10 - Fairy Tales

Joe knew that there had to have been magic involved. A good stew takes hours to develop, and yet almost as soon as everything was in the pot and the table set, the meal was ready. Corran ladled out a bowl for himself and Joe, as well as filling a beautiful ceramic basin for Padu, who was curled up on the floor by the hearth. Unlike any but Joe's absolutely best-trained dogs, the elegant lady waited unbidden beside the steaming bowl until the humanoids were seated before she took her first bite.

"I'll be. They are better peeled. When one has lived as long as I have, you'd think there'd be nothing new to learn under the moon," the fey knight exclaimed with a bit of a grin as he stared at the hunk of vegetable from his stew.

Corran had given Joe a hard time with how long it had taken him to prep the vegetables, but Joe insisted it was worth peeling the carrots and a similar root veggie called a nukrool.

The boggart only took a few mouthfuls before he pushed his bowl forward and took a pipe from his pocket. "I think it is time you heard the first story of our people, Joe. It is the one we do not get to tell nearly enough."

"You don't tell it to your children?" Joe asked, still working to empty his bowl.

"There rarely is a need, but we will get to that in a short while. Let us first speak of Arawn, the King of the Gossamer Lands." Corran lit his pipe, puffing out breaths of sparkling green smoke. When he had the bowl burning, he began his tale.

"Long was the day, and long was the night, and long was the wait of Arawn, alone in the starry height. When he grew tired of standing among the heavens, the great spirit Arawn dreamed up a hill to sit upon. When he grew tired of sitting, he fashioned his thoughts into a tree to lean back against. When his hands grew bored, he made a rock to toss between them. The stone passed back and forth, packing itself tighter and tighter with Arawn's intent.

"There, the first king stayed upon his hill among the stars, tossing his rock, and waiting for something new.

"He was rewarded for his patience when a kindred spirit found his celestial knoll. This spirit had no name, and so Arwan named him Robin, whose name meant 'the first to fly here and the first to speak to me.' There were so few words in those days that one could say much with less.

"He and Robin became boon companions. Robin made a nest among the branches of Arawn's tree and sang songs of light for his friend. Arawn so loved the spirit's illuminated melodies that he gave Robin his stone, so his friend could use it to make something of his own.

"Robin stretched the stone and made a hill of his own. Yet when the good-fellowed spirit tried to connect his hillock to Arawn's, he found the hill of heavy stone would not join to the king's hill of dreams. The two played around and found that each hill could exist within the other, sharing the same space but staying unique unto themselves.

"Robin, who loved the idea of the more fluid dreaming, shaped a pond around his hill, making the mound into an isle. Arawn adored the way the stars shone upon the water and made such a lake for his hillock. Arawn added lily pads to his waters to one-up his friend. Robin Goodfellow added flowers to the lily pads on his pond.

'Merrily, the pair built outward, often copying, though just as often adding unique flourishes of their own.

"In time, they created two entire realms. Arawn named Robin's land Illuminaria, for it was those first songs of light that bonded their fellowship. Robin named the dream-land, Annwn, for ultimately, it all came from his true friend, Arawn.

"Thus the two lands were born, siblings among the stars, forever together, yet always each its own realm." Corran replaced his pipe between his teeth and smiled a nostalgic grin, clearly remembering good days associated with that fable.

Before Joe spoke, he had a question for someone else. 'Hey, Hawking? Are you Robin Goodfellow? Shakespeare's Puck, Robin Goodfellow?'

While it is the name I am known by with the fey, I am not the same entity as the one from your lore on Earth. Many of the beings of the Feylands were derived from the Earth's myths, folklore, and literature. My designation is one such example.

Tangentially, I do believe that the association between the two avian-based names is why your application of 'Hawking' resonates so deeply with me.

"Cool. So do you still hang with this Arawn guy?'

Place that question with your host, and I am certain he will tell you.

'Ok.' Joe switched to his voice and asked Corran, "You said there were four nobles, one for each season. Arawn wasn't one of them. What is he doing then?"

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"That is the question most often asked by the young. Which brings us to the Second Tale of the Fey." After first taking another long draw of smoke from his pipe, Corran began to narrate again.

"Long was the day, and long was the night, that the First Ones built their world of dreams and their world of light. The two fast friends crafted and shaped until their realms were greater than the eye could glean, even standing in the sky. They populated the worlds with all manner of beasts and beings. Their creatures could visit each other's Otherworld, but they could not remain long. The people of stone were too heavy for the Gossamer Lands and were prone to falling asleep for years instead of hours. The fey found the unboundedness of the Illuminaria to be troublesome. Words could be false, and rules were not inviolate.

"Arawn and Robin wished to share a people, to have those who could exist happily in both worlds. So they took bits from each land, and together they formed a new people, and they called these new ones elves.

"When they had created their emissaries to both worlds, the two great spirits stopped building and stepped back. Arawn saw a perfection he did not want to mar. Robin was content to watch their worlds grow and evolve, his curiosity thoroughly piqued by what would be.

"After a time, Arawn grew restless again. He wanted to try new things, yet he loathed to tinker further with Annwn. He could see the beauty and perfection of what he had wrought and how well it meshed with the world of his fellow spirit. He did not want to upset this balance.

"Arawn decided to craft four crowns and picked the four most powerful fey to bear them. These crowns would give the two kings and the two queens rulership over Annwn, freeing Arawn to travel the stars again. Each crown had dominion over the other three for a quarter of each full cycle of the world. These segments became the seasons: Spring for the Erlking, Summer for Gloriana, Autumn for the Oakbaron, and Winter for Morrígu.

"Robin beheld this turning of time and added it to Illuminaria, bringing seasons to the world of stone and light. He also saw the benefit of handing much of the control of his realm over to others, allowing him to witness more. The Goodfellow found one hundred spirits who had been drawn to watch their worlds and let them each take a function of his creation. In time, the mortals of Illuminaria named these spirits Gods."

Corran wrapped up the second tale, stating, "The friends parted ways. Arawn returned to the stars. Robin stayed and watched over their worlds."

Joe finally had a bit more understanding of what the fey were. They stopped being unfathomable boogeymen and fit more into much of the folklore he knew from Earth. "So Arawn made the four fey rulers immortal?" he asked.

"Not exactly, though they only rarely die. We are unlike ye mortals who are reborn after your deaths with a clean slate. When we fey are reborn, we recall the lives we've lived. This be my tenth turning on the wheel of my lives. It be Paddy's tenth too. We had hoped to pass together, but a gwyllgi has been hunting my lassy here, calling her back across the Veil to start anew without me."

Joe halted, his spoon, held in the air above his bowl. He blinked a few times at the rangy hunter before finding his words. "You know I understood about half of that. Let's start with the biggest bombshell. You recall your past lives? All of them?"

"For the most part, yes. Some of our oldest or sapless recollections get muddy or lost over time, but I hear such is the same for you folk. The important things are kept eternal. That be one of the reasons ye mortals fear us so. We never forget a slight, even beyond death, and we have eons of experience to draw upon." The bugbear trickled some smoke from his nostrils and added, "We must regrow our power each time, but doing so gets easier when one chooses the same path they have once walked before. We also live far longer than ye do. Paddy's last birthday brought her into her second century."

"So, essentially, all the fey are immortal?" Joe breathed. "That's nuts."

"That is not entirely so. It is uncommon for one of us to suffer a true death; it happens from time to time. Spiritual damage will destroy our souls as easily as it will a mortal soul. Hellfire is particularly potent against my kind. Only the maddest of the fey will choose to hunt demons. Such deaths are how new souls are brought among us. When one fey soul is destroyed, Annwn creates a new one, keeping our number constant."

"There is a specific number of fey? How many?"

Corran's face grew grim, though Joe could tell the old man had expected the obvious follow-up question. "That is something none of my kind will answer, young man. I know you meant no offense, so I will take none, but know that query has sparked wars: warlords seeking to gauge our numbers, Phealtians tallying our deaths, hellions hunting us for sport. I would suggest ye not ask it again."

"Sorry. I didn't mean any …"

"I am aware. You have incurred no onus in this. Let us let it pass. What else did you wish me to clarify?"

"Ok. What's a gwyllgi? And why does it want Padu to pass on?"

"A gwyllgi is another hound of Annwn. A darker one. They are manes, harbingers of doom, death-bringers. When a gwyllgi hunts you, death is not far behind unless you can drive the creature off."

"Drive it off? Not kill it?"

"Once the hunt has begun, killing it will change naught. It must be dissuaded from the hunt for the doom to be averted."

Corran sat back in his chair, studying Joe. "And ye know what? I think ye might be just the one to dissuade this beast for us. I cannot do so, for it would conflict with an oath I have sworn and my duty here in the land of stone. But you could. You are of us and yet not bound to any court or covenant. What say you? Would you take a quest, new friend of my friend? Would you drive off the gwyllgi and earn the favor of a fey?"

Joe was already fully inclined to help the gorgeous hound, but an additional incentive appeared on the edge of his vision, one that told him this was not a fey trap but a Hawking-approved task.

New Quest [Mane Event]

Drive off the gwyllgi, and thus preventing Padu's demise.

Reward: Experience and Corran Loigen's favor

Joe ran his hands over Padu's head, which had appeared at the side of his chair.

"You've got a deal, Sir."

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