"Huh? Wh-what's...?" Oliver seemed to struggle for his words.
"Well if it en't my little Drippy!" Said the voice. "Where have you been then? Off gallivanting, I bet, without a word to youer old mam the whole time. You'll be the death of me, you will..." Abyssa snickered.
"Oh I see what's going on now." She muttered.
"M-Mr. Drippy? I-I think she's talking to you..." Oliver said. Drippy shook his head.
"Can't be, mun. I've no idea who she is."
"Awww, there's cruel! Why you back anyway, Drippy? Find those humans you were looking for, did you? S'posed to be some sage and a singer or something, wasn't it?" Abyssa listened closer. Singer? A singer and a sage? She couldn't mean...
"No, mun! All right?" Drippy shouted. "I haven't found them yet!"
"Don't you "mun" me! You'd have found them ages ago if you weren't such a lazy beggar. And after all I did for you- ooh! Hello there! Who's that you've got with you, then?"
"...huh? Oh, um... are you talking to me, Ma'am?" Oliver asked.
"Proper little gentleman this one, en't it? Oh but look at the state I'm in! I've just woken up, mun! Why didn't you tell me we had visitors, Drippy-boy!?" Drippy groaned.
"C'mon Ollie-boy! Let's just leg it!" But Abyssa was not one to just leg it, especially if it was going to embarrass Little Lord Bigmouth!
"Here, you've got a map, haven't you? Well, take a look at the top right-hand corner. I've marked it for you, en't it? That's where I am, see? Come and see me, all right?" She asked.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am, we have to go now..." Oliver muttered.
"Chop-chop, mun!" Drippy said. Abyssa, however, had other plans.
"No way, Little Lord Bigmouth!" Then she ran into the forest. "I know who that woman is and I am determined to meet the Lord High Lord of the Fairies' mother!" The rest of them followed, and they were all surprised. It was a little village! A small village with small crazy looking people!
"Jeepers! A village? Oliver gasped. "All the way out here?" Esther laughed and pointed at a house with an octopus on it.
"Look at that!" She chuckled. "What a funny looking house! Is that supposed to be an octopus or something?"
"Knickers. Now I'm flipping for it..." Drippy muttered. Then a group of the strange little people came over, and Drippy hung back, hiding behind Oliver.
"I've never seen one before!" Cried one that had two horns, one with a giant ring on it decorated with jewels. "Proper weird lookin, en't they?" Swaine groaned.
"And I thought one Drippy was bad enough..."
"Look at them all..." Abyssa muttered.
"Are they all fairies, too?" Esther asked.
"Flipping heck, mun!" Said one with a curly cue hairstyle that was his skin tone. "It's only flipping Drippy-boy!"
"Youer right, mun!" One with big sphere shaped things on his head. "Drippy, mun! What are you doing back by there?" Drippy groaned and Abyssa gave him a tap with her foot. He glared at her, then turned back to the fairies.
"Oh. Um, how do, boys?" He mumbled. "Long time no see..."
"Drippy-boy...?" Oliver asked. Abyssa leaned against the little building next to her, grinning.
"Hang on, is this...?" Esther pondered. Drippy turned around to face them.
"Gah, all right, mun! Yes! It is, okay? Welcome to the Fairyground, forest of the fay folk, and land of my fathers!" Then he looked at the ground. "Well, mothers really, but..." all four humans gasped, Abyssa the only one grinning.
"What!? No way!" They shouted in unison.
"Aha! So that's why you've been acting so shifty!" Swaine said.
"Got it in one." Abyssa told him.
"Righto, boys." Drippy was telling the other fairies. "Just dropped by to say hello, en't it. That's done now, so... Tidy. Catch you next time." He turned to leave, but the fairies surrounded him.
"Nah, mun! You can't go going just like that! What are you on about, mun?"
"You've only just got home! You en't even seen Mam yet!"
"En't it though? Come on, we'll take you over there! Going that way anyway, weren't we, boys?" Drippy tried to back out of the circle they had made around him.
"There's no need, boys! Seriously! Lay off, mun!" Then the biggest one lifted Drippy over his head! "Oi! Stop it you lot! Ah! Ollie-boooy! Heeelp!" As the fairies began to walk away, Drippy kept on yelling. "Knickerrrs! Heeelp!" Abyssa and Swaine looked at each other, then burst out laughing.
"So that's what's been making him behave so strangely..." Esther said.
"Yep. I almost feel sorry for our lantern-nosed friend." Swaine muttered.
"Yeah. Poor little bigmouth." Abyssa agreed. Oliver looked at the three of them, confused.
"Huh? What do you mean?" He asked. Esther giggled.
"From the look of it, I'd say Drippy doesn't enjoy visiting his mother very much!" Oliver put a hand to his chin.
"Huh? But why not...?" He asked. But Esther ignored him, and continued talking.
"Anyway, we can't leave him in the clutches of a gang of unruly fairies, can we? Let's go after them!"
"Okay! Let's go!" Oliver said. Swaine pumped his arms.
"Heh heh. I'm in. I wouldn't miss a chance to see the Lord High Lord of the Bigmouths squirm if you paid me!" Abyssa grinned and stood straight from her leaning position.
"Neither would I, frankly!" She said. "Anything to get my mind off of Shadar." She thought to herself. Esther stomped her foot at the two of them.
"Don't be so mean!" She told them. Abyssa stuck her tongue at her. As they walked through the town, Esther looked at Abyssa, who couldn't stop fidgeting.
"Abyssa? Are you alright?" The wizard girl nodded her head.
"I'm fine! I'm completely fine!" Then she sighed. "Can you tell me what happened to Alicia?" Esther nodded.
"She's Oliver's mother's soulmate. In his world, Oliver almost drowned and his mother saved him, at the cost of her own life. He cried on a doll and Drippy came from it. Drippy told him that Alicia was trapped in a soul snare, and that if Oliver saved her, then his mother would come back." Alicia was dead? Abyssa knew that the story was only something that Drippy had pulled out of his hat. She sighed again.
"Oliver's going to be heartbroken when he finds out the truth. And not the kind where he can fix by putting a new piece back." She said. Esther tilted her head.
"What truth?" Abyssa shook her head.
"I'm sorry, Esther. But it is not my place to tell you that. You will have to find out on your own." Esther sighed, but they kept walking. That's when they heard that voice again.
"You knooow, mun-theeem!" It said.
"That voice, is that...?" Esther asked. Oliver nodded and the four of them ran across a bridge, just in time to hear Drippy say,
"I told you, I haven't got the foggiest who youer on about! Shut up about it, will you?" The woman paid no attention to him.
"Went round with you on youer travels, they did. What happened to them? Lovely girls..." She told him. "Their names started with a "P" and a "S"... both rhymed with something like, um... Hippopotamus!" Drippy sighed.
"Give up, will you?" He demanded as Oliver, Swaine, Esther, and Abyssa climbed up a ladder to a platform with Drippy on it. "Honest to goodness..." Then the woman yelled.
"Ahh! Now I remember!" She shouted. "Alicia and Harmony! Those were it!" Abyssa frowned when she heard that name.
"Blimey!" Drippy said as the four humans climbed onto the platform and gasped. There was a massive woman! She was huge! She had a mini volcano coming out of her head and she appeared to be a mountain all in herself.
"My goodness!" Esther exclaimed. "She's... enormous!"
"No kidding." Abyssa muttered.
"So this is Mr. Drippy's mom?" Oliver asked.
"Well she certaintly makes a big first impression, I'll give her that..." Swaine told the rest. None of them could take their eyes off the Fairy Godmother, who was still speaking.
"Lovely girls, they were! Where are they, eh? Probably just left them somewhere, didn't you? There's terrible! And to think youer a son of mine! And just look at youer nose, mun! You should turn that thing off once in a while, you little wastrel! Cost you a fortune, it will!" Drippy groaned.
"I don't charge myself for using it, do I? Flip, mun!" He shouted at her. "And I told you already-we're looking for Alicia and Harmony, en't it? Me and the young lad I was telling you about! You never listen to me, mun!"
"Oh you are, are you?" She said cheerfully. "There's kind of you!" Drippy sighed.
"Wh- And she's suddenly listening! Are you deliberately trying to wind me up or something? Honestly..."
"...Ooh! ...Oh, there's lovely!" The Fairy Godmother said, changing the subject. Drippy threw up his hands.
"What is it now, mun?" He demanded.
"Youer looking very slim these days, love..."
"What are you on about, mun? I'm exactly the same as last time you flipping saw me! Youer just saying things for the sake of it now..." The Fairy Godmother disagreed.
"I am not! Proper podgy, you were! Not surprising, considering how much you used to put away..." Abyssa looked at Esther and Swaine as they held back laughter. Oliver was too focused on this massive lady. "Little Lord Lard, I used to call you!" That did it. The three of them had to go down the ladder to laugh. Esther made the other two and they laughed harder than ever before. When they went back up, the Fairy Godmother was talking to Oliver.
"Oh, youer the little dears who've been going round with my Drippy, is it?" She asked. "Now, which one of you is the Pooer- Hearted One?" Drippy jumped.
"It's PURE-Hearted, mun! P-U-R-E! I'm the flipping pooer one, having you for a mother..."
"Uh, I... Nice to meet you, Ma'am." Oliver said in his polite way. "Are you Mr. Drippy's mother?"
"That's right, my lovely! For my sins... Aww, en't he just adorable?" Abyssa snorted.
"Yeah, a real cutie." Drippy glared at her.
"While youer over by here, I've got something to ask you."
"You do?" Oliver asked. "What is it, Ma'am?" (Anybody whose played the game realize that he looks at the camera as he said this?)
"Sorry to spring this on you out of the blue, like, but... You wouldn't mind taking a look at my guts, would you?" They all gasped.
"Huh!?" Oliver said. Drippy groaned.
