( This is a short story that was posted (originally) in 6 Parts throughout the month of April 2009 leading up to the celebration of Beltane Night (May Eve). It has been reformatted
in one stream for the present reader. I intend to continue the story of Lindella and her life ... so stay tuned .... to see what twist and turns her future holds.)
Lindella and the Faeryfolk
Chapter One
Beltane Night
This Beltane Night...
She had stayed at the Beltane Fire too long.
But, .... she didn't care. She had a great time, and everyone she'd known for years was there.
Everyone accept her parents, of course; and a few others in the local villages that were just like them.
'They'... all just stayed at home, stuck in their old Calvinistic view and the restrictive world of 'their chosen religion'. They'd have nothing to do with the 'Old Ways' of Pre-Christian beliefs of the Celtic Realm, ... like Faeries, Magic, the Old Gods, nature's omens or other "superstitious things".
Their views never did have much affect on her and how she chose to see the world; but when it came to her Mum's mum ..'Nan', it was a different story. Her Nan had always seemed to have a depth of understanding the world, that her parents and their religion lacked. There was a mysterious magical current running through the way her Nan looked at things, that spoke to her as a young child, and still intrigued her now as a young woman.
Chance would have it, that her parents were open minded enough to not put their own opinions and views of this, on to her. The young woman attributed this to her Nan's influence on the family, and how much respect her mother, had for her own 'Mum'. It was Nan herself, that had chosen her name,before she had come into the world .... 'Lindella', (a modernized version of the name for the Ancient Celtic 'Serpent of Wisdom' ). She was Nan's first and only granddaughter, from her own daughter and as she often said, "she had an ancient right, to do so".
Nan was very wise indeed, respected by all that knew her and by those that had only heard of her.
"Besides," .... Lindella thought, ...she was 22 years old, and "could make her own decisions about life; and live with the ramifications that would come from those choices, ... whether good or bad." Or so she had been told, .... for all these many years by both her parents, .... and her Nan. ....."
Every year, since she could remember, the locals would gather on the eve before that day of May 1st, ...hours before dusk, and head up the hillside to set a blaze, the Beltane Night's giant bonfires. Each of the villagers carried huge baskets of food and drinks, filled to the brim, blankets of tartan pattern (usually from the clan of that particular family), and musical instruments of every sort known to the Highlands. The crofters that had livestock, brought them along as well, to be driven between the bonfires in an 'act of purification', - to drive out any evil or disease that had set into them, from the (now dwindling), winter's dark and wild ways. Heading for the high ground the locals would make this seasonal migration, leaving the lower landscapes behind, so the Faeryfolk could have the freedom of movement, without any interference from the human beings, that would stay in the hills until dawn. It was common knowledge that the Faery Host would move across the land that night each year. And any one that cared for their own life would not dare to come in contact with them.
This year Lindella had been home from University, and decided to head up with the rest of them, for the first time. She was very happy she'd made the choice to go. Her only mistake was, to ease her mother's worry about it by, blurting out...." I'll just go for awhile ....okay? And I give you my word that I'll be home before dusk.....alright mummy?" The fatal part was saying she'd "give her word", or she would have stayed on til dawn, once she got there.
Regardless, .... the time had now come, for her to leave this grand scene, celebrating Rite of the Coming of Spring, and make her way back to the only home she'd ever known, and the comforts that had always been there for her. After all.... she 'had' given her mother 'her word', and anyone in the Highlands knows by the time they're 5 years old ....."that a man's Word is his Worth" as her father would always say...."you can justify killin' a man but you canna EVER justify breaking your word ....".
So sadly, she said her goodbyes, to all her life-long friends, and off she went down the hill.
Singing softly to herself, she half-danced, half-skipped, with her arms swinging gently and a twirl mixed in now and then. With the blaze from the fires lighting the sky and the music still strongly filling the air, she drifted down the hill to entered the woodland path that would lead to the open moors, ... and home.
She softly sang the lyrics from the music being played at the celebration; although now it was in a slightly fading volume, she could still hear the cries of jubilation occasionally rising above it.
And, she was still feeling 'right good' and had a glow from the mead that greeted her as she arrived and the drinks of whisky from the flasks, that followed throughout that early evening.
A carefree energy from the Gathering still pulsed through her body along with that of the golden liquid spirits.
Giggling slightly, while she walked, and recalling some of the interactions of that night, from those around her , that she knew very well, having grown up with them, in the village.
Like when Callum asked Katie if she'd like to 'Go Maying with him'. Katie's face went flush in a deep red as she lowered her head and looked up at him with her bright blue eyes through the wisps of her ginger hair, then slightly shook her head with a quiet "no, but thank-you". She was slightly embarrassed by this public display of affection from Callum.
Funny thing is...(Lindella laughed to herself) they both disappeared over the hill about 30 minutes later, not to be seen for quite some time after. When they had returned; they were looking a bit wrinkley and rosey cheeked. Everyone knew what they'd been up to, even though the couple thought they were being stealthy. But the locals took comfort in knowing they would marry sooner or later so ... all of those gathered there, just turned a blind-eye to the evenings interactions between most of the young adults present there.
Now, as the sound of the music and laughter was fading away fast, she again felt that maybe she had stayed at the gathering for too long. But it was so easy to do, most everyone from the surrounding villages were there, and there they would stay until tomorrow's sunrise. It already could be later into dusk than she knew, the fire was so bright at the gathering that she never even noticed, actually she'd not given it a thought at all.
As she emerged from the woods, ...
she stopped temporarily there, where the moor spread out in front of her, surveying the land and her route home.
Then, ... stepped from the woodland path onto the open moors and suddenly realized how late it was. Well into dusk, and the sun would set before she got home if she didn't hurry.
She knew this land like her own face, but given the night coming on so fast, it was a fact, that was hard to keep in mind. Their croft was just beyond the second knoll and within 2 miles, but from where she walked now it seemed more like embarking on an long ocean voyage.
This was after all ..... Beltane, ... she quickened her step, and started a rhythmic stride.
The sun was low on the horizon, and casting a strange red colour everywhere. The ground under foot was still a bit soggy from the heavy rains three days ago, combined with the dew falling now. A strange mists was rising up from the lowest lying ground of golden shade, (no doubt a optical trick from the setting sun) she thought to herself.
As she walked on, with long stride and fast pace, Lindella's eyes started to play tricks on her. She thought she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She whipped her head toward the movement but there was nothing there. Again the movement, ....but still she saw no reason for it. She soon grew tired of the strain on her neck from turning back and forth trying to catch whatever it was that she thought she saw. So she just quickened her step and kept her eyes on the path toward home.
After what seemed to be a lifetime she finally was close to the bottom of the first knoll. Suddenly she heard a horse whinning off in the distance, which stopped her trek, and she stood there straining to hear it again and get a fix on where the sound actually had come from. She didn't know anyone that had horses here in this area. Then shrugged it off to be a horse that had got loose from the celebration to make it's way back home. Lindella made her way up the first knoll, with what seemed to be some difficulty. She had walked this path many times in the past but, ...her legs felt so heavy tonight. Again she shrugged this off, attributing it to the whiskey still pulsating through her veins, and pushed on.
As she crested the top of the first knoll, her grandmother's face popped into her head. Nan was smiling, the way Lindella always remembered her, bright eyes twinkling and a deep and ancient wisdom flowing through them.
Lindella started her descent down the other side of the knoll, now eager to reach her home.
She could no longer hear the sounds of the Beltane celebration and a feeling of being totally alone, shot up her spine. She turned and could barely see the bonfire light through the tops of the trees.
' ...at least Nan's here with me', she giggled to herself, .... then there was a sudden flow of fear and a flood of warming in her chest,...'well then, ....I'll just have to hurry along', and she walked a bit faster. Or was it a swift falling forward, .... now with it being downhill, and feeling the alcohol a bit more, from fast clip to the knoll and the hard uphill climb so far.
Trying to distract herself from this feeling of impending doom, she forced her thoughts back to what had taken place earlier. Soon the first knoll and half her journey were behind her. But now the sun was sinking low, and her shadow was long and quickly fading into the darkness of the heather clad path. Then she thought she heard a horse whining in the far distance, again and strained to hear more....
"..it couldna be" she thought and picked her speed up even faster. The break in her cavalier attitude was just enough to make her shudder ever so slightly. All of a sudden she saw her Nan in her head again, from when she was young.
Soon her grandmother voice started to match the beat of her walk, in the words that she didn't need to think of right now. But nevertheless, they sounded off loud and clear. Spinning inside this head of hers, that was already a bit tipsy.
It was like her Granny had decided to hitch a ride under her cranium, and a lesson would come of it, for her, ... like it always had.
'Why now?'...she thought, ...'not here,.... not now!'
But it came on anyway...
" Never go out on Beltane Night to cross the moors alone..."
Nan said this with a very serious tone and now no smile was on her face. Lindella's heart skipped a beat and started to pound hard.
"...the Faeryfolk come out at dark, to dance around the Rowan."
Now her mind was surely playing tricks on her, ...or was it the alcohol ? 'I haven't thought of this old nursery rhyme in years..of course I've never been out on the moors after dark on Beltane either, ...and I am all alone.'
Lindella quickened her step, ... 'or,....am I ? '
"Stay inside, lock the doors and sit down by the fire,
leave the Wee Folk to their ways... and their own desire"
Nan eyes always grew darker and darker as she spoke the next few lines, and this time was no different.
"When seasons change and Beltane comes, ....then moves the Faery Host,
from Winter's Quarters cross the moors, to their fresh Springtime Post."
She moved faster and faster, now at the base of the second knoll, 'when I crest this hill I'll see my house' she tried to think of anything else,
but her Nan's voice kept pushing through and the rhyme continued...
"If ever a woman, man or child, should dare to catch a glimpse, ...
a curse will fall upon their heads, ...from these mischievous imps."
She tried to swallow hard so her heart would go back and pound away, in her chest, instead of her throat.
This once harmless verse of her Nan's, ... had suddenly become much more sinister than she had ever recalled from her childhood, but still her Nan's voice raged on...
" Some lose their sight, some lose their hair, a strong man lost his mind,
a woman once went barren... and, .............that lad; we never did find."
Finally, ...the base of the knoll....
On she moved as fast as she could, trying not to think of anything ....accept her goal. Just to get home, ...
where ... she was beginning to now believe she should have stayed.
The 2nd knoll was steeper and harder to climb then she'd ever experienced, and her breathe was well laboured by the time she reached the top.
"What the" ...her vision was blurred a bit but she could swear she'd seen a flicker of lights in the heath below, about halfway between the back of her house and the 3rd knoll beyond.
She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and brush her hair back, squinting to look again.
But ...couldn't find a thing there, ....'I must be losing my mind.....it's got to be fear-induced...all this'.
The more she remembered the more frightened she became, coupled with the fact that she'd had herself a fair share of whisky, ....didn't help much. She stumbled a bit, but never lost speed.
'What was I thinking staying out so late...' Again she thought she saw those lights but this time made a conscience decision to ignore it.
'Oh, ... what was I thinking....I been told these tales my whole life, ....so now .....am I destined to be one of those tales myself ... told to those, .. that come after?'
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 thicker 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...this can't 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 heart beat 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.
The sound of horses, whistles, bones, pipes, fiddles, and .....(is that ...the rumblings of voices raised in celebration ? )...all filled her head.
'Just a few yards now...' she thought, 'I'm going to have a heart attack..... Where is mum surely she's heard my running...felt the screaming out ...my panic, ...'
Then, ... finally, ...she was there at the door...she frantically reached for the door handle, ... struggling to open it ...
then just as she rushed through it ...she saw a torchlight and the small hand holding it....she darted inside, and slammed the door behind her.
Leaning against it and trying to catch her breath,....huffing deep and hard...heart pounding away, like mad and pulsing through the whole of her body, ...now that she'd stopped her furious run.
She felt such relief when she saw her mum standing facing the fire, without turning toward her she said, "Lindella....You're late!"
Her father sitting in his chair looked up from his book, with a calm, but concerned look. When her mum turned around, Lindella was almost struck with fear again, because she looked so much like her Nan, at that very moment.
"I know!", Lindella almost yelled out while still gasping for air, "and you don't know how very ... sorry I am about it!"
Then her Mum softened her voice and said calmly,
"So ....you saw them ... then?", and she came forward to comfort her only daughter., she wrapped her arm around Lindella's shoulder, and said, " Lock the door... come inside, " she gestured toward the chair,
" ...and sit down by the fire."
Her words hung in the air like a dead weight, ...all three of them just looked at each other, in shock, ...each of them knowing it was a line from the old Beltane Night rhyme.
Her mum shook it off and said, "Och weel, ...here, ... drink this..." She reached for her glass of wine on the table and handed it to the younger,
" and calm yourself."
Lindella was trembling so, she sloshed some wine onto the floor when first grasping it.
Lindella took a long gulp draining the glass of wine into her shaking body. Took a deep breath, and looked at her mum's face.
At that moment, she also saw a bright movement pass the window just over her mum's shoulder, ... it drew her attention.
She made her way passed her mum to the window, ...and there she saw it...
the whole parade of faeries moving, dancing and prancing, in a winding stream, some holding torch lights. Pipers, drummers, fiddlers, playing, dancing and singing, and not a single foot actually seemed to be touching the ground, but floating slightly above it. The wind whipping not around them but some how with them, faeries of every size and shape and age; were there passing right before her.
All being led by a beautiful almost glowing man and woman each on their Faery steeds, each decked out in the finest costumes Lindella had ever seen ...both faery and horse glittering in the torch lights.
She whispered under her breath, ...."The Queen and King of the Feary Host..." and as they passed by the window of the croft, the Faery Queen turned and looked right into Lindella's eyes, and smiled sweetly and winked, then bowed her head graciously to her.
Lindella was dumbstruck at this.
She turned to her mum, ... eyes wide in her amazement and she almost whispered, "Mummie ...are you seeing this ?"
"Seeing what, ..dear ?" her mum responded in a dreamy unconnected way.
" I always wondered ..." still in this far-away tone, " but I never had the nerve to take the chance...and see it all for myself."
And she looked up toward the ceiling, like in a dream state, and said ...
"Your Nan was a remarkable woman, ..ya know...", then she turned and looked deep into Lindella's eyes, ..." you'll always see "them" now.... "
Then she turned away, again as if looking into nowhere and added, in a low mystical voice like Nan's itself, ...
"Even when they're not there, ....you'll be looking, ...always looking..... And ...always surprised ...when you do see them, ... for the rest of your life."
"How do you know this mummie ?" Lindella had never heard her mum speak this way before, it was like she'd slipped into another realm, right before her eyes.
"It was the same for your Nan, ...ya know." as she moved to her daughter with an "all-knowing" look in her eyes, ... "That's why she made up that rhyme for us long ago, ...so we'd be spared from being the next."
"The 'next'..?" Lindella, couldn't comprehend how this night could get ant stranger...but had a feeling in the pit of her gut, ...that it was about to.
Then her mum stepped back to, in front of the fireplace, and stared into the flames, "Come here dear and sit down next to me." She motioned to the chair, Lindella came over and took her place there.
"It's time that I tell you, ...." as she said this she seemed to have tears in her eyes. Then she turned and looked so lovingly at her daughter's upturned face.
"To tell you, ...just, ... who your Nan really was, ....who I am, ...and my dear, ....who you are."
Lindella looked from her mum to her father, "What ?"
Her father smiled sheepishly and raised his eyebrows, ... then raised his book back up slightly covering his face, to formally back out of this particular situation and to let his wife handle it on her own. In a ...'her family-history-not-mine ' attitude.
Lindella turned back to her mum at the fire and said, "What do you mean, ... mummy ? "
Her mother took a deep breath and look at Lindella like she was a little child once again, ... to start her story.
From this night forward, ...Lindella's life would never be the same.
The events that had unfolded on that Beltane Night, changed her view of life forever.
It, of course, changed her future, but amazingly ....
it also changed her past.
The End...
or was it?
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