After having asked a few helpful wood sprites for the right way, the three Senshi finally arrived at the huge castle of the Fairy Tale Island king. Or rather, at the small pond in the garden which surrounded the castle.
While they were walking along the path, they got a good look at the many fairy tale creatures that surrounded them. A few were giving them hostile glares, others waved at them with friendly smiles on their faces, others completely ignored them. They were all pretty agitated, though, and chattered with each other excitedly.
Chibimoon winced and put her hands on her ears. "Do they have to be so noisy?" she groaned. Hotaru, on the other hand, was pretty excited when she looked around. She recognized most of the people, animals and mythical creatures around her from the tales her father had told her when she was younger.
"Look over there," she said excitedly. "Snow White, the Seven Dwarves, the Three Bears, Rapunzel, Tom Thumb, Puss-in-Boots..."
"Where?" Diana shouted happily.
"All right, girls," Setsuna sighed. "Listen, we're here to talk to the king, nothing else."
"I really hope we find him in this crowd..." Chibimoon muttered while pushing a dwarf out of her way, who didn't really notice her as he was in a hectic discussion with a young goatling.
"Yes, the porridge was too salty, yet again..." he grumbled.
"My Mommy never uses too much salt," the goat girl explained. "She only did it once, when she was worried the wolf might get us... by the way, your father hasn't come as well, did he?" she asked the little wolf next to her.
Little Bad Wolf shook his head. "No, he's staying at home because he has a headache..."
"Hopefully not at my Grandmother's place again..." Red Riding Hood grumbled.
"Well, he still wears that nightcap..." Little Wolf sighed.
"Be quiet, everyone!" Puss-in-Boots then shouted. "His Majesty, the Frog King, has arrived!"
Everyone looked at the pond, where a big frog was climbing on a lily pad. He was wearing a small, golden crown on his head.
The Frog King cleared his throat. "Good of you to come," he then said. "I have summoned you because of the impending danger our island is facing... the threat of the... humans..." He blinked as he looked up at the three girls that had arrived at the edge of his pond. He let out a loud quack of surprise. "Th-there they are!" he shouted with fear. "The humans!"
A few soldiers ran up to then, intent on protecting their king, but they got stopped by Prince Charming.
"We mean you no harm, Your Majesty!" Setsuna spoke up. "Indeed, we have come to finally learn more about why you fear us. We never knew anything about your island, so why should we be a threat?"
"Ribbit! You are a dangerous threat!" the king spat. "We put up the fog around our island so your kind would never come here. We are a white spot on your maps. The only way to get through the fog is using magic, so how did you do it? Explain yourselves!"
"We used the Pluto Cruiser," Saturn explained. "It's still back at the shore, I believe."
"That's true, I've seen it," said the mermaid, who was now transformed into a human so she could attend the meeting. "Damn legs..." she grumbled. "I'll never get used to them..."
"And this vessel is supposed to be magical?" the Frog King asked suspiciously. "I don't believe it! Nobody can use magic, only in Fairy Tales! Besides, you really don't look like witches to me. You don't have warts in your faces, no hunchback and no mad laughter."
"Mad laughter?" the witch screeched angrily. "Why, such impudence! You always have been mean to me, for 300 years!"
"Excuse me, frog-san," Chibimoon then smiled. "But I may have a way of proving to you that we really can use magic... or very own Senshi magic."
"Very well then," the Frog King said generously. "Prove it!"
"Okay, take a good look at this," Chibiusa smirked as she pulled something out of thin air.
Diana gasped. "But Chibimoon, that's the Disguise Pen. Don't tell me you took it..."
"Yup!" Chibimoon grinned. "I took it from Usagi before we left with Hotaru. Don't worry, I'll give it back to her as soon as we come back."
She then held the Disguise Pen in the Frog King's direction and cleared her throat. All of the assembled fairy tale creatures were watching her breathlessly.
"Turn the frog into a prince!" she then shouted.
A blinding light surrounded the frog, then they all heard a wet sound, and when the light was gone, they all could see a handsome prince standing in the middle of the pond. Everyone gasped in surprise.
"Dang, and he's even more handsome than me..." Prince Charming grumbled.
"Fine, I believe you," the Frog Prince sighed. "But I want you to turn me back into a frog at once! I haven't been a prince for years, and I don't plan on being one again! A prince who lives in a pond and eats flies... people will laugh at me!"
Hotaru tried very hard not to laugh out loud, while Chibiusa just shrugged. "Fine, it's your decision..."
Another flash of light later, and the Frog King was once again sitting on his lily pad.
"What a relief..." he sighed. "Ever since that accursed wife of mine tried to make me sleep in a DRY bed... and we never have flies for dinner!" He shuddered. "No thanks, I really prefer this life. Well, it seems you have spoken the truth... but I still wonder how you could cross the fog. After all, we managed to stay hidden for hundreds of years."
"Well, that's mainly because Hotaru-chan is so observant," Pluto smiled. "But I don't really understand this... why are you so afraid of humans coming to your island?"
"Do you really have to ask?" the Frog King bitterly snapped. "Well, let me tell you: The magic spell only works as long as no more than five real humans know about us. If you tell at least three of your friends, the fog will be lifted, the white spot on the map will vanish and then... the monsters will come..." He shuddered.
"Monsters?" Hotaru wondered. "What monsters?"
"Those in the silver birds," the king tried to explain. "What do you call them again? Oh, yes, I remember: tourists! They will start to build hotels and destroy everything. They are gonna eat the Gingerbread House, turn my pond into a swimming pool..."
"Still, I sometimes wonder if this is so much better than just telling the humans about us..." Tom Thumb sighed, while he was sitting on Puss-in-Boots' hat.
"He's right," Prince Charming nodded. "This eternal boredom is too much!"
Shouts of agreement were coming from the crowd, and several islanders were nodding at the prince's statement.
"Be quiet, everyone!" the king shouted.
"But why are you bored?" Diana wondered. "Living on this island would never be boring for me... especially not with such a hunky cat around..." she purred.
Gretel sighed. "That's because... nobody is reading us anymore."
"That's right, only very few children still read fairy tales," Rumpelstiltskin nodded.
"Yes, most of them prefer to watch TV," a dwarf spoke up.
"In the past, the children still liked our stories..." the mermaid sighed.
"Yes, we still could live out our adventures back then," one of the three little pigs nodded. "Back then, everything was still like it was supposed to be..."
"What?" Chibimoon asked in surprise. "You would prefer being hunted by the Big Bad Wolf?"
The pig shrugged. "It's the only reason why we were created," he said. "And the wolf never really eats us... it's like an endless circle, see? And we like that circle."
"It's true," the Frog King sighed. "And ever since nobody reads Fairy Tales anymore... this circle has been broken. And if it continues like this... than we won't exist anymore. And nobody will ever remember our tales..."
Hotaru made a stern face. "No!" she shouted. "I won't allow that! We can change that!"
Everyone looked at her in surprise, even her friends.
"But... but how?" Snow White wondered.
"Easy, we just go back home and tell nobody about your island, so you're still safe. Instead, we just start telling everyone how cool Fairy Tales are and that we should read your books more often. And then... then we'll organize Fairy Tale Festivals, Fairy Tale Quizzes, maybe even..."
"That's right!" Chibimoon smiled. "I'll ask my Mom to read me a book every evening. And she could bake cookies that are shaped like Fairy Tale characters..."
"I think I could come up with a few things of my own..." Setsuna smirked. "And if we ask our friends for help... we don't have to tell them everything about why we're going to do all these things, you know?"
"That... that sounds too good to be true..." the Frog King murmured, a single tear appearing in the corner of his eye.
"Aaah, that would be so wonderful..." the witch sighed. "If people only would read my tale again, MY story... with Hansel and Gretel..."
"And mine!" everybody else tried shouting at once. "And mine too!"
The Frog King smiled. "Well, this proves it: Not all humans can be as bad as I always feared. Very well, friendly witches, I'll leave it in your hands."
"You're welcome," Setsuna smiled. "And we are called the Sailor Senshi!"
"Very well..." the king said. "Three cheers for the Sailor Senshi!"
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(Posted Sun, 30 Dec 2007 14:30)
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