A whimsical story of mystery, new neighbors, and the courage to turn confusion into friendship.

Welcome back to Tumbleweed’s World — where even the smallest creatures can find themselves in the middle of the biggest surprises.

In this next adventure, what begins as an ordinary Wednesday morning of warm ‘shrooms and honey, market plans, and familiar routine quickly turns into something unexpected. When a blur of orange, red, and black sweeps past Tumbleweed’s cottage, she and her friends are drawn into a mystery that leads them to a striking new group of neighbors: the Monarch Crew.

With butterflies, questions, misunderstandings, and an invitation to see the world through someone else’s eyes, this story explores what happens when we meet the unfamiliar with curiosity instead of fear. The Monarch Crew is a gentle, imaginative tale about friendship, communication, and learning that what seems strange at first may simply be someone else’s way of saying, welcome.

So settle in, dear reader, and return to the forest paths, fairy markets, and milkweed fields of Tumbleweed’s world — where every new encounter holds the possibility of wonder, wisdom, and a little more courage.

The Great and Big Adventures of a Little Fairy Tumbleweed

The Monarch Crew

by Olga Pyshnyak-Lawrence

“Ah…” sighed little Fairy Tumbleweed a very delighted sigh. Her best fairy friend Pansy was visiting early this morning to share all the latest news of the Fairy Land. After a few cups of ‘shrooms and honey, both were very relaxed and open to this session of endless conversation.

“I love mornings like these,” confided Tumbleweed to her friend. “Mornings full of ease, peace and predictability. After a few cups of fresh ‘shrooms and fragrant honey, we will go to the market as we have done every single Wednesday for as long as I can remember. I love routine, although lately I’ve been hankering for a little dose of adventure now and then.”

“Who needs adventure, my dear friend? My! On your last adventure, full of misfits and danger, you’ve lost sight of the needs of your homestead. The plush moss by your doorstep was ravaged by the elements. It still hasn’t recovered. Not so plush, anymore, is it? And what about the biscuits? They’ve become so stale as you’ve left the tin open. Goodness, who knows what else could’ve happened in your absence.” Tumbleweed’s friend became more and more agitated as she listed off a few possibilities of what could’ve gone wrong while she was away adventuring.

“My sweet Pansy, would you like a fresh rose tart? I’ve been trying out a new recipe from the Fairy Daily Gazette. I was thinking of selling these at the market today.”

Pansy had to calm down to reply. She agreed to have a taste. As she was devouring eagerly the fragrant, moist cupcake, an unusual occurrence happened right outside the window near which they were sitting and indulging in their Wednesday fare.

The curtains flurried in the turbulent breeze that seemed to hum with a fierce noise. The fairies scrambled to their feet, dropping cupcakes and mugs to the floor. Thankfully the mugs were made of wood and so, couldn’t be so easily broken.

“Is it an Earthquake?”

“What does an Earthquake sound like?”

“I would imagine, something like this?”

They froze for a terrified second, but shortly after the disconcerting noise abdicated their immediate surroundings, and in one accord, both fairies ran outside to investigate.

They happened to exit out of the back entrance and into the carefully selected and nurtured herb garden, Tumbleweed’s pride and joy. She frequently stated that herbs are not only good for the soup, but are even better for the soul.

The little fairies searched out the cause of their dismay and with ever widening eyes they followed the blur of red-orange and black until the horizon swallowed up the mass whole.

“What was that?” whispered Tumbleweed.

“I’m at a loss for words,” replied Pansy. She patted her round cheeks in shock. She kept patting her cheeks until Tumbleweed grabbed both her hands and held them midair.

“Let’s run to the market to investigate what this sighting could possibly be!”

Tumbleweed grabbed her friend’s hand and pulled her towards the street.

“What about your cupcakes?” Pansy seemed practical even during consternation.

“Forget the cupcakes! This is more important!”

“Good. They weren’t very good.”

Tumbleweed glared at her friend, sighed, and increased the tempo of their stride.

“You don’t say,” she mumbled to herself. “Then why did you stuff your face with one?”

“What’s that?” inquired Pansy.

“Oh, nothing. I think we should hurry up as best as we can.”

“Lady Fairies don’t hurry…” protested Pansy fruitlessly.

“Never mind what’s appropriate. We have a mystery on our hands!”

They reached the bustling Fairy Market, full of excuse me’s and pardon me’s and would you be so kind as…

No one seemed rushed or in distress. They only stared at the two best friends and shook their heads at their approach to the market.

The market was located precisely in the middle of the field, teeming with sunflowers and red poppies, a glorious bright sight. There were rows of stalls, organized sections of fruits, vegetables, nectar products, flowers, creative arts and everything else the Fairy Folk could think of.

The two best friends slowed down and tried to brush the dust off their garments as they caught their breath. With as much grace as they could muster, they sauntered over to the first section of the Fairy Market, the flower emporium. Amidst the heavenly fragrance and earthly glares, they began to ask around about the fantastic experience they’ve just had and whether anyone else knew anything about this occurrence. They came to a dead-end, but not without making any progress. A fairy youth, Robert, otherwise known as the Lion-Hearted by his friends and enemies, volunteered to explore this conundrum further should they care to bring him along on this budding adventure. He was known in the village as the strong, intelligent and determined one, so the ladies saw no harm but rather welcomed this addition to their team.

Robert closed his stall where he sold his family’s wooden rocking chairs, put up a sign, ‘Be Back As Soon As I Can’, and with a determined facial expression faced the fairies.

“I’m ready. Let’s go!”

They casually exited the market, but as soon as they were out of sight, they increased their pace.

They retraced their steps back to Tumbleweed’s cottage, retold the events of the morning and pointed out the direction of their mystery.

Tumbleweed located her woven fairy basket which can hold everything and anything without it being a hindrance to the fairies everywhere, packed it with everything she could think of that they may possibly need in case of any eventuality, and threw in the cupcakes she made this morning for the market, along with a thermos full of her most favorite drink, ‘shrooms and honey.

Done with the preparations, they marched onwards towards the mysterious sighting, hoping they could find some clues or explanations along the way.

With every rustle or creak, Robert lifted his right arm, blocking the ladies from going any further and put his pointer finger to his lips, indicating that they must stay silent. Pansy and Tumbleweed would freeze in their tracks, their eyes- large saucers, full of questions. As nothing noteworthy kept happening, Robert relaxed, and they began to whisper quietly amidst themselves.

Five to ten minutes passed with nothing happening. Then twenty or thirty more. Then suddenly, they were overcome with a large shadow from above them. Robert almost had a heart attack trying to protect the ladies, pushing them behind a birch tree stump.

A few seconds later, a beautiful white creature with lavender and pink shades frolicking in the mane, tipped with a gorgeous, glittery, shimmery horn, landed gracefully on the ground.

It was Grace, and she wasn’t alone! Christopher Michaels was sitting astride, holding onto his friend.

Tumbleweed ran out from hiding and flew up onto Christopher’s shoulder in delight! It has been a few weeks since their first encounter.

“Oh! I am so happy to see you! Absolutely thrilled! Pansy, Robert, these are my friends!”

She proceeded to introduce them, summarized their adventure, and updated the latest addition to their team of all the details they had on the mystery, that literally, almost landed on Tumbleweed’s doorstep.

As Grace and Christopher Michaels came out to see Tumbleweed anyway, they had no objections in joining this adventure. In fact, Grace volunteered to carry all the creatures on her back in hope to cover more ground.

Tumbleweed’s fairy friends were taken aback by this turn of events as they had never encountered a human or a unicorn before, but they quickly got over it as Tumbleweed seemed perfectly happy and safe in their presence.

It didn’t take long.

They came upon a clearing full of milkweed plants. There were so many of them! And upon every plant, a sea of orange, red and black was undulating in the slight breeze. The sea would lift and settle, lift and settle, shuffling and reshuffling.

“What are they?” whispered Tumbleweed.

“I’ve seen them before, a few years back,” replied Grace in hushed tones, “They are the Monarch Butterflies, migrating from place to place, in search of milkweed plants. Whenever they lose a habitat, they need to find another to call home. Aren’t they magnificent?”

They sure did look impressive, there were hundreds of them! If not thousands! The viewers were in awe.

Just a few minutes passed before they were noticed by a group of Monarchs who called themselves the Monarch Crew. They seemed to be bigger and brighter than the rest. They spoke with a lilting accent and carried themselves with confidence and aloofness at the same time. Our little group of friends was mesmerized.

“Hey there, visitors! What’s your game?”

“Yeah, man, what’s your game?”

They seemed to repeat that phrase a lot… ‘What’s your game?’

“Ummm, we have no game at all,” replied the confused Christopher. “We were just investigating an occurrence that happened this morning.”

Tumbleweed retold the events of the morning.

“Hmmmm… Must’ve been us. We’ve just landed here this morning, coming down from the North.”

“Are you staying or leaving?” inquired Pansy, finally finding the courage to speak, overwhelmed by her first ever adventure.

“That depends,” said one of the Monarch Crew as he flew too close for comfort and stared into Pansy’s bewildered eyes. “What’s your game?”

Then in one accord, the Monarch Crew swooped out of this fascinating meeting and left our friends behind to try and decipher what just happened.

“What are they talking about? I am so confused! What IS our game?” Tumbleweed rubbed her nose in dismay. She always rubbed her nose when distressed.

“Now, I don’t know whether I’m coming or going. I’m not sure that I like this adventure!” pouted Pansy.

Grace and Christopher observed everything silently, confused but not very disturbed.

“Some groups of creatures have special phrases that make sense only to them, I suppose,” volunteered Christopher.

It was a perfect time to stop and ponder what Chrisopher just said over a cup of ‘shrooms and honey and a few cupcakes. Grace and Christopher accepted the cupcakes but declined the tea.

Pansy and Tumbleweed drank their brew in silence, with intermittent bites of the rose cupcakes.

Then, Tumbleweed flew up onto one of the plants in front of her to investigate. Finding them a bit sticky for her, she wrinkled her nose and flew back to her friends.

The friends decided to return to the market, drop off Robert by his stall and the rest continued on to a pond nearby where they sunned themselves, talked some more about the Monarchs and dipped themselves once or twice in the crystal-clear water. In a few hours, Christopher Michael’s tummy began to grumble a little too loudly for the fairies. Grace decided it was time to take him home before his parents would start to worry a little too much. Christopher reluctantly agreed, only because Tumbleweed’s tiny cupcakes were not filling him up and she’d have to cook for an army to feed him.

They said their farewells for now and went on their merry way. Pansy went to the market to stock up on sweets and Tumbleweed went home as she no longer had any cupcakes to sell.

She might as well do her Wednesday reading a few hours early, she thought, right after lunch.

This was not to be as she was constantly interrupted by a blur of orange and black that went right through her herb garden, outside her reading nook window.

She threw her book down, a biography of a famous dragonfly who saved her village from an unwelcome intrusion by a very ferocious family of spiders.

“Might as well take a nap,” she thought and spread herself on her bed of fluffy pillows in temporary defeat.

Tumbleweed hated change.

A few days passed, and with growing frustration, Tumbleweed began to mumble to herself, which really unnerved Pansy.

This morning, Pansy brought welcome news to Tumbleweed over their favorite beverage.

“The Fairy Folk are organizing an emissary committee to open up a channel of communication with our slightly unwelcome neighbors. There have been way too many sightings in the village, and they’ve even dared to enter the marketplace, causing so much commotion with their ‘What’s your game?’ question. It has been very, very unsettling!”

“Hmmmmph…” replied Tumbleweed. “I hope they choose someone who can speak their language and isn’t so easily intimidated! That would never be me!”

A week passed, and Tumbleweed was again mumbling to herself. This time it was, “Never say never! How could they consider choosing me and Pansy to lead this initiative? I am so intimidated by them and can barely understand what they are saying, even then, how sure can I be that I am understanding what I think I am understanding?”

The two fairy friends flew hand in hand to the Monarch settlement. It was becoming a bustling village; structures were being erected around the milkweed plants. Each family took one or two and built their home around them.

As they suspected, the Monarch Crew came up to greet them.

“What’s your game?” queried the crew.

In frustration, Tumbleweed spoke loudly, “What’s YOUR game?” She was irritated and intimidated at the same time and just couldn’t play nice at that moment.

“Hmmmm, how about hide and seek, or a game of checkers?” answered their ringleader.

Bewildered, both fairies looked at each other.

“How about hide and seek,” whispered Pansy to Tumbleweed, “I couldn’t possibly play checkers. My mind is like a ball of tangled yarn.”

Tumbleweed rubbed her nose. Sure, why not, she thought. She might as well be on their good side to start with.

“Hide and seek it is, then,” replied Tumbleweed to the crew. For the next half hour, they all played together. Tumbleweed forgot about being confused and irritated and began to enjoy herself and crack a few jokes here and there with the Monarch butterflies.

After their game, the leader of the bunch spoke up and decided it was time to introduce the fairies to their Grandparents, who were the King and Queen of the Monarchs.

The royal leaders were very polite, and after a game of checkers, they heard the petitions of the fairy emissary committee.

They agreed to honor the lands of the Fairy Folk and to be respectful of their expectations of peace and comfort. In exchange, they invited the fairies to come out once a month to their settlement for a day of games, which according to them was the best way to make friends. That is why they greet each other, especially new visitors with ‘What’s your game?’. They would be very happy to play the favorite game of their guests, which the Monarchs considered the highest form of respect.

“Goodness gracious,” said Tumbleweed on their flight home. “Had we not spent the day getting to know our neighbors, I’d think they were mad.”

Upon returning to Tumbleweed’s cottage, they encountered Grace and Christopher Michaels, who said the following after hearing about the details of their fascinating visit…

“Not everyone is strange once you get to know them. Sometimes it is good to meet them where they are.”

He was a very wise boy because he lived with very wise parents.

“I suppose you are right. Sometimes you need to be a little uncomfortable to learn a thing or two!”

The little fairy looked at Pansy, and they both giggled. A tinkling of crystal reverberated in the air.