Charlie B. Dinkle's Delightful Adventure

Ch. 15 ~ Charlie's Wedding

Chapter 15

   “Um, surprise?” tried Swaggy Swiggy.

   All of Charlie’s striped squiggle friends stood in front of her, looking very uncomfortable.

   “Wait, you kidnapped me?” Charlie asked incredulously. “With ninja fairies?”

   “Fairy ninjas,” Squiggle B corrected quietly, standing next to Swaggy Swiggy.

   “I don’t care!” said Charlie, throwing her hands up in the air. “I thought we were friends, and friends don’t kidnap each other!”

   “Charlie,” started Swiggy, inching closer. “You don’t understand. We missed you and we tried to save you from The Educator. But before we could, we heard that unicorn busted you out already. And… well, we all missed you, Charlie, really.” The squiggles nearby nodded their heads vigorously. “We didn’t know what else to do.”

   Charlie was still fuming. How could they do this? Kidnapping certainly wasn’t the answer, of that Charlie B. Dinkle was sure, even if they missed her.

   “Uh, I missed you, too,” she said awkwardly, unsure what to do next. “But how did you get these fairies to help you, Squiggle B?”

   This question made Squiggle B even more uncomfortable. “That’s a funny question…”

   “EVERYBODY MAKE WAY FOR THE PRINCE,” a fairy ninja shouted at the top of his lungs. Charlie’s eyebrows shot up.

   Before anything, you should know that Charlie and the squiggles stood in a very, very extravagant room. Flags were draped on the wall, crystal chandeliers hung on the ceiling, and a sleek red carpet covered the ground.  A large, wide window was covered with a thick, velvet curtain.

   And there was a side door. Emerging from it was indeed a prince, with a grand, gold crown and puffy, sophisticated clothes. He also couldn’t be any older than Charlie, and his clothes were a tad too big.

   “Bow down, my fellow subjects,” he declared, marching clumsily towards the center of the room where Charlie and her friends stood. “For I am the greatly awaited Fairy Prince, Ansell Glimmerings.” He then went up to Charlie.

   “He, um…” Swaggy Swiggy didn’t look very swaggy at that moment. “He said he’d help out with bringing you if he could see you.”

   “And you must be the lovely Charlotte B. Dinkle,” he said to her, taking her hand in his and kissing it softly. Charlie quickly withdrew. Great, now she probably had cooties.

   “It’s just Charlie,” she corrected. “Not short for anything.”

   The prince stomped his feet. “No! I’m the prince, this is my castle, and I’ve decided your name is Charlotte. It’s prettier.”

   “It’s girly. And you can’t go around changing people’s names.”

   Prince Ansell grinned cheekily before taking a shiny, pretty object from the hands of one of his loyal fairy subjects; a crown. He clamped it on top of Charlie’s head. “I can when they’re my future bride.”

   Ah, of course. “I don’t want to marry you.”

   “Sure you do. Who wouldn’t want to marry this face?” The prince snapped his fingers, and the fairy ninjas started flying around the room. Other fairies entered the room from the side door. Soon, they were all working until the room was decorated with white stuff, an ice sculpture of a swan, classy foods, and a priest.

   “Where’s my dress?!” Charlie panicked when she realized she was wearing a puffed-out, floral, white dress instead of her purple one.

   “Prince Ansell Glimmerings of the fairy kingdom in Munchopia,” The priest drawled out, a gold-and-green embroidered fairy bible held in his hands. “Do you accept Charlie B. Dinkle to be your lawful and loving wife till death does you apart?”

   The prince took a deep and dramatic sigh, looking dreamily at Charlie. “I do.”

   The priest turned to Charlie. “And do you, Charlie B. Dink –,”  

   “NO.” A bouquet of flowers had somehow ended up in her hands during the ceremony, and she threw them on the floor. Then she stomped on it with her sandaled feet. “No no no no no no. I’m out of here.”

   Charlie B. Dinkle dashed through the room, reaching the side door and flinging it open. “Help! I’ve been ambushed into an arranged marriage!” she shouted to the wind.

   Carrying the skirt of her long flowing dress, Charlie reached what was outside the door, which was what could only be described as the secluded interior of a fort. She was trapped, since this was obviously not outside.

   “Charlie, wait!” She heard Swaggy Swiggy call from inside. There was a sturdy-looking yet rusty metal ladder attached to the wall of the castle in which Charlie climbed when she spotted it.

   The ladder was like a tree; for climbing. In which Charlie gladly did. The prince and his fellow fairies and the squiggles rushed outside and gathered around the ladder, looking up at Charlie as she went higher up.

   “She’s such a hassle,” Prince Ansell said. “I hope she won’t keeping doing this when she’s my wife.”

   The ladder reached all the way till the pointy top of one of the towers that jutted out of the castle. Charlie was through a little more than half of the height when she stepped on a shaky bar the wrong way. The bar fell loose, catching Charlie by surprise and nearly causing her to lose her footing.

   The crowd beneath gasped.

   Nearly.

   She regained composure and went up two more bars. Charlie turned around as much as one could on a ladder and kicked at the part of the ladder that had lost a bar. The lower part of the ladder shuddered, and half of the entire thing came off, tumbling to the ground in front of the audience. No one can climb up the ladder now.

   And Charlie couldn’t go down, either. She didn’t think about that right now. She reached the top of the tower, balancing her feet on the slated tiles of the pointy, cylinder roof. Charlie B. Dinkle felt as victorious as Godzilla when he climbed the empire state building, but then she remembered he got shot by a helicopter, and stopped comparing herself to the great ape.

   “Charlotte,” called the prince from the ground. “It is not lady-like to climb the walls of my castle. Please get down so that we may continue the wedding.”

   “Give me back my clothes!” yelled Charlie, the flowing bridal dress whipping with the strong wind.

   This was crazy. This was really crazy. And exciting. Charlie could hear her own heart thump wildly, like it was going to jump out of her chest any second.

   “Too much excitement. Too much excitement,” She whispered to herself over and over, an over-ride of adrenaline overcoming her senses. It sharpened them, making the height seem even more dizzying. “Ooooh, dear.”

   She looked up at the night sky filled with shining stars. It calmed her beating heart a bit. The serene scene of speckled stars scattered across the sky gave Charlie enough pluck to survey the land before her. The little girl was high up enough to see the land beyond the fort that circled the castle. There was trees and lakes, tons of them, forming a large everglade. Shadows moved between the dark greens.

   “Yikes. Even in Munchopia ghosts couldn’t exist… could they?” Charlie asked herself. But they weren’t ghosts. Oh no, the shadows were coming fast. Towards the fort, till they were no longer shadows, but exposed unicorns galloping across the marshland. It was a masquerade of unicorns, hundreds of them really, all nearing the fairy castle.

   And the unicorn leading the great gallop was none other than Quentin Simmercake the unicorn.