Souls of the Wee Folks [pic2016]

I had never considered or contemplated whether I was redeemed in Christ. I was christened and baptized in my youth and have been attending Mass now, every Sunday for years. My brother, being a priest had absolved me of my sins through the sacrament of confessions over the years and I have faith that when my lord and savoir arrives, I will stand firm in my salvation.

It was a fateful day when I would have to come to terms with a particular order of God's creations, that would have my faith shattered... with myself left to pick up the broken pieces and try as I might to put everything back together again.

I was running late that grey Autumn day as I walked through the woods having taken a shortcut that I hadn't taken in years. I looked upwards at the spindly, barren trees and contemplated the quiet, empty feeling welling up inside of me. Mere moments had past, when I looked downwards and not three feet in front of me, I had been taken aback by the littlest man I had ever seen with a very curious look upon his face.

"Hello there.'' I spoke, ''May I help you with something?''

The little man, no more than two and a half feet tall, wearing a red hat, green pants and a brown vest and boots, spoke as his expression softened to that of a king bestowing kindness by the act of mere acknowledgment. '' Yes, you may be of service. As I have a question for you and your kind. I am known as one of the Kind Folks or Good People and we would like to know, Is there salvation for my kind in the return of Jesus Christ?''

Having little to no experience with any personal encounters with the wee ones, I could only answer, ''I don't see why not, but you would do well in asking a priest this question and I'm on my way to church this very moment. Why don't you come along with me and I will personally introduce you to the priest there, as he is my brother.''

In answer, the little man practically spat the words out, ''I will not attend, but you can have your brother meet me here tomorrow at the same time as now, when the sun is just on the horizon and it is still twilight.'' It was more of a command, than a request from the little man.

I looked away for mere seconds and the little man was gone. I hadn't slept well the previous night and felt a bit disorientated as to whether I had imagined things or not. I made my way to church and arrived surprisingly on time and this made me question myself even more as to whether I had spoken to a little man or not as I was sure so much time had passed during my encounter that would have made me late.

After the service, I told my brother about my daydream through the woods and to my surprise, he became vehement in his speaking to me, ''Never take that shortcut again! What you are dealing with is a dangerous path! Surely what you had encountered in the woods was not a daydream, but an evil being capable of great curses and a baby thief! Our father has told me horrible stories of the supposed Kind Ones and you would be safe staying well away from them."

The next week, I was running late yet again and in my foggy state of mind from another night of poor sleep, I decided to take the shortcut through the woods once more. This time, I came across another little being, this one surely female as she wore a little beige dress and a brown apron with little black boots the size a four year old child could wear. She held in her hands, what appeared to be a round silver mirror. "My good husband has been very angered at this slight your brother the priest has given us and for this we send him a gift.'' She held out the mirror for me to grab.

"If your good husband feels he has been so wronged, then why give him a gift?'' I stood perplexed looking at the Little One.

"We still would like an answer from him, so please give him this mirror.'' She said as I took the mirror from her and looked into it while trying to wipe away a cobweb. I looked back to where the Little Woman was and she had vanished, it had seemed.

After Mass, I handed my brother the mirror, saying only, ''This is for you.''

My brother looked into the mirror and the horror upon his face in doing so, chilled me to my bones. I asked of him, ''What! What is it you see dear brother?''

"Me, my life.'' He said with a look of exhaustion and futility upon his face, my brother must have aged twenty or thirty years in a manner of seconds.

I was filled with fear as I asked him, ''what have I done!?''

"No, brother... it is what I have done.'' He said as he held onto the side of the churches threshold.

I took the mirror and looked upon it, only to see a simple reflection of myself and a cobweb that I could not seem to wipe away. I took the mirror and ran back to the place in the woods where I had met with the Little People and they were nowhere to be found. I sat down and waited until the sun was setting and by twilight, that evening, they both came along from behind me. At that very moment I had held up the mirror, to once more see what I could see and to my horror, was an image of what looked like the shells of several babies with the Little woman sweeping them into a closet. The image vanished and I could see the Little people were behind me in the mirror.

"What have you done to my brother! And what were you doing with those human like... what were they dolls? Or shells of babies!''

"Oh, what you had seen were no more than the shells of human babies we had traded for our own. We wish to see why humans are granted a soul with salvation and human babies always turn into a shell when we take them into the veil of our world. Their soul seems to be released when this happens and returns to an elemental nature... much as we do.''

"If you know already what happens to your own souls upon leaving your body... Why have you turned my brother into a tired old man? Please fix what you have done to him.'' I sat there on the ground begging the Wee Ones to make my brother well and youthful again.

"If your brother will tell us what we wish to hear, then he will be healed.'' The Little Man spoke and the two followed me to the church and waited at the edge of the woods until Mass was over and everybody in attendance had gone. They came into the church as far as the great statue of Saint Michael. When they looked upon the statue they became frozen with fear and then they turned to stone and crumbled into dust. My brother wheezed and hobbled his way to the pile of dust and swept it into a bag which he then took to the church garden and buried it. After putting two little wood crosses on the burial mound , he laid down to rest for all eternity.

We buried my brother in the next few days.
The burial site of the Wee Folk was left untouched and has grown wilder than the rest of the garden, with birds, bees and butterflies along with all manner of the woodland animals, visiting the two little crosses in great abundance.
The end

a reply to: peppycat

Your the best peppycat!
S/F

a reply to: Quantum12 I wouldn't say ''the best'' just the peppiest of all the peppycats.
Thanks for reading!

a reply to: peppycat

Ok its a great story and well written from you heart!

That was great Peppy!

a reply to: Night Star Thank you Night Star!😊

Hi Peppy!
Neat little story, and yet another totally different take on the images!
Well done you!... here - have a wee kitty treat! LOL


G

a reply to: Gordi The Drummer Thank you Gordi! The pictures were defiantly inspiring and thought provoking and it is fun to see everybody's take on them!

a reply to: peppycat

That was really good, I liked how you wove in some motifs from old fairtytales. Totally different from everyone else's (which is a good thing!) and completely unique.

It's great to see new writers entering these competitions, really exciting!

S&F

a reply to: beansidhe Thank you.😊 I wondered if anyone was familiar with the stories of fairies asking about redemption.

a reply to: peppycat

Folklore is one of my favourite subjects. Glad to meet another fan.

a reply to: beansidhe I have always loved fairies and gave away a book similar to the link below. I'm glad I found this because it has hundreds of the old stories. The link goes directly to the stories I found inspiration in for my story on this thread...I think you might like it,
www.pitt.edu...

a reply to: peppycat

I don't know how I missed this story!

Nice

a reply to: TNMockingbird Thank you!

a reply to: beansidhe I'm trying to think of this old story, you might know... it is European..just a hello.

a reply to: peppycat

Hey, that was a great little tale. I love pixies and elves and all that stuff. Out of all the entries in that competition, I liked yours the best. This was the first time I came across it.

S+F

Regards midicon.

a reply to: midicon thank you, it was a long time ago, but I had a good time writing it.

a reply to: peppycat

Hey there, just got your reply, apologies for the delay. What's the story, how does it go?

a reply to: beansidhe just missed your avatar, hoptvsea you, my tablet is so silly.
Thanks for reply. I'm good thanks for asking'.

a reply to: peppycat

Yep, I just wandered off for a while.
Good to see you too, I'm looking forwards to the next writing contest.