The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry

At the first of the year I sat down to continue Arial’s adventures. Anyone who writes a blog knows that behind the scenes of a blog is the dashboard where we write, edit, arrange, and post comments…we all love comments! Nothing can make a writers confidence soar like a glowing comment, and after flying with the faeries at Midsummer, that’s saying something.

This particular morning I had received a comment from CC saying that she had just found my blog and liked it so much that she was going to write an “Ember” chapter on her blog about Ember’s interaction in Arial Hollyberry’s world. I was intrigued. I had been searching the web for like-minded bloggers. Others who write in the realm of fantasy, regardless of subject matter (you know, giants, dragons, gremlins, mermaids, unicorns, or…the fae). What I found were a lot of sites that had product or were simply informational. I guess it isn’t popular to write stories on the internet just for the love of the story, or to entertain others.

Anyway, CC writes a blog called “Ember in Wrilogonzia“Her idea is simple, she created the characters and other bloggers take turns writing her characters into their own blogs with links back to the previous chapters on CC’s site so that anyone could follow where Ember ends up. What a concept! Ember has now been dropped into the Misty World of Arial Hollyberry by the dragon Illustratia and from the very beginning we became good friends.

Bill tells me that I take the long way round to making my point…yes, I get wordy! My point is that CC has honored me with two awards:

Can you feel the love!? CC gets two thumbs up for her work and her sincere support of other bloggers! Big hugs to CC. I invite everyone to visit CC’s blog and start at the beginning of Embers story.

“Winter Procession” by David Delemare

Transporting the “faerie way” has a tendency to make me slightly dizzy, I think it has something to do with molecules rearranging…

We always arrive in the realm outside the palace, appearing  just at the bottom of the broad stairs that lead up to the ornate double doors of the royal home. Because this was a special occasion, and because Arial wanted to make her first visit to the newly arrived queen spectacular, she made sure that our whole entourage appeared right in the center of the Grand Hall. Personally, I thought it was because she was showing off for her mother, but she insists it was…”just for effect, in honor of Yule”.

The winter palace, as you would suspect, is made entirely of ice and snow. Every wall glistens. The floors are solid white and the color of choice is blue, every shade you can imagine. It sounds like a cold and foreboding place but I can assure you, it is just the opposite. Faerie magic is a wonderfully subtle thing, you can never trust your senses. What looks cold; is warm, and things that appear at a distance are actually closer than you suspect.  Now, standing in the middle of the winter palace, I was comfortably warm.

The pale ice blue walls were draped with long runs of spruce garland that were decorated with pine cones, holly berries, and snowdrop flowers.Fireflies added their own particular type of twinkle.  Two large oak trees stood sentinel at both sides of the dais, where, instead of one chair, four chairs sat. I had to ask. “Arial, what’s with the four chairs?” I pointed at the ornate stools, each carved with symbols depicting winter, spring, summer, and fall. Arial was busy greeting a steady flow of her faerie family. She looked very proud of her kind as she  turned to explained.”The Festival of Oak and Holly is the only time the four sitting queens are together. The Yule ball is the time for all four seasons of the Fae to come together and celebrate the coming year.”

I nodded and looked around me. The grand hall was quickly filling up with faeries of all types and sizes. Other magical beings where in attendance as well. Elendain and the elves from the elven-wood were here. The centaurs were represented by Serg. There were dwarfs and pixies, mermaids and dyads (the mermaids accommodated by the placement of large fountains down each side of the hall). The dyads pretty much stayed in the oak trees, only coming out to greet the occasional well wisher.  This party reminded me of the one I attended at Midsummer, only more lavish.

While marveling at my surroundings, I was surprised by a sudden flurry of faerie wings. Flashes of blue, yellow, red, and green obscured my sight. Four faeries whipped about my head in an excited frenzy. They were all talking in high tinkling voices at the same time, which made it hard to tell what was being said, it just sounded like a cacophony of jingle bells. Then it dawned on me, these were the first four faeries I ever saw! I held out my arms. Sunny, Bella, Pip, and Ferne all came to rest, two on each arm, wings fluttering wildly in their excitement . “Oh! my dear sweet friends! I am so glad you’re back! Pip, I do believe you’ve grown, and Sunny, are you still a relentless teaser?” Ferne, the plant lover of the bunch, glided up to tuck a sprig of holly behind my ear and gave me a quick peck on the cheek.

While we got caught up on the latest happenings, the lights dimmed and the huge crystal doors at the back of the hall swung open slowly. A path to the throne was made as the guests parted to make way for the procession of queens. As it turned out, I was on the front line after the throng of beings drew back to allow the queens passage. I could see them as they came down the aisle, stopping every once in a while to hug someone or share a few words. I noticed, as they made their way to where I was standing, that the people they stopped to speak with didn’t look at all magical.  I watched as Litha hugged a small woman just a few feet away. She looked up to see me gazing in their direction and offered a huge smile, then practically danced over to where I stood and wrapped her arms around my shoulders in a tight bear hug. I felt all warm and fuzzy inside. Glancing over I saw the small woman beaming approval and nodding. “Litha?, who is that woman, the one just over there.” I indicated with my head so that the petite little lady with thick wavy brown hair wouldn’t know I was asking about her. Litha turned and bent over as if to remove a speck of lint off of her gown, looking up briefly to see who I was talking about. “You will meet her. In the realm she is known as Sparkle, faerie blood flows in her veins too. She is very popular with the spring faeries, she loves bright colors.”

Before I could ask another question, Orlaith swept over to me with an air of “this one is mine” and took over the conversation. “Kind One, you look absolutely enchanting! This is your first Yule with us I think?” There was an undercurrent of tension between the queen of summer and the queen of winter, I thought, now I see why spring and fall have to separate the two, they are both very powerful in their own way. I hugged her. “Thank you, I can’t take credit, it was all Arial’s doing, you should be proud.” Orlaith took my face between both hands and kissed my forehead then stared at me intently, her blue eyes reaching deep into my soul. “I am proud of both my daughters.”

Did I just hear the queen of the frost faeries call me her daughter? Oh-my-gosh! I was stunned into silence. Orlaith moved down the path as people on either side bowed and curtsied. I started to make my way closer to Sparkle but was stopped by a dainty hand on my shoulder. It was Alina. She was standing, arm in arm, with another faerie I hadn’t met before. “Don’t go running off just yet! There is plenty of time to mingle. You need to meet Mab, the Queen of Autumn.”

The fall had been very short, or time just got away from me, and I realized that I hadn’t been to the palace when Mab reigned. “Your Highness.” I bowed my head and waited. Mab’s laugh was a lot like Orlaith’s, high and tinkly, but her manner was softer, more easy going. I guess that personality trait is a plus if you have to be the go between for Litha and Orlaith. Her hair was streaked gold and rust. She wore it shorter than the other queens and it had a unkempt wind blown look. The Autumn queen’s crown was a circular cornucopia. She was very steam-punk faerieish.

Mab lifted my chin with a finger. “I have a gift for you. If you don’t mind, would you honor me by gathering with the others at the entrance to the palace at midnight?” I promised that I would and as she moved away to take her place by the other three queens I wondered, what others?

The evening flew by (no pun intended). It was a blur of dancing and music, laughter and wonderful faerie food. Midnight bore down on me like a shooting star and as the time drew nearer I found myself filled with excitement. Who were “the others”? What was Mab’s gift? At five minutes to midnight I made my way to the arching crystal doors of the palace. I wasn’t the only one who was excited. When I arrived there were four others standing in a loose circle. Sparkle was there, she was speaking to a man with a pleasant face and easy going manner. The two other women were talking and laughing like they were old friends, one with thick shinning black hair, and the other with curly golden locks. They all turned to greet me, but before anyone could say anything, Mab appeared in a swirling bronze mist.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009.

” Arial, come and look.” I was working at the computer when an e-mail message came in from a good friend, Katherine Bourgeois. Kat and I met on a social site for business people and were immediately friends. I was told by Queen Litha that faerie people find each other, and I am finding out that  she was right, people from all over are writing to me about some faerie sighting or another.

“Remember Kat? She introduced us to Patricia Saxton.” Arial was all smile’s as she made herself comfortable on my shoulder. “Yes, I do remember, have you received new tidings from her? (Fairy’s tend to talk “old world”).

“I have, would you like to see?” Arial jumped up and swirled about in a fast, rather complicated series of aerial maneuvers. She stopped suddenly and drew a tiny silver flute from  her belt. It wasn’t long after the sweet, melodic notes had faded away that the room exploded into hundreds of fall faeries, all struggling to look at the monitor. I had faeries sitting on my head and slipping off both shoulders, one even tried to perch on the tip of my nose. “Um…excuse me!” I carefully removed the offending faerie by lifting her up by the wings and setting her down on the desk, where remarkably, there wasn’t one other faerie. “Thanks Arial, just what we needed, a faerie fan club.”

The room vibrated with excitement. Arial darted back and forth, “Hurry, hurry hurry!” A couple of  things I have noticed about my faerie friends, they don’t have much patience, and they love a good story (that’s probably why Arial is so insistent that I write things down). “All right, calm down! I’m opening it, look, here it comes. She sent pictures too!”

Kat wrote:

Tami, on a recent trip blueberry picking in a beautiful valley in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, my granddaughter Chloe and I discovered several beautiful faerie hideaways.  These lovely little spots also sparked a little faerie haiku.

Arial wrinkled her nose as she tip-toed around the keyboard. “What is “haiku?” She ask this as if it were something to avoid stepping in.

I had to laugh at the expression on her face. “Haiku is a form of non-rhyming, Zen-like poetry that originated in Japan. It has a formal structure limited to seventeen syllables, five in the first line, seven in the second line, and five in the third line. Would you like me to read them to you?” All the faeries clapped and cheered so I began:

Deep in the valley

I thought I saw a glimmer

Of faerie luster.

Twinkling by the stream

Sparkling, blinking, and shining

Faeries as flashlights

******

Faerie, tucked in for

The night, did you hide your light

Under the covers?

******

Silly Faerie, why

Do you think I cannot see

You blinking at me?

******

Do faeries smile and

Stop to talk a while and be

Friends like you and me?

******

Is there faerie time?

Or can their days be measured

In winks of an eye?

******

When faeries get mad

Do they blink slowly and point

A mean wing at you?

There was a soft collective sigh when I stopped reading. Fairy eyes are, for the most part, large and dewy, but now I noticed that there were more than a few misty eyes in the group. I smiled. “Judging by everyone’s response I take it that you like Kat’s Haiku?” The faeries were sitting in groups of two and three hugging each other and humming softly.

Arial came up close to my ear and whispered “We must send Kat a missive this instant thanking her for her charming words and her captivating still life!”

The fall faeries drifted off, one by one, still caught in the magic of Katherine’s words.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009.