As always there are tons more photos of Kalju than just the 5 Etsy allows on my Artuit site at:
http://alittlecharacter.com/elf_kalju.html
Character dimensions in inches: 8 x 8 x 6
Kalju elements include: a little heart shaped rock, a glass bottle full of mica flakes, 3 clear crystals, a little heart shaped metal charm and a small piece of polished amethyst on his chest.
It would be short sighted and frankly quite arrogant to assume that elves and fairies only dwell in the shadows of mossy forests. A very human assumption as well, we like to KNOW everything, as fact, whether we're right or not.
A brief glimpse of iridescent fairy wings amongst the ferns, dark eyes and nimble fingers disappearing behind a wild shroom, the brain leaps to conclusions, filling in all the gaps, when in reality we know nothing.
A peek at pointed ears doesn't reveal an entire world to us. It only hints at things we do not know.
I thought elves only resided in the woods. I thought the little people with magic ways and pointy ears were only where fungi and trees were present.
I wandered through a rocky desert, feathery sage brush tickling my shins, early spring sun already hot on my neck and I daydreamed about those creatures, the ones in another world. A perfect blue sky cradled puffy white clouds over head, as soft and whimsical as my day dreams. I watched my footing, ever mindful of snakes and desert floor critters but also for shiny pebbles. Little, almost gems, sparkling on a sandy bed. Little treasures that I could never resist, picking them up, tucking them in my pockets until my walk home was a weighty one.
It was when I was kneeling by a particularly well stoned spot, too many interesting rocks to walk on by that I heard a polite and cheerful voice.
"How about this one?" It was full of humour, a small laugh at it's edges and although I was startled to find I was not alone on my rock hounding walk I smiled, before looking up.
My words were half out and hanging in the air as my vision caught up with me.
"What rock did you......." I trailed off. I didn't have far to look up, in fact had I not been crouched, near sitting on the ground I would have missed him entirely I'm sure.
I froze, too many bits of information were clogging my brain, my words went unfinished, the sun pressed down on my back, a little breeze kicked at my hair, my fingers trembled, dropping my newest clutch of rocks in a little gravel rain.
Ears, too long, pointy, dark shining eyes, a little being, a touch of gold, leathery brown skin, too small, too small.....my thoughts jumbled and tangled together.
I am forever grateful that when I sat with an "oomph", legs collapsing under me, that I wasn't in the vicinity of a cactus. Though I doubt I'd have noticed.
A little man...no, a little elf, he was an elf of that I was sure, sat on a rock just a few feet away. As real as the sky and earth and pebbles in my pockets.
One hand stretched towards me, impossibly small, cradling a blindingly white stone. My eyes were dazzled. His lips quirked, I saw those pointy ears shift like a friendly puppy's and I believe I forgot to breathe for a few moments.
"It's a good one! Look, I helped it, I made it better!" His enthusiasm broke through my spell. I gasped for air, I tore my eyes from his and looked again at the little rock in his hand.
"Oh! It's a heart!" A lovely little rough hewn heart being handed to me by a desert elf on a sunny spring morning. The world had gone mad, or I had or...he was really there.
I reached out and carefully touched the stone with a single finger, mine grazed his. I felt heat, I felt life, he was solid and as real as I and he was an elf in the desert that stretches for miles just outside my back yard.
"A heart hmmm....see, I added this bit, then I chipped away over here and I rubbed a bit on the other side and now it's better!" His quick fingers stroked the surfaces of the rock, indicating where he'd "fixed" it, showing me how he'd apparently transformed a regular bit of stone into a little heart.
"It's beautiful!" I said. I was pleased to be able to get that much out. My world was rearranging itself, being re-ordered and written in my mind as I absorbed the presence of this little desert elf before me.
Kalju had seen the human creature long before she saw him. It wasn't just that he was quick and clever, that his outfit had been carefully made with desert camouflaging in mind as well as elfen style, but that she was so absorbed in her task she wouldn't have noticed if a dragon, 4 human houses long had swooped down beside her.
He glanced about, just to be sure there weren't any in the vicinity. A dragon was not all that dangerous, unless you accidently stepped on it's tail, insulted it's hatchlings or 'borrowed' any of its crystals.
Kalju liked crystals, he liked shiny rocks and gritty stones, he liked smooth bits and sharp bits, glossy, river tumbled gems and ordinary desert dirt.
So did the human creature. He could tell. It was the way she walked. Half bent over in a most awkward and painful looking way, neck craning, head turning, fingers snatching things from the desert floor. Rocks! He saw more than one disappear insider the female human's pocket.
Kalju used to do that, there were so many stones he admired, so many he coveted that he'd hauled half the desert valley to his little cozy rabbit hole..he'd filled it, and then another and yet another and it wasn't until he looked for another rabbit to convince letting him borrow their burrow that he realized the silliness of his obsession. The whole of the desert was his storage, so he left most of the rocks where they be...most...there were still a precious few he couldn't part with.
Dragon crystals he'd 'borrowed', a shiny purple pebble from a dry river bed that he wore on his chest, the tiny flakes of mica in his jar...those bits of mica, like sprinkles of magic, he could never resist adding another flake or two to his collection.
The human drew nearer. It amazed Kalju she didn't see him. Granted he was smaller but if he didn't say something soon she would either trample right over him with her huge human feet clad in odd clunky shoes or...she might pass on by...never seeing him......
It wasn't often Kalju ran into humans out here. The desert was huge, it swallowed up great chunks of land. Sparsely populated by humans, it was still relatively raw and untamed. He'd seen it from the air once when he'd bartered a greedy raven for a ride through the sky. One sparkling dragon crystal for one unforgettable flight.
He preferred the ground best. Clutching feathers in his fingers, wind rushing against his face, his ears had shivered and pressed tight against his head, his eyes watered, he almost regretted the deal. Until he looked down. His fears momentarily washed away as he saw the land below. He saw hills and further still mountains, more than he'd realized. The desert was dotted with the familiar brush he often took naps under, the land dipped here and there, he saw splashes of brighter colour where the rock formations were different. From above, the desert looked soft and silky, he saw it as a whole and it was beautiful. The ride had been brief, but worth it. He'd had the raven set him down where something bright and shiny glittered amongst the cactus and stones.
He was a desert nomad, he lived where he wanted. This place was as good as any. He could always coax the bunnies into sharing their warm little dens when night crept over the land, when the sun slipped away and desert was cold.
That bit of shine changed his life.
It was fascinating, metal he knew. He recognized metal though he had little desire to work with it himself. It was the shape that struck him, unfamiliar, but perfect in symmetry and balance. He recognized the word etched on it.
"Love." Humans and elves often spoke the same languages, their beginnings were more entwined than humans knew, but elves did. They remembered.
Kalju hooked the little silvery shape to his root belt he wore. What a find, what a gift...for him...it was meant to be. That simple pleasure of finding an unlikely shape in the desert had only further enflamed his passions for stones.
Only now he wished to give others the sweet joy he had experienced. He carefully shaped rocks, helping them into the shape he could see they could be, carving and cracking, sanding and chipping away until he had perfected his craft and he left a trail of those shapes across the valley. Anywhere and every where. In human's yards as he crept across them at night, near their doors, along side the road, next to the boxes where their papers were delivered. He threw them into the desert, imagining other curious elves like himself stumbling across them in their travels....sometimes he threw them with his eyes closed, after spinning until he was dizzy, so he himself didn't even know where they landed. So that he might experience the joy of finding one himself unexpectedly again some day.
Kalju made them over and over, handing them out to fellow elves he encountered on his journeys. Once he'd even spent weeks carving a massive one. Chipping away with other rocks, rubbing palmfuls of coarse sand across it's surface until it shone and he'd left it where a certain dragon who was still cranky about it's missing crystals would be sure to find it.
Kalju had watched as the sun had set the night he finished it. The sky glowing with brilliant colour, he'd seen the way the light washed over the dragon's scales and also when it's glowing eyes fell upon his gift to it. He saw too the smile, the clawed paws reaching for Kalju's gift and knew he'd done right.
Now he was working on yet another. He'd stopped counting how many he'd made, how far he'd traveled, how many years had passed since he'd first laid eyes on that little silver charm. In the way of elves he just existed, in the moment.
Now in this moment, as he just finished his latest creation he saw the human feet stop, the enormous head leaned down, shading the ground as she ran giant hands over the stones, picking massive ones up with an ease that Kalju envied.
He saw her eyes studying the minute sparkles of an otherwise ordinary looking rock and saw that she saw it the way he did. It was beautiful.
Kalju smiled. His ears wiggled, one then the other, like they did when he was excited, and he made his decision.
He spoke...to the human.
"How about this one?"
The moment was as grand for Kalju as it was for the human. It wasn't often elves let their existence be known.
"A heart." I said again. Stunned and pleased. Wondering if this little fellow was responsible for any of the other heart shaped rocks I'd found during my rock hounding adventures....
"A heart!" Kalju repeated. The word was perfect. He knew what a heart was, how it pumped furiously in his chest when he was excited, like during his wild raven flight across the skies. He knew how the heart could sing with love, how it cracked with pain and mended all over again at the simple beauty of living life. He knew a heart and all it's meanings but never had he realized he held them in his hands all these many years.
I watched him. The sunlight picking up the faint gold flush on his cheeks, the way his ears moved restlessly as he looked with new eyes at the little stone heart in his hand. His smile widened, flashing teeth he grinned at me.
"A heart!" He said again, obviously thrilled and once more extended his hand towards mine. So tiny, the little rough hewn rock in his palm.
Kalju gave his heart to the human.
She, the human, accepted the heart of an elf.
Each of them amused.
As always there are tons more photos of Kalju than just the 5 Etsy allows on my Artuit site at:
http://alittlecharacter.com/elf_kalju.html
Character dimensions in inches: 8 x 8 x 6
Kalju elements include: a little heart shaped rock, a glass bottle full of mica flakes, 3 clear crystals, a little heart shaped metal charm and a small piece of polished amethyst on his chest.
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