Faeren Tales

Exclusive: Excerpt from Novel-in-Progress

Tales from a Faeren Lande: The Reine of Valila

        In the ever-present blogging spirit of "o gosh, it's 11:30 on Saturday and I still have two posts to do", I have decided to post for you all (my partially imaginary blog readership) an exclusive excerpt from my novel-in-progress, Tales from a Faeren Lande: the Reine of Valila. I would normally have a lengthy introduction to my excerpt explaining the full history and concept of my story idea here, but I have a whole rant to write in the tab to the left of this one and so I shall be brief. Tales from a Faeren Lande, or Valila for short, is the first of my stories to ever originate from a drawing I did. Some time later I may post a picture of this drawing, as I'm very proud of it. Long story short, I drew a faerie I really liked and I named her Valila and I conceived a story for her, and it became about much more than Valila, but the excerpt I'm posting here is all about Valila. Valila is also the novel I did for NaNoWriMo, a writing competition which I explained briefly in my very first creative writing blog post. I should also note that this is my own original portrayal of faeries (I also portray fairies, but they are different creatures in my world) and in fact I wrote this long before I started watching Once. Remember, all this is copywrighted to me, I intend to publish this as part of a novel series some day, and if you in any way shape or form attempt to take it I will hunt you down and sic my buddy Rumpel on you, toss you into the violet mist, and also attempt to somehow legally prosecute you or something. I don't know. I'm an author and don't steal my stuff. Alors, voici mon excerpt. This is the very opening of my novel as it is currently ordered. 

"        Valila was a truly great Faen in those days, ruler of what was quite possibly the most beautiful domain in all of the Faeren Domains of the Isle-Lande. The Great Willow, the Centre of Valila’s domain, was the largest willow in all the East, and its thousands of arching limbs danced and sung in the sweet summer breezes. Its ancient bark and thick, knotted trunk provided many a hiding place for the joyous and carefree faeries who were members of Valila’s Faendom, and her family and closest friends and advisors, who made up her Faecourt, all made their dens in the Willow’s trunk below Valila’s Great Den. The Pond over which the Willow’s branches hung was vast and sparkled dazzlingly as though filled with sapphires in the brilliant summer sunlight, surrounded by a kind family of lesser willows, and the area of the water in the soft shade of the Great Willow was a favorite spot of the faeries for swimming, especially in that hottest Sommer, before the strange things began. It was a lovely, secluded, tranquil spot in the heart of a great forest that ran all the way to Feraerca's domain in the south.
       Valila, as if to match her domain, was one of the most beautiful faeries who ever lived, as well as a gentle and kind ruler, and wise for the most part. Her hair was like the golden summer sunlight and the silver winter moonlight stirred together in a shimmering waterfall of silk. It was longer even than her splendid wings, and she fashioned a section along the left side of her face into a magnificent braid into which she wove the brightest and most colorful flowers from her garden. She wore her tiara only for formal occasions, but it was lovely, of the finest gold and silver intertwining in a way that echoed and complimented her hair without blending in, bedecked with luminescent gems representing all tones of the rainbow in alternating, delicate shapes of hearts and stars. It was the tiara worn by all Faens of this central eastern Domain since its establishment in days scarcely within the memory even of the historic texts, yet it showed no age. Her wings had a soft feathery pattern on top, purple and blue and green blending gently into one another, reminiscent of a peacock, and her lower wings bore purple and gold spirals. Her gown was of the flowing sort, long--a faeren foot past her toes but not longer than her hair--with draping sleeves and florally-patterned embroidery along the veed-neck and at the ends of the sleeves, and a diagonal woven belt at her waist. Like most faeries, she changed the gown’s color daily, but it was most often a color taken from her wings, probably predominantly a blue like the rich depths of the sky or a purple like the delicate petals of the violets in her garden. Her face was soft and pale, and her eyes were like the richly colored depths of the Pond. But of all Valila’s features, it was her smile that blew the stars out of the very sky. She smiled with all the joy and serenity of believing that everything in one’s life is just as it should be, a smile that assured her people this was so.
        All the Faeries in Valila’s Faendom admired her, and it was a time of great happiness, peace, and prosperity in all the Faendoms of the Lande. Indeed, everything seemed as if it were perfect in those days of the Faeren Renaessance.
        It was almost perfect. No one but Valila herself knew what was brewing, and even she underestimated it, hiding the truth from the Faeries of her domain until it was almost too late.       "

Our closest allies and friends are the faeries from the Isle-Lande of the Faeren Domains, here in the Lande Beyond the Violet Mist.