The Art of Raven's Shire
A gallery of art inspired by the stories of Raven's Shire
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Raven's Shire Fairies Tales
Cunning has a child with the Hawthorn Tree
The Child of a Cunning and a Hawthorn Tree
Aileana
hefted a bucket of water into the house to explain her absence to the
twelve men she lived with as a simple visit to the well just after the
cock crowed a second time. In truth she’d been been in the forest all
night with the spirit of the Hawthorn Tree speaking of love and
learning the secrets of the cunning, the witches art.
The men were
already up and eating the breakfast the house fairy Aileana had
secretly called to do her chores for her had prepared for them. The
little house fairy was hiding now behind the hearth. He’d been the
first gift she’d received from the Hawthorn Tree. A few moments later
the men were heading out into the fields. Thinking she was alone at
last Aileana got ready to sleep so she could be up all night again with
the Hawthorn Tree when she heard a cough from the men’s bedroom. She
knocked on the door but instead of a voice she was greeted by a
horrible hacking sound.
“Hello?” Aileana whispered as she peeked
into the room to see her youngest brother hacking away, looking as grey
as the slate colored river and covered in sweat. Aileana sucked in her
breath as she recognized the plague which had nearly wiped out the
neighboring town.
She pressed a wet rag to his head and tended to
him through the day so by evening fall she was so exhausted she could
barely stand. But he only got worse wilting like a soft flower in the
hot sun. Aileana felt her heart sinking as she began to give into
dispiar when the the other men returned home coughing and grey, too ill
to eat anything they went straight to bed. Aileana worried they would
not wake again; so she rushed out to the the edge of the village, than
to the edge of the trees and into the forest until at last she
collapsed sobbing before the Hawthorn Tree.
“Why are you crying/” the Hawthorn Tree asked as he stroked her head.
“Those I live with are dying of the plague,” she told him with a sob.
“Don’t
be afraid,” the Hawthorn tree told her as he laid her head in his lap
and comforted her. “For I promised you many secrets, have given them
freely to you, and here’s another. Wrap a piece of fresh pork in my
leaves and soak it for an hour in a bucket of water with a few drops of
your blood. Feed this to anyone with this plague and they will be
healed.”
“Thank you,” Aileana told the fairy before she plucked twelve leaves from his branches.
As
the Hawthorn tree promised by morning the twelve men were well again
but the plague had already spread to the rest of the village so Aileana
spent another sleepless day healing the village.
At first the
village was grateful for Aileana’s powers. And all was well as spring
turned to summer the crops grew high and people asked the plants to
bless the sky so it would rain. When the leaves started to show red
Aileana smelled the scent of the ripening fruit which grew heavy on the
Hawthorn Tree’s branches and hungered for it. So she plucked the bright
red berries and devoured them and as she ate her stomach swelled.
Whispers
began to follow behind her as people wondered how she’d come to gain
the powers she suddenly had now that the crisis had passed. The leaves
began to fall from the trees and wonder turned to fear as people saw
her growing stomach and whispered of the devils she might bare forth
into their village. For surely it was not a human child that the
cunning witch carried.
The first snow was falling and Aileana was
vomiting when the twelve men she lived with returned home in a rush and
started packing.
The village is afraid of that which grows inside you the men told her, so we’re going to flee with you to find a new home.
Aileana,
however, wished to be alone with the child’s father so she thanked them
each in turn for their concern but fled to the Hawthorn Tree
alone and told him what was happening. To get her and their child
safely away from the village the Hawthorn Tree carried her deep into
the forest.
The snow fell thick in across the branches and the
animals came out of the mountains for the winter. In a grove of
muttering willows Aileana screamed and breathed as she gave birth to a
young hawthorn tree named Ddraenen Wen.
| Rumpelstiltskin and the Knight
Rumpelstiltskin and the Fox
Little Red Riding Hood
Discription of the Whispering Forest
The Forgotten and the Future Wicked Step Mother
The Hawthorn Tree Teaches a Girl
Rumpelstiltskin
The Girl Has a Child With the Tree
Fairies Bosom
Wood Wife and the Baker
Forest Kings
Bunnik
Forest King Spreads Illness
Forest King Goes Hunting
Saga of a Nix
The Sealkie
An Old Child |
