( as always with my stories, please feel free to share, print, email or copy this story,

all I ask is that this story doesn't make money, Poet )

"grandpapa", the childs voice floated throught the house, " grandpapa, grand mama wants you to come in for supper, grandpapa ", old joe smiled and tapped his worn briarwood pip against the bottom of his boot, the aromatic ashs falling down to land on the clapboard porch at joes feet.

The childs voice called again, coming closer and closer as she wandered down the long hallway to the front porch, then with a burst of energy, she flew through the door and glided around the porch to joes feet, " grandpapa, are you smoking that swampweed again"?

well, joe couldn't help but smile as his granddaughter echoed the words of his beloved wife

swamp weed, indeed, joe had sucked happily on the end of his pipe, filled with his favourite bourbon rum soaked homegrown tobacco for the best part of 35 years now, and not once in that time had his wife called it anything but plain old swampweed.

well, now young whippersnapper, jus' one day soon, ya grandmama is gonna wander down here and take up ma pipe and then shes goona stop calling ma 'baccy' swampweed.

danielle giggled cheekily, " grandmama said the day that happens is the day she takes up cleaning the stove pipe with her mouth ".

well now, that got dani tickled with tender fingers as she was swept up in strong arms and carried, kicking and giggling hysterically, through the old wooden house to the kitchen where grandmama jenny was busy putting the final touchs of grated cheese to the cottage pie that joe and dani had developed a very fond liking for.

"now, I reckon that I can hear the noisest, most misbehaved kid in the whole of bushwhacker county " she said as the cottage pie made its way to the old oak table in the centre of the kitchen, dani went silent as grandmama looked at her and winked one eye in time with a sly grin, " and you would think that that kid would know about not making too much noise in the house", the emphasis grew in the last few words as jenny wrapped her arms around dani, "but", as dani giggled again, " no matter" jenny said slowly and clearly " how much you tell them, your grandpapa always makes too much noise in the house" each word spoke with a pause to emphasis the words, dani dissolved in a heap of hysterically laughing long sunbleached blonde hair and cheeky sparkled blue eyes.

later that night as grandmama and grandpapa were tucked dani into her bed, the eyes sparkled again, " may I have a story tonight, please "?, jenny looked down at dani nestled snugly under the eiderdown covering, her hair spraying out across the soft pink pillows like a halo, " mmmmm, well, dani, I reckon while grandpapa is sitting outside smoking his swampweed.........," the last two words spoken in perfect unision by dani and jenny both.

granpapa joe smiled and said "well, in that case, I will sit outside with my pipe and tell the stars how a poor old man can not even give the most beautiful dream angel in the world a hug and kiss good night".

outstretched arms and pleading eyes beckoned to joe as he smiled and said," well now, I reckon that I am just gonna have to give that dream angel the biggest hug a old man can give", and with that, he leaned into dani's arms and let her hug him tightly, "mmm, I hink I am going to have to start calling somebody my little grizzly bear dream on account of she hugs me better than a bear does".

jenny gave joe a hug as he stood up, " you go smoke your pipe, old man, while me and little dream angel play with the angels of light".

jenny turned down the oil lantern til the shadows drew in close and cast patterns upon the walls, "grandmama, what is a dream angel, grandmama?", " well, dani, I remember something my grandama taught me about dream angels".

jenny paused for a moment, brushing a few stray grey hairs back with her hand, " my grandmama was a wiccan and she knew of the angel folk and how they would play with the children and help the mum's and dad's of the world at bed time and the dream angels would sit on the bed and sprinkle dream dust on children so that the children would have the most special dreams and sleep really well at night".

"and one story she told me was about a special dream angel called dani..........."

jenny watched as dani's eyes closed and her breathing grew slowly, drew into the waiting arms of sleep and dreams.

dani felt her wings stretch and open as she rose up from her bed of coloured rose petals, the velvet soft petals caught up in her hair and stuck to her arms and legs, "come on sleepy head", came a chorus of mixed voices as dani's friends stood waiting for her, Tawni, the grumpy old lion and alexis the centaur, paddy the raccon and surefoot the winged pegasus.

more figures flew madily around her, the smaller, fleet fairy folk, winged mischief makers of the forest, while over head the summer blue sky swirled with colours galore as the rainbow sprites played games with sunlight sprites, causing the sky to come alive and danced with burst of shades of pinks, reds blues and greens.

all through the land, came the calls of hurry hurry, spirit is coming to play.

dani shook herself awake, disappearing in a shower of rose petals and dream dust, much to the amusement of her friends, "spirit is coming to play with us"?, her questioning eyes looking around in disbelief, "yes, sleepy head, the goddess herself is coming", tawni grumbled and "you are sleeping like a bear in winter and snoring like a tent of of miners too"

dani hugged tawni warmly and gave his big yellow nose a kiss, smiling as tawni grumbled about how dream dust made him sneeze badly, tho nobody had ever knew tawni to sneeze in his life.

alexis reached down and caught dani up in her arms, placing her on her broad horses dark brown back, as dani threw her arms around alexis human waist, her friend since dani's first memory, then they were off, racing madly through the grass and flowers, streaks of blues, whits pinks and yellows sped by, alexis and dani ran beside spirites and fairies, spiritual animals and beings of all shapes and sizes, from sparrows and fantails up to the greatest rocs with their 60 foot wing span, pegasus ran beside panthers and tigers, centaurs racing crazily along with wolverines, and up the streams and rivers came mermen and women

swiming with sharks and dolphins, all heading toward the magickal clearing where spirit and most of the other gods and goddess would rest from the duties of eternal life, even the demi goddesses and gods would come from time to time to rest and talk with the dream folk.

galloping over burrows and mounds, dodging branches and and bushes, tawni and alexis evenly kept pace, not needing to pause for breath for dream folk were not like human folk who needed to rest after too much of a long run or too much exercise.

then, with a final leap, alexis cleared a low lying bush and landed in the edge of a clearing, although it was hard to call it a clearing with all the dream folk already there and many more coming forth by the moment.

they slowed to a canter then pulled up near a group of mist creatures, that didn't truely have a shape but swirled softly in a constant state of motion as a wandering breeze crept into the clearing and weaved its merry little way around legs and arms, hugging and tickling as it made its way thru the crowd of mingling dream folk.

dani looked around the clearing, " where's spirit"? dani asked quietly of her friends as she searched for a sign of the goddess of all.

"hush" a tree dryad whispered, "spirit is here, little dani", " where, I cannot see her " dani replied in frustration, " you can the dryad replied, but you are looking for spirit, spirit is here alright, dani, don't look for spirit, see spirit as spirit is, for you hun"

dani knitted her eyebrows in confusion, don't look?...... see spirit ?........... see spirit as spirit is for me?................., the dryad nodded, "see spirit as spirit is to you, little angel......"

dani stopped and shut her eyes tightly, " I see spirit as...................................

dani's mum looked as the puzzled look disappeared from dani's sleeping face and was replaced with a look of peaceful delight.

stroking dani's hair as dani awoke, kalian smiled at the energy playing across her face, "good morning, honey", kalian smiled, "did you sleep well"?, dani groggily nodded as she rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes.

"mummy, I had a nice supper with grandmama and grandpapa last night", how are they"?, kalian asked as dani's father stood by the door listening and shaking his head.

dani told her mother all about grandpapa's swampweed and how grandmama made cottage pie, as kalian sat on the side of the bed, playing with her wiccan pentacle necklace

dani's father shook his head again and left the room quietly, thinking to himself, "what a imagination, dani's never met her grand parents, they died 6 years before she was born and as for seeing them??? dani had been blind from birth, she had never even seen the sun.

kalian smiled as dani told her all about the dream folk and meeting spirit,

you see, dream folk are all around us, the blind see them, why can't you??????????????

hugs ya and loves ya poet