The fountain my great aunt told me about...

I come from Brittany, where I grew up in a big city, but on Sundays my father often drove us to the tiny village of Folle-Pensée, which lies on the edge of the Ancient forest of Brocéliande, in central Brittany.  My great aunts and great uncle lived there and it was quite a magical place to visit for a city child:  This little one-room house, made only of granite stone, with a beaten earth floor, a scullery, a small disused stable, a lean-to where the hens came in to roost at night, safe from predators; and further (but not very far at all), moors golden with goarse and broom, dotted with huge granite boulders where reptiles could be seen basking on a sunny day; bushes of deep, vibrant purple heather and most of all, trees, trees, trees!  Many oaks and chestnuts and the occasional majestic pine...  

One of my aunties told me that if I walked a whole mile, or perhaps a bit more, from their house into the depths of the forest, I would find the famous fountain of Barenton; it is reputed to be a magical place and local farmers wishing to ensure a good crop know how to use it; my aunt said that if I splashed some of the water onto the rock closest to the spring, it would surely rain the next day...  Some people would call it a 'Weather Stone'.
My dad walked me there and, after following a dark path dappled with the rare sunbeams that made it through the canopy, we reached a quiet clearing where the light was cool and almost glowing.  In the middle of this bare ground, I saw the fountain, surrounded by large granite rocks, one of which was flat and smooth and right close to the water.  This stone is said to be the spot where Viviane La Fée came to sit and rest, gaze into the water, meditate and communicate with the spirits of the place... 
We know that the spring is sacred because of the bubbles that keep rising from the bottom of the fountain to the surface; I could gaze at it for hours - so soothing!  According to local folklore, all these bubbles are really messages from the spirits of nature and if you listen carefully, be still and very quiet, you might possibly be able to interpret those messages and understand the magic of the place... 
Who knows, you might even become part of the magic yourself and take it out into the world?

With much gratitude 

to Janet Dowling and Claire Viner, 

whose Story-telling Workshop inspired me to complete this short piece.