Just Peachy

“It goes like this: a peach is a peach, when it is a peach. But when its flesh has broken down and no longer cleaves to its kernel, it becomes something else.”

“So far I follow”: said Eve.

Jupiter nodded, the Goat said ‘Aye’ and Goober remained silent.

He continued: “It may smell like a peach, even though it no longer is a peach. And, at this point, its spirit has left it.”

Eve glanced left and right at her companions, looking for some conformation that the peach had a soul, or a spirit, or whatever.

“You do not have to take my word for it,” Puck interrupted himself - “How do you think it forms itself as a peach in the first place?”

“The ancients used to divide Life into two classes: anime and non-anime. That which is animated, moving, and that which is stationary, not moving - but you see that really didn’t mean much because even the non-anime have been known to have a life of their own.

“The real measure became: does the life have a soul or not? If a soul is present, there is to some extent, consciousness - there is a life within the life that is so divine that goes from the bottom to the top as it were, with an unbroken link to the cosmos - and seen or unseen, it is present in what you have before you. The soul makes all the difference as to the authenticity of that something you find before you - whether it be an object or a person, an animal or a fae - it is all about the soul - if there is no soul, it is nothing more than a ghoulish representation of what was, or what could have been.

“It could also be said that one does not desire to consume the soul of the peach, and so it is quite fitting that once you have eaten of the peach fruit for the soul to have already gone is not a bad thing that you have something a little different.

“Now added to this is something called corruption. Corruption is when the body of that thing has broken down, it becomes no more - it is dissipating, it is dissolving, because the soul is no longer there to keep the plan, the blueprint, going.

“The form has no intention of holding together as before, and although it can take a long or a little while, with corruption, it is the outer forces that enable the decay. The forces which in and of themselves are not in any way malevolent.

“The answer we are looking for is before us, within this lake - you see, this is the problem as I see it: this lake (which has been the very portal to the other worlds), has lost its soul. The soul has gone, and she, or what is left of her, is dying right before us.”


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

Dino Flaw

Harry Theaker

He stumbled, and then fell flat on his face - some of the dirt caught him in his eye, and his nose wept blood beneath him.

A dragon had severely cuffed the boy from the side, catching him by surprise and causing him to fall. There had been too many of these creatures multiplying: swarming both land and air, overtaking the World with their raucous hostilities and overbearing behaviours.

* * *

Everyone lied about the dinosaurs in the museums: to date they have misled us, or possibly they just do not know … but there you will find, in the corridors, or with loose bones collected - or assembled - remnants of dragons.

Yes, many of them breathed fire and flew the skies, dragons were everywhere, and now, hidden in plain sight: those which we now call dinosaurs.

Fossils, reptiles, serpents, exotic configurations, archived, displayed: a tangle of spine without the dressing, and, without the truth.

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

Well Well Well

“There’s a goat coming towards us … hard to tell under that sewer sludge, but I think it’s a goat.”

His curly hair was slathered in slick. He spat and stomped, and blinked rapidly.

“No luck then?” said Goober addressing the animal directly.

“Nup boss, couldn’t get him to go down the pipe - guess he’ll be stuck in Faerie then til you can get him out yurself.”

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

Co operation, Coercion & the Unexpected

There was a universal reason for mistakes ever occurring

- for mishaps and malady, for every time a piece to the puzzle went missing - or a face went unrecognised

- when there was not enough salt, or not enough sweet

- not enough matching numbers for the lottery sweep …

yes, there was a universal reason for all things disappointing, and, that very reason befuddled all but the ants: for the ants had a propriety, giving no time for mistake or misstep, a veritable army with a singular mind … one great group of determination, currently, hurriedly, pursuing their employment, to the exclusion of all else…

“I think I should stay here forever” Tu said, patting the head of a curly haired goat that had ambled his way up beside him. “Oh but you cannot stay here forever” replied the goat matter-of-factly. “You seem like a reasonable mortal, and so surely you can see that this place is not real.”

Tu had been watching the ants as they made their way up the path upon which he sat, in a uniform line of organised precision.

“Why don’t you take a drink from the well, you look so thirsty” offered the goat quite bluntly.

“Oh no my little friend, I have done this once before and I’m not partial to the water from this well.”

The goat began to dance a little jig, jumping into the air one foot here, and one foot there. “You are a merry little thing” said Tu quite convinced there was mischief in this folly.

“Why don’t you just look into the water and see what you might see?” persisted the goat with another unwanted suggestion.

“And have you trounce me from behind? I think not” said Tu politely but firmly.

“Very well” said the goat with a half tone of anger and authority.

“I have heard though” Goat added further “that there is gold at the bottom of that well.”

“Your gold does not interest me at all” said Tu quite honestly - as it was not treasures that could tempt him in any part of the universe, let alone fairy gold, which is said to dissolve in your pocket unexpectedly and be completely unreliable.

“Perhaps if I gnaw at your feet you might think differently” said the goat quite obstinately.

Tu thought that the goat wanted the gold for himself and could persuade him to get it for him. And with that said Tu briskly picked the creature up, and dumped him into the well head first.

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

They Cannot Recognise the Goodness in Others

“Once upon a time there were two dogs - Peter and Paul - who were brothers, and very close to one another …

“They would feed from the same bowl and sleep on the same bed, and generally were the best of companions you ever could find.

Over time age weathered them both, and Paul had become quite blind.

“Then there came the day when Paul lost his sense of smell, as well as his sight, and in a confused moment he could not discriminate his brother from any other, and in a moment of fear he lashed out and bit him hard. Reacting to this Peter bit him back, and a fight to the death ensued.

“In a manner of speaking” continued Puck thoughtfully, “this can happen with people - and does happen, all of the time, in my experience - that they become all the more angry all the more feeble that they - especially if they cannot recognise the goodness in others - will only see the enemy, to the detriment of both.”

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

Ring a Ring o' Rosary

Peter Paul Rubens

“It was a sprite called Gorgon!” babbled Violet.

“Gorgon? Do you say Gordon?”

“No - Gorgon, his name was Gorgon - and he came to collect the blood, and he took it to Romulus as was commanded,” at this point she gazed into space as though she was watching someone or something over the shoulder of Puck, that the rest of them could not see.

There was nothing about Violet that resembled a human being insomuch as the mud that was still caked over her gave her the appearance of a walking talking rock.

“How did you meet Romulus in the first place?” pressed Tweak.

“How is this relevant?” asked Puck, believing that they were getting off topic and into the woods of wasting time.

“We cannot judge this until we know” explained Tweak “because sometimes there are clues in beginnings - beginnings will teach us much of how things started, and therefore also of what they are made of.”

“Continue” he said to Violet, who was quite mesmerised by her surroundings and content to talk in ways that once she might not have before.

“When I was a young girl we used candlelight at night to see by … that is how old I am and if it wasn’t candlelight, it was an oil lamp light, in which there was also a flame.”

“The flame would dance in the dark and flicker with a random regularity and in the shadows that it cast across my little room I could often see a face watching me. I became so used to seeing this face I thought not much of it until one night some years later I was playing a game with my cousins … we had a Ouija board and we were trying to call the spirits of our recently departed sisters; for we had all lost someone with the sickness earlier that year.

“And it was on that night that I saw the face more clearly, and it spoke to me saying:

“Let me whisper in your ear when darkness falls and I will speak to thee.”

“Trust in My power above all else and I will give to thee.”

“And after that game on that night this is what happened when I was visited by Romulus who would come and tickle my in ear with promises - not as a husband would make - yet very much as a husband might do. For although he was invisible I could feel his touch upon my skin and he would pleasure me throughout the night and very soon I believed all that he would tell me, and do all he asked me to throughout the day.”

It was at this point of the conversation that Eve was feeling quite disgusted in hearing how a young girl was so easily taken over by this malevolent and controlling spirit, and she wanted to hear no more.

Whoever Romulus was he certainly had an influence over this girl's life one that brought her to her knees and infected her soul.

Jupiter interjected: “This Romulus was a hybrid of wolf and man. The wolf in him took over his soul long ago and it despises the humanity he wore in form only.”

“I thought that wolves were kindly creatures when studied” Eve pondered out loud.

“To its own kind perhaps, until it’s not.”

Oh so suddenly a memory washed over Eve and momentarily she reminisced of a young man who lay on the bare earth beside a wolf as large as himself, with the wood of Rosary hung down around its a spiky scruff.

“Ring a ring o' rosary a pocketful of Posey”, she said to herself whimsically realizing that the ring of Rosary with a prayer beads, was not some mortal welt.

Puck looked over to her and said reading her thoughts “This is an anomaly, yes, however Francis did live in close proximity to the wolves truly, yet he did not become as the same as them, it was they who became as he.”

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

Tweak

 Pieter Bruegel the Elder 

Tweak was famous in the Underworld (the genuine Underworld) for his stealth operations: interrupting the human intelligence surreptitiously. So little is known about the connections that parallel the Kingdoms of Dwarves and Human thought whereupon new ideas intersect frequently and develop together.

They also habituate this branch of Faerie, being literally the gardeners of cultivating concepts that flourish later into popular vernacular creating steadfast paradigms.

His qualifying accomplishments were of so many, that Puck did not doubt his expertise or ability. It was Goober’s idea to bring Tweak into the Little Heavens for his sage opinion on the perils at hand.

Tweak was wearing his usual royal blue suit, buttoned with gold, and trimmed with pearls. His long beard was twined and threaded with fresh vines, his grey eyes were stern, but not unkind.

Eve couldn’t help but think how cute the Dwarf appeared - who also could read her thoughts, and was not happy with her demeaning judgements. He ignored her stares and politely listened to Jupiter, Puck and Goober’s ideas about what had happened to the great Lake and what was to be done.

“I am essentially an idea’s fellow, you understand - and I do not have expertise in sewerage and its removal.” He frowned deeply as he said this.

Goober nodded in assent, then cut him off from adding anything further.

“Master Tweak, Governor of all ideas commodious, we need desperately your breadth of thinking - for as you can see, we have nothing - nothing to do but to watch this disaster grow with every moment.”

The zombie four started up their moaning again from the spot they were tied to - a willow tree - that was just far enough for them to be seen - but far away enough to be somewhat quieter.

“You know that is why the mouths are often sewn shut - to keep them from talking incessantly …"

Eve shuddered - what on Earth - did he just say? Tweak did not look so cute to her anymore.

“Well,” remarked Tweak thoughtfully - “contrarily, the very first thing to do is to hear what those four want to tell us. They may be able to shed light on this matter.”

“What if we allow it one at a time?” Puck added.

“Fine by me - go fetch the smallest and we will begin there.”

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