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Hollow Tree Village.
Contributed by
bernard2
on
Monday, 25th July 2005 @ 10:44:23 AM in AEST
Topic:
oops
|
A long straight road that ran for miles, here and there were farms to the left and the right of the road. Cows and sheep were quietly grazing in the fields alongside. At last the sign post that I had been waiting for came in sight, Written in large black letters on a white background, ‘Hollow Tree Village,” then five miles. This was the signpost that I had been looking for. Here I had made arrangements to meet a man that had advertised that he was a Fairy Tale storywriter and translator he was looking for work. All of my Fairy Tales are written in English and this man had promised over the phone that he would translate my Fairy Tales first into German and then into French.
I arrived at the village and soon found the house that I was looking for. The house had seen better days and needed some fresh paint. The windows were dirty and looked as if they had not been cleaned in a long time. My impression was that the person that lived in this house was either very poor or was not interested in the upkeep of the house. There was an old Oak tree in the garden and like the house it looked rather odd. I then noticed that the tree was covered in mistletoe. Mistletoe is a plant that lives off and in trees. In time the mistletoe would kill off this Oak. The garden was untidy and full of weeds it was only the colouring of some of the weed flowers that gave the garden a rather piteous look.
As I got to the door and was going to knock, the door opened and a man rather dark in appearance greeted me. “My name is Walther Margineaux, I am the writer of Fairy Tales.” You must be Mr. Shaw; I have read some of your works on the Internet, “You write for the Y.P.D.C (Your Poetry Dot Com.)” “Yes,” I said. Rather surprised I did not expect to find such a thing as a computer it was too modern and somehow did not go with the house.
Inviting me in to the house the man showed me into a rather shabby room there was dust everywhere. A small fire burned in the grate and over the fire hung a copper cauldron. The last time I had seen cauldrons like this in use was in Hungary where I was given a delicious meal of Goulash. I thought it rather strange to see such a cauldron here in Great Britain. On a shelf was a mortar and pestle the kind one sees in the Chemist’s shop. I was by now feeling rather uneasy. I did not trust this Mr. Margineaux here was all the makings of a Sorcerer’s den. I decided to be very careful as to what I told him about Fairies and my Fairy knowledge in particular. “Have you any of your manuscripts with you Mr. Shaw?” “ No I replied I just wanted to talk to you about terms.” “How much do you charge per line and do you add illustrations to my work?”
He then told me about his charges for translating; they were absolutely ridiculous the man had no idea of what it costs to have even a page translated, let alone a whole book. I told him that I was agreeable for him to translate my Fairy Tales and that I would bring him a copy of all my Fairy Tale manuscripts the next time that I came to visit him. After a few more words of conversation I left him standing in his front doorway looking after me as I got into my car and drove off.
In the village I had an impulse to stop at the local shop, it was one of those shops that seem to sell everything. Jars of sweets a couple of shelves with packaged sweets and chocolates, eggs milk and butter, newspapers and glossy magazines. The Lady behind the counter greeted me friendly enough and I asked her if Mr. Margineaux was a customer of hers. “Never heard that name,” she said. “Where does he live?” I explained the house with the old Oak tree to her and she said, “That house has been empty for years, are you sure you have got the right house?” I bought a newspaper and a bar of chocolate and left the shop bidding the Lady good day.
On reaching home I walked to the woods and sat myself down beneath one of the Yew trees. I did not have to wait long a group of Fairies came along to play. I asked one of them to take a message to the Fairy Queen Feeana for me. Queen Feeana came as she always did with a bright flash of light and a small whiff of smoke. I told Her Majesty my experience with the man Margineaux. Her Majesty took out her famous Magic Mirror, “Ah yes, now I see him Margineaux.” “ An old acquaintance of mine he has tried several times to get the Fairy secret of Wand Making.” “ The last time I punished him for his evil ways I turned him into a donkey.” “The spell has worn off and he is up to his old tricks again.”
Her Majesty took a golden ring from her finger and spoke some words in the old language, the ring she gave to me saying,” This will protect you from all harm for one whole year.” Her Majesty disappeared as she had come and I watched the Fairies at their play for a while and then went home to my bed, it had been a long day and I was tired.
In the morning as I awoke I found on my pillow a short story written by Her Majesty. There was a covering note telling me to get Mr. Margineaux to translate it into German. I read the short story and it gave a detailed description of how to make a Magic Wand. I was very surprised at this and wondered why Her majesty had gone into such detail. Then I saw that two of the ingredients did not belong to the formula for wand making. The Queen knows what she is doing I thought to myself and drove back to the village of Hollow Tree. The Sorcerer Mr. Margineaux was waiting for me and I gave him the story that the Queen had given me and asked him to translate it first into German and I would pick the story up at the weekend.
I hid first my car and then myself. I climbed into the old Oak tree and watched all that Mr. Margineaux did. He read the story then started getting the herbs ready to make the spell he had no mistletoe in the house and came to the Oak tree and I though now he is bound to see me. As he climbed the tree to get his mistletoe the ring from the Queen on my finger went all warm and I could not even see myself. He cut the mistletoe with a sickle and went back into the house. He soon had his mixture to the right temperature and saying the magic words he poured it over two wands that he had made ready.
The effect as he raised one of the wands was so funny that I almost fell out of the Oak tree. The wand gave out a brilliant flash and the sorcerer turned into a donkey. I scrambled down from the tree and opened the door and let the donkey out into the fields. Here it happily grazed away as if he had done nothing else all of its life.
I took the second wand that he had made and took it carefully back to the woods where Her Majesty was waiting for me. I told Her Majesty what I had seen and the ring turning me invisible and what happened when the Sorcerer Mr. Margineaux had used the other wand that he had made. Her Majesty smiled and said, “This time he will be a donkey for a lot longer than when I turned him into an animal. Magic that one performs on oneself is extra strong and I am afraid that he will eat grass for many years to come.”
Copyright ©
bernard2
... [
2005-07-25 10:44:23]
(Date/Time posted on
site)
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Re: Hollow Tree Village.
(User Rating: 1 )
by MorningDove on
Monday, 25th July 2005 @ 08:31:41 PM AEST
(User
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a Message)
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Ah Berne, will people never learn that when you try to trick others, it is you that gets tricked in the end? Some people just never learn from past mistakes it seems. Lovely story for the young ones to learn from. We thank you with hugs and kisses to you and Martha.
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