The Naming of Tishkin Silk by Glenda Millard

Author:Glenda Millard [Millard, Glenda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-730-49547-5
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2007-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

‘I don’t think he liked it much,’ said Griffin. ‘I think he’d rather have stayed at home with you.’

‘I have prepared some refreshments for Your Majesties, if you would care to follow me down to the Cox’s Orange Pippin,’ said Nell.

Layla giggled and whispered to Griffin as they followed Nell around the side of the house towards the dam, ‘Whatever is the Cox’s Orange Pippin?’

Griffin opened his eyes wide with surprise. ‘Oh, that’s the name of our apple tree. You see, everything in the Kingdom of Silk has a name.’

Layla giggled again and said, ‘We should have made a daisy chain for … your grandmother. What should I call her, Griffin?’

‘Um, Fairy Grandmother would be nice, I think,’ said Griffin.

Nell had come to a stop beneath a medium- sized spreading tree. Its gnarled old branches were mottled with yellow and grey lichen and bowed low by a burden of blossom. Beneath its branches was a small table covered with a white cloth, as lacy as a cobweb. Beside the table, in the shaggy green grass were two large plump, purple cushions dimpled in their middles with buttons as round and yellow as full moons.

‘Would you care to be seated, Your Majesties?’ asked the Fairy Grandmother. Griffin and Layla sat down on the cushions.

‘Can I take my boots off now?’ asked Griffin.

‘Your Majesty may dispose of his boots whenever he wishes,’ answered the Fairy Grandmother. And she filled two tumblers with crushed ice that sparkled like diamonds and liquid the colour of honey from a glass pitcher on the table.

Griffin took his boots off and Layla, her pink sneakers and frilly socks. Griffin noticed her toenails were painted blue with little red hearts and sparkles on them, just like a real princess would have, he thought.

Nell put the drinks on a tray along with a plate of bread and butter sprinkled with hundreds and thousands. ‘Would you care for a glass of hummingbird nectar or a triangle of fairy bread, Your Majesties?’ she asked, passing the tray, first to Layla and then to Griffin.

‘Thank you, Fairy Grandmother,’ said Layla taking some of each.

‘You’re welcome, Princess Layla.’ Nell set the tray back on the table after Griffin had taken something to eat and drink. She whispered some magic words and blew a handful of apple blossom into the air. Then she made her way back to the house, taking Zeus with her.

‘Oh, Griffin, you’re so lucky to live here and to have such a lovely grandma,’ said Layla after they had eaten their way through a small mountain of fairy-bread triangles.

Fred and Ginger, Amber’s two geese strolled by, took the crusts from Griffin’s outstretched hand in their carrot-coloured beaks, then sailed serenely out into the middle of the dam. The children lay sprawled on the cushions, looking up at the scraps of blue sky between the leaves and blossoms of the Cox’s Orange Pippin.

‘I think I can see a face looking down at me,’ said Layla dreamily.

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