After putting up my harp, we all trapsed off into the woods. Arthur fell in with us outside the village. We were not on a schedule today though, and I had time to look more closely at the flora and fauna. The animals of Avalon are more advanced spiritually than the animals of earth, just like the people are. They do not live in a state of confusion as many animals on earth, because of the poor state of spiritual affairs at present. But I can speak for our animals, that if you reach them with your spirit, they respond wonderfully and it is easy to see how much of the same spirit we all are.
This part of the wood that we traveled through was of very large trees, with moss covered trunks, and a wonderous variety of plants and flowers beneath. Occasionally I would glimpse an animal, one was a little like a badger but with a slightly longer thiner snout. There was one animal that was something like a cross between a squirel and a field mouse. They were delightful to watch, and sometimes they would stop and look right at you with such eyes of intelligence and knowing. Then as quickly as they were there, they were gone. After about an hour of walking along one edge of a terrace that fell away into a shallow depression, we came to an enchanting part of the forest, where a little brook ran. Here and there lovely beams of sunlight penetrated the thick canopy above and highlighted some part of the greenery below. When we came to it, it was not hard to tell what they had brought me to see. At the foot of a giant moss covered tree was a single white lily like flower, lit in spots by sunbeams. It was so beautiful it seemed to glow with it's own internal light. I was enchanted, and nearly in tears.
"This one is the sister of her who sacrificed herself that your leg might heal. It is customary to give condolances and some offering of gratitude to the next of kin," said Kian. "If you have nothing, I can give you something, but it is better if you give her something yourself.
That's when I knealt down in front of this little beauty, and whispered "I am so sorry about your sister. She must have been very beautiful. I will compose a song about her on my harp, and play it in front of important people. And I shall tell of her beauty on another world as well." Then I took a rock from my pocket from a favorite place near Pellenas' house, which I had picked up one day on one of my hikes, because it had some tiny blue crystals embedded in it. I put it near the base of her stem, careful not to disturb her roots. Then as I began to get up to rejoin my friends, for a few brief seconds I saw a tiny face of a young and very beautiful girl in the heart of the flower, smiling sadly at me. But this vision only lasted a few brief seconds, and then it passed, but I was sure I had seen the deva of the flower.
My friends patted me on the back and all said "well done." Then we were off again, to pass through a different part of the forest on the way back, where I saw some wonderful white birds that were a little like bob-whites, with large breast, and the happiest looking expression on their faces that I think I've ever seen on a bird. They would fly around us and then land in two's or three's on stumps, or branchs, and then chirp happily as if they were having a lengthy conversation about us, which maybe they were. We arrived back in the village just in time for the preperations for another large outdoor feast, but like the boys that we were, we found a way out of the real work. It seems that even on Avalon, boys would rather play then work if they can only find a way to do so.
That night was another enchanted evening of beautiful conversations about art and culture, with wonderous harp playing. I met many of the people of the village and even some of the Red Branch Heroes, who are a silent and secretive lot, who always seem to be deep in meditation. They all have long hair, most often black and slightly curly. The women too tended to have jet black hair and very Irish features, with very lucious lips and beautiful faces. It was shortly after the music took a turn into something more like the jig and reel music of the Irish, after couples got up to dance that the woman and her daughter came to my table. I was surpised indeed to find out that her daughter was Leanora, the artist I was to work with on my new work of music. I laughed when we were reintroduced, and said "It is interesting how heaven arranges things."
She smiled, her eyes so much like the girl's eyes, the girl who I had met in the woods with the Beaulani. After our introduction the woman smiled mischievously and said "I'll just leave you two alone a while then," I suppose she saw how I was staring at her daughter, with mixed feelings of desire and guilt, desire to get to know this very beautiful girl whose eyes were so like the girl I loved, and guilt that I was looking in this way at another girl. I probably would have sat there looking at her for days if she had not asked me if I would like to dance.
"Oh no," I said, "I've no idea how to do that."
"I'll show you silly," she said with a very Irish like accent, but we were talking in a Celtic language which I have mostly forgotten now. I speak it in dreams sometimes, and find it's rhythms in my poetry and writing at times. She found a spot that was not crouded with dancers, and then we stood with side by side with our arms interlinked. First she showed me the woman's part, then the man's part, and how they were different but like all good dances intertwined. I was very clumsy at first. Then she whispered in my ear in a most delightful way, "listen to the beat of the bodran, hear it in your God eye (their name for the third eye), then make your body move to the power in your God eye.
What followed was one of the most beautiful moments I'd ever experienced in the company of a girl. It was like we were two halves of one body, moving in perfect harmony. My heart sank when the music stopped and she said "Come, let's go for a walk shall we." I wished for that dance to go on and on, but oh well, at least I would be with her. We walked and time stopped. The whole world was light because of what I found in this girls eyes. Everything I wanted to be was reflected back to me from those eyes, and those rays said to me with no uncertainty "You can be anything because I love you." We stopped eventually and sat beneath a giant willowy tree with long thin leaves with three points at the end. We talked about art and music, and I told her of my idea to write a dramatic symphony about the flower deva and her sacrifice, and how this sacrifice brought a young couple together. She thought it was a wonderful idea, but said that we should draw some ideas from folklore, and that she knew just the person to get these stories from. We talked and talked, and then sometimes gazing at the stars in silence. And even though time stood still for us, it still turned for the rest of the world, and before long the dawn came, and the blue giant set, it's soft blue glow no longer liy the woods. We walked back in silence, knowing that everyone would be wondering what happend to us, but it was a peaceful silence, a loving silence, the kind that two people keep in their minds when their hearts are full.
When we came into the village though, we met only with smiling eyes who know better than to intervere with the unfolding of a sacred love.
Get your own Free Home Page