Wow. Heeheehee... I now see why Nate commented on my blog a while back that he would be impressed if I managed to win an essay contest from
The Nation magazine. I actually read a few articles on
their website just now. They are radically on the left. I picked the topic of education, and I think my essay is quite good. I don't think it is the sort of radical they are looking for, however. Whatever. I needed to write it. It's not up to me to control the results.
Tonight I have some research to do. Tomorrow I will have to write my outline, so that I can turn it in on Wednesday. Wednesday evening, I will reorganize all the research I've done into the official categories on my outline. Beginning Thursday, I will be writing every day for three weeks - an average of four pages per evening. Yeeks.
At least I'm not scared any more. I think I can do this. God is good.
I will close with a bit of
Erthe that I wrote this past week. I haven't touched
Erthe for a while, but I needed to. This is the start of the chapter in which Pharr the Phoenix is explaining the true origins of the faeries and the leprechauns...
“You’re right,” sighed Pharr. “It is best to start instruction at the beginning. Everything else makes more sense then.” He sat down and settled his feathers comfortably about him. “Now, I was not here at the start, so what I am about to tell you I did not witness. I heard it from the King, who has been here before the word ‘before’ meant anything at all. The King created Erthe, you see. He made it from nothing – land, Ocean, stars, plants, creatures, and fays. He made fays last of all, female and male, winged and…” He paused and examined Susan’s face – “…wingless.”
Susan frowned. “How can you make something from nothing?” she asked.
“You can’t,” answered Pharr quickly. “The King can. He spoke, and things existed from his words.”
“I don’t believe you,” Susan said. “Faeries would know about this. Nobody’s ever mentioned it.”
Pharr shrugged. “None of the faeries ever mentioned that anything of any sort existed outside of Faerieworld’s valley, did they? Now did you want to hear about fays or not?”
Susan frowned harder, but she sat cross-legged to listen, still eating her sandwich.
“You seem to have missed one important detail I have given you so far,” Pharr continued. “I said that fays were made winged and wingless. This is true. He made the wingless one first. His name was Fay. The winged one was female, and her name was Aerie. At that time, they and everything else were perfect, just the way the King wanted them. The entire world was theirs to rule. The King had given them everything he had made, all so that they would love him and follow him with all their hearts. Further, there was no evil in Erthe. Fays were never cold, tired, or angry; no creature killed another. Nothing even died. The King enjoyed his handiwork so much that sometimes he would come here to walk with Fay. Fay and Aerie could even visit the King in his own realm, an unimaginably beautiful place. They possessed the gift of all fays – the ability to see Corners. To them, with their second sight, the King’s home was just as obvious as their own.
“They could have lived like that forever. But Fay and Aerie made a terrible mistake. Besides the Corner to the King’s home, the King had also made another. They could visit the King whenever they wanted and learn from him forever, so long as they did not go through this other Corner. If they did, the King told Fay, they would surely die.
“The two passed an unknown amount of years in this way, cultivating their lands and visiting with the King. Both Fay and Aerie could fly; though only Aerie had wings visible to first sight, all fays were originally gifted with special second wings of light, similar in essence to their second sight. These wings allowed them to fly in the warm air, soaring on the wind with the birds.
“But Aerie was curious. What worlds lay through the other Corner? She made a point of going by every day with Fay so that she could look at it. There was nothing wrong with
looking. She never, ever intended to disobey the King, whom she loved very much, but the Corner fascinated her.
“One day, though, Fay and Aerie were passing by the Corner – and they heard voices from inside! They stopped and stared at it. It looking like a faintly glowing blue cube, as normal. But definitely, something was talking.
“’What’s it saying?’ asked Aerie.
“’I don’t know,’ Fay replied, anxiously pulling on her arm. ‘We should not be listening, anyway. Come away, Aerie.’
“’Oh, Fay, surely there is no harm in
listening.’ And she moved closer.
“Fay loved Aerie very much, but he knew, deep down, they should have nothing to do with the voices. ‘No,’ he said. And then stayed where he was, watching her walk up to the Corner.
“Aerie scarcely noticed that Fay had not followed her. She listened with fascination to the voices, which were talking in words that made no sense. It was two males talking, for the tones were much lower, like Fay’s. Where were they? Just there – on the other side of the Corner. She wanted to see. The King had told them not to go
through the cube. Surely, if one put one’s head
in, that wasn’t the same thing. No sooner had she thought it then she was peering around the edge of the Corner’s doorway. She gasped and, after a second, pulled her head back.
“’Fay, I don’t understand! Everything is big on the other side,’ she called. ‘Why didn’t the King tell us that things were big? Much larger than us. Why are they larger than us?’ She put her head back around to look. And then, slowly, she stepped through and disappeared.
“Fay’s hand flew to his mouth, and he stared around himself in dismay. The King was nowhere to be seen – but what had Aerie done? She should not have gone through! The King had said so. But whatever did she mean about things being big on the other side of the Corner? Bigger than on Erthe? The King had said that he had given them a perfect world to rule. It didn’t seem possible that things could be any more impressive anywhere else, and yet…
“Aerie popped back through. She was grinning, and she carried with her a huge piece of cloth. ‘Look what the giants have done!’ she announced. ‘It is fibers of plants, all woven together. I have never seen anything like it! You must come, Fay. You can see that I am not dead. The King must have been mistaken.
“’The King is never mistaken,’ said Fay, but he took the piece of cloth. It was heavy and soft. He could easily see where the fibers crossed each other. ‘How do they do this?’ he asked in wonder.
“’Come and see,’ said Aerie. She took him by the hand, and he let her draw him to the Corner. At the entrance, he stopped for a second. Then he stepped through.
TO BE CONTINUED
