Post by Starkle on Oct 6, 2014 11:36:19 GMT -5
Hey guys/gals, sorry its a bit late! 
Lullaby and the Sleeping Giant
It was another peaceful and serenic morning in Zardenia. The sun struggled to wake, and the clouds drifted lazily across the pale blue skies. It was early, and each and every Zelf was in bed fast asleep, dreaming on white cotton sheep and sugar plum fairies.
In the Flitterpad, Buttershy cosied up to her zeddy bear, dreaming bright and happy thoughts while she smiled. Over at the Zelk tree, Elfa lay on one of the branches, her hair dishevelled, her arm draped lazily over her head and a little drool pooling at her lips. At the Chinese Lantern, Flamy let out little puffs of smoke as he breathed out, snoozing in the warmth of his comfortable bed. Mermalade curled up inside a clam shell, her head on her hands on a cushion dreamed of underwater adventures. Pega Sue swinging in her hammock within the Ponytail Paddocks, a book lay across her chest, she had fallen asleep whilst reading one of her precious books, a usual occurence.
Over at the Deer Lodge, Manny and Dorothy Doe slept in a spooning position, carefully entwined so as not to get their antlers caught up together, but both happily dreaming in perfect unison. Owlmanda, sat in her tree, every so often one of her eyes would open, but she was so absorbed in her sleep, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Nearby in the tree house, Catsby yawned and stretched out his body, but decided 10 more minutes wouldn't hurt and promptly went back to his preferred position in his little cat basket. Dandy Lion was there also, but he had taken a more chilled position on the big pile of cushions and bean-bags on his back, hands behind his head, purring not too loudly.
On the Palace balcony, Float carefully pulled some fluffy white cloud over her as a blanket, and Ty Foon in his tower, looked content for a change in his little bed. The sound of Grandfather Time gently snoring in his cottage, told a story of absolute relaxation. Petal slept perfectly inside the petals of a sunflower, and Sugar Bunny had a half eaten carrot sticking out of her mouth, occasionally nibbling it as she slept in a wheelbarrow in the Zegie Patch. Pandela, gently snoring in his bamboo hut and swatting away a lazy fly that buzzed around the room. Sealia floated across the pond, on her favourite pink lilo and changing with the air currents on the top of the water. It was all peaceful and harmonious here in Zardenia.
All the Zelfs were so happily satisfied and comfortable in their fabitats, that they slept on and on all morning and past lunch-time. Oh dear! Something was quite wrong, despite the odd snooze here and there, Zelfs in fact, did not like missing out on precious moments during the day and were usually up early to carry out their daily activities. So it was highly unusual that they would all sleep for so long....
The first to finally awaken, Birchy was a little disorientated to discover he had missed the morning altogether and set about trying to catch up on his daily chores, sweeping the pathways and keeping the park clean and tidy. He was surprised to discover several of his fellow Zelfs still in their slumber. After gently rousing them awake, it set off a chain of Zelf waking Zelf until they were all finally up and awake. As they gathered in the square outside Grandfather Time's little home, panic had set in. What on Earth had caused them to all fall asleep and stay in dream-land for so long?
As Grandfather Time shuffled out into the Day Zee Gardens, with his walking stick and fluffy white beard, the Zelfs were huddled en masse and looking concerned.
'Now now, my children. Please lets remember to stay calm.' he said looking at their worried faces.
'But Grandpappy, we've missed the entire morning!' Snap Jack squeaked.
'Yeah, why did that happen?' Flamy growled.
'If you ask me, it was probably one of Spellinda's spells gone wrong?' Vampula drawled.
'But, but....it happened to me aswell.' Spellinda protested, 'I missed breakfast!' she complained.
'Right, it wasn't down to Spellinda I'm sure,' Grandfather chimed in, 'Does anybody remember anything out of the ordinary last night when we all went to sleep?'
The Zelfs thought about it.
'Lullaby!!!!' they all clammered at once. They looked around at each other.
'Lullaby, my sweet dear could you kindly shed some light on the situation?' asked the Elder Zelf.
Lullaby was not amongst them.
'Lullaby usually sings us all to sleep!' Lady B said, dabbing her hankerchief in worry.
'Yes, she stands on the balcony and her beautiful dreamy voice sends us all off into slumber.' they agreed.
Lullaby, the Unicorn Zelf did in fact have a beautiful, ethereal singing voice and every night without fail she would serenade the whole of Zardenia with her lovely sweet lullabies, that meant they dreamt peacefully and of happy dreams. The following morning, she would be there, like an alarm clock, singing her melodic tunes that would awaken them. It was better than having a cockrel and the Zelfs would wake up happily and harmonious because of Lullaby and her delicate sounding music. It kept them in balance for the rest of the day.
'But where is she?' they wondered.
'What could have happened to her?' they all thought aloud.
'Right Zelfies, we must spread out and search Zardenia for our sweet little Lullaby. There must be something seriously amiss if she is not here. She would never neglect her duties, come on people! Lullaby must be found!' Grandfather Time ordered them to seek out their friend, and at once hundreds of feet and wings and hooves and paws trampled and flew off in various directions in search of their companion.
From the tops of the towers, to the dreaded Split Ends Forest, down in the swamps and the bottom of the lake, they searched far and wide for their beloved friend. Even Catsby's exceptional tracking skills came up blank. They could find no trace of Lullaby. She was gone!
The evening previously, whilst Lullaby was singing out her beautiful melodies, and the Zelfs were all getting ready for bedtime, a hundred miles away there lived a giant. His name was Gregory and he was a sorry looking fellow indeed. He lived in a big stone castle up in the clouds, and he often sat by his window, looking out for some company. The birds and bees in the sky, would divert themselves away from his castle, and he was lonely indeed. It was on this particular night, a calm and breezy coolness in the air, that he heard the most beautiful sound he had ever heard, carried on the winds. Gregory the Giant decided then and there, to find out who belonged to that sweet voice and set off towards Zardenia in his wind-glider.
Lullaby at this time, was nearing the end of her song, and satisfied that her fellow Zelfs were all in dream-land stepped away from the ornate and decorative silvery megaphone, positioned on the east balcony. The megaphone amplified her voice across Zardenia and carried it for miles, so that anyone in the vicinity of the Zelfs kingdom would all be under Lullaby's sweet spell of sleepiness and sleep very well that night. Suddenly a dark shadow filled the entire balcony, and Lullaby stepped back in surprise. To her immense shock, a face appeared at the railings of the Palace, a large and strange face that she had never seen before, and at least fifty times bigger than anything she had ever seen!
'Um....hello there.' she said as calmly as she could, whilst the gigantic figure watched her. Without warning he lifted up his huge hand and in one quick movement grabbed at poor Lullaby, the last thing she remembered was a ginormous hand coming towards her, as she tried to yelp.
Lullaby woke up a few hours later, and for a moment didn't recall where she was. She could feel herself against something that was moving very fastly and when she opened her eyes, it was dark and she knew she wasn't in Zardenia anymore. As delicately as she could, Lullaby shuffled her way to the top of the place that she was, and peeked out of the giant's pocket in deep surprise. The giant was in the air, riding a go-kart type of buggy with parasails above, flapping in the night air. Lullaby was very afraid, she was far from home, with this monstrous kidnapper and hundreds of feet up in the air! Taking care not to fall, she held on for dear life as the giant took her further away from her home and towards a big castle in the sky.
She wondered, what he could possibly want with her. The giant touched down on his front lawn, and patted his pocket to check that she was still there and marched into his home. Lullaby took a chance, to peek out of his pocket again and saw that the castle was in a very poor state indeed. There were cobwebs everywhere, the furniture was tipped over and looked worn and ravaged. The castle was as gloomy as the giant had been. Poor Lullaby!
He stomped his way through the castle, and she spied a dining room, with long table and chairs, a ball room with a poorly kept chandelier, and a cabinet room, with suits of armour lay strewn about in higgeldy-piggeldy piles. Even the flags and tapestries hung limp and loose on the walls of the castle. Gregory put his hand in his pocket and pulled Lullaby out. In his out-stretched hand she had full view of the place as he carried her up the stairs, passing by many pictures of other gloomy looking giants and giantesses, that seemed to look gloomily out of the frames at them, as they passed by.
Gregory took Lullaby up to a room at the top of the castle, and she was amazed to see a Doll's house on a table in the centre of this room. He carefully placed her inside, in the bedroom. It was beautifully decorated in blues and whites, and a lovely four poster bed in the middle. Lullaby didn't know what she was here for, so looked up at the giant in confusion.
'Erm, excuse me Mr Giant........' she said dreamily.
'My name is Gregory.' said the giant, peering down to look at her in the doll's room.
'Gregory, hello. My name is Lullaby. Why am I here exactly?' she asked.
'Lull.....lulll.....lulla......lulaab......Lull....a.....by......Lullaby!' he echoed in return.
'Yes. Pleased to meet your acquaintance.' Lullaby smiled at him.
'Hmm.........' Gregory muttered, moving away from the doll house.
'Gregory?' Lullaby asked.
'Yes?' Gregory answered.
'Tell me why you have taken me from my home, and brought me here?' she asked of him.
'I um...... I needed your help. For you see, I was sat in my castle as I always do and I heard you singing.' Gregory explained.
'Okay.......' Lullaby didn't know where this was going.
'And I was hoping that you would help me.' he finished.
'To do what exactly? And why didn't you just ask me instead of taking me from my home, without permission?' she asked.
'Erm, sorry about that. I thought I had frightened you when you saw me, and I figured that I may as well live up to my reputation.' Gregory told her.
'Reputation??? I've never met a real giant before. You did surprise me on the balcony, but I wasn't afraid of you.' Lullaby almost sang in her beautiful tone.
'Really?
? But everyone is afraid of Giants! We have a terrible reputation.' Gregory said sadly and slumped to the floor, gloomily. It felt like an earthquake that rattled around the room to Lullaby.
'Like I said, I've never met one before. You're the first. So tell me, what's troubling you Gregory?' she said sweetly. It was hard for Gregory to remain gloomy around her, she could make him feel all peaceful and content just with her soothing voice.
'I am having trouble sleeping.' he said. 'I was hoping your singing would send me to sleep peacefully, for a change.' he said.
'I see. Haha. Well that happens to be my speciality. I could help you.......' Lullaby shrugged.
'But....' Gregory asked. 'You won't. I understand. Nobody helps Giants and we don't help others either. Stick to your own kind, right?' Gregory moaned.
'No, that's not how we Zelfs are taught things. We are taught that we help our fellow creatures, regardless of how they treat us. If I can do anything to help, I will if I can.' Lullaby explained.
'That's sentimental. Zelfs are kind, not like giants.' Gregory sniffed.
'You could be like that, if you chose to. Who says you have to be like every other Giant?' she asked, plaiting her lovely pink hair into braids.
'There aren't any other Giants, that I know of. I'm the last one.' Gregory told her.
'Well if that's the case, then why stay like that? You could be anything you want to be then. Nobody can tell you off, can they? You're much too big to be told anyway. Its your life Gregory and you choose your own destiny.' Lullaby explained to him.
'Really?' he asked, almost believing her.
'Of course. What do you want to do?' she asked him.
'Sleep mainly. I haven't had a decent nights sleep in years.' he said.
'Haha. Okay, I'll sing you a lullaby Gregory. Go to sleep and in the morning, we'll talk again. I would love to help you but I do have to return to my home, Zardenia. My friends will be worried about me.' she said to him.
Gregory thought about this. He was desperate for a good nights sleep, and wanted to believe her but his every day worries had impeded his sleeping pattern, hence the troublesome nights and insomnia.
'Okay, will it work though?' he asked, taking off his boots and flopping onto his big bed. Gregory lay back and closed his eyes.
Lullaby, now stood on his pillow, so that she was as close to his ears as possible, began a sweet and melodic song about a gentle wind and a baby in a basket.
Gregory felt his heavy lidded eyes slowly close, and within a minute was sound asleep. The same could not be said for Lullaby. For Gregory had the loudest snore in the world.
She tried her hardest to sleep, and usually she could with no problems at all, but it seemed like all of Gregory's worries had transferred to her, and she was concerned about her friends in Zardenia and if they would be able to sleep without her.
So Gregory had the best nights sleep he'd had in years, and Lullaby had the worst. Oh dear!
The next morning, Gregory woke and groggily opened his eyes. He spotted Lullaby straight away, she was crouched in the doll house, with a pillow scrunched up over her ears, trying to drown out the background noise. Sensing the snoring had stopped, she put down the pillow and saw Gregory looking at her.
'Good morning.' he said cheerily. He patted his bed hair down, and leapt as gracefully as a giant could from his covers.
Poor Lullaby, her hair was all frizzy and frazzled. She was exhausted and had bags under her eyes.
'Sleep well?' he asked.
'Yes. Did you?' she lied to him.
'Best night ever!' he put his giant knuckle towards her, fist-bumping her tiny yellow hand.
'Glad one of us did.....' she muttered, feeling a tickle at the back of her throat.
'Good. That's what I needed. You will be my personal sleeping pill every night then from now on, singing me to sleep each night.' Gregory exclaimed to her deepest shock.
'Wha........t?' she said. 'But, but I need to get back home. Remember? We spoke about it last night.' Lullaby was visibly shaken now. She didn't want to stay here any longer.
'I know. But that's what we Giants do. We have a terrible reputa...'
'tation. Yes I remember.' Lullaby said, thinking of the mess she was now in.
'But you do know you don't have to be like that don't you Gregory.' Lullaby said to him.
'I know. But I need you to stay here with me. Every night from now on.' he said.
Lullaby slumped into the tiny doll chair. She was flummoxed. What could she do?
Gregory watched Lullaby closely. She was sad and gloomy now, whilst he was happy and lively after his good night's sleep. He couldn't let her go now, could he? What about his sleep? He needed her to stay. And that was that.
Throughout the day, a massive change happened to the both of them. Gregory got to work, brightening up the castle, picking up furniture, opening windows and letting it breathe. He cleaned from top to bottom, and fixed all the problems in the castle, all the time Lullaby tried to doze, but was feeling tired and poorly. Her throat hurt her, and she felt run down and exhausted. Lullaby never got sick or tired, she wasn't used to feeling like this.
Once Gregory had fixed up his place, he felt instantly better and uplifted. He went back up to the bedroom, made up his bed for tonights sleep, which he was looking forward to greatly. Then he remembered Lullaby, and went over to the dolls house, where he had kept her.
He looked through the tiny windows, and looked alarmed when he saw Lullaby. She was not well at all. Her yellowness had turned a sickly colour, her bright pink hair was now lifeless and ratted, and her horn was dull, not shiny looking. She was collapsed on the bed, looking half awake and ill. Gregory gasped, which was quite loud because he was a giant. He was aghast with shock. The poor little thing! Gregory scooped her up in his hand and carried her down to the kitchens. He set her down carefully on a soft pillow, ripped some of his silk curtain to cover her and wet her forehead to keep her cool. He started making her a concoction of warm vegetable soup to help her stay healthy.
Lullaby smiled weakly and sipped, as he gently took care of her. Gregory felt really bad for bringing her here, and realised she probably was tired and exhausted. It was his fault, she was in this position.
After an hour or so, she felt well enough to sit up and thanked him for looking after her.
Gregory knew, deep in his heart that she would be much better in her natural environment back in Zardenia and although he really wanted her to stay with him, he had to take her back. So he wrapped her carefully in blankets and took off through the air, in his handglider back to where he found her.
The Zelfs, on the lookout watched in shock and awe as the big dark shape got bigger and bigger in the sky, and saw the gigantic man place Lullaby back on the ledge of the balcony in the Palace gardens. They stood open mouthed, as he brought her back.
Gregory placed her down carefully, and was about to leave when Lullaby croaked his name.
'Gregory.....' she said. 'Thankyou for looking after me. I'm sorry I couldn't help you anymore.'
'That's okay. You helped me out last night. I slept wonderfully.' he said.
'Thanks for bringing me back.' she said croakily.
'Goodbye Lullaby.' he said sadly and left.
Minutes later, her fellow Zelfs burst out of the balcony and surrounded her.
'Oh Lullaby. We have missed you so' they said, crowding around her.
Lullaby looked at her smiling friend's faces. She was glad she was back home, but did feel incredibly sorry for Gregory the Giant.
Throughout the day she got much better, helped by her friends love and compassion and lashings of soup and water to rehydrate her. That night, the Zelfs gathered around the gardens, with candles and sat on plump cushions and pillows. Lullaby had promised that she was well enough to sing for them, and like a concert they were all waiting for her marvellous performance.
As Lullaby sang her beautiful music, she looked down at her fellow Zelfies, and watched happily as they slowly fell asleep, one by one. Lullaby smiled, as they settled down for the night and everything was back to how it should be, at last.
Meanwhile Gregory was back at his window seat, looking a little gloomy again. His worries and anxiety had returned, and he wondered how he would fall asleep tonight. He thought he had turned a corner, fixing up the castle and actually being happy for the day, and that was all down to Lullaby.
To his amazement, he watched as a hot air balloon floated towards his home. As it got closer, he could see a blue Zelf with a moon on her tummy, a purple Owl Zelf and his friend Lullaby.
'Lullaby!' he called and waved to her.
She waved back to him. From the hot air balloon, she began to dreamily sing to him.
'La....la.a....alalal.alllllallallllallalllal.....lalalalalalallala...allalalla....lalallalallalalla..........'
Within minutes, Gregory sat slumped against his window. Lullaby dropped a note over the side and watched as it bounced onto the window sill next to him.
As the 3 little Zelfs guided the balloon back to Zardenia, they watched the dark blue skies and purplish clouds float by.
'That was very nice of you, Lullaby. To come all this way to help your friend.' Lunanne said.
'That was why I had to, Lunanne. Because he was my friend.' Lullaby returned.
'That's so sweet. I'm glad you're feeling better girl!' Owlmanda yelled.
Owlmanda looked perplexed, and then remembered she and Lunanne had stuffed their ears with cotton balls to stop Lullaby's voice from sending them to sleep.
'Oh sorry, I was shouting wasn't I?' she hooted.
The three little Zelfs laughed together as they drove the balloon back to Zardenia.
From that day on, after she had sent the Zelfs into dream-land Lullaby would ask two of her friends to help her navigate the balloon over to the castle to sing Gregory to sleep also. A short while later, he found a gramaphone in his castle, and when Lullaby next came to visit, she recorded her voice onto record for him, so she didn't need to sing him to sleep every night. Lullaby, having made a new friend would visit Gregory as often as she could and Gregory was happy, he now slept soundly every night, with Lullaby's voice in his ear.
The End.
Lullaby and the Sleeping Giant
It was another peaceful and serenic morning in Zardenia. The sun struggled to wake, and the clouds drifted lazily across the pale blue skies. It was early, and each and every Zelf was in bed fast asleep, dreaming on white cotton sheep and sugar plum fairies.
In the Flitterpad, Buttershy cosied up to her zeddy bear, dreaming bright and happy thoughts while she smiled. Over at the Zelk tree, Elfa lay on one of the branches, her hair dishevelled, her arm draped lazily over her head and a little drool pooling at her lips. At the Chinese Lantern, Flamy let out little puffs of smoke as he breathed out, snoozing in the warmth of his comfortable bed. Mermalade curled up inside a clam shell, her head on her hands on a cushion dreamed of underwater adventures. Pega Sue swinging in her hammock within the Ponytail Paddocks, a book lay across her chest, she had fallen asleep whilst reading one of her precious books, a usual occurence.
Over at the Deer Lodge, Manny and Dorothy Doe slept in a spooning position, carefully entwined so as not to get their antlers caught up together, but both happily dreaming in perfect unison. Owlmanda, sat in her tree, every so often one of her eyes would open, but she was so absorbed in her sleep, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Nearby in the tree house, Catsby yawned and stretched out his body, but decided 10 more minutes wouldn't hurt and promptly went back to his preferred position in his little cat basket. Dandy Lion was there also, but he had taken a more chilled position on the big pile of cushions and bean-bags on his back, hands behind his head, purring not too loudly.
On the Palace balcony, Float carefully pulled some fluffy white cloud over her as a blanket, and Ty Foon in his tower, looked content for a change in his little bed. The sound of Grandfather Time gently snoring in his cottage, told a story of absolute relaxation. Petal slept perfectly inside the petals of a sunflower, and Sugar Bunny had a half eaten carrot sticking out of her mouth, occasionally nibbling it as she slept in a wheelbarrow in the Zegie Patch. Pandela, gently snoring in his bamboo hut and swatting away a lazy fly that buzzed around the room. Sealia floated across the pond, on her favourite pink lilo and changing with the air currents on the top of the water. It was all peaceful and harmonious here in Zardenia.
All the Zelfs were so happily satisfied and comfortable in their fabitats, that they slept on and on all morning and past lunch-time. Oh dear! Something was quite wrong, despite the odd snooze here and there, Zelfs in fact, did not like missing out on precious moments during the day and were usually up early to carry out their daily activities. So it was highly unusual that they would all sleep for so long....
The first to finally awaken, Birchy was a little disorientated to discover he had missed the morning altogether and set about trying to catch up on his daily chores, sweeping the pathways and keeping the park clean and tidy. He was surprised to discover several of his fellow Zelfs still in their slumber. After gently rousing them awake, it set off a chain of Zelf waking Zelf until they were all finally up and awake. As they gathered in the square outside Grandfather Time's little home, panic had set in. What on Earth had caused them to all fall asleep and stay in dream-land for so long?
As Grandfather Time shuffled out into the Day Zee Gardens, with his walking stick and fluffy white beard, the Zelfs were huddled en masse and looking concerned.
'Now now, my children. Please lets remember to stay calm.' he said looking at their worried faces.
'But Grandpappy, we've missed the entire morning!' Snap Jack squeaked.
'Yeah, why did that happen?' Flamy growled.
'If you ask me, it was probably one of Spellinda's spells gone wrong?' Vampula drawled.
'But, but....it happened to me aswell.' Spellinda protested, 'I missed breakfast!' she complained.
'Right, it wasn't down to Spellinda I'm sure,' Grandfather chimed in, 'Does anybody remember anything out of the ordinary last night when we all went to sleep?'
The Zelfs thought about it.
'Lullaby!!!!' they all clammered at once. They looked around at each other.
'Lullaby, my sweet dear could you kindly shed some light on the situation?' asked the Elder Zelf.
Lullaby was not amongst them.
'Lullaby usually sings us all to sleep!' Lady B said, dabbing her hankerchief in worry.
'Yes, she stands on the balcony and her beautiful dreamy voice sends us all off into slumber.' they agreed.
Lullaby, the Unicorn Zelf did in fact have a beautiful, ethereal singing voice and every night without fail she would serenade the whole of Zardenia with her lovely sweet lullabies, that meant they dreamt peacefully and of happy dreams. The following morning, she would be there, like an alarm clock, singing her melodic tunes that would awaken them. It was better than having a cockrel and the Zelfs would wake up happily and harmonious because of Lullaby and her delicate sounding music. It kept them in balance for the rest of the day.
'But where is she?' they wondered.
'What could have happened to her?' they all thought aloud.
'Right Zelfies, we must spread out and search Zardenia for our sweet little Lullaby. There must be something seriously amiss if she is not here. She would never neglect her duties, come on people! Lullaby must be found!' Grandfather Time ordered them to seek out their friend, and at once hundreds of feet and wings and hooves and paws trampled and flew off in various directions in search of their companion.
From the tops of the towers, to the dreaded Split Ends Forest, down in the swamps and the bottom of the lake, they searched far and wide for their beloved friend. Even Catsby's exceptional tracking skills came up blank. They could find no trace of Lullaby. She was gone!
The evening previously, whilst Lullaby was singing out her beautiful melodies, and the Zelfs were all getting ready for bedtime, a hundred miles away there lived a giant. His name was Gregory and he was a sorry looking fellow indeed. He lived in a big stone castle up in the clouds, and he often sat by his window, looking out for some company. The birds and bees in the sky, would divert themselves away from his castle, and he was lonely indeed. It was on this particular night, a calm and breezy coolness in the air, that he heard the most beautiful sound he had ever heard, carried on the winds. Gregory the Giant decided then and there, to find out who belonged to that sweet voice and set off towards Zardenia in his wind-glider.
Lullaby at this time, was nearing the end of her song, and satisfied that her fellow Zelfs were all in dream-land stepped away from the ornate and decorative silvery megaphone, positioned on the east balcony. The megaphone amplified her voice across Zardenia and carried it for miles, so that anyone in the vicinity of the Zelfs kingdom would all be under Lullaby's sweet spell of sleepiness and sleep very well that night. Suddenly a dark shadow filled the entire balcony, and Lullaby stepped back in surprise. To her immense shock, a face appeared at the railings of the Palace, a large and strange face that she had never seen before, and at least fifty times bigger than anything she had ever seen!
'Um....hello there.' she said as calmly as she could, whilst the gigantic figure watched her. Without warning he lifted up his huge hand and in one quick movement grabbed at poor Lullaby, the last thing she remembered was a ginormous hand coming towards her, as she tried to yelp.
Lullaby woke up a few hours later, and for a moment didn't recall where she was. She could feel herself against something that was moving very fastly and when she opened her eyes, it was dark and she knew she wasn't in Zardenia anymore. As delicately as she could, Lullaby shuffled her way to the top of the place that she was, and peeked out of the giant's pocket in deep surprise. The giant was in the air, riding a go-kart type of buggy with parasails above, flapping in the night air. Lullaby was very afraid, she was far from home, with this monstrous kidnapper and hundreds of feet up in the air! Taking care not to fall, she held on for dear life as the giant took her further away from her home and towards a big castle in the sky.
She wondered, what he could possibly want with her. The giant touched down on his front lawn, and patted his pocket to check that she was still there and marched into his home. Lullaby took a chance, to peek out of his pocket again and saw that the castle was in a very poor state indeed. There were cobwebs everywhere, the furniture was tipped over and looked worn and ravaged. The castle was as gloomy as the giant had been. Poor Lullaby!
He stomped his way through the castle, and she spied a dining room, with long table and chairs, a ball room with a poorly kept chandelier, and a cabinet room, with suits of armour lay strewn about in higgeldy-piggeldy piles. Even the flags and tapestries hung limp and loose on the walls of the castle. Gregory put his hand in his pocket and pulled Lullaby out. In his out-stretched hand she had full view of the place as he carried her up the stairs, passing by many pictures of other gloomy looking giants and giantesses, that seemed to look gloomily out of the frames at them, as they passed by.
Gregory took Lullaby up to a room at the top of the castle, and she was amazed to see a Doll's house on a table in the centre of this room. He carefully placed her inside, in the bedroom. It was beautifully decorated in blues and whites, and a lovely four poster bed in the middle. Lullaby didn't know what she was here for, so looked up at the giant in confusion.
'Erm, excuse me Mr Giant........' she said dreamily.
'My name is Gregory.' said the giant, peering down to look at her in the doll's room.
'Gregory, hello. My name is Lullaby. Why am I here exactly?' she asked.
'Lull.....lulll.....lulla......lulaab......Lull....a.....by......Lullaby!' he echoed in return.
'Yes. Pleased to meet your acquaintance.' Lullaby smiled at him.
'Hmm.........' Gregory muttered, moving away from the doll house.
'Gregory?' Lullaby asked.
'Yes?' Gregory answered.
'Tell me why you have taken me from my home, and brought me here?' she asked of him.
'I um...... I needed your help. For you see, I was sat in my castle as I always do and I heard you singing.' Gregory explained.
'Okay.......' Lullaby didn't know where this was going.
'And I was hoping that you would help me.' he finished.
'To do what exactly? And why didn't you just ask me instead of taking me from my home, without permission?' she asked.
'Erm, sorry about that. I thought I had frightened you when you saw me, and I figured that I may as well live up to my reputation.' Gregory told her.
'Reputation??? I've never met a real giant before. You did surprise me on the balcony, but I wasn't afraid of you.' Lullaby almost sang in her beautiful tone.
'Really?
? But everyone is afraid of Giants! We have a terrible reputation.' Gregory said sadly and slumped to the floor, gloomily. It felt like an earthquake that rattled around the room to Lullaby. 'Like I said, I've never met one before. You're the first. So tell me, what's troubling you Gregory?' she said sweetly. It was hard for Gregory to remain gloomy around her, she could make him feel all peaceful and content just with her soothing voice.
'I am having trouble sleeping.' he said. 'I was hoping your singing would send me to sleep peacefully, for a change.' he said.
'I see. Haha. Well that happens to be my speciality. I could help you.......' Lullaby shrugged.
'But....' Gregory asked. 'You won't. I understand. Nobody helps Giants and we don't help others either. Stick to your own kind, right?' Gregory moaned.
'No, that's not how we Zelfs are taught things. We are taught that we help our fellow creatures, regardless of how they treat us. If I can do anything to help, I will if I can.' Lullaby explained.
'That's sentimental. Zelfs are kind, not like giants.' Gregory sniffed.
'You could be like that, if you chose to. Who says you have to be like every other Giant?' she asked, plaiting her lovely pink hair into braids.
'There aren't any other Giants, that I know of. I'm the last one.' Gregory told her.
'Well if that's the case, then why stay like that? You could be anything you want to be then. Nobody can tell you off, can they? You're much too big to be told anyway. Its your life Gregory and you choose your own destiny.' Lullaby explained to him.
'Really?' he asked, almost believing her.
'Of course. What do you want to do?' she asked him.
'Sleep mainly. I haven't had a decent nights sleep in years.' he said.
'Haha. Okay, I'll sing you a lullaby Gregory. Go to sleep and in the morning, we'll talk again. I would love to help you but I do have to return to my home, Zardenia. My friends will be worried about me.' she said to him.
Gregory thought about this. He was desperate for a good nights sleep, and wanted to believe her but his every day worries had impeded his sleeping pattern, hence the troublesome nights and insomnia.
'Okay, will it work though?' he asked, taking off his boots and flopping onto his big bed. Gregory lay back and closed his eyes.
Lullaby, now stood on his pillow, so that she was as close to his ears as possible, began a sweet and melodic song about a gentle wind and a baby in a basket.
Gregory felt his heavy lidded eyes slowly close, and within a minute was sound asleep. The same could not be said for Lullaby. For Gregory had the loudest snore in the world.
She tried her hardest to sleep, and usually she could with no problems at all, but it seemed like all of Gregory's worries had transferred to her, and she was concerned about her friends in Zardenia and if they would be able to sleep without her.
So Gregory had the best nights sleep he'd had in years, and Lullaby had the worst. Oh dear!
The next morning, Gregory woke and groggily opened his eyes. He spotted Lullaby straight away, she was crouched in the doll house, with a pillow scrunched up over her ears, trying to drown out the background noise. Sensing the snoring had stopped, she put down the pillow and saw Gregory looking at her.
'Good morning.' he said cheerily. He patted his bed hair down, and leapt as gracefully as a giant could from his covers.
Poor Lullaby, her hair was all frizzy and frazzled. She was exhausted and had bags under her eyes.
'Sleep well?' he asked.
'Yes. Did you?' she lied to him.
'Best night ever!' he put his giant knuckle towards her, fist-bumping her tiny yellow hand.
'Glad one of us did.....' she muttered, feeling a tickle at the back of her throat.
'Good. That's what I needed. You will be my personal sleeping pill every night then from now on, singing me to sleep each night.' Gregory exclaimed to her deepest shock.
'Wha........t?' she said. 'But, but I need to get back home. Remember? We spoke about it last night.' Lullaby was visibly shaken now. She didn't want to stay here any longer.
'I know. But that's what we Giants do. We have a terrible reputa...'
'tation. Yes I remember.' Lullaby said, thinking of the mess she was now in.
'But you do know you don't have to be like that don't you Gregory.' Lullaby said to him.
'I know. But I need you to stay here with me. Every night from now on.' he said.
Lullaby slumped into the tiny doll chair. She was flummoxed. What could she do?
Gregory watched Lullaby closely. She was sad and gloomy now, whilst he was happy and lively after his good night's sleep. He couldn't let her go now, could he? What about his sleep? He needed her to stay. And that was that.
Throughout the day, a massive change happened to the both of them. Gregory got to work, brightening up the castle, picking up furniture, opening windows and letting it breathe. He cleaned from top to bottom, and fixed all the problems in the castle, all the time Lullaby tried to doze, but was feeling tired and poorly. Her throat hurt her, and she felt run down and exhausted. Lullaby never got sick or tired, she wasn't used to feeling like this.
Once Gregory had fixed up his place, he felt instantly better and uplifted. He went back up to the bedroom, made up his bed for tonights sleep, which he was looking forward to greatly. Then he remembered Lullaby, and went over to the dolls house, where he had kept her.
He looked through the tiny windows, and looked alarmed when he saw Lullaby. She was not well at all. Her yellowness had turned a sickly colour, her bright pink hair was now lifeless and ratted, and her horn was dull, not shiny looking. She was collapsed on the bed, looking half awake and ill. Gregory gasped, which was quite loud because he was a giant. He was aghast with shock. The poor little thing! Gregory scooped her up in his hand and carried her down to the kitchens. He set her down carefully on a soft pillow, ripped some of his silk curtain to cover her and wet her forehead to keep her cool. He started making her a concoction of warm vegetable soup to help her stay healthy.
Lullaby smiled weakly and sipped, as he gently took care of her. Gregory felt really bad for bringing her here, and realised she probably was tired and exhausted. It was his fault, she was in this position.
After an hour or so, she felt well enough to sit up and thanked him for looking after her.
Gregory knew, deep in his heart that she would be much better in her natural environment back in Zardenia and although he really wanted her to stay with him, he had to take her back. So he wrapped her carefully in blankets and took off through the air, in his handglider back to where he found her.
The Zelfs, on the lookout watched in shock and awe as the big dark shape got bigger and bigger in the sky, and saw the gigantic man place Lullaby back on the ledge of the balcony in the Palace gardens. They stood open mouthed, as he brought her back.
Gregory placed her down carefully, and was about to leave when Lullaby croaked his name.
'Gregory.....' she said. 'Thankyou for looking after me. I'm sorry I couldn't help you anymore.'
'That's okay. You helped me out last night. I slept wonderfully.' he said.
'Thanks for bringing me back.' she said croakily.
'Goodbye Lullaby.' he said sadly and left.
Minutes later, her fellow Zelfs burst out of the balcony and surrounded her.
'Oh Lullaby. We have missed you so' they said, crowding around her.
Lullaby looked at her smiling friend's faces. She was glad she was back home, but did feel incredibly sorry for Gregory the Giant.
Throughout the day she got much better, helped by her friends love and compassion and lashings of soup and water to rehydrate her. That night, the Zelfs gathered around the gardens, with candles and sat on plump cushions and pillows. Lullaby had promised that she was well enough to sing for them, and like a concert they were all waiting for her marvellous performance.
As Lullaby sang her beautiful music, she looked down at her fellow Zelfies, and watched happily as they slowly fell asleep, one by one. Lullaby smiled, as they settled down for the night and everything was back to how it should be, at last.
Meanwhile Gregory was back at his window seat, looking a little gloomy again. His worries and anxiety had returned, and he wondered how he would fall asleep tonight. He thought he had turned a corner, fixing up the castle and actually being happy for the day, and that was all down to Lullaby.
To his amazement, he watched as a hot air balloon floated towards his home. As it got closer, he could see a blue Zelf with a moon on her tummy, a purple Owl Zelf and his friend Lullaby.
'Lullaby!' he called and waved to her.
She waved back to him. From the hot air balloon, she began to dreamily sing to him.
'La....la.a....alalal.alllllallallllallalllal.....lalalalalalallala...allalalla....lalallalallalalla..........'
Within minutes, Gregory sat slumped against his window. Lullaby dropped a note over the side and watched as it bounced onto the window sill next to him.
As the 3 little Zelfs guided the balloon back to Zardenia, they watched the dark blue skies and purplish clouds float by.
'That was very nice of you, Lullaby. To come all this way to help your friend.' Lunanne said.
'That was why I had to, Lunanne. Because he was my friend.' Lullaby returned.
'That's so sweet. I'm glad you're feeling better girl!' Owlmanda yelled.
Owlmanda looked perplexed, and then remembered she and Lunanne had stuffed their ears with cotton balls to stop Lullaby's voice from sending them to sleep.
'Oh sorry, I was shouting wasn't I?' she hooted.
The three little Zelfs laughed together as they drove the balloon back to Zardenia.
From that day on, after she had sent the Zelfs into dream-land Lullaby would ask two of her friends to help her navigate the balloon over to the castle to sing Gregory to sleep also. A short while later, he found a gramaphone in his castle, and when Lullaby next came to visit, she recorded her voice onto record for him, so she didn't need to sing him to sleep every night. Lullaby, having made a new friend would visit Gregory as often as she could and Gregory was happy, he now slept soundly every night, with Lullaby's voice in his ear.
The End.
xx
so annoying!