The Wee Free Men Chapter 12 Summary

Jolly Sailor

  • When she wakes up, Tiffany is officially in the Jolly Sailor wrapper drawing—they're on a lovely beach.
  • All the pictsies are wearing Jolly Sailor outfits, complete with big yellow rain hats. The dream is Tiffany's so she can manipulate it how she wants.
  • They all climb into a boat along with Wentworth, the Nac Mac Feegles, and even Roland.
  • The boat rocks toward the lighthouse, and when Tiffany looks into the sky she sees the words "Jolly Sailor" written across—which means that they're actually in the label.
  • But then a storm starts up and they realize that the Queen has followed them into the dream—heave ho, boys.
  • A big whale comes out, and the pictsies are afraid that it'll eat them. But Tiffany gets mad because she knows that whales don't actually have teeth, and this is her dream, so why would the Queen tell it to eat them?
  • They keep rowing as the whale comes after them, until they're almost at the lighthouse… but the whale's almost upon them.
  • All of a sudden a ship with sailors lined up on deck shows up—and it's the actual Jolly Sailor ship, come to chase the whale away.
  • As the ship leaves, Wentworth calls after it, "big fishy!" which is the first thing he's said that isn't about candy. Tiffany is actually delighted and proud, even though she does correct him to say that the whale is a mammal—like the cow.
  • She also has an epiphany about who she is as a person, which kind of freaks out the Nac Mac Feegles and Wentworth.
  • They find the drome, but it's just sitting there staring out at the sea. Tiffany feels bad for the drome—it doesn't want to trap them, it's just homesick—so she tells the pictsies not to kill it and to let it live instead.
  • Tiffany stays on the jetty while the Nac Mac Feegles go to check out the lighthouse first. The toad starts talking about how there aren't qualified lifeguards around… what's his deal?
  • The sea is pretty calm though, and then the Nac Mac Feegles come out and say that there's no one in the lighthosue. Tiffany knows that when she goes through the door, she'll wake up—after all, this is her dream.
  • She grabs Roland and asks the Wee Free Men to bring Wentworth along with them as they head toward the lighthouse.
  • But then she notices something—the tide is coming in awfully fast. The Nac Mac Feegles get distracted by broken ships; they want to go look for treasure, but Tiffany sees the sea rushing toward them.
  • As it turns out, it's not the tide coming in at all—it's really the Queen coming to get them. They run, but it's too late. Tiffany makes it through the door… but the Nac Mac Feegles and her brother are gone.
  • Tiffany sees the doorway to the dream in the distance, but as she watches, the stones tumble and the doorway's no longer there.