Ψυχές Αλήτισσες

"" *Τὸ ζήτημα ἦτο πώς, πλὴν τῶν σχοίνων καὶ τῶν ἀσφόδελων μὲ τὰ πρασινωπά τους ἄνθη, ἡ ᾿Ανδριάνα ἔβλεπε μιὰ φιγοῦρα σκελετωμένη, λυγερή, μὲ σκισμένο πουκάμισο καὶ σαγόνι, ἔτσι ποὺ φαινόταν γιὰ νεκρός, ποὺ «ξέσκισε τὰς ἁλύσας τοῦ ᾃδου». ῾Οσάκις τὸν ἔβλεπε σταυροκοπιόταν, μὰ ἡ περιέργεια τὴν ἐμπόδιζε ἀπὸ τὸ νὰ τραπῇ σὲ φυγή. ῾Ο «νεκρός» αὐτὸς ἔβγαινε παγανιὰ μονάχα ἀφότου εἶχε ἐπέλθει τὸ σύθαμπο καὶ πάντοτε ἐφαίνετο νὰ ἀναδύεται ἀπὸ τὸ φέγγος τῆς Σελήνης στὰ πουρνάρια ἐκεῖνα.* ""

Ψυχές Αλήτισσες is an independent Vuori story, written in modern polytonic Greek. It is the shortest independent story to be written after The Vuori Chronicles and deals with the wandering of a young Greek girl called Andriana around the heights of Korydallos, when she encounters the undead spirit of a mysterious man who has a mission for her.

*Word Count*: 1799

## Release

The story was released on May 11, 2020 by writer James Kingston.

## Plot

The story begins with Andriana's mother dismissing her and her ravings about a madman who looks like a dead person roaming the Daphni areas. Andriana insists she keeps seeing the spirit of a dead person walking, after apparitions of a strange light close to the Far Korydallos Antennae. Upon one of her trips to the top, she bypasses a company of lowlife bums from the local Chaidari district, along with their Albanian friend. The company spends its time fixing their motorbikes and overlooking the Elefsina bay from The Bridge areas and Korydallos heights, more often than not leaving sexual hints for Andriana. Given a friendship between their parents they have never touched or bothered her, however they dismiss her claims as well and call her insane and crazy, a 'ghosthunter'. Andriana disregards them and asks whether they have a house or they live in the streets, to which they reply with a short song saying they are vagabonds and roamers. She later heads to the top where she finds only the wind rustling in the mysterious bushes.

Upon descending back to them however, Shkerdi, the Albanian friend is shocked to see the skeletal form of a seemingly resurrected man behind her, who appears to be an eerie phantom who knows every single path of the mountain. It commands the company to man their motorbikes and take Andriana with them until Panorama Sxistou, a small glade overlooking Skaramagas and Elefsina bay. It explains that it has been living in the mountain since forever, having battled against strange spirits in days long gone, and having allied with plenty of the mountain's animals to protect it against intruders. This time, an oil company spreading towards Skaramagas Heights seeks to occupy a huge area of the mountain, and the spooky gentleman tells the company to head to a cave where he has hidden all necessary tools they will need to destroy the facility.

Reluctant though scared out of their wits, the company heads to the cave but decide to leave Andriana outside the fences and look for potential incomers. The rest of the friends use an old rug to cover the iron wire and various pickaxes to destroy the control panels and the locks of the factory, leaving the place in ruins. The wayward friends are thus given a chance not only to satisfy the spooky dead man, but also make a stand against the capitalists and the greedy government who seeks to exploit the mountain and turn its lush greenery into the drab gray of the factory and refinery background.

The end of the story finds the company reconciliated with Andriana, who returns to the top where she used to see the light. Investigating the bushes out of which it used to come, she finds no sign of the dead man, but only what looks like a forgotten tomb, which also hosts pictures of a fox called Eli, an old drawing of a partridge and a scattered image of a young human holding the book of the Vuori chronicles in his hand. Choosing not to upset the sacred shrine any longer, she rekindles the lamp of the small chapel which had been previously expunged by strange winds and leaves the place in its natural serenity.

## Style

The story shifts the POVs back to humans, and is filled with lush floral descriptions. Exploring the more unknown areas of the western parts of the mountain, it delves into the landscapes of Aegaleo Oros and provides the reader with a dual image of the mountain; the majestic yew bushes and asphodelus buds versus the grey dull scenery of the factories by Elefsina and Skaramagas. These latter descriptions echo the dystopic images from The Night at the Shrine.

## Eli and the Human

The story is heavily filled with mysterious allusions to older characters appearing in the chronicles and the various Vuori stories written in the past. The character of the undead man, though inspired in part by the Greek folk song Tou Nekrou Adelfou and the zombie brother Konstantinos, is speculated to be the spirit of the mountain, or in other words the resurrected Human who had once helped Eli and the Partridge to battle the demons in the Eli tales, now long gone and dead. Coming back to life to help the mountain, his appearance would explain the mysterious witchcraft needed to bring him back, given that in the chronicles magic has not been absent (ie the feather-amulet allowing trans-species communication, the ghost of the Indian Shaman, etc.).
The final scene with Andriana and the strange tomb reveals, contrary to what one might expect, that if indeed the names were not an incidental trope of writer James Kingston, the bones of the Human, Eli and the Partridge have been buried far away from their homes of Zacharitsa and the Final Antennae and actually into the soils of the obscure Korydallos areas. The reasoning behind such a trope, however, remains unknown.

￼in Sao Roma, it was revealed the bones of the Human, Eli and the Partridge were stolen by a band of gypsies , for their use in a mythical ritual of the Romani people. A small shrine in their memory was eventually erected, hence explaining the discovery of their remains in Korydallos.