Chapter Nine; The O'Reilly Clan
As Lilly stepped inside, a bunch of other leprechauns were huddled around her. That's when suddenly they all turned to face one another and started to whisper. Lilly studied them very carefully as she caught certain words like "girl" and "stranger." "I'm still here you know." she commented rather loudly catching their attention. "I haven't left." she said before suddenly a female leprechaun with bright red hair like Dan's (although hers was curly) and long silky green dress with bright blue eyes and wooden shoes upon her feet walked over to her.
"I'm sorry miss, please excuse us. We don't mean to be rude." she began. "I'm Mrs. O'Reilly, but you can just call me Patricia. And these four young gentlemen are my boys. Patrick, Keith, Ryan, and Dylan. And these two right here are my twin girls Molly and Shannon." she explained.
"So basically I'm the black sheep of the family." Mike began. "Since everybody has an Irish name but me." he explained.
"Well at least you weren't saddled with a name that comes from an old Irish song." Dan said before all four of his brothers gathered around him and started to sing.
"Oh Danny boy the pipes are calling,.." they sung out before Dan raised his fist and shook it at them.
"Oh yeah, well you'll be calling a dentist to have your teeth fixed if you don't shut up." he growled underneath his breath.
"Touchy." one of his brothers (Lilly wasn't quite sure which one since they were all rather tall and skinny and looked exactly the same) began. "You really need to lighten up a bit Danny." he teased.
"He's totally not even worth our time worrying about, he wouldn't hurt a fly." another one of the boys said.
"Yeah, he totally fits the Danny in the song." the third brother said when suddenly Dan's eyes turned as red as his hair.
"Yeah,.. he even lives in a meadow!" the first brother exclaimed and before Dan knew it he was on top of him and the two leprechauns started wrestling each other to the ground before Patricia's own eyes turned red.
"Boys! That's enough! We have a guest!" she hollered before her eyes instantly changed back to blue and then she turned back over to look at Lilly. "I'm sorry my dear, I didn't catch your name." she said.
"Uh,.. Lilly." she replied rather quietly.
"Right then. So how exactly did you get here miss Lilly?" she inquired.
"Uh,.. I__ I don't know." Lilly replied.
"Daniel can answer that one for you." Mike began. "Go on, tell her son." he instructed while both of the boys slowly got up off of the floor.
"I shrunk her." Dan admitted sheepishly before his mother put her hands upon her hips and glared at him sternly.
"I see. And just why in the name of Saint Patrick would you want to do a thing like that for!?" she exclaimed.
"I had no choice Ma, she nearly ran me over!" he cried. "I think the real question here is what was she doing in the Enchanted Woods in the first place? No human has ever been known to find them before, and not only that,.. but you're supposed to get into Fairytopia by using the Garden Gates not the woods."
"What??" Lilly questioned him with uncertainty. "I don't even know what you're talking about." she told him with a shake of her head before he quickly turned back over to look at her.
"The Garden Gates. That's the real way into Fairytopia. It's right after the Sea of Tears. That's where all of the sorrow in the world gets washed away since it can't enter here." he explained.
"Wait a minute, that must be what I dreamed about then." Lilly realized.
"Nobody has been able to enter here before without passing through it." he told her.
"Actually, as it just so happens,.. there has." his mother began. "You see a long time ago there was another girl who discovered our land by our woods. Her name was Jessica Darcy. The only problem was that since she didn't pass through the gates, she didn't have all of her sorrow drained out of her. I know this because I met her once, it seems like yesterday although in reality it was such a long time ago." she explained.
"Wait a minute? Jessica as in the evil enchantress Jessica?" Lilly inquired as Patricia nodded.
"Yes child." she told her.
"So,.. what happened?" Lilly wondered.
"Well at first she seemed like a lovely child, but the more I started to know her the more I started to realize just how exactly troubled and misguided she was. She came from an abusive situation. A lot of the time her mother would drink and take her anger out on her, and her father was hardly ever home. When he was, he didn't believe that the young and beautiful woman that he fell in love with and married would do such an awful thing like that. So he called her a liar, he told her that she needed to grow up and sent her to her room afterwards. So she decided to runaway." she explained as Lilly bit her lip.
"I know how she feels." she admitted when all of a sudden all of the leprechauns looked over at her with concern. "I mean, nobody has hit me before, but I know how it feels when just about everyone you know thinks that you're being untruthful. Although I can't say that I blame them for it since I haven't always been a hundred percent honest in the past." she told them.
"See that's the trouble with lies." Patricia began. "You start telling enough at them and you start getting so good at it that people will believe them until they find out that they're untrue. And once they do find that out, it's really hard for them to trust you again. Since trust isn't something that can easily be glued together again." she told her.
"I'm beginning to understand that." Lilly began. "So what happened to Jessica?" she asked.
"Well,.. at first she loved it here in Fairytopia. I swear in all my eight hundred and fifty two years I had never met a more kinder, beautiful, and gentler little girl. However, once she met the queen of our land that's when she suddenly changed. She started becoming envious of her beauty and tried capturing her and pulling her wings off." Patricia explained as Lilly's mouth suddenly fell wide open.
"You mean Sophie's mother?" she questioned her out of horror and utter disbelief.
"You mean to tell me that this child has met our princess?" Patricia responded as Dan nodded.
"Yes. Sophie's the whole entire reason that she's here in fact." he told her.
"So,.. anyway,.." Patricia continued. "Maria had to do something that was one of the hardest things that she ever had to do. She banished Jessica and sent her away into the darkness. I never saw her after that." she said.
"It's true." Dan began with a nod. "I remembered what happened when she first got here, but I didn't know that it was the same way that Lilly got her. The only time she comes out of her castle now is when she's collecting magic." he said.
"I hope you guys understand that I'm nowhere like her." Lilly began. "Just because I came the same way that she did." she finished. "I mean we might share some similarities but I'm not an evil person at all." she told them when suddenly a moment of silence fell over them. "Honest!" she exclaimed. "I'm really not!" she cried indignantly.
"Calm down I believe you child." Patricia began soothingly.
"How can you?" one of the leprechaun brothers began. "Jessica said exactly the same thing."
"I know, but Lilly has come from a lot different situation than she did. However, that doesn't excuse the fact that she lied and ran away from her mother who must be so worried sick about her right now. I think that Daniel you better take her down to the Sea of Tears just in case." she said.
"What? Why?" Lilly wondered.
"Don't you remember what I told you before? There can be absolutely no sorrow or negativity in this land. It wasn't meant to exist here. All you have to do is go wash yourself in it and you'll be fine. Then you won't have anything to worry about." he explained.
"Yes but I think that that can wait until tomorrow. First we need to put some food in that belly of yours and find some place for you to sleep for the night." Patricia said.
"She can share our room." one of the twins suggested. Lilly thought that they looked rather cute. They both had long red curly hair like their mother with fancy silky pink and purple dresses.
"Thank you dear." Patricia said smiling down at her daughter. "Why don't you go ahead and show Lilly to her room then?" she questioned as both twins nodded before showing Lilly down the hallway.
As Lilly stepped inside, a bunch of other leprechauns were huddled around her. That's when suddenly they all turned to face one another and started to whisper. Lilly studied them very carefully as she caught certain words like "girl" and "stranger." "I'm still here you know." she commented rather loudly catching their attention. "I haven't left." she said before suddenly a female leprechaun with bright red hair like Dan's (although hers was curly) and long silky green dress with bright blue eyes and wooden shoes upon her feet walked over to her.
"I'm sorry miss, please excuse us. We don't mean to be rude." she began. "I'm Mrs. O'Reilly, but you can just call me Patricia. And these four young gentlemen are my boys. Patrick, Keith, Ryan, and Dylan. And these two right here are my twin girls Molly and Shannon." she explained.
"So basically I'm the black sheep of the family." Mike began. "Since everybody has an Irish name but me." he explained.
"Well at least you weren't saddled with a name that comes from an old Irish song." Dan said before all four of his brothers gathered around him and started to sing.
"Oh Danny boy the pipes are calling,.." they sung out before Dan raised his fist and shook it at them.
"Oh yeah, well you'll be calling a dentist to have your teeth fixed if you don't shut up." he growled underneath his breath.
"Touchy." one of his brothers (Lilly wasn't quite sure which one since they were all rather tall and skinny and looked exactly the same) began. "You really need to lighten up a bit Danny." he teased.
"He's totally not even worth our time worrying about, he wouldn't hurt a fly." another one of the boys said.
"Yeah, he totally fits the Danny in the song." the third brother said when suddenly Dan's eyes turned as red as his hair.
"Yeah,.. he even lives in a meadow!" the first brother exclaimed and before Dan knew it he was on top of him and the two leprechauns started wrestling each other to the ground before Patricia's own eyes turned red.
"Boys! That's enough! We have a guest!" she hollered before her eyes instantly changed back to blue and then she turned back over to look at Lilly. "I'm sorry my dear, I didn't catch your name." she said.
"Uh,.. Lilly." she replied rather quietly.
"Right then. So how exactly did you get here miss Lilly?" she inquired.
"Uh,.. I__ I don't know." Lilly replied.
"Daniel can answer that one for you." Mike began. "Go on, tell her son." he instructed while both of the boys slowly got up off of the floor.
"I shrunk her." Dan admitted sheepishly before his mother put her hands upon her hips and glared at him sternly.
"I see. And just why in the name of Saint Patrick would you want to do a thing like that for!?" she exclaimed.
"I had no choice Ma, she nearly ran me over!" he cried. "I think the real question here is what was she doing in the Enchanted Woods in the first place? No human has ever been known to find them before, and not only that,.. but you're supposed to get into Fairytopia by using the Garden Gates not the woods."
"What??" Lilly questioned him with uncertainty. "I don't even know what you're talking about." she told him with a shake of her head before he quickly turned back over to look at her.
"The Garden Gates. That's the real way into Fairytopia. It's right after the Sea of Tears. That's where all of the sorrow in the world gets washed away since it can't enter here." he explained.
"Wait a minute, that must be what I dreamed about then." Lilly realized.
"Nobody has been able to enter here before without passing through it." he told her.
"Actually, as it just so happens,.. there has." his mother began. "You see a long time ago there was another girl who discovered our land by our woods. Her name was Jessica Darcy. The only problem was that since she didn't pass through the gates, she didn't have all of her sorrow drained out of her. I know this because I met her once, it seems like yesterday although in reality it was such a long time ago." she explained.
"Wait a minute? Jessica as in the evil enchantress Jessica?" Lilly inquired as Patricia nodded.
"Yes child." she told her.
"So,.. what happened?" Lilly wondered.
"Well at first she seemed like a lovely child, but the more I started to know her the more I started to realize just how exactly troubled and misguided she was. She came from an abusive situation. A lot of the time her mother would drink and take her anger out on her, and her father was hardly ever home. When he was, he didn't believe that the young and beautiful woman that he fell in love with and married would do such an awful thing like that. So he called her a liar, he told her that she needed to grow up and sent her to her room afterwards. So she decided to runaway." she explained as Lilly bit her lip.
"I know how she feels." she admitted when all of a sudden all of the leprechauns looked over at her with concern. "I mean, nobody has hit me before, but I know how it feels when just about everyone you know thinks that you're being untruthful. Although I can't say that I blame them for it since I haven't always been a hundred percent honest in the past." she told them.
"See that's the trouble with lies." Patricia began. "You start telling enough at them and you start getting so good at it that people will believe them until they find out that they're untrue. And once they do find that out, it's really hard for them to trust you again. Since trust isn't something that can easily be glued together again." she told her.
"I'm beginning to understand that." Lilly began. "So what happened to Jessica?" she asked.
"Well,.. at first she loved it here in Fairytopia. I swear in all my eight hundred and fifty two years I had never met a more kinder, beautiful, and gentler little girl. However, once she met the queen of our land that's when she suddenly changed. She started becoming envious of her beauty and tried capturing her and pulling her wings off." Patricia explained as Lilly's mouth suddenly fell wide open.
"You mean Sophie's mother?" she questioned her out of horror and utter disbelief.
"You mean to tell me that this child has met our princess?" Patricia responded as Dan nodded.
"Yes. Sophie's the whole entire reason that she's here in fact." he told her.
"So,.. anyway,.." Patricia continued. "Maria had to do something that was one of the hardest things that she ever had to do. She banished Jessica and sent her away into the darkness. I never saw her after that." she said.
"It's true." Dan began with a nod. "I remembered what happened when she first got here, but I didn't know that it was the same way that Lilly got her. The only time she comes out of her castle now is when she's collecting magic." he said.
"I hope you guys understand that I'm nowhere like her." Lilly began. "Just because I came the same way that she did." she finished. "I mean we might share some similarities but I'm not an evil person at all." she told them when suddenly a moment of silence fell over them. "Honest!" she exclaimed. "I'm really not!" she cried indignantly.
"Calm down I believe you child." Patricia began soothingly.
"How can you?" one of the leprechaun brothers began. "Jessica said exactly the same thing."
"I know, but Lilly has come from a lot different situation than she did. However, that doesn't excuse the fact that she lied and ran away from her mother who must be so worried sick about her right now. I think that Daniel you better take her down to the Sea of Tears just in case." she said.
"What? Why?" Lilly wondered.
"Don't you remember what I told you before? There can be absolutely no sorrow or negativity in this land. It wasn't meant to exist here. All you have to do is go wash yourself in it and you'll be fine. Then you won't have anything to worry about." he explained.
"Yes but I think that that can wait until tomorrow. First we need to put some food in that belly of yours and find some place for you to sleep for the night." Patricia said.
"She can share our room." one of the twins suggested. Lilly thought that they looked rather cute. They both had long red curly hair like their mother with fancy silky pink and purple dresses.
"Thank you dear." Patricia said smiling down at her daughter. "Why don't you go ahead and show Lilly to her room then?" she questioned as both twins nodded before showing Lilly down the hallway.