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Fun Hops IWSG

Ribbons and Candles #WEPFF Challenge featuring Tilly and The Arbol Tree #amwriting #flashfiction

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Tilly and The Arbol Tree

Lucy was the last Griffin to light the Arbol Tree and that was over a century ago. The Arbol tree has been good to the people of Meiland, with its aquatic borders and intimate population of five distinct tribes, each made of five ancient families. The Arbol Tree glows bright green throughout the year, taking only one night of rest. The light of the Arbol Tree warms and nurtures the soil, alternates and regulates the weather, and produces the Arbol Fruit. The Arbol’s red seeds, green leaves, pink flowers, yellow to orange fruit, and even its violet bark are used in all Meiland meals and because of this, the people remain youthful and spirited until they greet their long sleep.

On the day the Arbol Tree fizzles out and takes up rest, the Meiland people hold a splendid celebration. The Griffins have provided the silk ribbons for the festival for as long as anyone can remember. With infants dressed as round plump fruits, unpromised youth adorned with leaves, mated couples donning pink flowers over their hearts, and revered elders wrapped in violet shrouds, the entire island marches through streets draped with red ribbons and lit candles burning with white flames.

The Griffins had once been the highest respected family of the Textile tribe. When Lucy was given the honor to light the Arbol Tree, she had won over the Council of Favor by presenting each member with hand stitched silk scarves with detailed Arbol Trees embroidered from one end to the other. No matter the style in which the scarves were worn, the Arbol Tree was always front and center. All few remaining Council members from that time still donned their scarves while those who’ve greeted their long sleep have had them sealed in glass and put on display in their memory. Not since Lucy has any Tree Lighter, especially not a Griffin, impressed the Council of Favor as much or had such a lasting legacy.

Tilly, in her mind, was a lot like Lucy. She too was a silk-shaper, the youngest in history to take on the craft in a professional capacity. Unlike Lucy, Tilly did not yet have a grand plan or idea to win over the Council of Favor, but she was determined that she would light the Arbol Tree and restore the Griffin family to a place of honor. Tilly toyed with ideas such as silk hats decorated with Arbol fruits and sashes painted with Arbol flowers, but she knew these were ideas that had been done before by other members of her tribe. No; Tilly needed to come up with something new, something that had never been done before, and something that would depict the Arbol Tree in the best light throughout the year, and hopefully throughout time.

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The day of the Grand Celebration was a busy one. All five tribes gathered to show off their crafts and share meals and entertaining performances before settling down to meet with the Council of Favor just before midnight. Tilly spent most of her day wrapping ribbons around infant’s heads, unpromised’s wrists, mated’s lapels, and elder’s necks. This was the first year she didn’t join the other unpromised in circle dances or street chanting. No; Tilly wouldn’t celebrate too much. She was too busy keeping a close eye on her offering to the Council and storing up the courage to present it to them.

At the gathering of the Council, Tilly sat near the back, not yet ready to reveal her offering. She had not even proclaimed to her tribe she would be making an offering. The Griffins hadn’t presented an offering in twenty years and the Textile tribe had forgotten to present the previous year, too busy and consumed with making and preparing ribbons for the Grand Celebration.

The Planter tribe presented the Council with decorated packages of delicious rainbow grains with preparation instructions included. The Ore tribe brought smiles to the Council member’s faces when they presented ruby lapel pins carved to look like the Arbol seed. Tilly knew it would be difficult to top that. The Construct tribe presented golden door handles shaped like the Arbol Fruit and the Game tribe presented roasted Meiland; the elusive fish for which the island was named. Before the Council could gather to decide who to grant the honor too, Tilly stepped forward, dragging a large bundle behind her. She proclaimed that the Griffins of the Textile tribe would present an offering.

In a flurry, Tilly began to pull strips of silk, satin, lace, and more from her bundle, dancing around the gathered crowd, folding, bending, twisting, and stitching with fervor. The spectacle of the flying fabric and dancing colors delighted the crowd and brought cheery smiles to the faces of the Council members. When at last Tilly had completed her dance, before each member of the Council stood a miniature Arbol Tree with red seeds inlaid at the roots, a violet trunk supporting green leaves, pink flowers, and yellow fruit. Tilly received a standing ovation.

The Head Council Member stepped toward Tilly with a golden candle bearing the white flame and bid her blessings as she faced the Tree. Taking the candle in hand, Tilly approached the Tree and gazed up at its seemingly unending height before stepping through its thick dry branches and disappearing from sight. Moments later, the Arbol was ablaze, crackling and sparkling; slowly fading into an emerald glow.
~
FCA- 904-words- Tilly and The Arbol Tree 2018 Copyright © Toinette J. Thomas

Please visit other entries in this hop and enjoy some funny, scary, touching, and thought-provoking stories. You’ll be so glad you did.



Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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#BooktagsBloghop

#BooktagsBlogHop No. 4: The Woodcutter by Kate Danley #fantasy #YA

Booktagbloghop

The purpose of this blog hop is for readers and writers to share what they are reading, have read, are writing, or have written with others. This is not about promoting free or discounted books though some of those may be featured. This is about book lovers sharing what they love about books. This blog hop is about the Joy of Reading and the Joy of Writing with tags of your choosing and is hosted by me, Toi Thomas, the third Monday of the month. Learn more here.

This month’s optional theme is: New Year, birth, fresh start.

Excerpt from Chapter 78

The Grandmother and Red Riding Hood stopped at the base of a mighty oak tree whose gnarled roots ate the ground and whose grand trunk could only be surrounded if ten tall men stood hand in hand. There, the Grandmother and the child transferred the body to the earth.

They stood respectfully as the Woodcutter knelt at the side of his own being. A phantom tear slid down the Woodcutter’s cheek, and it fell, landing upon the earth.

The Woodcutter buried his face in his sleeves.

But where the tear touched, a small mushroom emerged, a mushroom of red with small dots of white on its cap. It stretched and yawned and shook off the dirt and then shrank back as another tear slid from the Woodcutter and landed wetly upon its head. It shook off the tear like a dog come in from the rain, and where the spray of the second tear landed, a second mushroom emerged, waking and shaking as another tear fell. Around and around the mushrooms grew, until the tears stopped and the Woodcutter looked up.

A circle of mushrooms gazed back at him from all sides, a circle of mushrooms grown into a complete faerie circle.

202 words from: The Wood Cutter © 2010 Kate Danley

My Thoughts

Before I get started with my spiel, let me first apologize. I took a bit of a digital cleanse in the last week or so and let a few things lapse. While I will continue this blog hop regardless of outside participation, I must admit that I didn’t promote this very much this month. I will rectify that for the next post and hopefully come up with a nice list of books to sample.

Now on to the book. I absolutely adored this book the first time a read it, which is probably why I felt the need to read it again. There are so many wonderful qualities to this story- a nice balance of the traditional mixed with twists and upgrades.

In this particular scene, there are several types of awakenings happening and beginning to happen. I won’t go into too much detail about the how and why because I don’t want to spoil it too much. In any case, in keeping with this month’s optional theme, I thought the “birth” or creation of mushroom circle was a perfect fit. I must also admit that when I first read this, the dancing mushroom scene, to the music of the Nutcracker, from Fantasia ran through my mind repeatedly. I felt like a child reading Peter Pan for the first time all over again.

So there, a bit of my perspective and a trip down memory lane. If you like fairytales, mythical lore, and fairy magic, please give the Woodcutter a try. Aside from being a wonderfully told story with amazing world building, it has a subtle and positive message to it.

Find this title at Amazon | Goodreads

What are you currently reading? I’d love to know.
Next blog hop post date will be February 15, 2016.

Be sure to hop around and see what others are reading so you may continue to pile onto your TBR list.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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Blessings

Count Your Blessings 22: Trees

blessings

Trees

I don’t think it’s necessary to mention why trees are so important, but I will just a bit. Trees help hold all the land in place, they give us clean air to breath, they offer us shade, can be as a source of food, can be used for fuel and building material, and more. Trees are an essential part of life on earth, but aside from all that, trees are beautiful. Even with my allergies I’ll take the natural shade of healthy, strong tree any day.

I’m blessed to live in a world where all the trees aren’t gone, yet. I hope I never live in world where- let me see; how does the song go? “They put all the trees in a tree museum, then they charged a dollar and a half to see them.” ~Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell

Some terms, when you hear them said so often, start to have negative meaning and “tree hugging hippy” is no different, but I understand it. Some people do go to unhealthy extremes, but I don’t see a problem with people wanting to preserve trees. Needless to say, I look forward to Arbor Day each year.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords