Olivia Green

My Work peeps! Aka Elena Williams! XD Enjoy



Volume 01.
The Mysterious Elf
Olivia Green.

Olivia Green wasn’t having a very good day. Not due to the fact that the porridge had run out that morning, which ultimately she could deal with, but what really grated her nerves, was the fact that it was raining. Rain was never a pleasant thing for an Elf that loved the outdoors, water in the form of a pleasant and clean river was delightful but rain just got in the way. She had planned to wear her new floral dress with cute daisy encrusted shoes but now her plans were ruined. Well partly ruined anyway. She was still going to go out of course; it was just a shame on her part, the day would have been perfect otherwise.

She sat on her windowsill, looking as dismal as she had the day she found out her Phlump the year before had actually died and not ran away and instantly replaced by another one without her knowledge. Phlumps were unusual creatures. Really they were just a ball of fluff of excessive colours, which varied depending of their mood, with exceptionally big eyes that never blinked together. On its back, if you could call it a back, you could just about see fluttering wing type membranes that allowed them to hover and then suddenly Phulmp to the ground: hence the name. Her current Phlump, called Mog, displaying a dismal cool blue colour, was snoozing in its nest of the woollen insides of a broken teddy bear in his makeshift canopy above her bed.

Today was a very important day for her as well. If it was any other day then she would not have been so bothered about the rain. But today was different. Today was her 100th birthday. That made it not only just another birthday; it was a day that Olivia will remember for years to come. It is the day that Olivia is accepted into the community as an adult, no longer a child. A day the community will finally see her as a real Princess and not a spoiled child.

But this wasn’t the reason her belly was making weird monster noises, and made her hands shake and squirm. There was to be a party. The biggest party the world had seen and everyone was going to be there. From the dragon riders in the West to the wizards of Talhu in the mountains, to the dryads and Nymphs from the neighbouring woods to the Caelum people who rule the skies with their bird like wings ascending from their human forms. But even seeing those incredible races of people, she was only interested in one person among them all.

That one person was most anticipated by Olivia. She had only seen him once or twice but that was enough for her to be enticed by him.

That person was the brother of the King of men. He was Prince Garret.
He was expected to arrive in the afternoon and Olivia couldn’t wait. This was the main reason that she hated the rain on this particular day. Her plans were ruined if this weather got away with it. She decided to take matters into her own hands. She jumped from her sitting position on the windowsill and clambered towards her wardrobe, rushing past Mog and waking him up at the same time. Throwing on whatever warm clothes she could find in her immense wardrobe that was filled to the brim, shoved her tiny feet into her tiny shoes and nearly ran out of her room with Mog obediently buzzing after her displaying his anger with the redness of his fur.

** *

Olivia, with Mog trailing behind, ran through the hallways and corridors of her immense home, searching for the Elf that might save her day. She knew where he might be but she didn’t want to take chances, so she peered into all the suspected places he might be.

Olivia’s home was a castle of sorts. A castle that was carved entirely into a trunk of a great Oak tree; the oak tree was so big that it housed thousands of people in all its connecting branches that linked and twirled with each other. That is what made it possible for them to travel between the small alcoves that were their homes. The first elves had made a pact with the dying spirit of the Oak, the elves would bring the oak back to life if he would carry the Elven city in its branches. Thus creating all the streets that interconnected together to create the illusion of the floor. It gave the impression that they weren’t a thousand feet up in the air; they were only in a city that happened to be above the ground. The branches and the bark cradled the city in its arms whilst the canopy of the leaves surrounded them, protecting against the threat of the sky whilst the bark protected them from the earth below.

No one could reach the Elven City unless they were invited. It couldn’t be traced on a map, this made them almost untraceable to the human, or otherwise, eye. Only a great sorcerer or the King himself would be capable to enter without the privilege. But today was different. Today everyone was invited to share in the celebration and so the city was buzzing with excitement, stress and decoration.

But it was relatively quiet in the palace. Olivia half expected her dress maker to come around the corner to drown her in skirts and bodices and various other annoying pieces of royal dress. She couldn’t stand those dresses; they were too heavy for her. She couldn’t understand why she couldn’t just wear a simple dress that didn’t constrict her breathing. But it was a very special day; she would only have to wear it for an hour or two so that made it easier for her. She could always run to her chambers and wear her favourite daisy dress.

Hopefully she could get the rain sorted by then.

She rounded the corner and came to one of the masterpieces of the oak palace. It was the most fantastic piece of art she had seen in a long while. It was basically a vast window that encompassed the whole length of the Great oak tree with spirals and history carved into pockets of different sized windows that made its structure. It was beautiful. You could see the whole of the Elven city and beyond through those spiral pockets.

Olivia stopped her search and peered out to see the festivities below. She could see all the different levels crazy at work, even though it was still early. She was very high up in the palace; naturally it was the highest point of the city. Nevertheless she could see everyone struggling to cover the tables and trying their scant magic at protecting the banners and flyers from the rain. It wasn’t good; she must find the weather Elf and get this sorted right away. She was about to pull away but a voice behind her made her jump right from her skin.

“What are you doing out and about so early?”

“I am taking matters into my own hands”

She turned around and there was the palace teacher. He was a tall stocky man of indeterminate age. He had always been there, that’s all she knew of his age, and his young looks were deceiving and always confused the young pupils.

“Do I want to know what that matter is? Or shall I say Happy Birthday and pretend I haven’t seen you this morning?”

“Yes that might be best, don’t worry, you will be surprised when it happens!”

With that she ran down the otherwise empty corridor with the Professor’s chuckle and Mog’s buzzing in her ears. Whenever he chuckled she always thought he was a retired vampire but that was silly of course vampires don’t exist, he did always drink red wine though.

She was halfway there now. She needed to get to the labs underneath the city where all the proper magic happened.

She passed through door to door that connected the whole building together, ran as fast as her slippers would allow her through the wooden walls decorated with globes of light suspended in the air by centuries old magic and old paintings of old people long gone to the Etherworld, dressed in royal green with crowns of heather and colourful flowers – her ancestors. She only paused for a minute in front of her mother’s mantle. Everyone tells her how much she looked like her, but she just saw her mother; Elegant, Powerful and Compassionate. The only comparison she could make was the wild auburn hair they shared. Her mother had had it tamed for the picture with the crown balancing on her soft curls. Olivia herself will be wearing that crown in a few hours.

Eventually she tore herself away as Mog had decided to take a nap on her shoulder, he wasn’t happy either as he eventually got himself off the floor and whizzed to catch up with her. Quickly she reached the staircase that lead down to the labs, deep in the tree trunk. She rearranged her dress and started to descend the spiral stairs. After a few turns she started to smell the familiar fumes that reached her nose, the infusion of different magical vapours made her nose twitch and itch. The smell increased the more she descended, the bark began to look darker, older and coarser.

She began to see the tumble of tunnels that interconnected together along the bark wall that stretched to the top, carrying chaotic waters into the mass of homes along the branches and eventually into the tiny stigmata of the leaves in spring until autumn comes to tear them away to plunge them to the ground.

She rounded a corner and it revealed the lab below. She stopped where she stood just at the right height to see all the gadgets and gizmos below, weather workers, potions and spell makers running around from work bench to work bench deciphering some old concoction or other. In amongst all the rush, Olivia managed to track down the person she needed but it was one thing finding him from an incredibly high vantage point and another thing when she reached the ground.

“Gwydion!” She shouted across the pavilion and instantly regretted it.

Shattering crashes and yelps followed her shout as the Elves below were shocked out of their studies and dropped whatever delicate object they had in the hands or workplaces. There was about to be an uproar until they realised who had shouted, they kept quiet and mumbled instead to themselves, looking daggers at the princess. But she didn’t realise any of this as Gwydion turned around to look at her with a disgruntled look on his face and a small rain cloud hovering above his head, pouring down stormy rain onto his head making him wet from top to bottom.

“Sorry! Stay there though I need to talk to you!”

She took a note at where he was standing oozing dislike and ran down the stairs to battle against the tides of workers that was in front of her. He was cleaning up his desk when she reached him, Waves of hot steam emanating from him as he heated and dried himself up. As she came closer she noticed the storm cloud trapped in a glass jar, its lightning and showering rain beating the glass in a fierce attempt to break out. He cradled the jar in his hands and turned to greet Olivia.

“Olivia Green. When will you ever learn to stay quiet?” he said sternly but his mouth twitched at the corners involuntarily.

“I need to be loud so that people will hear me; I’m too small to be quiet”

“Olivia, you are so lucky to be in the royal family otherwise these spell makers would use you as their testing subject for the rest of your eternal life”

“I am sorry Gwydion. It’s just I needed you to stay where you were because it’s important. I want you to do me a special favour…because you know you love me!”

“Only because I’ve been your family’s advisor and friend since way before even your mother was alive. Come on them come to my study so we can talk. Over this way.” He walked around his workbench and zigzagged passed the various Elves at work, occasionally they looked disapprovingly at her making her stare at Gwydion’s shoes in front of her out of guilt. She was glad when they reached his quaint study inside a little hollow inside the bark so that she could close the door on all the angry stares.

Gwydion’s study mostly comprised of bookcases, and shelves with a table and chair put there as a mere after thought. She gazed at the various jars and tubs that occupied the bookcases, some actually had a book or two standing propped up next to a jar but there were only a few that Olivia could see. Every jar had its own sections and like the jar of the rain cloud she saw earlier, they all had their representative weathers. Bright sunny globes of light flittered from some, snowy flakes dropped to the bottom of each little glass in others, some were stormy and chaotic and others were calm and joyful. What a strange view she had, she had never been into his office before so this was all new to her. She never knew what and how he did his work until now.

“So Olivia,” Gwydion sighed as he replaced the stormy angry cloud jar into its respective place, “What is it you want me to do?” He slumped onto his chair and ruffled his wispy white hair, taking his glasses off at the same time. The sound of his voice followed by the collapse of his glasses on the oak table dragged her out of her wonderings. She checked where her Phlump had gotten too and found him snoozing, delighting in the warm glow of one of the sun jars; its fur bright yellow to match the sun. Seeing that he was quite happy where he was she went and leaned against the table facing Gwydion.

“It’s my Elven Rite today.” She said meekly, looking at her fingers shyly.

“Yes, I quite know that Olivia as we’ve been planning it for a few years now.”

“Well, have you seen outside!” she forgot all shyness and instantly pleading her case that she had been rehearsing on the way down, “Its pouring it down with rain! I don’t want rain on my Rite! It should be sunny! Why isn’t it sunny? Can you make it sunny for me Gwydion? Please? It’s not going to be nice when all our guests complain how cold and wet it is, it’s only September it wouldn’t matter if it’s a sunny day! Please?”

She was now in the middle of the study, gesticulating with her arms at either side with Mog flying around her, displaying a rainbow of colours to match her mood. Gwydion stared at her for a while, a slight frown on his forehead. Then out of the silence, Gwydion burst out laughing. She stared at him in disbelief. How could he be laughing? She was deadly serious.

“What? What is it?”

“Oh. Nothing, dear Olivia. Did you really think I was going to let rain spoil your day? Do you know that little rain cloud that was in the jar when you saw me?”
She nodded silently.

“Well, that was the rain that you saw this morning. It is now dry and bright outside, you interrupted me just as I was about to make the sun come from her hiding amongst the clouds. All the plans would surely go to waste if it was raining; the Caelum would have a hard time flying here wouldn’t they?”

“So I wasted my time coming down here to you?” her face fell in disappointment.

“Well no, now you’ll get to see me bring sunshine into your big day!”

***

What followed was something Olivia will remember for the rest of her life. She witnessed Gwydion as he collected one of the brightest sunshine in a jar and walked to the furthest point in his study. There he stood for a few minutes, silent and unmoving. Just as Olivia was going to ask what he was doing, his hand shot forward to touch the coarse bark of the tree. It seemed to shudder and crack into tiny little fissures along the wall that spread from one end of the study to the other, interlocking between them as they stared to move mechanically into each other, revealing the outside world slowly but surely. Bit by bit the wall to the study disappeared to reveal the endless sky above and beyond, with Gwydion’s hand now suspended in mid-air, it must have looked strange to an outsider, but then they wouldn’t be able to see this strange spectacle without knowing how to look properly.
Gwydion released his hands from the sky and began to unscrew the jar, the sun anxious to get out, sensing its release started to pulsate and grow until the last moment when the cap was free from the jar, the sun squeezed its self out of its prison and sped off into the horizon.

Then. Nothing. Olivia waited.

She didn’t have to wait long. In an instant a bursting flash of light emerged from the horizon; Bright with the joy of being released into the world. It shone proudly across the land, displaying its warmth like a mother with her new-born child. Its rays chased the remaining dregs of rain that persisted on the ground, drying up all moisture in the air.

She started to hear cheers coming from the city followed by applause. She smiled thinking that the sun was the reason for the jubilation but something was wrong. Fanfares started to billow and shouts and joyful screams started to form. She frowned and turned her attention from the waking sunshine and looked quizzically towards Gwydion who had a wide smile on his weathered face.

***

Prologue

Disclaimer: This piece of fiction belongs to me and to me alone!

Prologue

Time stood still.

He reached toward the glowing gem as it oozed its light across the cavern, illuminating, pulsating in a deep green flush. It shone in his eyes almost blinding him, almost.

His hands disappeared into the light as they brushed against the stone. It was surprisingly warm to the touch as if it had been bathing in the sun for hours, not stored carefully deep underground for centuries. He reached around with both hands, wrapping his fingers along the oval surface until he was holding it between his fingers.

Carefully.

Slowly.

He lifted the stone from its encasing claws of pure gold.
It came free from its thousand year old bed with only a slight wine from its pillows as it scraped against them. He expected it to be lighter. This was it. He was finally going to finish what his brother had started. He was the chosen one. The one to bare all the power in the four corners of the land.

Finally.

He breathed and sighed heavily, feeling his heavy heart beat furiously at his rib cage; urging him not to stop. He closed his eyes against the light, soaking in all the power before he could fully embrace it.

He brought the orb towards him. It burned through his shirt until it reached his sweating, heaving chest. His heart pounded faster, trying to escape its cage so that it may touch the power in the strange stone. His body started to shake, gently at first but then increasing its brutality. A smile slipped through his mouth as he started to laugh in ecstasy.

“NO! Don’t do it!”

A shout.

A voice he once loved.

Before the power took over him and eventually, his heart.

His only love. Lost in power.

The shakings stopped suddenly, violently. The light zapped out, cruelly.
Something was wrong. He opened his eyes. The orb was gone and in its place was a long sword, protruding from his now bloody chest, his hands covered in his own blood, black with guilt as it slowly desecrated the holy ground beneath him.
He followed the blade to the hilt and came upon the eyes of his murderer, burning with hatred.

Eyes of disgust.

Eyes of his absolution.

Eyes of innocence, brutally taken.

Eyes of his only son.

***