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Rather Long Fantasy Short Stories
I have strange dreams. Seriously. They tell me stories. Someday, I'm going to collect all those little stories and make a book. If I can get up the nerve, and go hunting for a publisher and all that. But I like sharing them with people, so here goes:
This one is called: Elements Once upon a time, in a land and time far from our own, there lived a little girl who was special. This little girl was neither tall nor pretty nor particularly bright, but everywhere she went, she made people happy. Her mother called it a gift, and for many years, the little girl was content to let it remain at that, never knowing or wondering what it was that made her so special among all the people of her world. In her world, there was only one ruler, one person has total and complete say over every matter of every person's life. This person was the little girl's aunt. Now, as the little girl grew, so too did something else. Something grew upon her back, something that no other person in their kingdom had, or so the little girl thought. The little girl didn't know what these somethings were, so she asked her mother. Her mother reacted with such horror and dismay that the little girl decided that these things must be something so foul and malignant...like cancer or the like. And so the little girl allowed her mother to cover them up, she wore baggy shirts and baggy sweaters, to hide these things on her body that caused such shame and humiliation. No longer did the little girl go among the people and brighten their days, she simply hid within her house, peeking out occasionally at the growing solemnity and the stooped, hunched shapes of the people of her town. And so she continued to grow, until she reached the age of being able to truly think for herself. As she stood within her bedroom one day, she took off her heavy wrappings, and for the first time since those things had started to grow upon her body, she stood straight, and she stretched those things out to their fullest extent. She was stunned at how large these things were, how they had grown to be as tall as her and wider than she was. She didn't know what to call them, she didn't know what the parts of them were and she didn't understand how it was that she could control them, but she knew at that moment...something this beautiful could not be hidden, and could not possibly be a cancerous growth. The little girl vowed then...someday, she would take off the wraps and never wear them again. When the time was right. And so it was that she once more became aware of the world around her. She noticed that her own peculiar gait, the waddling walk of someone with those heavy protrusions, was echoed in many of the townspeople, and in fact...a good many of them seemed to be wrapped as she was. perhaps this meant that others had these things? She wasn't certain...but one thing was certain, someone wanted these beautiful things hidden. The little girl looked to the authority figures in her life. She watched her mother...a slight frail woman who wore a heavy cloak and acted as if her back pained her. The little girl confronted her mother one morning, and as her mother watched, she dropped the heavy wrappings and revealed her growths. Her mother, rather than reacting in disgust as the girl had half expected...shrieked and hid her face from her daughter, but not before the girl saw the tears flowing down her mother's face. When her mother turned back, she faced the little girl squarely. She told the girl then what these growths were. Elements, she called them. Elements that were supposed to no longer exist within this world. The mother then bared her own back to her daughter, and the daughter saw the livid purple scars and deep pits on her mother's back. She touched them then...tentatively, and beneath her finger's touch...the skin healed, the scars and welts fading and the pits filling in. Blossoming beneath her fingers, these things grew, as the little girl stood entranced, her hand between the growing brightness. Her mother shivered, then stood tall, as she turned to face her daughter once more, the beautiful shimmering things whole and sparkling upon her back. Her mother knelt then, her face at her daughter's feet. The little girl stood there, not certain what had just happened. She helped her mother back to her feet, then asked her mother to explain. Her mother told her...the little girl was something special...something different...and somehow, the magick worked for her, allowed her to help others. Her mother explained that when she had been very little, she had been like her daughter...capable of such wondrous things, but someone close to her, someone she had trusted, had drugged her and taken her Elements from her...had made her into a normal being, with no more powers. Her mother finally told the little girl who it was that had done this thing to her...how it had happened that hte mother had been brutally robbed of such a beautiful and wondrous thing. The Aunt. The ruler of their world, she had decreed that the Elements were anathema, were to be destroyed whenever they appeared. Somehow, the mother of hte little girl had worked up enough courage to allow her daughter to grow into her Elements...and so it was that the little girl learned the story of how her world truly was. Those people she saw, stooped and covered...they were blighted people, people not allowed to grow into themselves, into the birthright of their people. It was then that the little girl vowed...she would end this tyranny...she would do something about what was happening in her world. The little girl watched from her window, watched to see how it was that her aunt ruled the world. She observed that her aunt very rarely left her castle, and very rarely did she walk among the people. The little girl learned how it was that this woman had become queen...she had taken from the previous ruler the most precious of things. She had taken from him a thing called "the heart of the people," a rare and beautiful creation that had the power to awaken the sleeping Elements that rested within the souls of the people, and she had stored it away within a vault, deep within the castle. And so it was that the little girl decided...she must get to that vault, and she must destroy the vault and once more free the heart. She knew...it would take a bold and decisive move. It was at this time that she learned that her Elements that rested on her back...they held the power to make her fly. With this new knowledge, she hatched a plan. She would fly into the castle, and under her aunt's nose, she would rescue the gem and smash it, freeing the power once more. She flew fast and hard, struggling against the streams of magick and darkness that seemed to surround the castle, until she reached the very top floor and the very highest window. Slowly then, she crept through the halls, gliding along the walls, making no sound, moving toward the very center of the castle. Though she saw guards, the guards seemed not to see her, and she passed them without difficulty. When she finally made it to the middle of the castle, she found the room, heavily guarded and sealed so that no one could enter, not even a bug or a mouse. And so the girl stood there...just out of sight, trying to figure out what to do. She heard a voice then, a voice she recognized as the voice of her Grandmother. "Use what your mother gave you..." she heard, ever so softly. What her mother gave her....she pondered this. The only thing her mother had given her was these Element things...they seemed to be the only birthright granted to her. So she decided to take a gamble. She slid around the corner and faced the guards, her Elements fully open and shining. The guards stood before her, the light of her Elements gleaming on their faces, and to her surprise, the guards fell to their knees before her. She walked between them, right up to the door, and stood there for a moment, waiting. With a heavy groan and a hiss, the door unsealed, and slowly opened to her, showing her a plain room containing nothing except for a single wooden chest. The girl walked forward, very slowly, very cautiously, until she stood before the chest. She knelt then, and set her hands onto the lid. When her fingers touched the lid, it sprang open, revealing a softly glowing glimmering thing inside. The little girl knew that this would not harm her, so she reached inside, and pulled out what she found. It was a soft orb of some sort, swirling and glittering inside, pulsing slightly with an unearthly light. The little girl held it up, showing it to the guards who knelt outside the doorway. As she held it up, she beheld a change upon the guards. They stood, one by one, and walked towards her, their glistening black armor falling away from their bodies as they began to glow, a glow that pulsed and shined with the same light as the orb. One by one, the guards lost their armor and shining Elements grew upon their backs, tall and straight and beautiful. When the little girl saw this, she knew what she had to do. Go to the highest place of the kingdom, and show it to the people, return its power to the people of her world. Using her Elements, she flew to the highest tower in the highest part of the castle. There, she found a surprise. Her aunt stood upon the terrace of that tower, her Elements a gleaming skittering black, revealed for the first time to the people that clustered in the town square beneath them. There they stood, little girl with gleaming bright Elements radiant and shining, the power of the orb glowing so bright within her, and the evil aunt, black and chilled, dark and cold to the world. The little girl didn't hesitate. She held up the orb, and began walking toward her aunt, trusting in the spirit of the Elements to guide and protect her. As she walked closer, the aunt seemed to shrink, shriveling inward under the glow of the Element-orb until there was nothing left of her except a frail, beaten looking old woman with only a little sputter of black upon her shoulders. The little girl smiled kindly at the aunt and told her gently to leave now, and everything would be okay, the aunt would not be harmed. The aunt left, her powers gone, the little girl standing strong and tall upon that tower. And so, the little girl lifted that orb, and held it out to the people, and one by one, the people stood tall, the Elements upon their backs growing once more, no longer stunted and hidden. Light came back to the kingdom, light and happiness, and with the little girl to rule them and keep the orb safe, they lived happily ever after. |
The Legend of Elder and Ash
Somewhere, somewhen, the gods above send me dreams. Send me stories. THings I've never heard before, and I live these things out. It's rare for me to actually TYPE these stories out, most of the time, I write the bare bones to share with y'all, thinking I will go back and write it later, but I never do. This story, it's about two of the "mythic" trees, from a world mythology in which the trees that this world contains were once living, breathing elder beings. Anyways, I wanted to share this...because it is beautiful. I tell you this story as it was whispered to me, as the gods decreed it to be. Upon a mortal mind the words of destiny sit, and upon a mortal tongue, the tales of the earth are told. One upon a time, in a world and a time far from our own, there existed two beings, a male being who was called Elder, and a female being known as Ash. As is the way of all beings and forces within this world, the two sought completion, and they found it with each other. The two cohabitated and in the course of this, to their great joy their union created shining forces, energy beings wihtout name and face, which flew out upon the winds of this world and became the Keepers of the Great Mother Earth. Elder and Ash were overjoyed by this and in their parently pride, they decided to watch over and guide and guard their young. As the two grew older and their progeny more numerous, it became much more difficult for the two to keep watch as they desired. Their progeny were as numerous as the leaves on a tree or the stars in the sky. And so it was that Ash and Elder decided they must find a way to protect their children from afar, since they could no longer truly watch over them as they once had. And so it was that Elder, who had grown old and wrinkled and was of such a venerable age as to be perhaps be the oldest being alive, made a pact with the Living Goddess, a pact that decreed that in exchange for his mortal soul she would forever watch over his children. It was Elder's belief that this pact would take from him his life, and he still agreed wholeheartedly to the exchange. The Living Goddess however, is not a cruel or evil being. It is not her way to casually take the life of a living being. She understood a parent's desire to protect and shelter the children of their bodies. And so, she did indeed take from him his mortal soul, but this did not kill Elder. Instead, it made him an immortal being. She touched his body with her powers, and like a tree, she caused his blood and bone to bond to the earth beneath him, spreading his veins beneath the earth. As she did this, Elder turned his face to the skies, a joyous look on his face, and from his sparkling tears, branches and leaves sprouted, covering him with a cloak of green. The Living Goddess looked upon him and smiled, her face kindly as she spoke to him. "Dearest child of the gods...this is my gift to you. In your desire to protect your young, you would have given your life, and so I give you life everlasting. Your roots will grow deep and you will feel the tread of your children as they walk this earth. Forever on, you will stand and from your body they will take your protection, from your blood they will take your wisdom. You shall be known as the Elder-tree, and forever on, you will stand here, immortal as time, connected to all your children and their children and their children's children. That is my gift to you, Eldest Brother." Elder was no longer capable of smiling, but he made his joy known by shaking his leaves as the Goddess left him. And so he stood, feeling the earth beneath and around his roots, feeling the sun on his leaves, sensing the heartbeats and steps of each of his children on this earth. Only one thing was lacking now...his beloved and devoted wife, Ash, was missing from his life now. When Ash found herself to be without Elder, she was bereft...alone and without the comfort of him at her side as he had always been. She did not know what had happened to him, and the Gods are not the kind to speak their deeds upon the winds, so she did not know that he had been magickally changed into a tree. And so she wandered, seeking her lost mate, through the world. Many times, she met her children and saw that they were thriving, but still her heart ached, for her beloved, for the mate she had loved for so long. Eventually, Ash found herself back at her beginning, having traveled the length and breath of the world. She found herself to be tired and she just felt...old. And so she sat down, beneath the sheltering limbs of the nearest tree, not knowing that this tree was Elder in his new form. She meant to simply relax, but instead, she fell asleep and began to slip into the coma of the dreamless, the last state of being before the end of the physical body. Now Elder, knowing the presense of his wife, and being able to feel her body against his back, could feel through their bond that his beloved mate had reached the point where life was flickering. And so he reached his limbs and leaves and stroked her face, feeling the tears on her cheeks, the weathered wrinkled skin of her face. He cradled her close, as much as a tree can do so, and he whispered softly on the breeze to her, seeking to make her passing a gentle one. Ash felt tears wet her cheeks in her last moments of life, so tired was she that she didn't even realize that the tree was holding her close. She turned inward, toward the tree, and hugged the bark, curling into the roots so much so that she seemed nearly covered by them. There, in that little cover, she spent the last moments of her life, strangely at peace. When her last breath left her body, she found her soul to be free upon the winds of the world. It was then, as she began to walk the spirit plane, that she saw her beloved husband's spirit, inhabiting the very tree taht her body was cradled beside. The two met with great joy and wonder, reunited for all time. Ash went immediately to the Home of the Gods to get permission to stay with her beloved, wanting it to be officially sanctioned. The Gods of course agreed, knowing that the bond such as those two shared both with each other, and with their children, was one that should never be broken. And so Ash became a tree, growing tall and strong beside her beloved mate, both of them standing for all time in the Grove of the World-Trees, their roots entwined with one another, their branches twisted together until they seemed more one tree than two. And so, over the ages, their children came to see them, and left with small pieces of them, a branch here, a leaf here, and spread the two upon the wings of the world, bringing them with them everywhere they went. Elder and Ash became the eternal guardians of their kin that they had always desired to be, and their children gained a protection previously not had in the world. That, children, is the story of how the Ash and the Elder tree were born. Or so the Gods tell me. ^__^ |
This one is more of a personal introspection type of story/just thoughts from my head. It's always been one of my favorites though, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. ^__^
She Carries a Lantern She Carrys a Lantern Lost, in swirling mists, in darkened planes, in places beyond count. Alone, walking on, one paw in front of the others, slowly, cautiously. Head lifted high, fur rippling over muscles and body. A solemn light in the darkness, I walk, an old lantern hanging from my mouth, clenched between white teeth. Long dented into the shape of my mouth and muzzle, is the lantern. A strip of silvered metal between my teeth, carrying indentions long worn into it. No hands have ever held it, nor ever will. This is mine to carry, in the forms of my spirit. In the paths of my soul. It's long gone rusty, the metal of it dinged and chipped. Perhaps at one time it was itself a brilliant color. Now, the metal is rusted, chipped, the paint long gone, the finish of it long destroyed. The taste in my mouth is horrible, but I'm used to that harsh metallic taste. I don't taste it so much anymore. And I keep that handle from rusting. I clean it when I sleep, coiling a paw around the metal, polishing the handle. with my fur and claws. I sleep with it, curling around it, laying my head next to it. I could not possibly keep it all gleaming, instead, I concentrate only on the handle, and on the light within. It is my light, after all. Beings have asked over the centuries, why is it that you carry a lantern? I muffle my responses, smiling, chuckling softly through my burden. Sometimes, I set the lantern down for a few moments, and turn deep, soft eyes to them. Staring into their eyes, I give them the answer that fits what they truly want to know. . "Because I can? Because I want to. Because it is mine to do. Because I chose to be the light in the darkness. Because I'm a shadow-walker. Because I wander, and for my wandering, why should I not carry my light into the darkness? Because the world is dark, and my light strong." Though often enough, I just smile, and press on, carrying my lantern in my mouth, waving my tail, a gleam of shadows in the night. My eyes always flash with the same light as the lantern. Rich gem tones, softened into facets and streaming with a life and a wonder that is rarely see anymore. You cannot dim the light, after all. People have tried. So long as I care for it, the light never dims. I have dimmed the light before, it is true. But there is none that has the power to make me do so. I have fallen before, my lantern tumbling down cliffs to lay at the bottom of voids, broken. Shimmering. Losing life. But never has it truly gone out. It always returns, bright. Glorious. I reclaim it, climb down cliffs to bring it back up, to set it firmly in my mouth once more. And I walk. Though the lantern rusts, and I grow older, with the words of hope and serenity written in my form, I walk on. Adding more lives. More experiences. The wanderer. I used to be called the fool, for my wanderings. Now, the fool is the Wanderer. The same, it is true, but not. The wanderer wanders on. My path is not set. Perhaps I simply walk to the places where my light is most needed. Perhaps I walk to the places that do not need my light, rather, I need the light of it. Perhaps it is that I walk to the places that call to me, to the beings that need me. Always with my lantern. My rusted, dented, fractured lantern. But the light always shines. And it always will. It soothes me. Quiets me. Brings me peace upon myself, to watch the glimmer through the darkness, as I walk. Sometimes the darkness presses around me. I shake my head, swinging the lantern wildly, dispelling the darkness, pressing it back, back into oblivion and away from me. The darkness cannot capture a light-bringer. We carry our lanterns into dark spaces, into light spaces, following the calls that claim us. |
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