H is for Hercinia

        My theme for this year’s April A-Z Blog Challenge is fantastical creatures, celebrating my upcoming book, On the Virtues of Beasts of the Realms of Imagination, which will be released by the end of the year.  Please check out my Kickstarter Campaign for this project!  It's got all kinds of extra info, pictures, and other goodies, and I'm super excited about it.
Meanwhile, here’s a teaser about the hercinia from the book:

        “I myself when a traveller was once lost in a dark forest, seeing no way out of the tangle of shadows.  I despaired in the night, until I saw what looked like a very star fallen from the heavens to light the way.  It was a glittering bird, flying before me from branch to branch and dropping, as it went, feathers along the path.  When, thus guided, I finally reached the edge of the wildwood and wept with relief to see the light of dawn spreading across the broad, open hillside that led home, I turned to see the hercinia loose one last feather as a farewell gift, and flit away, a shooting star, back into the depths of the forest to guide another.  I have kept that feather always since then, and still it glows softly in the night to remind me of that hope.”

        You can check out this previous post that explains my process in designing and carving this piece.  The hercinia is sort of a superhero of the fantasy creature world, and we'll encounter a number of other creatures with useful superpowers as the alphabet progresses.
What useful power would you like to find in a magical creature?
And the alphabet of mythical creatures doesn’t stop there.  You can check out this link to read 

the entire post about Mythical Creatures of the Letter H.

[Picture: Feathers to Light the Way, rubber block print by AEGN, 2017 (sold out).]