by Nancy Gaskin
The Waterfall
Looking around, Dagmar saw several large pools of water which were so clear she could see the individual scales of the small fish that inhabited them. Stopping to look into another pool, she spotted fish with such iridescent blues, greens, reds and gold scales which, when they caught a ray of sun, flashed so brightly they made her eyes water. Carefully walking to another pool, the girl noted that a carpet of soft, sweet smelling moss ranging from the brightest yellows to olive green and all the way through to emerald green, which was covering the majority of rocks and boulders, leading towards the higher levels and to the larger waterfalls. Moonbeam was standing not far from the child, watching and considering her reactions with every new discovery.
Wading through a few of the more shallow ponds, Moonbeam led the way to the furthest and largest waterfall. Noticing that the little human was not right behind her, Moonbeam impatiently frowned and turned looking around. Seeing her squatting down peering into the water of one of the deeper pools, Moonbeam made an angry noise in her throat, a blend of growl and groan. She turned around angrily and marched back to where Dagmar was “What ARE you doing? You were meant to follow me, not stop and look at the pretty fishes!” said Moonbeam who stopped and stood over the girl with her fists on her hips looking very fearsome. “I am so sorry Moonbeam I didn’t mean to make you angry. I spotted flashes of colour and just had to have a look.” Exclaimed Dagmar in a hesitant voice, slowly standing up and moving in the direction they were travelling before the distraction.
Rushing to overtake the little human and be in the lead, Moonbeam skipped from rock to boulder in a sure footed way bounding ahead in a flash. Having reached the front Moonbeam settled into the role of leader as they scampered of rock and boulders occasionally wading in ankle deep water. They arrived at the largest pool which was fed by four streams that became individual waterfalls “Stay here Dagmar of the human realm” “Oh please stop calling me that!” groaned girl “Call you what?” Moonbeam asked innocently “Dagmar of the human realm, just Dagmar will do!” responded the child with a smile, hoping to soften any insult perceived by the other “Alright Dagmar, wait here and DO NOT go anywhere! I will be back soon.” waiting only long enough to see the girl nod her head, before diving into the water and vanishing from sight in a flash.
Dagmar stood peering into the water wondering how that girl could disappear from sight so fast when the water was so clear. Giving up, she began looking around in search of a place to sit. Carefully stepping rock to rock she made her way to a small grass covered clearing surrounded by trees to her left, considering it was closer than the rocky plateau to her right that led to one of the waterfalls from land. Carefully stepping from the rocks into ankle deep water, savouring the coolness, the girl waded slowly towards the clearing. Scampering up the sandy bank the girl surveyed the clearing, circling the clearing were trees with many taller than any Dagmar had ever seen in her life. Crawling onto the grass, this had a wonderful smell of freshly cut lawn, the child stood and began to walk towards the tree line which started at the shore line on her right. As the girl slowly walked she noticed clumps of colour near the bases of the taller trees. Drawing closer she saw the vibrant colours of some of the flowers on bushes and flowers as well as a few of the fruit trees which were in bloom, inhaling deeply she savoured the wonderful spring smell that hung in the air.
Walking between two huge trees with such massive bases the girl walked around it in disbelief thinking that a house the size of her home could easily fit into the tree trunk. As her eyes adjusted to the semi gloom she noticed that the noise of the waterfalls was subdued and the atmosphere had changed from the bright bubbly day to peaceful and serene. Reminding the girl of early mornings, just before the birds woke up to greet the sun, that in-between time when the owls find a good bed and the bat returns to its cave, night is leaving and the sun is getting ready to start the day, that small gap of time when everything just stops, silence, a peacefulness for every living being, animal and plant. It was that feeling she was feeling now and it was comforting, with everything that had so far happened, a little time alone was what she needed. Walking slowly she could hear the leaves gently rustling as if a breeze had disturbed them, when there was no breeze travelling along the tree line which Dagmar noticed were in evenly spaced rows.
Shrugging to herself she wandered towards a cluster of flowers that turned out to be several bushes with such a huge variety of colour with not one daisy like flower was the same colour and some even had different coloured petals on the one flower. It was a riot of colour, walking around the base of the tree she reached out and touched the trees bark gently and the leaves rustled a little. A small furry head popped out from behind a low branch looked at the girl, let of a surprised squeak and raced up into the crown of the tree squeaking all the while. As Dagmar continued around the ancient tree, she noticed a small bush like plant with large bell shaped flowers of the most delicate butter yellow, and the leaves of the bush being a deep emerald green she had to drop to her knees and see if it smells as beautiful as it looked. “OI! Put me down!” said a gruff voice, Dagmar dropped the flower and jumped back, looking everywhere for the owner of the voice and at the same time trying to clear her nose of the most horrid smell ever. The stench was unbelievable and the girl ran away as fast as she could, looking around for the voice all the time. Having run several trees away from the plant she stopped and sniffed the air gingerly, satisfied that the smell had not followed her, the child decided to walk around the base of this tree which seemed larger than the last one looking up onto the tree searching for small animals like the last one so she could have a better look at it, remembering that the other little creature had a furry head but not face and it had a bushy tail.
With her head tilted up and her hands slowly travelling along the trunk for support and feet carefully feeling their way along, when luckily she looked down just in time to avoid some very brightly coloured flowers. Stepping back a little, the girl inspected the four flowers waiting for a horrid smell being a little wary after the last flower, finding no disgusting odour emanating from the flower she bobbed down to have a closer look. The first had sunshine yellow petals like an orchid with a bright red petal which was curled and looked like a bottom lip and a small bright orange rolled over petal which looked a little like a birds beak perched in the centre above the red ‘lip’ and on either side of that were two stalks topped with two fuzzy little balls. As she inspected its neighbour which had sapphire blue petals with a snow white lip and a small bright pink beak and fuzzy little balls on stalks above and around it, another one had scarlet petals and a lemon yellow lip and lime green beak. The last one of this brilliantly coloured quartet had dazzling indigo petals with a bright red lip and a small bleach white beak.
Admiring the lovely contrastingly coloured flowers Dagmar had to blink hard and look again as two sets of fuzzy little balls transformed into two sets of eyes. A voice came from the direction of the bright yellow flower “Well, well, well, what have we here? Eh Sunny?” “Ooh a new something to ponder over, eh Sap” said another voice, startled the girl stepped away “No need to go away new thing. We won’t eat you” called the yellow flower, Dagmar saw the orange beak and the bright lip move, making her giggle as she remembered moving the chins of snap dragons and gave them voices in her garden. “Hey you, come back closer so we can see you better” called the scarlet flower “Bit rude if you ask me!” grumbled the Indigo one “Come back and talk to us! They call me Sunny and that grumbly one is Indi, then we have Scar, who won’t admit it but her eyes are getting worse, and last but never least there is Sap our watcher while we ponder this cycle. Who are you?” trying to absorb what was happening the girl stood stupefied, staring in disbelief at talking plants. “Hey you!!! Did you hear my friend? You seem very rude, disturbing us and then walking away and THEN above all else staring at us.” “Oh I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you nor be ru
de. You just surprised me, it looked so deserted that I was not expecting to see anybody here. My name is Dagmar” bobbing a small polite curtsey to the four flowers. Bobbing their heads in return the flowers began speaking at once and all the girl could hear was a babble of noise, holding up her hands for silence she waited patiently as they slowly stopped talking. “I can only understand and answer questions if I can hear you. If you were to speak one at a time I will try and answer you what I can.” Said Dagmar as she sat on a moss covered log that was nearby, with her small hands resting in her lap she waited. “Where are you from? You don’t look like any of the usual creatures we see here.” asked Sunny “I am from the human realm, it was Sunny wasn’t it?” with a bobbing head “yes it was me, Dagmar” said the yellow flower “Why are you here if this is not your true place, and it’s Sap” “I am not sure how it all happened Sap, I went to sleep in my bed and then I dreamt……well I am not really sure now if I did dream or what. I found myself in a beautiful meadow and then I met princess Niamh and then we all came through the curtain and then we had a feast and a story teller came and after that Titania and I went for a picnic. She is having a little rest with her friend the big oak tree” this explanation started a babble of voices and occasionally she could hear the names Niamh and Titania, but the rest was a hubbub of noise. “Are you trying to tell us you have been spending time with the Queen herself?” asked an indignant Indi “Well that IS interesting. We don’t get out much and have not heard how the royal family is keeping. The last time must have been …oh thirty seasons ago, eh ladies?” “Yes Indi dear, at least thirty seasons. The princess Tittianna had gone to visit her daughter some place or other.” stated Scar in a dignified voice. “Oh what has happened since then Dagmar? Please what interesting news is there?” “Um, I am not sure what you mean. I have no idea what has happened in all that time, I am only eight years old.” said the girl shyly as she began to back away ever so slowly as a new wave of babbling voices began. Turning she walked away not looking back.
Walking quickly towards another tree she saw more beautifully coloured flowers when one caught her attention, with very large dark green flat hear shaped waxy leaves growing like a skirt around a tall violet fluffy stalk sprouting from the middle. As she walked around the plant, inspecting from every angle and sniffing it for good measure satisfied that it was not going to talk to her or stink, she tentatively reached out and touched one of the large leaves feeling the shiny waxy surface. Half expecting some sort of reaction and very pleased when nothing happened she began inspecting the violet stalk with fluff all over it. Stepping closer she could see that the fluff was many tiny hairs all topped with a glob of gold liquid, while the girl stood admiring the vibrant colour a several bees stopped and picked up some of the globs and flew away. As she walked from tree to tree she saw more exotic plants and also some that Dagmar could put a name to, such as the wild roses that were growing in abandon over fallen trees and large boulders, in an amazing display of colour. Spotting a patch of flowers low to the ground sprinkled among the grass, she skipped into the middle of the patch and knelt down. The perfume was sweet but not sickeningly so, like a summer breeze which comes in from over the ripe fields, through the orchard and our garden and into the kitchen window.
After a while she got up and began to explore a little more. Walking to the centre of the clearing she saw beautiful flowers which were of such a brilliant display of colour. Dagmar knelt down and looked around. The flowers were growing in a circle around her, crawling toward a particularly beautiful violet coloured flower she spotted. Dagmar noticed that as she was getting closer every single petal was as delicate as spider webs. The petals were translucent with the actual colour emanating from the very centre of each blossom. Mesmerised by the colour and the structure of these blooms Dagmar did not hear the arrival of Moonbeam and her companions. “I told you not to go anywhere!” an angry voice interrupted the girls musing, she spun around on her knees in a flash facing the voice “Oh it’s you Moonbeam! I only found a place that was dry.” Dagmar replied in defence, spotting Moonbeams friends for the first time and standing up quickly. Moonbeam turned to a girl on her left saying “See what I had to put up with, always staring into thin air this one. This is the one I was telling you about Eclipse. Get her to tell you her story! She has a long thin one to tell you.” She chuckled turning to Dagmar “This is Eclipse, leader of the four falls patrol she wants to talk to you.” Leading the rest of her friends to the edge of the clearing, leaving Dagmar and Eclipse facing each other “Moonbeam has come to the fire with a VERY long thin one about you being from the human realm, you having feasts and picnics with royalty. Now tell me the truth.” the dark haired girl with her feet slightly apart and her arms crossed over her chest, green eyes searching the childs face. Dagmar stood her ground “I AM from the human realm, I DID have a feast with the princess and I DID have a picnic with the Queen!” she said in a very even voice looking directly into the other girls eyes refusing to blink or look away. Eclipse frowned “Tell me then what’s the Queen is like? Is she as kind and gentle as they say? We have not had the opportunity to meet her because we have been away and only come back a few winter cycles.” Looking expectantly at the girl she indicated that they would sit for the conversation. Dagmar knelt down again and began “I don’t exactly know how I came to be here but I AM from the human realm and I don’t really know how I came to be here. It was explained to me by Princess Niamh but I was very tired and confused and did not understand it too well. Walking on moon beams or something. I met the Princess at the meadow near the curtain or veil and then they took me to the palace and we had a beautiful feast with strange but delicious foods. In the morning a story teller arrived just as we were finishing breaking our fast and then Titania and I went and explored the palace and then went and had a picnic. That IS the truth and if by telling a long thin one you are saying that I am telling a lie, well I do not tell lies, I was raised better than that thank you very much!” now Dagmar had her arms folded in front of her chest. The other girl burst out laughing “Oh don’t be such a baby, yes telling a long thin one is telling an untruth. What does the Princess Niamh look like? Is she pretty?” “Um, well Niamh has very dark nearly black long wavy hair and beautiful indigo blue eyes and yes she is very pretty. Titania has auburn ringlets, sort of like mine, and the sparkliest green eyes” looking around Eclipse pointed to the sky and called to her companions “Come, a storm is on its way.” Turning to Dagmar saying “follow me and you will be safe” Eclipse turned and headed towards the water and began leaping from rock to rock and then suddenly stopped “Well child what are you waiting for? Storms here are not kind.” Dagmar began to follow as quickly as she could, not being anywhere near as sure footed as Eclipse and Moonbeam. Following carefully as they began heading towards the rocky plateau Dagmar had seen earlier.