Young Writers Society

Chrysanthemum let out a sigh, held her breath and dived head first into the puddle. She swam across the lengthy lake which blocked her progress along the gravel road. She popped her head up above the water and grinned with relief, taking in air as she climbed up the rocky cliff face. That was a small puddle, easy to swim through. Hopefully the rest of her journey would be just as easy. Chrys' relief was short lived, for it had been raining the night before and the puddles in the bumpy road had not yet dried up. Climbing up a mountain of a piece of gravel, she surveyed the great expanse ahead of her. On her left and right were tall forests of wheat, their stems letting no light reach the ground. This made Chrysanthemum feel like she was trapped between two dark, creepy woods. The road continued infront of her, it travelled beyond the horizon and was made up of alternating mountains and lakes. Chrys estimated that it would take her two more days to get to the next village.

Chrysanthemum was a pixie. A kilometre of gravel might seem like nothing to our kind; humans. For pixies, this was a treck which could take days and days, if not months. Imagine that you're standing at the bottom of a hill and your head is tilted backwards so you're looking at the top of the grassy mound. It's all pretty normal, you could walk up there in about five steps. Now imagine you're at the bottom of a great, stone mountain which reaches up to the sky. That is how a pixie looks at a small grassy hill. You can probably understand that even a gravelly road presents difficulties, with the gravel being the equivalent to our grassy hills.

I've mentioned grassy hills quite a lot. This is for a reason. It's probably in your best interest to know that it's on these hills where pixies live. The faeries (who are about six inches larger than pixies) inhabit the interior of these hollowed out mounds and the pixies build their homes inside the flowers and toadstools that sit on the lush, green, grassy hills. Because of the sheer size of everything in the world, it's normal for pixies to never leave the hills on which they grew up in. Some never leave their flower for the fear of tripping and rolling and tumbling down the slope. Although, about every third generation, a pixie will be born with an exceptionally adventurous and curious personality. Chrysanthemum was one of these. She would not stay on the hill. Infact, she made a promise to herself that no matter how difficult it would be, she'd travel to every single village and city in the realm; seeking out adventure and knowledge.

Chrysanthemum trecked over the last rocky mountain, all wet and sore and dirty and extremely tired, then she saw the village. It was one of the loveliest villages she had yet ventured to. The grass around the houses had been trod on so much that it was completely flat on the ground, so she could see the village in it's entirety. Well, almost. Chrys could not see the tops of the houses, for they were so amazingly high that they seemed to climb up into the clouds, even further perhaps. The doors themselves were so tall that even one thousand pixies stacked on upon the other could not reach the top. The gigantic buildings were made of wooden slabs seemingly piled together like building blocks. It was certainly the largest village she'd been to, probably the largest in existence.

Chrysanthemum yelped as an asteroid a hundred times her size crashed into the ground next to her. It caused an enormous earthquake, sending her flying backwards up, up into the air. The squashed grass made an adequate landing net for her as she came falling down and landed with a quiet thud. Her tiny body bounced on the grass a few times, then after flailing her arms about madly, Chrys was able to maintain her balance. She scrambled to her feet and tilted her head all the way back as to see what had caused the asteroid. It was a giant. It's tremendously large foot was infact the asteroid in question. It calmly stomped down the gravel path into the village. How rude of the creature to almost flatten her to a pulp and not even apologise!

You may like to know that pixies aren't completely silly. They are perfectly aware that their chances of being squished by giants and elves and trolls and the numerous other beasts of the realm are quite high. It is for this reason that they use their magic (with the help of the faeries) to create items which allow them to have a number of abilities. A ring that when worn allows them to see through the eyes of the enemy, a whistle that once blown gives the whistler a minute of incredible speaking volume, an iron helmet that can withstand the strength of an anvil, shoes that allow them to fly like their faerie cousins and glasses that when worn enable an onlooker to see them clearly. Please never go looking for such items, for even if they were right under your nose they would be too small for you to see.

Chrysanthemum felt her face heat up and become red from the anger that this rude giant was causing her to feel. She placed her hand into a pocket in the inner seam of her dress (where items would be safe from waters and windy wheather) and pulled out her magical glasses and whistle. She put the spectacles on, silently grumbling at the unfashionable things, then held the whistle to her mouth and blew it.

"You there!" She cupped her hands and shouted at the giant who had almost disappeared behind a wall. Chrys was surprised to find that her words came out surprisingly loud, as loud as a human voice.

The giant stopped in his tracks and flicked his head behind his shoulder for a second, as if an annoying fly had perched on it. This giant wasn't as tall as most, our pixie estimated that he was quite young. Early hundreds, perhaps, just a teenager. He was the height of about two stories and as wide as the width of a truck. If he was a pixie, Chrysanthemum might have called him handsome, for his face was sharp and he had a lovely tanned complexion which went well with his typical hooked nose. His clothes were also extremely fashionable. He wore brown baggy pants and a sleeveless red shirt with a hood.

"Yes, you!" Chrys shouted, fiercely this time, "Yeah! You, Little Red Hiding Hood over there!" She chuckled to herself for that reference to a favourite bedtime story of hers. Humans wrote the best stories, although they were nearly always incorrect.

Incorrect, indeed. What's this rubbish of giants invading villages and ruling castles in the sky? Nonsense, that's what it is. Giants are actually valued members of the society. They may have their accidents every now and then, what with the challenges of their size, but they are also highly esteemed builders. How did you think those skyscrapers were built? That's right! Giants built them.

The youthful giant was obviously aware that he was wearing a red hood, because he turned around and his eyes darted from left to right looking for the shouter. It was only when he looked at the ground that he was able to see Chrysanthemum, the tiniest of creatures standing on a pile of trodden grass. He must have been of the curious type, as he raised his eyebrows and walked to her, being careful not to step on her.

As the giant approached Chrysanthemum felt the ground begin to shake and get more violent, but she was ready for it this time. She grapped onto a stem of grass and held on tight so that she didn't fly backwards again.

The giant knelt down and his knees landed on the earth with a great crash! Even the grass could not withstand it and dirt, grass and a pixie went flying into the air. Chrysanthemum screamed with fright and the giant heard her. As she spread her arms out, trying to fly like a bird, she landed in the giant's surprisingly soft palm. His skin was like a cushion and to her amazement Chrys didn't feel any pain on impact.

Chrysanthemum looked up curiously at the giant, her glasses still on, and she saw that he was also puzzled by her. Chrys reasoned that he musn't get many pixies or faeries visiting his home, that was probably because they were all much too scared to!

Okay, so before I continue with this I'm just looking for feedback and any ideas on how to improve it. If you're wondering where it's going... they are going to eventually fall in love, but at first they just become friends. I'm trying to think up some event that could be the main plot, but I'm not exactly sure. Of course, it's impossible for a pixie and a giant to have a relationship, so one of the adventures they'll go on is to find a way for either the pixie to become a giant, or the giant to become a pixie. But this won't work; instead they'll meet half way. Okay. So, feedback please?