Here’s another excerpt! One of the dares I accepted was to include a character who ends every sentence with “according to the prophecy” and nobody else understands it. Well, here is part of that:

“Get them!” the dwarf yelled. Jasper was fast, and he had flown up to land on a rooftop. The others tried to get away, but a dwarf child caught them in her hand.
“They are mine, according to the prophecy!” She ran off, and the rest of the dwarfs quickly lost interest, thinking she had squished them in her hands. Instead, she ran through the village, careful not to kill them. Jasper followed her, high above where nobody even noticed him. When she got the the end of the village, she went into what appeared to be a play house. Inside there was an evil sort of doll house, which was really more like a jail. There were several empty cages, and she opened her hands. The fairies had been so jostled by the running that they were unconscious. She put each one into a separate cage. “You will wake up when I bring you breakfast, according to the prophecy.” She left, but Jasper thought it best to wait and see what happens before making a plan to rescue his friends. If nothing else, he had to wait for them to wake.
The dwarf child was away a long time. While she was gone, Callie woke first. She looked around the play house. It was like a perversion of the one she had as a child. Instead of stuffed animals, the dwarf had dolls of carved wood. The rocking horse was replaced with a rocking centaur. The doll house jail was also made of wood, but the doors were closed tight and from inside she couldn’t tell how. Soon after, Breena and Lucian were awake, too.
“We have to come up with a plan,” Callie said. “I wish we knew when she would be back. Where did she go I wonder?”
“Bzzzzt!” The sound came from above.
“Jasper?” Callie looked but couldn’t see him.
“I’m sitting on the roof of the doll house,” Jasper said. “I can’t get you out, but I can keep watch outside. I will return to tell you when she is coming back. She said something about you waking up when she brought you breakfast, and something about a prophecy. I hope this information helps you come up with a plan.”
“Thank you, Jasper,” Lucian said. “I am glad that you are safe.” With that, Jasper flew out the window to watch for the child.
“We are safe for now,” Callie said, “but we don’t know what she has in mind for us. At least we are alive. There has to be a reason she didn’t kill us, why she didn’t let anyone else get to us.”
“It is Queen Cardea!” Breena said with a smile. “Remember? She said she will watch and protect us.”
“I know nothing of little girls,” Lucian said. “The two of you will have to figure out what to do. I regret that I can not be more help.”
“I wonder what prophecy she is talking about. Do you know anything about that, Lucian?”
“No, I know of no such thing.”
“Callie, what are we going to do?” Breena asked. She was looking at the doors, which were two layers of chicken wire, criss-crossing itself so as to make the holes smaller. “These holes are much too small to climb through, even for me.”
“Maybe we can reason with her,” Callie said. “Or maybe I can talk her into letting us out.”
“Or trick her,” Lucian added. “Dwarfs are not the brightest of creatures.”
“Bzzzzt!”
“That’s Jasper, she must be coming back,” Callie said. “If she thinks we’re going to wake if she brings us breakfast, let’s play along.” She lay down and pretended to sleep, trusting that the girl wouldn’t notice the change in position. Breena and Lucian did the same. The door opened, and the dwarf came into the playhouse.
“I brought breakfast, according to the prophecy.” She had a bowl of something that smelled rancid, and she brought it to the doll house. “Wake up little buggies, according to the prophecy.”