She sat idly on her chair facing the arched window and stared into the complete darkness outside. The room reflected her present state of mind: complete chaos.
Click here to continue reading episode 1
Click here to continue reading episode 1
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Olina got up in the middle of the night. With great difficulty, she had trained herself to get up exactly at 2:30am. She got out of her and stretched herself. Moonlight was streaming in through the open window. A gentle breeze blew through her chestnut brown hair. She tied her hair up into a ponytail and switched the night lamp on.She took a can of soda from the refrigerator and walked to her desk in front of the arched window. She had set it ready before she took her trip to her slumberland. Her diary 'Dreamer's paradise' was waiting for her.
She glanced outside her window. It was brighter than the night before. It was cloudy too. Summer and cloudy she thought vaguely. Bad combination. Brings a lot of thunder.
She recalled her dream. A smile spread across her face. Goats she wrote. She had grew up in a farm along with goats and chickens. So, whenever she thought about her childhood, her dreams were filled with goats and chickens. Today it was the goats. Grotesque Goats she wrote. Whenever her parents sent her to look after the goats, she used to call them so. She found the "G" combination interesting.
Nothing worth mention happened the following week nor did she dream anything. But almost a week later, she got up in the middle of the night, perspiring. She had been in her dream again to the downside of the bridge. She woke up with a jerk. She did not do all her night rituals. She just got up and rushed to her desk. Again, she wrote the downside of the Nicosal bridge. I went searching for Sleepy Brown. I was afraid that he got caught. Caught in what? I do not know. But I was afraid. She put her pen down and stared outside the window. For the first time, I got near it. But it wasn't there. Instead, a little guy, bleeding so profusely was lying on the ground. He begged me to save him from his predators. I said "I will take take you home, little guy! Please don't cry!" As I reached to take him in my hands, I was jerked away and my dream dissolved and I got up perspiring. She cocked her head and read what she wrote. She drank some water and pondered about it. Then, she had a wonderful idea. I'll sleep again she thought I may see the little guy again. She did not even remember what the little guy looked like. All that she remembered was that, his voice was too gruff. She went back to her sleep. She did not even keep her diary back in her cupboard.
She woke up late that day. The sleep had been dreamless inspite of all her hopes. She lazily took her diary back to her cupboard the first thing in the morning. As soon as she opened the cupboard, she screamed.
"Come on lady! How long will you sleep?" a white bandaged creature called.
"What are yoooou doing in my cupboard?" she stammered.
"Did you not leave me here? Did you not say I would be safe here?" he said.
Now, Olina's memories began to return. As soon as she took the creature, she returned to her room from her slumberland and nursed him and put him in the cupboard.
"What are you staring at? Gimme something to eat. I'm starving." he called.
Olina's mind snapped back into her room. "Yes. Yes." she said.
She watched him as she poured corn flakes into a bowl. He was not more than half a foot high. Most of the features were similar to humans except that some were elongated and some were shortened. His clothes were too shaggy and unclean. His had a merry face which now looked too tired.
"What happened back there?" she asked.
"Not sure. Something chased me. Big and dark with red hungry eyes. I thought of ducking under the bridge, but my dress got caught in a bush and it injured my legs so much that I couldn't walk but had to drag myself along the bridge until you came along and saved me. Thanks to you!" he said.
Olina added some milk and dried fruits and passed the glass bowl to it.
"So what are you?" she asked.
"What am I?" he asked back in a slightly curious tone.
"I mean are you a pixie or a elf or a brownie or a goblin or what?" she asked.
''Not sure. Never heard of any of those things." he said. "Goblin is a good name."
She laughed at him. "No. All those are magical creatures."
"Oh! They do magic?" he asked so innocently.
"Actually, I do not even know if they exist or not. I have never seen someone like you before. So I thought you might be one of them." she replied earnestly.
"Hmmm. Sounds interesting." he replied.
"So what are you called as?" she asked.
"Alas! I do not know. No one has ever called me before." he said. "What are you called as?"
"Olina Faye." she replied.
"That is so good to hear." he replied.
"So, do you like the name, Jiang?"
"Jiang! I am called Jiang! Jiang! Jiang!"
"And let us say you are a pixie. Taking into account your pointed ears and... long fingers." she said.
"Oh! I'm a pixie! Oh! I'm a pixie!" he jumped all over the place.
Olina felt like having a fussy toddler home. As she cleaned the bowl, she heard him give out a big burp.
She hastily sewed a few fabrics together and made Jiang a dress. His own dress was terribly torn. She also made a small bed out of her books in a corner of her cupboard for him. He happily started sleeping.
Making sure he was asleep, she called Chelsea. "Chels, you are not going to believe what just happened!"
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To be continued
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