The Golden Pear [YA - Featured]

♫~Notes 18~♫

The next morning, Freya traveled by bus to the school, reading inside for the first time.

'Whose notebook is this?' She checked the cover again, but there was no name or tag. The paperclip seemed to hold something, but it was gone.

She opened it, not recognizing the handwriting, yet it looked familiar. Her eyes trailed to the characters. It wasn't a diary, otherwise, she would never read past the first few lines.

'I wonder if this person visits the library regularly. Maybe I should make a poster about finding this.' Her eyes found the first lines.

There, in the forest where bushes were the thickest, and the trees were the tallest, lay a village. It wasn't a village like any you could see. It was tiny. The houses were made of dirt, leaves, and sticks and small as one's palm.

Freya smiled, as it had been a long time since she had read a children's book. 'Just who could have such a gentle story?'

One huge tree hosted many houses inside its hollow trunk as well. But who would live in such a small place? Dwarves? Sprites? Fairies? No, they were Brownies.

The girl giggled as an image of the chocolate cake came to her mind, but the messy and small scribble at the edge of the page ensured her they were small imps or cute gremlins.

There were tens of them. All tiny and small as a hummingbird. Even their noses were pointy, as if they kept poking it where it didn't belong. Their ears didn't fall behind. Some small like leaves and some long like rabbit ears.

They lived day by day in their small houses, collecting raindrops, nuts, and berries. They were happy. There were no problems in their lives. Their Chief watched over them.

However, the Chief wasn't the highest-ranked among them. One Brownie stood higher than any Brownie in the houses. This one stood so high he could touch the sky. That's how high his house was. Away from everyone on the ground. So close to the clouds.

This Brownie had a name like no other Brownie. They called him Azure, for he counted the stars. Other Brownies before him counted the stars. Because he counted the stars, Azure was sleeping during the day, not knowing what sunshine meant.

Each evening, the Chief would come, saying, "Count the stars, like your father, and his father, and his father before you."

Azure would nod. "Yes, I'm counting stars this night." And so Azure stared at the sky, counting stars.

Night by night, he would stand and count. How many nights did he count? He lost the count of that, but never the count of the stars.

One stormy night, he couldn't count, so he sat outside of his house under a leaf umbrella, waiting for the clouds to clear.

"Why does Azure wait?" he asked, with nobody to answer him.

Only the Chief came to visit him. But the Chief only said to count the stars. The Chief said nothing else. The Chief never stayed to talk with Azure.