"What is that whistling sound?" she heard from the cave. "That can't be singing? My froggie friend croaks better than that." Quietly Meen hopped up to some rocks just outside the caves to take a peek inside.
"Queen Ffion wouldn't be happy with me as her Top Minion if I don't take this chance to learn a little more," Meen confidently told herself as he hopped down from the rocks. Patting Froggie on the head and telling him to stay behind, Meen silently entered the cave after turning her head and winking at Froggie. Inch by slow inch Meen crept inside of the cave making sure that she was not seen by the stranger. "This is harder than I thought," she realized because Meen was the straight forward type of Pyksee who preferred just jumping into trouble. But he was a stranger in the Realm and one could never be too careful with strangers. Or at least that is what Queen Ffion would have told Meen if she was here. By now Meen had made her way past the entrance to the cave and could see a glowing light further in. Not being able to stay at the slow pace, she decided that it was dark enough still that the stranger would not see her, so she hopped until she was closer to the light but still outside of it's glow.
All the time he was doing this he was still making those silly whistling sounds. Then the creature started putting things into the pot that he had over the flames like Meen had watched the Goodie Sisters do many times. "Nothing new to that," Meen thought, "though he is talking or croaking in a language I haven't heard before."
"Wow! That is powerful magic indeed," thought Meen. "I better get back to the Queen and let her know what I have discovered. She will know what is 'Ambrosia' is and if it's dangerous?"
0 Comments
With his wings all a flutter, Allspice was thrilled he had located a set of caves close to the Dragons. Actually there seemed to be a lot of caves in the location the Dragons had landed. Which was a good thing since Allspice didn't want to be living right next door to them. Nothing was worse (well, almost nothing) than not being able to sleep because one had a Dragon next door that was snoring loud enough to even make the rock walls of a cave tremble.
He had just heard from a flutterby that a new cleaning operation was being opened by a Brownie named Granny Flare. He just might have to hire her. Al knew that when the other members of the team showed up, there would even be more to clean then.
"Finally!" Allspice muttered to himself. He had been moving boxes from one side of the cave to the other looking for it for the past couple of hours. Now that he found it, he was thrilled he could finally unpack this travel box.
For another, it’s all in the preparation. A House Brownie will start planning and preparing for Spring cleaning usually about a month before Spring starts (and sometimes sooner)!
Now this year, Granny Flare had been planning all winter and had finally decided that she needed to branch out and help others who were not so fortunate to have a House Brownie available for the Spring cleaning. The problem was figuring out where her perspective helpers were located now that they did not need to hide from Nemmer. “It’s a good thing that Nemmer quit bopping the Dusty Mytes,” thought Granny as she decided to go out and look for them. “It’s also good that the Dusty Mytes have gained some control over their forgetful dust. It just won’t do having them blow their dust around and everyone forgetting everything. It could set back cleaning for generations!” Granny shuddered just to think of it!
Soon Granny was in the caves and found where the Dusty Mytes had made their homes. It was neat and tidy. “Those noses do a good job of vak-u-ming up all of the dirt,” she thought as she nodded her head in approval. It did not take Granny long, but soon she and the Dusty Mytes came to an agreement and a business plan quickly worked out. Granny would find the cottages that needed cleaning, make all of the arrangements, and have the inhabitants go for a Spring outing, the Dusty Mytes then would come in and vak-u-m the homes. It did not take long for the word to get out which meant Granny needed a plan sooner than later to keep everyone busy while her "crews" were cleaning. With that the Spring Fair idea was born. Now, on the first day of Spring, everyone not in the cleaning crews were at the Spring Fair hosted by Efem, while Granny Flare and other House Brownies (with the Dusty Mytes help of course) are busy swishing, sweeping, and cleaning the old dusty winter gloom away. HAPPY SPRING!
Finally, a Wish Dragon overheard a wish being made. Deciding that maybe this was a way to make friends, the Dragon granted the wish... and that is when things started going wrong! By the time the Dragons came to the land where Allspice's (Al) kind lived, the Dragons started granting wishes willy-nilly. It was soon afterwards noticed that when a wish was not completely thought out - an innocence bystander or other citizens would disappear! First it was only a few and it never seemed to be the one making the wish. But after a time, it was discovered that anyone involved in a wish where things went wrong -- could maybe disappear. This is when the locals started resenting all Dragons! This made things a little sticky for the Dragons and they knew it was time to move on.
Maybe a few flames would escape and a slight scorching would occur, but with a Wish Dragon, something entirely different happened. When a Wish Dragon hiccupped, a By-Stander that had been caught up in a bad wish would re-appear! At first it was a cause for celebration. The missing Fae could be brought back just by having a Wish Dragon drink lots of Ambrosia! Though everyone was excited about their returns, it was quickly noticed that they were not the same. The By-Standers could come back looking green or be way smaller (or taller) than they had been before their disappearance - all from the residue of a wish gone wrong. But they were coming back and after a visit to a local witch doctor, most were able to have the remaining magical virus removed. This is when SPICE (Stewards Preventing Imperfectly Casted Enchantments) was created. This group was to regain and find those Fae that were affected by Wish Dragon wishes that had gone awry. Members of the organization soon were to be known as SPI's (pronounced spy). The SPI's realized that the best way to keep an eye on the Wish Dragons was to become the makers of the Ambrosia they would drink. They could give the Wish Dragons Ambrosia and then watch to see who would show up after a drinking session. The Dragons never realized that their bakers were actually their keepers and were completely unaware about what was happening when they hiccupped. They just enjoyed the Ambrosia! This is why Al and the other members of SPICE accompanied the Dragons to the Realm of Wymsy. They were determined to continue their work and return everyone who had disappeared.
The gushing spring where once Dragons had come to drink possessed a strong magic for the Realms. This sparkling water not only gave relief of a drink but also gave only to the Dragons a special gift. Little did the Dragons know that by drinking from the spring was their Elixir of Life. For deep in a cavern behind an old waterfall that fed the spring was a special piece of magic. The magical item was a small golden cage and inside the cage a red heart stone which was the greatest gift ever given to Dragons. This magic was the love shared by a Nyte Shade who gave Dragons their magical powers. For when the First Dragon, who had been a friend of the Nyte Shade, was given the heart stone by the Great Shade many eons ago, he had been told the Dragons now would have their lives extended by the Nyte Shade's sacrifice. What the Dragon's did not understand was how one of the greatest powers in the Realms would mix with the magic of the land. That power was the love the Nyte Shade had for her Dragon friend. The First Dragon's made his home in that cave behind the waterfall that fed into the spring. Day in and day out, he kept the heart stone so that every day he would be reminded of his friend and the laughter/love they shared. Never did the Dragon's realize that the Realms magic and the Nyte Shade's love would combine. For combined they did and slowly seeped into the water of the waterfall which then fed the spring. As everything has a beginning, it also must have an end - even with Dragons. Eventually the First Dragon faded away while others took it's place in the cycle of life and the cave holding the heart stone was sealed shut and lost to memory. The Villagers found they could have some magic of their own by stealing the Dragons' magic. They discovered this by finding the crystal stones used to create the nests that the young Dragonettes were hatched in. It did not take long, and soon the Dragons no longer trusted the Villagers. Hate, jealousy and animosity grew between them. "How dare they disturb our homes. They ravage our nesting grounds and endanger our young!" grumbled the Dragons. It was during this time of growing suspicions and increased hate, that the great waterfall and stream where the Dragon's drank started to slowly drying up. No longer feeling safe in their land, the Dragons decided to leave the Villagers and the land that had created them. For surely the Dragons thought, there were other places that could give them water to drink and a place to live without this fear. After the departure of the last Wish Dragon from the Realm, the waterfall soon became a trickle over the rocks and then little more than a ribbon of water to fed the narrowing shrinking stream.. It was at this time the Shadows' King decided to protect the water, even though he did not know it's significance and built the Well that eventually became known as The Wishing Well. Now the Dragons are returning. They had been fed over the centuries of a story of a special Elixir that was their inheritance. Was it a fable? Did it really exist? Where could it be? There were no longer any of the Old Ones left to tell them as they had passed onto the stars, leaving behind this story of a Elixr of Life that was lost when they left the Realms. As the final words faded away in her mind, Awena now knew there was even more danger coming to the Realms if something or someone didn't step in to help them. "I don't think Aralt is necessarily the help we need either," she thought to herself. "For surely he must have been part of the problem, since he would have been there at the time when the Dragons left."
It all began when the First Dragon had hidden the young Nyte Shade's heart under the waterfall that had been given to the Dragon by the Great Shade. That act changed the water forever! Little did the brook realize the ripple that happened at the moment when the Nyte Shade's remaining love seeped into the flumes of the waterfall. "But that was such a long, long, looooonnng time ago," the Wishing Well pondered. "Time has a way of changing things." The Wishing Well hadn't even existed yet. The new magic gave the babbling brook a whole new way to look at life within the water as well as round it's banks. Things were flush then and so vibrant. At it's best, the babbling brook was forever blabbing about something but now he really had a new way of looking at things that required a whole new language in order to express himself. With the magic that poured through him, he found he could understand any creature, four-legged or two, who came to sip from him. In his excitement he would turn around and start babbling to them in their language. More often then not, it would frighten the creature away. For who would want to drink from something that could talk back to you? But then came the Dragons. Big, small, green or blue, they all came to drink from his waters. The babbling brook though could see a change happening when the Dragons drank from him. They became "more" is all that he could figure out. "Those where the fun times," the Old Well whispered to himself. Since the brook didn't understand the changes within the Dragons, he didn't say anything to them. "Oh, but the parties those Dragons brewed up while gathering around me were so enlightening and lively," remembered the Well fondly. Then things began to change. "I wish I knew what had started it, because maybe I could have changed things," the Old Well said with his melancholy thoughts. For things dried up for the brook and fewer and fewer Dragons came to see him. Finally the Shadows' King came to the small brook. "I am here to help protect you," he told the babbling brook. "You will sink lower into the ground and I will build a well around you. This will keep you safe, for I see a great need for you in the coming Ages."
But then creatures big and small totally stopped coming. Things got dark indeed for the Well. One day he overheard (through a Twitter bird who stopped to rest on the edge of his well wall) that the Dragons had left the Realm. That is when he heard and felt the loud shattering sound that vibrated through the water causing far-reaching ripples. After that the flow of water dried up even more until now the poor Old Wishing Well felt like he was hanging on by a drip. Drip... drip... drip... Everything looked bleak until that fateful day when a small young Dragon discovered him while it was out exploring. The Wishing Well had thought they had all left. The Dragon went on to tell him that he had recently hatched so he didn't know about other Dragons since he had never seen others. The young Dragon then told him that he was Hungry. That took a few minutes of figuring out that Hungry was the young Dragon's name. They enjoyed a lengthy visit until the Dragon truly felt hungry and needed to return to his cave. It was after that visit that the Well discovered a new feeling. A warm fuzzy feeling that flowed through him that actually made him feel a little "more". Not understanding this feeling, the Old Wishing Well didn't think long about it. But he did notice that whenever Hungry came for a visit, he always felt a little bit fuller and more than before.
Griselda sent them back to the cave and told them to stay there until she could send messages to the other council members to decide what they would do next. "What are you laughing at?" asked Griselda to her son as the rat and Dragon started back to the caves. "Dree told me a new joke. It goes something like this... Knock... Knock... and you are supposed to say 'Who's there?'" The Dowager just shook her head and smiled thinking about how much of a kid her son still was.
"One would think that a coach or something would travel these roads a little more often," he again grumbled. After walking a little more, Aralt decided to sit down on a log near the trail by where he had first overheard the Wysps. "I wonder if those Wysps are still here?" he asked himself. "It would make it easier if I knew which cave they were talking about that had the portal in it." As if by magic, a Wysp did appear! "Ah, stranger. Are you lost?" it asked Aralt. Before thinking, Aralt growled, "That's twice in one day someone has implied that I am lost and don't know where I am going. I will have you know that I have walked these hills long before your kind even turned blue."
"Only if you know where the portal is," Aralt told him while digging another rock out of his shoe that was rubbing his little toe raw. "Ah, that's too easy. How about a nicer cave that has a waterfall in the back of it?" answered the Wysp. It took a minute before Aralt realized what the Wysp had just told him. It knew where the cave was! This time thinking before he answered, the Herald decided that he would trick the Wysp into taking him to the portal. "I don't think you even know what a portal is," he replied. "So, I best be going on my way alone."
Smiling, Aralt soon had the Wysp mad enough that it would show Aralt where the portal and cave were 'just to prove I know what I am talking about'. Shortly, they were entering the cave with Aralt following the glowing blue Wysp. "It's right here. See," as the Wysp hit the portal wall with a stick it had picked up off of the floor which bounced back from the invisible wall. "Nothing can get through it and we tried." Ignoring the Wysp, Aralt started walking towards the invisible barrier. Now it was the Wysp's turn to smile as he expected the stranger to bounce off of the wall just like the Wysps did. The surprise on the Wysp's face would have made Aralt laugh if he had been watching it as the Herald walked right through the barrier and disappeared.
There were so many footprints that Aralt soon realized that he would have just about as much luck in the middle of the busiest street in the village trying to find his own footprints. "Dragonsbreathe!" he muttered disgruntled. "I don't have time to check out all of these caves." But soon it was evident that he wasn't going to be able to do this the easy way and resigned himself to start exploring each cave with every twist and turn. After several hours of searching and just before he was ready to give up thinking that maybe he did have the wrong caves after all-- he heard it. At first he wasn't sure what the noise was, but as he approached the direction it was coming from, he realized that what he was hearing was laughter. The laughter of a Dragon! "I knew I was right," he silently congratulated himself.
As he was listening, the rat started to read the Dragon another joke... "Okay Dree. I have a good one for you. What did the left eye tell the right eye?" The Dragon shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "I don't know, what?" he asked. Snickering Drat answered, "Something between us smells." It took Dree a few seconds before he figured out the punchline and started to laugh.
Drat and Dree both looked at each other before Dree answered. "My name is Drai'ochtluan but you may call me Dree for short. This is my friend and aid to King Dulbbe, Drat. What is a Dragon Herald might I ask?" Aralt wasn't ready for that question. He had been the Dragon Herald for so long that all of the Dragons knew him and what he did. Why didn't this one? "Why, I announce the Dragons arrival and help to keep the understanding that has long been in place between Dragons and all of the other fae to also include the 'Outies'," answered Aralt. "How is it that you have never heard of me? Where are the other Dragons so that I may talk to them instead?" Aralt asked while thinking that this young Dragon must not be very bright.
Quickly offended Aralt replied, "I need no help finding my way rat" as he turned around and stormed from the caves. Drat followed him to make sure that as he left the caves and he was indeed headed south. As Drat watched, Dree had quietly followed. "He is going to be mad when he finds out there aren't any Dragons in the caves to the south, isn't he?" asked Dree. "Yuppers," replied Drat. "But that should give us plenty of time to tell the others that he has seen you and what happened. We should head to the council hall." "Great and on our way there I heard a new joke," snickered Dree as they started towards the village. "First I say... Knock, Knock... and you say 'who's there'..."
Even for important events (such as the weekly meetings) individual Wsyps have been known to be late or even sometimes sleep through the meeting. Resulting in one of their favorite pranks which is leaving behind the sleeper who fell asleep during the important meeting. It usually requires everyone sneaking out quietly at the end of the meeting so the sleeper is not awakened - again why the Wysps enjoy doing it. As a matter of fact, this happened the night of the "strange occurrence" that made the Wsyps leave the cave and hold their meeting in a bush where Aralt stumbled in to them. Later, when the Wsyp (who had been left behind) found the others to complain about being left behind, he mentioned that when he woke up, his stomach was rumbling because of the cooking smells he thought he had dreamt. Ah, but was it a dream? Is there someone (or something) behind that portal that is blocking the rest of the cave? Allspice (or Al to his friends ) loves to cook. Little do others know about the magic he puts into his cooking which involves him getting up real close and personal with everything he bakes. One of Allspice's favorite things he loves to do is to bring out the music hidden in the cooking.
BUBBLE..BUBBLE...POP...gurgle...Bubble...BUBBLE...POP... When he felt the rhythm, he would begin to bang on the pot with his wooden stirring spoon. Slowly the drum-like noise, drifting up the chimney, would grow louder and louder. Then he would start to blow on a kitchen funnel hanging by the cooking pot, adding the music of a horn to the simmering beat. Gradually, as the melody of the brew continued, he would step on the bellows he had handy to keep the fire glowing to add a whish of steam to the sounds his cooking was creating.
Allspice knows what ingredients that one element of magic requires and how rare they were to find. But ohhhhh, the sweetness that one addition makes to anything he cooks always makes his meals be the best and hardest to resist in his kitchen.
|
GreetingsWelcome to my blog. This is where I will reveal the magic of my Fae and their stories and share with you some of the success and pitfalls through the journey of doll making, sculpting, and other crafts that all come back to my dolls in many ways. Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|