1st 5 Pages January Workshop - Goren

Name:  Jessica L. Goren

Genre:  Middle Grade; fantasy

Title:  Pollin Pals: The Power of Flowers

AT THE BEGINNING

It started just like any other day. The night creatures tucked themselves away in cozy dens and warm nests. The birds stretched their wings and sang their songs. The daytime animals shook off their dreams as they came out of their snug burrows. The bees buzzed, the ants marched and the butterflies flitted. As the dew-covered flowers opened their petals to welcome the sun, every drop of dew was full of rainbows from the first rays of sunlight. All was as it should be on a beautiful summer’s day. Or so everyone thought. 

Just like the day before the animals played, the ants dug tunnels and the sun climbed higher and higher in the clear blue sky. But just as the sun reached its highest point in the sky a sharp cold wind blew in dark clouds. The clouds flew across the sky until they hid the sun from the world below. Harsh crashes of thunder cracked overhead, lightning sizzled across the sky and the rain poured down. The branches of the trees bent under heavy pools of rain collecting on their leaves. Water ran down the hills into the streams, streams turned into rivers and rivers overflowed into ponds. Water flooded all the low lying places. The flowers turned into tiny teacups as their petals filled with rain.  And then, just before the sun was supposed to be marching off to bed, she burst through the clouds splashing purples and pinks and blues across the sky, chasing away the clouds before she fell below the horizon making room for the moon to rise. 

Up came the moon, full and bright, bathing the world in a soft silvery light. And then something happened that made this day NOT like every other day. When the moonlight hit the rainwater in the tiny teacups of flowers, the water began to bubble. Not a big rolling boil, but just tiny little blips of bubbles here and there. Then the bubbles floated out of the teacups. Above each flower a bundle of bubbles swirled around collecting the moon’s light. It was weird that these bubbles were hanging above each flower, as if they belonged there. These bubbles didn’t belong there. But there they were. Who can say why? Maybe it was because it was the longest day of the year. Maybe it was because the flowers filled with rainwater couldn’t close for sleep like every other night.  Maybe it was because the world was coated with the soft silvery light of the full moon. Maybe it was all of those things. Maybe it was none of them. But for whatever reason, there the bubbles were swirling above each flower, exactly where they didn’t belong. Then the bubbles did the oddest thing of all, even odder than just being there. Each group of swirling bubbles disappeared with a distinct pop and in their place was a tiny creature, with the body of a human, the wings of a dragon fly and the beauty of the flower from which they came. Each of the creatures gave a great big yawn and sank down into the flower from which they came, wrapped themselves with the petals and fell instantly to sleep.

When the sun came back the next day, her warm golden rays woke the creatures sleeping in the flowers. The creatures looked around, a bit confused. They looked at each other with their gossamer wings sparkling in the sunlight. One of the creatures looked down at herself.  She saw that her body was long and lean. Her arms, legs and body were a deep shade of purple. She reached behind her head and pulled her long thick hair over one shoulder and saw it was a bright yellow. Then she looked left and right and saw the other creatures were similar to her but as different from as each other as one flower is from another. She was surprised to see the others. She was not sure what to do. She coughed a little and thought maybe I should say something. So she said, Hello” in her most grown up voice pretending to be much braver than she felt, “my name is Erisa”. She wasn’t sure how she knew her name 

but it felt right.

The creature to Erisa’s right clasped her hands in front of herself, said, “My name is Sammy”. She quickly glanced down, her short black hair falling in front of her heart shaped face, hiding her large green eyes. Sammy was a tiny little thing. Her waist was narrow and she had long slender arms and legs. They were so thin they looked like little more than the stamen of the flower she came from. Her legs were deep green and her top half was a delicate pink that shone like the inside of a pearly shell. 

Before Erisa could look at the creature on her left he blurted out, “Pieter, that’s my name, if you want to know.” Compared with Sammy, Pieter was huge. His thick legs and arms were the woody brown of a maple tree’s bark. His chest and back were a bright red. Across his nose was a sprinkle of freckles and on top of his head was a shock of bright orange hair that almost glowed.

The last creature was iridescent blue everywhere. He seemed to sparkle wherever the sunlight hit him. Finally he said, “My name’s Zeki. Does anyone know where we are?”

The others shook their heads. “I was just floating in a flower full of water, waiting to blow away in the wind, when I woke up here,” Erisa said. “Me too,” squeaked Sammy.

“Well what should we do?” Zeki asked. 

They were quiet for a little while. Then Erisa perked up. “I think we should go explore.”

“Yeah, maybe we will find someone who knows what’s going on.” Zeki said. And with that, he started walking away. 

“Wait! Where are you going?” Sammy squealed “Shouldn’t we stick together?”

Zeki laughed. “That’s just silly. We’ll cover more ground if we each go alone. We’ll meet here when the sun is at its highest point and report what we’ve found.”

No one else seemed sure if this was the right thing to do but slowly each one wandered off in a different direction

ERISA

Erisa was annoyed. Here she was, brand new in the world and already alone. How did she know what she was looking for or even where to look? She didn’t know anything about this place. “What am I going to do now, and just who does he think he is taking over like that?” Erisa shouted as she kicked at an innocent stone that went arcing above the field.

“Who?”

“Zeki.”

“What?” 

“Taking charge and telling us what to do,” Erisa pouted.

“Good heavens child, what are you talking about?”

Erisa looked up with a start. Was the tree talking to her? “Who said that?” she demanded. She was very proud that her voice only quivered a little bit. It was then that she noticed two large golden eyes staring at her through the leaves of the tree.

Erisa flew up to the odd looking creature with huge eyes and soft gray feathers and said, “I’m Erisa a.”

“You may call me Owl.”

“Oh right, I knew that. Not to call you Owl, but that you are an owl. But wait, how did I know that?