Rock Art

On a rock wall that shouldered where they stood were pictures painted with very small bright dots. Murals that were of the rich ochres and rust, chalk and mixed earths, with perfectly formed circles, methodically placed, a braille of creativity. One could make out a great goanna dragon contesting the kangaroo men with whorls upon whorls encircling them. 

Goober fixed his eyes on the picture wall just momentarily and the dots appeared to move and group before his eyes, forming and reforming images of other pictures entirely different. He was reminded of the Tibetan sands and similarly they too were comprised of the many places and ages, for which the substance itself was their secret … how they are of themselves a living testimony to a time, and a deep magic of memory. 

The Azlan had once again disappeared as quickly as he had arrived, however his presence was still apparent. It had been he that enabled the tribesmen to come forth … and yet they were not summoned or compelled by him, his authority had simply appealed to them. 

Until now the spirits of the ages had only the licence to be observers; yet by the Azlan’s asking came also the permission for them to intervene. The native souls were now gathered and ready. 

With one single breath the two thousand spirit tribesmen each opened their mouths and blew the doors open. The surrounding structure gave way also, and the front of the building came down. Puck and Goober were staring right inside at a lobby that had several lifts whose only button to press was for going down.

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

Mother of All

William Ricketts

Never wake the sleeping Mother
she could break you like a twig
she gave birth to the land upon this Earth
and protected her children within.

Her blackness then became the sky
her pearls entwined were moon and stars
her nakedness was corporeal
the mother Divine, portal for all.

I will beat you men with your own sticks
I will strangle the demons with their own tails
I will take the power right back from you
that was never yours to steal.

I will throttle your threats and disable your deals.
For I am the mother of all,
and you, the mother of none.
I decree, from this moment,
from the seas to the hills
all demons be gone, all evil be done.

There was now a gathering of two thousand standing upon the highest ridge - a single line of gracious men - spirits who became visible … guardian spirits of the rotunda plains, shielding the earth from the ominous forces beneath, making themselves known to the Elvish two. This gathering brought the gravity of the early world, and there was not a power in this realm that could stand against them. Their solidarity was solemn and of one mind - perhaps more angelic than once human.

Their own histories spanned centuries - each being a representative of their time and tribe. Guardians of the land, watchers of the world. And, with them, there came also the cosmic souls … the guardians of the guardians.

Small pygmy spirits of children swung from the silvery-green-leaf trees. They were not of any particular race, yet presented as being native Aboriginal for they had lived in the care of the Elders and had begun to appear as they had do, most naturally. It was apparent to Puck seeing them, these hundreds upon hundreds of small ghost children, that they had come from the underground laboratories as experiments that had failed - born and died in the warehouse that Puck and Goober were about to break into - and that these were their ghosts.

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

Sealed Doors

Richard Browne

“Now, let me see …we can’t think our way in, not this time - because we’ve been blocked from doing so, and this portal is being guarded. This fortress has been sanctified against the likes of you and I.” 

Desert bats fluttered past their heads in waves of a hundred. The landscape was imbued with colour, yet was depressingly repetitive. The dawn birds were calling to one another, and the waterhole in the distance was crowded with the animals that had congregated for their morning’s refresh. There were wallabies and bilbies, mudlarks, possums and rabbits a plenty. 

The mysteries of the natives of Australia were fluid … spiritual … they would shape-change to avoid being caught by the unworthy. The conservership was always with the Elders who fully knew the potent magic that literally linked the oldest period, before written history, to now. It was a custodial privilege to be a living testimony to time itself. It was this deep magic that made the outback so mysterious.

The doors remained closed to them.

“They require a pin-prick of blood to identify the caller - and everyone knows that the Elvish don’t use blood within their systems.” Puck said quietly. “The locking devices behind these doors are distinctly set to repel the otherworldly - they have astral mesh.”

“Turnip juice - a powerful motivator.” said Goober handing a large bottle over to Puck. 

Every time they had tele-transported themselves through to the other side of those doors they had been pushed out of the underground compound back up into the air above, onto the hot red sand with the glaring sun beating down on them. There seemed to be a three second delay, actually setting them back in time further every time they were pushed out.

They barely had a moment inside when the forcefield had expelled them again with a remarkable aptitude for the magic it required. 

“What am I missing here?” Puck asked … I knew it would not be easy, but I really don’t like the way I hear laughter every time this happens. Moreover, we cannot walk away - not when we know the damage Marsden is causing to all of the realms right now as we speak.”

“Too true, too true”, said Goober deep in thought. His head was beginning to pound, “I swear the sun is brighter here than most places” he grumbled. 

“And the grit is sharper too.” 

“And the sky is bluer”, he added with an attempt to be cheerful. They had now been inside and straight back out again seven times.

The red dust swirled and circled around them, a chorus of green flies and gnats, sting beetles and red ants were swept up in the circular force, propelling them into their faces and clothes, stirring up the powder dry ground beneath. 

When the dirt came to settle a dark figure appeared, with a bare chest, partially dressed, with a tall decorated spear on one side and the Azlan standing at the other. 

Puck knew in that moment that all would become well. 

Upon the ridge of stone in the distance there appeared over three hundred such tribal men. Each had a radiant light flaming from the tips of their spears, piercing the brightening sky above.

The Elder now standing face to face in front of them looked straight at them with the deepest dark brown eyes and kindly face. His bony hand rested on the Azlan’s head. Three red dingos circled in the background, keeping their distance, pacing throughout the scrub. And behind them, in the far distance, there was Mother Nature watching on.

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

Who Roo Fare

 What amulet?

What luck can be worked?

What may save this world?

Other than love?

Cobwebs of clouds laced their way over the deepening sky.

“Am I imagining trumpets?” Goober asked faintly, after having collapsed on a red rock once again outside the desert fortress.

A brown snake had made its way to his boot, Puck took it by the neck and hurled it back into the moat it had come from.

Goober was very pale, and his energy low.

“This might be my end”, he said out of breath.

“No” said Puck firmly, “it was the second helping of fried ice-cream and that blue syrup you just gorged yourself with. What were you thinking oh great one? Especially when we have such serious work before us, we have already delayed far too long.”

And as he stood up the very tall and once thin elf was showing a pot belly congested with half the menu from the Who-Roo Cafe.

He groaned. “Maybe we should do this tomorrow? have a good night’s rest and come back our best?” he asked hopefully.

Goober had blisters from the heat frying his feet. The walk to the camp seemed to be taking longer and the options were few.

Puck ignored his request.

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

Memories Flew Right Back to Her

Eve was sitting at a bench, soaking in the sun, eating from a tub of ice-cream that had been delivered to her caravan door. It was just what she felt like eating - there was something about the intense heat that made one want to eat ice-cream all day long.

It felt so good to be back in the world and already most of what she had experienced over the last few days was drifting fast away from her recall. She did not question at all how she got to be in outback Australia - but was just pleasantly day-dreaming away in the sun. Her spirit had shifted, and she was a very different woman to the one who she was a week ago.

Jupiter was still trying to find his way within the constraints of his new body. When, as Granoldi, he had experienced all of the physical limitations that the body endures, he had a totally different set of senses and ‘thinking’ to participate with. Becoming a man was very differently nuanced, and, there was a joy he had not known before - a lightness, a happiness, in just being alive.

He found Eve just as she devoured the tip of the cone. He could sense her wellbeing also.

“I’ve found you” he said, wanting to share with her his newly formed humanhood.

Eve was still in her state of holiday (holy-day) feeling carefree and completely at peace. She had no idea who this stranger was, but she did feel that she had known him from somewhere before, and knew him now.

“Have we met?” she asked, brushing her untidy hair back from her face, which was a little reddened, either with the heat or a blush, or both.

“Yes” said the stranger, looking hopeful that she might recognise him.

She gazed at him - he seemed fit for fortyish, wearing white shorts and a track suit zipper jacket - with a sports singlet beneath. His sunglasses looked expensive. His smile was so familiar …

He held out his hand as if to shake it … and although it seemed a little corny, she reciprocated. The very minute their fingers touched the memories flew right back to her: she could see in her mind’s eye her time with him as Granoldi, and she as Hannah; and then into this life, and how it led to the lower heavens where she came to see him as Jupiter. The man before her was her friend - no, he was more than that … her soul-mate.

She threw her arms around him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“How about a bear hug?” he asked jovially, when she pulled away.

He put his arms around her this time, and looked straight into her wondering eyes.

Needles, who had been there the entire time, decided it might be best if he left the two of them for a while. He set out onto the dirt road to go find the shuttle-bus to take him to Puck and find out what was happening with him and Goober.

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

Chronos & Helen

People often attribute time in the World to the master Chronos whereas it is he, as a veritable Shiva, that brings ageing and finitude.

It is from Helen we are given the pathways into eternal life - yet within this world it is the same road as that of Chronos that will take us into further life also.

Chronos loves to mark each segment, to gauge, and to name, and to map a course … he is the surveyor of time’s evaporation, and the scholar of its persistent dying.

Helen maps nothing: she is the mother of adventure and possibility, and she lives for the eternal day, and is forever prescriptive to the undulations of Heaven.

Mother Earth is the child of these two: our planetary spirit held briefly within the tension that such as these Gods permit.

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

Flamed

The ancients understood that flame, such as candlelight, was superior to any other form of light into the world, save for the violet light Mother Earth employed.

Electric light was deficient, and brought with it just one stream of influence, one octave among many; yet light from combustion, from burning, actually fed its environment where its glow permeated, because it came, and comes from the universal light: that the flame comes from the one flame, and thusly it brings the cosmic flame into that room, or that space, to which it is lit.

Electric fire does not have this, it can only impart energy from its own realm of the hobgoblins.

This world has seen many evolutions, and science has proclaimed with imputation its superior knowledge and findings, only to be surpassed by those who seek authority above the very gods, believing that with a twiddle and a tweak they can transverse the trajectory of life itself, with arrogance or infirmity, or perhaps merely a naivety. And to be fair, there is nothing that is safely to come from a man or a woman, until that man or woman is morally balanced, and so how are they to know?

Puck was never sure of there being an existence of the Devil, however he had met with many devils in his own experience. And these characters were tireless. They did not like candles - or lit light - they did not like fire: the fires of Hell are purging, they are not a conscript of the demons at all.

They also, and quite obviously, have disdain for sunlight, moreover.

Puck reached across the table for the pepper pot and doused his pancake whilst Goober was talking.

“You never told me what happened when you confronted Romulus?” he said this casually, draining his blue cup.

“Well it was pretty straightforward” said Puck - “The goat did its business and managed to distract him sufficiently for me to read his thoughts and told me all I needed to know.”

He continued: “Do you recall the bookkeeper that we used to house, that chap with the chocolates?” he continued “The miser? Well I knew of him centuries prior, and even before that we had a connection … he never quite fulfilled his aptitude, as far as I could see. Opportunity would take him only so far and then drop him. If anything, it was that diamond that got to him and distorted his futures.”

“I think I know the one you mean”, Goober replied, turning it over carefully in his pocket.

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

Tinkerbell

F.D. Bedford

There was a vicious, almost nasty side to Tinkerbell the fairy. She just had to get involved sometimes - even when she was not invited. The truth was plainly that she was just unhappy.

All of nature seemed to be running out of time to her: not running out of time itself - no, there was plenty of that … it was either running too slow or too fast, and the missteps would come because of this constant misfit.

The young wore the frowns of the old, the elderly behaved like irresponsible youth. The trees grew so fast they could not drop roots to save themselves and were felled by the first whip around of the circulating ethers.

She really did not like lies - particularly the ones perpetuated by those ‘ignorant mortals’ sporting micro smirks and sanctimonious pouts … she found herself just wanting to punish them.

And most of all, beyond everything else, Tinkerbell was overly aggrieved when no one would believe in her.

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

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

Boris Lapshin

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

The Dark Elves

It really never was about Mankind - as endearing as mortals are, they are but as the infant king - and do not know yet of their reach or their influence in the greater plan.

To possess the soul of a man is to take control of his spiritual aids (to some extent, though not entirely). The dark elves were obedient to a commanding force, separated from the mortal that they ordinarily walked through life beside.

Harnessed by a unique magnetism of the blood, a mutual key, the angelic elves were unquestioning, as their service was compelled now by Romulus and his dark intentions - they were not capable of reflection or conscious behaviour within this mortal sphere, or responsible for their deployment either.

Romulus, and others of the dark arts, do not care at all for human beings, they simply perceive them as a means to an end - to take possession of their spiritual powers by stealing their kindred beings with their mystical resources disenfranchised.

The dark elves driving the convoys, and those sitting atop guarding the pallets and the containers, had a mixed appearance of many tones, yet all had a shadow overall that denoted an absence of light - and, as though hypnotised, there was a deficit of divine thought or any recollection of a former self about them. They were well and truly enslaved to a stronger single mind now driving them all.

And being detached from the realm and the spirits they know and love, they were to be pitied and not decimated, Puck acknowledged to himself.

“This rescue is going to take more than I thought” Puck said to Goober packing up for the night …

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

Problem in Australia

“Did you sink em?”

“Nup” Puck shrugged his shoulders as if he could shake the question off - it had been a tiring few days.

“Did you take them into the another world?”

“Nup again” here Puck looked over his shoulder as though someone might be around them listening in. Goober was excited because he loved guessing games. 

“Now, what would I have done with a fleet of six thousand, three hundred and thirty six ships?” he asked out loud.

“And the cargo, which is kindof more important…” 

“A two-part mystery … hmm, yes! I see now!”

“Okay you got me - tell up!”

“Firstly, all I did was make the lot invisible - the entire cavalcade - imperceptible, I should say. It works for a time. But if you studied the waters you would still see movement and channels from the engines. I saw no reason to deter their progress.”

Goober nodded. It made perfect sense. “And you wanted to convince the evil one you had taken them?” 

“Yes quite. But we will get to that later.” Puck continued: “Australia is the perfect place to hide such a cohort, and this is where I need help … Romulus himself is due to reach the mainland in a few hours.”

"You might not have thought this through to the end I’m guessing.”

“You could say that”, said Puck thoughtfully, distracted by his own questions … “but then, who knew?”

“And the evil one - who is it this time?” Goober appeared uncomfortable when he asked this. Suddenly he was awash with a panic attack. 

“Marsden - bloody Marsden is at it again - he came back.”

The elderly elf was genuinely bewildered. He had thought that this heartless man had been dealt with and was doing time somewhere in community service working as a gondolier. 

“You can’t make this stuff up!” he said in exasperation trying to take it all in. The worry of it was: how on earth are they to contain this demon if the very courts of Hades could not do it.” 

Meanwhile, there was the problem in Australia…

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

Ships that Pass in the Night

As far as the eyes could see fleets of cargo ships and runway vessels crowded the Pacific Ocean’s thoroughfare. Thousands of newly forged warships accompanied the aquatic cluster.

And then, all at once, it was as though a Bermuda triangle had swallowed the entire cavalcade when it disappeared. Each and every one lost its radar signal and went dark, and once again the vast blanket of heaving seas lay empty.

However kept - whether whole or distilled - the cargo in each and every one of them was human. Australia offered the perfect land mass to store this mess of biology - for beneath its centre, concealed by the uninhabitable red desert, were ancient catacombs, vast and wide, that enveloped such huge underground spaces you could fill the entire state of Texas within their sprawling tunnels and still have room for beasts and men besides.

The ventilation there was masterful, providing oxygen and warmth, with solar light and power as well. Ghost gums shimmered above, rocks covered rocks, and boulders covered holes, holes that went to tunnels into dark and secured places, with city space covering city space; first created by the Atlantean pioneers of old.

A convoy of trucks lined the wharfs. Many were like steel trains having connecting parts where containers were hoisted onto their plates and stacked six deep, depending on their width.

The workers all went about their tasks in an eerie silence, save for a hypnotic humming of a uniform tune that came from the men wearing orange reflector vests and caps with the insignia of the company that owned them.

Puck had managed to bring the boats back into sight when they began docking, and after each were emptied he dematerialised the vessel and transported them one by one to a place that was safely far away and out of the control of their owner.

Romulus, he had discovered, had made a massive investment in these ships, vessels that doubled as mercenary naval assailants, and Puck had no intention of allowing him to make use of them again for this, or any other purpose again.

To the human eye the vehicles appeared ‘automated’, and many trucks were in a procession leading to and from the docks, nose to tail, for miles, trailing from the collection bay at port Darwin (ironically named) and then on their way into the underground Fort. There they were unloaded and refuelled, only to turn back and retrieve more cargo over a day later.

Puck stood keeping watch. He blended in wearing the usual country attire: a rabbit felt broad brim hat to shield the sun and a khaki shirt with sleeves rolled high - even at 6am the heat from the rocks was rising and the warmth was pervasive. He kept count as the vessels on the dock were decanted, and disassembled, and when each ship was out of the harbour he de-materialised its entire bulk - steel and all, and transported it far far away to a place that Romulus and the likes of Romulus could not get their hands on them again.

This process took an enormous concentration and after six days he just wanted to rest.

Of course it would have been far easier to sink the lot in the deepest parts of the ocean on their way to the port, but that would never do because even he could not have retrieved the passengers and their bloods once they had dispersed into the dark salt waters, drifting fathoms in every direction, contaminating the vital cells and what was left of their living connections. No, this had to be managed properly, and this time he had to keep strong until the very last vessel had been safely secured.

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

Secret Collection

The garden hose was caught around Needle’s feet as he hurriedly leapt forward to contain its powerful spray … like a serpent spewing a hard and fast jet of high pressure water the wet nozzle had slipped his grasp and taken on a life of its own. 

The floor was made of malachite - a stone that Dwarves favoured for decorated patios and halls; and a combination of sprayed water with a grinding paste made from cumquat kernels and ground corundum kept the polish on it quite perfectly.

“It's a mystery and a delight just how nicely you keep this place,” said Tu admiringly. Eve was staring into a glass display case littered with dead insects pinned to a back-board. Some of them had rainbow wings and blue iridescent bodies. She thought she saw the leg move on one and heard a click-click from another. 

Eve still could not quite find her bearings having come down the invisible ladder into the house of a Dwarf whose name Puck said was ‘Pine-tara’ … but everyone else called ‘Needles’. "Must be because he sticks them through insects" she thought sourly. 

He also owned an extensive butterfly collection, which he liked to keep secretly upstairs. Many of the Fay eat insects and he was not going to take any chances with his special boxed sets.

The ladder had delivered them right into Needle’s own home. 

“Breakfast? Lunch? Supper anyone?” he asked obligingly. And then the bustling dwarf commenced to create a generous spread, just like he had for Eve all of those mornings when she had not seen him, or known of his affectionate dedication to serving her. 

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

Jacob’s Ladder

Augustus Lunn

“All of us will have to take the ladder - it’s the only way open to us right now.”

Jacob’s Ladder was a thoroughfare, an older route for travelling into the Globe - usually avoided because the trip itself wasn’t at all speedy, and too often it could become very unreliable these days … the connection was still there between the heavenly spaces and the Earthly realm, however, the outcome could be random, and the landing a very bumpy one. Also it could only carry just a few at a time.

“We’ll just have to take our chances, it worked perfectly fine for me and Needles earlier” said Puck - and then: “Goober, how did you find it?”

“The ladder was more of a staircase with banisters of solid light forming a foaming water slide half way down, I didn’t mind it at all.” he replied thoughtfully.

It was really a marvel, with mother-of-pearl swirls of pooling pastel vapours that shone both sides - in the mortal landscape its end appears simply as a rainbow touching the ground.

“Stuff Hogwarts” said Eve out loud, a little surprised at herself after saying it. This came from her realising in an instant that real magic was way more impressive than anything she had ever read of in books. Real magic was powerfully beautiful. Her hopefulness had returned - and she felt so good, it was almost like being in love.

She was also relieved at the thought of leaving the subdued heavens, as the stench seemed to be getting thicker and the strange purple light had darkened to a muddy ominous puce. It looked like the horizon was bleeding.

Needles stood waiting behind her.

Jupiter faltered, leaving the others to go before him …

Looking up and back to Jupiter the group could see the scenery behind him was curdling into darkness. Tu gently tapped Eve on the shoulder, the goat nudged her forward and she quickly slipped and slid onto the pearly stairs with Needles following fast behind.

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

Familiar Angels

Souls were beginning to encircle the globe: if you looked up high enough and had the spiritual eyes to see, they were there at cloud level, hovering in the spaces above, moving in and throughout the azure ethers. 

The angels drifted up there also alongside them, and much like a congested highway, all of the beings, self-lit and ethereal, remained in the upper channel; as each death could no longer proceed forth, for they were compelled to follow the bandwidth of the earthen realm, forced to remain up there, unable to go further.

Fortunately most of the men, women and children were so preoccupied when first leaving their lives they had not a care as yet, being swept up with a feeling of release and infinite expression, whelmed by the beauty and light of the unveiled realm: and now content to be able to see their own familiar angels who had been alongside their days and their nights: those beings of light perhaps once thought to be their intuition; these gentle companions, with a calming presence that were ever protecting them, come what may.


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

 

Good Samaritan

A passing fisherman found Tindle prostrate in a bed of froth and broken shells. Fragments had cut his cheek and his blood trickled onto the sand.

The sea was fast approaching and would soon fill the inlet in a rush and a flurry. The good samaritan hurriedly fetched his woven net to place over Tindle, and secured him tightly - then, with the aid of a makeshift pulley he dragged the lifeless body all the way to a higher sandbank.

The sunlight was dwindling, and the foxes were prowling the beach. Not another soul was to be found.

“Aye, you are quite the weight son, and I can haul thee no farther” he said, almost out of breath speaking to the unconscious man. The night airs were circling them both. He collected up the bits and pieces of driftwood and bracken and built a little fire. He hummed to himself, and covered Tindle’s body.

The two slept soundly until morning.

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

By the Light

Goober struck a match seemingly from nowhere. A blue light filled the space around him and in the centre of that light, the small gathering could see a vision of a young woman asleep on a chair. It was as if they were looking into a faraway window, or into the story of the little match girl where scenes would be revealed with the appearance of the flame. He seemed relieved. He had finally found Sylvia and she was safe.

“Goober should we be frightened? If those evil people can cause all of this, and the good are now on the run - does this mean we are all done for?” Eve nervously sought answers - perhaps he could light another match that would show them some kind of future.

“Evil is kind of stupid” he replied - “it’s a selfish stupid, and a stupid nonetheless. It literally chases its own tail and eventually creates a hole, and falls right into it. That’s all I can say on the subject after witnessing eons and eons of stupid.” he said out loud. Goober’s pale blue eyes looked sad. He looked worn out.

Eve now felt concerned for the old Elf.

“I think I want to go back” said Eve. “I miss my home. I just need something familiar … and a hot drink, and something to eat, something that I like.”

And then she added thoughtfully “and a place that smells better than this.” A different kind of reality had come to her. So many things had happened that she could not explain, or understand.

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