Tag #CollectionofHuphaea

The Great Collection of the Elemental Families of Huphaea, anid 1830. #1

aimeredleaf, The Narrative Gardener 2 Comments

told by Eleanorah Starr

Trespassing

Up a hillside off a dirt road…
Photo by form PxHere

I stumbled into the world of Ereth by accident. Completely by accident.

I left my mountain bike around the backside of a copse of spruce trees where it would be hidden, since my search involved trespassing. And though I didn’t expect to be there long, I preferred to avoid disgruntled property owners. The hillside sloped upward ahead of me, dotted with other evergreens I could use to hide from the few cars that might drive by while I was visible. The noisy, early-spring gravel road would warn me anyway.

Oh, I’m sorry, I thought I had mentioned that before. I was in Vermont, mid-Vermont I guess you would say, searching for a megalith site I read about online. I had visited some megaliths during my time in Ireland many years ago, and they were fascinating; so full of history and energy.

That winter had been a long, cold, icy affair and I needed an adventure. So I headed north to investigate what I had read.

No, this site wasn’t like Stonehenge, or Newgrange, but it was reported to have some similar components: a stacked stone structure built into a hillside, a calendar chamber that admitted light on the winter equinox, and a menhir stone.

(Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash)

I headed up the hillside hoping I had chosen the right location.

Photo by form PxHere

After about ten minutes of hiking and marking my trail for the return, I came upon a tall, jagged, triangular-shaped stone encircled by large maple trees. Gnarled, weathered roots crawled and stretched toward the stone creating a ray-like sculpture on the ground. As I stepped between the trunks, a humming vibration danced along my skin, raising the hair on my neck.

(Photo by form PxHere)

It was as if the trees were protecting the menhir.

Crossing the lumpy ground to the stone, I reached out to touch the gouged surface. It felt warm. Wait—how? There was no sun, it was a cloudy day.

Something rustled behind me. Startled, I lurched on the roots underfoot, trying not to twist an ankle. I leaned onto the nearest trunk for stability and cover. Later I recalled the tree was warm too, but I was too spooked to acknowledge it then. I peered around in the direction of the noise and there was the stone chamber.

It looked ancient. The dry-laid rock walls framed a typical megalith doorway of three much larger, flat rectangular stones. I stopped several paces from the structure, thoughts racing through my head—

How old is this?

Who built it?

This is amazing, I can’t believe I found it!

Do I dare go inside?

Trees grew all over the top of the chamber, nestling it further into the hillside and the forest. I decided to go in. I only had this one opportunity, most likely. About three paces from the door, the humming started again, this time more in my head. My skin tingled and I recalled that feeling I had at the sites in Ireland. I passed under the lintel into an earthy, warm interior.

Well of course it would be, I was out of the chilly wind.

What was in that ancient chamber? Let me know what you think is there in the comments below. Then look for my next post this weekend!

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The Great Collection of the Elemental Families of Huphaea, anid 1830. #0

aimeredleaf, The Narrative Gardener 2 Comments

Hello! I’m Eleanorah Starr. I have been asked by

…my friend to come by a couple times a month and tell the tale of my time in the world of Ereth.

We were talking a while back about fantasy books, which she loves to read, and I just couldn’t help myself.

The story started coming out.

She, of course, was hooked, and always wants to know more, I can’t write it fast enough for her <eye rolls>, Lol.

“Do other worlds exist, you ask? Yes, they do.

I know this for a fact because I have been to another world; one not of this time and nothing like this one.

Perhaps that’s why I am so disenchanted with this world. I didn’t mean to return to Earth. I would have gladly stayed on Ereth for the rest of my life (which incidentally would have been much longer than it will be here), despite the dragons and unexplained happenings that were causing uncertainty in Huphaea.

Listen to the author narrate the accompanying text! Begin the journey with audio!

I have no idea how I ended up in London that hateful day. One moment I was making camp in the Scarmagne Forest with my companions,

…the next I was standing on a street edge in Chelsea—looking totally ridiculous, mind you, in Robin Hood-like garb.

Thankfully, ComicCon was in town, so I didn’t seem too out of place, just a bit lost.

And I was so looking forward to seeing Irillo again.

Oh yes, I certainly did try to get back. Immediately.

I spent an hour searching for the exact spot where the portal was, but had no luck.

I can’t even imagine what I must have looked like to the passers-by, some sort of deranged, strung-out, role-player frantically slapping the brick wall in an alley aside The Split Chevron pub, muttering to herself.

I remember a dog growled behind me, and that stopped me searching. The guy spoke sternly to the dog and kept moving quickly when I turned around. That’s when I saw the sign across the way for Fulham Road, in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. And I realized I was in London.

No. There was no warning the portal was there at all.

Portals weren’t ever talked about. I asked questions once or twice about them, where they were, how does someone find them? But my questions were ignored or shrugged off. I kind of got the feeling it was something that wasn’t discussed.

What was I doing there?

Adele, Solon and I were making camp for the evening. We were on our way back to Irillo from the last stop on our tour of Huphaea gathering family histories. Solon was tending to the horses, Adele was sorting food for the meal, and I was gathering wood for the fire.

And then I wasn’t.

I always wondered what they thought, how long they looked for me that night.

Irillo is the capital of the elven half of the island of Huphaea, the capital of Eflary. It’s where we started out from all those anos ago. I lived there with Adele until we were commissioned to go on the Collection.

Irillo, capital of Eflary, the elven lands.

No, I said anos. That would be the equivalent of a month in Huphaea, but it has five weeks of five days instead.

Well, sure, I can tell you all about my time there, if you have the time to listen. It’s not a short story.

There are eighteen Houses, each with two Scions, so we visited thirty-six places. Half in Eflary, half in Maarran, which is the human half of Huphaea. And that was after I had been with Adele for a while.

Yes, yes, humans and elves lived together.

They even had families together, most individuals were well-mixed, honestly. Finding a pure human, or a pure elf was very rare.

The purest were the Fosters, for reasons I will tell when I get to them.

You sure you want to hear all of this? It doesn’t mean anything except to me, and you’re probably gonna think I’m nuts…

OK, well then, maybe we can break it up over a few sessions, sound good?

Where shall I start, I guess at the very beginning, right?”

ID726045 copyright Dragen Cvetanovic|Dreamstime.com

Curious about the Elemental Families? Click on these two links for diagrams outlining the hierarchies. Which one do you want to hear most about?

elven-elemental-families-1Download
human-elemental-families-2Download

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What kind of world would you want to be transported to? Comment your answer below!

Photos by form PxHere, unless otherwise attributed.

#SundaySpotlight: A New Journey Begins…

aimeredleaf, The Narrative Gardener Leave a comment

The Great Collection of Huphaea, anid 1830 told by Eleanorah Starr

I have time to tell my story, if you have time to listen…

It seems like some Entity flipped a switch and the world went haywire, doesn’t it? Being an introvert, I am well-practiced at working from home, and just plain being alone most of the day, so the #socialdistancing and #physicaldistancing isn’t taking a toll on me. It’s when I actually DO have to venture out and gather supplies, and therefore interact with the masses, that takes the toll. Once I step into the space of a hive mindset, I am finding it incredibly difficult not to succumb to the panic, even with a list to stick to. Then I get home and lose my sh*#.

It just makes me think more and more about the story I am slowly starting to write. About going to another world completely. How cool that would be right about now?

I have done an awful lot of worldbuilding over the last year, preparing to write a first draft. At a certain point I realized I had so much backstory to do with my world that it was going to be impossible to fit it into the series without potentially boring readers to death. (Personally I love that stuff, but I get that it’s not really cool. And of course, ‘minimize the exposition’ is generally the rule.) Some of it I can work in artfully, but much of it, no.

About that time, I stumbled upon a couple of fellow bloggers who were taking a different approach to storytelling- telling their tales, introducing their characters and worlds post-by-post. This really got me thinking, and so I have to credit The Storyteller at Brother’s Campfire and Charles Yallowicz at Legends of Windemere for planting the seed of this idea. Follow the links to their blogs if you are curious about their sagas- dark fantasy and paranormal with vampires, respectively.

Starting this coming week, Eleanorah Starr will be ‘guesting’ here on Thursdays, telling her tale about the world of Ereth; an alternate world to Earth that she literally stumbled into. She hopes to be by weekly, but more likely it will be every other week. Some installments may include maps, and some may have audio recordings of her storytelling. Ereth is a world filled with magic, dragons, elves, humans, and Sentient animals, especially the continent of Huphaea, where she spent her time. You will hear about and get to know the thirty-six Elemental Families of Huphaea, and the land itself as Eleanorah relates her journey on the Great Collection of the Elemental Families, anid 1830. #CollectionofHuphaea will hold the chronicles, along with this blog.

If you’d like to be notified of when Eleanorah posts, you can follow this link to subscribe to the newsletter, or follow this blog. She has told me that she plans to offer some bonus content to her newsletter subscribers as well, all leading in the future to the novel about Huphaea and the triad of individuals responsible for its balance. If her story is half as compelling as it seems, we will all be looking for portals to Ereth! Come on, join the adventure!

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