Last week’s Fun Fact Friday contained part of a story I’d posted on Instagram during the Topsy Turvy What’s My Line challenge (read that here). This week I figured I’d wrap things up in one handy place!
I’m going to start out by briefly quoting my own explanation of the Topsy Turvy prompts . . .
[This] challenge is a fun take on the TV show “What’s My Line”! The challenge hosts gave us a specific line to start with on each day, and from there we create whatever we like.
And now, here are the last three prompts (with the given lines in the title for each day)!
Day 5: Why are you holding a chicken?
“Why are you holding a chicken?” I asked, staring. The creature Gloria held pinned in her arms cheeped.
“It isn’t a chicken,” Gloria protested. “It’s a phoenix. It came out of the book.”
“A phoenix was in a magic book that sent us into the castle in Beauty in the Beast?” I asked, summarizing my day’s events so far. “And you think I’m the crazy one?”
“None of this was my fault,” Gloria insisted.
“But you aren’t fixing it either, are you?” I turned my attention to the phoenix. Now that I was standing, I could see its small red head poking over Gloria’s elbow. “Maybe it can help us!”
“It’s a bird,” she said, exasperated.
“You must have thought it was important enough to hold on to,” I pointed out, only barely stopping myself from sticking my tongue out at her. Instead, I focused on the magic bird. “Were you trapped in the book too? How do we get out? Do you need help?”
Another roar sounded above us, this one closer.
For good measure, I asked the bird, “Is there anything we can do to stop that beast from eating us?”
Day 6: What did the psychic tell you?
“So, what did the psychic bird tell you?” Gloria asked sarcastically.
I straightened and glared at her, then grinned. “You know, your derision would be much more convincing if you weren’t the one holding it to your chest like a lifeline.”
“Whatever,” Gloria snorted. “Did you think of a way to get us out of this dungeon yet?”
The squeak of rusty hinges sounded behind us, followed by the scrape of wood over stone as the cell door opened. Together, Gloria and I turned, unable to believe our luck . . .
Only to realize it wasn’t luck at all.
A terrifying beast stood in the hallway beyond the door. I know, that’s how all the stories portray the Beast, but what does it actually mean? Well, it means that I had no idea! All I saw was a huge, shadowy form in the dark, the kind of form that definitely has teeth and claws, razor sharp ones.
“I have come,” he said, in a very raspy, ponderous voice, “to ask you to marry me.”
He turned to Gloria on that last part. And I must admit, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Gloria, still clutching her phoenix and leaning back in her corner like she was simultaneously suspicious of all of us and so over it, looked the Beast up and down. And then, just as easily as she might ask me for the time, she said, “Nope.”
Day 7: Did that man just walk through a wall?
“Did the Beast just walk through a wall?” I asked, mouth agape.
Gloria turned to consider the fresh hole in the wall beside her shoulder, blowing dust off of her black dress. “I think the real question is, why don’t we do the same?”
“Um, because it’s a blank hole to nothingness?”
“So? It isn’t this dungeon, is it?”
“True, but we know for a fact that the Beast is over there!”
Gloria looked down at the phoenix in her arms, and then shrugged. “All I really know is, I want out of here.”
She turned to stride out into that black hole, letting the phoenix fly ahead of her as she went. At the last moment, I reached out and took hold of her shoulder as I followed.
And for a moment we were falling . . .
And then we were flying–
And then we’d stumbled into an entirely new world.
But actually, I realized, it was the old world–our world.
“That was so weird,” said Luca, familiar Luca, bookseller and definitely not jailer or Beast. “Where in beyond did the two of you just go? And Gloria, why did your dad say something about wolves?”
“I really don’t care.” Gloria, now phoenix-less, shook herself off and tossed her head. “I’m going for a drink.”
“I think,” I said, feeling a sense of impending doom, “I’m going to need to do the same.”
And that’s all, folks! Next Friday we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled random facts. Enjoy your weekend! 🙂
