CHAPTER 37: Far-Far away's celebration
The night had finally arrived at Far-Far away, and boy, did Shrek and his family need the type of atmosphere the celebration delivered. The disco-feeling made them completely forget everything they went through with Charming, and it felt like their lives were re-starting. This was reminiscent of the time Donkey and Puss sung 'Livin la vida loca', except, of course, they weren't singing. Instead, they were getting in on the disco dancing type of occurrence that was unfolding all over the courtyard. Luckily, King Arthur had arranged for only the best singers within the kingdom to deliver their glorious voices to the microphones. It was still impressive that for a kingdom like Far-Far away, it's got technology like music boxes and the microphones, enabling Artie to fully enhance the joyful experience. Then again, they always had them during the time Donkey and Puss had sang, way before Artie was even considered the heir to the throne.
Shrek and Fiona were having a dancing contest together, with Fergus, Felicia and Farkle besides Shrek, as the majority of the citizens nearby had turned to watch the most bizarre thing in the history of their lifetimes; two orges DANCING amongst them. They secretly enjoyed watching them participate, though. As the white spotlights were shining their way all over the roaring and dancing collection of citizens in the courtyard, with some of them near the coloured marquees in the corner of the courtyard, Artie was talking to a specific somebody who looked awfully familiar; somebody who had a long beard, and somebody who had blue robes with a big spiky blue hat. Shrek hadn't thought anything of it when he began walking over to Arthur to talk to him, but the unorthodox clothing of this person caught his eye.
"Won't be a tick, Fiona!" Shrek said, as he was walking towards Arthur near those white spotlights near the castle itself, in which Fiona started dancing with Fergus, Felicia and Farkle.
Shrek struggled to make it through the citizens. Their cheers and their dancing spirits caused for an energetic environment. Their voices were echoing, and the voices were very much flying into the orge's ears, but not to his anger. He felt like this was the perfect type of atmosphere for himself and his family at the moment, so it was all good. After a few more seconds of accidentally moving into the much smaller citizens compared to his orge size, in which they all laughed in groups, danced and continued to cheer to the music, Shrek finally arrived at the castle to notice Arthur talking with a wizard. There was no doubt about it, this was definitely a wizard.
"Arthur?" Shrek said, yelling slightly to get his voice heard to Arthur in the midst of the loud citizens dancing within this disco-like environment.
"Ohh, hey Shrek, do you like it so far?"
"Let me tell you, Arthur I'M LOVING IT. Who's this?" Shrek asked, pointing to the blue wizard.
"Why, who am I, you ask? how awfully rude of you, HMPH!" Mr Merlin said, nodding with disapproval.
"No, it's okay, it's okay, uh-" Artie stuttered.
"Don't worry kid, I was just joking..." Mr Merlin insisted, "my goodness, are they always this loud?"
"This is a special occasion, so let them be, Mr Merlin...but uh, yeah Shrek, you remember Mr Merlin, don't you?"
Shrek couldn't believe it; Mr Merlin looked exactly the same as he did when Arthur tried running away from Shrek himself at the time. That same old, long, white beard that dangled towards the floor was there. It was most likely the case that, being a wizard who can do magic, even though he retired from it a long time ago, aging doesn't affect him physically, even though he's an old man. Shrek was getting the exact same feelings he had when he was trying to convince Arthur to go to Far-Far away to be king, just by seeing Mr Merlin again. Merlin and Arthur had both established a good friendship with each other shortly after Arthur himself became king, so it wasn't really a surprise to see him here for this occasion tonight. For Shrek, though, it was.
"It's uhh...we had some old times, didn't we?" Shrek said.
"Old? ah yeah, I'm aware, I'm as weak as a snapped twig, might I tell you, but this here orb ought to restore my credibility, hey?"
"I wasn't referring to your age, Mr Mer-what is that orb for?" Shrek asked, intrigued by Mr Merlin's mentioning of an orb.
"Oh yeah, Shrek, I forgot to tell you, didn't I? Mr Merlin's gonna perform a trick called the uhm...uh...sorry, what is it called again?"
"Well, it is quite a secretive old trick of mine I used to do in the younger ages...it's called the ORB OF LONG DISTANT OCCURRENCES!" Mr Merlin dramatically said, hissing at the end to make it sound all the more dramatic.
"Maybe you should consider keeping IT from spraying about, wouldn't you say?" Shrek said, wiping his nose from the spit Mr Merlin had spat from the hiss.
"Anyways, uh, Shrek, Mr Merlin here, in a bit I guess, is going to show us this orb magic where he'll be able to uh...spy on things beyond the kingdom, I thought we all needed something cool and creative to cap off tonight's celebration...huh?"
"Good on you, Arthur, I guess I can stick around for that..."
"I want to know how much I'm getting paid for this?" Mr Merlin said, looking at Arthur with a raised eyebrow.
"Y-You said I didn't have-"
"Did I? oh yessss, I did, I'm just...I'm just as slippery in my mind as a penguin on ice, it's not good, you know?" Mr Merlin said.
"I uh-sure, of course not.."
Whilst Shrek, Mr Merlin and Arthur were chatting with each other, Donkey was with his babies as Dragon was sat down in the distance, just beyond the courtyard border, but because she was so big and tall, she was able to see over it entirely. The kingdom was perfectly comfortable with having Dragon here, due to Arthur allowing it. Donkey tried to show off a few of his dancing tricks that he did in the past to his babies, but they were clearly too young to acknowledge it, and the roaring cheers and laughs of the citizens around the courtyard, dancing to the disco tunes of the singers, made it harder for them to hear their dad anyways. Puss was busy just taking a stroll around the courtyard with a small glass of milk in his paw. Pinocchio and The Three Little Pigs were busy doing their own little dance off elsewhere in the courtyard.
Mr Merlin reached into his robe-like bag, with his arms shivering as their weakness had shown in the worst way possible, but it didn't stop him from picking up the blue orb from the bag. He couldn't stand the loudness of the celebration across the courtyard, especially as an old man who'd retired from magic, but what could he do? he simply had to get on with it. Once the orb was in his hand, Shrek and Artie both looked at it with admiration; it was glittering shines amongst it's navy-like coloration. It was an object he had mastered ages ago when he was a younger wizard, but it had so much value that he didn't really take it outside of his house, until now.
"Just one quick rub of this and you'll all be looking at one flashy screen, but ah, AH AH AH..." Mr Merlin waved his finger at Shrek and Artie as he thought he could see them walking closer to it, when it was just his old eyes playing with him, "step away...you have no idea how valuable this is to me..." he placed his other hand on the top of it, petting it like an animal.
"M-Mr Merlin, that looks incredible..."
"It looks like something that'd make a good lamp back at the swamp. Let me tell you, earwax candles don't last us orges long enough, hahahahaha..." Shrek chuckled.
"Uh, ahem, well anyways, isn't it incredible, my boy? this orb has been with me for decades, now normally I wouldn't show it off to public eyes, but because-"
"Heyyy! look who it is!" Donkey said
"For once I agree with you, it's our old friend here..." Puss said, with the both of them raising their eyebrows at Mr Merlin.
"STEP BACK! CAREFUL! OH MY GOODNESS! STEP BACK!" Mr Merlin pledged, holding onto the orb with protection to ensure nobody touched it as they all approached him.
Lillian walked in through the crowd to the sight of an old man, in robe blue clothes, holding onto a glowing, glass ball shaped navy object.
"What's going on here? you're all having one big commotion, if I'm seeing correctly?" she said, confused at Mr Merlin particularly.
"WOAH, CAN YOU ALL STEP BACK?! THIS ORB IS VALUABLE, AND I CAN'T AFFORD BREAKING IT!" Mr Merlin said, with everyone hearing him in the midst of the loud cheers of the disco-like celebration.
"Okay guys, let's just take this easy and step away...Mr Merlin, do you need a hand?" Artie asked.
"No, haha, I've got it hahaha, it's perfectly secure in my magical palms...I just want enough space to be able to hold it safely..." Mr Merlin said.
Rather than holding it for now, Mr Merlin figured that it's probably for the better if he moves it back into the bag, and then when the time comes for the actual magic to be performed, he'll take it back out and put it into position. Putting it into the bag made him feel more easier. He stood up straight, and looked at Shrek with a cheesy smile as his white beard became easily noticeable in everyone's eyes, including Donkey, Puss and Lillian. Fiona was still busy dancing with Fergus, Farkle and Felicia.
"Now then, orge, what've you been up to, hey? I vaguely remember meeting you alongside this kid behind me, ehy?"
"The real question is, have you learnt NOT to switch other beings into bodies that THEY AREN'T ACCUSTOMED TO? HUH, HUH, HUUH?" Donkey said, with Mr Merlin rubbing his beard.
"Well uh, to be blunt I haven't precisely-"
"Exactly. I can't tell you how bad that time was, you know? to be one big four legged colossal-"
"Okaayyy then, well Artie..." Shrek interrupted, stopping Puss from beginning an argument, "I'll sure be looking forward to whatever this guys gonna do.."
"You better, orge. This orb is the money to my life, I wouldn't be able to do the type of magic it possesses by myself...do you understand?"
"Oh yeah, I understand..." Shrek said, putting on a noticeable satire tone.
With Shrek, Lillian, Felicia, Fergus, Farkle, Donkey, Artie, Fiona, Pinocchio, Dragon, Puss and The Three Little Pigs occupied with the celebration and an anticipation of whatever trick Mr Merlin is going to perform for the Far-Far away kingdom in a bit, is it safe to say that they've forgotten about what's happening elsewhere? it probably is. Shrek didn't bother bringing up the incident between himself and a couple of Prince Charming supporting teenagers, because he felt like that would kill the atmosphere. He was sure anyways that at this point, Charming's forces have already collapsed, and he's basically running away from the destruction of his own forces. If Shrek was able to get his hands on Charming, he wouldn't know what he'd do. All he cares about now is that Felicia is safe, so assuming he never sees Charming again, he can forget about it and simply harden his protective nature over Felicia; after what happened to her, he's wanting to protect her at every single possible chance.
The group, and all of the citizens in the courtyard were more than anticipating Mr Merlin's magic. They wanted him to do it now, but of course, being an old magician, he has to shake the rust off in order to get used to doing it again. The magic behind it is that, the orb, being known as the Orb of Long Distant Occurences according to Mr Merlin, has the ability to fire up a large flashy square of smoke where, like a video, you'll be able to see various locations that're far away from where the orb itself is, in the exact same time. So in short, it can be used to spy on a place. It was due to be ready any minute.