All Hallows

 Albert Chevallier Tayler 

There were streamers everywhere: axe-handle-thin strips of coloured fabric festively dangling from tree to tree. It was a special day for the Saints, and Barnabas had decided to decorate the forest.

“Cousin will not be pleased” Francis concluded after seeing the handiwork of the demented elderly monk. Barnabas had been one of the newer additions to his family and in his heart he sought to encourage him.

“That fabric took some persuasion to procure” he added addressing the tribe of animals that had been following Francis throughout his day. Barnabas had decorated them too. The larger ones had cloth clippings as well. One of the deer idled by with ribbons of pink and aqua strips knotted around his spiky crown.

Mirabella was contributing as well - Murmur’s own tunic was wasted in her small but capable hands as she sat pulling threads one by one. Hannah-Mary looked on and said nothing. She had given up trying to discipline the child a year ago now.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Lizard Stone

Francis started walking again and the other two followed behind. He stopped at a boulder and knelt down in the sand, placing his knapsack on the rocky shelf beside. There was a pile of thirty or so smaller pebbles - just like the Moon Flower she had seen just moments ago. He was sorting through them, but they all looked pretty much the same to her.

"Are you looking for another?" she asked timidly - it was almost as though she was frightened to interrupt his concentration.

He handed her an especially large pebble. She turned it over and over in her palm - it looked just like an ordinary stone. She showed it to Chips but this time he was not interested. Instead he went to the collection Francis had put to one side and sniffed the small mound. He barked and took two steps back.

Francis put his hand on the dog’s head, and leant forward staring at the ground. One of the rocks was exuding a mist - it was happening again - only this time it was a lizard that popped out from its crusty centre.

“I've been looking for you” he exclaimed.

She could have sworn she saw him then put the little creature into his pocket. That can’t be right she thought. This expedition was charmingly curious and curiouser …


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Little Flowers

He bent down and picked up a small rock from the ground and passed it to Robyn. It was smooth to the touch and held the heat of the sun.

Chips sniffed at her hand, expecting it to be a treat. She showed him, and he licked the pebble as Robyn offered it to him to inspect. With his wet nose he pushed it off her palm and onto the ground. Robyn laughed. As she bent to pick it up, Francis stopped her. He gently held her arm back, and pointed to the ground with his other.

The rock was moving, wriggling this way and that. A minute more and it seemed to have steam rising off it, and it began to wheeze, then cracked, and a bright pink cactus flower sprang up and out, right there before them.

“Whoa! Did you see that!” Robyn exclaimed with the delight of it.

“Yes”, said Francis - “I did. They are called Moon Flowers.”

“That can’t be right”, said Robyn, still mesmerised by the sun and her company and the pink flower that suddenly appeared.

“Well, what I mean to say is, well, it's not that time of the moon and it's not dark and …”

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

He smiled back at her

“Wait up!” called Robyn at the top of her voice.

She hurriedly pressed the shiny red button at the side of the electric gate and squeezed her way through the metal, in an effort to reach Francis before he had escaped the horizon.

With her handbag flapping behind her Robyn caught up to the two who were strolling slow along the dirt road.

Francis turned to see her running towards him - he stared quizzically.

Robyn could not find the words she wanted - out there in the sun - with so much empty space all around - her mind went quite blank.

Added to this she was very much surprised to find that Francis was not at all the age she had taken him to be when she first caught sight from afar. She had presumed that he was more or less elderly - when from the window of her room she had watched him feeding the birds in the early mornings - it was ‘quaint’ — his hippy clothes hid his large physic - his glossy black hair contrasted pale blue eyes - and, he smelt of musk. This man was in his late thirties, if that. Why did she believe him to be aged? Francis is gorgeous, she thought musingly to herself!

He smiled back at her. She was still at a loss for words.

“Would you like to join us”? he asked naturally - his tone was mellow, his voice was deep, his presence was calming. Robyn was intoxicated with interest.

“Yes please” she said excitedly.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Finding Francis

“Who is that man?” asked Robyn to Calvin - seeing a tall lanky figure on the camera leave briskly through the gate. She watched the scruffy dog slip out also, following him closely behind.

“That’s Francis - he’s our groundsman … caretaker - you know - that sort of thing” he smiled gently as he said this.

“Dad gave him a job just before he died and I haven’t had the heart to let him go. Frankly I am not quite sure what he is meant to be doing here.”

Calvin looked down at the ground as he said this. “I know I should haven taken the time to get to know the fellow but somehow he reminds me of those terrible months - and I guess I’ve been hoping he might just up and leave.”

“Where does he go to when he disappears like that? I thought it was only desert out there with nothing else around? Is there a shopping mall I have been missing out on?”

“True to say it's a mystery” - agreed Calvin. “He does it quite a bit - takes Chips for a walk and then a few hours later he returns. I don't suppose you might take some time with him and report back what you think? It might help me make my mind up about the guy.”

“I’d be flattered to” said Robyn importantly. She felt genuinely pleased to be asked for a contribution. Life at the complex had been turning into something of a holiday.

“And Charley .. is she due back any time soon?”

“Yes”, said Calvin absentmindedly as he was tweaking the coffee machine with a new filter he had designed. “She’ll be back some time tomorrow.”

“Upstate?”

“Dunno really. Her pa’s place. She jokingly describes it as his ‘treehouse’.”

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Colours of the Rainbow

“Eh Franco!” shouted a familiar call.

He turned to see his second cousin, Gregor, mounting the hill, waving rapidly with excitement as though he might not have heard him.

Gregor was a man of the cloth - only this was a cloth of a different kind.

His flamboyant colours were known all about town, and his signature style may have perhaps bettered a woman more than a man - or so it was said.

His novelty saved him, and made his business exceedingly successful, as well did his generosity of spirit and of coin.

Francis embraced him heartily with a tap on the back and kiss on the cheek.

“I have brought you some wools!” Gregor exclaimed, well pleased with himself.

“I had been hoping that you might. The Brothers keep giving all their clothing and blankets away.”

Francis sighed as he pried open the lid of the basket. The cloth was extremely fine - but to his disappointment it was dyed all the colours of the rainbow.

Gregor read his cousin’s expression. “Franco - these are the off-cuts - and modesty grey is not the fashion these days.”

“I know, I know. Do not think me unthankful, you have been most kind.”

A few weeks later when Hannah-Mary had fashioned her best, the people of the town had yet one more sly observation about Francis and his fellows.

“Reformation of the Church is it? Wearing such colours! What will it be next? This garish crazed sect will never become popular!” they exclaimed with contempt and imposing righteousness.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

All Sagittarius with too little Pisces

De Sphaera' by Cristoforo De Predis.

The swirling mists smelt saltily of the sea, with their creamy foams settling snugly, seeping into the sheeps’ woolly backs, as they slept in the hills, with drooping heads, drowsing upright on the dew sodden ground.

The vapours of morning cloud infiltrated the birds’ puffy folds of their shawl-like wings. The invisible clock was marking this night, whilst the planets moved swiftly into their respective places. The march of dawn was fast proceeding.

It was all Sagittarius with too little Pisces … the wafer-thin moon, now transparent by the coming light, dangled, quite perfectly, in the blue ethers.

Farmers with their loaded carts lined the roads leading up to the market … their lanterns twinkling, swinging from their poles, in a convoy carrying assorted household goods, livestock, armoury, spices and farming tools.

Francis counted over forty more merchants this month that he did not before recognise. The seasonal drift combined counties - some through needs, and some, supply.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances