"What is it?"

"What do you mean what is it?" A small girl, about twenty-four inches tall, put her hands on her hips and squinted over her turned-up nose. "What are you?"

"What am I? What are you?" asked the first girl, who towered at least two feet over the second.

"My name is Breena," she replied. Breena wore a green dress, green tights, green shoes, and even a pointed green hat. Pointed ears poked out from beneath her hair, which was red and wild, almost like flames flickering on the top of her head.

"If you must know," Breena added after a moment. "Who are you?"

"No, I asked 'what are you'. Not 'who are you'," said the other girl. She wore an aquamarine sweater and blue jeans with dirt on the knees. Her hair was dark blonde, and she was holding half a bouquet of butter yellow daisies, tiny purple violets, and white peach blossoms.

"Well, obviously I am a pixie," said Breena. "Duh. What are you?"

"Duh? I'm a human. What? Have you been living under a rock?"

"An apple tree, actually. Now, I told you my name. You tell me yours."

"Breena's a funny sounding name."

"It is not."

"Yes, it is."

"Then what's your name?"

"Mayda." The blonde girl crossed her arms over her chest and smiled smugly. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"No." Breena smirked and turned her back on Mayda. The pixie grabbed a bunch of flowers from the ground and took off running.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Mayda called after Breena.

Breena stopped and replied over her shoulder, "If you'll excuse me, I want to finish picking some flowers for my mother."

"Fine. But you'd better not pick the good ones because I'm picking flowers for my mom, too."

"No, you're not. You just made that up."

"I did not. I am picking flowers for my mom. See." Mayda held her handful of flowers out in front of her. "I even picked some pretty blossoms off that tree."

"I can't reach that high."

"I can." Mayda pulled another flower of a nearby peach tree. "Because I'm taller than you."

Breena frowned. "Yeah, well, I was here first. So you can just go away." She darted behind a nearby bush of heather.

"You can't just tell me to go away. This is my forest, too."

Mayda dashed behind the shrub just as Breena disappeared behind a hornbeam. The pixie ran past white wood anemones and purple perennial cornflowers, under green butterbur leaves and white poplar trees, and even over smooth rocks in a cold, shallow stream.

"Would you please stop following me," said Breena as she suddenly stopped next to a tall oak tree.

"Why should I?" said the human girl after she had caught up with the pixie. "I can go anywhere I please in these woods, too. Even if that means I'm going the same way as you."

"I said 'please'." Breena squinted her green eyes in thought. "If you don't leave me alone, I'm going to tell my dad."

"Tattletale. If you tell your dad on me, I'll tell my dad on you."

"Copycat."

"Oh, just be quiet!" cried Mayda.

Breena stuck her tongue out at the human girl and dashed behind the tall oak tree. Mayda huffed and then crashed through the brush after the pixie.

After a few more minutes, the pixie stopped and shrieked, "Dad! Make it stop following me!"

"Make what stop following you?" came the answer.

Mayda stopped a few feet behind Breena and her father.

"That thing! Make that thing stop following me!"

Father Pixie stuck an axe in a branch he had been chopping and wiped the sweat off his forehead with a green handkerchief.

"Just ignore it, Breena. After all, it's just a human. At least that's what my father always told me."

Slapping her hands to her hips, Mayda indignantly said, "I am not just a human."

Father Pixie whispered to his daughter, "Don't listen to it. It doesn't know what it's talking about. See how high off the ground its head is. How could it ever know what's going on next to the earth?"

Mayda looked down and then up. "I know when it starts to rain before you."

"Look at its funny colored hair," Father Pixie continued. "Doesn't it look like straw that's been left out in the mud?"

"But I can hide in the straw and not be seen," Mayda replied as she ran her fingers through her hair. "Everyone would see your bright red hair."

Father Pixie squinted in contemplation. "And watch how it clutches those poor defenceless flowers. They're such barbarians. It really is best to stay away from those humans."

Breena stuck out her tongue again at Mayda behind her father's back.

Mayda scowled and said, "At least I don't look like somebody colored all over my clothes with a green marker or dumped a bottle of ketchup over my head."

"You may be able to hide in straw," Breena replied. "But I can hide in a sweet smelling rosebush."

"I'll never accidentally be mistaken for a mouse and get swept out the door by the cook."

"I can hide in small places."

"I can reach the top shelf in the kitchen."

"I can…"

"Breena, Father, what is all this commotion, I can hear yelling all the way back in the house." Mother Pixie stopped and looked at Mayda. "Hello, dear." She turned back to her family. "Now what is all this noise?"

"I was picking flowers for you because I love you." Breena glanced at her mother and quickly continued. "Yeah, I was picking flowers…"

"My mom likes flowers, too," interrupted Mayda.

"I was picking flowers and that human thing followed me home. Daddy told me just to ignore it."

"He did, did he?" Mother Pixie glanced at her husband.

"He told me that it's best to stay away from them because they're stupid, barbarous creatures. Right, Dad?"

"I was just repeating the warning my father gave me when I was a young lad," stated Father Pixie.

"What did your father tell you?" said Mother Pixie to Breena.

"He told me how their hair is mud and that they like to crush small things. I personally think they are very strange things."

"How dare you teach our daughter such things!" exploded Mother Pixie.

Father Pixie looked at his wife with wide eyes. "Teach her what things?"

"Just because humans look a little different doesn't mean they are stupid or vulgar," replied Mother Pixie. "This is exactly why our children don't get to make friends and play with each other."

"I was only telling her what my father told me."

"But times have changed, Father."

"What do you mean, Mama?" interjected Breena.

Mother Pixie turned to both Breena and Mayda. "You see, girls, when Father Pixie and I were young, pixies knew very little about humans, and humans knew very little about pixies. But now that we understand each other, we do not have to be afraid of each other."

"I'm sorry, dear. I just meant that maybe Breena shouldn't play with strangers," Father Pixie said softly.

"Don't you 'I'm sorry, dear' me," replied Mother Pixie with a smile.

"Sorry, dear."

"Now, you're coming home with me so I can keep an eye on you while you scrub the dishes from lunch."

"Yes, dear," laughed Father Pixie. "I suppose you're right again, Mother. You always are. I guess I was more afraid than my daughter."

He turned to the girls. "Breena, I didn't catch your little friend's name. You are?"

"I'm Mayda, sir," the human girl answered with an awkward curtsy.

"Well, Mayda," said Mother Pixie. "Why don't you and Breena go play for a while."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Yes, Mama."

Mother Pixie turned again and grabbed Father Pixie by the hand. "You. Home."

"Of course, dear. Maybe we could set out a plate of fresh cookies. I heard there are two little girls around."

"You did, did you?" declared Mother Pixie. From over her shoulder she added, "And girls, play nicely."

Breena and Mayda looked at each other awkwardly while they watched Mother Pixie and Father Pixie walk home.

"I'm really not suppose to talk to strangers," Mayda broke the silence.

"Well, you already did." Breena paused and added more gently, "I'm not suppose to either. But I did, too."

"I guess you're right."

The girls stood and looked at each other awkwardly again.

This time Breena broke the silence. "I guess if we knew each other's full names, then we wouldn't be strangers anymore."

"Well, I'm Mayda Taylor."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mayda Taylor. I'm Breena Cloverleaf."

"Hello, Breena Cloverleaf. It's a pleasure to meet you as well."

The girls shook each other's hands and stood in third awkward silence.

"So, do you want to…" both girls said at the same time.

"I know where there are some beautiful primroses. Do you want me to show you?" asked Breena.

"And I can show you some lilies as big as your legs!" replied Mayda.

"I can help you find some really tiny flowers that are hard to see."

"And I can help you pick some blossoms off of trees."

Both girls laughed and ran off into the woods together.