***
~ Twelve hours ago ~
Huge raindrops fell from the sky, as the little elf ran for cover. The leaf he was holding above his head barely helped; the raindrops were so heavy that they beat down on his head as if there was nothing covering it.
“Ouch!” “Ouch!” “Ouch!” the elf cried as each raindrop smacked him on the head, each blow dunking what felt like a pailful of water all over him.
Suddenly the elf skidded to a halt. He had just glimpsed something a little way off the path. He hurried over to the object he had seen.
“Yes!” he exclaimed.
Before him lay a bottle lying on its side, containing the remains of a brownish liquid. Without hesitating, the little elf climbed in through the bottle neck. This would be a temporary shelter from the rain.
Sitting in the bottle, the elf felt bored. He wondered when the rain would stop.
The elf knew that humans drank from these bottles. Cupping his hands, he brought some of the brownish liquid in the bottle to his mouth and took a sip. Even though he found it sweet, there was also a strange burning taste that he had never experienced before.
Despite the strange taste, the little elf liked the liquid and took little sips from time to time while waiting for the rain to cease.
After some time, his eyelids started getting heavy and he drifted off to sleep.
***
Yippee was just leaving her cottage when she saw her friend swaying strangely as he walked past her.
“Yo Ho Ho!” she cried. “Whatever happened to you?”
The elf called Yo Ho Ho turned towards the direction of her voice and stumbled. Yippee ran over to him and helped him up. He stank of a smell Yippee couldn’t recognise, and she wondered whether he hadn’t fallen into a ditch in the rain the previous night.
Yippee led her friend to another cottage and rang the bell. An elderly elf opened the door.
“O wise Tee Hee,” begged Yippee, “Please help Yo Ho Ho! He is ill and I don’t know what to do!”
“Do come in,” invited the wise elf. “Let’s see what we can do.”
The two elves lay Yo Ho Ho on a bed and Tee Hee examined him. After a while he looked up and smiled at Yippee.
“There is no need to worry,” he said kindly. “Yo Ho Ho will be fine. He only needs some rest and he will get better soon.”
“But what happened to him?” asked Yippee. “How could he have gotten so ill?”
The wise Tee Hee replied, “He must have drunk something that he found lying around in the forest. There are many strange things left behind by the humans who come here. From the scent of his breath, I believe that he drunk a liquid they call rum.”
It took the rest of the day for Yo Ho Ho to get better. It wasn’t until the next morning that he was able to recount to Yippee and Tee Hee how he had come to be, in human words, drunk.
The moral of the story is:
Do not drink strange liquids you find lying around!
And do not litter; think of the elves! Haha…
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Random phrase: Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum (thanks to Laavanya)
Author’s notes:
Even though “Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum” could easily be the title of the story, I chose to use another, so as not to give away the whole story immediately.
Elves being small, only a little rum is needed to give one a massive hangover. (that’s my hypothesis!)