Sherman's Tale: Part One- Into The Woods

Prologue

In the world of the elves, there are mainly two career paths in which an elf will be placed into. “Creative Industries”, a toy making company located in the Arctic North, is probably the more exciting of the two. It consists of easy laid-back work all day long on assembly lines piecing together children’s toys for that one special day of the year. Each elf has his own station where he shall sit or stand and perform his task as the toys travel by him. Most of the elves are of elven youth or otherwise small adults. Their downsized hands and fingers can easily put together tiny toys or other projects. These elves enjoy their work and get pleasure out of the joy of others.

Taller elves, or Wood-elves working for “Forrest Build”, follow the career path of environmental rebuilding. They work to fix the damage caused by human industrialists and big business factories that destroy and pollute the land they love. They work in the forests all day, planting and mending cut trees with the magic they can control. Though they can use magic, it is very limited, and so Wood-elves must learn to lift heavy objects and work hard through manual labor.

Chapter I


For as far back as he can remember, Sherman had always worked in the factory. Piecing together toys had been his life. When he was old enough to start working his father, who had long since passed away, brought him to a meeting with the Overseer and Mr. Claus. At first he started with painting plastic models of toys at a work station shared by five other toy elves. His father had trained him in the ways of toy making, and soon enough he had moved up the ranks from apprentice painter to master molds-man. He controlled the production of all die cast toys. Sherman was still only nineteen, and he had his life made out for him, until he started to notice a change.

Sherman was only three-foot-five, he had stopped growing just a year ago which was a good thing for him, as a toy elf. It had been like this for a while, and it didn’t bother him at all. He was surrounded by other elves, none of them being much taller than he was, and this made him happy. He continued to work in the factory taking pleasure in his job. Then one day, it just happened. Sherman noticed that the molds, of which he tended to, seemed slightly lower then they previously were. He checked underneath the table to see if somebody had readjusted the height, but to his surprise, it was the same height it had been for the past three years, and the dust on the handle proved it. Sherman did not understand what could be happening, and then it struck him. Could he be growing again?

It worried him all day long, until he finally got home and stood up against the wall, where his mother had measured his growth as he grew from a child to a teen. The red line at the top marked the previously thought end of his growth. As he stood against the wall, placing his hand atop his head, and then twisting around to see where it was at, he nearly choked as the breath fell out of him. His hand had been nearly two inches above the red line. Sherman let out a loud upset burst of emotions, which echoed through the room and down the hall to where his mother was working busily in the kitchen.

Ellina, Sherman’s mother had not noticed him come home and when she heard his screams, she was given a startled jump. She dropped what she was doing to see what the matter was. Ellina was a caring elf mother, who had raised a wonderful son all by herself since the passing of her husband twelve years ago. She had lived in the village, not far from the factory where her son worked. She had worked there as a cook, making and serving snacks to all the hard working assembly line elves. It wasn’t until a few years after her husband died that she decided to retire her job to the next cook, and live the rest of her life with herself and her son.

So understanding how caring she was for her son, Ellina ran into the room to see what all the fuss was about. She found him huddled against the wall, where just moments before he stood awestruck. She crouched down next to him bringing her face level with his, “What is the matter Shermy”. This was her name for him; she was the only one who called him it.

He looked up at her, tears welling in the brims of his eyes, “I’m growing taller again”.

Ellina looked him in the eyes as a tear rolled down his cheek, she wiped his face on her blouse, as she explained to him that he never really stopped growing, but rather just slowed down a bit. Sherman bit his lip as he tried to stop himself from crying. With the help of each other, they both stood up once more. Ellina returned to the kitchen to continue cooking while Sherman retreated to his bedroom. Though she had comforted him somewhat, the tears came back and he began to cry once more. Ellina stood over the stove stirring a pot of sauce; she too was worried about Sherman. She knew she had lied to him about his growth and now wished she hadn’t. She sobbed silently as a few drops of tears fell onto the hot stove, narrowly missing the pot and sizzling away into the air.