A recap of October's "Fan"tastical story...
Even
though it's pretty warm outside, I am chilled to the bone.
Knotter
and I took a walk to the meadow since she wanted to visit with some
jumping spiders. As we were peering into a bush in search of little
arachnids, the sky turned dark, almost like an eclipse.
We
looked around us and saw 12 small smoky gray orbs floating inches
above the ground, about 25 feet away. They got closer and as they
neared us, grew larger in size.
Thankfully,
the meadow nymph sent her unicorn friend over to us, scattering the
orbs and bringing the sun with it.
Don't
know what would have happened if those things had come in contact
with us!
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The
past few evenings the 12 smoky orbs have shown up outside my patio
doors. As soon as darkness falls, they swoop to the glass panes and
don't leave until the sun rises. If anyone approaches the doors, the
orbs grow alarmingly large and darker.
Needless
to say, my family has been staying indoors at night.
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Since
some of you felt the smoky orbs may have had some kind of connection
with my Olympus problems, I sent a message to Clio, the Muse of
History, requesting an update. She assured me Evandora could not
possibly be the culprit as she was currently stuck in a pit,
searching for 3 fish bones buried within mountains of sea snail
shells. Zeus has kept his word!
With
Samhain nearing, I decided to test your ancestor theory. I left 12
small bowls of warm milk out near my patio door at nightfall. When
the orbs approached, I demanded they drink and reveal themselves.
They morphed into their former shape and while none of them were my
ancestors, they surprised me by being creatures who were past victims
of Giovanni!
In
the spirit world, they had heard about The Midnight King's reform
efforts and were coming in search of the truth. They wish to rest in
eternal peace and can only do so if Giovanni apologizes to each of
their spirits in person.
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While
I think Giovanni will be interested in doing all he can to help the
12 souls rest in peace, he has fallen off the radar!
I've
tried contacting him via griffin, owl, scrying pond, and even a
location spell! HELP!
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We've
got BIG problems. Knotter woke up this morning and found one of her
strings with a HUGE knot in it that she didn't make. Can you guess
whose string it was? Yep, Giovanni's.
Knotter
can't even identify what the knot is supposed to signify since she
wasn't the one to create it.
Things
are not looking good for the forgiveness ritual. Going to try some of
your contact suggestions this evening, but I'd getting worried for
Gio's safety!
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I
was about to send a Djin into the mix in order to help Giovanni when
something in the back of my mind told me to stop. I re-read your
thoughts to Knotter about the thread and letting things work their
course.
Jones
overheard us and scampered off to the meadow. A few moments later she
came back to the house, dragging a Nephelai behind her.
The
Nephelai started to communicate with Knotter and the two furiously
signed back and forth before the cloud nymph explained things to me.
Jones
had remembered a story her grandmother used to tell her when she was
a young brownie. Evil spirits would entice the dark October clouds to
surround them and cloak their malignant intent so they could play
rather nasty tricks on others. Jones ran to fetch the Nephelai
because she would be able to confirm if the stories were real.
Cira,
the Nephelai, clarified that while it isn't a common occurrence, evil
spirits will participate in this type of trickery around Halloween.
Cira told Knotter that she could use her cloud magic to test Gio's
life thread and help determine if the evil spirits had indeed
manipulated clouds to cloak them.
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Cira,
the cloud nymph, has been an unbelievable help with the Giovanni
problem. Knotter brought out his life thread and after a few moments
of Cira blowing over the knot, it glowed a bright purple. She
confirmed it was a sure sign that evil spirits were altering October
clouds to serve their nefarious plans. However, while the knot was
returning to room temperature (Cira has VERY cold breath), the thread
briefly glowed green before returning to normal.
Knotter
explained that there was ANOTHER force also manipulating the
situation, but whatever the force was, it was acting with good
intentions based on the color. We figure it must be the reason
Giovanni is being kept far away from the smoky orbs.
We
have to wait until tomorrow evening's moon before Cira can get a
chance to use her cloud nymph magic on the orbs, so we are trying to
figure out how to show Giovanni's protector we want to help them.
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The
man in the moon suggestion was perfect! After composing a note
explaining that we were trying to help Giovanni on a piece of
parchment, we floated the paper on top of a moon-lit pond. The man on
the moon agreed to reflect the letter on a surface near The Midnight
King's secret protector, but would not reveal their identity.
Cira
also helped us with the conniving smoky orbs. After luring them back
to my patio doors with warm milk, the cloud nymph took the orbs by
surprise by blowing on them. Their cover was temporarily erased,
revealing 12 huge ogres.
We
quickly ran back into the house and began to throw lettuce and other
greens through the window to protect us from an attack. You know how
much ogres hate vegetables and we weren't taking any chances.
Why
would these ogres stoop to such measures to get to Giovanni?
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Sorry
things have been quiet on the "Giovanni is missing" front,
but I've been busy sleuthing!
After
depleting my vegetable supply to protect my family from the 12 ogres
(by the way, my daughter was more than happy to forgo carrot sticks,
spinach, and broccoli for a week to ensure our safety), I had a long
brainstorming session with Cira, Knotter, and Jones.
Knotter
noted that Cira's visit to the enchanted meadow might not have been a
coincidence. Considering this whole situation had a whiff of Olympus
intervention, she asked our new cloud nymph friend why she was in the
area. Cira explained a snake had visited her cloud bank and told her
she was the winner of a deluxe woodland vacation on Earth. Since
Nephelai rarely get to visit land for any length of time, she happily
accepted the prize and was transported to the meadow.
When
I heard snake, I instantly thought Hermes was involved. That is until
Jones reminded me that Iris also carries a caduceus.
The
big question is... what do you think is the best way to pinpoint
which one is behind the divine intervention?
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To be continued... in November's "Fan"tastical story!
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