Fantamasia

The Village, the Elves and the Berries

The chirping of birds suddenly woke me up. ‘Where are we?’ I asked. We were on a small hill which was mostly covered with trees and wild grass. Not so far away was a village.

I was never the sporty one, so going down the hill was no joy-ride for me. It was usually Feathers who was the lazy one but this time it was my turn to groan. As if he read my mind he said, ‘Don’t worry, we’re almost there’. I knew that Feathers must have been trying his best not to laugh, so I jogged past both of them my head held high.

It was a very typical village filled with old and broken roads, shops, narrow streets, the scent of smoke, horses, hay and lots of hens cackling about scattered everywhere. As I tried to catch up with the jogging Professor I asked ‘Why are we here exactly?’ I stopped for a moment to catch my breath and then started to jog again. He stopped to clean his glasses but this time he started to walk instead of jog. ‘Well last night when we were flying I realized that we had started slowly losing speed and were getting close to the ground near this village. This village has two kinds of berries; one which makes you stay alert and one that makes you fall asleep instantly. We need both of them you never know when they can come in handy. You stay here with Feathers while I just go and get the berries’ I nodded slowly turning back not sure if he’d return or not.

 ‘Feathers wake up! Professor Mufti isn’t back yet’ I said after waiting for quite a while as I started to pace around the damp grass. Feathers groaned and said ‘What’s wrong? Let me sleep in peace’. I had started to bite my lip in frustration and repeated what I had said once more. This time Feathers was up in a second wide eyed as though lightning had struck him. ‘Which way did he go? I may be able to track his scent down.’ He was great at tracking things and people down. Dad said it was a pet’s instinct. I watched him fly in the air and into the direction that his nostrils took him to. An hour had passed and now it was up to me to find both Professor Mufti and Feathers. I carefully tiptoed my way to the streets of the village which seemed quite empty.

 I found them trapped in some sort of cages made out of thick bamboo sticks which were stuck together by God knows what sticky glue. Beside a leaf throne were two bowls on a wooden three-legged stool with the labels ‘sleep’ and ‘awake’. I silently walked with the shadows and scooped the berries from each bowl remembering which was which and switching the labels because you never know when something might be very useful to you. I was invisible to the eyes of others. Professor Mufti said that a person could become invisible because it was a side effect which happened when you got closer to the rays that the berries radiated. I casually walked to the short statured men with pointy ears and black goatee beards who were wearing Irish kilts while the upper part of their body was bare. Allowing myself a grin I went back into the shadows watching the men hand their leader the sleeping berries but first tasting themselves to make sure if they wouldn’t give their dear leader the wrong ones.

Just as I had hoped, they swallowed the berries which made you fall asleep but since they had only had one they wouldn’t have gotten knocked out too soon. But the leader had done the exact opposite; scooping a dozen into his pale green vomit hands he munched on them noisily but just before he had had the chance to fully swallow them the rest of the remaining berries fell on the floor, his face curved into his neck making most of the juice dribble out of his mouth. Not even a minute passed and the guards fell to the ground making the job a piece of cake. I opened the twig-cages with a nearby key and unlocked them giving the professor and Feathers a signal not to make a move.

I ran as fast as I could. I hoped that the elfish dwarfs wouldn’t be able to catch us. I glanced back at the street to find the elves chasing after us. As I ran for my life I thought I became deaf because everything was as quiet as a mouse; even the shouts and screams of the elfish people were muted. I kept on running hoping that they would soon give up. Each tree, lamp post, horse, house, chicken etc. wiggled and twined and was soon turned to ash.  I followed Professor Mufti who had already sat down on top of Feathers and signalled me to hurry as he could see that I had suddenly become deaf. Once we were in the air, I had regained my hearing and wasn’t deaf.

‘Why had I become deaf all of a sudden? I mean I could hear fine when I was switching the labels of the berries’ I asked shivering a little but hoped that he wouldn’t be able to notice. ‘ Well Lily, Feathers and I never saw you there but did see the labels levitating in the air...Perhaps the people who touch the berries or the container of the berries might get affected by its strong waves of dark magic, that’s why we could not see you and it must be why you suddenly became deaf ’ ‘So next time we use the berries we have to wear gloves’

I had two pairs of gloves which weren’t mine but my father’s,  which I had packed along. ‘You got that right’ .We stopped jusApparently God hadn’t heard my prayer correctly. Just when dusk came things began to get shaky.

Feathers kept on going up and down which was making me quite sick. Perhaps these were one of the side effects too. It seemed that the sunset would swallow us and I felt as though I was on a crazy boat cruise except without the water and the cruise. I couldn’t help myself and puked into thin air which I hoped would not reach the ground. Just as the disgusting scenario ended I looked up to see that Feathers’ eyes were closed and we were going to hit a nearby tree close to some village. BAM! I saw a flashing light sink in my head and heard someone scream only to find out that they were my shrieks and screams of pain and then everything was pitch-black....