aspin redfern age of heroes.htm
Well here we are at last. Priotus has convinced me to put some of my early adventures on to paper where to start? (The beginning you think?)
I
was born only 8 years ago (just an adult by fairy standards) my mother was a
moon fairy so I assume my father was a sun fairy so it’s not surprising I have
never met him.
That
wasn’t a great tragedy however as my clan (a group of like-minded fairies who
often share blood ties) raised me .I grew up surrounded by moon water and earth
fairies. It was apparent early on that I was to be a loremaster so I was given
extra training in the telling and keeping of tales (as fairy generations tend to
be only 10-15 yrs there is no official written language (except high Fay) and
most of the lore is by word of mouth) however by my gift for true magic Priotus
has informed me that me lifespan is now up to 100yrs, that span of time is
incomprehensible to me. So I have tried to find some calm in this particular
storm to write my story.
The
title of princess is now more honorific than fact but I do come from a respected
line of both sun and moon fairies. I am only beginning to realise the power that
comes with that, and the responsibility .I have the awesome task of changing the
past so that Verminthrax’s version of the future doesn’t happen. As you know
in that future I may well be the last fairy so I feel a duty to tell the stories
of my race.
No
doubt you have all heard at least one fairy story so I will confine these
ramblings
To
the stories that I have helped shape.
To
find a dragon
(young blowhard males are the preferred target) then the young fairies take
turns to think up new and interesting taunts (the best of which are written in a
book later) when the dragon reacts as they always do the chase is on.
I
did my hunt with fern river and leaf and it was a hunt to remember.
“Your mother was a gecko “ “your father was a worm “ “can those fleas do tricks “
The fairies taunted from the forest. The youngish male dragon looked around wildly
“Oh no I’ve heard of this YOU FECKING INSECTS !!”
He ran one way then the other as the fairies scattered, the game was on.
He had to catch us (very bad) or we had to get one of his scales an a souvenir
He blundered through the trees and we chased him taunting all the way, as he entered a clearing having run himself ragged he stopped to face us. “Come on then let’s get this over with”
We waited for a few moments then fern made a run for him, he was surprised as he didn’t see the wing flash he was expecting (we had all learned enough illusion to mask most of the flare) as she pulled a scale he attempted to swat her. That was the cue we were waiting for, we all flew then straight for him dodging as we went. As we neared him he seemed to stabilise and he made a grab for river, he got lucky and snagged a wing. “Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! Help) river went into a spin heading for a puddle.
“ RAAAAAAHH” he roared as he forgot us and dived for river, she couldn’t correct in time and she hit the water badly. We all heard the crunch of a wing breaking and we all winced in sympathy. He was nearly on her so I let loose a taunt that to this day I don’t know where it came from “hey gecko is that your face or is it a drakes ******* “
(Bleeped out in case any children are reading this) the entire clearing seemed to go still
He turned slowly and just looked. The expression on his face still amuses me to this day
He went bright red (difficult for a green dragon) and he let out a bellow of rage as he charged for me.
I admit I was just as shocked as the point of the game is not to hurt anyone (and I knew I would have to hurt this one) but I didn’t let it stop me moving as he charged In I feinted left and as he followed I darted right, he lost his balance and started to fall.
“ Leaf fern river RUN I’ll deal with gecko here “as my friends flew to safety I flitted to face a now enraged dragon. Apologies wouldn’t have done any good so I squared up for a fight. As we faced each other a warcry echoed through the clearing.
All of a sudden 20 fairies appeared out of the forest waving swords and spears.
He took one look and turned and ran cursing as he went, as I turned to speak to the others they disappeared and heard laughter from the trees. Leaf River and fern appeared laughing with empty fairy dust pouches.” I would love to hear the tale he tells when he gets back “ chuckled fern. “ lets go home “ I said.
As it turned out I was the only one not to get dragons scale but I had the honour of my taunt going into the book of taunts along with this story.
The littlest orc
Early on in my independence I took to wandering in the forest alone to gather herbs and mushrooms. On one such expedition I came across a very young greenskin he was crying and sniffling next to a tree.
“ Hello greenie how is you, “ Said me
He looked startled and he turned round, as he turned he got tangled and tripped over a tree root, he landed with quite a thud and started to cry again.
Now orcs can be dangerous and can sometime they eat fairies (or so I had been told)
So I approached him carefully, as I got close I noticed he was hurt (he had a big thorn in his foot)
“ Hello I’m Aspin and I can help you if you don’t eat me 1”
He looked up and sniffled “ me Ralph sore foot lost sad “
“ Ooooookay how’d you get lost little one “
“ Big orcs nasty sore foot left behind “
This was turning out to be hard work but if there were orcs this far down I should tell the elders but I coulnt leave him here like this.
“ Okay I am going to take that thorn out for you and put some stingy stuff on it but that will stop it getting bad “
He sat down and held up his foot, as I got a good luck I gasped. The thorn was as big as my body; this wasn’t going to be easy “ on the count of three “
“ What three? “ said Ralph looking confused.
I had to work hard not to laugh “ Well many then “ “ okay “ he said
“ One two many!” and I pulled, the thorn slid out easily and he started crying again
“ You my friend little flutterby Ralph like you but sore foot still sore “
I flew over and got my herb bag out I mixed a few herbs into a paste and applied it to the wound then I wrapped his foot in some leaves.
“That should make it feel better in a little while so wait here and I will try to find some more orcs “
“Okay but dark coming soon afraid of dark “ snivelled Ralph
“Oh brother! “ I said very quietly
I flew high up into the canopy of the forest and looked desperately for some orcs,
It didn’t take long to spot them (a herd of elephants would make less fuss).
Now what to do? I still didn’t want to be eaten. All of a sudden an idea occurred
I went back to Ralph “ I am a great and powerful sorceress and I am going to use magic to help you” I said as I used an illusion to fill the clearing with the sound of a battle with orcs in trouble, it worked, the other orcs ran towards us and as they crashed into the glade I worked a little illusion to appear as a female orc of huge size and I said “ there was a mighty battle here many animals and dragons Ralph here was wounded but he fought so valiantly I healed him, now if you know what is best leave this track and do not come back “ they bowed down for a second then took Ralph and ran .
“ That was odd “ I thought but then I decided to head home to tell what I had seen, as it turns out there is a legend of an orc goddess living in the forest who appears to orcs in trouble. It seems they thought I was this avatar and my appearance was an omen that stopped them marching to a war with the dwarves .
Funny how things turn out isnt it.
I never saw Ralph again but I hop he went on to do great things.
Aspin and Priotus
What a meeting that was I can tell you. I don’t know if he will thank me for putting this on paper but what the hell it was funny.
It was shortly into my 7th year when I began to exhibit signs of wild magic (mostly illusions but also enhanced taunts and healing spells) so the elders decided that I should go to titan to see the mages guild, as these signs suggested real true magic (fairy magic is second nature to most of us but true magic is pretty rare) so I packed my bundle and went on my first real adventure (forest adventures aside) out into the big wide world.
What an education that was, huge dragons, vampires, oni, trolls, demons, dwarves,
Centaurs, all manner of strange creatures. Most gave me a wide berth and some funny looks, this confused me till I realised they mostly were wearing clothes and as most fairies I wasn’t. Oh well modesty doesn’t really exist in the fairy language so I flew on.
Titan loomed in the distance; it was bigger than anything I had ever seen and was quite frightening at first was. When I got to the gate the gatekeeper looked at me and said, “clothes please “ full of innocence I replied “I haven’t got any to give you “ he sighed and said “ NO get some as soon as you get in “ “oh” thought me “he should have just said”
Anyway he let me in and I entered titan for the first time. You really can buy anything here, I had brought some rare herbs and craftwork to trade and had been told how much they were worth, as it happened most of the traders were fair and I got a good price. Then oh joy of joys I discovered ice cream. Well a day later when the headache and sick feeling had gone away I decided to find the mages guild, apparently Priotus was supposed to be expecting me. I had been directed to the guild hall by a very friendly chap, he looked quite scared when he accidentally stood on me I think he was expecting to be hit but I was in a good mood and he didn’t weigh much so I just called him a name and he answered my query. I eventually found the hall and stood to look at it a while, it was very pretty (I don’t suppose it exists anymore in our future that is), after a while I plucked up the courage and started to walk in. just as I got near the door I noticed a scurrying shape round a corner and head for the door and I heard a laugh from the side of the building I quickly flitted to have a look and saw a human standing next to a huge metal robot type thing,
He was laughing in an insane way and muttering about someone called Matt and Priotus. ”Oh oh he’s a loony “ I thought, “best warn Priotus” wouldn’t do to have my teacher loonied before I had even started.
When I got into the reception area I saw the scuttle thing heading upstairs so I darted off after it, or I would have if a receptionist hadn’t stopped me and asked if I had an appointment. An appointment? Well no but I really had to see Priotus, silly bint made me wait while she got him. Oh well I lost the scuttle thing but then Priotus showed up.
I heard and felt him before I saw him boy was he big, I tried to make him understand but he found it hard to keep up (not his fault I suppose, being a big rock can affect your hearing) I finally made him understand by talking v-e-r-y- slowly.
Then we both rushed upstairs to Mattes room; being small I slipped under the door and instantly saw the scuttle thing at a bookshelf. Without thinking (a small fault of mine) I flew right at it, Matt looked up in shock as a flare went off in his face (fairy flight tends to be loud and bright) and I hit the scuttle bug square in the lens. Priotus came in then luckily as I think Matt wasn’t too happy bout me being there.
Well a fight ensued and Priotus dealt with the scuttle bug but not before it escaped with one of Matt’s books.
We gave chase but matchstick men (but no cats and dogs) attacked me, whilst we dealt with them (helped by some friendly rats) we had lost Stan (that was the loonies name),
Fortunately Priotus knew where he lives (apparently everyone knows where Stan lives)So we set off and the trip there is a story in itself. The rest is history.
As it happens I have only met one sun fairy, horrid thing it was too. Its friends were worse however.
Me
and Priotus were travelling with some friends to get a magic sword or some such
thing (I generally don’t ask, for me its not important, the journey is in
itself an adventure)
When
we stopped at an inn for the night, when we got in there was a sun fairy at the
bar. When I walked up to the bar I found I was alone, also everyone in the bar
seemed to be holding his or her breath. Well I ordered a drink and settled down
on the other end of the bar, “enough bar for everyone “ I thought. But no
little Mr I’m a sunny bas**rd had to pick a fight (or was it me I was very
drunk by this time “
Well
when I came round I found myself in a bell tower 2 miles away with a headache of
mammoth proportions, Priotus found me later that morning. Feeling sorry for
myself I hid in a corner of the coach and tried to stop the world spinning, it
didn’t work as later down the road Mr sun fairy had found some mates and his
clans book of grudges.
“Oh
bugger “ I thought making myself very small, however they found me and started
to chant. All of a sudden I found myself big and naked and without my wings or
fairy dust.
“Oh
my goddess I am human f**king bas**rd sun scum “
I
scrambled for some clothes and sat and cried. On the funny side it shocked
Stephen when he woke up and saw me big. But the human body took some getting
used too and I was not in a cheery mood. This was unfortunate for the werewolf
who thought to ambush us as I still pounded the living moonlight out of it,
however at the last minute I pulled back and gave it a chance to run (it did,
very fast).
That
made me feel slightly better but I wanted to be back to normal NOW.
Fairy
curses don’t work that way though so I was stuck till it wore off, I did get
some revenge because in an inn further down the road I met up with fern (boy was
she shocked) I couldn’t even speak fairy but I managed to convey what had
happened, she shook her fist and flew off. She returned with many of my clan and
our book of grudges, she winked and flew off after the sun slugs. Heh heh heh,
next time I’m home I must find out what they did.
That
cheered me up no end until I had to climb a mountain in my human body, what an
experience that was and I started to sink into despair again. Then I felt a
tingling in my body and all of a sudden I shrank. Yippee I was a fairy again.
Bloody
sun fairies, and to think I have to mate with one of them, urrrgh. Well if I
fail that wont be a problem cos there wont be any more faries to worry about.
Not
quite a good enough reason to fail (almost but not quite)
Well
we got the sword (turned out to be the wrong one) Stephen died, Stephen came
back as a phantom and Verminthrax broke the seal (the blood seal no as in arf
arf)
And we all came back in time to save the future. I don’t even think my parents have been born yet! . Still at least there are fairies here and now. Got to try to keep it that way, we’ll work something out.
But
that’s another story.
