Staring at the Basket

Robertus was not a kind man: he did what he could, he maintained his family as best he might - however, he was not loved, for he was rarely loveable.

His wife Isabelle, was considerably younger. She was not Johnathon’s mother, but a substitute, being his second wife after the early death of the first wife who passed from a rupture to the stomach, that came from a blow from Robertus.

When Jonathon returned home he found that Isabelle was gone. She had left behind a note and a loaf of cake.

Exhausted, Jon sat beside the pitted bench, staring at the basket with the unknown head inside.

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

Costly Money

The horses had all died - not one pony, mule or nag, remained. It was a disease that no one understood, and so everyone thus attributed their deaths to bewitchment.

The village of Farnham was small, and the one and only metal-smithy would clean his tools in the trough nightly - the same trough that the horses would drink from when coming to be fitted for shoes. Eventually the lead in the water from the shoes had poisoned each and every one of them.

Without the income from the horse shoe manufactory Jonathon’s father, Robertus, had tried to supplement the family’s fare with counterfeit coin. He would work on his marvellous imprints forged in tin alloy, weathering each with a dint and a scratch, for added authenticity. He was however, in a fairly short time, caught out, when one merchant felt his purse to be too light for the contents within.

Of course it was an offence against the coffers of the King to use his portrait on tin replicas of Silver - and Robertus was consequently sentenced to death.

And so with the few pieces left over that were overlooked in the confiscation, Jonathon had set out to redeem his Father’s head after it had been excised.

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

Two Huge Fellows

These two huge fellows [Mastiffs] had been bequeathed to her a few years before from a dying man to whom she had tended to in his final hours; however, the man had survived the pox, and with his renewed life, had decided to go on an adventure, leaving behind his chickens and his dogs.

Fatima would have preferred the chickens but the neighbour had collected them in stay of the rent still owing. To whit, the warmth of these giants kept her alive throughout the long nights, and secure in their protection, and so she was ever grateful for his parting gift.

Each wore a thin bracelet of silver around one ankle, where their name was inscribed in cursive script. Both had had their tails clipped and wore neck-chiefs made from leather. Each had a black raven tattooed inside one ear. Paul was blind (thus his name) and Pete was lame.

The butcher would bring Fatima his bonemeal, which she would mix with the grain. They were her only family, and she loved them well.

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

Peter & Paul

It was in the early hours of the morning when Fatima woke to go about her chores. The cold air bit her neck as she unwound her night scarf and replaced it with her worn woollen shawl. The stone floor beneath her feet was glazed with frost, and the hearth was cold, bereft of its usual succouring warmth.

At the age of fourteen Fatima had been weakened with a heart condition, and two years later, her lips were mostly a shade of blue … yet this morning they were grey and soon to blush with the dawn.

“Up!” She called in command to her sleeping dogs.

Obstinately both stayed draped upon her small straw mattress. The hay there was regularly exchanged to then become fodder for the cow, although soured by the canine scent, flattened with the weight of her mastiffs, who lay on its blanket in a tangle of limbs and slobber.

Fatima tugged on the covers to wake them, and then, when that did not move the hounds, she pulled the blanket abruptly from under them. Pete groaned, Paul slept on.

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

It's all a Mystery

“I have been here all the time.” He [Needles] replied.

Was that answer existential or literal? She pondered.

“Well, very glad to meet you in any event,” Eve beamed, holding out her hand for him to shake.

Plop. He dropped a diamond into her palm - same diamond that had been lost in a rock pool some centuries before.

He smiled. He liked her. He felt her warmth. And it had been a very long time since someone had seen him, and been nice to him at all.

“It's a mystery,” he said.

“You mean, everything?”

“Yes” he nodded, “everything”.

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

The Wisdom of Dwarves

BB 

The thing was, Dwarves are a whole lot smarter than people know. When they don’t have an impaired mental condition, they are conversant in all of the sciences, and actually inspire the thinkers of Humanity to find but the smallest particles of their fay fare and deep wonderings.

They love and consume knowledge - it lives within them - they are, in many respects, the living intellects of future men. It is therefore doubly distressing to find that the hardship of men and women can affect them so regressively - and it becomes a downward spiral so to speak with one race impacting the other with such deliriums.

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

Albert Einstein

Needles clamoured into the front seat to join her, and made himself appear.

“You look a lot like the scientist Einstein …. are you Albert Einstein?” asked Eve, due to his uncanny likeness of hair.

“Yes” he said affably, neither caring for, or knowing his true name.

“You are not going to believe this, but I have always wanted to meet you!” She went on … “I know you were a champion of the imagination - oh crap, I have forgotten that quote …”

Eve excitedly fumbled through her phone and tapped into Gaggle ‘Famous Einstein quotes’ -

“Yes! Here it is!” She proudly read out loud:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."

“You know, I feel that this is about the very best quote I have ever read.” she said appreciatively.

The old fellow bowed his head nodding off again.

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

Why did the chicken cross the road?

“Why did the chicken cross the road?” she heard an invisible voice say.

“To get there first” same voice answered itself with a genuine chuckle.

“First?” Eve asked.

“Yes, before the egg you see”, Needles answered.

“Well, that clears that up” said Eve awkwardly.

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

Crossing Over

For all intents and purposes, Eve was convinced that her passenger had completely disappeared. She had also congratulated herself, in helping the poor lost soul to ‘cross over’; all the while this poor lost soul was still onboard, asleep in the back, dreaming of his younger times.

At the intersection her phone rang - interrupting the live stream that was still recording, with its twelve people listening in, frustrated at the outage.

“Hello” she said tentatively.

“Hello” said a deeper voice.

A family of ducks crossed the road in front of her, as she idled at the lights.

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

Morte de rigor

A passerby looked into the straw nest and said authoritatively “Morte de rigor”.

Jonathon started to fumble. His shoulders ached and he had no idea what should be done next - he just wanted to pass out with fatigue, and fought the immediate urge to do so.

The courier who was charged to reward him accordingly in exchange for the strange cadaver, was now refusing to do so. Jon gingerly lifted the flax flap of the basket where the remains of his father lay, and looked very quickly inside at its contents: the hay was sodden, but the head was still grey white unlike the other.

“No silver for you, nor this. I’ll take this one instead” the Steward said, snatching the basket of Jon’s father out from its pole.

Within the space of two minutes he had hooked it onto a side nail of his five foot high mount, and ridden away. A hundred feet from where Jon stood dazed, Stuart turned the horse, threw a purse, and then rode fast into the distance.

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

Like Begets Like

“An orange shall not grow from an apple seed, nor will a healing ever come from a harm"

***

Cor Stuart pulled Jonathon severely by the arm.

“What is this? You have brought me a monkey head?”

Stuart had never seen a monkey in his entire life, but if he had, this is what he thought it might look like.

Jon stared blankly into the basket. The head he was carrying was as black as pitch and suppurating. He remembered back to what it first looked like, when comparing it to the portrait that he was given, and it was not this.

“Ei man, I hear ye, but won’t believe this to be so.”

“This is not blanc! You have brought me a Nubian and expect me to make trade for it!”

“Nay.”

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

The Long Road

For Eve, Needle’s outstanding feature was his ballooning white hair. 

“Oh my gosh” she said to herself, sitting very still, daring not even to breathe loudly. She expected the ‘presence’ to dissipate, with having been seen, but it remained.

“I would like to travel forward now”, said Needles rather insistently.

“Oh my gosh,” Eve repeated herself, she then turned around and addressed the presence with great purpose.

“I can help you,” she said charitably in a whispered voice forgetting her former upset. “Yes, you must go … go towards the tunnel, with the bright light at the end of it” she said empathetically.

“Tunnel’s fine by me” said Needles amiably, content that she was finally going to get the car moving.

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

Back-seat Passenger

Supernatural beings love a good car ride, and can often be seen as back-seat passengers down the motorways, riding behind their unaware drivers. He sat waiting patiently for her to take off.

Eve being psychic, could sense there was a presence there; but unbeknownst to her, this spirit was born of the Fae, and not of the human kind.

Eve was not really a very good psychic, inasmuch as her ‘flashes of insight’ were intermittent and barely distinguishable. She still had a long way to go.


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

All Cried Out

There is a very quiet place one can go to in their mind after having cried for some time. It is that space where there is a certain stillness to be found, when all of the upset has finally emptied, and the being within has exhausted itself, and with this, the tension has drained. Eve had arrived at this very disposition, sitting in her car, riding out the storm, in the grassy lane that ran beside the shadowy state forest.

Behind her seat sat Needles invisibly, who had let himself into the resting vehicle, as invisible Dwarves are wont to do.

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

Headless Ghouls

Ever since Jon was a young boy he had heard stories of the headless ghouls that frequented the graves. It was the consummate indignity, to be severed from your body - and be so ultimately disfigured, that at the time of the holy rising these souls would have no chance at resurrection. “Oh dear God, I pray this not be so”, he spoke out loud as these fears of this escalated.

The heat was rising from the cracked mud road. Lizards were sunning their scales, and soon every dry branch seemed to grow legs, as the scalding sun made its way to his mind and his eyes blurred with dehydration. Only a few more miles to go, he thought hopefully, as the weight of his parcels increased intolerably.

Jon considered seriously about tossing the second head away, just to ease the ache in his arm - but no, there was a payment waiting that he much needed, for the retrieval and delivery of this Anglish runaway. He drew a deep breath, and straightened the pole across his shoulders from which the baskets swung from, and diligently kept going.

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

Two Heads are Better than One

In one basket lay his father’s head, and in the other, the head of a man whom he did not know, or recognise … but hoped dearly it was the right one, as it appeared in likeness to the miniature portrait he had been afforded before setting out to collect them both.

They weighed heavier than he had imagined they would. His choices had been few - either pay the executioner for their retrieval, or purchase a horse to carry them back - and of course, it was the first option he conceded.

Was a burial complete with just the head? There was simply no way to take the entire corpse home - even if he had been permitted. At the very least, this was confirmation of the event, and something to grieve upon for his beloved mother who was awaiting his return. Jonathon was grateful at this time to have a task to perform; it cased his anger, it calmed his trembling, it quietened his sorrow - he slowly and painfully walked on.

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

Faerie Folk Losing Their Mind

The truth was, that Needles had been destitute for some time. He wanted for nothing in particular, and, in being immortal, he was never in peril - yet he was, as so many of the faerie folk were, losing his mind.

It happened ever so quickly, in the space of just a century, in worldly time. One being after another began with symptoms that paralleled the Mortal woes, especially with that of Dementia. This malady and parody of selfhood and consciousness, afflicted both Mortal and Fae with confounding confusion.

Not only were vast numbers of Dwarves so affected, there were also the absentminded Angels, disorientated Devas, forgetful Elves, sleeping Trees, lethargic Nymphs - even the honey was beginning to lose its sweetness.

Yes, the thoughts of men were seriously deriding the consciousness of their ethereal brothers - and as both sank into abstraction and isolation even commonsense seemed to have lost its way.

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

Signposted Paths

Needles had been living outdoors in a State-run forest. Its iron gates would be locked at night, when he was free to wander its signposted paths, going from one bin to the next, rummaging for sauce-soaked crumbs, hungry for the comfort and sustenance of tasty takeaway foods.

The old Dwarf was generally invisible to men, and so even when he crossed paths with a ranger patrolling he did not ever fear being caught. As for his own kind, they preferred living in the towns, and so, for the main of his nights and his days, he was very much left to himself - or what was left of him.

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

Spiky Hair

Needles looked everywhere trying to find his words - yet sensed that they were now long gone and nowhere to be found. Neither here, nor there; along with their many accompanying thoughts, these words, like others before them, had vanished too far from his mind’s reach to be able to recall them.

He splashed his face with muddy water; its red iron particles settled deep into the wrinkles crinkling his face. His eyes were aquamarine, and his pyjamas of pale blue silk. Silver-white spiky hair haloed his ancient head.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self, Second Guesses AZLANDER Series

A Single Sigh

Eve hurriedly made her way to the car, forgetting to pause the video recording. Although dark in her purse, the streaming continued. The Vauxhall stuttered before starting.

Eve began to cry, and as though in sympathy, the clouds emptied their heavy rain straight at her windscreen. She pulled over into a grassy lane, to wait out the storm.

Although Eve had not lost a child herself, she had miscarried in the first trimester - and this most painful of memories stalked her otherwise happy life. She closed her eyes for a single sigh, and then gave way to the grief once again.

“Are you going to be blubbing there all day?” asked a curious voice from behind her.”

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

Stone Cottage

Standing in a tiny stone cottage on the very same spot a stillborn had lain some hundreds of years earlier, Eve’s heart was racing, for in her mind’s eye she could see the mother weeping with painful clarity. It was a pitiful image.

On leaving, Eve brushed past the arched door where there were dents in the splintering wood: these markings were from where a witch had whacked her knuckled stick, trying to force her way into the cottage to souvenir the child just born.

It was all too real these ghosts she felt.

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

Eve Piquet, Psychic Detective

“I can sense a lot of pain in this room,” she said solemnly into her phone, emphasising each whispered word thickened with meaning.

Eve Piquet was a psychic detective, with a following of five on Youtube. She had been hoping to build on those numbers by video cataloging her sensitive encounters, which were excitingly streamed ‘live’ amongst the ghosts.

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

Dragon Diamond

The Diamond, that had clinked its way into the bottom of a jagged rock pool, had been deposited into the dune, by a Dragon of the Fires. He had in fact coughed it up quite literally, being partial to the forest coal, feeding on refuse and small animals as well. It was, of course, the nuggets of coal that had gone to make Tindle’s jewel.

What may be a stone in the gall to a man, is a diamond in the intestine, to these most ancient of beasts.

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

Many kinds of Dragon

There are many kinds of Dragon: not only those of the Salamander who spit fire and ignite the cosmic furnaces; there are also the Dragons of the sky, who are of two classes: the water (the clouds) and of the wind (the future). There are also those of the storms, and of the past; and some, that are so evil one should never ever name them.

And, it is said, they quite often fight one another - and when two Dragons combat, the earth becomes jittery; and the angels, irritated.


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

Diamond Days

Amidst the music of the wind and the waves, Tindle thought he could hear his mother calling him home “Nathan, Nathan”. (Nathan was his Christian name.)

And it was only when, as a very elderly old man, did Tindle look back into his former days with the clarity and wisdom of a supernatural review - when the memory unlocks the happiest of times - and there, chair-bound, his tired mind saw himself as a child holding the diamond he had left behind, and only then he realised what it was he had lost.


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