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.
