The Child of Feiradyr Series: Episode 1 – Awakening

I’ve always been fascinated by stories about the otherworldly strength of mothers. While I have no current interest in being one myself, tales of mothers lifting vehicles off of their children, or fighting off wild animals, or all other manner of impossible strength are as incredible as they are surreal.

Hysterical strength, they call it.

Whatever you personally believe is the cause, whether God or universe or adrenaline, I call it magic.

“The Incredible Hulk,” a TV show that ran from 1977 to 1982 depicted a woman explaining to Banner that through a burst of hysterical strength, she was able to lift her car off of her son after an accident, saving his life. I can still hear her voice, and I remember being a little girl staring wide-eyed at the screen every time my dad rewatched the series, which was a lot, because he is a habitual rewatcher of all media he enjoys.

I suppose I never knew on a conscious level how big of a role this type of thing would play in the creation of my world. The hysterical strength of a mother pushed to the brink. And yet the concept pervades the entirety of it, rippling like a disturbance far out in the sea, and crashing to land with all the power and force of a hurricane.

In this series you will read the tale of my world’s creation. I’m finally ready to share, and I can only hope to craft words into a tapestry on the page you can understand and see the way I do when I close my eyes.

So settle in, newborn child of Feiradyr, with your newest lungful of oxygen still fresh and flowing through your body, and hear a tale of the true power of a mother’s love.

Chapter 1: The Awakening

In the beginning, there was only a vast blanket of cold darkness, floating as a singular mass in the void.

A flash, like the blink of a great eye, lit up the inky black.

The Stallarins, great beings, fields of stars and planets and chunks of rock, awoke, as if from a great sleep.

Stallarins are beings of light and darkness, opposite ends of the great spectrum of life.

The Stallarins disagreed on their purpose for awakening, and split themselves into two distinct groups. The first were the Sun Stallarins. The other, Moon Stallarins.

While both groups were in agreement they were meant to somehow usher life into their quiet universe that was holding its breath around them, they could not agree on their methods.

The Sun Stallarins were brash and loud, and believed order, logic, and strict control were the key to life. Their desire for a direct approach in dealing with their future children, and control over their actions ruled their belief system.

The Moon Stallarins, quiet pacifists who were firm in their ideologies, believed allowing life to flourish and flow in its own unique way without interference was the key to its success.

The two groups held a great negotiation to discuss their views and reach a mutual understanding.

But disaster ensued.

During the debate, chaos erupted, and the mighty Stallarins entered an all out war, propelled by their polarizing ideals.

At this tragic battle’s end, only five Sun Stallarins survived, and a single Moon Stallarin.

A Sun Stallarin who had abstained from the battle and convinced his other four companions to do the same named Draxu was able to save the Moon Stallarin. Her name was Freigeye. Draxu’s companions were named Cormag, Feg, Rangor, and Algor.

Lady Freigeye watched Draxu from afar, and his protection and treatment of her caused her to feel something entirely new.

It was then the Stallarins discovered that only through love, and the merging of darkness and light, could life be created.

Draxu and Lady Freigeye fell in love, and welcomed their first child. This was the planet Draknass; a quaint, spherical blank canvas onto which the first ever Mother Stallarin could paint life.

She placed her ethereal fingers in the crust of the planet, and made great craters in its surface which she filled with her blood. She called it “the Living Liquid” and created streams and rivers to hold it. She molded hills and mountains and valleys like a potter with clay, and with a kiss they flooded with green grass and thick forests of trees. As she worked, she salted some of the water with her perspiration. She worked for days without speaking, and when she finally did, she said

“Behold Draknass, a fitting home for my future children to live.”