"Miniature Kingdom" by Alicia Hayden
Illustration by Alicia Hayden.
It runs over gravel boulders and grass blades not with a whisper, but a clatter.
Six legs tap out an even rhythm as it comes to an abrupt stop in front of her. Grass-stained knees and wide eyes stare in fascination at the Devil’s coach horse beetle which stands before her like a midnight stallion. It arches its tail up at her in threat, and she is entranced.
Her days are spent searching through the tiny jungle, overturning pebble mountains and peering into pastel flower palaces. Bees in crocuses wake sluggishly from their small-sleep, and ants crawl along her fingers as she examines their well-organised march. The butterflies are beautiful, but they have nothing on the giant Leopard slugs which leave silver trails behind them on the garden wall. She thinks the silver is stunning – a gift left from the slugs – grateful for the chance to chomp through dock leaves and dandelions.
At night, her mother comes and sits with her in the garden as she chases the first moths of the evening, dog yapping affectionately at her heels. The moths spiral effortlessly through the night – the bright golden flashes of the Yellow Underwing cutting through the dark like a knife slicing through butter – just out of reach. She tumbles into the lavender bush and a plume of micromoths erupt into the night sky, dotted with distant stars and far-off solar systems.
But she doesn’t care for the cosmos. Her eyes have found what she has been searching for. The acid green and electric pink wings flutter in front of her, and she waits patiently for the Elephant hawk-moth to land.
It spirals through the dusk, a golden-pink star that is descending slowly to Earth. Her curious eyes widen as it lands before her, and she examines it with a burning love – the kind of love that comes from studying something for weeks in picture books and encyclopaedias, and hunger to see it for herself.
Her father takes her pond-dipping in the back garden, but she is happy to lean over the edge and peer in at the larvae scuttling around on the bottom of the pond. She squeals in delight when a large twig moves, and gasps when she is shown the caddis-fly larvae hidden inside.
As evening comes again, she makes herself a daisy-chain and wraps it around her twisting curls like a crown. Around her, the invertebrates rustle; some going to sleep, others just waking up. She notices a violet ground beetle, running along as if it is on an urgent mission, and she curtsies to him as he scampers past her.
Her daisy crown stays nestled in her curls until bedtime, when she carefully hangs it up on the back of her door, and falls into a whirlwind of dreams.
Dreams of watery-worlds and petal palaces.
Dreams of a miniature kingdom.
Alicia Hayden
Alicia Hayden is in her final year at Oxford University studying Biology. Alicia has always loved the natural world, which has inspired her work, and she is an award-winning wildlife photographer and poet, artist, writer, and aspiring filmmaker. She self-published her first poetry book, Rain before Rainbows, in 2020, from which 50% of the profits go to the wildlife hospital Tiggywinkles.
You can find out more on her website, or follow her on Instagram (@aliciahaydenwildlife) and Facebook (@aliciahaydenwildlife)