"Magic"

((I'm not sure if this is going to turn into a story or not, but man was it fun to write.))

"Some people are magical. There's just something about them that cuts through the stuff of this world and excites a part of the soul that normally lies dormant. There are some people who look strange when they fall asleep, like they're out of place in this world of human cares; people who, if this world were destroyed in an instant, they would still be there in the empty void, sleeping peacefully."

"Some people are magical, but not everyone is magical in the same way. Some people, like me, are magical because they seek it out. I surround myself with the fantastic, quest for it, seek it out. I wrestle with the world until it gives me magic because I want it that badly. There are other people, though who are magic through and through, to their very essence. She's one of them. Every word she says, every thing she does, even the way she moves and the way her face glows when she smiles, is infused with a spark of fey mystery that no conscious effort could ever reproduce. Every brief encounter tears my defenses to shreds, leaving me ravaged and overcome with an indescribable longing - for her of course, but more so for distant shores and high mountaintops, soaring trees in untouched forests and the riotous colors of heathland in the midst of blooming season. Time becomes meaningless outside the recurring cycle of dawn and dusk, midday and midnight; distance matters only as it measures the separation between me and my goals; actions bow in reverence to quests, and words have power. Not the 'sticks and stones' kind, but real Power of the kind no linguist or physicist could ever hope to explain."

"Some people are magical, but perhaps it is a curse to know them. Can one really become close to someone imbued with that kind of magic? Or is it a fruitless effort, like standing at the top of a hill and trying to embrace the sun?"

My dreams would make an interesting "Syfy" original movie

I posted this on another site earlier, so it may be a little familiar, but I wanted to put it here so it was in a slightly more permanent medium.

My dreams are...unusually cinematic!

I dreamt that Robert Sean Leonard was the Green Knight, "the impregnable warrior" who could not be wounded, and he was challenged by "The Alien Terror" - a half-predator gladiator from one of the Rim planets (the result of a genetic hybrid program instituted as a last-ditch effort to oppose the Alliance. It resulted in only one viable warrior, however, and he was mentally unstable and had a bestial intelligence, and either escaped or was "liberated" in the chaos at the end of the war) so strong he could go through anyone's stomach with a single punch. Friar Tuck was the leader of the "resistance" that was loosely organized to oppose the Alien Terror and his tyrannical masters. Friar Tuck had been enchanted (cursed?) so that he was half-bear; his robe (which was actually an outer layer of his own flesh) was of living bear hide, and provided him better protection that human skin, but was also scarred and tattered from past fights he'd gotten in.

Dramatic tension ensued when it was discovered that magic was actually a by-product of a future technology that - when finally discovered - would end up destroying the world, and then just before the confrontation between the Green Knight and the Alien Terror, the dream narrator (me, I guess!) was accidentally sent through space and time to 2006, in the town I grew up in. I ended up in the closet of a friend of mine, somehow having interpreted a cryptic statement from Friar Tuck to mean that I had to cause minor changes in history to prevent a falling-out between my friend and her mother that would lead to us not talking for years - a silence that would, somehow, cause her to begin developing the technology that would destroy Earth and other planets (and when accidentally jettisoned in another time era, would become the source of magic).

Over the course of the night I worked as quickly and quietly as I could to make the necessary changes without waking her up, and then retreated back to the closet when she seemed about to wake up. A little while longer passed and I thought I was alone in the room, so I decided it was time to sneak out and try to find a way back to my own post apocalyptic sci-fi-fantasy-western time era. I opened the closet door and stepped out into the room, and my friend said, "thanks for trying to work quietly last night" (she had been sitting - just out of sight - around the corner of her dresser)! But before I could respond to her, or find out if future-me interacting with past-her would cause a time paradox (especially since past-me lived close by), my alarm clock went off and I woke up!

So, obviously I remember parts of the dream better than others, but it was still a very strange experience, and I still remember it almost 12 hours later!

Also, I'm really intrigued about how and why the dream combined so many different fandoms (at the very least there was Firefly, Final Fantasy, Robin Hood, Quantum Leap, Predator, Terminator, and King Arthur), many of which I don't watch or read! O_o

Mistral: A Fairy Tale

((Inspired by a collaborative project by AR and CH))

Once upon a time...

There was an island in the middle of the sea. The island was a place of magic and wonder, for it was the home of many strange and exotic things, things the like of which have not been seen in an age of ages. This island was unlike others that were chained to the sea, for it was free to move about. But while most floating islands could move across the sea, this island had the power to travel in time! No one knew when it would arrive, or when it would depart. The island was a thing of mystery.

On the island lived a fairie. The fairie was quick and bright, for he was made of fire and brass, and he loved to dance. But for all the joy that dancing brought him, he was unhappy. You see, he was in love with a beautiful fairie—one of dew and silk—but he had no voice, so he could not tell her of his love. And he was bound to the magic island with ties of blood. He could not leave the island to search for a voice, for then it would disappear into the mists of time.

The fairie decided that since he could not speak his heart, he would create a potion and give it to his true love. He searched long and hard across the whole island for the items he would need for this potion, and finally he was ready. But when the potion was prepared, something had gone wrong; every fairie on the island had fallen in love with him! They chased him across the island, begging to fly and to dance with him. "No, no!" he wanted to say, but he could not, so he hid from them.

He was saddened by his mistake, and he began to cry. His tears turned to steam as they fell from his eyes and landed on his fiery shoulders, and the steam crystallized into a silver dust that shimmered to the ground. On the ground, the dust formed words.

"Captured heart and bounded soul, the cutting edge shall be found of old."

The fairie wondered at these words, and then pricked his finger, letting a single drop of blood fall to the ground. The silver letters turned red as they drew the power from his blood, then sunk into the ground. The island rocked as it traveled far, far back in time.

In the past, the fairie met a warrior who carried a sword. "This sword is so sharp that it will cut through any bonds!" cried the warrior. "You may have it, but only if you can best me in a contest of skill in music!" The warrior then began to sing, and his voice was strong and pure.

The fairie was sad for he had no voice, but when his time came he had an idea. He took a deep breath, stoking the fire within him, and then pushed the hot air through the brass pipes that made up his bones and his wings. From every part of him resonated the sweetest sounds, as if played by the most beautiful pipes, and the wind swirled around him to accompany the tune. The warrior fell to his knees with tears in his eyes. "You have defeated me! You may go now with my sword and with my blessing!"

With the sword, the fairie returned to the proper time. He gathered all the other fairies around him and with mighty blows, he cut through the magic bonds created by his mistaken potion! Now free, the other fairies flew away one by one. His one true love—the beautiful fairie of dew and silk—flitted up to him and said, "why did you do that? If you loved me, all you needed to do was to kiss me."

And here my friends, is where our story, like all fairy tales, splits into two paths, each ending in it's own way. The first ending is the one we all know and hope for, that the fairie and his one true love lived

Happily ever after.

The other ending is not so sweet, but...well, perhaps I should just tell it to you and let you make up your own minds.

"Why did you do that? If you loved me, all you needed to do was to kiss me." She said these words, and then flew away.

The fairie was heartbroken. He fell to the ground weeping. Once more he breathed deep and the music resonated from him. But this time, the music was sad and lonely, full of loss and pain. So powerful was his hurt that the wind turned into a gale, and blew harshly against everything around. So absorbed in his song of grief was the fairie that he did not notice when his fire began to flicker, and then the mighty wind snuffed it out.

The fairie's body turned to stone, and then crumbled to dust as his last grieving notes were carried away by the wind. The island, now without a master, began to rock and spin, and soon was lost into the mists of time.

All that remained was the wind, still carrying the fairie's song. The wind is cold, since there is no more fire to warm it, and blows fiercely as it searches across the land for the island that was once its home. The people of Province call this wind "mistral" and "mange fange" and say that hearing it can drive a man to grief and madness. And this is the end of my story about the fairie made of fire and brass.