The Magic Meadow
By
Chaney Murray
©Copyright reserved for Chaney Murray. There will be no copying of this book in any way. The story comes from the author’s imagination only.
This is the first fantasy short story I have written. I would like to dedicate this to all of my friends. I hope you enjoy it!
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Once upon a time there lived a small family of peasants. They lived in a little rundown cottage on a hill, surrounded by a meadow of flowers whose sweet smell drifted towards the house on nice days. The family consisted of a father, a mother, a young boy and a little girl. They were very poor, being barely able to buy enough food to survive.
Little did the family know that the flowers that surrounded the tiny cottage were not only beautiful, but they were also magical. In the daytime the flowers looked just like any other flowers. But at night, when everyone was asleep, the flowers would wake up. Dancing was their usual pastime. They would dance and laugh all night until the sun came up. Then they would all go back to sleep.
There was one flower that was not quite like the others. That flower, whose name was Daisy, lived up by the cottage, instead of in the meadow. She would look after the little flowers to make sure that they weren’t seen. For sometimes humans would be awake at night and decide to take a late stroll. Daisy would alert other flowers by whispering to the blades of grass. The grass, unlike the flowers, could not move, but they could whisper. The message would travel from one blade to another until the whisper would reach the flowers in the meadow and warn them to hide. When the flowers heard, they would all scramble to their assigned spots in the meadow.
One night after the peasants went to sleep, the flowers again awoke and did what they would normally do-- dance the night away-- while Daisy sat on top of the hill and watched. Daisy was sitting under the peasants’ window when she heard voices coming from inside the cottage. It was hard to make out what the peasants were saying, but the little flower could tell something was wrong. She listened intently and heard some of the conversation.
“What should we do?” came a female voice. “We’re almost out of money.”
“I don’t know,” said a male voice. “I’ll think of something. I won’t have us starving. We’ll find an answer. Maybe we can sell something,” he suggested.
“But we’ve already sold everything that was valuable,” the female said. She sounded as if she were close to tears. “What about the old apple tree orchard?” she suggested hopefully.
“No, that won’t do,” the man said regretfully. “The old trees used to bear fruit but now the trees are withered and dry. There’s no way we can save them.”
“What about your corn?” asked the woman.
“Sadly it did not do well this year. The seeds never came up. We did not have enough rain this year,” he said sadly.
“But what will we do without food?” moaned the woman.
“I’ll think of something. I promise,” said the man.
Then the voices quieted so Daisy could not hear them. Pretty soon the voices stopped and all Daisy could hear was the whispering grass and the faint laughter of the other flowers.
The apple trees which the humans had spoken of, were the old withered trees that stood near the meadow. The poor trees used to bear good fruit and used to watch the flowers dance and sing in the meadow. But, over time, the big trees started to wither and dry out, so no longer did they give the luscious red fruits they used to produce. And, as for the corn they had spoken of, it was a sorry crop near the house. The field hadn’t had enough water that year for anything to grow. Sadly the house was in a bad state, too. The shutters which used to be on the house had long since fallen off and now lay tangled and forgotten in the tall grass. The glass windows the house had were shattered. The worst part was the rats that lived in the house. The humans could not seem to get rid of those bothersome pests. The creatures would sneak around inside the house and steal what little food the humans had to eat.
Daisy sat for a moment and then had a thought. She whispered to the blades of grass a message she wished to send to the flowers in the meadow. The grass swiftly sent the whisper on down the line right into the meadow where the flowers danced. Soon the flowers stopped and once they had heard the message they started to slowly make their way up the hill.
Daisy had told them that something was wrong with the humans and, since they were all quite fond of the little family that lived next door to their precious meadow, they all wanted to help. They skipped up the grassy hill to Daisy, who now stood at the top waiting for them. The petals that were on her head blew in the slight breeze. The other flowers stopped in front of Daisy and asked in their sweet voices, “What is wrong with the humans?”
Daisy told them about what she had heard and pointed out the sorry state the house was in. The other flowers looked around them at the old house and the property, probably just now noticing how run down it really was. They looked back at Daisy and asked her, “What shall we do?”
Daisy paused for a moment. Then told them that she had a plan to help the humans, but she would need all their cooperation.
***
The next morning the little peasant girl awoke to see the bright sunshine streaming in the broken window above her bed in the loft. She sat up and gave a big yawn. When she had fully awakened, she stood and looked out her window and gasped with surprise. She squealed happily and raced down the rickety ladder that was put there so she could get up and down from the loft. She ran into the small kitchen and saw her mother and father sitting at the table. When she ran in they looked at her with surprise.
“Look!” she shouted happily, running out of the house and down the winding path that lead away from the cottage. Her mother and father looked at each other questioningly, then called to their son to come with them. He was out in the yard playing with one of the numerous snakes that lived in their yard. He stopped what he was doing and went running to his parents.
They all followed the little girl past the meadow of flowers and into the apple orchard. The mother and father looked at the huge trees in awe. The trees they had seen just last night, before they had gone to bed, were no longer there. Instead of the old dry trees, they were now big healthy ones with plump apples on every limb. Birds twittered and flew from branch to branch and the sunlight seeped through the gaps in the branches.
The mother and father looked at each other with puzzled expressions. “How did this happen?” they wondered. How could this withered orchard turn into such a beautiful one with ripe fruit on the branches overnight? Just then the little girl picked an apple off the tree and gingerly took a bite. When it tasted delicious, she hurriedly ate the whole thing. When her brother saw that they were tasty, he too took an apple and ate. Soon everyone was eating apples and the little girl was dancing among the trees. It had been a long time since she had had a full stomach.
Meanwhile, back on the hill, Daisy was watching them enjoy themselves down in the apple orchard. She smiled a sweet smile and sat there watching the family for a long time before she went back to sleep.
***
That night when the family had finally quieted down and were settled for the night, the flowers awoke and went walking up the hill towards Daisy. She welcomed them quietly. The night before, they had all decided to awaken the apple trees. Flowers had a way with plants. They could talk to the trees and coax them out of their sleep. Last night the trees slowly woke up and at the same time the apples and leaves grew. They grew much faster than normal for they had a lot of time to make up, and they knew apple season was almost over.
Daisy spoke to the flowers again and told them what their next task should be –working on the corn crop. Daisy smiled as she watched them set out. Whe
n they reached the cornfield they started coaxing the little seeds to start growing. After a few hours the cornfield was now filled with mature corn stalks. The ears of corn were bigger than any in the country and the stalks taller than anyone had ever seen. Satisfied with their work, the flowers retreated down into the meadow.
Little did they know that the little girl that lived in the shack had awakened and had sat looking out the window at the stars. She noticed some movement down in the meadow. She looked closer and saw that the flowers were dancing. She rubbed her eyes thinking she was dreaming and looked again. Yes, the flowers were indeed dancing! She was so in awe to see these little beings dance around in the meadow that she sat there watching for hours.
The next morning Daisy was sleeping soundly. But suddenly awoke when she heard noises coming from inside the house. She looked up and saw that the family was running out to the corn field shouting for joy. Daisy was happy to see the family so excited. Then she noticed that the little girl was standing in the doorway of the house watching her family in the cornfield. But then the child turned slowly and looked towards the meadow. Daisy also turned to look at the meadow, moving slowly so as not to let the girl know that she too was awake. The meadow looked normal to Daisy. What was the girl doing looking at the meadow when the rest of the family was celebrating in the cornfield? Daisy very slowly turned her small dark eyes toward the girl and was surprised to see that the girl was not looking at the meadow any longer-- she was now looking at Daisy!
Daisy quickly closed her eyes and stood very still. She now looked like a regular flower. She heard the girl come toward her and then stop. Daisy slowly opened her eyes and, through the slits of her eyes, saw that the little girl was now crouching next to her. The girl leaned down and whispered to her.
“Thank you all for everything,” she said and smiled. Then she stood up and quickly ran toward her family in the cornfield.
***
That night when all was quiet, the flowers awoke and set to work again. This time they wanted to fix up the house, but found they couldn’t do anything to the cottage. Instead they decided they could help the area around it that was in need of work. The first thing they started to work on was getting the rats away from the house. To accomplish this Daisy asked their animal friends, the fox, rabbits, and large birds, to help chase the rats far away.
The animals obeyed and chased the rats out of the house and off the property. Then the flowers blocked up the holes the rats had been using to get in and out of the house. Everybody was so busy working that they failed to notice that the little girl had sneaked out of the house and had been standing in the shadows, watching them for sometime.
She slowly stepped out of the shadows which drew the flowers and animals attention. They looked at her with scared expressions. The animals were so afraid that they ran into the forest, whereas the flowers could only stand rooted to their spots in fright. But the little girl looked at them with shining eyes. Her gaze fell on Daisy who was a little taller than the rest of the flowers.
The girl smiled. “Thank you all for helping us,” she said happily. The flowers looked at one another, then back at the girl. They were still all much too scared to reply. But soon Daisy found enough courage to walk slowly toward the girl, stopping a few feet away from her. She tried hard to say, “We just wanted to help.”
The girl smiled again and said, “I can’t really understand what you’re saying but somehow I know what you mean.” She then slowly stooped down so she could see Daisy better. “I thank you all,” the girl whispered. By now all of the flowers had gotten over being scared and were curious. They had never been awake when a human was around.
They slowly and cautiously walked toward the little girl. She stayed where she was as they all touched her cautiously. When they saw that she was not going to hurt them, they talked in hushed voices among themselves.
The little girl could not understand what Daisy and the flowers were saying, for they were talking in some other kind of language that sounded like tinkling bells. She could tell, though, that they were talking about her. She waited, and soon they turned to face her. Daisy stepped forward and reached out her little leaf hand in a measure of friendship. The little girl smiled and slowly reached her small hand toward the flower. Daisy touched the little girls’ finger and smiled. She hoped the girl saw that the flowers wanted to be her friends. The girl smiled warmly at Daisy.
Suddenly Daisy turned away from the girl and whistled. Back came the animals who had taken refuge in the forest. They came towards the flowers and the human cautiously. When they saw that the flowers were not scared of her, they knew they didn’t need to be either. The animals walked up to the girl and she stroked the fox’s fur and let the birds rest on her shoulder. She giggled happily. The peasant girl spent the rest of the night getting to know her new friends in the meadow.
***
The next morning the father took all the apples and corn that his wagon could hold and, with his old horse pulling it they headed off toward town. When he returned later that day he told his family about how much money he had gotten and they were overjoyed to see so much food he had bought.
The peasant family lived happily for many years after. The apple trees never withered and the corn was bountiful each year. The family had enough money and food to survive every winter.
Daisy and her flower friends did not die during the cold winter months. They lived under the snow and every day they visited with the little girl. The rest of the family always wondered how the apples and corn grew so fast but only the little girl knew. She knew that she had friends in the magic meadow.
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About the Author
14 year old Chaney Murray lives in Nebraska with her parents and four siblings and enjoys being homeschooled. She spends most of her time reading and writing and has recently developed a love for cooking desserts.