NYAC | 3min Read
Published on May 7, 2026
Somewhere Out There
Somewhere Out There
Somewhere out there, in a little town far away, lay a little cottage. In it
lived an even more little girl. She was Holly. Holly was a playful
trickster. She had short, golden hair tied in a bun, obscured by the green
hat she wore at all times. Her eyes used to glint with mischief. But the
weirdest things in her were her pointed ears and translucent wings!
Indeed, she was a pixie! Not a fairy, mind it. It is an offense to mistake
pixies for fairies.
What was the best thing about her? Well, she could use magic! Did she
use it for Good? Yes. Sometimes, she would play harmless pranks on
harmless people. Was she malicious? Absolutely not!
Holly’s job was to guard the Helm of Honor. The Helm of Honor was a
headgear that looked more like a crown. It was bestowed onto the
greatest Heroes. Heroes were “the most brave, kind and valiant” of
humankind.
Now, who deemed heroes as Heroes? That is a most unanswerable
question. We shall look at things from innocent magical creatures like
Holly’s perspective. The pixies like Holly always hear a voice in their
heads, telling them “To annoy other mortals, and protect the given
artifact, is your job”. Then, the innocent beings would follow the
command wordlessly.
It seemed like their commander was immortal, or they thought they
were. No matter. The thing is: they didn’t pay heed to these questions,
just followed the bodiless orders.
Back to Holly now! Each day, she would wake up early in the morning
and wash her face in the nearby stream, and then she would get seated
on her mushroom cottage’s roof and gaze at the passing insects androdents. Sometimes she would annoy them by clouding their vision with
fog.
It was on an early morning like this that she encountered her first Hero.
She heard a small voice in the back of her head that told her a Hero was
coming. It was her first time, but she still knew what to do. She quickly
flew inside and opened a manual titled “Handling Heroes”. She flipped
through the pages and found the chapter she was looking for: “For First
Timers”. All it read was:
Step 1: Greet them
Step 2: Praise them
Step 3: Exaggerate their feats and the artifact
Step 5: Hand over it
Note: Be humble. Don’t talk back. Do whatever you are told to.
She prepared herself and went out, muttering all the steps. As soon as
she stepped out the front door, a dark figure loomed over her. It seemed
to be a male. She confidently flew higher to reach his height. He seemed
not to have noticed here.
“Here I am, Hero! How do you do?” she called out.
He looked around to make sure she was the one squeaking at him. Holly
could see him clearly now. He had blazing red hair and eyes the same
color. He was staring at her. She gulped as fear slowly crept in.
She was done with step one, the next one was to praise him. But she
didn’t know anything about him, how could she? She told him straight
up, “I don’t know where you’re from or what you have done to earn this
Helmet. It looks pretty normal to me. I guess you’ve done something
great to achieve it. Congratulations Hero!”With a swift hit from his sword’s hilt, he sent her flying in an arc.
However, she had braced herself; she flew back in a zap and attacked
him, since then, the Hero was never found.
Holly became the queen and since then, the number of undeserving
heroes has decreased. Pixies no longer follow commands. It is said that
Holly still lives out there. She’s biding her time, waiting for the moment
to strike. It is true, she is somewhere out there.
