My Golden Life

Chapter 16

Somehow, tricking the receptionist and pretending to be from the union that represented 'workers in all magical industries, both evil and benign' actually got us inside. Clearly, Fairy Godmother didn't look after her employees well, as he had lots to complain about. We headed through the double doors and into the heart of the factory. As we looked down from the balcony, we saw that there were many loads of people in white suits walking around either operating machinery or testing potions. All I could hear was the grinding of the machines and voices of the workers talking with one another; it was a well-operated place. 

We continued walking before I pointed out bright flashes coming from one of the corridors. We headed down there, and the lights were almost blinding. Inside we saw Fairy Godmother flying around laughing and giggling to herself, she was waving her wand about and from the looks of it was adding different spells into a large cauldron that had smoke overflowing from it and onto the floor. She was so focused on what she was doing, that we almost gave her a heart attack when we appeared from the smoke.

"What in Grimm's name are you doing here?" she yelled.

"Well, it seems that Fiona's not exactly happy," Shrek said, lowing his voice. Fairy Godmother then let out a slight chuckle.

"And there's some question as to why that is?" She chuckled "Well, let's explore that, shall we?"

She then flew over to her wall library that was behind her desk and started scanning the shelves for a book.

"Ah. P, P, P... Princess. Cinderella.!" She then grabbed a book and flicked through the pages right to the end.

"Here we are. 'Lived happily ever after.' Oh... hahaha no ogres."

Fairy Godmother then chucked the book over her shoulder, and it landed onto her desk. She then looked for another book.

"Let's see. Snow White. A handsome prince. Oh, no ogres."

Just like the last time she chucked the book over her shoulder and was again looking for yet another book. I quite honestly didn't get what she getting at scouring through all the fairytale books; I didn't know what her point was trying to make.

"Sleeping Beauty. Oh, no, ogres."

One by one, she pulled out books, went to the end of their stories and threw them onto her desk. Each time she got more frustrated.

"Hansel and Gretel? No! Thumbelina? No. The Golden Bird, the Little Mermaid, Pretty Woman...No, no, no, no, no!"

She quickly flew down to Shrek before composing herself.

"You see," she explained to him "Ogres don't live happily ever after."

I couldn't believe what she had just said, my mouth just dropped open. How could she even say something so horrible? Shrek didn't take it too well, and a standoff looked like it was about to happen, but one of Fairy Godmother's workers walked in before anything could happen. We ended up leaving her alone, but Shrek wasn't planning on going just yet. 

Shrek and I 'borrowed' uniforms from two of the workers. ( Let's just say it wasn't hard for us to get their clothes.) That way, we would be able to head into the potion room undetected. However, the clothes didn't fit us at all, but we managed to head to the room regardless.

After pulling Donkey and Puss out from inside the trolly Shrek had been pushing, we looked around the enormous room filled with what seemed like thousands of bottles. I didn't exactly know what Shrek was looking for, neither did he, to be frank with you. I guess he wanted to look for something to help him make Fiona happy. He made Donkey be on watch while he got Puss to climb up to the top shelves. As for me, I just watched everything unfold.

"What do you see?" Shrek called up.

"Toad Stool Softener?" Puss shouted down to him.

"I'm sure a nice BM is the perfect solution for marital problems." Donkey yelled from the doorway.

"Just keep watch by the door, please?" I turned to Donkey, pointing to what he was supposed to be doing.

"Elfa Seltzer? Puss asked.

"Uh-uh." Shrek shook his head.

"Hex Lax?"

"No! Try "handsome."

"Or charming," I called up.

Puss climbed across the shelves, scanning all the bottle labels to see if anything would be useful to us, well to Shrek mostly.

"Sorry. No handsome...Hey! 'How about "Happily Ever After'?" Puss said.

"Now that sounds promising," I said, turning to Shrek.

"Well, what does it do?" Shrek asked.

"It says "Beauty Divine," Puss replied.

"In some cultures, donkeys are revered as the wisest of creatures. Especially us talking ones." Donkey said, turning back to us. That's when two workers spotted us before running, possibly to sound the alarm.

"Donkey, we said to keep watch. Now, look!" I yelled.

"That'll have to do. We've got company." Shrek called up to Puss.

Using his nail, Puss started to cut a circle into the glass. He finally managed to get to the potion, but the circle was too small to pull it out and so he started to tug the bottle out, which didn't look like a good idea.

"Hurry!" Shrek shouted.

Puss pulled and pulled, and he did it so hard that the glass shattered, causing him to fall, dropping the bottle. Donkey quickly leapt forward and managed to catch the falling bottle in his mouth.

"That was so close." I breathed out.

"Finally!  A good use for your mouth." Puss said.

Suddenly the bottles from the top shelves crashed one by one onto the floor around us, and as that happened wailing sounds and multicoloured flashing lights filled the room.

"Guys, the door!" I yelled, spotting that it was slowly beginning to shut behind us.

"Come on!" Shrek screamed, grabbing the three of us and rushing towards the door.

He dived and slid across the floor, somehow managing to get all of us out of the room just in the nick of time before the door shut. We hastily ran through the factory towards the exit but were met with several men with crossbows in their hands. Shrek dodged the shooting arrows and climbed onto on the machines. All the while Donkey, Puss and I were either under his arm or clinging onto him. We had to get out of the room and fast, so Shrek ran behind a giant tank filled with glowing purple liquid. He shoved it really hard, and it managed to tip over, causing all the fluid to gush out and fill the room.

He leapt up to grab a leaver, and we travelled across the room high above the floor. I watched as the river of purple gunk came towards the workers who were now running for their lives away from it. It didn't help them at all as the liquid hit them and they all turned into doves. We all managed to make it across to the other side of the factory in one piece, Shrek got the bottle from Donkey mouth, and we all hurried out of the building and into the woods. We now had this strange potion which none of us knew what it was, I hoped that this could help Shrek and make not just him happy, but Fiona as well.