Dream Romance

Charley had dreams - all kinds of dreams … some that were so real she could never be sure … and then there were the kind where she would picture herself in the arms of that one man who loved her and knew her like no other.

This man could see right into her soul, and accept her for the halfling she was.

He would be poetic, but not a poet. Masculine, yet never angry or forceful. He could be a master of words - though hardly speak. He would want her with the most urgent desire, yet wait for her to come to him.

This man was someone she could spend days with in perfect contentedness, in a space between them that was theirs alone.

When was it she had first begun to have feelings for Francis? She could not recall, only that now, right now, she wanted him to love her in return.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Elf-publishing

Self-publishing took on a whole other meaning when it came to the Elvish. Within minutes their works can manifest in a snap and they will be on the shelves.

One way of identifying a magical work is to examine its isbn - and if it has thirty three numbers you will know it is a book that is printed in fairyland.

Elves never interfere with the common laws of men.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Pondering

“Thus it was called pondering."

He stopped writing, and looked at this last sentence in a satisfied way.

In his spare time Puck had been penning a manuscript - a sort of self-help novella that he visualised as being the year’s number one bestseller.

There was of course an Amazonian raft of advice-type books and a sea of subjective philosophy upon which that raft bobbed and bounced upon.

However Puck himself enjoyed his own thought - so much so, he felt obliged to share it.


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

At Stalemate

Francesco had pledged a life of poverty, yet at every turn his celebrity had attracted gratuities that he would quickly give away.

He noted, his entire life had brought him material blessings which upon denying would return again and again threefold. There was a magic to this that even he did not understand.

However, he keenly felt the incongruity of poverty about him.

Compelled by an electric empathy, his spiritual nerves could not withstand the suffering or need of another.

The Pope, on the other hand, did not perceive this and unwittingly took the actions of Francis to be an ungrateful proverbial slap in the face to Rome.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Candied Roses

"I offer you bitter orange peel and candied roses, and you refuse it. Do you wish to further insult my generosity?

“Publicly, privately you continue to be seen to be more holier than me? I will not, will not, abide this humiliation."

“I do not thinketh my wretched self to be holier than thou, oh most beloved - and I swear this that was not my intent.”

“Then why do you continuously aggravate my charity thusly?” the Pope had piped, finishing with a squeak from the lungs, dabbing his weeping eyes with an embroidered handkerchief.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Bruce Lee

The young vet [Robyn] had been offered the employment of a lifetime, being given the role of co-ordinator of Research materials, and had already fluffed it.

It still did not explain the naked Asian man who was clearly alive, and now standing before her.

Francis, who had not been far behind Puck, entered the room, caught sight of ‘Bruce Lee’ and advanced toward him with the warmth of ten suns. The two embraced. It was an unusual, but touching sight.

Calvin, who had just come in from the courtyard had followed Francis into the lab and was surprised to see the men as they were.

“The dog died” Puck said explainingly.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Cadaver Orders

“I thought we had canceled the cadaver orders” Puck said disapprovingly as he had entered the cold room briskly. He held a raging contempt for such practices and it was the first instruction he had actually given after taking over the pharmaceutical complex.

“Back order” said Robyn sheepishly.

She was embarrassed.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances