Part one
I still believe in fairy tales, I always have and I'll always will. Although grown up, I still feel the shivers down my spine when I hear of a princess in need or a charming prince ready to do anything for his love. This is the story I want to tell you:
Once upon a time, in the land of One thousand Colors, a land situated right under the ninety nine Rainbows, lived a special girl. The girl I will tell you about is not a princess. In fact she has absolutely nothing to do with royalty. She is a simple girl like you and me, born and raised by modest people with high expectations. Graceful, delicate, kind hearted and beautiful like a May flower, she smiles at everyone trying to win back their smiles. Her name is Hope. She loves music, painting and dancing. She is almost ten now and although when she was little she wanted to be a ballerina or a famous piano player, recently she changed her mind and now all she wants is to be a traveler, to see all there is to be seen in this world.
In The Land of One Thousand Colors life is simply bliss. The people are nice and always friendly to each other, because they’ve never seen or met a rude person in their life. Everybody has their own little house with a back yard and swings for the children. People are all polite and the ladies are all beautiful and very good at baking pies. Before they get married all of them take a class in cooking and especially in baking cherry-vanilla pies. People eat pie at lunch, dinner and ice cream for breakfast, sometimes with chocolate chip cookies. The men are in charge of the household, raising the children and driving the ladies to the hairdresser.
Everybody from The Land of One Thousand Colors loves the ninety nine Rainbows. You can see them on the sky at all times during the day, illuminated by a mighty sun much brighter and bigger than the one we see on our sky. The rainbows watch over this world just like a loving mother watches over her babies. During the night, ten butter colored moons appear on the sky and take the place of the rainbows. They are all round shaped and they also have faces. Their expression changes depending on the deeds of the people from The Land of One Thousand Colors. When the people are very nice they all smile and send good and peaceful dreams to all the sleeping souls. That’s why the people all salute each other using expressions like “Hello! You made my day! Or: “Good afternoon! It wouldn’t be the like this without you!” They all need each other to be happy, and happiness has made them all good and nice.
During the day, after school, our little Hope helps her parents. They have a vegetable garden and they sell vegetables to all the people in The Land of One Thousand Colors. Although not her favorite occupation, Hope is happy for spending all that time with her beloved father. He has already taught her all the secrets and all the secret incantations for the vegetables, so that they grow much faster than normal. Her favorite is the one for the naughty celery which sometimes refuses to grow unless you tap dance in front of it with your eyes closed while singing:
“I dance for celery, for celery I tap
I need some celery, for celery I’ll clap”
I spin for celery, some celery to win
Just grow ,my celery, you know you are the queen”
At night, after going to bed Hope dreams she has a red haired stallion named Freddie. He comes by every night and visits her in her dreams. She rides him carefree in her dreams through green meadows of four leaf clovers and thick forests where the trees have no shadow. The ten moons smile at them as they ride together with the wind. Her black hair flies behind her spreading her lily scent everywhere. Tonight they have traveled together all the way to where The Land of One Thousand Colors ends, at the Frosty Mountain Pass.
After reaching the end of their known land, suddenly Freddie stops. Hope gets worried and asks him:
“Why are we stopping, dear friend? I want to know what is beyond The Land of One Thousand Colors and only you can take me there!”
“I will take you anywhere and everywhere my princess! Hang on to me for I’ll be quicker than your thoughts!”
“Thank you, dear friend! We will go further and nothing bad can happen to us as long as we are together”
Freddie looks into her beautiful green eyes knowing that she is right. He runs in the sky faster than a comet bringing his princess to unknown destinations.
They go further and further and pass the borders of their known land. They step into a land of desert with dry vegetation and not a single soul in sight. Hope is sad and worried that maybe from now on all the places they will pass through will be like this one. The sky is different here. It is grey and covered with thick black clouds. It looks like it’s about to rain but it doesn’t. She hears the thunders but the rain is not coming. Everything is slowly dying. The few plants encountered are almost dead. This is the Land of the Thunder she has heard about. They say that this place has been cursed by one evil witch for one hundred years. She cursed the place because one of her cats fell off her broom while she was flying above this land. Back then the land was beautiful and fertile, just like the blessed land Hope comes from. The cat fell somewhere next to a farm and just disappeared. The farmers didn’t even see the cat. The witch came quickly after her precious cat, but couldn’t find it. Nobody ever could. After desperately looking for it the witch got really angry and cursed the place yelling:
“One hundred years of thunder for those who took my cat!
One hundred years of drought if you don’t bring it back!”
And because nobody did, the clouds changed their color to dark grey, and the innocent citizens of this land have never seen the sunshine or rain ever again. All of them left their homes behind after seeing that the rain will never come on these lands again.
Surrounded by the desert and the grey clouds above, Freddie feels the same tension Hope is feeling and proceeds further and further at a faster pace. The heat seems to be unbearable, and what is even stranger is that somewhere in the distance all they can see is water. It looks like an ocean or a sea.
“Freddie, it seems to me we have to go faster or we’ll both dry like all these flowers did!”
“Don’t worry princess, maybe we’ll find that cat and break the curse, laughed Freddie running in the distance faster than the wind.
“Do you see the water in front of you? Am I already hallucinating?”
“Either we both are or there’s a sea in front of us. Hang on to me princess, I’ll take you there!”
Hope leans her head on the mighty stallion and holds on to him. She closes her eyes wondering what happened to the witch’s cat. Is it still alive? How could it just disappear? After a while she realizes that the air is cooler, actually it’s not as hot anymore. She hears seagulls, in the distance, she hears waves. She stands up and sees the big light blue water right underneath.
Above them the sky is simply beautiful. Purple colored, mixed with shades of blue and lilac and a multitude of clouds all white. A sun, smaller than the one they have back home warms the beautiful water land. The water is light blue colored and transparent at the same time. As they come closer to the beautiful beach which lies in front of them, Hope notices the shiny golden color the sand has. It is covered with multicolored sea shells.
“Oh Freddy, it’s simply beautiful! Let’s stop for a while, you could use the rest!”
“Of course we will, princess, you must be very tired too. I’ll stop us right under that shell palm”
“I think they all moved here after she has cursed their lands! It’s heaven! This is how it must look like!” said Hope after taking one bite from the shell nut she found next to the shell tree.
“Have one, Freddie, they taste better that papa’s pie berries!”
“To me nothing tastes better than your father’s pie berries!”
“That’s what you said about the carrot soufflé mom made last week, and we both know that you were just being polite. I saw the look on your face when she served you another portion “
“Please, don’t remind me about that supper. Now I know why I don’t like rabbits. They eat too many carrots!”
They laughed and laughed about rabbits, about carrots and all the other funny vegetables in her father’s garden. They laughed about the mean witch who lost her cat. They were in heaven and as long as they had each other nothing could go wrong.
Exhausted after the long trip they fell asleep under the shell tree each imagining they were at home in their own beds all tucked in.
“No matter what tomorrow brings
I will be right beside you
I’ll fight a war, I will grow wings
To serve and to protect you”
To be continued
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