Post by Mattie Sykes on Mar 23, 2009 21:51:53 GMT -6
Mathilda Sykes, otherwise known as Mattie among many, waved good-bye to her friends as she got off the bus. The mixed girl was a pleasant combination of her two backgrounds, rich hazel cream skin and soft, straight black hair that fell to mid-back currently held back by a wide blue headband. Of which matched her gray-blue eyes fairly closely. Dressed in a trendy pair of white capris with blue satin cuffs to match the pale blue spagetthi strap top and white cropped jacket, Mattie hitched her denim--extremely bejeweled--backpack higher on her shoulder and headed down the street toward her house.
The girl hummed a random, cheery tune to herself as she walked, skipping slightly as she went. This was not an abnormal occurance for her. Mattie was a girl who was happy more often than anything else. For many, it was hard to be in her company for any great length of time and not grow to like her. She just had some sort of unnameable quality that drew people to her, calmed them, made them feel at ease. Thus--while she might not have been the most popular and not nearly the prettiest girl at school--she was perhaps by far the most widely liked.
She had very little to pull her down, however. Her school life was stress-free, and her home life was rather ideal. Her father, Roger Sykes, was a well-paid construction foreman and her mother, Naomi Sykes, a part-time party organizer. Her older brother Jake could be a pain, as all older brothers were, but for the most part the two siblings got along. Mattie couldn't complain about her lot in life and, more than likely, even if she could she wouldn't.
Mattie just wasn't the type of person to complain, about anything.
The fifteen year old neared her block, when all of a sudden she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye, a flash of color along the edge of her vision. For some reason Mattie froze, her humming faltering to a halt as she turned toward the motion. It took her several moments of gawking for her brain to completely analyze what it was she was staring it.
At first she mistook it for some kind of bug or tiny bird. But, the longer she stared, the more she realized that those mundane explanations were not the case at all. There, hovering over the top of someone's gardenia bush, was a tiny winged man. No larger than her index finger in height, impossibly small, with clear dragonfly-esque wings buzzing rapidly behind him and keeping him aloft. He had a wild shock of pastel pink hair that shot off the top of his head, wearing what looked like several different flower petals stitched together around his waist and what might have been some sort of satchel thrown over his bare chest.
Mattie blinked several times. Then she reached up to rub at her eyes before staring again. Nope, he was still there. Glancing to and fro, as if lost.
"Oh my gosh."
The stunned words left her mouth without her even really realizing it. It caused the tiny bug-man to whirl in her direction midair however. His tiny eyes widened in his face when he realized that she was staring at him. Before Mattie could say or do anything he threw up his arms with a miniscule squeak of fright--jostling his knapsack and causing several tiny somethings to flutter down onto the ground below--before he zipped off and disappeared from sight.
Mattie just stood there for a moment, trying to come to grips with what she had just seen. She might have thought she imagined it somehow, but for the tiny somethings that had fallen out of his bag. She slowly approached them and knelt, carefully picking them up and bringing them closer to her face for inspection. When she did, Mattie let out a stunned bark of bemused laughter.
They were letters! Tiny white envelopes, addressed and stamped. He had been some sort of fairy mailman.
"Aww, and I made him drop his post," she thought outloud, somewhat guilty.
While most might have been alarmed, frightened or even stubbornly refuting what they had seen, Mathilda was excited. She saw no danger in her circumstance, only the chance for excitement and adventure.
The girl carefully picked up all the letters that the tiny mailman had dropped and then continued on her way toward home. She kept them a secret for now, wanting to know more before she shared her experience with her family. The next morning, luckily a Saturday, Mattie left the house early with the letters and went back to the exact same spot. Hoping the tiny man might come back to claim his letters, so she might be able to ask him a few of the billions of questions flying through her head.
Mattie sat down next to the bush with some snacks, a bottle of water and her Ipod and got settled in for the wait. The little mailman did not come back right away. However, in that time the wide-eyed teen was witness to a fantastically dressed woman with ankle-length yellow and green hair getting off the bus down the street with ears long and pointed just like on Lord of the Rings. Strangely enough no one else seemed to notice her passage. The fey creature noticed Mattie gaping however and gave her a smile and a wink before passing on. The elf-woman was long gone before the teen managed to recover enough from her shock to respond.
A little past midday, the sky was blotted out by the passage of a massive blue dragon. A real life scaley dragon! How did people miss that?!
Finally a few hours later, Mattie suddenly saw the flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye again and quickly stood.
"Don't be afraid!" she called earnestly. "I don't mean you any harm. I've been waiting here for you. I came to return the letters you dropped yesterday. I'm sorry I scared you," she added then, smiling warmly.
Eventually the same miniscule pink-haired man slowly came out from behind one of the flowers. He fluttered closer somewhat tentatively and carefully reached out for the tiny pile of envelopes she held out for him. He took them and then quickly stuffed them in his satchel.
"Thanks," he pronounced after a moment, his voice almost squeaky, tone almost grudging with disbelief.
"You're welcome," she returned easily, grinning wider. "What are you exactly, if you don't mind me asking."
"A pixie," he revealed, still somewhat nervous but calming considerably the more time wore on. "Peony is the name."
"I'm Mattie," she returned. "It's nice to meet you." She extended her hand, which--after a slight hesitation--he grasped the tip of her index finger with his hand and they shook somewhat awkwardly. Mattie sighed after he released her again, expression quizzical. "Why didn't I notice you or anything else before? Why does everyone else seem not to notice?"
"Illusion spells mostly," he revealed with a sigh. "Or magic that alters the mind, makes people forget or ignore what they see. But sometimes humans like yourself come along who are strong-willed enough to see through it. Usually young teenagers. Old enough to understand, but young enough not to completely disbelieve."
"This is so cool!" Mattie exclaimed with a happy squeal. "I want to know about everything. How many more of you are there? Where do you live?"
The pixie mailman held up his hand. "I don't have time to answer them, unfortunately," he murmured, somewhat sheepish. "I've got to get these letters to their owners. But there should be a woman who'll come to see you soon. A powerful magic-user by the name of Briarthorn. She runs a school for teenagers like yourself, teaching you about the world of magic and how to live with it and defend yourselves from it if need be. She'll be able to answer all of your questions and more."
"Thanks so much, Peony," Mattie murmured then. "Good luck on your deliveries. I hope I'll see you again."
The first, tentative smile spread across his tiny face. "Yah, good luck to you as well, Mattie. Something tells me I'm going to be hearing more of you in the years to come."
And with that, Peony took off into the air and disappeared from sight. Mattie laughed somewhat giddily to herself before she gathered up her things and started skipping back toward her house. This was like the coolest thing that had ever happened to anyone in the history of everything!
"It's like I'm becoming Harry Potter!" she laughed to herself. Then she made a face. "Well, except for the British accent and the evil death lord bent on killing me for revenge."
The girl hummed a random, cheery tune to herself as she walked, skipping slightly as she went. This was not an abnormal occurance for her. Mattie was a girl who was happy more often than anything else. For many, it was hard to be in her company for any great length of time and not grow to like her. She just had some sort of unnameable quality that drew people to her, calmed them, made them feel at ease. Thus--while she might not have been the most popular and not nearly the prettiest girl at school--she was perhaps by far the most widely liked.
She had very little to pull her down, however. Her school life was stress-free, and her home life was rather ideal. Her father, Roger Sykes, was a well-paid construction foreman and her mother, Naomi Sykes, a part-time party organizer. Her older brother Jake could be a pain, as all older brothers were, but for the most part the two siblings got along. Mattie couldn't complain about her lot in life and, more than likely, even if she could she wouldn't.
Mattie just wasn't the type of person to complain, about anything.
The fifteen year old neared her block, when all of a sudden she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye, a flash of color along the edge of her vision. For some reason Mattie froze, her humming faltering to a halt as she turned toward the motion. It took her several moments of gawking for her brain to completely analyze what it was she was staring it.
At first she mistook it for some kind of bug or tiny bird. But, the longer she stared, the more she realized that those mundane explanations were not the case at all. There, hovering over the top of someone's gardenia bush, was a tiny winged man. No larger than her index finger in height, impossibly small, with clear dragonfly-esque wings buzzing rapidly behind him and keeping him aloft. He had a wild shock of pastel pink hair that shot off the top of his head, wearing what looked like several different flower petals stitched together around his waist and what might have been some sort of satchel thrown over his bare chest.
Mattie blinked several times. Then she reached up to rub at her eyes before staring again. Nope, he was still there. Glancing to and fro, as if lost.
"Oh my gosh."
The stunned words left her mouth without her even really realizing it. It caused the tiny bug-man to whirl in her direction midair however. His tiny eyes widened in his face when he realized that she was staring at him. Before Mattie could say or do anything he threw up his arms with a miniscule squeak of fright--jostling his knapsack and causing several tiny somethings to flutter down onto the ground below--before he zipped off and disappeared from sight.
Mattie just stood there for a moment, trying to come to grips with what she had just seen. She might have thought she imagined it somehow, but for the tiny somethings that had fallen out of his bag. She slowly approached them and knelt, carefully picking them up and bringing them closer to her face for inspection. When she did, Mattie let out a stunned bark of bemused laughter.
They were letters! Tiny white envelopes, addressed and stamped. He had been some sort of fairy mailman.
"Aww, and I made him drop his post," she thought outloud, somewhat guilty.
While most might have been alarmed, frightened or even stubbornly refuting what they had seen, Mathilda was excited. She saw no danger in her circumstance, only the chance for excitement and adventure.
The girl carefully picked up all the letters that the tiny mailman had dropped and then continued on her way toward home. She kept them a secret for now, wanting to know more before she shared her experience with her family. The next morning, luckily a Saturday, Mattie left the house early with the letters and went back to the exact same spot. Hoping the tiny man might come back to claim his letters, so she might be able to ask him a few of the billions of questions flying through her head.
Mattie sat down next to the bush with some snacks, a bottle of water and her Ipod and got settled in for the wait. The little mailman did not come back right away. However, in that time the wide-eyed teen was witness to a fantastically dressed woman with ankle-length yellow and green hair getting off the bus down the street with ears long and pointed just like on Lord of the Rings. Strangely enough no one else seemed to notice her passage. The fey creature noticed Mattie gaping however and gave her a smile and a wink before passing on. The elf-woman was long gone before the teen managed to recover enough from her shock to respond.
A little past midday, the sky was blotted out by the passage of a massive blue dragon. A real life scaley dragon! How did people miss that?!
Finally a few hours later, Mattie suddenly saw the flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye again and quickly stood.
"Don't be afraid!" she called earnestly. "I don't mean you any harm. I've been waiting here for you. I came to return the letters you dropped yesterday. I'm sorry I scared you," she added then, smiling warmly.
Eventually the same miniscule pink-haired man slowly came out from behind one of the flowers. He fluttered closer somewhat tentatively and carefully reached out for the tiny pile of envelopes she held out for him. He took them and then quickly stuffed them in his satchel.
"Thanks," he pronounced after a moment, his voice almost squeaky, tone almost grudging with disbelief.
"You're welcome," she returned easily, grinning wider. "What are you exactly, if you don't mind me asking."
"A pixie," he revealed, still somewhat nervous but calming considerably the more time wore on. "Peony is the name."
"I'm Mattie," she returned. "It's nice to meet you." She extended her hand, which--after a slight hesitation--he grasped the tip of her index finger with his hand and they shook somewhat awkwardly. Mattie sighed after he released her again, expression quizzical. "Why didn't I notice you or anything else before? Why does everyone else seem not to notice?"
"Illusion spells mostly," he revealed with a sigh. "Or magic that alters the mind, makes people forget or ignore what they see. But sometimes humans like yourself come along who are strong-willed enough to see through it. Usually young teenagers. Old enough to understand, but young enough not to completely disbelieve."
"This is so cool!" Mattie exclaimed with a happy squeal. "I want to know about everything. How many more of you are there? Where do you live?"
The pixie mailman held up his hand. "I don't have time to answer them, unfortunately," he murmured, somewhat sheepish. "I've got to get these letters to their owners. But there should be a woman who'll come to see you soon. A powerful magic-user by the name of Briarthorn. She runs a school for teenagers like yourself, teaching you about the world of magic and how to live with it and defend yourselves from it if need be. She'll be able to answer all of your questions and more."
"Thanks so much, Peony," Mattie murmured then. "Good luck on your deliveries. I hope I'll see you again."
The first, tentative smile spread across his tiny face. "Yah, good luck to you as well, Mattie. Something tells me I'm going to be hearing more of you in the years to come."
And with that, Peony took off into the air and disappeared from sight. Mattie laughed somewhat giddily to herself before she gathered up her things and started skipping back toward her house. This was like the coolest thing that had ever happened to anyone in the history of everything!
"It's like I'm becoming Harry Potter!" she laughed to herself. Then she made a face. "Well, except for the British accent and the evil death lord bent on killing me for revenge."
