Short Story | Penelope

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

Note: At the beginning of my World Building class, I was torn between writing realism fiction or writing fantasy fiction. Penelope's story was an ATTEMPT at writing fantasy fiction. The plot, as cliché as it was, is that she found a book with a fairy on it and she's going inside the book to do some kind of adventure with the fairy --- OR, she stays in her own world and she does miraculous work in her world - living her tiny village, have an adventure, meet people, and so on - and she will try to free the fairy out of the book and bring the fairy back to her home. Her world itself has magic, dragons, etc. It was in the middle of planning/thinking, so this one may feel as if it's just a foundation/plan. 

Please do not repost or copy to another site. Thank you. Enjoy reading.

    There once lived an orphaned girl at the edge of the village proper in a small wooden cottage. The villagers looked upon the ten-year-old girl in a secondhand dress and brown apron and the children her age chanted, “Penny, Penny, books aplenty, but no parents and no food in her belly!”

    One day, while Penelope arranged the latest books from the publishing house into the bookstore’s mystery aisle, she came upon a tattered book with no hardcover protecting it amongst the pile. Curiously, the well-read girl opened the book to take a peek, and suddenly a creature in the size of her index finger with shimmering butterfly wings and rosette hair jumped out from the pages. Startled, Penny chucked the book to the floor with a bang echoed throughout the compacted store.

    “Penny, dear is everything all right?” Mr. Swenksi asked from the lobby counter.

    “Yes, sir.” She wiped her hands nervously at her brown apron and bent down, slowly approaching the mystical book. “Just clumsiness, sir.”

    She heard nothing from Mr. Swenksi and looked behind to see if he came to look. He didn’t. She continued to reach for the book when the creature popped up from the tented book. Penelope gasped.

    “Shhh!” The creature put her hand on Penelope’s lips; panicked. Looking closely, the fairy--- she believed it was a fairy--- had huge hazel eyes that covered almost half its oblong face, curled long lashes, button nose, and smaller mouth. It had rosy cheeks and elven ears, and a long, narrow neck. It wore a yellow-red hibiscus dress and shoes made of leaves.

    “Who are you?” Penelope whispered breathily. “W-where did you come from?”

    The fairy gestured a series of hands and arms actions, but Penelope only looked on blankly. It gave up. It then gestured to the book. Penelope picked the book up.

    “This?”

    It nodded, then flew to the book, set atop the first page which didn’t really have any written title nor an author.

    “What is this book?”

    It only shrugged its small shoulders.

    Later that night, Penelope brought her kerosene lamp and settled it on her small kitchen table. The fairy flew about the room in curiosity and found the small wooden cottage clean and neat. Penelope opened the book and noticed the short foreword: Dreams do come true. The fairy excitedly landed on this page and jumped thrice.

    “This is important?” The fairy bobbed her head up and down.

    Turning to the next page, Penelope read the first line. It said, “You who dream has a story to create. Close your eyes and it will be recorded.”

    A flashing light blinded Penelope and she found herself lying on a dirt path.