Forever Land

Forever Land requires no magical passport, it has not closed its borders, nor shall it not keep anyone from entering. This is a sanctuary of healing, where the still waters really do run deep, and the fruits abundantly drop from the trees.

Temperate, easy, yet exciting - aquiver with life - current to the physical reality, existing in permanent glory - a far more subtle substantial frame of world … and it is always there with its own heart beating, independent of the calamities the Material World suffers.

The etheric world of Faerie is home to many, not least withstanding the little children who live one foot in and one foot out.And, for the individuals whose minds are lit with it, they too have recourse and a rapport with the greater nature all about.

Faerie Land was, and is, the first home of the Mortals. The soul knows it well. A lantern hangs in the forest, a waterfall washes the feet. Not necromancy, but romancery prevails.

Dark paths are for outcasts, sad, forlorn, alone, separate, to a world that grew them- angry souls who literally lost their way from the golden past of jovial temper.

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

Home Sweet Home

Jackie Morris

The morning breakfasts with the neighbours had ceased shortly after Granoldi had come to live with her. Eve was concerned that he might wake and startle the group unexpectedly causing a possible eviction. It was far too problematic. She made her excuses and eventually they had all stopped coming around. 

The atmosphere of her small home was lit with a charm and a sparkle - so much so that the former inhabitants - her ghosts - had vacated also. Eve had quite forgotten them, and it was perhaps for this reason also, that they likewise, were no longer drawn to her. 

She went in to check on Granoldi and was startled by seeing some blood in his drool seeping into the coverlet.  

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed out loud, hurrying to get closer to see if he was alright. Granoldi had bit his tongue in his sleep, and the bleeding looked worse than it medically was.

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

Sprinklings of Sun Dust

Pine-Needles was going about his usual tasks tidying the apartment while Eve was at the laundromat. Although this aged Dwarf was seasoned in the outdoors, he held an aversion to bugs and spiders, dust and dirt, mould and mildew. Cleaving to cleanliness had only increased ever since his mind was returned with Puck’s glittering influence.

He took particular interest in the window sills, polishing the glass as though it were a prized crystal, and, perched upon a magical ladder of his own construct, he would vacuum into the corners of the ceilings - literally going above and beyond what most cleaners would do.

Needles took particular care with Granoldi’s room, deodorising the Faerie Bear’s bed with sprinklings of sun dust. This was a product widely favoured in the elemental realm.

Eve would return to her refreshed home, thinking to herself what a great job her ioniser was doing - she would literally sigh with happiness walking back through its door. Needles lived for this sigh, and was growing more attached to Eve as time went by. 

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

Last Memory of his Mother

Hans Thoma

“I love you Mam” Jon said under his breath - reflecting on his very last memory of his Mother and how she had cared so much for him. He missed her immensely. No one could take her place. Fruit of her womb, life of her life, breath from her breath, nurtured at her breast. She had given him existence and taken care of him like no other.

A single tear escaped his eye and ran fast away down his cheek. It was as though this one recollection had restored his sanity to its usual pivot. Jon collected himself and then his few belongings, and once again, set off down the empty road before him.

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

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