I remember the day it happened. The big fire. It kept replaying in my mind like a horror movie- there I was reading my nature book whilst mum and dad were working in their rooms. I was reading about how plants grow, and suddenly I smelt smoke, burning near the kitchen! As soon as I felt the burning scent reach my nostrils, I dropped my book and raced into the kitchen. “Fire!” I screamed as I witnessed the gigantic, red flames engulf all the pots and pans as well as the tiled floor of the room.

My parents came running to me, hearing my scream and tried to extinguish the flames, but unfortunately failed. The fire was now licking the floor and edging towards us, and we had to run to not be burnt. A few hours later, the firefighters had arrived and wiped out all the flames, but they were too late, and our house had been burned to a crisp. I burst into loud sobs as all my precious items, all my books and everything else was now gone. The only things that had survived the killer flames were our car and some coats and shoes, along with some money. What were we to do now?

We stood there for about five minutes, just soaking in all that had happened, and on hearing the news, our uncle drove to us and tried to console us, but I just could not absorb all the information. Our uncle could not bear to see us so sad, and told us to come to their farmhouse- but at first, I refused to go anywhere, but my parents too gave in and forced me to go. After about 2 hours in the car, we finally reached the house and it was a very beautiful cottage that was painted baby blue, but it didn’t appeal to me.

A few days later, when we were all settled in the cosy house of my uncle’s, dad had got a job helping the farmer and his wife, mum was earning little money helping in the local market, and I had taken many walks along the countryside where there were thousands of trees, wonderful, tame animals and cool, fresh breezes that made you feel like you were in paradise. I had gotten over the fire, and we promised my uncle we would move out as soon as we had enough money.

One day, I noticed a mystical, thick mist covering a distant hill. The mist was moving in a slow, circular way and it was lined with blue leaves – it looked so magical and safe as if it were protecting something… was it? My eyes were locked in a trance as I kept staring- I felt mesmerized and a tiny voice in my head urged me on to go to the mist. I was so spellbound by this magic; I didn’t realize that I was standing right in front of it! I glanced up at the sky, which was surprisingly pitch black- I had left in the morning and just after a few minutes, the sky was filled with stars! I was confused, how was it night already? And how did I come all the way here? Before I had a moment to ponder over these thoughts, a loud shout distracted me- the person was shouting my name and the farmer, who we were staying with, came running up to me, “Hey! Where were you? Your parents are so worried looking for you!” he grunted and squeezed my hand, leading me away from the mist.

I didn’t stop him from taking me away, as I knew my parents would be madder at me if I refused to come. We walked in silence for a long time, until the farmer stopped and sighed, “You should be nowhere near the mist, it is incredibly dangerous, especially for a city girl like you. Bad things once happened there, bad things!” he shouted. He explained that a few years ago, a couple of kids tried to enter the mist and their hands were burned severely. They had immediately become sick and passed away a few days later and since then, nobody had dared to touch the mist again. We said no more, and soon as we reached home, I ran upstairs and started to think about the hill covered in the magical mist.

The next day, I ventured out to the hill, despite the grave warnings of the farmer, and I once again noticed the blue, floating leaves in the mist. This time, I reached my hand out and got hold of the white mist and it felt like creamy, milk rushing between my fingers. The moment I let go of the soft, silky air, I got pulled into the hill! I could feel myself floating in the air, feeling free like a bird, and getting sucked into the beautiful, magical mist. “Woah!” I squealed as I dropped down from the sky and I was falling for such a long time and gently landed on the floor.

As I looked around, I gasped with surprise: A forest surrounded me, with such colourful leaves hanging on chocolate brown branches with white, silk flowers blooming on top. The bushes were of such vibrant green shades, rustling whenever the warm breeze flew and there was a gentle shower of rain, which, if tasted, were sweeter than sugar. Gold sparks of light twinkled in the bushy trees and when the right time came, the golden sparks turned into fruit. But the forest wasn’t still- I could see someone moving around the nearby shrubs, rustling a lot of leaves and creating a loud noise in the peaceful area, but they were hidden in the shadows and moved quickly so I couldn’t see what they were.

Suddenly a pair of soft hands tightly gripped me from my back and held me so tight, that I couldn’t move at all. “Hey!” I grunted, wriggling and trying to escape, but the hands had a firm grip and weren’t willing to let me go. “How did you get in? Nobody can enter the protection wall without using dark magic. Come, I will take you to the goddess and she will have to decide what to do with you!” a soft voice firmly said. That voice sounded almost unreal like it was magical and not that of a human being. “I don’t know how I came in! I just put my hand in the mist, and I arrived here. Who are you?”  I grunted.

With no reply, the person holding me kept on walking behind me, leading me somewhere unknown. After a few minutes, we reached a huge palace, which was studded with roses and colourful leaves. A hand reached out from behind me and rapped loudly on the smooth, wooden door; almost immediately, the big doors opened and out walked a beautiful lady, who had soft, brown hair, which shined like gold in the sun, and had silky white flowers resting in a crown atop her hair. She wore a dress, made of leaves and flowers, and had pink, angelic wings fluttering on her back. Her face was so kind, and warm, with her rose lips in a smile, with her ears pointed back and her eyes twinkling green.

“Oh hello! Leave her here, thank you!” she said, in a soft, sweet voice. When my hands were finally free, I spun around to see who it was that held me, and when I saw her, I gasped with shock as it was not a human who had held me, but a pixie! She had golden, silky hair, which was braided in a long plait and her dress was a bright pink colour, with diamonds studded in some places. Her face had a bright glow, her eyes being bright blue, and her ears were long and pointed. She had flowers in her hair and blue wings, which gently flickered behind her back. She looked so calm, and so peaceful, that it was unimaginable that she held my arms so tight behind my back as soon as I arrived and pushed me so firmly to the castle. The pixie gave a little bow and flew away, as elegant as a dove.

“Well! That was Belle, one of our guards. Come in and tell me all about yourself.” She took me inside, and we entered a purple room, with lavender curtains and two big, satin armchairs with gold lining. We both sat down, and I explained how I saw the mist and how I came to this wonderful forest. Then she explained where I was: this was the pixie land, and long, long ago a horrible monster named the Dark God had ruined the entire forest, and taken her, the nature goddess, captive. Luckily, she had been rescued by some brave guard pixies and all of them worked hard and rebuilt their entire land. Then, the Dark God had become more powerful and was heard to be on a rampage to destroy the nature goddess and finish the pixies once and for all because of this, the protection wall was cast by her to protect their civilians. “And no one can enter the wall without using the darkest of magic, and not even the Dark Lord has possessed this type of magic… yet” the goddess gravely ended.

The goddess and I became really good friends, and she severely warned me to never speak to humans about them, and that I was the first person to get to know pixies. She also told me that there were not only one kind of pixies, but four types: there were air pixies, who had wings, lived amongst the clouds and could control the air, water pixies, who had mermaid tails, lived underwater and controlled the water, earth pixies, who could turn any part of their body into stone and transform it back, lived underground, and controlled stuff like mud, stones and sand. The rarest type of them were the woodland pixies, who created the forest, and they had healing powers and other unknown powers which could do all kinds of magic, especially to nature. They controlled the whole forest and could communicate and control all the nature; because they were so rare, the dark god had been trying to capture a few of them and unfortunately succeeded, so there were only 7 of their kind left. The nature goddess was the queen of the woodland pixies and treated especially them like they were her children. The last type was fire pixies, who were evil and served the dark god and could control fire. They could disguise themselves by simply looking at the pixie and quite a few spies had been caught in the forest. The dark god and his evil pixie spies lived in another forest, but that one was heard to be dark and so scary, that anyone who entered it never came out good, as they ended up being forced to join the dark god.

 After the goddess explained everything to me, I realized I had spent almost half the day in the forest, and I rushed to the edge of the forest seeing a brick wall with a rusty, brown door. I thought about how angry my parents would be with me, and they would never allow me to go to this amazing forest again. I had just started being happy and making new friends, pixie friends, and I just ruined it for myself! But, as soon as I exited the mist from the door, I saw that not a single second has passed since I entered the forest! “Strange…  time stopped in this world when I was in the pixie world…” I muttered, confused and I slowly trudged home, thinking about my time with the pixies.

When I got home, my parents were surprised to see me so soon, but fortunately didn’t bother to ask me where I was and what I was doing. I soon started going every day, and exploring the forest, I found that many pixies were quite friendly, and I quickly befriended all of them. I especially liked this one pixie, called Ellie. She was a water pixie and had a long, slender tail with glimmered red. She had red curly hair and a mischievous expression on her face, which was covered in freckles, and she could control water in such a way that she could transform it into anything she liked! She had accompanied the guards in each of their missions and helped greatly defeat the dark god previously. As a reward, the nature goddess had rewarded her with the ability to turn her mermaid into legs any time she wanted.

But one day, everything started changing. The world started turning black and dark, and all the pixies’ emotions started turning sour. All the trees were dying, along with everyone else. The colour started fading away and I started to feel like nothing could be like the way it was before. It was not only in pixies and their world I noticed this change but in our human world too. My parents seemed to always be angry at me and even Ellie told me she hated me and even I started feeling like nobody was better than me. Feeling confused, I went to the nature goddess feeling sure she would know the reason for all of this and when I entered her now crumbling castle, I saw her lying on the floor, gasping for breath. “NO!!!! Goddess, wake up!!! NOOO!!!!!” I shouted, using all my energy to try to wake her up and shout for help. Whilst sobbing, as my first friend I had made here was so hurt, I noticed the nature goddess was clutching a grey piece of paper- I quickly grabbed it and read what had been written on it aloud, “It’s the dark god. He has found us. He is destroying the earth and sucking all the life and colour out of it. You must save us, soon. Take Ellie- she will know what to do. Tell her to restore life and colour.” I gasped at what was written on the paper. The dark god! How had he found us? I quickly ran out of the falling castle and went in the direction of the mermaid sea. “Ellie!” I cried and saw a tail splash in the black water. Ellie transformed her tail and slowly walked up to me, her face in disgust. “What do you want, human?” she muttered and started to tap her foot impatiently. “Restore life and colour!” I told her, hoping something magical would happen.

Suddenly, Ellie flew into the air and came back gently, all her colours back. She waved her hands at me, and my black clothes turned into the colour they were before along with the rest of me. I explained to her everything the goddess had written in the paper, and she gasped with horror. “We both need to go and stop all of this! We must go to the dark lord and stop him, once and for all!” she said in a determined manner. She ran towards the sea, pulling me with her and she marvellously dived into the still water. Before I could object as I couldn’t breathe in the water as she could, Ellie waved her hands once again and a bubble formed around my head, allowing oxygen in it so I could breathe. We both swam together, following a golden line that had been formed once the colour had returned to us.

A few minutes later, we reached a darker, lifeless part of the sea. The water was drying up and, on the shore, lay hundreds of fish bones, all rotting on the rock-hard sand. “Shh- the black forest is near. The darks god’s guards will be there, looking out for intruders.” Ellie whispered as we reached a black area, filled with stone and trees. Bright red and orange pixies stood at the edge of the forest, holding long, silver staffs with a vicious flame on the end of it. They were the only colour among the spooky forest.

We both edged quietly around the forest, hiding behind thick trees and rocks. Whilst I was walking across a bare piece of land, my foot snapped a twig, and it made a loud crack sound- it was noticeable as an eerie silence had engulfed the world. “Who is that?! I see someone, right behind that tree!” a loud voice boomed. It was Ellie thew saw; she was creeping behind an oak tree, whilst I hid behind a large rock. “CHAAARRRRGE!!!!” they roared, and before Ellie could see who it was, a fire pixie guard ran behind her and grabbed her and used their staff on her hands. As soon as the flickering flame touched Ellie’s hands, she became black, and a silver light flew out of her mouth and got sucked into the staff. She fell onto the ground, lifeless, and started fading away from the world.

As soon as the guards went away, I ran out from my hiding spot and frantically called out to Ellie, shaking her vigorously. “NO!!!!” I cried, feeling hateful and angry at the pixies who did such a horrible thing to my friend! I felt so furious at those terrible things and so determined to wipe their entire kind out, I exploded a nearby bush with a blue enchantment coming out of my hand! I felt extremely confused at what magic I just did, but I didn’t stay there for long. I had to go and save my friends. I had to save the world. They depended on me. I ran into the forest, ignoring all danger, and I ran and ran, getting my face scratched from all the thorns, and my legs ached and begged me to stop, but I refused – I had to do this.

I stopped to a halt as I saw a strange person, wearing a cloak and a black mask with blood-red eyes. “He must be him. The dark god.” I thought to myself as one of his guards dragged a person to the dark god and threw the person roughly at the god’s feet. As I slowly, and quietly, went near, I gasped with surprise as it was the nature goddess who had been treated so badly! She lifted her head and begged for mercy and air. “Please…. Please, my lord…. Have mercy towards me… please!” she croaked and, laughing, the evil god strolled away and said, “Now the world belongs to me! HAHAHAHA!!!” and he bent down to steal the crown that had fallen off the goddesses head.

“NO!” I screamed, stepping out from the shadows. I thrust my hands forwards and felt that angry spark rise within me. The blue magic once again came out of my hands, hitting the dark god right in the heart, but he was unfortunately too strong for me. He motioned his guards to get me, and they did the same thing they did to Ellie. Their staff was shoved at my hands, and I felt my life drain away as I watched the god smirk at his accomplishment. But I resisted the urge to give up, and swiftly kicked the guard holding me and destroyed the other pixies with my magic. “Good job… you would have been perfect for my army. Too bad you have to die too!” a voice remarked from behind me. I sharply turned around, as I heard leaves rustling behind me, and felt the power in me and I moved my hands. Once again, my blue magic came out of my hands, this time a powerful red force against it: it was a battle of enchantments for the world, one good and one evil, both struggling to destroy their enemy. I started recollecting all my memories of the pixies, the first time I ventured into the forest when I met the nature goddess, how much time I and Ellie spent together…. And all of these memories gave a powerful boost to my side, and the spark coming out of the evil lord’s hands finished. “AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!” he bellowed, collapsing. He lay on the ground for a few seconds and then vanished into the air.

Slowly, but happily, all the colour returned to the world, and tiny golden lights were flying in the air, trying to find their rightful owners. The nature goddess slowly woke up, joy twinkling in her eyes, and ran up to me, and hugged me hard. “My dear, I am so proud of you for restoring all the life and colour on earth.” She happily told me.  Then Ellie came running up to me and congratulated me, and I felt extremely proud and relieved. Later that day, I returned happily, and my parents acted as nothing had happened! But I thought in my heart, lots had happened.

 I and my family eventually earned enough money and because of my pleading requests, my parents bought a little cottage right next to my uncle’s house, and I was very happy that I didn’t have to move away from my new friends. Then I continued my normal life, hanging out with pixies and keeping their lives a secret.