The seasons come and go, and hardly anyone notes their passing. But it is not so for some. Some remember old ways, and celebrate the sacred ways and the sacred days. For some All Hallows' Eve is a night of fun, for some it is a night of mischief, for some it is a night of terror.
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Margaret woke one lovely May morn, wondering what adventure lay ahead for her today. Already the morning sunshine shone down, promising a gorgeous day. She was restless, hurrying into her clothes, and running down the stairs. "... elven hillocks, one is very close to Carter Hall. Their houses are furnished wit
A Lady In A Meadow
Jenny flew like the hounds of hell. She loved to ride like this, her heart bouncing with the rhythm of the horses gait. She felt free and unaccountably excited. Reaching the mead, she jumped down, and sat resting her head against an old wall. She picked the white roses that trailed over the wall. And wandered. She lay in the meadow, finally, eating the tops off the grasses.
Looking around, she bathed her heart in beauty, and gazed at the golden light of heaven, and drank of the spirit of the universe, and wandered at last by a fairy-stream.
As the day grew ripe, she thought she heard music. More time had passed than she
As Jenny galloped home, she was thrilled. There she was, having met someone who knew the Elfin Ones. She went home slowly mulling over the sun-drenched time. It wasn't an elven man who haunted Carter Wood, it was a real man of flesh and blood. He was fey enough, was Thomas, after having dwelt in their lands. But he was a real man.
By the time she reached home, it was dark, She stabled her horse and went through the back, trying to hide.
"There you are Jenny!” her father shouted "You were right Iona, she was as you said, safely here!"
Up in her rooms, old Iona made a fuss, saying they were worried she'd been gone for all day. "But
And all the summer long, she met him there in Carter Wood, until one night when she arrived home there was a noise and a crowd. There must have been four and twenty women, and their men alongside when she walked in.
All eyes turned to her, her skirt kilted up, her hair a broidered mess. She must have been gone longer than she thought.
"Ah Jennet!” cried an old man, "where have you been, you have the look of a plucked rose!"
The hall roared with laughter. A fury took her. She thought about what Tom had said ''Twas the seventh year,"
"Well will you tell us who you've been with?" her father asked, "Whose gotten you...."
"No" she sa
On All Hallows' Eve the Queen of Elfland assumes the aspect of a dark and dreadful power...as she rides throughout the night. Her folk are with her, all dressed for hunting, all out in their terrible splendor.
As Jenny waited, the terrible sound of a host of horses, their hoofbeat deafening approached. The thundering of hooves was accompanied by a crashing of something heavy and the snapping of branches. At last she saw them.
At the lead was a woman, richly dressed in a shimmering gold gown with hair as red as flame trailing behind her. On her brow she carried the horns of the crescent moon, as if it were a crown. Then came a man his face