The Little Girl in Search of Words

She was fascinated by words. To her, words were things of beauty. However, in her world, each town had only a limited number of words. So, eager to learn more and more, the little girl decided to set off on a quest: to collect words in her tiny yellow paper notebook.

So, there she was on her way, carrying a basket with her notebook, colour pencils, some blackberries – her favourite fruit – and some flowers. She thought it would be nice to be able to offer a flower for each word she learnt.

The first village was full of lovely brightly-coloured wooden houses. She was amazed at the colours, but did not know all their names. So, the villagers gave her words so that she could see the names of the primary colours and all their hues. She gave them some flowers in return and continued on her path.

Before arriving at the next village, she could hear an exquisite melody wafting through the air. It was a song played and sung by the villagers. They too told her all about the sounds and the music that is all around us, and how to listen to them. More flowers were left in exchange for the words.

Being tired, and hungry, she decided to look for more fruit, and at the next village, surrounded by juicy apple trees, a sweet aroma of apple pies being baked caught her attention. However, when she arrived at the house, they could not explain anything to her…they just shrugged and mumbled.

The next village, full of rough red brick houses, was even worse. They could not say anything at all. ‘This is not right at all’, she thought. They simply pointed at a hill that rose up steeply towards something she could not see.

She started to make her way through the grass, and after some minutes when she finally reached the top of the slope, she saw a cave.

Fearless, and wanting to know what had happened to the disappearing words, she entered quietly. After walking through some tortuous passageways, she arrived at the central patio.

To her surprise, there was a dragon sleeping on top of a mountain, not of gold, but words! She stared at the creature, completely still, thinking to herself, ‘it must be a dream.’

It was just then that the dragon woke and saw the little girl, scattering words everywhere. The dragon simply held some words in his talons and tossed them in the air, and they fell in front of the little girl. When they hit the floor, she read this:

I came from so far away
Just to be with you
But your world is so different
My words cannot get through

How could you know
Everything I have to say
When all I can do
Is steal words away?

So I built a castle
And inside I put
What you most like – words!
Would you come and live inside?

Then my dream would come true
As the girl spreads the words
Villagers tell stories of
a little girl, castles and dragons.

Acknowledgement

This story has been originally published in ETAS Journal, 32(1), Winter 2014, p.50-51. Republished here with permission from ETAS Journal.