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.
