The Forest
A slight breeze made the heads of the flowers bob as if they were nodding in acknowledgement of the child’s passing feet and the leaves rustled like sand paper rubber together. Sunlight was diffused by the trees which were reaching to the sky and gave the ground a mottled look where the grass was sprinkled with sunshine. The girl wandered along admiring the pretty flowers and their wonderful colours and smells which such a welcoming spring fragrance. Stopping and squatting down to examine more closely a shrub with stunning flowers that were shaped like small dark pink frilly dresses with tiny yellow slippers that hung gracefully from green leaved branches the girl smelled a wonderfully gently perfume which she could not place, shrugging her shoulders she wandered further along. Looking left and right Dagmar saw flowers with large emerald green leaves and milky yellow flowers which had an overpowering smell it caused the girl to sneeze. Small crimson blossoms dotted bushes with lime green leaves and petite birds flitting about in continual movement with fleeting glimpses of a kaleidoscope of colours. Bushes with large emerald green foliage which created recesses carpeted with deep green moss dotted with tiny mauve flowers with a butter yellow center.
Looking around the girl saw ash trees with their silvery bark and small grey leaves and evergreens and their jade green needles, Oak trees with rough dappled brown bark towering over the rest. Fallen tree trunks covered in various types of moss with teeny tiny flowers with a diversity of colour giving it a look of a blanket covering a resting person. Underfoot small twigs and dry leaves snapped and crackled as the child wandered releasing the smell of decaying plant matter, which was giving the whole area a very rich earthy scent that the girl absolutely loved. Inhaling deeply with eyes closed Dagmar stood, face raised to the sky, arms outstretched as if in prayer. Feeling totally at ease and blissfully happy the girl began to skip through a small section of the woodland humming snatches of tunes. As she came to a small clearing, she could hear the sound of water and decided to follow the noise. It took her no time to locate the source of that sound, it was a small creek which was meandering gracefully through a clearing with new lush green grass on both sides of the banks. Many beautiful spring flowers were sprinkled around making dots of colour through the green of the grass. The girl dropped down to have a closer look at all the pretty flower buds, on hands and knees she crawled around sniffing scarlet, lilac, azure and snowy white blossoms, some had no scent yet others had a subtle hint as yet others had a very strong fragrance. Unable to resist the girl picked some of the flowers, to give to Titania later when she returned to the ancient tree, using long strong blades of grass to wrap the bouquet and hold it together. Following the creek Dagmar skipped over rocks and logs stopping to watch frogs jumping and dragonflies skimming the surface of the gently flowing water. The flash of movement in the water indicating that something lived there made the girl stop, carefully placing the bouquet on a rock, she gingerly stepped closer to the water’s edge screwing up her eyes to squint against the suns glare into the water looking for the flash of scales.
She took careful steps edging closer and saw another flash of movement further down the creek and she walked along the water’s edge, head bent low, eyes focused, feet carefully searching secure footing with every step, looking for the cause of those flashes of movement. A sudden splash caused the girl to jump with fright and lose her balance falling into the water landing on her bottom. Getting up completely soaked, she stiffly walked to the bank and climbed up sitting down on the grass. Wrestling off her wet pants she had to wriggle and squirm first standing up and then falling over whilst hopping around trying to get her leg out of the pant leg. Finally succeeding in what felt an impossible task to the now exhausted and hot child, she wrung out and laid them on the grass in the sun to dry a little in the sun.
Being tired after such an effort, the girl rested on a patch of sun soaked grass and relaxed listening to the water babbling as it rushed over the small rocks and rubbed against the bank, birds chirruping and twittering in the trees as they were gathering twigs and bits to make their nests, bees buzzing busily, a frog calling for its mate and a humming. She could not give the humming a direction or a tone, it was like a vibrating hum, it was not uncomfortable and did not frighten her as she listened. After having listened intently for a while, Dagmar became sleepy stretched out to be more comfortable and soaked up the warmth of the sun, dozing lightly the individual sounds which surrounded the girl were amplified. The bird chirruping and twittering became snatches of songs, the buzzing of the bees come to be bits of a chant, the frogs calling turned into bits of a serenade, the babbling water became incessant whispered chatter of many voices and the humming was a song sung by one voice with many tones and on many levels. It touched the child on several levels, to her mind it was a lullaby, to her heart it was a gentle caress by a loving hand that eased any pain felt and to the soul it was nourishment as was water to a parched garden. The girl stayed like that for a long time, well, until a few drops of cold water hit her in the face giving her such a fright she jumped up looking around and with feet firmly planted, ready to run. Finding nothing that could have splashed her, Dagmar shrugged and went to see how dry her pants were, only to find that they were not where she left them. Confused the child began looking around wondering if she might have made a mistake but not seeing her pants, confirmed that she was at the right spot. Wondering where her pants had vanished to, the girl scanned the creek. A splash caused her to run to the water’s edge looking left and right and yet another splash triggered a mad chase to that location, another splash to a different spot. She was constantly fumbling with her footing and had many near misses of another soaking, Dagmar heard laughter. Looking slowly from right to left and every place in between, she saw gleaming white teeth smiling from under a creek bank over hang. A small splash and another burst of laughter, made whatever decision the child was wresting with obsolete, she launched herself in the direction of the splash.
Grappling with her unseen nemesis, Dagmar managed to twist her fingers into what she believed was hair. The girl threw herself backwards and pulling her opponent out from their hiding place. With a splash, a scream and much colourful language the girl came face to face at first with an angry set of eyes. Those eyes scanned her face and then changed to a whole face, mouth smiling with pointed teeth, sparkling eyes and a mass of dark hair. “What are you? What are you doing in MY meadow?” The creature screeched “I am Dagmar from the human realm. Who are you?” shot Dagmar back whilst wriggling out from under the creature. Puffing and panting the two untangled themselves and scuttled a short distance apart and stared at each other, sky blue eyes inspecting sea green eyes “I am Moonbeam, protector of this creek and this here meadow” was the breathless reply. Standing well out of reach the two girls looked at each other.
The girl looked at Moonbeam’s wild silver blue hair which stopped just short of her waist. Searching eyes travelling to large sea green eyes which had cat like oval pupils and were set in very exotic, to the child’s way of thinking, with the inner corners of the eye swing downwards and the outer corners of her eyes sweeping gracefully up, giving her a very cat like appearance topped with delicate eyebrows. The face was oval with a small nose and a little pointy, stubborn looking chin and blue green lips. Dagmar was stunned at the colour of the other girls pale white skin with a shimmer of green, noting that she had two arms and two legs with no difference to her own. The girl DID note markings on the others face and arms. Moonbeam was also doing an inventory of the girl in front of her. A little shorter then Dagmar, Moonbeam saw silver white long hair falling about the girls shoulders in a cascade of ringlets with sky blue eyes. The face looking back at her was oval with a small pointy chin, a dainty nose and straight eye brows and ears which looked similar to a small shell. Reaching out to touch Dagmar’s hair, Moonbeam broke the spell, causing Dagmar to skip back a step, causing Moonbeam to also jump back and trip over a small clump lading firmly on her
back side.
Bursting out laughing, Dagmar dropped to the ground where had been standing which made Moonbeam laugh as well. The girls giggled a while and then Moonbeam jumped up and skipped over to where Dagmar was sitting, extending her right hand to Dagmar offering the help her get up. “How come you are here Dagmar of the Human realm?” “I think I traveled on a moon beam” clamping her small long fingered hands over her mouth “Oh, Sorry! Not meaning to offend. So I travelled by the light of the moon and then I was in a meadow with a parade of butterflies which turned out to be faeries. I met princess Niamh and Albreicht, they got me through the veil or curtain or whatever it is, and I get that confused in my head. That is pretty much it until Titania and I went for a picnic and she wanted to rest and chat to her friend the old tree.” Moonbeam was gawking at the girl as she spoke “You WHAT? You met Princess Niamh and you had a picnic with Queen Titania? By the Gods how did you manage to do that? Travel on a moonbeam? This sounds like a bit of a falsehood.” Grabbing Dagmar by the arm Moonbeam began dragging the girl along the water’s edge “we are going to find Eclipse and she can decide what to do now” Moonbeam did not loosen her grip on the girls arm walking briskly towards a rocky outcrop some distance away.
As they drew nearer Dagmar could see that it was actually a rocky ledge which lead to the base of a waterfall and as they got a little closer the girl could hear the splash of the water as it fell and hit rock and the water in the pools. The spray from the water was drifting in the air like mist coating everything with dew drops that sparkled when the sun hit them. Dagmar walked willingly after Moonbeam staring around herself absorbing the sheer beauty of her surroundings.