"Flora?" asked Kyle, his head spinning and his throat choked with dust. "Flora?" The circle around him had been destroyed in the blast, the oil lamps overturned and their fires extinguished. He was aware his hearing was not what it could have been, the ringing in his ears making him dizzy. He shook his head to clear it and staggered to a standing position. Almost immediately he was hit from the side by Flora flying at top speed into him. She hugged him tightly around the shoulders, pinning his arms to his side.
"We did it!" she laughed. "Midnight tonight – she will appear wherever this wand is! Make sure you keep it safe until then! Now off you go – run quickly and don't let anyone see you! I will deal with any questions – hide for today, tomorrow as well if Fairy Godmother agrees that it is safer to do so. In case I do not see you again before this evening – good luck Kyle! Now go!" Flora forced Fairy Godmother's wand into Kyle's hand and sent him off over the hill, away from the direction Shrek and the others were approaching from. Flora turned to face the group marching up the hill and resigned herself to her fate.
Kyle ducked under some bushes and skidded down the side of the hill, trying to hide from any and all prying eyes. It occurred to Kyle that the location of the cottage he had rented would probably be known to Maria, so headed to the only other safe refuge he knew of – the Poisoned Apple pub. He rented a room from Doris, swore her to secrecy, then retreated to his room for the rest of the day.
Flora meanwhile, was facing a grilling about the spell she had just performed.
"Why? You told us it was far too dangerous. Why did you do it?" asked Fauna.
"Because we didn't have any other real choice. And it was too dangerous to risk our lives on. We could have all died if we'd tried the spell together. So I tried it alone – at least then only one of us would die," answered Flora.
"Who helped you?" demanded Fauna.
"No-one. I made myself the sacrifice."
"But I could have sworn..." started Puss, then stopped. If Flora was prepared to lie to her sisters about this spell, perhaps it was better that he keep the fact he had seen two figures on the hill to himself.
"What?" asked Merryweather.
"I could have sworn that she looked far too happy on completing the spell to have just offered herself as a sacrifice," lied Puss.
"Are you sure you did this alone?" asked Merryweather, glaring at her sister and daring her to lie. Flora smiled sweetly and put her hand on Merryweather's shoulder.
"Of course I did it alone – I didn't want to risk anyone else's life – remember?" Merryweather nodded in response and Fauna smiled encouragingly.
"So we just need to keep you safe for the spell to work?" asked Fauna.
"Yes."
"What's the condition?" asked Merryweather.
"I'm not going to tell you that – the more people who know, the harder it will be to keep it a secret from Maria."
"Of course," agreed Merryweather. "That's very sensible, but I'm still not talking to you."
"Fine," answered Flora, glad that the conversation appeared to be over. As the group descended the hill to go for breakfast at the castle, Flora thought about Kyle and hoped he would be safe. Her plan rested on the castle-folk being completely out of the loop when it came to Kyle's involvement in order to keep him as safe as possible. This did of course mean that for the next day thirty-six or so hours, Kyle was on his own.
Kyle watched through the window as the sun descended, marvelling at how the sun's rays retreated over the trees and trying to fix the image of the coloured sky in his mind, aware that this may be the last sunset he would watch. Tomorrow he would be far too busy to worry about sunrise, sunset or any other marvel of nature. He thought about Simon and how the sorcerer's return would harm Far Far Away if he was not stopped. In his mind, Kyle played out all the ways the plan he had hatched with Flora could go wrong. Perhaps Dama would refuse to help Far Far Away. Perhaps she would help and fail to stop Simon. What if she teamed up with Maria and Simon? What if she came back insane? I probably wouldn't notice the difference, thought Kyle, adding a virtual footnote to the worrying scenarios reeling through his mind. Kyle watched his pocket watch as it approached midnight. The minute hand seemed to be slowing down as it crawled through fifteen and then ten minutes. After what felt like an hour, the watch hit five minutes to midnight. He took out the wand from his pocket and placed it into the centre of the floor, clearing as much space around it as possible. As an afterthought, he closed the curtains and checked the lock on the door to ensure some privacy. The minute hand had one minute to go.
Kyle perched on the end of the bed, glancing alternately from the wand to the pocket watch in his hand. The minute hand ticked to midnight. Kyle drew a deep breath, closed his eyes and waited. After ten seconds he exhaled and opened his eyes. Nothing had happened. The quiet ticking of the pocket watch filled the room, emphasising how empty it was. The wand had not stirred, nothing had entered the room. Panicking, Kyle threw open the curtains and checked outside, as if expecting to see Fairy Godmother fluttering outside the window or pacing outside the pub. A bored stray looked up at the window and barked twice, begging to be let in. Kyle closed the curtains and looked back at his watch – two minutes had passed and there was still no sign of Fairy Godmother.
What happens now? I wonder if I did something wrong, thought Kyle. Am I still under contract to those voices? Terrified thoughts about how he was going to explain to Flora that the spell had failed and whether or not they would be able to save the kingdom spun around his mind, his heart pounding in his ears as the adrenaline kicked into action, the remaining logical parts of his mind completely shut down. As he sank back onto the bed he pulled out the pocket watch and looked at the face – five past twelve. He felt tears of despair fill his eyes as he listened to the town bells chiming midnight.
As the last toll of the palace bell faded and while other, lesser clocks fought to catch up, the small star on the end of the wand started to glow. A thin wisp of pink smoke wound upwards from the tip, circling up into a thin pillar of pink clouds. Silver sparks glistened like stars inside the pillar as it grew outwards into a thicker cloud, two foot wide and five feet tall. Kyle watched as the pillar started to turn, noting how with each rotation the pink slowly faded more and more into pastel blue. With a rush of magic energy, the pillar burst outwards, throwing Kyle off the bed and landing him painfully on the floor. The room darkened again to the flickering candlelight he had been watching the time by. He fought to stand, pulling himself up on the bedpost. He looked to the floor where the wand had been placed – Fairy Godmother was standing, her back to Kyle, leaning over to pick up her wand. Kyle watched as she picked up the wand, swished it as though to test it still worked, then reached up to check her hair. On impulse, Kyle rushed over and presented her with the broken glasses he had saved from the night of the wedding feast. Fairy Godmother took them wordlessly and tapped them once with the wand, fixing the broken glass and turning the frame colour back to blue. She positioned them carefully on the end of her nose and looked up.
"Kyle?"
"Yes, Fairy Godmother?"
"Where are we?"
"In the Poisoned Apple pub. A back room. Upstairs."
"Why the..." she started, before a look of comprehension suddenly dawned on her face. One hand flew dramatically to her mouth as memories filtered in about the wedding party, the fight with Shrek and Harold, the wand blast... and what had happened afterwards. She could recall all too vividly exactly what happened to magical beings who used their magic to harm others. Closing her eyes against the unbidden memory of an afterlife she needed to forget, Dama fought tears for a moment. As she stood there, frozen to the spot, Kyle tried to comfort her by slipping an arm around her shoulders.
"Fairy Godmother?" he asked softly. She immediately broke into loud sobs that racked her entire body, forcing her to kneel down as her knees buckled under the strain of retaining and then losing control. Kyle crouched next to her, cradling her in his arms and letting her cry until she finally stopped out of sheer exhaustion. After a few moments, Fairy Godmother dried her eyes, smoothed down her dress and stood, turning to face Kyle.
"Someone brought me back?" Kyle nodded as he answered.
"Flora."
"Really? Why?"
"Um, I'm not sure I'm supposed to..."
"Kyle?"
"Yes?"
"What the bloody hell is going on?"