Etwas the Elf

Etwas the Elf
Our heroine, photo by Maia Ycot

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Elf discovers horticulture

Once upon a time, Etwas the Elf was running through the forests of grass, under the canopies of clover and around the stems of tall flowers when she came up to a sweetpea vine twisting in a giant's garden.  She considered the way that tiny things can become gigantic, beautiful things and she climbed up to the first pod, pried it open with her feet and let one pea fall to the ground with a thud.

It took her a few tries to hoist the pea onto her shoulder, but finally she had it and staggered back towards her mushroom.  She set the pea on the ground and shimmied up the asparagus that grew into the sky next to her mushroom.  From the top she looked around for a nice spot to start a garden.

There was a small stream not far below and one bank faced South towards the noontime sun.  She rolled the pea down the hillock and dug a hole until she couldn't see out the top.  Then she built stairs in the side of the hole so she could dig it further.  Finally, she decided the hole was deep enough so she skipped up to the top of her excavation and rolled the pea in.

She began shoveling dirt on top of the pea when a green flurry landed on her head.  "Peasy pudding hot!" screeched a voice from above.  Etwas dug a quick little hole beneath her and made her escape from the parrot's talon just in time to see the pea in the bird's beak.  Etwas leapt into the parrot's mouth and began pushing the pea out but she couldn't make it budge.  So she pulled her way to the other side and shoved the pea backwards toward the parrot's throat.  The bird gagged and Etwas used the moment to leap out of the parrot's mouth with her garden.

Upon departure from the avian, Etwas discovered the bird had been flying the whole time and she was high, high above the tree-tops.

"Rascal!" she cried as she and the pea plummeted.  "Rascal!"  She fell past the top branches of the trees and down towards the ground.  She could see the separate mushrooms and the petals of violets and count the blades of grass on a mound just in front of her before her butterfly circled around and caught her.  The pea dropped softly into the mud, where even today sweetpeas grow wild.

And ever since then, among the elves, a constant gardener is always a frequent flyer.

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