Rundimahair: A new hero for a new adventure by Larry Forkner (summer books .TXT) 📗

wars and acrimony amongst humans. Their goal continued to be the destruction of the Sidhe and domination over humans.

Eventually, Ashling’s dream followed the path of Orlagh’s ancestors, who were among Donal’s posterity. Orlagh was a direct descendent of Donal but had conflicted feelings about the darkness of her ancestor’s teachings.

As time passed, she chose to live among the humans. She had always been drawn to mankind and eventually met a good man, who was a leader among mankind.

They lived in the human world together as man and wife until he died at eighty-eight. Soon after, Orlagh was called home to be judged by the Creator of us all.

She had lived a good life, having rejected the teachings of her ancestor, Donal. Her descendants had great hope that she would be viewed kindly on her judgement day.

Among her descendants was a beautiful woman named Kerry. All her days, Kerry struggled to decide where she belonged. She lived among the humans, but the blood of her ancestor, Donal, called to her. Eventually, she chose another descendant of Donal as her husband, and they had three children.

Ultimately, her husband left her because of her reluctance to completely embrace the teachings of Donal. Her children would face the same struggle. Some chose to follow Faolan’s teachings, and others let the darkness of Donal’s example be their guiding star.

That battle between darkness and light raged in the heart of Sean’s mother, causing her much sorrow and pain. Although she had the blood of Donal and Faolan running through her veins, she eventually let the darkness destroy her life.

She abandoned her son, Sean, to the mortal world, and was never heard from again. Having mixed blood running through her veins eventually drove her mad. She took her own mortal life through a drug overdose in her thirty-sixth year. Her spiritual being lived on and returned home to the waiting arms of her Creator.

* * *

Ashling awoke early the next morning, feeling weary and sad. While she’d slept the night through, the troubling dream didn’t allow for a deep, refreshing sleep. She now had the answers to Sean’s family history, but she felt sorrow over his mother’s troubled life.

While she showered and dressed for the day, Ashling wondered how she could explain her dream and Sean’s mother’s sad life story. Even though Sean could guess that her history would not be a happy one, it would still be difficult to be faced with the truth. Anyway one tried to justify it, there was no way around the fact that his own mother had abandoned him.

Ashling told her Da about her dream, without going into too many details. They decided to invite Fergus to their home for lunch to discuss it further. After going over the basic history of Orlagh’s life, and her ancestors, they discussed their best course of action.

“It’s a great blessing to have among us a dear girl who has the gift of dream sight,” Fergus said, between bites of dessert. “If you throw in that she can also cook like the Creator’s own personal chef; well, it hardly seems fair to the rest of womankind,” he added with a charming grin.

“Aye, she’s got her sainted mother’s gift for creating heavenly culinary delights,” Eamon said.

“How is it you’ve maintained your boyish figure all these years, with this type of cookin’ in the house?” Fergus asked.

“I’m sure I don’t know, since I eat like a starving grizzly bear most of the time,” Eamon said with a smile.

“That he does,” Ashling said, as she touched her father’s hand. “The only man I’ve ever met who could eat like Da’ is Sean. He can put away a month’s worth of groceries in a single meal, so he can.”

“Now I’m two times jealous, since Sean is as fit as a fiddle too,” Fergus said.

“Look who’s talkin’,” Eamon said. “Yourself is as skinny as a lamppost.”

“Maybe so, but I must watch what I eat, to stay in fighting shape,” Fergus said, laughing.

I can see that is true,” Eamon said in a teasing tone. “You’ve kept a close eye on both of your helpings of my dear Ashling’s strawberry cheesecake, so you have.”

They all shared a laugh together, enjoying Eamon’s quick wit. When the laughter died down, Fergus said, “Thanks again for the very fine meal, dear Ashling. As much as it pains me to say so, I suppose we’ve put off talking about your amazing dream as long as we should. I know you’ve told us the basics of what you saw. Will you be kind enough now to give it to us in fine detail?”

Ashling nodded her agreement and proceeded to explain her fascinating dream in great detail. Both men listened carefully, only occasionally interrupting to request clarification. When she finished her story, all three of them sat back and sipped their tea.

“Tis a sad story to have to share with Sean,” Eamon finally said. “No young fellow should ever have to hear his own mother left him on someone’s doorstep, so to speak.”

Fergus nodded his head and said, “Aye, you’ve got the truth of it there. To know your dear mother took her mortal life must feel like the ultimate rejection. In the end, all we can take with us is our hard-earned experience, and the blessed family ties we’ve developed in this life. To have the bond with your own mother lost in this way is a terrible tragedy.”

“And poor Sean, with no other family ties at all,” Eamon said.

“Not completely accurate, Da,” Ashling said. “Bill and Eva Stanton may not have been his blood relatives, but they treated him more like their own flesh and blood son than many parents do the children born to them.”

“You’re truth telling there, Ashling,” Fergus said. “The mortal world of today has progressed with technology at an amazing pace. Why, it’s almost like magic to see what they can do with those miracle machines. Still and all, the family ties amongst the mortals have fallen into decay at