Trial by Fire

“Come here my boy, the fire is nothing to be afraid of.”

Jon’s father was being extraordinarily sweet in the way that he coaxed his young son to come forward towards the meltery.

The small boy inched his way closer, but the heat was way too intimidating. There was something strange about his Pa also … Jon was too young to define it, but later in retrospect he would see the unseeable, sadistic cunning.

His Mam called him to her. Only six years old and now he found himself polarised between both Mam and Pa - however he knew which of the two he always knew was the safest choice to go to.

The Ironsmith lurched forward and grabbed him by the elbow, and then abruptly forced Jon’s index finger onto a red hot pot sitting upon the forge. Jon wailed and his mother rushed to pick him up and away.

“I did it to teach him a lesson” the goblin-like father snarled back to her accusing look. “The boy needs to know the dangers of this workplace.”

Mam was appalled, but she had seen this all before. Instead of being proud of his small son, this grown man was jealous. She unwound a red ribbon from her hair and cut a piece off, and then tied it around Jon’s finger.

“I love you little Jon-Jon,” she said apologetically.

“I love you Mam.” he said back to her with a broken smile.

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

Jupiter Fell into the Earthly Realm

Alex Harms

Jupiter, like his brother, was an ageless god. He was not of the Fay technically, and he certainly was not mortal, for the mortals, by definition, were shapeshifters: souls who clothed themselves in all kinds of forms and faces over time - no, he was fixed as he was, unless he effected a glamour … usually. And yet the corporeal world had changed all of that …

A bear had not been his first choice.

When Jupiter fell into the Earthly realm he had been drawn to a menagerie that a magician there had entitled a circus.

In truth it was a compound for the exotic, by which certain people would pay to taunt and tease the creatures and mortals he had enslaved. Some, who paid extra did far worse than that … soldiers and noblemen with money to spare and little conscience would lavish their desires with terrible outcomes. No, this was not a circus for gentle entertainment, it was a migrating caravan of imprisonment and torture.

The circus moved from town to town to escape the eyes of the Law, stealing children as it went, sweeping the greatest amount of coin possible from those who would proffer it.

In an instant Jupiter had gone from diving the lake of the lesser Heavens, into the body of an albino bear - which, was not as he had planned at all.

He had sought to be a Mortal, however what he did not realise is that very few Mortal bodies would vacate themselves for ethereal ensoulment, not even for that of a god. 

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

Her Silent Companion

Eve knew it well it could be thought of as unwholesome … and she did feel just a little shame. But then again, there was something to be said about the pleasure of finding one’s own unique happiness hidden from the world.

It had started one night when she had gone to check on the sleeping Granoldi to place yet another blanket over the big faerie Bear. The nights were getting colder in London and she had bought him several more over the wintery weeks, to save him from any circulatory disorder he could suffer.

Granoldi had become her silent companion, a warm presence in her otherwise empty apartment, and she would lie awake thinking of him being there in the room beside hers.

And then it happened - she could not quieten her thoughts - her iPhone and audio books did not help her get to sleep either and Eve found herself beyond restless. There was no one in the world except the two of them … even her ghosts had gone for the night. Perhaps she should check on him one more time?

Eve’s oversized slippers seemed to drag her feet unwittingly across the floor and into his room. She shuffled in the half light over to where Granoldi was sleeping and pulled back the layers of quilt and blanket she had placed there, she carefully slid into the bed beside him.

That night she slept more soundly than she ever had slept before. 

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

An Accident of Nature

In the rush of the tele-transportation Tu had slipped off his chair into the lap of a finely attired lady, and onto a soft bed of floor cushions and striped woollen mats. All fourteen of the table setting had travelled back, including Goober, whose bony face was stretched wide with a beaming smile.

“You’re going to spasm if you keep grinning like that” Tu said, trying to get Goober to see how serious this situation was. Goober was savouring the moment. The twelve perplexed guests were literally stunned into silence and he couldn’t have been more pleased with himself, or the outcome.

“Well I guess that is one way to win an argument”, Tu conceded.

“It could be termed the full ‘out of body’ experience my boy,” Goober laughed.

The party around them started straightening themselves on their mats and a few stood up looking for the exit. Curiously their silence persisted.

“Waiter!” a short woman in a garish moo-moo called to Parish, a secular brother. He ignored her, not recognising the reference. “Rude” she huffed, “where is the exit out of here?”

All twelve had followed each other through the door and to the gates of the monastery - none appeared to have realized they were actually in a totally different time, not place.

“Shouldn’t we go after them?” Tu asked Goober, who was still finding the humour of it happening.

“Nup” said the senior Elf shaking his head.

“But what about the space-time-continuum thingo - you know, doesn’t it change the world terribly to have people misplaced like this? Won’t events unravel dangerously if we don’t put them back into their own time again? You know, if a butterfly coughs the Amazon shudders?”

“Life always allows latitude. We could not breathe without it. The Space-time-continuum is much more flexible than people think - and besides, it weren’t us that brought them here in the first place. Call it an accident of nature.” He laughed again - not an evil laugh, just a modest chuckle.

Tu felt awake with this pondering. He had somehow been given to believe that the universe he travelled was inflexible: a tangle of Karma and progressive evolution. That one law rested upon another, and it would be too fragile to change.

Goober’s smile softened, and he looked appreciatively at this companion.

“Every atom moves with purpose, and every particle, amongst a confetti of stars, is of living light. The rarefied airs a soul breathes is of kindness, and the substance of Goodness, is itself, Life. Everything else is detail around this: the higher law of Being. Time, Space and its continuum is more - much more - than people think.”

Tu glimpsed the Master in Goober as he said this. He saw clearly that this tall weather-worn melancholic Elf was all that he himself wanted to become …

Fragmented memories hurled their way before his inner eye again, insisting they be acknowledged.

“This nonsense of a tall rabbit, of white fur and blood keeps repeating,” he said closing his eyes tightly, annoyed at himself for losing the sense of peace that had come to him just a minute or so ago.

“It's OK my boy”, Goober said, pushing a bowl of grains towards him, reading his thoughts. “I have a deep apology to make to you … kind-of why I have stuck this close to you. I should have been watching you on that day you were struck down, I should have looked out for you this time too. I am so very sorry.”

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

Very Much Alone

John Duncan

Jonathon broke out with an invisible rash; the kind that makes your skin crawl from the inside, that prickly irritation where even the wind can feel intolerably oppressive biting at each nerve. 

His condition could have come from the lead waters in his father’s foundry, or perhaps from Jon’s unease of solitude, following his spirit-love’s departing.

He was unkempt, unwashed, and his jet black hair was unruly. He ate only when he was offered - sometimes days apart, going from odd job to unemployment - estate to estate - staying barely conscious.

Jon had picked up the habit of speaking with himself in irrelevant conversation, and it was for this reason the employers would move him on after a very short time, as this jabbering disturbed their confidence in his sanity.

Of course in his mind he had mostly been talking with the invisible Fatima; however even she could not tolerate his company endlessly speaking, and so eventually she withdrew herself into the Heavens for the grace of a revivifying renewal in paradise.

Jon was now very much alone. He would have welcomed the slobbering company of Peter and Paul, had they not ripped the other’s throat into pieces. It still mystified him as to how or what could have happened to cause the beasts to turn on one another as they did.

He rummaged absentmindedly into the lower portion of his breeches and pulled out a lump of cheese the size of a walnut. It had gone hard and dry, but nonetheless was a happy find.

“Eie eie eie” he mumbled out loud.

“Fie fie fie” came a cheery voice from the road.

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

Two or More are Gathered

Not only did the beastly creatures experience the reverential practices of the Franciscan worship; the fairies too, were introduced to Christendom through the magnificent outdoor services the Saint would perform daily - twice daily - in the forest.

For Francis certainly did have a way of speaking to the hearts of all, and reintroducing their souls back to God. This was his single-most consignment - a living pledge that he enacted, and reenacted, within his own heart daily.

The Elvish are by their very nature extremely reverential. They are the esoteric life: their consciousness is of pure spirit, and only lightly enters into the heaviness of the Material World as it staggers throughout the universe.

He was first and foremostly, a devotee to the pure contemplation of goodness being the very foundation of all life. However, on occasion he had excised a brother from the community if he had found them to be lazy in their morals, or dark in their desires. Francis did not love them any less, he just could not abide their presence - for certain elements would perhaps contaminate the communal family were he to permit them to stay …

The tiniest of faeries would line the trees like Xmas lights gathering for the Holy Service; singing their psalms alongside the Brothers; splashing in and out of the communion cup, fully immersed, with their baptism complete.

Pre-dawn Hannah Mary would replace the water above the fire, and knead the bread into small balls, before lowering the metal basket into the wood oven that was dug into the ground.

It was no small effort - over a hundred of these little rounds or knots of dough would go into the furnace daily, to later evolve oh so fragrantly into for the breakfast to come.

One morning, when she had just placed the very last one, and lowered her basket, drawing across the metal plate at the top to then sit the kettle upon, she looked over to where the visiting Hode was sitting alongside Francis in prayer. To her surprise she saw there in the half-light there were not two, but three gathered.

The third figure was also head down in meditation, and there appeared to be the slightest aura of light around him, reflected from what, she could not see. An hour later he was gone.

“Who was that with you at Lauds I saw?” she asked the Hode tentatively offering him a small plate of berries.

“Christos”, said the Hode sincerely - looking at her with the deepest of eyes.

“Not many can see Him”, he said out loud as an afterthought, musing that Hannah held the power to do this.

“Christos it was, Hannah Mary - the very Christ Himself.”

She could see that he was speaking in earnest. Although the Hode was good humoured, he never made a joke. He could tell of parables and give stories with parallel meanings, but he never contradicted himself with an untruth.

“The Christ?” she asked hesitantly.

He nodded affirmatively.

And that very morning she marvelled to find that inside her small clay oven, there were double the number of bread rolls, and they were twice their usual size and wonderingly tasty.

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

Becoming Human

Elizabeth Mumford

Soon it would be feeding time for the small ones, the dawn was beginning to reawake, and the two men were talking quietly, so as not disturb the members nearby. 

A coronet of fireflies haloed his head. Robin was demonstrating how to apply a splint to a calf’s leg that had broken from slipping in the mud.

Hannah Mary watched as the stranger placed his hand on the top knot of a blue dwarf Tit, who had complained (apparently) of a headache. The small bird sat patiently and calmly in Robin’s open hand, with his other hovering just a small way from his crown. Moments later a song erupted from this littlest of souls.

“They wish to further their evolution you know - and this, remarkably, is the greatest pain of all.”

“But Robin, may I dissent? I have seen the fish skim, and dive and glide, with pure happiness beneath their scales - and I have not sensed any uneasiness with their lot.”

“I have seen the herds of grey cattle climb the hills to find the sweetest grass, and when the warm breeze kisses their fat heads, and they are content, I do not find this urgency of change that you speak of.”

“Likewise, this clicking beetle that has come upon us as bold as he does - I find him also to know his place in the world, and feel most safe here.”

Robin lowered his voice to speak with earnest delivery:

“The fish, the cow and the bug are not unhappy in these moments, my friend, I agree. But in times of danger and disease, of struggle with climate or famine, they sorely wish for change.”

“Into what?”

“Into becoming human.”

“How can this be so? And does not the mortal man also suffer the grievances of danger and hardship?”

“Yea, as do the gods - and yet as much as we may admire them for their beauty and we aspire to be as them as well, we are not concerning ourselves with their daily perils. And so it goes.”

“And so it goes.”

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