TFT Chapter 3

Chapter 3! This was originally a good chunk of Chapter 2 but it seemed out of place. So it was hacked out of 2 and made into it's own short chapter. It may seem a little out of place in the story, but don't worry. It will all make sense later.


Chapter 3
The setting sun made the field look bigger than it really was, though it was quite huge. A fair number of fireflies had come out for the night and Argyle began purring. He liked fireflies.
“I hate fireflies,” said Graves. “They remind me of…”
“Hee hee hee hee hee hee!!!!!” he was interrupted.
“Fairies,” his heart sank.
He couldn’t see her yet, but somewhere among the fireflies was a fairy. He could hear her laughing. Graves had met all types of fairies in his life. The happy kind, the sad kind, the eager to help kind, the apathetic kind. All of these unfortunately, were the giggling kind.
Graves stopped his horse and began rummaging through his saddlebag.
“…In here somewhere, where is it? I know it’s… somewhere… Ah! There it is,” he smiled, pulling a fly swatter from the bag. “Now where is she?”
“Weeeee!! Ha ha ha!!” she laughed as she flew right past his face. He swung at her with the flyswatter but was nowhere close.
“To the left!” she cheerfully shouted as she shot off to the right.
“Right!” as she danced to the left.
“Down!” as she flew higher.
“Up!” as she moved back down to eye level.
“You’re a looney,” he said, swinging at her again. He missed.
“Am not!” she giggled. “Where are you going?”
“Crazy. And apparently you’re leading the way so let’s be off shall we?” he swung again almost falling off his horse. She laughed. Not at his loss of balance, but it just seemed she would have laughed anyway.
“Going through the forest huh? Well I can’t help you! I’ll never tell you how to get through!”
“Hadn’t planned on asking. I’d actually planned on hitting you with this and being on my way. But if you do know the way through, maybe you could tell me how being that I’m going to be the one to rescue the Princess.”
“I can’t tell you how to get through the forest… But I can help you with… him,” she said swooping down and landing on Argyle’s head. She was small. About the height of a small soup can.
“I don’t need help with him unless you plan to take 50 lbs. off of him and that’s a very unsafe place to land, there. He’ll eat anything that’s not bolted down.”
But Argyle just purred louder.
“I’ll make it so he can talk to you,” she laughed, flying back toward Graves who swung at her again.
“Talk to me? I don’t want him to talk to me. Then he’d be able to actually say the words ‘I’m hungry’ and believe me, I already know he is. I don’t suspect he’d say much else… except maybe ‘I’m tired’ but that’s another one I already know because it always follows ‘I’m hungry,’” he said taking another swipe with the swatter. She ignored him.
“Do you want to talk to him? Tell him he’s mean and that he should smile more?” she asked Argyle who was now purring as loud as thunder at her.
“No!” said Graves. “That purring sound means no, he does it whenever I ask him if he wants more food after he’s eaten too much. He does it right before he keels over and falls asleep. It means no!”
“I can make it so all the animals can talk to you. Wouldn’t that be nice? Hee hee hee! Then you could hear the animals and understand them!”
“No. I don’t want animals to talk to me. When I camp at night and I hear a wolf howling, I’d rather just be surprised. I don’t want to know that I’m for dinner. I’ll have to deal with chickens begging me not to eat them or asking if I’ve seen their babies and then I’ll feel bad about every omelet I eat… And I especially don’t want to hear him,” he said, leering at Argyle.
“Aww, sure you do! He’s so cute!” she giggled.
Argyle purred even louder. She produced a tiny wand, waved it around and pointed it at Graves.
“No!” he shouted, covering his face with both his arms.
A bright shot of fairy dust shot straight at him, completely covering him with sparkles, and then slowly dissipating.
“Why did you do that? I told you not to!”
“No you didn’t!” she laughed.
“…The hell? You belong in the forest, telling lies like that.”
“The forest? Ech!” she said making a disgusted face and shaking her head. “I’m not going back there! My sister traded with me fair and square!”
“What the devil are you talking abou… no, on second thought, don’t tell me. I don’t care. You know I told you not to use that magic on me, why did you do it?” he asked, sternly.
“You’ll figure it out!” she laughed. “Maybe! Hee hee hee!!!” she screamed with laughter flying around him.
“Hold still!” he ordered, swinging at her again.
“FINE! Have it your way. But I’m still not telling you how to get through the forest! Maybe my sister will but she’s just as mean as you so she’ll never tell you how!” she said, as angry as a giggling fairy could sound.
“I really… I have to say I really don’t care. Please either go away or land in one place long enough for me to hit you with this,” said Graves, completely unamused.
“You’re mean,” she laughed. She landed on Argyle again. “Don’t mind him. He’s a mean one. But that will change, you’ll see. She bent over and kissed Argyle’s head. Then she shot off into the distance, screaming with laughter the whole way.
“I tell people I hate fairies and they look at me like ‘How could you possibly hate fairies? They’re such kind creatures that love to help people!’” said Graves to himself as he put the fly swatter back in the bag. “They’re not cute, they are not kind. They are obnoxious, annoying, awful little menaces that should all be…” he droned on all the way to the edge of the tree line with Argyle following.
Once the reached the edge of the forest, he jumped down from his horse and started to make a camp for the night. Argyle sat watching him. Their eyes met.
“You can’t… talk to me can you?” he asked Argyle with an eyebrow raised.
Argyle shook his head as if to say “No.”
“Ok, good. For a minute there I thought that that scamp of a fairy actually… Wait a minute. Did you just… answer me?”
Argyle shook his head up and down, nodding “Yes.”
Graves’s head fell and he put his left hand over his eyes. He spoke to himself. “It could be worse. It could be worse. Better than hearing all kinds of strange animal voices. Stupid fairy. She lied even more than we thought! She didn’t make it so you could talk to me. She made me able to talk to you!” He looked at his horse who was looking back at him with a rather puzzled look on his face. “You. How you doing, alright?” he asked the horse.
The horse nodded “Yes.”
“Well… not as bad as it could have been. Still… stupid lying fairy. She belongs in the forest. She’d be a perfect companion to all those supposed lying trees. Wonder what else she lied to us about.” He complained on and on to himself. “I’ll bet she does know the way through the forest and she probably doesn’t even have a sister…”
He reached into a bad that hung from his horse’s saddle. He pulled out some tent poles, some rope, a rather large blanket, a hammer, some spikes, and a few other items that seemed way too large to fit in such a small bag. He pitched a tent with the items he had removed from the bag and tied his horse to an extra spike that he hammered into the ground. It was a modest camp, but it would do for one night.