The Wizard
Once upon a time there lived a tiny wizard. Not only was he tiny but he was invisible. Which made it a bit difficult for him to make friends. He wondered the woods, saying hi to various creatures but they didn’t respond as they couldn’t see him. The wizard was sad and lonely. One day he found himself on top of a mountain. It was spring time, trees and flowers were blooming all around him, the sun was shining and the birds sang merrily. But the tiny wizard was sad. He sat upon a large rock, put his head down on his knees and brooded over his situation.
And just when things felt hopeless, he felt a huge shadow fall upon him. Startled, he lifted up his head and saw a big human sitting right next to him. The wizard tried to shout “hello!!” but his voice was so tiny that it got swept away by the wind, and as always, he was ignored. But something caught his attention.
The human was whittling a small piece of wood. Very small, just about his own size. And an idea struck him. Loosing no time, he climbed up the human’s shoe, then climbed the leg – it was a long difficult climb and the wizard was so worried that the human would stand up and he would lose his grip, fly off, and miss his chance. He clutched his tiny invisible wrists to the fabric of the human’s pants and climbed harder. Once he made it onto the human’s knee, the rest of the journey was easy. He grabbed the human’s sleeve, scurried up onto the hand and jumped right into the piece of wood the human was whittling. Being invisible made it very easy and after all, he was a wizard. He hid snugly inside the piece of wood and waited patiently.
Later that night, the human was home, sipping a cup of hot chocolate and still whittling the piece of wood. She was carving a little monster as it was her favorite thing to carve. But something was going wrong with this monster. The more wood she removed, the stranger the shape became. First emerged a tall pointed hat. Then a little nose. Then a big smile and tiny merry eyes. The human was confused but intrigued, so she kept carving and wouldn’t stop until she held a tiny wizard in her hands. He looked up at her and smiled. The human looked down and smiled too. The wizard had made his first friend.
The First Steps
The air was getting colder with each passing day. It was a busy time for the squirrel. Today she found a real treasure, a nut so round, smooth, and rich in color that it had to be delicious! It will be a great snack one winter day and therefore she had to find a good place to hide it. Right there, underneath that tree looked like a good spot. The squirrel hopped to it, looked around to insure that she was not being watched, then dug a little hole and pushed the nut inside. She covered it with soil, then took another quick look around to make sure that no one was still watching, and placed a leaf on top of the spot. There, now no one will know! She must remember where she hid it!
The nut lay in soft, dark soil. Outside, the seasons changed and it rained, then snowed, freezing the earth. Finally, the snow melted. Then the sun shined and warmed the moist soil causing the nut to swell and crack. A tiny fist pushed through the shell. Then another. Two little hands felt around in the dark dankness. All around it felt soft and warm, tight and cozy. The hands patted down the soil around the nut shell and made a tiny space, just big enough for it to crawl through, which the creature did. It didn’t know who it was or where it was. But it felt safe right there. It patted down the soil around the nut shell, leaving tiny handprints all over, and made a cozy space for itself, curled up, and fell asleep. It dreamt long, strange dreams of shifting colors and sweet music. One day, a sound woke it. What was that? The creature strained to hear. The sound was coming from above. It was the singing of a bird. The creature pressed its ear to the roof of the underground cocoon and strained to listen. The sound was more wonderful than the music from its dreams. The more it listened, the more sounds it noticed. Each new sound was different and fascinating. There were sounds all around the secret cocoon. Beetles scurrying somewhere in the walls, muttering to themselves old secret things. The creature was very curious and listened carefully to every sound. The longer it listened, the larger its ears grew, the keener its hearing got.It could now hear the daisies grow. They too told stories. The creature paid great attention and learned languages of the rain, the wind, the birds, the beetles, the daisies. One day, it heard a daisy open its petals and exclaim in wonder at the beauty of the world. It talked excitedly to itself about the many things it saw. It talked about the warm, bright orb in the blue sky, how happy the daisy felt in its warm caress, how it strained to get closer to it. What!? The creature had to find out for itself! It stretched its little limbs, sat up, stood and pushed at the roof. It dug and pushed and strained and suddenly … a bumblebee paused mid-flight. The strangest creature it ever saw emerged from underneath a fallen leaf. It had ridiculously large ears. It was squinting and rubbing its eyes. Non-bumblebee creatures were so strange! The bumblebee thereby flew on about its busy schedule. The creature stood outside on shaky little legs, head spinning from the flood of sounds, colors, shapes and scents all around. It then took its first step. It plucked a tiny branch from a nearby bush. It examined the leaves in fascination and pressed the branch to its chest. The first treasure, the first possession, something to hold onto as it took its first shaky but determined steps out into the world.
