This is a book of wonder exploring a world of fiction called Plumptopia. It is a collection of stories and photographs illustrating the different accounts and people in this world.
Death of a Princess
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Princesses Greyla
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The Inbetweeners
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People of the Clouds
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Princess Yatrem
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The Maiden
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Ladies of the Optic Realm
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Cottage in the Forest
60
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Princess Alaeyza E. Jacob lived a very peculiar life. As daughter of the great queen Fenra she was thought to be a figure of beauty, fragility and all the humility in the world. But she was not. Instead, she was angry all the time, furious at her mother confused about her father who she was forbidden to talk about or even mention the name of. You see her father died suddenly after she was born. Some say his heart failed to love her and just stopped, some say he was expecting a boy and killed himself when he found out he got a daughter. Little is known about what goes about in the lives of the queens of Plumptopia.
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The accounts of the following story happened in the winter just before spring of that year. Princess Alaeyza was in the midst of her daydreams. She recalled playing in the Forest of Afshar. She says there she saw tiny red flies, actually fairies, thats what she called them, they would fly around and whiz in front of her eyes and past her ears. She says I can hear them hum a tune. A tune her grandmother used to tell her about. She likes to pretend she’s one of the fairies sometimes. Twirl and sing all time. She also talks about her father a lot. Whom she never met actually, but always seems to go back to. But her mother, queen Fenru stops her each time. This day I asked about her about father, she ran to her mother and asked her. Using my questions as an excuse. Her mother enraged and angry took her to the Quarfy jail. There, princess Alaeyza swept in her daydreams and delusions went a bit.. crazy. She met another princess who she only heard of faintly in the past, princess Greyla. She defied
her mother in an act of sympathy to the poor, and she got thrown in jail. For some time they spoke to each other and exchanged stories. Princess Greyla told princess Alaeyza about the spirit of the Afshar forest. The spirit floats around the forest ever so elegantly in a dress out of strips and a head of leaves. She hugs the trees and caresses the ground. Kisses the flowers make them bloom. Have you ever felt a gush of wind that would rustle the leaves and makes the water ripple. Thats her, that is the spirit of the forest. After sometime the princess froze. In the midst of her sleep she died. The morning after the guards came in and picked her up. Princess greyla said she wants to be put in the forest of afshar.Â
As she was carried to the forest a gush of wind blew her off the guards hands and sent her tumbling down the hill. The guards scared ran to the castle and claimed the burial was taken care of. But in the forest, the spirit called upon the creatures of the forest to help carry the princess. They layed her where she played when she was a little girl. The little fairies put flowers on her head, peacocks gave her feathers, finally spiders cast a web of black that encased the princess within it. That is the death of Princess Alaeyza E. Jacob.Â
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So I question princess Greyla of the reasons that caused her to be locked up in jail. She was silent for a while. So I asked again. She looked up at me and went along the story: “I am a very curious person. I question each and everything I see and hear. So I started asking about the men, where are they? Why don’t we see them? Of course it was taboo to even mention the word man if you were not of the age of 19. Seeing as I was the queens daughter I was not punished, but I was threatened. I kept quite, I refrained from asking anyone, I only asked like minded people. One day, we were visited by a prince in search of a wife. I took my chance to become his queen, in search of answers of course. He swept me away to a far away land called Queenfort where princesses went to spend their honeymoons. I knew I was a few steps away from the land of men. When we were having dinner I asked him, where do you live? He froze in shock, for no queen must ask such a question. He shook his head in annoyance so I had to ask again and again.
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At this point he got up and said one more time and I’ll take you back. So I promised I won’t ask again. Little did he know that I plan to sneak out that night. I passed the little village, the little entrance and it wasn’t long before I was on the path, I was about to uncover the mystery that has boggled my mind for so long! After sometime of wondering in the forest I heard laughter, and I saw a glimmer of light in between the leaves on the trees and there they were. I saw it! I moved the first branch to get a better view, then I moved the second branch, as soon as I laid my hand on the third branch it went quite in a blink. The next blink I was swept up by 4 men, they threw me inside a cage and that was that. I was escorted to my town where my mother said take the appropriate measures and I was put in here. I believe I’ll remain here till I die. But time will only tell.
These are the in betweens. I call them that for the lack of better words to describe them. I find them encased in this feathery, papery wonder of a cocoon. They sit in between villages and cities. They wrap themselves on walls and crisply sit there in the wondrous world that is Plumptopia.
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I love them oh so dearly.
The people of the clouds live very high on mount Salda. Their castles boast as high as the clouds. Some say their castles go even higher than the sky! As part of my expedition I set out to their castles. After all the deserts and grasslands and forests I passed through, there they were, in all their glory. The castles of the clouds.
The people that live there seem to have a lot on their minds. The queen just sat there looking outside. She wouldn’t look at me. Her sister was more open. She opened her eyes, looked at me and then in weird ritual, they went white. These are the people of the clouds, in all of their majestic height. The queen of the clouds, Queen Cloudamae in official terms, says she was a very happy little girl. She used to roll around the clouds and play along the tips of the trees of the forest of afshar. However, in a twist of fate, her mother died and she was to rule after her. Still young, she wore the crown of clouds, but she remains a wondrous mind. She is the youngest queen to rule cloud city.
I started asking her about her older sister also. She revealed, she was once in love with this boy she met. Boys are so foreign in this world, they live far away. But every once in a while a boy shows up from the foreign land seeking a wife to love and care for. This time it was Cloudamae. She was in the forest of afshar, long and floating above the ground. A layer or ring of cloud surrounds her feet. Then the boy saw her, and she saw him. It was love at first sight. She was then our mother died and she became the queen. If you’re not married before you are crowned queen, then marriage is not an option anymore. She still thinks about him, and how their life could’ve been.
After a while of talking about her sister, Yatrem started telling me about herself. She’s a wild soul to be frank. She once stole a horse out of the royal stables to go to the forest and collect fireflies to light up her room, then have a tiny picnic for one in the valley of Greka. She doesn’t have any plans of marriage she says, “I don’t fancy it” she adds. “I don’t want to be locked into a never ending relationship with kids and screaming and a husband that may or may not love me after he uses me.” “I’ll just walk around everywhere and travel a lot and ride horses a lot. I love horses, and I think they love me too. I once caught a wild fox I tried to speak to it but it wouldn’t listen. So I set it free again. Come to think of it I’ve been on a lot of adventures with Calbins, my horse.”
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Yatrem is queen Cloudamae’s younger sister. She was more open to me than Cloudamae. She revealed the secrets of their world. She said, they were little when their mother ruled cloud city. They only liked to play in the clouds back then. Slowly they learnt how to control the clouds. Move them, cause them to rain, make them black and misty or white and fluffy. It takes patients Yatrem said, to control them. A small bit at a time, that’s the way to go Yatrem suggested.
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She continued on and on without pausing. She then took me to her room where she showed me this. A portrait of her that I kept all these years. She also told me a bit about the men in Plumptopia. She says, every now and then there is a wedding, where a man from a far away land marries a young girl from Plumptopia.
As I was leaving the castle after what I would say, an intense experience, I see this beautiful maiden walking about the castle. She a was the castles preparer. She deals with everything, from dressing the queen to closing the castle gates. Everybody listens to her every command. She must know a thing or two or three about this wonderful world of castles and it would be interesting to listen to what she has to add. I asked her about life in the clouds and she said: “you know, the thought of living in the midst of the clouds is horrible. But the moment you experience life here, you never want to go back. I left my mother and sister to work here. It’s sad I can’t get married though, but when you think about it, not all girls get married, so I’m fine with it.” She then rushed to her chores again.
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Ladies of the optic realm. What a wondrous bunch. They were so dreamy and appeared as if they were glowing. I only caught glimpses of tiny flickers of light on the streets of Plumptopia, little did I know they were also people! So in an act of chance and perfect measure I took three pictures. One was of a very familiar face that looks like the one of the in betweeners. Maybe these people of the optic realm reside there maybe to sleep? Maybe to rest? Little is known, but these pictures are my luckiest finds.
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On my way back to the Afshar forest I heard some whispering and sobbing. I looked around and saw a tiny cottage in the middle of the forest, it wasn’t there before! So I had to sneak in and a take a peak at the people and this is what I found. The girls of the cottage in the forest