When I put on my abuelo’s curandero headdress, I remember all he taught me and I become the curandero. His totem was the snake, symbol of death and rebirth. I have his serpent-entwined staff and have made the snake my totem also. Since I’ve been living among the Anglos, I have seen a dry time worse […]
I’ve always known I was different. I could see things other children could not and I instinctively knew things they didn’t know. I could predict events before they happened – like the arrival of visitors or the exact moment a foal would be born. Later, I found that if I concentrated, I could move objects […]
The beauty of the mountains has shaped Anna Fields’ childhood. The summer she turns 16, severe drought threatens her family’s home. Although Appalachia is poor in many ways, water flowing deep in the earth’s core bubbles to the surface in the springs, creeks and rivers. The mountain ridges and remote hill country of West Virginia […]
I’ve looked at this patch of dirt, these rivers, and these mountain ridges all my life. I was born here in 1838. Then, we had an abundance of water, which flowed down creeks and rivers to the sea. I was here when two great armies clashed in civil war and my farm was part of […]
I’ve never been as firmly attached to this world as Dan. He’s got a wife, a child, a farm and a business – all the things I thought were not important to me. Half of his land should rightly be mine; half of his wealth should rightly be mine. He stole these things from me. […]
I’ve fallen into a world I have a lotta trouble understanding. I survived two tours in the desert war, so I sure as hell should be able to deal with the witchy goings-on in these here hills. I was born and raised not ten miles from the Fields’ farm, so I understand Dan. He was […]
We have been ravaged by raiders for centuries. First, they took our animal furs and our timber. Then, they took our coal and our sand. Now, they’re stealing our water. My family must act. I remember this land when the Indians lived here and panthers roamed the high ridges. Though I now dwell in the […]
When I first met Dan Fields that cold night eighteen years ago, I read his palm and knew he’d traveled from the past and would have an amazing future. I also saw great turmoil confronting him. His young daughter, Anna, has now become my apprentice and I can already see that her powers, though undeveloped, […]
I’ve never had much interest in befriending mortals, although I move among them freely. I can mimic their ways and imitate their speech, so I blend in. I’m always looking for a way they can be useful to me, and I always find one. To the Fey, time is fluid, a concept difficult for mortals […]
I have spent several hundred years avoiding humans, but they are damaging our mountain and creating havoc. The water thefts have only intensified my belief that most humans are unscrupulous and greedy. They have no respect for nature or the laws of the universe. Exceptions are the descendants of the Wise Woman, Anna Mae Fields. […]
