Coming soon – A Fantasy 

Mountain & Tree

The north is decked in Mountains; the south festooned with giant trees. The north is only winter, the south is ever summer. 

In Winterland…

Climbing north, the snow piles on, and finally a sheet of glaciers covers the mountains. Here the stillness and silence is broken only by wind and fierce birdsong. On the edge of the ice wall, the great eagles scream. Like giant pipe organs soaring in the sky, grand gaggles of geese honk ancient melodies as they fly ever north on chevron wing. Many are the legends of where the geese go beyond the ice. Down in the mountains, sometimes the stillness is broken when a rock giant wakes harshly from slumber. It is his doom to pile the mountains ever higher. This mountain building will wake another giant, who will try to knock down the new mountain. A tectonic battle ensues.  When the giants have had their play and gone to take their rest, the mammoth bears come out to hunt. The winter people can hardly ever hazard the light of day. These highlanders mine deep into caverns lit by glowing jewels, singing guttural chants to keep the bats at bay.

In Summerland…

Down south, each oak tree is a microcosm of the universe, full of colorful birds and large, intelligent insects. Warring nations of ants, bees, and spiders cease their violence once a month to celebrate the dragonfly parade. The land slips into muck and swamp, teeming with monsters. Dumb dragons and giant rats dwell in harmony, but they terrorize any wayward stranger. Finally, the ocean eats and regurgitates the shoreline. The ground begins to float on vine blankets, so the land roles atop the sea, ever changing. No stone, metal, or crystal exist in these parts. The great river provides the only navigable path to the ocean. On the banks of the river lies a strange and beautiful city. Long ago, the city was built by people who came from the sky, so the tale is told. But the trees soon rebelled and sent roots to trip and topple the brittle buildings made of foreign solids. In the ruins of the old city now lives a people with little past or future. Some say they are descendants of the sky people, and others say they crawled out of the ocean. 

Between Winterland & Summerland...

It is Springtime in the West. This land is called the Meadows. A wondrous place. Flowers blooming always and everywhere fill the land with vivid color and sweet smells. Here the migrating herds of friendly beasts go to fall in love and give birth, and so drunk are they on good feelings, they will share milk with a traveler. The bone-white trees drip honey, and their leaves tinkle and chime in the soft breeze. Who wouldn’t stay forever in the Meadows? No. The Meadows are only for passing through. Fairy folk live in the trees, and they defend their land with mischievous mind-games. They are shape-shifters. Typically they are tiny, to better explore the happy nooks and glades, but sometimes they’ll swell to giant size for a smashing game of football. Then they must decome tiny once again to fix up all the flowers they’ve damaged. To passersby, they might seem a merry folk, but they are haunted by a mysterious sorrow, the source of which they hold secret. Any traveler who stays in the Meadows too long will have dreams so good, he won’t want to wake up. Many have laid down in the sweet meadow grass never to rise again. 

To the East of the Meadows, past a great lake full of serpents, there is the Hollows, where it is always Autumn. The trees are full of leaves of shifting color. From green to gold to blood red, they grow, and then fall to fill the ground with death, soon to become new life. On the edge of the Hollows is the only place a people can plant and harvest. Here the air is temperate and clear, and a person can find some peace of mind without being harassed by harsh winds, evil insects, or haunting dreams. But the shadows are thick in the hollows, and the darkness is heavy. When night falls, it is crushing, and any body made of flesh and bone will turn to dust by morning. The Hollows are all forest. To the West, the trees grow straight down into the Serpent Lake. To the East, a sheer cliff drops into the sea. There is one road through the forest. Starting at the break of dawn, walking briskly, a traveler can make it to the other side of the forest by dusk. Few people will risk this journey. Though the road is straight, steady and clear, many travelers get lost along the way. No one know what lurks in that forest, but since childhood everyone has heard stories that the trees are filled with liquid gold. If a person had the time to dig around a little in that forest, he might come out a rich man. 

Once upon a time...

The Princess of Summerland is in trouble. Her father bet her hand in marriage on a card game with a Red Rover, the pirate. The King lost the bet. The princess refuses to go with the Red Rover, who tells her that he will give her three months to find a man that can beat him in a fiddle duel. The Princess can’t find anyone who can play the fiddle as well as Red Rover. In despair, she runs away, gets lost in a swamp, but is befriended by a swamp witch. 

The Prince of Winterland was abducted by wolves as young lad. While with the wolves, the Prince befriends a puppy wolf who becomes his companion. But before the wolves were able to collect their ransom, the Prince’s mountain was destroyed by rock giants. Not knowing if his family survived, the Prince wanders into the prairie land on the border of Winterland and the Hollows. There he’s taken in by a band of horse people. Struck with an urge to explore the world, the Prince wanders on and lives a while with the farmer folk of South Winterland. These people trade with the ship merchants who sail between Winterland and Summerland. The Prince gets gets a job aboard one of these ships, which is attacked by Red Rover, who is on his way back to Summerland to collect the Princes. The Prince befriends Red Rover, who teaches him to play fiddle. 

From all his time in the Mountains, the Prince has attuned to silence. In the silence, he can hear all music. He quickly surpasses Red Rover in fiddle skill. Being a good sport, Red Rover tells him that he has won the Princess. But when they reach Summerland, the Princess is gone. 

So begins the Princes search for the Princess, an adventure that takes him all the way around the world. This culminates with the Prince being the King of both Summerland and Winterland. From Summerland, the Winterlanders learn to dance, from the Winterland the Summerlanders learn to sing. For the first time there are seasons, and summer comes to winterland, and everyone gets the fruits of Spring and Autumn.