The Diary of Miss Aidyn Hall,
author
July 7
Today I Met
Apple Blossom
This
morning after breakfast, I went back to the magnolia archway and found it still
unblocked. I proceeded down the path, expecting to run into the daddy longlegs
and his web after ten steps. But this time around, there was no daddy longlegs
and no web. It sucked for the spider, who I figured had gotten his web
demolished by some careless oaf. But how lucky for me!
The
path remained straight for about ten more steps, and then it made a winding
turn. It reminded me of Dorothy’s yellow brick road, and I hummed the song to
myself as I walked. I was starting to wonder if I really would see Oz at the
end of the path, and how I would react to seeing all those munchkins coming out
from under hedges and behind buildings. And with that thought firmly in my
head, what else do I see but a little green haired person coming my way? She
was not a munchkin, but a little girl who looked to be around nine or ten. But
munchkin or not, she was certainly odd; she was very small, but not quite
munchkin small. She had hair the exact color of a well-tended summer lawn. She
was wearing a crown of pink and white blossoms, and a pink and green dress that
looked like a big flower—the bodice was a flower bud and petals, the skirt
formed the leaves. I wish I had a cool dress like that.
The
girl smiled brightly at me. She had a very pretty smile that used all of her
pearly teeth. She was one of those people whose eyes got really wide and whose
eyebrows rose all the way up when they smiled. I smiled back, tipped my head,
and said, “Hey!”
“Hey!”
she cried. “Hey! Hey!” She bounced on her feet, which made her mossy curls
bounce. “I saw you!” she cried. “I saw you! I saw you out here yesterday!”
That
was weird. I hadn’t seen her (if I had, I would have written about her, of
course). She must have been hiding, or had blended into the trees. “Is that
so?” I said, as I continued walking. “When did you see me?”
“I
saw you when you met with the Grand Elder Guardian,” said the girl, “and I saw
you get lost in the shrubs. I felt very, very sorry for you, and I wanted to
help you out, but it was very naughty of you to disobey the Grand Elder
Guardian!” She said this as if I were a kid who had gotten caught with her hand
in the cookie jar. “Who is this Grand Elder Guardian,” I asked reasonably, “and
how did I disobey him?”
“The
Grand Elder Guardian is the head of the guardians of my land,” the girl
explained. “He is the largest spider with the largest web, and he decides who
comes in and who goes out. He was going to let you in because he saw that you
still held the tag, but…”
I
cut her off. “What’s the tag?”
“You
do still have the tag with you, don’t you?”
“All
I have is my notepad and this green stone I found.” I showed her both.
“That’s
the tag!” she exclaimed, pointing to the stone. “That’s the tag that my people
use to keep track of those who come by my land.”
“Your land?” I asked. “So, you’re the
queen?” If she was the queen, then my visions of munchkins had surely become
reality. In her little way, she did seem quite queenly. Her posture, her
outfit, and the way she conducted herself just screamed “royalty.” But at the
same time, she carried on like an excitable kid.
“My mother
is the queen,” she told me. “I am the princess, and my name is Apple Blossom.”
“Nice to
meet you,” I said. Since she was a princess, I attempted a curtsy. It was
likely dopey and awkward looking, but she didn’t seem to mind. “I’m Aidyn,” I
told her.
“Hello,
Aidyn!” She walked over to me and held out her hand. I wasn’t sure if I was
supposed to shake it or, as is often the case with princesses, kiss it. But I
opted for the shake, because kissing it seemed too weird.
“Today’s my
birthday,” she said, “and I’ve always wanted to meet a real, live human and
invite one to my birthday party. Then I could introduce it to my friends and
family and all of the others at my palace. But I could never find a human. They
always misplace or lose their tag.” So she wasn’t human, but I guess I could’ve
figured that out. It felt incredibly strange to be called “it” and to be
invited to a birthday party for a little girl—a little princess—I had only just met. But if anything made for excellent material, it was this! So I
said to Apple Blossom, “I would be delighted to come to your birthday party.
But I have a few questions for you, if you don’t mind. You can answer them
while we walk.”
“I don’t
mind that at all!” said Apple Blossom. She held out her hand, which I took, and
we continued walking down the path. I had quite a bit more than “a few”
questions, and she had quite a bit more than “a few” answers. For the sake of
convenience, I will write the ones I felt were most important in a handy
Q&A format:
Q&A WITH PRINCESS APPLE BLOSSOM
Q: So you aren’t human. What are
you, then?
A: I am a Jadeite. We are forest
dwellers descended from the tree elves, which were descended from the dryads
and the ancient forest elves. We live in small, scattered, and secluded places
in cedar and oak forests, though our ancestors ruled the forest in the way you
humans rule the rest of the world.
(For such a little girl, she can
sure talk big. I suppose it’s all part of being a princess.)
Q: So what kind of importance do
jade stones hold to you?
A: Jade stones contain the essences
of the forest around us, and allow us to better communicate with and form a
bond to our environment. We are called the Jadeites because the years have
allowed us to strengthen our abilities to harness the forest energies through
the jades; we are really no different from the old tree elves otherwise, except
that we prefer the ground to the trees.
Q: So could the tree elves harness
these “jade forest essences” too?
A. They are the ones who discovered
the essences of jades. Before them, forest dwellers thought that emeralds
contained the essences of the forests. This is true in small amounts, but jades
contain much larger and more powerful forest essences. After they discovered
this, the tree elves began to abandon emeralds in favor of jades. By the time
of the first Jadeites, emeralds had been nearly completely abandoned. So yes,
tree elves could harness the essences of jades, but it was a very newly
discovered thing in their time.
(By now I had taken out my notepad
and was ferociously writing down everything I could catch. If Apple Blossom
minded this, she didn’t show it. But this whole thing about elves and
princesses and “forest essences” was a story just waiting to happen.)
Q: What does the jade “tag” do, and
what’s carved on the back of it?
A: For our peace of mind, we like
to keep track of the humans that come by our land. When a human comes by, a
tagger is sent out to place a tag on them. The tag provides a link between us
and the human, and allows us to observe the human’s ways. Most lose or throw
away their tag, many remove the tags on the spot, and some return only to throw
the tag back. It is rare that anybody returns with their tag in hand. The tag
is inscribed with your number.
(I showed her my tag and asked what
number was carved on it. She said I was number five. Four other people had come
by here at some point.)
Q: Did the other four make it in?
A: Only one of them returned, and
he did not make it past the Grand Elder Guardian.
Q: Why did the Grand Elder Guardian let me in, especially since I apparently “disobeyed” him?
A: He was not planning to. He and
the other guardians didn’t like that you disobeyed him by trying to bypass his
web! The only reason he did let you in is because I respectfully requested it
of him, and since it is my birthday he was willing to grant the request.
Q: Because you wanted to play with
a “real, live human?”
A: Yes!
Well, I’ve
always wanted to meet a real live fairy, elf, pixie, or nymph because I’ve
always wanted to write about fairies, elves, pixies, and nymphs. I couldn’t
very accurately write about them without meeting one first. Now I finally have
my chance, and I don’t even need to come up with the story. The story began to
tell itself the moment I met little Jadeite Princess Apple Blossom—though
really, it started the moment I was “tagged."
It sucks
that I don’t have much more time to journal today. I still have so much more to
say about this day. But I guess I’ll have to save it all for tomorrow. I’ll
dedicate my entire morning to writing about it.
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