Lili Gloom

In the deep dark forest lived a young fairy named Lili Gloom. Lili lived in the smallest and farthest tree in the forest. It wasn’t much but Lili never felt she needed much in life. She was not the only fairy living in the forest but she kept to herself and lived far apart from other fairies. Lili didn’t keep much in her home in fact everything that was not used would get immediately tossed out. Fairies slept most of the day and woke up around evening. This evening Lili opened her eyes and felt a sudden dread in her heart. She laid in bed for a while contemplating whether to get up or not. Most days were like this for Lili. It was as if life itself was at times too much for Lili to bear. At last Lili decided to get up from her bed.

First thing was first she must make up her cot. Then she headed to her cold pail of water and splashed some on her face. In the water she could see her reflection. Her long purple hair looked so unruly and her eyes looked sad. She decided to look away instead. On to her favorite thing to do: clean her house. Lily loved to tidy up her place and throw away anything she deemed trash. Since her house was so small it took only a few minutes to finish. While cleaning Lili found a journal she had been writing in and decided unexpectedly to throw it away too. She walked out of her house and walked for a few minutes until she found a perfect bush where she could hide this journal. Once the journal was off her hands Lili felt better. Writing down her feelings had also felt like too much to bear and she regretted it immediately. The sky was starting to change colors from a blue to a pink hue. As Lili made her way back to her house she couldn’t help but feel someone was watching her. She looked all around but saw no one. She decided to head home and start working on her tools. Lili was a toolmaker for the fairies in her tribe. She loved her job because it meant she could work on her own from her house. The only time she needed to leave her house was to fetch water or look for materials.

Back at the bush where Lily hid her journal stood a fairy named Jay. Jay had been staring at Lili from far away when she hid her journal. Jay had been intrigued by Lili for a while now. He wanted to know more about her but she rarely left her house. The other fairies warned him that she was not a friendly one. The other fairies believed that Lili thought she was above them, her behavior indicated to them that she was a stuck up who did not care to talk to them. Jay had heard all of this but still he could not help but be intrigued by this girl who had picked the tree furthest from everyone else. Why would she pick this tiny little tree? Why would she go days without going outside and smelling the night air? How could she be on her own for so long without at least trying to make friends? Jay wanted all these questions answered and he knew that only she could answer them. Now, at his feet lay this book. He was certain this book was a journal, Lili’s journal, so he grabbed it and hurried to a secret spot to read it.

Lily started to work on her tools. Tonight she had an order for a special hammer which required a special kind of twig which you could only find near the water stream. She got her bag and headed out. As she made her way she saw the bush where she had hid her journal. She was going to walk past it but something told her to look through it. As she reached it she realized that someone had dug up her journal. The ground was disturbed and there was no sign on her journal. Lili felt as if her head had been dipped in cold water, she remembered what she had written in her journal and did not want anyone to read it. She looked at the ground and decided to track whomever took her journal. She hoped it was an animal, none of the fairies really went to this part of the forest. She quickly found that there were just one other set of footprints besides her own. It was a fairy footprint and this fairy’s footprint looked like it was a male fairy. He also looked like he was in a hurry after digging up that journal. Did he know what he was doing when he took it? Why would anyone want to read someone else’s journal? Lili felt angrier as she followed this stranger's footprints. As she followed the footprints she realized she was heading to a place she had never seen before. There were seashells laid out across the floor and they seemed to be arranged in a fence like manner. The footprints took her all the way to the largest seashell and there she saw someone sitting down and reading her journal. Lili took out a hammer from her bag.

“Stop right now!” Lili was shocked at the loudness of her own voice. Her anger took over at this moment and she wanted nothing more than to intimidate this person into doing what she asked. Jay stood up and the journal fell to the floor. It was her, it was Lili standing in front of him. Jay could not believe she had found him at his secret hideout. She was very angry by the looks of it.

“I have stopped. How did you find me?” Jay could not help but smile at Lili. While she did look threatening with a hammer in her hand and crazy eyes she also looked absolutely beautiful with her purple hair and stunning face.

“Throw me that journal! Now!” Jay reached down and held the journal in his hands.

“So this is yours?” Lili remembered she had been very careful not to write any of her information in the journal in case anyone ever found it. But now by doing this she was essentially saying it was hers. “You’re Lili Gloom right? My name is Jay, Jay Tig.”

“Okay Jay, why do you have my journal? Why did you dig it up from the bush and bring it here?” Lili decided to own up to her journal and get it back no matter what.

“I saw you bury it in the bush and I got curious as to what it was. I had no idea it was a journal until I started reading it. Forgive me for asking Lili but is everything you wrote in there true? Is that really how you feel?” Lili finally put her hammer down and back in her bag. She felt like she wanted to run in the other direction and disappear from the forest.

“How about this Jay, you hand me back my journal and I won’t use my hammer on you?” Lili placed out her hand waiting for the journal. Jay grabbed the book and was going to hand it to Lili when he got an idea.

“Of course but can you answer my questions first?” Jay gestured to a seat next to him. Lili wanted to hit him with her hammer once more but decided against it. She was not the type of fairy that would hurt someone else, at least not physically. But getting closer did mean she might be able to snatch the journal away. She nodded yes to Jay and walked over to him. As she got closer she got a better look at him. Jay did not look familiar at all to her. This was odd since Lili thought she knew everyone from the tribe.

“How come I’ve never seen you before?” Lili asked Jay as she sat close enough to see her journal.

“I like to keep to myself. I also live here. Do you see that rock over there? I live right underneath that.” Lili could not believe what Jay was saying. No fairies that she knew of lived under rocks and certainly not this far from the tribe. Now suddenly Lili had questions.

“You live underneath a rock? Out here, why?” Jay looked away from Lili. He put her journal behind him and then laid on top of it. Now it would be that much harder for Lili to get it.

“Oh, so you have questions too now. Well, well” Jay smugly smiled and he looked at Lili. “I asked first so please answer me, is what you wrote true?” Now it was Lili who turned her head away from Jay. She thought of coming up with lies to tell him, why should she tell this thief anything. What good could come from coming clean to this stranger. These thoughts entered her mind and quickly affected her mood. She stood up surprising Jay.

“You know what Jay, you can keep that journal. I don’t want it or need it. That is why I threw it away, had I known someone was going to invade my trash I would have burned it instead” Lili walked away from Jay and headed back home. Lili could feel her mood changing and she feared this was the start of a couple of dark days ahead. Jay sat up in the seashell. He didn’t understand what had happened. He stared as Lili kept walking away from him, never turning around even once.

“Lili Gloom, you are full of doom. I must change this for you” Jay looked at the journal and began to read.