The Girl and the Green Horse.

Elspeth had to concede, in many ways she was a very lucky child. She lived in an old, creaky house on the edge of town, stained brown from the smoke of factories that had long since been closed down, far away from the other children who lived in her town. She rarely had visitors, being that her house was a long walk away from the others and her father was not very welcoming to guests. As a result, Elspeth spent a lot of time on her own.

In this way, Elspeth conceded, as she absent minded stroked Crystal’s mane, she was a very lucky child. She had the best friends in the world, ones that would never leave her. She looked into Crystal’s diamond yellow-eyes and remembered meeting her for the first time. She‘d met Crystal when she was six, playing in the Garden. She was trying to play catch when crystal appeared. It’s difficult to play catch on one’s own and simply throwing it up in the air and trying to catch it again was getting boring. She’d been standing near a tree when she first met crystal, wondering what to do next.

“y’know, if you throw the ball at that tree, it’ll come right back so you can catch it.” Said a voice she did not yet know.

“oh.” She said quietly, and then, after a moment’s though replied, “Thank you.” She threw the ball at the tree. It hit the trunk and bounced back at her, making her move a little to the left to catch it.

“That really works!” She smiled, turning to her right. If she had been a little older, then what she saw would have shocked her; a mint green pony, standing about three foot high with an ice white main and yellow eyes that shone like diamonds. Elspeth, at the age of six, had to concede, she’d never seen a mint green pony before in her life, certainly not in her experience, but right now there was a three foot high mint green pony standing right next to her, looking up at her expectantly.

“What’s your name?” Elspeth asked politely.

“I’m called Crystal.” The pony replied with a smile on ers face, or as much of a smile that a horses muzzle would allow.

“I’m called Elspeth.” Elspeth said, holding the ball up to her chest. They looked at each other for a second, and finally, after a little consideration, Elspeth asked “Would you like to be my friend?”

The horse’s smile widened. “I would like that very much!”

Elspeth dropped the ball and took Crystal’s hoof. “We’re going to be the best of friends!” Elspeth exclaimed, forgetting the ball. And from that moment Elspeth and Crystal had been inseparable, playing together every day, whether it was sunny outside, exploring the Garden, or inside, stifling quiet giggles in the book-room as they travelled to all the places on the globe together. Elspeth may have grown in the two years since she met crystal, but Crystal didn’t seem to change yet was always just as she was; Crystal was happy when she was happy, sad when she sad, and yet always knew what to do or say to make her better again.

Elspeth didn’t really have many friends, apart from Crystal. There was the housecat, Tiger, which occasionally curled up with Elspeth, and Crystal’s friends, Chocolate the dark Husky puppy who was taller than either Elspeth or Crystal yet was always gentle and careful and the Blue Swallow called Indigo, who liked to sit on her shoulder and shimmered in the light like a mirage in the distance. However, she was still satisfied with her life, even though there were things that made her sad, because she had such fantastic friends.

Her father, however, did not approve. Elspeth’s father was a severe man, tall, imposing, with a shadow about him that made one shiver when he came near. Elspeth didn’t have a mummy like other children – her father told her that her mother had died when she was too young to remember her and Elspeth had accepted this with barely a consideration, because her father was a very clever man and she was not. She didn’t see him very much – he worked late and when he was home he always seemed angry with her so she didn’t go near him if she could help it. There was Jadzia who her Father hired to clean and make Elspeth breakfast and tea, but Jadzia had little time for Elspeth and always seemed rather cold and grumpy. Elspeth learnt quickly to keep quiet around her. In fact, Elspeth was a rather quiet child, quiet at school, never put her hand up, barely whispered her presence at registration, and played on her own, silently every break time, never looking anyone straight in the eye.

Today, however, was a rainy Sunday; no school, Jadzai was out doing shopping in the town and her father was in his office. She sighed, watching the rain fall down the window, leading her fore-head on the glass. “What should we do?” Elspeth asked Crystal, “I really wanted to go out and play today!”

“It’s raining so much it’s practically an ocean,” added Indigo, “I should know, I’ve been sailing all over the world in my time!”

“Pah. You’ve never sailed, Indigo” Piped up Chocolate, lying under the Kitchen table.

“I have!” puffed indigo, indignantly.

“Swallows never go far from Shore! Everybody knows that”

“Yes they do! I’ve sailed ten thousand miles!”

“Haha, unlikely…all by yourself?” Chocolate chortled.

“I never said I sailed by myself!” Indigo replied, rolling her eyes, “I was a sailors pet for twenty years! Pirates kept Parrots, sailors kept Swallows, and the occasional rat!”

“Eww!” Elspeth giggled, wrinkling her nose in disgust, “that’s horrible!”

“Rat’s can be very personable if you’re polite! Very clean creatures, clever too, often too clever by half! I lost my tail feathers to one once!”

“How?” asked Elspeth.

“I might have been gambling against one!” Indigo admitted, and then fixing her a stern look in the eye, she told Elspeth “Remember, never to trust a rat to be a fair croupier – they cheat at cards.”

“What’s a croupier?” asked Elspeth.

“Oh, Indigo, don’t tell her those tales!” Tutted, Crystal, shaking his head, “She doesn’t need to know about your sordid past! Tell us about the time you sailed to the Island of Princesses!” Crystal then turned to Elspeth, “Sweetie, a croupier is a person who deals cards when you gamble. But gambling is bad – do you remember what your father said about Gambling?”

“He said that only bad people gamble.” Elspeth said sadly.

“Oh Poo! He’s wrong! Now, do you want to hear my tale or not?” Indigo interrupted.

Elspeth clapped her hands together. “Of course! Let’s go to the book-room and tell the story there! I can take the story book out and write the story down!”

“Great idea!” added Indigo, as Chocolate rolled his eyes. They ran upstairs as quietly as possible, and went into the book-room, closing the door behind them. The book room was just a box room but someone had lined the walls with shelves, and books filled almost all the shelf space. The books were all old ones that smelt musty, like dust and vinegar with long forgotten stories in them. There was an old, uncomfortable wooden chair in the room, but Elspeth picked up the moth-eaten bear on the chair and sat on that instead. Indigo flew into the room, perched on top of the chair and waited expectantly as Chocolate padded in, cuddling up with Elspeth, whilst Crystal, sitting on her back legs, make herself comfortable. Elspeth removed the loose sideboard plank and pulled out a faded red exercise book, the cover lovingly glued with Glitter and sequins. She turned past the past stories and brightly coloured pictures crudely drawn in fountain pen and crayon until she reaches a clean new page, smoothing it out.

“Ready Indigo?” Crystal asked.

“I’m always ready! Now, we’re telling the story of Princess island, right? Well, I used to be the pet of a girl called Rachel, but when she was your age she ran away from home to join a ship and go on grand adventures. But Y’see, back then, women weren’t allowed to be sailors, so she dressed up as a boy and cut her hair short. She went to the ships’ captain and told him that her name was Rodger and she wanted to go on Grand adventures, travelling to foreign lands and discovering new ones! The Captain of the ship agreed and gave her twenty pounds in advance – a full month’s wages! Rachel kept half of it for a rain day and with the other half she bought herself a pet to keep her company – that would be me! I’d been kept in a cage up until she bought me, so the first thing she did was to ask me if I wanted to travel and go on adventures. I said yes and immediately she let me out and told me to stay close to her. We were both new to adventures you see and both girls, and, well, two heads are better than one…”

“What did she look like?” Elspeth interrupted.

“Wh…what?” Indigo stuttered, losing her thread.

“What did Rachel look like?” Elspeth asked again.

“Oh, a lot like you, actually. She was a pretty blonde thing, with bright Green eyes and a beautiful smile.” Indigo grinned, “she was fierce as well! I remember one time when the ship was attacked by pirates, she fought off their attack all on her own! Very Clever too, she knew things I still don’t understand!”

Elspeth smiled. “Still, tell us about princess island!”

Indigo cleared her throat. “Right! Well, after a thousand days and nights, travelling the sea and fighting pirates and monsters and all sorts of things, the ship finally arrived at princess Island! Now, Princess Island turned out to be named ironically because on Princess island, there was no Princess. She’d disappeared seven years earlier, stolen by a wicked duke who hated the king of Princess Island and his wife. This had made the King very sad and for the last seven years he’d be distraught, trying to find his princess which made him very angry whilst his wife was always ill, hidden away in a tower with no windows or doors. When Rachal arrived the Island was in even worse trouble – the Duke, angered by the King’s refusal to give the Island over to him, had got a wizard to curse the Island and now a Big Dragon lived in the Forrest that ate up people who tried to go in. This made the King even more sad, and now all he did was sit in this throne-room reading books with no pictures.

“Well, Rachel, being a helpful sort of Girl, went to the palace and asked why the king was sad. He told her it was because he’d lost a daughter and a Dragon was gobbling up all his friends! Rachel was sad that the King had lost his daughter, but she couldn’t do much about that. But, she perked up, she could kill the Dragon. The king laughed bitterly. He did not believe a child of her age and size could kill a Dragon as evil and bad as the one that lived in the Forrest. She told him that she would try anyway, and the King, seeing that she was not joking, sat up strauight to attention.

‘You? kill a Dragon!’ The King exclaimed.

‘Yes, your sire, I will kill the Dragon that haunts that Forrest. Not only that, but I will bring you a claw as proof!’ Rachel said boldly.

“And so the king, amazed, gave her a suit of Armour and a big sword. Rachel accepted them, but I told her she didn’t need the suit of armour as it’d slow her down. We sat and concocted a plan. At Dusk we went to the Forrest, sword in one hand, splintered wood in a bag on her back. She had been in the forrest for barely ten minutes when the Dragon appeared, and my, what a fearsome beast! Even more fierce and Ugly than Chocolate!”

“Hey!” Chocolate barked, ears pricking up, “I’m not Ugly! Crystal, tell Indigo not to be nasty!”

“Indigo, Chocolate was right, that was a horrible thing to say!” Crystal snapped, “Now apologise to Cjhocolate!”

“Why! I was just trying to tell the story how it’s always been told!”

“Indigo, that story has not always included a part about Chocolate,” Crystal said sternly, “now be nice or else I’ll pull your tail feathers out!”

Indigo was quiet a second before she muttered, “okay.” Then, re-composing herself, she returned to the story, “Now, that Dragon, he was as big as a house and covered in Brown slimy scales that dripped ooze from every pour and smelt like Jadzia’s meat stew! His eyes were as cold as headlamps and he breathed out fire that smelt like the super glue your daddy uses on his shoes! He was an angry beat, always yelling and hitting, always screaming and breaking the Forrest. When he saw Rachel he stopped in his tracks and roared like the trains going by the playground breathing out a fireball. Rachel ran fast and I flew fast, both of us ducking and diving from him, his tail thrashing about and almost knocking Rachel out a few times. He almost hit me once, but I was too fast, flying up high so I could see everything! Rachel was on the ground, too tired to run any more when the dragon caught up with her, crawling along so close to her that their eyes met…that was went Rachel followed through with our plan. As Quick as a flash she pulled a splinter out of her bag and plunged it into the dragon’s eye! Blood flew everywhere, the Dragon screamed and cursed as it slowly tried to figure out what had happened. Rachal climbed up the snout and before the Dragon could close its other eye, she slammed in another splinter! The Dragon screamed and screamed in pain, thrashing about and stomping around, but unable to move. Rachael took her chance. She held the sword up and as the Dragon swung around, it impaled itself on the sword! Rachel, with all her strength, pushed the Sword into the Dragon, cutting its head off. It was finally dead!”

Chocolate was visibly shivering and muttering under his breath about how horrible the story was. Crystal, on the other hand, sat their, her Diamond eyes shining like glass.

Indigo took a breath and continued. “So, Rachel, after she’d caught her breath and I’d rejoined her, used the sword to cut off a claw and returned to the city, covered in Dragon’s blood and Mud. As she walked through the town, dragging the sword behind her, the townsfolk were unsure whether to celebrate of be shocked that such a small child killed a Dragon where the finest knights the Island had to offer couldn’t. Rachel went into the Palce and gave the claw to the King, who eyes lit up, and for the first time in seven year’s he smiled.

‘Thank you, young one, for killing the Dragon!’ he grinned, ‘I will reward you in Jewels and gold!’

The King then took Rachel to the tower with no windows or doors, and showed her how only a royal touch could open the tower. Rachel touch the cold stone and to her surprise, it opened up! It turned out that Rachel was the Princess of the Island, but had been sold by the duke to a horrible man who hated children! The Queen, on finding this out instantly got better, the King became a happy, nice man who always laughed and smiled and the Island became a happy place again! Rachel became the Princess and when she became Queen, the Island had a happy rule for all her life! So that concludes that Tale of Princess Island!”

Elspeth finished the sentence and clapped out loud. “Well done Indigo! That was a great story!”

“I dunno…it was too bloody!” Chocolate moaned.

“You were scared!” taunted Indigo.

“No I was not!” Chocolate objected, angrily, “I’m never scared!”

“You were scared!” Elspeth giggled.

“Was not!...Well, maybe a little!” Elspeth laughed, Indigo joining, even Crystal laughed, despite herself.

Soon all of them were in fits of giggles, laughing at nothing, because they felt like it.

However, it was just as Elspeth was getting into full swing that the door slammed open.

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS NOISE!” Her father screamed.

Elspeth shut up very quickly and started to edge into the cornor.

“ANSWER ME!” He yelled.

“N…n…nothing…” Elspeth whispered, holding her arms over her head.

“I TOLD YOU TO NOT MAKE NOISE!” He shouted as he grabbed her arm, nails biting into her arm through the skin, “HOW DARE YOU DISOBEY ME!”

Elspeth, hanging a full foot off the ground, was paralysed with fear. It was then her father spied the exercise book on the floor.

“What’s this?” He sneered, dropping her to the ground.

“N..n…no…” She whined under her breath.

“A bunch of childish scribble and silly stories!” He growled. Elspeth made sure that she kept quiet, barely even breathing now. He then proceeded to tear the book in half.

“NO!” Elspeth shouted, unable to stop herself.

Her Father pushed her down with his foot and hissed, “You NEVER tell me what to do! Now go to your room!” Elspeth, still scared, felt herself unable to move. “GO TO YOUR ROOM!” He roared, but as she scrabbled up to her feet he grabbed her arm and dragged her along the corridor, the carpet burning her legs, opened the door to her room, then threw her in like a Rag doll.

Elspeth waited for the door to slam before going to her bed and curling up underneath the covers. It was only then, once the covers had started to heat up, that she allowed herself to dry sob.

“There there sweetie” She heard a voice say, “I’ll always be here for you…” Elspeth looked up and saw Crystal, standing over her, hooves on the bed. Elspeth moved over, allowing Crystal to crawl in next to her, and held her close.

“Thank God I’ve got you, Crystal” Elspeth breathed out, so not to make a noise, “I don’t think I’d survive without you…”

“Hush…” Cyrstal soothed, “I’ll look after you…”