Some interesting information: Originally Elves are between 5 and 7 ft. tall, they were thin, strong, flexible, and quick. Their hair was usually red, blond, white, or light brown, and they have cat-like ears. Their cat-like eyes are green, blue, silver, or gold with slitted pupils.

"The land of elves,
Where nobody gets old and godly and grave,
Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise,
Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue...
Land of heart's desire,
Where beauty has no ebb, decay nor flood
But joy is wisdom, time an endless song."

Journey: Magickal Being Gathering

I had a dream last night, a dream that seemed very real, both when I was dreaming and when I awoke in the morning.

The dream begins with me waking along a winding dirt road. The road is very worn and its boundaries are carefully outlined with large granite and crystal stones. At times I feel I know where I'm going along this road, and other times I feel I'm lost. At times, familiar nature signs here and there assure me that I know where I'm going, other times, the signs are completely unfamiliar, and once again, I feel totally lost.

Wandering and wondering around within the space between here and there, and how and then, I happen upon a magickal being dressed in a soft blue tunic, who seems especially intent on where she is going. Her elfin features are small and delicate, he hair light and long, and her eyes are a golden green color and slitted like a cat's. She is tall and thin. I beckon the elfin lady to stop a moment, and I ask her, "Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

Drawing her attention to me unfortunately also draws attention of her companion, a silver-furred wolf-like creature that immediately comes at me, snarling and barring its teeth. I step back slowly, and she calls the creature back with a brief hand signal. She looks at me with her golden eyes for a moment before speaking, "I'm on my way to the celebration of the magickal beings," she says.

With my curiosity aroused, I ask her if I might accompany her. She nods and I step in line with her, and we continue down the road. Her wolf-like companion stays at her side, barely tolerating me, while constantly sniffing and looking at our surroundings. The wolf hesitates now and again, but continues by his mistress's side.

A little further down the earthen road we encounter another magickal being. He is covered with brown hair. His face is dark brown, and shriveled with the lines of time. Each movement he makes seems to course another highway of wrinkles across his face, signaling where he's been in life. The old, wizened being stumbles and falls. I offer him my hand, and he lifts himself back to the road, and thanks me. As his hand touches mine, I feel a well of energy that stretches out past generations. I glimpse a knowledge that electrifies my very core and, at the same time, I feel a complete absolute peacefulness fill me. From the two polarities, I realize that the distance from one point in infinity to the next, from here to there, from now to then, is both an instant and eternity, depending upon my perspective and in what realm my awareness dwells.

We all travel together further down the rock-lined, earthen road. Soon we encounter magical beings of all shapes and sizes. Like ourselves, all of them are going to the magickal beings gathering. The closer we got to our destination, the more I feel the magickal energy of the elf filling the well of my soul with their ancient spiritual knowledge, wisdom that has been passed down even before the beginning of time.

I stop on the edge of the road for a moment to look at a giant sunflower in full bloom. Its golden petals stretch out to their fullest. A sweet scent catches the attention of my nose, and looking down I see the source is a mass of white honeysuckle blossoms that cover the ground just below the sunflower.

Bending down to better smell the sweet aroma of the flowers, my eyes move down the vine-like stalks of the honeysuckle, resting on the image of a small, bluish-green winged creature sitting on a leaf just below one of the fragrant blossoms. I smile, and the tiny faery sprite smiles back. For a moment I feel a connection with both the faery and the essence of honeysuckle. My being is suddenly fragrant and my inner beauty blossoms in that magickal moment.

The elfin lady, clad in the blue tunic, beckons me to her side, and once again I am moving along the path towards the magickal being celebration. I see a fabulously lush garden filled with flowers of every kind. The garden and its flowers grow in a circular formation around a giant rock altar, and there is a narrow earthen path that outlines both the garden and flower within it. The giant rock altar looms up out of the North point of the circular garden.

I feel myself swept up with the others as we all form a circle around the magickal garden, placing our feet on the narrow path and joining hands. On one side of me is an oakman with his red toadstool cap and read nose, and on the other side is a dwarf, a large rotund individual, who seems jovial and a little gruff all at the same time.

With joined hands, we form a giant ring around the garden. We dance clockwise around the garden, again, and again, careful to stay within the narrow path to avoid treading on the breathtaking flowers blooming all around us. With our intention combined, we send a cone of white light that moves across the land until it completely covers the entire planet, our solar system, and then the universe. As we send out the white light, we know that our Earth is sacred. She is our Mother in a very real way. As the light fills the land, I can feel the magick everywhere, in everything and everyone. For that moment and always, I am filled with the magick of the Mother Earth and the beings around me, with the magick of each moment, with the magick of the universe...

This chapter was mainly about how Iva became so powerful, even though she's considered a half-breed by full-blooded Elves. And Iva was only around 8 or 9 years old when all this happened.

Nekio-chan