As I was entering into the Main Hall, I could smell the scrumptious feast already in progress. I went up and got myself some dandelion cordial, fresh fruit salad, summercream pudding, and several freshly baked pastries, before I started with my story. Storytellers need to eat too, you know.
On my way to the front of the hall I passed by Torfol, or rather Lieutenant Torfol, of the Long Patrol. At one point he and I served alongside each other.
He was a tall and very regal looking hare. He had his whiskers carefully waxed into a moustache, and a monocle over his left eye. His jacket, which was decorated with quite an array of medals and pins, was royal blue. Not a hair was out of place on that hare.
"Don't go eating all o' the food, young missy," Torfol playfully reprimanded me. I had a hard time answering him with a straight face as I saluted, "Yessir! No need to worry about that."
Torfol then very sweetly escorted me up to the storyteller's chair at the front of the Main Hall, and just before he left for his seat, he gave me a nice kiss on the cheek. With that I think I turned almost as red as the strawberries in my salad. I had to pause for a minute before I started in order to recover myself.
"Ahem. May I have everyone's attention." There was no response from the boisterous hares. "HEY!" There was immediate silence, "Now, if you don't mind I would like to get on with the story before the night ends. All right then, let me take you to an island a bit to the South of here called Halfmoon Isle. It is there that our story begins."
In the South Seas there lies a little undiscovered island, by the name of Halfmoon Isle. The island was given that name because it happened to look like half of a circle, but the inhabitants couldn't have very well named it Halfcircle Isle because for some reason that did not sound quite right.
There was a freshwater river that cut its way through the middle of the island. It started at the top of a dormant volcano. At the top there was a lake, which held all of the rain that had fallen over countless seasons. This lake had gradually overflowed and started trickling down the mountain to form a river that flowed across the island.
Halfmoon Isle was a very small island that had an interesting assortment of creatures that lived there. A holt of otters, a tortoise, and some seafaring birds were what comprised the majority of the population on the island.
Aside from the inhabitants, who had found the island, no one knew that it even existed. Therefore they were able to live in peace and quiet away from all of the vermin that were constantly plaguing the coasts of the mainland.
The sky was turquoise blue, and the sun was already burning hot, even though dawn had broken not too long ago. A few otters, who had just woken up, sat fixing breakfast underneath a palm tree. There was on older female otter, and two younger otters sitting with her.
"Seems t'be shaping up to be a hot one," remarked Lilly, the eldest of the three.
"We best be gettin' ev'rything done before the sun gets too high then," the male otter, Tavin Brookwater, said.
"Yore always talkin' sense, Tavin. How about I finish up here. You and Schorl go fill up some more jugs o' water."
"Sure thing marm. C'mon Schorl."
The two younger otters then left carrying two large ceramic jugs apiece, and headed for the river. Walking side by side, it seemed as though it was meant for them to be together.
Lilly sat watching them walk off into the distance. It was a peaceful morning, with the sound of birds singing softly to the morning.
Suddenly the peace was broken when there was a loud crash. A set of twin otters came barreling out of one of the caves that had been dug out from the side of one of the foothills. The ottermaid's name was Sturm and the male otter's name was Drang. These two were aptly named because they were quite a handful ever since the day that they were born.
Lilly had been like a nursemaid to these two otters ever since they were babes. So she was the only one who they listened to. Their mother had gotten very ill when they were young and she was unable to care for them, therefore the job fell to Lilly.
"Halt you two younguns. Where d'ye think you're off to in such a hurry?"
Sturm and Drang ground to a halt. There was a pause, and the two otters looked at each other. Then they started babbling like blithering idiots.
"Well ya see…"
"We were just tryin' to…"
"We didn't wanna wake anybody up, an'…"
Lilly had to clasp a paw to each of their mouths in order to get them to shut up. She let out a huge sigh and said, "Alright, one at a time. Sturm, you can speak first."
"Well, we were jus' tryin' to be helpful and get some water from the river. But the jug was up too high."
Drang then cut in, "I stood on top of Sturm's back, and I got it off the shelf alright."
"But we both lost our balance, and down we came water jug an' all," Sturm cut back in. "Then we bolted afore anybody saw us." Both Sturm and Drang looked down at the ground and shuffled their feet.
Lilly could tell how bad they felt just by looking at them. It wasn't as if they were purposefully bad. They just always were in the wrong spot at the wrong time, and they didn't think things all the way through before they barreled headlong into them.
A/N: I decided to redo this chapter because I felt like I could make it better. Sorry for having put you through the first version.
