Dreams Of An Angel
From the telling of Amergin
I was sitting in the pub one summer evening … sipping at a nice pint of Guinness … and surveying the pretty girls talking in the corner … When an old fellow he sat beside me … got himself a pint and began to drink …
He turned to me and said, "Those girls over there … they are right
pretty, aren't they?"
"Yes," I answered, "they are. That is why I am drinking the Guinness.
So the drool on my chin does not show up as well."
"You know," he says, "I once dreamt of a girl more beautiful than all
those put together. One of God's sweet angels she was. One dark night in
the midst of my greatest sorrows … she came to me … voice lilting gently
with each breath I took … her fingers softly strumming her golden
harp … her eyes as green as the deepest ocean … her halo wreathed strands
of red fire draping down her shoulders … . And in the song she sweetly
sang to me … she told me that if I look I will find that which I
seek … and then she kissed me gently upon my lips … her lips as soft as
down … and she bade to me good night … . And disappeared into the clouds
above … silver wings flapping in the wind … "
"Oh yeah?" says I, "That sounds like a lovely dream. What happened
next?"
"I woke up and found myself in the same bed I entered the night before,
but I knew in the deepest caverns of my heart that she was the one I have
been seeking all those years … though never did I realise it before … and
that night she came … I knew I would never rest until my arms encircled
her … and my lips gently pushed against hers … so I climbed from the warm
blankets … and dressed … and walked out into the rays of the morning sun."
"What happened next?" I asked. "Did you ever find her?" He smiled
slightly and pointed to his empty glass. I got the hint and ordered him
another pint … and also got one for myself.
He picked up his glass and took a sip. "Aaaahhhh, thanks my boy. My
insides are drier than the very deserts of hell … Well, as I said before I
dressed that morning and walked out the door … never knowing if I would
ever rest my weary eyes on my home again … never really caring for that
matter … for finding her was the only thing that floated in the top of my
brain … I walked out carrying nothing but the very clothes I was
wearing … walking … following the faint trails of the mists, for a woman
as comely as her must surely be of the sidhe … or if not they would know
where I could find her … so the weeks went by and day gave birth to the
night … and the night crept into the day … then finally the mists did not
dissolve with the noon … I was in the realm of Faery … and on I walked
deeper into the mists … 'til I came upon to souls sitting beneath the
biggest oak tree I have ever laid my eyes on … they were singing songs in
a tongue long since forgotten in the realms of the earth … I stood there
watching and listening hypnotised by the magical qualities of their
voices … .feeling my eyelids slowly gain weight as the power of sleep
slowly began to have power over me … Then suddenly they stopped and
realised that I a mere mortal was watching them, listening to their
ancient song … and they asked of me what I wanted from them … they asked
me this in amazement … for more fools wander into the mists searching for
gold and other treasures never to be seen again … .always wandering lost
for all eternity … .perhaps walking within inches of each other at
times … and never knowing it … I too was looking for a treasure … but a
treasure purer than any gold made by man or by faery … I told them of the
dream I had … of the winged woman singing softly as she played her
harp … and of her eyes that haunted me since that very night … and of the
fiery hair flowing down her shoulders … .They told to me … oh you must
mean our queen … for she is truly the most beautiful woman ever seen by
man or by faery, let us take you to her, but her hair is of gold … not of
fire … so through the parting misty trails I followed my new
companions … marveling over the size of the oak trees surrounding
us … then suddenly we came to a grove … surrounded by oak trees so
big … they would dwarf the tallest buildings known to man … and in the
center of this grove surrounded by harpers and weavers and painters of
such talent … your very heart would burst with the sound of their songs,
the feel of their cloths, and the look of their art … was a throne of
granite … upon which sat a beautiful creature … with eyes … as deep and
blue as the very sky itself … and hair stretching down her long slender
body tickling her very ankles … the hair was so rich … gold itself would
pale next to a single strand … and closer and closer to the throne we
walked … eyes staring at us as we grew nearer and nearer to the Queen … I
stood before her feeling her gaze penetrate into the darkest secrets of my
soul … then she spoke to me … with a voice so lovely that it made the
sweetest song seem harsh and vile … she asked me why I had come into her
realm … I told her about the sweet woman I had dreamed of … and about her
eyes … and her lips … then she asked why I had chosen to search for this
woman … I told her because it is she I had been looking for all these
years … and then the Queen offered herself to me … offered me the kingdom
of the mists … I swear upon my mother's grave she did … and I almost took
it … but something deep in my heart knew I would never rest if I had … .so
I declined … she sighed … and told me of an old man who lived on the edge
of her vast realm … it is he she told me that may be able to offer you
guidance … for I do know nothing of the mortal realm … and she bade my
companions to guide me to the edge of the mists … but to follow me no
further … and so we walked on … .and on … until we came to a ramshackle
hut … and my new friends bade to me goodbye and wished me luck … and I was
alone."
"What did you do next?" I asked eager to hear more of his fantastic
tale.
He pointed again to his empty glass … and again I asked for a couple of
more pints … he raised his glass to his lips and drank deep … he lowered
the glass to the bar … and wiped the foam from his face … and again he
began to speak, "Well … I walked up to the house and rapped my knuckles
onto the wooden door … and waited … no one answered … .again I rapped upon
the door louder this time … .again no one answered the call … so thrice I
beat my knuckles upon the wood bloodying them upon the splinters louder
still … and this time the door slowly creaked open … a wizened old face
wrinkled and worn peaked out from the cracks … he asked of me what I
wanted … and I told him of my dreams and the maiden that haunted my
thoughts … and my dreams … and he asked me inside and I entered … there in
the hut was a shelve of books … and a roaring fire … in the fire was a
cauldron … bubbling with a liquid dark as blood … he bade me to sit in
front of the cauldron … .and he picked up a leather bag … ..he opened it
up and and reached in his hands … pulling out a silvery powder in his
closed fist … he threw the powder into the cauldron … .watching the
bubbles swallow the powder into the blood red depths … flames spurt out of
the cauldron … and the old man stared into the flickering embers and told
to me the place where I may find her … there is a mountain he
said … beyond the forest … of which the trees bear golden apples … which I
must not eat … unless I am near death … .and then only one … .the mountain
he said is drowned with rain so thick one must swim up the mountain … with
the help of a vine hanging over the cliffside … this all he told to
me … and then he bade me to lie down by the fire … and there I may
sleep … to start the journey fresh in the morning … ."
"I woke that morning," he continued, "and I stepped out the
door … .following the path his old gnarled fingers showed to me … and on I
walked … .watching the sun gradually rise unto his noonday throne … reaching
his infinite arms through out the land … and watching as he slowly sank down
the mountains … .glowing red against the evening sky … ..a red that reminded
me of the fire flowing down her shoulders … .and then suddenly … .I was at the
edge of a forest of trees bearing apples … .apples so golden they reflected
the dying flickering light of the sun … .and into the forest I
walked, … .alone … ."
The old man finished the dribbles in his glass … and wiped the foam from
his mouth … he looked at me and pointed at his glass … .and so I got a couple
of more pints … and he continued his story.
"Into the forest I walked … the apples of gold glowing in the
starlight … .the orange moon reaching gently into the branches so that I
would not lose my way … the golden orbs piercing the shadows as I slowly
tread along the trail … .and on I walked through this golden
forest … eating only what I had brought with me … resolved not to eat one
of those lovely apples … on I walked through this immense forest … this
orchard of the gods … a week had passed … two … .three … then suddenly I
saw before me the end of the forest … and a great wall of water pouring
down from the heavens … .just a mile away … .
"In wonderment I strolled across the fields to this wall … the roar
growing louder with each weary step … then I was there … .and under the
water was a mountain reaching high up to the clouds … bearing the very
stars themselves … and stretching out from beneath the roaring streams of
water was a line … .green from ages mouldering in the depths of the liquid
mountain … .I took hold of the line … .and started my way up … .parting my
way through the flowing wall … .water seeping into my ears … hair dripping
down my face as i struggled endlessly up the mountain … .night turned to
day … and day gave birth to night … .and on and on I struggled through the
swarming depths … .
Then suddenly I broke through the surfact … .and found steps of gold
laced with silver leading upwards … .broken streams of water filtering
down … .and so on I climbed … .following the gentle sounds of gentle
sobbing … .listening as the grew louder … ..the very steps shaking with
the falling tears … .and there I saw them … ..thousands of angels standing
together … bodies quaking as they held each other in sorrow … .tears
falling from their faces … and so on I walked through the crying
mob … following the golden highway … ..wading my way through rivers of
tears … .til before me stood a giant throne … the throne of God
himself … and there he was … long silver hair draping down his
chest … .dampened with the giant tears dripping down his face … he saw me
and picked me up in the palm of his hand … bringing me close to his
immense elderly face … .lakes of water spalshing to the floor streaking to
the lands below … .and I said to him, "I seek an angel of yours, an angel
I dreamt about many months ago … .an angel who has haunted my thoughts day
and night since … .She wears a halo of pure gold … .like the sun rising in
the noon … .the halo is wreathed in strands of red fire … .snaking donw
past her shoulders … draping the gentleness of her skin … .a fire as warm
as a lover's heart … .and as soft as silk … .her eyes as green as the
newborn grass in the springtime … deep as the darkest sea … .and full of
life and tenderness … as the fires that dance in the hearth … have you
seen her?"
God sadly shook his head as his mournful words escaped his quivering
lips … "She is here no more … she was the pride of the heavens … her very
presence would light these golden halls … her laughter would playfully
dance the streets … filling our darkest days with joy … .her very voice
would fill our hearts with love … but no she is here no more … she left
seeking a mortal man … our days are now filled with sorrow … our tears
themselves swell the rivers of the earth"
"Do you know where I can find her?"
"That, my son, I do not know … .but I can show you the way … .just
follow the gentle strands of her singing … .and you will find that which
you seek."
"Thank you, my Lord."
He set me back down … .and I took my leave … .ears straining to catch
the bare snatches of her soft voice … ."
The old man stopped looking intently at his empty glass … .and of
course I got the point … .and bought another round … .and he sipped a
bit … and continued …
"I travelled the lands up and down north and south east to
west … .straining to catch her voice floating upon the winds … the days
rolled by then the months … and finally the whispers lilted their way to
me … ..and I followed … .snatching notes of her gentle voice from the
winds … .following the paths upon which they flew … .over lakes and
rivers … .over forests and plains … mountains and deserts … .then finally
sitting on a stone feeling the waves of the Ocean gently licking her
toes … I saw her … .hair glowing red in the dying sun … .voice opened wide
singing tales as old as the sky itself … .her gentle green eyes staring
across the darkening sea … ..I stepped down from the rocks and walked to
her … heart slowly melting in the warm heat of her voice … ..I knew at
last that I had found her … ."
The old man stopped … and i turned to him asking, "What happened then?
Did you go off together? what happened?"
The old man looked at me and laughed … stepping off his stool … .and
said as he slowly staggered out the door … "Ah but my dear lad … .that is
a tale for another time."
I finished my pint … and went out wondering if i would ever hear the
end … .
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