The Fairy Diary Day 590 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

We could not but feel helpless. And dispirited. Out of the silence between us, we eventually got around to weighing what next we should do. 

There was no agreement at first. Rumble wanted to leave immediately. Before anything else he argued that we must contact Merlin. I could agree that we needed Merlin but argued other things needed to happen first. 

But my friend was really sensing the need for action now. And wanted to return to Nonin-gal-dith and check into the High Fairy’s residence for his means of communication with the wizard. 

I was not not feeling the same urgency. In fact, my pendants were not spurring me on to do anything. I proposed that our first need was to link up with Dunfallon and Navril. And the best way to do that was to stay put and wait for them to come to us. 

Rumble countered with the thought – what if they had been here already? I answered that I could visualize where that could have happened – and I was certain that Dunfallon would have indeed set off again – but not without leaving word about their intentions. 

Besides I added we needed to come together and no longer be splintered. 

My friend then agreed to wait one more day for our missing pixie and elf. So we took refuge up in the most secure place in the repository. 

And a good thing we did. 

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The Fairy Diary Day 432 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

Rumble was gone when I opened my eyes – which was not really a concern at first as he just could have been restless and wandered off to check through the village once more for our missing friend, the dwarf Gnoston. But then I noticed that Merlin was also nowhere in sight. 

The feeling of being all alone crashed in on me. Which lasted until I wondered if I were dreaming. And after slapping myself with sufficient force to disprove that notion, I crept out of the house in hopes of clearing my head.

 Outside, the silence was deafening. But with the added sense that eyes were watching me – just out of view at every turn of my head. 

Then in an instant of clarity, I remembered thinking how like the Will’o’the Wisp this was – to torture and mislead his foes. 

I shook myself and re-entered the house. There were my friends waiting for me. They asked simply if I were ready to depart. 

We did. And along the Low-way of the dwarves I recounted to them the incidents that make me believe that I am being haunted by Willie. 

The Fairy Diary Day 317 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

Fliget and Gnoston lighted the way with their crystal sticks. We all noticed that something about this encouraged Willie to glow brighter again. 

I had wanted for us to maintain complete silence as we traveled along the Low-way, but our guides assured us that the dark elves were leagues away. Thus, Short and Shorter, as Rumble likes to refer to them have kept up an endless stream of chatter with Dunfallon. (I think they are quite taken with our pixie – his smaller size, no doubt, having much to do with it). 

I found their discourse to be quite informative. Fliget extolled the strength of the dwarves’ stronghold to the south, near the end of the Low-way. This despite the fact that the dark elves now occupy it. (His pride was rooted in the fact that the dwarves had created it). Gnoston went on to say that the families of the dark elves – women and children – had recently joined their armies there. 

Noralei and I were both surprised by this news. I passed it onto the High Fairy.

The Fairy Diary Day 297 #TFDbyRWOz2

Meribabell writes:

We fairies filled the silence with a frantic survey of the shaft above. But all seemed secure. 

I checked on Hawk – his face was a mask of misery. A good indication to me that he was not expecting rescue. Willie tethered nearby in his lantern prison had grown dim and an occasional sob ruffled his whiskers. 

Then from below came the shrieks of the dark elves. And I knew the pixie traps were sprung. 

By the time we had descended the fight was over. The goblins had ripped through the dark elves, devouring any that dared show their faces. 

Thus the first wave died. 

Whether there were more we do not know. Neither Merlin nor the High Fairy had been able to supply us with any numbers. 

The reigning silence was eerie.

Day One Thousand Two Hundred Twenty Eight #DiaryoftheEndoftheWorld

None of us closed our eyes last night. We were too alive to the moment.
The silence of the night early gave way to the sounds of hasty preparation. While the first rays of light revealed rank upon rank of the opposing armies stretched out in endless lines.

The blood trickling down the rocky stream bed under the stone bridge was only the harbinger of what was to come, down in the valley.

Elijah stood to his feet and raised his staff over his head and intoned judgement on both armies.

Then across each rank and down each line, blood sprouted like a crimson bloom above each individual, a veritable fountain as they fell.
Like grapes in a wine press.

Day One Thousand One Hundred Forty Eight #DiaryoftheEndoftheWorld

I was shocked to hear all that Elijah’s disciples have been through. They have borne the brunt of the enemy’s fury in the region. Steadfast and uncomplaining. And they have kept the hiding place safe. No word of its location has escaped their lips.

Elijah was deeply affected. He went around the circle and hugged each one and prayed over them.

We agreed with their advice that it would be good to set out in the dark immediately, and we concurred to do our traveling at night going forward.

We maintained a strict silence enroute to where they passed last night. And held up there through the day.

Lots of martial activity-in the air, and down in the valley.

Day One Thousand One Hundred Forty Four #DiaryoftheEndoftheWorld

Here at day’s end and I’m still recovering from yesterday’s surprise appearance of our young friend. Elijah kept our greetings brief, enforcing a strict regimen of silence and driving us onward by his example. Continuing through the night.

Our pace only slackened with the dawn of the new day, yet we kept onward. At one point it was as if we entered a space of our own reality in which nothing else and no one else existed. Only then did Elijah allow us to converse.

Everything came tumbling out as we pressed Tomas for information.

Most startling was the news that the Supreme Commander is dead. And the army of the East has allied with the army of the North.

Day One Thousand One Hundred Forty One #DiaryoftheEndoftheWorld

Reuben was the one who discovered the cave. He said afterwards that it was as though he was pulled into it. And I marvel that he did, for no way was the entrance visible from the path below on which we were fleeing.

And we gained its safety none too soon for otherwise the swarm of drones would have overtaken us.

And here we have stayed put through the night and all of today.  Reuben was restless and made frequent forays to take a peek around. He reported the movement of soldiers in the distance, happily, headed in the wrong direction, but was shaken to his core the last time when he spotted Moglen standing nearby, watching in silence, alone.

Day One Thousand Forty Nine #DiaryoftheEndoftheWorld

The silence in the wilderness was highly unusual. Not even a breeze disturbed the air around us. And one had the sense that if there were any noise out there, at however great a distance, we would have plenty of time to prepare before we made visual contact.

Thus we heard the footsteps. But we weren’t prepared for what came.

By the sound we knew it could only be a single individual, making his way across the bedrock of the ground to our front.

We halted and waited, confident we would be hidden from view until whatever it was, was past us.

So, we did not see that it was Raj P until then. I bounded out to greet him.

Day One Thousand Three #DiaryoftheEndoftheWorld

The matter of the tribal discord weighed heavily upon me. So I made it a point of intercession all the way back to the second village and on through half the night, taking it up again upon waking.

All the while, Elijah kept a respectful silence, breaking into it only as necessary when attention was demanded elsewhere.

The situation dictated the topic as the Purser saw it. Everyone has now arrived at this second stage and are settled in. His thinking calls for a longer stay to prepare for a longer transit around the ruined city.

And two further complications were added when Jezer and Tomas reported that the well at the crossroads was failing and a drone was sighted.