Upstream, downstream

Talena has a secret. No, not that she was powder coated glossy. That's not a secret, a disappointment but not a secret. I specifically requested a low gloss. Funny how that happens. You would think that if you specify something "this" not "that" that you would have at least a fifty percent chance that it will turn out the way you want it. And given that you specifically requested it one of the two ways that it would weight the odds in favor of the way you want it.

***

But I have found in some things it actually takes an extraordinary effort to make it go the way you want it. Kind of like rowing a boat up stream. If you don't do anything, you go down stream; if you do a little, you go down stream; if you do a lot but not enough, you go downstream. Only if you take extraordinary measures do you go upstream. The trick is knowing which way the stream is going.

***

I did not know that glossy was downstream. I should have guessed, I suppose. When I said "flat" I got "the look" - the one that says "trust me, that is not what you want, in your heart". So I should have made the extraordinary effort right then. I did on the second batch. I put the sample with the powder coat coding on it right in with the faes. It may have been just enough but it did work and the other 7 faes are not ultra shiny.

***

So Talena has a secret. Or more accurately, there is a secret surrounding Talena. And although it is not her past, her past does have something to do with her it. Talena is an American Fae, that is: a native American Fae. She - or the model that posed for her iron likeness - remembers when this land supported the Ute people.

***

The Uto-Aztecian gave her the name Talena which, at the time, in their language means watcher. They counted on her to look over the plains and let them know if warring tribes were coming or bad storms loomed just over the hills. They rarely saw her, instead they would enter into a trance and she would warn them by giving them visions of what she saw.

***

But that is not the secret. The secret will be divulged when I talk about her real perch.