Fables #51

Cinderella was still in the Cloud Kingdoms, trying to get an audience with the King, who was currently feeling ill. All she wanted, as she explained to the aids time and time again, was a signature on the treaty between the Cloud Kingdoms and Fabletown, which she had to re-negotiate twelve different times because they kept switching out kings. Apparently, the job of being High King over all the other kings in the clouds isn't very enjoyable and so no one wants to do it for very long. Cindy just wanted it done with so she can go home. She was very disheveled after long days and nights of playing diplomacy. Now the current High King, Rumbold, had an ear infection and was resting in bed. The aids tell Cindy that luckily, the court doctor beside him is an expert at treating this kind of malady. Doctor Jolimump assures her that all he needs is to perform a ritual sacrifice, a few dances and a dozen or so prayers, and poor King Rumbold should be hale and hearty again in a month or two. They do, at the very least, take Cindy to see the King per her request. At his bedchamber, she hops out of the aid's hands onto the bed, climbs over the clumped blankets and examines King Rumbold for herself. She notices a distinct smell of pus coming from his ear. He awakens just then, and she promises to bring him a real doctor who can help, if he swears not to drop out of kingship before she returns.
Outside, Cinderella rides Radiskop the Giant Squirrel to the beanstalk. Equipped with a parachute, she climbs down and, after passing through the clouds, she leaps off. Landing by her van on the Farm outskirts, Cindy picks up the phone and calls her dearly un-beloved ex, Prince Charming, to tell him she was coming back, and he had better get Doctor Swineheart to meet with her, asap.

At the Business Office, Doctor Swineheart put it in simple terms after hearing Cindy describe the king's symptoms. He had a common ear infection. He gives her some antibiotic eardrops and a tube to drain the fluid, though it'll take three days to train her how to properly place it, lest it cause more harm. Cindy doesn't have three days, so she tells the doctor to just point out where to place it on an anatomical diagram, as she just got an idea that'll ensure it gets set up exactly right. But first, she'd need help from Fabletown's head witch, Frau Totenkinder, for a spell to make her smaller. To weave such a spell would take three days, which Cindy doesn't have, so instead Frau pulls a potion out of her handbag which she promises should accomplish the same goal in a manner of speaking. Nothing is free, of course, and Frau will ask a price in return.

Cindy called up Rose Red on the way back to the farm to ask her the rules on visiting Smalltown. It seemed she would require three days of training on how to step lightly. Three days. Once again, it's time she just didn't have. Once at the Farm, Rose takes her to the edge of Smalltown, where Cindy drinks the potion she was given. The change is immediate; she shrinks out of her clothes and emerges... as a mouse. She tells a shocked Rose to wait for her as she travels into the land of the Lilliput. On her way, Cindy-mouse is set upon by members of the mounted police. She manages to persuade them, in somewhat intimidating fashion, to escort her to a medic in Smalltown, and then escort the two of them back, for a top-secret mission.
Smalltown's resident doctor, Doctor Robert Smallish, listens to the mouse girl's plan to treat a giant patient and agrees to accompany her. Together, they're escorted back to where Rose was waiting. She summons Commander Arrow to fly the two of them back up to the Cloud Kingdom. Atop the Commander's back, they flew straight through King Rumbolds window, so as to avoid his minister and the quack witch doctor. The king lies asleep in his bed, while Cindy-mouse and Dr. Smallish apply the ear drops, then administer the pus draining tube. It'll only take three days for Rumbold to make a full recovery!

Back in the Business office, Cinderella concludes her report to Prince Charming and Beast, with a signed treaty and a warning that the King's witch doctor and his minister didn't like her usurping them; they may be trouble in the future. She also asks Sheriff Beast to reward her by promising to never send her on a diplomatic mission again.