“It is the chicken and the frog” the Hode replied most earnestly.
“The chicken and the frog?”
“Yes, the chicken is an emissary of the Pope.”
“His Eminence sought to parley with many animals over this past year - hoping to coerce their tiny minds. He tried to control their scattered ways. It was you yourself Franco, that inspired his persistent obsession. He had the chicken implanted into your brood. A soothsayer had counselled him that the hen could talk in plain speak, when returned to him. The Pope was hopeful in this, and waits greedily.”
“But who would tell him that the chicken could talk?”
“It was I,” said the Hode blandly.
“To what end brother?” asked Francis bemused by the thought.
“Well, it's a little complex, but the short of it is that the old Pope was vexed with your talents and had set out to test your mettle - your authenticity - your true pious standing … and if I had not stepped in, someone who did not know you so well may have misrepresented your calling.”
“I see”, said Francis appreciatively.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances
In the clearing Francesco found Robin sitting before a small fire brewing coffee. Huddled, robed, with a very large hood, it was almost impossible to see anyone there at all - the fabric seemed to change color depending on the light around it. The Hode’s face was clearly visible however, intent on the campfire before him.
“You’re late” he growled.
Francis smiled.
“Always” he said with a mighty laugh, then sitting on the ground with now the fire between them.
“I have unwanted news Nephew. I thought you need to know, that two of your brethren are imposters. One is a spy and the other a usurper.”
Francis held an infinite trust when it came to the wisdom and words of his friend, his Uncle, and mentor. If the Hode said this it was with good reason. But still the news was troubling.
“Why us? Why here? Where for?”
He then added also, “and who?”
-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances
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| John Swanson |
"Come back to bed Brother!” called Cedro from the dark.
"Cedro" was his new name given him, after the Cedar tree, for the strength he had shown (relinquishing a life of lust and desire), his full title was ‘Cedro the Fornicator’, but he preferred the abbreviation.
On this night Francis had taken himself for a walk - he ever had difficulty sleeping.
The truth was his spirit was lonesome for one, and not for the many. People made him feel claustrophobic - and as kind and accommodating as they were, his soul could never find enough space to put between himself and them.
The animals were very different - they complied, and over time became something of an extension of himself. This was precisely how he imagined himself to be in relation to God - as the animals were to him. This, Francis believed, was not obedience, but rather an intuitive alignment.
Francis chose this allegiance above all others, even before his relationship with the Elven people, which was often a point of discussion between them all.
“Why designate at all?” the Hode quizzed him meaningfully. “One does not surely exclude the other?”
But Francis shrugged. He felt displaced amongst the Mortals and equally so with the Elven. The saints were the only company he had found that held a place for him.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances
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| John Swanson |
The hall was as long as it was wide and had been insulated by reams of hay banked up, creating an inner wall, from which the animals would feed from constantly.
Brother Pious invented this system and it worked well - the blocks of dry weed seemed to hold a warmth of their own, however in the years to follow one wall generated so much heat it caused a fire to ignite, and their communal hut burnt to the ground.
The pets were many and varied, pacified by Francis whose very presence calmed them to quiet. He would often rise early for Matins - seeking out the furtherest nub of the hill, and the creatures then would stir, with a moan and a squeak, beginning their pre-dawn medley.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances
A peculiarity of Francis was to sleep alongside his wolves, as well as the smaller creatures that gathered around.
He chose to to lie down beside them throughout the windswept nights, for mutual warmth. He was not the only brother to see the sense of it; for his Community of now twenty, cohabited with the creatures of both forest and farm.
The Order would say, that if it was good enough for our little Lord to take sleep in a barn, it was correct for ourselves also.
And so their bedded room was something of a large stable, that was shared, instead of the individual cold cells ordinarily used by the monks in the towns.
- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances
Climate change is real.
Although unseen by men, its cause can be directly attributed to angry dragons.
The folk of Faerie perceive them prowling the globe, with their gaseous breath, sour and hot - vast beings comprising of coal and carbon, from the decayed remains of tumultuous thought, let loose in a world that is whipped by their tails, their engorged bodies swooping here and there, behind the clouds and beneath the mountains, stalking the storms, and feeding from the electric currents striking the earth.
Yes, the Fay knew the cause only too well - the reminder of similar times gone, past hung its silver halo, although now cold as the sodden grave, yet once the sporting ground for these dragons of the tempest.
Legends of old spoke of entire towns reduced to cinders, and the marauding of these vacuous beasts, grown in the depths of the darkest of histories, only to reappear in Humanity’s dawn.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS, Second Chances
There was another great point of difference between Puck and most of the Fay from which he had come … he had the ability to discern himself from the crowd. Puck’s sense of self was always present - his own presence, as it were, spoke the loudest to him.
This could be said for the mortals as well. Most, like the fairies, identify with one common mind - whilst only a few can be separate enough to have thoughts that are their own. Each had a consciousness of individuality, as it were.
Puck saw this as being the true evolution of both - as long as selfishness did not overtake the selflessness they had known.
The magic kingdoms rested heavily upon one another, with the deep magic of the humans and their slumbering intellects, and the wakeful light-filled immortals with their repetitive ways.
- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances
