Queen Faustina woke up with a strange feeling, and she was right. Everything was going haywire!
"Where in the name of Sha Bebe is everyone? What is going on here? This is not good!" Queen Faustina was flustered.
All the while she walked, she stomped her feet down in frustration, thinking of where Madame Plume and Madame Poulette were, along with why the one hundred dolls wouldn't wake up. And, what was up with the sugar mill ladies? Her mind was pounding with unanswered questions. She walked faster to go back and help Betty Lou with that turban wrapped around her head.
All of a sudden, a gust of wind rushed along the braided rug road, and something lifted her into the air.
Coming to a stop, she saw that she was in a dark gray area that had some type of brownish vines surrounding her. There was no color at all in this place that she had never seen before. She was put down into a rickety, old wooden chair. As she sat in the chair trying to see what these creatures were who took her from her land, a deep male voice asked her a question.
"Are you the Queen who is ruler of the land of Sha Bebe?" His deep voice was cackling and sounded spooky.
"Yes I am," she answered in a stern voice, squinting to see who was speaking. "My name is Queen Faustina, and I want to know where I am? And, who are all of you?" she pointed to all of the dark shadows that she could see, but not clearly. "You have no business entering the land of Sha Bebe," she told them with a demanding voice trying extremely hard not to show her fear as she stayed sitting in her rickety, old chair.
"And you, Queen Faustina, have no right to stop us from entering your land. We have gone into many places all over the world to wreck havoc. Since the beginning of time, we have brought chaos to places where peace resided," answered the voice.
"I have every right to say what I want about the land...."
"My name is Robes Pierre," he interrupted the Queen. "I am the most wicked ruler you know, and I go wherever I please. No one stops me. I always have others who want to follow me," he said loudly, and then laughed with his cackling ha ha ha, that echoed in all the areas of the gray place.
"Show yourself!" demanded Faustina stomping her foot, as she stood up from her chair in her blue night robe. That blue night robe was the only color that she saw in the dingy, gray place. "You say you are a wicked ruler. A wicked ruler of what? If so, then show yourself!" she said with a stern voice. "A ruler doesn't hide in the darkness like a coward."
"You DARE to call me a coward?" asked the wicked one as gray smoke started filling the gray place on the floor area. The gray smoke had a piquant smell.
"I DARE to call you a coward! Show yourself I say," she demanded again. Her fear deepened, but she wouldn’t let it show.
Stepping out from the darkest area in the gray place, Robes Pierre came into view of Faustina. With the beams of light shining upwards, she could now see who was speaking to her. And, what a sight he was. She stood in awe, with her mouth open, slid her hands down from her eyes and rested them on her cheeks.
Taking another look at Robes Pierre from head to foot, she was totally bewildered at the site of this creature-doll thing standing there in the midst of all the vines that surrounded him also. He looked ragged with age. She had to ask. "And, now that I see you, what are you?" she said softly, trying to let the site of this creature sink in.
"Have you not heard of the Fee Folay?" asked Robes Pierre as he threw his cane to the floor. He was enraged that the Queen didn't know who he was. How could she forget him?
Still, quietly taking all of this in, she answered softly, "Yes, I have heard of the Fee Folay, but you're the first one I've ever seen. Why are you here?" she asked with one hand on her chin, wondering what he wanted, while the other hand was impatiently tapping on the arm of that rickety old chair.
"I am here with twenty other fiendish companions, he said placing the tiny hat back on top of his feathered head. "I am here to take your land away from you." He paused and made a clicking sound with his aqua colored tongue, "And, after I take the land, I'll make the dolls extinct."
"WHAT?" the Queen screamed in anger. She didn’t know that she had anger inside of her. She was always gentle, kind and loving. There was never a need to be angry in the land of Sha Bebe.
"You most certainly will not take my land away from me," she huffed. "Humans need the dolls in their life! What have you done to the dolls? I demand to know. And where are Madame Plume and Madame Poulette? I am Queen Faustina," she boasted proudly, shaking her head and gesturing wildly with her hands, "and as ruler of the land of Sha Bebe, you can take yourself and your entourage and get the heck OUT of my..."
Suddenly, she was lifted out of the rickety old chair by six of the other wicked fairies and brought to another place. This place was surrounding her with more vines, and it felt like she was in prison. She looked around and saw no opening to escape, so this had to be a prison. Never had she been so restricted in such a manner. Never.
Queen Faustina wept openly.
