Beltane Night -- Part 5 (con't)

Beltane Night (con't from part 4)

She thought she heard a very strange music in the distance, not like that of the ceilidh but different.
Not losing any of her furious pace, she strained to hear better, and moved, to distance herself from it at the same time, but it just seemed to get louder.....'Otherworldly...that's the difference, ...faery music....oh no!...it can't be! ...

Then thinking she might find some relief somewhere she thought, 'Now....what was, ... the rest of the rhyme?...'
The result was, "you canna throw your granny off a bus"....she shook her head and got a flood of frustration, resulting in a flash of warmth and no doubt red, ....in her face.
This was only met with her Nan's face coming back, as clear as if, she were right there, ... in front of her. A stern look on her face, and looking deep into Lindella's eyes, ...
followed by her voice:

" So never go out on Beltane Night to cross the moors alone,
You may just see a faery, ....and be...the last you've ever done."

So listen to your Nan, ....granddaughter and grandson,
And never go out ... on Beltane Night ...to cross the moors ... alone."

The darkness was much thinker now, ..'it can't be much farther', as she crested, and started the downhill side of the second of the knolls. Now she could see the lights, in window of the croft, where the parents and safe comfort awaited her, soft plumes of peat-smoke wafted up from the chimney. But the air felt dead and heavy, like before a huge gale would blow.
Then she thought she saw movement in the heather just up ahead, she was afraid to move,...and afraid to stop, so she walked on slower and more cautiously. 'It must have been a sheep', she comforted herself, and picked up her speed, a little again.

Suddenly the wind came up...blowing warm from one direction and cold from the other, growing stronger and stronger. She tried to brush the hair from eyes time and time again ,but it didn't help much.

Then....she thought a bug had flown close to her ear with and whirling sound and just as swiftly realized that was no bug. 'But what? ...bagpipes?....No...it cannae be'...but this time there was no denying it...it was there in the distance, ... with the tick-tick-tick and clicketty-clack of the ancient bones being played along with them. Unconsciously, she slowed her pace, ...enchanted by the music itself, ... she strained to hear it, in it's full beauty, ... above the overpowering sounds of the wind still whipping from one way then the other. How much time had passed?...Like coming out of a fog, ... she realized she'd slowed her pace, ... she almost bolted forward, ... back into a faster clip..

'Come on girl...you can see your goal...just get to it..' she almost running now, but at the same time too afraid to reach a full speed.

Nan had always said, "If you don't want to be chased....try, ... to never run, ... no matter how frightened you are!"

These words swirled through her head as she focused;... fighting the urge, to speed up more, slowing her pace so she would never quite reach the stage of galloping, the only thing she really wanted to do just now. Sweat now slowly making it's way over her brow toward her eyes. She could feel the salt of them, ...Or ... were those tears, ... induced by the wind maybe, ....or by fear?

As her foot finally hit the flat ground, her perspective changed and she thought there was movement there again, but this time directly in her path (which, of course was the shortest distance between her and home.)
Between the tall thistles and the darkness and the blurred tearful vision, ....her ability to really focus on anything now, ... was almost impossible.
It wasn't bad enough the pounding of her heartbeat so fast it was more like a hum, but what she saw next almost stopped it. Passed her home... in front of the 3rd knoll, ...there .... was the distinct string of twinkling faerylights, moving forward toward her home.

She gasped then whispered between her breathes, ..."the Faery Host Procession", ....she stood there dumbfounded ...
Somewhere in her brain, she tried to measure the distance between where the lights were, ... where she was, ... and how she could beat them, to the front door of her sanctuary, ....she mindlessly looked down at her feet. 'They're not moving....' then it hits her....' I'm not moving!'

She bolted forward, then once again remembered and scolded herself ...'DO ... NOT.... RUN!!!!!'

A second later....'To hell with that....I'M RUNNING!!'
Lindella ran ...she ran...like her life depended on it....which it did!

Nan's face appeared in front of her, shaking her head with her eyes turned down. Lindella literally ran right through this spectral vision, like splitting through a mist.