A visitor's guide to the Babylon Wood.
"The Wood is a story, my darling, and we are stories, and this is a story, and we change as stories do. Sometimes, I am a woman dreaming of being a Fox, and sometimes I am a Fox who dreams of being a woman, or a white hare, or the moon, or a fairy tale told by an angel. Sometimes I am rosedust on the wind, until someone sings me back together..."
It has been pointed out that it's been a long time since I explained the Babylon Wood, and since the Wood can be a bit confusing -- the Wood confuses me from time to time, and that's not a good sign -- I should probably take a moment to do so again.
The Babylon Wood is a world made entirely of symbols, and is the place where a great deal of my poetry (and some of my songs) is set. It is a place of fairy tale logic, analogy and metaphor, and what is true there today may not be true there tomorrow. There are only a few things about it that are constant: that it is a forest. That it is bounded by the sea on at least one side, although it's sometimes more. That it is a difficult place to find. And that people can get lost there, and never find their way out again.
There are a lot of characters who exist in the Wood. Because it's a country made entirely of poetic symbols, sometimes they represent specific people, sometimes they represent ideas or ideals, and sometimes, they don't represent anything at all. Most of the time, I know what a given character means, but it can be confusing. People appear and disappear in the Wood. People I've known for years may never be represented; people I met ten minutes ago may be represented already.
Confused yet? Because I am.
The Rose-Owl is one of the representational masks of me, inside the Wood. When she appears as an individual, with capital letters and everything, she's usually my avatar. She has a lot of descriptions, but my favourite, right now, is probably 'the Rose-Owl is among the most changeable and the most changed, for she was a flower, once, when the world was fresh and young, and she was a woman, once, when all the chances and choices of her life were yet to be presented, and now she flies on wings that are red and white and pink as roses, and her claws are thorns, and her cries are music and mourning.'
Just to be contrary, of course, the rose-owl, with small letters, represents the creative process, writing and the act of producing poetry, but also betrayal, things that are hidden, and the singing of sad songs. When used as an icon, not an individual, the rose-owl is usually a sign of loss, either in the past or yet to come. Whatever she currently represents, the rose-owl is sometimes called 'the owl of roses', but has no other names.
The Owl has been known to set quests for others in the Wood. Sometimes, they're even achievable ones. Her home is identified as the broken tower.
Another major figure in the Babylon Wood -- surprisingly so, actually; I didn't see her coming -- is the Fox-Maiden, also known as the Fox of the Flowers. Her name is always capitalized, which can make it a bit difficult to tell whether she's being individual or iconic (although she's sometimes just called 'the flower fox', and when that happens, she's lower-case). When she's an individual, she generally represents Talis, and is a good source for succor, advice, and the restoration of broken things. When she's an icon or an idea, she stands for riddles, mysteries that aren't always solvable, beginnings circling into ends, and masks that are almost as real as the faces they obscure. Sometimes she's a fox, and sometimes she's a woman, but she's always difficult to pin down.
My favourite description of the Fox of the Flowers is probably 'the Fox-Maiden's story is a hidden one, concealed in jackrabbit lies and mockingbird stories, and none may tell it but the Fox-Maiden herself, and she tells no stories of where she came from, but tells sweet lies and sweeter truths, and smiles, and smiles, and hides her heart away'. Physically, she's described as 'woman-shaped, dressed in a tattercoat gown of pieces and patches, but her hair was still red, russet red as fox-fur, not the rose red of the Owl'. She advises the others who live in the wood, rather more often than they tend to be aware of.
The Fox-Maiden's children are the White Raven and the Crow Who Speaks. The identity of their father has been a matter of great debate amongst the other figures who live in the Wood, but has never been revealed. She is sometimes seen walking with them along the boundaries of the eastern sea.
The Raven of Keys was one of the first figures to show up in the wood -- I think she may actually pre-date the Rose-Owl, even, since my own early avatars were much less stable. When she's a person, she represents Our Meg, and when she's an ideal, she represents fighting for what you want, searching and striving, integrity and curiousity, and taking risks a bit too far. My favourite description of her is 'the Raven of Keys has only ever been a raven, but there was a time when she was a white one, before she flew too closely to the sun to steal the silver keys that would unlock all the secrets of the moon'. This is also accurate; she was a white raven in the earliest Babylon Wood poems, but changed to a black one later on.
The raven of keys has no other names, and is never referred to as anything other than 'the raven of keys', either capital (individual) or lower case (idea).
One of the more common figures in the Wood, at least recently, is the Star-Wolf, also known as the Wolf of Stars. When she's a person, she usually represents Rika, and is a constant source of comfort, understanding, and support for the others in the Wood, as well as a fierce defender of her friends and loved ones. When she's an icon or an idea, she's the constant quest, the search for understanding, and the act of motion. The star-wolf is always a wolf, and is almost never still.
My favourite description of the Star-Wolf is 'the most changed and the least changed of all the denizens of the Wood is the Wolf of Stars, the Star-Wolf, whose fur glimmers white as first frost and golden as candlelight, and whose eyes are full of moondust, even at the brightest hours of the day'. She's usually described in motion, which makes a lot of sense, given her role in the wood. To quote, 'a Wolf that is full of questions is also full of curiousities', and that's the purpose that the Star-Wolf serves.
The Wolf of Stars spends a great deal of time on quests set for her by either the Fox or the Owl, and many stories say that she was a woman before she came into the Wood.
The Broken Mermaid only shows up occasionally, usually to offer extremely practical advice to the ones who come seeking her, or to go dancing at the castle of the Princess of Storms. She seems to have no trouble shedding her scales for such occasions. When she's a person, she's generally Meredith, and when she's an idea, she's the art of healing, the process of learning to live with not being what you were when you began, and the serenity to accept that sometimes, things change. The Broken Mermaid is always capitalized -- she's an individual, even when she's an idea -- which can make it a little hard to tell what she is at any given moment.
The Broken Mermaid spends a great deal of her time weaving tapestries out of willow branches and water weeds, and they tell the stories of will and was and won't. She's rarely, if ever, physically described, but she lives at the western pool, which is described as 'small, and round, and very deep, fed by underground streams that surface elsewhere in the Wood, but here, allow neither entry nor exit for the strange fish and stranger beings that dwell within its waters. It is cold in the summer and warm in the winter, and the rocks that ring its bottom are white, bleached clean by the tears of the Winter Maid, before she left us to walk in easier climes'. She shares it with the Watercat.
Ah, the Watercat, also known as the Cat of Seas and Streams. When she's a person, she's almost always Carolyn, which is why she's a red cat, despite being so tied to the element of water. When she's an idea, she represents things that seem out of their natural environments but actually aren't, playfulness, peace, and long, lazy afternoons spent in contemplation of the past and future.
The Watercat loves the Firefly King, and often meets with him at the cobweb balls, to dance until morning.
The Firefly King, also known as the King of Fireflies, mostly represents Carolyn's husband, Rey, when he's a person, and is a good place to go for education, correction, and a physical fight, if you're looking for one. As an idea, he's the challenge set in the path of the quester, the answer that must be earned, and the light in dark places. He lives in the eastern part of the wood, relatively near the castle of the Princess of Storms.
The Princess of Storms is unusual amongst the denizens of the Wood, because she's always a woman; she doesn't have any animal identity. She's unique in that she never leaves her tower, and is thus a stranger to most of the Wood -- she sees it through her windows, but she never visits, and some stories have implied that she actually can't. When she represents an individual, she's Amanda, whose love of physics seems to have translated into the Princess's odd form of meteorology. When she's an idea, she's knowledge that both frees and entraps, research, and strange secrets found for the sake of finding them. Her road is an interior one.
The Princess of Storms is engaged to the Wizard's Apprentice, and throws some of the finest balls in the Wood. When she gets too busy to throw her own parties, the Apprentice throws them for her, to remind her that she needs to come out of the library from time to time. Her full name is 'the Princess of Storms, the Storm Princess, the Princess of the Western Wind and the Eastern Light'. Her castle is described as 'smaller than it appears from a distance, for it is partially cloud and concept, and no act of cirromancy is enough to render cloud fully into stone. Strange flashes of light chase themselves across the ceiling and walls, and reflect from the gears and levers of the many machines built by the Princess and her swain through the years'.
The Magician's Apprentice only appears rarely, and generally in concert with the Princess; he's largely there to keep her company. When he's a person, he represents Michael, Amanda's fiancee, and when he's an idea, he represents the years it takes to not only acquire knowledge, but to fully understand it. He is, literally, the price of education. He also throws some of the best parties in the Babylon Wood, and his cobweb balls are not to be missed.
At this time, there has never been a wizard in the Wood.
The Calico Cat -- also known as the Calico Cat in the Tricorner Hat, although that's a bit of a mouthful, even for the Wood -- is almost always Merav, when she's a person, and is fiercely loyal to her friends, although so many of them live outside the Wood that she sometimes isn't there when people go looking for her. Like any cat, she spends much of her time walking by herself. As an icon or idea, she's the grand quest that ends by the fires of home, the act of striving, and the art of landing on your feet.
The colours of the Calico Cat have changed over the years, but are generally white, brown, and some variation on orange or flame red. She's very close to the Mockingbird of Archways, the Broken Mermaid, and the Princess of Storms, and spends a great deal of time looking for the Rose-Owl, who almost always leaves before she gets there.
The Wolf of the West lives, naturally enough, in the western part of the Wood, and thus appears only rarely in the court of the Princess of Storms. When she's a person, she's Alison Steward, and is a good place to go for calm answers and slightly confused directions. When she's an icon, she's the sentry on the borderline, the question that seems meaningless until you actually come to understand the answer, and the directions that you can't follow on your own. She often goes dancing with the Calico Cat and the Broken Mermaid, for reasons that I've never quite understood.
The Nymph Who Dances is almost always a person -- it's just that sometimes she's an individual, and sometimes she's an icon. As an icon, she's a water nymph whose love of the solid world has isolated her from the pool, leaving her unable to dissolve back into the mass; she's slightly too serious for her own kind, and her discovery that she has an intellect has left her eager to use it, making her a great contemplator of mysteries. As an indivudal, she's Aiglet. In either incarnation, she lives in the eastern sea, but comes often to visit the western pool, and to dance with the Watercat.
When the Golden Bear (also known as the Bear of Gold) is a person in the Wood, he's Tiny, and is a solid source of loyalty, comfort, and compassion for his friends, as well as roughly twice the size of almost all his enemies. Which can be a little bit daunting, come to think of it. He's never been directly described as taking a human form, but given that he's the Spinner's lover, he almost certainly does.
As an icon or a lower-case idea, the golden bear is loyalty and practicality, consistancy, and the long, slow dreams of winter, which he hibernates away in the caves beneath the Spinner's court, draped in blankets made of silk and silence.
The Spinner is sometimes a woman and sometimes a spider, and is always an individual, for in the Wood, 'a spinner' is just another way to say 'a spider'. As a person, she's generally Spider, and is fierce to defend what's hers, and very territorial; she rarely ventures outside her own boundaries, and has never met the Lady of Trees, despite the fact that her children spend much of their time with the Lady. All spiders are her children, and watch the Wood for her. As an idea, she is the gathering of knowledge, and the act of watching from afar. As either idea or individual, she loves the Golden Bear, and mourns him every winter, as if he were lost to her forever.
The Lady of Trees is another denizen of the Wood who is always a person; it's just that sometimes, she's an individual, and sometimes she's a poetic symbol. When she's an individual, she's Gwen Knighton, and she offers balm in the form of both music and her arms, although her temper is whispered of with awe. When she's a symbol, she is the preservation of the past and the potential of the future, and safe passage through the darkest woods. She makes her home in the deepest part of the Wood, described thusly: 'where the branches twist and twine like lace, where the subjects of the Spinner weave webs like wires that the Lady plays like harpstrings'. Her voice is 'music and mildness, like soft velvet against skin, or a warm embrace at the end of a long and trying day'.
The Lady of Trees is physically incapable of leaving her grove, although no one knows why. She lives there with her son, whose father has never been identified; the Coachman acts as parent when he visits them.
The Lady's lover is the Coachman on the Babylon Line, or simply the Coachman. As an individual, he's Joe Raftery, and as an idea, he's the gateway to lands beyond, and one of the few who ever leaves the Babylon Wood. He's still relatively new here; I don't know much about him, beyond that he loves his Lady. His rounds are run on the northern road.
The Gray Rabbit is rarely seen in the Wood; partially because she is also the Rabbit of Fog, and is thus very, very good at disappearing, when she wants to. When she does appear, she represents either mysteries or hidden things, and the person she occasionally stands in for is Batya.
The Butterfly Duchess lives in the willow wood, and spends a lot of time sleeping. She stands for family loyalty, for unexpected beauties, and for Beckett.
The Bat Princess is the daughter of the Queen of Night and the King of Thunder; she represents childhood's wonder, and the beauty that people overlook behind their fear. All together, they're Ellie, Annie, and Tim Walker, when they're anyone at all.
There are other people living in the Wood, but that's all I have the brains for, right now.
It's very dark in here.
It has been pointed out that it's been a long time since I explained the Babylon Wood, and since the Wood can be a bit confusing -- the Wood confuses me from time to time, and that's not a good sign -- I should probably take a moment to do so again.
The Babylon Wood is a world made entirely of symbols, and is the place where a great deal of my poetry (and some of my songs) is set. It is a place of fairy tale logic, analogy and metaphor, and what is true there today may not be true there tomorrow. There are only a few things about it that are constant: that it is a forest. That it is bounded by the sea on at least one side, although it's sometimes more. That it is a difficult place to find. And that people can get lost there, and never find their way out again.
There are a lot of characters who exist in the Wood. Because it's a country made entirely of poetic symbols, sometimes they represent specific people, sometimes they represent ideas or ideals, and sometimes, they don't represent anything at all. Most of the time, I know what a given character means, but it can be confusing. People appear and disappear in the Wood. People I've known for years may never be represented; people I met ten minutes ago may be represented already.
Confused yet? Because I am.
The Rose-Owl is one of the representational masks of me, inside the Wood. When she appears as an individual, with capital letters and everything, she's usually my avatar. She has a lot of descriptions, but my favourite, right now, is probably 'the Rose-Owl is among the most changeable and the most changed, for she was a flower, once, when the world was fresh and young, and she was a woman, once, when all the chances and choices of her life were yet to be presented, and now she flies on wings that are red and white and pink as roses, and her claws are thorns, and her cries are music and mourning.'
Just to be contrary, of course, the rose-owl, with small letters, represents the creative process, writing and the act of producing poetry, but also betrayal, things that are hidden, and the singing of sad songs. When used as an icon, not an individual, the rose-owl is usually a sign of loss, either in the past or yet to come. Whatever she currently represents, the rose-owl is sometimes called 'the owl of roses', but has no other names.
The Owl has been known to set quests for others in the Wood. Sometimes, they're even achievable ones. Her home is identified as the broken tower.
Another major figure in the Babylon Wood -- surprisingly so, actually; I didn't see her coming -- is the Fox-Maiden, also known as the Fox of the Flowers. Her name is always capitalized, which can make it a bit difficult to tell whether she's being individual or iconic (although she's sometimes just called 'the flower fox', and when that happens, she's lower-case). When she's an individual, she generally represents Talis, and is a good source for succor, advice, and the restoration of broken things. When she's an icon or an idea, she stands for riddles, mysteries that aren't always solvable, beginnings circling into ends, and masks that are almost as real as the faces they obscure. Sometimes she's a fox, and sometimes she's a woman, but she's always difficult to pin down.
My favourite description of the Fox of the Flowers is probably 'the Fox-Maiden's story is a hidden one, concealed in jackrabbit lies and mockingbird stories, and none may tell it but the Fox-Maiden herself, and she tells no stories of where she came from, but tells sweet lies and sweeter truths, and smiles, and smiles, and hides her heart away'. Physically, she's described as 'woman-shaped, dressed in a tattercoat gown of pieces and patches, but her hair was still red, russet red as fox-fur, not the rose red of the Owl'. She advises the others who live in the wood, rather more often than they tend to be aware of.
The Fox-Maiden's children are the White Raven and the Crow Who Speaks. The identity of their father has been a matter of great debate amongst the other figures who live in the Wood, but has never been revealed. She is sometimes seen walking with them along the boundaries of the eastern sea.
The Raven of Keys was one of the first figures to show up in the wood -- I think she may actually pre-date the Rose-Owl, even, since my own early avatars were much less stable. When she's a person, she represents Our Meg, and when she's an ideal, she represents fighting for what you want, searching and striving, integrity and curiousity, and taking risks a bit too far. My favourite description of her is 'the Raven of Keys has only ever been a raven, but there was a time when she was a white one, before she flew too closely to the sun to steal the silver keys that would unlock all the secrets of the moon'. This is also accurate; she was a white raven in the earliest Babylon Wood poems, but changed to a black one later on.
The raven of keys has no other names, and is never referred to as anything other than 'the raven of keys', either capital (individual) or lower case (idea).
One of the more common figures in the Wood, at least recently, is the Star-Wolf, also known as the Wolf of Stars. When she's a person, she usually represents Rika, and is a constant source of comfort, understanding, and support for the others in the Wood, as well as a fierce defender of her friends and loved ones. When she's an icon or an idea, she's the constant quest, the search for understanding, and the act of motion. The star-wolf is always a wolf, and is almost never still.
My favourite description of the Star-Wolf is 'the most changed and the least changed of all the denizens of the Wood is the Wolf of Stars, the Star-Wolf, whose fur glimmers white as first frost and golden as candlelight, and whose eyes are full of moondust, even at the brightest hours of the day'. She's usually described in motion, which makes a lot of sense, given her role in the wood. To quote, 'a Wolf that is full of questions is also full of curiousities', and that's the purpose that the Star-Wolf serves.
The Wolf of Stars spends a great deal of time on quests set for her by either the Fox or the Owl, and many stories say that she was a woman before she came into the Wood.
The Broken Mermaid only shows up occasionally, usually to offer extremely practical advice to the ones who come seeking her, or to go dancing at the castle of the Princess of Storms. She seems to have no trouble shedding her scales for such occasions. When she's a person, she's generally Meredith, and when she's an idea, she's the art of healing, the process of learning to live with not being what you were when you began, and the serenity to accept that sometimes, things change. The Broken Mermaid is always capitalized -- she's an individual, even when she's an idea -- which can make it a little hard to tell what she is at any given moment.
The Broken Mermaid spends a great deal of her time weaving tapestries out of willow branches and water weeds, and they tell the stories of will and was and won't. She's rarely, if ever, physically described, but she lives at the western pool, which is described as 'small, and round, and very deep, fed by underground streams that surface elsewhere in the Wood, but here, allow neither entry nor exit for the strange fish and stranger beings that dwell within its waters. It is cold in the summer and warm in the winter, and the rocks that ring its bottom are white, bleached clean by the tears of the Winter Maid, before she left us to walk in easier climes'. She shares it with the Watercat.
Ah, the Watercat, also known as the Cat of Seas and Streams. When she's a person, she's almost always Carolyn, which is why she's a red cat, despite being so tied to the element of water. When she's an idea, she represents things that seem out of their natural environments but actually aren't, playfulness, peace, and long, lazy afternoons spent in contemplation of the past and future.
The Watercat loves the Firefly King, and often meets with him at the cobweb balls, to dance until morning.
The Firefly King, also known as the King of Fireflies, mostly represents Carolyn's husband, Rey, when he's a person, and is a good place to go for education, correction, and a physical fight, if you're looking for one. As an idea, he's the challenge set in the path of the quester, the answer that must be earned, and the light in dark places. He lives in the eastern part of the wood, relatively near the castle of the Princess of Storms.
The Princess of Storms is unusual amongst the denizens of the Wood, because she's always a woman; she doesn't have any animal identity. She's unique in that she never leaves her tower, and is thus a stranger to most of the Wood -- she sees it through her windows, but she never visits, and some stories have implied that she actually can't. When she represents an individual, she's Amanda, whose love of physics seems to have translated into the Princess's odd form of meteorology. When she's an idea, she's knowledge that both frees and entraps, research, and strange secrets found for the sake of finding them. Her road is an interior one.
The Princess of Storms is engaged to the Wizard's Apprentice, and throws some of the finest balls in the Wood. When she gets too busy to throw her own parties, the Apprentice throws them for her, to remind her that she needs to come out of the library from time to time. Her full name is 'the Princess of Storms, the Storm Princess, the Princess of the Western Wind and the Eastern Light'. Her castle is described as 'smaller than it appears from a distance, for it is partially cloud and concept, and no act of cirromancy is enough to render cloud fully into stone. Strange flashes of light chase themselves across the ceiling and walls, and reflect from the gears and levers of the many machines built by the Princess and her swain through the years'.
The Magician's Apprentice only appears rarely, and generally in concert with the Princess; he's largely there to keep her company. When he's a person, he represents Michael, Amanda's fiancee, and when he's an idea, he represents the years it takes to not only acquire knowledge, but to fully understand it. He is, literally, the price of education. He also throws some of the best parties in the Babylon Wood, and his cobweb balls are not to be missed.
At this time, there has never been a wizard in the Wood.
The Calico Cat -- also known as the Calico Cat in the Tricorner Hat, although that's a bit of a mouthful, even for the Wood -- is almost always Merav, when she's a person, and is fiercely loyal to her friends, although so many of them live outside the Wood that she sometimes isn't there when people go looking for her. Like any cat, she spends much of her time walking by herself. As an icon or idea, she's the grand quest that ends by the fires of home, the act of striving, and the art of landing on your feet.
The colours of the Calico Cat have changed over the years, but are generally white, brown, and some variation on orange or flame red. She's very close to the Mockingbird of Archways, the Broken Mermaid, and the Princess of Storms, and spends a great deal of time looking for the Rose-Owl, who almost always leaves before she gets there.
The Wolf of the West lives, naturally enough, in the western part of the Wood, and thus appears only rarely in the court of the Princess of Storms. When she's a person, she's Alison Steward, and is a good place to go for calm answers and slightly confused directions. When she's an icon, she's the sentry on the borderline, the question that seems meaningless until you actually come to understand the answer, and the directions that you can't follow on your own. She often goes dancing with the Calico Cat and the Broken Mermaid, for reasons that I've never quite understood.
The Nymph Who Dances is almost always a person -- it's just that sometimes she's an individual, and sometimes she's an icon. As an icon, she's a water nymph whose love of the solid world has isolated her from the pool, leaving her unable to dissolve back into the mass; she's slightly too serious for her own kind, and her discovery that she has an intellect has left her eager to use it, making her a great contemplator of mysteries. As an indivudal, she's Aiglet. In either incarnation, she lives in the eastern sea, but comes often to visit the western pool, and to dance with the Watercat.
When the Golden Bear (also known as the Bear of Gold) is a person in the Wood, he's Tiny, and is a solid source of loyalty, comfort, and compassion for his friends, as well as roughly twice the size of almost all his enemies. Which can be a little bit daunting, come to think of it. He's never been directly described as taking a human form, but given that he's the Spinner's lover, he almost certainly does.
As an icon or a lower-case idea, the golden bear is loyalty and practicality, consistancy, and the long, slow dreams of winter, which he hibernates away in the caves beneath the Spinner's court, draped in blankets made of silk and silence.
The Spinner is sometimes a woman and sometimes a spider, and is always an individual, for in the Wood, 'a spinner' is just another way to say 'a spider'. As a person, she's generally Spider, and is fierce to defend what's hers, and very territorial; she rarely ventures outside her own boundaries, and has never met the Lady of Trees, despite the fact that her children spend much of their time with the Lady. All spiders are her children, and watch the Wood for her. As an idea, she is the gathering of knowledge, and the act of watching from afar. As either idea or individual, she loves the Golden Bear, and mourns him every winter, as if he were lost to her forever.
The Lady of Trees is another denizen of the Wood who is always a person; it's just that sometimes, she's an individual, and sometimes she's a poetic symbol. When she's an individual, she's Gwen Knighton, and she offers balm in the form of both music and her arms, although her temper is whispered of with awe. When she's a symbol, she is the preservation of the past and the potential of the future, and safe passage through the darkest woods. She makes her home in the deepest part of the Wood, described thusly: 'where the branches twist and twine like lace, where the subjects of the Spinner weave webs like wires that the Lady plays like harpstrings'. Her voice is 'music and mildness, like soft velvet against skin, or a warm embrace at the end of a long and trying day'.
The Lady of Trees is physically incapable of leaving her grove, although no one knows why. She lives there with her son, whose father has never been identified; the Coachman acts as parent when he visits them.
The Lady's lover is the Coachman on the Babylon Line, or simply the Coachman. As an individual, he's Joe Raftery, and as an idea, he's the gateway to lands beyond, and one of the few who ever leaves the Babylon Wood. He's still relatively new here; I don't know much about him, beyond that he loves his Lady. His rounds are run on the northern road.
The Gray Rabbit is rarely seen in the Wood; partially because she is also the Rabbit of Fog, and is thus very, very good at disappearing, when she wants to. When she does appear, she represents either mysteries or hidden things, and the person she occasionally stands in for is Batya.
The Butterfly Duchess lives in the willow wood, and spends a lot of time sleeping. She stands for family loyalty, for unexpected beauties, and for Beckett.
The Bat Princess is the daughter of the Queen of Night and the King of Thunder; she represents childhood's wonder, and the beauty that people overlook behind their fear. All together, they're Ellie, Annie, and Tim Walker, when they're anyone at all.
There are other people living in the Wood, but that's all I have the brains for, right now.
It's very dark in here.