September 3 404 page

From ILB

Wandering_Angela is the winner! You can thank her for the chance to spy on the Queen's secret roads this week. Just for fun, I have played a little game myself with what you will find...

Here are the questions you can vote for this time.

Avery: Have you ever had to tell a lie? Why? Did anything bad happen because of it?

MasterKirk: Do you have a job? What are you doing when you aren’t interacting with us humans?

Crashless: It must be difficult with someone like Flea constantly groping you. It seems like you and he have become friends of sorts, is that accurate? I worry that he's not telling you why he's trying so hard to get the Queen to build roads for him. Why would he want to do such a thing?

Kathleen W: Are you reflected?

Shad0: Tell us about the glass coffin in the dungeon. What is it like? Can you see anything from there? How did the Queen get you into it, and why? Even more interesting, how did you ever get out of it?

Mike P: Why are you sleeping? Do you always talk so much in your sleep? What name do you go by when you’re awake?

Naptikon: How can we spy on the Queen/Pious flea? Is there a way we can distract them or in some way help you? Who opened the glass coffin?

Here is Angela's question:

Q: We've been wondering about your relationship with the Queen. Are you her daughter? Or are you a visiting Princess from another kingdom? Do you have a name other than Princess?

A: The Queen wants to smother me. The Queen wants to lock me up. And I am not her daughter. I'm a lot older than I look, Angela. That's not something I remember, that's something I just know. I'm older than the Flea and I'm older than the Queen and it was bad day for them when the coffin cracked and I got out because I'm never going back there again. I'm a survivor I play to win and I will die before I go back again.

I had another name once, but I lost it.

I am a little sad today.

But that's okay. I'm tough. I've got Pluck.

Okay.

I think I'm going to tell a story now so I get in a happier place, and because Paul asked last time, and I said I would.

This is not a game. I like games, but this is just the first chapter of a story I'm making up, now. I'll make up some more next time.

Perdita's Story

Chapter 1: The Circus

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Perdita, who lived with her father, her mother, and her brother in a little cottage in a big city. Her father was only a humble tin-cutter, and her mother's fingers were stained with rust from working in a ball-bearing factory, but Perdita was famous for miles around because of her extraordinary beauty. She was not a bad girl, but she was very vain, and spent hours every day preening in front of her mirror.

One day, the Circus came to town. The father decided to take the whole family there, even though they didn't have very much money. So off they went to see the Glass-Eater and the Broken Lady and the Electric Weasels for which this particular circus was known.

After the Glass Eater had spat out his last bottle of the afternoon, but before the Weasels were due to arrive in their famous Luminous Barouche, Perdita saw a balloon salesman selling beautiful bouquets of balloons. The balloons came in extraordinary colors—firelight-on-steel was one, the green of a heaving sea another. Perdita was fondest of the red ones: cheerful balls of bright blood red with long strings that bounced and tugged up against your hand exactly like hope.

As soon as Perdita saw them, she knew she had to have some.

She begged and she wheedled until her family came over, but the balloons were very expensive. Finally her brother said he would use his allowance to buy her some, and the jolly salesman (whose face was as round and red as one of his balloons) said she could have a whole bouquet on account of she was so beautiful, and she could choose exactly whichever ones she wanted.

So Perdita began choosing her most favorite red balloons. But she was so vain, and so particular, and so slow about it, that finally her father said the rest of the family was going to see more of the Circus. Perdita was to follow the balloon salesman on his rounds. When it was time to go, the family would look for the red balloons and come and get her.

But by the time she finished making her choices, she realized that the salesman had traveled far, far away from the fairgrounds. Clutching her bouquet of balloons, Perdita ran and ran all the way back to the Circus, but when she got there the grounds were empty and the gates were shut.

She was alone.

How silly I have been! she said to herself, blinking back her tears. I took so long picking out my balloons my family got tired of me and left! And now I don't know where the balloon man is either! And thinking this, she sat down at the circus gate and cried a little cry.

As the sun went down, she saw that the circus was not in the very nicest part of town, and she felt sure it would be a bad idea to spend the night there. She could just hear the crunch-crunch of the Glass Eater having dinner, and it gave her the shivers.

Besides being very beautiful and rather vain, Perdita was a brave and resourceful girl. She decided she would find her own way home, even though she wasn't quite sure how to get back to the humble tin-cutter's cottage.

But Perdita thought, what if my father or my mother or my brother comes to look for me? I know: I will leave a trail of red balloons so when they come back here, they can follow me. I will start walking, walking, walking for home, and every few blocks I will tie a red balloon to something I pass, so they can see where I have gone.

And this she did.

That's all for now. Next time, Chapter Two: The Clockwork Rat! In the meantime….

Plans for construction
—roads not built yet but coming—
I stole them for you!

love,

Once upon a time... (http://www.ilovebees.com/onceuponatime.html)