“All right everyone, here’s the plan. Tomorrow at dawn, we are leaving for the clearing. We should arrive in time to have some decent light and see what we’re doing. Each duo will come from one side, to have the Fay surrounded. Once there, Zazzles will summon the rabbits, then Pip will teleport with them to the middle of the tent while Babette lifts it up. Milk, in his panda form, will tackle the creature and hold her down while Clarissa casts her bounding spell and I will stand at the ready for whatever she throws at us. Any questions?” Lots of them, but we knew better.

After a hearty meal and one last card game, we all went to bed. We would need a full night’s rest if we wanted this plan to work, so many things could go wrong! Starting with the full night’s rest, of course. We had been asleep for a few hours only when someone got up, trying to be quiet. The thing with trying to not wake anyone in the middle of the night, is that most of the time, your own sneakiness is what triggers the deeply ingrained survival instincts. Don’t creep around, you sound like a predator ready to eat people! Anyways, we ended up being wide awake long before dawn, and decided that we might as well get going after a cup of coffee. That was a mistake, the first of a long series…

“Ouch! Babette, watch out with your broom, that was my eye!” said Clarissa, stepping on poor Zazzles, who crawled away straight into Lise’s feet, making her trip and try to catch herself on the first thing she could find. The thing in question turned out to be Pip, who certainly didn’t expect the chubby witch to put all her weight on him at once. Startled, he fell forward and bit on instinct, my tail of course, so I yelled, claws out, and somehow ended up perched on Clarissa’s hat. That was going to be an... interesting... morning.

It was still pitch black when we neared the Fay clearing, the only thing indicating we were close was the absence of all the usual night noises. Along the way and in-between falls, steps on people’s tails, hissing, bumps and all you can imagine would happen to such a party as ours in a really dark forest and on lack of sleep, we had reworked the plan a bit. We wouldn’t try to surround her, it would be the best way to get completely lost. Instead we would all come in on the front of the tent, and proceed as previously decided. Except…

“Where’s the flap?” “Are you sure that’s the entry?” “Sisters, we’re on the wrong side…” “Outch, for magic’s sake Babette, stop it with the broom already!” “Oh, sorry, I thought there was something… “ “That something was ME, you rock-head!” “Sorry Zazzles, I didn’t see you there” and all that sort of pleasantries which delayed us and put everyone in an even grumpier mood.