LITMIR.BIZ

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anything in return. MillyLilly were very kind, and never left anybody without shoes just because someone could do nothing but blow bubbles. But Nole was disappointed that nobody was asking him to blow some bubbles. Why not? They were so beautiful!

      “Don’t worry,” Chaps used to tell Nole. “They probably envy you and that’s why they don’t ask you to blow your bubbles.”

      Nole wanted to believe Chaps, but Chaps wasn’t MillyLilly; he was a grasshopper, a green, boastful, careless grasshopper who just wasn’t able to worry about anything. Once Chaps started worrying about something, he could just make a couple of good jumps and forget what he was worried about. Nole couldn’t jump like Chaps, but Chaps’s optimism always made Nole think that everything was just fine.

      Or it did until that Friday night, when, traditionally, all MillyLilly of Ambia gather around the Torch of Life to listen to the great stories of the city’s Sage Keon.

      CHAPTER FOUR: Torch of Life

      On that Friday night, Nole waited at home for his friend Chaps so that they go together to the Torch of Life.

      Knock-Knock! Knocked someone at the door.

      “Who’s that?” asked Nole from the armchair where he was sitting and thinking deeply about the world, life, and the pair of his favorite orange socks he couldn’t find anywhere.

      “Chaps!” said Chaps.

      “Come in! The door is not closed.”

      “I know. I am here.”

      Nole raised his eyes to find Chaps sitting right across him. “You were here?”

      “Yes,” Chaps said. “I walked in; you were deeply thinking. I waited for very long time, maybe a minute or something, but you kept thinking. So, I had to get up, go back to the door, and knock to get your attention.”

      “Why didn’t you shake me to get my attention?” asked Nole.

      “Well.” Chaps scratched his head. “Last time I shook you, you weren’t happy.”

      “Maybe, it’s because you shook me upside down holding me at my ankles? It’s a little bit unusual way to wake up someone in the morning.”

      “Nah,” said Chaps. “You probably don’t know but I used to work as a shaker – in fact, I was the best shaker. They taught us that if you want to wake a person as soon as possible, put him in a position he never sleeps in. Do you ever sleep upside down?”

      “No,” said Nole, confused.

      “You see?” said Chaps proudly.

      “Where did you work as a shaker?” wondered Nole.

      “In the Shaking Company, of course,” responded Chaps and jumped to the window, obviously uncomfortable with the Nole’s question.

      “We don’t have the Shaking Company in Ambia.”

      “It’s not in Ambia,” said Chaps without turning from the window. “It’s… Have you ever been in RaspberryJamville?”

      “No.”

      “It’s in RaspberryJamville.”

      “Okay,” said Nole.

      Chaps immediately jumped back to Nole.

      “I have a little suggestion before we go….”

      “No!” Nole interrupted his friend firmly. “We are not going to eat ambia before the Torch of Life ceremony. Remember what happened last time when you ate just two scoops of ambia?”

      “What?”

      “You fell asleep and started snoring, and everybody, including Sage Keon, was looking at you.”

      “That was long time ago. I’m a different grasshopper now. I can control myself,” said Chaps.

      “It was last Friday,” reminded Nole.

      “Okay… Okay…” agreed Chaps reluctantly. “You’re right. What about one scoop?”

      “No,” said Nole. “Only after ceremony”.

      And they went to the ceremony. For many years, the Torch of Life ceremony had been set on the lake’s shore; it was arranged so to let fish be part of the ceremony too and, thus, to support the peaceful coexistence of MillyLilly and fish. You probably don’t know, my friend, but some of the statesmen in our world of people were dreaming about peaceful coexistence with fish for long time. But while they were and are dreaming, MillyLilly made the dream come true.

      The Torch of Life is actually Sage Keon’s staff, with the small lantern on the top. Once all residents of Ambia gather around Sage Keon, and lake fish stick out their curious heads out of water, Sage Keon rubs the lantern and the whole area around gets filled with the amazing bluish light of the stars and the warmth of friendship and love. You can say that Sage Keon was a kind of wizard, but he didn’t entertain MillyLilly with a lot of miracles. He loved to say that too many miracles make us forget about the main miracle – life. And the Torch of Life ceremony was all about this – praising the life in all its forms.

      CHAPTER FIVE: Sage Keon and Mela

      Alright, alright, I’ve mentioned this name, Sage Keon, several times now, and didn’t really explain who he is. Actually, nobody knows where Sage Keon came from, and nobody knows his age either. Normally, MillyLilly live about two hundred MillyLilly years. The birthday records of Ambia don’t trace ages beyond thousand years because nobody can be that old. But Sage Keon’s birthday was not recorded back in thousand years. Was he older than that? Maybe. Who knew?

      Nothing could be concluded from his appearance also. Yes, Keon had the snow-white long hair, typical of a very old person, but, at the same time, he had a baby face as if he was a baby that was scared in the middle of the night and his hair turned white. Was Keon’s baby face due to his healthy diet or because of some other natural explanations? It was difficult to verify. The only certain thing about Keon was rumors. And the rumors held that Keon visited all the cities of Sweetland, and that was definitely impossible to do in the average lifetime of an ordinary MillyLilly.

      When Nole and Chaps came to the ceremony, the whole city was already there, and the fish was sticking out of water, waiting. Nole and Chaps squeezed in the middle of the crowd, trying to make sure that Sage Keon didn’t notice that they were a little bit late which was as usual for them.

      “Cool,” whispered Nole to Chaps. “He didn’t see us.”

      But when Nole raised his eyes, Sage Keon was looking right at him. Nole blushed and turned aside, and when he turned aside, he saw HER for the first time. SHE was just ten feet away, a beautiful lilly with amazing curly hair of the caramel color, big green eyes, and with two older MilliLillies – most likely her parents – at her sides.

      She stared at Sage Keon who was preparing to rub the lantern, and she seemed completely absorbed in what was going to happen.

      And it happened: Keon rubbed the lantern, stuck it out in the air, and the night sky, the lake, the city behind – everything was lit by the magical bluish light.

      “Good MillyLilly of Ambia!” said Sage Keon. “We are here to say thanks to each other, to grasshoppers, to chipmunks, to fish, to dragonflies, to birds, to everybody who crawls, flies and runs, for being kind and caring neighbors. We are here to say great thanks to our ancestors for making the first ambia. We are here to say thanks to the stars, moon and sun.”

      And everybody was nodding and saying “thanks,” “thanks,” “thanks.”

      “Now, find at least three neighbors, give them a hug and say thank you!” offered Keon.

      Nole decided that it was a great opportunity to get to know the new beautiful lilly he’d noticed earlier. Nole made a move towards her, but Chaps grabbed him from

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