Wishing Well of Wenatchee: Conclusion

Entrancing the Rats

I'm sure you're all familiar with the story of the Pied Piper of Hamlin.  It's all about a guy that lured the rats out of town by mesmerizing them with his trilling and piping, thus sparing the denizens of Hamlin from their infestation.


In the case of our story however, it was more like the Fairy Flautist of Wenatchee.  The Royal Rat-catchers were doing an knock-out job of rounding up those rats and collecting tails but they needed a little help.  Reaching for her double-flute, Princess Lolly began to play an enchanting tune.


The trilling fairy music was too much for the rats to resist.  Dazed, they began to follow the notes on the breeze as the Princess led them around the faire.  When she played a jig, their knees kicked up in a dance and the children laughed.  If her tune was drawn and slow, the rats languidly mosied along behind her.


Round and round the Wishing Well they went.  Each time the spiral was a bit smaller, and each time more and more children, peasants, craftsmen and nobles gathered to watch as the Rats crawled into the Wishing Well one-by-one and didn't emerge again.

We found the Magic Plunger!

It should come as no surprise that amongst the on-lookers and rubberneckers, were the Bellydancers - just like a raccoon, they cannot resist the mystery of that which is shiny!


It wasn't long before whispers began to rush through the crowd.  Those clever kids found the Bellydancer who had absconded with the Magic Plunger and beguiled it away from her so that it could be properly restored to the Faeries.


Princess Lolly was so happy with the children for helping her get the Magic Plunger back, that she declared a drawing must be done that very moment for fabulous prizes!

Despite all protestations from the Bellydancers that the Magic Plunger was really just a useless piece of old junk and that they had found it fair-and-square, the children handed it over to the lop-eared Breezle.  Pooka - which is what Breezle was - have their own language that generally involves never saying anything straight.  There is a twist to their doublespeak however, and Breezle knew just how to cast the spell to use the Magic Plunger to retrieve the Golden Plunder.


Once...twice...thrice!


Into the Wishing Well she dipped and withdrew a pile of treasures that were given away to the lucky winners!  Among the goods were awesome items from artists and merchants such as:
Purple Eggplants
Art of Suiter
D&D Chain Maille Creations
Occams Edge
Tymon's Forge Works
Cat and the Cradle
Neptunes Treasures
Quicksilver Fantasies
Nomad Traders
Mercy Nine Designs

News travels fast, it seems, and it wasn't very long before a band of merry men got wind of a certain Fairy Princess who would be traveling through the forests of Sherwood Fantasy Faire...and you had better believe they started scheming on just how to gain all that fairy gold!...

Join us in Sherwood June 16-17, 2012 to see what happens next!

Wishing Well of Wenatchee Part 2

Elsewhere around the faire, Princess Lolly was having a wonderful time blowing bubbles with all the colorful little spritelings who had come out to play.


All the while, swarms of rats were making their way through the hamlet of Wenatchee.  They had come in on that rapscallion Sparrow's ship and were now running amok around town.


These particular rats weren't hard to spot since they had grown quite large.  Sailing around on a pirate ship, food was easy to scavenge around the bulkhead when humans were sleeping.  Consequently, these fat rats were dawdling around town, swishing their tails and frisking whiskers on their search for scraps.

Giant Rascally Rats

Lured by the wonderful sting music around the faire, three sleek rats followed their ears: one brown, one black, and one white.  A colorful maypole rose up on the green, leading the way to rows of merchants and the rats snuck in the gate by trailing the hems of skirts on the young ladies.


One of those maidens just so happened to be Lavender, a purple-gowned faerie in the Princess' court.  Lady Lavender squealed at the sight of the vermin.  They could sense her fear and so decided to have some fun, nipping at her toes and chasing her (and anyone else who would run) around the faire.

Artea the Dragon

Well, those rats were so rascally and fast, the Princess had to hire as many Royal Rat Catchers as she could.  Fortunately for everyone, Lolly had a pet dragon named Artea who loved to make snacks out of rat tails.


The Princess struck a deal with the young ones around the faire: for every rat tail that you bring Artea to snack on (dragons can have quite an insatiable appetite), I'll trade you prizes from my Magic Apple.


A sweet deal, to be sure!  Royal Rat Catchers were in action everywhere, catching small rats and medium ones, spotted rats and lop-eared rats.


As one might suspect, pandemonium ensued as the children gave chase to those rats.  In the bright sunlight, there weren't very many dark corners for the rats to skulk off to and hide.

.To and fro they chased those rats but there were just too many of them, and the big ones were especially clever, eventually a different solution had to be found to resolve the rat infestation...

...to be continued...