Brownie Girl

“Give me back my talisman!” shouted a girl.

She was surrounded by short men with pointy ears and crude smiles. She had a torn, brown blouse and tattered black stockings. Th men had green, neat, freshly pressed clothes.

The ringleader was the brownie clan’s favourite son. He had the handsomest pointed ears, vibrant carrot hair, eyes as blue as the pond they used. He had a triangular, red hat he wore every day. 

“No, way Stretch!”

He rattled the chain in front of her. Her dark face gnarled in effort, trying to catch him.

Sonny sneered and his grubby, red nose glowed as he laughed at the tall girl he bullied. She ran towards him to steal back her family heirloom but he threw it to Piggy, whose lard stomach jiggled as he sluggishly caught the necklace in his fat, white hands. The girl snivelled and ran from Sonny, the ringleader to Piggy. 

Piggy looked to and fro fearing she will collide with him and knock him down. He passed the necklace to the spritely and quick brownie Pip. 

Pip had the pointiest ears and the most facetious grin. He always scoured the neighbourhood for a new place to cause havoc. He sprinted circles around all the boys in his gang. So, it was child’s play for him to outrun the girl with her lanky legs.

Pip passed the jewellery off to his younger brother, Patter who started hopping from leaf to leaf. She tried to grab the object , to no avail. Patter laughed and threw the rope necklace to his younger brother Bunny.

Little Bunny could hide well. When she twisted around Bunny had vanished, but really, he was hiding behind a shrub.

She bawled. The remaining four boys circled her like buzzards. They poked her with sharp sticks until she danced like a firefly in an empty jar.

“Ouch!” she sang.

“Tall girl! Tall girl! 

Higher than tree!

When she falls, she could squash me!

When she falls, she could scare the bees!

Buzz, buzz! Buzz, buzz! 

Tall girl, tall girl, kills the bees!

Buzz, buzz!

Tall girl, tall girl, kills all the trees!”

The boys sang a mocking song in her ears while beating and prodding her with sticks. She covered her face and sat in the circle. Something rustled the bushes and frightened the little brownie boy, Bunny from his hiding place. He forgot the necklace momentarily and ran to save his own skin.

He screamed. His older brothers halted their harassment of the sore, scared girl. Sonny still enthusiastically beat her with his green-stick.

“What is it, Bunny?” asked Pip, the oldest from the Poppy family. 

Bunny hid behind Patter and Pip. The girl was curled into a ball with only her feet sticking out.

“Monster, in the bushes…” Bunny said in a shaky voice.

Pip’s eyes widened and he threw his stick in the air, incidentally it whacked Sonny on the head. It took off his hat.

Sonny shouted.

“Monster?” asked Pip. Patter too started shaking and his lips quivered.

“I hate monsters,” Patter cried.

The two Poppy boys embraced one another. Sonny had developed an ugly, red scratch on his perfect forehead.

“There are no monsters!” wailed Sonny.

He raised his stick and readied to whack the poor girl again.

“Now, where was we?” 

There was a rumble from the bushes. This time all the boys heard and they huddled together. Sonny shakily twisted around and wearing there was a creature!

It had the big, kettle black antlers of a caribou, the antennae of a catfish, the eyes of a cat but facing on either side of its face. It had a lion’s tail, the front cloven, hooves of a cow, it had the clawed back feet of a harpy eagle. It had a big head that had plumage that was grey blue but the rest of its face was scaled like a fish!

It’s slender body slithered out of the bush. It bellowed again. The boys screamed and ran away. Sonny and the other boys’ sticks were left discarded on the ground. The girl still in a foetal position stayed still, quaking.

The monster crawled out of the bush completely and it picked up the rope necklace with its tail. It paused in front of the girl and poked her with its cow nose. She squirmed. It tilted its head and bushed her shoulder with an antler gently, instead.

She curled up and saw the monster. They both blinked at one another. She saw her bullies were gone. The monster held out her necklace. She took it. Her eyes watered.

Momma’s necklace that she had got when she turned five. 

“Thank you,” she told the monster.

It looked at her with big saucer eyes, brown as a moth. Then it slithered back into the bushes. She stood and winced as she walked back home. 

Her mother stood on the washbasin to reach her face. She dabbed at her face with honey and booze. She crinkled her nose and salty tears came from her eyes.

“What happened this time Opal?”

“The Brownie gang got me again.”

Her mother sighed.

“Those boys are getting too brave! I’ll teach them a lesson or two!”

I sighed.

“Don’t bother, if my own Pa don't care I’m hurt, why should anyone else?”

She sniffed and wiped her nose.

“No, that’s not true…Pa does care.”

Momma Apple bottom, Opal’s mother, reassured her falsely. He never involved himself in anything to do with Opal. She was mother’s problem, he often said.

“Cheer up, Cherry is having a wedding party today and we was invited.”

It was too good to be true but Opal always carved the best figurines for her friend, since they turned three. So, she had to be invited.

“You’re old enough to look for a good brownie boy to tie the knot with.”

“No, boy wants to be with me. I’m too tall and they are all little.”

Mother Apple-bottom brushed her curly black hair until it was straight-ish.

“Trust me, just go to Cherry’s party in this dress and you will have men lining up to ask you to be their bride in no time.”

Opal sighed.

“Ok” she said taking her mother’s lovely yellow frock with a green apron. Opal polished her mulch ballet slippers until they sparkled. She wore the dress and then put on the shoes. She looked so pretty.

Mother Apple-bottom wore her best green dress and escorted her daughter to the party. Opal was five heads taller than her mother.

Opal was the tallest brownie, which was strange because it was the men who were taller than the women. 

A lot of things were strange about her actually, she had unusual dark black curly hair and brown skin as if she had been baked in the sun too long. She had eyes the colour of dying pine cones, very concentrated in shade. And bizarre, round lobed ears. But at least she had a short, snubbed nose like all good brownies did.

They were a sight to behold as they entered Cherry’s party. The flower chains that were hung around their hut were snagged by Opal’s big head. The parents shouted at her.

“Ms Apple-bottom, was it not clear enough in the invitation, only you were invited and not your gargantuan daughter?” asked Cherry’s mother.

Opal’s mom was wide as a pumpkin. Her fat hand knocked Cherry’s mother over as she clapped her on the back playfully.

“Come, now Ms Birch-blossom aren’t we making mountains out of molehills. Look, Opal brought your daughter a gift too!”

Everyone at the wedding party groaned. All the brownies knew that Ms Birch-blossom’s Achilles heel was a present. Just the thought of one could make her forgot what she disliked, in the drop of a hat.

“A gift, you say?” she pulled Ms Apple-bottom along with Opal following closely behind.

Cherry frowned when she saw Opal. Opal greeted her friend enthusiastically but Cherry gave her a flat hello. 

“Mom, why is Opal here?”

Opal and her mother grimaced.

Cherry’s mother chastised her.

“Do not be rude, Cherry. See, she brought a gift!”

It was in an elephantine box she found with flowers and creepers decorating it. 

“It’s probably just a stupid wooden carving like always.”

Opal sighed.

She clutched her box and gave a broken smile.

“I made it special.”

Cherry glowered at the box.

“Put it, with the others.”

Opal went to the table where there were colourful paperclips, rare jewels and shiny rocks. Everything matched except her dinky box. She lowered her head and put it there next to the more desirable presents.

She sat behind everyone because if she sat in front,no-one would see the couple. Cherry was the most beautiful brownie girl: thin with fair skin and brown hair and pointy ears and eyes as green as the meadows. 

She stood in a green gown next to Sonny Grassy, the chief’s son and Cherry’s fiancé. They held each other’s hands and stood in a small ring. Their parents, Ms Birch-blossom and the brownie chief, threw white daisies and carnations at them as the crowd chanted.

After the chant ended their hands were bound together. They were betrothed. The girls stood inside a ring made by the other brownies. One by one a male brownie went pick a girl to dance with.

A boy with brown hair went into the ring and held out a hand to Opal. She thought he wanted to dance with her but he just wanted to rip off her apron, which was a disgrace for unmarried brownie women.

All the women stared. It was said if an unmarried brownie woman had her apron torn at a wedding gathering, she would never be married. That had happened to Ms Apple-bottom as well.

 The boy laughed and stood next to her bullies; he was a part of the brownie gang too.

“Stupid Stretch! No-one wants to dance with you!” said Sonny.

Cherry joined in, in her mocking. 

“Stupid girl, no-one will marry you now!”

Opal cried. And everyone laughed and laughed at her. They sang the song the brownie gang had sung to her in the meadow.

Ms Apple-bottom tried to penetrate the ring that formed around her daughter; she shouted at them, outside the ring.

“No, stop! Leave her alone! Stop, you evil people!” Ms Apple-bottom wept, her face turning a bright pink.

Opal stood, fed up and kicked away the brownies around her. They flew all over. Soon some of them started fleeing. Opal ran away.

“Opal! Opal!” cried Ms Apple-bottom.

She never turned back, ashamed of facing her mother.

She returned to the meadow. There were caribous grazing and the monster she met earlier in the day was with them. Every time it went near the mothers and calves the big, male caribou would show jab its antlers at the scaly beast.

The caribou would yell if the beast came near them. It would then be forced to move back. It eventually remained a few feet from the group.

The group started when it saw Opal. The monster slithered to a mother caribou that had stayed behind. It cuddled with the mother. The mother showed its belly. It suckled from her nipple.

A few caribou mothers stared after the solitary mother. They waited for her at the end of the meadow, at the junction of the forest.

The mother eventually felt a longing to re-join her group and despite wanting to stay with the scaly monster she left…

The monster cried but the mother caribou had gone away. Opal slowly approached the beast.

“Hey, was that your mother? It’s ok I am here. I saw how no-one wanted you near them. I understand.”

The animal looked at her with sad brown eyes. It cried. She hugged its oversized head.

It was warm. They comforted one another. Opal got hungry so she turned and she went home.

She jumped when she heard rustling. She gazed back and saw the blue grey snake creature following her.

“Oh, it’s you. Look, you can’t follow me home.”

It tilted its head. She walked. It followed her. She stopped and it stopped as well.

She gazed at it with an irate gaze.

“Don’t you understand?”

It huffed and licked her hair. She giggled.

“Ok, but behave.”

She returned home and her mother smothered her with hugs and kisses. The beast stuck its head in the doorway looking at them.

“Opal, don’t run away ever again.”

“Ok, momma.”

Ms Apple-bottom let her go and that is when she noticed the beast and its oversized head in the doorway.

She blinked.

“Opal, is that a dragon?”

Opal squinted at her mother.

“A drag-what?” she asked.

“A dragon! Where did you find it and where is its mother?”

“Its mother had to leave it. And it followed me home. It was sad.” 

“Opal we can’t keep a dragon! They eat brownies!”

“But it didn’t eat me, you or the brownie gang.”

Opal’s mother stared dumbfounded. They had always been taught dragons ate brownies; so, how come this one was different?

“Please momma. It’s my friend. It helped me when the brownie gang was hurting me. Let it stay.”

Opal’s mother watched as it snaked into her little home and sniffed around. It found an apple pie and it swallowed it whole. It vomited back up the tray. She grimaced. Something that large would need lots of food and poop a lot. But so did her daughter and they managed, somehow.

“Fine, but it sleeps outside at night.”

Opal smiled.

“Thank you, momma.”

The tall girl hugged her stout mother. The dragon put its head on top of them and curled its body around them. Mother Apple-bottom sweated.

“What is it doing?” she asked nervously.

“It’s just giving us a hug,” said Opal.

After a week staying with the dragon Opal had named it Daisy because it liked eating those flowers from her momma’s garden beds. It was two heads taller than her when she found it but, in the week, she had found it; it had grown twenty pounds. 

They had read dragons grew to be the size of human houses. And it was only the size of a baby deer at the moment.

Daisy would start the day by waking up Opal by scratching at her window. Then they would hike before she returned to bath.

Opal woke one day. She felt a heaviness in the depths of her gut. Something was wrong. There was a scream; it was Cherry.

“MONSTER!”

She got up and changed before looking out her window…

Daisy was not outside.

She ran to Daisy’s house. Opal saw Daisy eating the daisies and carnations on Ms Birch-blossom’s lawn.

The brownie village had gathered around daisy and stared at Daisy in trepidation.

The chief said: “Get rope, men! We will tie it up!”

Sonny and the brownie gang circled it, like they had Opal in the past and they threw a rope up Daisy’s back. Daisy growled in irritation. Sonny punched the beast and it tried to push him.

The men wrestled Daisy down and tied it down. It wailed and then Sonny pulled a snapdragon and forced it into its mouth. Daisy wailed. Opal shook as Daisy looked at her and wailed.

.

Cherry and all the women praised the men. Ms Apple-bottom realised her girl was not home and she did not see her giant pet. So, she went to find them. She saw Pa and the brownie men harassing the dragon. Pa took an axe and swung at Daisy. Daisy cried.

Opal grabbed the axe from her Pa.

“No, leave Daisy alone.”

“Daisy?” said Cherry.

She pushed off Sonny and kicked away the other men. Pa’s brown hair waved as he shook his head.

“Daughter? What are you doing? This is a dragon.”

“It doesn’t matter. It is my friend and t’s the only creature other than my momma that doesn’t think I’m not the perfect brownie.”

She hacked away the rope and removed the snapdragon from its face. Daisy cowered behind Opal’s green stockings.

The brownies stared at them. Ms Apple-bottom tried to go to her baby but she was prevented by Opal’s Pa.

“See, Ms Apple-botttom! This is why we was never meant to take a strange babe from the forest! Now, she has brought a dragon into our community!”

“Pa?”

“Do not call me, Pa. I am not your Pa and your momma is not your momma! We found you as a babe, ten years ago in the meadow. I told her to leave you there but she wanted a babe!”

Opal was dumbfounded.

The chief spoke: “You are probably not even a brownie! Look how tall you are! And your Pa and Momma are not married so you obviously not a product of their union, even your Pa has admitted.”

“I don’t care if she’s not a brownie and that she could be an elf! She is still my babe.”

“She has always caused trouble for us! She should let the monster go or if she doesn’t, she can take it and find her people,” said Sonny.

Her bully unjustly accused her and she held up her head.

“Then leave for the outlands I will.”

Her momma tried to leave with her but her Pa gave her the hairy eye.

“Let the girl go. You have done enough for her.”

The chief told her never to return. She took her bag, which only had a shawl and enough to eat for the afternoon, for her and Daisy. She crunched the grass with her boots as they chanted her away.

“Tall girl, tall girl…. kills all the bees.”

But this time she dd not cry. She had s friend. Her and Daisy left the brownies and the caribous and went to the Outlands, to discover what were these elves that were mentioned to her.