Hello, I'm Ellie. I'm Ellie the Pixie Elf.

I live at Pixie Haven, right on the edge of Feathercorn Forest and Feathercorn Meadow. If I stand behind my cottage, on the hill, I can see the twinkly lights of Feather Green Village where the people are living their lives.

I live in my stone cottage with my three best friends in all the worlds. Elderberry and Conkernut who are my cats, and Toady who is my little dog. They are very naughty when there is cheese about, but I love them all so much. Elderberry is always watching, Conkernut thinks he is King, and Toady wags his tail at everything.

I love making recipes, though sometimes they can have little twists of their own. I love nature. I love stones and crystals and wood. I love stars and sparkles, and I grace every day with the joy and love that it deserves.

If you want to hear more about me and my pets and my little home Pixie Haven, then please come and read my stories — my stories lit by my lantern to give you joy and light.

Ellie x

Ellie the Pixie Elf, Elderberry, Toady and Conkernut are story characters created by Elouisea Jayne Stone and belong to Pixie Haven.

All stories and pictures are written and designed by Elouisea Jayne Stone at Pixie Haven — pixiehaven.uk

The Soup Cat-astrophe

In the central heart of Feathercorn, on the boundaries between the Forest where the opal mushrooms glow at night, and the meadow where pumpkins grow as big as haystacks lives Ellie the Pixie-Elf. Ellie isn’t quite a Pixie and isn’t quite an Elf — she is both! She has auburn hair that she often keeps in a messy topknot, pointy ears that wiggle when she is excited, big translucent wings, that glow with a rainbow sheen when she is joyous, although sometimes she tucks them away under her clothes, to avoid extra attention. She makes her own clothes with gifts from nature, and she safely stores them in a very special wardrobe. Her wardrobe is carved from an ancient oak, that fell in the forest long before Ellie arrived in Feathercorn, and is enhanced with a magical essence. The wardrobe holds knowledge and creativity and helps her choose the appropriate clothing for each and everyday, whatever the occasion or season.

Every Halloween, which is a very spookily fun and cosy night of the year, she wears a new creation. This year she is wearing autumn leaves, with lilypad sleeves, acorn pip buttons, enhanced with white crystal. Towards the end of summer, Ellie collected the heavy and ripe passion fruit berry, in her woven baskets. She then dried them out, peeled and buffed them, before sewing their delicate skins together, making herself a beautiful purple cloak. Every Halloween at Pixie Haven, her little granite and thatch cottage home, she makes the most delicious autumn recipes, which she shares among the animals and creatures of Feathercorn forest and meadow.

This Halloween, Ellie wanted to make something extra special. So she decided to make a soup from one of her Grandma’s ancient recipes, she wanted it to contain a real natural boost to keep all ills and chills at bay in the coming colder months. So at dawn, she scurried out of Pixie Haven with her basket. Although the basket she carried was the biggest of her collection, it was no match for the giant pumpkins of Feathercorn meadow. So she found herself rolling home a big haystack sized pumpkin, and in her basket she had collected the plumpest of plump golden Cornish corn. Along with Penwith ceps, wild garlic and sorrel from the hedgerow, beech nuts, bay leaves, chestnuts, and fresh herbs. From the cottage she added various stored and dried vegetables, a rind of Jack cheese, a drizzle of wildflower honey from the local village hives, mixed fermented spices and a good pinch of flaky sea salt, from a holiday she once took at the Lizard Point.

She tipped it all into her big black cauldron outside Pixie Haven and stirred.

Looking on her Gran’s old recipe card, in swirly writing, it said at the bottom:

“...And a sprinkle of CATNIP for a purr-fect finish.”

Ellie checked the shelf inside Pixie Haven. No catnip left. But there was a jar that looked almost the same: CATTAIL FLUFF — Marazion Marsh, picked under crescent moon.

“That’ll do, surely it’s the same thing” she said with a broad smile, and tipped the whole jar in.

GLORP. FIZZLE. POP!

The broth frothed up thick and sparkly, and then bubbled right out of the cauldron and lifted into the night air. The bubbles rose over the stone wall and out of the garden of Pixie Haven, drifted down the lane and past the turning and sign to Feathercorn forest. The bubbles of soup continued floating on the autumn breeze straight down the hill towards the Feathergreen market square, where people where gathering in various costumes for the Halloween celebrations, illuminated under the full harvest moon.

BOOP.

The first bubble popped the baker on the nose.

POOF!

He was now a big ginger tabby in a blue woolly hat and scarf.

POOF! BOOP! POOF!

The lady selling pasties — became a blue Persian. The twins with the lanterns — became two grey kittens in little red and yellow scarves. The mayor —was suddenly a huge grey tomcat with a bobtail, wearing a crown of oak leaves.

The lane between Feathercorn Forest and Feathergreen village was quickly filling up with cats, as was the market square. Cats in beanies. Cats dressed as ghosts, skeletons, cats scrambling out from under witches hats, jumping over lanterns and sharpening their claws on broomsticks.

Ellie, who had followed the bubbles down the lane, stood shocked with her hands over her gaping mouth.

"I only wanted to make soup!"

She flipped Gran’s card over. On the back, in very tiny writing, it said:

DO NOT SERVE THIS SOUP UNDER A HARVEST MOON, AS THE INGREDIANTS MIXED WITH THE MOONS GLOW WILL TURN PEOPLE INTO CATS!

IN THE EVENT OF A CAT INFESTATION, FEED THE CATS ERICA VAGANS (CORNISH HEATH) BEFORE SUNRISE!!!

Ellie looked at the recipe card blinking unbelievably.

‘‘Oh Gran’’ She muttered under bated breath, whilst staring at a whole village of noisy cats.

The soup still smelled amazing, like roast pumpkin, warm cheese, honey, and the chestnutty fragrance of the woods after rain.

"Right then! Soup's on! Every cat up to Pixie Haven!" she called as she turned and marched back up the lane.

After stirring in some fresh Cornish heath, she ladled the soup into little carved wooden bowls, antique china teacups and saucers, and set them on the low stone wall of Pixie Haven, and on the floor around the cauldron.

A little grey tabby sniffed... and slurped.

POOF! — but a soft, warm, giggly poof this time. Whiskers tingled, tail swished away, and he turned back into a little boy, who then almost giggled his head off.

"Sip, poof, giggle!"

One by one, all the cats sipped. Sip, poof, giggle. Sip, poof, giggle. All along the wall, on the path and grass the Cornish heath undid the spell.

The jolly happy villagers commented on the delicious soup, and invited Ellie to the Halloween celebrations in Feathergreen. They dragged tables and chairs from their homes into the market square, and the villagers had the biggest Halloween celebration that they had ever had.

The soup now with the extra ingredient, was now safe for everyone to enjoy— human and cat.

Later that night two little cats, who had decided they quite liked being cats, and rejected the soup, curled up by the fire in Pixie Haven, purring and eating Jack cheese rind.

Ellie took Gran’s card and wrote across it in a big black marker pen, and then stuck it on the fridge at Pixie Haven: ADD ERICA VAGANS (CORNISH HEATH) TO AVOID CAT-ASTROPHE!!!

The End.

© Elouisea Jayne Stone / Ellie the Pixie Elf / Pixie Haven UK. All words, poems, stories and images are original and all rights reserved.