Wolf & Moon ...

My first attempt at a YA fantasy novel ...

 "Open the door." Laird Owyn ordered his soldiers as Deien Rowles the Learned, lifted one of the brands from the fire, the tip glowing almost white in the dark night.

"And we shall see what this creature has to say." Rowles smiled as he stared at the bright brand.

As the door swung open and the torchlight lit the inside of the gaol, ou saw the Faie.  It was a girl, ou guessed by the length of her hair and her filthy woolen robe.  She was a tiny thing, kneeling, hunched over, wrists manacled and held by heavy chains fixed to the floor.  Her feet and hands were filthy, her hair a tangled cobweb laced with dead leaves and twigs.

As Flaiđ stepped around a soldier to get a better look at her, ou saw her face in profile, her features delicate, her nose slightly upturned at its tip, freckles across her cheeks and forehead.

In all, the sight of her made Flaiđ want to cry.  She was defenceless and alone, surrounded by men who were about to torture her for what she knew.

"She's beautiful." Flaiđ whispered, feeling an ache in ou's chest that this child of the forest was about to suffer before ou's eyes.  She turned her head at his voice and looked up at ou and Flaiđ felt a chill when ou saw the flames reflected from within her emerald eyes.

Flaiđ knew something was wrong and was already stepping back when the manacles dropped from her wrists and ou was already turning to run when she sprang and the screams began.

Not her screams; these were the screams of the soldiers and ultimately Laird Owyn and Rowels himself that chased Flaiđ across the bailey toward their waggon.  But Merryman Andrú had heard the screams as well and was whipping their horses toward the open gate, scattering the soldiers that had just arrived and those about to depart.

"Merryman Andrú!"  Merryman!" Flaiđ called to him, "Don't leave me!  Don't leave your faithful Flaiđ!"

Aaron D McClelland

Penticton, BC

Author's Website

In 1789, William H. Marshall recorded the existence of a dialectal English epicene pronoun, singular ou : "'Ou will' expresses either he will, she will, or it will". Marshall traced ou to 14th century Middle English epicene a; having characteristics typical of the other sex.