[ P ] A Sort of Fairy Tale with You

”I

t’s like a secret, just for us.” The words were uttered in awe as Cian stepped beyond an invisible threshold into a location entirely new, and his eyes grew wider with amazement. Seven tall stones stood, perplexing perpendicular to form a circle. Within the mystical ring, the wisp swirled, glowing brightly before vanishing into thin air. The rocks themselves appeared ancient, and the whole place had an otherworldly feel to it, in every way – the old moss cushioning his massive paws, the lightness in the evening air, the fragrance of fine wildflowers still in bloom, despite the destructive drought.

It felt as if the pair had moved beyond the ordinary into a world found only in fairy tales. ”Is this…” Still hardly certain he could believe his senses, Cian looked over to his companion, Clover, to see her reaction. Was this normal in the Highlands...? Or had something truly magical just occurred? ”What is this? Where – how…?” He had never witnessed anything so extraordinary in all of his almost-two years of existence, and his face was alight with wonder.



@Clover

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

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lue glowing light slowly floated along until it illuminated an incredibly tall tree. No? It was...a stone! And then as it continued, Clover realized that there was not just one, there were several! All of them were arranged in a circle and the two young wolves had been led right into the center of it. The fae had blessed this little girl with so many beautiful sights, she hardly knew where their gifts ever ended! This one had stolen her breath as she gasped and she broke away from her best friend only slightly just to turn herself around in a circle as she viewed each one of the tall structures that reached high up into the now night sky of the mountains.

"Papa told me stories about this place!" Clover whispered excitedly as she took every part of her surroundings in as the wisp bobbed up and down along the opposite edge of the circle. When she turned back to look at Cian, her smile faltered when she recalled why they needed to find a place to rest for the night. "Oh! Cian! Let me look at ya now that we can settle down. Show me, where does et hurt?"

@Cian

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

T

here was much in life that Cian did not understand. He didn’t know why some wolves were fortunate, while others seemed destined to difficulty. But one thing he did know, from experience, was that the universe had a funny way of surprising someone when they least expect it. The day had already been fateful, indeed, and Cian’s mind worked hard to commit all of it to memory – the hugeness of the stones, that towered over even a large wolf like him. The scents of flowers and of Clover. The serenity unmatched by anything else he had known. If only the moment could last forever.

The youth had all but forgotten about his tail, and seemed surprised when Clover’s attention returned to it. To be certain, the crookedness had not disappeared, and to see it again caused Cian to wince. But the pain seemed to have dulled down, and until he moved his tail slightly to test it out, it had not hurt much at all. ”It’s – it’s not perfect, but I think it’ll be okay, really.”

He was far more interested in hearing more about this mysterious locale, and as Clover mentioned that her father had known of its existence, Cian cleared his throat, rather shy to ask. He spoke softly. ”What, um, did he say, exactly? I mean, your dad– your Papa. Has he seen this place before?”



@Clover

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

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rows furrowed with concern and she glanced between the kink in poor Cian's tail and his eyes as they both seemed to inspect his injury. She moved towards his tail as he wagged it, waited for it to cease and she sighed gently. "When I got hurt, and I got hurt a lot, Mama used to kiss it better." She leaned in and with the most delicate of touches, she gave the crooked part of his tail a swift lick. She looked over at Cian, giving him a small smile, hoping that she'd made somewhat of a difference. "I don't know if my kisses are as magical as hers, but I hope that helps ya."

After administering her best form of TLC, the girl became absorbed in her surroundings again, allowing herself to step into the whimsical world of folklore told by her father. "Weeeeeeell, there's this one story he would tell about the Standing Stones from waaay back, the most ancient of days! Here, sit, sit. This one's a long one, okay?" She nudged him gently, trying to help him seat himself with his crooked tail and then she cleared her throat ready to set the stage for her grand storytelling performance.

"In these lands before our father's fathers, there were settlers that were struggling to survive at the foot of these mountains here. They wanted to grow their families and for some reason they were not able to no matter what they did or how much they prayed for it! They worried that one day, they would soon all die out and have no legacy to leave..." The little girl grew somber, lowering her head as though taking a moment of silence and then she lifted it suddenly, her smile growing large.

"But one day, a lady had been so very very sad that she went to drown herself in the lake of Perth only to witness a great white beast that looked like a cow with wings come out of the waters. It told her that if she and the other maidens came to the Standing Stones after they were ready to bear pups that they could drink of milk of the cow and it would help them with their uhh, what was the word...I think Papa called it fur-tilty?" The girl tapped her chin with a paw thoughtfully and then looked to Cian. "It's like, it helps you have babies? That's what Mama had ta explain to me...anyway!"

"The cow said in a deep, calm voice 'Come to the Standing Stones, drink my milk, and you will get your fur-tilties and have many babies!' The lady was ready to go back and gather her friends, but the cow also gave two warnings to her. What it said was, 'My first warning is this: You must come, drink, and rest before the witching hour, for the Standing Stones will change positions and any who have laid eyes on them doing so, have never lived to tell the tale. And my final warning is this: Only drink a bowl's worth of milk and no more! For if you take more than what is offered, there shall be no more of it to give!'

"The women settlers did this for many years and the fur-tilty worked! Some of them even found little flower babies in the woods, kind of how Mama found me too! They began to have so many pups! Life was amazing! Until...there were suddenly so many pups that they ate all of the food and there was hardly anything left! Again they went to the white faery cow a the Standing Stones where now the milk was to help the starving villagers. It worked for a time, but greed found its way into the hearts of wolves. There was a group of them that tried to come after the witching hour and one day the group was found dead in the middle of the stones. They say it was because they were awake to see the Standing Stones moving."

"Then also one of them tricked the beast into giving more than what was offered. The next day, a group of hungry folk returned to find that the mystical cow was gone, never to be seen again! There did end up being a very terrible time of wolves going hungry...but, after this, the community learned from their mistakes and taught their children and their children's children to be mindful of greed and to never take anything for granted and to go to bed when you're s'posed to! The end!"

@Cian

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

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ian’s expression registered his surprise as Clover administered her best form of care, so gently that Cian would not have known it had happened, had he not observed it himself. "I don't know if my kisses are as magical as hers, but I hope that helps ya." So many thoughts surfaced in his head as she spoke – how could anything be more magical than that? "Tha-- thank you." He felt a warmth spreading inside of his body that was both confusing and welcomed.

Cian was silent as Clover began to tell her story, one riddled with confusing ideas that astounded Cian. He could feel his face growing hot when Clover spoke of fur-tility and having babies, a subject that Cian knew nothing about, beyond what his father had always said about legacies and that was why babies were born… Something like that, but the subject was never broached, and its details had never been explained. He only knew that he felt even more feverish to consider such things.

Clover described the success of the early settlers of the lands upon finding their fur-tility, thanks to the magical cow… It was all very bizarre and hard to believe, but one statement caused Cian some alarm: ”Some of them even found little flower babies in the woods, kind of how Mama found me too!” Flower babies… in the woods? His eyebrows knit together in thought as he considered this new concept. While he was not entirely certain how these things were supposed to work, simply finding babies in the wild seemed impossible. He made a mental note to ask about this after the story had concluded.

He glanced apprehensively at the Standing Stones, attempting to imagine what it was like when they had moved, though from the look of it, they had not altered their positions in a long time. After much dramatic description, Clover’s tale concluded. The moral of the story, or so Cian gathered, was that their ancestors had been greedy, and they had paid the price. He thought of the Mainlanders he had known, those who lived lavishly with an air of sophistication, the Royalists who cared for maintaining the crown… That old life felt further away with every moment passing.

A bright sphere was taking its rightful place in the night sky, a full moon to illuminate the ancient stone and the young wolves within the circle. Cian’s imagination was still trying to make sense of it, but perhaps it did not have to make sense to be meaningful. He cleared his throat as he broke the silence. ”That’s – definitely an interesting story,” he said thoughtfully. ”It must have been a very long time ago. It seems so quiet now.” His eyes settled on Clover’s form, which nearly glowed in the moon’s pale light. There his focus would remain fixed, unable to look away or suppress that funny feverish feeling in his core as he watched the she-wolf, on the precipice of adulthood but still wholly innocent. She was amazing to him.



@Clover

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

A

s her fellow traveling companion complimented her story, the little performer of the tale beamed brightly as her hindquarters wriggled with the wagging of her tail. She lifted her chin high and proud, having a feeling her Papa would have thought she'd told it just as well as he could, if not better. "Aye...it must have been many hundreds of years ago, I'm thinkin'. Mama told me that there are still folk that believe there is still magic afoot here and so there are pregnant she-wolves that will travel all the way up here sometimes to gain the the favor of the ancient spirit of that cow."

Clover's gaze traveled back around to the stones as she too now wondered what the world was then as opposed to now. She even squinted suspiciously at the stones where they were placed before barking at them lightly, "And I hope by now you lot have found yer permanent seats! We're not lookin' fer no funny business here this evenin'!" She gave a curt nod with a snort before turning back to Cian. When she met his gaze, he was staring at her in a very odd way and she blinked at him for a moment, staring back. "Ya feelin' okay, Cian?" She asked softly, moving closer to him to sniff at his face to inspect and make sure all was well.

@Cian

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

He

watched Clover’s response both his comment and to the stones, smiling unconsciously as her quirks and behaviors continued to endear her to the boy. Cian’s mind was still working through the strange tale, which was likely to inspire some interesting, if not bizarre dreams in his future slumbers. ”I could see why – why some would believe in the magic here.”

Clover inquired about his well-being, and Cian offered a grin and a hurried nod to demonstrate just how fine he was feeling, though the feverish sensation lingered. ”Oh! I’ve been, um, meaning to ask you,” he began, a funny little smile spread across his muzzle. ”You had mentioned – well, you said something about being found... I think you said the fae had something to do with it?” His auburn brows furrowed with great interest as he regarded his companion curiously.

He could still hear his Father’s voice from time to time, uninvited. Those old views snuck in just then, however, to remind Cian that magical creatures do not really exist – they could not, should not exist, and what nonsense it was to even consider such topics, much less speak of them openly.

But Cian believed. Everything he had experienced that day was contrary to all that had been ingrained in his mind. Pure magic, as real as the snout on his face.
Cian felt sorry for his lost sire – not so much because of how he had died, but because of how he had lived: trapped literally and figuratively by pragmatism and ego, by the need to be seen as strong, powerful, and important? Never seeing what the wider world had to offer, seeing those views or hearing those stories. And what sort of life was that, really?

The youth sighed as he reminded himself: I am very fortunate to be here today. And he smiled in spite of that old life, because he knew that it was over with, in favor of a new beginning.



@Clover

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

C

uriously she watched him, her head tilting this way and that he started to put together an inquiry. Recognition soon passed across her features and she smiled giving a couple of nods with a wide grin showing the tiny pearls of her teeth. "Yep, yep, yep! Mama and Papa found me in the middle of the fae forest. I was fresh, new babe just'a curled up sleeping in the middle of a patch of clover and bright pink flowers like my eyes. Thas why they named me Clover! Mama says I'm a gift from the fae."

It was yet another thing that she held in high esteem about herself and she practically struck a pose to display herself confidently. "Did your mama and papa find you in the fae forest too?" Clover's eyes grew wide, sparkling with the anticipation that it could very much be a possibility that she had not considered. There may as well be children out in the world who were just like her!

@Cian

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

C

lover’s explanation of her origin was more than a little unusual. Though the bit about being called after her namesake plant made lots of sense, the rest of it was difficult for the youth to fully comprehend, as it was far beyond the realm of his preconceived reality. Cian worked to hide his astonishment from his visage. And the girl spoke of her discovery as if it were the most natural occurrence in all the world. It had never truly occurred to Cian that infants could be acquired, at random, in forests… But he was fairly certain that he had not been found by his parents in the woods. He doubted his father had ever been to that mystical forest realm to begin with.

He was still pondering this when Clover asked eagerly, "Did your mama and papa find you in the fae forest too?" Cian paused, hesitant to disappoint his friend, half wishing that he could claim a similar start. Ultimately, he had to be honest. ”No – no, I don’t think I was found. I mean, if you had seen my mum and dad–” He paused for a beat or two before continuing, ”I look just like them.”

Just then, a yawn snuck past his defenses. Cian had nearly forgotten about the long day – the traveling, the climbing, the running, the tumbling… But his body was now registering just how exhausted he was, from nose to crooked tail. ”Sorry, I – I guess it is pretty late now.”


@Clover

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lover was far from disappointed by the discovery that Cian had been born from his parents. "Ah! Then yer like Fletcher and Chloe! Thas my brother and sister!" She pointed out with a delighted smile, looking him up and down before humming in thought. "Let me guess...yer tall and handsome like your dad and your mum has the pretty flame-kissed fur and ruby red eyes?" Clover blinked up at him expectantly, curious to know if she had guessed all of his inherited traits correctly.

Just then, the boy yawned and as he did so, she peered into the gaping chasm that was his mouth. She giggled to herself and hopped up onto her feet in an instant. "Tired aren'tchya?" A singular pink orb disappeared behind a wink and then she moved to start pulling some undergrowth into a space, having Birch assist her in making a little nest. "Here ya go!" She patted the collected bedding with a paw and gestured for him to come and lay himself down on it. "Come 'n lay down! You'll need lotsa extra rest for your poor tail!"


@Cian

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck