Since I have talked about the story I am writing for April's camp multiple times, I think I will talk about my writing process in this post. If you want an (up-to-date) post about the details of my novel, The Mystery of the Body Thief, you can check it out here.
This Camp NaNoWriMo I am focusing on the third draft of my novel, The Mystery of the Body Thief. I had initially planned to write the second book, Becoming the Body Thief's second draft.But I realized I did not plot out the second draft's plot, which could cause me to fall into one of the pit-falls of the first draft--having the characters aimlessly wandering. (I usually plot out my stories, but in that case I made the mistake in forgetting to plot and improvised it most of the way.)
My plan instead then is to work on Becoming the Body Thief during NaNoWriMo in November, so as to give me time to re-plot it and create connections between episodes. And in July, I will be working on The Haunted Sketchbook.
My Writing-
There are two storylines going on at the same time, which I ignored in my first and second write through of the story. This time around, I am giving the characters equal attention. There is a mystery in both of the plots, and I need to give clues to the reader in both of these without revealing too much. So, I am using detective shows I've seen with plots like that for inspiration.
Since the first day of Camp NaNoWriMo was yesterday, here are some things I've been thinking about while writing this draft. My goal for this camp is to write 20,000 words worth of rewrites for this story, and so far I've written 3,218 words.
I have been looking at Greek and Irish castles as models for the castle that Arisias lives in. Greek and Irish culture were the inspirations for my elves in general, and their religion. I don't want it to look fully Irish or fully Greek but a hybrid. I don't want someone to react to it like "oh, the elves are Irish" or "oh, the elves are Greek" but instead for there to be a mixture of both cultures, so that it becomes its own thing. This is a challenge, but it's going to be a fun one.
(Fiáina the goddess of nature in festive clothes).
I've been also working on a holiday related to the goddess, Fiáina. I only have one holiday figured out for that world, and that is the Festival of Magic. I want to make another one. It's not simply there to show world-building; rather, it has a purpose to the plot as a whole (that I can't reveal because of spoilers). So, I want to pay attention to what rituals would happen during that festival and what mythological importance it has to the goddess. And, I should add, this song by Spiral Dance was an inspiration to me for the holiday:
Spiral Dance's music in general has reminded me of my fantasy world, so it is neat that it inspired a holiday for my world as well.
I have been continuing to improve the descriptions of my elves.(I mentioned last time that I was working on this.) I've been avoiding mentioning that they have pointy ears. While it may eventually be mentioned off hand, the part of my elves that is important is not that they have pointy ears, but instead that they are deeply connected to nature--even if their duties do not lie in the protection of or caring of nature. So far, it has been going well, but like the writing I have done with description for my other stories, I am going to make several revisions before I get a perfect draft.
This year, I am also doing a writing prompt challenge, which involves getting to know your characters better. The characters I am doing it for are: Karleon (The God of Mischief), Salissah (The Goddess of the Moon), and Ophelia.
Responding to the prompts has been helpful in understanding the characters more and also allowed me to get into Ophelia's backstory. I felt as if I had not thought a lot about it, which is strange, because I feel I should have given it more attention, since she has been alive for so long (being an elf). What I've found out about her backstory has added nuance to her character in the current story, and how her past affected her, since in hundreds of years a lot can happen. And if some humans aren't comfortable with events that happened in their past, elves are likely to have some past regrets too.
I am also exploring Karleon's and Salissah's friendship. When I first made them, I thought they'd be enemies, but they ended up becoming friends. (Karleon is not on good terms with Fiáina; however,when around their devotees, they act more as colleagues even if they're not on good terms.) In regards to Salissah's and Karleon's friendship, I guess they became friends because wit (what Karleon has) and wisdom (what Salissah has) work well together.
While I am not currently writing All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again, I am working on the characters and the world. I've been doing a ton of research for it, but I've been thinking about two characters: Veraly and Seth. The story has many main characters (as opposed to only one), so, it is going to be a good challenge to plot out the series. The world itself is still in its early stages in terms of world-building (unlike Arisias's world). I have an idea about what I want to do with it, but I have not figured out everything yet.
(Moodboard for Veraly. Images from Wiki commons, Pixabay, and Pexels. The template I used to make this mood-board was made by Ayzrules).
As for the characters, Veraly is a performer and Phoenix's (adoptive) sister. She has water magic and enjoys performing arts of different kinds. I've been thinking about what creative things she does and how those creative things affect how she views the world.
And Seth is a shapeshifter spy. He's also incredibly religious, and the reason why he is doing that is due to that world's religion. An object important to their religion was stolen, and he has to find it.
And I want to figure out how he feels about being a spy given that he is religious: how he handles it, whether there is guilt from it, and things like that.
Both these characters I am trying to develop more, so hopefully I will learn more about them too, along with their world. Even though I am not writing their story at the moment, I thought I would share.
Playlist for The Mystery of the Body Thief
And also since I shared the playlist I made last year's camp, here is the playlist for the novel I am currently working on.
Fun (Non-Writing Related) things-
* In March, I went to an online S.J. Tucker concert: it was so fun. And as a songwriter myself, it was fun to find out that she too was inspired by books in writing her music. Since the concert was collaboration with a library, there were a ton of book recommendations that came with the songs she sang.
I've previously never found a way to go to concerts for the singers I love (since they are either in a different country or don't do concerts at all), so finding out about this was so fun and I am glad I went. It was a fun way to celebrate spring equinox. She ended up playing "Rabbit's Song," which was a song that served as an inspiration for Karleon's myths in the myth collection and was one of my favorites of hers. And I was introduced to some new (and unreleased) songs that I had never heard before.
One of these was "Kashkash," which was inspired by a book, In the Cities of Coin and Spice.
*
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_You_Like_It#/media/File:Rosalind_-_Robert_Walker_Macbeth.jpg)
I attended and participated in a dramatic reading of As You Like It and read some parts in it (Rosalind, Celia, Orlando, and a few others). I had not read or seen the play in a long time, so that was fun. It was fun to perform with a group again and to play different roles. It makes me want to try to get Rosalind or Orlando as a part in a full production of As You Like It sometime.
And that's the end of part one!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------How was your March? Are you doing Camp NaNoWriMo or another fun activity this April?
This took me a long time to make, because Premiere decided to have an error, then I finally fixed it and then another error popped up and I spent time fixing it. But, now I have finally finished it. So, I hope you enjoy it:
For those who don't know, Phoenix is one of the many main characters in an ensemble story. Unlike Annabelle who is the main character, Phoenix is one of many characters who each share the spotlight at different points throughout the novels. I haven't really introduced the other characters yet. But, you did get a sneak peek as to who one of the main characters is (i.e. Veraly) in this video.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you could dye your hair any color, what color would you dye it? And what is your favorite place in nature?
For my blog's sixth anniversary which happens on the 9th of March, I decided that this year I will do a double character interview where my characters, Annabelle and Phoenix, will be answering your questions and reacting to your impressions. The characters are from two different stories, so they'll provide contrasting points of view. I plan to do more interviews in the future with other characters, but I thought I'd start with Phoenix and Annabelle.
The character interviews will be two separate videos. So you can get creative with your questions, and share all of your initial impressions of their characters with them. If you don't know much about Annabelle or Phoenix I suggest checking out their character sheets here and here.
To leave questions, comments, and wild guesses about their character to get included in the video, you can either leave them in the comments section down below, or fill out the form below. If you wish to be left anonymous, please either comment anonymously or fill out the "your name" section of the form as "anonymous" so Phoenix and Annabelle know what to call you.
I decided to do another response to Ginny Di's POV (Point of View) RP (Roleplay) videos. There are now more videos to choose from: such as bard, a prison guard, and a mage. This time I decided to respond to the prison guard . In my last responses, I had my characters talking to a villain.
For Gletta, this happens in the prequel before Eyes in the Night takes place. Note, that I could not find a wig that matched her hair in canon, but, this doesn't mean her hair suddenly became shorter...It just means I do not have a wig that looks like her hair.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What would your characters (or you) do if they got arrested? Have you ever dressed up as one of your characters?
-Quinley
P.S. My YouTube Channel just reached 3,000 views!!
I have been working on songwriting for a while, but never had any songs to share. Now I finally do. (I wouldn't say either of these songs are at the point where I would make a music video of them or post them on my youtube channel, but I feel comfortable with sharing them on my blog and BandLab).
This song is somewhat connected to All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again, because it is about a shapeshifter, but no exact character from the story or world. For this song I was given the prompt of "Fantasy/things are not as they seem" and went ahead to write a song about a shapeshifter. There are still some things I want to change about it here and there (hence why I will post a second version in the future).
This song firstly was inspired by a painting called Adieu by John William Waterhouse,
and when putting it to music was inspired by "Arms of the Ocean" by BlackBriar, and "Jolly Sailor Bold" in particular Ginny Di's and Ashley Serena's covers. I decided I didn't want a background track but wanted something in the background. I included the sound of waves and thunder, so that you felt like you were there at the ocean.
Click here to read part one if you haven't already
Having had used a bouncing ball as a test, I decided to apply what I learned by trying out layers for the first time in Adobe Animate. The program allows you to have a lot of layers.
In this project I ended up using four different layers: one layer for one of the figures, one for the other figure, another for the background, and the last one for color.
A lot of the animations I made prior to this were not colored. I only used one layer and redrew the background each time I drew a frame, which was very tedious and at the end didn't make it look very good. Which is why I'm glad this program allows you to have more than one layer.
I also did an animation of Elm and animated her hair moving in the wind:
I really like how it turned out. I used four layers for this one: one for the color, one for the hair, one of the figure, and one for the background.
In the future I plan to post animations that are longer than a few seconds. For now doing animation consistently and doing short animations like this, helps me get back into the habit of animating.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Of the two animations I made which one is your favorite?
Yesterday (March 9th) was my blog's anniversary, and while I will be doing more posts like this (videos of me drawing digitally) in the future, I thought I'd introduce this new style of post through my blog's anniversary.
In the last post I shared a drawing of Phoenix that I was thinking of turning into a water color. I ended up not doing that, because I was worried I'd mess up the drawing.
While I didn't include this drawing in the last post, I thought I would recolor the drawing of Annabelle (above) that I thankfully had taken a picture of because the drawing got messed up.
I didn't make a post for the holiday season last year (2020), but that was because I had this post planned which took a little longer than I intended for it to take. Instead of one video I planned to post two. And with filming and video editing, uploading and everything, it took a lot longer than oringally I assumed it would.
Ginny Di has done three POV videos for Dungeons and Dragons character development: one that is a healer, one that is a matchmaker and one that is a villain. The videos are fun to watch, because they make you be in character and answer the questions in character, rather than answering the questions for your character. While these were originally intended for Dungeons and Dragons characters, I thought they would also work for the characters from my novels. Even though the villain video does mention a few Dungeons and Dragons terms it can still work really well in a Fantasy setting. So, I decided to use my two characters, Phoenix (from All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again) and Annabelle (The Lady Annabelle mystery series), and make them react separately to being interviewed by a villain.
In Phoenix's interview, this is long before he is working for Reyvon, so he has no job and is desperate at this point.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Who should get the job? (Annabelle or Phoenix) and why? And of the two of them, which do you think would be a better villain?
I have two acting videos that I am in the middle of editing, which I hope to post sometime soon. In the meantime, since editing for those kinds of things takes so long (and since some of the footage got messed up), I am going to present for you my most recent drawings instead:
A water color painting of Merricat from We've Always Lived in the Castle.
I really like how her hair turned out.
I had intended to turn this drawing of Phoenix into a water-color painting, however, I really liked how it turned out as a pencil sketch so I didn't want to paint it and mess it up.
I was thinking it would be neat to paint it digitally in the future.
I am not going to give out all the information for this yet (because this is something for a gothic story that I am plotting at the moment), but I used this doodle as a way to illustrate my character, Matilda's point of view. This doodle shows what happened in the story from her perspective, at least at the moment what I know of it.
And this follows the same theme. But this time illustrating her brother, Felix's point of view.
A painting of Chirara, I really like how it turned out, especially her hair.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which sketch or painting is your favorite? And would you like to see me digitally paint my drawing of Phoenix?
I wasn't feeling well one day, so I did a whole lot of drawings in order to make myself feel a little better, and because of that I thought it would be fun to challenge myself and draw my characters in different styles or doing different things than they would normally do. This is a little bit like the post I did previously, except that I'm using pre-created characters and asking what they should be doing instead of creating a totally new character.
Since NaNoWrimo has a thread dedicated to polls, I thought it would be fun to do polls that could produce drawing exercises for me. What I did was ask people to vote for which character I should draw, and then ask them what should happen in the drawing in a separate poll.
And these drawings are what came out of it (unless I say otherwise all of these were majority votes):
This is a drawing of Elm which I decided would be fun to draw in the Disney 2D animated style.
I really like how it turned out.
Since Annabelle detests dresses (for reasons that you will find out in the future),
I thought it would be interesting to draw her wearing one that appeared in my book.
Even though she really doesn't like it, I still like how it turned out.
Phoenix in 2D animated drawing style, this time mimicking that of Tangled the Series.
This is a drawing of Elm using her powers which are her singing abilities.
Her singing has magical attributes, which can cause the world around her
to dance, among other things.
**trigger warning: This drawing contains a bit of blood**
Since Halloween was soon...ish when I drew this, I had Detective Inspector Time investigating a creepy (and haunted) house.
**end of trigger warning**
This one was particularly hard because Annabelle is a morally gray character and turning her into a villain is difficult. Annabelle can be seen as either, and she is often seen as a threat by those around her. So instead of going full out evil villain, I turned her into an assassin instead. She is a detective (in her story), so making her a murderer would be completely different.
Even though this was not the majority vote, I decided to draw Phoenix as a villain anyway. Interestingly enough, everything he would wear as a villain would be raven-themed. And he would have fun being a villain. Also, for some reason I imagine him stroking a raven or crow like most villains would a cat.
This drawing also helped me figure out what would cause Phoenix to go from a protagonist to an antagonist.
Someone at one point thought it would be neat to see Annabelle in Steampunk clothes.
So I ended up drawing her that way, even though it was not the top vote. And I have a feeling she would like the Steampunk outfit a lot better than she did the dress from earlier.
This is the second in the series of Quarantined Characters, if you wanted to read the first installment go here.
Greetings Adventurers!
This is the second installment of Quarantined Characters, I'm hoping to hear from you (the readers) what short stories you would like to see about these characters while they quarantined. Because one aspect of this series is going to be short stories about the characters in quarantine.
So, let's stay home, wash our hands and see what the characters are doing:
Oak
Oak is used to being away from civilization with her fellow hunters, and the goddess Artemis herself. So she would be distanced enough and secluded from humans.
Suppose something happens and the hunters have to take refuge in a cave, because
a wild beast (or a natural disaster) drove them there and they need to regroup and make a new plan. In that case, Oak would continue her lessons from Artemis on weaponry, wildlife, and other things, while she and the other hunters were trapped.
Artemis would also help her carve arrows from the
supplies they had around and help her prepare mentally for the next hunt.
Riona "Fire"&Celtiere
The fairies are used to being away from the human world for a while,
so they would usually be very good at keeping social distance from humans.
However, keeping a distance from other fay is unusal. They are comfortable with their own kind, so when the need to social distance happened the fay were not at first willing to stay away from each other.
For Riona and Celtiere social distancing isn't a problem. They would exchange stories around the magical fire. Riona would share her stories of battles she fought and Celtiere would tell stories he made up on the spot. He might also make some up about his parents, who he never knew.
Crystal
Crystal is a Neriad, and is a huntress of Artemis. While they are sheltering in the cave,
she would help heal other hunters who may have been injured in battle.
She would continue her studies with Artemis in nature healing.
She would learn how to use herbs and other natural things she could find around the cave they are hiding in.
Crystal would also help Oak create more arrows and sharpen swords,
so they are prepared for the next hunt.
Detective Inspector Time
Time would be bored out of his mind, with no new cases to solve with everyone stuck inside.
He would be having trouble figuring out what to do, and everything in his life would feel like it was out of place. He would try and fail to write something he liked, even though he isn't much of a writer. Instead, he would end up using the torn pieces of paper to make paper balls and throw them against the wall or throw his daggers out of boredom. He would miss the exciting part of being a detective. He would be reminded by Annabelle or Marigold, both of which would probably would have found a creative way to be a detective during this time, that he should probably use the resources he has to be a detective.
So with the resources he has he would...
1. Write letters to people asking if any suspicious activity has happened.
2. Make a dart board out of unused love letters (this isn't really part of solving cases, but it is at least worth mentioning).
3. Imagine chasing down a criminal, and do target practice. (He will assure you that it will indeed be useful in the future).
4. If any suspicious activity has happened at all, he will investigate from the comforts of home, and continue to interrogate people through letters.
Juniper
Juniper has a hawk, whom she befriended, who helps her during the hunt.
She has found a way for there be communication with the other
dryads by having her hawk send messages back and forth. She wants to make sure the threat which they are dealing with is either gone or that they are able to hunt it down and kill it, if it is a monster.
While in communication with the other dryads, she would talk to some of her friends
who love talking to her about how things have been going with her. And she would tell them that she has continued her lessons with the goddess, Artemis, during this time. And that she is learning to be one with nature, instead of thinking she is above it
like mankind wants her to think.
Iris
Supposing Iris wasn't able to leave the temple because something was going on,
she would still continue her trainings with the other priestesses.
If the threat required them to battle something, they would be among the first defenders
to fight, after all they had years of training to act as defenders for mortals in physical form from the goddess. The priestesses are not only people who people turn to for religious reasons, but also
for reasons of protection, because they had been the shield maidens of the goddess and helped defend the gods in one of their past incarnations.
Assuming Iris didn't need to be called to battle, she would be in prayer in the temple.
She would ask the goddess for strength and protection. She would also practice meditation, hoping to get a message from the gods and goddesses through it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Who would you rather be quarantined with? And whose quarantine would you like to see me write a short story about?
-Quinley
Since we are going to be quarantined for long a time. I decided I would make a series revolving around different characters being stuck at home. Not necessarily because of the same virus but because of something else in their world. Even though it is not talking about this quarantine, I am going to be calling it "Quarantined Characters." But, this won't just be talking about what the characters will do; it might also involve doing drawings, short stories, and stuff like that.
And since I have a lot of characters, some of them even in totally different genres from the others,
I am dividing this post up into parts.
Let's begin: Elm
Elm is a dryad and spirit of her tree. Because of this she would not be afraid about being stuck in it for a while. But what Elm would do if she were ever stuck in her tree would be to practice her singing and learn to play a musical instrument that some human had left behind.
Annabelle
Rules to Annabelle are more like guidlines anyway, so she would have difficulty following them strictly, especially since her father, Lord Oberon, would be so cautious about making sure she stays inside. He would be cautious perhaps to a ridiculous extent. And because of this, this would be Annabelle's first plan:
1. Disguise herself as man in order to be unrecognizable.
2. Grab her detective equipment, and bring it along with her.
3. Tie her bedsheets together to get out through her window.
4. And finally once she is down, go solve homicides.
However, suppose she isn't able to escape the castle at this time, because something happens and she realizes it would be bad to try to escape* or Oberon reinforces the guarding of the castle.
She would instead respond to letters from people who had murder cases for her, and she would do this under the name of her detective alter ego
She would also in her spare time practice self defense, as she wouldn't want to be defenseless when the world is on edge, and it might be life threatening. Like everything she does, she would have to make sure she does it in secret, because a lot of people in the castle would consider it "unladylike."
*Because of the ongoing threat that caused everyone to have to stay inside. Not because she would ever want to stay in the castle like everyone wants her to.
Ashalena
If she was stuck inside for a long period, Ashalena would spend her time drawing and sketching.
The things she would find most relaxing to draw during this time would be wildlife, nature, and landscapes, because even if she can't go out to see them, she would still like to imagine them.
She would send her drawings to people during that time, to brighten the mood of the situation. She also would include handwritten notes with the drawings she sent to them.
She would also pray to the gods that the threat (whether it be fires, flooding, illness, or monsters) would leave soon. Ashalena would ask the priests and priestesses through letters if the threat is at all an omen from the gods, and if so what it means, and what person angered the gods enough to cause it. If you are the empress of the country, or are going be the empress, you do have to talk to the gods or try to communicate with them, especially if the country depends deeply on it.
Aurinda&Ichabod
Aurinda would probably end up getting stuck with Ichabod--yes, whether she likes it or not.
And since they already have a lot of problems on their hands, with ghosts like the The Headless Horseman, Aurinda would make sure that they had as many battle or escape strategies as possible, so they could make it out in one piece. She learned a lot from fighting in the American revolution. Meanwhile, Ichabod would be hanging up garlic in various places, as well as putting his other lucky charms everywhere. Given that Aurinda and Ichabod don't tend to always agree on everything (more often they don't agree about magic, and whether or not it is good or evil) they would probably be arguing with each other from time to time, which is not very good if there is a threat of death.
Phoenix
If Phoenix was stuck inside he would cuddle under a blanket and write poetry. He would also write letters to his best friend, and ask how she is doing. He would work on improving his book of poetry that he wants to publish, editing and/or rewriting his poems while he is sitting in his room.
If anything, he would be doing a lot of writing to make his stress go away. (After all being stuck inside for a long period of time is stressful.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What would your characters do if they were quarantined? Would they panic or would they remain calm?
-Quinley
To celebrate I decided I would post drawings of my characters of color. In Fantasy there tends not to be as many characters of color, which is sad, but hopefully there will be more stories that do have that in the future.
The first drawing is of Elm, my dryad character.
I really love how her hair turned out in this drawing.
The second is of a character who doesn't currently have a name yet, but she is from
The Silver Key, and is a priestess and martial artist.
This character who doesn't have a name yet, was actually inspired by
the fact that Halle Bailey is going to be playing Ariel in the live action Little Mermaid.
Even though the character herself is not Ariel.
A drawing of Elm dancing in the rain, I really love the way this turned out.
As for this drawing, I thought it would be fun to draw her in a pose that showed she was ready to fight. In my book, she is a very skilled marital artist and someone you probably don't want to anger or hurt her friends.
Happy Holidays everyone! Since there are so many holidays celebrated during winter, and I didn't want to make someone feel left out by mentioning only three or four, I decided that I should write a story that captures something that all those holidays have in common...which is love. I also decided to set it in the world of my novel, The Silver Key. By doing this, I will show how people (humans and shapeshifters) who would usually be enemies, can be friends around this time of year...at least for the time being. "The Fairies or the Faylena" is talking about winter holidays celebrated in my Fantasy world. I haven't figured out the exact dates since they don't fall at the same time as our world's holidays. But one thing I do know is that these holidays are celebrated during winter. My inspiration for the story was this song: The Fairies they Draw Near
I imagine songs like this played (by local musicians) during the holidays in the world of The Silver Key. Though these two holidays take place in winter in two religions that celebrate fairies or faylena, I believe there are other religions in the world that celebrate the fairies or faylena (just not at the same time of the year.)
So, let's begin the story.:
The Fairies or the Faylena
This is the night, where many sit by candlelight
Hoping to get a sight of a fairy in the pale moonlight
Every child will tiptoe over to the window, hoping to see a
fay down below.
Far above the trees the fairies fly, into the night sky
All their voices are heard, and many rejoice at hearing a fairy’s voice.
Round the bend they fly, and some hope to apprehend,
In the starry sky they float, and many writers wrote about the fairies and how they were beautiful beyond compare with wild wispy hair,
Even the bards let out a tune, about the fairies seen above the moon,
Soon the winter’s frost is gone, and the fairies leave at dawn, to promise to return when the frost returns and laces the winter ferns.
—Phoenix
She sat outside on the steps of her apartment and looked down at the streets.Some houses had candles on the windowsill at this time; on others there were none, or the candles were snuffed out. Out the window of some of the houses, flowers were hanging: they were blue, silver, and sometimes even pink and yellow. While other windows had paper stars and even rainbow fabric flying out of them.
She wasn’t sure when the fay would come, but she was excited about it anyway.Few have been said to see the fay during this time of the year. Some waited out all the night until sixteen o’clock and never caught glimpse of them. But, she had a hope they would show, surely fay would take an interest in humans, wouldn’t they? For they were said to come every year, she reminded herself, and she had heard that some passers by had seen them, once.
She picked up her match box, and walked down the road singing tunes to herself, looking around, and lighting the matches as she went. Her daily wages she had earned had paid for them. She lit another match as soon as the second had gone out, as she ventured into the dimly lit street. Several carriages passed by her: some of the passengers looked out the window, but only for a moment, until they looked back at the driver and told them to keep going.
She passed store windows. Some stores still looked open, while others looked closed and locked for the holidays. She stood to the side of one of them that appeared to be open, and she opened its green door, closing it once she got inside. She exhaled, glad that she could get some warmth that wasn’t being generated from her match. She walked around the store—elaborate dresses were hung there. Some had feathers sticking out of them, which had an unusual feeling to them, as if they weren’t even normal bird feathers. She eyed it for a moment, and then walked over to an another one, it was long and blue and a lot less elaborate than what the one from the feathers had, but yet intricate patterns were woven into it.
“Do you like it?” came a voice, she turned around, she nodded her head in the spur of the moment. “Well, the reason you might, it was because it was modeled off the dress Ashalena wears.” He nodded his head, he then pointed her in the direction of the feathered dress, “and those feathers? You may be wondering where we got them, well you see, someone gave them to me, and told me that they once were owned by a shapeshifter.” She nodded and looked down at her hands, she hadn’t exactly wanted to go in and look as if she wanted to buy any of the clothes, in truth she didn’t.
“And this.” he said pointing to a pink dress, “was previously owned by a rich noblewoman—“
“I’m sure that’s wonderful!” she stuttered, stepping off to the side.
“Oh, well, do you think you would like to have a dress made to look like any of these? I’m not sure if we could get shapeshifter feathers, but we could try—“
“Thank you, but I am in a rush to go somewhere!” she said, feeling as if she had walked into the wrong shop. She did not have nearly enough money to buy any of these dresses, no matter how beautiful they looked. She smiled, rather falsely “I just came in…to, get out of the cold.” She put her hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it, and walked out into the cold once more. She wrapped her shawl more tightly around herself, she wasn’t sure if that would help in the slightest. She decided that she would walk to the woods in hopes of seeing a fay, even if the forest were swarmed with shapeshifters. She didn’t care as long as she had a chance to see the fay. She walked even more until she had left the city and reached the dark forest, her feet were sore, but she saw that the trees around the forest were tightly growing together and moss was around their roots.
She continued to walk. Even though she had been told many times that fairies were more likely to be seen where humans thrived, she had a sense that they would be in the forest tonight, as she had also been told they had a connection with nature. And it didn’t make sense to her for them to be in the city, even though some had seen them there. Besides not everyone in the city had seen fairies, some had said they caught glimpses of them, and she wasn’t sure if she fully believed all of them. There came a sound of something walking near her, she heard the sound of branches cracking underneath their feet, her first thought was that it couldn’t be a fairy, what she had heard of fairies was that they walked on the air and not the ground. But whatever it was she assumed it was a shapeshifter, shapeshifters were known to roam the woods and were very hostile, very, very hostile she had heard. She looked around, no thought to pray to the god of protection and safety came to mind (though that probably would have been of use). Her only thought was of the dress she had been shown and the feathers. The sparkling feathers that had been sewn into it came to mind, it wasn’t a ridiculous thought though, she knew whoever had got the feathers surely had come across a shifter and survived. Though she wondered how exactly they did that…. She didn’t wonder for much longer, for a figure appeared. They were wearing leaves, and there were a few of them in their short, black hair. But something was different about this figure beyond wearing leaves. Which was highly unusual for her to see, since she lived in the city and no one she knew of walked around wearing them or remarked on leaf-made clothes as “high and wonderful fashion." But the fact that they were not carrying a weapon of any sort brought a small burst of comfort. Even though she looked around for any sign of hostility, there was none.
“…you’re…you’re…not armed!” she muttered out loud expecting the shifter to not understand. The shifter stared at her for a moment and then looked down at their arms and gave a quizzical look, “oh.” she muttered, “you understood…sort of.” The shifter walked over to her, or rather scampered across the ground and stood close to her, surveying her every move and staring at her with their dark green eyes.
“What I meant, is that you aren’t carrying a weapon. You do, however, have arms.” The shifter looked at her, and let out a few sounds she didn’t completely understand. But they reminded her of the sounds wild animals made, and strongly reminded her of the chirping of birds. Then they turned and looked up at the sky as if waiting for something, something to come.
“…I wonder if the fairies will come this way.” she thought to herself, perhaps a little too loudly, the shifter looked over at her, a look came across their face one that seemed to understand the word, but not quite agreeing with it, but now the look was far from quizzical.
“You mean the faylena—“ they said, in a voice that still had a remnant of the bird sounds it had made before.
“You can talk!” she nearly shrieked, she had half expected the shapeshifter to remain talking in an incomprehensible language, and she found herself to be a bit surprised that they could even speak her tongue. It was a guilty feeling surprise like she had lacked the knowledge or thoughtfulness to even believe the creature had intelligence beyond the ones of an animal“in my tongue—“
The shifter sighed, “yes I am able.” they replied, their voice still following the pattern of a bird’s song. “Anyway, you mean the faylena.”
“What is the faylena?” she asked, feeling a little upset that she had been corrected on what they were called, of course they were the fairies, what else would they be?
“They come every year from their land, where nature is ever in bloom, where nothing disturbs the peace.” they replied, the shifter looks up again, “the feylena are kind and just, and know no evil—“
“you mean the fairies.” she replied, feeling like she could end up teaching the shapeshifter what it really was, “they come from a land far away, where no human or shifter can go, but they return at this time of the year to bring peace and joy—“
“…Aren’t we talking about the same people?” asked the shifter, she bit her lip,
“no, we aren’t.” she replied in the single moment. “Yours are obviously some shapeshifter deities that…that,are well…related to nature.”
“What?”
“Yours are shifters of sorts.”
“No, they aren’t. I mean they can be seen in different ways by different onlookers…but they aren’t shapeshifters, or gods, for that matter. They are something in between…they are the Feylena, or the fairies depending upon what you desire to call them.”
The shifter looked over at her,looking down at the ground and then back at her, “and, besides you just said yours are from a land, faraway…“
“it’s probably a different land.” she muttered. “A very human-like creature land.”
“…alright, then.” muttered the shifter, looking up at the sky once more, “they are said to arrive around this time.”
First there was nothing the sky remained the way it was with little hints of light in the sky here and there, but a light a light like no other came across it. The light shone for a few minutes in the sky and then separated into several.They seemed to be darting around, but not for no reason, they seemed to have a cause to fulfill. A goal as they darted around the sky.
“By the gods!” she sighed, looking over at the shifter, who smiled back at her, “it’s really them.”
“Indeed it is.” replied the shifter.
“But…wouldn’t a shifters’ Feylena be different than our fairies?” she asked, “with wings and talons and—“
“Oh stop.” replied the shifter, staring up again at the sky,
waiting to see what one of bright lights did. It stood there for a moment, and thenslowly went down to the trees. And then something changed about it, as it went down, and emerged but in a different less loose form…
“oh, it’s a fairy, it’s a real-life fairy!” she squealed, the shapeshifter merely smiled, “the faylena.” they both looked at each other for a moment, a small laugh escaped each others lips, any anger or disagreement that had gone on between them had slowly, ever so slowly faded away. And they both looked over. What the shapeshifter saw was a beautiful creature with wings made out leaves, and flowers blooming in her hair. What the human girl saw was a woman wearing a flowing green dress, but the hair of the fairy or faylena was of a rainbow hue.It hung about her shoulders and her wings were of bright light. She didn’t just stand there in the radiating light which shown from her body, she walked over to them, or rather floated over them and greeted them with a smile. And placed her hand, her warm hand which seemed to have an unearthly feeling to it in their hands, she looked over at the girl and the shifter surveying them both, “I suppose you are the two I was told to meet—“ she said, her voice had a soft feeling to it, but yet felt like nothing from that world, “the human and the shifter who waited to see us, in this beautiful night.”
“…you knew about us?” asked the girl, “did the gods tell you?” The faylena or fairy looked over at her,
“if they did, I am not allowed to exactly tell.” she smiled,
“But I was told to present these to a shifter and a human who met tonight, despite their underlying differences…” She brought out two golden chains. They both had lockets attached to them which had something inside of them, radiating light like the one they had seen before with the fairies or faylena, “..and met to this very night in hopes to meet us.” She floated over to the shifter and placed the golden chain around their neck, and floated over to the girl and hung it around hers as well. The shifter despite the amazement of the experience, felt they had a need to ask what exactly these beautiful fairy-made or faylena made necklaces did. For they knew that whenever a fairy or faylena was to present a gift to a mortal, be they shifter or human or the gods know what, there was usually an underlying meaning to it. And it wasn’t just there for the beauty of it.
“What exactly do they do?” asked the shifter, the fairy or faylena looked over at them. “They have two uses, one to call us for help when you are in need of it, and two, to sustain and help this friendship which you two have formed…or at least are beginning to form. How exactly it does this, this is up for you to find out, in time you will know. But you must know that this friendship must not end this night, like so many friendships between humans and shifters do, but that it must continue…” The faylena or fairy looked down at the ground as if trying to figure out how to form what to say next. “Even if others want to pull you away from it, don’t let them!” The girl nodded, so did the shifter though the entire meaning to them, wasn’t exactly clear, they knew they had to remain friends though, but they had only gotten a little bit of what was to come, at the moment they felt the current love which surrounded them that night, the night that they met the fairies and the faylena at the same time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What winter holidays exist in your Fantasy world(s)? Do they have any religious reasons for happening? (Like did a god or goddess, or prophet (or another supernatural being) cause it?)
Happy holidays to everyone!
-Quinley P.S. An upcoming post (that will probably be posted after the New Year) is one about my progress on my animation project, Pandora's Box. So be sure to keep your eyes open for that.
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