Stephan had left the duo to try his luck in the drinking game, and Emily observed more of the festival, trying out more games.
Unfortunately, unlike the cake testing, the other games weren’t as easy to win.
She noticed some people in the dance hall, moving and frolicking to the harmonious beat, and elves played their own instruments, different from what she knows in her own world.
“Gabe!
Gabe!
Let’s dance!” Said Emily, already pulling him to the dance floor.
“Nooo, no, sweet lady” Gabe interjected and stood firmly in his spot.
Emily looked up at him, looking sad and disheartened, “What?
Why?” “I’m not much of a dancer.
To be honest, I see no reason to be dancing and frolicking about” he explained, looking uninterested in the topic.
“Please!” She begged.
Gabe looked into her eyes for a few seconds, then sighed, “You’ve got me tied to your little wrist, haven’t you?” Emily beamed and once again, dragged him into the dance floor.
She watched the other elves dance and bust some moves she was not at all familiar with.
“You do know how to dance, don’t you?” Gabe questioned curiously, an amused smirk on his face.
Emily went red, “Of course I do!
It’s suuuuper easy!
Just watch!” Emily tried to bust her own moves she had learnt from one of her silly cartoons, but it didn’t go with the beat at all.
“Alright, stop, or I’m scared someone is going to see you” Gabe spluttered after his long amused laugh.
“Let me teach you something basic.
The moon walk” he offered and Emily’s eyes lit up.
“Moon walk?” She stated, “I know that!
It goes like this—” she tuned out and started demonstrating, failing completely at her attempt.
“Just let me lead, will you?” He chuckled and Emily nodded.
### Emily had gotten some good moves from Gabe and was throwing them wherever and however she liked, going to other elves and asking them to dance with her.
Gabe chased after her, of course, but she was so energetic and he couldn’t keep up with all that.
Emily went up to one of the instrumentalists, who had a metal tray in his hand, but as he beat it, every separate strip of the tray had a different sound.
Emily begged the elf to let her try it, and he happily obliged.
Gabe panicked and tried to get on stage before she could play the instrument in her arms, but it was too late, as everyone turned to Emily who had started playing any random tune, literally just experimenting.
It wasn’t bad at all to Gabe’s surprise, and she had stuck to a beat she had made and liked.
Everyone laughed and partied and danced all day long to Emily’s song.
Gabe sighed and just watched Emily from then, until he was pulled by some eager elves who wanted to dance.
“You can have it” said the fully bearded elf, keeping the instrument in her small hands, “You deserve to have it with your kind of raw skill.
Think of it as a gift for the new moon” Emily gasped, her eyes glittered and glowed, “Oh, thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!” She hugged the elf tight and he chuckled.
She tapped the surface of the tray in her arms and heard a loud gasp.
“Emily!
Don’t you ever!
Do that again!” Gabe wheezed, panting and trying to catch his breath.
Emily smiled, “This has been the best night ever!
Thank you, Gabe!” Emily hugged his hips and smiled up at him.
Gabe was speechless for a moment, then settled with a soft smile on his face, “Anything for my favorite ‘people'” The duo went back to Gabe’s watch house, where he let Gavin free, and the two entered the house.
“Tea?” Gabe asked.
Emily hummed in reply and Gabe went to the kitchen to brew.
She took out the cube from her pocket and looked at it, it seemed to have a soft luminescent glow, and the white side was still very much solved.
“Bet Jordie would love to see this…” she sighed, already missing her best friend.
She even kept some of her cake for him.
She realized her only one problem at the time.
How would she get back home?
“Hello?
Umm?
Wanna…
hear a story?” She tried her luck, trying to remember the statement that she said that got her here, but it didn’t work.
She ran her hands through her already scattered nest-of-a-hair.
“Alright, I don’t have any razzleberries, so I made from krushnuts.
They’re not as good, but it’s tea” said Gabe, walking out with a tray supporting two cups of tea.
He sat at the table with Emily and the two began to take sips of their tea.
Soon, Gabe inquired, “Isn’t it time you headed home?
I’m sure your parents must have noticed you’re out of bed by now” Emily couldn’t bring herself to tell him she didn’t know a way back, “I’ll…
later!
I wanna…
finish my tea” she said nervously, taking another sip of her tea.
Gabe gave her a suspicious look but shrugged it off, “What’s it like in your place anyway?
Do you have festivals like these?” Emily dropped her cup of tea and stretched a bit, “Well, no.
Maybe?
I don’t know.
I’ve never been to one.
My city’s really big and really busy.
They wouldn’t have any time for festivies like this” “No festivals?
That’s a shame.
We elves don’t have much going on for ourselves, but this festival gives us a brand new beginning.
A change” Gabe pointed out.
“I like your city.
Everybody is soooo nice” Emily stated, “I liked your friend, Stephan” Gabe chuckled, “Oh, he’s not my friend.
Just a fellow who likes to drink and get on everyone’s nerves.
He’s hopeless” Emily looked surprised, “Then, do you have friends?” Gabe shrugged and took a long sip of his tea, “‘Friends’ is a strong word for me.
I’m just happy with me and my Grorckle” Emily’s mood dropped a little and Gabe smirked, “But, I can say you and I are friends, aren’t we?” Emily was happy again and she nodded.
“What about you?
You have any friends?” Gabe asked.
Emily fiddled with her cup of tea on the table, “Um…
well I do.
One.
Jordy.
He’s my best friend” “A boy, huh?” Gabe smirked and raised his eyebrow, “What’s he look like?” Emily laid her head on the table and sighed, “He’s really thin…
always looking pale…
he has these spots all over him, kind of like your markings but smaller and a lot more” “He has green eyes, like green-green, you know?
Like, in the light, it can be as light as a tennis ball, and in the night it’s as dark as the green leaves in the forest…
at night” Emily drawled on and on, adding more details until she was sure that she had described him well enough, “And he has a birthmark next to his bellybutton” Gabe stared wide-eyes at her, “He’s…
your best friend…
right?” Emily looked up at him “Yeah…
and I wish he was here” Gabe smiled, “Well, whenever you come again, be sure to bring him over.
It’ll be good to finally put a face to the…
name” Emily managed to smile lightly.
“Are you done with your tea?” Gabe asked.
“N-no” Emily gulped, “Almost” “So tell me what you do in your city” Said Gabe, and Emily began to tell him about all the games she played with Jordie and all the stories she told him.
She told him about her grandmother and her gift to her which she didn’t like, but had somehow led her here.
She continued from one thing to another, until she got sidetracked and began to tell him one of her grandmother’s stories.
“And just like my grandma, always ends her stories…
‘The End!'” She finished.
Gabe looked exhausted, wondering when the little girl was going to leave.
“Grandma told me that even though you say, ‘The End’, it doesn’t mean it’s over, so you have to say, ‘The story’s over’ to—” There was a bright flash and Emily felt like she was warped into a portal, where invisible forces stretched her beyond her limit, her outside and insides.
She found herself on the floor, she groaned and rested on her knees, rubbing her forehead to deal with the headache she’d gotten from the journey.
She looked around.
It didn’t look any different from her own normal room.
Where was Gabe?
And Gavin?
Nowhere here.
She realized she was back home, but wondered how.
She suddenly remembered what her grandmother told her.
“When you must begin a story, you must ask if the person you’re telling would want to enter the world with you, not the original, ‘Once Upon a Time'” …
“Ending a story never means it’s over, Emily, a story can never end, but can be over when you say it’s over.
Remember that very well, then you can end that chapter there, and when you’d like, write another chapter or write another book” Confusing things to tell a three year old but Emily seemed to remember them now.
She whispered, “Do you want…
to hear a story” to the cube, nervously waiting.
And in a flash, she was gone, and back on the hill facing the Elven city, more dull than when she first saw it.
“The story is over” she said firmly.
And she was back in a flash as well.
She gasped and panicked over what she had just discovered.
Her grandmother’s greatest treasure was a magical relic that could take her into worlds that she thought belonged in stories.
Her grandmother had left her a story teller!
She understood what she said now, “A story is a great piece, that makes up the treasure of the storyteller” How she remembered, she had no clue, because she never remembered her school lessons this way, but for some reason, the memories kept flashing, important quotes and statements, she remembered them all.
She smiled at her gift, “Thank you, grandma” she whispered, and hugged it close, feeling a sense of warmth when she spoke.
“I miss you” ” she sniffed and wiped a tear.
The tear glowed softly in her arms and she could almost hear a faint whisper, “I miss you too, my little adventurer”