The Mountains of Wanderlily

Part 1: Before Vikings, lived the Mossykings. With the opening of a portal, all the magic of Wanderlily was exposed, along with the green wars…

It all began innocently enough, with a little girl's love of fairy gardens. Helgeena was eight, and eight is a perfect number in the world of Wanderlily. Many wonderful things are shaped like an eight there.

There are roads that loopty loop, just like an eight, all through the forest. Bushes are shaped in the form of eights. From above, wings of bees and other winged flighty friends, are shaped like an eight. Eight is just right.

Helgeenas grandmother made her a nice little fairygarden, at the base of a rather old and large tree, in her backyard. Every day in the summer, Helgeena could be found playing at the fairygarden. She liked to move the gnomes and the fairies around, creating grand schemes of “what if’s…” and “let's say…”.

One day, as she play, she heard a tick,tick,tick and a tack. Curious, she walked around the large, ages old tree to see what the noise could be. There was a feisty woodpecker, pecking away. Above the woodpecker, she could see a chipped round opening.

“What have you done, Mr. Woodpecker? You have pecked a hole through the poor, old tree?” She stood on her tippytoes, but she wasn't tall enough to poke her head into the dark hole.

Being eight, her brain was able to produce an awesome solution. Ladder. From a shed, she drug a stepladder to the tree. It was the perfect height, as her eight-year-old brain had already known it would be. Eight is great.

What Helgeena did not know, was that it wasn't the woodpecker that broke open a hole in the tree.

You see, in Wanderlily, it was the year of the manatee. A time when all the precious Gorleon Angels are born, suited perfectly to produce portals with their delicate, shimmering, gossamer fingers. Only when the likes of a human are needed, of course.

Helgeena leaned her head into the trees woody hole. It was so dark, but she could see a bright light at the bottom of the hole. She squirmed and pushed, until she squeezed her shoulders through. Much the way a baby is born, but scrambling backwards, as if the baby wanted back in.

A little too far in, her foot tipped the ladder over and away she went, down into the tree. At the bottom of the hollow tree, she conked her forehead on a bulky mass. Dizzily, she stood up and brushed off her clothes.

The light she had seen was actually a glow, around a round door in front of her. She reached out and tugged on a metal ring in the door. The light behind the door was so bright, she shielded her eyes with her small hands.

Once her eyes were settled for the scene, she was met with a treat for a nature lover. A cackling cauldron of velvety white bats, with mother of pearl wings, swooped down, and over her head in a greeting.

To her delight, a menagerie of bush sculptures was alive and frolicking past. There were green, bushy bears, puffy penguins, and grassy giraffes. A leafy frog hopped by, and she ran her hand along the soft, emerald green, of its topiary back.

A carved, wooden, decorative sign beside a dirt road, read Welcome to Wanderlily! Yes, Helgeena thought giddily, welcome me!

She skipped happily along the road, looking around at the unbelievable sight. Everything was riddled with green moss, algae, or grass. Green, green, green!

Even the tree trunks were organically packaged, with the soft, lime green fuzz. The lug of a topiary sculpture elephant blew his enormous, forest green, trunk horn at her, as he sauntered heavily past. Helgeena giggled and waved.

It wasn't until she rounded the bend, that things got serious.

A group of mossy faced soldiers were headed her way, on horses of a dark green, pine needle, magnificence. Red roses grew out where their mane and tail were supposed to be. Their eyes were made of purple grapes and the soldiers sat up straight, on beautifully hand-painted flowered saddles.

It was such a colorful and amazing sight, that Helgeenas mouth dropped open, and she was speechless, as they passed with regal staunchness.

Each soldier had different green facial hair. One had a bushy moss of a beard, trimmed round like a bush. One had a mustache of braided green vines. One had thick sideburns like broccoli.

All had gold metal, shiny helmets, and armor. Their boots were even a shimmering, metallic gold. She squinted, as the sun glinted off the armor, like gleaming mirrors. They were headed toward the white pearls of mountains in the distance. The mountains looked as if they were made of frosty, clear ice. Diamonds amongst a smudgy mist, of teal watercolor trees.

She watched as the horse's green, piney haunches, and red rose tails, galloped sturdily away. She looked around at all the animated, different sculptured bush animals, wondering if one would give her a ride. She knew she had to follow the soldiers. But she didn't quite know why…

Stay tuned, and look for Part 2 of: The Mountains of Wanderlily

Thanks for reading!