The young woman took a deep breath and pushed open the door to the old church hall. She could see through the glass panel that several people had turned to look at her, with the various conversations gradually slowing to a halt as more people stopped to look.
She smiled nervously, trying to seem approachable and friendly, but she was scared stiff and wished there was some way she could turn tail and leave.
Luckily, at that moment, a Good Samaritan stepped forward to welcome her.
"Topaz? You came! I'm so glad. I'm Matthew, we spoke on the phone. Let me introduce you to everyone."
Matthew was fairly young, in his mid-twenties perhaps, with long, very dark hair tied back in a low pony-tail, and strong, sharp features accentuated by the faint shadow of stubble along his jawline.
He wore loose clothes in earth colours, with a leather thong around his neck that had some kind of stone pendant on it.
His voice was deep and pleasant, with just a tinge of a regional accent that softened the consonants and flattened the vowels. When he smiled his eyes crinkled at the corners, turning his striking face into an attractive one.
He in turn admired the woman standing in front of him, twisting her long, woollen scarf about her fingers.
When she was born she had the most incredible shock of red-gold hair, exactly the colour of the stone after which she had been named. As she grew older the colour deepened slightly, but her name still suited her as much.
In contrast her eyebrows and eyelashes were a startling dark brown, making the navy blue of her eyes stand out against her pale, freckle-spattered skin.
She'd moved to this area four months ago, just after Midsummer and, with no friends or family near by, hadn't managed to make any new friends.
Everyone at her new job was quite a lot older than her, most of them married with lots of outside commitments already and she'd been so busy she hadn't had the chance to join any groups or clubs before now.
She'd settled into the job now and wasn't finding it such a struggle to keep on top of her duties and, for the past month, had been renewing her involvement in some online communities, including one for alternative religions and beliefs.
When she mentioned that she was lonely, recently, one of the other members had sent her a private message, suggesting she try this group. They'd described it as a meeting place for people who wanted to re-establish their connection with the Earth and Mother Nature.
It sounded a little cheesy to her at first, but when she thought about it she realised that that was what she was missing as much as companionship and was the reason she'd joined the forum in the first place.
She'd been brought up in the countryside, with long holidays at her grandmother's on the Scottish coast. All of her most precious childhood memories were tied up with being out of doors, enjoying the beauty of nature and weather.
She'd gone to university in London and spent much of the time feeling dissatisfied and depressed, without being able to figure out why. It was during that time she'd become interested in some of the theories classified as 'pagan.'
Now she was living in this dismal town near some ex-mining communities, spending every week day cooped up in a fluorescent-lit, temperature controlled concrete box and the weekends she was either doing chores or, too exhausted to do anything, listlessly watching TV and surfing the net.
As she moved through the twenty odd people present, being introduced to them by Matthew, she gradually became aware of a divide between them.
About half of them were ostentatiously dressed in showy, dark fabrics, large amounts of silver jewellery and odd make-up and hair dye. A large number of these, she felt sure, were students either rebelling or trying to find something meaningful to believe in and going about it the wrong way.
The remaining seven or eight were more like Matthew and to these people she sensed some kind of connection. She liked the simplicity with which they were dressed and the kindliness they showed her.
Occasionally she spotted a stone pendant, like that Matthew wore and one woman had a small tattoo in the same design on the inside of her wrist, entwined about a livid red birthmark.
The men and women of this group began to gather around Topaz, chatting quietly to her, exchanging jokes and asking her about herself.
One man asked her what had brought her along to this group, but at that point Matthew interrupted,
"Perhaps we should wait until the group discussion later to ask Topaz more about herself, Finn?"
Finn, an enormous man with a bright red, crinkled mane of hair and a darker beard smiled jovially and assented, suggesting that everyone move over to the seats set up on the other side of the hall.
The chairs were set out to allow everyone a view of the small stage on which a tall woman stood, swaying quietly from side to side and humming while she waited for everyone to seat themselves.
The 'Earth' group, as Topaz had called them to herself, settled near the front quietly and without fuss, whilst the 'Students' giggled and chatted, fidgeting around until Matthew called for their attention.
"Thank you," he said as a hush fell, "we're going to have a proper 'getting-to-know-you' meeting later, but can I just extend a welcome to all the new people who've come along this evening, we hope you'll enjoy yourselves."
Topaz shifted nervously in her seat, before realising that many of the students were doing the same thing. Obviously she wasn't the only newcomer tonight and she was a little relieved that the 'Earth' people were the more usual type of member.
She turned her attention back to what Matthew was saying,
"As we have so many newbies here this evening, it seems like a propitious time to run a speech about one of the basic skills necessary for a pagan lifestyle and for modern living generally.
"I am, of course, talking about meditation."
There was an impatient sigh from somewhere amongst the students. Topaz smiled as she remembered the impatient teenage feeling of knowing it all and being unable to learn anything that could help you from anyone.
Matthew paused to raise an eyebrow in Topaz's direction. She smiled at him as he continued his introductory speech.
"With us tonight is Shula Sutton from our sister group up North. Shula is an expert in meditation and hypnotherapy and has very kindly agreed to tell us a bit more about how to meditate and what uses it can have. Please save any questions you might have until the end.
Shula...?"
Shula stepped forward. She was a magnificent woman: almost six foot tall, with long, braided hair, amber-coloured eyes and skin the reddish tint of Mahogany. She was very striking, with many attractive features, but Topaz's eye was immediately drawn to Shula's very long, elegant fingers.
They danced in front of her body as she talked, moving them as if she was signing to her audience as well as speaking.
She was talking about how meditation could be used not only to refresh your body and act as a refuge for the mind in the stressful business of day to day life, but actually allow you to expand your psychic and intuitive abilities.
"Meditation is essentially a form of self-hypnosis." She stated in her rich, mellifluous voice.
"When we meditate, if we do it properly, we are allowing our Self to ascend onto another plane from which we can communicate with others of the physical plane or, if we are dedicated and very lucky, beings of the astral plane."
There were some snickers from the students, but others of them were starting to look more interested, even transfixed. Shula ignored all audience reactions and calmly carried on speaking.
