The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry

Unlike the faeries of Winter and Summer, the more subtle faeries of Spring and Fall choose a quiet, unassuming nature when it comes to the changing of the seasons. Bulbs are coaxed silently from the ground in the spring. New buds form on branch and bow. When summer gives way to winter, it is the autumn faeries that instigate the slow but steady bronzing of the leaves as the plants prepare for hibernation.

Upon our return, Arial and I were greeted by a shower of golden yellow leaves falling from the Hawthorne trees. The fall faeries have been very busy in my backyard as well as in the forests around the Realm. I reached into my pocket to make sure that I still had the summer queens gift. How appropriate that the fire faeries gift would be lightening. The little box issued an uninterrupted vibration.

There was a sudden rustle of leaves in the branches above us and I looked up to see several faeries jumping up and down in the tree causing a basket full of fresh leaves to cascade down on our heads. “Hey! go easy.” I brushed the fallen leaves out of my hair then turned to see Warren and Odette shuffle up each with a tiny rake in their hands.

Odette was first to reach me. “You sure are a sight for sore eyes Missus, been gone a while now.” She brushed a leaf off of my shoe and smiled up at me. “Not that the Mister would notice. Warren and I have been helpin’ with the cleanup. The toad is in hibernation already, goin’ to be an early winter I think.”  Odette always gives me the update on what has been happening around the house as soon as the sparkles dissipate.

My Chihuahua’s had been nosing around the ivy, investigating the strange smells and nosies that only they can detect, but as soon as I reappeared, they immediately surrounded me, tails whipping, whining impatiently to be picked up. Hearing all the commotion, Bill stuck his head out of the back door. “Hey, there you are. I have been looking all over for you. Have you been to the store?”

I’ve said it before, but it never ceases to fascinate me how time is so divergent between this world and the realm of the Fae, and  Bill’s naivete’ when it comes to my fairy friends is very charming.

Giving Arial a “what am I supposed to say” look,  I walked over to him and circled his neck with my arms. “You are so intuitive! That’s exactly where I’ve been, why don’t you go in and I’ll run out to the car and get the bags.”

His smile got even brighter. “Great, but don’t you need help?” I motioned to Arial to meet me around the corner as I walked him to the door. “No hun, they are small, I’ll get them.”

As soon as the door closed, I darted around the corner of the house and nearly collided with Lilly, my neighbor from down the street. ” Oh! Hi, I’m sorry, I didn’t expect you to be standing there!” Arial was hovering a little above and behind her with one finger over her lips. “I was.. ah…just going to the car…to get some… groceries, yeah, that’s it, groceries.”

Lilly’s eyes twinkled. “Yes dear, I know.” She patted me on the shoulder and handed me a bag. “I have been cooking all day and I made so much more than I could possibly eat and I thought, I’ll bet that nice couple up the street would love some fresh, hot pot roast.” She peeked in the bag. “There’s potatoes and carrots in there too. I think you’ll find that they are done just the way Bill likes.”

I looked from Lilly, to the bag, and back. “Why…thank you… I guess. How did you know that I… At this point I was totally confused. From the first time I had met Lilly I had the feeling that she was somehow different. Charming, but different.

I continued. “Lilly, I can’t take this, it’s to much.” I tried to hand the bag back but she would have nothing of it. “Nonsense dear, like I said, I was cooking anyway.” She gave me a wink, then gently turned me around by the shoulders and gave me a slight nudge. “Go on then, Bill’s waiting for his dinner.”

I took a step or two then turned to thank her once more thinking, he might be expecting his his dinner, but fully cooked from the bag? but when I looked, she had disappeared, leaving a slight scent of roses lingering on the breeze.

You know, I am going to get to the point that nothing will surprise me anymore. Looking up I noticed Arial with a sheepish grin on her face, swaying a little and wringing  her hands. I had to ask,”what was that all about?”. Before she could answer, Bill stuck his head around the corner. “You coming?”

Startled, I jumped, then made my way quickly up the steps. “Yes, yes, here I am. I hope you’re hungry!”  I was hoping that I sounded nonchalant. He took the bag and took a deep breath. “Smells great, lets eat!” To my astonishment, he didn’t find it at all odd that I had brought home a fully cooked roast dinner.

Warren and Odette shuffled quickly along behind us, smacking their lips. “Can we come to dinner?” I noded, and wondered as we all went in to dinner just how Lilly knew Bill’s name.

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

With thoughts of the mysterious monk I encountered on the path to Willowmeer swirling through my mind I hurried around the curve in the path and was instantly transported back in time, just ahead of me stood the shops and cottages of  Willowmeer, looking exactly like the photo’s in the brochure.

******

It was just a few months ago that I had decided to take a vacation to the UK. I wanted to see the grand old castles and visit Stonehenge, making the side trip into Ireland was a decision that I made when I got here. I reasoned, I’m so close why not visit the country of my ancestors. I picked up a few brochures in the lobby of my hotel and instantly fell in love with the photo of a small town that was only a day trip away. I decided that I would  leave in the morning.

The drive through the beautiful rolling green hills of Ireland was serene and I almost missed the small weathered sign stating “Willowmeer-1km” pointing down the path on the right side. I pulled off the road into a small dirt parking area and got out of the car. The sun was still fairly high in the sky and I thought that it would only take and hour or so to visit the town, so I started off down the path. A kilometer turned out to be farther than I had planned on.

******

I pulled myself back from my reminiscing and focused on the  winding street in front of me. Holding the lantern out I made my way into the center of the town. Willowmeer was a quaint village  consisting of  stuccoed shops with paned windows and thatched roofs, some place right out of the seventeenth century. The street was cobblestone and was bordered on both sides with tall iron street lamps that were now glowing with a soft yellow light.

A few women were closing up their shops for the evening and started walking together in twos and threes up the sidewalk, making their way to hearth and home. A couple of stout little women in long skirts and aprons smiled and waved to me, then drifted off into the twilight, talking softly between themselves.

I stopped in front of a wooden door with a plaque above it proudly proclaiming it to be… “The Lucky Horseshoe Inn and Tavern, D. O’Brien-proprietor”. A large tree stump sat off to the side with a pile of firewood stacked beside it. There were two axes leaning next to the stump and another with its blade buried in the middle of the large, nicked surface.

It was way to dark to go back now, I would have to see if I could get a room here for the night. I placed the lantern on the stump and pushed hard on the door. To my surprise, it swung in easily, with me stumbling in behind it.

A tall, rugged looking man with a red beard and shaggy hair was standing behind the bar, wiping glasses and setting them on a high wooden shelf behind him. He gave a short laugh when I made my embarrassing entrance and said, “Well lass, come on in then and set a spell, looks like you could use it.” I smiled sheepishly at him then straightened up and nonchalantly smoothed my hair back. He waved his towel at the door. “Don’t be forgettin’ the door now, it’s lettin’ the cold in.”

Cringing a little I said, “Oh, I’m sorry!” I started to close the heavy door and remembered the lantern. Pulling the door open again, I stepped out to retrieve it. I had set the lantern down on the tree stump, I know I did, but now it was nowhere to be found. Where it had been was a circle of fine gray ash. I was staring at the stump when a chilling wind swirled around me and blew the ash out into the darkness. At that same moment, a hand landed heavily on my shoulder. I jumped and turned around as the bar keeper, towel thrown over his shoulder,  stepped out into the night.

He looked up and down the street, now empty of all life, and said in a low voice, “ghost wind’s blowin’ tonight, better come in now.” He took one more look around and lead me inside, closing the big door with a solid bang. Shutting out the spirits that roam the night.

© 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.