Vallory Elliott was at home Saturday night. Her parents had gone to a party at their friend's house and left her to babysit her 2 year old brother Jeffrey. They had swung on the swing set, run through the sprinkler, played Candyland three times, and had two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches each. Vallory was more than ready for a break. "Hey Jeff, want to play hide-and-seek?" Val called down the hall as she washed the sandwich plates.
"YEAH!!!" Jeffrey screamed as he bolted down the hallway from the game room and right into Vallory. A smirk danced in Vallory's eyes as he jumped up and down. Jeff loved hide-and-seek, but he couldn't count very well and his seeking skills were horrible, so the game rarely worked out in his favor.
"Can I count? Can I? Can I, Val?" he shouted, boucing on her toes. Vallory held her hands up in mock defeat.
"Alright, you can count. But no peeking!" Hiding a snort, she backed away slowly as he leaned against the wall to count.
Vallory walked casually down the hall to her room to check on her angel fish, Cucumber. Her room was neat and old fashioned. The walls were a simple cream, her brass bed covered with a purple and cyan quilt, the oak desk neatly arranged with no sign of dust. Three bookshelves stood peacefully by the bed, Cucumber swimming lazily in his bowl on the third of these shelves. Vallory fed him, then ran her fingers along the bindings of each book. Every one was about fae. There was Shakespere, indexes and field guides, cookbooks and survival guides, literature, essays, and photo albums. She had brought a few to school last year to show her friends, but they had laughed and called her crazy. Val hadn't had many friends after that. She was a true believer though, and knew she always would be. She knew the previous owners of the house must have been believers as well, because when the simple clothes in her closet were pushed aside, a tiny door was revealed. It was four inches high, the perfect size for a fairy. She had tried to open it several times, but it was locked, although there was no latch. She straightened and shut the closet door, walking briskly out of the room. She only had a little while before Jeffrey found her. She looked quickly around the corners down the hallway. Finding it Jeffrey-free she sprinted to the end of the hallway. At the end was a bookshelf, this one full of her parents magazines. It was tucked into a reading niche, complete with candles in sconces and a burgundy armchair. They had only moved into the house a month ago, so Vallory decided that as long as she could avoid Jeffrey, she would explore. The house was a huge, Victorian style antique mansion. Vallory heard Jeff bustling around the corner so she ducked into the niche and behind the armchair. He passed without a glance her way and she sighed with relief. She had a little longer. She sat in the cool darkness of the niche for two more minutes, then cautiously creeped out into the hallway. The overhead light was blinding after the shadows of the armchair. Rubbing her eyes to adjust them, she ran headfirst into the wall. Head now throbbing, she locked herself in the bathroom and sat under the sink, letting the cool porcelain rest on her head. After her head stopped pounding and her eyes lost the fog, she got up to leave. She leaned her head against the door to listen for Jeffrey.
"Hey, no fair Val, no fair! You can't lock up in there!" Jeffrey pounded on the door with his little fist, whining at the top of his lungs. Vallory thought fast, looked around the room and jumped into the linen closet, closing the door quietly behind her. She took a deep breath, then buried herself in the towels. She knew he couldn't get in, and she knew she ought to be out there playing with them, but she just couldn't stand him any longer. She pushed against the back wall in fury of being discovered, being a bad sister, being an outcast, and gasped when it moved. She pushed harder and the wall flew open down the midde like double doors. Behind the linen closet was a set of stone stairs, leading upward to who knows where. It seemed like the perfect place to hide. She found a flashlight on the shelves of the closet and closed the door-wall behind her. The flashlight let out a small beam of light, but it was enough to see by. Val began to climb.
She soon reached a heavy wooden door, with a gold handle and black hinges. She pulled it with some difficulty, and found herself in a dark room. The only light came from four small windows to the left of the room, above an intricately carved bench. The sunlight shone directly onto a silver mirror, the centerpiece of the room. Vallory touched the rim of the mirror. She knew what it was without testing. Pure silver. Behind the mirror was a tiny door, the back of the one in her closet. Reaching out a hand, she touched the glass of the mirror. It melted to her touch, her hand sliding through. Holding her breath, she pushed and tumbled through the mirror.
fantasy needs no time. POSTED
at 6:28 PM EDT
Updated: Friday, 19 August 2005 6:37 PM EDT
Have you ever felt like you were nobody? That no one cares about you, sees you, knows you? Olivia Froud goes through her days invisibly. There are worlds that most people cannot begin to comprehend, lives that go on beneath the surface of reality. The largest of these worlds is the realm of fae. Fae range from pixies to trolls, dwarfs to boggarts. As a wood sprite, Olivia is a lower life form. She enjoys learning magic and reading about her history, while the rest of her kind dance and eat cake. Olivia is nobody in two realities, hers, and ours.
Vallory Elliott is Olivia's human friend. A true believer, she is often called crazy by her peers, but she is granted partial access into Olivia's world, a world she has always known existed. She found there world by mistake, and never wants to leave. Everything is so lush and cheerful, nothing like the dull grayness of her home. 