text: [Themes: Fantasy]
  
  > go north
  You are Molly Butterfield, dairy farmer extraordinaire. You have the finest cows and the sweetest butter for miles around, and word of it has spread far and wide.
  
  Perhaps too far.
  
  In the past week there have been two mysterious butter disappearances from your own kitchen. There will not be a third.
  
  This time, you'll be lying in wait for the thief. And you'll be armed with a fire poker.
  
  > examine the dish
  A china dish shows off an exquisite specimen of butter, round from the butter mold and stamped with your signature imprint of a flower.
  
  With all the labor that goes into making butter, you feel a twinge of regret that you're sacrificing it to lure a thief, and on a beautiful dish passed down from your grandparents, to boot. But you're determined to find out who has been stealing your butter, and why.
  
  You hear a cow lowing outside--unusual for this time of night. Something must have startled Millicent.
  
  > examine the poker
  An iron fire poker, useful for scaring off intruders if necessary.
  
  The door creaks open, revealing a sliver of night.
  
  > examine the door
  The front door is open.
  
  Glimmering points of light float in through the doorway like different colored fireflies.
  
  > look at the points
  Points of light drift and flicker like tiny luminescent butterflies.
  
  The flickering points of light drift towards your fancy plate of butter. Now the butter dish is rising into midair. The butter dish balances, then hovers towards the front door, accompanied by the lights.
  
  > close the door
  Not now!
  
  The butter on its dish floats through the doorway, surrounded by the glimmering sparks, and then the door closes behind it.
  
  You let out the breath you've been holding and lay down the fire poker. You won't be needing a heavy thing like that to deal with a couple of sparks. You're better off using your wits, and if need be, your fists. Now, where's that thief off to?
  
  > go outside
  It's shadowy in the yard. You can just make out the red water pump in the moonlight. The farmhouse stands to the west, and the forest to the east. There ought to be a path into the forest, but you can make out only a tangle of trees.
  
  White pebbles glint in the grass.
  
  Points of light drift and flicker, carrying with them the dish of butter.
  
  The glimmering lights are making their way slowly east across the field.
  
  > take the pebbles
  You scoop up a generous handful of pebbles.
  
  The glimmering lights are making their way slowly east across the field.
  
  > Pump pump
  You sidle over to the bright red water pump and begin pumping water. The thief startles at the noise and vanishes along with the coveted butter.
  
  > go east
  You feel as though you have entered not one forest, but two. The trees you've always known are still here, but tonight new trees have joined them, and an unfamiliar mass of wild brambles has overtaken most of the ground. The new vegetation intersects the old and grows right through it, unaffected by its presence. A stream flows through the center of it all.
  
  You know every path through the forest--this is your home, after all. But tonight you're not sure you'll be able to find your way back.
  
  Unless, perhaps, you have something to mark the way.
  
  > drop the pebble
  Good idea! You'll leave a trail of pebbles as you go through the strange forest so you'll be able to find your way back. (You are
  now leaving a trail of pebbles automatically.)
  You drop some pebbles on the ground.
  
  > examine trees
  Strange, otherworldy plants and trees surround you.
  
  The colored points of light float slowly south with the fancy dish of butter, staying well away from the stream.
  
  > Go south
  A clearing in the heart of the double-natured forest. Unfamiliar vines hang down through familiar trees, and strange toadstools grow near a hollow log that wasn't here before this evening.
  
  You drop some pebbles on the ground.
  
  > examine the toadstools
  Strange, otherworldy plants and trees surround you.
  
  The colored points of light float slowly southeast with the fancy dish of butter.
  
  > take the vine
  The surrounding forest seems so strange, almost threatening. You don't trust it far enough to do anything with it.
  
  The thief is going southeast, and is almost out of sight.
  
  > go southeast
  The trees are sparse here at the edge of the forest, and the ground slopes down to the east. Well, some of it does. A spongy layer of ground with tall grass and another layer that's rocky are oddly interwoven with each other.
  
  As you make your way through the grass, you stop for a moment. You've seen this place before.
  
  Haven't you?
  
  You drop the last of your pebbles on the ground.
  
  The colored points of light float slowly east with the fancy dish of butter.
  
  > go to the east
  You stand in a moonlit bog at the bottom of a valley. Mist drifts across the spongy turf, and amidst the fog, floating in midair, is the ghostly outline of a castle, draped with ivy and flowers. An almost transparent bridge leads east across the mud to its front door. The tangled forest lies to the west, and to the northwest is the opening to a small cave.
  
  > look at the castle
  The ghostly form of a castle stands to the east, across the bridge. The castle walls look as if they are not quite solid. Or not quite...there.
  
  The thief is floating toward the bridge.
  
  > Go east
  You march up to the bridge and, as you step forward, find it to be just as unsubstantial as it looks. You fall through it as though it were air, and land splat in the mud.
  
  The thief floats east across the bridge with the butter.
  
  A new cluster of lights comes into view, lavender and rose and green. The lights drift back and forth on this side of the bridge.
  
  > stand
  You get out of the mud.
  
  > look at the cluster
  Floating here is a twisting constellation of glimmering lights, lavender and rose and green. Here and there the points of light lengthen into lines, suggesting edges of petals and fluttering fabric.
  
  > talk to the cluster
  "Hail, bold mortal. Welcome to our banquet," says a voice.
  
  You choose a focal point amongst the floating lights and say "Good evening," annoyed that you don't know whom you're addressing.
  
  "You may call me 'Your Majesty,'" says the voice, answering your unspoken question. "It is only edges and glimpses of us you see now. But tonight our worlds converge for a while, and as the night
  draws on, you may see us in our true form."
  
  (Please type a keyword to proceed.)
  
  > Form
  "Yes, mortal, we are of the fair folk," says the voice. "You cannot see this, for we are not yet fully in your world, nor you in ours. But we are happy to share what we have as the worlds come together, even a crossing into our realm, should you desire it."
  
  (You could type banquet or
  converge.)
  
  > Converge
  The voice answers. "Every so often the world of faerie and the world of humans pass through each other, and while the worlds converge, we may mingle."
  
  (You could type banquet.)
  
  > Banquet
  "Our banquet is held in the castle there, across the bridge," says the voice. "Do not neglect to bring a fairy flower with you."
  
  "I have tarried here long enough. I must go. See to the flower, mortal," says the voice, and the lights vanish.