Stickler for Morals

Nathanius Tindle was a stickler for morals. His world view weighed judgements deftly, as his mathematical aptitude could apply its own measures to behaviours and codes, and social law with equal precision as to coordinates and sums.

Whereas Jonathon had learned to stretch the truth, and mock the authorities, counterfeit and trade, to survive where he must. It was not that he lacked the moral wherewithal, it was just that he obeyed a more pragmatic law when needs required.

And so it was that their friendship found its place somewhere in the middle to this. Each gave a concession to the other, with a manly love that was pure and accepting in its friendship.

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

Predacious Parasite

Goober could see and feel what had just taken place. “Master Fish, please tell me that this action of mercy performed upon my personage this moment will not cause grief to our departed Holy One.”

“Not at all - it was discussed with him prior and our brother left his body well before the cremation, that this be done for you: and also, our beloved Master knows where to discard the cockles. All will be fine.”

He then went on to say: “If you could peer into the invisible layers of any allergen you would find that they appear like mollusks … or hardened shells that cluster and cling to their host. Allergens have primary, secondary and three types of causes. Primarily it is of the advantageous parasites one in the astral, who latch on to their succulent, and make porous the parts of the astral and etheric body that they feed upon. Secondarily it is intolerance (not of mind but of weakened life force) specific to the substance or character or quality of the aggravating stimulant. Thirdly it is the physical body’s repulsion and efforts to throw off and throw out all that aggrieves it so in the trying.”

Goober nodded in agreement, which was more akin to bewilderment. His knowledge of the natural sciences was comprehensive, but he felt too healthy to be pondering the predacious parasite he had just been relieved from.

“So it’s like Roses and the Aphid?” he said looking over at the flowering vines that lined their path they were walking.

“Yes! You could say that, Allergens are the Aphis of the subtle form.”

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

Mantle of Allergy

The end of the world is not a time, but a place …

-from the book of Faerie

In all of his immortal years Goober had had suffered the problem of not being taken seriously. Up until now he had accepted his role in paradise, in the garden, and in the world, as being secondary to everything else.

He would always be the support act to his best friend Puck, and his humble concerns would but shadow the greats around him. He was content to be a bystander, never an instigator, in fact, up until now, he thought himself to be content with just about everything.

Small creatures might nibble at his toes or scuffle around his feet, because they felt safe around this gentle soul. He was Puck’s confidante, uncle to many, but father to none.

Now he had taken this time for himself at the retreat, and the mantle of allergy had lifted off and was then disposed of by one of the Brothers. It had happened during a blessing at the burial of one of their elderly residents. Just prior to cremation one of the Masters approached Goober where he sat and lifted the parasitic shroud from his etheric person, and then proceeded to place it onto the deceased only minutes before his body was ignited. The crusty armour was now completely dissipated, and the relief for Goober was instantaneous.

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

Catching Up

Enid now appeared in her forties - her creases and lines had all disappeared - and her vitality with its own special signature shone through. She was unmistakably Granny Smith, but with the beauty of a fairy grandmother, her soul was astoundingly gracious, vibrant and tensile.


If Eve could have had any wish on that day it would have been to see Enid again. She clutched her coffee cup, lest it fall, and said out loud, “I am so happy that you have come to see me”.

“I would have come sooner, but my review took me far away for a time - and there were so many people to catch up with, and oh, how the time goes. I always felt you by me dear, and longed for this time also. Your grandfather is doing well, now that he has awakened to his eternal self - but it took awhile for him to find it, and be comfortable with his acquired spirit sight…”



Eve started to cry. The distance between herself and her grandmother was oscillating between being incredibly close and impossibly distant - within a breath and a heart beat, as intimate as spirit can be - but yet she could not hold her hand or feel her warmth, and the division between the ethereal world and where she sat on the couch in the present, immeasurably wide and lonely. And then, in a whisper, the vision of Enid withdrew, leaving Eve to herself once more alone.

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

Granny Appears

Eve picked up her knitting to settle into an orderly distraction. Needlework was another legacy of Granny Smith’s, and although she was young for the hobby, Eve was proud of her cables and intricate stitches … working on a coat for Caspar, the terrier next door who suffered from the cold and palsy.

With a mug of cinnamon coffee and her ‘cable tv’ she settled in for the lonely hours ahead. Although it had been several years since Granny Smith had passed away, she had never, not once, in spirit, dropped by. This mystified Eve sadly to ponder, as to why this wonderfully strong woman had disappeared from her life as she did. Still, Eve liked to believe that Granny was around her and caring, even if she could not directly sense her presence …

And then, as though in answer to her sadness, a light appeared in the corner of the room, and for the first time, in a very long time, she saw the face she loved so much.

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

Moral Cornerstone

She waited, and she waited, but Puck did not show. It was May day - a day that was meant to be full of love and frolicking, but instead it was yet another let down in her calendar of non-events. Even her invisible community of friends and associates had cleared off for the day - probably gone to do their celebrating elsewhere, repelled by the shadow of her disenchantment.

Eve would have poured herself some wine if she drank it - however, as her wise and very clairvoyant grandmother used to say: “you canna see the Spirits if you partake in the spirits”. Granny Smith (yes, really) was a stickler for sobriety - and the moral cornerstone of her family … Granny’s virtue was unchallenged.


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

Soul from Former Times

One vivid presentation that came to her [Eve] was of simply sitting on the step of the cottage playing with a tendril of ivy, winding it slowly through her fingers, soaking in the warmth of the morning sun. A strange set of visions showed her, of all things, a large bear - to wit she could make no sense of what this could mean. Could he be a symbol of something? And who was this sad spirit?

It was more than a womanly kinship that she shared with this soul from former times - much more. Eve thought that these pictures and feelings came from yet another soul whose suffering impregnated the ethers for times to come: but no, this woman, whose name was Hannah Mary, was herself, and these memories were hers. But amongst the catalogue of forlorn stories, of emotions and struggles and characters of being, she had not the wherewithal to find her former self amidst their clairaudient noise.

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

Reoccurring Visions

Back on the road travelling home, Eve’s red ‘Noddy car’ wound its way through the country lanes - this time taking the back streets running parallel to where she had come to grief a few months before.

She was hurrying back, hoping that Puck would be waiting for her - he had promised to return on this day - the first of May - and she had believed him.

Meeting this other-worldly ‘Adonis’ had been just the distraction she had needed. Her mind had been full of personalities that kept presenting in a procession wanting to be heard. The spirits who would frequent her consciousness sought her attention repeatedly and with the pressing insistence of one ignored.

Added to this were the reoccurring visions that came to her: snapshots of another time that Eve experienced. Ever since she had visited the cottage where a tragedy with an infant had taken place … she had seemed to have been seeing through the eyes of another woman.


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

Somewhere between Faerie & this World

The Hode - Robin - had managed to accomodate a good many strangers in their treed Community - it was estimated at times to be numbered beyond five hundred dwelling there all at once. This was far from the depiction of them being but a ‘band of merry men’ - who were of course the brothers of poverty that he travelled with also.



To properly frame this picture one must first know of Robin’s Elven heritage and how it was that he could effect the many magical happenings around him.

Robin had created a space that was not exactly part of the land of Faerie, nor was it of this World - it lay somewhere in between - where both mortal and immortal could co-dwell.

This space was not infinitely abounding - in truth, it would have measured only two hundred acres or less - yet it was large enough to conceal and keep his darling community.

For the main part, those that were offered a place there seldom left, for the rain was sweet and the sun was a comfort, and food grew in abundance for all.

Oddball Society

Richard remembered seeing the barefoot monks picking through the street market, being spat on by their Catholic counterparts. Their uniform magenta drapes were embroidered with a foreign script, same words it was said, that they chanted incessantly. From their tattered belts draped bells; and fragrant smoke curled upward from long pipes, beads, in the stead of crosses, adorned their exposed chest.

Popular belief told of these devotees as absconding from a diet of meat and liquor, yet the locals had seen them consume both, when grain and ordinary water was in short supply.

Richard mused at their economy of words. Privately he also delighted in silence - it was considered to be his own sublime paradise … to feel the peace orbit his quiet within … and he was of the constant opinion, that men too often wasted their words on half-worthy thoughts, and empty speech. 

And so, with an uncommon likeness, Richard was already feeling a strong kinship with the brotherhood from the East.


He had been first introduced to the Bodhists by the Hode, who, it was said had first brought them into the district, housing the ‘oddball society’ within his forest quarters.

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

Irreverent

Charles Mandrake was a very poor priest. He was not living sparsely, in point of fact he lived very well, but managed that which he was entrusted with very badly - spending the excess contributions and taking the donations largely to his fund is personal wants and needs …

The price of smokes had escalated over the years and his own holy fire needed the small stubs of light … midnight when the cathedral had evacuated, when the prayerful and the mournful had departed to their solitary beds; Father Charles strode the aisles of his empty church, drawing breaths of Frankincense and Marlboro. Stubs were buried beneath the prayer candles, where he had snubbed them into the tray of sand.



Spicy imported foods littered his fridge, half eaten. Chocolate wrappers glittered in the bin. Silk and Cashmere piled in his wardrobe. Designer watches and assorted gifts from his adoring Parish draped his bookcases and filled his drawers.



Father Charles loved life and it loved him. He could recite the newspaper backwards and his congregation exalted its meaning imaginatively. He would analogise the racing form, or sing the bingo with intermittent psalm references, rich with obscure context and subliminal affirmations.



All in all he was an ecclesiastical success.

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

Beneath a Bridge

Master Tu was born into an average life, with average parents, who had average hopes, for their less than average son.

Both his mother and father were from Chicago, and their forebears were touched with the enchanted psyche of the Irish mixed with the propriety of the Scot.

From the time he began to talk, his questions were answered with contempt. Both parents had no idea of the complexities of their child’s mind, and the value of a loving and enthusiastic conversation escaped them entirely.

Stuart’s (Tu for short) first suffered depression manifested at puberty, and one that strangled him duly during his teens. The gremlin of impossible sadness would sit at the end of his bed and taunt him nightly; keeping him from falling asleep. With this constant sleep deprivation Stuart found that a certain twilight took over his mind - so much so that he learned to sleep without his body laying down, and ignore the world in a daze of adaptive static complacency.

And so, beneath a bridge, settled amongst the modern trolls and geriatric alcoholics; between the casino rats and withered junkies, Puck found Stuart propped up against a shopping trolley gazing into nothingness.

“It was too soon” he had whispered in the vagrant’s ear. “Too soon for you to be coming back.”

With Elvish strength he picked the sorry youth up from the pee stained ground, and hoisted one arm over his shoulder, dragging him to the gold Mercedes he had waiting.

“This is no life my King,” he said respectfully, hauling his thin frame into the back seat and fastening the belt around him snugly.

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

Master Tu

The Master’s whiskers were trailing in his soup, and Goober could not help noticing that crumbs from the un-leven bread had settled throughout its white twisted strands. It was certainly unusual to have one so young as leader of a monastery of this size - beard or no beard, he was still only twenty-two.

This Sensei had been homeless a few years earlier, and some of his habits from living rough had remained. He appeared to be utterly without pride, and completely unaware of any social etiquette.

When Puck had found him, his fingers and toes had begun to disintegrate with mould, and the tip of his nose had blackened also. This youth could not have cared less for shelter and warmth at that stage of his short life - for he gone for so long without having anything, he had forgotten what comfort was. The bite of the wind or ice beneath his feet, felt nothing in comparison to the pain in his soul continually throbbing - nothing at all.

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

Feeling Better

“Thats it!” exclaimed Goober. “I’m out of here - we can meet back at the Seedery if want to find me.”



“You’re forgetting something,” Puck said, as he watched Goober reach into the hole in the wall, covered by a curtain, to get his suitcase.



“And what’s that?”



“You have not sneezed once since we got here.”“Goober reflected. It was true.



“Been too irritated to sneeze.”



“Haven’t passed out either.”



“True,” again agreed Goober thoughtfully.



“Well then - aren’t you feeling a whole lot better?”



Goober could finally see through his eyes that were usually itchy and red. He actually hadn’t felt this good in a very long while - maybe a century or so.



“Ok then,” he said belligerently, sitting back down at the table.



Puck rolled another egg towards him. “Eat up old boy, we’ve got work to do.”

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

Boiled Eggs

“I might have preferred the delivery food old friend”, Goober said with distaste looking down at his bowl of cold hard boiled eggs.

      

      “These are not ordinary eggs Peanuthead - just try them”, said Puck throwing one, that sailed over Goober’s shoulder and on to the floor behind. The whole room smelt of sulphur and the chanting beyond the atrium wall was grating on Goober’s nerves.

      

      “I thought we might be going somewheres peaceful - you know - somewhere nice - but its all work here or meditation - and even the beds are bleak. Are they magic eggs?” he asked hopefully.

      

      What is it with Goober and magic eggs? Puck thought to himself as he rolled one about on the walnut table and the shell crumbled beneath his hand. He peeled off the remainder and ate the hen’s egg whole.

      

  

Paranormal Play

When Jon-Jon returned to the camp Tindle had woken and was sitting in the half light, eating from a bag of dry beans.



Jonathon immediately thought it better to keep this romance to himself - that perhaps Tindle might not approve of this paranormal play. The Church, after-all, would hang a man for less.

He privately hoped that Fatima would return to him - even possibly the next night or the night after so. The fact that she was quite obviously deceased did not bother him - for even as a spirit she felt warm to the touch. It was complicated, but at least he had found her, and she him. He twitched, and his member tightened, remembering her caress. For the first time in his young life he felt blest.

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

Bare Before Him

“Jon Jon” a voice whispered close to his ear. It was the sweet voice of Fatima. He shook himself awake, happy beyond belief.

In the half light he could not see her. Nathanius was sound asleep, with his head resting on a goose down vest, with his hat draped over his eyes. It wasn’t him that he had heard call his name, Jon assured himself.

No, the familiar “Jon-Jon” was her pet name for him - it was her, or at the very least, a dream of her that came to him.

A cold wind enveloped where he lay, and a heavy darkness descended upon their camp. This woke him completely. Jon stared with melancholy into the trees beyond - and there - there amongst the stringy birch trees he saw Fatima … in spirit form and naked - she was just standing under the shimmering branches watching him from afar.

Jonathon tried as quietly as he could to push himself up from the ground, and barefooted, he strode across the greasy moss to be with her. It was her spirit-self he could see - not a wraith or ghoul, but a warm-blooded soul, although without a body - this ethereal girl, seemed more beautiful than when she had been alive - full of light and true warmth, her essence, the essential her, was bare before him.

She lightly touched his face and drew him close - and into the alcove he entered with sweet relief, he gave his love to her.


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

Behind the Curtain

“We would rather that you did not touch that”, the softly spoken voice pressed under their teeth.


Goober stepped back. He had opened the lid on a carved sandalwood box and was just about to lift the golden egg from it when a hand firmly pressed down on his.


“This was a memento from many centuries ago … brought to us by the great Jak - it was a gift from the Heavens legend has it,” the Sage said pointing to the sky, annoyingly, as if Goober thought the Heavens were up, and not lateral.

Goober had wanted to see how heavy this egg was, and to rattle it, to find if anything was inside it at all. It might have been one of those magic eggs that had another egg concealed inside. He sighed. When Puck had suggested a get-a-way he had pictured a sauna day spa and detox - not this silent retreat in the snowy mountains.





“Can I look behind that curtain?” he asked, behaving like a bored child.



“No, no you cannot go behind that curtain”, the Sensei said firmly. “That leads to a place only the initiates can enter … ”




“Ordinary?” Now Goober was offended - and it took a lot to offend the gentle giant.



“Let me put it another way: It is a private latrine. Ignore the silk curtains - you really do not want to see what is on the other side.”



Oh great - thought Goober to himself, another let down. He looked sideways at Puck who was speaking with a a lay monk holding a tray of candles.



“What time is dinner?” he asked.



“We have had already enjoyed our one meal of the day but there are a few pamphlets outside on the porch table displaying delivered goods that are available and local.”



Puck called out from behind him cheerfully “Uber Goober?”




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

Mini Break

“Well, hows about … you and me take a holiday - a mini break of sorts? …”



Goober eyed Puck suspiciously - the last ‘mini break’ was in some war zone, and the stress just thinking about it made his hives itch again.



“No”, reading his mind, Puck replied - “I was thinking more of a health resort - we could see what the humans are doing these days with detox and anti-tox.”



“What’s antitox?”



“Simply put, one is a flushing of toxins from your system and the other is not putting them in, in the first place.”



“Will they serve Elven cuisine?”
“I imagine not.”



Goober was a little deflated - mortals really lacked when it came to their cooking. With a sigh he consented, and then brightened up. “When do we leave?”



A very small sprite rushed by and kicked him in the calf from behind.



“I’ll just get the keys to the barn to Mercurio and we can go straight away.” Puck picked up the”




“sprite by the scruff and turfed him out through the door ahead of him. “Best pack for the snow” he added.”



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

The Allergies

Goober was on the couch sipping tea, nursing his congested head.
“You really should see someone about those allergies of yours” Puck said with emphatic concern.



His old pal Goober had reconciled himself to living with snot and coughs and continual headaches - not to mention the anaphylaxis which annoyingly caused him to pass out once a day or more. It was fortunate that he, being an immortal being, was in no great danger from the symptoms themselves … however it did make ‘living’ exceedingly difficult - especially the closer he got to the mortal world, from which his maladies originated from.

His eyes were puffy and red rimmed. “Ok ok - I’m all yours - whatever you suggest, I’m up for” he said in exasperation with himself.

Diamond Collection

In the land of Faerie there is a law about magic tokens: and that is, that their powers can go in reverse at any time, unexpectedly.



The same diamond that gave growth and reckoning to Nathanius, was also quite fickle in its properties, and could equally cause chaos and harm to its holder. Puck had recognised this, when Needles had dropped it into Eve’s car, just before the collision.



Puck tossed it up into the air watching the rainbows spark here and there. He then lifted the lid of a rather large stone jar and clink, dropped it in. There it now sat amongst forty or so diamond nuggets of the same. His collection had grown pretty large this century.




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

Azlan Speaks about Listening & Looking

There is a deep magic that few recognise, where in this world, the material world, you can hear what is being said, and from this you may catch the genuine truth thereby.



Often times, if you look at a man or a woman, you may also see the truth about them, especially when their glamor falls away and dissolves in the light of a pure enquiry.”




“To see and hear plainly the truth of a situation, or state of a soul, the mind and heart can locate the other’s co-ordinates at that moment in time of questioning.



Also, too, one should themselves practice speaking plainly and honestly, using few words unembellished.



Attire yourself according to your own nature, and be comfortable in that.



If you speak falsely your ears will shift their co-ordinates, and discrimination will be skewed with the fancy and fantasy of a troubled mind. For we may easily become confused by our own deceptions.



Equally if we attempt to present ourselves as something we are not, we fail to be able to recognise others for who they are in that moment of time.”







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

House of Glass

The house itself was not made of sugar, but of glass. Bricks of glass that had once live insects and small rodents inanimate, suspended within. It gave an eerie appearance to the hut from the outside, to see so many glassy eyes staring out from the glassy bricks; and trails of creatures seemingly crawling up the sides, yet suspended in their thick glassy containment.

Asquith loved to shock the world. At least that is how he saw it. He was a performer that ever sought out a terror-struck audience, one that would feed him the energetic rapture coming from that great surprise. Yet he took it further than most, drawing from those close enough to enter into his curved orbit, a measure of upset that they would carry away, whilst he retained greedily what happiness he had stole from them.

This is how most magicians of the evil variety work. They are vampires who trade the light for the darkness, compelling their audience to believe that they are far grander than they really are - exceptional to creation - all the while their facade magically covers their devilishly corrupted and failing interior.

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

The Magician

“The Magician", the fat man continued, “knows every evil sod from here to Hades”. He laughed. “That fur coach sounds to me a real easy association - he will know. Only my advice is, take him something. He won't warm to you if you go empty handed. It is important to trade. Oh, and be respectful.



“How do we find him?”


“Well, er, he looks like a child but is as old as my grandfather. He wears an emblem around his neck of a hawk eating a rabbit. His house is made of taffy sugar. Asquith is the name he goes by.

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

Green Dust

“There is a magician in the hills that can help you”, the fat man explained.

      

      The fat man, was actually the name that this merchant of cheeses went by - and he wore this title proudly. This had become his signature, and in his own way he felt substantial within the world by it. While emaciated beggars and their thinned offspring fossicked though the nobility’s cast offs, he, with his factory of dairy fat was an emblem of prosperity and good health. Yay, the King himself was portly, he would say boastingly, to his five stout children. And this was so.”

“Jonathon and Tindle watched him as he spoke - the man never stopped sampling his own creations. They hoped he would offer them to taste also, but he did not. Jonathon relented, handing one fake coin to the cheesemaker in exchange for a cloth bag of hard remnant pieces.

      

      “Just score the green from the sides like so,” he said showing his expertise at shaving mold. He continued, “keep it at the bottom, and it will encourage more of the same … and should you ever fever, the green dust makes an excellent tonic mixed with a little liquid that will revive you. It can cure all manner of malady.”

      Jon knew this to be wise advice. He had seen his Ma use the very same - although from bread - when his Pa had stuck himself with a horse shoe tack that seeded pus in a wound that would not heal. The green dust medicine had sure made it all right again.

      

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

A Sprig of Violets

She poured two cups, then added cream and sugar onto the tray - then placed four slices of buttered cinnamon toast and a bowl of blackberries.


On the way back into her bedroom she tripped and fell head first onto the carpet before her. The tray and its contents went sailing clattering with the fall.

Embarrassed, Eve picked herself up and wiped the cream from her face, took the courage to look over to the bed and found that her new lover was missing - and immediately her first thought was that he may not have seen her fall at all - which was very fortunate all things considered.

Her's was an optimistic nature. She turned to go find him and knocked lightly on the bathroom door, pushed it open to find he was not inside there either - nor was he in the kitchen or the dining room - and then it dawned on Eve that he had simply gone. She went back to the bedroom and saw waiting for her the tray with the food as before - with one difference - there was a crystal vase upon it with a sprig of violets inside.

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

Feeling Lighter than Ever

Joseph Paton

Eve awoke to find herself enveloped in the broad arms of a man she could not recognize. She shimmied and wriggled sideways to the end of the bed and drew back, looking once again through foggy eyes … staring at the sleeping figure who seemed so very familiar.

He was still very much asleep.

Long, very long, curly hair draped over his pillow … well, it was her pillow - with his head on it. His skin had a sheen that was hard to describe … it did not look pitted and pored like an ordinary body - it actually did not look real at all and a feint aura of light seemed to emit from it - she squinted to try to clear her eyes and refocus - she could not determine his age, only that he was very tall and with the body of a god.

Eve slowly withdrew from the sheets and slyly huddled into a nearby silk robe, leaving to make coffee. Although she should have felt alarmed the truth was she felt lighter than ever, in fact, she felt better than she could recall ever feeling. Happiness travelled the whole length of her body.


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

At the End of the Tunnel

There was a tunnel, and a light and at the end of the tunnel, and through this light, was another tunnel and a brighter light. In the middle of this brighter light was a little box. Inside the box was a key to its lock. 

Mr Dickens arrived just in time to see the white rabbit abscond with the box, right before he could claim it for his own. He thought he heard the rabbit mutter something about being very late, dropping a pocket clock as he left. Mr Dickens picked up the small clock and saw its hands moving backwards.

Years later he related this story to a friend whose name was also Charles.

“You know how clocks keep step with the time in the present?” he began.

“Yes yes,” nodded the cleric, packing his already stuffed pipe.

"Well it appears that my pocket automata dictates time itself - it leads the dance, so to speak."

“How so?" asked Charles to Charles. He was not disconsiderate - in point of fact, he seriously admired his colleague and loved him for his great fascination of the world. Anything that Dickens said he sincerely believed.

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

Dragon Energy

The people often spoke of ‘dragon energy’ - not knowing exactly where it came from, or what it was.

When, as a little boy, Nathanius Tindle had placed his hand around the diamond cough drop, whereupon something of the energetic force was imparted, thus it was that he went on to grow to such an unusual gigantic height.

This was not its only gift, for his mind had accelerated also - and he took great pleasure prescribing mathematical solutions to configuring complex formulas, and geometrical understandings of geometry and the wonders of astronomy.

He knew that the principle of ‘as above, so below’ was in deed a primal fact: and that all forms within the material world had their essential patents elsewhere in the universe - that life was constantly repeated through these heavenly guidelines - forming and un-forming Creation.

It was probably just as well that Nathanius had lost the diamond, for its powers would have soon become too much for him, too great, too bold, for any one man, to know.

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

Magic Shadow

Dmitry Krutous

“Dead Wood" - that was how they had described him, and it stung.

To a dwarf this is a very great insult - possibly the worst insult - for each being of Faerie has their own dedicated tree, and so to call him ‘dead wood’ was to suggest he, and his tree, was without life.

There are beings who emanate further life to life which is around them and then there are those who have ceased to participate - and their transactions with the ethers go just one way.

Pine-Needles loved life and its nature and his fellow beings - he had fallen ill and that was simply all. But now, with the illness fallen from him, and the healing of the ecto vapours from Puck, he was renewed. He had also an especial fondness for Eve by association - and committed to be her chief defender, prime project, and magic shadow.

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

Black was Back

“Have you a special question today Sir?” Eve asked politely.

“Yes indeed” the timbre was sophisticated. He continued: “Do you think that chickens can see into the ‘other worlds’?"

“Could you please repeat the question?” she nervously asked, biding time, dismayed at being caught off guard.

“Well, er, Mr … ”

“Black” he said calmly - as though he expected to be taken seriously. “Can chickens see spiritual phenomena? he pressed: are they clairvoyant?”

“That really is a very interesting question Mr Black - can I ask what made you think of it?”

“In my opinion sparrows can see the invisibles - most breeds do - but I have not been able to say with certainty that the chicken, hen or rooster is so qualified. It's their brains you see - very flighty. They do say that the rooster can feel the sunrise as it approaches, and its healing forces infill his song.”

Eve paused to think - her show was interrupted conveniently by a local sponsor’s advertisement.

The stranger kept talking: “The dog is dead, Albert is in Bermuda, and the nagging spirit is not his wife, but his mother.”

"Click"- the phone-line died.

Eve hurriedly shuffled her papers to find the one she had prepared earlier to read to her audience … she bit her lip - its subject was ‘psychic animals’. How could the caller have known?

She laughed when all of a sudden she recognized who was at the other end of the line - somehow she just knew it was that crazy spirit that had wandered into her apartment a few days before, and now it appeared he was back.

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

Radio Show

Back at the radio station Eve had got off to a great start - the switchboard was clamouring with ardent enthusiasts. Management always took it to be a ‘good sign’ when the public responded ravenously to a host - proving that again spiritism was still very much a hot topic, even in this modern age.

Caller number one had lost their dog, and was phoning to ask the medium if she could sense his whereabouts. Caller two had lost their husband: and could not verify if they were dead or had absconded, or perhaps was lost, and had asked Eve pitifully if she could sense Albert’s whereabouts.

Caller three had lost his wife, but wanted to know if there was a way he could hide from the spirit of the deceased, who nightly haunted him with chores that she considered he was meant to be doing. 

Caller four had an unusual stride in the way they spoke - it was almost playful. He introduced himself as a student for all things esoteric.

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

Very Zen

The fat grey moth appeared to have given up, having succumbed to the sticky tangle that had entrapped him.

Puck gently blew on the failing creature, and in that one breath the bondage dissolved and the creature flew free.

Out in the rocky outcrops of Utah a lone climber was wedged in between two rock walls that earlier he thought he could crawl through. His body had swollen in the heat of the struggle, and now the adventurer was literally stuck between a rock and a hard place, opposing his efforts to move forward or back.

He could not reach his phone, or flick the ants from his nose. The heat of the stone was burning his bare shoulders, and his fears were strangling the very breath out from him. He closed his eyes momentarily to find respite from the panic, when a warm sweet wind passed over him from behind. He opened his eyes to find that the wall beside him was breaking up into sand, and with all the effort he could gather, he wriggled free. The young explorer dropped safely and softly onto the dirt beneath.

Back in his one-windowed room, Puck picked up his satchel to leave, and then stopped to clairvoyantly enjoy the exhilaration of the climber as he ran towards the entrance to the national park.

“How very Zen” he said jokingly to the ghost of Master Shen, who saw also the remote event watching through his friend’s eyes.

With the hint of a smile, he every slightly nodded a bow to Puck on his way out. The old ghost touched his shoulder affectionately and whispered, “Two-fer”.

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

Master Shen Yun

Puck enjoyed his stay-overs with the Buddhist brotherhood. He had a special room set apart from the main quarters, from where he could come and go undisturbed and largely unseen.

Master Shen Yun, a century before, had offered him this arrangement, and in kind, Puck would bring the community a variety of seeds that did them well. Over a hundred years later he was still delivering farming supplies to his favourite retreat.

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

Buddhist Monastery

He folded his silken robe lovingly, and placed it on the top of the two camel hair blankets resting on his woven bamboo sleeping mat.

Puffs of humid rain were misting into the little square window of his room. An elderly moth rested awkwardly on its ledge - his furry feet were caught in the remnants of an obstinate web.

The low moans of the morning’s chant could be heard from all around, although as though, from one voice alone. This deep song found its way into the gardens, the wash house, and the temple; punctuated with the rhythmic swish of the switch calling to action the will of the spirit in all quarters of the Monastery.

Duty thrummed throughout the community’s heart; motivating the aching hand, thrashing the strained and tired back - consoling fervently the ever reaching mind … seeking out the peace of the Heavens.

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

Emissaries of the Angelic Order

Sydney Sime

There are some dark places on the Earth where the presiding Angels have withdrawn - for they are sensitive to evil, and have no will of their own to defeat it - and so they simply must leave.

Yet the innocent and the afflicted are never without their helping presence - sustaining them with radiant love and guidance, ever within for those who are always without.

Secondarily there are emissaries of the Angelic order who do the work as is necessary … helping in varying forms and race.

Needles aka Einstein, had been one of those beings, who was commissioned to a mortal known by that same name. In fidelity to his spiritual ‘brother’ he had taken his name also.

Needles the human, had suffered a ruptured aneurysm at the age of just twenty-eight. His last shot had caused his kidneys to overload and his brain to seize - placing him now in a retirement home with an absent mind, listening to waltzes and the intermittent screams of the fellow residents about him.

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

Angel is, as an Angel does.

Hans Thoma 

Angels are embodied in many forms. One could say: that an Angel is, as an Angel does.

Were it not for the body of Angels, manifestation would not be possible.

Their living body consists of co-operative spirit - cohesive interplay - one that coerces magnificently an otherwise fractured system.

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

Bewitching Herb

“Yes, yes, he met with the girl right here”, he said pointing to the corner seats - “he would dip his spoon into her soup, and she seemed largely aggreived by it.

“It is possible”, he added under his breath, that this fancy Pelt Lord had added some bewitching herb - I say this to you because the maiden was drowsy when it came to her finding her feet to walk out of here. He had to hold her upright … we had just thought her tipsy with spirits - but in looking back, there was no whore’s demeanour about the child to begin with.

“Find that carriage I say,” he nodded knowingly, “and you will find her.”

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

Abductor

It was a fine sight to see the two companions walking together: with the size and height of Tindle beside Jonathon, who was all four heads shorter than his gentle friend. Jonathon was not a small man, it was just that Tindle was an oversized Welshman.

Their mirth was marred only with their concern for Fatima - who they had since learned had been taken away by a carriage that wore emblems of an eagle atop a winged silver serpent.

The townspeople who had seen Fatima leave were impressed with the rarity of the coach itself, as it was upholstered, on the outside, entirely in bear pelt.

“What can I tell you?” the proprietor of the broth cafe off-handedly asked … he continued: “The Eu-rope-eans take pleasure in a very different style.”

He grimaced thinking back to its famed passenger, who wore the same fur also as a cape.

The abductor was toothless, but for two canines that protruded when he spoke.

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

Twofers

Over the many centuries Puck had explored the Mortal world, and had developed affections for many of its inhabitants. His powerful nature could endure the very best, and the worst, of both the spiritual planes and the periods of the planet.

He was not without his own sadnesses. His heart was large (much bigger than most), and privately and broadly it synthesised the sorrow around him - meaning, that he could empathetically feel another’s pain with exact replication - and over time this hardship became incorporated into his own experience and being.

He knelt down to help a grasshopper who was labouring to walk, as a black beetle had attached itself to the creature’s hind leg. The weight of the beetle was proving too much to drag, and very soon she would be forced to stop, thereby becoming open prey to the wandering birds looking for snacks.

Puck absentmindedly shot a blue light into the clinging beetle and it exploded with a small ‘pop’ while the grasshopper hurried away.

Somewhere on the other side of the world a terrorist’s back-pack prematurely ignited - killing only the black clad conspirators holed up in an underground tunnel.

Puck smiled to himself - he enjoyed the simultaneous two-fers - where portents of a greater evil may be lambasted and thwarted through the remedy of the smaller. One of the many mysteries of life …

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

No Ordinary Elvish Man

Puck was no ordinary Elvish man - or manly Elf - he was, as the Elders would say, worlds apart from both the races he identified best with.

His origin predated both the Fay and the Mortals at a time when the vision of the Earthly Kingdoms was hermetically sealed, sleeping in the vault of the greater gods.

He had witnessed their Creation, and seen their realms unfurl exquisite life with its marvellous beings. In this respect he himself was very much one of a kind - for he had seen their long histories, and remembered them all.

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

Hindsight

Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach

The Azlan speaks: 

Without the heights and depths to travel,
Man would know neither up from down.

"Hindsight is a gift from the gods. Literally it is the ability to review times past and learn accordingly.

'The Mortals wrestle with hindsight perpetually, thereby referencing all knowledge up-to-date acquired. From eons to hours, this is the ability to look back, before proceeding forward.

"Balanced between remorse and continuum, this talent is to review what has past most thoughtfully, and glean a wisdom, or a gratitude; to recall how to do as was done, or whether best avoid it completely.

"This persistent review is strengthening to the soul. We all, ever momentarily, use hindsight as our guide to expectation.

"And also there is the comfort: perceiving the ever ceaseless heartbeat and the rising of the Sun. From hindsight we measure and predict that which is to come.

"To this also, we find our misdeeds and subsequent falls from Grace succour our inner divinity, putting reason to what might appear but random - that we might learn those actions that are convivial to Life, from those that would darken our familial hemisphere.

"The cynics contextualise hindsight as the mocking Spectre of an after-effect - saying wryly, that we may never know of something, ere it happens.

"And yet, this is - over aeons to moments - for our travelling souls - the very meaning of its talent that it affords us."

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