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All photos, Artwork and writing are my own work unless otherwise stated.
A sneak preview of my new fantasy novel - Fiona; the Sword and the Mirror.
Fiona is a thirteen year old girl interested in fairy folklore. She also likes to paint and draw pictures of fairy folk, but never considers such things have any basis in fact until a number of strange encounters lead to her younger brother being abducted. Fiona and her family are soon drawn into a vendetta against the world, out of an old legend.
At this point in the story, the characters, Perrin (a non-human character) and Stuart (an eight year old boy), have been riding in the minds of a mouse and an owl. This may or may not make things clearer.
`Hold it, manling!' he heard Perrin's voice say. `Don't let it bolt again! I'm feeling for a way through the planes - so be ready, manling! I'll send you first, then I'll wait for the mouse to get away from the owl before following. Wait for me before you do anything. Tir Na Nog is very dangerous.'
The world suddenly seemed to become funnel shaped. Stuart felt himself being stretched longer and longer. He felt the mouse's body fall away from him like a fur skin. The whole of reality seemed to be pulled into an impossibly narrow spiral, tighter and tighter. `I'll be crushed to nothing!' he screamed. He felt like he was being squashed through a pipe narrower than the finest hair. Just when he thought he'd be ripped apart, the world untwisted and he found himself back in the stone circle.
Stuart looked around. There was no sign of Perrin. He looked up at the sky. He'd never seen a sky like this before. Not only was it full of the brightest stars he'd ever seen, but there was also another object in the sky. Not a sun or a moon; but a flat spiral of shining clouds getting brighter towards the centre. Two piercing bright jets of glowing white fire erupted from the pulsing flickering centre. One from the top and the other from the underside. It reminded him of one of those toy spinning disk things with a string through it. `This is definitely not Langton Wood!' Stuart thought to himself.
He looked down at himself and was suddenly acutely aware that he wasn't wearing anything. Suddenly, feeling very exposed, he scuttled over to shelter under one of the stones.
`Wait before I do anything, he says? - what would I do without any clothes?' he thought bitterly. He became aware of a sort of wailing noise on the very edge of hearing. It grew louder. The world started to warp and twist into a funnel again. Perrin, back in his `little old man' shape was suddenly spat from the funnel and fell face down in the centre of the circle. He got up and brushed sand off his feathery coat with his hand.
`A most disagreeable mode of transport!' he grumbled to Stuart. 'You'll be happy to know that your mouse got well away before I released the owl, manling.'
`Isn't there anything for me to wear here?' said Stuart urgently.
Perrin peered at him with his bird-like eyes. `Manling! You can decide whether you're wearing anything or not here. Appearance is largely what you feel comfortable with. Just imagine yourself in what you normally wear.'
Stuart recalled the tee-shirt, jeans, and the worn out running shoes he was wearing earlier that day - and imagined himself wearing them. In the same instant he was clothed in them.
`Cool!' said Stuart.
`Temperature is immaterial to us here, manling! Come along!'
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