Blue Leather Boots

Brittle leaves flew around his feet, alike to a huddle of dancing popadoms. They crackled and crunched beneath his blue leather boots, becoming a swirling confetti in the wind.

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

The Light Feeds the Eyes

The eyes are joyous when they see beauty.
The eyes become healthy, and focused when they are happy.
The light feeds the eyes.
They commune with the outer landscape -
with the colors, with the textures, with lines and their graduations.

There have been painters who have departed from the ordinary joys of what they see, and through interpretation, they commit to canvas a distorted narration of color and line. And these artists have lost their eyesight because of the anomaly of brain and sight, and that they no longer love what they see, but rather seek to change it - confusing their own eyes thereby.

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

Soul in Review

Most of us are familiar with the concept of reviewing our lives after death. This experience - or series of experiences - is where the soul recalls the events in succession with rapidity, from many different angles: being able to watch themselves, from birth up until the moment at hand, in a cascade of moments, one by one, yet all at once - to see their lives as lived, and also, of the impact that life has had on others. Most times, this sophisticated recollection, is an invaluable experience taking in the realities of those to whom we have had an effect on. And this is felt, by the soul who is in review. It is known, it is experienced, sequenced, and clear.

Needles, was given such a revelatory experience - only his memory (when recovered) went back far further than a single lifetime - in fact it spanned tens of thousands of years. And, for the first time in a very long time, his consciousness was clear again - and he knew once again who he was.

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

Ectoplasmic Glamour

And so alike to a sheath of frost, a mantle over the morning grass, there suddenly appeared six strange figures lit with the ectoplasmic glamour Puck threw over them: a blue light filled the room and Eve saw more clearly the six characters that had travelled closely by her for many years now.

The oddest change happened to the elderly Dwarf, Needles. As the luminescent shower rained down on the group in the corner, the small fry who had been standing with them, watching on, was covered also, and finding it quite invigorating.

Einstein, as Puck called him ironically, instantly became a transformed being, with a rush and a flash and a cataclysm, of truth and memory; his brain was on fire, his mind was enlivened, and rational thought was restored.

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

The Science of Ectoplasmic Sheathing

The science behind the ectoplasmic sheathing of ghosts was rather simple, insofar as it can give shape and body to what formerly could not be seen in the physical world. The contrasting emanations on some level can become, for a time, palpable, however not least always are visual. His plan was to shower the ephemeral forms with the tacky elastic goo which would give them shape for a very short time.

It was formerly thought that ectoplasm was made up from the subtle attributes of the medium who produced it. This was only partly true, and equally not true. Ectoplasm itself came directly from the elemental beings in the medium’s employ, yet Puck did not need such assistance as he was himself an elemental being of a kind.

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

Seeing Ghosts

"I don’t know why you feel that you have to do that - I can see them perfectly well, without you doing whatever you are doing, thank you.” Her voice sounded a little strained, and largely annoyed - Eve really wished that this bothersome spirit would leave her apartment immediately.

Puck had come up with the bright idea that if Eve could see what the ghosts in the corner really looked like, perhaps she would not be so enamoured with them. Perhaps, he thought, she might actually be frightened, and choose more carefully the company she frequented with.

He needed to find out a bit more about this young woman. He simply could not bring himself to stop visiting her. Puck could sense some unfinished business … and needed to discover what that might be - his intuition nagged him to persist.

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

Three Damp Days of Confinement

Jon was drowsy, for the three days had left him faint with the ordeal. There was, ever present, during this confinement, the constant terror of dropping down further, or being there forever, buried in the sludge beneath for all eternity … and all the while he had no reckoning also of what had become of his beloved Fatima.

As for the earring, Tindle asked how he came of it, and so the discussion had naturally emptied into small facts and merriments.

Likewise Jonathon had his choice fragments and episodes of setback to relate. He had come to expect all things to never be constant, but to change, to threaten, to contest him, and to surprise - this was exactly how he had found his life in the last few weeks and days - and he was just grateful now to be out in the sunshine after his three damp days of confinement.

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

Earring Recognised

The impoverished are rarely surprised by life’s events. From an early age those who are used to doing without, become accustomed to all manner of both setbacks and miracles alike.

And so it was that when Tindle discovered from Jon that he had personally seen the same man to whom he was meant to meet with, and had in fact carried his head, for a time, it did not surprise Tindle at all. Not at all. The subject had come up because of the earring that Jonathon wore - being the first thing that Tindle had seen when he had reached down and caught Jon by the arm - being tall enough and long enough to do this safely bringing the lad out into the open air once again.

Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses AZLANDER Series

A Unicorn Lopped By

Tindle had been entrusted with the silver from the entire town. You could say that it was risky to give a youth the bundle that was their entire welfare for a season to come, so obviously dangerous that he should carry such a wealth about him. However, because of his great height, they were hopeful that it was safe to do so - and lacked the means to do anything else.

However the emissary he had been due to meet with had been taken. Competing merchants from Italia had charged this Commissioner of the North with corruption, and he had lost his once successful life to the executioner.

They had accused him of piracy, and charged his convoy of being illegitimate and therefore illegal; to then subsequently sequester it for their own use, taking over the ship, killing the men, and seizing the goods.

Just then a unicorn lopped by. Unicorns always appear when least expected. They are rarely seen, but if you catch sight of them in the side of your eye, or even feel that a Unicorn has brushed past you - or perhaps hear him gallop past you - this is a very auspicious sign, because all Unicorns herald a happy change.

Neither Tindle or Jonathon saw the creature leap past them ever so elegantly, yet a few sparks of light came their way, showering into the well, sprinkling the rocks and foliage around them.

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

The Hairless Tradesmen of the North

It was Tindle who had finally come to his [Jon's] rescue. He had been staying within the community, not because he was diseased or near dying, but because he was considered to be an outcast. 

Nathanius Tindle frightened ordinary people: as a child he appeared quite normal, but then he grew and kept growing until he stood over over seven feet tall and was thus conspicuously different. Being so large had not gone well for him as it might have in some other place or time.

On the cusp of the equinox Tindle would leave for supplies, negotiating their delivery with the hairless tradesmen of the North, who with one compact consignment distributed the agreed wares a moon month after the barter. This seasonal arrangement went beyond the grandfather’s recollection when neither village from either port ever thought that there was risk or worry in such transaction.

Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses, Azlander Series