In the middle of the night Peep was visited by 3 frantic fairies; Ursula, Eunice and Gertrude. Ursula could barely squeeze through the window, opened-just-a-crack, never mind the tiny hole in the screen. Eunice and Gertrude shoved the round fairy through the opening and she landed on the wood floor with a thud. Ursula resembled a colorful Hacky Sack ball in both size and appearance.

"Oooooouch! Are you two trying to kill me?" Ursula rubbed her sore bottom and winced at the tiny scratches on her pudgy arms. "That screen had daggers I tell you!"

"Shhhhhhh!" Eunice scolded. "You'll wake the boy."

Taz ran into the room and gave a low guttural growl toward the trio underneath Peep's bedroom window.

Peep rolled over in his bed and mumbled, "Taz go inside." The dog whined and left the room. How many times do our pets try to alert us to danger and we either ignore or scold them?

Ursula flapped her pumpkin colored wings and took flight over Peep's bed. For a plump fairy she could fly like the best of them! "There it is! He's still wearing it!"

Eunice, the color and sheen of the inside of a buttercup flower, flew near her companion. She gasped, "My heavens! How are we supposed to retrieve the scarf and not wake the boy?"

Gertrude, the color of new grass on a bright summer's day, joined them.  She scolded Eunice, "Why do you always have to make things so difficult? He's a boy and we're fairies. We outwit him, that's how!"

"No, no, no... " Ursula objected. "We shan't outwit the boy for then he will see us. We have to be ever-so-graceful..." With that she flew up and crashed into the slow moving ceiling fan which shot her across the room. She landed face to face with Frank Sinatra's image and slid down the wall.

Eunice and Gertrude flew over to Ursula and helped her up once again.

"I'm ok," said Ursula as she brushed the dust bunnies off of her fluorescent orange wings.

Gertrude interjected, "Ladies we need to stop fooling around and retrieve Locket's scarf. Let's just wake the boy and ask him nicely..."

Eunice's bright yellow eyes grew extremely wide. "Are you insane Gertrude? You know it's against the rules for any of us to speak to the Princess's betrothed. Why, we could be banished from Fairy World forever!"

Ursula spoke up, "Or worse turned into trolls."

Gertrude had enough of these two numbskulls. Locket would never allow her Ladies In Waiting to be turned into trolls or banished into The Ocean of Screams.

(Princess Locket had explained to them how her human boy was protecting her from an evil Leprechaun when the accidental engagement had happened.)

Gertrude spoke in a hoarse-whisper, "Listen up ladies! Let's just use our powers to slip the scarf off the boy's neck and be on our way."

Clumsily Ursula flew down to Peep's neck. She grabbed the scarf and gave it a sharp tug. "Nope it's stuck." Nervously she flew back up towards the other fairy-maidens and said, "Best be in our way."

Gertrude rolled her shockingly green eyes. "By powers I did not mean your brute strength Ursula. We simply need to untuck the scarf and slip it off the boy's neck before he awakens."

Eunice's voice quivered. "I f-f-f-forgot the shrinking powders."

Getrude became annoyed. Without the shrinking powders there was no way they could remove the scarf and carry it back to Fairy World.

Ursula piped up. "I remember Princess Locket saying something about there being a secret code knitted into the scarf. All we need to do is unlock the code then shrink the scarf."

Annoyed, Gertrude asked, "Ursula, do you know the code?"

Ursula lowered her head which made her double chin into a triple chin. "Uh... no ma'am, I don't."

Peep had been sitting up for the last part of the ladies' argument. He was more amused than anything else. A yellow, green and orange fairy didn't surprise him in the least. Holding the black and white, intricately knitted scarf, out to the trio he asked, "Do you ladies need this?"

The three fairies began zipping about the room. They bumped into each other. They bumped into the blue and green globe on the desk. Finally they collapsed onto Peep's Power Ranger comforter.

Landing on the pink Power Ranger Gertrude smiled awkwardly. "Master Peep. We didn't mean to wake you. Princess Locket is in trouble and somehow the scarf you're holding is the key to freeing her from her enchanted prison."

Ursula placed her chubby hands on her rounded hips. "Enchanted prison? Oh Gertrude, must you always be so grandiose?"

Shyly Eunice added, "She's been grounded by her mum Master Peep."

Peep plopped the scarf on top of the three fairies and said, "Next time I'm grounded I'm gonna say I'm in an Enchanted Prison."

With grunts the fairies climbed out from beneath the scarf. Together they attempted folding the scarf to make it as small as possible. No matter how many times they tried it remained much too big and far too heavy for the three of them to carry.

Peep was having the most fun he'd had in weeks. Knowing Locket had been grounded tickled him silly. Watching the three fairies struggle filled him with joy.  He enjoyed listening to the ladies arguing over the best way to fold a scarf. Once they started shoving and slapping one another he stepped in. "Don't you ladies know how to shrink the scarf?"

Gertrude answered, "No... Princess Locket never shared the code and," she pointed her chin toward Eunice.  "And dimwit here forgot the shrinking powders."

"Now now ladies... It's not nice to call people names." Peep snickered to himself. "How will getting this scarf back help Locket out of the Prison of Enchantment?"

The three fairies huddled up and whispered. Peep could only make out bits and pieces of what they were saying:

Should we tell him? It might make things worse. He seems like a nice boy. But all those tattoos! Locket's fault...

Finally Gertrude came forward and said, "Master Peep we love Princess Locket. As her Ladies in Waiting we are bound to her and her only. Since you and she are betrothed we could be banished to the Ocean of Screams for simply speaking to you."

Peep looked skeptical. Ocean of Screams huh? Probably more like an endless summer vacation at a crummy beach house in Atlantic City...

"Ladies," Peep became the voice of reason. "I'm not sure what's going on here but lemme tell you something... Locket is my best friend. If she's in trouble I wanna help her."

The three fairies were dumbfounded. An engaged couple—best friends?  Unheard of! The trio curtseyed to Peep.

Peep flipped over the scarf and pressed a black rose knot. "1,2,3,4,5." The scarf shrunk to fairy size. "There ya go. Oh and when you see Locket tell her I've got a bone to pick with her."

Peep was still sore from all that square dancing.

-End of Chapter 27-

Author's note: Don't worry Locket will be back soon! Thanks for showing me love by reading, voting, commenting and sharing! You're the best! 😍🙏🏼