To the Autumn Land

After many vicissitudes, the Tree Son and the Starwife are united, and they all frolic with the Godchild on Christmas day.

They then have the adventure of the pheasant and the fruit, aided by their children.

They then have the adventure of the donkey, the monkey, and the turkey cock, aided by their children.

After some time, the Tree Son began to long for home. He asked the golden pheasant how they could leave the clouds. The golden pheasant told him that where a thing had descended from the clouds, such as the pear tree they had first encountered him at, there was a a large golden circle left behind on the cloud that a traveler could use to descend also to the original location where the first descent had occurred. The Tree Son and Starwife did not wish to go back to the icy waste, and in any event they did not know where that cloud was. They asked their little group Foresight and Hear-and-Speak and Thingmaker and Lifter-Upper, and Friend, the babies, the golden pheasant, his two dove wives, the donkey, the monkey, the turkey cock and the bugle birds and the whole entourage, to keep their eyes opened. The bugle birds and the dove wives were the sort that flew, so it was no surprise when a few days later they had come to an endless cloud bank and one of the dove wives said she had seen not just one ring but four in the direction of the north star.

When they went that way they came to a cloud region with a number of wondrous items. Four of them had apparently gone to earth. Indeed, while they watched, a section of cloud that had condensed into something like a rosy winking cat suddenly came to life and dived through the cloud, leaving a spreading rippling ring of golden cloud behind it also

But which ring to descend?

The Tree Son was on fire to just pick one, but the Starwife advised against such a course. She suggested that a more orderly proceeding must be possible. When they had all cast their minds about for some way of discovering which ring to use, without discovering any answer, another baby cooed then somersaulted off his father, arriving on the ground as a full grown young man. He said

Father, Mother, brother’s tall.

I’ll hold his ankles, he’ll see all.

The young man then dangled his tall brother Lifter-Upper through one of the golden circles.

Still finding himself within the cloud, Lifter-Upper kicked and squirmed until his new brother pulled him back up from the golden circle. Lifter-Upper then hold on to Foresight by the ankles, the new brother then held on to Lifter-Upper by the ankles, and lowered them both into the golden circle. After a time, he pulled them up and they repeated the process at the next circle until all had been done..

Foresight reported that one led to a glacier with seals. One led to the icy plain very much like they one they’d left from. One led to a land of small hills and small swamps. One led to a promontory, or island, in the height of bright autumn.

They heard Foresight’s reports and named their newest grown son Work Together for Good.

After discussion, and with Foresight’s enthusiastic recommendation, the family and their friends in the main wished to go to the autumn land, which is what Tree Son decided to do. With no further fuss, they all bounded into the golden circle, sank through the cloud, and found themselves whisked by magic to the land below.

But were they stranded on an island, or safe on a promontory?

Thanks for reading.  My goal is to update these every day through Christmas until Twelfth Night.  I am currently behind but catching up.  .I will try to include  links so you can follow, but if not please  use the Christmas Fairytale tag at the end of this post.  You can also use the Merry Christmas page on the header bar above to find other writing that celebrates Christmas