An unknown dreamland where a little Fawkes runs free

“Hooray! Daisies!” Joyce said happily, picking a lot of them and putting them in a bouquet. The wind blew strongly and the daisies nearly blew out of her hand, but she managed to hold on to them. She continued on to the south part of the field, fighting the wind, and saw a large variety of flowers. A small patch of irises was there, and there were some forget-me-nots, as well as a variety of other flowers. Joyce added many of them to her bouquet, and headed back into her antique shop, passed down from her parents. She took a small and decorated red glass vase, put water in the vase, and carefully arranged the flowers, and put them on a shelf. They gave off a beautiful fresh feeling.

“So I guess you’re all new to the antique shop here, huh?” the vase asked as the million flowers that were making themselves comfortable in its hollow.

“Yes!” a curious little pink iris said. “What happens here?”

“We sort of just sit around and wait to be bought. That’s it. The problem is, though, nobody comes here that often so we just sit around and gather dust. Hey, everyone!” the vase called. “We got some newcomers again! Who wants to welcome them?”

“Oh, just some flowers,” a small and round opal jewel commented. It was obvious she wasn’t too enthusiastic about them. “They’re going to go soon, won’t they?”

“Oh my! They all look so pretty! I wish I can get up and smell them all! I like that pink one,” a glass ornamental red fox said, intending the one who had spoken.

“Thank you!” the iris said.

“It’s so nice to meet ch’all!” a small crystal said excitedly, enthusiastic about new friends.

“I hope you enjoy it here. We always love new flowers,” the fox said. “Get to know everybody! I’m Seramic, spelt with an S, but you can call me Amy. What are your names?”

“I’m Iris!” the pink iris said brightly.

“We’re daisies,” the daisies said in unison.

“I’m a forget-me-not!” the blue flowers said.

“Wow. There is only one iris, huh? That’s cool,” Amy said.



“Oh... it looks like you guys are dying. Ann, Crystal, are they going to get thrown out?” Amy asked the gold coin, Ann, and the crystal, Crystal.

“Oh no! I hope not!” Crystal cried. “They were my new friends!”

“I don’t wilt. I’m special,” Iris said, standing up straight.

“I... I think so...” Ann said, rather confused.

“Yes, you don’t!” Amy said, astonished. “Are you...magical?”

“Maybe!” Iris replied brightly.

“Do you grant wishes?” Amy asked, curious.

“I don’t know... maybe!”

“That’s cool!” Amy smiled brightly.

“Thanks!” Iris responded.

“...can you grant my wish?” Amy asked, after a long moment.

“Maybe!” Iris said confidently.

“Okay! Then, I wish I can be real!”

“Okay! Err... I’m not sure how to grant your wish, but once I find out, you’ll be real!”

“Thanks!” Amy smiled.



“Oh, is something happening? Are the stars once again granting a wish on a cold night with snow on the ground, and the Milky Way shining bright? Oh, these circumstances are so rare, no?” the snow whispered to the sky.

“Yes, it is! Great star Cephei, did one of your star friends fall to earth?” the Milky Way asked one of the biggest dominating stars.

“No, none I know fell but I do sense great power! Wishes are only granted under these circumstances anyway,” the star Cephei responded.

“Oh! Then let’s watch what happens! It’s coming from there!” The wind made the forests leaves motion towards and old antique house. “Let us watch.”



Iris lay awake in the vase she sat in. She was still pondering over how to grant the wish of the little red fox. “Humuhumunukunukuapua’a!” She said in a magical-like voice, in experiment to see what would happen

“Whoa!” the moon exclaimed, surprised, as its rays started to shift towards the house.

Asleep, the rays shone upon the glass fox. The fox shifted into a curled up position.

“Hey, is it working?” Iris said cautiously. Then she assumed it did. “Humuhumunukunukuapua’a!” She repeated in her deep, magical voice.

Everything was still.

“Humu...humunukunukuapua’a?” She tried again.

Nothing moved.

“Humuhumunukunukuapua’a!” Iris said confidently. “This will work, I’m sure!”

The wind blows through the window. The fox’s fur flows with the breeze.

“Humu...humu...nuku...nuku...apua.....a... Oh, I give up.” Iris said, exhausted.

The fox stirs slightly.



“Mm... has morn arrived and the sun awoken?” Amy yawned and then stretched.

Iris woke with a start, opening her pink petals. “It is morning and I didn’t grant the wish.” She sighed, sad that she let her friend down.

“I’m sure you tried your best,” Amy said optimistically, rubbing her eye with a paw.

“Wait!” she exclaimed. She jumped out of her shelf with surprise. “What the--!? I’m real?” she said, examining her smooth, rather dull, orange fur.

“Wait a sec... I did?” Iris said, surprised.

“I think you did!” Amy said in wonder, walking in circles and for the first time observing her tail.

“Humuhumunukunukuapua’a worked?” Iris said in shock.

“Humuhumunuwha?” Amy asked, confused.

“It’s the magic word which I randomly made up!” Iris said excitedly. “Humuhumunukunukuapua’a! Humuhumunukunukuapua’a! Yes, it worked!”

Amy laughed. “Whatever. I’m real! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she exclaimed, running around in joy.

“You’re welcome!” Iris said happily. “Wow, this is cool! So what are you gonna do now that you’re real?”

“Finally explore!” Amy said, jumping to look outside the window. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen the outside world! I’ve only seen flowers brought in... Humans have such privilege.”

Joyce yawned and got up, and headed into the main room of the antique shop, but quickly noticed a fox inside. “Hey, look, it’s a fox and it’s so adorable and cute and cute!” Amy barked playfully and jumped up on the desk, licking Joyce’s face like a dog. “How cuuuute!” Joyce said, and then hugged it happily.

Amy let the manager hold her. “As an artifact... I was never held with much care. Just with caution so I didn’t break.”

“Such a cute fox... and it looks like that other glass fox too! Except orange!” Amy giggled happily as the girl tickled her. “Go play now!” she said, letting it go outside and run around in the field. Then Joyce noticed the un-faltering flower after the fox left. “Hey, it’s the iris! And it hasn’t wilted! It’s an amazing iris... isn’t it?”

The wind in my hair... it’s amazing. Amy had a hard time walking, but soon let joy take over and thus ran around, free. She picked and Iris out of the ground and went back inside and handed it to Joyce. Amy let out a friendly bark as she came back with another iris. “Iris! I brought someone to be with you in the vase!” she said through her smile.

“Yay! More irises! Irises! More irises!” Iris cheered happily.

“I prefer to call myself an Arie though,” the new iris said.

“Arie... that’s a cool name. I feel like I have a backwards connection to that name... like it was once my nickname in a past life...”

“Backwards connection?” Amy asked, tilting her head in confusion. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know... like the name backwards means something...” Iris responded.

“Oh, whatever!” Amy said, climbing up and putting Arie in the vase. “Do you like it there?”

“It’s great!” Arie said happily.

“I hear that a lot of flowers like it here. I hope you enjoy it here too,” the vase said.

“I will! Thank you very much!” Arie said with a bright smile.

I smiled. “Hehe!”



“I can’t believe I granted a wish...” Iris said to herself quietly.

“Or did you grant a wish? Maybe it was a dream, possibly a reality. Oh, but for how long? Does a dream last forever?” a mysterious voice said.

“Who said that?” Iris said, startled.

“Notice the small things,” the voice said, ignoring the question. “Her fur is sleek like silk, even glass, but does it usually flow like leaves? Is it still? Does she shift? What do art pieces do?”

“Huh... who...”

“What do art pieces do?” the voice echoed.

“’Art pieces?’” Iris quoted.

“Like the shell you sit in, the fox whose wish came true, the coin who be your friend, what do they do?”

“...talk?”

“Oh, but they are not heard to humans, our creators. What do they do for them?”

“I don’t know! Why is this mysterious voice asking me complicated questions?”

“Display. Sit and display. Arts aren’t meant to live.”

“How does that matter? There are dreams! What if they want to become real? Things can do things that they aren’t meant to do!”

“Oh, but that’s breaking the rules, is it not? Have you heard of the story of the Velveteen Rabbit?”

“...yes, but... I forgot it. And besides, rules were made to be broken.”

“There was once a small rabbit plushie who was given to a boy when he was little, but the boy had a dear Teddy bear and neglected it as well as all his other toys,” the voice said, soon merging with the higher, more familiar voice of Amy. The mysterious voice itself started to disappear as Amy narrated the story. “One day, the boy had lost the bear and wouldn’t go to asleep without it. He was given the rabbit and it was then brought to life. What does it mean to inanimate objects when you live?”

“I’m not a philosophical person anyway! I don’t even know how I granted the wish!” Iris protested.

“What did it mean to the rabbit? He said he was alive when he was hugged by the boy and played with the boy. But was he really? To be alive, an inanimate object needs to be loved,” Amy said. “Am I loved?”

“...yeah!” Iris said after a moment.

“But by who?”

”Me! Duh! I’m your friend!”

“But will your love last forever?”
“Yep!”

“I hope so...” Amy said quietly. And thus, the night once again grew silent.

“I’m gonna sleep now,” Iris said, tired from the odd things the mysterious voice had said, and thus closing her petals and sleeping.

“Good morning,” Amy said, opening her eyes. She stretched out, her joints oddly feeling more stiff than usual. Just then she noticed: her fur was now yellow, sleek and shiny, unlike the previous day where she had been an orange fox with rough but soft fur, that didn’t shine.

Amy examined herself. She couldn’t believe it. She was glass. Again. Yet moving. “What’s this?” she asked nobody in particular, rather confused. Iris woke with a start. “Ah! Iriiiiis, I think something went wrong with your magic wish-granting.”

“Hmm?” Iris looked around. “Amy! You’re back to normal! I think it’s the voices fault. I heard a mysterious voice and it said crazy weird stuff!”

“Well, not really back to normal,” Amy said, sitting in her original position before this whole story occurred, “I’m glass but I can still move. And what voice?”

“Last night I heard a mysterious voooice.”

“Oh? What’d it say?” Amy asked, doing her best to jump back up to her shelf. She found it hard since she was heavier than the past day.

“I don’t know. Some cryptic mystic stuff.”

“Did it talk about the Velveteen rabbit?” Amy asked randomly.

“Hmm... yeah, that sounds familiar! How did you know?”

“I don’t know... I was thinking about it last night.”

“Maybe I was hearing your thoughts!”

“What do you mean?”

“I dunno.”

“Why, what was I telling you?”

“I dunno, it sounded like you...”

“Like I...?”

“...the voice sounded like you...” Iris said, unable to complete her sentence.

“Wanted something?” Amy suggested.

Iris shrugged. “Whatever.”

“Come on! I’m curious! What’d I say?” Amy complained.

“I tooold you, cryptic mystic stuff.”

“I’m cryptic? What does that mean?”

“Liiike, mysterious and obscure.”

“Obscure?” Amy asked. “Sorry, my vocabulary isn’t that big...”

“Doesn’t matter. Like all mysterious and stuff.”

“Oh. I didn’t know I could be mysterious!”

“Yeah! You said emo-ish stuff too. Like ‘am I loved?’ and I was like ‘Yeah, I’m your friend! I love you as a friend!’ and you were like ‘But will that love last forever?’ Honestly!”

“That’s weird. It doesn’t sound like me,” Amy said, confused.

“I knooow!”

“Maybe you were imagining stuff!”

“Yeah, I do have a big imagination after all!”

“Yeah, you do!” Amy smiled.

“Hey... is it just me, Ann?” the vase said to the coin, “I just noticed Amy changed colors!”

“U-uh... well, uhmm... yeah, she did...” the coin responded.

“What’s up? First she changes to orange, now yellow?”

“Her wish got un-granted or something!” Iris said sadly.

“Maybe not un-granted...” Amy thought out loud, “Maybe just reversed halfway?”

“Hmm, but how?” Iris responded.

“I dunno!” Amy whined, “It’s your power!”

“Not everyone understands their powers...”

“Oh...but still.”

“Well, at least you can still move.”

“You’re right.” Amy smiled.



“Does she look happy?” the voice from the previous night asked suddenly to the iris that was once again awake.

“It’s that voice again! I’m just gonna ignore it,” Iris said, rather bitterly. She hated this voice, whatever it was.

“I wouldn’t ignore you. Why are you ignoring me?”

“I’m hearing voices in my head! I mean, if I could see you then I wouldn’t ignore you!”

“But you can’t see me because I’m in your head. Now, does she look sad?”

“....why is this voice still talking to me?”

“Does she look sad?”

“...I... guess so?”

“Look at her face; she looks tired. She looks sad.” I said. “Why do you think so? Is it your fault?”

“Yeah! But I didn’t even mean to grant the wish. I didn’t think it would work anyhow.”

“So you do think it is your fault? Why?”

“I dunno! The wish was accidentally granted!”

“So what do you think is happening now?”

“I don’t know! Something’s going wrong!”

“How so?”

“It’s reversing somehow!”

“Oh, simply reversing? What do you think will happen at the end of this tale?”

“Duuude, how am I supposed to know?”

“What happens when you go backwards?”

“If you rewind, you go to the beginning again...”

“And yet your spell seems to keep rewinding. What happens before the beginning of a story?”

“If it’s a movie, you get a sneak peek in the trailer!”

“It doesn’t exist.” And with that statement, the voice was gone once more.

“Duude, that voice is creepy and so like fortune-teller-y!” Iris complained, then closed her petals and tried to sleep; ignoring what the voice had just told her.



“Good morning,” Amy stretched again. To her surprise, I was now green. “Whaaaaat?” Amy noticed now that she had fur. Stiff fur. Fur that was made of plastic and glass. “Iriiiiiiiis,” she whined.

“What?” Iris looked. “Oh my gosh, I hate that voice.”

“You hate my voice?” Amy asked sadly, misunderstanding.

“No, that voice I keep hearing in my head is back and it said cryptic stuff again. It said your wish is reversing.”

“Oh. But I don’t get it! If it’s reversing then I should be melting, not turning the colors of the rainbow!” Amy shouted, rather irritated and motioning to her green fur. “First I started as a red ornamental fox, then I became a real orange one, next I become a moving yellow glass fox, and now I’m green! Greeeen!”

“I know, dude! It’s so weird!”

“It would have been okay if it was light green, but I look like barf!” Amy complained.

“It’s not my fault! I don’t even know how that wish got granted. I mean, Humuhumunukunukuapua’a seemed to work, but should I say Nukunukuhumuhumpaupa’a or something in order to get it to stop?”

Amy looked at Iris, confused. “Uh… no. No, I don’t think so,” she said, not believing that those words worked.

“Nukunukuhumuhumpaupa’a?”

“Mm... no,” Amy said.

“Nukunukuhumuhumpaupa’a!”

“Um... Iris?”

“NUKUNUKUhumuhumpaupA’A!”

“Iriis!”

“NUKUnuku... what?”

“Stop it! It’s a little annoying.”

“Pfft. It might work, for all you know.” Iris protested. Then she turned away and started singing. “Just keep on believing, you’ll get there someday
Grow your wings and fly away
It may take awhile but you’ll make it there anyway

Follow your heart and follow your soul
Just let your spirit soar...

Even if you see the picture
In shades of black and white
Let it slowly fade to color
And you know, it’ll be alright.”

Amy looked at Iris curiously, rather awestruck. “Whoa... what song is that? I... feel like I relate.”

“I made it up as I went along.”

“Ah...” Amy said. “Does it come from your heart?”

“Yeah! Of course!”

“That’s cool!” Amy smiled.

Iris grinned. “Thanks!”



“The fairy disappeared... yet was still there. And then she...” Amy trailed off, sleep talking.

“‘Disappeared, yet was still there.’ What does she mean by ‘still there’?” the voice asked.

Iris sighed and didn’t listen to the voice. It was upsetting. Iris was starting to close her petals.

“Are you listening?” the voice said, stopping Iris mid-way. “What does she mean by ‘still there’?”

“Do re mi fa sol la ti do...” Iris sang quietly, continuing to close her petals.

“It doesn’t do good to be ignoring anybody. What if I were also an art whose wish came true, yet whose wish started reversing? What would you say then?”

“Can you stop talking?” Iris said, annoyed.

“Would you say that to me if I were really Amy?”

“If I knew who you were, I wouldn’t tell you that. But you’re not telling me who you are!”

“Oh, then I sincerely do apologize. I am Miku, a crystal ball, a fortune teller. Yet disappeared and gone. Though, I’m still here, am I not?”

“Nice to meet you... voice-in-my-head that now has a name. I’m Iris. What do you mean, gone, but still here?”

“That is for you to find out.” The night once again went silent.

“Whatever. At least I found out what its name was.” Iris said to herself, and thus closed her petals without interruption.



Amy opened her eyes expecting to see something weird, as she had for the past few mornings.

Clay. Moldy, yet still smooth, clay. Blue clay at that. “Is it supposed to be like this?” she wondered out loud.

“What now?” Iris sighed, opening her petals to take a peek into the new day. “You’re now... made of clay. Blue clay. Wow...”

“Somehow I know I’m going to be purple tomorrow,” Amy sighed. “I don’t get it.”

“Well, you’d be indigo tomorrow, actually,” Iris said, correcting the fox.

“Really? What’s the difference?”

“It’s Roy. G. Biv. Indigo’s sort of a purple-bluish color. So R is red, O is orange, Y is yellow, G is green, B is blue, I is indigo, and V is violet. So yeah. You’ll be violet in the day after tomorrow, not tomorrow.”

“Oh! I didn’t know that!” Amy said. “So I’m going to be indigo tomorrow?”

“I guess so, unless whoever’s doing this is confused.”

“I think he or she is confused... if this spell is reversing or whatever, I definitely was never any of these colors!”

“I have no idea.”

“Maybe fate is having fun?” Amy said, unsure. “Or it’s counting the days I have left before I turn glass again.”

“Yeah.”

“This is confusing... I don’t get it,” Amy complained.

“Oh, it doesn’t matter.”

“Does it? Maybe it’s something reaaaaaaal important!”

“I don’t know though, I’ve never done this before,” Iris sighed. “I’m sorry for messing up...”

“It’s alright. Everyone messes up once in a while, right?” Amy said, trying to comfort the flower that wasn’t looking up to the sun.

“Good evening,” the voice who identifies herself as Miku said. “Would you like to hear a story? You seem not able to sleep tonight.”

“Sure, but does the story have a symbolic meaning?” Iris asked.

“I suppose,” Miku responded. “There once lived two boys and a girl. The first boy was in love with the girl and vice versa, yet the second boy was also in love with the girl. The second boy was jealous of the first, and thus wanted to kill him. Now, would a friend do that to the other?”

“No. Unless they were super duper mean or they did it by accident, and were sleepwalking or something,” Iris thought about the story for a minute, perplexed by it's symbolic meaning. “What's its symbolic meaning?” Iris asked after a moment, not expecting a clear answer. The voice was mysterious, after all.

“Yet they were all dear friends, the three. None of them were mean. The girl was pure as an angel, the first boy was a soldier of war, and the second boy had promised to care for the girl after the first left to fight for his village,” Miku said in response to Iris’s first statement. “It's symbolic meaning? There is many. The story is not yet done, so you've yet to see.”

Iris sighed. “But I know I wouldn’t kill anyone intentionally. You’re too symbolic, you... Miku, right?”

“Correct,” Miku responded. “I know you wouldn’t kill one intentionally; you’re just a flower. But the second boy hadn’t meant to kill intentionally either.”

“See? So a friend wouldn’t kill another friend intentionally.”

“Though, he did mean to kill the first boy.”

“What the... that doesn’t make sense. You contradicted yourself. You mysterious voice... you’re so.... like... mysterious.”

“Once the story is finished, you’ll understand then. So the three kids grew up, the first boy and the girl lovers. Soon the boy has to go out to war, so he tells the second boy to care for the girl if anything were to happen. After the first boy leaves, the second one prays to a big crystal with a large pendant on it who was supposedly the goddess of the village. He prays for the first boy’s death.”

“That’s mean. I wouldn’t be that jealous.”
“So what do you suppose will happen next?”

“He... dies... and the girl is all like ‘Whaaa?’” I said, rolling my eyes. “Or something else. Or it ends there. Or... I dunno.”

“Exactly that. I’ll leave you to ponder; you have already learned tonight what the meaning of the first part of the story is.”

“Suuure,” Iris said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “So will Amy turn indigo or purple?”

The night is silent. No response was to be heard.

“I knew that was gonna happen.” Iris tried to fall asleep, and closed her petals.



Amy woke up. She was sitting up, like the first day of this story. Oddly, Amy found it a bit hard to move her eyes and mouth. She glanced down. Still clay, but now she was indigo, like Iris had said. “Uh... Iris,” she moaned.

Iris awoke. “So what now? You indigo?” She looked her up and down. “Yep,” Iris said in conclusion.

“Yeah, I’m indigo. You were right. But it’s so hard to move now!”

“So it is reversing somehow?”

“I’m not sure,” Amy sighed. “Did you talk to that one voice again?”

“It told me another symbolic story,” Iris said and rolled her eyes.

“What’d it say? I want to hear a story.”

“Some love story,” Iris stated, and thus told her the story.

“Huh... it sounds a bit like Romeo and Juliet to me,” Amy said after the story was done.

“Yeeep,” Iris said lazily.

“Was it Romeo and Juliet?”

“I dunno.”

“So... did she finish the story?”

“Nope.”

“Awww, I wanted to hear the rest! It sounds like a story I heard before. Hey, can you ask this voice what the character’s names were?”

“Okay, I will. Heeyyy, maybe you should stay up and you might be able to hear it too!”

“Maybe... but I’m not good at staying up. Maybe I’ll oversleep tomorrow, and then I’ll be wide awake in the middle of the night!” Amy said.

“Yeeah! Do that!” Iris nodded enthusiastically.

“Alright!” I smiled.