- Princess Irene: Are you a ghost?
- Great Great Grandmother Irene: No, but I'm not real, either.
- Princess Irene: Are you some sort of... magic, then?
- Princess Irene: She's here somewhere. She... she's just invisible at the moment.
- Curdie: Your grandmother is invisible?
- Princess Irene: Yes. But she is here, I know she is.
- Curdie: Look, I'm glad you rescued me, but I dont' have time to play games.
- Princess Irene: This isn't a game!
- Curdie: No, it's dead serious. The goblins have a plan and you're a part of it. We can't waste our time with invisible grandmothers.
- Princess Irene: You don't believe me, do you.
- Curdie: Well... I...
- Princess Irene: But I thought we were friends.
- Great Great Grandmother Irene: My name is Irene, and I'm your great-great grandmother.
- Princess Irene: I haven't got a great-great-great-great-grate-great grandmother.
- Princess Irene: [laughs] I'm not as great as all that.
- Princess Irene: You mustn't do that, you know what Looti's like. She's always worrying about straaaange stings.
- Looti, the Princess's Nanny: [somewhere else] Straaaaange things. You never know when they might happen.
- Looti, the Princess's Nanny: Oh these steps.
- [gasp]
- Looti, the Princess's Nanny: That's the trouble with castles
- [wheeze]
- Looti, the Princess's Nanny: there's too many blooming steps
- [gasp]
- Princess Irene: Let me give you a kiss to thank you.
- Curdie: [surprised] A kiss!
- [they lean in]
- Looti, the Princess's Nanny: Princess Irene what are you doing?
- Curdie: Princess! You never told me you where a princess!
- Princess Irene: You didn't ask.
- Princess Irene: Goblins? Pets?
- Curdie: Sure, everyone knows about the goblins and their pets... except people from the castle.
- Princess Irene: Oh.
- Curdie: You're from the castle right?
- Princess Irene: Yes.
- Curdie: And you don't know the way back.
- Princess Irene: No.
- Curdie: Typical. Alright follow me.
- Great Great Grandmother Irene: [to Irene] There will come a time when you won't need me because you will have found your own magic.
- Curdie: Those goblins aren't so bad if you know how to deal with 'em.
- Princess Irene: But they were horrible!
- Curdie: I guess they are a little creepy, but you shouldn't run away; you have to face 'em and sing! Of course, singing doesn't always work down there...
- Princess Irene: Down where?
- Curdie: Underground, in the mines.
- Princess Irene: The mines?
- Curdie: Yeah, where they live: where my father works. Don't they teach you anything in that castle of yours?
- Princess Irene: Of course they do; reading, writing, arithmetic...
- Curdie: Arithmetic? Great; that'll work against the goblins. At least you'll be able to count them.