Joy
A Treasure Protector Story
By Julian T. Nichols
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Copyright © 2012 by Julian T. Nichols. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduction any material form, whether by printing, photo copying, scanning or otherwise with out the written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author's imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to person's living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental. Unauthorized or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.
Anna’s birthday was the following day, and she could not wait. She was turning nine years old. She hoped that when she woke upon her ninth birthday she would be pretty. That was her wish.
She crawled into her bed, under her pink blanket, in her pink princess room and waited for her mommy and daddy to kiss her goodnight. She went to bed extra early because she wanted her birthday to come faster.
“You’re in bed already?” Mommy laughed as she walked in with Daddy behind her.
Anna nodded fast, smiling. Daddy rushed in to tickle her before he tucked the covers under her. “I bet she can’t wait for her present.”
Anna nodded again, this time hard with an even bigger smile. She did not dare show her teeth because she still had a missing one right in the front. But Mommy and Daddy always found a way to make her giggle with all of her teeth showing, so they tickled her until her crooked smile turned into a toothless grin and she filled the room with bubbles of laughter.
Saturday birthdays were the best, she thought as she watched her parents leave her bedroom after kissing her night-night. Saturday birthdays meant no waiting to celebrate. She snuggled in bed and thought about her birthday wish. When she woke up, she would be pretty.
The eve of Anna’s ninth birthday was the first night of her birthday dreams- pretty, pretty dreams in very pretty places that she had never ever seen before. Everything was brighter. There were different colors everywhere!
She woke up in the middle of a forest on a bed made of golden Gazania flowers. Anna looked around, rubbing her eyes as she woke. She was alone except for the golden butterflies that fluttered around. Her eyes got big and her mouth opened into a small O. Everything was so beautiful.
“Hello,” she called.
No answer.
Anna stood up, dusting off Gazania petals from her dress. Dress? Her pink pajamas were gone. It was a pretty gold dress with flowers and ruffles. She loved ruffles. Maybe this was her birthday dress from Mommy.
“Mommy?”
No answer.
Anna calmly looked around. Then she heard a noise getting closer and closer. It was laughter and giggling. It sounded like her giggles but a whole lot of it, all at the same time. Then the wind was blowing, and the flower petals flew all around her as the sound got closer, louder. Then she heard footsteps, running footsteps and leaves rustling.
She looked to her right at the shaking bushes. Anna picked up her long flowing, flowery, ruffled dress and stepped down off the bed, toward the sound. She was smiling, too. Then like a gust of wind, a group of kids emerged from the bushes, laughing and yelling and running playfully.
Anna’s smile widened, but she remained still, standing in the meadow, holding her pretty dress. The last of the kids trailed along as if they had not noticed her at all. She took another step and stopped cold. Anna stared on as a stampede of animals came through the same bushes as the kids had, and she could almost pinky swear that they were smiling, too. There were tigers, zebras, giraffes, elephants, and even a lion. Anna blinked her eyes and shook her head. This was the best dream ever!
Then everything got even better. Following the animals was a beautiful girl dressed in the most beautiful gold dress that Anna had ever seen! It had gold sequins and beads and pearls; the dress sparkled.
“Hello,” she said to Anna.
Anna looked around before asking, “Me?”
The girl smiled. Her smile was not crooked and had no missing teeth. “Yes, you, Anna. I have been waiting for you.”
She walked over to Anna and held out her hand.
Hesitantly, Anna put her hand out, too. “Uh, hi?” Then she whispered, “Where am I?”
The beautiful girl pulled Anna toward her and whispered back, “You are in my world. Very much like your own but in another time, in another land, where kings and queens rule great nations and we live for a very, very, very long time.”
Her voice was pretty and soft and well, mature. Anna guessed she was about 15 years old. She wore a very pretty crown. Anna secretly wished that the dream would end with her head in that crown. Not that her head was nearly as pretty. She stared at the most pretty girl she had ever seen. Her hair fell to her shoulders in small locks. Her skin was the most beautiful brown that Anna had ever seen, like dark roasted almonds. Her eyes were just a touch lighter, and she had perfect round lips and high cheekbones and a round nose. Her smile was perfect. “Are you a queen?”
She laughed and shook her head. The crown did not even sway. “No. I am not. My name is Damisi. Welcome to my home. Come now. We must get you ready.”
Damisi took Anna’s hand and ran over to a river, complete with a small waterfall that had magically appeared right before her very eyes. Anna stared at the river as it continued to grow out of nowhere. Damisi stopped to face her before setting down her bag.
Anna looked on as Damisi pulled items from her bag. “Get ready for what?” she asked.
Damisi laughed. “You will be crowned today. You are one of us.”
“One of us?”
Damisi stopped and looked around the seemingly empty forest. For the first time, Anna felt a twinge of fear, like she was not supposed to be there. She could feel Damisi’s tension.
Damisi leaned over and whispered, “A Treasure Protector.”
She pulled her over, closer to the river, and the waterfall grew louder as if covering the conversation. Damisi talked fast. “We protect the most sacred gifts to our world, the most precious treasures at all cost. We must protect them or else all would be lost.”
“What treasures?”
“There are nine in all, but they are one. If we lose one, all others suffer. My brother, Prince Ochi, and I protect Joy.”
“You’re a princess?” Anna's eyes widened.
“Yes. Treasure Princess Damisi, protector of Joy. But in our world, the people only know me as Princess Damisi of Africa, one of the eight Sovereign Nations.”
“Africa?”
The waterfall surged then slowed.
Damisi nodded and got back to work on Anna. “We must stop talking now and get you ready.”
Anna could not believe a warrior princess was fussing over her. She fussed at her dress and her hair, making it just right.
When Damisi was done she said, “There, all done,” and turned Anna toward the river to look down at her reflection.
Anna looked and stared and stared before she whispered, “Who is that?”
Damisi laughed, “You silly.”
Anna shook her head no and pointed to her reflection. “But she is pretty,” she said.
Damisi wrinkled her nose for a second, confused at Anna’s words. Then she turned to face her.
With her hands on her shoulders Damisi said, “That is you. That is your beauty. That is the joy inside of you. That is the joy that naturally lives in you. It makes you beautiful always.”
“But,” Anna started to whisper as she put her head down.
Damisi gently pushed her head up with her hand on her chin. “Even when things make you sad, you have joy i
nside of you, always. And joy inside makes you feel better, and it makes you beautiful inside and out, always.”
Then Damisi smiled her perfect smile and looked back down at Anna’s reflection. Anna could not help herself. She smiled, too, showing all of her pretty remaining teeth.
All of a sudden, the wind started blowing, the petals started flowing, and the birds and butterflies started dancing. Their reflections in the water seemed to be identical. Then they disappeared as the river started to quickly stream.
Damisi jumped up and down. “It is time!”
Anna heard the giggling kids being chased by animals making their way back, closer and louder.
She turned questioning eyes toward Damisi, not sure what was coming next. Damisi laughed with her head back in full joy as she put her hands on her crown. Anna watched as the crown was moved off Damisi’s head, looking as though it were floating toward her.
Just as Damisi was about to place the crown on her head, the stampede of children and animals came bursting up through a now huge waterfall, and suddenly, Anna was waking up in her bedroom, wet and coughing.
Her stinking older brother, Jonathan, was standing over her holding an empty bucket and laughing. Anna was drenched in ice water.
“Jonathan!”
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” he yelled. “Wake up, wake up!”
“I’m awake,” she said, giggling while reaching out to playfully punch him. How could she be mad at him when he was so excited about her birthday?
As if it had just dawned on her, Anna jumped out of her bed, pushed pass her brother and ran to the bathroom.
She looked at herself in the mirror. Disappointed, her laughter died down as soon as she saw her pathetic reflection. Not only did she look the same as before she went to bed, but now she was all drenched and her hair was flat, sticking to her face.
She stuck her tongue out at herself. She did it again and again until she was making googly eyes at herself and for no reason at all, she started giggling.
“What are you doing?” her brother asked.
Anna pulled him into the bathroom and had him join her in making faces. Together, they made faces and laughed until their bellies ached.
“Birthday girl, come down for breakfast,” she heard her mother call.
Jonathan ran out at the mention of food. Her brother was super greedy. Anna stayed back. She looked in the mirror one more time and saw her joyful self. The girl looking back at her was not the ugly duckling with a missing tooth and crooked smile, but the joy-filled pretty girl by the water. Her wish had come true and more.
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Look for the next story, Kindness, to be released soon.
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