Chapter Text
It must’ve been a long day, no night, for them Ettie thought, watching as both Scarlett and Albert had immediately gone to sleep once they had set up their camp in the overgrown meadow they had settled in. She turned over to look at Joe and he looked to be busy, her nose scrunching at the smell of raw fish. Bored, Ettie scanned the meadow for anything of interest: there were flowers with petals of red, yellow, blue, purple and white, the grass was tall and vibrant and all of it was bathed in warm hues of sunlight. The sky was a bright, lively blue and the ivory clouds danced and shifted across the sky, the clouds very much interested Ettie as each one would float in the same pattern only once. They painted the sky that would have otherwise looked dull, tinted sunsets with baby pinks and watered the flowers when nobody was around. She started to drift off mentally, picturing her very own world, a world where ladybugs and rabbits and birds lived similarly to humans accompanied by elves and fairies. Ettie tried to imagine their secret civilisation, she’s sure it exists but she doesn’t know how it looks yet, awakening the often active section of her mind dedicated to castles owned by giants in the clouds or poisoned apples and kind princesses in cottages. Lying forward on her stomach in the comfortable bed of the grass she imagined the way that people weaved baskets, flowers could be weaved together to create the roofs and the stems of the flowers on the edges could be the walls! The flowers would help provide protection against the rain and they just appeared so pretty! Humming to herself, or as close to humming as she could manage she hummed to herself as the world shifted to one of beautiful surreality.
Cats and rabbits,
Would reside in fancy little houses,
And be dressed in shoes and hats and trousers,
In a world,
Of my own.
As she stared out she envisioned a small town or village, such specifics weren’t so important, nearby a clean, sparkling stream. The houses were weaved from tall flowers with the same method one would use when making a flower crown, the stems or walls of the delicate houses were held up by the support of the wet mud by the stream, sticks and mushrooms were used for benches and tables. Mostly cats or bunnies would reside there, however any animal was welcome to move in. Bees and fairies were competitive farmers, she giggles as she pictures them, there’s a bee and a fairy on the roof of a lone cat’s house. The cat was watching them both, cautious and unsure of whether or not he should intervene, it was his own house after all! Angrily, the bee buzzed louder and louder at the fairy, while she bickered with him in the same way she had seen Sal do so before at market stalls or with traders. The fairy wanted to use the flower’s nectar to produce honey, but so did the bee, the cat’s house had been taken care of so incredibly well that the flowers on the roof were highly sought after and neither one would settle for another roof. She laughed to herself, grinning as she wondered why they wouldn’t just share or produce the honey together and split the money after, her thoughts mirroring the time when Sal was arguing with a buyer that didn’t have enough money to buy six apples, she couldn’t see why Sal hadn’t just given the man half the amount of fruits he wanted, since he only had half the right amount. The scene was interrupted when suddenly she had caught sight of a pair of white and fluffy ears through the field, a real citizen of the fae civilisation! Excited, she ran over to the small animal immediately. It was a bunny! Ettie loved bunnies, they were soft and cute with squishy cheeks that made her want nothing more than to hug them. Ettie watched as the animal made its way through the long grass, following to the best of her abilities. The rabbit jumped through the grass till it had left the beautiful expanse of flowers behind itself.
Ettie and the white rabbit both had entered the nearby wooded realm of earthy, woody and herbal aromas that encompassed the duality of both the prospering wildlife and fauna with rotting deadwood or prey, moss coating everything in sight: petrichor. She had now almost forgotten the bunny, as she now had a new place to explore instead and so turning to the small creature she smiled at it, attempting to convey a silent thank you to the rabbit. Understanding her, the bunny seemed to nod before raising one of its soft paws to illustrate its understanding further and hopping away. Happy, Ettie looked around at the place of mystic and wonder that surrounded her while recalling how she at the start of this adventure had felt so incredibly bored; emotions are unbelievably pliable, soft like clay that never dries and Ettie had moulded hers to to form the shape of fascination and enchantment. The forest was dense with thick, lush green trees and bushes with clusters of flowers. If she looked up she could see great vines of leaves hanging down towards her, bearing gifts of ripe fruits and berries, she decided to pick one bunch of berries that were a beautiful and vivid purple colour. They were slightly sweet tasting, although spicy as well. Ettie had never tasted anything similar to the berries before, however she contentedly enjoyed their distinct taste, smiling as she wiped the berry juice off her mouth with her small hands. Directly in front of her was a pathway lined by an archway of nature’s own making, it called to visitors and tempted them to follow. Looking through the arch there wasn’t a clear image of what one naturally expects to see, depictions of more trees and bushes or patches of flowers, and there wasn’t merely the absence of light either. The image presented before her was merely a blurry glowing haze; it was warm and seemed to have contained the golden hue of fairydust and magic. Ettie was enamoured by the sight, feeling a temptation to follow so strongly that she’d imagined it being the kind reserved for following dreams, or maybe that’s exactly what it was! Everything around had felt so dreamlike to her anyways, the wish goodbye from the rabbit, the unnaturally bright berries, the glowing yellow mist beyond the archway, Ettie wouldn’t be surprised if she was about to find fae civilisation after all. In her mind she pictured the books that had been read to her a few times before, she imagined the creation of their stories in her own way, for Ettie there was no boring authors planning and structuring their work but instead the process was much more magical. As each story of fairyland occurred in the real world, as they all definitely had, the words would simply appear themselves, magically imprinting the ink letters onto the paper by itself. She believed that this would be happening right now, the fairytale writing itself with illustrations and all. Facing the absolute unknown with a confidence that could only be seen in a child, she leapt into the glimmering light.