Princess Charming

Chapter 13: Elliot

Tonight Elliot's fairy godfather was a vision in tangerine; from his hair, which he had put up into a neat, business like bun, to his shimmering dress suit.

"You would think," the fairy said with a frown. "That by night three I might have a little less work to do to make you presentable. But alas, you still seem allergic to soap and water." The fairy shook his head. "Never mind, I suppose it isn't really your fault. And it's nothing a little magic can't fix." With a hop, skip and a jump, Elliot's threadbare clothes were transformed once more into a suit of ivory and gold.

"There," the fairy said with a smile, evidently feeling very pleased with himself. "Much better. Now we need to get down to business. Tonight is your final chance to win your princess' heart. You need to really impress her. And to do that, you'll need a pumpkin."

"A pumpkin?" Elliot wondered if all fairy-godparents were this strange, or if he'd been extremely unlucky.

"I'll pretend you didn't think that," the fairy said, sticking his nose in the air and rolling up his sleeves. "Aha!" he said, gesturing to a giant pumpkin on the other side of the garden. Elliot had been planning to make a dozen pumpkin pies with it next weekend, but the fairy seemed to have other ideas.

He skipped a few places to the left, muttering again then thrust his hands out in the direction of the pumpkin and started to beckon it towards them.

To Elliot's amazement, the pumpkin did as the fairy commanded, rising up into the air and swelling until it was the size of a small coach. It landed on the ground with a soft thud, as four ornate golden wheels swirled into being. As Elliot watched, mouth open wide, the pumpkin turned a soft rose gold and hardened like metal. A door and window appeared, followed by a box at the front for the driver to sit at.

"Your carriage, Sir. Now close your mouth before the flies take up residence." Elliot closed the mouth he hadn't even realised was open and continued to stare at the carriage in wonder. Had it really been a pumpkin just a few seconds before?

"What else... What else..." the fairy muttered, glancing round the garden. "Ah yes! You need a driver, horses and footmen."

"Let me just call on our small army of staff..."

The fairy gave him a withering stare. "We don't need imaginary staff members when you have so many friends willing to help you."

Elliot laughed. "And they're so much easier to come by!"

"Of course they are; the garden here is full of them." The fairy cleared his throat and turned towards the garden, arms outstretched. "If you consider yourself to be a friend of Elliot," he called out grandly, "and would like to help him win the heart of his fair - though rather temperamental - princess, please come forward now."

For a moment all was quiet, then the grasses started rustling, the leaves shook, the pond water rippled.

Six tiny mice dashed from the grass, two birds flew down from the apple tree and a bulbous green frog hopped onto dry land.

Elliot tried to keep his mind perfectly blank, all too aware that the fairy would pick straight up on any scepticism.

With a dance that looked suspiciously like the macarena, the fairy pranced across the garden lawn. Elliot was so confused that he almost forgot to keep an eye on the animals, who had begun to glow.

The mice were transformed into six white stallions with gleaming, moonlit coats. The birds took on the forms of coachmen in vibrant blue livery, their wings shrinking until they were nothing more than crests on their backs. The frog grew and grew until it became a short, portly man with sallow skin. His eyes were glazed and unfocused. Elliot eyed him dubiously.

"Will I really be safe in a coach being driven by him?"

"Well, he's hardly road legal, but he'll get you to and from the ball in one piece. I guarantee it," the fairy replied with an air of confidence that didn't entirely dispel Elliot's fears.

The frog-driver began to hop forwards towards the coach, pond water slopping from his shoes with every leap. He was halfway across the garden when his foot slipped out from underneath him, sending him sprawling into the wall of the house where he knocked the garden tap clean off the brickwork.

Water exploded across the garden. Elliot backed away, holding up an arm to keep the spray from his face. The horses were panicking. He wondered, as he rushed to try and sooth them, whether it was horses who didn't like water, or mice, and which set of characteristics were most dominant.

"Hey, hey, it's okay!" he said, while the fairy did a rain dance around them to fix the damage. But the horses wouldn't stop panicking. They were tossing their heads in the direction of the house. Elliot followed their line of sight and realised at once what was causing their alarm; water was streaming in the direction of the mouse hole in the wall.

Elliot rushed towards the hole, tugging off one of his dress shoes as he went. He shoved the shoe over the hole, blocking it off seconds before the deluge flooded past. Moments later, the fairy completed his spell and all of the water vanished, the tap on the wall returning to its original state.

The fairy scowled at Elliot. "All my hard work undone because you had to play the hero to a few baby mice." He shook his head as Elliot removed his shoe from the hole. It was dripping with water.

"Sorry," he said as he went to put the soaking shoe back on.

"No, no, no. Don't be ridiculous. You can't go in those. But it just so happens you have a fairy godfather with a particular talent for footwear. Give me a second and I'll have you in the most beautiful shoes you've ever seen."

Elliot wasn't sure he needed his shoes to be beautiful. He would have been quite happy with a dry version of the pair he'd been wearing, but he sighed and waited while the fairy began to dance once more with balletic, doll-like movements.

On the ground by Elliot's feet, a pair of dress shoes began to shimmer into focus, so translucent that they looked like water that was slowly solidifying against the ground. When the fairy was finished, a pair of glass shoes lay before him, even more elegant and refined than the fairy's own.

Despite their beauty, Elliot felt a little bit silly as he put them on. The fairy noticed his hesitance with a sigh. "My talents really are wasted on you. I needed a godchild with an eye for fashion; someone who would squeal and gush about how perfect they are. Instead, I am forced to put up with your scepticism. It's heart breaking."

"I really am very grateful," Elliot replied, feeling guilty. Was he not showing enough enthusiasm? Maybe he would look more excited if his stomach hadn't been tying itself into knots at the thought of the night ahead.

The fairy's expression softened. "There's no need to be so nervous. All you need to do tonight is be yourself."

Of course. Because that's exactly what Elliot was planning on doing in his glass shoes, magical suit and fairy-powered disguise. He shook his head and climbed up into the coach.

{Thank you so much to everyone who voted for Princess Charming in the fairytale community's retelling awards. I really appreciated it. There's only three more chapters left so I hope you enjoy the end of the story!}