Last year, I wrote Dream Clover for NaNoWriMo. I met the 50,000 word minimum, but never finished the story. This year, I’m writing “The Pink Sylphide”, and I’m hoping to reach the end of the story as well as a 50,000 word minimum.
Day one ended with over 2,650 words written. The writing went well, although the characters don’t get any formal visual description. I can add this in later. It felt like if I tried to write it all down right now, I’d be slowing myself and making no progress.
So, what’s to know about appearances? Let’s see, faeries are small people shorter than an adult human’s hand. They have bug-like wings, and they wear clothing made from plants, such as leaves and flower petals.
Pixies are similar to faeries, but they have no wings, and their ears come to rounded points at the tops. They wear clothing made from materials such as woven cotton.
The cast of main characters is fairy big, as the main character is part of a seven-member ballet troupe. Since I haven’t written descriptions beyond hair color into the story, here’s a run-down for reference. All characters are teenage.
Adelina: A faery with short, pink hair. Her eyes are pink.
Limlim: A faery with orange hair of sadly-undetermined length. (Hopefully I can work this out soon!) Her eyes are orange.
Meri: A faery with long, green hair, and she wears is in a low ponytail. Her eyes are green.
Lilia: A faery with yellow hair. It’s long in the back, and bangs (fringe) in the front. Her eyes are yellow.
Noemi: A pixy with short, red hair. Her hair is almost shoulder-length. Her eyes are red.
Payan: A faery with blue, most likely short hair. Her eyes are blue.
Shannel: A faery with long violet hair. Although it isn’t mentioned, she wears a purple mushroom with pink spots as a hat. Her eyes are violet.
I’m using chapter titles purely as a way for me to keep track of sections during the writing stage. They are not intended to represent chapter titles for use.
The story begins here…
Curtain Call
The curtains opened, the cast stepping out onto the stage one final time. Leading the group danced a pink-haired fairy named Adelina. The small outdoors audience, a gathering of about 30, applauded to see the story’s victorious heroine reappear, wearing her tattered outfit from the final scene.
Following Adelina, the yellow-haired faery, Lilia, skipped across the stage, taking wide steps. She had played the heroine’s closest friend, providing strength to the heroine in the final scene. She took her place beside Adelina, the applause continuing.
Third to grace the stage had played the role of the villain, the heroine’s uncle. This costume included a raggedy beard, which the purple-haired fairy, Shannel, removed before taking her bows.
The actress playing the villian’s wingless lackey came out next, the group’s only pixy, the red-haired Noemi. She joined Shallel’s side, and the two took bows together.
After the applause began to settle, Adelina stepped forward. She looked across the crowd, and she smiled. “Let’s also recognize the great talents working hard behind the scenes to bring our production together. Limlim, our wonderful writer, come on out! Without you, we wouldn’t have stories to tell.”
The group’s writer stepped out from behind the curtains. The loud applause left the orange-haired faery’s face red, and she quickly bowed to hide it. Her body shook slightly as she wondered whether she’d bowed too long, but she couldn’t find the strength to stand upright again.
A hand set on Limlim’s shoulder. Noemi’s voice whispered to her, “Come on, let’s go.” With Noemi at her side, Limlim straightened up. The two walked to the end of the stage, passing by a blue-haired faery.
“Payan here,” Adelina continued without missing a beat, “designed all the costumes seen in today’s performance. Because of her, our stories are able to visually come to life. And Meri,” she said as a green-haired faery followed onto the stage behind Payan, “handled the choreography. We’d be standing around doing nothing the whole show without her ballet steps.”
The applause caused Adelina to smile again. After it subsided, she prepared for her final words of the show. “Every member of our troupe contributes a great amount to our performance, both on stage and off.” She turned to her friends at the edge of the stage. “I thank each and every one of The Sylphides for continuing to work hard and have fun. But most of all,” she added, turning and facing the audience, “I thank you, the viewers. It’s your kindness and your support that keeps us going. Our last performance in this town has been as lovely as every before it, and it saddens us to have to leave, but such is the life of a traveling ballet troupe. Our next appearance will be at the town edging the royal castle, and if all goes well, we’ll be performing before the Royal Family of Pixies.”
A final applause followed as Adelina walked across the stage, going down the steps at its side, following after her friends. She smiled at the others around her, and they smiled back. “This is it,” Adelina said to them. “There’s no turning back now.”
“Like we’d want to turn back,” Noemi said with laugh. She looked at the audience slowly breaking up, then back to her friends. “Our next show will be our biggest yet. We’re ready for it, right?”
“It certainly has been a challenging to write,” Limlim said. “Using a cast of seven for the first time is difficult to manage, especially considering one of us has to be off stage on an instrument any given scene. But don’t worry, it’s almost finished. I can handle a little story!”
“Costume designs are set,” Payan said in her low voice.
Meri added to this, “We’ve already contacted someone from the castle town who’ll make them for us, and for free at that. We’re the only ones who’ve contacted them for business for the contest. They welcome the publicity and advertising they’ll get when we credit them in the curtain call. And the routines are mostly sketched out. I’ll complete them once Limlim finishes drafting the story.”
“This really is going to be our best show yet,” Shannel said, bouncing up and down. “If the king and queen and prince haven’t heard f our group yet, they will once we give this next performance. They’ll be demanding to see our show, for sure!”
“Now, now,” Adelina said, putting a hand on Shannel’s shoulder to keep her from bouncing too much. “Let’s not be too eager.”
“You can take our eagerness,” Shannel called out, “but our enthusiasm remains unbridled!”
Lilia continued to smile as she listened to her friends.
The troupe worked out their plans for the following days. Limlim, Payan, and Meri would go ahead to the next down to finish the story and ensure the costumes would be ready in time. Lilia and Shannel would go with them to attract attention to their next act among the citizens there. Adelina and Noemi would pass through the forest on their way to the town, in search of extra materials needed for the planned costumes.
Occurrence in the Tower
A brown-haired pixy danced barefoot upon the stone floor of his room. He hummed a tune as he moved from side to side. Reaching the open window on the south-facing wall, he leaned against the stone still. He gave a sigh as he looked out from his tower room, seeing far across the land.
The setting sun color the distant houses red and purple. The stage and seating for the upcoming contest had been completed earlier that day, but the pixy could barely see it. “I wish I could watch the shows,” he muttered to himself. “I hope a ballet performance wins the contest.” He stood upright, and returned to fluidly moving across his room in dance.
It wasn’t long before the sun’s rays could barely light the land. The pixy lit a candle by this bed, then he readied his night gown. He danced his way across the room, and he opened his changing room door, bowing before it. He lifted his head and opened his eyes to see a figure standing there, and the pixy fell back in shock. Sitting up, he looked upon the figure wearing a hood and a cape. “Who are you?” the pixy demanded as he stood. “What are you doing in my changing room?”
“Please forgive me,” the visitor said. In a quick movement, he reached his gloved hand out, the glove’s magic allowing his hand to pass into the pixy’s chest. He pulled out he pixy’s heart, dropping it into a magical bag.
Not realizing yet what had just happened, the pixy fell to his knees, his hands clutching at his chest. “I don’t understand,” he said through his clenching teeth. “Why?”
“Don’t worry,” the visitor said softly, kneeling before him. “I won’t let you die, but I can’t let anyone find out about this, either.” He removed his glove, then placed his palm against the pixy’s forehead. “I truly am sorry. If only there were some other way…”
A sensation passed through the pixy’s whole body, taking away the pain in his chest with it.
“This way,” the visitor said, “you have a heart again. You’ll live. Isn’t that enough? To live?”
In the Forest
Their friends halfway to the castle town, Adelina and Noemi were far into the forest. They hadn’t had much success in finding costume supplies, but they expected better progress after sunrise. The two talked about performance plans while roasting red and purple berries over a campfire.
After their dinner, Noemi stretched, and suggested it was time for her to go to bed.
“But the moon has barely entered the sky,” Adelina said.
“One of us has to be up bright and early,” Noemi said, pouring a handful of dirt on the fire to calm it a little. Being a pixy, she lacked the wings to fly and travel distances in less time. “And besides, I need to prepare my bed, and I can’t do that with you looking over my shoulder the whole time. Don’t you have one of your night walks to go on?”
Adelina stood from the fire. “I’ll see you in the morning,” she said with a smile, then she walked away from Noemi and the campfire. She often took a lone walk at this time, using the time to think about things. Adelina would normally have left for her walk by now, but with only Noemi with her, Adelina didn’t want to leave her alone. She knew Noemi was making excuses to give her a chance to go on her walk.
After a few minutes of walking, Adelina came to an cleared area. The part in treetops revealed the night sky. Fireflies darted about overhead, adding to the light of the full moon and stars in the cloudless sky above. Adelina giggled as she watched the glowing bugs move. “If I tried flying in quick spurts like that,” she said aloud to herself, “my wings would tire in no time. I wouldn’t mind,” she continued. “I’m content to walk where I need to go. It may take longer, but I have more time to appreciate the scenery around me. There are so many things I don’t see flying by. It’s a shame for me to miss it all.”
Stopping to rest, Adelina took a deep breath in, then out. She looked at the bushes and trees all around. “It really is nice. It reminds me of home. It really is warmer here,” she said, her eyes watching the glowing bugs moving here and there. “I’m told the longs get hotter and colder here than they do back home. Is it true? That soon nights won’t get cool at all?”
Movement in the distance caught Adelina’s attention. Three far-off figured moved in the shadows. Certainly it wasn’t Noemi with anyone else. Curious, Adelina slowly lifted from the ground. Her wings moved only slightly, her body rising into the air. With her toes at thrice her height about the ground, Adelina slowly moved, quietly as she could, closer to the trio.
Down on the ground, two rat soldiers pushed someone into the base of a tree. Adelina had never seen such people before, but she had heard descriptions of rats, and the third person looked like he could be a toy. She looked carefully at the toy, barely able to make out a guard’s uniform, and a line down either side of his chin. Her concentration was broke when one of the rat soldiers spoke. The words were indistinguishable by Adelina, but she understood when they pulled out swords and set their ends against the toy’s uniform.
“Hey,” Adelina called out, “stop that!” She lowered herself halfway. “Leave him alone.”
The rats looked up at her, the toy’s stare remaining straight forward.
“Leeve,” one of the rats seethed in a raspy voice. “Goh bahk! Beh gohn!”
“I will not leave and let you hurt that toy,” Adelina said. “Why don’t you two leave him be?”
A dumbfounded look took place on both rats faces. The raspy-voiced scratched his head, as the other eagerly looked to him. After a moment, the raspy-voiced rat spoke to the other rat in the language unfamiliar to Adelina, and the other replied in the same language. The first tilted his head to the side, then the two scurried until a bush, into a burrow barely visible under the shadows.
Adelina descended, landing beside the toy. The toy had been leaning his back and his head against the tree, his arms dropping, his eyes looking forward. “Are you hurt?” Adelina asked. She motioned for him to stand upright, and the toy complied, pushing himself away from the tree. “You understood that?” Adelina questioned. “Are all toys familiar with ballet mime?” The toy looked at her, giving no response. “Can’t toys speak?” No response. “If you can’t tell, I don’t know anything about toys. But you can understand me, right?” The toy simply stood there, his eyes looking directly into Adelina’s. “You certainly do give your fullest attention. Just what were those rats doing to you? Oh my, where are my manners? My name is Adelina. Do you have a name?”
The toy stepped aside, then back. He lifted his arms, motioning over his head.
“The mime for a crown,” Adelina whispered to herself. “And the arm movement of a child. Young with a crown. A prince, not a king.” She asked the toy, “Are you named after a prince? Or does your name have the same meaning as prince?”
Still silent, the toy looked at Adelina. He did not move, giving no response.
“In that case, I’ll call you Prince. Is that all right? You don’t seem to be against it, I don’t think, so names are out of the way now. What were those two rats doing to you, Prince?”
The unchanging expression on Prince’s face remained still.
“Were you on a mission? Were you kidnapped? Were you taken from your home? I guess you can’t tell me if you can’t talk. Still, you do know ballet mime. Listen, I’m in this ballet troupe, and we’ll be performing near the pixy castle soon. Maybe even within the castle. After that, we plan to pass by the toy kingdom. You can join us, if you’d like. We put on all kinds of plays, conveying our stories through our ballet dancing. There’s no talking, except for some narrative from time to time, but that’s used sparingly. You can join the troupe until we reach your home. How does that sound? Do you like to dance? Do you know ballet?”
And arm raised from Prince, then a leg moved. He stepped back, lightly, giving a bow. He held out a hand toward Adelina.
“Are you asking me to dance with you?” Adelina said. “An audition?” She took his hand in hers, and followed his lead. As Prince danced in a show of ballet, he spoke no words, but as Adelina danced alongside him, she could feel his story. He awoke in the forest, kidnapped by the rat soldiers. He has no idea where he has come from or where he was going. Something is missing, but he doesn’t know what. He is uncertain, unguided, unambitious. He must find what he has lost, but knows no reason why he mus find it. The only thing he is certain of is dancing, but he cannot dance if he is alone.
Time passed as the two danced, and the length of night had begun to wear on Adelina. The two stopped their dancing duet, and Adelina sat against the side of the tree where she had first met Prince. She signaled for him to sit beside her, and he complied. “My troupe is already on their way to the town nearest the castle. If our show is deemed the best in an upcoming competition, we’ll have an audience with the king. The king may even help us contact your king, and I’m certain the toy king will help reunite you with your guard troop. Even if we don’t see the king, the toy kingdom is still the next stop on our itinerary. You can join our ballet troupe, and take part in the performance. You’ll be able to dance every day until you’re back home. Since Limlim will be taking part in our new show, she’s worked out two male roles, a first for our troupe. You can be a third. What do you say?”
No different from before, Prince only stared into Adelina’s eyes. No expression, no hint of a yes or a no came to Prince’s face.
“I’m going back to my camp now. It’s really late, and I’m tired. If you want to join us, find me and my friend Noemi over that way before the sun has fully entered the sky.”
Tags: NaNoWriMo