Three Damp Days of Confinement

Jon was drowsy, for the three days had left him faint with the ordeal. There was, ever present, during this confinement, the constant terror of dropping down further, or being there forever, buried in the sludge beneath for all eternity … and all the while he had no reckoning also of what had become of his beloved Fatima.

As for the earring, Tindle asked how he came of it, and so the discussion had naturally emptied into small facts and merriments.

Likewise Jonathon had his choice fragments and episodes of setback to relate. He had come to expect all things to never be constant, but to change, to threaten, to contest him, and to surprise - this was exactly how he had found his life in the last few weeks and days - and he was just grateful now to be out in the sunshine after his three damp days of confinement.

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

Earring Recognised

The impoverished are rarely surprised by life’s events. From an early age those who are used to doing without, become accustomed to all manner of both setbacks and miracles alike.

And so it was that when Tindle discovered from Jon that he had personally seen the same man to whom he was meant to meet with, and had in fact carried his head, for a time, it did not surprise Tindle at all. Not at all. The subject had come up because of the earring that Jonathon wore - being the first thing that Tindle had seen when he had reached down and caught Jon by the arm - being tall enough and long enough to do this safely bringing the lad out into the open air once again.

Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses AZLANDER Series

A Unicorn Lopped By

Tindle had been entrusted with the silver from the entire town. You could say that it was risky to give a youth the bundle that was their entire welfare for a season to come, so obviously dangerous that he should carry such a wealth about him. However, because of his great height, they were hopeful that it was safe to do so - and lacked the means to do anything else.

However the emissary he had been due to meet with had been taken. Competing merchants from Italia had charged this Commissioner of the North with corruption, and he had lost his once successful life to the executioner.

They had accused him of piracy, and charged his convoy of being illegitimate and therefore illegal; to then subsequently sequester it for their own use, taking over the ship, killing the men, and seizing the goods.

Just then a unicorn lopped by. Unicorns always appear when least expected. They are rarely seen, but if you catch sight of them in the side of your eye, or even feel that a Unicorn has brushed past you - or perhaps hear him gallop past you - this is a very auspicious sign, because all Unicorns herald a happy change.

Neither Tindle or Jonathon saw the creature leap past them ever so elegantly, yet a few sparks of light came their way, showering into the well, sprinkling the rocks and foliage around them.

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

The Hairless Tradesmen of the North

It was Tindle who had finally come to his [Jon's] rescue. He had been staying within the community, not because he was diseased or near dying, but because he was considered to be an outcast. 

Nathanius Tindle frightened ordinary people: as a child he appeared quite normal, but then he grew and kept growing until he stood over over seven feet tall and was thus conspicuously different. Being so large had not gone well for him as it might have in some other place or time.

On the cusp of the equinox Tindle would leave for supplies, negotiating their delivery with the hairless tradesmen of the North, who with one compact consignment distributed the agreed wares a moon month after the barter. This seasonal arrangement went beyond the grandfather’s recollection when neither village from either port ever thought that there was risk or worry in such transaction.

Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses, Azlander Series

Charismatic Captor

Jonathon had to wait three days before anyone had come by, to then help hoist him up and out of the well. 

During this time Fatima had lost herself also. On the first day Jon went missing she left for the town to go look for him … and did not return.

Fatima had met with a charismatic captor, who had beguiled her into a faraway journey, in which she, in her innocence, became subject to his magic, and had been restrained from ever returning back to Jon alive.

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

Reaping the Whirlwind

Everyone knows in Faerie to avoid the whirlwind when it is billowing throughout the realm.

On ancient maps you can see the faces of the north wind and of the south, of the east, and of the west, blowing across the parchment, with good nature, showing their characters to be most noble.

But the whirlwind has not such a divine pedigree. Its voracity will pull one into a dark heart with a centrifugal force, and draw you into its whirring depths - often sucking the victim into the portal of its dark matter.

The whirlwind of itself holds no malcontent. It is but the dark angel of Karmic rage. The wraith of cause and effect. The veritable sword of Damocles, the cosmic sweeper collecting up the mess of Mankind .

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

Dark Well

A little bird had told him that it was not safe to collect the water at night - it had tried to caution Jonathon, however, not being conversant in bird speak he had ignored the chattering, and persisted.

Jonathon had leaned into the well a little too far and when the wet pail had slipped from his grasp, and as he instinctively moved forward to catch it, he landed flat onto a cross beam some five foot down.

There was a crude fretwork of wooden beams holding the sides of the hole from collapsing, and Jonathon had managed to hold onto one above his head, whilst balancing on the wood beneath. The grimy footing was only inches wide.

He thought of Fatima, and of how he loved her so. It had only been a handful of weeks they had spent together, after she had found him at this very well, at a time when he had lost all direction.

He wished he was on the other side of its wall now. Frightened to move, lest he would slip down even further, he began to call out, even though he knew there would be no one to hear him. This community never ventured outdoors at night, as they were generally too vexed with whatever malady confined them there. He was, by their standards, the fittest amongst them. It would be a long cold wait until morning.

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