Samantha's Collectible Dolls, Bears & Figurines Presents:
Hildegard Gunzel - 2008 Passion and Inspiration Collection
Nella's Rescue
A slight murmur of wings in the dawn. A dark shadow glides over the dewy meadow and lowers itself. A deer puts its dainty hoofs carefully onto the grass. Two small wings grow out of the mythical creature's back; they softly caress its body as the deer respectfully lowers his head. His big brown eyes look sad, "Well, what is wrong?" a voice asks, appearing to come directly from out of the dark fairy's stone. Although it sounds frightened it seems as if the soft melodic sound of bells chime in the air and all the flowers sleepily lift their heads. A bright light glides down from the fairies stone, like delicate gossamer, a veil of mist. Amarendel, the elf, puts her hand under Floriel's chin and looks earnestly and questioningly into the deer's face. He shakes his head woefully, "I looked everywhere!", Floriel answers in despair, "Really everywhere, I could not find her!" The small head rises abruptly and the deer's eyes take on a look of alarm, "A wild animal would not have her...?" With a quick, graceful gesture Amarendel prevents the deer from speaking the dreadful fear. "No, no! No animal would dare to..." She rises with concern and strokes her long curls from her forehead. Her face is full of worry.
Full of joy, the elves had watched the ripening and blooming of this uniquely special flower that differed so clearly from the others in shape and color. It radiated a light, an intense, warm glow which announced that something living was ripening inside the bud. Expectantly the elves waited for the day when the flower would open. And then at last the day came... Very slowly and silently the petals unfolded - and there she lay, Nella, the tiny newborn elf, helpless and naked, her wafer-thin wings shimmering in the light of the new day. A thousand years the elves had waited for this day, only once in a thousand years a new elf is born. There was much joy all over the land. Amarendel was chosen to be the young elf's godmother, Floriel, the deer, and Lauriel, the magic bird, stood by her as spokesmen for all animals of the earth and of the air. They vowed solemnly to protect Nella from all danger. But this morning, when Amarendel looked for the elf child, she had disappeared. Could something have happened to Nella? Was it possible that an animal had disregarded the solemn oath? Amarendel's face lit up. No, that was impossible! This had never happened before. Nella must be somewhere. Surely Lauriel had found her. The bird had not yet returned from it's search.
"Oh no, how horrible!" it croaks over their heads. "How dreadful!" Amarendel and Floriel look up with a start. "What is it?" they fearfully cry out with one voice. "Just wait a minute!" Lauriel flaps his wings excitedly and lands. With his head cocked to one side, he looks at the elf and the deer. "As I can see, she did not yet come back", he notices and sighs. With short, quick steps the bird patters towards them. "Tell us!" Amarendel asks Lauriel "What do you know?" The magic bird turns his head towards her jerkily and the feathers of his crown start to bob up and down excitedly. "I've really been everywhere!" he tells, "I even flew into the rock mountains, high up where the eagle lives. Its keen eyes, I thought, must have seen something. But it was in vain! Neither had the owl seen anything - and it never fails to notice a thing. I was about to give up but on my way back I met a young bee who told me what had happened." Nervously the bird patters to and fro. "Imagine: One of them, a quite cheeky little thing of a bee, had been on it's way very early this morning. It must have arrived at Nella when her bloom had just opened. And our Nella, the silly little thing, made friends with the bee at once and up and away with it she was. Where to, nobody knows. The last time they were seen together they were on their way to the gate!"
The gate! Amarendel sinks back on to the stone disheartened. If Nella left the Kingdom of the fairies nobody could help her anymore. The power of the elves did not reach beyond the gate. Sadly the animals look at the desperate elf.
Then suddenly a bright light seems to spread from where the gate stood. It is not wafts of mist but a bright beam coming towards them over the wet meadow. It is a girl like a fairy-tale. A little girl, clad in white, slips through the gate into the Kingdom of elves like a bright, friendly thought. Carefully the girl puts one foot in front of the other, she holds her breath in order not to wake the little creature slumbering deeply on her hand.
"What is your name?" Amarendel asks the child of light. "I am called Belimone and I found the elf baby sleeping on a carpet of moss under a tree." Amarendel takes the slumbering elf child tenderly out of her hand and puts it carefully back into the bloom. "We all thank you very much because this child is very important for our Kingdom of elves. And you shall be our guest now and take a rest. Later on you can fly back into your world on Floriel's back."
Meanwhile Nella sleeps deeply, exhausted by her big adventure, safe in her fragrant bloom and has no idea how much excitement her disappearance had caused.
