2In a big house on a hill, lived a small family, the Johanssons, which was a family of three. There was the father, a tall light skinned man with dark brown hair and amber eyes. There was the mother, a medium height woman with golden blonde hair and chestnut brown eyes. The little girl, whose name was Elizabeth, who had curly blonde hair and cobalt blue eyes. The house they lived in was right next to a small forest, which was the center of stories that the mother and father would tell Elizabeth at night. Tales of fairies were her favorites; she loved to hear about the enchanted creatures that were no taller then half of her mother's hand. "Mama, do fairies really live the woods down the hill?" Elizabeth asked one night as her mother was tucking her into bed.
"Well, I really don't know Lizzy, I haven't been down to those woods much at all. Maybe there are, maybe there aren't, I don't think anyone knows," her mother replied after a thoughtful moment. Lizzy smiled.
"Tomorrow, I'm gonna find out Mama, I'm gonna go down to the woods and find the fairies," Elizabeth gave a small yawn and closed her eyes, "and I'll back to ." Her voice trailed off as sleep took the four year old, the mother smiled and kissed the child's forehead.
"I'm sure you will, good-night Elizabeth." The mother then stood up and turned off the light.
"Good, night, Mama." the tiny voice barely reached the mother's ear, then with a smile, she left the room.
The next morning Elizabeth awoke with a determined look on her little round face. Today she was going to go down the hill to the woods, and she was going to find the fairies! She would catch one and bring it back to her Mama, so then her mama would KNOW there were fairies in the woods. She quickly jumped out of bed and ran to her dresser. She reached for the top drawer, having to stand on her tip-toes to pull it open, she reached into the drawer and felt around until she managed to grab something, she triumphantly pulled it down, only to discover it was another pair of pajamas. She then threw the pajamas on the floor and reached again, once again she got her little hand on something and pulled it down. She frowned again, it was the slip she wore under her dress at church. She tossed that down beside her pajamas then returned to fishing another object out of the top drawer.
Five minutes later her mother came into the room, she smiled when she saw the large pile of clothes sitting on the floor and her little girl standing on tip-toe trying to grab something out of the drawer that she couldn't see. "Good morning Lizzy, what are you looking for?" the mother asked kindly kneeling beside her little girl. "Mama, I'm trying to find my white dress, you know the one without any ribbons or bows?" The mother nodded, then stood up and pulled the dress in question out of the drawer. It was a silver/white dress made out of some material akin to silk, sleeveless and dropped down to Elizabeth's ankles without any decoration. "Thank-you Mama!" Elizabeth cried hugging her mother. Her mother nodded then stood up.
"Me and your Papa are going into town for a while today, I'm trusting you to stay out of trouble and be good for your babysitter." Elizabeth nodded, her mother smiled and kissed the top of her head and walked out of the room.
Quickly as she could Elizabeth changed into her dress, she padded over to a small nightstand where her brush sat, and quickly brushed her hair and then ran downstairs for breakfast. When she came downstairs she found her nanny had made pancakes for breakfast, her favorite!
After breakfast she waited for her nanny to fall asleep, which didn't take long. Her nanny was an elderly woman who slept more often than a baby. As soon as Elizabeth was sure her nanny was fast asleep she slipped into the kitchen. Grabbing a large cloth napkin she piled food and snacks for the day ahead of her, an apple, graham crackers, animal cookies, a few carrots, and a candy cane for dessert. Then slinging her little knapsack over her shoulder she was out the door, barefoot, and ran down the hill towards the woods where she knew in her heart she would find the fairies.
After what seemed forever to Elizabeth, she was at the bottom of the hill. She was tired and panting, her little face flushed. For a moment she thought about getting something from her little sack, but then decided against it, she would need it more later that day. She stopped for about five minutes to catch her breath before continuing her journey into the woods.
When she first entered the woods, she was a little scared, the branches of the trees seemed to reach out for her. Suddenly Elizabeth thought she heard something. Someone singing, not her mother, the voice was too low to be her mother's, but it was a lady's voice. It sang something Elizabeth couldn't understand, but it sounded pretty. She stopped and listened for the voice again, she heard it again, only this time the voice was accompanied by several other voices, all much higher then the first voice. She smiled and laughed and started to skip towards the voice, which was difficult, because the voice seemed to be all around little Elizabeth. Nevertheless, she continued skipping deeper and deeper into the small forest. She thought the forest was so lovely now, the leaves on the trees cast a glowing green light all around her touched with streaks of gold from the sun, and all the pretty wild flowers which she didn't know the name's of. The scent of pine trees and flowers constantly tickled her nose, causing her to giggle and sneeze every minute or so.
She finally became tired and decided to have a little of her snack untying the pack she brought forth two of her four graham crackers and too a couple bites of her apple. Once she was finished she neatly put everything back and tied up the sack and continued on. She waited for the voices to start again, but they didn't she continued to walk around the forest for what seemed forever, which was really half an hour. Then she sat down and started to cry, she couldn't find the fairies, she was lost, she was tired, her nanny was probably worried about her and her feet hurt! Suddenly she saw a flash of blue beside her and heard pitched laughter. "What's wrong little girl? Why are you crying on such a glorious day?" The little flash of blue asked her, Elizabeth's tear streaked eyes opened wide.
"Are you a fairy?" She asked in astonishment, with more laughter the fairy nodded it's head. She could now see it was a girl fairy with short spiked hair wearing an expertly cut leaf as a two-piece dress. Little Elizabeth gasped, she had found a fairy, and they WERE real!
"Are there more of you?" She asked staring entranced by the fairy, who laughed then and nodded again.
"Wanna see 'em?" The fairy asked her high pitched voice lowering a little, Elizabeth violently nodded her head. The fairy then whistled, it was surprisingly loud considering it came from something only three and a half inches tall, suddenly flashes of light appeared all around Elizabeth, she wanted to feint! There were so many fairies! All different colors! Like red, yellow, pink orange, green, purple, gold, aqua, silver! It appeared that she had gotten trapped inside a rainbow! She laughed loudly as the fairies swirled around her, it was the most beautiful thing she would ever see in her life. Finally all commotion stopped and all the fairies hovered around her, all of them laughing with her the laughter sounded almost musical, like a mystical melody. Then, after a little while their laughter died.
"So you all are fairies?" Elizabeth asked gazing at the hundreds of glowing creatures around her, the closest one to her broke back into laughter.
"Well, if we aren't, then I don't know what we are!" A few other fairies joined in the laughter, Elizabeth just smiled.
"How long have you lived here in the woods?" Elizabeth asked her voice quiet with awe.
"As long as any of us can remember, the only one who hasn't grown up here is our fairy queen." Responded a red fairy, Elizabeth gasped, and it was just like her mother had told her.
"You have a fairy queen? Can I meet her?" At this request all the fairies started to chatter in their high pitched voices once again creating the unusual melody. "That's not for us to decide, if the fairy queen wants to meet you she will show you herself." Squeaked a yellow fairy, Elizabeth's face lowered, she had really wanted to meet the fairy queen.
"Then see me you shall little one." Came a low gentle voice, the voice that had been the voice that was singing when she first entered the forest, she turned to see, THE FAIRY QUEEN! This fairy was about eight inches tall, she glowed a pearly white, she had long white hair that dropped past her feet and she wore the most wild looking outfit. Her dress looked like patchwork from leaves, she wore a daisy on her head as a crown and dozens of tiny flowers were sewn into her dress and hair. She indeed looked the famed mystical Queen of the Fairies.
"How have you come upon our woods little one?" The fairy queen asked Elizabeth, who was still staring in awe at her.
"Are you deaf little one?" The fairy queen demanded slightly agitated, Elizabeth snapped back to reality and blushed a little.
"I'm sorry your highness, my mama told me stories of fairies that lived in these woods. So I came down here myself to see if there really were fairies down here, and I was hoping I could bring a fairy back to show my mama."
"ABSOLOUTLY NOT!" Screeched the Fairy queen in an outrage, Elizabeth leaned back onto her hands staring surprise.
"That would be out of the question, none of these fairies can leave these woods without the queen's guidance, but how about we give you some fairy dust to bring back to your mama?" Suggested a blue fairy, Elizabeth supposed it was the first fairy she had met but wasn't exactly sure.
"Yes, that, that would be nice, thank-you." Elizabeth replied nodding her head at the same time, then the fairy queen clapped her tiny little hands twice, once again making a surprisingly loud sound for something that size. Once again all the fairies started to swirl around, only this time in a particular pattern, while the fairy queen herself stood completely still. The movements of the fairies slowly got faster and faster and they started to chant 'a-ya doo a-ye' over and over. Soon they were going so fast they were all a blue to the four year old and their chanting sounded like pointless babbling, but it was all captivating and enchanting, little Elizabeth was positively sure she could feel fairy magic being worked around her. Suddenly there was a flash of golden light and hovering right in front of little Elizabeth was a small brown back just big enough to fit in the palm of her hand.
"There is your fairy dust little one," the queen stated with slight pride in her voice. Cautiously Elizabeth reached out hand to the bag. "The bag won't bite!" Laughed a fairy, Elizabeth didn't bother to see what fairy had said it. Finally she snatched the bag out of the air, the bag glowing in her hand giving of a warm tickling sensation throughout Elizabeth's right forearm.
"Thank-you very much!" Elizabeth cried to all the fairies gazing around her smiling as she said this.
"You are quite welcome, would you like to play with us?" The fairy queen asked Elizabeth, her blue eyes wide she nodded.
"Then let there be play!" The fairy queen declared, and with that all the fairies stated to dance around Elizabeth, she stood up and twirled around, her dress furling out around her. As she did this the fairies swirled around her all laughing and singing, soon the fairies made a game of diving around Elizabeth's twirling limbs without getting smacked. And not one fairy failed to stay safe, soon fairy took out small reed flutes and began to play. Whilst others collected all different instruments and began to play a fast steady melody while some still sung in their strange high pitched voices. Finally the queen herself landed gently on Elizabeth's head and joined in on the singing. The fairies seemed to be making up the song as they went because it lasted for quite a while even after Elizabeth stopped twirling because she was so dizzy. Finally after about fifteen minutes the song came to a dramatic ending, then all the fairies whistled and clapped, Elizabeth clapping the very loudest.
"Little one, why did you not sing?" The panting fairy queen asked the dizzy Elizabeth, she attempted to shrug but ended up falling onto her back, some fairies giggled at this. "I don't know how to sing, and I didn't know what you all were singing." Elizabeth replied looking up at the glowing fairy. The fairy queen put her arms akimbo and laughed a little.
"Then we shall teach you little one!" The fairy queen declared, all the fairies cheered and whooped at this announcement. As Elizabeth sat up all the fairies landed on and around her. Some of the fairies sitting contently in her lap whilst others perched on her toes and legs whilst still other sat in a circle around the girl. And for the next couple hours they helped Elizabeth to learn to sing, mostly the fairy queen but occasionally she would call upon another fairy to aid her. They found it slightly frustrating for Elizabeth didn't have the finest in the world and she didn't always understand what the fairies were asking her to do. But both teachers and student were patient and persistent, and all the fairies enjoyed having a challenge to entertain them. For from what they said, these fairies hadn't seen any other creatures besides themselves in over a hundred years, since they first found this forest and made it their home.
Soon, little Elizabeth got hungry, once the singing lesson was over she untied the little knapsack and took out what remained of her little pack. At once upon opening her pack she realized a huge mistake she had made. "Oh! I forgot to bring something to drink!" Elizabeth cried in dismay looking down at her pack.
"No worries little one, there is a stream not to far from here, we'll bring you to it. You will be able to drink from the stream," The fairy queen reassured the little girl, Elizabeth nodded and stood up still holding her knapsack. In a flurry of giggles and squeals the fairy glided away all in a certain direction. Elizabeth quickly followed the glowing mass of fairies. Soon, within five minutes they came to a small stream. With a cry of delight Elizabeth fell to her knees before the stream and scooped the water into her hands and noisily slurped up the water. Suddenly the fairies decided it would be a could time to take a swim and the fairies, three at a time, plunged into the stream and swam about. Soon a water fight broke out among the fairies, Elizabeth joined in, even the fairy queen splashed her subjects and guest. After the water fight the Queen sent off fairies to collect food for the fairies so that they may eat with their new little friend, Elizabeth. Once they returned they all had a grand little picnic, and soon the fairies wished to know what Elizabeth was eating, so she would break off pieces and give them to the fairies. The enjoyed every bite Elizabeth gave them. When they offered Elizabeth their food she politely declined, saying she was satisfied with what she had. Soon the whole of the fairies and fallen in love with this cute, kind, fun loving, and ever-polite little girl. "Please be sure you come back to see us soon Elizabeth!" Cried a golden fairy that was perched on Elizabeth's ear.
"I promise you, I will come back, why wouldn't I? This is so much fun!" Elizabeth cried and all the fairies agreed. After the picnic Elizabeth felt sleep coming over her, she usually had a nap right after lunch anyways.
"I feel," Elizabeth then yawned, "So sleepy, I'm sorry, but I have to, take a nap." And with that Elizabeth laid her head down of her hands and fell fast asleep.
The fairies watched in awe as they saw the peaceful child sleeping soundly, a small smile of her round little face. Then one of the fairy floated up to the queen and whispered something into her ear, the queen smiled and nodded. She then cried out an order in a language of the fairies and with a squeal of delight they flew off the carry out the order. Leaving the queen and a select group of fairies to watch over the sleeping Elizabeth to make sure no harm came to her while she slept. She just looked to precious to be hurt by anyone or anything.
When Elizabeth awoke she saw a fairy right in front of her and she felt something her hair. Thinking it was a bug she quickly sat and made to brush it out when she saw that the fairies were in a ring around her head doing something to her hair. She gasped when she saw it was almost dark.
"I need to get home, my Mama will be so worried about me!" Elizabeth cried, the fairies cried out in dismay.
"Wait little one, let us finish our task then you may go," the fairy queen reassured Elizabeth, who nodded in return.
"We are finished your highness!" Cried a fairy, and with a chorus of cheering the fairy flew away from Elizabeth's head.
"Look at your reflection in the stream little one," the fairy queen gently urged, shakily Elizabeth stood up and wandered over to the stream. The fading sunlight gave her just enough light to see the crown of daisy's, roses and other wild flowers woven into her hair, she squealed in delight.
"As the Queen of the Fairies of this wood, I Lucida, crown you Elizabeth, the mortal princess of the fairies!" The fairies went wild in cheers, including Elizabeth, the new princess of fairies.
"Now, your new subjects will guide you to the edge of the forest and from there you know your way home do you not?" Elizabeth nodded several fairies then grabbed her fingers and hands and started to lead her away from the stream.
"Good-bye! I will come back as soon as I can!" Elizabeth called back to the remaining fairies as she walked off into the darkening forest. Soon, all to soon they reached the edge of the forest Elizabeth turned to her friends, she eyes shining with sadness.
"I promise I'll come back, and we'll play more and you can teach me to sing more and next time I come I'll bring something for all of you!" And with that the little girl broke into a run up the little hill back up to her house, the fairies waved and screeched their good-byes until little Elizabeth's outline was lost to the dark.
When Elizabeth reached her house her little face was once again red and her breathing heavy, she was about to put her sweaty hand on the doorknob when; "ELIZABETH!" Two large arms swept Elizabeth off her feet and she felt herself pressed to her mother's chest, she could feel her mother tears splashing onto her face.
"Elizabeth, do you know how badly you frightened your father and I we fired your nanny and sent people out to look for you."
"But Mama, I was just in the woods the whole time," Elizabeth explained, Elizabeth's mother looked shocked at her.
"The, the woods? That was the first place we searched! The whole area was searched tem times!"
"And Mama," then Elizabeth held out her prize from her days efforts, the bag of fairy dust.
"What is this Elizabeth?" Her mother asked taking the small brown bag into her hand staring at it in shocked awe.
"Fairy dust Mama, you were right, there ARE fairies in the woods! It was just like you told me Mama! There was the fairy queen and everything! I met her, she taught me to sing and we played and ate fairy foods and,"
"Elizabeth, why don't we go inside now, it sounds like you've had a long, long day." Her mother interrupted the girl's childlike ranting, Elizabeth nodded, then collapsed onto her mother's chest letting sleep slowly take over her. Her mother was right, she had had a long, long, day.
For a moment the mother looked at her child, she had a crown of flowers woven into her soft golden curls and a daisy chain on her wrist, what exactly had happened that day? Of course fairies weren't real, she had known that for quite a while, but what other explanation was there? Not giving the matter any further thought the mother gently carried her child up to her bedroom where the both of them could get some rest. And so ended little Elizabeth's first walk in fairy garden..
*************************************************** So, what do you think? When you review tell me if I should continue or leave it at what it is? This story will go through much editing I can assure you. But I want to know, hope you enjoyed reading 'Walking in Fairy Garden'