Catania was stressing her mind trying to figure out what the answer was "Mariposa and Carlos should know?" She thought "Must be something from Flutterfield." She watched as Mariposa looked over at Carlos, still confused. The prince smiled and raised his eyebrows.

Mariposa chuckled slightly then went back to thinking.

Catania's eyes widened "Oh!" she said as she clamped her hands over her mouth.

Hervey grinned at her "I take it you figured it out?"

Catania nodded.

"What is it?" Mariposa asked.

"If you two can't figure it out, then I will allow her to say." The troll walked over to Catania and whispered "Do they not know or something?"

Catania shrugged "It's hard to determine with those two." she whispered "I don't know if they don't realize it or are just to shy to show it."

Hervey nodded "Maybe this journey will change that." he pointed to where the two butterfly fairies were standing facing each other.

Carlos was staring at Mariposa trying to figure out what Hervey had meant.

About that time, she looked up and met his gaze, her brown eyes taking on a slight sparkle.

Carlos couldn't help the small smile that crept across his face. Then he blinked. Wait. What was he supposed to be doing?

Mariposa couldn't seemto look away from the Prince's aqua colored eyes... especially when he started smiling. Wait. What had she been doing? It was something about a toll... maybe.

Oh yeah! The riddle.

Just then, both of their eyes widened as they suddenly realized the answer and quickly looked away from each other.

Hervey smiled "Catania. Would you like to say the answer?"

Catania clasped her hands behind her back "It's true love."

Hervey nodded "There is no greater power in the world than true love." there was a long moment of silence, then the troll clapped his hands "Alright! Come along."

The three fairies looked at each other than followed.

"We need to get to a whirlpool that will take us to some mermaids." Mariposa said ducking through a small entrance.

"I know." Hervey responded "But I'm afraid the tunnel to get to the whirlpool only opens early in the morning."

"Oh."

"You may as well come eat."

Carlos raised a curious eyebrow "Eat? Eat what?"

Hervey glanced mischievously as Mariposa and winked "Oh you know. Stuff."

"Yep." Mariposa added "Protein. Stuff without a name."

"Mainly because no one can think of what to call it!" The troll said dramatically.

Catania turned slightly green "I'm... not really hungry."

Mariposa and Hervey looked at each other right before they burst out laughing.

"Wait." Carlos said a moment later "Trolls are vegetarians. You eat fruits and berries. Right?"

Hervey nodded "Right. That's giants that grind bones to make bread. We eat the good stuff." he winked at Catania "And worm and grubs are not on our list."

Catania giggled "Good to know."

"And, here we are!" Hervey ushered them into a large room that was swarming with trolls caring bows and baskets of food.

"Uh..." Mariposa looked back at her wings.

Even though the room was large, it had been set up to fit the needs of the trolls.

Hervey glanced back at her "Ooh. Just watch where you put 'em."

Mariposa laughed "That's gotten me in more trouble than anything." she shrugged "I know how to get them out of the way." thus saying, she grabbed the ends of her wings and folded them down.

Hervey stared at her wide eyed "Ow."

"It's not that bad."

"If you insist."

Catania smiled then quickly pulled her wings down "Shall we?"

Carlos shook his head "I think I'll leave mine."

The two girls laughed.

Hervey nodded "I think yours will be fine, Prince Carlos." then he shouted into the room "We have guests!"

All the other trolls started cheering, and one came over to them.

She was a bit shorter than Hervey but with the same color hair "It's nice to have you here." she said with a smile. Then she looked back and forth between Mariposa and Catania "I though Butterfly fairies and Crystal fairies were rivals."

"We were." Mariposa answered "Right up until a few months ago."

Catania nodded "We dissolved out differences."

The troll slapped Hervey's arm "I told you we needed to get out more!"

Hervey shrugged "This is my sister, Haulley."

Haulley waved for them to follow her "Please, come eat."

Zee nodded in satisfaction "Food food food!" then she looked around "Anu?"

Catania shook her head "He couldn't come."

"Oh."

All day, the fairies listened to stories and played with the trolls, even though they were all anxious to get going.

Finally the sun set, and the trolls decided to throw a party.

Carlos was watching Catania dance with the trolls when he suddenly realized that Mariposa was missing.

He quickly glanced around but saw no sign of her "Where did she go?" he mumbled to himself.

Just then, he saw a large shadow on the floor that looked like a pair of wings.

He looked up and smiled.

The top of the tree was chopped off, which allowed the moon light to shine in. Mariposa was sitting on the ledge looking up at the stars.

Carlos quickly flew up to where she was and sat down beside her "Everything okay?"

"Yeah." Mariposa nodded "I just hoped we'd be in fairytopia by now. The skeezites are going to tell Henna we're here."

"It's going to be okay." Carlos said encouragingly "I promise."

She glanced over at him and smiled, then looked back up at the stars.

There was silence for a few moments before Carlos spoke "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Why did you want to come alone?"

She looked over at him, her face unreadable "I didn't." she answered quietly "But I didn't want anything to happen to you. Or Catania." she shook her head "You're the only heir to Flutterfield, as Catania is to Shimmervale. They need you." she looked down towards the ground "Why did you come?"

"As you said, I'm the Prince of Flutterfield." He said "I do whatever I can to keep it's people safe." then in his mind he added "Especially you."

"But what if something happens to you?"

"Nothing will." somehow, his hand ended up on top of her's that was laying between them "I promise."

Mariposa looked down at their hands, then his face "How do you know?"

He smiled softly "You just have to believe me."

They just stared at each other for a long moment. Then, ever so slowly, Carlos leaned over towards her and she felt powerless to move.

They were barely an inch apart when laughter below caused them to look down.

Catania was still having the time of her life dancing with the trolls.

Carlos felt Mariposa pull her hand out from beneath his, then she placed it in her lap.

He couldn't really tell in the dark, but he thought her cheeks had taken on a pinkish tint.

"Well," he said a moment later to break the tension "Would you like to join the party?"

Mariposa shook her head and smiled "No thank you. You go ahead and have fun."

Carlos nodded and sent her one last smile, then he went and rejoined the trolls.

Mariposa smiled to herself and looked up at the stars.

"They're coming!?" Henna shrieked "What do they think they're going to do? Stop me?"

"Well," one skeezite said "They got away because the trolls let them in."

"The trolls?" Henna nodded slowly "Of course. They're going to go get the key from the Enchantress that will allow them to pass through the wall." she turned to the creatures "GO to Fairytopia and stop them!"

"Fairytopia?" several skeezites echoed.

"Yes! They have no lights there at night! Find Mariposa, Carlos and Catania and get rid of them! Then you can eat as many fairies as you want from Fairytopia!"

"What kind of fairies are there?" One skeezite asked.

"Several kinds. Now just go!" Henna watched as they left and shook her head "Mariposa thinks she's going to stop me again? I think not! This time Mariposa is going to be destroyed!"

Early the next morning, Hervey led the trio to a part of the tree they had not seen.

"It should open in a moment." the troll said "You'll have to crawl, but it'll get you there." He shook their hands "Good luck."

"Do we have a time limit to get out of there?" Catania asked.

"Yes." Hervey nodded "Fifteen minutes. But it's only a ten minute crawl. You'll know when the tunnel's about to close because there's several holes that sunlight shine through. When the sun passes, it'll close."

A second later, part of the tree wall began to move, revealing a small tunnel.

"We'd better get going." Carlos said "Ladies first?"

"Go ahead." Catania retorted.

Carlos rolled his eyes and crawled into the tunnel "It's not too terribly small."

Catania followed "Yeah. I can just lay my wings straight back." then she froze "Wings. Mariposa."

Mariposa sighed "I'm right behind you." she pulled her wings down to a skirt and looked at Hervey "Thank you."

The troll stared at her doubtfully "You're going to crawl on your wings?"

"I don't have a choice." Mariposa sent him a smile, then crawled after the other two "Let's go."

It was a slow painful process through the dirt tunnel. Several times, Mariposa had to pause to give her wings a rest from dragging on the ground and being crawled on.

"Are you okay?" Catania asked, looking over her shoulder.

"Yeah. Keep going."

What seemed like an eternity later, Carlos announced that he could see the end of the tunnel. A few moments later, he crawled out and stretched.

"Oh, that feels good."

Catania followed "No kidding."

Mariposa was about to crawl out when her wings suddenly stiffened "Oh no." then they popped open, not able to stay down any longer.

"Mariposa?" Catania leaned down and looked into the tunnel "Are you coning?"

Mariposa tried to move, but her large wings were bracketed around the small enclosure.

"Mariposa?" Carlos asked slowly "What's wrong?"

She watched as the sunlight began to leave the last hole. The tunnel would be closing soon! Once again she tried to move, but got nowhere.

"What's wrong?" Catania asked again.

Mariposa looked at her wings then at them "I'm stuck."

(Yay! Everyone guessed the riddle! Either everyone is really smart or I'm a bad Riddle maker... it's probably both. Anyhoo... Thanks for all the Reviews, favs and follows Folkz! Laterz!)