I woke up in the morning, feeling a little stiff, to the sound of someone playing. It took me a moment to remember I wasn't home, in my bed, but in a weird place with warm snow and goblins and witches. I squeezed my eyes shut more tightly, pulled my blanket up to my ears and tried to imagine myself home. Maybe it had all been a bad dream anyway, and I was only now waking up to the first day of December. Oh, please let it have been a bad dream. But there was the music, constantly flowing into my ears, that made it quite unlikely it had been a dream.
I opened my eyes. And sure enough, I really was in the strange land with warm snow, in a goblin village. I tried to locate the one playing... an instrument. I didn't recognize which one it was. I was pretty sure it was some kind of a wind instrument, but I wasn't musical enough to know, which one. Not to mention it could be one that didn't even exist in my world. I couldn't see anyone with any kind of instrument, so I got up and went looking for Hizi.
It wasn't difficult to find him. He was cooking something over a fire just outside his tree. Breakfast, I assumed. And there was another goblin there with him, playing a beautifully decorated pan flute.
"Oh, Cinnamon!" Hizi waved at me when he saw me, "Come here, meet Nani. She's a friend of mine."
She? She didn't look much different from Hizi, with her huge ears and nose and skinny limbs, and the greenish skin. Apparently I wasn't an expert in distinguishing goblin genders. Nani stopped playing the flute. For a moment it felt like something was missing from the air.
"Hello, Cinnamon", she said, "Nice to meet you. Hizi has told me so much about you."
"So much?" I said, baffled, "We just met yesterday."
"Yes, well, we have been up for a long time now. You humen apparently sleep for such a long time each night I don't know how do you have time for everything else."
She began playing again, and Hizi handed me some of what ever he was cooking over the fire. I sniffed it. It didn't smell good, but I thought it would have been rude not to eat it. And I was really hungry. The taste turned out not to be too bad. I was going to ask what it was I was eating, but I decided it might be better not to.
Our guide Squirrel from the day before appeared from somewhere and sat down on Nani's head, looking impatient. I guessed it wanted to continue our journey already. Nani lowered the pan flute again.
"So, where are you headed? This little guy apparently wants to get going already."
"We.." I began, chewing, "I don't know, actually. The Witch just told us to follow the Squirrel."
"You don't know where you're going?" Nani turned to Hizi, "Do you know where you're going?"
"Well, no, but I trust in the Witch to not send us somewhere that wouldn't be the right place to go", Hizi answered, looking a little embarrassed.
Nani shook her head a little, and continued to play, but stopped again after a few notes.
"I know where you should go", she said, smiling, "You should go to the Queen. If someone knows how to get you home, it's her."
"The Queen?" I asked.
"Yes, the Queen of White Island", Nani answered and lifted the flute back to her lips.
"How... How do I find this Queen?" Nani didn't answer, but she gestured to the Squirrel, that was now staring at us sitting on a rock on the other side of the fire. For a moment it looked approving, and then went back to impatient.
"I don't know much of Squirrels, but I think this one is already taking us to the Queen", I said, "And it wants us to go already. So let's go."
"I'll just go see what I'll need with me", Hizi said, and disappeared into his tree.
"I should go too. Lots of things to do today", Nani said and got up, "I wish you all the best."
"Thank you", I said, and she left.
The Squirrel was still staring at me from on top of the rock. I leaned towards it, but it jumped off, and ran away from me, stopping some ten meters away. It let out a sound, a little like it was singing. I tilted my head, got up and went after the Squirrel. When I reached it, it ran a little further again, still singing. I went after it again. It ran further again. It wants me to follow. I turned to look back, at Hizi's tree. It was almost invisible already. The Squirrel sang at me. I turned again and went after it.
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I just want to make one point about my bit of the story today. I am aware "humen" isn't a word. It's intentional.
Your bit yesterday had quite many bits that made me think "oh.." Like, oh, so she's 20. And, oh, apparently she does her Christmas cleaning and gets the tree three weeks before Christmas.
I will be looking forwards to what you come up with tomorrow.
I hope this one doesn't have as many typos in it as the last one.
~matu
PS. Oh, oh, your next topic is Independence. Sorry!
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