• The story went like this: "Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young girl whose stepmother always made her stay home with her baby brother. And the baby was a spoiled child. And he wanted everything for himself, and the young girl was practically a slave in her own home. But what no one knew was that the king of the goblins had fallen in love with this girl and he had given her certain powers, so one night, when the baby had been particularly cruel to her, she called on the goblins for help.

    "A distant voice said 'Listen!'

    "'Say your right words,' the goblins said. 'And we'll take the baby to the goblin city. And you will be free.'

    "More distant voices gasped in awe at the girls words.

    "But the girl knew that the king of the goblins would keep the baby in his castle forever and ever and ever and turn him into a goblin. So the girl suffered in silence. Until one night, when she was tired from a day of housework, and she was hurt by the harsh words of her stepmother, and she could no longer stand it-"

    She was interrupted by Tony, the youngest, crying into her skirts. She lifted into her lap saying, "Knock it off Tony."

    He did not.

    "Stop it, stop it!" she cried out in aggravation. Then, in a threatening voice, she said, "I'll say the words! No...I musn't. I mustn't say the words."

    "Say them!" shouted the other children in excitement.

    "All right. I wish...I wish..."

    "Yes, the girl wished for what?!" asked Gieselle expectantly.

    "I can bear it no longer! Goblin king, goblin king, wherever you may be take this child of mine far away from me!"

    "Those words don't sound like magic," Sam said, for he was the sensible one of the bunch.

    "You're right," said Cordelia, "because the girl's brother wasn't taken away...yet."

    "Tell us more! Tell us more!" everyone, except Tony, shouted.

    "No, I won't tell you anymore," said Cordelia in a soothing motherly tone. "After all, there must be some story left for tomorrow night. Now, get into bed quickly please."

    "All right," the children said, a little disappointed because they wouldn't get to find out the real words until tomorrow.

    After making sure the children were sound asleep, Cordelia returned to her own room, changed into her nightgown, and was about to go to sleep herself, but not before she spoke these words: "I wish the goblins would come and take me away, right now."

    She made this fervent wish out of her jealousy towards her sister, who always got all their parents attention because she dwarfed Cordelia in almost everything (achievements, wisdom, social life, you name it!), her sadness out of not being paid attention to by those self same parents, and her anger towards them and towards Robyn for stealing Gawain, who seemed to have been mistakenly forgotten when she returned to her bedchambers.

    She blew out the candle on her nightstand, settled amongst the warm blankets that covered her bed, and fell asleep at once.

    [A voice said, "She has wished it and so it shall be done. Go to her and bring her here."]

    If one would have peeked into the princess' room that night, they would have heard the strangest scrapings and scurryings along the floor. One would have turned away and cleaned his ears, making sure that he had not heard improperly, and then turned back to find the bed mysteriously unoccupied.

    [In the distance, the anonymous voice laughed in malicious complacency.]

    To be continued...