Memories Flew Right Back to Her

Eve was sitting at a bench, soaking in the sun, eating from a tub of ice-cream that had been delivered to her caravan door. It was just what she felt like eating - there was something about the intense heat that made one want to eat ice-cream all day long.

It felt so good to be back in the world and already most of what she had experienced over the last few days was drifting fast away from her recall. She did not question at all how she got to be in outback Australia - but was just pleasantly day-dreaming away in the sun. Her spirit had shifted, and she was a very different woman to the one who she was a week ago.

Jupiter was still trying to find his way within the constraints of his new body. When, as Granoldi, he had experienced all of the physical limitations that the body endures, he had a totally different set of senses and ‘thinking’ to participate with. Becoming a man was very differently nuanced, and, there was a joy he had not known before - a lightness, a happiness, in just being alive.

He found Eve just as she devoured the tip of the cone. He could sense her wellbeing also.

“I’ve found you” he said, wanting to share with her his newly formed humanhood.

Eve was still in her state of holiday (holy-day) feeling carefree and completely at peace. She had no idea who this stranger was, but she did feel that she had known him from somewhere before, and knew him now.

“Have we met?” she asked, brushing her untidy hair back from her face, which was a little reddened, either with the heat or a blush, or both.

“Yes” said the stranger, looking hopeful that she might recognise him.

She gazed at him - he seemed fit for forty-ish, wearing white shorts and a track suit zipper jacket - with a sports singlet beneath. His sunglasses looked expensive. His smile was so familiar …

He held out his hand as if to shake it … and although it seemed a little corny, she reciprocated. The very minute their fingers touched the memories flew right back to her: she could see in her mind’s eye her time with him as Granoldi, and she as Hannah; and then into this life, and how it led to the lower heavens where she came to see him as Jupiter. The man before her was her friend - no, he was more than that … her soul-mate.

She threw her arms around him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“How about a bear hug?” he asked jovially, when she pulled away.

He put his arms around her this time, and looked straight into her wondering eyes.

Needles, who had been there the entire time, decided it might be best if he left the two of them for a while. He set out onto the dirt road to go find the shuttle-bus to take him to Puck and find out what was happening with him and Goober.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Chronos & Helen

People often attribute time in the World to the master Chronos whereas it is he, as a veritable Shiva, that brings ageing and finitude.

It is from Helen we are given the pathways into eternal life - yet within this world it is the same road as that of Chronos that will take us into further life also.

Chronos loves to mark each segment, to gauge, and to name, and to map a course … he is the surveyor of time’s evaporation, and the scholar of its persistent dying.

Helen maps nothing: she is the mother of adventure and possibility, and she lives for the eternal day, and is forever prescriptive to the undulations of Heaven.

Mother Earth is the child of these two: our planetary spirit held briefly within the tension that such as these Gods permit.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Flamed

The ancients understood that flame, such as candlelight, was superior to any other form of light into the world, save for the violet light Mother Earth employed.

Electric light was deficient, and brought with it just one stream of influence, one octave among many; yet light from combustion, from burning, actually fed its environment where its glow permeated, because it came, and comes from the universal light: that the flame comes from the one flame, and thusly it brings the cosmic flame into that room, or that space, to which it is lit.

Electric fire does not have this, it can only impart energy from its own realm of the hobgoblins.

This world has seen many evolutions, and science has proclaimed with imputation its superior knowledge and findings, only to be surpassed by those who seek authority above the very gods, believing that with a twiddle and a tweak they can transverse the trajectory of life itself, with arrogance or infirmity, or perhaps merely a naivety. And to be fair, there is nothing that is safely to come from a man or a woman, until that man or woman is morally balanced, and so how are they to know?

Puck was never sure of there being an existence of the Devil, however he had met with many devils in his own experience. And these characters were tireless. They did not like candles - or lit light - they did not like fire: the fires of Hell are purging, they are not a conscript of the demons at all.

They also, and quite obviously, have disdain for sunlight, moreover.

Puck reached across the table for the pepper pot and doused his pancake whilst Goober was talking.

“You never told me what happened when you confronted Romulus?” he said this casually, draining his blue cup.

“Well it was pretty straightforward” said Puck - “The goat did its business and managed to distract him sufficiently for me to read his thoughts and told me all I needed to know.”

He continued: “Do you recall the bookkeeper that we used to house, that chap with the chocolates?” he continued “The miser? Well I knew of him centuries prior, and even before that we had a connection … he never quite fulfilled his aptitude, as far as I could see. Opportunity would take him only so far and then drop him. If anything, it was that diamond that got to him and distorted his futures.”

“I think I know the one you mean”, Goober replied, turning it over carefully in his pocket.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Tinkerbell

F.D. Bedford

There was a vicious, almost nasty side to Tinkerbell the fairy. She just had to get involved sometimes - even when she was not invited. The truth was plainly that she was just unhappy.

All of nature seemed to be running out of time to her: not running out of time itself - no, there was plenty of that … it was either running too slow or too fast, and the missteps would come because of this constant misfit.

The young wore the frowns of the old, the elderly behaved like irresponsible youth. The trees grew so fast they could not drop roots to save themselves and were felled by the first whip around of the circulating ethers.

She really did not like lies - particularly the ones perpetuated by those ‘ignorant mortals’ sporting micro smirks and sanctimonious pouts … she found herself just wanting to punish them.

And most of all, beyond everything else, Tinkerbell was overly aggrieved when no one would believe in her.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Tele-transported to the Bodhi Retreat

Pro Hart

The outback diner aptly named the Who Roo offered a big breakfast all day long, with unlimited refills at the cafe-bar machine, of help-yourself coffee, powdered tea and slurpees of frozen ice in shades of blue, red, and something green.

Goober served himself an icy blue cup with a double shot of the azure goo that discharged abruptly, letting off a satisfying hiss and a squirt, sludging into his pint-size cardboard cup.

He returned back to the booth where Puck was looking under his pancake as though he was expecting to find something there.

“Tu would have liked this place” he said wistfully - he was fond of the lad and sorry to see that he had not make it very far this time.

* * *

Five years earlier …

Scabs and vomit clung onto Stuart’s matted hair, through which many sizes of lice busied themselves with orderly pursuits throughout.

When Puck had found him face down, the corpse had already been cold throughout the chilly night: a melancholy heart had let his spirit adrift. He, the ghostly soul, had no where better to go; and it sat beside its scrawny body as if it was waiting patiently for it to wake as usual.

“Here we are again my friend,” said Puck gently to the hollow spirit.

“There is no place for me”, Brogan replied to the sombre Fae.

Puck clasped his hand to his forehead in exasperation. The elvish do not cope well with mortals who feel defeated. The two sat together for a few hours longer, until the first lick of light appeared.

“I know of a place that might be good for you” he finally said. “the Bodhi Retreat, a community I know well, and I do trust the people there to look after you and your recovery …”

Minutes later he had tele-transported them both to an iron doorway set in a garden wall that surrounded the monastery completely. Without having to announce themselves the door swung inside open, and a noviciate welcomed them in.

“His name is Stuart,” Puck said nodding to the monk who recognised him at once. “But you can call him Tu, for short.”


-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Grumbly Tummy

Puck asked Eve and Needles to stay back at the caravan park to be on the look out for Jupiter, just in case he showed up trying to find them all. Puck could sense his presence within the world, but not pinpoint the exact co-ordinates of where he might be, or who he might be, for that matter. If he turned up as a bear again it would just add to their problems at this point.

Meanwhile he and Goober went to explore the town with as little attention drawn to them as possible, and so for the main part they both wore their cloaks of invisibility - unless of course they needed direct contact with a local for information.

There was nothing that directly showed ties of Romulus to the Pathological Biochemical Warehouse they were investigating. Puck knew however, that regardless of paper trails and the dynamics of ownership, Romulus had commissioned those cargos to go directly into the underground warehouses, and without any doubt he was the direct owner of the ships and their goods within. Puck expected these operations to be discreet.

There was a shuttle bus that travelled to and from the complex twice daily hauling at the back of it a trailer that carried supplies from the local grocer to the workers there. It had left for the morning, and so the two hitched a ride on the back of a postal delivery van that took them thirty miles directly to the gates of the Unit. As the van sped away from them, they stood on the hot dusty road, looking at one another.

“It’s old energy out here, don’t you agree?”

“Old, yet young at the same time” said Goober thoughtfully. He picked up a smooth branch and plucked the spikes of it. “Make for a very nice walking stick” he added.

The wire gates were not padlocked, but a rusted sign swung from the wire saying: “Enter at Own Risk”.

There was absolutely no one in sight. Goober had developed a cough with all the dry dust flying about. There was a private road from the entrance that took them to a building that had the appearance of a metropolitan art gallery. Its facade was made of polished steel that jutted up in varying directions in shapes of long titanium crystals which seemed to be purely ornamental, with laser lights at the very top of each point which may have served as navigator points for incoming helicopters and light planes. These pointed rods were also razor sharp, and so the entire roof was covered with gigantic blades.

A moat of snakes six feet wide ran across the front. At the entrance there were double doors of reinforced steel, polished so finely they mirrored back the images of the visitors, with one difference, they were bent slightly to distort the reflection, alike to a carnival mirror.

Being the hottest part of the day the snakes were dozy and complacent. There was just one slim bridge of stainless steel across the huddle leading up to the doors where they needed to be.

“Looks like we’ve come to the right place, Medusa herself is probably lying in that pit” said Puck matter-of-factly; then noticing that Goober was counting on his fingers absorbed in thought.

“What in Pluto’s name are you doing that for old boy?”

“I was trying to remember how many hours and days it has been since we’ve enjoyed a proper meal.”

“It’s been a while I’d say - can’t remember exactly.”

“First there were those eggs out at the monastery - ate nothing in Faerie - had just a snack-pack with Jupiter in the stink-hole, and afternoon tea at Pine-tara’s - and now we are here, and it don’t look promising.”

“Fine - I hear you. I never thought about how much you miss your food Peanut … would you like us to go and eat somewhere and then come back to this fortress to pick up from where we left off?” This was meant to be slightly sarcastic, however Goober took Puck at his word.

“I would much rather save the world without the effects of a grumbly tummy.” Goober answered truthfully.

“Very well” said Puck, “food it is.” 

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Jupiter Lands

Boris Lapshin

Jupiter-Granoldi sat at the water’s edge and wanted to weep - a sense of desolation enshrouded his usually buoyant being. His costume was smeared with the strange mud that lay all about, but worse still was the feeling of abandonment, of being cut off from the chaos and surprises of the Earth, along with his soul-mates, who had now just left him behind entangled with his sorrow.

It did not cross his mind to blame himself in any way for the troubles they were currently fighting, for no, his worth was clear. Simply put however, he missed his friends.

“Fi! I needs be creative” he said out loud, looking over to where Jacob’s stairwell had manifested earlier. Surely these heavens were not his home and could be no one’s reside until they were restored…

* * *

Dawn is hinting, glinting its glory over the slumped horizon. The Royal Botanical Gardens shivered with the breath of the morning and the birds chatted their jubilant heralding.

“Fie” he exclaimed so loudly that it broadcast throughout - (FIE was an older term, an abbreviation such as FFS is today, with a similar meaning of exasperation and surprise).

His landing had been complete with all but one consideration, for he was not incarnating within the body of a bear this time, as he done with becoming Granoldi, Jupiter found himself within the still warm corpse of an early morning runner - a sportsman, who had dropped to the ground with a heart infarction just moments before. This he could reanimate, but not without effort, for it was considerably deplete of any energy it might have once had. Before long however, he was up and running again.

The ladder had dropped him not far from his friends - it had an uncanny compass for organising and personalising its coordinates.

In many respects Jupiter was considerably pleased with himself to have fallen into a human form this time around, for there were so many more freedoms to be had, far more than that Granoldi could have known. It took some moments to accomodate himself, focus his eyes and measure his strength. Within minutes he stood upright and although the body was still stunned, and its prior spirit had evacuated, Jupiter’s vigour was nonetheless returned, and for once he felt what it was like to be truly human.

He gazed across the park to see a clump of shops on a country road. He felt through his pockets and found a wallet and a phone. The wallet was stuffed with cash and cards, and this pleased him to find, whereas the phone not so much, and so he threw it in the lake.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series