Merlin, The Child of Thunder by John Pirillo

Merlin, The Child of Thunder

by John Pirillo

The Rising and the Falling of Magic

Like gentle waves of sand

Poured through the air and night

making our world shiny and bright. -- Merlin

Merlin's first notion when the storm awoke him, was to roll over to the other side of the giant mushroom sheltering him from the fury of the down pouring flood of water, but his second thought was whoopee!

He jumped up, well, sort of, as he was only a little over two feet tall at that time, grabbed a juniper stick. His version of a magic staff and ran out into the rains and commanded it to stop, threatening to send the water back to heaven like an ocean if it didn't stop.

It didn't stop. Instead, the deluge increased, as if the God of Thunder were mocking him, slamming the pelting rain across his youthful face in denial of the power he felt inside himself. He started to raise his juniper stick again, when he felt a great wooden arm stop him.

He turned around and Mother Tree stood there, her beautiful branching canopy of leafy hair glistening with rainbows light and dewdrops from the cascading rain. Her luminous green eyes. They were green this day. Brown others, and other colors depending on her mood. Her luminous green eyes stared into his and he could see them laughing.

"It's not funny!" He protested.

"No, it's not." She agreed.

She let go. He lowered his stick. "Why can't I hammer back at the God of Thunder? After all he's the one who cast me here away from my real home."

The moment he said that, he regretted the wisdom of his words, or rather the total lack of it. He looked down at his bare toes, which were now collecting puddles of water between them. "I'm sorry, Mother, I didn't mean that."

He felt a gentle leafed finger nudge beneath his chin, gently urging him to look up. He looked up and she was staring into his face, a look of total love and kindness shining in her face and eyes. "I know, my young Indigo. Your temper is so much like the God of Thunder's roaring and gallivanting, that it's no wonder you would challenge him."

"Are you telling me he's my father?"

She smiled, causing the dimples of leaves to the side of her lips to spread in amusement. "No, I am not. It's not for me to tell, but for you to tell yourself one day."

She said no more, but with great gentle, careful steps she walked away from the mushroom he stood beneath and went back to join Father Tree, who had been watching from a short distance. He nodded when she approached and they hunkered down, spreading their leafy arms and branches to catch as much of the healthy water falling from the skies as possible.

Indigo was Merlin's nick name. Thwert. A Gnome who had befriended him a year ago, popped up from beneath a strawberry where he had been sleeping. He yawned and stretched his thin arms and fingers until you could hear the bones popping. "Indigo. Wanna play?"

Merlin smiled. Thwert and the others called him Indigo because they said it was the color of his aura. The energies he emitted when he was emotionally. Personally, he couldn't see how they thought that as mostly what he saw was gold and red, especially red when he was angry. His mother had told him the red was the color of anger and the gold of wisdom, which he had yet to grow into. He had protested that it took too long to become wise, could he just be angry and get it over with?

She had laughed, as well as the other forest creatures who had been near him at the time and that are when he began to change colors again and everyone started calling him Indigo after his newer colors.

"I don't know Thwert. It's kind of wet to play."

"Puddles!" Thwert cried out. "Lots and lots of puddles."

To demonstrate he leaped onto a small mushroom, climbed to the next, and the next, then dove off in a swan dive into a huge puddle of water, sending a cascading splash over Merlin, drenching him from head to toes.

"I'm going to get you for that!" Merlin cried out, and leapt to the very tallest of the mushrooms, then dropped like a stone, belly first so he would splash more water. 

He sent a geyser up into the air and with it poor Thwert, who was flung limbs akimbo upwards. 

Merlin leaped from the water and aimed his juniper stick. "Still!" He ordered.

Thwert stopped his plunge towards a very sharp rock and hovered there, still flailing his arms until he realized he was not falling anymore. 

Merlin slowly twisted his juniper stick and as he did Thwert turned with it, until his feet touched down nice and neatly on the stone. "Free!" Merlin cried out.

Thwert landed softly on the top of the stone and let out a yelp of triumph! His face was lit with joy. "Let's do it again! He cried out. "That was fun, fun, fun!"

So Merlin and Thwert leaped from mushroom to mushroom, diving into the many puddles that had been building up, making so much noise that before long all the creatures of the forest, which had been hiding from the storm, came out to play with them.

And by the end of the day everyone and everything was drenching wet, but exhausted and happy.

Merlin and the others gathered beneath the safety of Mother and Father Tree and he warmed some rocks with his juniper stick and everyone warmed their fingers and toes, and whatever else they used to grasp and walk upon and were happy.

Mother Tree and Father Tree were the last to go to sleep. They slept very little, as they were old and wise, and had no need to hide in sleep to refresh them and renew their spirits.

"Indigo is becoming a true Merlin." Mother Tree told Father Tree.

His amber colored eyes widened gently and he smiled, causing his bushy leaf mustache to bob gently as well. "Indeed. And one day he will leave us because of that."

"Until then he shall be our sweet little Indigo, our Merlin."

"Yes." Father Tree agreed. "Until then."

And then they put their branches about each other and loved each other as only trees can and were filled with joy and happiness.