"Giselle, Giselle!"
Pip took the stairs two at a time, gasping as he reached Giselle's bedroom, She was just putting the finishing touches on the mannequin's cobalt-blue coat, smoothing it with her fingers and sighing as the woodland animals watched her work. Pip was incensed that she hadn't noticed him at once nor asked him why he was out of breath and offered him a chestnut and a drink of spring water.
"Giselle!"
"Yes, Pip, we're all listening." Giselle cocked her head and tried to think. The mannequin was resplendent in white blossoms and blue silk, but it was missing something special. A face, probably, though she rather liked the abstract statement a faceless prince made.
"Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed. "I didn't give him any lips."
"Does he have to have lips?" the littlest rabbit lisped, nose twitching.
"Of course," Giselle said. "Without lips, I'll never get my true love's kiss!"
"GISELLE!" Pip was hopping mad, leaving tiny dirty footprints all over the mannequin's coat as he ping-ponged from shoulder to shoulder.
"Yes, Pip, we're listening."
"There's someone to see you," the chipmunk said. "I found them in the forest. They said they needed a place to stay for the night, so I thought - "
"Oh, do you think... could it be... my prince? My true love?" Giselle twirled across the floor, upsetting the petals of the pink roses that climbed the wall. "And we didn't even cast our wishes in a magic wishing well!"
"No, it's not... that's not what I meant," Pip squeaked, just as the girl went spinning and crashing straight into the arms of the young stranger. The air went out of the room. The woodland animals peeked from behind the drawers and curtains.
Giselle pulled herself back from the stranger's embrace.
"I didn't mean to frighten you," the stranger said. She brushed a curl from her eyes and looked sheepishly around the room. Giselle felt her heart skip a beat.
It wasn't the blue-eyed prince of her dreams after all, just a common girl with hazel eyes and unruly black hair. She looked as though she had been dragged through the forest, dress stained and ripped and a red cape no better than rags wrapped around her shoulders. Her lips were plump and cherry-red and suddenly Giselle found herself re-thinking the whole idea of making a princely mannequin with no facial features. Lips, after all, were very important.