THE BOOK OF TALES: THE TALE OF Phineas (and Andrea):
Phineas Omar the son of Stewart was in an awful hurry. His seashell trinkets sold every time he took them, and he was sorely in need of coin to repay his debts in order to purchase the ship he wanted. He and his wife Andrea, and her daughter Leeann would sail the coastline of the world in their old age instead of laboring or begging on the streets. Phineas had left the seaport city of Kathos and was heading to the citadel of Mithar on foot as his horse had been stolen three days before. Having left early in the morning he wished not to be late before they closed the main gate, for he knew it remained opened only to outsiders for as long as the midday hours lasted. If there was some unknown problem the guards would shut the place tighter than a drum, and he would be left with having to find a place to sleep for the night until the Market opened again the following midday. He would rest easier on the return trip.
Climbing over a rise in the road Phineas could see a great distance down the lane and saw that the way was blocked by a gathering of people. A melon cart had lost a wheel and fruit was scattered everywhere. People were helping to replace them and helping themselves even as the farmer was desperate in retrieving his goods and shouting at the thieves all the while trying to repair his cart. Phineas shook his head at the laughable sight. Helping or going around the whole mess would be an upset to his time schedule either way, and in that moment all he could hear was Andrea’s voice in his head of how he should not have to spend an extra day in Mithar. His wife disliked the bustle of the big city life. Strangely it was in that moment that Phineas noticed a small footed path off the road to his left, and from the rise could see it took him passed The Map Garden that was close to the Southern Gate. He would sell his goods at the smaller market and still get coin enough, but he liked the larger market more.
Being that it was still early morning, a fog he’d not noticed moments before had rolled in across the land just as Phineas was making his way down the thin footpath. The light haze soon after became a dense wall of gray that enveloped everything, and soon even his hand in front of his face was difficult to see. So, Phineas stopped in his tracks for a moment hoping the heaviness of the mist would lift. The moments were passing too slowly for his liking and time was wasting away. Suddenly, something even stranger happened. It seemed all sound had been snuffed out except for his beating heart. From the quiet stillness of the world in that fog, he caught the distant sound of a child’s laughter. A little girl he thought. In taking a step forward the old man could tell the fog was giving way, and through it, a faint treeline off in the distance could be made out. The further he went Phineas Omar realized he was coming to an open clearing in a wide forest about him. His mind wondered at how he must have taken a wrong turn, for the woods were miles away and far behind him, nevertheless he pressed on. The more steps he took the clearer his vision became and in fact he was now standing at the clearing’s opening. The circle of trees enclosed a beautiful sight before him. A smile came over his face.
A faded thin haze of fog was still held mere feet above the ground before Phineas, and just above this was the most inspiring sight he had ever seen before. Dragonflies. Dragonflies were darting about everywhere, feeding, mating, and even skating on the surface of the fog itself it seemed. Yet, in the middle of it all, directly in the center of the field, just about the spectacle of racing incests was a single, brilliant colored hummingbird. It was floating in midair. Phineas was awestruck. Somehow time was meaningless to him in that strange beautiful moment. He stood there taking in the scene with all its buzzing softness. He found himself moving toward the middle of the glade. As he slowly walked forward, the still darting-dragonflies parted a pathway among themselves, from him to the hummingbird that stood unmoving in the center of his view.
Phineas could feel himself almost holding his breath. His smile broadened the closer he came to the shimmering thing. The closer he came the more he could make out the details of its tiny fluttering wings. Did it smile back? It stayed where it was, poised in midair before the man who continued to approach. Just as his reaching fingers were about to touch its long beak the hummingbird flew off with the laughter of the young girl from behind him.
Turning about, Phineas saw a gazebo now stood at the very entrance of the glade where he himself had just entered moments before. It was a beautifully carved structure made of twisting limbs and glowed with the radiance of a full moon on a cloudless night. On the mid-steps beneath its roofed platform was a young girl no more than nine years old. Pale skin, brilliant red hair and wearing a long white cloak with its hood up. She laughed again and then spoke to the hummingbird that now rested on her shoulder, “Well, hello there you are. I see you’ve brought a friend with you this time.”
Phineas informed the little girl, “I’ve walked this way many times in the last thirty years and have never seen this place before.”
She smiled a reply, “Even so, you have made your way to Krilleeos nonetheless. I am Miriam. Often I come here and find wanderers like yourself. But you are by far the most different of strangers.”
Phineas objected to everything, saying, “Krilleeos? Never heard of such a place. Where is this?”
“How interesting, and yet here you are. Stay a while more, and tell me of yourself.” Then, listening to the bird whispering in her ear, the child giggled again, “Yes, I know, all men have a strange way about them. But I am inclined to like this one, he’s most interesting.”
A moment later and the old man found that he had fallen asleep and was still sitting beneath an oak beside the road. The farmer was still struggling with the wheel on his cart and so Phineas got up, well rested to help the fellow fool along his way.
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