Caerialda the Elf Child©

By Richard A. Falb

She was a little elf. A rather precocious one. It wasn't that she meant to cause any trouble. She was just so active and a little scatterbrained at times. Everyone liked her, she had a engaging charm about her. The children in the village and the area around, loved to play with her. Sometimes she led other children into the Elven forest to play with her. She would forget human children became confused when they entered the magical Elven forest. Sometimes they would wander off and be lost for hours. Caerialda told her father the children were lost. Caerialda's father always found them. Caerialda then returned them to their families.

Some of their parents were not very happy about their being lost, but most of the children thought it was a lark. The forest was so beautiful they never felt afraid. Some of those parents told their children they couldn't play with her anymore, or least they couldn't go into the forest with her. But she was so much fun and could think of such wonderful games, the children would conveniently forget what they had been told. She could not see, why those children became confused, she did not. She just saw them as children like her. She never saw them as different.

She lived with her family at the edge of the Elven forest. Her father was one of the guards who patrolled the border of the forest. The guards did not try to keep anyone out, they were there to lead out any who came in and got confused. She didn't have any elf children to play with. It never bothered her to go outside the forest, so she left the forest to play with the children from the nearby village. She always told her mother where she was going. The village children saw the Elven forest as very beautiful and a wonderful place to play. They forgot from time to time they would become confused and lose their way. After all, they were always found and returned home. The forest was not a scary place to them, actually to most it was kind of an adventure to be lost in that beautiful forest. They knew they would always be found.

One day she found a young boy who didn't have anyone to play with. He was about her age. The other children said he looked different, but that is what they thought of her. That never bothered her. Of course, she was so much fun to play with they forgot she looked different. The boy was shy and didn't know how to play with other children. No one seemed to want to play with him. It wasn't that he was ugly or that he was mean, it was just he looked different from other children. Besides, he only had a mother and they had just moved into the village a short time ago. His mother was a healer, so she was looked on as different also.

One day Caerialda did not find any children to play with her. She went to find the boy and asked if he would like to go and play in the forest with her. He readily agreed. He had never been asked to go play in the forest before. He had heard it was beautiful. His mother had never warned him to stay away from the Elven forest, but he had no one with whom he could go with. He had played a couple times with her, but then someone else would come and want her to play with them. He was never invited by the other children to play with them. Caerialda, the elf child, thought it was strange he never came with them. She hadn't realized the other children didn't want him to play with them.

Caerialda took his hand and walked to the forest. His home was on the side of the village toward the forest. Like a good son, he told his mother he was going to play with Caerialda. His mother was happy for him to have someone to play with. She knew the other children seldom played with him. She knew they thought he was different. She also knew that Caerialda was Elven, so she was different from the other children. His mother realized that it did not make any difference to the other children that Caerialda was different.

Caerialda and the boy went to the forest and entered it. Caerialda took him to a place in the forest where she often played. It was a place she could make up wonderful games. They played all day and then Caerialda went with him back to his home. As she was returning to the forest, she realized the boy, his name was Karlian, had not become confused, but enjoyed playing in the beautiful forest with her. She asked her mother, why Karlian did not become confused like the other children from the village. Caerialda's mother was not listening closely to her daughter's chatter, for she did love to chatter. She absently said she didn't know.

Meanwhile, Karlian was telling his mother what a wonderful time he had playing in the forest with Caerialda. His mother smiled and said that was a very nice, and she was glad he enjoyed himself. She hoped that Caerialda would come and play with her son again. Because Karlian's house was closest to the forest, Caerialda decided she would go and get him to play with her in the morning. She really enjoyed playing in her forest home, but up until now she didn't have anyone to play with that was not confused by the forest's magic. She thought it was wonderful to have finally found someone. After she had asked her mother, she forgot that it was strange that Karlian was not confused.

She did go and get him in the morning and they told his mother they would play all day in the forest, if that was alright with her. She quickly gave her consent. She was happy her son had someone to play with. Besides, Caerialda was a very happy, intelligent child who everyone thought of as very nice. Karlian's mother knew why Karlian was not confused by the magic of the Elven forest, but she would tell no one. Caerialda had made friends with many of the creatures of the forest, which made it even more fun for Karlian to play with her in the forest. She would tell him what each animal and bird was. She taught him the names of the plants, the bushes and the trees. They had a wonderful time, and again Caerialda brought him back to his house. She was used to doing this with all the other village children, after they became confused.

Karlian's mother thanked her for coming home with him. She gave Caerialda a little doll she had made for her. Caerialda was delighted and made much of the doll. It actually was made with many of the things Karlian's mother used as a healer. It would help keep Caerialda from getting sick. Caerialda could hardly wait to show her mother this wonderful doll. Because Caerialda had brought Karlian to her home at the mid-day hour so they could get something to eat, Caerialda's mother realized that Karlian was not confused by the forest. She looked very closely at Karlian without letting him know she was watching him. Suddenly she realized why Karlian was not being confused. Karlian must be part Elf. That is why he looked different from the other village children. She decided not to tell Caerialda. Caerialda was just happy she had found a young person who could play with her in the forest. It would not make any difference to Caerialda if Karlian was part Elf.

Caerialda didn't think of the village children as different from her. They were children that she might play with. She was very happy she had found someone who could play with her in the forest. Karlian was just happy to have some one to play with, and especially someone who lived in the forest so he could go there to play. It was much more fun to play in the forest, than around the village. Besides, sometimes the village children were not very nice to him. Caerialda was very nice all the time and he enjoyed being with her. Caerialda's mother was happy that she had found someone who could come into the forest and play with her.

Because Karlian could come into the forest and play, Caerialda began to go fetch him practically every day. Some of the parents in the village were happy about this, but the children were not. They missed playing with Caerialda. She was so much fun. Of course it had been the parents of some of the children who had looked on Karlian as different and this had been communicated to the children. However many of the children noticed, that Caerialda did not seem to look on Karlian as different, and was very willing to play with him. Caerialda was asked by some of the children why she played with Karlian. They said their parents said he was different.

Caerialda didn't see why that would make any difference or why that would mean she shouldn't play with Karlian. After all she was different and they liked to play with her. She told them he was fun to play with and was very nice. She said her mother didn't see anything different about Karlian. Caerialda also told them she liked Karlian's mother and thought she was very nice. Then she asked them,

"Why don't your parents tell you not to play with me? I'm different. I'm Elven. I do not see why that should make a difference." She was very positive about this. She thought they were being silly. Caerialda began to insist, if she were to play with them, then Karlian must also be allowed to play. She told them otherwise she and Karlian would go into the forest and play.

Caerialda had discovered that if she brought the village children just a little way into the forest they would not become confused. She found a small clearing where they could all play. If any of the children happened to wander off, either she or Karlian could go find them. A couple of the village children, whose parents had not said anything about Karlian being different, decided they would be willing to let Karlian play with them. That way Caerialda would play with them and bring them into the forest with she and Karlian. Karlian was very happy that some of the village children were now willing to play with him. Soon these children no longer saw Karlian as strange. He, like Caerialda, was proving fun to play with. Karlian also seemed to be able to think of wonderful games to play especially in the forest. Besides, there were now two who knew about the forest and did not become confused.

Now these children began to look on Karlian much the same as they looked on Caerialda, he was fun to play with and that is all that mattered to them. When they were asked by other children, why they played with Karlian, they answered like Caerialda answered them. A few more of the children began to think about that, and decided they could also see no reason why they should not play with Karlian as well as Caerialda. After all, because the two of them looked different didn't mean they weren't fun to play with. Some of them told their parents that. Some of those parents did think about that and decided the children were right. Karlian actually was a nice, polite boy who was intelligent, much like Caerialda.

This began to reflect on how they viewed Karlian's mother and soon they began to treat her like everyone else in the village. Karlian's mother was very happy to be friends with anyone who would be friends with her. More and more of the people of the village began to see Karlian and his mother as regular members of the village and not as someone different. This caused Karlian's mother to be sought out as a healer more often, and pretty soon, she was able to fix up their little house and make it more comfortable.

This made Karlian happier and he became less shy because he could now invite children to his home. Caerialda had already been to his home many times. She had not seen that it was any different, a little smaller and with not as nice furniture as some of the other village houses. That didn't matter to Caerialda because she liked Karlian and his mother. Being the little chatterbox she was, Caerialda told the children that and soon these children began to see this as Caerialda did.

Little by little more and more of the village people began to have the same attitude. They began to see Karlian's mother as just a good healer and a friend and Karlian as just a polite little boy who lived in the village. There were some of the parents and some of their children that did not see this, but it no longer mattered, because most of the rest of the village did see it this way. Of course Caerialda remained a favorite of the village children and most of the village parents. Some of them even realized it was she who made them realize looking different, shouldn't really matter. It was what the person was like that mattered.

The End