When the guards left, the donkey began to babble. He recounted the story in the sort of painstaking way that people do when they repeat themselves in a few different sentences, which could have easily been condensed into a few simple words. The ogre twitched in polite annoyance, silent, until the beast got to the part in his story where he had been able to fly.
"Hold the phone," the green man held up a finger to silence his four-legged companion. "You mean to tell me there's material that can let non-flying things like us fly? That's amazing!"
Donkey gazed up, nonplussed. "It's a magical world. I don't understand why that would be news to you."
"I've lived most of my life in a swamp," the monster blushed slightly. "Past ignorance aside, I'm going to get some of that material." He took off at a steady run, fueled with excitement, and the donkey trotted by his side.
"What's your name?" the animal asked pleasantly.
The ogre almost tripped. No one had ever bothered to ask his name before. In fact, he hadn't used his name in so long that he wasn't even positive the name he would give was correct. "Uh, Shrek," he finally answered as he hid behind a rather large tree close to the slave trader camp. "Hey, is this the place?"
"You can just call me Donkey, everybody else seems to," came the beast's sad voice.
"Aw," Shrek felt a twinge of guilt at being so carried away at the prospect of flying. "Why not pick a real name? You clearly have a personality and are, uh, sort of intelligent. You deserve a real name."
Donkey perked up. "You mean it? How about Jack! You know, Jack went up a hill to 'fetch water,'" he raised a hoof as if to make quotation marks, "with Jill, so I think the name Jack will bring me luck with the ladies, if you know what I mean."
"Alright, Jack. Is that the fairy you were talking about?"Shrek asked, pointing at a small cage with an even smaller girl inside. With the donkey's affirmation, Shrek burst forth from his position, passed the bewildered guards, and grabbed the cage with the startled, frightened magical creature in it. "Go!" he yelled at Jack as he made a run for it in the direction of his swamp.
"Don't hurt me!" The fairy pleaded over and over to the men, shivering in fear and cowering at the edge of her containment center.
Shrek sighed. "Please, lady, for the last time, we have no intent to harm you. I can see you have some psychological trauma relating to your kidnapping and want to take this out on your rescuers, but we can get you to therapy. I just hope that in turn, you will answer a few questions for me, and possibly help me with something."
The tiny woman eyed him warily, then calmed down slightly after deciding he probably would not hurt her. "So you want something from me."
"Well, yes." Shrek suddenly felt like a complete jerk, and while he acknowledged that he indeed fit that description, he quickly decided on another reason to have rescued only her that didn't seem so horrible. However, he made a mental note that he really had to start treating people better, even if this was only his first real interaction with creatures that were at least intelligent life not trying to kill him. "I want to help the rest of the captured fairytale things, you know, possibly take down the king responsible for having them all imprisoned. It makes me mad that such injustices have ocurred. But I only just heard about the situation from Jack," the donkey smiled at the use of his new name, "and I figured saving you could possibly let me fly, which would make my mission quite a bit easier."
The stunned female blinked. "You don't know what you're saying. One person can't just beat all those guards and take down a kingdom. And don't you know that we'd have anarchy without them? We're stuck."
Shrek kind of laughed, but got a hold of himself quickly. "We'll figure out something better than a tyrannical king. So, will you help me fly?"
Jack stared in awe at his new friend, wondering how he could be so generous, while the skeptical fairy reluctantly sighed.
"Okay. I will bestow upon you and your donkey a permanent method of flying. You just have to believe you can, and also have a little bit of fairy dust."
"Wow, just believe? That's amazing!" Jack eagerly leapt forward, making the girl jump back a little in her cage.
Shrek, however, looked angry. "Just believe? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of! Of all the unscientific..." he took a deep breath and counted to three. "Just believe, you say? I'll try. Stand back, just a second." He knelt down and broke two wooden bars of the cage, allowing the fairy her freedom. "I should have done this earlier, forgive me."
She smiled as his charm overshadowed his ogre-ness for a moment. "And I should have thanked you for the rescue." The small woman flew above their heads, and sprinkled the powder on them.