Weekly for Fantasy. (for some reason I feel like this is the cheesiest fantasy story I've written lol) The snow swirled as if an unseen giant was amusing himself by throwing large handfuls of the white powder into the air. Teik wrapped his homespun scarf tighter around his face as he started the last stretch of the steep climb up the mountain. He felt a small prick of guilt as he leaped from stone to stone. His parents were always telling him that he wasn’t supposed to be on the mountain for any reason at all. Teik couldn’t help being drawn to the mountain though. It almost felt like something was calling him there. Everyone said that the mountain itself was evil and that all the creatures that lived on it were evil as well, but Teik didn’t believe it. To him the mountain was just magical. The last time he’d been here, he was sure that he had seen a wizard with a long white beard. The wizard had mysteriously vanished almost as soon as Teik had laid eyes on him, but Teik was sure that the strange man was real—not just a figure of imagination. Teik clawed his way up the last boulder and thankfully flopped over in a pile of snow. “I’m finally at the top!” He mumbled to himself. “I hope I’ll find something amazing up here.” After Teik rested for a while longer, he rose to his feet and looked around. The top of the mountain was nothing like what he had imagined. A few inches away from the tips of his toes, the ground dropped to form a large crater. From his house in the Valley Fiddledum, the mountain’s peak looked as if it were covered in snow, but now that Teik had reached the summit, he found that the snow didn’t go past the start of the crater. The crater was bare rock, with a few straggling shrubs clinging to a ledge here and there. Teik immediately felt a pull towards the outline of a cave on the far side of the crater. Without hesitation, he dropped down from the ledge and sprinted towards the cave. “I shouldn’t go in.” Teik turned away and was about to leave when the sound of echoing laughter and the beginning of a nonsense song brought him back to the entrance of the cave. “Hey little drolly, oh fa la la lolly, down in the darkness untouched by sun I lie fa la la lolly, Little pixie and the stone dragon.” “Oh hey little lolly, la de da dolly! Little pixie and the stone dragon!” Teik’s curiosity immediately got the better of him. He rushed into the cave and felt his way along the rough walls, letting the high-pitched voice guide him. The voice grew louder until Teik reached a cavern dully lit by some strange, bluish green crystals. The song seemed to echo all around him, and then it was replaced by insane laughter, which slowly faded into silence. Teik’s heart started to race and he wildly peered into the gloom, partially hoping to catch a glimpse of the strange singer, and partially hoping to relocate the cavern’s exit. Teik let out a sharp cry when cold hands fell on his shoulders. The strength of the small hands was extraordinary, and before Teik could react, the hands pushed him to the ground, and a heavy weight was placed on his stomach. Teik could hear the sound of the two hands being rubbed together, and suddenly a bright bluish orb was hanging above his head. With the help of the bright light, Teik could make out the figure of a small, auburn haired girl with an upturned nose and an impish grin. She was standing on top of him. “Look what we have,” She whispered in a high-pitched voice. “We’ve caught a boy!” Teik eyed the strange girl warily. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?” The girl held the orb she had created closer to Teik’s face as if she were examining him. “I could ask you the same question,” She retorted. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” she mimicked in a singsong voice. “My name is Teik, and I like to explore here.” “Teik?” She tipped her head to one side like a dog does when it’s hoping for table scraps. “I’m the pixie Faye, and I guard the door to the other side!” Laughter burst from the pixie’s lips. “You should be more careful when you explore. You’re lucky I caught you before a carnivorous sheep did. You’d be dead meat. The sheep wander here sometimes. I have to put them back.” “Put them back?” “Yes, back on the other side!” With that, the pixie broke out into another bout of insane laughter. She snapped her fingers, and more of the bluish orbs appeared around her. Teik was able to make out a pool a few yards away from him, and beside the pool sat a pile of rocks. The pixie followed his gaze for a moment, and then she leaped off of Teik and clung to the roof of the cave. “You should be leaving now. You’ve already seen too much of the other side, and I cannot permit you to see any more.”
When Teik made no move towards the cavern’s exit, the pixie let go of the ceiling and grabbed Teik’s arm. She started to skip towards the exit, pulling Teik after her. She pulled him along until they came back to the entrance of the cave. Teik stepped out of the entrance and into the crater. The pixie grabbed his hand a placed a large, smooth stone on his palm. “This is the stone dragon! Take him and do your best to take care of him. It will amuse me very much. She placed a bag of small, blue rocks in Teik’s other hand. He likes to eat magic rocks. Don’t let him have all of them though; you won’t be able to control him. Come play with me again!” With that, she whirled around and retreated into the darkness. Teik listened to her laughter echoing for a while and then started as the stone in his hand started to tremble. Cracks started to form on the stone’s surface, and suddenly the outer layer broke apart as if it were a shell, revealing a small, stony lizard like creature. It chirped and squeaked for a few moments, and then it curled up in a ball and seemed to be sleeping. Teik stared at it in amazement. "What did Faye mean when she said that I wouldn't be able to control him?" Word count: 1099
