I do apologize for my hasty departure during my last journal entry. I heard quite a commotion going on in the house and went to investigate. I thought it might have something to do with Poppy the Pixie, Mirabella's new little...err..."friend." I was quite correct on that!
Poppy was hungry, so Mirabella took her to the kitchen to find her something to eat. No sooner had they entered the room than Poppy jumped from Mirabella's arms and went flying onto the kitchen table. Our person had left a snack of chocolate and Mountain Dew there and Poppy quickly helped herself to both.
Mirabella tried to intervene, realizing those were not the most nutricious of snacks for a little pixie, but Poppy simply wolfed down the last of the chocolate and zipped off to explore the kitchen.
Unfortunately, Poppy's idea of exploring was Mirabella's idea of mischief. She wrecked havoc with the computer...crawling all over the keyboard punching buttons....
She stacked up dishes to climb to the top of the dish rack....
And tried to help herself to more snacks before Mirabella finally caught up with her.
Mirabella gently caught the little pixie and tried to reason with her.
"Now, Poppy, wait! You can't just zip around the kitchen like that! You might hurt yourself!"
Poppy simply giggled at Mirabella's lecture and wiggled about even more. Suddenly, she stopped her endless somersaulting.
Poppy appeared to listen intently to something. "Hey Missy! I hear Hollyhock! What you going to do about Hollyhock? She be hungry too!"
Mirabella sighed. "Poppy, my name is Mirabella, not Missy. I don't hear anything and I don't know who Hollyhock is..."
"Hollyhock be friend! Find her same place you find me!" Poppy insisted.
"You, mean, under the bed?" Mirabella replied, becoming rather worried as to how many Underground friends her unintentional wish might bring.
Mirabella went into the nursery and cautiously peered under the bed. She did hear something. A tiny voice calling, "Bout time! You come get me too! Just like Poppy!"
Mirabella's worry grew. "You come out here...Poppy is out here." she gently called. "Are you Hollyhock?"
The little voice called out again, quite demanding. "Yes! I be Hollyhock! You come and get me!!"
Mirabella began to quietly panic, thoughts of goblins, and secret passages to the Underground world, and who knows what else that could lurk under beds running through her mind.
Her musings were broken by two insistent voices. A now high pitched, whining "Hey! Come here, Missy...come get me!" and a pleading, "Yes, you go rescue Hollyhock, Missy Mirabella!"
Mirabella briefly thought she might need to fetch Master Elrond or Master Allanon, but then reflected she didn't want to be a coward. Against her better judgement, she crept under the bed and saw....dustbunnies. Nothing more, just dustbunnies. No secret portals, no goblins, no Hollyhock. Mirabella breathed a sigh of relief at the absence of anything sinister. Just as she was reflecting on her luck, something tiny swept past her, taking her glasses with it.
Frightened, Mirabella jerked out from under the bed sending Poppy tumbling in the process. Poppy didn't seem to mind one bit. She giggled and flew off. Mirabella squinted a bit and tried to re-orient herself to the now slightly blurry room
She heard lots of giggling coming from the nursery bed and went to investigate. Sure enough, Poppy was there...along with a lovely, delicate, tiny creature who happened to have Mirabella's glasses in tow.
Mirabella looked closer. "You must be Hollyhock. I'm Mirabella. It is nice to meet you. Uhhhm....could I have my glasses back, please, Hollyhock? I do need them."The little fairy, for that is what it appeared to be, paused for a minute before firmly replying, "NO! I find, I keep pretty, shiny toy. MINE!"
Mirabella sighed deeply and climbed into the nursery bed.
Reasoning, pleading, and trying to bargain got her nowhere. Poppy was little help, simply shrugging and saying, "Yep, that the goblin rule...you find it you keep it."
"But...Hollyhock didn't simply find my glasses...she took them right off of me! And even if she had found them...well, we have different rules here about things like that! You can't simply keep something that belongs to someone else."
Finally, Mirabella had no resort but to simply take her glasses back. Hollyhock let out a high pitched wail of "Mine!Mine!Mine!Mine.......!" and tried to snatch the glasses again.
Mirabella quickly put them back on...only to have a very clear vision of the little fairy in a full tantrum. Poppy looked up at Mirabella, rather disgruntled. 
"Missy Mirabella! You make Hollyhock cry! What you do that for?"
Mirabella sat, rather at a loss for words, for a moment. "Well...I....I didn't mean to make her cry, Poppy. But....I really need my glasses. I can't see things right without them....
She gently picked up the two tiny creatures. Hollyhock stopped her tantrum long enough to peek out from behind her hand, still eyeing the glasses.
"Now, look...I am glad you are both here, and I want to be your friend. But...you have to understand things are different here. Friends don't take things that belong to someone else with permission."
Both Poppy and Hollyhock looked blank. "What be this permission?" questioned Poppy.
Mirabella sighed deeply once again, thinking there were many things she was going to have to try to teach her new little friends. Her dream was indeed to be a teacher when she was older, but this was more than she bargained for, and after all, she was still attending lessons herself.
She stopped and reflected that, at the moment, she just needed to try to get the little creatures to behave long enough to take them to the academy for advice from her Elven friends and Ms. Merriweather.
She tried a different approach with Hollyhock. "Hollyhock, I am so glad I have my glasses on. Without them, I couldn't see how very pretty you are. Now I can see what a beautiful, beautiful fairy you are!!"
That snapped Hollyhock right out of her tears and tantrums. The little fairy preened herself and twirled around for Mirabella.
"Yes! Hollyhock VERY PRETTY! You see me good now?" the little creature crowed in delight.
"Oh...yes...you are more lovely than I would ever even imagined a fairy to be. As long as I have my glasses on, I can see how pretty you are." Mirabella carefully replied.
"Good! You keep these...glasses...see pretty Hollyhock better!!!
Mirabella sighed in relief. At least one dilemma was over.
She carefully gathered up her new little friends and headed to the academy, silently reflecting, "I think I really have my hands full!"
I am quite sure we will be hearing more from our little trio of friends soon enough.Hitty Rowan
