lands imagined by eye and ear

By the roadside, a young mother stumbled trying to flee with both her boy and a basket of fresh billit eggs in arm. She saved her son from falling, but the eggs flew and cracked on the ground. Her trouble seemed to draw the three, who swooped in close to see.

She sensed them surround her and lifted her gaze from the broken yokes and bits of shell. They were faceless, empty eyed. Quaking, she clutched the child closer and screamed with all her soul. But the terror choked her voice to something squealing and weak. Their shaded shapes pressed closer at the sound and studied her.

Yet the little one was not afraid. He smiled at them.

At that they spun away, the three, with nodding hoods and a wild, unworldly laugh. Then they were gone, speeding eastward down the narrow, rutted road of dirt and stone to the common field.

There they circled a great ironwood tree and came to rest beneath it, on the ground, side by side…

~~~

The illuminated lore project is an ongoing collaboration of
photographer Michael Leacher
and Lore of the Underlings author John Klobucher