The Day I Met the Humans

Lilypod, a water elf always wanted to befriend the humans. What happens when things take an unexpected turn?

Art by Simone Ford.

They were back. The human children with rosy cheeks and shining eyes. Lilypod watched them from the small corner of her lake, floating by on a lily pad. Her pink and green hair shone in the warm summer sun, but the children were too busy swimming and playing to notice the tiny water elf who watched them with big eyes.

All I want to do, thought Lilypod, is to swim and play with them. They look like they're having so much fun.

The children were in fact, having fun. There were four children. The first was a pale boy with clear blue eyes and blond hair called Alex. He was best friends with Sam, a girl with brown skin, dark eyes and curly hair. The other two kids, were twins with brown hair and brown eyes called Billie and Charlie.

They all went to the same class, B6, and everyday, the minute school ended they would race each other to the small lake on the edge of the Great Forest. Today, was the first day of summer, and the children were exploding with joy at being allowed to spend the entire day at the lake.

Lilypod watched them, slowly moving her lily pad towards them as the kids splashed in the cool, clear water.

Suddenly, like a dream shattering into a million pieces, a bunch of older, meaner kids approached the four children in the water. One boy, with the face resembling that of an ugly pig, yelled "Yo, little brats!" He waited until he got their attention. "Scram. This is our lake."

The four children, not wanting to get in trouble with the Bullies, followed his orders and got out of the lake. They walked away to an old oak tree and sat there, watching the Bullies.

The Bullies were a pack of kids that enjoyed terrorizing others. They were not only infamous within the small school community, but adults, parents and teachers always made sure not to get on the bad side of these children. Their parents, it was said, allowed the Bullies to do anything and the kids were never in trouble or punished.

Lilypod watched these mean brutes and decided she didn't like them one bit. Especially since they were poking at all the plants with some sticks they found. One girl even took out a small knife and started cutting away at the beautiful pink and white lilies that dotted the lake. Lilypod was furious. She wanted to stop them, but she knew the rules. No messing with humans. She glared at them, hiding underneath a pink lily that grew on her head.

Lilypod was so focused on the lily slaughter that she didn't notice one of the Bullies swimming towards her. He moved slowly, like a tiger approaching his prey. Stroke by stroke he moved in closer to Lilypod and suddenly with a roar of laughter he pounced. Poor Lilypod was so surprised by the boy that jumped out from behind her, that she didn't have time to move. The boy took out a jar that he had been holding and swiftly put it over Lilypod.

She was trapped. Her prison, was a round transparent object with a lid full of holes on the top.

"Let me out!" she yelled pounding on the glass walls. Unfortunately, most humans don't understand water elvish so what the boy heard was something like"Gggrrrrr Bbuuuubshi!"

"Hey guys! Look what I found!" Hunter shouted as he swam to the shore of the lake. He sat down on the pebbled ground and made sure that the tiny girl couldn't escape. His friends rushed over, to see what the great Hunter had caught this time.

"My God, Hunter, that's so weird! What is it?!" exclaimed a girl with a pierced nose and thin, reedy hair.

"How in the world would I know, Hannah? I'm not some smart ass." Hunter answered.

"Well, why don't you just shake it. To see the reaction!" said a huge boy nicknamed Skullsmasher, after he had squished a dead squirrel's head with his bare hands.

"Yeah! Do it Hunter!" added Marsh, a skinny slimy boy who was sadly famous for thinking up nasty ways to torture kids.

"Oh, shut up all of you." Hunter said.

He started shaking the jar furiously, and the other Bullies laughed when they saw how easily Lilypod bounced from one end of the jar to the other.

Lilypod hated this kids. She was dizzy and her entire body hurt after the merciless torture she had been through. Now, the kids were just poking at her with some twig they had found that fit through the crude holes Hunter had made so she could breath. Suddenly, the twig poked her eye and she cried out. But instead of biting the twig she just sat down and stared at it, too nice and tired to even think about attacking it.

"Hey, Sam do you see what they caught?" whispered Alex. The four children were still under the tree they had run away to and were watching the Bullies torment the poor elf in the jar.

"No. Poor thing. What is it? I can't see well without the binoculars. " Sam whispered back.

"I think it's a..." started Charlie.

"...water elf." finished Billie.

The twins had squished their faces together to share the binoculars and were peering at the Bullies with one eye each.

"What's a water elf?" asked Alex.

"It's like a tiny little person with pointy ears that can use magic. I think they live in places with water. This one must live on Silver Lake." answered Sam, who always knew everything about anything.

"But then why..." said Charlie.

"...doesn't she use her magic..." said Billie.

"...to break free?" they said together.

"Because water elves have to be touching their water sources to be able to do magic." whispered Sam.

"We have to do something." said Alex.

"I have a plan..." said Sam. The kids huddled together and listened to her plan.

The Bullies were all slumped down on various stones and logs. They were all satisfied, after swallowing a hearty meal, the warm sun and peaceful air were making them sleepy. Hunter, who was lying on the biggest stone, had tied the jar to a tree. He found it funny when the weird small girl whimpered and closed her eyes, when she saw how far from the ground she was.

Right now, though, he was slowly closing his eyes as a little breeze tickled his toes. All the Bullies were falling asleep and soon not one Bully stirred. When loud snores filled the air, Sam and her band of children moved in.

She walked slowly towards the tree where Lilypod was hanging from. The four children moved carefully around the long limbs of the older Bullies, barely breathing for fear of waking them up.

Lilypod was afraid of heights. She could barely open her eyes and the fear of the little glass prison falling and shattering on the far, far away ground, made her tremble and whimper. She was more scared, when the loud snores of Hunter made the jar swing slightly on the branch. Through her eyelashes she saw a blurry figure move. She opened her eyes slightly and to her astonishment she saw the four small children that always came to her lake, coming towards her.

Finally, Sam reached the jar. Carefully, so carefully, she untied the string from around the jar and with that she and the other children made their way back to the tree.

"I can't believe we did that." whispered Alex.

"Good teamwork guys. Now let's free her." answered Sam.

The children were all lying on their stomachs under a huge bush that proved to be an amazing hiding place. The jar was placed on the ground and the water elf stared at them with curious eyes.

Sam took the jar and unscrewed the lid.

Lilypod looked around as the top of her prison was taken away by the girl with curly hair. She slowly climbed out of the jar and shook her head as if she was getting rid of all traces of the horrible giants. The pink lily on her head unfurled its petals, which had been closed with fear. Lilypod stared at the children, and the children stared back.

Finally, Sam opened her mouth.

"You have to wait here until the Bullies go away. Do you understand?" she said.

Lilypod, who had always understood the humans despite them not understanding her, nodded.

"Cool. She knows English!" whispered Billie and Charlie.

Alex just stared at Lilypod silently. Then he he nodded to himself and to the amazement of the children said "Gurglish jjookkre LKkkfuiol."

To Lilypod it sounded like " Hi. We are friends."

Lilypod clapped her hands with joy. The human knew water elvish! With that she and Alex started speaking, while the other children stared at them with open mouths.

Suddenly Sam interrupted.

"I love all of this but I have to ask, Alex how do you know Water Elvish?" Sam asked.

"Well, to make a long story short, I found a book of languages and learned Water Elvish!"

"So..." said Billie.

"...cool." finished Charlie.

"Ssh." whispered Sam. She pointed to the Bullies who were starting to wake up.

"Guys! Who stole the weird girl!? You better tell me!" Hunter screamed. He had woken up with a grin but all traces of joy were wiped off his face when he saw that his new toy was gone.

"I will kill whoever did this!" he shouted while kicking leaves and bushes in anger.

"Hunter, who cares? Let's just go home." said Hannah. She was getting irritated as she had woken up with a frog on her face and Hunter's temper tantrum wasn't helping.

"Oh yeah? I bet you stole it. Or was it you Skullsmasher? One of you guys better tell me..." Hunter threatened.

"I didn't do it."Skullsmasher said, crossing his arms in frustration at being targeted.

"Yeah me neither. Come on Hunter let's go. This place is giving me the creeps." commented Marsh, his bulgy eyes looking everywhere in suspicion.

In fact, it was getting dark. The sun was slowly setting and the trees rustled as if monsters were walking around, sniffing for their prey.

Hunter let out a last frustrated scream and with a huff started walking away. The Bullies followed him, tripping over themselves as they looked behind their shoulders and swore that they saw glowing eyes.

"They're gone. Let's go." Sam said. She carefully picked up Lilypod and started running towards the lake. The other children followed. None of them were afraid of the setting sun, as they were sure that this was a safe haven for those of pure hearts.

"Here you go." Sam told the water elf. She gently placed Lilypod on the shore of the lake. Lilypod grinned and jumped into the water. She didn't resurface for a couple of minutes when suddenly, little droplets of water started floating up, towards the children.

Lilypod appeared and made the water swirl and dance with the children, who laughed with joy at the magical water. The floating water took shapes, becoming little frogs and fish before dissolving into swirls that dove into the children's hair, without once wetting them.

Lilypod whispered something to Alex.

"Hey guys. The water elf is called Lilypod and... she can't wait to be friends with us." he said. The children all clapped their hands and danced with the water, listening to a song of laughter.

From that day on, the children visited Lilypod everyday and a great friendship bloomed. The Bullies never returned because Lilypod made sure to put a protection around the lake and forest that would only let in those with pure hearts and good intentions.