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the-last-ghost · 4 years

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As promised, Chapter 1 of my new story, The Woodsman. I hope that you all enjoy it. Please, like, share, or comment away; I appreciate it all and my inbox is always open if you ever have any questions, comments, concerns, or requests. Thank you all for the support and putting up with my hectic posting!

The Woodsman

Introduction:

Many stories usually begin when two strangers meet, lost family is reunited, true love is found, or best friends join together, all to set out on some epic quest… And just like any fairytale, it always ends with them living happily ever after.

But what of those for whom the story wasn’t the focus? What about their happy ending? Is their story any less important? The Prince may find his true love, but what about his trusted guard who protected him along the way? The shepherds daughter runs away to a life of wonder at sea with a Captain who promised her adventure, but what of her dearest friend back home who helped her get away?

The tragic part is that you will never really hear their stories. It is often assumed that they go back to what they did before, or they found some measure of peace and contentment with how the story ends. But sometimes… Sometimes they are not happy with how things end; perhaps their story is not quite over, not yet. So, they set out again to try and find that little something in life that they have been searching for. Maybe, no matter how thrilling their life is after setting out again, just maybe there is no happy ending for them… Maybe their story does not get told because, who wants to hear about a tragedy after finding their own happily ever after?

Still… The story goes on anyway…

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Chapter 1: Farewell

The tavern sat alone but proud at the last true crossroad along the Eastern edge of the Fanisa Forrest. Lights illuminated every window, their warm glow flickering out beneath the door, casting shadows and silhouettes everywhere one looked. The horses snorted and seemed to sway faintly as the sounds of music reached them. The sign by the door read, “The Hero’s Den” in fresh, red paint; but if you knew the area like me, you’d know that the true name is and has always been, “The Roads End.” For this is where many stories always seem to end…

I make my way inside and am greeted warmly by my dear friends and have a full mug given to me by Sally, the serving girl who I know has been here for more years than I can count. At the long table in the center of the room, I hear hearty laughter bellowing out from Derrin, Viti, Greda, and the rest of the crew of the Horizons End as old jokes and new stories are traded around. As I take a seat at an empty table near the back, I watch as Sally runs drinks while dancing through the crowd, a smile filling her lips and a rosy glow filling her face as she locked eyes with Viti. Across from their table, Old Vern tells stories of his time before, “the wee lad” sought him out, asking for his help. I don’t even have to listen to know that Dahla is scolding him about how, “the wee lad” is finally back where he should be, as the true King, and that he should be shown respect… Before they both burst out laughing; no doubt going on about how crazy fate must be for their old friend to now be a king. All around me, I see friends, old and new alike, sitting side by side as they drink and make merry, telling the tallest tales as they simply enjoy being alive…

Finally, my eyes drift up to the place of honor, the two “thrones” set nearest the hearth; clearly as a joke for they are still the most basic of the tavern’s chairs. Yet my eyes are drawn to those sitting there, my dear friend, the Lady Sasha, now my Queen. Next to the love of her life, Zain, the new and rightful King laughs as Captain Derrin goes on about how he had to rescue the King long ago from being pulled of his ship while fishing. This night is for them, friends and comrades all, drawn together from all across the land; for now their fight is over, and peace can finally be restored to the land. Tonight they make merry, for tomorrow they will be drawn into the trappings of court and all the other duties life will demand and many will all go their separate ways, but tonight, none of it matters for they are together and nothing can hurt them.

I sit in my little corner of the room, watching and listening to the stories as the night goes on. Occasionally I share a respectful nod with some of the soldiers, a silent raised mug with a sailor, and a friendly wave across the room; but I hold back, for tonight is for them and I’ve no wish to ruin it… Eventually I watch as Captain Derrin makes his stumbling way atop his table as he rouses his crew into song after song, all while dancing drunkenly, much to everyone’s delight. They sing songs of old, songs of new, songs of the deeds that have been done and of the glory they have found; soon the songs mellow down, and the candles start burning low. The room is quiet for a while before I hear Viti’s voice signing slowly cut through the quiet of the night and I realize that it is their old farewell song for those they have lost at sea. I forgot that her voice could be so hauntingly beautiful…

“Here we gather now,

In some far and distant town,

As we raise a mug of ale,

To those who’ve set sail…

For tonight we live and laugh,

And wish you the very best,

For the sea, she’s come to claim you,

And may the stars guide your way.

The Horizon, she is calling,

So my friend, be not afraid,

For though now you may be leaving,

We shall meet again someday.

I will see you when it’s over,

On the Horizons End,

It may still yet be a long time,

For we never can know when…

But we’ll drink ale by the barrel,

And catch up on all the tales!

So it’s goodbye for now, farewell,

Now hoist the flag and set sail!”

As she sings, the crew all joins in and I see old friends share solemn looks, comrades raise their mugs, lovers hold each other closer… Sasha takes hold of the King’s hand…

I finish off my drink and make my way for the door while they are distracted by the song and lost in their own thoughts. No one seems to notice as I don my cloak and rest my hat upon my head; I take a last look inside at them all, happy and together, before turning away into the night. I make my slow and quiet way to the stable and saddle up my horse, Vira, before guiding her toward the road and climbing into the saddle. It’s best that I leave now, lest I ruin this happiness I’ve helped them find.

I’ve only been on the road for a brief moment when I hear a sign-song voice echoing faintly from the trees around me. “And just where do you think you are sneaking off to, hmm?” I sigh heavily and reign in Vira to a halt before saying softly, “Alara…” Suddenly behind me, I look over my shoulder to see her sitting daintily on the back half of my saddle, regal as if she were in some castle and not on horseback in the woods. “Of course you would be the one to see me leave. You can’t stop me, you know that. Not this time.” Without even looking my way, she replies, “You know that they are going to ask questions, right? They are all going to want to know why the ‘Savior of Lathuia’ just left without even saying goodbye…” Even as she says this, I can tell that that’s not really her concern. “Oh please,” I say, more spitefully than I intended, “We both know that they’ll understand why I left. And don’t call me ‘Savior’ because I know you remember what I had to do…” I trail off as I look away from her. “Fine then,” she says forcefully, and gently grabs my face, making me look into her piercing, amber eyes. “You are right. I know what you did, but I also know why too. Anyone who loves someone that much, is more than worthy of a second chance at happiness. So I ask you, what will She think about you leaving her now? After everything the two of you have been through together, you just decide to walk away?” I refuse to speak for a while, even as I feel a tear start to well up. “What is it you want, Fairy?” I know their kind well enough these days; they always want something from you… “Now, now,” she says, with mock offence, “There is no need for that. I am here because it seems that you are the only one not enjoying this little happily ever after… I want to know why.” I pull away from her grip, breaking free from her paralyzing gaze. “You know that I’m happy; thrilled even, with how things turned out. Sasha found her true love and is finally happy, actually happy, for the first time in a long time. And now she’s the Queen, no less! What, are you upset that I’ve forgotten to thank you for helping us? I apologize; thank you for everything, truly. Now please, let me be on my way.” I turn back forward and nudge Vira into a slow canter. As I do, Alara floats around in front of me, still sitting while in the air. “You love her, really love her… Don’t you? Of course… You hardly looked at them, but her… You couldn’t take your eyes from her all night.” Blasted fairies, you can’t get anything by them. “So what? You love her and now you are going to run away from it all? Is that your plan?” Refusing to even look at her, I continue on. “Fine! Yes, yes Alara, I do love her! I have since the moment we first met.” I bark out harshly, annoyed that she of all people is delving into my feelings like this. “And you know my story. You know it doesn’t have a happy ending; at least not anything like what they have now… But no, I’m not simply running away. The kingdom may be theirs and the people love them, but there are still many things out there that can end it; there are still many outside the kingdom that would gladly see them both gone.” I glance up at her briefly, and for a moment the look on her face was almost as if she came to a decision, but it’s so hard to tell with their kind.

“So, you love her and are choosing to leaver her… All because you wish to set out and make sure that she stays safe and the lands are protected… That’s very noble of you…” She says the last, almost to herself. “If that is truly the case, then you know that this path with take you far and wide, through many long, difficult years.” I look her in the eyes and mockingly joke, “Well then, it would appear that the Seer was right after all. How was it that the prophecy went again?” I ask the last but continue on before she can say anything.

“A warrior alone without a cause,

A sailor adrift without a ship,

A traveler lost with no stars to guide him,

A man destined to love that which cannot love him.

You will climb to the heavens,

Descend into the darkest depths,

No land too wide or ocean to vast,

To travel forever to protect what you have lost.”

We are both silent for a moment, remembering that night from long ago… “That sounds right too me; and you know just how far I would go for her… Besides, I would simply drive a wedge between the two of them if I remained behind. I’ll not ruin their chance at happiness; not after everything I went through to make it happen.”

Alara watches me, her eyes glowing faintly. “You truly would protect this land from anything out of your love for her, wouldn’t you?” Though she says this aloud, I can tell she doesn’t need an answer. “Wonderful, then that is all that I needed to hear. For I am going to help you; or rather… She is…” Alara then nods to something behind me and as I turn to see, I watch as a woman steps gracefully from the trees; in the sudden fog that I never noticed roll in, it appears as if she is almost literally coming out of the trees… Her skin glows with the light of the moon itself, small, blooming flowers are entwined in her hair, and her gown is as vibrant a green as a springtime forest. “You’re…” My voice comes out shaking, slightly above a whisper. “I have gone by many names over the years, my son. For now though, you can call me Gianna.”

#fantasy #fae #faery folk #fairy tales #fairytail #story #short story #storytelling #original story #new story #humans are weird

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melindarowens · 7 years

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Infusion Confusion Always Wins!

Good day… And a Happy Friday to one and all! I’ve got infusion confusion this morning, and can’t really focus, so this is going to be short-n-sweet today, I promise! I’ve had my CPAP machine for a month now, and while most mornings I wake up feeling refreshed and ready to go, that’s not happening this morning… So, infusions beat CPAP… Good to know! Don Henley greets me this morning with his song: End of The Innocence…

Well, to start the day, we don’t have any major news… No Central Bank meetings, no BIG announcement from China, no real economic data. I could discuss the new Health Bill, but why? It’s going nowhere folks… The dollar seems to be losing its grip again, as the currencies inch higher again this morning. The Big Dog euro seems to be stuck in the mud, as it attempted to get off the porch and run after the dollar, but the other little dog currencies have gotten off the porch, but seem to be sniffing around a bit before they take off after the dollar.

The New Zealand dollar / kiwi is the best performer overnight, and even that move isn’t anything to get real excited about! The price of Oil rebounded a bit, but not much, so there’s no reason to rush out and fill up the gas tank before it explodes higher! Not that I think it’s going to explode higher. The U.S. shale producers are really sticking it the OPEC countries.

The price of Oil has been a real problem for all the countries outside of the U.S. The problems are two-fold… One problem comes from countries that don’t produce Oil, and have to import it… As the price of Oil rises, their inflation forecasts grow, they hike rates, wring their hands with worry about inflation. As the price of Oil retreats, the country is left with no inflation worries and higher interest rates than needed, thus putting the brakes on their economy… (see India for a good example of this scenario!)

And for the countries that produce Oil, their problems are really illustrated right here in the U.S. Oil production goes down, the price of Oil rebounds, the Oil producers ramp up operations and begin to pump Oil by the truck loads, which leads to too much production, and supplies, and that causes the price of Oil to fall again, and now the producers have ramped up operations, taken on new debt for equipment, etc. And the Merry-Go-Round just keeps going around and around and around…

Oh, boy, I’m doing it again! Promising a short-n-sweet Pfennig and then I go off on some tangent that fires up the word count! UGH! Well, what else did you expect from me? My fat fingers get going on the keyboard, and the next thing I know I’m finished, and the Pfennig is as long as usual! UGH!

Gold saw another day of light from the tunnel yesterday, but once again before it could get its legs underneath it to run, the Gold short paper traders came forth and stabbed it with their steely knives, but they just can’t kill the beast! (Hotel California), and Gold gained $ 3.70 on the day…

The early morning trading has Gold up $ 8 today, but I just can’t get myself to get too excited about the early morning gains, for they come about before “da Boyz” (as Ed Steer calls them) arrive at their desks..

I’ve read a few reports this week from Gold analysts, Gold mining Co. Presidents, and so on, about how they feel that the manipulation of the Gold price is about to end… The reports don’t really ever get into why these people think that, but Hey! Who am I to question? This is where I would pull out an old-time phrase that’s not used much any longer, and that is… Should the manipulation stop.. “I won’t look a gift-horse in the mouth”… That is an old one, Chuck! Where did you pull that one from? Ahhh grasshoppers, I pulled that from the archives of my memory. I can hear my grandma saying that to me… And for those youngsters reading this letter the saying simply means, “when receiving a gift be grateful for what it is; don’t imply you wished for more by assessing its value.” You don’t really need to have horse! HA!

The Canadian dollar / loonie is challenging kiwi as the best overnight performer. Earlier this week, I told about how loonie traders were scratching their collective heads attempting to figure out how the loonie was pushing the currency appreciation envelope day after day, when the price of Oil was dropping, and the Bank of Canada (BOC) was sitting on their hands as the housing bubbles in Toronto and Vancouver continue to fill with air…

But then the loonie got caught up in all the Petrol Currency selling, as the price of Oil dropped into the $ 42 handle… Well, like I’ve told you dear reader for a very long time now, “Traders are Fickle”… And they’ve gone back to pushing the loonie higher… Hey! That’s alright by me! Don’t let me get in the way of pushing the loonie higher! I’m just attempting to explain its strength to readers!

I had mentioned earlier in the week that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) would print their last meeting’s minutes this week, and then completely forgot about them, until now! I guess I forgot about them because they didn’t contain any earth shattering comments, and they sure didn’t give the markets anything to trade from… Here’s a sample of what they were talking about…

“Members noted that the broad-based pick-up in the world economy was continuing. Labor markets had tightened further in many countries and this was expected to lead to a pick-up in wages and prices over time. Headline inflation rates in most countries had moved higher over the past year, partly reflecting higher commodity prices. Nonetheless, core inflation had remained low.” And as we all know, they left rates unchanged… And, that lack of optimism by the RBA hurt the Aussie dollar (A$ ) for a day but the A$ has recovered that lost ground, and now sets its sights on 76-cents!

The U.S. Data Cupboard today is till restocking, but will have New Home Sales, and the Markit print of PMI (manufacturing index), which I will remind you is NOT the national ISM manufacturing index. Existing Home Sales were better than expected when they printed earlier in the week, and so I expect New Home Sales to be better than expected too… The Fed hiked rates last week, but let me point out that our internal rate is still very low at 1.25%, and the all-important 10-year yield that is used to price mortgage rates is still below 2.20%!!!! So, why wouldn’t home sales be good?

To recap… It’s a infusion confusion Friday for Chuck, which is good because there was not a lot going on overnight and this morning in the currencies, metals, bonds, commodities, economies and dolts! I was watching the news last night, and couldn’t believe they had not one mention of China’s A shares being included in the MSCI that I talked about yesterday! UGH! Oh well, Gold was up another $ 3.70 and the price of Oil rose about 60-cents…

For What It’s Worth… It brings me great delight to be able to direct you to this website today, dear reader… I would like for you to read an article by my good friend, who is also known as the Retirementor, Dennis Miller… He sent me a note this week, when I went on and on about debt, and said, “wait till you see my letter this week, great minds must think alike”… So, anyway, it’s titled: Don’t Get Caught In The Debt Trap! and you can read it all here: http://milleronthemoney.com/dont-get-caught-debt-trap/

Or, here’s your snippet… “Hardly a day goes by without an article blaring about record levels of debt and warning of a collapse. Irresponsible borrowing can adversely affect everyone, including those who lived within their means.

Reuters reports, “Americans’ debt back at record high after nearly a decade: “Americans’ debt level reached a record high this year, surpassing the peak touched just as the worst of the recession was taking hold in 2008, …households …now lean …more on auto and student loans.”

Bloomberg weighs in on student loans, “Student debt in America has hit a new record”: “Total U.S. student debt hit a record $ 1.31 trillion last year, the 18th consecutive year Americans’ education debt rose, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.”

Chuck Again… Dennis does a great job of being fair and balanced on this, and I sent him a note saying that, his quote from Noah Smith, reminded me of my note about the Commodity Analyst yesterday… One day, they’ll rue the day they said those things..

Currencies today 6/23/17… American Style: A$ .7565, kiwi .7280, C$ .7560, euro 1.1168, sterling 1.2737, Swiss $ .9712, … European Style: rand 12.93, krone 8.4752, SEK 8.7560, HUF 276.61, zloty 3.7898, koruna 23.5227, RUB 59.97, yen 111.20, sing 1.3866, HKD 7.7993, INR 64.48, China 6.8321, peso 18.05, BRL 3.3340, Dollar Index 97.40, Oil $ 42.81, 10-year 2.16%, Silver $ 16.80, Platinum $ 931.73, Palladium $ 891.75, and Gold… $ 1,258.00

That’s it for today… no extra innings, no win for my beloved Cardinals yesterday… UGH! It’s feast or famine with this team, and that’s not the Cardinals I’m used to watching… Well, they took a new measurement of the tumor in my mouth yesterday, and compared it to the measurement taken right before I began my infusions again, and the tumor is shrinking again! That’s a good thing, even though I feel like death warmed over this morning! But that won’t last long, and I’ll be back to myself by noon! I’ll have to wait to do my crossword puzzles until then, because I couldn’t concentrate on them now even if I wanted to! John Mellencamp takes us to the finish line today with his song: The Authority Song… I fight authority and authority always wins… (story of my life!) And with that, it’s time to get off the bus this week, and send you to the corner of a Fantastico Friday and a Wonderful Weekend! And Please… Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

Daily Pfennig

source http://capitalisthq.com/infusion-confusion-always-wins/ from CapitalistHQ http://capitalisthq.blogspot.com/2017/06/infusion-confusion-always-wins.html

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everettwilkinson · 7 years

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Infusion Confusion Always Wins!

That’s it for today… no extra innings, no win for my beloved Cardinals yesterday… UGH! It’s feast or famine with this team, and that’s not the Cardinals I’m used to watching… Well, they took a new measurement of the tumor in my mouth yesterday, and compared it to the measurement taken right before I began my infusions again, and the tumor is shrinking again! That’s a good thing, even though I feel like death warmed over this morning! But that won��t last long, and I’ll be back to myself by noon! I’ll have to wait to do my crossword puzzles until then, because I couldn’t concentrate on them now even if I wanted to! John Mellencamp takes us to the finish line today with his song: The Authority Song… I fight authority and authority always wins… (story of my life!) And with that, it’s time to get off the bus this week, and send you to the corner of a Fantastico Friday and a Wonderful Weekend! And Please… Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

Daily Pfennig

from CapitalistHQ.com http://capitalisthq.com/infusion-confusion-always-wins/

#TrumpNews #CapitalistHQ.com

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