🍄 Fairytale Adventure🧚
Today my friend Mandi and I went on an adventure through the city! I told her about how I wanted to find the troll and the giant spider, because I haven’t ever seen either one, and we agreed to meet today and find them! She knew right where they were, and I was incredibly excited to see them!
The knowledge that we have a statue of a troll and a giant spider living right in my city (or, well, the city adjacent to the neighborhood where I live) is such a beautiful concept. It makes me think of the music video for “Nolita Fairytale” by Vanessa Carlton.
The idea of living in a city teeming with fantasy creatures has been appealing to me a lot. It’s so much more of a wonderous, magical feeling to look at something commonplace like a city and imagining a fantastical world living on top of that. It’s a fun way to see the world, and what is life if not just a perusing of things and ideas that we find fun?
Any brave souls who want to stand up against the dreaded troll must enter through the sewer gates.
We had thought about trying to stay until dark. When the sun goes down and all the lights go out, the troll is lit up from within the sewers with an ominous green glow. Legend says that the troll comes alive when the sun goes down and all goes dark, and that it creeps through the city looking for bad children to eat.
The problem was that the darker it got, the colder it got. Next time we try we’re going to wait until it’s warmer. Hopefully, then we’ll be able to see the green lights!
Later on, Mandi asked if he was everything I hoped he would be—and I told her he not only met my expectations but exceeded them. The troll was way creepier than I expected and I love it even more because of that!
For someone who is so terrified of spiders, I fell absolutely in love with the one crawling on the wall of a nearby business on the rainbow cobblestone street. It was huge! I don’t know if it was bigger than I expected, but it still kind of scared me at first when we walked past and I wasn’t expecting it.
The long red ropes had bells at the bottom and they knocked together in the wind, creating a lovely, light gong-like ring through the crisp January air. Mandi told me the cats were new from the last time, and they look really cool! The fake succulents on the walls were a good touch, and really added a pop of greenery to the brick (red and otherwise) surroundings.
I don’t know what I expected when Mandi said there was a Shakespeare mural, but I was excited to see it. I’m taking a Shakespeare class right now and have always considered him one of the chief influences in my writing, so when we found it I was over-the-moon excited.
It was beautiful, and I loved how the artist used all those words and phrases together like that. Again, I wasn’t sure what it was that I was expecting but I’m glad I saw it!
We also went to see the Keeper of the Plains—the best-known symbol for my city.
In truth, I knew very little about the Keeper of the Plains even though I’ve lived here my whole life. I’ve seen it, seen it when they light it at night but had no idea that there was a soft whisper of music playing when you go to the door at the base of the statue. Or that they have a whole exhibit when you reach the other side of the bridge. I’m glad Mandi took me over to it and showed me all the things I was missing. It ended up being very educational and eye-opening.
The entire trip was magical.
Maybe I’m crazy, but like I said before, I like to pretend there’s much more magic in the world than there likely is. It’s fun to think about a troll living under the city who comes alive at night to eat little children, or a giant friendly spider crawling on buildings near a rainbow alley. There’s so much unpleasantness in the real world that I feel like we could all do with a bit of fantasy in our everyday lives.
I’m glad I went out with Mandi today, and I’m glad I took so many pictures so I could share them with you guys!
But now I’m exhausted. I’m going to go lay down and watch Danny play Fable 2.
See you next time!
Follow me on:
Twitter: @AGirl_Unwritten
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/makaylaloveauthor/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agirl_unwritten/
My books are available for purchase on:
