Being Mommy

After following Ty for awhile, Cecilia came upon a small brook in the middle of the forest. It was only a few feet wide, small enough to jump over. That’s exactly what she was getting ready to do when she looked down into the brook. What she saw stopped her in her tracks.

A small version of the trees around her grew in the water. But they were different. For one thing, they were pink, closer to the color of the tiny daisies than the bigger trees in the forest. Even stranger than that, they had roots growing from the tops of their trunks! These top roots seemed to be interconnected between all the little trees in the brook, as if they were all part of the same plant. The little trees were only about six inches tall, and half of their trunks were submerged in the brook.

“Wow!” exclaimed Cecilia. “I’ve never seen anything like those before! Are they all connected?” she asked Ty.

He gave her another one of his amused smiles, tilting his head just a little to the right, as if he were trying to figure her out. “There is no ‘they’,” he said.

“What?” she didn’t understand.

“It is all one plant, and it lives in the brook. Be careful jumping over the water or you might trip over it.” Just as he spoke these words, the strange plant shimmied a little bit in the wind. Startled, Cecilia jumped back a little. “Don’t worry,” Ty quickly assured her, “it can’t hurt you. It’s just a plant.” Ty flew up to her shoulder and landed. Her shoulder was getting to be his favorite spot to relax. He laid down and closed his eyes.

Just as Ty closed his eyes, the strange little tree-plant curled up a few of the roots growing from the top of its trunks and formed a small smile. Cecilia laughed a little, causing Ty to open his eyes to see what was so funny. He looked down and caught the smile from the little plant.

“It likes you!” he giggled.

“That’s not ‘just a plant,’ Ty,” she said, “that’s an amazing plant!” How could a plant smile at her? She had never seen anything like it before.

“I suppose so,” he said with a yawn. Closing his eyes once again, he settled down on her shoulder. She was getting used to feeling him cuddled softly there by her neck, and it wasn’t tickling her anymore. “Just keep on going forward past the brook and we’ll be to the village in no time.”

“But what if I get lost?” Cecilia tried to ask him, but he was already sound asleep.

“Well, guess I’ll just follow orders!” she stated and jumped over the brook and the little tree-creature. Ty stirred for a moment on her shoulder from the jump, but quickly fell back asleep.

She was in awe of everything she had seen since she woke up in the meadow, and couldn’t wait to see more…

After about ten more minutes of walking, the forest began to thin out. She quickly found herself out of the trees and in another meadow. It looked much the same as the meadow where she had woke up just a little while ago, with one big exception. She was standing in front of a large ring floating in the air about a foot off the ground that looked to be made of strands of interwoven grass. Beyond the ring she could see the little village they had been looking for since they started walking.

Not wanting to damage the floating grass ring, she stepped to the side to walk around it. But as soon as she had gone around the ring, the village was gone! She walked back to the other side of the ring again, and she could again see the village. How strange! She decided she needed Ty’s help with this one. She gently tapped him on the back with her finger until he began to wake.

“Ty, wake up,” she coaxed him. Finally he sat up and stretched his wings out, yawning. He opened his eyes, looked around, and then hopped off her shoulder and flew up into the air, looking at her.

“Thanks for letting me take a nap; I needed it!” he said pleasantly. “Why did you wake me?”

“Well, when I walk around that ring, the village disappears,” Cecilia said.

Ty smiled at her. “Of course, silly! That’s the front door,” he said, pointing to the ring, “and you can’t get to the village without walking through the front door!”

“Oh… okay,” she said quietly. She didn’t really understand his answer completely, but somehow it made sense.

Ty flew through the ring and looked back at her. “Come on, let’s go!” he did a little flip in the air, which made her giggle. What a funny little dragon-fly he was!

She gingerly stepped up and through the ring, managing not to bump into it or damage it in any way. She sighed, happy that she had not hurt the village’s front door. She looked ahead to the village, just a little ways down the small dirt path she was now standing on. She was no longer in the meadow she had just been in before stepping though the ring. She was in another forest again, although this one wasn’t so dense with trees. She turned around to look at the ring behind her, but it was gone. There was only more forest behind her.

“Where did the front door go?” she asked Ty.

“It’s still there, but you can’t see it, because you can’t use it to leave the village. To leave, you need to go out the back door,” he stated matter-of-factly.

Another strange statement that somehow made sense. She looked again at the village down the road. She could see a few small buildings that looked like they might be made out of the grass from the meadow, but she couldn’t be sure from this far away.

“It’s getting pretty late,” Ty said looking up at the quickly darkening sky. “Maybe we can find a nice place to sleep. Let’s go look.” With that said, he turned and flew slowly toward the village, looking back every so often to make sure she was following.

When they reached the beginning of the village, she noticed that the houses were indeed made from the grass in the meadow, the same as the front door had been. The houses however were quite small, much too small for someone her size. The village also looked deserted. Except for the two of them, there was not a soul in sight.

After the first few houses, the road made a sharp right turn and suddenly there was a great circular courtyard right in front of her, surrounded by more little houses. The courtyard had a dirt floor with small statues sitting just a few feet closer to the center than the houses. The statues were of dragon-flies like Ty. Some of the statues looked happy, while others looked really happy! Not one of them was sad or angry.

In the center of the courtyard was a small pond. The pond was perfectly still, and as she saw the moonlight reflected in the water’s surface, she realized it was really getting dark outside. She looked up at the moon and was actually surprised that it looked the same as the moon she always saw at home every night. It comforted her somehow to have her moon there.

“There is a meadow just past the courtyard,” Ty said. “We can curl up there for the night. Maybe in the morning we can figure out how to get you home.”

“Sleep outside at night? Won’t we get cold?” Cecilia asked the little dragon-fly.

“Are you cold now?” he asked her back.

Cecilia thought about it. It was actually quite warm still. “No, I’m not!” she said happily. “Will it stay this warm all night?”

“Of course!” he stated, once again tilting his head up at her and smiling amusedly. “It doesn’t get cold here in the village. It only gets cold in the woods.” He seemed to think she should already know these things. Well, she didn’t, but thanks to him she was learning!

“Well then, let’s find a nice soft spot to sleep,” she stated and started walking through the courtyard and into the meadow beyond.

But she only had to walk a few steps into the meadow to realize that the entire place was nice and soft. The little pink daisies were blooming in the grass, just like in the meadow where she had woken earlier. She sat down and picked two daisies. She offered one to Ty as he landed on her knee again.

“Thanks!” Ty said. “I was just getting a little hungry again.” They sat quietly and ate their little pink daisies that tasted like birthday cake. After finishing hers, Cecilia noticed once again how full she felt after eating such a small flower. This time she also felt tired. She had walked a long way today!

She sat and looked up at the moon as Ty finished his meal. A warm breeze gently swept across her cheek, and she smiled. Although she was trying to find her way home, she was so glad that Grandpa had given her the magic shoes. She looked down at them fondly. What a wonderful gift he had given her! She told herself to remember to thank him the next time she saw him. Hopefully that would be soon!

Ty had finished eating, and Cecilia laid down in the soft grass, looking up at the moon again. Ty hopped down to the grass beside her and snuggled up into the nape of her neck and shoulder. “Sleep well,” he said with a yawn.

“You, too,” she said, closing her eyes. It wasn’t long before she was fast asleep.

…..

When Cecilia woke up, she was back in her house, back on the couch where she had first fallen asleep with her Grandma’s magic shoes on. She smiled and thought “What a wonderful dream!” as she slowly reached her arms out in a lazy stretch. “What a wonderful dream!” this time she said it out loud. The next thing she heard almost made her fall off the couch.

“Really? What was it about?” the little white dragon-fly asked her.