The subway car rattled along its track. Luna stood with her hand on the bar for stability, lost in thought.
The tiny pixy Phiona finally caught up with his friend the Blibbering Humdinger. Wassa was a giant compared to the pixies, but to a Giant, he was but a speck. Wassa had called for Phiona, saying he had found something extraordinary and Phiona couldn't wait to find out what that was. She could never miss an opportunity for such exciting experiences.
"It's a reflective thingy-doo," said Wassa to Phiona.
"Oh! A thingy-doo! I love thingy-doos!" cheered Phiona.
"I know you-"
The conductor announced they had arrived at her station. She walked to the door. She absently noted someone groaned in what vaguely sounded like annoyance.
Exhausted and glad to be going home, Luna found a seat on the subway. She resumed an earlier fantasy.
The heroine ran full-pelt through the deep dark woods. She carried over her shoulder a bag containing her last and only means of overthrowing the king her father once and for all.
All at once, the ground before her shook and she stumbled. But she stayed down for less than a moment before she was on her feet again. She shot off into the trees away from the great beast-
It was Luna's stop; she got up to leave.
"Oh! You were just getting to the best part!" cried a boy sitting across the aisle from her.
"What?" Luna asked.
"You were just getting to the best part!" The boy stood up with the help of a cane. "What's the creature? How will Princess Eloise defeat his father? What did she take? I need to know." He limped toward her.
"How do you know about that? I've never told anyone any of that!"
"I'm a good listener. So good, you don't even need to… speak, I guess," he said, sheepishly.
"C'mon then, Listener. Let me tell you a story." She led him off the train and out of the terminal. "What's your name?"
"Harry. Will you tell me what she's stealing?"
And Luna smiled. Then she thought.
Princess Eloise did not fear the beast. She was weary of its claws. She avoided its fangs. She did not wait for it to eat her. But she did not fear it.
For she had with her her mother's old magic mirror. It would protect her until she could debase her father.
The creature was one conjured from the dying dust of a dead kingdom. Its master was a man out for blood. It would be swayed by one thing and one thing only: Its own reflection.
But the mirror itself was also magical. It would show her the way to Avalon, home of the Crumple-Horned Snokack! This was the key. The Snoekack is her path to freeing the Kingdom of the rule of the King.
"What do you think, Harry Mind-Reader?" Luna asked.
"I think you're brilliantly talented, Luna. You had me hooked all the way through. Cheers."