Luck of the Irish

Puck could see distinctly the large diamond that was rolling at his feet on the floor of the vehicle where it had dropped. It had impressed radiant blue and purple sparks over his boot. Even without much light, it could speak in rainbows. He clicked open his seat belt and picked the rock up finding it heavy and cold to the touch.

Puck had heard of this stone, if it is the one he thought it might be: Irish. It was called that in recent legend, as it was said to have the ‘luck of the Irish’ - i.e. none. This stone had a reputation for bringing bad luck to whoever held it … and the car crash (now averted) seemed to confirm it.

He, on the other hand, was not at all worried by its powers of ill. Puck had magic bags for such things, that, with a nuclear force, could contain any Jinn, Sprite, or hazardous Diamond, if need be, indefinitely.

“Now I have saved you twice”, he said, well satisfied with himself.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

A Happy Finding

The basket itself could not be refurbished, for the smell lingered, and so Jonathon then made a fire, breaking the woven cane with a few snaps, and in doing so, he saw glinting in the firelight beside - a piece of gold that had been caught in the weave had now loosened and dropped to the dirt. It was an earring.

He turned it over in his hands - it was wonderfully fashioned. A golden hoop with a cast of blue Sapphires. It occurred to him that its golden partner might be buried where he had lain it, but the thought of digging up the head did not feel proper, however tempting. He carefully lay the earring onto a sieve and washed it in the trough, with a final rinse of what was left of his drinking water. He then solemnly placed it through the hold in his ear, and snap, it fitted perfectly. Well pleased with his find, and how his prospects had changed, he settled onto his bed and slept soundly til dawn.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

     

Burying the Stranger's Head

With the arrival of the laggard slave-master, Jonathon had one more reason, a very good reason, to move on. Isabelle had taken his tools, and a life in service to this heathen would be torturous indeed - to both himself and to those he facilitated. Perhaps Jamaica?

If I persist on this roundy-bout, he said to himself, I shall then be slave to them also - and so, all told, I needs must go. And that was that.

As the sun began to fade, Jon took a flat thin piece of iron and used it to dig a hole beneath the fir tree - but the roots beneath resisted, and so he gave up, and moved to the vegetable patch instead, where the soil had been worked, and therein he tipped (now in the half dark) the stranger’s head. He dutifully said a few prayers whilst laying the covering soil, and placed a cross made of two branches twined above, to deter anyone else from digging there.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Strangely at Peace

Alystraea 

“I have come to ask you if you would prefer to return … there is a way back into the Earth - if you and your daughter would like to come with me.”

A small tear glistened in the Grandmother’s eyes.

As he has asked this all important question, Patricia saw her life play out right before her, and also, that of her young child’s. It wasn’t the usual review of things past, but of those events which were yet to be.

Without hesitation, both she and her toddler took his outstretched hands, and before any time had passed, they were back in their family wagon driving past the very intersection where they had been curtailed before.

They kept driving until arriving home. Molly was asleep in her ‘safety seat’ and Patrica carried her into her cot. She had a thunderous headache, yet felt strangely at peace. All she could think of was, what should she prepare for dinner?

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Staring Eye to Eye

“Mama, what is that funny man doing?” Molly asked, looking over her mother’s shoulder at Puck who was waving at them.

Her Grandmother had seen him also, but had decided to keep it to herself.

Patricia turned around and suddenly Puck was staring eye to eye, so closely she could feel his gaze. He had an enormous cowboy hat and violet eyes. He could change the colour of his eyes at will, and found violet very persuasive. She felt that she could trust him.”

“Are you a long lost relative?” she asked.

“No, nothing like that,” he hurriedly said - as the seconds afforded him were few. Even though the time ratios were completely apart from the material world, it was important to be speedy, nonetheless.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Procuring Consent

This Master Elf - a.k.a Hode - had managed to hold time back long enough - a mere ninety five seconds - to enable embedding himself into that early sequence of moments, just prior to the hideous calamity.

Interfering with time can be tricky. The Elvish can do this within their own world very easily, but the laws of the Physical world requires cooperation between all parties - which in and of itself takes more time again to manage also.

Only an adept can understand and convene with those involved in such a chaotic scene - its a little like unravelling a rug of knitted squares, and knitting them back up again, without having a fibre out of place when all is done.

The essential part for success is procuring consent. The young mother and her child needed to want to come back into the World for this to work at all. If had they been content to stay in the spiritual worlds, Puck could not have made the difference as he did.

Equally, if Eve herself had wanted the accident to play out as it had happened, he would have difficulty changing her role as well.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

The Adjacent World

Puck by all appearances on this day looked like a man - a very tall man, with a mess of long curly hair. He was dressed in Western gear - having just come from the country in outback Australia. He liked to pop over there once or twice a week to visit family - the stadium had just been a little detour on his way through.

Most of the time Puck resided in the adjacent world - that subtle and wonderful etheric place called Faerie.

Nothing in Faerie ever goes rancid, the air is always sweet and clean, and there is a fresh supply of water and moss where ever you go. Being so much more pleasant, it was the obvious choice as the primary place for Puck to prefer to live in, and drink the water from.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series