choosing between wants and needs...

  [This is an ongoing chapter a week story that began with the first Words for Wednesday for 2025 on 1 January. I'm hoping to continue it through 31 December, the last Wednesday of the year. To start from the beginning, click on the Words for Wednesday 2025 label to the right and it will pull up all of the weekly posts, beginning with the most recent. To start from the beginning, continue to click "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page until you get to 1 January 2025, then click "Newer Posts" to read the next date. You can thank Blogger for the inability to list them by chronological order under the labels.]

  Vondran continued speaking to Thalion in his dreams, showing him bits and pieces of his life.

  "It was difficult for me at times having an absent father.  I envied my friends who had both parents and several siblings.  But I never gave any of them the satisfaction of seeing me grieve for what I didn't have.  I learned early on that it wasn't the combination of mothers and fathers, or siblings that made a happy or fun childhood.  It was what I chose to make it, what I chose to focus on.  When I wasted my day or night bemoaning what I lacked and wanted, it made it hard for what I needed to find me.

  "It is like shouting "Hello" on a mountain top and waiting for the echo to come back to you.  When you shout things that you regret, things you hate ... those are the things that come back to you tenfold.  But when you shout with joy and celebration all the good things that you do have, then those are the things will come back to you like that "Hello" echo and surround you one hundred times more than you can imagine.

  "Choosing to be happy doesn't make you exempt from things that can go wrong in life.  But when you find yourself between a rock and a hard place it can help you to knuckle down and overcome any sadness or regret.

  "As an only child of a single mother, I spent a lot of time with her and watched how she made choices between what she wanted and what we needed.  I was not long in the tooth before I realized that she had sacrificed a great deal to ensure that I would be safe and have a happy childhood.  

  "She was a beautiful woman, with straw yellow hair, and I'm sure she could have married again so that she would not have had to struggle so hard.  But she knew in her heart that one day I could be the true heir, and she did everything she could to ensure that when that time came, I would know what the people needed."

This week's Words for Wednesday prompts can be found here.

last week ...

Some of my procrastination projects from last week...

 My own interpretation of ghost painting...

Bookend projects, one down, still contemplating the second one.

Sweet Autumn Clematis ~ another invasive plant, but one that I will let stay.

This beautiful butterfly posed for the camera.

Newly found neighbor in my backyard.

Sibling snuggles.

Hope your weekend was a relaxing one ... Ci💚

dreaming ...

 [This is an ongoing chapter a week story that began with the first Words for Wednesday for 2025 on 1 January. I'm hoping to continue it through 31 December, the last Wednesday of the year. To start from the beginning, click on the Words for Wednesday 2025 label to the right and it will pull up all of the weekly posts, beginning with the most recent. To start from the beginning, continue to click "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page until you get to 1 January 2025, then click "Newer Posts" to read the next date. You can thank Blogger for the inability to list them by chronological order under the labels.]

  "Don't let how easy the walk has been thus far give you a false sense of security, Thalion.  There are challenges ahead that you need to be prepared for.  Consider yourself my student as I prepare you for what is ahead, and the invasions that put you on this path.  While I never knew my father, or my siblings, I would encourage you to take heed of what I show you in your dreams.  The life I had with my mother was at times difficult, and we struggled frequently to find safe housing, I have no regrets for not growing up in the splendor that my siblings knew.  If anything, it gave me a much broader spectrum of knowledge for what the people and the land truly need in a leader.

  If it were not for the coming of The Grimma again, and the evil of a particular man-kind who views life as some kind of gaud to be possessed and destroyed, I would not have presumed to send you on this quest.  But throughout the moil and centuries since my own passing, there have been none more worthy than yourself to bring peace and union to the land.  

  Pore on what I will share with you as you journey towards your goal, for I gladly share my experiences and knowledge with you.

  But first, let me introduce myself so that you may call me something more than 'the voice' or 'the heir' for you, young Master Thalion, are the true heir.

  My name is Vondran, and when I was a young man, I had straw yellow hair, the same as yours."

This week's Words for Wednesday prompts can be found here.

busy-ness

 Oliver's comfortable nap was met with a jealous stare by Lucy.

It eventually woke him, and he left for a moment, which allowed her to move in.

Not to be bullied, Oliver soon crashed her party.

I found two antique beveled mirrors at an estate sale store.

The original frames had splits and chips in the wood and had been (rudely and excessively) glittered.

I was able to find new frames that only needed a tiny bit of tweaking to fit.

The bear is back again this year.

And a new visitor of slight concern, a coyote.

While I wouldn't want to fence the wildlife out (it is their mountain and forest after all), I may consider putting a fence up around part of the yard so that I can let Charlie (or any future puppy) out at night without worry.   Last year, I priced a larger fenced area to completely enclose the property, but it was not in my budget.  This year, I'm dreaming of plans for next year...  Herb garden.  Greenhouse.  Smaller fenced area.  Catio.  Carport.  Waterproofing the basement.  Reinforcing the foundation.

Winning the lottery.

I was to have a full knee replacement done tomorrow, however, that has been postponed until I try physical therapy to "strengthen the muscle."  I'm not sure what muscle strength has to do with a bone-on-bone joint situation, but I suppose jumping through hoops can be considered physical therapy.

Stay flexible ... Ci💚

a long walk

[This is an ongoing chapter a week story that began with the first Words for Wednesday for 2025 on 1 January. I'm hoping to continue it through 31 December, the last Wednesday of the year. To start from the beginning, click on the Words for Wednesday 2025 label to the right and it will pull up all of the weekly posts, beginning with the most recent. To start from the beginning, continue to click "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page until you get to 1 January 2025, then click "Newer Posts" to read the next date. You can thank Blogger for the inability to list them by chronological order under the labels.]

  Little had been said the night before when they had stopped since Thal had fallen asleep mid-sentence, unaware that the others had already fallen asleep.  All of them had been exhausted by the day's events and journey.

  That afternoon, the four of them set off into the next forest district that Elder Elowin had marked off on her makeshift map.  As they walked, Thal told them of his sleepwalking, the sigils he'd been marking around the village and what Elder Elowin had told him about them.  He told them about the first time he had heard the voice, whose name he had not yet learned, and about The Grimma.

  The three had listened in silence, becoming more aware with each step of the danger that they may face.  Finally, Thal had also stopped talking, spent with the emotion of it all, and worried that the others would desert him.

*~*~*

  Almost three forests behind the four young wood elves and their quest to find Queen Legodia's throne, Alexander was on his own quest to find Kael.  However, his pursuit was both driven and hampered by his slippery descent into madness after being made a fool of by Kael's escape.

 

  As each night passed, with the gnolls returning to feast at his expense without producing the elf he blamed for his fall from grace, Alexander became more and more obsessed with finding Kael.  Finally, he put his foot down to put a stop to it all.  He told the chief gnoll that there would be no more feasting until the elf was found.  As expected, this did not sit well with the gnoll chief, and there began an almost comical argument between the two.  Scribbling cartoonish images of elves and gnolls on loose paper, Alexander demanded that the chief was to recruit better and smarter gnolls to search for the elf villages and leave no survivors until Kael had been found.

  It was no longer about finding any elf to sell to the highest bidder; it was about revenge for an imagined slight.  Alexander had never learned how to concede defeat when he was a boy under his father's tutelage.  When he went off to boarding school at the young age of six, he became aggressively competitive.  For him, there was no losing.  Whenever he was even threatened with a loss, he sought to completely annihilate his opponent.

  Expulsion from the school would soon follow, and a transfer to a new school until finally their screening processes improved, and he could no longer gain entrance.  His father then paid someone to complete his final exams and admission tests for university, and Alexander found himself in an enhanced business program learning about foreign trade and other topics he really didn't care for.  His professors learned quickly that it was better to give him passing grades than try to discuss his failings with him or his father.

  This challenge of finding Kael was no different.  Failure was not an option, and the gnoll chief began to realize that he had finally met an opponent who could actually destroy them once and for all.

~*~*~

  The four elves had stopped in the early hour before daylight, having put most of another forest between them and Alexander, although they were still unaware of his pursuit.  They hadn't spoken much after Thal's description of The Grimma, but each of them recalled hearing stories of it when they were very young.  Stories that they had grown up believing were just fairy tales to frighten children into behaving but now realized that such tales were often based on truths.

  Lyri had prepared another meal of the fruit Eldrin had provided and suggested that they begin to look for other food along the way the next day to supplement their dwindling supply.  As they built the lean-to that would protect them from the sun and spying eyes, they also gathered some yellow straw found in a small open area to sleep on a little more comfortably than the hard ground.

  As the four lay down to sleep, Kael looked up and gasped.  Two large bears had stepped between the trees and placed themselves at opposite ends of the lean-to, head to toe as the four laid, so that they could guard the front and rear while the elves slept.  The largest of the two looked directly into Thal's eyes and slowly nodded at him before taking his place on the ground.

  "Apparently, the forest animals also have a vested interest in our success," Thal said as he watched the sky brighten with the rising sun before he found himself dreaming and once again hearing the voice of the heir.

This week's Words for Wednesday prompts can be found here.

august ...

 We have achieved peace and tolerance in the house finally.

Gracie always looks so regal.

My hostas are blooming and making me want to plant more in the front side yard.

Volunteered again Saturday at the art gallery.

There are about 282 different artists whose work is displayed and for sale there.

Some surgery coming up in the next few weeks if all goes well.

More to come on that ...

Stay frosty out there ... Ci💚

sleep talking ...

[This is an ongoing chapter a week story that began with the first Words for Wednesday for 2025 on 1 January. I'm hoping to continue it through 31 December, the last Wednesday of the year. To start from the beginning, click on the Words for Wednesday 2025 label to the right and it will pull up all of the weekly posts, beginning with the most recent. To start from the beginning, continue to click "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page until you get to 1 January 2025, then click "Newer Posts" to read the next date. You can thank Blogger for the inability to list them by chronological order under the labels.]

  Thal looked at the others and sighed deeply, "To be honest, I think I've been hearing the voice my entire life, I just thought it was part of my dreams.  It wasn't until I heard it when I knew I was awake that I realized it was something else.  Elder Elowin seemed to even know about it before I did because she didn't inquire if I was hearing voices.  She simply stated that she knew I was."

  "This may constitute as a stupid question, but what exactly does your voice sound like?  I mean, does it sound like you?  Or someone different?"

  Lyri threw a look at Eldrin that made him shrug in self-defense, "I just mean, when I'm thinking out problems, I sometimes talk them out loud to myself, and I know what I sound like.  I sound like me.  So, it wouldn't occur to me that I was hearing someone else's voice unless it sounded really different from me.  Which would kinda freak me out."

  Thal smiled.  "Yeah, it definitely didn't sound like me, and it did freak me out.  I think I was in some kind of a trance most of the times lately when it happened because I would 'wake up' in weird places.  Like when I had been writing sigils around the village.  Other times a stray memory would cross my mind, like déjà vu, and I knew for a fact that I had never been there or done that before.  At least that I was 'aware' of.  I was even going to talk to you about it one night, but then it swayed me from doing that until I talked more to Elowin about it."

  Kael looked at him closely, "You know, for an elf who is descended from a royal you are the least pretentious elf I know.  No offense, but as much shite as I put all of you through since we've been littles it would be easier to believe that I was the one with royal blood."

  They all laughed at that in agreement before settling into an awkward silence.

  "It's not something I would have thought either, but it is what it is.  Elowin did warn me that royalty sometimes comes at a high price.  In this case, I have the existence of every wood elf riding on my shoulders if I fail at breaking this curse.  But, no pressure, right?"

  Thal's smile was a weak one, and the other three just looked into the fire rather than at him.  He knew that even though they had all volunteered for this adventure, he was the one who had to sit on the throne to save them all.  A part of him wanted to send them all back to familiar forests, but he doubted he would be able to succeed without them.  In any case, the window of opportunity for him to change his mind had come and gone hours ago.

  It was Kael who spoke next, rising to his feet to put out the fire, "We should probably douse this now, so the smoke doesn't draw any unwanted attention and get a few hours of rest before we start again."

  As they lay in the shade of the moss lean-to they had built, Lyri waited until she heard the slow rhythmic breathing of Eldrin and Kael sleeping before she whispered, "Thal?"

  "Yes?"

  "Is there any way you could just undo all of this?"

  "What do you mean?  Like wave a wand and magically make it all disappear?"

  "You needn't be sarcastic, I just meant, is there any other way to break the curse?"

  "I'm sorry, Lyri.  You're right, that was sarcastic of me.  I've been wishing the same thing myself.  There is nothing I wish for more than to just snap my fingers and fix it.  Unfortunately, I'm a descended from a king and not a wizard."

  "I'm sorry too, Thal.  I know that this is just as overwhelming for you as it is for us.  We just seem like a bit of a rag-tag group to have been chosen to save the world.  I'm trying to keep a cheerful outlook for the sake of all of us, but I'm just a little frightened.  I didn't even get to leave a note for my parents, and I know they will be worried sick."

  Thal reached for her hand and squeezed it tightly.  There wasn't anything he could say for he felt the same fear of the unknown.  Before long he heard her breathing slow down and tried to match his own to hers to calm his mind.

*~*~*

  "Watch out for the black ones."

  Thal's voice woke the three of them, and Lyri was the first to sit up and look at him.  His eyes were closed tightly, and as Eldrin reached to wake him, Lyri stayed his hand and shook her head.

  

  "Watch out for the black ones, I say.  You need to avoid them."

  "Is it you?  The heir?  Is it you talking now through Thal?" Lyri asked.

  Thal's face relaxed a little, and Kael and Eldrin looked at her, bewildered.

  "Yes." he whispered.

  "Can you tell us any more than that?  Black what?"

  "Spotted black." he whispered again.

  Before she could ask spotted black what, Thal awoke and looked at the three of them, staring at him with wide eyes.  

  "What are you looking at me like that for?"

  

This week's Words for Wednesday prompts can be found here.