Chapter 12: An Invitation

A month goes by for both Chika and Braedey, the two of them waiting for both Shrek and Fiona to come back home from their honeymoon. After a little while, the ogre couple finally arrived back at the swamp, the two of them with golden rings on their ring fingers.

"Ah, it's so good to be home..." Shrek smiled as he and Fiona were finally coming back to the swamp. "Just you, and me, and..." Shrek picked up Fiona, the two of them just about to open the door.

"One is the loneliest number that you ever knew~" Braedey's voice spoke out from inside of Shrek's house, getting the two ogres' attention. Shrek pushed open the door, and both he and Fiona saw Braedey sitting on the couch, while Chika was next to him. "Two can be as bad as one~"

"Braedey? Chika?" Shrek asked in surprise.

"Shrek and Fiona!" Braedey smiled, getting to his feet, and he made his way over with Chika, Shrek putting Fiona down on her feet. "Boy, aren't you a sight for my sore blue eyes." He then shares a bro-fist with Shrek. "Good to see you, Shrek."

"Look at you, Fiona." Chika smiled, sharing a hug with the ogress. "You're looking better every day."

"Braedey. What are you and Chika doing here?" Shrek asked.

"Well, considering that both you and Fiona were going to be away on your honeymoon for a month, Chika and I decided to take care of the house for you." Braedey explained, after sharing a hug with Fiona. "We cleaned up the place for you, as well as did some little work around the place to make it more homely. We even fixed up some parts of the house." He added.

Shrek then took note of the windows, which now had an amber-colour glass in them. "Oh! That is rather nice. Very homely." He commented. "What is this?" He asked, gently knocking on the amber window.

"It's amber Braedey and I found from a Deathsong dragon." Chika explained. "Keeps the heat inside the house, and keeps the cold out."

Fiona then noticed the couches looked new. "And the furniture..."

"That was made by the two of us." Chika added.

Shrek then noted other parts of the house. "Hey. You sorted out the mail for the two of us, and watered all the plants. They look great." He complimented them.

"And plus, there's something else included." Braedey added in. He gestured to the windows to outside. "I added a treehouse."

"Why did you add in a treehouse?" Shrek asked in confusion.

"Well, since you and Fiona will be living together, I thought to let you have the home, and I built a place for myself to rest and relax in." Braedey explained.

"Oh, I see." Shrek understood the reasoning behind it, and he nodded his head.

"Actually, Braedey. We've wanted to ask; why haven't you gone back home?" Fiona then asked to Braedey. "You did say that you had a cavern of your own in a forest."

Braedey then sighed. "Yeah... about that. Well, it turns out that after I was taken away, and during that time, a family of grizzly bears moved in and took over the cave. No way am I going to get that back without getting mauled to pieces." He chuckled lightly. "So, I opted to go ahead and make a home next to yours, so I can be a neighbour of sorts."

"What about your family?" Fiona asked next.

"Well, they turned up not too long ago, while you two were on your honeymoon." Chika explained, while Braedey cleaned the table and the floor. "They were busy with some work far from here, but came here to check on their son, and about the Stormcutter. But, they got a message about some dragon fights over in the North, so they had to leave and deal with that." She added in.

"You know we're always happy to see you and Chika, Braedey." Fiona said.

"But Fiona and I are married now." Shrek cut in. "We need a little time, you know, to be together."

"Yeah. I understand." Braedey nodded, he and Chika both heading out of the house. "Chika and I will leave you two be. Anyway, congratulations."

"They'll be fine..." Shrek told Fiona before smirking. "Now, where were we?"

"Uh, Shrek?" Braedey's voice called from outside. "You two have guests."

"What?" Shrek asked in confusion.

Shrek and Fiona then looked on curiously, and opened the door all the way to see what's going on outside. They saw some men playing bugles as one man was walking down towards the ogre couple as he had a scroll. One musician overdid it, until the man with the scroll walked up and stopped him.

"Enough, Reggie." The messenger said.

"Who's the man with the scroll?" Chika whispered to Braedey.

"Maybe a Royal Messenger." Braedey replied.

The messenger cleared his throat as he opened up the scroll to read it aloud. "'Dearest Princess Fiona. You are hereby summoned to the kingdom of Far, Far Away for a royal ball in celebration of your marriage, in which the King will bestow his royal blessing upon you and your'-" He then looked at Shrek with a nervous, but not scared cough. "Erm... Prince Charming..." He then continued to read aloud from the scroll. "'Love the King and Queen of Far, Far Away: AKA Mom and Dad'."

"Mom and Dad?" Fiona said, a bit surprised but confused.

"Prince Charming?" Shrek asked in confusion.

"A Royal Ball?" Braedey asked beamed as he came between them. "What do you guys think?"

"We're not going." Shrek smiled apologetically.

"What?" Braedey and Fiona asked in unison.

"Why?" Chika asked.

"I mean, don't you two think they might be a bit shocked to see Fiona like this?" Shrek asked anxiously to Braedey and Chika, since Fiona was an ogress and no longer a human princess.

"So?" Chika asked.

"Well, they might be a bit surprised, but they're my parents, Shrek." Fiona replied. "They love me and don't worry, they're gonna love you too."

"Yeah, well, somehow I don't think I'm welcome in the Country Club." Shrek scoffed in disgust.

"They're not like that." Fiona stated, defending her parents.

"Then how do you explain Sergeant Pompous and the Fancy Pants Club Band?" Shrek scoffed at the people who came with the message from the king and queen.

"Come on, Shrek, give them a chance." Chika asked.

"To do what?" Shrek scoffed. "Sharpen their pitchforks?"

"Shrek, I'm sure that Fiona's parents are not that bad." Braedey countered.

"They just wanna give you their blessing." Chika added.

"Oh, great. Now I need their blessing?" Shrek scoffed.

"Well, if you wanna be apart of this family, yes." Fiona pointed out in reply.

"And who says I wanna be apart of this family?" Shrek smirked.

"Oh, come on, Shrek. When you married Fiona, you should have seen this coming." Braedey pointed out.

"Well, there's some fine print for ya." Shrek glared.

"Ugh, s-so, that's it?" Fiona glared back at her husband. "You won't come?"

"Trust me, it's a bad idea, we are not going and that's final." Shrek growled back.

Unfortunately, Shrek didn't win the argument, and Fiona won it. So, they packed up their bags, and they began to get ready for the journey ahead. Braedey was also coming along with Shrek and Fiona, but Chika decided to stay put.

"You sure you don't want to come along?" Braedey asked to Chika.

"I'm sure. Besides, someone's got to take care of this place." Chika replied back, gesturing to the house.

"Hey, come on, Shrek. We're burning daylight!" Braedey called out, jumping into the back of the carriage.

Shrek stepped out of the house, sighing to himself, as he glumly came out the front door to join them. He looked over to Fiona and Braedey, the two of them ready to go, while Chika stood nearby.

"It's okay. Your place will still be standing while I'm here." Chika reassured to the ogre, showing a small smile to him.

"Don't worry. We'll take care of everything!" Gingy called as he waved goodbye with the Three Little Pigs, Three Blind Mice, Pinocchio, The Big Bad Wolf and they then ran into the house.

"Hey! Get back here." Chika scolded, sprinting off into the house, and started to scold the others inside. "Oi! Don't you touch that thing! I said put that back! Do it!" She snapped.

Shrek sighed to himself, then he got into the carriage with Fiona. As he did so, he looked back to the swamp, as the carriage now began to make its way out, and they were now on their way to Far, Far Away.

"This is going to be a very long journey." Braedey commented.

Sure enough, after getting out of the swamp and the forests, the carriage was on its way up towards the mountains, while passing a sign that read 'Far Far Away - 700 Miles'. After that, they entered into a rainy climate, which looked very dark and gloomy. It seemed like it was not a place to get stuck in, and a horrid place to hide within. Eventually, the carriage arrived at a snowy cliff edge as they passed a sign reading 'Far Far Away - 200 miles'. They still had a long way to go. After crossing over the cliffs and mountains, they were going through a snowy wonderland, then through a rocky location, and finally after that, they crossed one of many bridges they had passed, going by a waterfall, while passing a sign with 'Far Far Away - 100 Miles'.

After a little while, Shrek turned his head back to look over to Braedey, who was sitting in the back of the carriage with the luggage. "You okay back there, Braedey? You've been awfully quiet during this whole journey." He asked.

"I'm alright, Shrek. I've just been watching the scenery go by for the past few days, while also looking at the sky above." Braedey replied casually. "We've still got a long way to go."

"True. But I thought you'd want to talk or something." Shrek added in.

"Nah. I figured I should stay quiet so you and Fiona could relax and be ready when we get there." Braedey spoke back calmly.

"I guess so..." Shrek shrugged.

Braedey lays down on his side, before looking to the blue skies above, taking note of the clouds rolling by. He noted its also somewhat the afternoon, considering the position of the sun and the colour of the sky as well.

'We should be arriving as the sun begins to start setting on the horizon.' Braedey thought to himself.

Suddenly and finally, Shrek lets out a yell of exasperation, startling both Braedey and Fiona. "ARE WE THERE YET?!" He yelled out.

Fiona then looked out the side of the carriage, and she smiled. "Yes!" She replied to her husband.

"Really? We've made it?" Braedey asked in surprise. He looked over to see where. His eyes widened as he saw it. "Whoa..."

The Kingdom of Far Away appeared to be located at the edge of the sea, on a peninsula, or an island. There looked to be many buildings, there, while there's a large wall ring that seemed to go around the kingdom, with a large castle on a hillside above, with the name of 'Far Far Away' as a large sign on the hillside.

"Now THAT is pretty..." Braedey commented, as they made their way towards this new and interesting place.