well i just wrote this protracted Post expalining my latest story and the painting that went with it but then along comes my cat anbd she promptly pulled out the power cord on my laptop so i lost it. Probaly for the best as I write too much anyway.  So heres the story and the illo . Please tell me what you think.

Thistle Plum and Snap Back

As it is told in faerie

By Orchid Lament

" So where ya going ?" Asked Thistle Plum of the shiny knight on the huge horse. " Im going to slay the ogre on top of the mountain."

Thistle giggled, ". Why?"

The knight looked confused " Why what? " He really did find Faerie's most annoying and he had little tolerance for there obvious ignorance.

 

" Why kill the ogre . What has he done to you.?"

"Im a knight am I not. That's what knights do we protect the weak and we slay things .What a stupid question. "

" OK its true The ogre occasionally goes down to the village and eats a few mortals but That's what ogres eat. Would you ask the ogre to go against the mothers wishes and not eat humans? Of course not .Besides as far as I know Snap Back is the last of the mountain ogres. And there are so very many mortals. If you ask me metal man You are the stupid one. "

The knight snorted along with his horse and quickened his gallop along the trail winding up the side of the mountain. It was simple matter for Thistle Plum to keep pace.

"Do you have any idea How big the ogre is.? He's big.."

The knight felt a trickle of fear slide up and down his spine. "How big?"

"Oh at least as tall as the tallest tree in this Forrest. " and he's as broad and leathery hard as the hardest granite .You might as well try tilting at a cliff face. "

" Im a knight I fear no evil thing. My true heart and my righteous soul will protect me. "

How do you know it's evil?

The knight laughed. "Its an ogre right. Ogres are evil they eat people. "

.

Thistle had to concede the point that from a mortals perspective ogres could appear evil.

"Fair enough but have you thought for one minute why would the Powers that be make ogres to begin with? They must serve a broader function beyond just eating? How do you know that this ogre might have some function that is vital to keeping this whole planet spinning. "

"Such as?"The knight growled back .Conversations like the one he was having with the faerie was exactly the kind of conversations he hated. He was getting a headache.

.

Thistle knew she was getting the knight angry but she was bored. " Oh im sure I don't know what Ogres do but I figure it must be important. I mean otherwise why would the Goddess have made them so formidable. "

"Im pretty formidable myself." The knight said puffing up his chest and sitting up straighter in his saddle.

Thistle had to admit he did look pretty impressive gleaming in the sun like he was but not so daunting that she didn't continue to fly along side him.

"Oh im sure you are quite dazzling amongst your fellow mortals. But do you see all these skulls and bones that line this path. Do you see the broken armor and the mighty machines shattered and strewn about.

For the first time the knight took notice of the omens that surrounded him and his horse dropped from a trot to a slow walk.

" The last knight brought a mighty army with him to destroy the ogre. None of them even made it to the entrance of the Ogres cave. before they were slaughtered.

"A whole army? "How?"

"I did it." Thistle stated flatly

The knight looked at the tiny faerie and her slender limbs and laughed." You!"

Yes me!" See all them mortals that climb this mountain don't take into account that the ogre might not be the only Fae they have to contend with . I come along and I chat with the Mortals and I take there mind off how far they have come up the mountain and I distract them from taking precautions and measures to protect themselves. Then when its too late . I tell them exactly how foolish they have been and invite them to make peace with their misguided maker. "

The knight looked around frantically drawing his sword. Thistle Plum flew up into the high branches of a tree and called down to him. " How shall I kill you? Shall I summon the wind to blow you off the mountain or shall I call to the rocks to fall and crush you Into a puddle of dumb?"

"The knight swung his sword In a arc. " Come out you little monster.. Ill squash you like a insect.

Thistle Plum Dropped from the tree and landed on the path in front of the knight She planted her tiny fists on her hips and her eyes flashed fire. . "Go ahead silly mortal. Here I am. "

The knight hesitated. " Don't make me hurt you."

Thistle stuck her nose in the air. " Don't make me hurt You " Im Thistle Plum Protector of the ogre of Squat mountain. And I have powers beyond what you can hold in your tiny head . Come on Knight spur your horse. I wont move. "

The knight was still " Why Protect the ogre. Its an ogre for pities sake."

.

Thistle Smiled slightly "He's a friend. He makes me laugh." Now charge or die where you stand.."

Thistle Plum crossed her eyes and struck her tongue out in concentration and spread her arms wide.

 

"Lords and Ladies of eternal knight.

Give me the weapons to fight.,

Tempests tornadoes Hail and rain.

Gi\ve this knight horror and pain. "

The faerie clapped her hands together and a spark of lightening flashed from her palms. But the Knight was no where to be seen. She could hear his horse flying down the mountain crashing through the underbrush. She knew that he wouldn't be back.

 

Thistle Laughed and shrugged and walked up the hill.

It was true enough that Thistle had powers great magical powers but none of them were lethal, or in the least bit dangerous. However Thistle could talk. And she knew humans hearts and souls better than they knew their own.

The bones and armor seemed to shimmer and the blow away on the breeze sliding down the mountain The Phantoms tore and ripped ,being made of Cobwebs and held together with dew.. Until the path was clear of the illusion of death and war.

Thistle knew that any mortal who would climb the mountain to pick a fight with the fearsome Ogre, when he himself had no personal stake in said beasties demise was a man full of fear. Men like that found it infinitely easier to face certain death than face their own cowardice. Rushing in with out thinking was much easier than stopping long enough to face themselves. Still one day a mortal would climb the mountain who had no fear and he would have a personal stake in killing the ogre and on that day. The Ogre would die. That would be the saddest day the world would ever know.

Such thoughts however didn't stick well in Thistles skull. The ogre was safe Thistle had `had some fun and sunset was coming .Sunset was very special time for Thistle and Snap Back the ogre.

"You can come out now you big sissy "

The mountain shook and the dirt moved. It appeared from a distance that The entire top of the mountain rose up. Snap back looked around quickly shaking dirt off his back Snap Back sat back on his haunches.

"Mortal Gone Snap back happy."Roared Snap Back. "Thistle Smart like squirrel. Snap back Dumb like rock."

Thistle sat down on the ground folding her legs under her. " You got to stop eating mortals. They get upset about that."

"Me sorry" ogre growled sincerly

Thistle patted The ogres arm. "I know Your sorry.. Can we get to work now. ?"

The ogre grinned a horrible grin all broken teeth and blistered gums. " We make dreams now.!"

The ogre pulled out a Huge silver wand the size of a wizards staff with a hoop on one end,. Thistle watched as the ogre spit on the wand and he blew into the loop at the top. A bubble emerged on the other end and floated up and away towards the purple streaked horizon .

Thistle named each bubble as Snap Back made them, "Dream of love., Dream of passion, Dream of abundance."

The delicate dream bubbles flew away seeking sleepers in there beds. And artists wide awake waiting for inspiration .

Thistle Plum The faerie and Snap Back the ogre made dreams and named them. They could do this forever and never tire of each others company.

 

So last night I was writing away fully under the muses thrall when Ilooked away from the screen for moment noticing that she had slipped out In her place she had left a line with a pretty pink bow on it. It read "Once upon a time there was faerie who believed in mortals. And sure enough like most little gifts the muse leaves me .It took root in my imagination and a story followed. It wrote as quickly as i could and when i finished the story I had to illustrate it and heres the result a gift for the Enchanted folk. "

A Mortal Tale

(As it is told in Faerie)

Once Upon a time ......

............there was a faerie who believed in mortals. Even though Her parents told her that mortals didn't exist and the "Tooth Mortal" was a made up story. Besides she was too old to keep leaving quarters under her pillow .If she needed more teeth all she had to do was ask .But the little Flower faerie persisted in her fancies and everyday she would wander through the enchanted wood hoping to catch sight of the elusive mythical mortals griimly going about there silly mortal lives in absolute misery.. She thought they sounded so cute. The water sprites mocked her immature beliefs and the dryads pelted her with sticks from the high branches of trees,Crying, " Look there's a mortal over there! Quick, catch it before it dies of old age." As the faerie grew older her belief in Mortals waned and finally on 376^th birthday. She disposed of her faith entirely and went about her adult faerie duties of merrymaking and capricious frolic.

One day while she was flitting between the trees she found that she was allot further from the faerie circle than she had ever ventured before. She came upon a tin roof shack.. Sleeping on the porch was the biggest fattest ugliest darn Mortal there could possibly be.. Or so the little faerie thought at the time.

The faerie at first didn't want to get too close to the mortal as it smelled very badly of chemicals, sweat, and beer. Its snore was ferocious and it's breath would make most dragons hang up there wings and take up sunbathing. Upon closer examination, The faerie could see that the mortal was completely inebriated and thus rendered much easier for capture, and transport. Finally she had proof of mortals existence and there was no way she was going to leave it for some nasty Pixie to discover and lord over her.

With a wave of her wand she shrunk the mortal to a size where he slid easily into one of the many empty beer bottles that surrounded him .

The little faerie stepped into the faerie circle a few hours later and announced " I have captured a real live mortal/" Well needless to say the Fae were astounded . And at the same time a wee bit horrified at the bloated little snoring creature in the bottle. The faerie's mother told her that she didn't want her bringing that dirty thing into her earthen hovel.. But the little Faerie was insistent and finally Mother let her take it to her room with stern instructions that under no circumstances was she to let it out. If she wanted to keep a mortal she would have to feed it and water it and take it for walks and if it piddled indoors it would be turned out. The little faerie girl thanked her mother and made sure the tiny creature couldn't escape its beer bottle prison. By placing a book over the opening at the top of the bottle. The flower faerie went to bed dreaming of Mortals everywhere and trying to imagine what a wonderful world that must be.

Sometime during the night the mortal awoke gasping for air and clawing at the brown glass walls that surrounded him. The panic was short lived however and the mortal died just before dawn.

The next morning The little flower faerie rose to gather then morning dew and herd a flock of carnations out of the garden that had taken root there the night before. Her chores so preoccupied her that she didn't even bother to check on her mortal. When the Faerie's faerie mother went to her room to straighten up her daughters bed. She saw that the mortal was lying belly up on the bottom of the bottle and wasn't moving. Mother shook her head grabbed the bottle and flushed the tiny corpse down the toilet.

Later when the distraught little faerie noticed that her mortal was gone she went to her mother and asked what had happened. Mother smiled sweetly at the child and said. " Well honey it probably escaped during the night. It's a domesticated creature you know. They do things like that. They aren't meant for captivity unless the mortal imposes captivity on themselves as they often do im told. The Little faerie was having none of her mothers excuses. And she swore that she would go out and find a replacement for Mortal pet at the very first opportunity.

459 years later, Mother faerie has flushed allot of mortals down the toilet and the little faerie never stopped believing in mortals or collecting them.

End

 

Hi everybody we just had our first Echated Folk Gathering . Now granted that there were five people there but the energy was fantastic. I tried not to put any restri8ctions on folk imaginations and there own ideas about thatw this Gathering should be about. I wanted to be surprised and wow was I. It was almost imediately agreed that this will be about Charity ,Theater, Music, Costumes and reaching out beyond the usual crowd. WE organized a plan to reach out to Gay Pride metaphysical Faires and places where Faeries might not nessaryly be expected to be seen.  Im loving that. Then right out of the blue The Owner of the Coffee Shop where we were meeting asked us on the spot to join in there Pagan pride festival. Now thats magical. The owners of the Witches Brew know from Adam .But they sure made us feel welcome.I supect that the owner might be more than a wee bit fae herself. and really wants to come play with us.

SO the upshoot of all this is lots of plans were made even more opportunities to spread our message of Magic and Family. and plus our ultimite super secret goal of which i cant mention upon pain of death. What is a gathering a Faeries without their secrets and mystery. LoL.

Now im hoping that what we just started here will spread all accross the globe. Its allot easier to do than you may think. Hint Hint!  Special thanks to be and Drew for all the fantastic support! This wouldnt have happened with the facilitation of Enchated Folk!

Carpe Noctum

Orchid

Thats right Enchated Folk Colorado is about to form Sunday at the Witches Brew Coffee House Accross from the old Lakeside Amusement park In Denver! Isnt that just soo cool! I sought permission to form an activities group here From Be and Drew a couple monthes back and just yesterday it all kind of fell into place. This will be an organizational meeting to decide just what the heck we wantr to do as an official Faerie circle! So if by chance you happen to be in Denver this weekend or you actually live here You are required by some cosmic law Im sure to attend and help us launch.This is just the begining ! I cant wait to see what happens next!

Carpe Noctum

Orchid

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9AT_oTjo-H8

The number three is such a magic number and Ive been watching my veiw counter on You Tube all day waiting for the magic number to come up. And the folks commenting on the videos are sooooo complimentary! Not to mention the comments that i get here and in my email. So far only three people dislike it enough to express it. One is a girl who thinks Orchid is sad. It makes her cry .Dont ask me why. I guess because Orchid seems to have such trouble in the human world. but I see Orchid as a kind of silly Don Quixote in a dress .Or maybe a reluctant Cyrano Or a self aware Elwood P. Dowd. If you look too closely i guess the afore mentioned charcters are tragic but the message is so life affirming.  The other guy threatened to do something with a jar vasiline that i dont want to think about . Though Im glad that im making people like him nervous. Believe me i know the effect that Transgender folk have on the so called Straights.Having been viciously attacked twice by gangs. We shake up there reality and call into question there teetering little belief systems. If im doing that out there in the world wide web then I say FABULOUS!

The most important thing Is I hope Im bringing to the world at large the messages that i think Faerie is all about. I wont elaborate on that too much as im learning that each person In Faerie realms has there own ideas on that. Suffice to say that Your all probably right. One thought that makes me more excited than anything else is. So far The Orchid Lament Diaries has taken me on an incredible journey full of all manner of Fae people and creatures. I cant even imagine where it will be in six months. Though i have an idea, and Its something soooo utterly splendabulous that my teeth vibrate just thinking about it and it doesnt get much cooler than Vibrating teeth.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9AT_oTjo-H8

Carpe Noctum

Orchid