I began writing about Inchland several years ago, never got beyond describing it. But I know it is a place full of lives and tales, and I would love to see what stories other writers could tell about this tiny world that is really just as big as ours, however small it looks to us.
You fall asleep in the woods one day, and awaken after who knows how long, about an inch tall. You’re in the same world you’ve always lived in, but suddenly, everything is around 60 times bigger than you’re used to. There are people who have always been here, but too small or faint to have caught your eye—the entities of the natural world where it borders on the magical…
The Peoples of the Woods include all living creatures; those who live by intellect and use technology such as tools, and create art deliberately are considered Persons.
There are several races of Persons: Pixies, Fairies, the Fey, and Sprites are related races, as the various apes are related in the Large World. There are also Naiads and Dryads, who are Persons by virtue of their intellect, speech and artistry, though they are not technological.
Pixies are the smallest, the nearest to your one-inch stature. They live in the mossy root-stumps and cultivate the many varieties of lush mosses, the fungi and lichens, using these as food and medicine as well as enjoying their beauty.
They travel on foot or by hitchhiking rides with winged insects and the smallest of other animals. But mostly, they like to stay close to home and to their gardens.
Pixies are resilient and quick, and can live many years by human standards. They keep their health as long as the Woods are healthy; their greatest enemies are animal predators and severe weather. They are generally mostly concerned with tending and defending the mosses, as they believe they were put here to do.
Pixies regard Fairies as potentially problematic, and somewhat arrogant. Pixies don’t always see the point of the rules Fairies would like to impose on the denizens of the Woods, and are not always compliant or cooperative, which leads to some aggravation between them.
Pixies fear the Fey and speak of them in hushed voices.
Pixies look at the Sprites as careless and foolish, as they don’t live long enough to ever attain wisdom, but cause little damage to the moss gardens except perhaps when their parties get out of hand.
If you take up this prompt, please share here in Comments your thoughts and explorations.
LOOSELY SPEAKING... 