Subject: RE: Additions to Mudcat Storyteller Page II
From:
Amergin
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 09:23 PM
Aine...if this is too long that's ok....but anyways....
Dreams of an Angel
I was sitting in the pub one summer evening...sipping at a nice pint of Guinness...and surveying the pretty girls talking in the corner...When an old fellow he sat beside me...got himself a pint and began to drink...
He turned to me and said, "Those girls over there...they are right pretty, aren't they?"
"Yes," I answered, "they are. That is why I am drinking the Guinness. So the drool on my chin does not show up as well."
"You know," he says, "I once dreamt of a girl more beautiful than all those put together. One of God's sweet angels she was. One dark night in the midst of my greatest sorrows...she came to me...voice lilting gently with each breath I took...her fingers softly strumming her golden harp...her eyes as green as the deepest ocean...her halo wreathed strands of red fire draping down her shoulders.... And in the song she sweetly sang to me...she told me that if I look I will find that which I seek...and then she kissed me gently upon my lips...her lips as soft as down...and she bade to me good night.... And disappeared into the clouds above...silver wings flapping in the wind..."
"Oh yeah?" says I, "That sounds like a lovely dream. What happened next?"
"I woke up and found myself in the same bed I entered the night before, but I knew in the deepest caverns of my heart that she was the one I have been seeking all those years...though never did I realise it before...and that night she came...I knew I would never rest until my arms encircled her...and my lips gently pushed against hers...so I climbed from the warm blankets...and dressed...and walked out into the rays of the morning sun."
"What happened next?" I asked. "Did you ever find her?" He smiled slightly and pointed to his empty glass. I got the hint and ordered him another pint...and also got one for myself.
He picked up his glass and took a sip. "Aaaahhhh, thanks my boy. My insides are drier than the very deserts of hell...Well, as I said before I dressed that morning and walked out the door...never knowing if I would ever rest my weary eyes on my home again...never really caring for that matter...for finding her was the only thing that floated in the top of my brain...I walked out carrying nothing but the very clothes I was wearing...walking...following the faint trails of the mists, for a woman as comely as her must surely be of the sidhe...or if not they would know where I could find her...so the weeks went by and day gave birth to the night...and the night crept into the day...then finally the mists did not dissolve with the noon...I was in the realm of Faery...and on I walked deeper into the mists...'til I came upon to souls sitting beneath the biggest oak tree I have ever laid my eyes on...they were singing songs in a tongue long since forgotten in the realms of the earth...I stood there watching and listening hypnotised by the magical qualities of their voices....feeling my eyelids slowly gain weight as the power of sleep slowly began to have power over me...Then suddenly they stopped and realised that I a mere mortal was watching them, listening to their ancient song...and they asked of me what I wanted from them...they asked me this in amazement...for more fools wander into the mists searching for gold and other treasures never to be seen again....always wandering lost for all eternity....perhaps walking within inches of each other at times...and never knowing it...I too was looking for a treasure...but a treasure purer than any gold made by man or by faery...I told them of the dream I had...of the winged woman singing softly as she played her harp...and of her eyes that haunted me since that very night...and of the fiery hair flowing down her shoulders....They told to me...oh you must mean our queen...for she is truly the most beautiful woman ever seen by man or by faery, let us take you to her, but her hair is of gold…not of fire….so through the parting misty trails I followed my new companions....marveling over the size of the oak trees surrounding us....then suddenly we came to a grove...surrounded by oak trees so big...they would dwarf the tallest buildings known to man...and in the center of this grove surrounded by harpers and weavers and painters of such talent...your very heart would burst with the sound of their songs, the feel of their cloths, and the look of their art...was a throne of granite...upon which sat a beautiful creature...with eyes...as deep and blue as the very sky itself...and hair stretching down her long slender body tickling her very ankles....the hair was so rich...gold itself would pale next to a single strand...and closer and closer to the throne we walked...eyes staring at us as we grew nearer and nearer to the Queen...I stood before her feeling her gaze penetrate into the darkest secrets of my soul...then she spoke to me...with a voice so lovely that it made the sweetest song seem harsh and vile...she asked me why I had come into her realm...I told her about the sweet woman I had dreamed of...and about her eyes...and her lips...then she asked why I had chosen to search for this woman...I told her because it is she I had been looking for all these years...and then the Queen offered herself to me...offered me the kingdom of the mists...I swear upon my mother's grave she did...and I almost took it...but something deep in my heart knew I would never rest if I had....so I declined...she sighed...and told me of an old man who lived on the edge of her vast realm...it is he she told me that may be able to offer you guidance...for I do know nothing of the mortal realm...and she bade my companions to guide me to the edge of the mists...but to follow me no further...and so we walked on....and on...until we came to a ramshackle hut...and my new friends bade to me goodbye and wished me luck...and I was alone."
"What did you do next?" I asked eager to hear more of his fantastic tale.
He pointed again to his empty glass...and again I asked for a couple of more pints...he raised his glass to his lips and drank deep...he lowered the glass to the bar...and wiped the foam from his face...and again he began to speak, "Well...I walked up to the house and rapped my knuckles onto the wooden door...and waited...no one answered....again I rapped upon the door louder this time....again no one answered the call...so thrice I beat my knuckles upon the wood bloodying them upon the splinters louder still...and this time the door slowly creaked open...a wizened old face wrinkled and worn peaked out from the cracks...he asked of me what I wanted...and I told him of my dreams and the maiden that haunted my thoughts...and my dreams...and he asked me inside and I entered...there in the hut was a shelve of books...and a roaring fire...in the fire was a cauldron...bubbling with a liquid dark as blood...he bade me to sit in front of the cauldron....and he picked up a leather bag.....he opened it up and and reached in his hands...pulling out a silvery powder in his closed fist...he threw the powder into the cauldron....watching the bubbles swallow the powder into the blood red depths...flames spurt out of the cauldron...and the old man stared into the flickering embers and told to me the place where I may find her...there is a mountain he said...beyond the forest...of which the trees bear golden apples...which I must not eat...unless I am near death....and then only one....the mountain he said is drowned with rain so thick one must swim up the mountain...with the help of a vine hanging over the cliffside...this all he told to me...and then he bade me to lie down by the fire...and there I may sleep...to start the journey fresh in the morning...."
"I woke that morning," he continued, "and I stepped out the door....following the path his old gnarled fingers showed to me.…and on I walked….watching the sun gradually rise unto his noonday throne…reaching his infinite arms through out the land…and watching as he slowly sank down the mountains….glowing red against the evening sky…..a red that reminded me of the fire flowing down her shoulders….and then suddenly….I was at the edge of a forest of trees bearing apples….apples so golden they reflected the dying flickering light of the sun….and into the forest I walked,….alone…."
The old man finished the dribbles in his glass…and wiped the foam from his mouth…he looked at me and pointed at his glass….and so I got a couple of more pints…and he continued his story.
"Into the forest I walked...the apples of gold glowing in the starlight....the orange moon reaching gently into the branches so that I would not lose my way...the golden orbs piercing the shadows as I slowly tread along the trail....and on I walked through this golden forest...eating only what I had brought with me...resolved not to eat one of those lovely apples...on I walked through this immense forest...this orchard of the gods...a week had passed...two....three...then suddenly I saw before me the end of the forest...and a great wall of water pouring down from the heavens....just a mile away....
"In wonderment I strolled across the fields to this wall...the roar growing louder with each weary step...then I was there....and under the water was a mountain reaching high up to the clouds...bearing the very stars themselves...and stretching out from beneath the roaring streams of water was a line....green from ages mouldering in the depths of the liquid mountain....I took hold of the line....and started my way up....parting my way through the flowing wall....water seeping into my ears...hair dripping down my face as i struggled endlessly up the mountain....night turned to day...and day gave birth to night....and on and on I struggled through the swarming depths....
Then suddenly I broke through the surfact....and found steps of gold laced with silver leading upwards....broken streams of water filtering down....and so on I climbed....following the gentle sounds of gentle sobbing....listening as the grew louder.....the very steps shaking with the falling tears....and there I saw them.....thousands of angels standing together...bodies quaking as they held each other in sorrow....tears falling from their faces...and so on I walked through the crying mob...following the golden highway.....wading my way through rivers of tears....til before me stood a giant throne...the throne of God himself...and there he was...long silver hair draping down his chest....dampened with the giant tears dripping down his face...he saw me and picked me up in the palm of his hand...bringing me close to his immense elderly face....lakes of water spalshing to the floor streaking to the lands below....and I said to him, "I seek an angel of yours, an angel I dreamt about many months ago....an angel who has haunted my thoughts day and night since....She wears a halo of pure gold....like the sun rising in the noon....the halo is wreathed in strands of red fire....snaking donw past her shoulders...draping the gentleness of her skin....a fire as warm as a lover's heart....and as soft as silk....her eyes as green as the newborn grass in the springtime...deep as the darkest sea....and full of life and tenderness...as the fires that dance in the hearth...have you seen her?"
God sadly shook his head as his mournful words escaped his quivering lips..."She is here no more...she was the pride of the heavens...her very presence would light these golden halls...her laughter would playfully dance the streets...filling our darkest days with joy....her very voice would fill our hearts with love...but no she is here no more...she left seeking a mortal man...our days are now filled with sorrow...our tears themselves swell the rivers of the earth"
"Do you know where I can find her?"
"That, my son, I do not know....but I can show you the way....just follow the gentle strands of her singing....and you will find that which you seek."
"Thank you, my Lord."
He set me back down....and I took my leave....ears straining to catch the bare snatches of her soft voice...."
The old man stopped looking intently at his empty glass....and of course I got the point....and bought another round....and he sipped a bit...and continued...
"I travelled the lands up and down north and south east to west....straining to catch her voice floating upon the winds...the days rolled by then the months...and finally the whispers lilted their way to me.....and I followed....snatching notes of her gentle voice from the winds....following the paths upon which they flew....over lakes and rivers....over forests and plains...mountains and deserts....then finally sitting on a stone feeling the waves of the Ocean gently licking her toes...I saw her....hair glowing red in the dying sun....voice opened wide singing tales as old as the sky itself....her gentle green eyes staring across the darkening sea.....I stepped down from the rocks and walked to her...heart slowly melting in the warm heat of her voice.....I knew at last that I had found her...."
The old man stopped...and i turned to him asking, "What happened then? Did you go off together? what happened?"
The old man looked at me and laughed...stepping off his stool....and said as he slowly staggered out the door..."Ah but my dear lad....that is a tale for another time."
I finished my pint...and went out wondering if i would ever hear the end....
nt
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sj
