"If you'd be quiet for just a minute, I'll tell you what your next job is, okay? Boy, you two talk more than any faery should ... and the trouble you get into ... I mean ... Well, anyway ..." as she caught herself talking as much as Peri and Puce had been. "You two are supposed to go to the Land of the Whispering Wind. It seems they're having some trouble with their rocargerum flowers, and the huglumps are gonna starve if this keeps up. You've got an important job to do, so stick to it and don't get sidetracked!"
Below the mountains of the boisterous Buburubs, in the valley just beyond the crystal mountain of the Unicorn, dwell the Faeries o' the Fern. The Faeries o' the Fern are busy day and night—helping all the flowers, trees, grass and other plants grow and flourish in the kingdom of Imaginaria. Although they live in their own valley, they travel to the far reaches of the realm, coaxing the seeds to sprout ... to push through the earth ... to reach up and spread their leaves and flowers toward the sun and sky.
Two of the busiest Faeries o' the Fern are Periwinkle and Puce. They also happen to get into more trouble than any of the other faeries because they don't always do what they're supposed to do.
Queen Columbine looked at the two fidgety faeries and frowned. "Periwinkle, I thought you were going to keep an eye on Puce so she wouldn't get herself into any more trouble."
"It's not Wink's fault, your highness, ma'am. She did everything but tackle me mid-air to try and stop me. It's just that the fellow really deserved to be a toad! It was a step up from the snake he was, and ..."
"That's enough, my dear. I'm afraid that we're going to have to ground you for a while until you can learn not to meddle where you don't belong."
"Please give us another chance, your royalness," chirped Periwinkle. "I know we kinda messed up, but we've learned from our mistakes—we really have. Please don't clip our wings!"
Queen Columbine had to hide her smile as she replied, "Now, no one said anything about clipping your wings, but you're going to have to learn to behave. Merrygold will give you your next assignment, and I don't want to hear that you interfered with anything or anyone not on your list. Is that clear?"
Periwinkle and Puce bobbed up and down with quick little curtsies, thanking the Faery Queen, and were shooed away with a, "Now, scat—and no more meddling!"
Merrygold had to rub it in, and said with a snicker, "You guys better get it right this time, or you're gonna lose your passports for sure!" Periwinkle and Puce ignored Merrygold's comment and asked, "So, what's next?"
"Well, it's pretty routine ..." began Merrygold, but Puce interrupted, "Is it helping little orphan girls?!? I just love little girls." Periwinkle squeaked, "They can see us sometimes, and it makes me so warm and tingly when that happens!" "OUCH!" cried Peri and Puce as Merrygold pinched their wings. "What'd ya do that for?!?"
As Periwinkle and Puce flew through the aquamarine sky, they chatted and chatted about what they might find—who they might see—and how wonderfully they would do their job this time ... promising to help each other if they should forget what Queen Columbine said about meddling in places they didn't belong. Soon they giggled their way through the lavender skies in Buburubia, until they flittered and fluttered into the magenta sunset in the Land of the Whispering Wind.
Tutui, the wise singerwing, softly sang the sad tale of the friendly huglumps and the changing rocargerums—beautiful bushes with the giant bouquets of roses, carnations, geraniums and chrysanthemums, all flowering on a single stalk—but without the rose's prickly thorns. They are the only food for the cuddly little huglumps, who love to tickle each others' tubby little bellies, and hug everyone they meet with their short, soft paws.
Something odd had been happening ... Somehow, the rocargerums started growing great BIG thorns on their stems, making it impossible for the huglumps to nibble on the luxurious flowers. As Tutui's mournful song filled the air, Periwinkle cried softly, "Poor little huglumps! They must be so hungry." Puce snuffled, "Oh, Wink, we've just got to hurry and find out what's wrong with the huglumps' flowers. We can't let them starve!" The now not-so-round huglumps quietly cooed and watched as Peri and Puce flew off into the star-filled sky.
They passed the snow leaper's tree, the caves of the big ol' bogs, and the pools of the puddle jumpers, until they came to the bananco trees in Moncat Grove. Though it was late, the curious moncats were chattering about the strange goings-on that brought the Faeries o' the Fern to the Land of the Whispering Wind. Periwinkle and Puce asked oh-so-politely if the moncats had seen or heard anything that could give them a clue about who or what was behind this awful problem. Puce almost got sidetracked by one lonely looking little fellow sitting away from the rest of the group, but Peri pinched Puce's wings, saying, "No you don't! You know that we're here to help all the huglumps, not cheer up one sad moncat. Now, back to work!" Puce gave Peri a guilty smile, but waved at the lonesome moncat and grinned. She was happy to see him wave back, smile, and join in with the others. "See," she thought, "I stuck to the rules and still got to help someone not on our list!"
The moncats all seemed to start chittering at once. Every one of them was sure they had the answer ... "It was the green scaly thing again!" shouted Young Earscratch. "Not so!" cried Short Tail. "The wise singerwing would have warned us!" Bluenose, being one of the more thoughtful moncats, had been sitting quietly during all the hubbub. "What," she said softly, "if the Sorcerers of the Sand are trying to turn our beautiful land into a desert just like theirs—and they've started by casting an evil enchantment on the rocargerums?" The rest of the moncats tittered and twittered. "Bosh!" declared Old Greystripe. "That's the silliest thing I ever ..." Peri interrupted them all when she leaped into the air, wings aflutter. "That's it!"
Everyone—including Puce—looked befuddled. "WHAT'S it?" questioned Puce. "No time for that now—where's the biggest field of rocargerums?" Peri was excited, and Puce joined her in the air. "I don't get it, Wink—it can't be the Sorcerers of the Sand—the Unicorn banished them ever so long ago, and besides ... they always just showed up and zapped what they didn't want out of their way."
Peri and Puce flew as fast as their wings could fly, in the direction the moncats had pointed, and Periwinkle sighed, "Oh, Puce ... remember Barry Bunny's special field of clover and how he hurt his paws on the big poky things that grew overnight?" Puce's eyes opened wide, and at the same time, they both said, "McDougal!" Puce fumed, "Now how do you suppose that lazy old elf got himself all the way over here, anyway?" And on they flew, until they saw a huge field of flowers in the distance.
Soon they passed a group of trilling huglumps who looked sad and hungry—and beyond them, a huge meadow filled with rocargerums—all of them with BIG, sharp thorns. "Okay, Wink ... here we go!" The two faeries made themselves even tinier than they already were, and flew right into the middle of the spiny flowers. There he was, alright, napping in the camellia bush that was surrounded by the now prickly rocargerums.
"McDougal!" bellowed Puce as she darted past his bleary eyes. "You'd better wake up! You've got some explaining to do!" In a blink, Peri and Puce were full-sized, and McDougal was grumbling and stumbling. "Not you two again. Och—ye flyin' lassies are sich a bother. An elf canna do a thing w'ye flitterin' roond like that! I nae botherin' a soul here. G'way w'ye!"
"You certainly are bothering the poor little huglumps," said Periwinkle in her sternest voice. "It was you who put the thorns on the flowers, wasn't it?" "Well, what'ya think, lass? I canna have every creature disturbin' me nap. I needed the thorns to keep 'em from nibblin' on m'toes!"
"How did you get here, anyway?" demanded Puce. "You're too lazy to have walked all the way—and I know that none of the birds or gazelles would have taken you from the Elven Woods to the Land of the Whispering Wind. They know better than to help you get too far away from us Faeries, and after what you did to Barry Bunny ..."
"Quiet ye doon! One of the Dwarf Dragons brought me here. Ye know how they love sparkly stones—they're such a greedy sort. Well, I had a gem or two tucked away that I dangled in front of the wee dragon, and he agreed right off to take me where I wanted to go. And until ye two flyin' lassies flittered in front o'me face, I was havin' a right fine snooze, don't ye know."
Puce flew 'round McDougal's head and backed him up against the thorn-laced flowers. "You know that you're not supposed to interfere with the flowers and trees in any place except your own Elven Woods, don't you? Queen Columbine is going to really give it to you this time! Look what your meddling has done—the poor little huglumps are starving! How would you feel if somebody came into your Woods and just 'poofed' everything around and made your life miserable?"
McDougal squinted at the two Faeries and said, "It was you who made a mess o' the mushrooms in the Elven Woods wi' all your meddlin' if ye'll recall. Me little hoose has niver been th'same." Peri and Puce couldn't deny it—they had kind of made a mess of things (even though they'd had nothing but the best intentions) and caused a lot of trouble for the elves. "That was different," said Puce. "We were at least trying to do some good for the Ladies of the Lake when we goofed. You're being selfish and thoughtless—and the huglumps are going to starve if you don't change the rocargerums back the way they were!" You see, the faeries would have been more than happy to fix the flowers, but when something in Imaginaria had been wrongly enchanted, the Unicorn had said it was much better to have the one who did the enchanting to undo it. That way, everyone learned from their mistakes, and had to face up to those they had harmed. It made it so much easier to forgive and forget, and no one held a grudge (well, almost no one).
McDougal was trying to think up a good excuse, and had just about thought of one, when he heard the sad trilling of the hungry huglumps wind its way through the field of now-prickly flowers. Curious, not realizing what he was hearing (since he had been snoozing through all the trouble he had caused), he climbed up his camellia bush to look. What he saw were sad, skinny huglumps trying to pick the thorny rocargerums. All they got for their efforts were sore paws and even grumblier bellies.
McDougal climbed down his camellias and sadly said, "I dinna know what I did was so... so... " For the first time in his long elven life, McDougal was truly sorry, and at a loss for words. Puce, never a faery to hold her tiny tongue, was just about to give McDougal a good talking-to, when ever-practical Peri jumped in. "Well, now that you've seen what your mischief has done to the poor huglumps, what do you plan to do? After all, it's up to you to undo."
"Well, I could tak the prickly things off all the rocargerums 'cept in MY field here..." began McDougal. Peri's & Puce's looks let him know this wasn't what the faeries wanted to hear. "Or," he continued, "I could fix oop the flowers back the way they were and pack me things and get meself back to the Elven Woods, if that's more obligin' to ye." "That sounds like a MUCH better idea," said Periwinkle. Puce added, "But you don't get off THAT easy. You owe the huglumps—AND everyone else in the Land of the Whispering Wind—a BIG apology. You're going to have to say you're sorry and that you'll never do anything like this again—AND you're going to MEAN it!" Puce was so excited that her wings flittered and raised her off the ground so she was hovering in front of McDougal's face. "ALL RIGHT!" shouted McDougal, flapping his arms in the air in front of him. "I'll do anythin' ta keep ye from flyin' in me face, lass!"
McDougal closed his eyes, held his hands above his head, and just as fast as you could say "Buburub" all the thorns disappeared from every rocargerum in the Land.
Peri & Puce watched as McDougal stood before all the creatures and hung his head. "I'm so sorry. I dinna stop ta think aboot anyone else but meself." Tutui, the wise Singerwing sweetly sang to the now-repentent elf, "Remember, being sorry is only the first step. Now, you must do something to help those you harmed."
Periwinkle and Puce giggled at the sight before them. There was McDougal, picking rocargerums, and feeding one hungry huglump after another. His little elven shoes had almost lost the curl in their toes he was running so much. The two faeries giggled, and McDougal just sheepishly shrugged. He knew that he was doing the right thing helping the innocent huglumps for whom he had caused so much trouble. The two faeries told him that when the huglumps were back to their cuddly little roly-poly selves, the puddle jumpers would take him to the edge of the Land of the Whispering Wind, but he would have to figure out how to get himself back to the Elven Woods from there. "After all," said Puce, "You got yourself here, and you can get yourself back." Peri added, "It'll give you time to think about getting into any more MISCHIEF."
McDougal looked at the faeries, his hair sticking every which way from his cap, "Ye dinna have to worry 'bout me gettin' into any more mischief, lassies! This is no fittin' job fer an elf, that I kin say; and I dinna intend to be doin' anythin' else but nappin' once I get back to me fine, wee mushroom!"
Puce and Peri had done their job, and Queen Columbine was very pleased when they told her their tale. Not only did McDougal learn HIS lesson, but the two faeries learned theirs as well. Puce happily bubbled, "McDougal's going to stay out of mischief, and we'll ALWAYS do what we're told from now on!"
"We'll see, my dears ..." smiled Columbine, as she gave each happy faery a beautiful, sparkling crystal—a special gift brought just for them from the Great Unicorn as a reminder of a job well done.
The Whispering Wind
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