But his dad’s red. Before Ben came along, it was just unheard of to mix. Limestone fairies went with limestone fairies, orange rainbow fairies with orange rainbow fairies, apple fairies with other apple fairies. When Ben cam along, everyone knew what his parents had done, and expected him to be born purple. But instead he was blue with these red swirls inside. Some people wanted him killed when they heard, I mean, what use is a multicoloured rainbow fairy? The king at the time, not King Mark, banned anyone else mixing. Everyone knows Ben and his story, but usually they don’t torment him like that.”
Starr looked at Ben, who was gradually turning back to blue. She rushed over and hugged him.
“Oh, Ben, your colour doesn’t change who you are!”
“Actually” Paul carried on, “It does. Ben’s supposed to be totally loyal, but as you can see, he has a lot of passion bubbling under the surface”
Starr hugged Ben tighter, and he hugged back.
“Well, I don’t care! Ben’s still my friend!”
“Thanks Starr, at least someone will look past all that’s wrong with me and care for who I am”
“Can we stop this love in? We’ve got a fairy king to save, remember?” Christian said as he joined them. They led Starr into a large room, with all manners of sofas, seats, loungers, pouffles and tables, all no bigger than a brick. Starr sank into a particularly puffy armchair, and was joined by Ben and Christian, while Paul found a map and spread it out on the coffee table in front of them. The map was of Starr’s house and grounds, but with more detail than Starr would have expected.
“Okay, this is Human House, this is Fair Valley, and this is the Glen of the Goblins. It goes underground for fairy miles-smaller than human miles Starr-and we know King Mark is underground somewhere. We have to infiltrate the Glen, cause a diversion, and rescue Mark. I estimate we have about twenty days of magic left to travel there and rescue him. We need to leave as soon as possible, but first we need supplies. Ben, get the weaponry, Christian, the food, I’ll get the books we’ll need towards the end, and Starr? Could you gather some blankets and Goblin clothes? I have a supply, they should fit us all”
All four moved off in their different directions, each one hoping that the others had a plan to infiltrate the glen.