Here's the Pic, What's the Story? take 2 (4-18-21)
Cara and the Heart-shaped Door
4-17-21
Carrie keiser
She had finally arrived. It had been such a long journey that brought her to his particular hill and this earth-roofed building. As she went to enter through the heart-shaped doorway, she reflected on all that had transpired these last few, days, weeks, months, year. A deep sigh escaped her lips and her mind went bACK TO the beginning. To That beautiful afternoon in the Irish countryside…
Cara was sitting out in front of the house Sketching and watching her younger brother and sister, Kellen and Maeve, play. She hadn’t meant to let her mind wander and fall asleep, it had just happened. In the absence of their childish chatter, she came to with a start. Frantic, Cara searched the area in front of the house and then stood to begin a more in-depth search of the fields surrounding the farm. They were only 5, how far could their little legs take them?
Maeve and Kellen were very curious and constantly looking for adventure, Cara figured they would just be hiding in the cow shed. She gathered up her sketchbook and pencils, then placed them inside the house before heading towards the shed.
“Maeve! Kellen!” Cara hollered, as she peeked over the low stone wall marking the farm’s boundaries. She listened for the sound of their giggling but heard nothing. “Where are you two!” Frustration tinting her voice and her mood. She needed to find them before mam and da returned from town. Cara stomped over to the cow shed and wrenched the door open yelling, “Kellen! Maeve! Come out right this minute!” In the dusty sunlight streaming through the open door she saw a flickering shimmer in the back corner. Cautiously, Cara walked toward the shimmering area. In the distance she thought she heard a car approaching, but the pull of the shimmer was strong and she felt drawn to it.
“Maeve, Kellen, are you there?” Cara whispered. A little tickle of fear mixed with excitement causing her to be quiet and step lightly into the shimmer.
She may have closed her eyes with that last step, when they opened, Cara gasped and rubbed them, nothing was as it had been a second ago. This was not the inside of the cow shed! Where was she? How had this happened? Cara pinched herself, It had to be a dream, This was 2021 not some fairytale based in medieval times. She looked down, her ratty jeans and old band tee were gone and she was dressed in a long pale gown covered with an orange hooded cloak. What was going on? mouth drooping and eyes wide she glanced around. She was no longer inside, but had somehow emerged in a rolling hillside. And there in the distance were two young children chasing some unseen animal. “Maeve! Kellen! IS that you?” The children turned to face her, laughed and ran off down the hill. Throwing her arms in the air, grabbing her long skirts, she took off in her slipper clad feet after them! “Great,” she thought, “these shoes are not practical for running! She wished she was still wearing her Brooks cross trainers, it would make catching the two of them so much easier.
The twins disappeared into the dense forest at the bottom of the hill. “Fantastic! How will I ever catch them in there?” She stopped to rest on a fallen log, and cara put her head in her hands, closed her eyes and contemplated what her next steps should be. This seemed to be straight out of one of her favorite stories. “OK, so how in the stories, there’s, always a someone wielding magic…… who was magic that she knew? Really? No-one, for sure.” As she thought these words out loud, she felt a little tingly and cracked her eyelids in time to see a flower grow from nothing, Cara glanced to her left and right, no one was there but her. Could she be causing this? “Time to run an experiment.”
She closed her eyes again and thought about anew pair of running shoes, crossed her fingers and pictured them down to every detail. Opening her eyes just a slit, she saw her Brooks! “WOW! How did this happen?’ But this still didn’t solve Cara’s problem of her missing siblings, or did it? Could she magic them back? “Maybe if I actually knew what I was doing, I could do something,” She said to the trees encompassing her. Focused on the forest canopy, she didn’t hear or see the approaching figure, but she felt a hand an her knee and looked down to see a leprechaun standing there. “So, the Wee Folk are real too?” She asked him.
“After your morning, you’d question my existence?” The leprechaun responded. Cara studied the well dressed 3 foot man. He had a neat trimmed reddish beard, a suit of the finest material in a wonderful shade of green that allowed him to blend into the fauna perfectly, his feet were clad in beautiful soft leather boots. It was as if he had walked right off the pages of a storybook.
“And you’re late! We expected you several hours ago.” Eamon (aim-on) said to her looking over his shoulder as another leprechaun joined them. She had flowing long black hair and was stunning. The fiesta looking female was similarly dressed in a stylish gown and leggings of the same shade of green and supple brown leather boots that matched the man’s. “Ah, there you are Eabha (ay-va). Please meet, Cara,” he said while waving an arm in her direction.
“Wait, what? Late for what? And who are you?’ Cara inquired of the couple.
At the same time Eabha extended her hand with, “Nice to make your acquaintance. I’m Eabha and this is Eamon, my husband.” Eabha Smiled and nudged her husband to do the same.
“IF we are not mistaken, you have just had you 17th birthday, Cara,” eabhastated as she hopped up on the log next to Cara.
A little taken aback, Cara stuttered, “ ye, yes, it’s today. How did you know? My parents ran to town for a few things before the party this evening. That is why I need to find Meave and Kellen and get home.”
“The twins will be fine, we have someone looking after them. We have been waiting a VERY long time for this day, Cara,” Eamon declared.
She Stared at the leprechaun couple once again wondering how she had landed here and what it all meant. How could anyone have been waiting years for her 17th birthday? She was just a regular teen from a Little farming community in Ireland, right? She had made her running shoes appear though and that gave her pause.
Eamon and Eabha had their heads together and were whispering in a strange language, no it was strange, just Cara hadn’t paid that much attention when she’d been taught the traditional Irish language. “Oh, how I wish I had paid attention in class,” Cara whispered.
At the sound of her voice, the couple turned to her waved their arms and they were removed from the fallen log to a clearing with a small house encircled by a forest of Ash.
Standing near the house were Kellen and Maeve and two more leprechauns. Their clothes too had transformed and looked right at home in the woods. From the looks on their smiling faces, they found this to be the grandest of adventures. But it was just the beginning.
Magic was real and Cara held the seeds within her.
Cara shook off the memories and stepped through the heart-shaped door into the rest of her life. A new life full of learning magic and protecting the fantastical world she had always been a part of.
The End (for now)
Cottage on the Magic Moor
Sara’s vision began to clear, and her mind too was becoming less foggy. She could wiggle her fingers and toes, and her hearing was keen. She heard distant sounds of birds and other animals. Sara laid there on the ground, listening, waiting to hear anything familiar, anything that would alert her to what she might come across.
The time between reality shifts and wakefulness was growing longer. She ran her fingers over the ground, eyes closed at first, just feeling her new surroundings. When she looked out on the new world she was on, what she saw was a completely different scene than the animal people she just left behind. Sara appeared to be in a verdant meadow, tall fragrant grass and wild flowers surrounded her. Just as she went to sit up, Sara heard a rustling noice that changed her mind. She peered through the grass to see a woman in a long flowing gown run past and to a magical looking home just yards away. The door opened and the woman quietly slipped through and all was still again. Sara took a chance and stood up, she needed to stretch her stiff limbs.
This was a world that Sara could totally see herself living in. It seemed so peaceful and vibrant. She couldn’t think of that right now though, she was sent here for an important reason, her foggy mind was still trying to remember the details of her mission when she heard loud voices coming and they seemed to be coming quickly. Sara ducked down just in time to go unnoticed by a mob of angry sounding people.
“This is dangerous land to be treading Monstriesa, you know the fairy folk have cursed this land. We shall never catch her if she goes to them for help!” Said the loudest of the Protestant crowd. They had slowed to nearly a stand still, not seeming to want to cross some invisible line.
“She has taken our children too many times. We must rid our village and lives of her if we are to ever have peace” the one who must have been Monstriesa shot back angrily.
Sara was caught in the middle of some bit of drama that had nothing to do with her and the crystal key, yes, that is what she had come here for, or Sebastian, the one responsible for stealing it. She was uncertain how to proceed, her arrival and appearance would seem like some sort of magic and she was acutely aware of the hatred of anything approaching magical to these people, they nearly radiated malice toward the unknown. Sara had to find a way to go unseen as she searched for clues as to where Sebastian had gone after his shift to this place.
He was always it seemed, two or three steps ahead of her. It as though the key allowed him to acclimate more quickly, thus giving him a greater lead. Sara knew she was suppose to despise Sebastian, but the longer this chase went on, and the more worlds she encountered, the less driven she was to continue the hunt.
Her superiors had warned her that if Sebastian continued to use the key, the more unstable the realities would become and he would eventually destroy all life in all realities, but Sara had not witnessed this at all. What she had seen was people of all different walks of life. Some so foreign and alien that at first she had feared them, some so ethereally beautiful it was if she had gone to the angels themselves. Her chase was opening her eyes to things she could never have imagined, and her desire to see more seemed to be dulling her senses and slowing her hunter’s instincts.
Sara was suppose to report in to her handler after the shift, but this time she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She now wanted to catch him so she could hear his truths and see what had caused him to take the key. Things just weren’t adding up.
lost in her thoughts, she missed the fact that the crowd had slowly edged forward and were looming over head. Her time for escape had passed and they looked ready to burn her at the stake. Her eyes were wide with fear and shock as two large burly men reached down to carry her away. Then, out of nowhere fireworks lit up the gloomy skies. The bangs and pops and blasts caused the group to scatter as though their world was about to come crashing to an end.
Sara, now fully awake and aware of the dangers she narrowly escaped, looked around for her savior. There in the entry to the little house was the fairy like woman with Sebastian at her side. They were frantically beckoning her to come to them. She stood and in one fluid motion was running to the door. She made it in just as angry fiery arrows twanged into the side of the hut.
She stumbled and fell into the arms of her erstwhile enemy and it seemed as though she had been there before. As though scales had fallen from her eyes she had memories flowed though her. She had been here, she had know him before. Sebastian wasn’t the enemy, he was her husband. Images of her life before the service blasted her, she was filled with every emotion in the book. They had taken her, wiped her life away and sent her to kill the very man she had loved. Head buried in Sebastian chest she wept bitterly. How could she have forgotten so much? They sat like this for what felt like hours, finally Sara’s tears dried up and questions bubbled to the surface and came cascading out of her mouth unbidden.
Sebastian and the woman, whom Sara now recognized as her sister Araulia, were overjoyed that the chase was over. He had finally manipulated the crystal key properly and had started to bring healing to the realms.
Sara was actually home. This place hadn’t just felt familiar, it was her childhood home, the one her ancestors had lived in for generations on end. The healing magic that was in the very air of her home began to engulf her and in a swirl of air that swept her from her feet she was restored. Her memory of being kidnapped from her home as vivid as it had happened yesterday, not three years ago brought the tears again. She saw herself strapped to a machine of curious workmanship that seem designed to extract her magic. Sara saw her body writhe in pain and heard her her anguished cries for Sebastian.
New memories replaced the machine, ones of Sara mostly submerged in a glass topped tank and recordings of a false history playing over head. The fake life her captors were subliminally planting in her mind, the reality she had lived for three years. Those were replaced with her training camp and the others just like her swam into focus in Sara’s mind. This time through she realized they were her brothers and sisters. She saw clearly that her captors had taken them all and train them to be assassins. They filed their minds with hatred toward Sebastian, no, she now heard her self say, he has always been Seb to you silly. They had cast him as a madman made crazy with power. It was far worse, she now realized they all had the same goal, kill Sebastian and destroy crystal key.
As her body shook with rage against the monsters who had taken her life from her, Seb
held her, and watched the scenes play as well. The magic they shared, the bond they had formed was remolded. As they watched her life, his began to intertwine with Sara’s, it was like seeing both sides of a coin at the same time. She saw all the times he had intentionally led her on the path that would bring them near to one another, she could feel the hope he emanated every time Sara had gotten close and the despair each time she attempted to take his life.
The memory stream slowed and ended with them sitting there on the floor of the home they now shared. Seb reached into his rucksack and pulled out the key and gently handed it to Sara. If she had been in awe of the magic that had returned to her upon entering this little cabin, the magic that struck her when she touch the key was breathtaking. In an instant she understood the import of fulfilling the calling she and all the generations of her family before had been tasked with, protect the key, maintain the balance between realms, or all were lost.
When she with her 12 brothers and sisters had been taken, Seb had been the only person left to protect the key. Through their years of marriage and the bond they had formed he was able to maintain the balance for a while, but soon the realms started shifting and bleeding into one another. He had gone searching for Sara and her family so they could use their combine magic to repair the damage.
They just needed to find and save at least two more of Sara and Araulia’s brothers and sisters to have enough magic to carry out the arduous task. Sara hoped they would have the strength to continue the fight, to travel through worlds, find them, and bring them home. She knew in her whole soul that they must come home to regain their memories and magic. This struggle wasn’t over, not by a long shot.
By: Aaron Leavitt
The waiting was the worst. Each day he’d wake and make sure that each piece was in place. It didn’t take long, the small cabin was, in effect, his whole world. So he checked each thing. The sprigs of herbs, the boiling pot (mostly water, but it looked the part), the small table very carefully staged with items. Each evening he’d attend to his chores, eat a small meal, and go to sleep sure that tomorrow would be the day.
He had ages to think, ponder, fiddle with things. With the time he’d taught himself dozens of dazzling card tricks, they passed the time, but he had no audience. Often when the sun shone, and birds chirped he wished his little corner of the tale had been granted at least a few windows. The tiny opening above the door hardly counted. So he’d make his rounds of the house again, peek out the door, disappointed, and settle down to rest once more.
He’d almost dozed off when the knock came! And there she was, Katherine Maelstrom, the protagonist, at his door! She had such presence, but he’d waited so long for this, he wasn’t going to slip up, not at this crucial time. He carefully walked her through his part of the story, gave her the items that he’d saved up, that would be so crucial at the right time. She thanked him graciously, turned and hurried from his home. It felt a bit like she took the light out of the room with her.
He sat there in shock for a bit. He’d waited so long, and now his part of the story was done. Was there a future for him now? Would he continue on? He had no idea what was next, he settled in to his bed wondering, would he still be in the morning?
By: Hokan Holmquist
A Lonely Cabin
I see you have found this our hidden house
A door neath grassy roof, twixt ring of stone
It was a treach’rous path that brought you here
I ask you now, will you come in alone?
Come, take a look inside our darkened door
Where shadows lie perhaps a mite too deep
Your eyes can’t quite make out what waits within
Enter, or our secrets we e’er shall keep
The pounding of your heart within your breast
That eerie feeling creeping up your spine
Ignore it all and step inside our door
Let not these thoughts make you repine
For did you not come risking life and limb
To seek forgotten things, some hidden hoard?
And now, pilgrim, you think to balk and run?
To leave, to flee, with your goal unexplored?
What creature fear you now might hide within?
What ghoul or sprite, what demon of the night
Could challenge you, so brave and hardy built?
What could you not vanquish, by craft or might?
So come, set foot within, stay not without
For great and gleaming is what you may find
Just one more step, come in, come in
We have you now, you’re ours, body and mind
By: Brandon Flynn
Sabina had no choice but to make the journey to present tribute to the clan leader and as she was leaving she made one last plea to have the burden lifted from her. “Mother I can’t make this journey. Can’t we wait until the rise of Omerza, it is only 5 more days and then the Morast will be mature.” It wasn’t the journey nor facing her uncle, Carvag, that caused her reluctance but the realization that she would be forced to pass through the forest alone this time. It had been just since the thaw that her father had returned from harvesting the Coalantheum crystals and even his enchantments failed to protect him. Now the darkness had completely consumed him and it wouldn’t be long before the forest would have his soul. Sabina knew that her pitiful attempts at obscuring charms weren’t enough to protect the Morasts soul growing inside the crystals and a failure would mean the curse on her father would never be lifted.
“Sabina” her mother replied, “You know your father won’t survive until the 3rd moon rises. His only hope is for you to gain the help of Carvag and that is dependent on payment of the tribute. Just remember you have the priestess’ orange cloak and its spirit will protect you and the Morast.”
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