Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Many people stopped believing, believing it to be child’s play. Just because it can’t be seen doesn’t mean it can’t exist. You don’t need a child-like mentality to understand fairy tales. Hans Christian Anderson was an excellent storyteller, but he aimed so much towards an adolescent audience that his stories became mere lessons, not facts.

Hans had a good thing going, however juvenile his stories turned out. You can learn quite a lot from the world of magical creatures. Hardly anything is as it seems, and when you write about it as Hans did, it makes it harder to interpret, especially if your mind has developed past the youngest ages.

To clarify my point, I will provide a glimpse into an average incident of a heroic goblin. Now, goblins are nasty, playful little creatures. Most of them are pure evil and all of them are purely hideous. Just the sight of one of the grotesque creatures can justify why most don’t wish to stay in the magical world, but for those who don’t have that option, a goblin is just another creature to be tolerated.

As it were, this particular goblin, who preferred to call himself Walf for reasons only known to himself and possibly his mother, was anything but a creature to be tolerated. He was a terrible menace to all except those closest in relation: brownies, gnomes, and other goblins.

For this story, a little bit of background would be best appreciated. Before Walf came onto the scene, I should mention the reason for his appearance, for Walf was never one to appear without a good reason, something that he could later exaggerate and brag about to all who would listen.

In a small cottage on the outskirts of a small town like any other worked a brownie named Garrett. For the most part, brownies are greatly tolerable, being the gentler of all of the household spirits. Best known for their domestic skills and patience, brownies are often welcomed into homes, where they are expected to help with tasks around the house for free room and board. Being small by nature, most standing brownies don’t even reach the bottom of the knee on an average person. Thus, their size makes them more easily accommodating.

However, the brownie named Garrett was quite remarkably different from the normal brownie. Not only was he one-third taller than an average counterpart, but he was cranky, ill-tempered, and, worst of all, greedy. He never went a day without asking for more from those he served. More often than not, he was kicked out of service and forced to go door-to-door in search of a new home to work within.

That was how he came across the cottage. The people who lived in the cottage are unimportant. Their role in this story was only their desperation for the help of a brownie, leading them to take in Garrett, the greediest household spirit...