Thursday, October 30, 2008

Swamp Bank Dance

Weekly Helpful Hint: Don’t eat lunch in a sound proof stairwell. You won’t hear the end-of-lunch-bell and will be late for your next class.

Ok, here’s the next segment of The End Time. Enjoy:



They wandered deeper and deeper into the woods. Brushing past plants, ducking under an endless amount of branches and jumping pebbles over streams. Lilette followed Mielou with cautious curiosity as she was led through territory unknown to a destination ... unknown.

“Where are we going?” she asked with frustration, for the seventh time since they’d embarked on this escapade.
“It’s a surprise”
“What sort of surprise?”
“If I told you, then it wouldn’t be a surprise, now, would it?”
“Will I like the surprise?” Lilette asked, now more wary than excited about the unknown destination. Mielou merely smiled to herself and continued across the Fairy built bridge, laid with firefly lights to brighten the way in the dark. Lilette had trouble seeing the bridge even with the lights, but holding onto the rope, she managed to climb across and join her friend on the other side.

“We’re almost there” Mielou said in a low voice, Lilette was becoming anxious, she didn’t find stumbling around in the dark, searching for a not yet specified location enjoyable.
On the other side of the bridge were more trees, and more trees meant more branches would be thwacked into Lilette’s face. Mielou hadn’t been a considerate leader in this expedition and had been failing to hold the branches for Lilette as she led her through forest after forest.

But, to Lilette’s relief, she only had to walk through a few more metres of tress, be thwacked by only a few more branches and then they were in a meadow. A deserted, unlit, slightly eerie meadow. Lilette imagined it would look rather lovely in the day, the grass felt healthy under her feet, she pictured the meadow as a luscious green field filled with merry creatures during daylight. She tried hard to picture this, but the creepy meadow seemed to be filled with dark secrets and she felt as though someone- or something- would creep up from behind her at any moment.

“Don’t be scared” Mielou reassured her, but she made no attempt at a physical comfort. Lilette could just make Mielou out, in the haziness of the night, looking around for something.
“What are you looking for?” Lilette asked anxiously, she didn’t like the idea of this surprise any more.
“Ash said to follow the red pebbled path off The Forbidden Meadow” Mielou replied, still looking around. Lilette found two things wrong with what Mielou had just said, firstly, the meadow they were on was not only dark and creepy, but it was also forbidden, and secondly, they were following direction given to Mielou by someone Lilette had never heard of.
“Who’s Ash?” Lilette asked, as if she should have been told of this person ages ago. Mielou put her face in her hands, remembering that she hadn’t told Lilette about Ash.
“Oh! I’m sorry Lette. Ash is the boy who lives in the Mushroom next to mine.”
“The one you went dancing with on the Mountain Peak?” Lilette asked, just to be sure.
“Yeah... the one you love” Mielou added teasingly, but with a touch of honest scorn.
“I do not love him!” Lilette said firmly, but remembered that Mielou would have read her emotions last week at the Spring Feast, and known exactly how she felt. Mielou didn’t answer Lilette’s obvious lie, her attention was focused on the red pebbled path, which she had just spotted and was heading towards.

Lilette followed without question, anywhere would be better than Forbidden Meadow. The red pebbles shone in the moonlight, making it easy for them to make their way down the moderately steep hill. The sound of delightful jazzy music gradually became more and more distinct as they continued walking, Lilette considered asking what the noise was, but the odds of getting an answer were too slim to bother. As they got closer to the music, Lilette could make out glowing lanterns and people dancing.

“Is that where we’re going!?” asked Lilette excited, all fears lifted.
“I think so” Mielou answered uncertainly “this is the place he said to come” she added, looking around for him, or anyone familiar. And then Lilette saw him, for the second time in her life, jogging towards them. Only this time she knew his name, this changed everything, by knowing his name she felt oddly closer to him like they were already friends.

“Mie?” called the same sweet voice she had heard last week at the Spring Feast. He gave up on the jogging and flew over to them, Lilette wished he hadn’t flown, it added a whole new level of grace to his perfection.

She looked down, knowing that if she looked at him, she would radiate messages of love and the awkwardness of this situation would only heighten. But she couldn’t last for very long and gave into her desires.

She was amazed at how much more she loved him, his eyes seemed even more magical and he was altogether more charming than before. Although she was sure he hadn’t actually changed since last week, he seemed completely different.

He smiled the amused smile Lilette loved, and for the first time in her life Lilette wondered how Fairies ability to read emotions actually worked. Was the word “love” imprinted on her forehead?

“Hi” he said, faking casualness and Lilette felt as if she was spinning around in a whirlwind.
“Hi” she managed to reply, when she realised the greeting was directed towards her. She couldn’t stop looking at him, and he didn’t look away.

“Sorry we’re a little late Ash” Mielou said, finishing Ash’s attempts at trying to be nice to Lilette.
“That’s alright” he said like there was nothing in the world that was more ok. As soon as he locked eyes with Mielou, they were in their whole own world. Lilette felt out of place and neglected, but apparently not even her strong negative emotions could get through Ash and Mielou’s impenetrable love bubble, because they continued to kiss (for what felt like forever) and seemed to completely forget about Lilette.

Lilette made an unnoticed suggestive cough, which made it clear that their bubble was also sound proof.

They finally broke apart from each other- they probably would have suffocated if they went for much longer- and suddenly snapped back into the real world. The bubble was popped and Lilette suddenly existed again.

“Sorry, Lilette” Ash said, with a deep concern and a strong desire for forgiveness.
“That’s alright” Lilette lied. Lying about your emotions to Fairies is never a good idea, now Ash and Mielou knew exactly how she felt plus they knew she was a liar. However, Ash continued as if they believed Lilette.
“I invited you, Lilette, because I thought you’d have fun dancing and meeting new people” it was clear that he still believed this would be the case. It was also clear that he wanted Lilette to meet someone that would take her mind off him. She was grateful they didn’t hate her, but wanted to help her instead.

Ash and Mielou held hands and flew towards the music and dancing. Lilette didn’t have to walk far before she was amongst the dancers. The red and yellow lanterns glowed, shinning just enough light to be able to see.

She wondered where she was and then noticed the murky water, they were dancing on the Swamp Bank. Of all the places to throw a dance, Lilette couldn’t think of a worse one. But somehow the lanterns and the wooden dance floor transformed the hideous Swamp Bank, into a lovely dancing arena.

Just as the music started to get her swaying and she began to enjoy herself, Lilette was shocked to discover that the dancers were not Fairies, nor were they Elves. Lilette had never seen creatures, like the one’s dancing before her.

Their height and size was much like that of Elves, but they were horrifyingly ugly. Their skin was wrinkly, like a dried up raison, and they were a sickly green all over. They looked as though they might be sticky to touch, but there was no way Lilette was going to find out.

A couple whirled passed Lilette and, instinctively, she took a step back. Bumping the punch table and knocking the cupcakes to the floor.

The dancing couple stopped and looked at Lilette. She tried to take another step backwards, but there was no were to go, her heart started pounding and she wanted to scream.

Would these creatures touch her? Hurt her? Kill her? ... eat her? Whatever they were going to do, Lilette had a gut feeling that this was the end of her. That her future would soon become nonexistent.

Friday, October 24, 2008

A New Perspective

Weekly Helpful Hint (that are never posted at exact weekly intervals): “If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats” – Lemony Snicket.

And now for the next section of The End of Time. The next part is segment 1 of chapter 2. If you haven’t read the first chapter then do so.



Luke awoke to the sound of a passing train, the wooden walls shook and dust fell from the ceiling. He rubbed his eyes and, disorientated, looked at his alarm clock. 2:30. It was the middle of the night. Luke was usually immune to the sound of the train, he always slept right through the rattling.

As he was about to settle back to sleep, a slight chill ruffled through his sandy blonde hair, leaving goosebumps up his arm. He looked over to the wall opposite his bed, the window was wide open.

With a I-can’t-believe-I-was-stupid-enough-to-leave-my-window-open grunt, he got out of bed, walked the metre to the other side of his room, and slid the window down.

As he hopped back into bed another train went by, the walls shook and a pen rolled off his bedside table. But it wasn’t as loud as before. He was still half asleep and soon drifted back into the wonderful world of dreams.

At the break of dawn, Luke got dressed and headed down stairs to the shop. “Morning, Luke” greeted his mother without looking up, she stopped rolling the bread dough and wiped her forehead with the back of her floury hand. She looked exhausted.

“Morning” replied Luke, reaching out to grab a gingerbread man from behind the counter. Luke’s mum gently slapped his hand, suggesting that the gingerbread man wasn’t for him.
“Not today” she said in an apologetic, sorrowful tone. Luke would have to go without breakfast, but he understood their situation and didn’t complain.

“You’re going to miss your train, if you don’t hurry” she said hastily, looking up from her rolling for the first time. Luke knew that, even if he ran, he wouldn’t make it to the station in time. This didn’t worry him, he was in no hurry to get to the paper factory.

“I know you don’t care if you’re late for work” she continued hastily, still panicked that he would miss the train “but you’re going to have to take Annie to school today” Luke’s eyes widened, his sister would be late for school if they didn’t catch the uncatchable train.
“We’ll never make it, mum!” he spluttered, but was half already way out the bakery. The golden bell tingled above the door as it whipped shut behind him.
Annie was sitting outside the shop on the gutter, drawing invisible lines on the pavement with a stick. “Annie!” Luke called, running up to her “we have to hurry, or we’ll miss the train!” she jumped up, and with silent understanding, joined him in an impossible attempt to make it to the station in time.

Luke sped down the street as fast as his legs would let him, his lungs had no rights in this situation. Occasionally he glanced behind him to check that Annie was still close behind, amazingly she always was, how could a five year old run almost as fast as an eighteen year old? He pondered this in the back of his mind, his thoughts guided by the need to catch the train.

Ten minutes later they reached the station. It was deserted. Luke looked up to the sign, the next train was in fifty-four minutes. He swore loudly, oblivious to the mental well being of his sister and inconsiderate of her delicate innocence (which was probably just shattered.)

After the two of them had panted for a great deal of time, Luke began pacing impatiently up and down the platform, with his hands at the back of his head.
“Luke?” said his sister timidly, Luke noticed that she sounded scared, scared of her own brother. He didn’t mean to frighten her. He walked over to Annie and squeezed her around the shoulder, kissing the top of her head.

“Now” he said, trying to sound like the happy, friendly brother he should be “I suppose we’re going to have to walk” and with that, they left the platform, crossed the road and began their journey across the daisy covered meadow.

Annie skipped merrily along singing some song that Luke had never heard before. Walking contently behind her, with his hands in the pockets of his pants, Luke smiled. Annie plucked a daisy from the ground, pulled off the white petals and let them float gently to the ground.

She stopped skipping and stood still for a second, Luke continued walking towards her, she turned around and ran back to Luke shouting “Look what I found! Look what I found!” once they were close together again, they stopped walking.

Annie held up a white flowery ball, it looked much like a dandelion clock (the one’s Annie would often chant “what’s the time Mr Wolf” and then blow) but it didn’t have a stem and wasn’t as thick. Luke rolled his eyes, he had seen a million of these things before.
“It’s a fairy!” Annie informed him “you make a wish and then blow on it” Luke hated it when she spoke about fairies like they were real, he wished she wouldn’t make up such stupid tales.
“There’s no such thing as fairies, Annie” he said plainly. She looked up at him as if he were lying.
“There are so! Now make a wish, I promise it will come true” she said defiantly. Luke took the little white ball from her.
“I wish that my annoying little sister would get over fairies and shut up with her stupid stories” he said conclusively. He dropped the plant to the floor and continued walking.

After a few seconds Annie called after him “It won’t come true! You’re meant to say it in your head!” her voice was choked with tears, but Luke kept walking.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Mark Priestley

Don’t worry fellow blog readers, I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth or fallen down a well, I haven’t been writing blogs lately due to a lack of spare time.
Right now I have an abundance of spare time... I had a spare first period, which I spent on homework and then I found out that my second period was cancelled. This means that I could have slept in until 9.30. Never mind, I wouldn’t have had the chance to write this blog otherwise.
I suppose I could have written one last night, but watching Heroes is as solid on my agenda as brushing my teeth... although you can’t record your teeth and watch them the next day.

Firstly I would like to dedicate a bit of my blog to Mark Priestley. Who committed suicide about a month ago. He starred in the TV show All Saints, and was one of my favourite actors. I hope that, no matter what happens after you die, that he has been freed from his depression.

And now I would like to move on to a more happier note.... The other day, in English class, I mentioned to a friend that I had a blog. To no one’s surprise but mine, she asked “Is it all colourful with lots of pictures and stuff?”
I had never thought of putting pictures on my blog, and so I’ve decided to share one or two with you.... and now I’m starting to sound like Dr. Seuss.

The first one barely passes as a ‘picture’ but I got it from the images section of Google so it’s good enough...anyway, when you look at the colourful words in the ‘picture’ below don’t read the words but say the colour that the words are. Everyone thinks it’s really hard, except for me, perhaps everyone I know is colour blind, but that’s not likely.

The next picture made me laugh, there’s a possibility you will laugh also:


Alrighty, that’s it for the pictures. Now, the annoying thing about my story (which you can read below)....... last weekend I went to see Wicked, and several of the subplots are very similar to several of the not-yet-written-but-in-my-head subplots of my incomplete story. I’m not going to stop writing the story, and I’m not going to change the story line. I just hope no one thinks I got the ideas from Wicked, because I swear I didn’t. I thought of them long before seeing Wicked, in fact I thought of them in year 9.

Weekly Helpful Hint: as fun as playing eye-spy over the phone may sound.... It really doesn’t work well.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

The Forbidden Boy

Here is the third instalment of The End Of Time. But first, I would like to introduce a new feature of my blog. It’s called: ‘The Weekly Helpful Hint.’

Weekly Helpful Hint: If you’re planning on tripping up stairs as you run to mass singing, make sure you’re with a friend who can laugh with you, as opposed to a bunch of strangers who look at you oddly and make the whole situation awkward and unnecessarily embarrassing.

I probably won’t be posting the next section of my story in a while because the three parts I’ve already shared with you where written last weekend. What I mean is, after the following segment, my page is blank.



“Do you see him? Is he still looking this way?” Mielou asked desperately. But Cassidy had continued talking and everyone was looking at her.
“.... I would also like to thank all my wonderful children for making this feast possible-” Lilette felt her cheeks heat up as she sunk into her chair, trying not to be seen “-furthermore, I would like Lilette to stay behind and clean up”
Lilette bolted up right in shock and every eye in the room turned to her.
“But that’s not-” she began to argue.
“-Don’t make a spectacle of yourself, Lilette.” She said, embarrassed that her daughter would speak back at her in front of all the guests. She adjusted her body language and vocal quality to address the entire hall again “Thank you all for a wonderful evening and I look forward to a great night of dancing!”
Lilette looked around the room at all the staring eyes, which gradually flicked away from her.

“Don’t worry, Lette” comforted Mielou, placing a hand on her shoulder “It won’t take you very long to clean all this-” Mielou looked out to the tables, full of used plates, and bit her lower lip in concern “-hmmm, that could take some time” she admitted “but look on the bright side.... um, err”
“There is no bright side” Lilette groaned rolling her eyes and Mielou had to agree.
Lilette sat in anguish, watching the hall empty, as Elves and Fairies filed out through the door.
“I’ll stay back and help you” requested Mielou. She would, no doubt, be reading Lilette’s sorrowful mood in pity.
“Would you really? You’re the best!” smiled Lilette, Mielou giggled and they began to clear away the plates as the last quests and hosts exited.

“Mielou?” said an unfamiliar, sweet voice.
Lilette looked up from the dishes to see the googly eyed boy, standing nervously in front of them. She hadn’t noticed how flawlessly charming he was from far away, but now she could see his chocolate brown hair and magical hazel eyes very clearly. She felt weakened merely by his presence.
She tried with all her might to rid herself of these uncalled for feelings, but she failed miserably. The boy smiled in amusement and Mielou shot her a nasty look, as the two of them instinctively read her emotions.
“Sorry” said Lilette ashamed and tried to occupy her thoughts by picking up dishes.
“I was just wondering... um” began the boy, looking down at the napkin he was fiddling with.
“Yes?” prompted Mielou with excited anticipation. The boy took a deep breath, as if he were about to jump off something high, and blurted out:
“If you would like to come and dance with me on the mountain peak” he spoke so fast it sounded more like a statement than a proposal.
“I’d love to!” chirped Mielou.
The boy placed the now mutated napkin on the table and held out his hand with newborn confidence. Mielou took his hand in hers, bursting with excitement. They caught each other’s gaze and held it with gentle intensity. Then, as if Lilette didn’t even exist, they flew off through the door hand in hand, still staring placidly into each other’s eyes.

“That’s fine! Don’t worry about me! Go right ahead!” Lilette called out to them with sour irony, but they were long gone and wouldn’t have heard her.
“How gross. Soppy lovers. How inconvenient for them” she bitterly thought aloud, but was once again envious of her best friend and uncontrollably collapsed to the ground bursting into a sob of heavy tears.

She cried until there were no tears left in her body. Wiping her cheeks, she stood up, appalled with herself for reacting in such a way.
He was so beautiful
She thought involuntarily
He’s the most wonderful boy I’ve ever seen
Why couldn’t she stop thinking these thoughts? She knew it wasn’t right to love the boy Mielou had fancied ‘for like ever.’ She tried to stop the thoughts, but they were intrusively unyielding.
This must be what love is like
How dare she think the word love.
“I DON’T LOVE HIM” she screamed, her voice echoed off the walls. But as hard as she tried she couldn’t convince herself. What was she to do?
Maybe I’ll run away, to some distance land, somewhere where I’ll never have to see him again
But the thought of never again seeing his amused smile or his enchanting eyes, burnt a pain deep inside of her. The pain didn’t go away. She now needed to see him again, she needed the pain of his absence to be healed. She was torturing herself, he was torturing her,
I hate him
She thought with as much repulsion as she could manage.

“I hate him” she hissed aloud, but the image of his face overpowered her and she gave into herself.
“Ok, fine! I love him! I love him! I do. He’s the meaning of existence and I need him, I want him. I love him” she gasped and cupped her hands to her mouth.
No swear word, English or Elfish, could compare to the array of sinister words she had just uttered. Suicidal thoughts filled her mind but disappeared as quickly as they had come. How could she do this to her best friend?

She pressed her eyebrows with her fingers, attempting to squeeze the thoughts out of her mind. Then she stopped. Took a very deep, shaky breath and endeavoured to picking up plates.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Mielou

Here is the next section of my story ‘One More Time’. If you haven’t read the first section then I recommend doing so.

Warning: If you ignore my recommendation then the segment bellow may baffle and frustrate you.

If you have read the first section, then you may have been confused as to why Lilette walks into ‘a steam.’ Don’t worry, she’s had a grammar check and now walks, more appropriately, into ‘a stem.’


Sure enough it was her best friend that had called her “where have you been!?” Mielou asked sceptically in a way that a curious Fairy would and not an angry parent.
“Oh, you know, here and there...” replied Lilette trying to hide her embarrassing tale, but she knew her attempts would be unsuccessful.
“What are you embarrassed about?” said Mielou “tell me!” this time Lilette felt not jealousy towards the Fairies, but anger. Who decided that they should have the gift of reading emotion?

“I hate you sometimes” hissed Lilette half joking, Mielou giggled and opened her eyes wider hinting for Lilette to tell her story “It’s not that embarrassing, Mie, it’s not a story worth telling” Mielou frowned at Lilette’s unsatisfactory answer and cupped her hands together to beg.
“Pleeeeese? Pretty please? Oh, why won’t you tell me?” and so, due to Mielou’s unique magical persuasive ability, Lilette told her all about her rather embarrassing day, which did little more than highlight what a klutz she is.

Once the story was told Mielou giggled at her friends misfortunes, sipped some lemon juice and straightened up the bow poised in between the spikes of her short black hair.
“Where did you get that bow?” Lilette asked, she was genuinely curious as to where this unfamiliar bow had come from. Mielou blushed and smiled a little, without needing supernatural emotion reading abilities Lilette could tell exactly what this meant.
“he gave it to you, didn’t he!?” Lilette squealed, now completely over having to reveal her embarrassing story. Mielou nodded shyly and tried to avoid catching Lilette’s gaze, but she couldn’t hold back her excitement for long and soon went into a long winded spiel about the Fairy boy who lives in the Mushroom next to hers.
“..... and you know I’ve fancied him for like ever, so when he came knocking on my Mushroom, I almost exploded! That’s when he gave me this bow. He said he made it especially for me ‘cause he thought it would go nice with my green eyes! And guess what? When I put it on he goes: ‘wow, you look so pretty’ and then I think I actually did explode!......”

As happy as Lilette was for her friend, the story made her feel lonely and she couldn’t help wishing that she had a neighbour so wonderful.
Mielou caught onto this mood instantly “oh, I’m sorry Lette, I’ll shut up now” she said understandingly, Lilette was glad to have her miserable mood read by Mielou, they turned to their meals and ate in silence for a while.

Lilette had been mistaken when she thought they were eating strawberries and sultanas because in front of her was a piece of raspberry and a raison, both of which were topped with lavender syrup. Lilette was relieved that it was a raison and not a sultana, sultanas are very wet and sticky and more than often she gets brown juice all over her white dress.

Then, rather unexpectedly and out of the blue, Mielou said “I’m soooo jealous of you, right now!” Lilette looked at her in disbelieve, as she went on to explain herself “these chairs aren’t designed for Fairies, it’s pushing my wings into my back. Ah. Soooo uncomfortable!” Lilette laughed as she looked back to see the transparent pink, pointy, dainty wings coming from the centre of Mielou’s back. They did appear to be a bit squashed. Mielou continued with her complaining “And do you have any idea how hard they are to clean? Oh my god, it takes forever and that’s not even the worst of it! I wish I could travel by wind, it would be soooo much better!” Lilette couldn’t agree, so, for the following ten minutes, the two of them casually debated whether it was better to have wings or not.

Their debate was inconveniently interrupted by the sound of bells “could everyone please look this way, I have a few words I would like to say” Lilette, along with everyone else, looked over towards the back of the hall and saw Cassidy standing on a white wooden box. This box did little good, for she was very short. All the Elves and Fairies shifted in their chairs trying to get a better view of the stubby blonde haired woman, who just so happened to be Lilette’s mother.

She gave a suggestive cough, making everyone settle into place and perk their ears up.
“I would like to start by thanking the Fairies for being, as they always are, such wonderful quests.” She spoke with authority, but Lilette could make out her motherly tone seeping through. After a few murmurs of approval from the Elves, she continued “Now. As a special treat, Elthador and I-” she gestured towards Lilette’s father “-have decided to take you all up to the mountain peak for some, well deserved, moonlight dancing!”

Shrieks of delight filled the hall as friends turned towards each other saying things such as “Oh, I simply adore moonlight dancing!” and “I haven’t been up to the mountain peak in quite some time!” and Lilette could have sworn she heard “we can push Lesley off the tip!”

Lilette turned to find Mielou biting her lip in excitement “do you think he’ll dance with me?” she whispered, looking uselessly behind her to make sure he wasn’t within hearing distance.
“Is he even here?”
Mielou frowned a little at the thought of this possibility and began scanning the room for him. Lilette looked too, although she didn’t know exactly what to look out for.

When Mielou spotted him she let out a small, quiet gasp and looked towards her lap.
“He’s here” she whispered, staring indomitably downwards. Lilette searched the room frantically curious, and could only presume that the googly eyed boy, who was all but drooling at the sight of Mielou, was the Fairy they had been searching for.

Friday, October 3, 2008

The End Of Time

Because of my uneventful holidays I’ve had a lot of spare time. There are lots of things you can do with spare time, one of which is write a story. I didn’t originally intend to put this story on my blog, but I haven’t written a post in a while and I don’t want my blog to feel neglected (just smile, nod and agree that blogs have feelings.) I’ve written, I think, about six pages, so below is only a segment of what I’ve written so far. Maybe next time my blog is feeling lonely I’ll put in another segment.
It’s a love story about Elves, Fairies and Pixies (not that there are any Pixies in the bit below.... or anything that may suggest it’s a love story) but I didn’t need to tell you that because you’re just about to read it:



It was the first day of spring and the Elves were busy preparing the feast for the gathering that would take place that afternoon. Lilette knew perfectly well that she should be helping her brothers and sisters but, as always, she was off gallivanting along the river bank. She threw a stone into the water and watched in disappointment as it sunk to the bottom leaving ripples on the surface, she had never been any good at skipping rocks.

“Ouch!” she murmured in her airy tongue, more out of shock than pain, as a petal from high above floated down and landed on her head. She shook off the large, silky, white petal and pondered it in amazement, what flower had this petal fallen from? She strained her neck to look up as high as she could, was it a daisy she could see? “Hmm” she said aloud as she analysed the possibility of the flower above being a daisy, she took a step forward in order to get a better view and managed to walk head first into the stem.

She held her now throbbing chin in her tender hands and shrieked a curse word that doesn’t translate into English. Her rage overcame her and she kicked the thick green shoot that was, miraculously, holding up what she presumed to be a daisy. It was at this moment that Lilette declared to never again kick a stem, she sat on the moist dirt and held her bare foot rocking quickly back and forth, as if this action would relieve some of the pain.

After a few minutes of intense rocking and Elfish cursing, the pain began to subside. Lilette sighed a heavy breath and lay down to rest her head against the soil. She looked up at the white petals, perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to lie directly under them, but she was worn out and couldn’t be bothered moving. She estimated that it would take her three hours to climb the stem to the very top, she decided to leave that adventure for another day, for now she just wanted to lie in the dirt. But then as quickly as she had decided to remain idle she noticed that the sun was getting close to the earth and that it was almost setting time. She jumped to her feet, if she didn’t hurry she would be late for the open season gathering her family were hosting. Lilette couldn’t afford to be late, not this time, she would be in enough trouble already for not helping with the preparations.

It’s in moments like these she wished she were a fairy. Fairies have wings, which are helpful when you need to get somewhere in a hurry “why don’t we have wings?” Lilette had once asked her mum, to which she had replied “because, Lette, elves are always instinctively on time for everything. We don’t need to rush about like the Fairies” this comment had deeply disturbed Lilette making her question whether or not she was actually an Elf. Lilette was late for everything and today was not going to be an exception. She squatted down and then with all the energy she had left inside of her, she sprang up into the air.

Weightlessly she allowed the wind to carry her through the sky like a balloon. Generally Lilette enjoyed riding the wind, a leisurely float amongst the tree tops is always enjoyable, but today she was in a hurry and was irritated by her amateur flying abilities which were preventing her from moving at a reasonable pace. The wind whooshed through her ears as she glided past leaves, trying to push against them to get some leverage for speed. She tried kicking off a branch but the wind just wasn’t strong enough and she continued to float along at an annoyingly slow rate. As much as Lilette liked looking graceful when she rode the wind, she had no choice but to breast stroke along so she could arrive late and not incredibly late. “Looking elegant today, Miss Lilette!” laughed a passing bee whom she didn’t recognise, she grunted it off and persisted at her attempts to breaststroke her way home.

Finally, just as her arms were beginning to get weary, she could see the Peppermint Tree. Home at last she thought and put in an ounce of extra effort into her breaststroke. The wind carried her until she was directly above the landing twig, she pointed the toe of right leg which gave her just enough pressure to gently meet the rough brown surface. Once her feet had met the ground her long, blonde wavy hair timelessly took its place resting on her neck and back. If Elves weren’t so soundless, then a lot of attention would have been drawn towards Lilette as she opened the door in the Peppermint Tree and stepped into the main hall. Her mouth dropped open slightly, as she gawked at the wonderful job her siblings had done decorating the usually unglamorous hall.

The four long wooden tables lined up vertically across the room were draped with either pale yellow, orange, white or pink cloth. Evenly spread out along the length of every table, were three silver vases filled with sensational Elf sized flowers. Suspended in the air above the tables were real sized petals, much like the one that had fallen on Lilette’s head earlier that afternoon, but these one’s seemed as though they would be staying in place for the night, so she didn’t worry. She wondered whether it was the hovering petals that gave the room a flower scented touch, or if her family had sprayed something around. All thirty-seven of Lilette’s siblings were already seated and had already began eating their meals, which Lilette perceived consisted of strawberries and sultanas.

The Fairies were already there. For the second time that day Lilette felt immensely jealous of the Fairies, wearing their beautiful outfits made of hand woven flowers. The Elf girls looked so simple in their white dresses and so did the Elf boys in their white pants and shirts compared to the extravagant complexity of the hand woven Fairy clothes. The Fairies were so colourful, just looking at them brightened up Lilette’s day. She hated herself for feeling such jealousy, it denied her the warm glowing feeling everyone else said they experienced around Fairies. “Lette!” called a soft but defendant voice from somewhere on the furthest table, Lilette instantly recognised the voice as belonging to her best friend, Mielou. She skipped gaily and weightlessly in the direction of the voice.