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Once upon a time there was a small and cute elf. She was called 'Elf', and nothing more. One day, when she was playing around in the woods where they all lived, she saw something she had never seen before. She saw a faerie. She hesitated at first, but then encouraged herself and ran up to the faerie and asked: 'What's your name?' The little faerie tilted her head sideways and looked at her. 'Your name is Elf, isn't it? Suits you well', the faerie said without actually waiting for her answer. 'My name is Faerie, but some call me Pixie. You can call me Pixie if you want.' 'What would you call yourself?' Elf asked. 'Well, if you insist, actually, I'd call myself Faerendaigul. My real name, as I already said, is Faerie, but I like to think that it's only a shorter version of my name.' the faerie looked sad. 'Unfortunately, this isn't really so. My parents were named the same as me. Faerie and Faerie. We're all named Faerie. Bit silly isn't it?' 'I think it's a beautiful name, but if you let me, I would like to call you Faerendaigul.' Elf waited if the faerie would response to this. The faerie thought this for a short while and then hopped up to the air and did a few spins. 'I'd love that!' Faerendaigul flew a little more and then landed on Elf's shoulder. Elf looked at the creature that had become her friend and asked: 'Would you like to play and sing with us?' to which Faerendaigul squealed in delight and nodded furiously. 'Absolutely!' she yelled just in case. They played. The next morning Elf and Faerendaigul ran up to the woods right after they had woken up. They didn't bother to respond to calls of Elf, Elf's mother. 'Shouldn't we have at least?' Faerendaigul wondered. 'No.' She sounded final and Faerendaigul started to sing instead. this is the true reality this is the way it goes this is the life we live this is us The woods whispered around them. They rustled the crumbling leaves under their feet. Faerendaigul's legs moved, but she wasn't on the ground anymore. Without her noticing, she had started to fly and she had risen above Elf's head. 'Get down from there. Sit on my shoulder if you can't walk', Elf ordered softly. Faerendaigul floated towards her, but stopped just over her reach. 'No. Let's play. Come on! Can't catch me!' she yelled as speeding away from Elf. Elf smiled and leaped after Faerendaigul. They played. Meanwhile, back in the village of the elves, something was happening. The small wooden huts were burning down and all the elves screamed; 'Humans! The humans! Run!' There was no place to hide. Elf and Faerendaigul were heading back to home. They walked in silence. They felt like a heavy cloud of dread had cascaded down upon them. Soon, they had reached the homely trees, but they still felt scared inside. Something terrible had happened. They stood still, afraid to find out what had happened, if anything was. Then Elf said: 'This is silly. There's no reason for us to act like this. Nothing could have happened. We should just step in there. The worst we might encounter is Elf, my mother, being mad at us. Nothing worse.' 'If everything is okay, then why is it so quiet around here? Usually these woods would be bursting with little elves and pixies. Now there's just us.' 'They must be hiding.' This explanation didn't please either of them, but they had to have something to believe in. Taking in a deep breath, they gathered what little courage their young souls now had, they stepped onward. The sight which they found, struck them right in the heart and soul. They watched the scorched ground, the broken and burned huts and worst; they could see the bodies of the dead elves, brutally killed and savaged. They broke down. Once upon a time, there was Elf and Faerie. Today there is Zun'El Feuin and Faerendaigul. This story © to Riikka Kankaanpää, please do not use without permission. |