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Simon

The History

Status: In-Active

Warning this is a very very large document - a total of 12 pages... You have been warned

I am young yet I am also infinitely old. I have seen the influence of ages yet still enjoy the curiosity of youth. To the viewers of dreams (Dreamers) I look much older than I really am, my mortal seeming grew ecstatically fast so I look at least 16 years old and I'm 4ft 7in tall yet if I were to count the years since the time this body was created til now I would be merely 12 years old. I grew up in a nice little detached house in a small residential area a mere 500 metres from Oakwood primary school that I was made to go to. I was disheartened by what some of the other kids said about me and how fast I was growing... I already looked like a P6 when I was only in primary 2. This time only became better as it was ending as my spirits rose with the possibility of exploring what appeared to be huge forest that lurked out of my back door, or to build another base from the shrubbery, twigs, and ferns. I always felt at home out in the wilderness letting my spirit run free, I used to say "Concordia is my freedom" I didn't know what it was then or where I had picked up the word but to me it fitted like a good pair of shoes.

These times were only made better when Brian, Mike, Craig, Phil, or Sarah came around. We would voyage deep into the woods finding new and interesting things, and doing more and more exciting and no doubt dangerous things, like the old tree that crossed the river. This particular location was extremely special to me, here my imagination flowed and ideas were created from nothingness memories not of my own, or not of this life would flash before my eyes. The tree that crossed the river was very large about a metre wide and covered in moss, it was said that it had been blown down 45 years earlier in a vicious storm, long before I was born... yet I get an image in my mind of this tree standing straight and tall after surviving hundreds if not thousands of storms and I feel a wrenching in my heart for what has happened to this tree.

Of my five close friends and me I was the only one brave enough... or stupid enough to be able to cross the tree and reach the other side ithout chickening out, flowing beneath the tree was a 2ft deep, fast flowing river and the tree only took you ¾ of the way across, if you were to go all the way you needed to make a leap of faith... there is a set of rocks and a vine about 1 metre from the end of the tree but they were always wet and slippery. This required great skill and bravery to leap across to them because if you doubted yourself for even an instant before you leaped you were going in the river for a drink and a large splash resulted, this had happened to Craig more than once and even to me when they weren't there but I wasn't telling them that...

I've got a reputation to protect. Once you had reached the rocks and the vine it was only 3 quick steps, a balance along a piece of twig trying not to fall into the marshy ground and you were safe on the other side. Getting back was a different problem entirely.

For my 8th birthday my parents bought me a terrier. I loved that dog and the feeling was mutual I felt. Animals especially dogs I felt a special affinity to even on one occasion I though I herd him speak but there was my imagination running wild again. This happened strangely as danger was about to happen a cricket would shout "Stop" or a bee would yell "Brake" saving me from a dangerous fall.

Nearing my 10th year of existence my father took me to see an art festival. My eyes gleamed with joy at the thought of this and the horizons just got wider and wider as I approached. All the pretty colours... the beauty and diversity astounded me, as I looked closer I could physically see the astounding creative energies that the artist put into the work yet what surprised me was that this only existed in original works not the copies... the copies, hundreds of them had lost this creative energy from the cold hearted machine driven duplication and where there hould have been the white strokes of creativity there was only darkness.

This was my first vision of Banality and it scared me. My father thinking he was an art expert was examining various pieces when he looked back to see me wide eyed staring at a hand painted oil painting of a pasture of lad filled with hundred upon hundreds of different coloured flowers and in the distance was a beautiful little cottage behind which was the most beautiful sky you could imagine filled with yellows, oranges, reds, blues, purples as the sun set in the background. I stood there wide-eyed and my mouth open in amazement the sheer volume of creative energy could have filled the room. My father walked up behind me and said "you like it?" and all I could do was nod as my voice box failed me.

He looked at the price and shouted "One-hundred-and-twelve-pound... it's not worth that!" then he went to storm off but as he turned he locked eyes with the expression on my face and relented but he wasn't going to go down without a fight. He turned on the spot and started to do what it seemed he was born to do... haggle. After 20 minutes of heated debate and insults being fired by both sides like cannon balls he had managed to negotiate the price from £112 down to £38 saving an amazing £74. My dad was great and he's a very colourful speaker. Just like me.

Some nights my friends and I would go camping in the nearby woods and we would tell ghost stories and other stories to weave each other's imaginations to our will. I was extremely good at this game, boy could I spin out lies left, right, and centre and even on some occasions I would spin out a story that is not to different from the truth so that it sounded realistic and to that end they would believe me, what was most enjoyable was either seeing them for weeks afterward wondering if it was true or saying how great I am if I spun a really good one. The other thing was the stunned expression on their faces when I told them I lied to them. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately in some cases when I did tell them the eventual truth they thought I was lying and so would hang onto the original lie like a safety blanket, and the harder I tried to make them believe the truth the more dependant they become on the lie. Fortunately this does not work two ways, when my friends tied to spin one my way I never fell for it... they made it too obvious, that twitch of Phil's cheek, or the speeding up of the number of times Sarah blinked, these were all things they did and made it obvious to me that they were lying, also their voices changed just slightly, but recently I've noticed a new feature they all portray they all smell slightly different when they lie, so when they try to conceal the other features this one beams through to my sensitive nose, the nose that has been said could smell lunch at 500 paces.

The familiarity with that tree really bothered me. So one day I picked up my sketchpad, an empty coffee container, a palate of watercolours, a pencil, three of my dad's paint brushes with the pine wood handle and chrome edged bottom and genuine hogs hair bristles and... it was shiny. With all those things I headed out just stopping to pick up the most important thing I needed on the way out... my imagination. The journey through the forest felt longer than it usually did, probably due to the humidity, or the sweltering hear which was uncommon for the 15th of April, or even the excitement that always accompanied journeys into the wilderness.

I sat down on one of the fallen logs just opposite the fallen tree of my dreams. I took out my sketchpad and pencil and started to draws but my mind was running wild like some demented dog so I closed my eyes and let the image flow to the surface. As that happened I felt a force flow through me like a bolt of lightening and my hand started to move across the paper with a mind of it's own moving faster and faster, a wave of heat flowed from my toes to my head as image after image blasted in front of my eyes, a million lifetimes in mere moments faster and faster they flowed. I managed to force my eyes open and see my hand was merely a blur with speed as if my creativity was flowing straight into my hand and then onto the paper, the paper showed a very detailed sketch of a massive oak to the right was some beast created of the most twisted dreams and on the left there was no forest... there was... there was a pasture of land filled with millions upon millions of flowers leading up to a small cottage with the most beautiful sunset in the background... just like that oil painting I got except much, much more detailed.

When I eventually managed to drag my eyes from the page I saw surrounding me was a massive aura of light of what colour I could not say because it appeared to be every colour at the same time constantly moving and yet also no colour I had ever seen radiating from me and flowing outward, literally impregnating the surrounding land with this energy and it felt good. Very good. I reached out my other hand, the one that wasn't drawing now in colour with an ordinary HB pencil to touch this radiating light coming from me and like a foot on thin ice my hand pierced through an invisible barrier and cracks in reality itself started to appear these cracks expanded right through my field of view cracking everything it came into contact with then like a smashed glass window reality itself shattered down around me revealing the landscape I had only seen in my mind's eye and drawn on the paper in front of me. Then another involuntary muscle spasm an a huge wave of that mystical colour flowed out in all directions like a shockwave that pierced all the dimensions flowed away from me and the Chrysalis was over but the grand adventure had only begun.

Fright was my immediate reaction to the situation as it's not every day that you get thrown into a reality where your very dreams have substance.

Snap.

Followed by a purring noise... it appears that that final burst of creative energy announced my position to everything within a couple of miles of here and they're coming to have a look at what just dropped in. I curled up into a ball, closed my eyes and preyed that it was just a dream... no luck. Then I stood up to face the fiends that were approaching, remembering vaguely that certain wild animals can detect fear and so if you want to survive you have to confront it, my prayers changed to hoping that, that was true.

A noise from my left, another from my right and one in front... they'd surrounded me, bugger. I still could not see what exactly it was but I was going to face it and anyway three on one is good odds for me. The ferns parted and standing there was... was... was well... nothing, the ferns had parted for thin air. Then as I was about to give a sigh of relief the darkness itself took form like a lynx it prowled forward and now there were three of them. Ha, ha, ha I yell out at the approaching enemy... then common sense kicked in and I realised what evil was about to come down. Then again what did I always tell myself... three against one was good odds, especially for me.

I pick up a stick lying near to me in an attempt to forge some sort of weapon to be used against these fiends. I futilely yell out "don't come any closer" Do they listen? The answer is No. They prowl closer I point the stick out in front of me towards the first... the first thing that is coming my way. It leaps, claws like 4-inch military combat knives clearly visible. "Today is a good day for you to die!" I don't know quite where that came from, it must be this place but it sure sounded good. I roll backwards and swing the stave at the attacking fiend. Wack!! I hit it straight between the eyes and it stumbles backwards stunned. The other two seeing that the first attack had not defeated me they start to circle both on opposite sides of me while the third recovered, I look back and forward, assessing the situation and how I might survive the next 5 minutes. The one in front jumps, I swing around in a circle and stepping to the side in an attempt to make it's attack fall on it's ally but the other one is not that stupid and manages to get out of the way just in time. Now the two are both in front of me, which allows me more manuverability and the ability to see both my targets at the same time. I slice a low swing knocking the legs from under the first one but the second again evades me by jumping in the air higher that I had imagined was possible, the first one received a strike in the gut and a hit on the head to result in unconsciousness, but instead of just being an unconscious lynx lying on the ground, as soon as it hit the ground it disintegrated and the dark mist like substance that made these things scurried away to the dark corners from whence it came. The second was evading, dodging, and diving faster than I thought was physically possible, but then again physics doesn't really play a huge role in this world. It jumped; I prepared to dodge out the way only to notice that in my peripheral vision I could see that third shadow lynx attacking from behind... I was trapped and doomed to so it appeared. I curled up into a ball as small as I could go in hope that this wonderful nightmare would end soon.

Fffffdump! Fffffdump! My ears distantly hear two animalistic death wails. I open my eyes and see only the shafts of two arrows lodged into the ground where the fiends should have been.

"Look like you need some help" comes a voice from behind me. I roll over and look up. Standing there is a tall man (or what could closely resemble a man) wearing leather armor and a bow in his hand.

"Who are you?" I ask

"I am Reshlavic but you may know me better as Michael..."
"That's funny my father's name is Michael but you certainly don't look like him"
"Ahh you mean this" he pinches a piece of his skin "this might make things easier for you" he closes his eyes for a few moments and a field of sparkling particles rose in a whirlwind around him when they settled my father stood there. "We always knew that that the gift may be passed on to you but I must admit I wasn't expecting a Pooka, I guess the fates are having a right laugh at this".
"What are you talking about? What's going on? What's this Pooka thing? What's this gift?"

"Right well this may take a bit of time..." he then went on to tell me about how I was a Pooka and what they were as well as a rough history of the Fae. I found out that he was a member of a kith called the Eshu the adventurous spirit of the world, which explains why he's an archaeologist. He also spoke of how occasionally the fae blood is passed on down the generations and can occasionally miss generations and come back twice as strong.

"What of mother? Is she one of us?"
"No she is not one of us she is a dreamer, she can see us for what we truly are but she cannot come with us to here, the last remaining sanctuary for the fae."

"What now?"

"Now we must see our local noble, he is a Sluagh. Show him the respect he deserves for you must undergo the trial to find your true name, it is known as the Saining and it will be very taxing on both you and him."

We travelled through the lands of dreaming for about two days on my way my father taught me of chimera and the other kiths, about the dreamers and the enchanted and about the portals that link parts of the world known as Trods. We came to a red cloth tent. When I walked in I was not surprised, I'd had too much to be surprised about the inside of the tent being the inside of a castle a hundred times the size of the tent. As I walk in a man wearing white robes approaches.

"Hi I'm her..." he cuts me off mid sentence.
"His lordship will see you now" looking at me. My father begins to follow me but is stopped. "His lordship will only see the boy, you may wait here".

I turn back to face my father with a worried expression on my face he smiles and says "don't worry I'll be right here, go on don't keep his lordship waiting". I move away towards the grand oak and metal reinforced doors and just as I am going to open them they are pulled inward revealing a huge room with satin drapes hanging from the ceiling and the strong odour of herbs and incense just like one of those Chinese herbal stores my father once took me. I walk forward listening to the background sound of tidal crashes and sea birds and breathing in the sweet smells that are lingering on the air.

BANG!! Go the huge oak doors behind me as the air itself closes them. I run back and bang my fists against the door and then instinctively realising that it is futile I stop and turn around then I hear his voice in my head. "Come forward, this way. Yes come this way. Follow my voice".

How exactly you follow a voice in your head was beyond me but I did attempt to humour this voice and walked forward. Eventually I parted the final silk drape to see a bald man sitting there cross legged wearing white ceremonial robes in the exact centre of a circle of multicoloured silken drapes. Around this man was a number of oil burners, which I assume, were creating the sweet smell that hit me when I entered. There was a bright light coming through a glass skylight bordered by a stone roof roughly a hundred metres off of the ground. I slowly approached the robed figure approximately 30 metres in and started to say, "I was told the lord of this castle was in here and I was supposed to meet him" but he cut me off halfway through and said "I know why you are here and of what castle do you speak?"

I am struck back by what he has just said and lift my head to say "this castle all around you!" but before I do I notice that I am no longer in the castle I am in a light wooden dojo thirty metres by thirty metres and a door to my left. Instead I ask, "Where am I? I just walked through a door in a castle to get here."

"Before I tell you your true name you must prove to me that you are ready for that knowledge by learning the truth about yourself and your past".

"Where do I start?"

"Ahh you may have spirit but you are going to need a lot more than
that to complete this trial". "First we'll work on your
inner powers, the powers innate to your kith. First sit cross-legged here in front of me, slow your breathing, and close your eyes. Listen to the sound of my voice, you are in a place where everything is calm, where you feel most at peace, you realise that you are not alone there is an animal nearby, what is that animal?"

"I can't see".
"Concentrate..."
"Wait... wait I see something, it's... it's a... it's a dog I think"
"You move closer so that you can see this animal, it and you are not afraid, you feel that it is part of you, because that is merely a reflection of your inner being".
"It's a wild dog, it has just eaten... it has just eaten a rabbit, I can taste it on my mouth".
"That's good Simon come back to me, you are returning to the surface, when I snap my fingers you will be awake with full memory of what has just happened... SNAP"
"Whoa that was weird, where did that come from?"
"That was your inner animal spirit which we have now identified to be a wild dog and that is what when we are finished with this part of the course you will be able to turn into".
"I'm feeling a bit woozy at the moment"
"Don't worry you're probably just hungry, you were under for nearly 5 hours, come this way".
"I'll just go and get my dad"

"No you can't, where we are now is apart from time which means when this is ended in however long it takes only mere moments will have passed for those outside but if you leave now you cannot re-enter, it's your choice".

For 10 days I trained using deep meditation techniques to find out more of this animal spirit. On the tenth day my routine changed, the Sluagh told me that when I confronted my animal spirit I was to imagine that it and I were part of the same whole and that we merged together. When I opened my eyes I had fur all over my body and a tail.

"This is new..."

"You have achieved the ability to shape change, but if you wish to do this nobody must see".
"But what of you... you saw me change." I look up and see his back to me.
"Ahh but I didn't see you so that is why it worked, but this is only the first stage, when we are finished you will be able to achieve that by the count of 10".

For a further 10 days I trained until by the 10th day I could change shapes by the time I could count to 10".
"Well done, now you are disciplined I will teach you to use the other powers that all other fae have"

For a further 20 day I trained and learned how to use my mind to move small objects, to leap huge distances, to fool the senses of others, and vanish from the sight of others.
"You have been a good pupil and you came to learn your true name and heritage I will tell you this if you use your techniques to defeat me in combat"
"What?"
"Fight me!"

We fought a long and bitter battle but eventually I came out victorious. We rested and feasted after the battle then he took me to one of the back rooms and told me to sit down. He took out a board and a cloth bag filled with letters then told me to quieten my breathing and concentrate and up most do not say anything no matter what happens. It was extremely painful even though he did not place a finger on me he moved his hand through the letters and pulled one out K. then another A. then another S, and another I. And another C. a second S. the letter T. another A. and finally N. all these together formed KASICSTAN. "That is your true name".

"As for your heritage let us go to the library". He turned around to face a plain wall and said, "Ha, remember that not everything is as it appears to be" with a wave of his hand the plain timber wall turned into a stone archway leading through to a huge room filled with books going to as far as the eye could see. He moved through the great hallway until he came to a large oak desk a chair in front and one behind of an old design like that found in royal courts, straight backed, with red leather cushions too small to be of any use.

"SIT" he instructed so I did

He stretched his arm out towards one of the bookcases and as if by sheer will alone he forced one of the books to fly out of the bookcase and cover the 10 metres between them and finally land between his grasping fingers. As he brought it around I noticed printed on the crimson red leather in Golden Italics was the letter K.

K

He opened the book about three-quarters of the way through without looking and then laid the book on the table. I looked from an inverted perspective and read from the top of the page "KASICSTAN". He read down through the text muttering to him-self when he came to the bottom of the text where is expression changed dramatically to one of fear then he slammed the book closed with an almighty bang and as quickly as it had appeared his expression of fear disappeared. He smiled and slowly sucked in a breath "my you've been busy, you own a property, fairly strong balefire in northern Scotland a small town by the name of Forres hopefully your memory will start returning to you as you arrive there. Now we are done, you may go."

I never did find out what spooked that old grump but that it was related to me spiked my interest. I stood up and turned towards the door "go on through that way and begin your voyage" spoke the old Sluagh. I opened the door that was to lead back to the dojo but when I opened it, it lead out to the foyer of the castle I entered so long ago and there sitting there was my father as if I had only been gone for a moment. I looked back to question that old man but when I looked all a saw was a 9ft by 9ft by 9ft masonry room, too confused to even be confused by all the events that had happened I walked over to my father.

"That was quick, did you get the answers you were seeking?" he asked to which I could only weakly reply, "Yes, I have to go north to a town called Forres". "We'll go and tell your mother". So we left and walked the two days journey from the Sluagh's castle to my house, the world seemed strangely distant from the one I used to know.

When we arrived home we spoke together and I told them what had happened, they didn't seem remotely surprised by this and said that they would always be there for me whenever I'm feeling down they are merely a call away an I could even come and visit but I have to follow my destiny and that destiny leads northwards to a small town called Forres. If that's where my destiny leads then that is where I must go. I said my goodbyes to the people I knew as family and said goodbye to my friends unable to tell them where I was going. I left by train and voyaged northward, the bright lights and beautiful colours of the cities I passed through amazed me. As I arrived in Forres station I saw a column of light spiralling into the sky, which amazed me heart and soul, then I realised this would be the greatest adventure of my life ever.

And the story begins...