A couple of pages into the book, Daphne put the palm of her hand into her mouth and bit down hard. She always did this when she was excited. Sabrina walked over to see what was so interesting.
She found pages of cute baby animals cut from magazines and books glued inside. There were puppies playing with kittens, little foxes peeking their heads out of bushes, a pony racing along a field with its mother, little bunny rabbits eating lettuce, and precious white-furred baby seals frolicking on a beach. Sabrina thought her heart might melt. "Oh, they're so cute," she said out loud.
"I could just eat them!" Daphne said.
And that was when the rope whipped around their legs, flipped them upside down, and yanked them high into the air.
"Puck!" the girls screamed.
The fairy boy stepped out from behind a row of trees. He was wearing a green camouflage helmet of the kind Sabrina had seen on soldiers in old war movies. He had on his usual filthy green hooded sweatshirt and ratty jeans, but he was covered in medals and ribbons as if he were some kind of eleven-year-old five-star general. Spilling out of the woods behind him came a dozen chattering chimpanzees. Each had on the same helmet as their leader but wore bright-red overalls. They all had very eager faces, and water balloons in their hairy hands.
Puck walked over to a small table where an old record player was sitting. He picked up the needle and set it down on the record. A rousing patriotic song filled the air.
"Our plan has worked, men!" Puck shouted over the music. "I told you our enemy could not resist photographs of cute baby animals!"
"Puck, get us down now!" Sabrina demanded. The blood was racing into her broken arm and making it throb with pain.
"Keep your distance, men. Don't be fooled into believing that our enemies are helpless. These 'girls,' as they call themselves, are a crafty bunch. I've seen inside the thing they call a 'purse.' It is filled with all kinds of toxic sprays and pointy things they wouldn't hesitate to unleash on us."
The chimps looked at him with great respect.
"Now, unfortunately, the laws of war prohibit us from killing these two, but I believe we can have them deliver a message to the rest of their kind."
One of the chimpanzees raced to his side and handed him a fat, sloshy water balloon.
"Puck! Don't you dare!" Sabrina demanded.
"Oh, but I do dare, Captain Doodieface," Puck said, turning to his army. "Men, fire at will!"
The first wave of balloons hit Sabrina in the chest and splattered onto Daphne's face, but instead of drenching them in water, they covered the girls in something that smelled a lot like a combination of mayonnaise and grape jelly
The chimpanzees tossed balloon after balloon at the girls. Each one exploded on contact, soaking them in the foul-smelling glop. By the time the army ran out of ammunition, the sisters were covered from head to toe.
Puck pulled his wooden sword from his belt and stepped over to his prisoners. He poked Sabrina in the side with his little weapon.
"Now you know what happens to people who do not pay their debts," Puck said.
"One of these days I'm going to get my revenge, fairy boy," Sabrina said. "You won't know when it's coming but it's coming, buster. It'll happen when you least expect it."
"Your threats are boring me, Captain. B-O-R-N-G, boring!"
"I am going to--"
"Puck, we were just thinking of sneaking out and getting into some trouble." Daphne said, interrupting her sister's tirade. "We thought you'd like to come along."
The boy cocked an eyebrow. "What kind of trouble?"
"We want to go back up to the hospital and look for clues about our parents."
"Boring!" Puck shouted as he pretended to yawn. "This is important!" Sabrina begged.
"Which makes it even more boring," Puck said. "I've got better things to do."
"When we're finished we could go to the overpass and toss eggs at passing cars," Daphne offered.
Puck's eyes lit up. "Cut them down, men."
*
After the girls got cleaned up and put on some warm clothing, the trio was off. The little snow-covered town lay sleeping, unaware that a flying boy and two young girls were floating high above. As angry as Sabrina was at Puck, she found herself envying him once again. Puck was a genuine pain in the butt, but he had powers and those powers made him useful. If only she could do something special, too.
"I still can't believe Little Red Riding Hood kidnapped Mom and Dad," Daphne said. "She's the hero of that story."
"Well she jumped off the crazy bridge long ago," Sabrina said. "She and the Jabberwocky nearly killed us."
"Nearly killed you,"
Puck argued. "I beat the stuffing out of that overgrown lizard."
Sabrina rolled her eyes and then spotted the hospital below.
"There it is," she cried, pointing at the burned-out shell. Part of the roof was still intact and much of the right wing of the hospital was still standing, but otherwise the place was in ruins.
"There's not much left, Grimm," Puck said as he set the girls on the ground. The wind was picking up and the damaged beams swayed under its force.