The working title of my urban fantasy is the translation of a Gaelic proverb, Is ann air a’ bheagan a dh’aithnichear am móran. The initial edit is done and now I turn the project over to my editor with her big red pen.
Set in Esquimalt, British Columbia in present day, Jennifer MacGregor, heartsick and devastated over the loss of her father and brother in a car accident two years before, fled to a small hilltop in the middle of the township with a handful of pills stolen from her estranged mother. After taking the pills in a desperate effort to end her suffering she is brought back from the enfolding darkness by a most unlikely creature; a Ghille Dubh. “He placed a hand on the deeply lacerated rock; heard the soft, distant memory of the ice from 10,000 years before. “Till this stone has been crumbled away. Till the streams cease to flow from the mountains, Till this tree with old age shall decay. And drought dries from the hills all the fountains.” The grass and Deer ferns waved in the breeze then suddenly the soft, laboured breathing of the girl faded into quiet, deep inhalations. A smile formed on her face. “Wake up,” the creature said as it sat back on the stone. “Time tae come back.” Another quote, as the Ghille Dubh named Aeonghus can also take the form of an Irish Wolfhound. “Sitting off to the right upon a low hump of mossy rock amongst a brood of low lying Deer fern that waved in the soft south-easterly breeze was a dog. It was no ordinary dog that brought Jennifer up short and caused her to stare, however. It was a massive creature; its black wiry hair greying and its powerful body stooped with age, its enormous teeth exposed as it gazed upon her panting in the warm afternoon. She recognized the breed – an Irish wolfhound; an imposing and frightening creature that might have terrified her with its prodigious size and intense gaze upon her had she not had a faint feeling of placidity come over her as she and the creature gazed upon each other. The feeling persisted, maybe even strengthened, and the burdens of the day began to fall away. An odd tranquility rose within her and the strangulating fears vanished to be replaced with an exceptional euphoria. She felt, if only for a moment, a smile form on her lips as she and the dog continued to look upon each other. For a few more moments the curious connection endured then the animal rose stiffly to its feet, turned, and cast a final glance at her before disappearing into the shadows of the twisted Garry oaks.”
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