I May End Up Liking It There

From Lira:

I read that on some internet site I visited last time we were in a place with net access. “Be careful how far you push me away: I may end up liking it there.”

Well, it’s been a weird year. My only travelling companion, and sometimes the only person I speak to for weeks on end, has been Uggla. Luckily, I can read (he can’t). Top hat and glasses notwithstanding, please understand that Uggla is a very dim bird. It’s a good thing he has predatory instincts; otherwise he’d probably try to catch fish in a pool table. But he’s my only friend, so I let him be, and at least he’s OK to talk to.

Seriously, Uggla’s best quality is he’s up for anything, no matter how stupid it is. So we do a lot of dancing like there’s no-one watch. Usually there isn’t. But I felt a pair of eyes on me, and we eventually stopped and turned to see a ginormous frog.

“Dinner?” Uggla asked.

“I suspect she would eat you instead,” I replied. We have similar conversations all the time.

“No claws. No beak. No wings. How’s she gonna catch me?”

I couldn’t argue with that. And then we saw the signs. Realm Markers. Realm portals.

“We’ve come back at last to the Great Faire,” I said. There would be folk I could talk to here.

“Looks quiet.”

“Well, it’s early in the morning,” I replied. “Everybody was probably up late dancing or something. They have a lot of parties at the Faire.”

“See that big airship over there?” I pointed. “They have a lot of parties on that ship.”

“Is there food?”

I just shook my head.

I turned away from the ship view. “If you’re so hungry, why don’t you go fishing?” I suggested. “I’m holding out for something nicer once we hit a Realm with a good pub.”

“Hate fish. You know that. Can’t stand fish. Forest here though. Might be moles.” And off he flew. Don’t get me wrong: I love him and his bark, his laugh, and his complete lack of decorum. But sometimes it’s nicer when he’s not around.

Fairelands Junction, I have been told, is a chameleon. She changes. Like a goddess, I think. She changes everything she touches, and everything she touches changes. Last Faire’s hulking stones are gone. The tangles of vines I remember are only that: a memory. Now I am in a mountainous land, with lush forest and the most beautiful lily pads.

The candles are here, though: they always are. They are lit for loved ones lost and remembered, lights for lights, I suppose. I have lost no-one, because I’ve not really had anyone. As a created creature, I knew only the Awenians who trained me and worked with me. And I’ve been away so long, I’m not sure they even remember me now. Years, now, it seems, I’ve been a nomad. No place to stack my books, or a place only for a little while, and the things you have to do to get by when you’re a nomad, well. I might have stolen some things.

Ooh, but here, as I climb further and further up, the mists clear and I can see the gaping entrance to what must be a fascinating cave system ahead.

I’m tempted to go in immediately, but then I think of my poor Owl, out there trying to find his dinner, and I know he’d never find me and never willingly enter a cave without my company.

It takes hours, but I climb back down into the misty forest, and I’m so tired. You know, I think I’ll just rest here, in this beautiful estuary. I don’t think the frog will do me any harm. Just a little rest. I’m sure Uggla will be along soon.

Notes & Credits:

Sponsored items are noted with a “*”

Dress and Bag: Una, Haley Dress, Haley Bag* (Get it at the Una Faire Store in Harmonious Glade!)
Uggla: Expertly portrayed by CKit Falconry‘s Magical Snowy Owl* (Get your own owl, and gear to match, at the CKit Falconry Faire Store in Harmonious Glade!)
Skin: EnLight, Mya, in tone Rosa* (Get it at the EnLight Faire Store in Lavendell!)
Tattoo: Miamai, China Bodypaint and Face Paint* (Get it at the Miamai Main Store!)
Nose Piercing: Miamai, Nene Piercing, Silvers (Get it at the Miamai Main Store!)
Lipstick: Miamai, LipStain EvoX Pale* (Get it at the Miamai Main Store!)
Hair: Raven Bell, Willow (Get it at the Raven Bell Faire Store in Gallery Gaillard!)
Glasses: Cubic Cherry, Gaia Glasses (These probably aren’t in their Faire Store, but you can visit Cubic Cherry’s Faire Store in Holi to see lots of other cool stuff!)
Boots: $NT, Twisted Boots, in Bark
Eyes: T’Ville, Starry Eyes, Biochrome 4
Bom Corset: Schadenfreude, Fluorite Tree Corset
Lira is styled on a MaitreyaX body and a Lelutka EvoX Raven Mesh Head.

Fairelands Junction is one of 18 regions in the 17th annual Relay For Life of Second Life’s Fantasy Faire. Sponsored by The Children of Stories & The Principality of Rosemont, designed by Saiyge Lotus.

Celebrating its seventeenth year, Fantasy Faire 2025 is the largest gathering of fantasy designers, enthusiasts, roleplayers and performers in the virtual world. From Thursday, April 17 to Sunday May 4, treat yourself to shopping, dance and theater performances, DJ parties, auctions, questing, our Literary Festival, thematic events and roleplaying as thousands of Second Life residents and creators bring their own visions together to support the American Cancer Society’s vision of a world without cancer.