Celtic Fiction Novel- We Come Back: Vol. 1: Chapter 1.3
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The Angel Above Him
She reached inside the folds of her dress again
and pulled out of the same pocket a crystal bottle filled with illuminated liquid. As she removed the stopper, she allowed a thin stream of liquid to pour down into the valley of the ring. The silver water spread, covering the gold illumination, and as the moonlight came to beam upon the water, she closed her eyes, and played her flute again. This time a brilliant flash of light burst from the ring.
He closed his eyes and ducked down
behind a bush. When he stood up again, he could scarcely believe his eyes. As if the center of the trees before him were in a cave where light was reflecting off of many precious stones, droplets of color hung in the air in the entire surrounding area. She had stopped playing and now rubbed her hands together quickly, creating friction of a copious amount.
As the friction built, blue sparks
began flying back and forth between her hands until her fingertips could no longer contain the energy, and sparks had begun to erupt. She reached down to a nearby blush rose colored droplet, and wrapped her hands around it, moving it at her whim. He watched her use her fingers to spread the droplet into a pattern. As she did this she occasionally reached out and brought in a golden droplet and an emerald green droplet. When she had finished, she had painted a blossoming tree-mallow, which now grew gallantly next to the roots of an ancient tree.
He fell back against the trunk of the tree
that lie behind him, pinching himself, hitting himself, doing everything he knew, to wake him from what must be a dream. In his fretting, he tripped and fell over the root of the tree. He lied there for a moment, listening.
She sang songs that sounded as foreign
and yet as familiar to the human ear as that of the wind. He sat up and watched her as she danced around, painting whatever she wished to see with the droplets. All over and around the circle of what once had been forlorn oak trees, now stood vibrant signs of life with summer’s color, light and love all over it. He felt his face smile, at her tenacity, at her laughter, at the sheer enjoyment she seemed to feel.
Upon the use of the last droplet, she stood back,
appearing to be admiring her work. ‘The work of an artist,’ he thought. She had turned the menacing forest into a bright, warming summer scene. However, just as he thought he could now easily speak to her without disturbing her, she knelt down next to the ring in the earth, which was now almost completely drained of silver water, and played her flute again.
Slowly, he watched the design grow dim,
and eventually flicker out. The paintings had now become tangible, and the forest looked as if it had been designed without any help from her. He watched her smile and slide her slipper over the dirt, smearing the ring and all evidence of her having been there before sitting back down on the stump.
Jack stood up, bracing himself,
feeling that this was a good time to approach her. Upon clearing the thicket, he walk towards her as he saw her stand to pull her cloak over her.
“Lovely evening, is it not?”
He watched her freeze in her tracks.
Then as if she dismissed him, she slowly pulled her gloves on, pointedly ignoring the sound.
Jack stepped forward, grinning to himself.
‘If she was a fairy, wouldn’t she have fleed the moment she heard my voice? No, you’re not a fairy afterall. Perhaps a witch?’ he thought to himself.
“Miss? I apologize sincerely if I have startled you,” he spoke with a tone of certainty.
I froze again. It was a man.
‘There is a human talking to me?!’ I thought to myself. Could he possibly see me? I slowly turned around, holding my breath, to see a man standing there, in formal attire, a rather goodlooking man at that. He bowed slightly at me. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I had been told since as long as I could remember that human’s couldn’t see our kind, that speaking to a human was strictly forbidden. Yet there was something about this man that allowed him to see me, and I found that to be very curious indeed. I curtsied slightly in response, not taking my eyes off him for a moment.
Jack watched her behavior, she looked like a wild animal, ready to flee upon to quick of a movement from him.
“May I introduce myself? My name is Jack Staun. I am the owner of this land,” he stepped forward gently.
I let a small laugh escape.
The idea of anything owning the land, other than the land, was quite a thought indeed.
“Might I inquire as to your name?” he smiled..
“My name is Astraea.”
“Oh I see. It’s a pleasure,” he bowed slightly, with quite a large smile on his face, as if he felt he knew something I did not.
After a few moments of awkward silence between us, I turned to go on my way when he stopped me.
“Wait, I... I apologize I was waiting for you to speak. I have not seen your face before, are you visiting family in the area, or for what do I owe this unexpected meeting?”
“No sir, I am not from this area. In fact, I was just leaving. Mr. Staun.”
I curtsied, forcing him to hesitatingly bow.
“May I escort you back to Farenton?”
“Farenton?”
“My home, Miss Astraea. I can order you a carriage, to take you where you please.”
“Oh I see. Well, Mr. Staun was it, I regret I must decline. I prefer to walk. But I really must go now. Good evening.”
I curtsied again and he bowed in return. I turned and walked towards the thickest part of the woods, the moon was fading away, and though I felt an urge to stay, I was running out of time. He started to follow me calling out, “Wait! Please!”
I started running, for as much as I wanted to find
out more about him I had no time left that evening to do so. I heard him start to chase after me, but I was much faster running on the wind, and I was quickly far out of reach, as I glided slowly above the trees.
“Leya ma coma.”
I whispered to the wind, and it guided me
into the moonlight, forming a bridge. For the only way to travel from my home on Pastel within the Pleiades constellation, to Earth and back in a timely manner, was through an intricate network of prisms aligned in various places all over the universe, meant to capture and bend light as a form of travel, thus depending on thought to direct which prism the light transported to.
As an Etherian, my body quite easily
shifted from a human shell to one made of light. All Etherians only needed an image of where they wanted to go, firmly in their thoughts, and a beam of light directed from a prism, to get there. Thus the 440 light year distance from Earth to Pastel was of no consequence, as I only needed an initial prism to set my destination, and that prism lied on Earth’s moon. Using the bridge of lunar light, I was then able to reach the first prism of my journey, where I firmly redirected to the prism that lied in my constellation.
Jack tried to keep up with her,
but it seemed he had lost her, she ran at an incredible speed he found. He stopped and caught his breath for a moment before heading home. As he walked back towards the trail, he replayed what had just occurred. Who was this woman, who came into and left his life so quickly? Miss Astraea. Why was he shaken by her? Was it the incredible events he had just witnessed, or her lack of interest in him? These thoughts swarmed his mind.
Before he knew it, he had made his way
back to the courtyard. As the noise of the gathering inside increased, he became curious as to how long he had actually been gone. As he approached the staircase leading inside from the terrace, he spotted Hoss leaning on the railing speaking to Miss Mary Roulon.
“Ah, Mr. Staun, we’ve been looking for you.” Miss Mary saw him first.
“Jack! You’ve been hiding.” Hoss yelled down at him, turning to face him.
“How long have I gone amiss?” he climbed the stone steps.
“Oh I’d say a good hour, at least.” Hoss patted his back lightly.
“I see the crowd is dwindling, shall we order the carriages? I am feeling rather tired.”
“Yes, I daresay everyone is feeling rather tired,” Hoss glanced curiously at Mary.
She was a true English lady,
and as such made no attempt to show her emotions. Hoss, Jack and Miss Mary walked into the ball room and located Mr. Fareus.
“Sir,” he bowed at Mr. Staun.
“Fareus, I believe it is time to order the carriages, and see a closing to this evening.”
“Very good, sir.”
He turned and walked with Hoss and Miss Mary to say their formalities to the Roulon family.
“Mr. Fareus is ordering the carriages,” Miss Mary explained to her family.
Jack looked at Hoss, reminding him to speak his praise of Miss Mary’s company throughout the evening.
“Mrs. Roulon, Mr. Roulon, it has been an absolute pleasure. I hope I didn’t steal too much of Miss Mary’s time.”
He smiled at her fondly.
“Of course you didn’t, Prince Cahil. It was an honor to attend your welcoming gala, and we do hope to see more of you.”
Hoss smiled. Then he and Jack bowed, accepting their respects in return. When the guests had mostly departed, he and Hoss made their ways back to the drawing room, for a night cap. They both sat in silence by the fireplace, going over the events of the evening. Jack had considered telling him about his encounter with this Miss Astraea, but decided against it, at least for now he would keep it a secret; at least until he knew beyond a reasonable doubt if he had lost his wits in the dark of the night or if she really had been there. He was surprised Hoss was not openly spilling praise of Miss Mary, but could see by the way he stared into the fire that he was certainly thinking about her. Hoss was a rather mysterious man in many ways, as if an entire universe and all of its mechanical gears were turning inside him, in many ways lifting his heart and in other ways, weighing him down. The responsibilities he held were unfathomable, even to him. He had known Hoss for most of his life, and considered him as he would a brother, with more respect. He stood up and rang the bell for Fareus.
“Shall we turn in, Hoss?”
He nodded. He patted Jack’s shoulder,
saying, “Thank you for tonight, it was truly a great evening.” Jack patted him back, as Fareus entered the room.
“Fareus, Prince Cahil and I are ready to retire for the evening. Please inform Prince Cahil’s valet, as well as Darren.”
“Very good, sir.”
Closing his bedroom door behind him, he was glad to have a moment to himself, though naturally he spoke too soon, as he heard a knock on the door.
“Come in.”
Darren, his valet, came in carrying his freshly pressed pajamas. They made the usual small talk about the evening while undressing. A moment came and went where he considered telling Darren about the mysterious woman he had encountered.
“Will that be all, sir?”
“Yes, Darren. Thank you. However, as it has been a late evening, I will ring for you when I wake up in the morning.”
“Of course, sir. Good night.”
“Good night.”
Now as Darren closed the door behind him,
he felt a sense of relief as he climbed into his bed. The fire in his room had burned down low, and with the curtains drawn, a candle on his bedside table was the only source of light in the room. As he lied in his bed, he smiled to himself, thinking of Miss Astraea, and her unique ability to mask what she was thinking. He had spent a quarter of an hour or so with her, yet could not tell what she thought of him, at least he hoped he could not tell. If he wasn’t mistaken, it appeared she had no taste for him whatsoever, and that was too bitter a pill to swallow. No, he was sure she was hiding her feelings, hiding her interest in him. She was so familiar, and yet he could swear he had never met her before this evening. He really didn’t know what he thought of her, or why he even cared what she thought of him, he could have anyone. “What is she doing at this very moment?” he spoke aloud.
He was thinking of her, while he was laying
there and he realized that she was the spitting image of the angel painted above his bed. How could that be? The painting had been there far before he had ever been born, yet the image of her was clearly there. Her beautiful green eyes and kind face were undeniable, even though the raven hair of the angel was replaced by the chocolate brown hair he had seen on Astraea only hours before. He felt his eyelids growing heavy, and fell asleep with her name on his lips.
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I love this story. Nice post. I follow you
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