By Marnie Cate
Copyright 2015 Marnie Cate
All Rights Reserved
Dedication
Dedicated to my beloved Gram, my inspiration Judi Dench, my furry muse, the voices in my head that come to life on paper and my little sister that is shaking her head at my dedication.
Bright Blessings, Marnie Cate
Protectors of the Elemental Magic
Three Generations in the Future
“Will you tell me the story of why we have to protect the magic?” the young boy said, as he stared up at me. Kneeling down to him, my blue eyes gazed deeply into his pain filled ones.
Gently, he began to smooth the colored streaks of my long white hair. “Breeze, I am not too young to know the truth,” he pleaded.
“Mile, my love, you are too young for all of this,” I said, gently cupping his face in my hand.
“No!” he cried. His green eyes welled with tears. “I am ready to know. Please tell me.” Wrapping his arms tightly around my neck, I weakened. He was right. In his short life, this small boy had seen more tragedy and pain than a man of eighty.
“Fine. I will tell you the story of how your great grandmothers saved magic,” I said, wiping the tears that were streaming down his cheeks. “Now watch and listen carefully. I will not tell it again.”
As Miles took a seat on the ground, I decided that the only way to keep him safe was to tell him the truth. “Mara has told you about our Goddess, Danu, correct?” Eagerly nodding, he patiently waited for me to continue.
“Danu is the daughter of Arianolwyn, who is the goddess of the Moon and guardian of time. Her father, Alaunius was the God of healing. Her parents were joyous when they found out that they were going to be parents. Sadly, Alaunius died before his child was born,”
Questioning my decision to tell him the story I paused. “Tell me if you want me to stop.”
“Ok, Breeze,” he said “I’m listening very carefully like you told me.”
Patting him on the head, I decided to continue, “When Danu was born, she was the first child born. She was followed by her sisters, Snowystra and Brighid.”
“Each of them were very different. Danu was born to be the mother of the elements - Air, Fire, Water and Earth. She brings life to the world.” I explained. “Snowystra is the Goddess of Darkness. She brings loss to the world.”
“She is winter,” Miles whispered.
“You are correct,” I confirmed. “When Snowystra was born, she immediately disliked her sister and they fought. In frustration, Arianolwyn called her third daughter, Brighid. This child was born to be the balance between the Light of Danu and the Dark of Snowystra.”
“Danu and Snowystra lived for many years in peace but Brighid became unable to control her dark sister. Snowystra disliked the joy that my brothers and sisters brought to the world. Slowly, she began to hurt the elementals. When Danu confronted her, they had a horrible fight and Danu was injured badly.”
“Miles, this is where your great grandmothers come in,” I said, taking his hand. “Are you ready to learn about the time I first met them?”
Climbing onto my lap, I began to tell the small boy the story of origins of The Protectors of the Elemental Magic.
The Reason
The room was softly lit...not from a lamp or sunlight but from the soft glow from the other girls around me. Girls did not accurately describe us. We were called faeries and fae by the humans that would sometimes catch glimpses of us in the forest where we lived. They told stories of our magic dust because of our snow white skin that shimmered in the sun. While we looked similar in many ways, from our slender frames to our large cat-like eyes, each of us had a very distinct style. Many of the stories that were told about us were embellished with accounts of mischief and deceit. While some of our behavior could be could be playful, we were not child stealers or thieves. Our mother had taught us to love the humans. Her greatest delight was for us to share the stories they told about us - her elementals.
Blaze stood next to me. Her long, curly, red hair flickered as the soft flames of fire she emitted struggled to stay lit. Staring down at the body on the floor before us, her golden eyes filled with deep concern.
“I don’t know how much longer we can live like this, Blaze. She is so sad,” I said, in my soft childlike voice. Trying to hide my tears, I let my long white hair fall in front of my face, covering my eyes.
“There is nothing we can do to help her, Breeze,” the pale yellow-haired Daisy interrupted, as she smoothed the hair away from my face.
Turning away from her, I realized that I was not the only one crying. Daisy had directed her attention to Bay. Stroking her long royal blue hair, Daisy tried to comfort her.
Daisy was the oldest of the four of us at seventy-six years old. Since our life force began, she had always been the one to guide us. Ten years after her birth, Blaze and I arrived. Daisy joked that we were the fire twins and that my role was to feed and fan the flames of Blaze. At the young age of fifty, Bay was the baby of our group. We were all very young in our world. The small time that we had lived was nothing compared to the centuries the older fae had on us.
With her emerald green eyes focused on the tear streaked face of the now sobbing Bay, Daisy said, as if scolding her child, “Bay, there is no time for tears. We need to prepare for the worst.”
“You are wrong, Daisy. There has to be a way to help her,” the strong voice of Blaze fired at her. We could feel her determination, not only from her words but by the fire reflecting in her golden eyes. Standing with both hands on her hips, she faced us like a small warrior ready for battle. “We cannot just leave her like this. She needs us.”
I worried that Daisy was correct as I looked down at Danu, our mother, lying before us. She was sprawled out on the floor not moving. The color of her hair was once a brilliant silver but it was now dull and lifeless. She was not sick but defeated and had allowed herself to drown in her sorrow. Sinking into the abyss, she had given up and was in a place where we could not reach her.
“We are going to save her. We are going to save us. There are too many of us left to not at least try,” Blaze said firmly, as she knelt down to the woman and lightly kissed her cheek. Standing back up, she commanded, “Call everyone together. We are going to fix everything.”
“How are we going to fix everything?” Bay cried, as the large tear drops fell from her silver eyes. “How do you think we are going to repair all of the damage that has been done?”
“The four of us are strong. We were made from the fire, water, air, and earth magic inside of us. She gave each of us this power to use, not to ignore. We are more than the elements inside us. We are her children. We are her elementals. We will bring her spirit back,” Blaze contended.
“What about...” I said, looking around in fear. Scared that the one that had hurt Danu might hear us and suddenly appear, I struggled to find the correct words. “I mean, she will…”
“We cannot be afraid of her,” Blaze chided. “We have nothing left to lose. Do you want to be like her children? They have no joy. They are always cold and scared of her anger.”
“But, Brighid said—” Bay began, but was abruptly cut off by Blaze.
“She doesn’t do anything to stop Snowystra. She is not going to help us,” Blaze said. “She never has helped in the past. We can’t count on it now.”
Kneeling back down to the woman on the floor, she said to the other girls, “We need to pick her up off of the floor and move her somewhere more comfortable. She can’t stay here.”
“Where will we take her?” Bay said. Her tears had stopped and she had composed herself enough to assist.
“We will put her somewhere safe until she is ready to return to us,” Blaze instructed. “No one but us must know where we take her.”
We nodded hesitantly. Blaze narrowed her eyes on us until we all eagerly agreed.
“I know the perfect place to take her,” B
laze said excitedly. “Let’s go now.”
Whispering to the woman, Blaze softly said, “Danu...Mother, we will not fail you.”
The Plan
Once Danu had been brought to a safe place, we each kissed her softly and promised that we would return soon. While walking through the forest, I was on alert for anything out of the ordinary. Hypersensitive, we found that any unusual sounds forced us to fade into a ball of elemental light and hide until the noise was confirmed as safe. When we finally reached a large oak tree that was wrapped with the same green moss that was covering the forest floor, Daisy stopped and inspected the thick bark.
“Kai said it was the largest oak tree with the most twisted vines,” Daisy said, as she pointed at the limbs of the tree. “This has to be the spot.”
“What are we waiting for then?” Blaze snapped and walked directly into the solid bark of the tree and vanished. Quickly, we followed.
As we walked through the darkness of the tree, a pulsing sounded.
bu dum bu dum bu dum
“Can you hear the beat?” Daisy whispered. “It is the spirit of the tree.”
With those words, we reached the end of the blackness and entered a brightly lit room. The room was filled with the rest of the elementals. Boys and girls with the same large, almond shaped eyes and a rainbow of hair colors stood facing a large stone. The group that had gathered seemed as faded as Danu. The reds, blues, yellows and greens of their hair and eyes were dull, not the vibrant shades that usually could be seen. Their conversation and laughter was loud but not as joyous as it would normally be in a gathering of this size.
Weaving through crowd, Blaze made her way to the rock. Climbing up onto the stone, she addressed the crowd. “Danu has been moved to safety. She is still with us but she is diminishing fast. It is time for us all to take action.”
Pacing back and forth, she continued, “Our mother, our creator has been destroyed emotionally, weakened physically and I fear she is losing her spirit. I am afraid she will perish if we do not do something.”
Looks of fear and panic filled the faces of her audience and murmurs in the crowd filled the room.
“Silence, I need you to be brave now,” she commanded. “We must work together to restore her spirit. If we do not, we will start to lose more of us. Look around. How many of us are gone? How many more of us will disappear if we do not take action?”
Snapping her fingers several times, she blew out a long breath. Frantically snapping her fingers again, she stopped when a small flame formed on her fingers.
Blaze said dismally, “As you can see even my magic is not as strong as it once was. We will soon lose everything and then where will we go? Will we survive when the magic stops or will we wither away like the others?”
Staring at her, I realized she was exaggerating her magic loss but her demonstration had the effect that she had intended. The crowd gasped and the soft murmurs from before became a slow roar of anger and panic.
From the middle of the crowd, a strong male voice shouted, “I know where we will go. We will all be gone unless we save her.”
Stepping out of the crowd and up onto the stone next to Blaze, he addressed the crowd, “We need to convince Danu to believe in herself like we do. We need to remind her that she is needed. She needs a reason to fight to preserve the world she has created for us. She cannot bow down and give up. We need to connect her to the human world. They will remind her how important she is.”
Blaze grabbed the young man’s hand and raised it in the air. “Kai is right. We will reach out to their young. Together we will bring back the magic.” With those words, their raised hands burst into flames.
The roar of panic that her demonstration had inspired turned into a cry for battle. Smiling she said, “We will keep our magic. We will protect the magic.”