Copyright All Images © Jeffrey Coulson 2016 Alll rights reserved.
All Stories © Sue Coulson 2016 All rights reserved.
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The Shroom of the Frejrey Family
At the exact opposite end of the village to where the twins live stands the Shroom of the Frejrey family. A house full of happy family noise and laughter. Kol and Kravina have spent seventeen happy years together since seeking the village elder’s approval to marry. Their original Shroom had been a single purple topped growth with just enough room to accommodate the two young lovers. But as the family grew so did the Shroom and now with four offspring to shelter the Shroom produced two further growths to allow the family room to breathe. Kol is a serious individual, always a deep thinker who can generally be seen wandering about the village with his nose in a book, totally oblivious to the world around him. But his calm, steady manner meant that he was an ideal mate for Kravina. He is a tall gangly chap with a shock of blonde hair which stands up around his head like a halo. He has a mild blue gaze which never quite seems to focus on the person he is talking to, but somehow seems to see just beyond them. Often he will nod and smile enigmatically to someone that most definitely is not there, or perhaps, as the Mogwar twins once stated, ‘he communicates with ones aura’. A quite unsettling experience for most people as in conversation you frequently turn to look behind you to see who Kol is talking to.
In contrast Kravina is as the lion to the lamb. Before settling down with Kol she could be found running almost wild around the village; her parents despaired of ever taming her. She was a good and dutiful daughter – when she remembered she had a home. But Kravina was a free spirit; she preferred the feel of the wind in her hair and the rain on her face. She loved to roam the forest surrounding the village, venturing far and wide, marvelling in the world around her. Although she only once went to the seers’ forest home, returning subdued and quiet. One of the few times she remained at home for more than a few hours. Often the villagers would shake their heads, tut tutting about the wild child amongst them. Kravina is a compact bundle of energy; even now with four children of her own she is never idle. She has short, cropped hair the colour of midnight with eyes to match. The top of her head just barely reaches Kol’s shoulder but she is the only person who he truly looks at.Many were surprised when they started courting each other. Most gave the relationship a week at most; the serious Kol would never stand for Kravina’s flighty ways. But somehow the two found some middle ground; the one being a perfect balance for the other. Kol ventured further afield than the local library and Kravina spent time getting to know her family and the rest of the village. Within a year they were married and exactly a year later their first child was born.
Their first born was a boy whom they named Drakarn. He grew to be almost as tall as his father by the time he was fifteen and although he had his father’s wiry build he had hair as black as his mother’s with ebony eyes that had the same ability to see through those with whom he spoke. He too was a scholarly lad but occasionally he would walk on the wild side and be gone for a day or two; exploring the woods as his mother did years before.
Two years later along came Jarice. A bright, bubbly girl child with a head of blond curls just like her father with eyes as blue as cornflowers. From the moment she could walk she wanted to be out in the sun and rain, finding injured creatures and bringing them home. Caring for these wounded denizens and nursing them back to health. Often she would go missing after a storm had swept through the forest returning as the light faded with several sorry specimens. At times when a storm was raging she would plead with her parent to let her go and look for these creatures but they knew the dangers of wandering through the forest in the midst of a storm. But the second the skies cleared she would be gone. How she managed to leave the family home at times was a total mystery. At thirteen years of age she was now the one the villagers tut tutted over and the phrase ‘just like her mother’ could be heard ringing around the village.
Another two years on and the twins were born. The boy Andras, the mirror image of his father, the girl Alene, a duplicate of her mother. From an early age the twins spoke little. They were capable of speech but rarely used any verbal form of communication; especially when talking to each other. They would answer politely when spoken to but neither needed more than a look or a gesture when ‘speaking’ to the other. They formed strong bonds with the dragons which frequented the village and the surrounding forests, standing faces raised to the skies, eyes closed, communing silently as the dragon soared above the village. Often they knew when a dragon approached hours before sight or sound was heard of them. Many of the villagers said that the twins were half dragon, the way they moved; gliding silently along, looking almost at times as if they would leap into the air and soar on invisible wings. On bright days if you looked quickly enough as the twins came out of the forest you would see that their shadows did not belong to the children, but had a distinctly dragonish cast.
Their home was a happy one, the shroom was brightly coloured showing its happiness with the family within in a bright display of colour the reds and greens contrasting with the purple and yellow main stem of the original home. Expanding as the need arose, as the family grew. First a single storey to accommodate the nursery and then moving upward as the family expanded and needed more space, putting in many windows as the shroom knew how much the family loved the outdoors and wanted them to be able to see it even if they were stuck indoors during stormy weather.
