THE PUDDLE PIXIES - CHAPTER 18 - A VERY IMPORTANT VISITOR

One day, Millie Puddle Pixie was walking by the Fairpuddle, picking dandelions. Her Mum was going to make dandelion leaf soup for tea, and the bright golden flowers would look nice in the little blue vase on the table. As she bent down to pick a particularly large bloom, she espied what looked like a strangely shaped walking stick, half hidden amongst the tall grass. It was very twisted and knobbly, and looked very old. She picked it up for a closer look. As she did so, she heard a little cough ‘Aahem’.

She looked over her shoulder, but there was no-one to be seen. Turning back to the stick, she gave it a good rub with her handkerchief, for it was covered with mud. Once again she heard the cough, but this time a gruff voice complained : ‘Steady on pixie, you don’t have to rub THAT hard!’ The voice seemed to come from the stick, which Millie dropped in fright. ‘Ouch!’ came the voice. This time it most definitely came from the stick. ‘Pick me up then’ it said. ‘You’ve dropped me in the mud again now, and I do so HATE to be wet and dirty’.

Millie picked up the stick cautiously, and held it at arms length. ‘Are you talking to me?’ she said, feeling rather silly, for she had never come across a talking walking stick before. ‘Well’ said the stick grumpily ‘Do you see anyone else around here?’ ‘Well yourself’ said Millie crossly, feeling a little put out by the stick’s tone of voice. ‘If that’s your attitude, you can jolly well stay there’ and with that, she walked off in a huff. ‘Oh wait’ called the stick from his muddy puddle. ‘I am sorry, but I have waited so long for someone to find me, I am afraid my manners are not as good as they should be. Please come back’.

So Millie, who was usually a very kind pixie and had begun to feel sorry for the bedraggled stick, came back and picked it up once again. She dipped it in a clean puddle, and wiped it dry as gently as she could this time, so as not to hurt him. As she was smoothing away the last wet drops, she noticed two twigs halfway up the stick begin to wiggle. Then two bulging spots near the top opened out into two large, blinking eyes; and what she had thought to be a split in the bark, opened up to reveal a smiling mouth, which said : ‘Oh, that’s so much better. Thank you, Puddle Pixie’. Millie replied : ‘That’s ok. I am sorry I got cross. My name is Millie Puddle Pixie. Can we be friends?’ ‘I would like that very much’ replied the stick. ‘Let’s go and sit over there’ said Millie, pointing to a large dry clump of grass ‘and we can tell each other about ourselves’.

They sat down, and the stick began: ‘My name is Taffy. As you can see, I am not an ordinary stick. I am a staff. Not an ordinary staff. Oh no. I am Merlin’s staff.’ Millie gasped. She had heard tales of the Lord Merlin told by the Puddle Pixie Elder and the other members of the Puddle Pixie Council, who often told the younger ones how, in the days of long ago, when fierce dragons roamed freely and wicked witches terrorised the Puddle Pixies and other good folk with their nasty spells and smells, the Lord Merlin, the most famous and skilful wizard there had ever been or would ever be in the whole of the universe, had come to save them, and had cast the wicked witches and the fierce dragons out of the land forever, so the pixies could live without fear. In recognition of this, the land of the Puddle Pixies had been re-named ‘New Puddlington, so that everyone would know that the dangers of the old Puddledom had gone for good, and the Puddle Pixies could live happy and safe in the new country.

Merlin had from time to time come to visit the Puddle Pixies, and stayed awhile with the Elder. The last time he had visited was over two hundred years ago, so not many Puddle Pixies could remember him. Taffy the staff continued : ‘I was with Merlin the last time he visited the Puddle Pixies. On the last day of the visit, the Elder and Merlin, with me at his side, were having a picnic by the Puddle, and the next thing I knew, Merlin had gone and I was all alone’.

He sniffed sadly and Millie patted his twig sympathetically, saying: ‘I am sure Merlin was very sorry to lose you, for you are plainly a very fine staff. I shall take you to the Elder, for he will know what to do’. She picked Taffy up, and off they went to the Elder’s cottage. The Elder was most surprised to see Millie carrying the staff, which he recognised straight away. ‘Hello there, Taffy’
he said. ‘What are you doing here without your Master?’ Millie and Taffy sat down with the Elder and told their story, whilst drinking a glass of the Elder’s splendid elderflower nectar. ‘And so’ said Taffy as they came to the end of their tale, ‘Millie ……..’
then he stopped in mid sentence, wrinkled his already very wrinkly nose, and gave an almighty sneeze. ‘AaaaaahTISHOO!!’ And out came a huge shower of stars, which filled the room and swirled and twirled round and round the surprised pixies. ‘Oh Oh’
said Taffy. ‘You know what this means…..’
And before the pixies could say a word, the little cottage was filled with a blinding flash of light, and there before them, stood a very ancient wizard, with clouds of stars gradually settling around his feet.

The Elder stepped forward as the wizard was shaking stardust from his clothes and picking sparkly specks out of his beard. He gave him an enormous hug and shook him warmly by both hands. ‘My dear old friend’, he said, wiping away the tiniest tear of happiness, ‘My dear old friend. It is so long since I last saw you, I thought you had forgotten us! What are you doing here?’ Merlin, for, that’s who it was, hugged the Elder in turn. He said: ‘I came as soon as I realised I had lost my faithful staff Taffy. It only seems like yesterday to me! I am very old now you know, and all this travelling through time and space can get a bit confusing at times!’

The Elder replied : ‘My dear old chap, it is more than two hundred years since you left us. So much has happened here, but New Puddlington is still as happy and peaceful as it was when you left it.’ Taffy chimed in, rather sulkily: ‘You don’t know how boring and uncomfortable it has been for me all these long years, Master, laying face down in mud and out in all weathers. My wood has lost all its shine and bits of my bark keep falling off’. ‘We’ll soon fix that’ said Merlin, whipping out from the folds of his robe a shiny magic wand, which he twirled round and round over Taffy’s head, chanting a magic spell:

COME MOON STARS AND PLANETS
DRY TAFFYS TEARS
MY STAFF SHALL BE REBORN
SO ROLL BACK THE YEARS!

A cloud of magic dust formed into a shimmering whirlwind and swirled round and round Taffy, faster and faster and thicker and thicker until nothing could be seen of him through the mist. When at last the cloud cleared away, Taffy was as bright and shiny as he had been the day Merlin cut him from the Enchanted Oak Tree in the greenwood of Avalon.

Flexing his now supple twigs, Taffy grinned and said: ‘That’s much better. I am as good as new, and I do believe there are a couple of little green leaves beginning to sprout on my head!’ Millie and the Elder laughed with delight. ‘Please stay awhile with us, Lord Merlin’ said the Elder. ‘There is so much to tell’

But Merlin shook his head, making his long silvery grey hair sparkle in the sunlight streaming through the cottage window. He said: ‘I am sorry, my dear old friend, I cannot tarry. I have such a lot to do. There has been an outbreak of bad spells in Fairyland, and I fear the Wicked Witches may be up to their old tricks again, so I must deal with it at once. But If you ever REALLY REALLY need me, repeat this magic rhyme three times:

THROUGH SUNLIGHT THROUGH MOONLIGHT
THROUGH SKIES GREY OR CLEAR
COME MERLIN, YOUR OLD FRIEND
NEEDS YOU RIGHT HERE!!!

and I will come at once’. Turning to Millie, he said : ‘And that goes for you too, young Puddle Pixie. I can’t do anything much without the help of my faithful staff Taffy, and I am very grateful to you for finding him and restoring him to me. If you ever REALLY REALLY need my help, repeat this magic rhyme three times:

THROUGH DAYTIME AND NIGHTIME
BY SUN AND BY MOON
I NEED YOUR HELP MERLIN
SO COME TO ME SOON!!!

When I hear this I will come right away to help you.’

With that, he took Taffy in his gnarled old hand, held him up high in front of him, and, with another flash of light and shower of stardust, they were gone, to spend the next thousand years roaming the universe, going backwards and forwards in time to right wrongs, sometimes even before they had happened!

Millie said goodbye to the Elder, and, her head full of wonders, went back home to tell her parents of her adventures. They listened in astonishment to Millie’s story, and all agreed how lucky she was to have met the famous Lord Merlin.

She so hoped that this would not be the first AND the last time she would meet him, and indeed it was not.

But that’s another story…………