Astral Faces

Puck had an uneasy feeling leaving Eve and Jupiter in the little Heaven, but in some instances he knew he could only work well on his own, and this time, time was not on their side for him to to do otherwise. The two now had Goober with them, and he trusted that between the three they could take care of the mumbling satanic four. All of the witches had conveyed their bleak biographies, but disappointingly no-one had really seemed to recall or know any important information, namely: how Romulus could be located.

And so Puck’s first port-of-call-portal was going back to Eve’s apartment house where he intended to search through Violet, Peter, Leticia and Bryan’s belongings for clues about the fiend Romulus.

* * *

Back in the real world, he had found that his golden Mercedes had been keyed - every panel was scratched with either a random occult symbol or a phallus deeply engraved in the sparkling enamel. The cartoons were the kind you see on subway walls drawn with a simplistic ball and stick design. Not wanting to attract attention to himself Puck glamoured the car to hide the damage - a short-term solution as this veil of cover would only last a few hours at best.

When he arrived he found Needles sitting out the front by the entrance, waiting for Eve’s return.

“Have you got five minutes Buddy?” said Puck gently to the forlorn Fae, who seemed to be in-absentia once again.

Pine-Needles adored Puck, and the endearment was becoming mutual. He stood up and instantly the small dwarf’s aura brightened.

“Lets take a look inside” said Puck … “we’ve got some exploring to do … and perhaps you could fill me in on what has happened here?”

Pine-Needles looked centuries younger in an instant. It had been a very long time since he had a friend that spoke kindly to him.

As they entered the building Puck could see a thousand faces or more of the demonic Romulus plastered here, there, and everywhere, up and down the entry walls. Astral signatures - similar to the medallions of old were fastened to the ceiling and floors and fixtures - and, all of these faces appeared ‘alive’, which seemed to imply there was a consciousness staring out from them - each and every one of them. Their eyes followed Puck and Needles, their noses twitched when they passed by.

The small dwarf did not seem to notice, and being an etheric soul it was quite likely that he could not perceive them at all.

“Lady Eve was with you when the white bear came through the door, and then you all disappeared.” He stopped talking, and a tear dropped from his eye. “Is she now dead?” he asked pathetically.

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

Cosmic Transit Lounge

Eve found herself surrounded by little children who had been waiting in a cosmic transit lounge to connect with their family members.

“Where do they go to?” she asked Goober turning to him to see him gazing above them intently.

Eve looked up too and saw high above her in the violet sky there were two ribbons of light orbiting one another. Their lines would entwine and intersect - and silvery sparks trailed from each, until a perfect and uniform helix formed, when all at once poof ! Fine points of light showered down to the horizon like the most exquisite fireworks.

“What was that?” she asked, quite amazed at the beauty of it all.

Puck did not like to say - but it was actually he and Jupiter thinking together: it's known as the dance of the lights where spirited minds come together culminating in a uni-sonic embrace so perfectly that this meeting energetically expires bright fragments all around.

“Just part of the landscape” said Puck humbly.

Jupiter looked over to him, still freshly invigorated by their meeting of minds. They both knew now what next was to be done.

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

Pick a Wife

Émile Vernet-Lecomte

It took less than a day for Zithia to leave the company of Tindle. He had been so hopeful about the two of them together, that he had read her all wrong: surmising that she would be amenable to his bed and care - and that as a heathen, she would welcome the protection and shelter and occupation he could offer.

However, in truth, she was terrified of him. Zithia’s mutism had become aggravated by the waves of nervousness that now possessed her - this panic poisoned her blood - and yet, amidst this confusion, she assayed just enough strength to dismount whilst they stalled at a busy feeding station.

This had not at all gone the way that Nathanius Tindle had imagined. He was too practical to see around any corners of possibility - seeing only ever what he wanted to see.

Rather than despairing, the would-be husband very quickly cut his losses, waited for the Lord’s day, and then went to the Cathedral to pick a wife from there. Three weeks later he was married and transporting his voluptuous woman back to the Fish and Chippery of Dearth and Dingle without a casual thought for the heathen he had left behind, who had nothing, and no one to protect her.

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

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: animate and non-animate. 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

Osmosis

Tears splashed against the mighty rock
from the sea that breathed heave back and forth,
Mists infused with skies above
The ocean’s rise congregates in cloud
hovering, gliding, a porous shroud -
vapours infilled with golden light
propelled by forceful breath there came
upon our wanting earth beneath
the ecstasy of rain .

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

Twenty Years is Not so Long

John Everett Millais

Time in the world had evaporated, yet for Jon-Jon there was no recollection of the twenty years that had passed - not one day or night - since entering into that very private, secret of places; to find his stepmother waiting for him … and now, for all of that time to dissipate, it never occurred to him, that this community she and he dwelt in together was a magical one.

And although he had not slept through this episode, Jon had forged something of a life that was parallel to what he had known in worldly hardship prior - and with this, his memory of its suffering had lapsed completely, and his former self gave way to the Elvin dream-life in the thick woods of the Sherwood community.

Neither he, nor Isabelle, had seemed to age in this track of two decades. Quite possibly he could have stayed for many years more, were it not for a dream that visited him where Zithia pressed her face close to his, and in a brief and waking moment he instantly recalled his former self, and regret fast swept upon him.

“What if you cannot find her?” Isabelle called after him.

This thought pained Jon.

“I shall return either way,” he replied, hoisting his seat across Chester.

“Then I shall not dissuade you dear man - however you shall take this that you may find your way back - for without a key it may not be so easy to find me a second time.” And saying this she drew from the folds of her dress a fine Whistle carved from the bough of a tree from Faerie.

“It was the great monk Robin that made this himself” she said thoughtfully placing it into his hand.

Jon turned it over and recalled several legends. Even though he had resided in the host’s community, very few had taken tea with him. The Hode was a private soul. He was also rarely there, though none knew of this.

“As well my dear heart, know also that you cannot take Chester this time - for he will not survive.”

“And yet he looks long in the tooth, I believe he will be as strong as the day we came here.” Jon protested.

“By appearances yes, but appearances only. I shall arrange for you another mount if leaving is still your obstinacy.”

“It is not my obstinacy, but rather my will,” he corrected her - “for my purpose had not died, it only slept.”

Isabelle was displeased with his firmness and was sorely apprehensive about losing Jon into the world once more.

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

Goober Appeared out of Nowhere

“Please don’t take me to Hell” he pled …
“Don’t you know 

that I only meant well?”
“Of course you did” the sparrow said ~
“yet here we are, and dead is dead.”

“You know, if it is their world, after all, at some point we have to ask: what right do we have to interfere?”

“However, they have now invaded our domain - for many eons they polluted the Garden (he means Faerie - the original Garden) and now their filth has visited a station of Heaven. This is not good, or permissible, and because Jupiter introduced these events, Jupiter must hold the keys to fix what has happened.”

“How exactly did Jupiter cause this?” asked Jupiter himself sarcastically. He was annoyed at being spoken of whilst present and also for being blamed for the lake of souls turning rancid.

Eve was surprised as she did not know he had it in him. The day’s mishap had soured him altogether.

The golden gourds had lost their plump, the grass bent over, not being able to withstand the weight of its browned head. Weeds were erupting everywhere and some thistles already had leapt so high they were choking the pathways with their spikes and pricks overcoming the floral beds.

An ominous haze wafted overhead, dimming the once bright light, and birds were dropping from the trees, falling like coconuts with a thud here and there every few minutes. The wandering peacocks had lost their colours entirely - their plumage now black with the appearance of lace funerary attire. Small vermin scuttled around their ankles attempting to climb their legs, and chased each other over the bodies of birds piling up on the ground. Flies arrived in the thousands, and consumed the ethers in eagerness and group assault.

“Once upon a time there was no Earth life as we know it now. There was just the Etheric Land of Faerie.”

“Faerie was a place of purity - an adjunct of the Heavenly planes - subordinate to the Higher worlds - and its population was innocent to the forces of anti-nature and decay. Death was unknown. Faerie had thought itself incorruptible, and up until the time of Eden, it was.

“A place of grace and eternal sunlight - of prosperity and bourgeoning growth, of possibility and inventive magic - the seat of Creation, the home of all souls - and a family incorporating the many Kingdoms within. This was Faerie then …” he sighed.

Eve could have sworn she saw a small tear appear in the crease of his eye. Puck paused and said something in another language under his breath. She noted just how handsome this complex being was.

He went on: “It was the dark gods that introduced chaos into the realm, not the Mortals that entertained them. One brought death, and the other a fixed and imitative life - one brought disintegration and the other static - both conditions are deadly to the magical realm.”

“The world of men was soon controlled by false memory and a false economy.”

“It was an asp with a two pronged tongue that inoculated the two evils into the realm, and it has had shadows of this to deal with ever since.”

The dying birds behind them began to shriek with the almost deafening sound of cicadas. A low hum seeped out from the black sap that was oozing from the trees - it looked like old blood, dropping in clots onto the muddy ground beneath. The leaves above were losing their grip, and mostly had littered the bottom, exposing boughs that were now draped with tendrils of purple ivy.

“What have I done?” asked Jupiter out loud.

Eve remembered back to feeling something very similar, but she could not place exactly what. She certainly knew the feeling of dread to follow.

Puck read her wondering.

“If only I could turn back time on this one.” He winced.

Jupiter put his hand onto one shoulder, partly to comfort Puck and partly to steady himself.

“I had become prideful” he said, genuinely admonishing himself. “There were few things I bethought beyond me.”

“Steady on, interjected Jupiter … you never managed to solve world war or mass hunger, I really don’t think you did much at all before …”

“I need Goober” he conceded.

And as soon as this was said, it was done. Goober appeared out of absolutely nowhere right before the astonished three standing in a pool of sewer spill.

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

Sack of Fairy Dust

Meanwhile in Faerie Land: Tu and Goober were having a catch up - the kind you have where a special space in the universe incorporates just the two of you perfectly. There is great solace in such moments of confiding - the confidence that comes with the sharing of a confidence - and although Goober had never fought in an army and Tu had not the far reaching memories of the seasoned Elvish, they had found a common ground, those two souls there together in Faerie.

“Here” said Goober, “take some of this with you” he motioned, picking up a handful of dirt and putting it into Tu’s rucksack directly.

“What is that?” the young Monk asked.

“Faerie dust,” said Goober … “most useful in the Mortal world - but you would be wise to use it sparingly - a little is all yer need.”

Tu was just about to ask him as how to use this dust, when Goober disappeared in front of him, without warning, right before his eyes.

Tu turned around thinking that Goober was hiding, or behind him - he stayed, looking expectantly, for he had grown so used to the tall Elf being at his side. It was unthinkable for him to have gone. And, leave him especially here.

Curiously he did not feel too badly as he might have done. He checked himself and a minute later realised that he was feeling perfectly fine - albeit all alone. The air of 

Faerie agreed with him, and his health was restored, his mind was calm, and his composure had returned.

What could possibly go wrong?

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

Swamp Monsters

Appearing like swamp monsters, four figures arose from the lake covered in a shroud of mud, groaning and complaining their way up and out of the water, dragging their slimy feet onto the banks.

“What are they?” Eve asked and then added, “what are they saying? is it another language?”

“These are the four that caused this calamity” said Jupiter sulkily - he absentmindedly touched his wrist where the elderly witches had constrained him. He was deeply embittered now about the whole experience.

The four figures were standing right in front of them babbling all together. It was not possible to see their eyes through the slather that coated their heads caked so thick in the their hair it was like a helmet stuck fast. They would not stop their mutterings beneath it - there were whines of complaint and protest.

“I can’t make out what they are saying”, said Eve, who sensed their discomfort by their cacophony of tones.

“That’s because I turned off their speech”, said Puck blithely.

“Turned off?” asked Eve, surprised at his casualness.

“Yes, you can do that here, if you find someone’s dialogue interruptive.”

“And thank the heavens for it I say” added Jupiter.

“It’s really a thing?” she asked disbelievingly,

“Yes, it’s a thing. I’ve done it to you several times when we needed to concentrate.”

That hurt.

“Oh” said Eve quietly, “I see …”

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

Was this Enchantment?

He shook himself to toss off the spurs when the blanket came away, and looked steadily at his captors. Jon could not believe his eyes - for right before him stood his stepmother. She was barely older than himself - dressed completely in green with a circlet of pearls around her neck - he almost did not recognise her. Winding up her arm were three beaten gold bangles, with deer and rabbits embossed upon them here and there chasing each other around her arm - and her feet were sandalled as he had not seen before. A perfume reached out to him that was of musk and moss, and forest rain. She seemed to be in good health, and by his judgement, most affluent too.

“Mama”, he addressed her as he had been taught to do.

She fondly brushed the dirt from his shoulders and glanced at the group that had walked him to this hideaway place, and they fell back in obeisance, disappearing into the trees once again. Only the short monk remained. 

“I live with the Elven community now”, she said affectionately - in a manner to put him at ease as quickly as possible. “They took me in and gave me everything I have.”

“Was this enchantment?” Jon asked himself - “Or a madness? Brain embargo? She had, after all, suffered so many blows to her head from Pa …”

“You should call me Isabelle - we both know that I am not truly your mother.” She was speaking plainly with a note of kindness and not in any way being immodest he noted. Thank the Gods. Isabelle appeared to be a relaxed and happy maiden, the likes he had not seen before.

Jon was much relieved to be pardoned from calling her ‘mother’. It had stung his tongue to have to name her such when he had missed his own true mother so sorely.

“Isabelle it is” he said, as he followed her deeper into the forest.

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

Stuck on the Road

Black pitch was melting in the heat - this was an experimental roadwork that had failed and the main arteries connecting the south to the sea had become tacky and unmanageable. Jon stopped to inspect his horse’s left front shoe to pry out the small balls of tar lodged within them.

He would have to cross the country and leave this impossible path. Abandoned carriages, lying sideways with missing wheels lay hunchback at the side of the sweating roadway. It simply would not do well to continue on like this. He was however loath to leave the sticky highway for the woods: it seemed an impossible choice. Recently there had been talk of scrubbers hiding out there (which they were called, as they lived and hid in the thorny scrub).

Jon paused to contemplate returning home - but he could not bring himself to forsake Zithia - who he felt almost sure would never have left him obligingly - and now, it was his task alone to save her.

He turned his horse sideways and pulled Chester from the tacky track into the mildewy forest that was dank with mouldy slime and cloistered in weeds.

* * *

Several tedious hours later he dismounted in a clearing by a brook. His mottled horse was drinking plentifully. Jon unravelled a knob of cooked meat from a linen pocket.

“Care to share?” came a voice from nowhere. Jon looked around yet could not see where the voice was coming from. Perfectly camouflaged, a very small but portly Friar stepped out of the brush towards him.

“Are ye a Chrystian man?” asked the small Monk to Jon, whose mouth was dry and still managing the salty meat.

Usually if no one is trying to talk with you a slow consumption is satisfying, making the meal more adequate. He grunted and nodded and turned his back to pull on a saddle bag, hoping the midget would go away. But the small Monk took hold of the Chester’s rope and tugged him back from the river.

“You canna take my ride! Get away with you now and leave us, by peace!” he blurted. The day was getting worse, and as it was, Chester was all he had left right now.

“I’m not taking your ride from you,” said the rotund man appearing to be quite offended, and with that he flung the saddle blanket from the horse over Jon’s head and three woodsmen stepped out from the trees to wrap the rope around him and bundle him back over Chester like a sack of turnips.

Through the coarse wool he could still hear voices - a deep callous one said: “Is this the one?”

Jon thought quickly … they had not found his purse as yet … nor had they beaten him. There was still yet a possibility in all of this, he surmised hopefully.

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

Heavenly Picnic Boxes

“Have you ever heard of bad fairies?” asked Puck to Eve in a serious tone.

He had found both her and Jupiter, a heavenly picnic box each and they were working their way through the contents. Heavenly picnic boxes can be found all throughout the upper planes of the Cosmos: they have an uncanny ability to change what is inside of them according to the wants and needs of the way-fare-er. It’s a cosmic secret, that one way or another, all beings love to eat - even though you do not really need the provisions for sustenance when going about the upper worlds for ‘energetic replenishment’ is naturally there to draw from just about everywhere.

Eve peered into Jupiter’s box. She had bottled water, he had a silver goblet. She had an egg and lettuce sandwich (which she enjoyed and happened to just feel like eating), while he had clumps of seasoned mango. There were some clots of meat in his box also.

“It's actually vegan (not real) - you can’t get the real stuff here” … he said guessing her thoughts. He continued: “it's a hangover from life as Granoldi.”

“Oh” she said realising a very different side to her once house guest.

“Would you have eaten me?” she asked carefully.

“No … at least I don’t think so.” he said, playfully.

“Where’s your box?” asked Eve to Puck who was tinkering with a bicycle.

“Oh me? not hungry” he said absentmindedly.

He stood up and placed the bicycle leaning against a tree.

“Getting back to what I was saying - have you ever heard of bad fairies? The type that bring curses on circumstances and evil to people?”

“You mean the ones that cause chaos?” She had sensed beings of destruction from time to time in small miseries and upset - and there was an undercurrent of delight coming from somewhere - especially when her internet would drop out.

“Yes, but what I am alluding to are those creatures that are consciously malevolent - not just mischievous or bad tempered - but truly sinister and intentionally harmful.”

“Does such a creature exist?”

“Yes they exist” said Puck grimly. “Those four that were coming to you for free meals were such beings.”

“You mean to tell me that those sweet elderly people were really bad fairies? not even human at all?”

“Well once they were human, but not when you met them. In every one of them the human soul had long gone - they were deceased in a manner of speaking and the fairy took over what was left of them.”

“That is horrible”, said Eve still finding this difficult to comprehend.

Granoldi concurred - “he’s right, I can definitely confirm that. Those four were, well, hobbling drakools.”

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

Portal for Re-entry of Human Souls

“You don’t understand - everything - everything that happens here is played out in the Mortal realm. This lake is a portal for the re-entry of the human souls; and on an average day one can see the spirits in the waters circling, waiting, for their personal cosmic configuration to return back into the earthly realm - that time and into what hemisphere the coordinates determine - and it is from this place in Heaven that their passage begins.”

Eve caught her breath, alarmed at Puck’s low level of panic. She looked across at the bubbling mass that extended into the horizon. It had started to ferment on its own filth.

“How in God’s name did this actually happen?” asked Jupiter genuinely perplexed. He looked like a super-hero who had just lost his strength.

“Well,” said Puck, “clearly this is all your fault.”

“Well”, returned Jupiter, “that explains everything of course”, resenting the comment.

“Clearly” he added a moment later, sensing a pun in relation to the mirk before them. Jupiter was usually living on the edge of a frivolity - his light side would always broadcast in preference to his sober side. And this, in part, was his attraction to becoming Granoldi, if for nothing more than the very humour of it.

It was his mother who had first introduced Jupiter to the divine humours. Firstly in form, and then in behaviours - humour, she had said, was really the absolute key to this Universe - would that it was known … for the great Creator of all smiled as He created, and ever since His Creation manifest, smiles also. The four legged, those with wings, those who stand upon two - the rivers, and the stars - all have a playfulness amidst the bump and grind of cyclical eventualities.

And now that part of the Heavens he dwelt in had become so serious, and dark, and, so very smelly.

Eve had gone to sit under a silver boughed tree. The atmosphere was deeply intoxicating to her she was now in a state of half sleep.

“She’ll remember nothing of this when she gets back” said Puck.

“If she gets back," corrected Jupiter, still miffed at Puck’s blaming him.

Puck, who had transported mortals into the upper worlds at times of great grief to give them a reprieve, generally found that solace was a place, a very real place to take them, beside this once beautiful lake. He shuddered at the thought that the contamination might spreading fast now even further.

“Firstly we need to understand exactly how this done.” Jupiter’s eyes stung with tears, and his alabaster skin flushed with heat. The young god with head bowed was taken with grief. Puck clenched his teeth - he had one dozy mortal and one panicked god - not the best team to work with at a time like this. I wonder where Goober is right now? he pondered, scanning the ethers for his old friend.

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

Stolen in the Night

It was midday when Jon woke with a pulsing head and strained eyes, to see a line of coins … small golden coins - laid out upon his mantle. The fire in the hearth had disappeared, and being Winter’s eve, it was cold, so very cold within his little house. And worst of all, Zithia had disappeared also.

When Jonathon realised that Zithia had not returned, he immediately felt a rock in his stomach, a cold hard rock of upset. Up until now he had forgotten what it had been like to have his loved ones simply vanish from his life - and this felt doubly troublesome … for all of their time together Jon had never acknowledged what she was to him. They had lived so perfectly together the two had blended into one, and he had not thought of it. Now it was that everyone had left him one way or another.

This confusion he felt quickly shed into rage, as it occurred to him that it was Tindle who had literally stolen her from his house in the night - and the coins placed there were nothing but a sarcastic and very sinister token to have been left in her place for exchange, indicating this to be true.

He collected them up into his handkerchief along with the night’s leftovers and stuffed them into his saddle bag. He then filled a flask from the urn, gathered two blankets hurriedly (one for himself and one for his horse), took a few minutes more to relieve himself and say a hurried prayer, before departing out onto the road to go find her.

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