The Legend Of The Gates...

During a time that was not quite the past, and in a land somewhere between fantasy and fairytale, a legend unfolds...

The gates were always closed. Their elegant looping foliated scrolls were bound tightly by silver chains. The gates formed an impenetrable barrier and nobody dared to cross the threshold without permission. There were stories as to what awaited on the other side and as the centuries passed the stories became myths, and the myths became a legend, but still the gates remained steadfastly closed.

Until that day.

Where she was going and from whence she had came was of no consequence except that it directed her straight into the path of the gates. If asked why she had decided to walk that way instead of one of the hundred other paths open to her she would not have been able to give a sensible answer. The choice had not been a conscious one and it was almost as if fate had intervened with her feet to lead her towards mischief.

She knew, as every child before her knew, the legend of the gates. Imagine her surprise, therefore, when she found them unbound. The silver chains dangled decoratively, curling like sleeping serpents on the ground. The gates were tilted inwards creating an opening through which her body would fit perfectly. Fate had summoned her and she answered the call. Boldly she ventured over the threshold.

She found herself in a garden. It had perhaps once been beautiful but time and neglect had created an ugly and vicious looking paradise. Overgrown hedges were uneven and jagged, with stark and knurled branches clawing and clasping at one another. There was not a hint of the tender new green growth that prospered outside the gates. Instead it was as if the garden had been suspended in perpetual winter. A miasma of decay seemed to linger over every possibility of life.

These perceptions were not made all at once in an overwhelming rush. The garden revealed itself to her gradually. An intense fog coiled around the hedges and trees. As it drifted it disguised first this and then that with its opacity, before finally uncovering that and then this. The further into the garden she moved the thinner the fog became, until it was nothing but an emaciated vapour. In its place she found herself ever more dwarfed by the shadow of a great castle.

The turreted mountain of stones was blackened with age old dirt. It was fully encircled by the maze created by the unkempt garden and yet the avenue from the open gates led directly to the front door. She laid the palm of her hand flat against this door as if she expected the knotted wood to speak to her. She applied no force to gain admittance, rather her fingers curled defensively as uncertainty afflicted her.

She was unable to deny, however, that the gates had been open. This after all was tantamount to an invitation. As such she pushed against the solid oak and fell forward when the door swung suddenly and unresistingly open. The door was not imbued with magical properties, and the pair of polished boots was the visible sign that someone and not something had allowed her entry.

“Who the blazes are you?” The disembodied voice was a deep animal snarl that sounded foreign to her ears. After coming through the gates she had been isolated by preternatural silence and the abrupt question battered her senses like thunder. “Whoever you are, go away.” The voice snapping with irritation was accompanied by the grating of hinges as the door began to close. Fate, however, had not led her so far simply to abandon her at the doorway.

“The gates were open.” Her blurted words ceased the movement of the door.

“The gates are always closed.” The scornful reply was immediate, but the door began to cautiously open once more. The interior of the castle was entirely dark allowing her no means by which to distinguish the keeper of the door from the shadows. The shadows, however, were clearly able to see the gates. “Hmph.” The vocal grunt acknowledged with little grace or contrition that she had indeed been stating the truth. “Well I suppose you better come in then.”

Thus invited she stepped through to the other side.