a quest for peace begins ...

 [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.]

  Thal sat quietly, considering all that Elder Elowin had told him.  "If sitting on the throne will stop The Grimma, will it also stop the gnolls and the human that Kael told us about?"

  "If the kingdom of Queen Legodia rises again, it will unite all of the kingdoms together, and that will defeat the gnolls, and protect us from the human."

  "Then what must I do?  Where must I go?"

  "You must take a ferry across the great river to ...." A rustling noise in the underbrush behind Thal and Elowin stopped her from finishing her sentence.  "Who is there?" she called.

  El, Lyri, and Kael slowly revealed themselves and came forward.  Lyri spoke determinedly for all of them, "Forgive us for eavesdropping, Elder Elowin, but Thal is our friend, and this involves all of us.  Wherever he goes, we go with him."

  Elowin nodded approvingly and waved the three of them to come closer.  "Child, I knew you were there all along.  I was waiting to see what kind of friends you truly were."

~*~*~

  Alexander took a box filled with small gold bars from where he had hidden it behind a loose brick in the fireplace hearth.  He knew the gnolls could care less about the gold, but it would help him convey to them the seriousness of his intention to find the wood elf and others of his kind.

  His appearance had taken on a pastey purple shade as his anger and blood pressure continued to rise the longer it took the gnolls to find the elf.  His heart worked overtime trying to keep up with the demand, growing larger and thicker with each passing day.  But he hadn't noticed.  Finding the elves was all he thought about.  Finding and destroying them.  He barely ate now, and his body had begun to show bones he hadn't seen since he was a much younger and healthier man.  Sleep evaded him, and when his mind was able to rest somewhat, he dreamed of Kael and what he would do with him first when he found him.

*~*~*

  Elder Elowin continued to speak.  "What will be required of each of you, will be to accept the fact that in spite of past differences, you are all connected.  You are not simply friends.  You are, and always have been, family.  All elves are uniquely related.  Not simply by blood, but by a connection to the forest, to the animals, birds and trees.  You are an extension of the earth by birth."

  Kael raised his eyebrows in astonishment but said nothing.  His childhood, or rather lack of one, had shaped much of his adulthood.  His parents had set the example for his own bad behavior of lying and obtaining things by taking advantage of others.  He'd never felt as though he belonged to the wood elf community because of it.  Overhearing what others said about his parents, he did all that he could at first to avoid becoming like them.  But their reputation was passed onto him undeservedly, and he soon fell into their patterns of talk and actions.

  Eldrin looked at the four of them, "Excellent!  When can we start on this magnificent adventure?!?!?"

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

sunday's selections ...

 ... brief and sweet ...

It always makes me smile when my security camera says it detects a pet.
A doe and her fawn early one morning.

This sweet boy (?) is a new addition.  His name will be decided upon once I confirm with the vet that he is indeed a boy.

Miss Calliope.

Unexpected Answers ...

[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.]

  "I'm sorry, who?  My what?  I thought you said she had no heirs.  And how am I related to Queen Legodia?"

  "Ahhh, Thalion, I was very purposeful in my choice of words.  I said she had no 'known' heirs.  Queen Legodia inherited the kingdom from her father.  She was the eldest of ten children.  At the time of her death, when her cousin, Oom, assumed the throne, eight of her younger siblings had been silently assassinated by his henchmen in neighboring kingdoms and communities."

  "Eight?  So, there was one still alive?"

  "Queen Legodia's mother died giving birth to her ninth child, a son.  He was raised by a young milk nurse, who had recently lost a child to stillbirth.  When her husband later died in battle, she became the king's concubine in order to support herself.

  After the boy was no longer nursing, she unexpectedly found herself pregnant by the king.  Fearing that the king would be angry, and that the baby would be ostracized as a bastard, she fled the kingdom during a solar eclipse."

  "Where did she go?"

  "She traveled on foot for several weeks.  At first only moving at night in case the king was searching for her.  She sought shelter that winter in a small village called Hog's Breath where she worked with a seamstress and was able to disguise her growing body for a time.  When her mistress questioned her about the father of her pending child, she told her that he had been an abusive drunk who had raped her one night.  Which was not far from the truth.

  By the spring she had saved enough coin to purchase a small donkey, and shortly after the baby, a boy, was born she felt it was time for her to move again in case the king had sent men to find her trail.  She couldn't have known that the king had died a week after the eclipse, and his eldest daughter was now on the throne."

  "How discouraging.  All of her efforts to flee, and she really didn't have to after all."

  "Oh, but she did.  It was well known that she had been the king's concubine, and her pregnancy would have started tongues wagging.  If she had stayed, it is likely her son would have been killed with the rest of Queen Legodia's siblings after her death.  In order for the prophecy to be fulfilled, it was imperative that he survive."

  "Prophecy?  What prophecy?"

  "Do you believe in luck, Thalion?  Or do you believe in fate?"

  "I'm not sure.  What's the difference?"

  "Imagine that the Universe has already charted your path.  You set out in life, believing that you are making all of your own choices, but in reality, the Universe has already chosen for you.  It simply puts options before you, like sending them down a chute, and no matter which one you chose, it will still lead you to the same destination they have chosen for you.  That is fate.

  Now imagine you pick up an acorn off the ground, and you punt kick it into the air, hoping it will land in a small oval you can't even see on the other side of the forest.  That is what you call luck."

  Thalion laughs, "Well, I'm still not sure I know which one I believe in.  Most of the time I'd like to think that fate has determined my life, but there are times when it feels like I've just gotten lucky."

  Chuckling in agreement and nodding her head, Elowin continued.  "As far back as the records of elf-kind go, there has been a story of an unknown king who will rise up from humble origins to save all of the forest folk from an unknown evil.  Even long before King Oom and the division of the land, and long before Queen Legodia and her father.  Each generation has patiently waited and wondered if he would come in their lifetime."

  "And of the evil?  What of it?"

  "The Grimma.  It has risen up every few generations, which only hinders the hope of the faithful and believers in fate."

  "You said that the origin of it came from a curse that a wizard advisor of King Oom put on the land?  Why would he do that?"

  "King Oom was a jealous, little man who only surrounded himself with those he believed would be loyal to him.  But in truth, they were only loyal to themselves and cared nothing for him, or the forest.  When the wizard placed the curse on the kingdom and the forest, he believed that he would one day be able to sit on a throne over the entire world.  But that was not the fate that the Universe had set out for him, and his plan backfired.

  Half a century later, when the battle over the kingdom had been forgotten, The Grimma rose up one evening while the wizard was camping in a different part of the forest to gather herbs.  His magic that created it the first time was unable to stop it, and he became just another victim of his own selfish greed."

  His forehead wrinkled with confusion, Thalion sat quietly for several moments.  "But if the wizard couldn't stop what he created, and the true heir to the kingdom is just a voice in my head, how can The Grimma be stopped?"

  Elder Elowin looked at him gently.  "The wizard's curse can only be broken when the true heir to the throne sits rightfully upon it.  And that, my innocent young sprout, is you."

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

catching up ...

In reverse chronological order, since that seems to be the only way Blogger plays ... 

The heatwave coming across the country is beginning this week.  This screenshot was taken about an hour ago (at noon), and at the time I'm typing this now we are already at 91°F with a "feels like" 99°.  A friend in Nebraska said that their heat indexes last week were over 110°.  Pretty sure today's high will be above what is forecast.  I will be forever grateful to friends that bought me a window a/c unit because my mini splits were installed wrong and haven't worked to cool the house since I moved in.  They "cool" by freezing up, spitting out ice chunks, and creating small lakes in the rooms.  I suppose I could go swimming to cool off.

I've taken on a big project of beading five chicken wire kitchen cabinet doors for a friend's remodeling project in her house.  Should keep me busy for a while.

I have wanted to paint this rock since I saw it on the side of the porch when I first moved in.  My.most.favorite.word.ever.  Now the name of my house.

Bought some peonies at the grocery store last week and just love how they exploded after I opened up the stems.  I really need to plant some of my own this fall in the front yard.

This nasturtium terra cotta teapot was really ... scary flesh looking ... so I added some green paint, and some frogs.  Now it is a beautiful flower vase!

The whateverholiday cactus I repotted in the spring is apparently happy. 

This was a broken dragon that I upcycled with a red bead and paint into a ruby dragon for the front porch.

Creative spider on my side cam.  Another art project idea for later after the chicken wire beading project.

Happy Solstice weekend!  Stay cool out there (or warm depending on your hemisphere) and stay creative....  Hugs, Ci💚