Off she went, a tiny pink ball of light no bigger than a pinky nail, racing southward through the lush spring greenery of the forest, leaving a trail of golden pixie dust, like tree seeds or flower pollen or the Milky Way, that flashed and fizzed as it vanished.] When she arrived at the sparkling stream, her tiny wings were tired of beating and she was huffing and puffing harder than ever before. She flew along the brown banks of the stream searching for what it was that had made the noise. She was floating still in the air and squinting her eyes to see as far as she could in every direction, when a terrible cry knocked her right out of the air!
She fell into the creamy white throat of a water-lily. The water-lily whispered to her that the brown lump that was causing all the racket was across the stream. She pointed with a petal. She also said that she would be much obliged to Miranda if Miranda might do something about it, because the lump had been wailing all morning and disturbing everyone in the area.
Miranda raced across the stream where she found a baby ogre boy, freshly born of the mud, crying because the bright morning sun was in his eyes, crying because the mud was cold and wet, and crying because he did not know where he was or what he could do about it.
Now, as you may know, baby ogres are about the ugliest babies of any creature in the real or magical worlds; and they have a tendency to perfect their ugliness as they grow up. His forehead was thick, brown, and leathery; but that did not stop Miranda from kissing it. His ears were lopsided and one of them was pointed and twice as big as the other; but that did not stop Miranda from whispering into them that everything was going to be okay. His hair was black, long, and wiry; but that did not stop Miranda from washing it with clear stream water. And his cheek was rough and had already started to grow a sparse bristly beard; but that did not stop Miranda from wiping the tears that poured from his deeply sad, blue eyes, which were the only feature of the ogre that you or I might consider pleasing. Miranda knew that despite appearances all babies of all creatures were tender and all babies of all creatures needed love. She dried the trails of tears on his cheeks by fanning them with her wings, and the lullabye of their humming sent the baby to sleep.
Miranda filled with joy and thought that the baby ogre was the most beautiful being in all the worlds, so tender and honest, so helpless and needing. There was no question. She decided, without even telling herself in words, that she would take care of him and love him for the rest of their life together. She wondered how she could help him now. She thought he must be hungry. She decided to fly back to the red oak tree to get help and advice on what to do. Before she left, she whispered in his ear that she would not be long and gave him a soft fairy kiss on each of his eyelids. Her baby had sweet dreams of honey and raspberries.
When she arrived at the red oak tree, she was so breathlessly excited that she could hardly tell the story. “He was so beautiful, so peaceful, so helpless! I’ve decided to take care of him. His name is Etham.”