Gifted Mirror

Before long, Charley and her father were reunited and Puck was studying the small mirror in his hand, brought back from her adventure.

“This is truly a gift indeed”, he said admiringly. Charley half wondered if her father would have liked to keep it for himself.

"Dad, perhaps you would like to hold onto it?” she asked, dutifully - if not a little ruefully.

“Of course not Chook” (this was a pet name on occasion) “no, this piece was clearly meant for you … but we could break it into several pieces and share them around - and maybe set them into amulets or something?”

“Father!” she exclaimed, half laughing and tugging it out from his grasp - “no, I think it is better as it is” she said firmly. Charley looked quickly just to double check it was intact before landing it into her handbag’s small pocket. Its little light smiled back at her.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Papal Bulls & Bears

If the Pope was in ‘divine contemplation’ and wordless - even thoughtless here in the world … he would be consciously clarified, and most aware, on another plane, in another realm, somewhere. For consciousness is an unbroken continuum, and it never takes rest, as it knows not how to. Its flame never expires.

And this was precisely why the sage trusted Robertus Hode. It was because he could follow him in thought - wherever he wandered.

The two sat in silence, but communicated well.

“Francesco of the Forest …” he whispered, in spirit to the abiding Hode.

“Yes” Puck replied questioningly - as if to say “go on”.

Honorius said nothing more. He slumped. And in his mind’s psychic eye Hode could see the old Pope out in the woods dancing with Granoldi in the evening light.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Heaven Bent

The Holy Father had been occupying more of his day of late ‘in prayer’ for which Puck could see was also the deepest of slumbers.

Frequently his soul simply up and went, yet with its anchor still bodily staid, more and more this holy man became heaven bent - barely conscious in this world for any length of enduring time.

To Puck this was the natural order of things. Senility was merely an alcove to a doorway. True consciousness, he knew, manifested somewhere at all times. Whether present before us or not, it is awake and knowing in a place that it chooses.


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Dressed for Court

His green velvet had been embellished with gold - real 24kt gold, embroidered into the gown, of golden leaves, with peridot and sapphires sewn at their points. It was a glorious cape, concealing well the smallness within. This Pope, innocent to Hode’s stare, all the while, had been praying.

He himself was dressed for court - Puck had a flair for regalia and wore it well. It was a change from the over-large sacks that the black Monks travelled in. He looked today neither like a reverent or a vagabond - adorned in a fashionable suede that was simply embellished here and there with threads of silver, sporting his indefinable charisma, that said subliminally: ‘you may love me’.

However, the elderly Pope’s attendants were not so enamoured.

They held a thick distrust for anyone within the Vatican walls who was not immediately related to their society. It was a rare occurrence to have such visitations from an outsider. And recently, there was a skepticism rife concerning the Pontiff’s reasoning - which was doubly troubling.

Each had vowed to keep an eye on this visitor lest he was a trickster … and thus they refused to leave the two alone for any confidences that might be shared.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Here’s to you Mum

The key was on a hook by the side of the door, and Charley immediately unlocked it - looking over her shoulder at the fat furry animal that quietly crouched there. She half wondered if she should take it with her and opened the door widely showing it a way of escape.

What she did not know was that this was in fact the Troll groundskeeper who had thus been responsible for locking her there in the first place. He had caught sight of himself in her magic mirror, and had been diminished to his ordinary self, having seen his true nature within and been reduced by it.

It was made all the worse for him when Charley had found him almost adorable.

She walked back out into the park and down the idling pathway to the main road - feeling more certain of herself than ever before, now content to meet face to face her uncanny future as it stealthily rose up to greet her.

“Here’s to you Mum” she quietly said.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Round like a Ball

The narcotic Troll dust had now worn off, and with a clear head she found the neck of the sack, pushing her slim hand through, she worked the knot until it gave way.

Charley stepped out of the scratchy enclosure, shook the weevils from her coat, found the electric light switch, and turned it on.

To her surprise she could see a small creature sitting in the corner, looking up at her, quite frightened.

It was round like a ball and she could not figure what it was exactly - sitting or standing, it was about two foot high - more or less. Because of its ill defined shape it was near impossible to see just how big it was - yet this fellow was quivering worriedly in the light of the globe above, staring at her, with what seemed to be great fear.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Mystery Begging to be Explored

John Bauer 

When Charley came to, she had found herself back in the gardener’s shed, clutching the little mirror that Rastofarius had given her.

She was much relieved not to be dead after after all, yet a part of her was remiss all the same, to have left that paradisiacal place with those warm feelings that had enveloped her. The experience had been unquestionably pleasant, and the souvenir she had come away with, was a mystery begging to be explored.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances