A mysterious maiden, dark hair with purple sheen and a crown of moon flowers. A moonstone pendant sits on her ivory white skin. She often has a light blue aura surrounding her gentle carriage. Trazling citizens often spot her wandering through the forest with a wedge-tailed eagle flying above her or on her shoulder. Or they spot her dancing amongst the forest. It is said, she lives in a secret cave, but no-one knows exactly where as she appears to enter it from different locations.  

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Sexy Wheels 69

Being a dreamy Pisces girl, even as a child I loved to paint, draw and write stories.  As I grew up my favourite subject in school was of course art.  I use to draw, build clay sculptures and take my paintings home for my family to hang up at home and work.  Dad’s office, in one of our castles, used to have paintings all over the walls, you couldn’t see a bare brick anywhere!  During my High school education at the local Christian convent, my love for art was squished as my art teachers insisted on changing everything I created.  During my classes I used to constantly hear criticism  “…change the colour…..”, “…..put a tree here….”, “….I don’t like that…”, to the point where my heart sank and caused me to never want to draw again.  For years I never drew or painted, instead I focused all my Piscean skills on writing poetry, stories and developing my spirituality.  Much to the nuns’ disgrace I started debating with them over their Christianity principles and taught myself about the Wiccan religion when a friend confided in me that she was a white witch.  Another friend lent me a book to read which she thought I might enjoy, after I read the book, I found the following five books in the series and was spiritually enlightened.  I realised that these books were actually a secret New Age spiritual bible written by Queen Traci of Trazling, where the whole castles’ community was dedicated to putting these spiritual theories into practise.  I searched high and low for this castle, called Trazling and was relieved to be accepted into the community with open arms.  Something about the Trazling way of life, encouraged me to try drawing and painting again and I was stunned to find my aristic skills had improved tenfold.  My new occupation is now the Royal Trazling Artist, where I paint and draw portraits of all the community members and landscape pictures of the castle and its surroundings. 

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The gentle breeze floated with the joyous sound of laughter, shifting the entire atmosphere of the forest. The tree branches seem to bend with happiness while the leaves fell with glee.

Laughter escaped Relle’s mouth as she sat on the luscious green grass, admiring the appearance of her best friend and trusty companion Rudy.  The young adult charcoal coated wolf had sat patiently while the hand-made flower wreath had been placed on his head, during the process, a piece of pollen had fallen off one of the flowers and had somehow landed in Rudy’s nose making him sneeze causing the wreath to break, showering the black wolf with pink, purple and white petals.

Rudy growled at Relle’s laughter and shook himself, causing all the petals to spray onto Relle. Still laughing she stood up and shook the petals off and placed her own wreath on her head.

“How do I look?” The young girl asked the wolf, posing slightly in his direction. Relle was petite, from her small body frame to her elf-like facial features inherited from her father. She also possessed an obvious un-Elf like feature, inherited from her human mother, which was an abundance of thick curly pitch-black hair that cascaded down her back to the top of her bottom. Relle’s eyes were most unique and becoming in an unusual shade of dark purple, almost black, her eyes were unusual, even for her mother’s race.

The young wolf let out a low growl and pounced on Relle, knocking her over onto the ground.  Giggling she wrestled with the wolf, until finally succumbing to his heavier weight and laid laughing on the grass.

“Ok, ok you will win, now get off pretty boy, your squashing me.” Relle responded playfully trying to push the wolf off, as he growled once again at her last remark.  Laughing once again Relle rolled her eyes up to the sky. Suddenly noticing the position of the sun she jumped up off the ground, knocking Rudy off his feet in the process.

“I’m late!” She announced. Searching in the green grass she quickly snatched up her bag and ran silently through the forest, Rudy close behind, they continued to run until they reached a small glade. Quickly her eyes scanned to the wild green growth; slowly she walked through the glade, her eyes searching. “Excellent!” She announced, walking a few steps and kneeling down, she reached out and softly stroke the leaves of a young, struggling sapling.

Gently she cooed encouraging words to the sapling and as magically as jack’s beanstalk the juvenile sapling instantly grew into an exquisite blooming adult shrub. Silently Relle reached into her bag and brought out a small knife and sliced several branches of the plant, ensuring the shrub would still be able to survive with the remaining branches. She softly thanked the now thriving shrub and tied the fresh branches with a piece of string, which seemed to appear out of thin air, and then placed them, along with the knife into her bag.

Relle and Rudy travelled quickly and silently through the forest, finally stopping in front of a huge, centuries old oak tree.

“Goodnight Rudy!” Relle announced to the wolf, causing a small whimper to escape the wolf. “I wish you could come in also, I don’t like you staying out here alone either.” Relle answered, kneeling on the soft grass to hug her friend.

“I am sure you will find a nice warm place to sleep and I will see you when the sun rises.” Relle soothed, rubbing the shiny, black coat with the palm of her hand. “Now I really must go before I get into trouble!” She announced, hugging Rudy once more before retreating into a small hole in the oak tree’s trunk.

Quickly Relle walked down the narrow spiraling stairs inside the huge tree trunk until she reached an open room. The walls were made of the roots of the oak tree which held the solid earth in place while the ground was made of pressed earth, so pressed that it in fact it seemed more like brown concrete.

 The whole room was warm, though no fire burned. Shelves filled with jars and books lined the edge of the room. Relle often wondered how they had gotten down the narrow stairs but never asked. A small dark-haired woman sat in the corner of the room on a small bed, her eyes concentrating on sewing a large velvet cape. “Did you get everything?” She croaked as Relle placed her bag on the small stone table that occupied the centre of the room.

“Yes, it was very difficult to find rabbit’s thorn.” She answered softly.

“That was expected.” The old lady grunted, Relle was curious for a closer look at the velvet cape but knew she would have to wait. “What took you so long?” Her mother demanded as she pulled her needle through the material. “I had to go to the western glade.” Relle began to say before her mother groaned in a disgruntled fashion; indicating that she thought Relle was lying. Knowing it was a waste of time to explain what she really had been doing, Relle was just silent. Years of growing up with her mother had taught Relle that most things were best not said, especially since her mother had become terminally ill.

It had been a slow process, as her mother had become weaker and weaker, over the last four or five years. Relle had basically looked after herself while her mother slept most of the day and caused Relle grief while she was awake.

Relle quietly prepared dinner for the two of them while her mother sewed in silence, every fibre of Relle was aching to find out where her mother had been hiding the cape and what she was going to do with it. As she put her mother’s dinner plate down on the huge smooth stone that her mother used as a bedside table, she sneaked a peak at the cape, glancing away before her mother could see and sat in the middle of the floor eating her own dinner.

“Tomorrow I want you to travel to Trazling.” Relle’s mother announced, startling Relle.

“My father was of nobility, which should ensure your place at the palace, but it has been several years since one of our family has been to court, so I have written a letter of introduction.” Relle’s eyes were nearly bursting out of her head as her mother causally spoke. She was going to Trazling. Relle had only ever heard occasional travellers through the forest speak of the captivating kingdom of Trazling and now her mother wanted her to travel there. As much as Relle loved the forest, she had always desired to go to Trazling, often fantasising about becoming a Magi.

 “As soon as you get to Trazling I want you to find Taliesin, Head Magi.  No wondering off!” her mother’s small pale blue eyes looked up from the cape and stared at Relle until she nodded mutely.

“I knew Taliesin’s mother quite well while I was growing up, she was a lovely lady. If Taliesin is anything like her mother she will look after you, as long as you behave yourself.” The old lady stared hard at Relle causing her to fidget. Letting out a deep sigh she returned to her sewing. Relle felt like screaming with excitement, she was going to meet a real Magi, and not any magi but Taliesin, head magi. It took all of Relle’s will power to remain calm as she finished her dinner.

“I want you to clean your dishes and go to bed, you have a big day ahead of you tomorrow.” Relle’s mother ordered as she noticed Relle had finished her dinner. Millions of questions leaped into Relle’s head but she asked none, knowing she wouldn’t get any answers, only a scolding. She quickly washed up, daydreaming about how exciting it will be to see Trazling Kingdom; she practically floated off to her bed. Just as she was about to climb into her bed she heard her mother’s voice order “And you can’t take that wolf with you either, I know you play with him around here but you can’t have a wolf in a palace!” Quickly Relle’s happiness dissolved into despair. She had’t even thought of leaving Rudy behind.

Relle woke early from a restless sleep; dry tears stained her face as she dressed for her day’s journey. Taking a deep breath she walked into the main living area,  and to her wonderment the room was empty. The shelves that were filled the previous night were bare, the warmth her home had always held was absent in its place there was a feeling of finality.

A frown creased Relle’s brow, she briefly remembered reading that wood witches are known to just disappear without a trace, taking all there belongings with them but her mother wasn’t a wood witch, was she?

Her mother was the only person Relle had ever known; surely she would have told her own daughter if was she a wood witch. Though she never told Relle that her grandfather was of nobility, infact she had never even mentioned him before.

Suddenly a whole new world flashed before her eyes, where she was not just half-elf living with a mother that was too ill to care and not even knowing her father, but a Lady, who was going to live in a castle. Her mind buzzed with images of what her life could be like from now on.

A creak from the old tree woke Relle from her daydream. She’ll have time to ponder later, she reasoned and then for the first time she feasted her eyes on the stone table. On top lay the velvet cape and her bag, which she noticed was packed full. She quickly ran over to the table as if it might disappear like the rest. Relle’s mouths dropped open in amazement as she lifted the velvet cape and slid it over her shoulders. The cape was a perfect fit, she summarised as she spun around to admire herself. Hungrily she ransacked her bag, it was filled with herbs, spices, vegetables, fruit, a notepad, quill & ink, knife and to her amazement a bag of gold Trazling coins and her mother’s prized book, the one on alchemy. Relle had often admired the book on her mother’s bookshelf, tho she had never been allowed to open the book. Relle ran her hand over its golden cover as she glanced around the empty room. Letting out a deep sigh, she placed everything back into the bag and threw it onto her back and made her way out. Her hand gently glided over the tree’s truck as she walked up the stairs. “Thank you Addie, you have been a great home and a wonderful friend, I shall miss you dearly.” she said sadly as she stepped out into the open air. As soon as both her feet left the tree, it started to shake. Suddenly feeling frightened, Relle jumped further away from the old oak tree an watched in disbelief as the tree began to sink into the ground. Goodbye Lady Relle, I shall miss you also! And then the tree, her home, her life was gone.

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The sound of Rudy’s bark brought Relle back to the present; sad tears rolled down her face as she knelt on the ground and hugged her friend. Rudy softly barked questions until Relle finally pulled away from the warmth of his black coat. “She’s gone, everything is gone.” And then shakily she announced “And I have to go…alone.” Wiping the tears from her face, she hugged Rudy for what she thought was the last time and walked away.

Gently the breeze drifted through the forest, carrying with it a feeling of sadness felt by all. The tree branches seemed to sway sadly while the leaves fell with a feeling of despair. A solitaire figure travelled mournfully out of the forest; unbeknown to her another lone figure followed silently, a young charcoal black wolf.

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Now, imagine one day you wake up. I mean really wake up. Everything is still as real as it ever was, but at the same time, isn’t really there. It’s like when you’re dreaming and you realise you’re dreaming, but, instead of waking up, your dreams become more real and you have total control. Lucid dreaming, they call it.

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However, enough about that, this story is about myself and how I came to be here. One day when I when out rock collecting for geo-physics. I found a most peculiar rock it was in the shape of a pentacle star and in pure darkness gave out its own light. I took it home and cleaned it up and unbelievably I had the most beautiful ring that you would ever see; a pentitcle star with equal part of it ruby, emerald, diamond, moonstone and opal set in a pinkish gold band. I do not know what made me do it but something was trying to get me to put this ring on.

The Royal Alchemist of Trazling and Head of the Initiates of Lugh and the Departmental head of Alchemy and Astronomy. Paddo

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