WordCrafters 3!

June 15, 2017 | Allison

IT’S HERE, GUYS! YAYAYAYAY! I am so looking forward to reading your lovely chapters this go ’round. 😀

Here is the list of participants and their order. Please let me know if those weeks absolutely will NOT work for you, and I’ll do my best to change it.

For a quick review of the rules, I’ll show you the first chapter here shortly, and then the next person, will write the second chapter based on where it ends and the loose plot outline I’ll give you. After a maximum of one week, it’s the next person’s turn. If you finish your story before one week, that would be great too! It will make WordCrafters move forward a little more quickly.

I decided to put the pictures of the characters and their descriptions on the WordCrafters 3 page so this post wouldn’t get insanely long. XD

Now for the first chapter. Eeeee, I’m so excited! I hope you enjoy!

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Esme was having a wonderful day. Little waves nibbled at her toes, sun rays warmed her back, and the seashell she had found felt cool and smooth in her palm. Vivi was sunbathing on her beach towel a few feet away, and Pippin… Esme shook her head and smiled. Pippin was sneaking up to Vivi with a pail of freezing ocean water. He beamed Esme a mischievous grin and dumped the bucket over Vivi’s head.

Esme had to put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. Vivi scrambled to her feet, spluttering with rage and surprise, and ran after Pippin, yelling and threatening to dunk him in the water if he so much as touched her again.

She heaved a happy sigh. Life was good.

Esme settled back into the sand and took another fond look at her seashell. It was perfect, spiraling around and around, each spiral smaller than the last. It reminded her of a giant, periwinkle snail shell. She turned the shell over to gaze into the pearly opening. Suddenly, she gasped. Her eyes widened. She shook the shell, tapped it gently on the ground, and finally reached inside with her slender fingers and pulled out a scrap of paper.

“Pippin, Vivi, come quick! Look what I found!” she called excitedly.

They halted the chase and trotted obediently over to Esme.

“What is it, Esme?” asked Pippin. In answer, she handed him the scrap.

Pippin frowned and read aloud, “‘Item 7: fourteen mermaid scales.’ What on earth?”

Vivi snatched it from him, “Wait, and there’s something on the back: ‘Operation Portal Icxylwocig, property of P. Charming.’”

The three friends looked at each other with wide eyes. Was it time to go back?

*****************

Alalia was having a wonderful day. She and her cousin Jacob were testing out his new boat, the “Captain Hook,” at the beach. A stiff breeze filled the sail and they skimmed gracefully through the water. She leaned over the side, trailing her hands in the cool water, and…

“JACOB! Come look!”

Jacob started in surprise. “What on earth, Alalia? You nearly knocked me overboard!” Jacob rolled his eyes, but grinned good-naturedly. He made his way over to her side of the boat. “What-“ He left the word hanging as a flash of green and red flew under their boat. He rubbed his eyes. Alalia blinked.

There it was again – a long, green, fish-like tail, with red hair was streaming out above it.

“A mermaid,” Alalia whispered.

They looked at each other. Could this mean what they thought it did?

*****************

The next day Pippin, Vivi, and Esme all hurried back to the beach. They scoured the shore for more notes, leaving no shell unturned.

Nothing.

Finally the three of them plopped down on a rock, discouraged. Two other teenagers were walking in their direction, chatting intently about something.

“I’m just sure it was a mermaid,” the girl was saying. “What if it was Ariel?”

The boy shook his head. “I dunno. I mean, if it’s really her, why is she in the human world and not in Fairyland? I realize we didn’t see her when we visited but-“

They both stopped short when they noticed the three children listening to them with wide eyes and open mouths.

Vivi spoke first. “Are you guys talking about… mermaids?”

The two teenagers looked embarrassed. “Oh… um, we were just…”

“And something about Fairyland?”

“Well, we-“

“So we aren’t the only ones!”

The boy looked startled. “Wait, what?”

Pippin hopped off the rock and held out the mysterious note. “Have a look at this. We found it yesterday in a shell.”

A look of recognition flitted over the girl’s face. “Icxylwocig. I saw that on a sign in the forest, when I first came through the portal.” Then she caught herself. “Oh, I mean…”

“Really? You guys went through a portal?!” Vivi was excited now. “So did we! Well, kind of. See, one day we found this huge, weird-looking egg…”

And with that, everyone started talking at once, racing each other to tell their wonderful adventures.

After many words and tales and names were exchanged, the five children felt like they had been friends for years. It was easy to become friends with the only other people in the world who understand your biggest secret.

“But now we need to figure out what this note means,” Pippin said, getting back to business. “It could be some sort of portal instrument or something, to take us back.”

“Or maybe it has something to do with our mermaid sighting? You know, the part about the mermaid scales?” Jacob suggested.

“Maybe…”

Esme had been listening quietly to everyone else’s talk, until at last she spoke up shyly, in her soft voice: “I-I have an idea.” Everyone turned toward her expectantly.

“Well, you know how it says, ‘Operation Portal Icxylwocig? And the mermaid scales section sounds like part of a recipe. Maybe P. Charming, whoever that is, was trying to make a sort of recipe for a portal to get to Fairyland?”

Everyone nodded their heads thoughtfully.

“Yeah, and you need mermaid scales to make it!” Alalia jumped in. “And maybe the ‘Item 7’ part means it’s the 7^th ingredient or something.”

Vivi jumped up suddenly. “Guys, wait. What if we found all the ingredients and made the portal ourselves? Then if that really was Ariel that Jacob and Alalia saw, we could take her back to Fairyland, and everything would be perfect!”

At that, everyone started talking excitedly.

“HOLD IT!” yelled Jacob. “Does anyone know a P. Charming? If we could find him, maybe he’d give us the rest of the notes.”

“But if he knows all the ingredients, maybe he’s already made the portal… maybe that’s how I got to Fairyland in the first place,” Alalia pointed out.

Everyone was silent for a moment, thinking.

Suddenly Esme’s face brightened. “Oh, I just remembered! We have Katri’s diary! Maybe there’s something in there about portals!”

“Brilliant!” Pippin shouted in delight. “Let’s go check!”

*****************

Precious minutes ticked away as Pippin, Vivi, and Esme introduced their new friends to their parents, but finally the five children were safely in the girls’ bedroom at the beach house. Esme held out a violet leather journal studded with glittering stones.

Jacob wrinkled his nose, “Ew, you can tell that’s a fairy’s diary. Look at all that purple sparkly stuff.” Everyone laughed. “So are we going to read the whole thing or what?”

Vivi frowned. “Nah, that would take way too long. Here, I’ve read the first entry already, so I can just give you a summary while Esme looks for the entry about portals.”

Vivi cleared her throat with a mock-serious expression, and began. “So Snow White got banished from her home in Fairyland after she herself banished Ariel, Katri’s sister, out of jealousy.”

Jacob snorted. “Number one, how can a mermaid be sisters with a fairy? And number two, she banished her out of jealousy?”

Vivi sighed impatiently. “Number one, I am not an expert on family relations in Fairyland. I don’t know, maybe one of them was adopted or something. If Katri wrote in her diary that Ariel’s her sister, I’ll go with that. And number two, yes, she did. Because Ariel had married her prince while Snow White’s prince, Prince Charming, had suddenly disappeared one day and never returned. No one knows why. Snow White was so heartbroken and jealous of Ariel’s happiness that she banished her – she only meant to move her to a different province, but her plans went awry. Now Katri, her father, and Snow White all want Ariel back, but the problem is, they don’t know where to find her. They think she might be in the human world, but if so, they can’t go and get her. Residents of Fairyland are too obvious in the human world, and plus, there are other physical complications of adjusting to a different world. That’s why we all went to Fairyland – they wanted to force us to find Ariel, but we escaped before they could make us do it.”

“So do you think they sent us the note on purpose, to take us back? No one else but us could figure out what the note meant,” Alalia said.

Pippin shook his head. “Nah, because how could they know we would find that specific shell?”

Jacob nodded. “Good point. It’s still a little weird, though.” He looked over at Esme. “Did you ind anything yet, Esme?”

“Actually, yes!” Esme smiled. “Here, Vivi, you can read it.”

Vivi cleared her throat and read…

Dad says portals to other worlds must be made with resources native to that world. For instance, if I wanted to make a portal to the human world, I would need wood, nails, and other human things to make it. So for Prince Charming’s portal to work, he has to take some ingredients from Fairyland to the human world and build it there. I don’t know why he thinks it’s worth the risk – what if he gets an ingredient wrong and gets stuck in the human world forever? I personally never liked Flynn Rider that much anyway, but I guess he and Charming were pretty close friends. Rapunzel just isn’t the same since he’s gone missing, and I’ll admit it’s quite heroic of Prince Charming to try to rescue her dear husband.

“Woah, now everything is starting to make sense,” Vivi said. “So Prince Charming must have been making a portal to get his friend back to Fairyland, but he messed up his recipe and the portal didn’t work.”

“GUYS! I have it!” Alalia shouted. “Why didn’t we think of this sooner: P. Charming is Prince Charming!”

Everyone blinked. Oh, duh.

Jacob got to his feet, rubbing his hands together. “Well, now that we’ve got all this figured out, let’s go make the portal and save everyone!”

Vivi looked at him scornfully. “You can’t just do that, Jacob. What about our parents? And how are we going to find the other notes? We don’t even know if there ARE other notes. We need to get prepared, first. We’ll need food, and water, and some way to make shelter, and-”

“That’s our girl,” grinned Pippin, poking Vivi. “Always prepared.” She glared at him.

Esme, who was still leafing through the diary pages, suddenly jumped up and shouted, “EUREKA!” Then she blushed and lowered her voice. “Oops. I mean, look what I found!” She had opened the journal to a page with a list of ingredients.

Prince Charming’s portal is coming along pretty well. He even told me what he has so far. (But it’s top secret, so don’t tell anyone, diary. Ha ha.)

Item One: Oak wood

Item Two: Generous amount of fairy dust

Item Three: Stepping stones

Item Four: ???

Item Five: ???

Item Six: ???

Item Seven: ???

I sure hope Prince Charming’s expedition goes well, because if he can’t find the right ingredients, he might never return.

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Ooooohhhhh! 😀 And lastly but not leastly, here’s the revised plot summary, to aid you in your writing:

It all starts with a mysterious note tucked inside a seashell. What could it mean? Who could it be from? And could it be time to go back? Five friends, Pippin, Jacob, Vivi, Alalia, and Esme work together to solve the mystery, and come up with a surprising solution: What if Snow White’s prince, Prince Charming, was working on constructing a portal between the human and fairytale world, but he got stranded in the human world and couldn’t get back to Snow White? If the five friends could find the rest of the notes, perhaps they could build their own portal to bring Ariel back to Fairyland – and maybe even Prince Charming with her.

Thus begins the biggest adventure so far as the children track down pieces of Fairyland hidden in the human world. But unbeknownst to them, there is danger lurking in the shadows – banished convicts from Fairyland that will do almost anything to get their hands on those mysterious notes. If this is a fairy tale, where is the happily ever after?

Exciting? I think so! I cannot wait to see how the story turns out! If you have any questions about the story or the participant list or WordCrafters in general, please just drop me a comment.

Thank you all so much for participating, and have fun!

***Allison***

Short Story: The Animals’ Court

May 3, 2017May 3, 2017 | Allison

Hello there, dear readers! Today I wanted to post this short story which I wrote for school a while ago. 🙂 It was supposed to be a humorous paper, so I hope you find it funny. XD Ahem.

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The Animal’s Court

One clear night after all the lights of the farmhouse had disappeared and only the stars were left, a queer noise issued from the open doors of the old white barn. Of course, no one was there to hear it but the stars, but they all twinkled and sparkled with curiosity, and drew closer to the remarkable scene inside.

Quite a selection of animals were milling about on the spacious barn floor, carefully stepping between holes and past creaky floorboards. Various moos, clucks, barks, meows, and grunts mingled together in loud cacophony, until finally one of the rabbits stamped her hind feet in frustration.

“Order! Order! I demand order!” a large black rabbit named Diamond grunted ferociously as she hopped onto a dilapidated haybale. The animals gradually quieted, the last whispered moos and clucks dying away under the fierce stare of the doe. Once the barn was silent, Diamond continued.

“Now. As you know, we have called this meeting because we rabbits have heard your various complaints and wholeheartedly agree with you: something simply must be done about those pestiferous humans. Tonight the humans are on trial and you, the jury, must give us the verdict: guilty or not guilty. We shall begin with the largest witnesses first, and move towards the smaller. Mrs. Cowe, will you please step forward?”

A large, black and white Holstein cow plodded ponderously over to the haybale, mouth munching casually in time to her slow-swinging tail.

“Yes, Diamond ma’am, Your Honor,” she mooed in her deep placid voice. “You called? Mmm… what am I supposed to do?”

“I hereby request that you unburden your soul to us, your dearest comrades, upon the subject of humankind and its many erring ways.”

A vaguely puzzled look crossed Mrs. Cowe’s face. “Ah, would you… would you mind repeating that, Your Honor?” she said slowly, a frown of concentration furrowing her large brow.

Willow, an absurdly fluffy rabbit, heaved a sigh and shook her furry head. “Never mind, Mrs. Cowe. I’ll translate for you. What Diamond means to say is, can you tell us your experience with humans and explain why you either admire or dislike them?”

Diamond glared at Willow, but Mrs. Cowe looked relieved. “Ah, yes. Of course, Your Honor. Well I think, and this is just my opinion of course, that humans are a bit too intrusive, if you know what I mean. Why just the other day the tallest human-girl was ambling around, poking a strange black box in our faces. I can tell you in nearly frightened me to death! And the way that thing clicked! As if it would explode any minute. I tell you I nearly choked on my cud. I… I just down hold with those folks, even if they do give us pretty good eats, but of course that’s just my personal opinion.”

Diamond blinked slowly. She sighed. Then she said in a dry voice. “Very well, Mrs. Cowe. Thank you kindly for your very perceptive witness statement.”

Mrs. Cowe looked inordinately pleased at this dubious praise. A wide, lopsided grin spread across her great mouth, and she ambled happily back to her place among the animals.

Diamond stamped her hind feet sharply on the haybale, calling for order although the hush still prevailed. “We will now hear a statement from Magnolia the Labrador retriever, or Maggie, as most of us know her.”

Diamond’s iron composure faltered slightly at the sight of Maggie’s wide, toothy smile, despite the fact that all animals had sworn a truce for the night. She gulped.

Maggie trotted happily up to the haybale, waving her tail.

“Hello, Your Honor!” she barked brightly. Maggie always spoke in exclamation points. “I am very happy to be here tonight! I am also very happy to say that I, for one, entirely approve of humans! They are kind, loving, and altogether wonderful pets, as far as I am concerned! I would highly recommend them! Of course, they do need a considerable amount of protecting – there’s a strange beast down the hill from their house that they just do not seem to notice, no matter how much I warn them – but I am more than happy to protect them! Are you feeling happy today, Your Honor? You look exceptionally tast- I mean beautiful!”

Diamond lifted her ears a bit higher at this, and looked more tolerantly at the energetic dog. “I’m feeling alright, yes. Thank you, Maggie. You may go now. Mr. and Mrs. Clukken, may I call you up?”

Maggie’s tongue swept surreptitiously over her chops at the sight of the two chickens, but she immediately regained her self-possession and bounced back to her spot.

Mr. Clukken was always “training” himself to be a world-class flyer, much to the dismay of the many chickens who happened to intercept his unsteady path. Mrs. Clukken was a nervous bird, always clucking softly to herself and casting fearful glances at her overbearing husband.

Mr. Clukken now strutted importantly up to the forlorn haybale and cleared his throat. “Ahem. I believe I speak for all chicken-kind when I say that humans are nothing but a menace, an absolute menace to chicken society. Right, Mrs. Clukken?” he demanded, jerking his head sideways toward his wife.

“Oh, certainly, dear,” she agreed, jerking her head up and down rapidly in emphatic agreement.

Mr. Clukken looked satisfied. “For instance, how are we supposed to continue our line of offspring when they mysteriously snatch away our eggs?”

“How, indeed?” echoed Mrs. Clukken sadly.

Mr. Clukken gave what he judged to be a tear-inducing crow of sadness (but which really sounded more like the cry of a wounded duck), and fluttered pompously off of the haybale.

Diamond winced. “Mmm… Excellent testimony, Mr. and Mrs. Clukken. Now may I call up Jinx the cat?”

Jinx did not look entirely happy to be crowded into this dusty barn with so many disgusting, uncivilized animals, but he merely waved his tail gracefully and narrowed his eyes until they looked properly bored and condescending for such an occasion.

“Hmm, you called, Your Honor?” he meowed in a somewhat sarcastic tone. “I have heard you wish to speak to me on the topic of humans, which happens to be a topic I find most unpleasant. In essence, I live with humans because I would never stoop to the wandering life of a barn tomcat, even if it would mean freedom from human trials.” A scruffy looking tomcat in the jury twitched his whiskers ferociously at this offensive remark.

“Humans,” Jinx resumed, “are a pest. There are no two ways about it. They are always picking you up or nearly strangling you, especially that young human whippersnapper of a boy, and they respond most slowly when called for. True, there are times when a good scratch under the neck is a pleasant way to relax after a hard day, but the costs far outweigh that benefit. If it were not for the regular, though somewhat unappetizing, rations, I wouldn’t put up with their nonsense.”

Diamond lifted a paw. “Hear hear,” she said with heartfelt depth. After a moment, she called up the last witnesses, “my sisters and brother, the rabbits.”

Five rabbits in varying colors hopped forth from the crowd. They all touched noses respectfully with Diamond, then lined themselves up in a neat row. Willow, the fluffiest, spoke first.

“Well I know I’m in the minority here, but I think humans are decent creatures. Sure, they can be pretty annoying when they chase you all over the pen trying to squish the fluff out of you, but in general they’re pretty sweet. They often bring us delicious treats like willow branches or fresh spring grass or maybe a mess of dandelions. Yes, they’re a decent lot, for all their shortcomings.”

Clementine, Willow’s rival, spoke up next. “I object!” she shouted. “I object most strongly! Humans are nothing but pesky two-legged workers of ill deeds. They are always trying to corner you, always snatching you off of safe ground and holding you insecurely in their clumsy hands. And they get so angry when I bite them, as if they didn’t have it coming! As if calling me “Booger Nuggy” wasn’t enough to make any self-respecting rabbit a bit on edge. I mean, really!”

Snickers hopped up to the haybale. “I, for one, agree with Willow. The way to a buck’s heart is through his stomach, as they always say, and humans certainly do well in that department! Mmm, I could really go for some more of that fresh grass…” he trailed off wistfully, licking his lips with a tiny tongue.

Lily, who looked like she had eaten rather too much fresh grass, waddled her large self forward. She said, between wheezes, “I… I think… humans are… pretty nice, even if… some of them… are a little… insulting. But my human… always says my eyes are pretty… so I forgive them.” She batted her large dark eyes, which were in fact quite beautiful, although they were often half hidden by the blubber surrounding them.

Lastly Olaf, a nervous white rabbit with startling red eyes, spoke. “I-I don’t hold with humans. Th-they just aren’t predictable. I mean l-look at me! I’m obviously a d-doe, but that silly human b-boy thought I was a buck and named me O-Olaf! It’s a disgrace, I tell you, a disgrace!” Olaf shook her head remorsefully.

Diamond, who happened to be Olaf’s especial friend, quite agreed with her and proceeded to expound her agreement in such long-winded terms that Mrs. Cowe nearly fell over with boredom-induced exhaustion. Thankfully Maggie nipped at her heels just in time.

At last Diamond reached the end of her speech, and addressed the jury. “Now, my friends and fellow animals, I leave it to you. You have heard our witnesses and must make the decision yourselves. What will you decide? Are humans kind, peaceful creatures, or are they simply pests who make our lives miserable? It is your choice.”

A murmur vibrated through the jury at this. Heifers and tomcats, roosters and does conferred among themselves in loud whispers. Finally they raised their heads and one of the tomcats stepped forward.

“Your Honor, we have discussed the matter, and we find humans…”

By this time most of the witnesses and audience were chanting, “Guil-TY, guil-TY, guil-TY!”

The tomcat waited until the noise died down. “As I was saying,” he glared, “we, the jury, find humans… GUILTY!”

A deafening cheer erupted from the crowd, far overpowering the scattered boos and frowns.

The stars winced a little from their high perch, and backed away from the roar.

“DOWN WITH HUMANS! DOWN WITH HUMANS!” the animals thundered.

Suddenly, over at the farmhouse, a light blinked on.

“DRIVE THEM OUT, WE SAY!”

Another light.

“WE CAN TAKE CARE OF OURSELVES!”

Crunching footsteps.

Suddenly a young calf standing near the door wobbled quickly to the haybale. “EVERYONE, LISTEN TO ME!” it shouted in a quavering voice. “THE FARMER IS COMING!”

A stifling blanket of silence suddenly dropped on the barn; the sound of a hundred voices holding their breath.

The door creaked open. A man stood silhouetted in the moonlight, the beam of his flashlight cutting effortlessly through the darkness. The flashlight fell upon dilapidated haybales, a creaky floor full of holes, and air filled with dust. He squinted his tired eyes, rubbed them, peered into the blackness again, and shook his head.

“Some dream,” he muttered to himself. Then he turned around and walked slowly back to the house. Maggie, a happy Labrador retriever, trotted joyfully beside him. Six rabbits rustled the straw in their cage. Thousands of chickens clucked and crowed in their chicken houses. Many cows raised their heavy heads to look sleepily at him. A meowing black cat met him at the farmhouse door.

“Some dream,” the farmer said again.

And the animals never felt led to correct him.

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Hee hee! I had so much fun writing that. I hope you enjoyed it! Most of the animals in there were our pets, and I drew a lot of inspiration from real life. (We really do have an old white barn with creaky floorboards and holes, and my brother Jeff really does kinda torture our cat, Jinx. XD )

***Allison***

P. S. Oh, by the way, thank you all SO much for your feedback in the last post! I’m so happy you like photography posts because I really do like posting them. I’ll probably post mostly photography, especially in spring and fall, but I definitely won’t only post that because I can’t resist sprinkling in writing, art, and other things like that. 😉 Thanks again, guys!

P. P. S. As you’ve probably noticed by now if you’re actually reading this on my blog, I’ve changed my design! What do you think? I mainly just changed the header and button, as well as the little “About Me” picture and description on the sidebar, but I’m still working on a few more changes.

Beauty from Ashes, Part 6 {Finale!}

April 10, 2017April 10, 2017 | Allison

Wow, it has been forever since I added to this. (It seems like I always say that, doesn’t it? XD ) I’m excited to finish this story up. I hope you enjoy this last chapter!

If you haven’t read the previous chapters, you might want to do so here.

Alright, let’s do this!

Part 6

As the carriage glided smoothly over the road, the thoughts in my mind jostled against each other. Should I have stayed with the Prince’s grandmother? She looked like she needed some help. Then I remembered why she told me to go, and my thoughts soared in another direction. I was to meet the prince! Me, dusty little forgotten Ella. Think of that! What would my sisters say when they saw me? My, wouldn’t they be surprised? And then my thoughts would start over again, back at the beginning, a repeating, never ending circle. I thought I had solved one problem only to come upon it again. But I really shouldn’t have left Grandmother…

Finally the circle shattered: we had reached the palace. I pushed my head out of the carriage window for a quick peek and forgot to draw it back in. My mouth fell open and my eyes sparkled with the reflection of hundreds of candles in hundreds of windows, set in a dazzling cacophony of turrets and towers that nearly touched the clouds. A bubbling fountain sparkled in the immaculate lawn, dancing and murmuring to itself in the dying light. Everything was bathed in the soft rose light of sunset.

I almost forgot to breathe.

My glass slippers tapped on the cobblestone walk as I left the carriage, and my heart echoed back every tap with a loud and breathless voice. My hands felt damp and slippery in their soft white gloves.

Two well-dressed men stood at the door to greet the guests. I couldn’t believe that they bowed to me politely as I went in. I was the one who should have been bowing to them! After all, who was I but a lowly servant girl?

But all other thoughts were swept away as I stood at the top of a majestic marble staircase leading down to the ballroom. There were so many people! And so many girls waiting to dance with the prince! Girls who no doubt far surpassed me in beauty and kindness and good character. I thought of all the times I had lost patience with my sisters and stepmother, all those times when I had been so weak and cried myself to sleep, all those times when I felt ready to tear myself apart with anger at myself and my never ending chores and my tiresome, miserable life.

My heart sank. I knew I could never make the Prince happy. He deserved a princess, and I was only Cinderella, the filthy servant girl who swept floors and cleaned fireplaces.

I whirled around to leave, hot tears of shame and self-pity burning my eyes, but suddenly I stopped. The room had gone silent; the music had stopped. All faces had turned toward mine, all eyes were fixed on me, tearing me to shreds from the inside out with their scrutiny. By this time I didn’t care whether my sisters saw me or not – in fact, I hoped they didn’t. I felt terrible, foolish. What had I been thinking? But then the crowd of people turned away and looked with one accord at another figure.

It was the prince. He parted the sea before him and walked towards me. I shrank back, but he held out his hand. He ascended the staircase and smiled his beautiful, brilliant smile at me. He didn’t say a word, but took me by the hand and led me down, down into the sea of faces, all looking at me with wonder and surprise. I gripped the prince’s hand so tightly my fingers hurt.

Then I saw my sisters and stepmother – they were looking straight at me. I wanted to cry out, to turn around, to flee, but I didn’t. I dropped my eyes, and then quickly looked up again. They were looking at me with the same wondering expression that everyone else had. They didn’t recognize me.

Finally we reached the end of the sea of people. The prince looked at me again. For a moment he wore the same amazed, wondering expression that everyone else did, and then he smiled again, wider than ever.

“Oh, Ella!” he whispered joyfully. “I knew you’d come.” I tried to answer him, but all my words were bottled up in my heart. So I just smiled and squeezed his hand.

Then the music started up again and everything went back to the noise and laughter. But it was different. Now everyone kept stealing glances at me and the prince. I wondered if they were inwardly laughing at my disguise. Could they see the real me underneath the layers of lace? Finally I could stand it no longer.

“Why are they looking at me?” I cried to the prince, stepping and turning in time to the music.

He held my hands tighter as we whirled and spun. He whispered in my ear, “Because you are beautiful.”

I was shocked. Was that what everyone was really thinking? I pondered in silence for a while.

“That is because of your wonderful grandmother,” I said at last. “Can you believe that she have me this dress?”

The prince nodded. “I can believe it. But you were already beautiful, even before the dress, Ella. You were beautiful the first day I met you with dirt on your cheeks and an apron over your dress. You are beautiful because your heart is beautiful and as pure as the sun, and it shines from your eyes and your whole self.”

As he spoke, my heart soared inside of me. As he spoke, I knew that I could marry the prince, not because of who I was, but because of who he was, because he had chosen me. I could marry the prince because he loved me and I loved him back. It didn’t matter if I was a servant girl or the fairest princess in the world. It didn’t matter if he was a wild, shaggy Beast or a wealthy, handsome prince. I knew that it didn’t matter at all. Suddenly the words that were bottled up in my heart spilled over, and for hours and hours we talked and laughed and danced as if we were the best of friends – because we were.

But suddenly, I stopped up short in the middle of a dance. I heard something faintly – a chiming clock. With increasing terror I counted each chime. Twelve o’clock. Midnight.

Suddenly I broke away from the prince and dashed through the people. I raced up the stairs, stumbling over my dress. One glass slipper clattered down the steps, but I ran on, panting and gasping for breath.

It was no use. When I reached the top of the stairs, my gorgeous dress had turned into my filthy, soot-stained apron. My hair had fallen around my face in dismal strands.

I was Cinderella again.

Again, the crowd grew quiet. Suddenly, three shouts burst from the sea of faces. Three people hurried toward me. My sisters and stepmother. I couldn’t hold back the tears. I was outraged with myself that I hadn’t left sooner, had embarrassed myself in front of them and all those people… and the prince.

My stepmother spoke first. “Cinderella! What on earth are you doing here? Don’t you know this is no place for servant girls?”

Anastasia and Drucilla just stood dumbfounded. I hid my face in my hands and wept. It had been such a wonderful evening, and now this!

I heard a voice through my tears. “But don’t you understand! Her name is not Cinderella, it is Ella. And she is not a servant girl. She is a princess. My princess.”

My head shot up. It was the prince. And he had… he had called me…

I ran to him and threw myself into his arms. “I will always be your princess,” I whispered.

For a moment, everyone just stared. Then Anastasia broke the silence. “WELL!” she huffed. “WELL!” She beamed me a look of pure hatred, and stalked out the door. Druscilla looked at me with the most shocked expression I have ever seen, and then she dissolved into wails. For once my stepmother’s iron composure had been broken. She gathered up what was left of her dignity and dragged Druscilla after her.

I turned back to my prince. My prince! And I was going to be his princess. He had turned me from a servant into royalty, from a miserable, lonely girl into the happiest girl on earth. He had found beauty in the ashes.

*******

I looked out over the crowd, happy to see Grandmother sitting among them. She looked older than ever, and just as exhausted, but her smile made her face look young. I found my sisters and stepmother watching me intently, but they looked away as soon as they saw me glancing at them. I knew they were ashamed now of how they had treated me, but I had forgiven them. I couldn’t change the past, but I could make the future better.

And thinking of the future, my eyes swept back to the prince. He telling me something, something important. I didn’t hear his words, but his eyes told me what he was saying.

“I do.” I answered. “I will always be your Cinderella forever and ever, until the end of time.”

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Ta-daa! I hope you liked it! Ahh, it feels nice to have finished the story. 🙂

Thank you for reading, dear friends!

***Allison***

WordCrafters 2 Finale!

March 26, 2017 | Allison

YAYAYAYAY! I’m so excited to show you guys the last chapter of WordCrafters 2! To all who participated, thank you soooo much! I loved reading all of your chapters, and you did such a great job! If you need to read through the story again first, click here.

Are you ready to see how it ends? It DID get rather long, so settle in. XD

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“Esme!” shouted Pippin, Vivi, and Katri in relief. Esme looked quite relieved to see them too, but not for long. Suddenly she started talking faster than her friends had ever heard her talk.

“Guys, we have to find Devin! I was looking for unicorns but then the ground opened up and I fell into this weird underground place and this really mean guy grabbed me and hurt me but then Devin came and saved me but all the sudden a super scary dragon or something appeared and the mean guy was going to catch us both but Devin fought him and saved my life AGAIN but now I don’t know where he is and Daisy said he’s in danger and… and…” Esme stopped for breath, then broke into tears. “Now we have to save him.” She raised her teary eyes to look at Vivi. Vivi dropped her head and kicked at the ground, muttering something under her breath. Pippin looked a little stunned that Esme had just talked faster than he ever had, and Katri… Katri had her face in her hands.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“For what?” Vivi said, a little ferociously.

Katri breathed a trembling sigh. “Well… that ‘mean guy’ was…” her voice dropped even lower. “My father.”

Everyone’s head shot up.

You could practically see the steam hissing out of Vivi’s ears. She gritted her teeth so hard you could hear it and shot imaginary flaming daggers at Katri.

“Listen,” she hissed. “I know Devin isn’t my favorite person in the world, but did your dad really have to do all that to him? And what about my friend Esme? Huh? Oh, and what about you? Are you hatching a secret plan to kidnap all of us?” She bit off each word sharply, as if snapping a cracker in two.

Katri backed away. “No, no! I promise I’m on your side! I mean I was supposed to be against you guys at the beginning, but once I really met you, I knew I never could be.”

Pippin spoke up. “Hey, but how do we know you’re telling the truth? I vote we use some Honesty Powder on her.”

Katri dropped her head again. “It’s not real. It doesn’t work.”

Now it was Pippin’s turn to explode. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT DOESN’T WORK? And how do we know that you’re not lying to us AGAIN?”

By now tears were rolling down Katri’s face. “Please,” she whispered. “Please, you can trust me now. I… I want to be your friend, not your enemy.”

“STOP!” Esme wailed. “Can’t you see how much you’re hurting her? Can’t you see she’s telling the truth?” She looked disapprovingly at her friends. “And you know arguing isn’t going to save Devin, no matter how mad we are.”

For a moment everyone was silent, ashamed and taken aback by Esme’s unaccustomed air of authority.

Pippin and Vivi both sighed at once. “Sorry, Katri,” they mumbled.

Katri gave them a little smile and wiped her eyes. “It’s alright.”

Esme let out a long breath. “Okay, is everyone good now? Because I really want to go find Devin.”

************

They were quite a procession walking down the path: two girls (one astride a fuzzy gray unicorn), one boy, a fairy and an elf (who were keeping their distance), and a tiny baby dragon who had started it all.

Katri led the way, flying quickly until they reached her father’s “office” a.k.a dungeon where Devin was held. They all stayed outside while Katri slipped in stealthily to find Devin’s cell. Finally she appeared at the entrance. “Number 38” she said quietly.

Daisy, Faun, and the baby dragon stayed outside, but the rest of the friends all tiptoed down the long, dark hallway where the voices and moans of prisoners echoed off the wall. Esme moved closer to Vivi. Finally they reached cell number 38. There was Devin, sitting dejectedly on the hard stone cot at the back of the cell.

Pippin’s face lighted up when he saw his brother. “Psst, Devin!” he hissed. “Over here!” Devin looked up quickly, clapping a hand over his mouth to stifle a yell.

“I knew you would find me!” he beamed. He and Pippin grinned at each other for a moment until Devin’s smile faded. “Um, excuse me for asking, but what do we do now? How are you going to get me out?

Katri clenched her fists. “Leave it to me.”

****************

Thirty long, slimy minutes later, the whole troop emerged from a trapdoor in the ground, covered from knee to toe in gooey greenish mud. Daisy sniffed them disapprovingly, and the dragon and elf on his back turned away in disgust.

Esme gasped and fell onto the grass. “I hope… I never… have to do that… again,” she said between gags. She looked ruefully at her lovely black hair which was currently striped with a startling shade of mossy green. “Why doesn’t your father clean up those passages every once in a while?”

Katri shrugged. “He only ever uses them in case of emergencies, which we haven’t had since… well, since a long time.”

Vivi scowled. “Well you’d better be grateful Devin, after all that.”

“Oh, I am!” he beamed Vivi a sincere smile, which quickly melted her scowl.

Suddenly they heard footsteps rounding the side of the cave. There was no time to do anything but stand still, looking scared.

It was Katri’s father.

“RUN!” Katri screamed. “FOLLOW ME!”

For a moment, Katri’s father was too stunned too move. His daughter was helping those children? She should be hurting them. His shock gave them just enough time to disappear into the woods, only stopping to rest when they finally reached the main path.

“Now that was close,” Pippin panted. “Too close. Let’s just get this dragon back to its home without any more mishaps, okay?”

And they did – mostly. Most of the tenser moments were caused by words rather than actions, like the time when Pippin referred to Daisy as a “she.”

“FOR THE LAST TIME, I AM NOT A ‘SHE’!” Daisy exploded. “MY NAME IS DAISY AND I AM A VERY IMPORTANT, VERY RARE MALE UNICORN THAT CAN SURVIVE ONLY IN DAISY FIELDS, OKAY? OKAY! WHY DOES EVERYONE HAVE TO TEASE ME ABOUT MY NAME?!”

Pippin grimaced. “Sheesh, okay. You don’t have to take it so personally, Mr. Daisy.” He grinned at the unicorn’s indignant huffle.

Or the time Katri and Faun got in an argument about whether fairies or elves were the best. (“At least I don’t have an evil father,” Faun said triumphantly.)

Or that time when they thought they lost the baby dragon (again), but found him curled up in Pippin’s pocket. (“Oops. Heh heh. Honest, I just forgot he was in there!”)

But the worst of their adventures happened when they finally reached their journey’s end. Esme stared at the wicked-looking mountain looming over them. “Th-the baby dragon lives here?”

Katri nodded grimly. “That is the happy home of Snow White. The worst, most bitter person I know besides my dad.”

“Hold on,” Esme squealed. “Did you just say SNOW WHITE?”

Katri nodded again.

“But why is she such a bad person now? I thought she was good!”

Katri sighed. “It’s a very long story. But pretty much she was jealous of my sister Ariel”

“Wait, as in Ariel the MERMAID?” Esme broke in.

“Yes,” Katri said shortly. “So anyway, she was jealous of my sister so she basically banished her from this world and now no one knows where she is, and that’s why my father’s the way he is.” Katri hung her head. “That’s why I am the way I am. We miss her, so terribly. It’s horrifying to think that she could be anywhere – even in the human world! That’s why we staged the dragon egg thing in the first place. We need people like you to find Ariel for us – we could never pass unnoticed among humans. I was supposed to assign you this journey as at test, to see if you were up to the task. But it was a test for me too, and I failed. Miserably.”

Everyone was silent for a moment, digesting this large chunk of information. Then Vivi spoke up.

“But… if you’re on our side, why did you make us take the dragon all the way here instead of taking him yourself and letting us go home?”

“Because my father programmed the compass not to take you home until you completed your mission… at which time he and I would show up at Snow White’s mountain and blackmail you into agreeing with our plan before you went home to search for Ariel.”

“Oh.” Devin said in a small voice, the magnitude of this adventure finally coming home to him.

Esme looked around nervously. “So why isn’t your father here now?”

“Because he wasn’t prepared to leave his duties this soon and come here. Not to mention the fact that Daisy was a very helpful transportation device.” Daisy whinnied proudly. “But you’re right, he’ll probably be here awfully soon. You’d better leave while you can.”

As if Katri had conjured him up on the spot, a dark speck appeared in the sky. Katri’s father on his terrifying flying beast.

And he was flying fast.

“OH NOOOO!” Esme wailed.

Katri jumped into action. “Here, quick! Where’s your compass? Who has it?” Everyone looked at each other with terrified blank stares.

Then, “I have it,” Faun jumped up, holding the precious compass in her tiny hands.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. “Here, let me have it,” Vivi demanded. She grabbed the compass and slammed it hard onto the mountainside.

It didn’t break.

“NOOOOO!”

“My father’s trying to deactivate it!”

The black dot was a dot no longer. It was a terrifying, fire-breathing arrow shooting straight for them.

“Here, let me try,” Devin said frantically. He scooped up the compass and heaved it downward with a mighty effort.

It shattered.

Everything went blindingly bright, but before she totally disappeared, Katri shoved something into Esme’s hand.

“For when you come back,” she shouted above the whirling, swirling noisy light surrounding them.

“WE’RE COMING BACK?” Esme screeched, but it was too late. She could see nothing now, feel nothing except the hard object in one hand and the strong grip of Vivi on her other.

And then they were home. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and everything was exactly like it had been the minute the dragon had hatched. But everything, everything had changed.

The four friends looked at each other, blinking and shaking their heads. They gathered around the object in Esme’s hand.

It was a small, leather journal stamped with strange characters on the front. Slowly Esme opened it. Katri’s Diary. STAY OUT! Proclaimed the first page in bold letters. Then, Esme knew. Katri had given them her precious journal because she had not had time to answer all their questions. And she knew something else, too.

They were going back someday.

________________________________________

There, done! So how did you like it? Did you see what I did there at the end? I don’t know if you remember or not, but Snow White was the one who captured Alalia and Jacob in WordCrafters 1, because she was jealous of a certain Ariel and needed their help. Hmmm… Hee hee! If that doesn’t make sense, don’t worry. It should make sense later when… well, you’ll see. 😉

Well this has been quite a long post already so I won’t go into many details about WordCrafters 3, but suffice it to say that there WILL be a WordCrafters 3, hopefully around June, and Josie and I have some very exciting plans for it!

Thanks once again for helping us create this wonderful, fun story, guys. Give yourselves a round of applause. 😀

***Allison***

The Dust Pixies, Part 8

February 16, 2017 | Allison

Wow, it has been forever since I posted an episode of The Dust Pixies! If you haven’t read the story yet, click here to see it so far. And here’s a little refresher from the last chapter:

This was too big for four dust pixies to handle by themselves. We needed help. We needed Rosalind.

Rosalind perched on the side of her bed, her chin in her hands, her blue-gray eyes opening wider and wider as I told the sad tale.

“And oh, you’ve just got to help us, Rosalind!” I finished. “How are we supposed to save two of our friends from a band of bloodthirsty fairies by ourselves?”

Lyri held up her hands. “Whoa there, Mae. I wouldn’t call them bloodthirsty, exactly. Just a little…”

“Crazy?” Fiona interjected helpfully. She had quickly made friends with Rosalind, but Petre, on the other hand, cowered behind me, his little hand gripping mine for dear life.

Rosalind finally spoke. “So let me get this straight. Finn went out to collect supplies for him and his wife, who apparently is the fairy Princess, but then the Princess’s friends and family KIDNAPPED him because Finn married her and then they kidnapped the Princess too for good measure? Sounds like such a sweet group.”

Fiona rolled her eyes. “They’re crazy, I’m telling you. And they’re fairies. What more could we expect?”

“They’re not all bad,” I said, remembering Eli. “And what about Annabelle Rose? She’s one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, even if she is a little dramatic.”

Lyri nodded in agreement. “So we all know they need to be rescued, but how?”

We all stared at each other blankly.

Petre sneezed. Twice.

“Sorry,” I apologized to Rosalind, “Petre is allergic to dust. It’s rather unfortunate since he’s a dust pixie and all, but…”

“That’s it!” Rosalind sat up suddenly, sending us all tumbling into the valley she had made in the bedcovers. “Oops, sorry,” she winced. “But I have it! I have a plan!” She grinned mischievously. “But first, you all need a bath.”

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It’s a good thing my parents weren’t there to hear us, because judging by the bloodcurdling screams and shouts and yelps, they would have thought we were being mauled by a house cat or something. Okay, so maybe the water wasn’t that bad, but if you’ve never had a bath in your entire life, you’d be terrified too. I couldn’t believe Rosalind had betrayed us like this.

I put on my best angry face as I finally climbed out of the bubbles and put on my clothes. Rosalind had even washed those too! I gave the teacup-bathtub a kick in passing, and yelped when warm water sloshed out onto my foot. Hmph.

I peeked out from behind the makeshift curtain Rosalind had folded from a sheet of notebook paper. Apparently Fiona and Petre hadn’t particularly enjoyed their baths either. They both wore a frown, clean clothes, and soaking wet hair. Lyri, on the other hand, was smiling.

“It actually feels kind of good to be clean, don’t you think, Mae?” she asked brightly.

All I could work up was a “Hmph.”

“So, traitor, are you ready to tell us that marvelous plan of yours now that you’ve finished torturing us?” Fiona poked Rosalind’s arm.

Rosalind laughed. “Oh you babies. The water didn’t hurt you, did it? And besides, you need to be clean in order for my plan to work. You can’t look like a fairy if you’re covered in dust.”

“WHAT?!” we exclaimed. We were going to be disguised as fairies now? Oh boy, why did we have to come to Rosalind in the first place?

*************************************

I had to admit, Rosalind was a pretty great disguise maker. I twirled and whirled in my new dress made of willow leaves and decorated with tiny whit flowers, then caught Fiona’s hand and twirled with her. Her dress was shorter, and made of silky lavender flower petals. Petre was not so impressed with his maple leaf shirt and pinecone hat. His little lips were turned down in a pout. But when Fiona stepped out from behind the paper curtain, we all gasped. She looked like she was made to be a fairy. Her long brown hair tumbled down her shoulders and onto her delicate fern dress. Rosalind had woven her a sparkling headband from something in her room that looked natural but probably wasn’t. You could never tell with humans.

{via}

Oddly enough, I felt like crying. Lyri looked so much like a fairy with her clean, beautiful face and new clothes that I felt like I had lost my friend and was seeing someone else. But instead of crying I smiled, and twirled with Lyri too.

Rosalind cleared her throat. “Well, girls, I’m glad you like your dresses and all, but we should probably get started. We want to get there well before dark.” I shivered. Yes, I definitely did not fancy creeping around the Inner Forest at night.

So out we went.

It took us a while to reach the woods, but when we reached them, I wished we hadn’t. It was just as spooky as last time – spookier, maybe, because we knew one of the dangers that lurked inside. And we didn’t only know it, we had come to fight it.

The woods were silent, but somehow it didn’t feel like silence. The lack of sound pounded in our ears until it nearly deafened us, and the heavy air pressed about us as if trying to force us back, back, out of the forest with its secrets and mysteries, out into the light where we belonged.

But we didn’t obey the silence.

Finally we heard something – the faint sounds of arguing voices.

Fairy voices.

We all halted, and peered through a prickly holly bush at what could only be a fairy camp. The fairies’ tents were set around a tiny fire that sent up a tiny wisp of smoke in the middle of a tiny clearing. The tents were camouflaged; they were made of a light but strong fabric of woven grass and leaves, supported by a frame of slender twigs. Rosalind could crush it all in one step, I realized with a mixture of awe and horror.

Then I saw the fairies.

Three of them had appeared at the entrance of one of the tents, arguing and waving their hands in a frenzy. I instantly recognized the midnight skin of Reuven.

He was shouting at the other fairies in an angry voice. “I say kill the pixie. Kill him! Once he’s done with, Princess Annabelle will have no reason to return to that miserable human dwelling.”

Another, younger fairy whom I didn’t recognize interrupted Reuven in a somewhat calmer voice. “But Reuven, Sir, don’t you think he could be useful to us? He knows the ways of the dust pixie and we can teach him the ways of the fairy. He would be the perfect spy. And Princess Anabelle is here now. We won’t let her go so easily this time.”

“Besides,” the other, taller fairy broke in, “killing the Princess’s husband is not exactly the way to win her over, if you know what I mean.”

Reuven was silent a moment, considering the advice. “Fine,” he said in a low voice. “I agree. Being the man who killed the Princess’s husband is probably not the best tactic. So maybe he’ll just suffer an ‘accident.’ ” He lifted his chin, dark eyes glinting.

Rosalind gasped, then shut her mouth tightly. We all looked at each other with panic in our faces.

It was time to put our plan into action.

*********************************

Cliffhanger! 😀 Hee hee! I hope you enjoyed that, guys. 🙂 Thanks for reading!

***Allison***

P. S. We dusted off (literally) an old record player that we have, and my siblings have been listening to old records all day. They even found a record from 1989 that played a milk advertisement! XD

Beauty from Ashes, Part 3

September 26, 2016September 28, 2016 | Allison

I’m happy to present… part 3 of Beauty from Ashes! (Beauty from Ashes is a fairy tale mash-up of Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast. If you haven’t read the previous parts, click herehere to read them.)

Here’s a little refresher from the end of Part 2:

Beast reached out and held my trembling hands in his. My mind was racing. Why was he so anxious? He was frightening me. What was he going to ask me? I could think of nothing that qualified as “the hardest question of all.” He’d asked me everything, everything already. What was there left to ask?

Beast swallowed hard and looked me straight in the eye.

_______________________________________________________

“Ella…” he cleared his throat gruffly, “do you really, truly love me?” His face was intensely anxious as I gasped and turned pale.

Did I love him? Of course I did… or did I? During these past few weeks Beast had become my best friend in the whole world – my only friend, in fact. But he was, after all, only a beast. Could I love him despite his unkempt, shaggy fur; his frowning eyes; his gruffness and his wildness? Could I love him in spite of the hurt he had inflicted on me? I stood before him, my heart once more beating its wings against the bars, looking wildly for an escape, and I knew the answer.

I loved him with all that I was. I loved him completely.

It didn’t matter how terrifying he looked on the outside or how gruff and unfeeling he had been to me at first. Now I knew the true Beast. I could see the warm, loving heart that he had buried deep within a cold, protecting shell; I could see that like a diamond you had only to polish off a little bit of ugliness to find beauty inside him.

“I do,” I whispered. “I really, truly do.”

The Beast’s face flooded with a brilliant flash of joy, but the flash disappeared as soon as quickly as it had come. His face turned serious again.

“Oh my dear, sweet Ella. I love you so very much. But I need just one thing more. Remember how you gave me your shoe as a promise that you would return to see me?”

I nodded. I had nearly forgotten about that shoe in my happiness with Beast.

“I need you to give me something else to seal your promise. This time it will be easier. This time I only need a kiss.”

I drew back, alarmed. Did I really have to kiss his terrible face? My stomach churned at the thought. But I loved him. I could do this. I closed my eyes and inhaled the forest air, my mind whirling with memories of Beast, of our sweet friendship.

I squeezed my eyes shut even tighter and kissed him quickly on his rough, furry cheek. I drew back immediately. Something had not felt right. I blinked.

What had I done to him? I watched in horror as Beast reared to his full height, shuddered, shivered, and began shrinking in size. His massive head was growing smaller, his snout shorter, and his fur was disappearing. His ponderous paws were changing also: the toes were lengthening, spreading apart, growing nails instead of claws. His powerful body was losing its fur as well, turning gold and red and thinning to a smaller trunk. I stumbled backward and fell to the ground, hands over my mouth, eyes wide in unbelief.

Beast was gone.

But even more astonishing was what I saw instead: a young man clad in ornate clothing with laughing eyes and a smile that rivaled the sun in its brilliance. And he was smiling at me.

“Come, Ella, my dear one. I have some explaining to do.”

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Oh my goodness, that was so fun to write! I hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it!

I really like this story so far. 😀

***Allison***

TIWC #4: The Dust Pixies, Part 4

September 23, 2016 | Allison

Helloooo! I’m back with the fourth part of The Dust Pixies!

Grace, I used all three prompts and included “pencil” in my story.

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It was hard work to convince Mother and Father that I truly hadn’t gone looking for Rosalind, but that she had found me by accident. It was even harder to convince them that Lyri and I should go search for Finn. But finally my parents bent to my pleading.

“Yess!” I hugged my parents and flew circles around Lise in ecstasy. Adventure was my middle name, and this promised to be an epic one. (But seriously, my middle name really is Adventure. Petre’s middle name is Courage, and Fiona’s is Freedom. Dust pixies traditionally have those types of middle names.)

We’d determined the attic would be the best place to start our search. It was rarely frequented by dust pixies, which meant it was ideal for a reclusive orphan like Finn. We flew down the dim corridor in the wall, our excited whispers echoing off the cold stone walls. Suddenly we heard an echoing thud, then a scuttering sound of feet on the passageway.

“What was that?” Lyri hissed.

My heart leapt to my throat. I knew that sound: mouse. Mice are somewhat legendary creatures, for normally they’re even more scared of us than we are of them, but legend has it that when a mouse is trapped in a tight spot (like this corridor), they will fight for their lives. I wanted to keep the one life I had if it was at all possible.

I grabbed Lyri’s hand and raced to the corridor exit. Lyri’s hand was sweaty and trembling in mine.

“It’s okay, it’s going to be okay,” I assured here in a not-very-confident whisper.

We were backed up against the wall when we saw it. Or them. Two shadowy figures were creeping towards us, their eyes gleaming menacingly. Suddenly they stepped into a pool of candlelight and I gasped.

“Fiona and Petre? What are you doing here?” I was so happy that it was my siblings instead of mice I couldn’t even scold them properly.

Fiona said in a small, guilty voice, “We… we wanted to help you find Finn.” Petre sniffled, though in his case it wasn’t from guilt, it was from his unfortunate dust allergy.

I sighed, but Lyri whispered into my ear, “They can come, can’t they? We’ll have more people to help in case… well, in case anything goes wrong.”

I pondered this. Fiona and Petre wouldn’t exactly save us from a band of mice, but Lyri did have a point. “Okay, guys,” I decided at length, “let’s go find Finn.”

_____________________________

“It’s spooky up here,” Fiona shivered. I agreed, but kept my expression as brave as I could.

Petre, on the other hand, was lost in the joys of a boy and his candle – sending flickering light to one side, then the other, then tipping the candle stub up and watching wide-eyed as the weak circle of light cut through the darkness. I couldn’t help but smile at his simple joy. At least he wasn’t scared.

The attic was a mysterious treasure trove, a haven for dust pixies. Cardboard boxes stuffed the place, heaps of magazines lay piled on the floor, pieces of trash and bits of fabric lay everywhere. Swiveling my head from side to side, I inspected what little I could see of the room for any signs of dust pixie habitation. Suddenly I stopped, and Lyri, Fiona, and Petre all crashed into me at the abrupt halt. The candle light snuffed out, and we where left in total darkness… except for the one ray of light that I had stopped for.

It was coming from a little hole in an overturned cardboard box. I motioned everyone to be silent, and we flew up closer to the mysterious beam of light. Now I could see that the light was coming from a keyhole in a tiny wooden door. Lyri caught her breath beside me and squeezed my hand. I squeezed her hand back.

But then Petre just had to sneeze, and the ray of light disappeared. I wanted to scream in frustration, but I didn’t dare. Why did my little brother have to come along, and why did he have to be allergic to dust of all things, and why did he have to sneeze right then?! I clenched my fist and took a few deep breaths. It’s okay, Mae. It’s okay. It’s not Petre’s fault he has dust allergies.

I fluttered over to the rest of the group. “Listen, guys. One of us should go look through that little hole in the door. We have to see what – or who – is in there.”

“I nominate you,” Lyri whispered with a small smile. Fiona and Petre nodded their solemn agreement.

I took a deep breath, hugged them all, and glided silently up to the door. Just as I reached it the light flicked back on. I heard a sound coming from inside the box – the sound of sobbing. I pressed my eye to the keyhole and tried not to gasp out loud.

What was this place? A lady dust pixie sat weeping softly, her head in her hands. Long, dark brown hair flowed down her back, crowned with a glistening headband, and she was cloaked in a beautiful, soft white fur. A luxurious matchbox bed was pushed into one corner. Short but perfectly sharpened pencils held up the large box which overflowed with soft wool quilts topped off with a fluffy cottonball pillow. A matchbox chest of drawers with button handles stood close beside the bed. Many other marvelous pieces of furniture met my eye, but the best thing of all was the walls. The whole room appeared to be inside of a miniature, misty forest of evergreens. My eyes couldn’t open wide enough to take in all of the wonders.

After a few moments the lady dust pixie arose from her seat and fluttered about the house, flying this way and that, still weeping. I had never seen someone look so lost in their own home.

I could barely tear myself away from the keyhole to call the others. They flew up eagerly, questioning me beneath their breath, but only I shook my head and knocked on the door.

We all heard the lady dust pixie cry out eagerly, “Finn, is that you?”

______________________________________________

Duh-duh-duh-DUN! 😀 That was a lot of fun to write. I hope you liked it, guys!

***Allison***

TIWC #3: The Dust Pixies, Part 3

September 19, 2016 | Allison

Wohoo! I’m back with another part of The Dust Pixies, guys! 😀

Grace, I used all three prompts (in bold) and included “pencil” in my story.

Are you ready to hear the girl’s story (and find out her name)? I’ll add all of the parts to a new page in the “Stories” tab shortly. In case you need a refresher, here’s an excerpt from the last chapter:

“…Oh, I can’t believe it! I’d almost forgotten about that day!” She took a deep breath and continued in a calmer voice, “I’m sorry. Let me explain…”

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“There used to be six of them, but now only he was left. Finn had survived for two years without his family, living all alone in the dusty corner under my dresser.

(From Grace’s prompts. She said character prompt via Pinterest)

One night when I was four years old, Finn peeked out from under the dresser as I was laying in bed. The tiny movement caught my eye. I was extremely paranoid about mice and spiders and other such critters when I was little, and any little movement spooked me, especially at night. I tried to keep calm and summon the courage to go “squash the spider” with my bed slippers, but I was paralyzed with fear. When Finn saw how still I was, he thought I was asleep and decided it was safe to venture out. When the little whatever-it-was flew up in the air, I was so scared I couldn’t help but cry out. Finn immediately tumbled to the ground and scurried under the dresser, just in time to evade my parents who came running at my scream. They patiently searched under my dresser for the offending critter, but found nothing.

I tried to go back to sleep after that, but my pounding heart beat sleep out of my head. Finally I crept up to the dresser, wielding my fluffy slippers, and waited with trembling hands for the villain to appear. I had to wait quite a while, for Finn was very cautious – he had to be. When Finn finally appeared, I squeezed my eyes shut and slapped down the slipper. My eyes popped open when I heard a tiny yelp. This was no spider! I carefully picked up my slipper and peered at what appeared to be a moving blob of dust with wings. The wings were crushed. The dust lifted itself painfully off the ground and raised a terrified, tearstained face to me. I gasped in amazement. The so-called spider was actually a little boy! I clumsily picked him up in my chubby fingers and set him on my bed.

“Are you okay?” I whispered.

The boy with wings sniffled, but nodded his curly head. His dark eyes were wide with terror.

“Please don’t hurt me,” he murmured, “I didn’t do anything wrong…”

“I thought you were a spider,” I told him seriously, “but you’re not, so of course I won’t hurt you. Why, you look just like my brother, only lots and lots smaller. What is your name? My real name’s Rosalind, but it’s Rosie for short.”

“I’m Finn,” said the little boy, wiping the tears from his dusty face with his big jacket.

“Why are you so small?” I asked curiously, “And why do you have wings? Can you tell me how to grow wings? I want to fly too!”

Finn looked mournfully over his shoulder at his tattered wings. “I’m not small – you’re just big. And my wings aren’t really wings anymore. It’s a good thing your shoe wasn’t heavier or you would have squashed me!”

He looked kind of mad, so I said hastily, “Oh I’m truly sorry, Finn-with-wings. I’ll help you make them better. I can be a good nurse! Mama says I can, truly!”

And thus my friendship with Finn began. I smuggled him bits of food and gave him a lovely soft bed and plenty of furniture from my dollhouse. I tried to bandage his wings with a large band-aid, but Finn was firmly opposed that, so I gleefully stuck it on my arm instead.

A few weeks after I had met him, Finn disappeared. I never knew what happened to him, and though I mourned his loss quite lustily for a while (my parents chuckled over my distress about my “imaginary friend”), eventually other things took over my attention. I remembered him from time to time when I was older, but only as a misty destination on my rambling road of dreams. I never truly recalled those days with Finn until I met you, Mae. You set off a little spark in my head that wouldn’t go out.”

“So that’s my story.” Rosalind ended. “I wonder if Finn is still alive. I would love to see him again…” She propped her head in her hands and smiled dreamily.

Lyri, who had been trembling behind me until about halfway through Rosalind’s story, finally spoke up in a quavering voice.

“Excuse me, but maybe we can help. I don’t know of any “Finns” around here, but we can ask around.” I could tell Lyri had been touched by Rosalind’s story. I agreed with her.

“Of course! He could still be living under your dresser, right?”

Rosalind shook her head sadly. “We got rid of that dresser years ago. He could be anywhere… or nowhere.”

I was now firmly resolved to find Finn. “Don’t worry, Rosalind. We’ll hunt him down.” Lyri and I left her with a mission in our heads, a chewed up pencil in our hands, and a new friend named Rosalind in our hearts. Maybe humans weren’t so bad after all.

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I hope you liked that, dearest readers! 😀

Oh, and before I forget, I have entirely too many things to post and not enough time to post them. 😉 Would you like to help me choose? Which post(s) would you like to see next?

***Allison***

TIWC #2: The Dust Pixies, Part 2

September 16, 2016September 19, 2016 | Allison

Welcome back to part 2 of Grace’s TIWC and part 2 of The Dust Pixies! I’m so glad you guys liked the last part! (Click here to read it.) Thanks so much for your sweet comments. ♥

Grace, I used all three prompts and included “pencil” in my story. 🙂

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Father wasn’t exactly pleased to hear that I had met a human. “You did WHAT?! Mae, sweetheart, you know how dangerous that is. If the humans find us they could destroy our whole colony in the flick of a duster!”

“But Father, she was nice! She was like Lyri, like one of us.” Lyri is my best friend. She’s dark haired and quiet, a lot like the human girl – and just the opposite of blond, boisterous me.

“Mae, honey, humans just act friendly way to trick you. They’ll only hurt you if you try to befriend them.” Father firmly latched the corral gate to contain the excited dust bunnies and looked me straight in the eye. “I don’t want you to ever get close to a human again, do you understand? You may think this girl can be trusted, but she can’t. Dust pixie history is filled with massacres and deaths caused by traitorous humans. Don’t let that happen, Mae. Now I mean that. You are not to visit that human ever again.” Father gave me a serious look that told me he meant what he said.

I nodded sadly. “Yes, Father. I understand.”

I glared at the baby dust bunny who had caused all this mess. “You,” I said angrily, “are in big trouble.” The bunny just twitched its nose and peered at me mischievously, its eyes twinkling. My heart melted. “Oh you little rascal!” I squeezed the little fluffball and smiled.

I told Lyri all about it the next day. Her family lived under the piano – in fact, Lyri was an excellent pianist, having taught herself from the piano books the humans left open.

Lyri listened wide-eyed to my harrowing account. “You mean you actually talked to a human?”

I nodded proudly. “I want to go see her again, but Father says absolutely not.” I sighed. “Someday, though, I’ve got to find her again. Someday for sure.”

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One year later…

I bounced over to Lyri’s house and rapped on her door. I stared at the “No. 2” imprinted in black upon the yellow pencil-planks, just as I always did while waiting for Lyri to answer. And as always I marveled that the words were nearly erased by dents from human teeth marks long ago. Humans must be strange creatures indeed to chew wood!

Suddenly the No. 2 swung out of sight and I found myself staring instead at Lyri’s excited face. “Are you ready?”

“Nope, are you?”

It took Lyri a moment to realize I was teasing. That was the thing with Lyri – she always took things so literally.

“Ha ha,” she said sarcastically, “very funny.” Lyri and I had both been looking forward to this Collecting since forever. Finally we were old enough to scavenge for string, cracker bits, matchboxes, and the countless other human leftovers we dust pixies used every day. I hitched my dust-bunny-wool collecting sack higher on my shoulders, Lyric gave her lilac wings a quick stretch, and we set off.

We lost no time in slipping into the secret entrance behind the fireplace. Long ago the dust pixies had found that the best way to get from one side of the house to the other was to travel through the walls. The narrow, vaulted stone space between the walls was lit by candle stubs, many of which were nearly burnt down. Lyric and I gathered up the wax drippings to melt down into future candles. At last we came to the end of the tunnel; I peeked cautiously out the peephole in the wall.

“All clear,” I whispered.

Lyri and I stepped out of the dark tunnel and into…

Oh no. Something long and yellow was rolling towards us. It was labeled “No. 2.” And it was dented with human teeth marks. Human.

Lyri clutched my hand and we shrank back against the baseboard. I lifted my trembling face up, up, and saw the same dark hair and wide gray blue eyes of the girl I had met last year on Round-up day. We had to get out of here. Father had warned me.

“Lyri, get back in the tunnel,” I breathed. But already the human had stooped down to get a closer look at us. We cowered together in terror, hearts thumping together. I could hear Lyri gasping for breath.

“You came back,” the human girl whispered with a soft smile on her face. “I knew you would. Please don’t be scared; I won’t hurt you – I promise. I just want to be friends.”

Friends. Father’s voice echoed like an alarm in my head “Humans just act friendly to trick you. They’ll only hurt you if you try to befriend them.”

“No,” I gasped. “We don’t want to be friends with a human. Go away.”

The girl shook her head, gently but firmly. “I won’t go away yet. I have to know who you are. You remind me of something, something familiar, something I can’t quite remember… Who are you? What are you?”

I gulped, but obediently answered the giant’s question. “I’m Mae, and this is my friend Lyri. We’re dust pixies…”

The girl cut me off with a sudden cry. “So that’s what you are,” she whispered in awe. “Dust pixies. Of course! And that little dusty thing that you were carrying when we first met must have been a dust bunny!” The girl was growing more and more excited. “I should have known! It’s really you. Oh, I can’t believe it! I’d almost forgotten about that day!” She took a deep breath and continued in a calmer voice, “I’m sorry. Let me explain…”

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Duh-duh-DUN! 😀

I hope you enjoyed this part! Have you found any evidence of dust pixies in your house since you read the first part? 😉

***Allison***

P. S. True story: I set out to find a picture of a chewed up pencil on Pinterest. Nope, no luck. On the web in general? Not quite what I was aiming for. Did we have an actual chewed up pencil in our house? Nuh-uh. So guess what I did? I chewed one up myself. Ta-daa!