Mrs. Parry was one of the oldest living fairies and also one of the most respected. Even my mother often deferred to her like a docile child to a domineering grandmother. The apothecary, however…he smiled and said nothing.
When Mrs. Parry learned why her son had mentioned a car, she began to scold my mother.
“Titania, you’re irresponsible! How can you allow your children to be anywhere near cars? No, I don’t care how parked they may be! Children, stay away from cars! Or they’ll be your tragic end!”
“I try!” cried mu mum, as embarrassed as if she had been caught in a terrible fault. “I offer him a blissful home, but he prefers a miserable car in a forlorn garage and a city full of mortal delinquents!”
“Doom! Doom!” chanted Mrs. Parry. “The day I saw they had invented the wheel, I knew it was up for all of us!”
By they, she meant the humans, of course. It was they who were seeking our doom and had performed such an outrage.
“They haven’t got wings like us,” explained my father, who doesn’t miss a chance to argue with conservative people and appear to be tolerant and modern. “Necessity is the mother of invention.Come, Mrs. Parry, there have been wheels for ever so long now and we haven’t become extinct because of them!”
“Fool! That things take their time to happen doesn’t mean they won’t!”
“How about if we change the subject?” suggested Alpin. “I have a question to ask you, Mrs. Oberon. You’re a queen, aren’t you? Does that mean you can grant boons and stuff?”
“A boon? You want to ask me for a favor, forward little boy? Well, you may try!” Mum only deigned to answer Alpin because she did happen to want to change the subject.
“And if she doesn’t grant your wish, you can bet I will!” interrupted my dad jovially. Unlike Mum, he had no idea who Alpin was. “What would you like, little man? A dozen gumdrops?”
“I want your daughter Heather and two hundred other girls as pretty as she is,” said Alpin. “And above all, I want Henbeddestyr’s dragon. Tame him for me while you’re at acquiring him, will you?”
“Erh...heh, heh! Aren’t kids funny!” mumbled dad.
“I’m not joking! You promised! That was a king’s promise, and a king must keep his promises!”
“Henbeddestyr, quick,” said my mum,“give this child a sedative. Make him sleep till Yule. Better yet, till Christmas.” She had come to my father’s rescue, which is not something she usually does, because it was getting late and it was she herself who wished to have her beauty sleep.
“I’ll give you a bag of lemondrops if you get yourself out of here as fast as you can,” said Henbeddestyr to Alpin.
“It will have to be a big one!”
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