To Still The Seventh Stream

The Wild Hunt & Faery Darts

The icy cold wind howls like a pack of wild dogs sweeping through the weeping bristled shore pine, stripping off its sharp green needles and carrying them amongst the swirling breeze.

Like spiny organic darts, they flick through the air and embed themselves within soft ivory white human flesh.

Morien feels the wild wind lifting her feet off of the ground, tossing her amongst the grassy dunes like a ragged doll, knocking the air out from her lungs with each mind-numbing impact.

With tiny hands reaching out, she manages to grab onto the leafy branches of a lonely dune willow, holding onto it for dear life.

The wild wind immediately released her as it seemed to swirl around the willow, unable to pierce the invisible barrier.

Morien, dazed and confused, watches the tan-colored dune grass bending with the flowing wind. Out of the corner of her teary sea-green eyes, she caught the fleeting glimpse of a ghostly host of wispy red tails following after their master upon horseback.

With a haunting wail now far off in the west, the wind seemed to immediately retreat without much urgency, galloping down the beach. Morien continued to hold onto the willow, wondering what exactly she had actually seen.

With the sound of the wild hunt fading away into the ambiance of the crashing ocean waves, she finally let go of the willow, feeling the pain and soreness of her bruised skin assaulting her foggy mind.

She glanced to the east, looking at the endless swaying tan colored grass and quaking bonsai-like pine. Nothing about this place seemed familiar to her. The last thing that she remembered was leaving her parents' condo and walking down the sandy path towards the crimson glistening ocean.

Her parents had explicitly told her not to go to the ocean just before sunset, as it was not safe, nor wise to tempt the spirits of nature that lingered there. She promised that she would obey, figuring that if she remains within the dunes, then she can still keep her promise and taste the salt upon the evening breeze.

Now, she did not know where exactly she was.

She whimpered a few times, looking down at her tattered clothes all stained with brown mud and pierced with spiny pine needles. She was missing her left shoe, lost somewhere amongst the rolling sandy dunes.

"A duine?" an airy feminine voice softly called out from behind Morien "Cò às a tha thu?"

Morien swiftly turned around, prepared to beg for her forgiveness in trespassing upon private land. However, instead of apologizing, she proceeded to cry: overwhelmed and frightened as a child should ever be.

Never in her life had she been literally swept away by a whirlwind.

"Egh?" Morien muttered, wiping the hot tears away from her large sea-green eyes as she looked up at a beautiful elfin maiden. She stepped back into the willow bush as she did not trust the strange woman appearing before her.

"A bheil thu ceart gu leòr, leanabh?" the golden blonde elfin asked once more in a strange language that Morien did not seem to comprehend. Her large enchanting forest green eyes peered ever so deeply into Morien's own sea-green eyes, wondering if this child was either mute or unable to speak.

"Sorry..." Morien muttered, however shy as she stared down at the sandy ground "...I don't understand what you are saying."

A moment of silence allowed the seagulls to sing their yawling song as Morien bravely glanced once more upward to see that the sylphlike maiden was contemplating something vitally important. Morien, however, stood there in awe, gazing up at her radiant face all alit with its own beaming light. She was absolutely glowing, just like the morning sun!