The
Diary of Miss Aidyn Hall: author, mentor, researcher
July
30
My New Decision
On the desk in front of me sit three
small stacks of pictures: tree elves, Jadeites, and humans. The pictures of
tree elves and Jadeites are photocopied from books that I took home with me;
you don’t need a card to check out books at the Grand Greenwood Library, but
you do need to have them signed out at the front desk. The librarian refused to
sign the books out to me. She just sat there gawking as if I was an unusual
animal (and to her, I suppose I was) and clasped the books protectively as if I
might have been thinking about stealing or burning them. Apple Blossom had to
sign them out for me.
Tree elves and Jadeites have the
same skin tones from milk-white to rosy pink, small builds with petite frames,
pointed ears (though the tree elves’ ears are slightly larger and more pointed),
and clean, unblemished faces. The Jadeites’ hair ranges in shades from golden
blonde to greenish blue, and the tree elves sport the more conventional colors
of blonde, brown, and auburn red. I had learned that prolonged access and
exposure to the jade essences caused the change in hair color, as well as a
slightly greenish tinge on the skin of Jadeites that did not exist in the tree
elves. The tree elves’ eyes are nearly universally blue, and the Jadeites’ eyes
are nearly universally green. The eyes of a Jadeite are large and round like
perfectly cut gems, while the eyes of a tree elf are smaller and more teardrop
or almond shaped.
In comparison to humans, both
Jadeites and tree elves have two arms, two legs, five fingers and toes, heads
of hair, and distinctly human facial features. Jadeites and tree elves are
short, with willowy builds—if you can compare the build of a human to a tree
trunk, then you can compare the build of a Jadeite or a tree elf to a flower
stalk. The rounded five fingers of a Jadeite compare more to a human’s than the
gangly, pencil-shaped digits of a tree elf. The arms and legs of a tree elf are
slightly longer than those of a Jadeite, their feet are pointy and oddly diamond-shaped,
and their hair is stringy and unkempt in comparison to the more well-kept
hairstyles of Jadeites. The Jadeites and tree elves bear the same heart-shaped
faces, though the tree elves’ chins are pointed slightly.
The Jadeites are certainly closer in
appearance to humans. It doesn’t surprise me, considering the tree elves were
older and less evolved and still likely flaunted the characteristics of their
dryad ancestors. But Jadeites have our hair, fingers, toes, noses, eyes,
mouths, teeth, and language capabilities. Somehow, I don’t feel that is a
coincidence…
The books explained why Jadeites
fear a creature so similar to themselves. It isn’t our appearance that
frightens them, but our tendency to be horrid to anything that isn’t one of us.
I certainly know better than to go
rampaging through a forest full of elves, beating and destroying everything in
sight. None of the people I know would ever behave so despicably (or at least,
I hope not!). But the Jadeites in
general possess a sort of childlike naivety that leaves them vulnerable to the
other, much less desirable sort of people. I always knew that such a sort of
people existed, hopefully far, far away from my little speck of the world. But
I never dreamed that there could have been enough of them to taint the
Jadeites’ perception of the entire human race for decades. And yes, it has been
decades—centuries, even. It wasn’t only recent texts and children’s picture
books that depicted us in such ways. There were plenty of old books written
over a hundred years ago in that library, featuring the “tan-skin beasts” in
all their infamy. There has to be a reason, hasn’t there? What could have
possibly provoked these hostilities? As much as the Jadeites swear by it, I
refuse to believe that there was no provocation at all—it would go against
everything I was taught about human nature. Could the Jadeites have tainted the
relationship with humans, or was it the other way around? Did it begin with the
Jadeites, or with the tree elves before them, or even longer ago? Could there
have been a war, a misunderstanding turned into a conflict, a communication
gone horribly wrong? What kind of royal family did the Jadeites have when it
began? Did it have anything at all to do with the striking similarities?
There is just so much that I don’t
know, and I feel as though that maze full of books couldn’t possibly have all
of the answers.
This is the first time I have
visited the magnolia archway at night. The Grand Elder Guardian is absent from
his web, which glistens in the starlight along with the magnolia leaves. The
white blossoms that had adorned the trees the day I met Apple Blossom are long
gone. It’s rather dull, but a peaceful place for thinking when there are too
many things on the mind.
My tag says that I am the fifth
human to come by the Greenwood , and Apple Blossom had told me on that first
day that only one of the other four had returned, and they had been deterred by
the Grand Elder Guardian. What if they, like me, had not been deterred? What if
they had gotten through, or ran into Apple Blossom? Would they have treated her
with kindness and become her friend, or would they have…no, I refuse to think
about that.
An awful thought has been lingering
in my mind all day, and I know I won’t get any sleep until I get it out. What
if publishing this diary the way I want to ends up attracting the kind of
people to the Greenwood that the Jadeites—and I—dread? What if
publicizing the story of the Greenwood to a wide audience ends up contributing to
its destruction? Of course I would try to pass it off as fiction, but that
wouldn’t stop people—especially children—from getting curious. How many
children waited for their Hogwarts letters or spent Christmas Eve waiting for
the Polar Express to show up at their doors? How many people traveled to the
nothing-special city of Forks , Washington simply because Twilight told them that Bella and Edward live there? How many
tourists swarm forests, lakes, parks, and villages around the world, hoping to
catch a glimpse of some mythical creature that dwells there according to a
story? Even the people who know that stories are only stories, and don’t really
believe (or at least tell themselves that they don’t) tend to take part in
order to experience some of the magic. The fact of the matter is that I can
pass it off as fiction all I want, but it won’t stop anybody who’s really keen
on traipsing through the forest hunting for Jadeites.
My diary contains a truly wonderful
book, one that I’ve already read over and over and enjoyed every word of. It
just fascinates me how much of a real, viable story this diary turned out to be
long before that was my intention. But still, I am beginning to think that it is
best if I never publish it. As the only human entrusted with the Jadeites’
friendship and their information, it’s my duty to protect them from any
“tan-skin beasts.” Their protection is so much more important than anything I
could get from publishing their story, so this is how it is going to be.