Picnic Surprise

     "Where should we have our picnic, Liberty?" Belle asked.

     "I'm not sure. We'll stop when we find the perfect spot," answered Liberty.

     Liberty continued down the brick path admiring the blooming flowers. She so loved being outside in the gardens and often wished she had the time to grow her own. She never realized how busy Belle would keep her when she adopted her. It seemed like all her time was spent caring for Belle, which she also enjoyed, but some day she longed for more quiet times.

     "Oh, let's stop here!" Belle yelled as jumped up and down.

     "Hmm, I'm not sure this is the perfect picnic spot, Belle," Liberty answered, a little hesitant to set down the basket of food she carried.

     "It is, Liberty! My tummy says it is time to eat and our lunch is in my picnic basket, so this must be the perfect spot!" Belle declared.

     "OK, you silly little eizzil, we'll stop here."

     Liberty neatly laid out the blue picnic blanket she had brought with them. The stone path below the blanket was smooth and the carmarillers danced between the yellow and white flowers that grew all around.

     Soon the tiny creatures of the garden were coming around to nibble on the crumbs from Liberty and Belle's blueberry jam sandwiches. Belle couldn't help but to try and catch a few of these creatures, just to get a better look. She even scattered a few crumbs from her delicious Lemint cookies, hoping it would bring them closer to her little paws.

     "You know," Belle whispered while pointing, "I thought I saw a glyme over there one day."

     "A glyme?" asked Liberty. "What is a glyme?"

     Liberty wasn't quite sure what a glyme was, but she thought it sounded quite slimy and gross. Liberty, being a faerie Poogle, was a very clean and neat animal.

     She took great pride in her accomplishments in the beauty contest and preferred to spend her days surrounded by beautiful things, not slimy things, like glymes.

     "I don't see it now," Belle told her with a huff, knowing that she wouldn't really like the small green and pink petpetpet, "but I wish I could have caught it before so I could have shown it to you."

     "Um, yes, that would have been, uh, nice, Belle," Liberty answered with a forced smile. Liberty shivered at the thought and decided it was time to go for a walk.

     "I'm going to go pick some flowers and watch the carmarillers for awhile, OK, Belle?"

     Belle waved as Liberty walked off into the gardens and then turned back to the small creatures that had gathered at her cookie crumbs. 'Glacks, Rainblugs and Jiggybugs are cute,' Belle thought to herself, 'but I sure would like to see a glyme again.'

     With that thought in her mind, Belle decided she would set a trap and try to catch a glyme. Surely once Liberty saw how pretty they were, she wouldn't mind if Belle brought one home with her. Maybe she could convince her by helping to plant a garden. A glyme would need a garden to live in after all.

     Belle hopped over to the small dirt area and began to sketch out what she considered to be a clever plan. First, Belle decided, that she needed to dig a hole. The hole should of course be underneath a large shade tree where glymes liked to hide. Then she would throw a few small cookie crumbs into the hole. Belle quickly got to work, satisfied her plan would work.

     Belle had the hole halfway dug by the time Liberty returned to the picnic area. Liberty was carrying a large sweet heart flower bouquet in her paws.

     "What are you doing, Belle?" Liberty asked with a puzzled look on her face.

     "Oh nothing, really, just playing in the dirt under this large shade tree," Belle answered, not wanting Liberty to spoil her plan to catch a glyme.

     Liberty wasn't sure she should trust Belle to not be up to something, but decided to let the little eizzil keep at it because she was too tired to argue. Now that Liberty had wandered through the gardens, she thought about taking a nice nap in the warm sunshine. She curled up on the blue picnic blanket and closed her eyes.

     Belle was just about to put her cookie crumbs into the hole when she realized she had forgotten one very important part to her plan. How was she going to get a glyme to come to the hole? "Think, Belle," she said quietly to herself. "What do glymes like best?" Then it came to her; a glyme's favorite food to munch on was sweet flowering plants. She didn't have time to go out and pick flowers since it was getting late in the afternoon, so she quietly hopped over to where Liberty was napping and picked up the sweet heart bouquet. She hoped that Liberty wouldn't miss one or two flowers and laid the rest back down where they had been.

     Petal by petal Belle left a trail from the trunk of the tree to the opening of the hole in the ground. She hoped it was enough to bring any glyme around, out of hiding.

     Belle curled up in a small nook by the base of the tree and waited. And waited. And waited. It seemed like this was taking a very long time to Belle as she yawned and stretched. Maybe Liberty was right, a quick nap would be wonderful, she decided. After all once the glyme was in the hole, it couldn't escape, so she didn't need to keep watch at all times.

     Liberty woke from her nap to a strange crawling sensation on her paw. She sat up and straightened her twinkling pink tiara. She looked at her paws and saw nothing unusual and thought it must have been in her dream. A moment later, she felt the crawling sensation again, but this time, it was going up her back. She fluttered her wings, trying to make it stop, but it wasn't working.

     "Belle! Belle! Help!" Liberty yelled in her still half asleep daze.

     Belle woke at the Poogle's cry and stretched before wandering over to see what all the commotion was. A quick peek into her trap revealed that she had not caught a glyme, so with a sigh she came around the base of the tree.

     Just as Liberty came into sight, Belle watched in horror as Liberty, who was jumping up and down, slipped on the tip of her wing and landed with a thud on the stone path. Belle ran to Liberty's side and then all of the sudden just stopped and stared. She couldn't believe her eyes. Liberty looked up at Belle, with her tiara slightly crooked on her head, and asked, "What is it, Belle?"

     "Don't move, Liberty! Not a single wing flutter!" Belle instructed quietly and carefully.

     She quickly picked up the sweet heart bouquet and walked back to Liberty, who had listened and not moved at all. Belle put the top of the flowers near Liberty and watched in amazement as the creature who had scared Liberty so much crawled onto the petals.

     "Isn't it beautiful, Liberty?" Belle asked, as her friend picked herself up from the stone path and peered over the eizzil's shoulder.

     "But what is it?" Liberty asked again.

     "This, Liberty, is what I have been trying to catch all day. It's a glyme!" Belle answered excitedly.

     "A glyme, huh?" Liberty said with a huff. "I knew they would be slimy! And it attacked me too!"

     Belle tried to stifle a giggle while she informed Liberty that the glyme wasn't after her, but the sweet heart flower bouquet. Then Belle asked innocently, "Can we keep it, please, Liberty?"

     Liberty huffed, because after all this fuss, she was not in the mood to bring this creature into her home. She could just imagine all the slime it would leave on her furniture and even on the walls. Just as she was about to tell Belle 'no way,' she was interrupted by the pleading words of her friend.

     "I'll even help you plant a garden, Liberty; that way it can live outside and not mess up your house and..."

     Liberty immediately brightened at that idea. She did want a garden of her own so badly and had thought having Belle around made that impossible. If the little eizzil was willing to help though, that would save a lot of time and trouble for Liberty.

     With a smile and nod, Liberty agreed to bring the glyme home. Belle and Liberty cheerfully collected seeds and clippings of all the beautiful flowers on the way home so that they could plant a garden right away!

     Liberty smiled at the thought of how beautiful her garden would be.

     Belle smiled at the little glyme in her paws.

     And the glyme happily munched on the sweet heart flower bouquet all the way home.

The End