Note: determined to finish these off before July. 3 to go!
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John opened and unlocked his laptop. He hesitated only a moment when he saw the empty blog that had been left open the last time he used it, then he clicked to a new tab and went to his browser.
Fingers hovered over the keyboard. With an uncertain huff, he typed ‘tiny person’ into the search bar.
As soon as he hit return, he knew that his keywords were flawed. Immediate results were mostly to do with dwarfism, and that wasn't at all what he was looking for.
He really should have been job hunting. He'd put a few feelers out to some old contacts, people he knew at St. Bart's, and was waiting to hear back. Couldn't hurt to cast a few more lines.
Having an inches-tall man continuously appearing in his flat was an incredible distraction from that task.
He'd shown up in John's sight several more times over the past few days and, John had just begun to notice, did so a little closer to him each time. He didn't do anything but stand there staring John down, since he most often chose to have some sort of high ground. Since their first encounter was so tense, the doctor didn't want to approach him and appear aggressive like before. So the tiny man just watched him for a while, and disappeared when John wasn't looking.
All that simply baffled John, and didn't give him any insight into what exactly he was and what he was doing.
John clucked his tongue as he reached absently for the chips left over from his takeaway lunch. Cheap and convenient, just something to fill him up. He could think about how to narrow his search as he chewed and cleaned the grease from his fingers on a nearby paper napkin.
Once his fingers were clean, he added the word ‘folklore’ to the end of his previous search. He gave it a second thought before inserting ‘English’ in front of it.
This brought up expected results as well. Pixies, fairies, gnomes, leprechauns… It all seemed a little too fantastical based on John's (admittedly limited) experiences. The tiny man didn't have wings, didn't seem able to fly or in possession of magic powers. The closest things John witnessed were those bursts of speed while he was trying to get away. Surely if he had more tricks up his sleeve than that, John would have seen them.
One term among them stood out as something he couldn't immediately associate with some fairy tale or cartoon. ‘Brownie’. John's brow furrowed, interest piqued as he clicked on the first link featuring the unfamiliar creature.
Brownies certainly seemed a more low-key sort compared to fairies and whatnot. Little people living in walls, trying not to be seen and quietly carrying out small household tasks in exchange for food. John thought back to the scones Mrs. Hudson had left out…
One point against brownies as an option was that every depiction and description of them was significantly more impish or animalistic than what John saw. Seemed very much like any human he might see around, just one who happened to be inches high.
Then again, as John read on, brownies were not to be trifled with, if the folklore was to be believed. Though they mostly operated in the shadows, they were known to be mischievous as well. Playing tricks on people when they least expected it, and if they got pissed off, they became more hostile and took on the form of ‘boggarts’.
He had to blink away the memory of trapping the guy under a mug. Suddenly he was really hoping that he wasn't on the right track.
John sat back in his chair to try and reset his thoughts to come up with something else he could try. He gave a sigh, once again going for a few chips when something gave him pause. A small yet sudden shift in his peripheral vision.
Glancing over, John was surprised to find the tiny man on the far edge of the kitchen table. He stood there as straight and tall as he could make himself, arms crossed and eyes sharply fixed on John.
John in turn froze; this had happened a good handful of times now, but he'd never appeared this close.
An even bigger shock was that the man began marching toward John. All he could do was stare as his eyebrows jumped up, clueless about what brought this on. Did something change to make him behave this way?
The determined march slowed as the little man came within inches of John's hand, still stuck outstretched and hovering near the chips. He broke eye contact with the human to glare at the hand, just about twice as large as he was tall, and then cut those sharp blue eyes right back to John.
John broke out of his trance to awkwardly move his hand back, feeling like he was intruding all of a sudden. Unsure of what else to do with it, he let it come to rest near his keyboard.
He could swear he saw those tiny eyes narrow as the man all but stomped forward to close the distance with the chips and snatch a small one up. When all John did was blink dumbfoundedly, he huffed and turned on his heel to go back the way he came.
From that spot right next to the chips, the screen of John's laptop was in full view of the man as he turned. He spared it a glance and scoffed.
“Dull…” John thought he heard the man mutter.
Before John could even think about how to take that, let alone respond to it, the tiny figure turned into an impossibly fast blur and vanished over the edge of the table.
John sat there for a long time, mouth agape as his chips went stone cold beside him. When it all caught up to him, he glanced at his idle computer and closed it.
Judging by the man's response, John could only assume that he was not a brownie.
I've been making the most of the last of the autumn sun to enjoy dipping into my newly published novel over a cup of tea and some cake. ☕️
Aptly, I decided to make chocolate brownies in honour of the fact that my story is about brownies! In the context of my novel, brownies are a small type of House Elf. Brownies as household elves who help humans with chores are mentioned in Scottish folklore in the early 16th century, although the stories about them may date back to the Roman times: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownie_(folklore)
Chocolate brownie cakes are a newer creation, invented by the Palmer House Hotel in America to enter in the Colombian Exposition World’s Fair in 1893.
I made my chocolate brownies from a Creative Nature chia and cacao chocolate chip brownie mix. I find the chia seeds add a nice bite to the rich chocolatey brownie. The mix is organic, suitable for vegans and gluten and dairy free - what’s not to like! 😋 https://www.creativenaturesuperfoods.co.uk/product/chia-cacao-choc-chip-brownie-baking-mix/
The gorgeous scented candle is called ‘Faerie Cake’ and is available from Coven Candles: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1056004914/faerie-cake-handmade-scented-soy-vegan?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=coven+candles+faerie+cake&ref=sr_gallery-1-12&organic_search_click=1&frs=1&cns=1
To find out more about the elven brownies in my novel, visit my author blog post: https://hollymerryauthor.wordpress.com/2021/05/10/house-elves/
My novel is available globally on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Google Play and Kobo. Here's a link to the book on Amazon.com:
