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Old Elf and the Dragon

Old Elf and the Dragon

Fle and the Obsidian Sky-Weaver

The air tasted like crushed silver and distant thunder. Below them, the valley of the Winding River was painted in the soft, bruised colours of twilight, where mushroom-capped towers and luminous flora dotted the emerald cliffs.

Fle, the Old Elf, sat tall upon Kaelen, the Sky-Weaver, his emerald robes catching the last amber rays of the setting sun. Fle’s face was a map of ages, his eyes holding the patient light of a thousand moons, but his grip on the dragon’s jeweled harness was firm. He was guiding Kaelen through the Veil of the Shifting Dusk, the narrow passage between the mortal realm and the High Dreaming.

Kaelen, whose scales were an armour of deep, shimmering teal and night-sky black, did not flap his colossal wings with brute force. He moved with a mystical grace, riding the invisible currents that flowed from the Rainbow of Eld arching high above them—a phenomenon that only appears when a creature of pure elemental magic and a being of profound age travel together.

“The Gem of Constant Dawn,” Kaelen’s thought resonated, deep and guttural, in Fle’s mind, “lies just beyond that cloud-bank, where the river meets the mist. But the Silence has claimed it.”

“The Silence,” Fle murmured, pulling his hood closer, “is fear, Kaelen. It is the dread that paralyzes creativity. And it has used the Gem to still the music of the World-Heart.”

Their mission was perilous: The Gem of Constant Dawn, which normally sang the world into existence every morning, had been stolen and wrapped in the Web of the Soul-Moths, creatures of pure, paralyzing inertia. If the Gem was not freed by midnight, the sun would rise only as a suggestion, and the world would remain perpetually quiet, perpetually grey.

As they flew past the floating, crystalline peaks, Fle reached into a hidden pouch woven into his sash and withdrew three small items:

  1. A feather from a thought-bird, which allowed him to hear the whispers of possibility.
  2. A shard of frozen laughter, which could break the densest concentration of sorrow.
  3. A single, petrified tear of a nymph, which held the warmth of summer.

They broke through the last cloud layer. There, floating motionless above the swirling mist, was the Gem—a sphere of blinding, imprisoned light, tightly encased in thick, silvery cobwebs. And hovering around it were the Soul-Moths, silent, dark insects whose flapping wings emitted a negative sound that drained the air of hope.

Kaelen stopped, hanging suspended in the air. “I cannot approach, Old Friend,” he admitted. “My fire is too loud, my being too grand. The Silence would snuff me out like a candle.”

“Then we shall be quiet,” Fle replied, his voice barely a breath.

He slipped off Kaelen’s back and, rather than falling, began to descend slowly on a column of shimmering, green energy—the focused memory of every happy song he had ever heard.

As he neared the Gem, the cold of the Silence hit him. His memories felt heavy, his purpose uncertain. He could feel the Soul-Moths trying to wrap his own thoughts in their numbing web.

Fle raised his hand and opened his palm. He did not cast a spell; he simply released the shard of frozen laughter.

The laughter shard—the captured echo of a thousand innocent giggles—didn’t explode. It simply melted, forming a thin, high chime. The sound was so unexpected, so pure and non-serious, that the Soul-Moths paused, momentarily confused.

In that fraction of a moment, Fle used his second item: he took the thought-bird feather and gently tickled the Web of the Soul-Moths. The Moths, overwhelmed by the sudden influx of chaotic and funny possibilities, flew away in disarray, unable to process the illogical joy.

The Gem of Constant Dawn was now free, but still cold and muted. Fle pressed the petrified tear of the nymph against the crystalline sphere. Instantly, the warmth of all past summers infused the Gem. It flared, shining with a light that pushed back the twilight and sent a vibrant, resonant thrum through the entire valley.

Above, Kaelen roared—a sound that was now one of pure, unrestrained elemental joy. The Rainbow of Eld above them deepened in colour, and the Winding River below seemed to sing as the music of the World-Heart returned.

Fle rose back to Kaelen’s side, weary but successful. “The Silence is broken, my friend. Let us fly home. It’s been a long age.”

Kaelen dipped his great head in agreement. With a powerful beat of his massive wings, he turned toward the dawn, carrying Fle, the keeper of memory and laughter, out of the high, mystical air and back toward the newly singing world.

 

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The Pointing Elf

The Pointing Elf

Fle was not your average elf. For one, he was ancient, with a beard that could rival a white waterfall and ears so long they sometimes tripped him if he wasn’t careful. For another, he didn’t live in a sparkling, forest-canopy palace or a cozy mushroom home. No, Fle resided in the rather pungent, yet undeniably magical, depths of the “Finest Fertilizer Mine.”

Now, this wasn’t just any fertilizer. This was magical fertilizer, dug from the very bowels of the earth where forgotten spells congealed and ancient dragon sneezes settled. It made grumpy gnomes grow sunflowers taller than mountains, turned barren desert into candy floss forests, and once, famously, made a flock of sheep spontaneously learn opera.

Fle’s job was simple: dig. And point. He believed the pointing was crucial. “You see, my dear saplings,” he’d croak to the tiny, bewildered pixies he occasionally conscripted for help, “the pointing directs the inherent whimsy of the earth towards the digging! Without proper pointing, you might just unearth… well, an old boot. And who wants that?”

One Tuesday, a particularly vibrant Tuesday where the air smelled faintly of blueberry muffins and old socks, Fle was pointing with gusto. “Hark! The earth beckons!” he declared, gesturing wildly with a gloved hand. His shovel, lovingly named ‘Sparkle-dig,’ plunged into the soil. Instead of the usual shimmering, nutrient-rich earth, he hit something solid.

“Aha!” Fle exclaimed, convinced it was a particularly stubborn clump of enchanted compost. He dug around it, grumbling about the lack of respect for ancient digging techniques. Suddenly, the ground beneath him began to rumble. The “Finest Fertilizer” bags around him, filled with their magical contents, started to jiggle ominously.

“By the beard of Merlin’s mushroom!” Fle cried, momentarily forgetting to point. The solid object beneath him wasn’t a clump of compost. It was a giant, petrified, disco ball. And it was waking up.

With a final, earth-shattering thump, the disco ball erupted from the ground, sending Fle and his bags of fertilizer flying. It spun, glittering with a million tiny mirrors, illuminating the mine with a kaleidoscope of color. Funk music, surprisingly loud and bass-heavy, started to emanate from it, shaking the very foundations of the mine.

Fle landed rather ungracefully in a pile of “Not For Sale” fertilizer (which, ironically, was the most potent). He brushed himself off, adjusted his crooked spectacles, and stared at the pulsating disco ball. The pixies, who had thankfully scampered off at the first rumble, peeked back in, their tiny eyes wide with wonder.

“Well,” Fle mused, stroking his magnificent beard, “that explains the blueberry muffins. And the old socks, I suppose.” He then began to point at the disco ball with renewed vigor. “Now, if we can just harness this… this luminescent boogie… imagine what it could do for the petunias!” The pixies, sensing a new, undeniably absurd, magical project, began to hum along to the funk, already envisioning disco-dancing daisies. And so, the Finest Fertilizer Mine gained a new, shimmering, and exceptionally loud, resident.

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The Pointing Elf: Fle and the Funk of the Fertilizer

Fle, the ancient elf, stood proudly on a giant sack of “Super-Grow Garlic Granules,” pointing with focused intensity at the colossal, glittering disco ball that had taken up unwelcome residence in the center of the Finest Fertilizer Mine.

“Listen up, you minuscule mischiefs!” Fle boomed, his voice echoing over the steady, bass-heavy thrum emanating from the sphere. The pixies—who had taken to wearing tiny reflective hats—were bobbing their heads in time with the funk. “The goal is synchronization! We must harmonize the whimsy of the earth with the inherent groove of this giant, petrified party favor!”

His plan was, naturally, absurdly complex. It involved a series of copper wires salvaged from a forgotten goblin telegraph, a repurposed ladle, and several yards of elasticated pixie-pants (for conductivity, Fle insisted). The objective was to channel the disco ball’s pure funk energy into a special, highly volatile batch of fertilizer: The Rhythm Compost.

“Remember the rules, team!” Fle adjusted his spectacles, which were now flickering with reflected light. “One: Always point towards the whimsy. Two: Never, under any circumstances, allow the funk to touch the opera sheep. We don’t need a chorus of ‘Baa-ss Nova’ again. Three: If you hear pan pipes, run.”

For three glorious, bass-filled days, Fle and the pixies worked. The mine was transformed into the world’s funkiest excavation site. The digging equipment vibrated with the beat, the walls pulsed, and even the air seemed to shimmer with purple and turquoise light.

Finally, the Rhythm Compost was complete. It was a shimmering, dark green mixture that pulsed with a faint, irresistible beat.

“The test, my dear saplings! The test!” Fle announced dramatically, scooping a tiny pinch onto a sickly-looking fern that had been drooping pathetically in the corner.

The fern twitched. Then it straightened. Then, to the astonishment of all, it began to breakdance.

It spun on its roots, popped and locked its fronds, and finished with a flourish, striking a dramatic pose.

“Success!” cried Fle, doing a surprisingly spry jig on the sack of garlic granules. “The Rhythm Compost works! Imagine the agricultural implications!”

But then, disaster struck. The fern, overwhelmed by the funk, started growing violently. It burst through the mine ceiling, transforming into a towering, rhythmically-shaking jungle of floral power. The fern’s breakdancing moves caused powerful tremors, sending dust, rocks, and, worst of all, an avalanche of Super-Grow Garlic Granules cascading down onto the disco ball.

Krrrr-ZAT!

The contact was catastrophic. The highly pungent granules, combined with the pure funk energy, caused a massive magical feedback loop. The disco ball didn’t just spin; it began to levitate, pulling the entire mine with it!

“RUN, PIXIES, RUN!” shrieked Fle, forgetting the pan pipe rule and resorting to common sense.

The last anyone saw of the Finest Fertilizer Mine was a colossal, earth-caked, funk-blasting disco ball soaring into the sky, dragging the mine’s contents behind it. Fle, clinging precariously to his giant sack of garlic, was still pointing.

“I still maintain,” he shouted into the rushing wind, adjusting his beard, “that the pointing was necessary! The whimsy is simply outside the earth now!”

And somewhere, far below, a flock of opera sheep looked up, suddenly feeling an inexplicable urge to compose a power ballad about disco lighting and airborne agriculture.

 
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Posted by on December 11, 2025 in magical, mine

 

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