Wonderland was a ramshackled little shop in a picturesque town that stood at the end of a narrow lane. All sorts of oddities peered out from within it’s tiny little tudor windows – old Victorian wooden toys, puppets, more modern aeroplanes. It was quaint and it was cozy, and it was perhaps two floors tall with an attic to the top. Today, outside on the pavement, sat a folding sign – [i]“Behold the Magical and Mysterious Clockwork Extravaganza” [/i]. 

Today was a sunny spring Saturday afternoon, and distant chatter from the coffee shops deeper in the town drifted through this quiet street. The bell chimed as someone crossed the threshold into Eldin’s workshop and abode.

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He was seated on a stool behind the counter, chiselling away at a little wooden toy holding a drum.

“Welcome!” he called without looking up, blowing off the sawdust and sweeping it over his side of the desk. 

Then he stood, wiping his hands clean with a couple of booming claps, causing little clouds of dust to drift in the air. He waved his hand briefly by his face and coughed, before a beaming smile crossed his face.

Eldin was an eccentric man with equally eccentric ancient clothing choices, but all one could really note – as swished by the counter and into the narrow area in front of his desk – was how giant he seemed in this tiny little room. And yet he seemed to belong here, in this world of cramped shelves and clutter and whizzing and ticking, when elsewhere he would of seemed strange and otherworldly.

“You’re early for the show!” he cried with a peppy spring in his voice that was nothing short of infectious. His eyes twinkled with glee and that beaming smile had not left his face.