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

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

Atlantean Paradise of Australia

Once upon a time the rivers ran gold in the Atlantean paradise of Australia.

Before it was reduced to desert, this country was touched by an etheric splendour: perfumed gardens were imbedded with mega fauna and fluorescent birds, tropical fruits lanterned the burgeoning boughs, berries, cherries, draped from the bush, alongside pineapples that grew the size of a small child; this was the old world where citrines and amethyst glittered in the caves, and knobs of gold shimmered throughout the water-falled rivers.

And yes, there were dragons, but even these did not torch the earth into the red rusty dirt it is now … for that was the work of the Rainbow Snake - menacing and vindictive - unearthing the earth, bringing a spiteful peril into the iron rich soil.

And yet, and then: ferns became lungs; and eucalypts, their salve; tousled wheats grew in sanguine grace beside the bright wild flowers and sugar canes. The white sands were the living kidneys of the land, through which the rivers and rains were filtered; the honest soil, the liver; with ants and bacteria being the stomach; with minerals, the same minerals of the physical mortal form, imbuing their cosmic forces in trails within a network of nerves, electric and resonant, throughout the trembling land.


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