Marplestone

Primelda Bobbins was a short, brown haired girl, rather ordinary in looks, but not at all in any other way. Her peculiar habit of twisting her ears and her bright colored dresses made it clear that she didn't belong in the little town of Marplestone. And what a dull, grey town Marplestone was! All the colors faded into each other. There weren't many colors to be seen there, anyhow; mostly tans and greys. The people there were just as dull, with pale faces and dark eyes. They didn't like different. If you wore bright colors, you were shunned. If you left the house without stockings on, you were shunned. Most of all, if you went skipping about the town without shoes and talking about things like dragons, and magic, and, God forbid, adventures (dreadful, uncomfortable things to the villagers), you were shunned in the highest degree: the silent treatment. If someone caught sight of you talking to a person like that, you would be shunned as well, and the townspeople found it was not a pleasant situation to be in. That in mind, no one dared to talk to sweet, though strange, Primelda. She didn't hold that against them, though, and she was perfectly happy by herself until, one day, Christopher Topps moved into town. He was a quiet boy, but clever none the less, and Primelda found him to be kind and sweet to whoever he met, and decided that he was just who she wanted to take with her on an adventure.