The Gift of an Elf

Once upon a time, there was an old lady who used to live in a faraway town. She used to live on her own. She was very helpful to everyone; whenever there was someone in need, she would run to lend a helping hand.

The house she lived in was very small and had a window to the east. She loved it when the sun knocked on the window every morning requesting her to let him in, and this is how she started her day. The house was not crowded with stuff, there were only the things she needed the most.   

She was a physician in her younger years and she was still serving the sick and needy people in her town. She was known, in the towns, for her treatments that worked like magic.

The old woman had not the slightest idea that she was going to tend the strangest patient in her life.

One day in the dead of night, when everyone was busy snoring, someone knocked at her door. She woke up with a start. Maybe this is someone in desperate need? she thought to herself. It was so quiet that she could hear her old bones crack when she struggled to get up. She opened the door but there was no one to be seen.

As soon as she closed the door, it was knocked on again. She opened the door carefully this time and looked around, squinting, to see any signs of man. It is too late for an urchin to do this, thinking, she was about to shut the door again when she heard, "Excuse me!" she followed the sound to her feet.

She almost skipped a beat to see that he was an elf. He was short in height, had pointed ears, a big round nose, crystal eyes, straw-like arms and legs, and wearing a tattered hat on his head. He was an elf for sure and she was too startled to say anything.

“Are you Miss Isabella Templeton?” the little elf inquired in his weeny voice.

“Hm!” that was all she could manage to utter.

"You have to come with me at once. It is urgent," he seemed to be in a hurry.

Many questions jammed in her head, but she asked,” At this time?”

“Hurry up mam, someone is sick and needs you right now. I will tell you everything on the way." The elf said earnestly.

The way he beseeched made Isabella go with him. She was horrified and could not dare to ask the little elf anything. Once she grabbed the necessary things they set off to God-knows-where.

There was a forest a bit away from the town and the little elf asked Isabella to take that route, and she walked by without protesting.

When they were getting deeper and deeper into the woods, the elf told her that his mother was in terrible condition and their elf physician was not there to see his mother. Moreover, he told her that he is going to have a little brother tonight.

The way he was talking innocently made Isabella a bit relaxed, but the fear was not yet subsided. As soon as they reached the darkest part of the woods, the little elf asked her to take his hand and not to be afraid. Isabella took his hand reluctantly. She felt that his hands were too scarred for his age. Then the little elf asked her to take one step further, and to her greatest surprise, she stepped into an utterly new world.

She stopped short and took a look around; she saw hundreds of elves, hammering, lifting loads, cooking, scrubbing the floor, polishing caldrons, and doing every kind of hark work. As she kept walking her eyes got wider and wider. They were all too embedded in their work to notice a human there. She got more calm to be unnoticed.

Al last, they stopped by a little hut, where sounds of wailing were coming from. They hurried into the house. Isabella saw that a woman elf was in severe pain. Her belly was round with a baby and it was time for him to come out. 

 As soon as they got in, the woman cried with love and gratitude, "My Fraggle, my poor little Fraggle. Thank you, my love."

Isabella hurried to her help; she understood why she was brought there. While everyone went outside, she helped the woman elf delivering the baby elf and took care of all the precautions.

As soon as Fraggle heard the cry of a baby, he hurried into the hut and carried him in his arm and loved him. After almost an hour, when everything was done, it was time for Isabella to head home.

She was getting a little restless and when Fraggle saw that she was uneasy, he said to his father in a rush, "I am just coming back, take care of the mother," and dashed out.

He got back after a couple of moments with a bundle of coals tied in a piece of cloth. The cloth was filthy, maybe because of the kind of work elves did, anyway, she handed the bundle to Isabella. When Isabella and Fraggle were about to get out of the hut, his father said with quivering lips and bowed head," Thank you, Miss Isabella. My wife and son would have been dead if it were not for you." Isabella took pity in her heart at the poor elves.

Fraggle showed her the way out of the elf-world and in no time, they were out into the forest again.

"You are on your own now, and trust me you will be safe. Thank you very much for coming with me tonight. “With that said elf got back to his world, waving at Isabella, and she came back to hers.

It was pitch black in the forest but God knows how she made it out of the woods alright. The way was not very long from the woods to her house. She kept walking slowly and replaying the strange events that happened to her tonight.

 She also kept looking at the bundle now and then and thought about how poor and kind the elves were. They were so thankful that they somehow managed to give her some of their coals even if they were poor. She decided right there to keep the coal with her forever as a keepsake.

As she reached home, she put the bundle in the window and went straight to bed. She kept tossing and turning in her bed, thinking about the elf world over and over.

She was up when the first ray of the sun knocked at her window and the room started to get brighter and brighter. It had never been such a brighter day before. Isabella was wondering at the sunshine when her eyes caught something.

The bundle in the window was not a mere bundle of coal tied in a filthy cloth, but they were nuggets of pure gold tied in the finest silk; the source of the brightness that day.

She never told anyone about the incident that happened to her that night. She used all the gold nuggets for the needy poor but she kept one nugget with her in remembrance of the little elf, which she never saw again.