Dewdrop sat on her legs on the table top, her dress skirt splayed out around her making her seem to be rising from a white flower. She cried as her mom recognized her -- through the size and the clothes and the new gender, her mom recognized her still. She didn't notice Cornelius at all; as if she couldn't see him. And neither fairy nor human noticed the way he looked off in the distance.
"Honey -- honey, how did this happen to you?"
Despite her worked up emotions, Dewdrop's mind worked a little bit better this time. She knew that she could not reveal anything about the costume while Alice could hear. Alice, who would probably leap at the chance to be a fairy, too. No, Alice couldn't know.
"It was that thing I bought this morning. It did this to me. It changed me. Mom, this is all just so crazy!"
Alice repeated Dewdrop, more or less, but their mom nodded as if she understood. "The thing I told you to throw away?"
Dewdrop nodded. "I did what you told me. But it was too late, I think."
And then Dewdrop watched and was amazed at sparkling blue lights fell around her mom, and watched as the giant simply froze in place. When Dewdrop stopped gawking, she turned and saw the same shower of lights falling around Alice, having similar results. Then she saw the Queen descending to the table.
Cornelius stepped forward, standing between the Queen and Dewdrop. "Apologies, your highness, I take full responsibilities of by 'trothed."
The Queen landed on the table with dainty feet and took her stern look from Dewdrop and shifted it to Cornelius. She softened then, and smiled. "Coz, it has been too long. Much too long."
Cornelius smiled back and bowed deeply, taking the Queen's hand as he did so, and kissed it. "It has been. Thank the moon and stars for Dewdrop."
"The moon and stars, indeed." The Queen said, and she looked again at Dewdrop. The wingless fairy had one question on her mind through all this.
"What did you do to my mom and my sister!"
"I will not answer a question given with such rudeness. I am your Queen."
Dewdrop jumped to her stocking feet. Her little hands balled up. Her magic wand started to glow.
"I am not your subject. I am a human and a man," Dewdrop said with a tiny, feminine voice, "Now, what did you --" The Queen flicked her wand and cloth rose up from the ether in the air, completely wrapping Dewdrop up in plush and cloth. She couldn't move. Not one tiny bit.
"I am your Queen. Speak respectfully to me, or I will lay a curse upon you so great you will never find your escape."
Cornelius, once again, stepped between them. He put his hand on Dewdrop's newly plush shoulder, and the connection between them swelled into existence. "Dearheart, please think this through." Dewdrop felt as though a calm and cool wind blew over her, calming the fires in her heart.
'Don't do this, do not try and control my emotions.' She mind-whispered to Cornelius. The fairy smiled.
'I am not, I promise, my love. Please, search my heart. I know my cousin would never hurt your mother or sister.'
Somehow, as Dewdrop looked into Cornelius' emerald green eyes, at his perfect chestnut hair and soft lips, she found the truth. She found somewhere in his mind, a total assuredness that her mother and sister were fine. And something -- a tiny something deep in her heart -- sparked to life as she took the Prince let go her shoulder and the cloth curse fell away.
Dewdrop looked again to the serene and beautiful queen, and she curtsied. It wasn't a good curtsy, but it was better then the last one. "I apologize, your highness. Please, tell me what you have done to my sister and mother?"
"They are merely in a waking sleep. Soon the spell will break and they will have no memory of the last few minutes. Long enough that your mother, at least, will have no memory of your contact with her."
"But, they could help me break this curse and turn me back to normal." belatedly, Dewdrop added, "your highness."
The Queen sighed. "You are not cursed, Dewdrop. How many times must I and others tell you: you are normal. You are a fairy; a beautiful fairy girl with a bright future ahead of her, for no ordinary fairy could give flight to a child, stoke the fires of life in a toy, and broken a decades old curse all in less than an hour. You are destined for great things. I can feel it."
"Please, your highness, don't call me a fairy. It makes me feel small."
The Queen grimaced. "I shall allow you to search for a way to become human once again. This, I have no problem with, if that is what your heart truly desires. HOWEVER, you may not, under any circumstances, involve a human, child, adult, or otherwise, in this pursuit. You may not make direct contact with any human adult. You must, in the meantime, observe all the laws of fairydom. And should you find the means to become human, you must consult with me before you use them. Is that fair to you, Dewdrop?"
