Tallulah: Journey To The Enchanted Mountains

• Caitlin Morrisey , Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2019

There was once a beautiful elf queen named Cassara. However, one day, the queen fell gravely ill. The queen's royal advisers needed someone brave enough to travel to the Enchanted Mountains to gather water from the crystalized lake nearby a willow tree – the water from the lake was the only antidote that would heal the queen. All the other elves were too afraid to venture out of their village, but Tallulah raised her hand and declared that she would venture out to the Enchanted Mountains to gather the antidote. The royal advisers told Tallulah that the Enchanted Mountains were protected by a dragon guardian, who had protected and lived in the mountains for almost a hundred years, but Tallulah was not easily scared. The next day, with her bag packed, Tallulah set out towards the Enchanted Mountains to get the antidote to heal the queen.

Halfway up the mountain, there was a cave, and from in it came the most enormous growl. Out of the cave came an Ogre, who had evil-looking eyes and a wicked grin. The Ogre blocked the path that led up the rest of the mountain. Tallulah looked calmly into its eyes, and asked politely ‘What is it you want, dear Ogre?' The Ogre looked surprised and shocked. ‘I'm hungry,' he replied sadly. ‘Oh! That's not good at all!' and out of her bag, Tallulah pulled out a cheese and ham sandwich. She gave it to the Ogre. ‘Here you are,' ‘The Ogre looked at Tallulah happily. ‘Oh, thank you! You are the nicest Elf I've ever met!' and the two became instant friends.

Waving goodbye to the ogre, Tallulah continued up the mountain's path. Before long, she found a small cottage, with smoke rising out of the chimney. Tallulah went to walk past the cottage, but as she was passing, an old woman came out of the cottage. The woman was in fact, a witch, who wanted to cook Tallulah to feed to the wolves. Tallulah screamed and ran as fast as she could. She was so fast that the witch could not catch her. ‘Phew!' Tallulah sighed in relief. ‘That was close.' She continued on her way. Finally, she came to the crystalized lake near the willow tree. Before Tallulah had set out on her journey, the royal advisers had given her a sparkling glass vase made by the fairies. They told Tallulah to use it to gather the water to heal the queen.

Tallulah pulled out the glittering vase and collected some of the lake's water. The sun was beginning to set as Tallulah made her way back down the mountain. She reached her village just as night fell. Making her way to the queen, Tallulah gave queen Cassara the water from the sparkling vase. The queen was healed instantly, and peace was restored to the village once more.