Flowers and Castles

One warm Summer day, a little girl named Lucy Brown was sitting on the towpath by the edge of a Canal when, suddenly, she saw a narrowboat float past with a cabin that seemed to be made of pure gold with a golden tiller carved like the neck and head of a swan and its cabin was decorated with painted roses that seemed alive, swaying in the wind of some magical breeze and pictures of fairytale castles that seemed real as well, painted clouds drifting through painted skies above them and painted flags flapping upon the castle turrets.

“It’s a magical narrowboat”, thought Lucy, gasping.

And looking at what the boat was carrying, she saw that it was loaded up with golden treasure and diamonds and sapphires and rubies as big as lumps of coal.

“I wonder where it came from and where it is going?”, she asked.

But then, from the stern of the narrowboat she saw its captain appear, a mysterious, majestic tall looking man dressed almost like some sort of gypsy in an old fashioned cap with a spotted handkerchief tied round his neck, a dark waistcoat and a shirt with his sleeves rolled up, old fashioned striped trousers and long boots; dark curly hair and piercing dark eyes but, strangest of all were his ears that seemed pointed like those of an elf or fairy.

“Who are you?”, Lucy asked the man, “Where do you come from? Are you magic?”.

The Narrowboat captain doffed his cap.

“I am”, he said, “I come from the canals and waterways of fairyland. I am taking this cargo of treasure back to the fairy king, you see. It was stolen by trolls and hidden in your world, I found it and am returning it so that I may marry the fairy kings daughter”.

Lucy was astounded.

“But how did you get here?”, she asked.

“Through the fairy lock gate”, said the man pointing up ahead, “It is a gate between the fairy land and this”.

“Oh”, said Lucy, “I would love to see fairy land”.

The strange Narrowboat captain waved his right hand and suddenly, a solid gold mooring pin appeared in the bank near where Lucy was sitting, burying itself securely in the ground then a rope shot out from the stern of the Narrowboat and tied itself tightly to the mooring pin and then the Narrowboat by itself came close to the bank before a gangplank of gold appeared between the boat and the bank and the captain hopped nimbly across it.

“Ah well”, he said, sitting down next to her on the grass, “There are many ways to get there. The narrowboat is only one. Follow your heart and your dreams of freedom and they will lead you there”.

The man pointed to the painted castle on the cabin of the boat,

 

“That is the castle of the fairy king where I am going”.

Then the drawbridge of the castle opened and Lucy saw the king inside his throne room sitting upon his throne with his queen beside him watching a juggling jester and then, much to her surprise, looking round Lucy realised that she was not just looking at the inside of the castle but standing in front of the king.

The narrow boat captain bowed to the king.

“Ah, Captain Nightingale”, said the king, “When will you have that treasure”.

“I am bringing it, your majesty”, said the Captain, “It is on my narrow boat”.

“Good and how did you manage to find the treasure so quickly?”, asked the king.

“Ah, well your majesty”, explained the Captain, “I knew that the fairy gold grants wishes so, making myself invisible, I flew around the mortal land wishing for sixpence in my pocket and when the money appeared I knew that I must be flying over where the trolls had buried it”.

But then the Captain introduced Lucy to the King.

“This little girl is from the Mortal realm, your Majesty”, said the Captain, “She wanted to see where the fairies lived and so I am showing her something of our land”.

Lucy curtseyed.

“Well, little girl”, said the King, smiling, “Any friend of Captain Nightingale is a friend of the fairies”.

But then the Queen of the fairies suggested that Lucy might like to join in a fairy dance and, when Lucy said she would be honoured to, the queen tapped her golden wand three times upon the arm of her throne and, instantly, the throne room filled up with royal courtiers of all shapes and sizes, woodland creatures like rabbits and squirrels and fairytale animals like unicorns and griffins and dwarves and elves and fairies too and they all started to dance, then the Captain took Lucy’s hand and they started to dance as well.

As they were dancing, however, waltzing in circles, to Lucy’s amazement, suddenly she thought that she couldn’t feel the ground beneath her feet anymore and then, looking down she realised that she and the captain, in fact all the dancers, were dancing in the air.

“This is how fairies dance”, said the Captain as they whirled around and around.

But, just then, there was the sound of explosions from outside the castle and, as the dancers waltzed back towards the ground, entering the throne room, a castle guard said to the king,

“Your majesty, Trolls are attacking the palace, dropping bombs on us from their hot air balloon”.

“Good gracious”, said the king, “What are we going to do?”.

“Don’t worry your majesty”, said the dashing Captain, “I know what to do. Give me you swiftest flying unicorn and I will stop them”.

The Queen tapped her golden wand three times just as before and, suddenly, in front her, Lucy saw a magnificent white horse appear with large white wings like those of a dove and a golden horn at the centre of its forehead.

Then, bending down and picking up Lucy, the Captain placed her upon the back of the horse before climbing on himself and taking hold of its reigns and then, just like in a dream, before she knew it she and the Captain were flying through the bright blue sky  towards a giant hot air balloon full of large hairy trolls.

“Troll balloon dead ahead”, said the Captain to the flying unicorn, “Prepare to ram it”.

“Aye aye Captain”, replied the flying Unicorn in a whinnying voice, lowering its horned head and speeding up into a gallop.

Just then, however, one of the Trolls in the balloon spotted the Captain and they began firing at the unicorn with large blunderbusses, bullets whizzing past Lucy’s head.

Tugging on the reigns of the flying unicorn, the Captain made the creature rear up upon its hind hooves and ordered it to flap its wings as hard as it could and then, to Lucy’s astonishment she saw the flapping wings, just like a fan, create such a strong gust of air that they blew one of the large white clouds that was nearby into the troll ship so that the trolls couldn’t see.

Then, while the trolls were blinded, the Captain ordered the flying unicorn to charge and, as it galloped again in the direction of the balloon with its horn lowered, suddenly Lucy heard a loud bang and a noise like air escaping as the horn of the unicorn burst the Trolls balloon and then, looking down, Lucy saw it go crashing to the ground.

“That’ll teach those Trolls”, said the Captain, smiling.

But then, suddenly, looking round, Lucy saw that they were back again within the throne room.

“Bravo”, said the King after the Captain had gotten off of the Unicorn, touching the Captains chest with the tip of his wand and making a medal appear, “For gallantry in the defence of Fairyland, I award you the Fairystar, the highest military honour a fairy king can bestow”.

“Thankyou your majesty”, said the Captain bowing, “I am very honoured”.

But then, just as the Captain was straightening up again, Lucy saw that they were back upon the towpath beside the canal and it was as if they had just been playing a make believe game about fairies and elves.

“That was amazing”, said Lucy, excited but then, slightly bewildered, she added, “But was it real”.

“Reality is just a matter of believing”, said the Captain smiling and walking back across the golden gangplank onto his narrowboat, its mooring pin; rope and gangplank all vanishing like an illusion.

But then, from the cabin of his boat, he pulled off one of the painted flowers and it became a bright blue rose that he threw to Lucy and which she caught.

“If you ever start to doubt that it was real, however, just look at that rose and if you ever need any help just make a wish with your heart and ask to speak to Captain Nightingale of Fairyland”, he said.

But then Lucy saw the Captains magical lock gate open, golden light bursting from it like the opening gates of a heaven and, as he waved goodbye to her suddenly the Captain and his golden Narrowboat were gone, vanished into the warm summer air.

Closing her eyes tightly, Lucy smelled her blue rose.

“I believe”, she said.