Dazzling Charm

The holiday is over, things were relaxing. Too relaxing in fact. Wednesday came and went, the preparations were made and I found myself curling up with a good book. I should have seen it then, when do I ever have time to read with my life anyway? There was a knock. By now one would suppose that I'd stop answering knocks, after nearly getting stabbed by the psychotic neighbors or dragged into the underworld, one would expect an aversion to answering the door. Now that I think about it, why am I always the one answering? Why doesn't the Rotting Corpse Boy do it? At any rate, I answered it and boy was I surprised. In through the door burst my bold, yet charming half cousin Basil Sterling. Basil spends most of his time traveling the world procuring various fine quality teas. Sometimes I am quite jealous of him. The other thing about Basil is that he seems to be the master of charm. If anyone was dividing up shares when we were born I would have accused Basil of stealing the charming shares of at least eight other people. Bandits have sidearms and daggers, rulers have armies, Basil has charm. At once I was seeing little stars appearing all around him as he flashed us his dazzling smile. Sometimes I doubt that we are even half cousins. “Dearest cousin...” He started. “I have returned for some time from my travels and will be needing a place to stay, would you be able to spare a bed?” I sighed, of course this always seems to happen. Why do I have so many empty beds in my house anyway? I really should look into that. “Yes Basil, there's a bed open for you.” Basil bowed his head. “Thank you so much, I appreciate this.” He launched a small satchel of tea towards me. I caught it and he smirked. “That is some very rare tea I managed to...procure while on my journeys, There is quite a story about it indeed...”

Home Again...

I made it home from the Underworld just in time to see Bella bringing a large turkey into the house. That's right, it's thanksgiving! Happy Turkey Day! (This image is also a gift! It can double as a desktop background too if you don't mind the bars on the top or bottom)

Under and Out...

With a sad look on her face the Queen of Seasons lifted her hands. The breezes blew and all seasons seemed to occur all at once. The phantoms around us in the underworld suddenly seemed to pay attention. Before that point they seemed self-absorbed but now all gave their attention. This may have been the first time a breeze ever passed the turf of the underworld, it was as if the memories of those phantoms grew thick in the air. I began to have difficulty breathing, or was it then that I realized that my entire time in the underworld had been spent not breathing? Now that I was I felt a very small amount of air reach my lungs, I gasped, shocked by the sudden turn of events. The Queen of seasons turned to me. “My child, you were not supposed to dwell here so long, the look of this place has had its effect upon you and you have completed the task at hand. Return to your home and leave these matters in the hands of those who can handle them.” I tried stepping towards her but all things seemed to fade into a dark purple cloud. Before that happened though, I saw the Empress of Spring growing rapidly older as the cloud of her youth was stripped away by the Queen of Seasons. “This is what is necessary for Spring to happen again. If you choose to leave then the power that has granted your beauty shall leave you. The Empress looked distressed while the Queen looked on with a strange sense of calm. That was the last thing i saw before I found myself swirling through space, only to find myself at home once more, the place I had left a full month earlier...

A Dire Deed to be Done

I've managed to find yet another e-mail terminal while here in the underworld. It hasn't been easy, that is for certain. I crashed through the glass, unharmed but very frightened by the wrath of the Spring Empress. She loomed over me and grinned fiendishly. “What was the point of this? The elaborate scene of getting locked in the cage acting as a prisoner for the Autumn King?” “I could have left, but they would have brought me back. Instead if I were to be captured then my rescuers could all meet untimely ends until the rescue attempts decease...” I shook my head, unaware of what powers this creature had at her disposal. “Unfortunately you will be the first to meet his end, for I grew tired of my position as the Spring ruler. It is beautiful and wonderful, but I can do it no longer, the sum of creation is too vast to be limited to one tower for all eternity...” “You must return, what happens to the world if you do not?” She shrugged. “I don't rightly know, it has never happened that a season wanted to leave. Perhaps they have been late or early, but never has one wished to leave. I have done this of my own accord, and now I choose to go to a place from which I can never return from.” With all that said she sighed and held out her hand, a wilted flower appeared. She gazed at it with glassy eyes before extending it to me. I was just about to touch it when it flew from her hand. It buzzed through the air until another received it. “I am the Queen of Seasons.” She announced eloquently. It seemed that the very air disturbed by her breath glowed with a bit of light. “I have been told from the Autumn King that things have become dire.” The Empress of Spring looked silently at the Queen before speaking. “It is not true, things were not that bad...” The Queen closed her eyes. “Enough! I have heard it all, what you desire now and what you have become...In all the time since the foundation of the world have I never done what I am about to do. But as the Autumn King did say, things have become dire indeed...”