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8/6/2019 Glaedia
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GLAEDIA
Chapter One
A Strange Birthday
It was her birthday, she was nine, having so much fun at her party running in the
garden with her friends playing chase. They where all laughing and shouting as they charged
around, then she tripped and there was a flash of light as she fell forward and,with a bump, landed
face down. Lying quite still she waited for the pain, it always hurt to fall, but there was nothing. The
first thing that she did noticed was how soft the grass felt, it was long and springy; grass? she
thought, this is nothing like the hard concrete in my garden. She looked up to find that she was
lying on top of a hill. Sitting up she saw that she seemed to be on an island, surrounded on all sides
by a sparkling blue sea, she could hear the call of the gulls from the shore as they circled in the
sunlight. Right behind her was a stone, many times taller than her pointing up at the sky. She stood
and looked in wonder around her, how had she got here? Where was here? what was going on? Somany questions, but no answers.
The tall stone was the only thing on the hill and in front of her the ground sloped
down to a valley with a bridge over a river, beyond that it started to rise gently until it rose to
another high point where it looked as though there might be a town on the side of an even bigger
hill. She couldn't be sure but there in the distance was what looked like houses, so, being a curious
sort of girl she set off down the hill. For some reason she didn't feel at all scared which was strange
as not more than five minutes ago she had been at home and now she had no idea where she was. It
was as though she knew a secret but didn't know what it was. This made her laugh, the more she
laughed the happier she felt, her heart told her it was o.k., that she was safe.
At the foot of the hill she joined a path that ran on through some trees toward the
valley. The sun shone and as she neared the trees the sound of bird song reached her floating on the
gentle breeze. She heard the music of a whistle weaving in and out of the song of the birds and as
she entered the glade of trees she could see in a clearing further down the path that someone was
sitting in a patch of sunlight surrounded by birds as they played a merry tune. As she drew closer
the music stopped and the birds flew toward her so she stopped and was amazed that they flew
around her and some even landed on her. She held out her hands and birds landed all along her arms
singing busily as though excited to see her. Laughter joined the bird's song and looking past them
she saw that the boy, if that was what he was, was no taller than one of her dvd cases.
He was standing now, his face split by a wide smile as he bowed low toward her.
Looking very serious, he straightened and, after coughing to clear his throat said, " may love and
light smile upon you princess, I, whistling jack of the woodland clan have been tasked to welcome
you to the realm of Glaedia and to guide you to your palace." His voice seemed very small but rang
clear in the bright sunlit air. Not wanting to be rude she did her best curtsy and on rising said,
"thankyou, that's very kind of you but this is my party dress, I'm not a princess, I was at my party
and ffoooph! all of a sudden I was up on top of the hill back there." Jack smiled broadly and said,
"you might find it easier to understand if you come down here and look me in the eye". "How can I
do that ?" she said, but even as she did there she was face to face with him and the words "it's
impossible" seemed a little silly since, despite her surprise, she too was no taller than a dvd case.
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"I'm called peanut" she said, looking around her at grass as tall as trees and trees as
tall as skyscrapers."I know princess" said Jack, "shall we fly to the palace ?". "how can we?" she
said. In answer Jack lifted his pipe to his mouth and blew a long shrill trill into the air. It seemed to
go on for ages then two huge seagulls came winging along the path and landed in front of them.
Both bowed low to peanut and turning to Jack said "you called us whistler?". "Will you carry us to
the palace of Glaedia my fine friends ?". "Of course," said one of them, that peanut later found out
was called fairwind, "it will be my honour to carry you princess". At that point Peanut gave uptrying to work out what was going on, she was going to fly, to fly! The gulls sat on the ground and
drooped one wing to allow them both to climb on to their backs, " hold on tight" said Jack, "we're
off to the palace".
What followed was the greatest ride she had ever known, forget the funfair, this was
fantastic. The birds launched themselves off the ground and with a couple of wingbeats rose to
about her normal head height and wove their way between the trees following the path. Her tummy
was still on the ground as they cleared the trees and with her hair streaming out behind her soared
up into the clear blue sky. From this height she could see the whole island with it's coves and cliffs,
woodland and moor, far below she saw the bridge over the river pass beneath them and Jack called
across to her and pointed toward the hill ahead. Now she could see the town laid out below her, andright at the top of the hill a big building that had to be the palace. Giving Jack the thunbs-up she
prepared herself for the landing as they dropped down into the palace courtyard. The gulls landed
very smoothly and Peanut slid off Fairwind's back, ran around to his head and gave him a big hug
around the neck saying,"thankyou, thankyou, that was so much fun!" If it was possible for a gull to
blush he would have done a really good job, he bowed and said "highness, it was my honour to
carry you and I await the chance to do so again with joy". "Then you must call me peanut", she said,
"as you have taken me higher than anyone else." "That wouldn't be right princess" he said. "Right or
not" she said "I insist.""Very well your hi..... sorry, peanut". The birds bowed again and rose
together into the sky racing up and up calling loudly to the others circling above, telling them the
news,she's here , she's here, they cried.
She turned away from the disappearing gulls and looked around her to find that she
was standing in a cobbled courtyard with a large gate behind her and on either side were long
arched verandas with many faces smiling out at her. In front of her there was a wide flight of many
stairs leading to huge double doors. In front of the doors stood a group of people, finely dressed,
and again, smiling. Jack sprang lightly forward and bowing low said, your majesties, may I
humbly present to you the princess peanut from the land beyond the stone. He stepped back again
bowing with a long sweeping gesture of his hat toward her. A woman, taller than most, stepped
forward, she was quite beautiful and dressed all in white except for a gold sash around her waist and
a thin golden circlet around her head over her long white hair. In the centre of her forehead mounted
on the circlet was a white stone carved in the shape of a seagull, peanut saw that the same designwas carved in stone above the double doors. Welcome to Glaedia princess, may there be love in
your heart and joy through your life always. I am the lady of the glade, I am called matir; and with
me are the elders of Glaedia. She reached out her hand to peanut,