by J B Forest
Seth stepped up to the group of human looking minions. Most were quietly shuffling from side to side, others stood solidly still, and others took in their surroundings with mouths agape. There was virtually no lighting in the area where they stood but the transformation seemed to make them more aware of their surroundings than before. He waited for the group to settle down before speaking. “Greetings soldiers of Mogran,” he said in a loud, crisp voice.
“You are the chosen ones, chosen to serve our lord and master, Prince Mogran.” With that statement, he turned slightly and waved an arm in Mogran’s direction. Mogran bowed slightly. “Prince Mogran will address you shortly, but first I will give you a few instructions. Always remember that you owe your lives and allegiance to the Prince. His word is final as is the word of any of his commanders. Any act of disobedience or rebellion will result in immediate death. Your first command is to only speak when spoken to. Proper clothes will be issued to you after the Prince’s speech; the mages will lead you to the dressing chambers.” He then turned, bowed to Mogran and stepped aside.
Mogran used the time during Seth’s introduction to carefully prepare his words. He wanted to make sure that they knew exactly who was in charge. He decided not to use his typical approach of fear and intimidation first and kindness, well at least his form of kindness, later once they were well within his grips. They looked reasonably intelligent, they no longer possessed to lost look of the groveling idiots that they were in their natural state. He approached them slowly, still uncertain that the group would not turn on him in a rage. They seemed to listen well enough to Seth without any problems.
“Troops,” he started, a little too loudly. He cleared his throat and began again. “I am Prince Mogran and you are especially fortunate to serve me. I selected you for a very special mission, one that no other Fae royalty would trust you with. They all think of you and your kind as the lowest of the low who should not even be considered a part of the Fae race. But I know better, you are worthy of our notice and can be assets to the Fae Dominion.” He paused for effect and noticed that many seemed to grasp the meaning of his words. This experiment was proving more successful than he originally imagined. He just hoped they did not turn out to be too intelligent.
“You will be the first of the Fae to venture into the human world as my soldiers. You will follow my lieutenants and serve the human king Cruim.” He took another step forward, gaining confidence and spread his arms, “You will follow the directions of my lieutenants and help Cruim’s armies defeat his enemies, but when his enemies are defeated, you will help my lieutenants to bring Cruim down in my name,” he ended with a crescendo, voice rising purposefully. “You will now follow the mages to receive your uniforms. Remember, failure is not an option.”
Chapter 5 - Present Day – Southwest Louisiana
Taylor literally ran from her car to the apartment with all of her wet clothing and gear bundled in her arms. Fortunately, the complex had assigned parking and her slot was directly in front of her unit. The units were more like townhomes than apartments, each with two stories which meant no upstairs neighbors, yea. The only drawback was the lack of a garage but then who was complaining; she would never have been able to afford a place this size on either the east coast or in the Pacific Northwest, so she was counting her blessings. The townhouse wasn’t huge, about 1500 square feet, but it had all of the creature comforts and was definitely spacious enough for one person who was accustomed to living in 800 square foot high rise apartment complexes.
She thought about filling the sunken tub for a good soak with her newest Bath and Body Works bubble bath acquisition, but a cool shower was more appealing. Besides, she didn’t have the patience to wait for the tub to fill. The sunken tub and walk in shower were just two of those creature comforts she so enjoyed about this place. The bathroom was larger than most kitchens in many of her previous apartments.
After the shower, she decided to go to campus and do some personal research on family history that she had postponed for way too long. Now that the semester was well underway and her curriculum laid out for the rest of the semester, she decided to follow up on a story that her grandfather told time after time about their ancestors and their journey from Nova Scotia to Louisiana. The part of the story that intrigued Taylor most was not the Canadian roots but the fact that several generations before becoming French Canadians, her ancestors migrated from Scotland.
Taylor’s quest to learn as much as possible about the origins of the tales of elves and faeries kept her inner antennae always on alert. As a child, she was captivated by her grandfather’s tales but never thought they were completely true. Her Mom always cautioned her that Granddad was a good story teller with a gift for embellishment. As she became more knowledgeable about the folklore, the more she remembered things her grandfather told her and she began to wonder, more seriously in the past year, whether her ancestors were somehow tied to those mystical races.
She planned to begin with a genealogical search of the family’s history to see how far back she could go. She wished that she could go to Granddad for that information but unfortunately, he was in the late stages of Alzheimer’s. He was 94 and had lived a long, productive, and happy life. She just hoped that the suffering would end soon, he rarely had a cogent moment these days and it hurt them all deeply to see him this way. Her parents had taken pains to ensure that he received the best care possible in a nursing home nearby. They visited regularly to try to maintain some semblance of family normalcy. She tried to visit at least once a week, but it was so very depressing to see him in this state that she had skipped the last week. Maybe she would visit him tomorrow, she rarely saw him during the years that she was away from the area.
Her Mom was only familiar with more recent family history and her mother’s siblings knew even less than she did about the family’s history. What little they did know, they always got mixed up with the family gossip. She smiled at the thought of one uncle who moved away from home as a young man and still remembered “home” the way it was 30 years before. He was always so insistent when reminiscing with her Mom and other siblings who still lived within a few hours of their home and were much more familiar with the present state of affairs.
She pulled on a polo shirt and some jeans, slid into her flip flops, grabbed her backpack and headed out the door. She decided to stop a get a salad from her favorite soup and salad restaurant before going to campus. She knew that once she started her search, she might not come up for air for hours.
The search was going slowly; searching for ancestors with the family name Duncan wasn’t easy. Their name might as well have been Smith or Jones. She found two references that interested her, both had Highland roots but were in different geographical areas within the Scottish Highlands. One family lived near Inverness while the other lived in the less populated area of Fort William. Fort William is located near the Scottish mountain Ben Nevis. Taylor smiled as she thought about this information. She remembered a reference somewhere that both “Braveheart” and “Rob Roy”, two films about legendary Scottish Highlanders were filmed in the area around ‘the Ben’ as locals referred to it. She also thought that she read about a ski resort in the area – maybe some field research was in order and chuckled to herself at the thought. Combining a ski trip with field research was an inviting thought, the possibility of running across a Liam Neeson or Mel Gibson type in the process wasn’t a half bad prospect – although Mel Gibson was a bit short for her personal tastes. Now a long lost Highland cousin, several generations removed would fit the bill nicely especially if current day Highland men fit the model so vividly described in so many of the popular romance novels. Jaime Fraser of the Outlander novels came to mind. She roused herself from her wandering thoughts and got back on track with the research.
She surfed the web for several hours with only minimal success on family histories and movements through the country. She found that many people re-settled in the lowlands near the larger cities after the un
successful Jacobite revolts in the late 17th century. She decided to shift her focus to folklore and legends to see if she could pinpoint key areas of concentration. She found scattered references to human encounters with faeries or the Fae, most of those were not very pleasant or encouraging. The majority dealt with changelings or accounts of human infants being stolen by the Fae. She found almost no references to human interaction with Elves. This didn’t really surprise her since it was consistent with things that she learned through her academic research and studies over the years.
When Taylor finally decided to take a break, she realized that it was almost midnight. She had been working non-stop and didn’t notice the lateness of the hour. She stood up and stretched; her legs were a little tight from the morning’s run. As she moved to return to her desk, she felt a sudden chill. It was weird, she actually had goose bumps on her arm. She turned around to make sure that she was still alone in the office; nothing seemed amiss. She stood still for a second or so and when nothing happened she started shutting things down. It was definitely time to go home and get a good night’s sleep. Reading about people who may have been her ancestors and any connections with her favorite folklore probably sent her unconscious thoughts into overdrive.
She did take extra care when leaving the office and approaching her car just because it made good sense to do so. Crimes occurred even in small towns like this one and Taylor knew not to take things for granted when it came to her safety. She slept soundly that night with no dreams of elves, faeries, or even handsome Highlanders.
She attended Mass the next morning with her parents and decided to have lunch and visit with them for a while. She initially thought that she would see too much of her parents when she returned since Lake Charles was such a small community. However, once the semester began, her work kept her so busy that she really didn’t have much free time to herself to visit with her parents. Besides, her parents were very active in the community and were always attending meetings or other activities.
She always enjoyed spending time with her parents. The relationship was more like a friendship and they all enjoyed each other’s company. “Did you tell Taylor about the call we had from the nursing home?” her Dad asked her Mom. “Not yet”, her Mom replied. Taylor leaned forward at the exchange; she hoped something hadn’t happened to her grandfather. “What happened”, she asked.
Her Mom took a seat on the couch across from Taylor. “We received a call just after midnight. The nurses were concerned about Granddad; he was terribly agitated about something and kept shouting something over and over. They said it seemed like he was saying ‘they’re coming back’ repeatedly and couldn’t be calmed down until they agreed to call me in his presence. He said they had to warn me to be careful.”
“Did you talk to Granddad”, Taylor asked. “No, he told the nurses that he couldn’t bring himself to speak directly to me. I called back this morning and things were settled back to the usual state. We were actually planning to drive over this afternoon to see him. Do you want to come with us?”
She began to offer an excuse not to visit and thought twice about it. Maybe she should go with her parents. She had postponed a trip for too long. “Sure, I’ll ride with you, but I do need to get back before too late. There are some things I need to do on campus before the night is over and I don’t want to be at the office until midnight like I was last night.” As she said the words to her parents she thought about the coincidence of her ‘weird’ feeling the night before and her grandfather’s episode. She had felt that weird sensation around midnight. She decided that the two couldn’t possibly be connected and dismissed the thought. Her grandfather’s mental state was rapidly deteriorating and no one could know what he had imagined.
Her thoughts were interrupted by her Mom’s worried expression. “You really shouldn’t wander around campus alone so late at night Taylor”, her mom chastised. This isn’t Washington or Vancouver but we still have a lot of crime in our little community.
“I know Mom, and I wasn’t wandering around campus. I went straight from my office to my car and I was careful leaving the building. I hadn’t planned to stay that late but I got caught up in my work.”
“I agree with your Mom, Taylor. You can’t take the fact that you’re in a small town for granted. Bad things happen everywhere. Just make sure you’re aware of your surroundings and try not to put yourself in potentially dangerous situations”, said her dad.
“Thanks for your concern, both of you. I’ll make an extra effort to leave campus at normal hours from now on. We should head to the nursing home soon if I’m going to get back to do some work in the office at a decent hour.”
Not long afterwards they were walking into the visitor’s waiting room at the nursing home. The home was well maintained. It wasn’t the most expensive or luxurious, but it definitely wasn’t in the category of the nursing home horror stories that were often on the news. There was an assisted living facility as well as a fulltime nursing facility housed on the grounds. Residents with the ability had access to many conveniences and activities to keep themselves occupied and entertained.
The focus was to facilitate as much self-sufficiency as possible among the residents for as long as they were able to do things for themselves. Her Mom and uncles and aunts made the decision along with input from her Granddad to move to the assisted living facility a few years ago when it became too difficult for him to maintain his home. He even began to enjoy the company of the other residents after he adjusted to being away from his home of over 60 years. It was only in the last couple of years that his condition deteriorated significantly.
The attendant at the front desk greeted them pleasantly. He told her Mom that her grandfather was in the solarium because his room was being cleaned. The three of them headed down a short corridor to the solarium. Everything was immaculate and there was piped in music in the hallways. It was wasn’t very loud and Taylor wondered whether many of the residents with hearing problems were even able to hear it. It served mainly as white noise to keep things from being so sterile. Low conversations and occasional laughter could be heard coming from the rooms they passed as they made their way to their destination.
The solarium was light and airy. It was a large room filled with plants and a variety of comfortable seating arrangements scattered throughout. There was always a nurse and orderly present to handle any emergency situations, but placement of their desks in the room was designed to minimize any feelings of being watched or guarded.
Her grandfather was sitting in an overstuffed arm chair facing a window. The sun was filtering in on his face and made it seem brighter than normal. He was staring out at a pond. They all hugged and kissed him on the cheek. Taylor’s mom sat on the arm of the chair next to her father while Taylor and her dad took seats in the equally overstuffed chairs facing him. “How are you feeling today Dad”, her mom asked cheerily.
He looked up at the sound of her voice and smiled distantly. Taylor couldn’t determine whether or not he recognized his oldest daughter when he slowly took his hand and placed it on top of her mother’s and patted. They all smiled with relief at that bit of recognition. Sometimes he didn’t recognize or understand them at all. It seemed that today he at least recognized them. “Marion”, he grandfather said softly. Her mother reached over and hugged her father tightly. When she raised up, the tears were flowing freely.
“Dad, look who else is here to see you. John and Taylor both.” Her mom gestured for the two of them move closer. Her dad rose and patted her grandfather on the shoulder and said, “Hello James, it’s good to see you feeling well today.” He then brought a smaller chair over and placed it closer and sat down.
Taylor kissed her grandfather on both cheeks; tears were brimming in her eyes. “Hi Granddad, it’s so good to see you.” She settled down on the floor at her grandfather’s feet.
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Her grandfather smiled and nodded his head. “It’s good to
be here with you,” he said. James Duncan knew that his mind was in a fragile state. His moments of lucidity were becoming rarer. Most times he was lost in a world long past that blended with the tales of his childhood. It felt good to see and recognize his daughter and her family. He knew that they visited him fairly often but the disease kept him at a distance mentally. Most times he was unable to make the mental journey to reach out and join them.
He had enjoyed growing old and watching his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren mature and have their own lives. When he was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, he made every effort to document things he didn’t want to ‘lose’. It progressed slowly at first which allowed him time with his children but there was never really enough time. He wanted to spend more time with Taylor, she seemed to be the only one of his line that was sensitive to the old stories. He always wondered if she was the one in the family to have the trait. His own children enjoyed his stories when they were young, but laughed them off as old legends as they grew older.
The grandchildren loved his old stories as well, but they too dismissed them as they grew older. Taylor was the only one that continued to hover and ask him to repeat the stories over the years. Then she went away to school and they didn’t see each other very often. He remembered her talking about getting a college degree that focused on the study of the old legends. At the time he thought that it wasn’t a field with much income earning potential but she was so enthusiastic that he didn’t have the heart to dash her hopes. He was sure that she had enough common sense discussions from her parents. Taylor was a sensible girl, he was sure that she figured out a way to make a living with her education.