Many of my memories have been made with family, and many others with friends. However, the one I want to share with you was made with family that are also some of my dearest friends. This memory was made on a day that seems like it was not long ago. But, it was made when I was about 10. Not long ago, but not yesterday either...
We were bored and tired. My family, minus my dad, and my mom’s sister and her kids had been staying at our Nanna and Grandpa’s house for our spring vacation. For the last couple of days, our main project had been running a restaurant. However, serving the same four people breakfast, lunch and dinner had become pretty boring. It was too much like real life; it was too monotonous.
So, it ended up that my six-year-old cousin, Jonah, and my ten-year-old self were sitting in our grandparent’s living room trying to decide what we wanted to do. We could have been digging for China in the back garden with our siblings. My cousin and I, with our superior wisdom, knew that trying to reach China through that route was futile - also it was hot outside.
My cousin broke the silence of concentration, “We could go rescue a princess.”
“A girl can’t help a boy rescue a princess.” I retorted.
He took a moment before saying, “You could be the princess.”
“No, I would have to wait for you and I would get annoyed and just end up rescuing myself and then it would be no fun for you.”
Again we lapsed into silence. I tried to think. We could swim, or play house, or make a fort out of pillows, but we had done all of those things more than twice in the last week.
Jonah sighed. “What is your favorite color?” He asked.
“Red. Why? What’s yours?”
“I just wanted to know.” He responded, “Mine’s blue.”
Suddenly I had a thought. It involved elves, dragons, and magic.
“I have an idea!” I whispered to him. His eyes brightened and I went on, “OK, first we have to have armor. So, I have on an elegant chain mail dress with a red sash and thin leather boots with silver buckles.”
Jonah spoke up, “I have on a blue jerkin with a silver helm and leather moccasins.”
“Great! Now we need weapons.”
“What are we?” Jonah asked.
“Elves. Well, we are warrior elves. We are trained to do awesome fighting moves and we can use magic.” I paused. “So, I have a small dagger, a white ebony re-curve bow, and three knives that I can conceal in the skirts of my dress and throw with accuracy.”
"I have a sword, knives to throw, and a staff made of blue metal but made to be exactly like the long-staff Little John uses in Robin Hood.”
We spent the next hour telling each other the story of the elves’ history. We came up with a whole new world that was filled with elves that had divided against each other. We were a part of the few good elves left, and our goal was to restore peace to the world while shedding as little blood as possible, but we would fight when necessary. By then we were hungry, so we moved to the dining room along with our siblings who had just come inside.
After lunch, we headed into the front yard with our siblings. In the center of our grandparent’s front yard was a tree. It was a tree that I would call big, although it seemed larger than. Its trunk split only a foot away from the ground and the limbs were broad and flat. All of us could climb it. It was chosen to be the home of the elves, the Life Tree. Everyone chose a color, which determined their elvish clan, and then they briefly described their armor and weapons.
We began and in only a couple minutes my brother had chosen to turn against us. We laid a trap for him, but it failed. Then we defeated the Dragon-of-Darkness, the most feared of all dragons. We fled as we were hunted by our used-to-be comrade. The dry smell of sand seemed to vanish as we moved from Las Vegas, Nevada, to the new world we had created. We became alert to the imagined dangers surrounding us.
My cousin found the Ruby of Fire, which was the heart of the world. From it, we learned the language of magic and went on to defeat a whole army of opposing elves. We convinced a group of dark dragons to join our side. Then, when the Life Tree was burning down we saved it through our magic. My sister, the Rose Elf, was killed and then came back alive when the Ruby of Fire brushed her skin.
When we were called for dinner, we reluctantly let the imagined world slip away. For once my always-hungry brother was slightly disappointed because he had been called to dinner. We had found something that entertained us all.
The last seven days of our vacation were spent mostly in the world my cousin and I had created. Our minds, together, had given birth to a world that became a game that we would end up playing every time we saw each other.
Our world has had stolen brides. There have been lakes where the water is so pure you can see right to the bottom where mermaids used to live before they were slaughtered by sea serpents. We have fought dragons that seemed like mountains because they were so big, and forests that held dark secrets about the past. We have witnessed plagues that killed most of the life on our world, and with magic, we have fixed the damage.
We call it “The Game of Elves” and, as of yet, it has never left us bored.