Two Unicorns

Everyone knew that the sighting of two unicorns together was a rare occurrence. It was obviously going to be a good day.

Puck had long been planning to shut down the questionable divisions of the phytogenetic Company he had acquired. He was still answerable to the lesser share holders and had to go about his sabotage discreetly. They must not know that his sole intent was to put a stop to what he liked to call their ‘Frankenstein range’ before it was released into the world.

When he had tried to explain to Charley where he was going with all of this, she had dismissed him out of hand. He reluctantly realized that there were some core concepts she simply could not grasp as yet … her thinking was intrenched in materialism, and she could not comprehend the finer points of any esoteric implication.

Not all advancements were a great idea, and certainly ‘finding a way forward’ was not always the best way to go.

Some places one does not want to go, or need to go, or would safely go - and he had a lot of experience firsthand of trying paths he later wished he had not gone down.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

The Drill

The drill made no sound - it had a fine jet of tooth dissolving liquid that also lit the tooth remaining with a purple light which made it obvious to what was being targeted. Within a minute it was cleaned out and down to the gum. With precision, then, the Dentist (who was around Calvin’s own age of not yet twenty) clamped a mould onto the area and injected it with a ‘tooth paste’ that hardened under UV light. The whole procedure was over in less than five minutes and Calvin was being told to sit up and rinse.

“That’s it?” he asked with a jaw that was like chewing gum still feeling fuzzy.

“Yes, unless you would like any of your other teeth looked at”.

“No, fine for today. But thank you.” he added thoughtfully. As Calvin walked out from the building he realized that he really did love his father’s business and had a fixation for the innovations which lay ahead. He did not want to leave at all and whilst the responsibility may have felt too much, this was where he belonged.

His father’s ghost walked beside him as he was thinking this, and was pleased.

“I knew you’d come around” he said proudly to his son.

For not only had he invested his life in this business, he had also invested his spirit. Johnstone Snr could not leave now either - even if he had wanted to.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Dental Project

"I have only fifteen minutes before I have to go in”, Calvin said, a little nervously.

He was not looking forward to this: a dental appointment arranged by Symes, the chief chemist in cements/dentures.

Nerve death and tooth loss had been one of the priority projects his father had financed just before passing on.

Once upon a time Calvin never questioned the trials he would put himself through for the Company, but now it let loose of his reins, he began to feel very differently about it.

His jaw twinged - that damn needle had hurt more than it was worth, and with the numbing block kicking in, he felt like Moonface from the Faraway Tree.

“Just lie back Mr Johnstone” the male nurse had said authoritatively whilst tying a bib around his neck and clasping it uncomfortably tight. He then slid a pair of charcoal dark sunglasses onto the bridge of Calvin’s nose.

A clamp was placed in his mouth before he could say much, and the bright light above still managed to stream into his eyes. Calvin thought of all the places he would rather be right now.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Magic began the World

Not all magic is a perversion of the fixed and natural world. It was magic that began the World.

And it was a higher magic that brought the harp into the hands of the shepherd boy David, to play before the power of the modern world; of pure note, of pure thought, bringing the movement to change.

Saul listened because he understood the higher language.

The voice of the harp delivered a prophesy he had beseeched the heavens for, and as it foretold to his soul, it transcribed that which needed to be deciphered from within and above, and then he knew.

But how could a young, lowly boy, have been given this power?

It is where it is. It is where it is. He could not deny it.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Aeolian Harps

There have been many legends told of the Aeolian harps that sing with the voices of the other-worlds - some of gold, of some of bone, of some of gut, of some, enchantment.

Sages have long argued that it was never about the materials of the fantastical lyre, but its tuning that made it significant - the perfect note - and a succession of such perfect notes that could ripple out into the world in a concert like no other.

A concert, by definition, is of combining, where things come together. And this can be more than the tumble of melody, but when it is divinely worked, it is about how the melody combines with the ethers, and with the souls about, who are so moved that they become transported into realms of imagination and dream worlds that inspire them thereafter.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

The Behemoth

The behemoth’s leather tunic barely covered his groin - he constantly mopped his brow and peed in public unashamedly. He even peed on the children who watched nearby - the only act that indicated there might have been a sense of play or humor - it was hard to say. He did not laugh. He did not speak. He grunted and raged, he mumbled in an indefinable dialect, but never smiled, or if he did, the great beard did not show it.

His hairless legs were tattooed with scars. His hands were missing their finger nails, and the giant’s skin was so dry and cracked it looked like living parchment. His blue eyes watered, and his hair was tied back with a fox claw clasp.

On this day he was thundering through the market, with a cart forcibly acquired, filling it with meats and fruits, before retiring back to his fort which was secured just five miles from the city’s entrance.

On this journey he had not been alone. As he rattled through the countryside, a group of timid soldiers stalked his pathway, keeping a sly distance following to find the truth as to whether or not this Heathen camped alone.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

At Odds with the Gods of the Paradise Lands

The Northmen with their legs as long and wide as tree trunks, and their beards unkempt and wooly; had no mind for the gentler politics of a refined society. Their currency of religion (which looked back into Atlantean times) was at odds with the gods of these Paradise lands.

One such usurper had imposed himself upon the town of Antioch, where he had set up camp and terrorised the locals for an entire moon cycle.

Wits were frayed, for the giant would storm into the metropolis and make his demands.

He stood double the height of the average man. His colour was anaemic - so white was he that the villagers superstitiously thought him to be dead and yet still walking.

This added the fear that he might never be vanquished, being already deceased. When he angered his face would flush, and the change to red frightened them all the more.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances