Chapter Twenty Nine: In Which Ralph the Timid gets some magic seeds

The music played, the fires burned, the people sang and danced and whirled.It was a riot of colour and movement. It took Ralph a while to get his head around it all but soon he was stamping his feet and clicking his fingers and shouting in time with the rest of them.
Ginger McSporran was performing a complicated jig with an extraordinarily large woman - large both in height and build. Twinkle had peeped out from his sack, taken one look at the party and shot off under a caravan where he was crouched, quivering in fear and dislike.
Ethel was not so perturbed. Having finished eating the intestines she'd been given, she cleaned her beak, preened a little, and then attempted to join in the music, warbling to a rhythm of 'warble warble warble TWEET' with the tweet coming on every click of the fingers.
Mad Pete was eating. The gypsies had brought out giant stacks of food of all sorts of kinds - meat, roasted on the fire, piles of fruit and vegetables, breads, unspecified jelly looking things. Mad Pete was having the time of his life plowing through it all. He was trying to look involved in the dancing at the same time, tapping his foot and chewing in time with the music, and shouting out "Hooopah!" whenever everyone else did, spraying everyone around him with bits of partially chewed food. But he was having a nice time, and that is what mattered, as long as you weren't standing near him.
The party went on late into the night, but eventually the fires burned down and the gypsies faded into their caravans. Ralph the Timid, Ginger McSporran, Mad Pete, Maurice, Shadbolt and Abendigo all sat down around one fire, which was burning very low at this stage, and bathed the group in a red firey glow. Twinkle, now the music had stopped, crept carefully out from under the caravan and into Ginger McSporran's lap, one eye on Ethel.
Ethel looked amused at this fear on Twinkle's part. At least, Ralph thought she looked amused. It was a bit hard to tell with Unusually Large Warblers. She didn't do anything though, just stretched, flapped a bit, walked around in a circle from her perch atop the nearest caravan, tucked her head under her wing and went to sleep.
Twinkle appeared to relax visibily, enough to stretch out and snag Ralph with his claw. Ralph just brushed him aside because he was so interested in what Maurice, Shadbolt, and Abendigo were saying.
Maurice was explaining what the foot-reading gypsies did. "We travel around the Low Plains, and in our travels, we interpret things for people."
"things like what?" asked Ralph the Timid with avid curiousity.
Shadbolt took over the narrative. "Oh, the usual things, dreams, people's feet..."
"Really?" said Raph the Timid. It was a really of "wow, that's interesting" purpose, rather than a really of "i don't believe you at all" purpose.
"Got any dreams you'd like us to interpret, or any feet for us to read?" asked Abendigo. "We'll do it for free, because we're all friends here tonight!"
Ralph thought for a moment, and then remembered the dream he had had the first night he had been travelling with Mad Pete, Ethel, Ginger McSporran and Twinkle. The first dream had been odd, but not very memorable. But the second had been so real....He told them about the girl he had seen at the top of the very tall tower in the very tall castle. "She was very beautiful," he said. "And then I fell down."
The gypsies conferred among themselves, speaking a language incomprehensible to the others. "Ah ha!" said Maurice with delight."I have it!" said Shadbolt, with satisfaction."This is what your dream means," said Abendigo and he went on to explain. "This is what is called a TRUTH dream. That means that you are going to encounter a lovely princess in a tower and you are going to have to save her. But you won't be able to save her because the tower is too tall."
Ralph looked non-plussed. "But wouldn't Ginger McSporran be able to fly up and get her?"
Ginger McSporran clapped him on the back hard. "You'll notice I've been walking with you all this way, Ralphie baby. I'm afraid I had an injury awhile back and the doctor says I must not fly for at least another year or I will never be able to fly again. So - sorry to be selfish, but not even for a damsel in distress will I disobey my doctor. Besides, she's your damsel in distress! You'll have to think of something."
Ralph the Timid looked a bit bitter. "She's not MY damsel in distress! We don't even really know if there is one. It might be a metaphor. And besides, what would I do with a damsel in distress? Surely I'd just be as bad as whoever has her locked up. Hah! It's probably my twin." He picked some grass and started viciously ripping it up into tiny little pieces and throwing it back on the ground, trying not too look upset and failing miserably.
"What's this, what's this?" said Maurice looking curiously at him.
"Do you doubt our interpretations?" asked Shadbolt, raising his eyebrows and looking a bit effronted. They were like a tag team, thought Ralph.
"I'll tell you what, young Ralph, since you've had a hard day and I'm a nice man," said Abendigo, ignoring most of what Ralph had said,"I will give you some magic seeds to help you rescue your princess."He dug around in his pockets and pulled out a piece of folded paper. "Hold out your hands," he ordered Ralph the Timid.
Ralph the Timid did so. Abendigo unfolded the paper and tipped from it two sparkly acorns. They were slightly larger than normal acorns and decidedly shiny, but other than that much the same as usual. Ralph the Timid looked at them a bit doubtfully, but other than that made no reaction.
"Be careful with them," said Maurice. They were off on their three person tag team again.
"Use them wisely," said Shadbolt, grinning manically.
"They are very powerful," said Abendigo, who looked like he might burst into laughter at any moment. "Now, does anyone want their feet read?"
And so the group went on talking, late into the night.

(Word Count: 40251)