Begonia woke up slowly, wondering where on earth she'd ended up this time. Oh yes, Cobweb's garden, that's right, they'd been out drinking and ended up crashing in Baldrick's table, much to his annoyance. As she lay there she felt something move in her pocket, and quickly and tentatively put her hand in and pulled out Gnettle and Gene who were waking up with much comical parping, since they found zebbie-talk very funny, even when they had hangovers. Begonia looked around and finally saw Cobweb herself, snoring in a corner.
Begonia sat up and wondered why she felt like there was something she was supposed to be remembering. What could it be? Gnettle farted at her and said 'Parp parpparp parp' and giggled. Begonia looked at him crossly 'You know I'm not as fluent in zebbie as Cobweb!' she snapped 'what was that supposed to mean?'
The small racket woke up Cobweb who looked blearily across the room at Begonia and said 'Happy Birthday Begonia, old stick, and many happy returns!'
Oh. Oh thought Begonia. That was it! It's my birthday! And we were all drinking  because I need to set out on my 16th Birthday Great Quest today...and drinking that much wasn't really such a great choice, now I come to think about it! Oh bu...darn.
Cobweb grinned at her 'Has your quest been revealed to you yet?' she asked
'Huh?' replied Begonia
'For fairies the Great Quest is revealed in dreams the night before their 16th brithdays. What did you dream about last night?' said Cobweb
'Oh, er...' for the truth was they'd only had a couple of hours sleep and Begonia didn't remember dreaming anything much in that time 'let's see' she said, fishing round in the back pockets of her murky memory 'There may have been a path through woods. And lots of farting sounds? And something very firey. And a big room that kept changing. And more farting. Is that normal?'
Cobweb laughed happily 'I think we can safely assume the farting was just the gnomes sleep-farts making their way into your dream. For the rest, it sounds like you need to return to your ancestral castle for some reason - do you remember where it is?'
'Um. In the West, somewhere? Maybe' said Begonia.
'Ok, good enough for a start!' said Cobweb 'let's have some coffee and breakfast and gather up whoever wants to come and we'll start walking west, and see what happens!'
'OK' said Begonia, a bit weakly, as she would have preferred to stay in bed all day but could see that wasn't going to happen. She pulled herself out of the gnome table into the daylight and tried to tidy herself up a bit. Cobweb followed and the little group of gnomes tumbled after.

Camilla dressed from head to toe in pale blue spiders silk skipped along the grassy path that lead to her besties place   She hadn't seen them in AGES!, she had a very special gift for a very special gal who just happened to be celebrating her 16th birthday,  humming a happy tune to herself she came suddenly to her destination,  just as she leaned forward to knock on the door it flew open and there stood the gang , Begonia grabbed her hand and pulled her in,  Camilla felt a lovely warmth in her stomach , the pleasure at being amongst her friends.

Begonia and Cobweb gave Camilla a huge hug and they all smiled happily at each other.
'Are you coming on my quest too?' asked Begonia
'of course I am' said Camilla 'look what I got you for your birthday!' and she thrust the package into Begonia's hands
Begonia carefully unwrapped the present and there was a pair of strong walking boots...but what boots! Pink and sparkly and slightly rainbowy, they sent off little shards of colour, even on a grey day.
'OH. MY' said Begonia, dazzled by the boots and completely overwhelmed by the generosity of her friend 'Oh Camilla! They are the prettiest boots ever! Thank-you so much!'

Baldrick looked confused.  He was never very quick on the uptake and had only just processed the information about Begonia having an ancestral castle.

"'ang on, 'ang on," he said.  "Are you tellin' me that you is landed gentry or summat?  What's all this then?"

Cobweb tried to shush him.  She didn't want Begonia's joy over the pink boots and her impending quest to be diminished by the gnome poking into her business.  She knew things about Begonia and her ancestral home that she wasn't sure her friend wanted all and sundry to know about.  But he was having none of it, and kept insisting.

"Well?" he demanded.

"Well" said Begonia, blushing furiously "it may be, I mean might be, well, kinda probably well, you know...imightbealittletjnybitofaprincess" she finished in a rush "so anyway,  does anyone want another cup of tea? I'll fetch another pot then" and off she flittered in a right flutter

Cobweb bustles out after her friend, pausing only to give a hard stare and a warning hiss at Baldrick as she passes him.

Begonia is in Cobweb's kitchen, looking flustered and panicked, and Cobweb puts an arm around her for a quick hug.

"You don't have to tell them anything," she says firmly.  "They don't need to know about the ... yeah, they don't need to know anything you don't want them to know.  And you know that I won't say anything, all your secrets are safe with me, always".

Begonia smiles weakly at Cobweb.  "I know," she murmurs, turning away, pretending she's making tea but surreptitiously wiping her eyes.  Cobweb's not fooled, but just puts her  hand on Begonia's shoulder.

"It's time though, Cobweb, isn't it?  I mean, I'm 16 now.  I'm a big grown-up fairy.  I should be able to handle this, and face up to going back, shouldn't I?"

"Only if you are ready," her friend says calmly, giving Begonia's shoulder a gentle squeeze.

"I am," comes a surprisingly strong reply as Begonia turns back to face Cobweb.  "They won't think anything bad of me, will they?  They're my friends, right?"

Cobweb nods.  "They really are, all of them".

"Then I'm ready.  They'll still come along on my quest with me, right?  They'll still love me?"

Cobweb smiles.  "Always!" she says with conviction.

As they prepare to leave the kitchen and go back to their friends, Cobweb has a sudden thought.  "I have another little gift for you," she says.

She puts her hands to her  neck, and removes a silver necklace with a small silver whistle on it, which she hands to Begonia.

"Do you remember doing another quest, years ago, when that unicorn helped us out?  He gave me that whistle, remember, and said that if I ever needed him, all I had to do was use the whistle and he'd come?"

Begonia nodded.

"I think it belongs to you now," Cobweb says. 

Camilla was very overexcited,  imagine Begonia being royalty she said to herself  , she made an attempt at what she imagined a curtsey to be and found herself in a muddle of legs caught up in her dress , she giggled to herself and decided Begonia would have to make do with her mate as she was , ...during her long separation from her friends she had worked hard on her wandship and now put her practice into use , mumbling the words she had memorised and written on her arm just I  case she waved the wand and there on the table was a birthday cake , the top was decorated with a scene from a ballroom and the dancers waltzed across the floor , if you looked closely you could see they were tiny versions of the fairyland friends , even Zebbie

And the tiny version of Zebbie was made, of course, from choccy biccies.

Begonia clapped her hands in joy as she spotted the lovely cake.  It was all going to be OK, she told herself.