Of Long Noses and Light Feet: Chapter 1A (Why Polly?)

And now for a new venture! Hopefully a pleasant distraction from studying for exams (if you’re a student), or from the drudgery of everyday life (if you’re not). Enjoy!

Why Polly?

Chapter 1: Of Long Noses and Light Feet

I am Polly Summers, long-nosed and light-footed. Long-nosed because my nose is unnaturally long, and light-footed because they say I seem to dance wherever I go. Perhaps if not for this I would not be who I am, for otherwise I’d be exactly like everyone else in the country of Angaria: blond and pale.

Gretchen says that’s why I am not yet married. At twenty-one I am a little old to be looking for a husband, which does not bother me, though it bothers Gretchen. She has looked after me ever since my mother died when I but a baby, though now I mostly look after myself. Gretchen is not getting any younger.

I have a little stall in the corner of the market where I sell flowers, and that’s how I support myself. The flowers I pick in the morning from outside the town, when the dew is still wet on the grasses and the sun has barely raised its head. My fellow stall-keepers are the only ones who call me by my name, Polly Summers, long-nosed and light-footed. To everyone else I am just the flower girl.

That was where I was when everything began, selling flowers in the market. I remember being worried because the day looked to be hot and the flowers had started to droop. Or, at least, that was all I was worried about at first, until a bunch of pinch-faced thieves made off with my flowers. What for I shall never know, unless it was to give to their sweethearts. But after that I was, understandably enough, less worried about my flowers drooping than about the thieves making off with the best of my wares. I gave pursuit.

And so it happened that I ended up nearly trampled under the hooves of the royal stallions as I rushed across the street after the ones who had stolen my flowers -

(Go to Chapter 1B)

If you are enjoying this story, also check out:

- Spring Fever, over at the Amrah Publishing House

- Why Polly?

- Skates and Boards

- Unexpected Situations (fanfiction)