***********************
The Spring Sparrow
Lucy lay down in the tall majestic grass-blades and margarine- yellow daffodils with her boyfriend Alex. She picked a seed-staged dandelion and blew languorously on it, scattering the seeds in the Spring winds.
Alex leaned over and kissed her, then put his marzipan-white arm around her convex shoulders. Lucy lay down again and curled into Alex’s hip.
‘I love spring,’ she said, sighing contentedly.
‘Me too,’ Alex’s alluring voice said.
As the Spring winds tumbled gently, playing with Lucy’s jet-black hair, she secretly thought about the Season Queen, wondering if she would ever see her again.
She fell asleep, her head lolled on Alex’s chest. She tumbled into a black hole in her mind, falling. Falling. Falling.
She landed on her feet in the same place as she was sleeping. She saw Alex laying there, with her own self sleeping, curled-up like a dog by his side. She was paler than normal, translucent.
A nest of fledglings thronged above her, chirruping sweetly. But she noticed something strange—something irrevocably beautiful. A sparrow with a pink beak and a singular white, star-shaped spot on its brow.
The sparrow glided down to her, like an elegant kite riding the air. Its features changed, the wings elongated, became silkier—like a queen’s gown. The sparrow tinged white, and the colour spread. Then its eyes—its radiant, brilliant glacier blue eyes—became larger. The sparrow grew taller. Taller and taller and taller until it was—gasp!—the Season Queen.
‘Queen,’ Lucy said. ‘I thought I’d never see you again! Oh, and thank you ever so much for saving Tibbs, by the way. Is he immortal?’
‘Nay, Lucy. But he can be, if you wake up and save Alex and yourself from the Boggart Army, they are approaching fast, but visibly.’
‘Oh my God.’ said Lucy. ‘How do I kill them, though? I’m nothing special.’
‘Yes, Lucy. You are something special, and you will defeat them by waking up. The thing that they like the least—please don’t waste my time asking why—is two awake humans.’
‘You said I was something special, Queen. What am I?’
The Queen smiled vaguely, and pressed her right forefinger to her flawless lips, and disappeared with the wind.
A shock ran through Lucy’s whole body and she woke with a jolt. Alex was still there. All of the grass and daffodils. The fledgling nest was still there. But one thing was for certain: the Queen wasn’t there.
Lucy smiled and remembered what the Queen had said: ‘Lucy .You are something special...’
Indeed she was.
By Brandon H
Age 11 Class 6KR
************************
