The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry

Archive for the ‘Imagination’ Category

The Kind One realizing she was lost in the dark forest at night, cried out for Arial. A spectral ghostly faerie appeared in the mist. The faerie whispered, and promised to take The Kind One to safety. It was just a ruse to give the being a chance to lull her with mind-numbing spells. The Kind One was drifting into unconsciousness and breathing with great difficulty. She was dying.

At the very last moment before she totally succumbed, golden lights like fireflies drifted through the mist and landed on her outstretched hand. Then they gathered and formed a large orb of golden light which catapulted straight at the misty faerie. She shrieked, as her true self was revealed. This was no faerie at all, but some evil creature with black eyes and leathery wings.

~~~~~~

I hit the mossy ground hard. The beast, now devoid of all life was spiraling out of control and heading,  face first straight toward the spot where I had landed. I could hear its wings whistling through the sky as it plummeted earthward. I knew I would be crushed if I didn’t move fast but my brain wasn’t sending the message to my legs so I just sat there, watching the large, bulky body growing ever larger. Blocking out more and more of the sparkling orbs as it fell.

I was jerked, unceremoniously, behind a towering oak tree at the last minute. The lifeless body of the enormous creature hit the ground hard, making a huge crater in the soft earth. The impact shook the surrounding forest like a bomb, sending dirt and debris flying in every direction.

“Whoa!” I shook my head and rotated my shoulder. The feeling was beginning to return causing it to ache and throb. “I could have been totally smashed!” A young woman with long fiery red hair stepped out from behind the tree and stood by my side. “Yeah, you really could have. Good thing I dropped by.”

I jumped back at the sound of another human voice. Keeping a small bush between us (I don’t really know what protection a small bush would afford but it was all I had) I stared at the stranger in shock and amazement. “Who are you!? And where did you come from?” I was having a hard time keeping the stress of my recent brush with death out of my voice. I shook a half closed fist at her. “Don’t come any closer or I’ll, or I’ll…”

“Or you’ll what? She brushed her hair back away from her face and smiled. “Is that any way to say thank you? I just saved your life.”

I pulled up my tattered gown and sat down on a soft patch of moss and indicated for her to sit beside me. “I’m so sorry, I have had a really bad night. Seeing someone else in this forest, alone, gave me a quite a fright. You can’t really trust things to be what they look like in the fairy realm.”

“Oh, I understand, I have had so many adventures that nothing surprises me any more.  But I’m not alone.” She leaned back and reached behind a small tree. “You can come out now.” I watched as a small fury creature with large owl eyes and hands that look like they were borrowed from a spider money crawled from under a bush and onto the girls shoulders, wrapping its thick, bushy, tail around her neck. “Let me introduce myself. I am Ember Innocenzi and this is Perhluna, my traveling companion.” Perhluna waggled hello with flat tipped fingers. “As for where we came from…that’s complicated. But I can tell you that we were dropped here by a very accommodating dragon by the name of Illustratia.”

“I’m afraid that you haven’t had a very warm welcome. The faerie realm is a lovely place and the gardens around the queens palace are very peaceful. But the dark wood can be dangerous at night. I think we had better stay put until first light. Maybe Arial will have found us by then.”

I leaned my head against the oak tree and closed my eyes, aware of Ember’s curious stare. Without opening my eyes, I asked the question. “Yes?”

Perhluna disentangled the furry tail and went off in search of something to eat and Ember laid down on her side, propping her head in her hand. “Who is Arial?”

I pictured Arial in my mind and smiled. “Arial is my traveling companion, and so much more.” I wiped a single tear from my cheek. “Formally she is known as Princess Arial, Daughter of Queen Orlaith, the High Queen of the Frost Faeries and ruler of the winter realm.” I opened one eye and glanced over at Ember, who had scrunched her mouth to one side in quizzical disbelief. “Yeah, I know. You have to spend some time in the faerie realm to get the full impact”

We both laughed out loud then clapped our hands over our mouths out of fear that we might attract some deadly attention. Nudging each other back and forth with our shoulders and sniggering softly, we waited for dawn.  I knew I had found a new friend.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009-2010

by Bill, guest blogger for today

My wife says the fairies call her the Kind One. Kind One, hummm. K.O. for short. In boxing K.O. means knock out. I guess that’s about right she’s always knocked me out. My KO, I think I’ll call her that from now on, it rolls off the tongue easy and is kind of fun. I don’t know what she is going to say, but unless she reacts with the boxing type of KO, I’m going to do it.

She says that the fairies told her that she has fairy blood and has descended from a line of enchanted royalty. That doesn’t surprise me either. She’s tall, on the slim side, and has a long graceful neck. That song that Jerry Lee Lewis used to sing where he said, “There’s nothing in the world like a long-necked girl, makes me feel so funny, makes me spend my money” is about right too. When you think about it nothing is more regal looking than a slender princess with a swan-like neck. Also, she has long auburn hair. It looks brown indoors, but in the sunlight the red glimmers through. Her eyes are green and again it’s in natural sunlight that you get the full effect. Ya,she still KO’s me.

She’s a strikingly beautiful Celtic lass. Going back many generations it isn’t inconceivable that with the way the Irish mixed it up with enchanted beings that she could have fairy blood after all. What is it that Shakespeare said? Oh, yeah “there are more things on heaven and earth , Horatio, than are dreamt of  in your philosophy.” Of course he was talking about ghosts and we’re discussing fairies. Fairies/ghosts, if you’ve got one, why not the other? And I do believe in ghosts I’ve had some up close and personal experiences with that lot. The ones I’ve met haven’t been been malicious, but still even the lost and confused ones can startle and unnerve you. Maybe I’ll tell you about them someday. If you really want to know and you ask nice.

I still don’t see the little critters, she insists that I do and that I just forget. Maybe she’s right, I do forget things sometimes. Just last week I gave her a birthday present a week early because I looked at the calendar wrong. I didn’t forget her birthday, I just remembered it early. I was forgiven because I picked out just the right thing.  Whew!

I may or may not see the fairies, but I am aware of KO’s comings and goings. I can look out the window and see her relaxing in the lounge on the patio, and the very next moment she’s gone. Sometimes I swear there is a quick golden shimmer left behind,  like when a photographer takes a picture with a flash, and it leaves that bright circle that stays in your vision for awhile. Yes, it is just like that.

I only tell you about this because that golden shimmer happened just this morning. When she gets back I’m sure she will write it down and we will all know about it.

When she returns from her travels in the fairy world she has these amazing tales to tell. She writes them down and I read them because I want to know where she is going and what is happening. Don’t you want to know what happens to the people you love too? Some of the stories scare me. She only wants to help the little darlings, but I’m afraid that harm might come to her by doing that. Without the fairy blood what could I do? Maybe we would have been better off if that darn portal was closed and closed permanently. I wonder if there is something I could do? Hummm.

Odette and I followed Elendain up the rope bridge to a large platform high in the tops of the gigantic evergreen forest. We burst out of the branches into bright morning sunlight that spread as far as we could see. I stopped at the end of the bridge, holding tight to the rough rope. “Is it safe up here? I mean, won’t we fall off if the wind starts to blow?” Elendain turned back to me, smiling. “My dear, we have been here since the dawn of time, no one has ever “fallen off”. Come, walk with me and I’ll show you.” She held out her hand to me. “I promise, you won’t feel even a whisper of movement.”

I took her hand and carefully stepped out onto the large, round platform. Elendain continued. “We live in harmony with nature, we respect Gaia and she respects us, the wind never blows strong in these woods. Walk to the edge and put out your hand.” I moved gingerly toward the edge, a tingling sensation of dread crawling up my spine. Stopping about five feet back, I held out my hand toward empty space.

Elendain glided up behind me. “That’s right, keep going. Hold your hand out in front of you, yes, that’s right.” I nervously inched my way closer to the edge of the platform. Two feet to go and my hand hit something. My eyes told me that there was nothing there, but my touch said there was a wall in front of me. With my eyes wide and my mouth hanging open, I took a few more steps closer and put both hands out, palms forward, and mimed  my way around the entire platform. “It’s an invisible wall!”

Elendain motioned for me to return to her side. “There are charms all through the elvenwood. This great hall is where we hold all of our celebrations and we prefer to be as close as we can to the heavens. That is why we charmed the ceiling and walls to be invisible. Odette was giggling under her breath, with a mischievous look on her face she darted toward the edge. At the last moment, before she could leap out into the blue sky, she turned her body and smashed, shoulder first into the invisible wall.

“Oh, Odette don’t…”. She rolled on the floor at my feet laughing hysterically. “Ah missus, these inviseeble walls mess with yer brain they do. Lettin ya think yer gona fall.”  Elendain was laughing too. I turned toward her with a mock look of exasperation. “Don’t encourage her.” I tried to keep my voice stern but it’s hard not to laugh when everybody around you is laughing.

Somewhere below a flute played. Elendain turned toward the east. “Your escort is arriving.” In the distance I could see bright flashes of red, orange and yellow all through the dark green of the trees, it looked like tiny  fireworks moving toward us.

As we made our way down, dropping once more into the  shelter of the evergreen boughs, I had a thought. “Elendain? If there are charms all through these woods, how did a troll find you? When Arial and the emerald guard helped me get home through the woods by the faerie palace, they kept throwing little silver orbs into the bushes at the side of the road. They said that it made the path invisible to the trolls and since they couldn’t see the road, they would wander off in another direction.”

A shadow of doubt played across Elendain’s face. Her eyes darkened the way Lilly’s did the day Lucy and I walked down the street in front of the little white house. Elendain’s voice pulled me back from my musings. “Yes, that is a good question, and one I will be looking into, but for now…” She stopped at the bottom of the tree and stepped to one side to let me pass in front of her. “Your escort is here.”

I looked up, flying toward us through the lingering mist on the forest floor, came hundreds of  faeries riding on fireflies.

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