THE SPRITE’S AMULET
By Susan Lombardi
Copyright 2011 Susan Lombardi
Chapters
CHAPTER ONE: If in doubt, poke it with a stick.
CHAPTER TWO: They could have tied themselves in a neat bow couldn’t they?
CHAPTER THREE: A bacon and guilt sandwich.
CHAPTER FOUR: You have custard with apple pie not chips.
CHAPTER FIVE: Fluffy red hats can look like red hair.
CHAPTER SIX: Some people can sleep anywhere.
CHAPTER SEVEN: I can’t see any pointy ears.
CHAPTER EIGHT: Playing pranks can get boring!
CHAPTER NINE: Green Eggs and Ham.
CHAPTER TEN: Do you have a broomstick?
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Why gooey-eyes now.
CHAPTER TWELVE: How to make a doorway.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Curly beards with pink bows.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Warm and fuzzy.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: A cure for the spiders.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: A shiny red ruby.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: A long hooded cloak.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Mmm choc choc.
CHAPTER NINETEEN: A cup of tea and a slice of cake.
CHAPTER TWENTY: Green fire.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Cricket bats and broom-handles.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Acrobatic aerial stunts.
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER ONE: If in doubt, poke it with a stick.
Connor peered into the murky pool. He tilted his head of curly brown hair and squinted his blue eyes, considering. Ione crawled over to inspect what had caught his interest. With both heads staring into the muddy puddle, Connor carefully prodded it with his stick. Ripples ran over the surface, but nothing else exciting presented itself. Ione satisfied the pool was safe to play in started poking it with her finger, first making ripples, then little splashes. Connor, growing bored, dropped the stick and went to see what was keeping Lily’s attention.
Her blonde head was bent over a pile of pebbles which she was trying to pile into towers. Connor somewhat of an expert in this department started to help. Ione meanwhile, having spied Connor’s abandoned stick was doing her own experiments with it, poking the puddle, just to be sure. When Connor saw what Ione was doing he jumped up and took the stick from her.
“Mine, mine”, he shouted.
Ione smiled at him, her brown eyes twinkling, reached up and pulled his hair. Connor knew this was Ione’s sign of affection for him and smiled back. He ran in a circle around the puddle and his two little friends, waving his stick. Lily looked up at the commotion and then giggled in delight at Connor running round in circles, her blue eyes shining with glee. Ione looked on, non-plused. Eventually he came back to Ione, still sat next to the puddle, and gave the stick back. Ione gave him her cheeky smile. Connor, being the oldest, she looked up to him. She returned to poking the puddle with her stick.
Connor pricked his pointed ears. He’s heard something, someone was coming along the dirt path they were playing in. Three sets of beautiful, sparkling, butterfly wings were spread and Connor, Ione and Lily quickly flew up into the leafy green trees overhead. Ione and Lily flew to the top of the trees to be well hidden. But Connor, who suffered dreadfully from curiosity, stayed lower in the branches and peered between the leaves to see who was coming.
Connor saw what looked liked an adolescent human, but he wasn’t entirely sure if he was a human or one of their kind. He had never seen hair like that before in the human world. The new-comer had blue hair coming out in spikes from all angles of his head. As he came closer he seemed to be emitting some sort of music, but Connor couldn’t see any sort of musical instrument he appeared to be playing. Unless it was the white strings he seemed to have coming from each ear which went into a little white box. Most curious. He leaned further forwards through the leaves to see better what this creature was. As he walked past, Connor was fairly sure it was a he, he could see he had the type of misty grey eyes, fairly uncommon in the human world, but not so in his world. He also appeared to be wearing someone else’s trousers. They were far too big for him, black and also appeared to have a lot of buckles and long ties which hung from somewhere around the knees. Connor started to follow through the trees, Ione and Lily who knew him well, fluttered their wings anxiously, he was always tempting trouble. But Connor pulled a face at them and continued to follow, making sure he was well hidden, and making no more noise than what could be mistaken for the wind in the trees. Connor was now intrigued by those trousers and their ties; for as well as suffering dreadfully from curiosity; he was also subject to mischievousness. He could feel his hands tickling and twitching. Mischievous thoughts would just pop into his head unbidden, he didn’t know where they came from, but not acting on them was agony for him.
The blue haired one suddenly started emitting another tune. He stopped and pulled another small, shiny box out of his trousers, this one black. It lit up and he stared at in intently. Connor was now in the tree right next to him, but if he had turned to look where he was, he would never of seen him. He would have faded into the surroundings looking like a part of the trees, twisted pieces of wood and leaves and perhaps sunlight on dust motes to give a slight sparkle to the air.
The blue hair was still engrossed in his little black box, his thumb was now doing a tap dance on the surface of it, he appeared to be mesmerised by the shining light coming from it. Perhaps the box is a magician’s and it has trapped his mind in it thought Connor, anyway he is certainly spell bound by it. His hands gave another itch and a twitch. It’ll only take a second thought Connor I am very quick and quiet, it will be done in a twinkling and he will not be the wiser it was a little me.
Connor who had unconsciously been slowly creeping to knee height now darted out and fastened together a tie from each leg. A grin on his small face from ear to ear he was about to dart back to the cover of the trees when the legs he had just tied together suddenly and without warning spun around, or tried to, as if their owners had suddenly decided to return back the way they had come. Unfortunately as they were tied together the walking back the way they had come turned into a spin around and a fall in Connor’s direction. Connor was very surprised to suddenly find the blue spikes heading towards him, but probably not as surprised as the one sporting the blue spikes. Grey eyes opened in surprise at falling over, widened in shock at what he saw now in front of him. A creature the size of a toddler but with a greenish tint to his skin, and green butterfly wings on his back which were flapping frantically trying to escape. The grey eyes met the blue ones and both shouted. As gravity took its course and the blue haired one fell to the ground his arms flailing, he nearly caught hold of Connor. But with a final flap of wings Connor soared up into the trees and disappeared blending into the woodland, his heart beating as rapidly as his wings.
Connor had never been properly seen by a human before, he had come very close a few times, yes, but not actually seen this close up. It was forbidden. All the non-humans knew their survival depended on not being seen or caught by the humans.
Once there had been very few humans and they’d lived in harmony together with the other races. All the land had been free for them all to live and travel. The humans had respected the other races, who had powers and knowledge they had not. But in time they had become more numerous as the other races had dwindled. As the humans had become numerous, they had spread through out the country and fought with each other over land and resources. The other races had retreated into their own settlements in the woods and caves and other out of the way places which the humans were not interested in because they could not be farmed, mined or settled on. As the human’s interest in commerce grew they lost their awe of the other races
. With the arrival of reason and science the humans lost their belief in the other races and their magics. The other races began to fear the humans and their sciences. They now only felt safe hidden. Using magic to hide in pockets of their own world, next to that of the human world, where not even science could find them.