by Mitzi Danielson-Kaslik
forest spring water
All dressed in flowing purest white, many
tall sidhe with great wings the shape of that of an angel but the opacity and
colouring of dragonfly wings slowly stepped forth through the forest along the
path, leaving no trace or imprint in their wake. They all wore sweeping gowns
and cloaks that brushed over the leaves regardless of gender and some wore
pearly silver crowns. Halos, perhaps. They stepped silently and sung, though
their mouths did not move and their pale silvery lips did not quiver. It was not
long before I noticed they all had their eyes closed, perhaps the gentle lullaby
had put them to sleep? I caught a last wonderful glimpse of the sidhe before
they were snatched again as Gillidore pulled me surely downwards back into the
cave with him. I found a tear coming to my eye for I knew that I would never see
such true beauty in my life again. “Dear friend, no one has looked at the sidhe
and survived for the compiled beauty of their song and their form would be too
much for mortals.” He whispered “then how am I still alive? How am I not asleep
eternally?” I asked. Gillidore could not answer and refused to speak
anymore on the subject. Once the song had died away and midnight approached,
Gillidore pulled me ungraciously onto his soft back and trotted out of the cave
and back onto the path. Strangely, no animals remained on the path now, no bugs
in the soil, no dragonflies in the air, perhaps they had all fallen peacefully
asleep from the sweet song. It was not long before I found myself growing tired
and weary from my journey and realized I had no food or a place to sleep for the
night. Luckily, being inside a book, I had a simple way to remedy this. I took
out the pen once more I wrote: Exhausted from her travels, she soon found a
large hollow tree with a warm hearth and bed and comforting food for her to eat
and a lantern hanging outside, to help her find her way. Sure enough I did.
A hollow tree stood large and imperious with a tiny firefly lantern glinting
outside and ornate bird cages suspended at different heights from the branches.
I knocked once, twice, three times, just to be sure no one lived within. With no
response, I entered and found a hammock with small thin blankets hanging just
inside and bowls of nuts and sweet berries in all colours; red, violet, lilac,
rose… even colours I didn’t know existed.
Gillidore lit the fire and before long I
found myself fluttering my weary eyelids to a close and glazing absent mindedly
into the embers as they danced and dallied up and up and up through the chimney
and into the starry night sky above, thinking of everything and of nothing. As
my thoughts turned to the quest it came to me that perhaps I might die or
perhaps I might never get back home, it hadn’t come to me before because people
in stories always win and return home in one piece, well the good ones do, don’t
they? And I was trying to vanquish evil, wasn’t it? Then it came to me that
Uriel might have mislead me, perhaps he was evil and the shadow master was
fighting evil? Luckily, sleep took me quickly and I did not have to dwell on
these thoughts any longer.
I was awoken softly by a tinkling ethereal
sound that did not wake Gillidore. Carefully, I swung my legs from the hammock
and took the book, the pen, and the compass out of the hollow tree, picking up
the lantern as I did so. I tiptoed away from Gillidore and the tree and into a
little glade to find a sudden buzzing from beneath my fingertips: the compass
had started to shake again. I had not understood what this had meant up until
now but I could only assume it mean danger for the first time it’d been in
motion was when I arrived inside the book and the clearing was filled with
shadows. Could the shadows have something to do with the shadow master? I
continued forth to discover the origin of the sound.
The glade was dark with the minimal
light the lantern cast and it was not long before I began to listen more closely
to the song for I could not detect the direction it was coming from and the
golden needle was spinning erraticly. The song was in a language I could not
understand. In annoyance, I laid down the items I had stashed on the dewy forest
floor and stood perfectly still, my eyes closed for a second. Then the strange
language softened and the music which surrounded the words became more quiet and
the words echoing throughout my mind in English. How was that possible? But then
again, how was any of this possible? The words became louder and louder inside
my mind until they were perfectly clear -
If you close your eyes and you open your mind, the veil will
disappear and you’ll see it all.
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