Author's Note:
And now onto Chapter Seven!
The three princesses crept through the tall grass, onto a hill that rose between the north and east roads of the crossroads. They could see the weaving road below them from where they were stranded until it disappeared under the seclusion of the Far Far Away Forest's trees.
Adel looked behind them, the carriage they had heard from the pond was shaped like an onion, drawn by two elegant white stallions, and driven by a stout gnome-like man. Even while the carriage was passing over the crest of a hill, all three of the princesses could see that the passengers of the onion carriage were in fact an ogre family of five, with a small donkey at the back of the carriage.
"AH!" Iris and Harriet screamed loudly at the sight of the ogres and ran down the hillside to their parent's sides. The king and queen likely couldn't see the ogres' carriage, any better than the ogres could see them, and would tell their frightened six-year-old twins that there were no ogres in these parts.
Adel had not run from the sight of the ogre family. She stood on the hill and thought for a moment, narrowing her bright blue eyes in concentration, and then she hurried down the hillside to the onion carriage.
"Excuse me!" Adel waved her hands. "Please, stop!"
The gnome pulled at the horses' reins and stopped the stallions from pulling the carriage.
"Is there something the matter?" The female ogre, who seemed to be the mother of the family, peered down at Adel.
"I was wondering I you could help me with my family's carriage." Adel panted silently from the hastened run down the hill. "Our carriage wheel's busted and we could use some extra help changing it."
"C'mon, Shrek!" The donkey at the rear of the onion carriage shouted to the largest of the ogres. "Let's go help!"
"Yeah Daddy!" Two excited ogrelets shouted in agreement. "Let's help!"
"All right." The ogre named Shrek stretched his arms in front of him. He looked down at Adel with copper-brown eyes. "Where's your carriage?"
"Just up the road." Adel stated with a smile of gratification. "Should still be at the crossroad." She hopped on the step -used to get into the carriage- and held tightly to the low-cut doorway of the onion carriage.
"Driver…" Shrek looked at the gnome. "Let's get down to the crossroads."
"Yes Sir Shrek." The gnome tipped his hat and clicked his reins against the white stallion's flanks.
The onion carriage lurched to a start and continued down the heavily furrowed road.
"So who are you anyways?" The donkey enquired.
Adel smiled and pushed her tiara back into place with her free hand. "I'm Princess Adel Marksworth, but you can call me Adel, from the kingdom of Far Away."
"Hey, we're going to Far Away!" The boy ogrelet -with a small head of dark brown hair- exclaimed.
"No we're not." The other boy ogrelet -without any hair at all- corrected. "We're going to Far Far Away."
"With Uncle Artie and Grandma!" The girl ogrelet cheered happily.
"Uncle Artie and Grandma?" Adel raised an eyebrow curiously.
The female ogre chuckled lightly. "My mother's the queen of Far Far Away." She stated, pushing back some of her red bangs from her silver-green eyes. "And my cousin's the new king of Far Far Away." She smiled softly. "By these guys call him Uncle Artie…"
"Oh." Adel smiled. "Then you must be Princess Fiona." She stated.
"Yes, I am." The ogress smiled. "This is my husband, Shrek." She placed her hand over top the larger ogre's hand. "This is a good family friend of ours, Donkey." Fiona acknowledged the donkey sitting in the back of the carriage. "And these are our children;" She smiled proudly. "Liam." She pointed to the bald ogrelet. "Kathryn," She pointed to the girl ogrelet. "And Harold…" She quickly caught the boy ogrelet, who was about to leap out of the moving carriage.
"Nice to meet you Princess Adel!" The ogrelets and Donkey smiled kindly to the princess.
Adel laughed at their genuine friendliness. "It's very nice to meet you all, too." She looked up the uneven road. "That's our carriage up ahead." She stated, pointing at the still stranded carriage.
The eldest princess hopped off of the onion carriage's step near the door as soon as it came to a halt at the edge of the crossroads. She hurried up to her parents.
"Mother, father," She nodded respectfully to her parents. "I've got us some help for our busted wheel."
"Help?" The twins looked wide-eyed from behind the king and queen's legs.
"Yes." Adel smiled softly. "Sir Shrek and Princess Fiona are also heading to Far Far Away, and just by luck, they're prepared to help us with this broken wheel."
"Oh how wonderful!" Queen Ophelia exclaimed delightedly. "We'll be back on the road in no time with some extra hands."
"What is it they want in return?" King Fredrick asked suspiciously.
"Well." Adel shrugged. "Try to be respectful." She looked down at her twin sisters. "They have three young ogrelets with them, and I don't think anyone would want any arguments related to ogre-human relations." She stated firmly.
"Yes, of course." King Fredrick nodded in agreement. "We should be grateful for their help."
"Henry, Antony." Adel stepped up to the two carriage drivers. "I've got us some extra help, not because I think that you guys can't do it yourself, but because it'll make everything get back on track much more quickly with some extra hands." She looked down at the two dark auburn-haired brothers. "Be kind -ogres or not- this family's also royalty, and you two are ambassadors to all of Far Away's carriage drivers."
"Yes, Princess Adel." They responded with courteous bows.
Adel smiled softly and turned to her younger sisters. "Come on you two." She took each of them by the hand and gently led them towards the ogre family. "Sir Shrek and Princess Fiona have three kids, who are probably the same age as you two, maybe a little younger." She tried not to force her sisters into a situation that they'd be scared to enter. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind having someone to play with." Adel suggested. "Wouldn't that be nice?" She looked her two sisters in their identical beetle black eyes.
"Um…" They rubbed the backs of their heads. "Maybe…"
"Exactly." Adel agreed. "Now come one, there's no need to be shy."
"Okay you three." Fiona hopped out of the onion carriage. "Go out and stretch you legs." She smiled softly to her ogrelets and helped each of them out of the carriage.
"Yay! Playtime!" All three ogrelets shouted enthusiastically. Liam seemed to be more excited that they weren't in the onion carriage for much longer.
"Yeah! Playtime!" Donkey shouted. He lightly leapt down from the carriage.
"Will you supervise them, Donkey?" Fiona asked.
The eccentric quadruped rolled his chocolate-brown eyes knowingly. "Of course, Princess." Donkey nodded as Harold and Kathryn hopped onto his back. "You can count of me…" He winked and galloped off.
Fiona chuckled as Shrek hopped down from the onion carriage. "Come on Shrek, let's go help them with their carriage."
"Yes Honey." Shrek gently planted a small kiss on his wife's temple and walked over to the Marksworth's carriage.
Author's Note:
Forgetting about the ball coming up for now, let's see what poor Artie's thinking and how the twins react to the triplets!
It'll be great fun!
Manga Girl #6