Shine

“This is what we are meant to do isn’t it? We are meant to help as many people as we possibly can in this world and every other world?”

Sitting beside the seven pools, Hipponian to keep keep Faylinn calm. She was so impatient. Would the time never arrive? “Time is running short for them, they must arrive soon!"

"Withershins, are you sure there is no sign of them yet?"

Withershins looked at Faylinn, this must have been the tenth time she had asked him the same question within the last hour. As Fairy Queen she still had so much to learn. Patience was one of those things. He had seen this during her first ride on Sarandraith, the Imperial Dragon, Sacred Guardian of the Castle, she had been impetuous and impatient as ever, always wanting things to happen so much faster than they were meant too. He looked at her honey blonde hair and bright blue eyes. His Fairy Queen, but he loved them both so dearly. His King and Queen of all the Fairylands were so special and had gone through so much themselves.

Their many adventures had sealed a bond between them all that nothing would or could break. Time seemed to be standing still, but it seemed that there wasn’t any way they could make them arrive any sooner than they were meant to.

"Withershins, I think the time has come. Go and please greet our two visitors" said Hipponian at last. "Remember though, treat them gently they are both ill".

Withershins responded by removing his cap and giving an elf bow - very low to the ground, but it was still a very respectful bow, then he was gone!

CHAPTER ONE

It all began with her daughter Clare’s birthday! For weeks now, each night she had dreamt the same dream. Seen the same things, but now, there was an element of change creeping in. A notepad sat on her bedside table and was beginning to fill up. Some of the affects of her dreams were now beginning to make sense and she was gradually able to form some semblance of a story. This tale was so powerful, it must be told…

Six months later, Tina decided writing it down seemed to be the only way the story could be expressed. Some of the words weren’t even hers she thought. As she wrote them she couldn’t believe she was actually writing them in the way she did.

The next and most bizarre episode of the whole six months was when she went into a tiny little card shop near the Tesco shopping mall. Clare, her daughter was to be 20 years old so she needed a special birthday card and this looked like the perfect place.

Walking through the door, the shop smelt old and musty, although oozing old-world charm. Nodding to the two people standing behind the counter, she smiled to herself before moving further into the shop. They seemed an unusual pair of odd bods. The old lady looked as though she were 101. The man, much younger, appeared to be in his early 30's. They wore very old clothes which seemed to be covered in dust. She looked at them, smiled again and began to look through the cards.

The cards she couldn't believe still existed. They were, in truth, absolutely ancient and yet, had a wonderful old-world charm that was sadly lacking in the world. She rummaged at the front of the shop for a time looking at cards that seemed most peculiar.

Wandering further in, she noticed a bright light shining down onto some cards towards the back of the shop.

Intrigued, she wandered over and started to browse. Suddenly, she felt rooted to the spot, she couldn’t move, the cards were so phenomenally fabulous. She felt herself drooling. They were shiny silver and gold and the artistry was stunning.

Suddenly everything became clear. What she had been struggling to put into words was here; right here in front of her and now it all made sense. She couldn’t believe it. As she looked at each picture, the dreams came flooding back and, were now glaringly obvious. For a moment she felt as though she had been hit by a lightning strike, so much so that she staggered momentarily.

She was utterly dumbfounded.

She gazed in wonder at these amazing cards. The detail was a wonderful copy of each of her dreams. Now she had the words and the pictures to put forward the story to the world. Each picture on the cards was one revelation after another. She thought she was going to cry with happiness.

One particular card drew her attention and thrilled her the most. Looking closer at the card, she saw the picture, of the actual girl she had dreamt of. It was as if the artist had gone into her head at night and drawn her exactly as she wanted her to look. It was remarkable. With her honey blonde hair and bright blue eyes and beautifully proportioned cheek bones, she was faultless. The way she held herself was exactly how she saw her in the dreams and yet didn’t realise it until now. But best of all she had wings! The wings she dreamt she would have and they were … oh so perfect, frail- looking. Tina could almost see them moving gently. She gasped and turned around quickly to look at the people at the counter.

The old lady looked across, “Are you alright dear, I heard you gasp?” Her voice sounded quite concerned.

“No I’m ok thanks, just marvelling at the beautiful cards.” Tina shrank behind the card stand. She looked over at them to see them both staring at her. Smiling, she turned back to the cards.

Another card showed a wedding couple sharing a private moment. The young groom was just as she had dreamt. Handsome, lithe, and strong yet, with a gentle look on his face as he gazed at the girl. “My dream man I think and here he is, before my very eyes.” She quickly looked around her again, had she actually said that out loud?

The next card was one of jollity and gaiety. The enthusiasm in the card jumped out of it and into her mind. They all seemed excited about the wedding within the previous card, if that was possible.

All the cards seemed enchanting but the next was amazing, only because the horses in the cards were not actual horses but Unicorns and that’s exactly what she wanted them to be, but these were Unicorns with wings! The next card was one of a wizard and a boy and it immediately made her think of other wizards she had read about. As she continued to look a castle appeared on the horizon and there..... right there, was the castle in the Fairyland that had been created in her dreams. The next card had the same castle, but protected high on a cliff overlooking the sea and in the forefront of the picture, was a dragon on a rock and the way it sat gave anyone who dared to look, the idea that it was for the protection of the castle.

The last card on the stand was a lovely, ordinary type card in that it was neither gold nor silver but green and of the ‘Tree of Time.’ Not that those words were written anywhere on the card, but Tina just knew in her mind that was what it had to be. The face in the tree was kindly and caring and smiled at her as she looked.

Overwhelmed and totally excited at the same time she gathered up the cards and took them to the counter. They smiled at her. The old lady spoke as she smiled “Are you alright dear? It’s just that I could hear you talking and at first when I saw you go pale, I nearly came over to you.”

“No I’m fine thank you it’s just that I have never seen cards like this and they are amazing. How much is that little lot?” Tina asked giving them a wide smile feeling quite breathless with excitement. She felt she had to get them home and start writing, the ideas were tumbling into her mind at the speed of lightning. There were at least ten cards, but she had to have them. Then came the worry, did she have enough money on her person? But she would have sold her soul to get these cards.

The old lady counted up on her fingers the amount and Tina looked at the younger man with raised eyebrows. He walked over to her and said “Grandma, the till does the adding up, you don’t need to.” He smiled sheepishly at her.

“Huh, I don’t trust these new-fangled things, my brain is far better than that thing.” She grumbled.

He laughed, quite embarrassed. Tina smiled thinking how quaint they were, but she had better not overcharge me.

“£29.99 dear, is that ok?”

“Yes that’s fine,” then she coughed hopeful there was enough cash in her purse.

“I hope you have the cash dear as we do not take cards I am afraid.” She smiled. “We are a little old fashioned here.” She looked at the cards and smiled. “They are particularly lovely cards are they not my dear? Do they reflect the beauty you have in your head?” The old lady looked at Tina in a most knowing way and then smiled at her grandson. He smiled as well and then carried on cleaning the counter top. Tina almost laughed but thankfully didn’t as it was still covered in dust when he had finished.

Tina walked out of the shop with a feeling of reluctance throughout her whole body with a feeling that she could learn a lot from that couple and possibly find many more cards in that tiny, little shop, if there was enough time. In that moment she vowed she would go back very soon. Meanwhile, she was very eager to get home and translate those cards into some semblance of order.

It was then and only then, the story would come out of the bedroom. It seemed she could not write it on a computer, it would have to stay hand written, at least for now.

It was only when she got home she remembered there was no card for her daughter. Lovely, she thought to herself, which means I could go back tomorrow and buy some more of those beautiful cards to complete the story, finally. Meanwhile, she was eager to put pen to paper and start the long, long, long journey with this story.

The following day Tina was determined to go back to that shop, so she checked again and had enough cash, then added extra just in case…. She set off quite happily to the Tesco mall looking for the shop.

It was not there!

Walking through the whole mall, although convinced it should be at that particular mall, there was nothing to be found. She went into town desperate to find it and looked everywhere. No luck.

When she reached home she looked for the bag the cards were put into, but it was not the original bag, she must have put them into another card shop bag so she raced off to try again, still no luck.

The next day determined to find the shop, she visited every card shop around the area. Had they even been put into a bag? She went over her actions slowly in her mind as she sat in the car park. “I took them from the lady as she handed them to me and stuffed them into my overlarge handbag, I was so eager to take them home. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realise there were no bags on the counter. Did I have a receipt or was it another dream?” She quickly glanced around her, to check there was no one actually watching her or they would have thought she was mad. Maybe she was!

Life was beginning to imitate art.

CHAPTER TWO

As a senior nurse on a high dependency unit, Tina often came across some real heroes and heroines day in and day out. She had been on night duty and at the end of a particularly long shift, the ward admitted as an emergency, one particular young man. Nathan came onto the ward, a young 21 year old male university student. He was the most stunningly handsome young man she had ever come across, devastatingly masculine with a certain air about him that could not help but intrigue everyone who watched him. Bold vitality emanated from every line of his towering physique, but he was in for a huge shock. At the University they had been selecting students and taking them into the unit for well-man checks for research. He’d had a routine chest X-ray as part of that. Horror of horrors, they had found a huge shadow on one of his lungs and he was admitted almost immediately. They took him to theatre that very next day and took a biopsy. It was malignant. Cancer!

He was due to go to theatre two days later, but there was a problem, he was devoutly religious so prior to his surgery, he had 2 units of his own blood taken over those two days to be used for himself, should it be necessary. We knew he would probably need both but he was very optimistic. A pleasant and extremely likable young man who smiled a lot, and had followed his dream by achieving his aim of going to university against all the odds. Nathan's parents were not well off and although he had a brilliant mind he was not good at explaining himself on paper. So he had struggled hard and was finally in his first year of University.

He was a great favourite with Tina, well almost. On an equal par was a gorgeous girl from Kent. She had been on the ward quite a few times before and the nurses knew her well. Geisila was nineteen and her parents were originally from Poland, but her family had lived in the UK for many years now and were themselves great favourites amongst the staff. Geisila, a beautiful fashion magazine model, was bodily stick thin and incredibly beautiful. She’d had a genuinely tough time for most of her young life. From the age of eight she’d had treatment for a rare blood disease, been in remission a couple of times and was almost constantly having inpatient treatment. At thirteen she had been transferred over to our ward as there had been many problems over the years and generally she had been admitted at least once a year for treatment and now at the age of nineteen the doctors had found a large lump in her chest. She had been admitted to decide what treatment would help her beat the cancer this time.

Nathan, once he felt well enough to move around again, introduced himself happily to Geisila. For the first day, they chatted nonstop and laughed continually.

The day staff loved it, they made a handsome young couple, who obviously enjoyed each other’s company. It was at night that things changed.

Geisila had a boyfriend; well, she told the staff he was more of a good friend nowadays. In her own mind, she said, she felt it had been a waste of time to have anyone too close as she never had a sense of permanency in her life. She recognised how fragile and precious her life was and was unwilling to give of herself, except to her family. They were equally wonderful people, a pleasure to know, having supported Geisila for years, never once complaining about anything.

The first night when Geisila’s ‘boyfriend’ came, Nathan, whose own family had arrived, looked most odd. He kept looking at the boyfriend and pulling faces at Tina whenever he saw her looking across at him, but said nothing whilst his family was there.

Nathan’s family left first and Tina couldn’t resist wandering over and asking him what was wrong, although she sensed what it could be.

“Nothing really.” He said but still looked across at the man with Geisila. “What do you think of Kardolf? He strikes me as a bit of an odd character. Geisila seems afraid of him somehow. She looks like a wild deer caught in a snare.”

Looking across at her Tina could understand what he meant. She looked fearful whilst talking to him. “I think I’ll ask him to go, it is late now and I’ve loads to do to settle you all down before I go off duty.”