Staghorn

Staghorn is a gardener who lives in the Greenwood.

Biography
Staghorn worked at the Jewel Palace when the Jewel Princesses were young and enjoyed pulling them around in a little rainbow-colored cart. At some point, he moved to the Greenwood.

The Emerald Princess Plays a Trick
Staghorn is trimming the mulberry bushes that line the path to the Emerald Palace when one of them suddenly lurches backward. Confused, he thinks his eyes must be playing tricks on him. But when the bush jumps away from him again, he hears delighted laughter and realizes that Princess Emily is the one playing tricks. She gives the embarrased Staghorn a hug and demonstrates how she tied a string to the bush so she could yank it back. Staghorn doesn't find the prank amusing at all, but he can't tell the princess that so he merely agrees that he must have looked quite silly before he leaves for the Twisted Vines, insisting that he has more work to do.

As his blades snip closed on a vine, Staghorn is suddenly yanked into the treetops by a rope around his ankle. Presumably yelling for help as he absurdly revolves upside-down, he is eventually found by the fairy Hazelnut and the woodsman Crosscut. Crosscut carefully cuts him down, but Staghorn discovers that he has a great pain in his ankle and can't stand up on his own. As Hazelnut tends to the ankle as best she can, Crosscut goes to look for Princess Emily. Both Staghorn and Hazelnut believe that Emily is to blame for his injury, thinking that the rope is most likely a part of another one of Emily's practical jokes.

When the princess arrives, Staghorn refuses to speak to her. Emily wants to take him to the Emerald Palace to get treatment, but he flat-out refuses to go to the palace and insists instead that he go to Nana Woodbine, a woman famed for her healing skills. Emily bends down to help him up but he shrugs her off, accepting help from Crosscut instead. The two hobble to Nana Woodbine's cottage where she soon makes him lie in bed as she rubs sneezewort on his injury. In good time, Staghorn and Crosscut are joined by Hazelnut and the fisherman Fluke, Staghorn's best friend. Staghorn enjoys telling everyone stories about when he worked at the Jewel Palace in the old days, pulling all four little Jewel Princesses around the garden in their rainbow-colored cart. He knows it would break King Regal's heart to hear how Emily is treating her subjects. When Nana gently forces Staghorn to drink foul-tasting mercury vine medicine, Fluke suggests she give it to the princess instead, much to the group's amusement. Fluke resolves to tell King Regal about his daughter's behavior because when a princess starts harming her own people, she shouldn't be a princess.

Later that day, Nana Woodbine sends Fluke to find an herb. When he returns, he explains to everyone that he has discovered that Darklings -not Emily- set the trap that injured Staghorn and that the princess in fact saved him from a similar fate as he was out looking for the herb.